Showing papers in "International journal of engineering and technology in 2015"

The Use of Additives to Enhance Properties of Pre-Formed Foamed Concrete

Abstract: This paper describes an experimental study of an enhancement of pre-formed foamed concrete, 1300-1900 kg/m3, by utilising two types of additives, silica fume and fly ash, to partially replace Portland cement and fine sand. It focuses on consistency, mechanical and thermal properties as well as presenting a comparison with normal weight, lightweight and foamed concretes from the literature. In addition to conventional foamed concrete mixes (FC), foamed concrete mixes with high flowability and strength (FCa) were also manufactured in this study. The FC mixes had 28-day compressive strengths from 6 to 23 MPa and corresponding thermal conductivities in the dry state from 0.475 to 0.951 W/mK, whereas for the same density range, the FCa mixes gave 19-47 MPa and 0.498-0.962 W/mK, respectively. Compared to other studies on foamed concrete, the results from the mixes investigated in this study showed higher strengths (for a given density), higher tensile to compressive strength ratios and higher moduli of elasticity.

Effect on superhydrophobic surfaces on electrical porcelain insulator, improved technique at polluted areas for longer life and reliability

Abstract: This paper proposes a novel technique to enhance the stability of high-voltage insulators, which are affected due to the presence of dust, contamination, electrical stresses in a high moisture content environment. These result in puncture of insulators and heavy loss due to power outages in the transmission lines. To extend its stability, powdered coating is done on the insulators which have insulation property and super hydrophobicity. In this paper, the authors were inspired by the ‘lotus effect', and a nano size powder was developed by sol – gel method and coating is done on the porcelain insulator surface, which passes-out all the electrical testing standards and maintains its insulation property with super hydrophobic nature. The water droplet contact angle of 158.8 0 and a sliding angle of 8 0 indicate the super hydrophobic nature on the surface of insulator. The insulator was kept in a highly polluted environment for six months at different locations where no dust was collected on the insulator when compared with an uncoated insulator.

Batch and Column Studies of Phenol Adsorption by an Activated Carbon Based on Acid Treatment of Corn Cobs

Abstract: Corn cobs were evaluated as raw material in the production of an adsorbent for phenol removal from aqueous solutions. Adsorption kinetics and equilibrium were satisfactorily described by the pseudo second-order and Freundlich models, respectively. Fixed bed adsorption (breakthrough curve) was satisfactorily described by Bohart-Adams, Yoon-Nelson and Dose-Response models. Adsorption tests showed that the prepared adsorbent presented higher adsorption capacity than activated carbons produced from other agricultural residues, confirming that this type of waste material is a suitable candidate for use in the production of adsorbents.

Characteristics of Gypsum Recycling in Different Cycles

Abstract: In Brazil, the gypsum plaster waste is 4% to 15% of construction and demolition waste. The environmental legislation advises that this waste should be recycled to avoid the contamination of soil and groundwater. The aim of this work is to show that the recycled gypsum plaster maintains its characteristics when submitted to different recycling cycles. The recycled gypsum plasters were produced by grinding and burning the waste along three successive recycling cycles. The recycled materials were evaluated by chemical and physical properties. The obtained results showed that both recycled and commercial gypsum plaster are similar to using in the Construction Industry.

Delay and cost overrun in road construction projects in Jordan

Abstract: This study aims to identify the most important factors that cause delay in road construction projects in Jordan, which results in cost and time overrun allocated for this type of engineering projects and cause critical problems for both the developer and the contractor. The gap between the cost at completion and that originally estimated, known as cost overrun, can be regarded as one of the most important parameters reflecting the success of projects. In the public sector, money spent on project change orders results in increased construction time which in return reduces the number and size of the projects that can be completed during any given fiscal year. To achieve this goal, the documents and the final reports for several sample projects implemented over the years 2000 to 2008 were analyzed. All the projects were administered by the same organization taken from Jordan Ministry of Rural and Public Works. The results of this study can assist highway officials in their design, planning, scheduling and projects completions so that necessary actions can be taken to control these overruns in future projects. The study showed that 19 factors might cause delays of road construction projects as defined through a detailed literature review. The analysis of the study indicated that the top causes affecting time and cost overrun in road construction projects in Jordan are Terrain and Weather conditions.

