A numerical study on the optimization of a granular medium to infer the axial stress in slender structures

The in-situ measurement of axial stress in beams may prevent structural anomalies, such as unexpected buckling. We describe the coupling mechanism between highly nonlinear solitary waves (HNSWs) propagating along a granular system and a beam in contact with the granular medium to assess the ability of HNSWs to measure axial stress. One and two straight chains of particles were considered and the effect of the particles' diameter and material was evaluated to find those designs that maximize the sensitivity to the variation of axial stress. In the future, our findings may be used to develop a novel system for the nondestructive inspection of beams.     

A 125 GHz millimeter-wave phase lock loop with improved VCO and injection-locked frequency divider in 65 nm CMOS process

In this paper, a CMOS mm-wave phase locked loop (PLL) with improved voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) at operational harmonic frequency 125 GHz is presented. The VCO structure uses the bulk effective and MOS varactor capacitor to adjust parasitic capacitor of the cross coupled pair. It obtains 2th harmonic frequency with 24% tuning range (110–140 GHz) by applying?±?1.2 V input voltage variation. The divide-by-4 ILFD circuit uses a cross coupled VCO with three injection transistors acting in linear and nonlinear regions. The frequency dividers such as divided-by-4 ILFD, subsequent current mode logic (CML) and true single phase clock (TSPC) as divider chain with ratio 1/256 are used to synthesize frequency 244 MHz which is compared to reference frequency, 244 MHz in the PLL. Simulation results of the proposed PLL circuit are obtained after extracting post layout (with total chip size of 0.29 mm²) in 65 nm CMOS standard technology and @ 1.2 V power supply voltage. The obtained results confirm theoretical relations and indicate that the proposed circuit has good figure of merit (FoM), and higher tuning range and lower die area than the recent designs.

     

The multiobjective stochastic CRITIC–TOPSIS approach for solving the shipboard crane selection problem

The duty of shipboard cranes is to lift and lower loads, as well as to handle floating facilities to lower or higher positions by means of fixed wire ropes, pulleys, and hook, and so forth. Hence, they play an important role in the productivity of servicing or manufacturing systems. Since each crane has distinguished properties than the others with respect to criteria and decision-makers (DMs) may express the different standpoints regarding them, the crane selection problem (CSP) can be considered as a group multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this paper, interval type-2 fuzzy sets (IT2FSs) are first used to evaluate cranes with respect to criteria. The synthetic value method of IT2FSs is then handled to integrate the ratings expressed as IT2FSs of each crane with respect to criteria into the single fuzzy rating. Finally, the multiobjective criteria importance through inter-criteria correlation (CRITIC)–technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) approach is applied to solve the CSP in which CRITIC and TOPSIS are used to determine the objective weights and score of cranes, respectively. In addition, the limit distance mean (LDM) is introduced for ranking interval type-2 fuzzy ratings in the above two techniques. In contrast, to demonstrate the potential application, the proposed methodology is implemented in a real case study and the ranking results are compared with those published in the literature.     

A closed-loop supply chain configuration considering environmental impacts: a self-adaptive NSGA-II algorithm

Applied Intelligence - Configuration of a supply chain network is a critical issue that contributes to choose the best combination for a set of facilities in order to attain an effective and...     

Effect of carbon nanotube on PA6/ECO composites: Morphology development,rheological, and thermal properties

Thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) nanocomposites based on polyamide‐6 (PA6)/poly(epichlorohydrin‐co‐ethylene oxide) (ECO)/multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNTs) were prepared by melt compounding process. Different weight ratios of ECO (20, 40, and 60 wt %) and two kinds of functionalized and non‐functionalized MWCNTs were employed to fabricate the nanocomposites. The morphological, rheological, and mechanical properties of MWCNTs‐filled PA6/ECO blends were studied. The scanning electron microscopy of PA6/ECO blends showed that the elastomer particles, ECO, are well‐dispersed within the PA6 matrix. The significant improvement in the dispersibility of the carboxylated carbon nanotubes (COOH‐MWCNTs) compared to that of non‐functionalized MWCNTs (non‐MWCNTs) was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy images. The tensile modulus of samples improved with the addition of both types of MWCNTs. However, the effect of COOH‐MWCNTs was much more pronounced in improving mechanical properties of PA6/ECO TPE nanocomposites. Crystallization results demonstrated that the MWCNTs act as a nucleation agent of the crystallization process resulted in increased crystallization temperature (T_c) in nanocomposites. Rheological characterization in the linear viscoelastic region showed that complex viscosity and a non‐terminal storage modulus significantly increased with incorporation of both types of MWCNTs particularly at low frequency region. The increase of rheological properties was more pronounced in the presence of carboxylic (COOH) functional groups, in the other words by addition of COOH‐MWCNTs. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45977.     

