Study of Ageing Deterioration of Silicone Rubber Housing Material for Outdoor Polymer Insulators

This paper presents the experimental results of salt fog ageing test of silicone rubber housing material for outdoor polymer insulator based on IEC 61109. Four types of HTV silicone rubber sheet with different amount of ATH were tested continuously 1000

Encrypted Audio Transmission Using Synchronized Nd: YAG Lasers

Encoded information based on synchronization of coupled chaotic Nd:YAG lasers in master-slave configuration is numerically studied. Encoding, transmission, and decoding of information in optical chaotic communication with a single channel is presented. We analyze the robustness of the encrypted audio transmission in a channel noise. In order to illustrate this synchronization robustness, we present two cases of study: synchronization and transmission with a single channel without and with noise in the channel.

A Parallel Algorithm for 2-D Cylindrical Geometry Transport Equation with Interface Corrections

In order to make conventional implicit algorithm to be applicable in large scale parallel computers , an interface prediction and correction of discontinuous finite element method is presented to solve time-dependent neutron transport equations under 2-D cylindrical geometry. Domain decomposition is adopted in the computational domain.The numerical experiments show that our parallel algorithm with explicit prediction and implicit correction has good precision, parallelism and simplicity. Especially, it can reach perfect speedup even on hundreds of processors for large-scale problems.

Using the Monte Carlo Simulation to Predict the Assembly Yield

Electronics Products that achieve high levels of integrated communications, computing and entertainment, multimedia features in small, stylish and robust new form factors are winning in the market place. Due to the high costs that an industry may undergo and how a high yield is directly proportional to high profits, IC (Integrated Circuit) manufacturers struggle to maximize yield, but today-s customers demand miniaturization, low costs, high performance and excellent reliability making the yield maximization a never ending research of an enhanced assembly process. With factors such as minimum tolerances, tighter parameter variations a systematic approach is needed in order to predict the assembly process. In order to evaluate the quality of upcoming circuits, yield models are used which not only predict manufacturing costs but also provide vital information in order to ease the process of correction when the yields fall below expectations. For an IC manufacturer to obtain higher assembly yields all factors such as boards, placement, components, the material from which the components are made of and processes must be taken into consideration. Effective placement yield depends heavily on machine accuracy and the vision of the system which needs the ability to recognize the features on the board and component to place the device accurately on the pads and bumps of the PCB. There are currently two methods for accurate positioning, using the edge of the package and using solder ball locations also called footprints. The only assumption that a yield model makes is that all boards and devices are completely functional. This paper will focus on the Monte Carlo method which consists in a class of computational algorithms (information processed algorithms) which depends on repeated random samplings in order to compute the results. This method utilized in order to recreate the simulation of placement and assembly processes within a production line.

Preparation and Characterization of MoO3/Al2O3 Catalyst for Oxidative Desulfurization of Diesel using H2O2: Effect of Drying Method and Mo Loading

The mesoporous MoO3/γ-Al2O3 catalyst was prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method aiming to investigate the effect of drying method and molybdenum content on the catalyst property and performance towards the oxidation of benzothiophene (BT), dibenzothiophene (DBT) and 4,6-dimethyle dibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) with H2O2 for deep oxidative desulfurization of diesel fuel. The catalyst was characterized by XRD, BET, BJH and SEM method. The catalyst with 10wt.% and 15wt.% Mo content represent same optimum performance for DBT and 4,6-DMDBT removal, but a catalyst with 10wt.% Mo has higher efficiency than 15wt.% Mo for BT conversion. The SEM images show that use of rotary evaporator in drying step reaches a more homogenous impregnation. The oxidation reactivity of different sulfur compounds was studied which followed the order of DBT>4,6-DMDBT>>BT.

Hygric Performance of a Sandstone Wall Retrofitted with Interior Thermal Insulation

Temperature, relative humidity and overhygroscopic moisture fields in a sandstone wall provided with interior thermal insulation were calculated in order to assess the hygric performance of the retrofitted wall. Computational simulations showed that during the time period of 10 years which was subject of investigation no overhygroscopic moisture appeared in the analyzed building envelope so that it performed in a satisfactory way from the hygric point of view.

Exploring the Narrative Communication: Representing Visual Information from Digital Travel Stories

We present the results of a case study aiming to assess the reflection of the tourism community in the Web and its usability to propose new ways to communicate visually. The wealth of information contained in the Web and the clear facilities to communicate personals points of view makes of the social web a new space of exploration. In this way, social web allow the sharing of information between communities with similar interests. However, the tourism community remains unexplored as is the case of the information covered in travel stories. Along the Web, we find multiples sites allowing the users to communicate their experiences and personal points of view of a particular place of the world. This cultural heritage is found in multiple documents, usually very little supplemented with photos, so they are difficult to explore due to the lack of visual information. This paper explores the possibility of analyzing travel stories to display them visually on maps and generate new knowledge such as patterns of travel routes. This way, travel narratives published in electronic formats can be very important especially to the tourism community because of the great amount of knowledge that can be extracted. Our approach is based on the use of a Geoparsing Web Service to extract geographic coordinates from travel narratives in order to draw the geo-positions and link the documents into a map image.