Ant Colony Optimization: A Tutorial Review

Abstract: The complex social behaviors of ants have been much studied, and now scientists are finding that these behavior patterns can provide models for solving difficult combinatorial optimization problems. The attempt to develop algorithms inspired by one aspect of ant behavior, the ability to find shortest paths, has become the field of ant colony optimization (ACO). Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is a derivative of Swarm intelligence (SI). The ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO), introduced by Marco Dorigo, in the year 1992 and it is a paradigm for designing meta heuristic algorithms for optimization problems and is inspired by the foraging behavior of ant colonies. Ant Colony Optimization targets discrete optimization problems and can be extended to continuous optimization problems which is useful to find approximate solutions. Now-a-days, a number of algorithms inspired by the foraging behavior of ant colonies have been applied to solve difficult discrete optimization problems. In fact, ACO algorithm is the most successful and widely recognized algorithm based on the ant behavior. This paper gives an overview of growing research field from theoretical inception to the practical applications of ACO variants and some of the fields where it can be applied.

Mechanical and Microstructural Characterization of Alkali-Activated Materials Based on Fly Ash and Slag

Abstract: This study investigates the mechanical and microstructural characterization of alkali-activated fly ash/slag (AAFS) mortars with various ratios of fly ash to slag. The liquid/binder ratios of 0.35, 0.5 and 0.65 are considered for the AAFS mortars. 4% Sodium oxide (Na 2 O) concentration of cementitious material weight in mixture and liquid sodium silicate with modulus ratio (mass ratio of SiO 2 to Na 2 O) of 1 were used as alkaline activators to alkali-activate various fly ash/slag ratios. Compressive strength test, water absorption test, drying shrinkage test, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis were conducted. Test results reveal that both fly ash/slag ratio and the liquid/binder ratio are two significant factors influencing the mechanical and microstructural characterization of AAFS mortars. The hydration products of AAFS mortars are mainly amorphous alkaline aluminosilicate and low-crystalline calcium silicate hydrate gel.

Benefits in the Implementation of Safety, Health, Environmental and Quality Integrated System

Abstract: This article aims to present the benefits in the implementation of the integrated management system based on the standards ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001. It is a case study in a sector of the construction industry chain, located in the southeastern Brazil. An exploratory study using a questionnaire with leaders from this particular industry was conducted, as well as a documentary analysis from the Integrated Management System (IMS) archives. The obtained results of the documentary analysis and perceptions of leaders survey were observed based on previous IMS research. The results indicated that almost all leaders identify several benefits in systems integration, with an improvement in the routine management as the main benefit, and the financial savings as the smallest benefit. It was also found that in leader perception the most of IMS documents are integrated. The same result was found in many documents in the documentary analysis.

CIMTEL- Mining Algorithm for Big Data in Telecommunication

Abstract: The field of data mining has flourished into research area of significant technological and social importance due to the advancement in technology. Mining frequent pattern or itemset from real data environment is a fundamental and essential problem in many data mining applications. The Apriori-inspired algorithms show good performance with sparse datasets such as market-basket data, where the frequent patterns are very short. However, in the area with dense datasets such as telecommunication, computational biology and census data, the performance of these algorithms degrades incredibly as there were many, long frequent patterns. The focus of this paper is to design a CPUefficient algorithm CIMTEL for finding closed frequent calling patterns (long pattern) in a telecommunication database. Due to the evaluation of next generation telecommunication network the amount of communication data’s rises in volume, vaiety and velocity (Bid Data). Thus algorithm provides an way for analysis the consumer for service provider. The Performance of this algorithm outperforms the former COLTEL , CHARM and EXPEDITE algorithm by an order of two for a worst case scenario. Also the performance analysis of this algorithm with former algorithms is determined. Keyword-Big Data, Close Item Set, Patten Mining , Frequent Item Set Mining:

