Abstract: Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations
carried out in this paper show that spacer orientation has a major
influence on temperature patterns and on the heat transfer rates. The
local heat flux values significantly vary from high to very low values
at each filament when spacer touches the membrane surface. The
heat flux profile is more uniform when spacer filaments are not in
contact with the membrane thus making this arrangement more
beneficial. The temperature polarization is also found to be less in
this case when compared to the empty channel.
Abstract: Highly ordered arrays of TiO2 nanotubes (TiNTs) were grown vertically on Ti foil by electrochemical anodization. We controlled the lengths of these TiNTs from 2.4 to 26.8 ¶üÇóμm while varying the water contents (1, 3, and 6 wt%) of the electrolyte in ethylene glycol in the presence of 0.5 wt% NH4F with anodization for various applied voltages (20–80 V), periods (10–240 min) and temperatures (10–30 oC). For vertically aligned TiNT arrays, not only the increase in their tube lengths, but also their geometric (wall thickness and surface roughness) and crystalline structure lead to a significant influence on photocatalytic activity. The length optimization for methylene blue (MB) photodegradation was 18 μm. Further extending the TiNT length yielded lower photocatalytic activity presumably related to the limited MB diffusion and light-penetration depth into the TiNT arrays. The results indicated that a maximum MB photodegradation rate was obtained for the discrete anatase TiO2 nanotubes with thick and rough walls.
Abstract: Crystallization has been used for the separation of
chloronitrobenzene or CNBs, which are isomeric substances (o-, mand
p-CNB) and important intermediates in chemical productions. Effects of feed composition on the crystallization of m- and p-CNB was first studied. The results conform to the binary phase diagram of
m- and p-CNB. After that, effects of FAU zeolites (NaX, CaX, BaX, NaY and CaY) above the eutectic composition (63.5 and 65.0 wt% m-CNB in the feed) was also investigated. The results showed that
the FAU zeolites significantly affected the precipitates, the
composition of which was shifted from being rich in m-CNB to rich
in p-CNB. Effects of the number of FAU zeolites on the precipitate composition was then studied. The results revealed that the
precipitates from the lower number of the zeolites had higher p-CNB purity than those from the higher number of zeolite.
Abstract: In this paper in consideration of each available
techniques deficiencies for speech recognition, an advanced method
is presented that-s able to classify speech signals with the high
accuracy (98%) at the minimum time. In the presented method, first,
the recorded signal is preprocessed that this section includes
denoising with Mels Frequency Cepstral Analysis and feature
extraction using discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coefficients; Then
these features are fed to Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) network for
classification. Finally, after training of neural network effective
features are selected with UTA algorithm.
Abstract: Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) is one of the most
commonest constructed asphalts in Iran and the quality control of
constructed roads with HMA have been always paid due attention by
researchers. The quality control of constructed roads with this
method is being usually carried out by measuring volumetric
parameters of HMA marshall samples. One of the important
parameters that has a critical role in changing these volumetric
parameters is “compaction temperature"; which as a result of its
changing, volumetric parameters of Marshall Samples and
subsequently constructed asphalt is encountered with variations. In
this study, considering the necessity of preservation of the
compaction temperature, the effect of various temperatures on Hot
Mix Asphalt (HMA) samples properties has been evaluated. As well,
to evaluate the effect of this parameter on different grading, two
different grading (Top coat index grading and binder index grading)
have been used and samples were compacted at 5 various
temperatures.
Abstract: Rockfall is a kind of irregular geological disaster. Its
destruction time, space and movements are highly random. The impact
force is determined by the way and velocity rocks move. The
movement velocity of a rockfall depends on slope gradient of its
moving paths, height, slope surface roughness and rock shapes. For
effectively mitigate and prevent disasters brought by rockfalls, it is
required to precisely calculate the moving paths of a rockfall so as to
provide the best protective design. This paper applies Colorado
Rockfall Simulation Program (CRSP) as our study tool to discuss the
impact of slope shape and surface roughness on the moving paths of a
single rockfall. The analytical results showed that the slope, m=1:1,
acted as the threshold for rockfall bounce height on a monoclinal slight
slope. When JRC ´╝£ 1.2, movement velocity reduced and bounce
height increased as JCR increased. If slope fixed and JRC increased,
the bounce height of rocks increased gradually with reducing
movement velocity. Therefore, the analysis on the moving paths of
rockfalls with CRSP could simulate bouncing of falling rocks. By
analyzing moving paths, velocity, and bounce height of falling rocks,
we could effectively locate impact points of falling rocks on a slope.