Polymorphic Marker Designed from Bioinformatics Sequences Related to Cell Wall Strength for Discrimination of Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) Clones Resistant to Gamboge Disorder

Gamboge disorder (GD) or fruit damage by the yellow sap is a major problem in mangosteen. Mangosteen plants varied in the level of GD, from very low or non GD to low, moderate and high GD. However it was difficult to differentiate between GD and non GD plants because evaluation of the disorder is strongly influenced by environment. In this study we investigated the usefulness of primer designed from bioinformatics related to cell wall strength, termed as MCWS, to predict GD. Plant materials used were 28 mangosteen plants selected based on percentage of GD categorized as high, moderate, low and very low or non GD. The result showed that the specific DNA fragments were absent in the high GD accessions. The MCWS marker suggests as a novel polymorphic marker for GD in mangosteen as well as a marker for detect variability in mangosteen as apomictic plant.

An Efficient VLSI Design Approach to Reduce Static Power using Variable Body Biasing

In CMOS integrated circuit design there is a trade-off between static power consumption and technology scaling. Recently, the power density has increased due to combination of higher clock speeds, greater functional integration, and smaller process geometries. As a result static power consumption is becoming more dominant. This is a challenge for the circuit designers. However, the designers do have a few methods which they can use to reduce this static power consumption. But all of these methods have some drawbacks. In order to achieve lower static power consumption, one has to sacrifice design area and circuit performance. In this paper, we propose a new method to reduce static power in the CMOS VLSI circuit using Variable Body Biasing technique without being penalized in area requirement and circuit performance.

Adaptive Fuzzy Routing in Opportunistic Network (AFRON)

Opportunistic network is a kind of Delay Tolerant Networks (DTN) where the nodes in this network come into contact with each other opportunistically and communicate wirelessly and, an end-to-end path between source and destination may have never existed, and disconnection and reconnection is common in the network. In such a network, because of the nature of opportunistic network, perhaps there is no a complete path from source to destination for most of the time and even if there is a path; the path can be very unstable and may change or break quickly. Therefore, routing is one of the main challenges in this environment and, in order to make communication possible in an opportunistic network, the intermediate nodes have to play important role in the opportunistic routing protocols. In this paper we proposed an Adaptive Fuzzy Routing in opportunistic network (AFRON). This protocol is using the simple parameters as input parameters to find the path to the destination node. Using Message Transmission Count, Message Size and Time To Live parameters as input fuzzy to increase delivery ratio and decrease the buffer consumption in the all nodes of network.

Magnetohydrodynamic Damping of Natural Convection Flows in a Rectangular Enclosure

We numerically study the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) stability of oscillatory natural convection flow in a rectangular cavity, with free top surface, filled with a liquid metal, having an aspect ratio equal to A=L/H=5, and subjected to a transversal temperature gradient and a uniform magnetic field oriented in x and z directions. The finite volume method was used in order to solve the equations of continuity, momentum, energy, and potential. The stability diagram obtained in this study highlights the dependence of the critical value of the Grashof number Grcrit , with the increase of the Hartmann number Ha for two orientations of the magnetic field. This study confirms the possibility of stabilization of a liquid metal flow in natural convection by application of a magnetic field and shows that the flow stability is more important when the direction of magnetic field is longitudinal than when the direction is transversal.

Scenario Recognition in Modern Building Automation

Modern building automation needs to deal with very different types of demands, depending on the use of a building and the persons acting in it. To meet the requirements of situation awareness in modern building automation, scenario recognition becomes more and more important in order to detect sequences of events and to react to them properly. We present two concepts of scenario recognition and their implementation, one based on predefined templates and the other applying an unsupervised learning algorithm using statistical methods. Implemented applications will be described and their advantages and disadvantages will be outlined.

A Nodal Transmission Pricing Model based on Newly Developed Expressions of Real and Reactive Power Marginal Prices in Competitive Electricity Markets

In competitive electricity markets all over the world, an adoption of suitable transmission pricing model is a problem as transmission segment still operates as a monopoly. Transmission pricing is an important tool to promote investment for various transmission services in order to provide economic, secure and reliable electricity to bulk and retail customers. The nodal pricing based on SRMC (Short Run Marginal Cost) is found extremely useful by researchers for sending correct economic signals. The marginal prices must be determined as a part of solution to optimization problem i.e. to maximize the social welfare. The need to maximize the social welfare subject to number of system operational constraints is a major challenge from computation and societal point of views. The purpose of this paper is to present a nodal transmission pricing model based on SRMC by developing new mathematical expressions of real and reactive power marginal prices using GA-Fuzzy based optimal power flow framework. The impacts of selecting different social welfare functions on power marginal prices are analyzed and verified with results reported in literature. Network revenues for two different power systems are determined using expressions derived for real and reactive power marginal prices in this paper.