Development and testing of a motorized cassava fufu pounding machine

Abstract: A motorized cassava fufu pounding machine was developed and tested. The machine principal parts were hopper, throat, pounding compartment, discharge outlet, main frame, electric motor seat, auger, shaft and pulleys. Mild steel material and stainless steel sheet were used in the fabrication based on its availability, strength, appearance, cost, and corrosion resistance. The machine is powered by a 5hp electric motor; the dimension of the machine is 1010mm × 600mm × 930mm (length × breadth × height). Output capacity of 120kg/hr was obtained. The machine is affordable and easy to operate and manage. It is therefore recommended for the restaurants, chop bars and households to prepare a good and hygienic fufu thereby solving the problem of energy sapping and time wasting in manual fufu pounding.

Fiber Orientation Factor on Rectangular Cross-Section in Concrete Members

Abstract: In order to predict the post-cracking tensile behavior of fiber reinforced concrete, it is necessary to evaluate the fiber orientation factor which indicates the number of fibers bridging a crack. For investigation of fiber orientation factor on a rectangular section, in this paper, dog-bone fiber reinforced concrete specimens were prepared with the variables of concrete compressive strength, rectangular cross-section size, fiber type, and fiber volumetric ratio. After direct tension tests, the fiber orientation factor could be evaluated through counting the number of fibers on a crack. From the test results, it was investigated that the fiber orientation factor was larger than 0.5 which is generally adopted for large members, as fibers distribution is affected by the specimen size. For rational prediction of the fiber orientation factor on a rectangular concrete section, a simple model was derived from the Diverse Embedment Model (DEM), which is a rigorous model to predict the tensile behavior of steel fiber reinforced concrete. From the comparison of the measured data and the predicted values, it was found that the actual fiber orientation factor was well predicted by the proposed model.

Structural Design and Construction of Complex-Shaped Tall Buildings

Abstract: Today's diverse architectural design trends have produced tall buildings of various forms, such as twisted, tilted, and free forms, as can be seen in the Infinity Tower in Dubai, Veer Towers in Las Vegas and Phare Tower project in Paris. This paper studies various structural system design options for these complex-shaped tall buildings and their performances. For each complex form category, tall buildings are designed with different contemporary structural systems, such as diagrids, braced tubes and outrigger systems. The structural efficiency of each system, in conjunction with building forms, heights and height-to-width aspect ratios, is studied. Parametric structural models are generated to investigate the impacts of variation of important geometric configurations of complex-shaped tall buildings. The models are then exported to structural engineering software for analyses and design. Based on the study results, comparative structural efficiency of different structural systems for tall buildings of each complex form category is estimated.

Distress Identification, Cost Analysis and Pavement Temperature Prediction for the Long-Term Pavement Performance for Western Australia

Abstract: Collection and analysis of pavement distress data is a significant component for effective long-term pavement performance. Accurate, consistent, and repeatable pavement distress type's evaluation can reduce a tremendous amount of time and money that has been spending each year on maintenance and rehabilitation of existing pavement distress. The main objective of this study is to identify and quantify of surface distress in a given segment of pavement, to perform details distress rating, to predict pavement temperature and cost analysis of individual pavement distress on heavily urban roads in Western Australia (WA). Field survey were conducted from three regions in WA and two approached were used to evaluate and analysis the pavement distress. First, the probabilistic network Marov-Chain Process method was used to predict the cost analysis for individual asphalt concrete surfaced pavement distress. Second, Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM) was used to predict pavement temperature for asphalt concrete surface pavement. Meteorological data were collected from Perth, Kalgoorlie, and Albany region in WA, and data were used to develop and validation of the model. Different types of pavement distress level were identified and color photograph illustrated the asphalt concrete surfaced pavement. Results were performed and analysis. Results from this study will be useful resource to Main Roads Western Australia, Western Australia State Highways (WASH), and other pavement related users including to the National Highway System (NHS). In addition, results can be used for pavement management systems (PMSs) purpose.

