In this paper, the authors present an extended survey on the evolution and the modern approaches in the thermal analysis of electrical machines. The improvements and the new techniques proposed in the last decade are analyzed in depth and compared in order to highlight the qualities and defects of each. In particular, thermal analysis based on lumped-parameter thermal network, finite-element analysis, and computational fluid dynamics are considered in this paper. In addition, an overview of the problems linked to the thermal parameter determination and computation is proposed and discussed. Taking into account the aims of this paper, a detailed list of books and papers is reported in the references to help researchers interested in these topics.

/pdf/evolution-and-modern-approaches-for-thermal-analysis-of-1z8m24e02a.pdf

Evolution and Modern Approaches for Thermal Analysis of Electrical Machines

An automated irrigation system was developed to optimize water use for agricultural crops. The system has a distributed wireless network of soil-moisture and temperature sensors placed in the root zone of the plants. In addition, a gateway unit handles sensor information, triggers actuators, and transmits data to a web application. An algorithm was developed with threshold values of temperature and soil moisture that was programmed into a microcontroller-based gateway to control water quantity. The system was powered by photovoltaic panels and had a duplex communication link based on a cellular-Internet interface that allowed for data inspection and irrigation scheduling to be programmed through a web page. The automated system was tested in a sage crop field for 136 days and water savings of up to 90% compared with traditional irrigation practices of the agricultural zone were achieved. Three replicas of the automated system have been used successfully in other places for 18 months. Because of its energy autonomy and low cost, the system has the potential to be useful in water limited geographically isolated areas.

Automated Irrigation System Using a Wireless Sensor Network and GPRS Module

A natural carbohydrate biopolymer was extracted from the agricultural biomass waste (durian seed). Subsequently, the crude biopolymer was purified by using the saturated barium hydroxide to minimize the impurities. Finally, the effect of different drying techniques on the flow characteristics and functional properties of the purified biopolymer was investigated. The present study elucidated the main functional characteristics such as flow characteristics, water- and oil-holding capacity, solubility, and foaming capacity. In most cases except for oven drying, the bulk density decreased, thus increasing the porosity. This might be attributed to the increase in the inter-particle voids of smaller sized particles with larger contact surface areas per unit volume. The current study revealed that oven-dried gum and freeze-dried gum had the highest and lowest compressibility index, thus indicating the weakest and strongest flowability among all samples. In the present work, the freeze-dried gum showed the lowest angle of repose, bulk, tapped and true density. This indicates the highest porosity degree of freeze dried gum among dried seed gums. It also exhibited the highest solubility, and foaming capacity thus providing the most desirable functional properties and flow characteristics among all drying techniques. The present study revealed that freeze drying among all drying techniques provided the most desirable functional properties and flow characteristics for durian seed gum.

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Effect of different drying techniques on flowability characteristics and chemical properties of natural carbohydrate-protein Gum from durian fruit seed.

A joint initiative by the British Thoracic Society and the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland was undertaken to update the 2001 guidelines for the selection and assessment of patients with lung cancer who can potentially be managed by radical treatment.

https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/65/Suppl_3/iii1.full.pdf

Guidelines on the radical management of patients with lung cancer

In this paper, we present four purely textile patch antennas for Bluetooth applications in wearable computing using the frequency range around 2.4 GHz. The textile materials and the planar antenna shape provide a smooth integration into clothing while preserving the typical properties of textiles. The four antennas differ in the deployed materials and in the antenna polarization, but all of them feature a microstrip line as antenna feed. We have developed a manufacturing process that guarantees unaffected electrical behavior of the individual materials when composed to an antenna. Thus, the conductive textiles possess a sheet resistance of less than 1Omega/squarein order to keep losses at a minimum. The process also satisfies our requirements in terms of accuracy meeting the Bluetooth specifications. Our investigations not only characterize the performance of the antennas in planar shape, but also under defined bending conditions that resemble those of a worn garment. We show that the antennas can withstand clothing bends down to a radius of 37.5 mm without violating specifications

/pdf/design-and-characterization-of-purely-textile-patch-antennas-2nanw0dxzs.pdf

Design and Characterization of Purely Textile Patch Antennas

Data compression algorithms are widely employed to reduce the amount of data in order to save storage space and to speed-up the data transfer. Lossy algorithms provides high compression ratio but are designed to provide good results mainly when multimedia data are processed. Aim of this paper is to analyze the behavior of commercial lossy and lossless algorithms in the presence of measurement data. The paper also describes a lossy algorithm that has been designed to provide high compression ratios with a known uncertainty level.

Uncertainty Effects of Data Compression in Measurement Applications

Monitoring, control and optimisation of freeze-drying process

Modern gas detectors for detection of particles require F-based gases for optimal performance. Recent regulations demand the use of environmentally unfriendly F-based gases to be limited or banned. This review studies properties of potential eco-friendly gas candidate replacements.

/pdf/candidate-eco-friendly-gas-mixtures-for-mpgds-1tsu8wm28k.pdf

Candidate eco-friendly gas mixtures for MPGDs

This paper describes a versatile though low cost power meter that was specifically conceived for the characterisation of inverter-fed electrical machines. The power meter has been designed to perform a measurement of the electrical quantities associated to the first harmonics that are obtained with an uncertainty of less than 0.1%. The power meter is simple and cheap thanks to the restriction of the measurement capabilities to the first harmonics, which allows low cost converters to be used. The wattmeter employs a Digital Signal Processor to obtain a measuring rate in excess of 2 Hz; a conventional personal computer is used for the graphical interface. The power meter characterisation is obtained by means of a specially designed generator that allows distorted though known waveforms to he generated.

Marco Parvis

Papers

Uncertainty Effects of Data Compression in Measurement Applications

Monitoring, control and optimisation of freeze-drying process

Candidate eco-friendly gas mixtures for MPGDs

Low-cost power meter for the characterisation of inverter-fed electrical machines

Measurement of residence time distribution function by means of a non-invasive magnetic sensor