Electrochemical preparation and properties of polypyrrole and its blend with poly(vinyl sulfonate) doped with perchlorate anions

In this article, we report polypyrrole (PPy)/poly(vinyl sulfonate) (PVS) and PPy/perchlorate (ClO) composite films generated by the electrochemical oxidation of pyrrole on a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) in an aqueous solution. The response of the produced films to an applied potential at 0.7 V was obtained by a cyclic voltammetry study in acetonitrile media. The films were significantly similar in their electrochemical behavior when ClO ions doped during the redox process. We concluded that with an increasing number of cycles, the anodic current increased because the number of the electroactive participants transported in the copolymer matrix was increased. Theoretical studies based on the Nernst and Butler–Volmer equations indicated that the ClO ion was transported during the oxidation/reduction process of the PPY/PVS and PPY/ClO films. The produced films were characterized further by means of IR spectroscopy, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy to verify that the anion of ClO was doped into the copolymer matrix as well. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Risk constrained self-scheduling of hydro/wind units for short term electricity markets considering intermittency and uncertainty

In view of the intermittency and uncertainty associated with both the electricity production sector of restructured power system and their competitive markets, it is necessary to develop an appropriate risk managing scheme. So that it is desirable to trade-off between optimum utilization of intermittent generation resources (i.e. renewable energy resources), uncertain market prices and related risks in order to maximize participants' benefits and minimize the corresponding risks in the multi-product market environment. The main goal of this paper is to investigate risk management by introducing a novel multi-risk index to quantify expected downside risk (EDR) which is caused by both the wind power and market price uncertainties. Value-at-Risk (VaR) method is used to assess the mentioned risk issue by the proposed weighted EDR, so that an optimal trade-off between the profit and risk is made for the system operations. Also, the roulette wheel mechanism is employed for random market price scenario generation wherein the stochastic procedure is converted into its respective deterministic equivalents. Moreover, the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model is employed to characterize the stochastic wind farm (WF) generation by predetermined mean level and standard deviation of wind behavior as well as temporal correlation. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer stochastic framework for a hydro-wind power system scheduling and tested on a generation company (GENCO).     

Highly sensitive amperometric sensor for micromolar detection of trichloroacetic acid based on multiwalled carbon nanotubes and Fe(II)–phtalocyanine modified glassy carbon electrode

A highly sensitive electrochemical sensor for the detection of trichloroacetic acid (TCA) is developed by subsequent immobilization of phthalocyanine (Pc) and Fe(II) onto multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode. The GC/MWCNTs/Pc/Fe(II) electrode showed a pair of well-defined and nearly reversible redox couple correspondent to (Fe(III)Pc/Fe(II)Pc) with surface-confined characteristics. The surface coverage (Γ) and heterogeneous electron transfer rate constant (k_s) of immobilized Fe(II)–Pc were calculated as 1.26 × 10^? 10 mol cm^? 2 and 28.13 s^? 1, respectively. Excellent electrocatalytic activity of the proposed GC/MWCNTs/Pc/Fe(II) system toward TCA reduction has been indicated and the three consequent irreversible peaks for electroreduction of CCl₃COOH to CH₃COOH have been clearly seen. The observed chronoamperometric currents are linearly increased with the concentration of TCA at concentration range up to 20 mM. Detection limit and sensitivity of the modified electrode were 2.0 μM and 0.10 μA μM^? 1 cm^? 2, respectively. The applicability of the sensor for TCA detection in real samples was tested. The obtained results suggest that the proposed system can serve as a promising electrochemical platform for TCA detection.     

Thermo-physical performance of DGEBA/1,8-NDA/barium carbonate composite for coating applications

The toughening of epoxy resins by incorporating inorganic fillers is of great importance nowadays, due to their wide range of applications. The present work reports the results of the addition of barium carbonate into a polymeric matrix containing diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) epoxy resin using 1,8-naphthalene diamine (1,8-NDA) as hardener to produce a novel composite for industrial applications. Cure kinetics of the composite system was investigated by means of differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) in dynamic mode. Kinetics of the reaction was interpreted according to the two isoconversional methods of Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose (KAS) and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa (OFW). Using non-isothermal conditions, average value of the cure reaction activation energy in the propagation step was determined to be 57 and 60.2 kJ/mol for the KAS and OFW models, respectively. DMTA and TGA measurements were used in order to assess the effectiveness of the filler amount (2 Phr) on the final mechanical and thermal properties of the produced composite. The results verified that the thermal stability of the composite could be improved with the incorporation of BaCO₃. Microstructural observations from images analysis of SEM micrographs revealed that the barium salt was dispersed into polymer matrix homogeneously.     

Recognition of electrocardiographic left arm/left leg lead reversal

The electrocardiographic error of left arm/left leg lead reversal is difficult to identify. PI amplitude greater than PII as a terminal positive component to PIII may diagnose 90% of such errors.