Conceptual Study of Production Technology of Free-Form Concrete Segments

Abstract: Free-form designs are increasing which is beyond a simple design form to meet the requirements of clients wishing to improve the building value and of the government for symbolic buildings. Furthermore, development of construction technologies, materials and equipment has led to production and installation of free-form concrete. However, unlike the fixed form, free-form concrete requires more time and manpower. In particular, mold for production of free-form materials can be used only once, which implies that excessive resources are input for mold manufacturing. This may result in reduced productivity, increased cost and extended construction duration. It is necessary to develop technologies that can solve the limitation in relation to cost, time, quality and safety so as to ensure economic feasibility and constructability of the free-form buildings. In this regard, the study intends to analyze the problems of producing free-form concrete and construction using such concrete, and to conduct a conceptual study on the technology that is capable of solving the problems. The study draws the requirements of production technology of free-form concrete, and proposes the production technology that can solve the existing problems.

Simulation of Shakedown Behavior in Pavement's Granular Layer

Abstract: While in the design of flexible pavement the significance of asphalt layers is understood, the role of granular layers supporting the asphalt layers should not be underestimated. The behavior of granular layers used in base, sub-base or subgrade layer of flexible pavement is complicated due to nonlinear elastoplastic response of materials subjected to dynamic load of traffic. Shakedown theory integrated with Mohr-Coulomb criterion is applied to simulate the response of granular layers to dynamic loading in a numerical analysis. The results of analysis is then compared to simple the results of modeling without considering shakedown effects and the conclusion is drawn.

LED Based Spectrophotometer can compete with conventional one

Abstract: Spectrophotometers are the common devise used for blood analysis. These analyses are simply optioned from the transmittance of monochromatic light through a blood sample. It disperses their light sources by different techniques; the simplest one is the use of interference filters in front of broad-band light source. As Interference bandpass filters are relatively inexpensive wavelength selectors. Interference filters that allow transmission of a predetermined wavelength while rejecting or blocking other wavelengths are widely used in instrumentation for clinical chemistry. On the other hand, the lights emitting diodes (LEDs) emits a specified band and have a wide selection options. An economic device based on LEDs (LED based spectrometer) is explained in this work. Instead of the wide spectrum light source and filters (commercial spectrophotometer), The LED based spectrophotometer is calibrated with standard solutions, and its measurement results is compared with the Mindray BS-200 Chemistry Analyzer (commercial spectrophotometer). The comparison shows acceptable results between both spectrophotometers with maximum error 2.33%. The errors can be reduced by applying more fining alignment. Another benefit of the new designee is to minimize testing costs.

Forecasting deterioration of bridge components from visual inspection data

Abstract: In order to extract the optimal output in the form of good management decisions with least resources, a bridge management system or BMS in short, is an essential part for every road transport authority. In a BMS, decisions regarding frequency of maintenance, conducting repairs and rehabilitation are based on inspection data collected for the bridges by trained inspectors following a condition rating method developed by the authority. The road authorities are constantly trying to convert these condition monitoring data to a meaningful practical decision supporting tool. To address this need, a study has been conducted to forecast deterioration of reinforced concrete bridge elements using Markov process. The aim of the research work is to identify the future maintenance needs utilizing the visual inspection data. Visual inspection data has been sourced from Victoria, Australia and transition matrices have been derived using Bayesian optimisation techniques of Markov chain model to predict the future condition of bridge components. Clustering of data with respect to input parameters such as era of construction, exposure conditions, annual average daily traffic and percentage of heavy vehicles can provide an improved deterioration model for bridge Engineers. Deterioration trends for three major structural components are presented in this paper.

