Mixture ratio modeling of dynamic systems

Any knowledge extraction relies (possibly implicitly) on a hypothesis about the modelled-data dependence. The extracted knowledge ultimately serves to a decision-making (DM). DM always faces uncertainty and this makes probabilistic modelling adequate. The inspected black-box modeling deals with “universal” approximators of the relevant probabilistic model. Finite mixtures with components in the exponential family are often exploited. Their attractiveness stems from their flexibility, the cluster interpretability of components and the existence of algorithms for processing high-dimensional data streams. They are even used in dynamic cases with mutually dependent data records while regression and auto-regression mixture components serve to the dependence modeling. These dynamic models, however, mostly assume data-independent component weights, that is, memoryless transitions between dynamic mixture components. Such mixtures are not universal approximators of dynamic probabilistic models. Formally, this follows from the fact that the set of finite probabilistic mixtures is not closed with respect to the conditioning, which is the key estimation and predictive operation. The paper overcomes this drawback by using ratios of finite mixtures as universally approximating dynamic parametric models. The paper motivates them, elaborates their approximate Bayesian recursive estimation and reveals their application potential.     

Variation of internal structure and performance of polyethylene- and polypropylene-modified bitumen during blending process

Linear-viscoelastic characteristics and performance are evaluated throughout the blending process of polyethylene and polypropylene with bitumen. Results indicate that type, form and percentage of polyolefin play a significant role in the time evolution of the composite's mechanical response. Toluene extraction of modified bitumen revealed, for the first time, the formation of a sponge-like polymer network. Visual inspection and Fourier transform infrared analysis of the polyolefins recovered after extraction indicates higher affinity of the polyethylene with bitumen in agreement with the rheological test results. The use of polypropylene is discouraged if rutting performance is a concern, and polyethylene in both pellets and powder form at 4%, and after 210 min of blending produces a modified bitumen with acceptable performance.     

Flow state monitoring of gas-water two-phase flow using multi-Gaussian mixture model based on canonical variate analysis

As a highly complex and time-varying process, gas-water two-phase flow is commonly encountered in industries. It has a variety of typical flow states and transition flow states. Accurate identification and monitoring of flow states is not only beneficial to further study of two-phase flow but also helpful for stable operation and economic efficiency of process industry. Combining canonical variate analysis (CVA) and Gaussian mixture model (GMM), a strategy called multi-CVA-GMM is proposed for flow state monitoring in gas-water two-phase flow. CVA is used to extract flow state features from the perspective of correlation between historical data and future data, which solves the cross correlation and temporal correlation of multi-sensor measurement data. GMM calculates the possibility that the current flow state belongs to each typical flow pattern and judges the current flow state by probability indicators. It is conducive to follow-up use of Bayesian inference probability and Mahalanobis distance-based (BID) indicator for flow state monitoring, which avoids repeated traversal of multiple CVA-GMM models and improves the efficiency of the monitoring process. The probability indicators can also be used to analyze transition flow states. The method combining the probabilistic idea of GMM with the deterministic idea of multimodal modeling can accurately identify the current flow state and effectively monitor the evolution of flow state. The multi-CVA-GMM method is validated by using the measured data of the horizontal flow loop of gas-water two-phase flow experimental facility, and its effectiveness is proved.     

Role of additives in fabrication of soy-based rigid polyurethane foam for structural and thermal insulation applications

Environmental concerns continue to pose the challenge to replace petroleum-based products with renewable ones completely or at least partially while maintaining comparable properties. Herein, rigid polyurethane (PU) foams were prepared using soy-based polyol for structural and thermal insulation applications. Cell size, density, thermal resistivity, and compression force deflection (CFD) values were evaluated and compared with that of petroleum-based PU foam Baydur 683. The roles of different additives, that is, catalyst, blowing agent, surfactants, and different functionalities of polyol on the properties of fabricated foam were also investigated. For this study, dibutyltin dilaurate was employed as catalyst and water as environment friendly blowing agent. Their competitive effect on density and cell size of the PU foams were evaluated. Five different silicone-based surfactants were employed to study the effect of surface tension on cell size of foam. It was also found that 5 g of surfactant per 100 g of polyol produced a foam with minimum surface tension and highest thermal resistivity (R value: 26.11 m²·K/W). However, CFD values were compromised for higher surfactant loading. Additionally, blending of 5 g of higher functionality soy-based polyol improved the CFD values to 328.19 kPa, which was comparable to that of petroleum-based foam Baydur 683.     

Quasi-static compressive behaviour of aluminium cenosphere syntactic foams

In this paper, cenosphere particles embedded in AA2014 aluminium matrix are used to fabricate syntactic foam by stir casting method. The particle size is about 100?µm and foam density is about 1990?kg?m^?3. Compression tests at strain rate 0.001/s are performed on foam samples to characterise their mechanical properties which are then used in numerical analysis on commercial finite element analysis software ABAQUS/CAE with isotropic elastic-plastic material model. Experimental and numerical results show good conformity in deformation behaviour with elastic and plateau zones showing average deviations less than 5% and 20%, respectively. Foams showed high yield stress and energy absorption capabilities that can be useful in making blast and impact resistant structures.     