Such analysis can be served as a reference for future disaster
prevention and control.
Abstract: This paper investigates experimental and numerical study of the airflow characteristics for vortex, round and square ceiling diffusers and its effect on the thermal comfort in a ventilated room. Three different thermal comfort criteria namely; Mean Age of the Air (MAA), ventilation effectiveness (E), and Effective Draft Temperature (EDT) have been used to predict the thermal comfort zone inside the room. In experimental work, a sub-scale room is set-up to measure the temperature field in the room. In numerical analysis, unstructured grids have been used to discretize the numerical domain. Conservation equations are solved using FLUENT commercial flow solver. The code is validated by comparing the numerical results obtained from three different turbulence models with the available experimental data. The comparison between the various numerical models shows that the standard k-ε turbulence model can be used to simulate these cases successfully. After validation of the code, effect of supply air velocity on the flow and thermal field could be investigated and hence the thermal comfort. The results show that the pressure coefficient created by the square diffuser is 1.5 times greater than that created by the vortex diffuser. The velocity decay coefficient is nearly the same for square and round diffusers and is 2.6 times greater than that for the vortex diffuser.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to explore the security issues
that significantly affect the performance of Mobile Adhoc Networks
(MANET)and limit the services provided to their intended users. The
MANETs are more vulnerable to Distributed Denial of Service
attacks (DDoS) because of their properties like shared medium,
dynamic topologies etc. A DDoS attack is a coordinated attempt
made by malicious users to flood the victim network with the large
amount of data such that the resources of the victim network are
exhausted resulting in the deterioration of the network performance.
This paper highlights the effects of different types of DDoS attacks
in MANETs and categorizes them according to their behavior.
Abstract: Recently, a growing interest has emerged on the
development of new and efficient energy sources, due to the inevitable extinction of the nonrenewable energy reserves. One of
these alternative sources which has a great potential and sustainability to meet up the energy demand is biomass energy. This
significant energy source can be utilized with various energy
conversion technologies, one of which is biomass gasification in
supercritical water.
Water, being the most important solvent in nature, has very important characteristics as a reaction solvent under supercritical
circumstances. At temperatures above its critical point (374.8oC and
22.1 MPa), water becomes more acidic and its diffusivity increases.
Working with water at high temperatures increases the thermal
reaction rate, which in consequence leads to a better dissolving of the
organic matters and a fast reaction with oxygen. Hence, supercritical water offers a control mechanism depending on solubility, excellent
transport properties based on its high diffusion ability and new reaction possibilities for hydrolysis or oxidation.
In this study the gasification of a real biomass, namely olive mill
wastewater (OMW), in supercritical water is investigated with the
use of Pt/Al2O3 and Ni/Al2O3 catalysts. OMW is a by-product
obtained during olive oil production, which has a complex nature
characterized by a high content of organic compounds and
polyphenols. These properties impose OMW a significant pollution
potential, but at the same time, the high content of organics makes
OMW a desirable biomass candidate for energy production.
All of the catalytic gasification experiments were made with five
different reaction temperatures (400, 450, 500, 550 and 600°C),
under a constant pressure of 25 MPa. For the experiments conducted
with Ni/Al2O3 catalyst, the effect of five reaction times (30, 60, 90,
120 and 150 s) was investigated. However, procuring that similar
gasification efficiencies could be obtained at shorter times, the experiments were made by using different reaction times (10, 15, 20,
25 and 30 s) for the case of Pt/Al2O3 catalyst. Through these experiments, the effects of temperature, time and catalyst type on the
gasification yields and treatment efficiencies were investigated.
Abstract: To investigate effect of salt stress on Chlorophyll
fluorescence four cultivars (fong,star,chamran and kharchia) of wheat
(Triticum aestivum) plants subjected to salinity levels ( control,8,12
and 16 dsm-1 ) from one week after emergence to the end of stem
elongation under greenhouse condition . results showed that quantum
yield of photosystem II from light adopted leaves (ΦPSII),
Photochemical quenching (qP) ,quantum yield of dark adopted leaves
(fv/fm) and non photochemical quenching (NPq) were affected by
salt stress . Salinity levels affected photosynthetic rate. Star and fong
cultivars showed minimum and maximum levels of photosynthetic
rate in respectively. Minimum photosynthetic rate differences
between levels of salinity were shown in Kharchia. Shoot dry matter
of all cultivars decreased by increasing salinity levels. Results
showed that non photochemical quenching by salinity levels attribute
to the decreases in shoot dry matter.
