Heat Transfer Analysis for Gas-to-Liquids Transportation Through Trans Alaska Pipeline

Gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology involves the conversion of natural gas to liquid hydrocarbons. In this article, theoretical studies have been presented to determine the feasibility of transporting GTL products through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). To successfully transport GTL through TAPS, heat loss along the route must be carefully determined. This study presents heat transfer and fluid dynamic calculations to evaluate this feasibility. Because of heat loss, the fluid temperature decreases in the direction of flow and this affects the fluid properties, which in turn influence convection coefficient and pumping power requirements. The temperature and heat loss distribution along the pipeline at different locations have been calculated. Fairly good agreement with measured oil temperatures is observed. The powers required to pump crude oil and GTL individually, against various losses have been calculated. Two GTL transportation modes have been considered; one as a pure stream of GTL and the second as a commingled mixture with crude oil. These results show that the pumping power and heat loss for GTL are less than that of the crude oil for the same volumetric flow rate. Therefore, GTL can be transported through TAPS using existing equipment at pump stations.     

Response level crossing rate of a linear system excited by a partially specified Gaussian load process

The problem of determining the maximum mean response level crossing rate of a linear system driven by a partially specified Gaussian load process has been considered. The partial specification of the load is given only in terms of its total average energy. The critical input power spectral (PSD) function, which maximizes the mean response level crossing rate, is obtained. The critical input PSD turns out to be highly narrow-banded which fails to capture the erratic nature of the excitation. Consequently, the trade-off curve between the maximum mean response level crossing rate and the maximum disorder in the input process, quantified in terms of its entropy rate, has been generated. The method of Pareto optimization is used to tackle the conflicting objectives of the simultaneous maximization of the mean response level crossing rate and the input entropy rate. The non-linear multi-objective optimization has been carried out using a recently developed multi-criteria genetic algorithm scheme. Illustrative example of determining the critical input of an axially vibrating rod, excited by a partially specified stationary Gaussian load process, has been considered.     

Pad effects on material-removal rate in chemical-mechanical planarization

The role of a porous pad in controlling material-removal rate (MRR) during the chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP) process has been studied numerically. The numerical results are used to develop a phenomenological model that correlates the forces on each individual abrasive particle to the applied nominal pressure. The model provides a physical explanation for the experimentally observed domains of pressure-dependent MRR, where the pad deformation controls the load sharing between active-abrasive particles and direct pad-wafer contact. The predicted correlations between MRR and slurry characteristics, i.e., particle size and concentration, are in agreement with experimentally measured trends reported by Ouma¹ and Izumitani.²     

Decentralizing India's urban development

Early in 1983 the Indian Planning Commission appointed four Task Forces on Housing and Urban Development to review existing urban policies and to recommend appropriate action starting from the Seventh Plan (1985–1989). The Task Forces covered four areas of major concern: (1) urban planning, (2) urban finance, (3) urban organizations, and (4) urban shelter. They submitted their reports by the end of 1983, and taken together these constitute the most significant review of urban policy ever undertaken in India. ¹ The Task Forces had distinguished urban experts, both officials and academics, as members, with a common Member-Secretary from the Planning Commission. The common theme in all four reports is a plea for a decentralized and equitable approach towards urban development in the country.     

III–V super-lattice SPST/SPMT pin switches for THz communication: theoretical reliability and experimental feasibility studies

Microsystem Technologies - A physics-based Quantum-Modified CLassical Drift–Diffusion (QMCLDD) non-linear mathematical model has been developed for design and characterisation of GaN/AlGaN...     

Design and characterization of asymetrical super-lattice Si/4H-SiC pin photo diode array: a potential opto-sensor for future applications in bio-medical domain

Microsystem Technologies - Photo-sensors are integral part of different bio-medical diagnostic equipment. Each type of bio-molecules possess unique spectral fingerprint in visible wavelength region...     

Chemical composition and bond structure of carbon-nitride films deposited by CH4/N2 dielectric barrier discharge

Carbon nitride films have been deposited by dielectric barrier discharge with a CH₄/N₂ gas mixture at different conditions. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and ellipsometry were used to systematically study chemical composition, bond structure and surface morphology of deposited films. Various bonds between carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and also oxygen were observed.     

Small amphiphilic organics, coordination extended solids, and constant curvature structures

In this Account, we explore the role constant curvature structures play in amphiphilic small molecule crystals and extended coordination solids. A constant curvature structure is one in which there is a surface or interface that has the same curvature throughout its surface. Simple examples of such structures contain spheres (micelles), columns, or layers. Yet another family are cubic as is found in the gyroid topology. For amphiphilic systems, there are two domains, one generally hydrophobic and the other hydrophilic. We find that the interfaces between these two domains in small molecule structures resemble those in larger scale systems and adopt topologies related to constant curvature structures. The hydrophobic-to-total volume ratio, a molecular parameter, can be used to predict which type of constant curvature structure is adopted. In the case of three coordinate extended solids, constant curvature plays a role both in the extended net topology and in the hydrophobic-to-hydrophilic interface.     

Throughput analysis in censoring-based cooperative cognitive radio network with energy harvesting

An energy harvesting (EH) and cooperative cognitive radio (CR) network (CRN) is studied in this paper where CR users transmit data through a primary user (PU) channel if the channel remains idle, else an optimal number CRs helps in transmission of PU. To achieve the optimum number of CRs (ONCR) involved in cooperation, a novel scheme based on a combination of channel censoring and total error is proposed. The performance of the proposed scheme is investigated under RF harvesting scenario. The EH is dependent on sensing decision and a CR source harvests energy from PU's RF signal. The harvested energy (HE) is split into two parts: One part is used by the CR network (CRN) for its own transmission, and the other part is used for supporting PU. The effect of the energy allocation factor on total throughput is also investigated. New expressions for optimal number of CRs and throughput are developed. The effect of network parameters such as sensing time, censoring threshold, and energy allocation parameter (EAP) on throughput is investigated. Impact of distance between nodes is also studied.     

Closed-loop identification using direct approach and high order ARX/GOBF-ARX models

Model accuracy plays a key role in the performance of advanced, model predictive control algorithms. Model fidelity is usually affected by routine operating condition changes, which necessitate reidentification. From several theoretical and practical considerations, it is recommended that such re-identification be performed under closed-loop conditions. The direct approach for closed-loop identification, owing to its simplicity, is better suited for MPC. In order to yield unbiased and consistent parameter estimates, however, this approach requires the noise model to be sufficiently parameterized. Towards this objective, high order ARX models are the most suitable candidates from the viewpoint of ease of parameter estimation. For multivariable systems, however, the identification of high order ARX models would require longer experiments to be performed. This being undesirable from a practical viewpoint, there is a need for a parsimonious parameterization that would retain the benefits of high order ARX models. In this work, we propose to use generalized orthonormal basis filters (GOBFs) to achieve this parsimonous parameterization. Further, we propose an approach to obtain reduced order models by emphasizing important frequencies so as to suitably shape the bias. We also show that the choice of the GOBF parameterization has another important merit, viz. their ability to perform well even with minimal perturbation data or short experiment times. The efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated via simulations on the benchmark Shell Control Problem and a laboratory quadruple tank setup.