Energy Analysis of Pressurized Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Combined Power Turbine

Solid oxide fuel cells have been considered in the last years as one of the most promising technologies for very highefficiency electric energy generation from hydrogen or other hydrocarbons, both with simple fuel cell plants and with integrated gas turbine-fuel cell systems. In the present study, a detailed thermodynamic analysis has been carried out. Mass and exergy balances are performed not only for the whole plant but also for each component in order to evaluate the thermal efficiency of combined cycle. Moreover, different sources of irreversibilities within the SOFC stack have been discussed and a parametric study conducted to evaluate the effect of temperature as well as pressure on SOFC irreversibilities and its performance. In this investigation methane and hydrogen have been used for fueling the SOFC stack and combustion chamber.

Multi-labeled Data Expressed by a Set of Labels

Collected data must be organized to be utilized efficiently, and hierarchical classification of data is efficient approach to organize data. When data is classified to multiple categories or annotated with a set of labels, users request multi-labeled data by giving a set of labels. There are several interpretations of the data expressed by a set of labels. This paper discusses which data is expressed by a set of labels by introducing orders for sets of labels and shows that there are four types of orders, which are characterized by whether the labels of expressed data includes every label of the given set of labels within the range of the set. Desirable properties of the orders, data is also expressed by the higher set of labels and different sets of labels express different data, are discussed for the orders.

Stochastic Comparisons of Heterogeneous Samples with Homogeneous Exponential Samples

In the present communication, stochastic comparison of a series (parallel) system having heterogeneous components with random lifetimes and series (parallel) system having homogeneous exponential components with random lifetimes has been studied. Further, conditions under which such a comparison is possible has been established.

Active Fiber Composites for Smart Damping of Doubly Curved Laminated Shells

This paper deals with the analysis of active constrained layer damping (ACLD) of doubly curved laminated composite shells using active fiber composite (AFC) materials. The constraining layer of the ACLD treatment has been considered to be made of the AFC materials. A three dimensional energy based finite element model of the smart doubly curved laminated composite shell integrated with a patch of such ACLD treatment has been developed to demonstrate the performance of the patch on enhancing the damping characteristics of the doubly curved laminated composite shells. Particular emphasis has been placed on studying the effect of variation of piezoelectric fiber orientation angle in the constraining AFC layer on the control authority of the ACLD patch.

Tree Based Decomposition of Sunspot Images

Solar sunspot rotation, latitudinal bands are studied based on intelligent computation methods. A combination of image fusion method with together tree decomposition is used to obtain quantitative values about the latitudes of trajectories on sun surface that sunspots rotate around them. Daily solar images taken with SOlar and Heliospheric (SOHO) satellite are fused for each month separately .The result of fused image is decomposed with Quad Tree decomposition method in order to achieve the precise information about latitudes of sunspot trajectories. Such analysis is useful for gathering information about the regions on sun surface and coordinates in space that is more expose to solar geomagnetic storms, tremendous flares and hot plasma gases permeate interplanetary space and help human to serve their technical systems. Here sunspot images in September, November and October in 2001 are used for studying the magnetic behavior of sun.

SFCL Location Selection Considering Reliability Indices

The fault current levels through the electric devices have a significant impact on failure probability. New fault current results in exceeding the rated capacity of circuit breaker and switching equipments and changes operation characteristic of overcurrent relay. In order to solve these problems, SFCL (Superconducting Fault Current Limiter) has rising as one of new alternatives so as to improve these problems. A fault current reduction differs depending on installed location. Therefore, a location of SFCL is very important. Also, SFCL decreases the fault current, and it prevents surrounding protective devices to be exposed to fault current, it then will bring a change of reliability. In this paper, we propose method which determines the optimal location when SFCL is installed in power system. In addition, the reliability about the power system which SFCL was installed is evaluated. The efficiency and effectiveness of this method are also shown by numerical examples and the reliability indices are evaluated in this study at each load points. These results show a reliability change of a system when SFCL was installed.

Neural Network Evaluation of FRP Strengthened RC Buildings Subjected to Near-Fault Ground Motions having Fling Step

Recordings from recent earthquakes have provided evidence that ground motions in the near field of a rupturing fault differ from ordinary ground motions, as they can contain a large energy, or “directivity" pulse. This pulse can cause considerable damage during an earthquake, especially to structures with natural periods close to those of the pulse. Failures of modern engineered structures observed within the near-fault region in recent earthquakes have revealed the vulnerability of existing RC buildings against pulse-type ground motions. This may be due to the fact that these modern structures had been designed primarily using the design spectra of available standards, which have been developed using stochastic processes with relatively long duration that characterizes more distant ground motions. Many recently designed and constructed buildings may therefore require strengthening in order to perform well when subjected to near-fault ground motions. Fiber Reinforced Polymers are considered to be a viable alternative, due to their relatively easy and quick installation, low life cycle costs and zero maintenance requirements. The objective of this paper is to investigate the adequacy of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) to determine the three dimensional dynamic response of FRP strengthened RC buildings under the near-fault ground motions. For this purpose, one ANN model is proposed to estimate the base shear force, base bending moments and roof displacement of buildings in two directions. A training set of 168 and a validation set of 21 buildings are produced from FEA analysis results of the dynamic response of RC buildings under the near-fault earthquakes. It is demonstrated that the neural network based approach is highly successful in determining the response.