Abstract: In the real application of active control systems to
mitigate the response of structures subjected to sever external
excitations such as earthquake and wind induced vibrations, since the
capacity of actuators is limited then the actuators saturate. Hence, in
designing controllers for linear and nonlinear structures under sever
earthquakes, the actuator saturation should be considered as a
constraint. In this paper optimal design of active controllers for
nonlinear structures by considering the actuator saturation has been
studied. To this end a method has been proposed based on defining
an optimization problem which considers the minimizing of the
maximum displacement of the structure as objective when a limited
capacity for actuator has been used as a constraint in optimization
problem. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a
single degree of freedom (SDF) structure with a bilinear hysteretic
behavior has been simulated under a white noise ground acceleration
of different amplitudes. Active tendon control mechanism, comprised
of pre-stressed tendons and an actuator, and extended nonlinear
Newmark method based instantaneous optimal control algorithm
have been used as active control mechanism and algorithm. To
enhance the efficiency of the controllers, the weights corresponding
to displacement, velocity, acceleration and control force in the
performance index have been found by using the Distributed Genetic
Algorithm (DGA). According to the results it has been concluded
that the proposed method has been effective in considering the
actuator saturation in designing optimal controllers for nonlinear
frames. Also it has been shown that the actuator capacity and the
average value of required control force are two important factors in
designing nonlinear controllers for considering the actuator
saturation.
Abstract: The successful use of CDMA technology is based on
the construction of large families of encoding sequences with good
correlation properties. This paper discusses PN sequence generation
based on Residue Arithmetic with an effort to improve the performance
of existing interference-limited CDMA technology for mobile
cellular systems. All spreading codes with residual number system
proposed earlier did not consider external interferences, multipath
propagation, Doppler effect etc. In literature the use of residual
arithmetic in DS-CDMA was restricted to encoding of already spread
sequence; where spreading of sequence is done by some existing
techniques. The novelty of this paper is the use of residual number
system in generation of the PN sequences which is used to spread
the message signal. The significance of cross-correlation factor in
alleviating multi-access interference is also discussed. The RNS based
PN sequence has superior performance than most of the existing
codes that are widely used in DS-CDMA applications. Simulation
results suggest that the performance of the proposed system is
superior to many existing systems.
Abstract: Significant changes in oil and gas drilling have
emphasized the need to verify the integrity and reliability of drill
stem components. Defects are inevitable in cast components,
regardless of application; but if these defects go undetected, any
severe defect could cause down-hole failure.
One such defect is shrinkage porosity. Castings with lower level
shrinkage porosity (CB levels 1 and 2) have scattered pores and do
not occupy large volumes; so pressure testing and helium leak testing
(HLT) are sufficient for qualifying the castings. However, castings
with shrinkage porosity of CB level 3 and higher, behave erratically
under pressure testing and HLT making these techniques insufficient
for evaluating the castings- integrity.
This paper presents a case study to highlight how the radiography
technique is much more effective than pressure testing and HLT.
Abstract: Many medical devices are driven by motor pumps. Some researchers reported that the vibration mainly affected medical devices using a motor pump. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of stiffness and damping coefficient in a 3-dimensional (3D) model of a motor pump and spring. In the present paper, experimental and mathematical tests for the moments of inertia of the 3D model and the material properties were investigated by an INSTRON machine. The response surfaces could be generated by using 3D multi-body analysis and the design of experiment method. It showed that differences in contours of the response surface were clearly found for the particular area. Displacement of the center of the motor pump was decreased at K≈2000 N/M, C≈12.5 N-sec/M. However, the frequency was increased at K≈2000 N/M, C≈15 N-sec/M. In this study, this study suggested experimental technique for vibration reduction for a motor pump in medical device. The combined method suggested in this study will greatly contribute to design of medical devices concerning vibration and noise intervention.
Abstract: Due to the non- intuitive nature of Quantum
algorithms, it becomes difficult for a classically trained person to
efficiently construct new ones. So rather than designing new
algorithms manually, lately, Genetic algorithms (GA) are being
implemented for this purpose. GA is a technique to automatically
solve a problem using principles of Darwinian evolution. This has
been implemented to explore the possibility of evolving an n-qubit
circuit when the circuit matrix has been provided using a set of
single, two and three qubit gates. Using a variable length population
and universal stochastic selection procedure, a number of possible
solution circuits, with different number of gates can be obtained for
the same input matrix during different runs of GA. The given
algorithm has also been successfully implemented to obtain two and
three qubit Boolean circuits using Quantum gates. The results
demonstrate the effectiveness of the GA procedure even when the
search spaces are large.
