Entropy generation for forced convection in a porous saturated circular tube with uniform wall temperature

A numerical study is reported to investigate both the First and the Second Law of Thermodynamics for thermally developing forced convection in a circular tube filled by a saturated porous medium, with uniform wall temperature, and with the effects of viscous dissipation included. A theoretical analysis is also presented to study the problem for the asymptotic region applying the perturbation solution of the Brinkman momentum equation reported by (K. Hooman, K., A.A. Ranjbar-Kani, A perturbation based analysis to investigate forced convection in a porous saturated tube, Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 162 (2) (2004) 411–419.). Expressions are reported for the temperature profile, the Nusselt number, the Bejan number, and the dimensionless entropy generation rate in the asymptotic region. Numerical results are found to be in good agreement with theoretical counterparts.     

Two-phase data traffic optimization of wireless sensor networks for prolonging network lifetime

Wireless network sensing and control systems are becoming increasingly important in many application domains due to advent of nanotechnology. The size of a wireless sensor network can easily reach hundreds or even thousands of sensor nodes. Since these types of networks usually have limited battery resources, power consumption optimization for prolonging system lifetime of such networks have received a great attention by the researchers in this field in recent years. In this paper, a centralized approach for clustering and data transmission mechanism is proposed that optimizes the power consumption and hence lifetime of the network. The mechanism is comprised of two phases. In the first phase, a mechanism based on a centralized cluster head selection that utilizes information such as nodes residual energies and their locations in the network is proposed in order to select the most appropriate candidates as cluster heads. In the second phase, the concept of a “window size” is introduced where minimization of the number of cluster head changes of a node and consequently maximization of the network lifetime is considered. Simulation results validate that the proposed mechanism does effectively reduce data traffic and therefore increases network lifetime.     

Dynamic shovel allocation approach to short-term production planning in open-pit mines

The complexity and uncertainties associated with mining operations often lead to deviations from short-term plans. A proactive approach will predict such deviations and help minimise opportunity losses, providing economic and operational gains. This paper presents an optimisation tool as a dynamic shovel allocation decision-maker for mining operation simulation models. The objectives of the optimisation tool are to provide shovel allocations to mining faces in order to maximise production, meet desired head grade and tonnage at the crushers, and minimise shovel movements. This paper presents the development and implementation of the optimisation tool with an iron ore mine case study.     

A new development of ANFIS–GMDH optimized by PSO to predict pile bearing capacity based on experimental datasets

Engineering with Computers - Prediction of ultimate pile bearing capacity with the aid of field experimental results through artificial intelligence (AI) techniques is one of the most significant...     

Prolong network lifetime and improve efficiency in WSN‐UAV systems using new clustering parameters and CSMA modification

Since unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been introduced as mobile nodes for data gathering, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have progressed considerably. The resulting WSN‐UAV systems are employed for emergency applications and also for remote monitoring purposes. WSN‐UAV systems yield an optimum data gathering method using the WSN. In the proposed method, the nodes' data are transferred using a remotely operated vehicle (drone) rather than the conventional data transferring methods like the direct and hop‐to‐hop data transmission approaches. Then, the gathered data are delivered in the pre‐determined destination point. WSN‐UAV systems, in fact, are a special case of the systems with the mobile sink in which the sink path is previously specified and controlled. In this paper, the effects of clustering parameters on the WSNs are studied; then, the network's lifetime is prolonged by applying some parameters. In addition, the network's performance is enhanced to some extent by assigning some changes in the media access control (MAC) layer. Also, the effect of drone's path pattern on the lifetime of the network is studied.     

An extended KCF tracking algorithm based on TLD structure in low frame rate videos

The KCF (Kernelized Correlation Filter) algorithm achieved a good performance on target tracking challenges. However, it still has some defects and problems of false tracking in low frame rate (LFR) scenarios, target scale variation, occlusion and out of view target, that exists in the correlation filter based methods. In this paper, we overcome the shortcomings of KCF tracking algorithm based on Tracking-Learning-Detection (TLD) framework. The proposed algorithm trained two classifiers simultaneously, based on semi supervised co-training learning algorithm. Then, we comparatively evaluate the proposed method on TB-100 datasets by other trackers. The experimental results demonstrate that the precision and robustness of the improved tracking algorithm is higher than traditional KCF, TLD and the other top state-of-the-art tracking algorithms in LFR videos.

     

An efficient meshless method based on a new shape function

Although, the finite element method numerically is efficient it exhibits difficulties whenever the remeshing of the analysis domain must be performed. For such problems, utilizing meshless computation methods is very promising. But, their large computational cost, which arises from following a time‐consuming process to find shape functions, is one of the most important factors limiting the use of these methods. In this paper, we introduce a direct approach, based on properties required for any shape function, to prepare the shape function and propose a new meshless method. The proposed method does not need any predetermined basis or weighting functions and can be performed faster and more efficiently. Another advantage of the introduced method is its capability to apply desirable changes to the shape function. Application of the proposed approach for electrostatic field computation and verification of the obtained results using theoretically known solution is also presented. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Integrated all-optical infrared switchable plasmonic quantum cascade laser

We report a type of infrared switchable plasmonic quantum cascade laser, in which far field light in the midwave infrared (MWIR, 6.1 μm) is modulated by a near field interaction of light in the telecommunications wavelength (1.55 μm). To achieve this all-optical switch, we used cross-polarized bowtie antennas and a centrally located germanium nanoslab. The bowtie antenna squeezes the short wavelength light into the gap region, where the germanium is placed. The perturbation of refractive index of the germanium due to the free carrier absorption produced by short wavelength light changes the optical response of the antenna and the entire laser intensity at 6.1 μm significantly. This device shows a viable method to modulate the far field of a laser through a near field interaction.     

Effects of viscous heating,fluid property variation,velocity slip,and temperature jump on convection through parallel plate and circular microchannels

Theoretical results, based on perturbation techniques, are presented for fully developed, both hydrodynamically and thermally, forced convection in both parallel plate and circular microchannels subject to isoflux wall boundary condition. Scaling effects, including variable property, viscous dissipation, velocity slip, and temperature jump, are studied for flow of both gases and liquids. The interactions between the aforementioned effects, due to temperature-dependence of the fluid properties that couples the momentum and thermal energy equation, are also examined in detail.     

Optimal power generation from low concentration coal bed methane in Iran

Development of a model for optimal power generation from the thermal oxidation of a low concentration coal bed mine has been considered as the main objective of this investigation. The model has been applied to identify the optimal thermodynamic characteristics of the power generation system through using a mixture with 1.6% methane concentration in a recuperative lean-burn gas turbine and coupling a gas engine to the system for more power generation from the remaining coal bed methane. The implementation of the model based on the real site condition would lead to the generation of 6.97 MW electricity in Tabas coal mine of Iran.