Properties of Cellular Concrete for Filters

Abstract: Considering the trends of new materials in Construction, the lightweight concrete with a density between 400 and 1800 kg/m³ has been the subject of several studies with emphasis on particle size distribution of aggregates and their raw materials. Some of the advantages of cellular concrete are its lightness, resistance to freezing and thawing, good thermal insulation and acoustics. It can be used as blocks, precast masonry panels, filling and regularization of slabs to be waterproofed. The aim of this work is to study the material proportion that composes the cellular concrete, such as cement, sand, admixtures and water. It was analyzed the composite in the fresh and hardened state. Properties, such as compressive strength, water permeability of the plates, water absorption by immersion and by capillary rise were determined. The tests followed the Brazilian Standards and took place in cylindrical, prismatic and cubic specimens. It was made seven mixtures with four different admixtures, TecFoam, TecFill, CO 436 and Less S. The cellular concrete with TecFoam and Less S obtained strength and porosity for filtering water.

Recycled Plaster and Red Ceramic Waste Based Mortars

Abstract: Construction is the activity that generates more waste in the world. Even with international actions being done to seek sustainable solutions in human activities, few changes in the construction have been observed. In Brazil, measures are being taken to adapt the waste-generating activities to new environmental commitments. In 2002, a specific law on construction and demolition waste (CDW) (Res. 307 Law 12,305) was established to reduce its production or use its material and ensure its proper destination. In 2011 the plaster recycling was established by resolution 431 amending Res. 307. Thus, this work had the objective of using waste gypsum and red ceramic as building material. Different proportions were mixed and tests were made to evaluate their physical and mechanical performance and also optical microscopy. The results indicated that the mortar produced with recycled plaster and ceramic waste meets Brazilian technical standards as components of

Developing Master Curves, Binder Viscosity and Predicting Dynamic Modulus of Polymer-Modified Asphalt Mixtures

Abstract: The complex moduli relationship related mixture moduli to temperature and time rate of loading has been an integral part of several mechanistic-empirical (M-E) design procedures used throughout of the world. Seven asphalt concrete mixtures of different types of polymer modified binders (PMB) were produced in a laboratory to modify performance of asphalt mixture. The main role of this research is to evaluate the influence of these polymer modifiers on the pavement performance of asphalt mixture with the dynamic modulus, |E*| of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixture indicator in a laboratory test for Mainroad Western Australia and Fulton Hogan. In this study, the influence of temperature, loading frequency, and confining pressure on the dynamic characteristic of asphalt mixture were analysis, master curves of dynamic modulus of HMA mixtures were developed and data's were interpreted. Results showed that AC10 5.7% A35P (EVA) M7 B5, AC10 5.7% C450 M10 B5 and AC10 Multi 600/700 M5 B4 mixes method were the more efficient and effective in all categories of asphalt performance measures for strength and durability of HMA as compared to others polymer modifiers. A very good correlation (R 2 = 1) was found for each polymer modifier. This suggested that laboratory test using a various temperatures and loading frequencies can improve pavement mix design, lab and field control and assurance. A strong correlation between binder viscosity and temperature (R 2 = 1) for polymer modified asphalt mixture.

Selection of window for inter-pulse analysis of simple pulsed radar signal using the short time Fourier transform

Abstract: The electronic intelligence (ELINT) system is used by the military to detect, extract information and classify incoming radar signals. This work utilizes short time Fourier transform (STFT) - time frequency distribution (TFD) for inter-pulse analysis of the radar signal in order to estimate basic radar signal time parameters (pulse width and pulse repetition period). Four well-known windows functions of different and unique characteristics were used for the localization of STFT to determine their various effects on the analysis. The window functions are Hamming, Hanning, Bartlett and Blackman window functions. Monte Carlo simulation is carried out to determine the performance of the signal analysis in presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Results show that the lower the transition of main lobe width and higher the peak side lobe, the better the performance of the window function irrespective of time parameter being estimated. This is because 100 percent probability of correct estimation is achieved at signal to noise ratio of about -2dB for Bartlett, 4dB for both Hamming and Hanning, and 9dB for Blackman.