Computational modelling of water flow inside laboratory Knelson concentrator bowl

Enhanced gravity concentrators such as Knelson concentrator (KC) are extensively used in the mineral processing industry. The complexities of KC bowl geometry and variation of feed characteristics have forced process engineers to design empirically new units using laboratory and pilot-scale Knelson concentrators. However, numerical modelling methods such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) provide a better insight of flow behaviour of fluid and particulate solid phases inside these processing units. This article reports findings of CFD simulations for single-phase water flow inside the laboratory KC. An available standard 7.5-cm laboratory KC bowl was numerically simulated using realisable k-ε turbulence model to resolve the turbulence dispersion of existing transitional flow regime. The effects of relative centrifugal force (RCF) intensity and bed fluidisation water flow rate on the water velocity and pressure distributions were studied. Simulations confirmed the swirling flow pattern governing inside the bowl. The results revealed that the impact of RCF intensity on the water field values is greater than that of bed fluidisation water flow rate. Both velocity and pressure variations inside the bowl rings followed a linear trend.     

A knowledge construction methodology to automate case-based learning using clinical documents

The case-based learning (CBL) approach has gained attention in medical education as an alternative to traditional learning methodology. However, current CBL systems do not facilitate and provide computer-based domain knowledge to medical students for solving real-world clinical cases during CBL practice. To automate CBL, clinical documents are beneficial for constructing domain knowledge. In the literature, most systems and methodologies require a knowledge engineer to construct machine-readable knowledge. Keeping in view these facts, we present a knowledge construction methodology (KCM-CD) to construct domain knowledge ontology (i.e., structured declarative knowledge) from unstructured text in a systematic way using artificial intelligence techniques, with minimum intervention from a knowledge engineer. To utilize the strength of humans and computers, and to realize the KCM-CD methodology, an interactive case-based learning system(iCBLS) was developed. Finally, the developed ontological model was evaluated to evaluate the quality of domain knowledge in terms of coherence measure. The results showed that the overall domain model has positive coherence values, indicating that all words in each branch of the domain ontology are correlated with each other and the quality of the developed model is acceptable.     

350MW机组锅炉SCR脱硝系统优化

准东煤田是我国目前最大的整装煤田,但准东煤在锅炉燃烧过程中易发生结焦问题,一般掺烧高岭土缓解结焦。某燃用准东煤350 MW机组,锅炉燃煤掺烧高岭土后烟气携带灰尘颗粒及灰尘量增大,出现SCR脱硝系统烟道积灰严重和喷氨量明显偏大问题,同时在空气预热器形成硫酸氢氨堵塞,使机组不能长周期稳定运行。通过与国内同类型多台机组锅炉对比后发现,脱硝系统均存在易产生积灰的脱硝转向室、催化剂上方及空气预热器入口斜坡积灰状况等情况。针对存在的问题,通过建立改造前、后的模型计算分析,进行了导流板布置的优化设计、CFD流场分布、优化SCR系统导流板设计、声波与蒸汽吹灰器结合吹灰和氨注射栅格优化升级等工作,应用德图480风速仪实测风速试验,发现脱硝烟道原导流板设计不合理及施工安装偏差;原导流板水平段跨距大,支撑不足,造成导流板压塌变形,影响烟气流场分布;锅炉所烧煤质为高钠煤,为防止锅炉结焦掺烧高岭土后,增加了烟气飞灰颗粒及灰尘量,飞灰具有很大黏性,易沉积在烟道导流板及烟道壁面上。因此,提出对脱硝内部各处导流板进行优化改造,对脱硝系统烟道易产生积灰的部位增加声波吹灰器,对喷氨格栅喷嘴数量及氨空混合器升级,同时开展锅炉SCR脱硝喷氨热态优化调整试验工作。通过开展相关工作,SCR烟气系统的烟气流场相对标准偏差优化5%,相同负荷下液氨消耗量降低45%,彻底解决脱硝系统积灰和空气预热器堵塞问题,实现机组满负荷达标稳定运行。锅炉长期运行半年后停炉检查,发现前期脱硝系统烟道高达1 m的积灰部位彻底解决,催化剂表面干净无杂物,解决了脱硝系统积灰问题,同时配合提高空气预热器冷端综合温度的措施,彻底解决锅炉空气预热器堵塞问题。同时,经济效益显著,每年可以分别节约液氨费用70万元,节约风机电耗费用100万元,节约检修清理积灰及检修费用80万元,节约空气预热器冲洗治理费用20万元,综合节约费用270万元/a,达到预期效果实现机组长周期安全经济稳定运行。