Abstract: In the present research, steam cracking of two types of
feedstocks i.e., naphtha and ethane is simulated for Pyrocrack1-1 and
2/2 coil configurations considering two key parameters of coil outlet
temperature (COT) and coil capacity using a radical based kinetic
model. The computer model is confirmed using the industrial data
obtained from Amirkabir Petrochemical Complex. The results are in
good agreement with performance data for naphtha cracking in a
wide range of severity (0.4-0.7), and for ethane cracking on various
conversions (50-70). It was found that Pyrocrack2-2 coil type is an
appropriate choice for steam cracking of ethane at reasonable
ethylene yield while resulting in much lower tube wall temperature
while Pyrocrack1-1 coil type is a proper selection for liquid
feedstocks i.e. naphtha. It can be used for cracking of liquid
feedstocks at optimal ethylene yield whereas not exceeding the
allowable maximum tube temperature.
Abstract: The present paper considers the steady free
convection boundary layer flow of a viscoelastics fluid with constant
temperature in the presence of heat generation. The boundary layer
equations are an order higher than those for the Newtonian (viscous)
fluid and the adherence boundary conditions are insufficient to
determine the solution of these equations completely. The governing
boundary layer equations are first transformed into non-dimensional
form by using special dimensionless group. Computations are
performed numerically by using Keller-box method by augmenting
an extra boundary condition at infinity and the results are displayed
graphically to illustrate the influence of viscoelastic K, heat
generation γ , and Prandtl Number, Pr parameters on the velocity
and temperature profiles. The results of the surface shear stress in
terms of the local skin friction and the surface rate of heat transfer in
terms of the local Nusselt number for a selection of the heat
generation parameterγ (=0.0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1.0) are obtained and
presented in both tabular and graphical formats. Without effect of the
internal heat generation inside the fluid domain for which we take
γ = 0.0, the present numerical results show an excellent agreement
with previous publication.
Abstract: Lurking behavior is common in information-seeking oriented communities. Transferring users with lurking behavior to be contributors can assist virtual communities to obtain competitive advantages. Based on the ecological cognition framework, this study proposes a model to examine the antecedents of lurking behavior in information-seeking oriented virtual communities. This study argues desire for emotional support, desire for information support, desire for performance-approach, desire for performance -avoidance, desire for mastery-approach, desire for mastery-avoidance, desire for ability trust, desire for benevolence trust, and desire for integrity trust effect on lurking behavior. This study offers an approach to understanding the determinants of lurking behavior in online contexts.
Abstract: This paper proposes view-point insensitive human
pose recognition system using neural network. Recognition system
consists of silhouette image capturing module, data driven database,
and neural network. The advantages of our system are first, it is
possible to capture multiple view-point silhouette images of 3D human
model automatically. This automatic capture module is helpful to
reduce time consuming task of database construction. Second, we
develop huge feature database to offer view-point insensitivity at pose
recognition. Third, we use neural network to recognize human pose
from multiple-view because every pose from each model have similar
feature patterns, even though each model has different appearance and
view-point. To construct database, we need to create 3D human model
using 3D manipulate tools. Contour shape is used to convert silhouette
image to feature vector of 12 degree. This extraction task is processed
semi-automatically, which benefits in that capturing images and
converting to silhouette images from the real capturing environment is
needless. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach with
experiments on virtual environment.
Abstract: The present study conducted experimental investigation on combustion and emission characteristics of compression ignition engine using diesel as pilot fuel and methane, hydrogen and methane/hydrogen mixture as gaseous fuels at 1800 rev min-1. The effect of gaseous fuel on peak cylinder pressure and heat release is modest at low to medium loads. At high load, the high combustion temperature and high quantity of pilot fuel contribute to better combustion efficiency for all kinds of gaseous fuels and increases the peak cylinder pressure. Enrichment of hydrogen in methane gradually increases the peak cylinder pressure. The brake thermal efficiency increases with higher hydrogen fraction at lower loads. Hydrogen addition in methane contributed to a proportional reduction of CO/CO2/HC emission without penalty of NOx. For particulate emission, methane and hydrogen, could both suppress the particle emission. 30% hydrogen fraction in methane is observed to be best in reducing the particulate emission.