Fine Grained Sentiment Classification of Customer Reviews Using Computational Intelligent Technique

Abstract: Online reviews are now popularly used for judging quality of product or service and influence decision making of users while selecting a product or service. Due to innumerous number of customer reviews on the web, it is difficult to summarize them which require a faster opinion mining system to classify the reviews. Many researchers have explored various supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques for binary classification of reviews. Compared to these techniques, fuzzy logic can provide a straightforward and comparatively faster way to model the fuzziness existing between the sentiment polarities classes due to the ambiguity present in most of the natural languages. But the fuzzy logic techniques are less explored in this domain. Hence in this paper, a fuzzy logic model based on the most popularly known sentiment based lexicon SentiWordNet has been proposed for fine grained classification of the reviews into weak positive, moderate positive, strong positive, weak negative, moderate negative and strong negative classes. Experiments have been conducted on datasets containing reviews of electronic products namely smart phones, LED TV and laptops and have shown to provide fine grained classification accuracy approximately in the range of 74% to 77%. Keyword- Sentiment analysis, Fine grained Classification, Fuzzy Logic, SentiWordNet, Online reviews

Development technique for deep drawing without blank holder to produce circular cup of brass alloy

Abstract: Of this technique compared to the conventional deep drawing is that the circular cup can be carried out in single action press with limit In this paper a new mechanism for deep drawing was proposed to produce circular cup from thin plate without blank holder. In this technique the die assembly includes punch, die and die-punch. A 2D axisymmetric finite element model was built using DEFORM software. Effect of die geometry (half- cone angle) on maximum load, thickness distribution, strain distribution and effect of clearance ratio between punch and (die-punch) on the wrinkling of the cup were investigated. Three half-cone angles of die (15o, 30o and 45o) were used for forming sheet metal of brass (CuZn37) which had initial thickness of (1mm) at four clearance ratio (c/t) for die of 30o half-cone angle. Finite element model results showed good agreement with experimental results. Die of 30o half-cone angle with clearance ratio (c/t) of 0.9 gave the best product without wrinkling. The main advantage drawing ratio (LDR) of 1.86 and blank diameter to blank thickness ratio (d/t) < 86.

A Fuzzy Genetic Algorithm for Scheduling of Handling/Storage Equipment in Automated Container Terminals

Abstract: has been studied during past two decades consciously. Genetic algorithms (GAs) have been applied for this optimization problem in many researches. However, the GA is vulnerable to trap in a local optima (results in premature convergence). In this paper a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) is designed to improve the performance of a GA in optimization of integrated scheduling of handling/storage equipment in automated container terminals. The FLC controls crossover and mutation rates of the GA during its generations, which are the main control parameters of the GA to avoid the premature convergence. The numerical results for the small size test cases solved by using the proposed fuzzy genetic algorithm show that solutions found by this algorithm are 2.5% better than the solutions found by the GA. Studies are continuing for better performance of the proposed FGA.

Analysis of fuzzy rule optimization models

Abstract: Optimization without losing the accuracy and interpretability of rules is a major concern in rule based system. Fuzzy Inference system characterized by uncertainty tolerance is the best way to represent a knowledge based system. Optimization of rule based systems starts by incorporating self- learning ability to a fuzzy inference system. This can be achieved by neural networks, there by developing a neuro fuzzy inference system. This paper analyses different neuro fuzzy inference systems .The analysis has been performed in different types of datasets in terms of dimensionality and noises. Analysis results concludes that the neuro fuzzy model DENFIS (Dynamically Evolving Neuro Fuzzy Inference System) shows an improved performance when handling with high dimensional data. Simulation results on low dimensional data exhibits similar performance in ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System) and Denfis.

A frame for a computer aided inspection planning system

Abstract: Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) inspection planning is an activity performed by well-trained operators, but different measurement techniques, using the same data analysis algorithms yield in different measurement results. This is a well-recognized source of uncertainty in coordinate measurement. A CMM, provided with an automatic inspection planning (CAIP) system, permits to implement more accurate and efficient operating procedures and to fit higher quality assurance standards and tighter production timings. In this paper we present a frame of a CAIP system, able to deal with almost all the decisional stages of CMM inspection. Moreover, original approaches have been developed and presented in inspection feature selection, part set-up, probe configuration, and path planning.