A new monitoring system for piping systems in fossil fired power plants

A CEC-funded project has been performed to tackle the problem of producing an advanced Life Monitoring System (LMS) which would calculate the creep and fatigue damage experienced by high temperature pipework components. Four areas were identified where existing Life Monitoring System technology could be improved:

1. 1. the inclusion of creep relaxation

2. 2. the inclusion of external loads on components

3. 3. a more accurate method of calculating thermal stresses due to temperature transients

4. 4. the inclusion of high cycle fatigue terms.

The creep relaxation problem was solved using stress reduction factors in an analytical in-elastic stress calculation. The stress reduction factors were produced for a number of common geometries and materials by means of non-linear finite element analysis. External loads were catered for by producing influence coefficients from in-elastic analysis of the particular piping system and using them to calculate bending moments at critical positions on the pipework from load and displacement measurements made at the convenient points at the pipework. The thermal stress problem was solved by producing a completely new solution based on Green's Function and Fast Fourier transforms. This allowed the thermal stress in a complex component to be calculated from simple non-intrusive thermocouple measurements made on the outside of the component. The high-cycle fatigue problem was dealt with precalculating the fatigue damage associated with standard transients and adding this damage to cumulative total when a transient occurred.

The site testing provided good practical experience and showed up problems which would not otherwise have been detected.     

A bidding decision index for construction contractors

Results from applying the model on a sample of contractors, the majority of whom were international and operating in Egypt, reinforces the credibility of the developed methodology, claim the authors.     

Assessment of the types of public building maintenance contracts in Saudi Arabia

The study revealed that Fixed Price, Cost Plus and Purchased Labour contracts are the top three maintenance contracts adopted whilst Unit Price, Cost Plus A Percentage Fee contracts are alternatives used in the Kingdom. Some other types of maintenance contract were thought to be inappropriate by ministry departments.     

Gender differences in computerised and conventional educational tests

Abstract Research has demonstrated girls to outperform boys on conventional literacy tests. The present studies concern gender differences on computerised educational tests. Seventy-one children were tested using LASS Secondary and a set of seven conventional measures. No significant gender differences were found on any of the LASS Secondary modules, although females did outperform males on a conventional spelling test. A further 126 pupils were tested on computerised and paper versions of the LASS Secondary reading, spelling and reasoning modules. No gender differences were found on the computerised versions, but there were significant differences on the paper versions of the reading and spelling modules favouring females. In a third study, 45 children were administered computerised and paper versions of the LASS Junior reading and spelling modules. There were no significant differences on the computerised modules, but girls performed significantly higher than boys on the paper version of the spelling module. It is possible that computerised assessment does not detect the established gender effect due to differences between males and females in motivation, computer experience and competitiveness. Further large-scale studies are necessary to confirm these findings.     

Functional and sensory properties of chicken meat from spent-hen carcasses deboned manually or mechanically in Jordan

Samples of chicken meat from spent laying hens were obtained by four different methods: (1) manual deboning of whole carcasses; (2) manual deboning of skinned carcasses; (3) mechanical deboning of whole carcasses; and (4) mechanical deboning of skinned carcasses. The meat was packaged, frozen and stored at ?18 °C for up to 3 months. Functional properties studied were pH, emulsifying capacity (EC) and water‐holding capacity (WHC) and, in addition, pigment concentration was investigated. Sensory properties included aroma, colour, texture and overall acceptability, as judged by a trained panel using a nine‐point hedonic scale. Removal of the skin prior to deboning by either method gave significantly higher values (P < 0.05) for EC, while WHC values were not significantly different among the experimental treatments, despite higher pH values for mechanically‐deboned meat, with and without skin. Pigment concentrations were highest in meat from Treatment 4 and lowest for Treatment 1, but values for both methods of deboning were affected by the presence of skin. There were no significant differences between treatments for any of the sensory properties studied. Changes occurring in the meat during frozen storage are described.     

Personal Exposure in Displacement Ventilated Rooms

Personal exposure in a displacement ventilated room is examined. The stratified flow and the considerable concentration gradients necessitate an improvement of the widely used fully mixing compartmental approach. The exposure of a seated and a standing person in proportion to the stratification height is examined by means of full-scale measurements. A breathing thermal manikin is used to simulate a person. It is found that the flow in the boundary layer around a person is able to a great extent to entrain and transport air from below the breathing zone. In the case of non-passive, heated contaminant sources, this entrainment improves the indoor air quality. Measurements of exposure due to a passive contaminant source show a significant dependence on the flow field as well as on the contaminant source location. Poor system performance is found in the case of a passive contaminant released in the lower part of the room close to the occupant. A personal exposure model for displacement ventilated rooms is proposed. The model takes the influence of gradients and the human thermal boundary layer into account. Two new quantities describing the interaction between a person and the ventilation are defined.     

Study on early warning index of spatial deformation for high concrete dam

Owing to the deficiency in early warning for high concrete dam,a formula was established to characterize the deformation behavior of high concrete dam as a whole.The early warning index of spatial deformation was calculated by low probability principle on the basis of the deformation entropy formula proposed.The steps were as follows.Firstly,the probability method was utilized to define the degree of order and degree of chaos for each survey point.Secondly,the weight distribution among the survey points was...     

因子分析法和熵值法在高校科技创新评价中的应用

在已有研究的基础上总结出了一套科学合理并具有可行性的高校科技创新评价指标体系,并把因子分析法和熵值法应用于高校科技创新评价.首先对高校科技创新评价体系的5个一级指标分别进行因子分析,然后运用熵值法对其确定权重.分析结果表明两种方法的结合使用能够简化分析对象的结构,使评价结果更具科学性、客观性.