The influence of the waveguide on the quality of measurements with ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry

The article is devoted to the study of the influence of geometric parameters of sound-conducting walls on the quality of measurement of liquid metal flow velocities by ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry. It was shown that the thickness and radius of a sound-conducting wall (waveguide) have a notable effect on the resulting velocity profiles. The flow in a round pipe, the length of which is much larger than its diameter, is considered as a reference flow. The positive effect of a stepwise waveguides with a diameter smaller than the diameter of the piezoelectric element of an ultrasonic transducer on the quality of velocity measurements was verified experimentally. It was found that the accuracy of the resulting velocity profiles largely depends on the length and the material of the waveguides, as well as the velocity of the incoming flow of liquid metal.     

Remaining useful life prediction for degrading systems with random shocks considering measurement uncertainty

Degradation data have been widely used for the remaining useful life (RUL) prediction of systems. Most existing works apply a preset model to capture the degradation process and focus on the degradation process without shocks or constant shock effects. More generally, the actual degradation path is unobservable due to the existence of measurement uncertainty, which interferes with the determination of the degradation model. Besides, the effect of random shocks is usually fluctuating. Given these problems, a general degradation model with the random shock fluctuant effects considering the measurement uncertainty is first developed to describe the degradation process, and a two-step approach combining the arithmetic average filter and the Bayesian information criterion is adopted to identify the degradation path. Subsequently, the transfer processes of the actual degradation state and the abrupt change caused by shocks are depicted using a two-dimensional state-space model, and an expectation-maximization algorithm combined with the particle filtering is developed for parameter estimation. Furthermore, the explicit solution of RUL distribution is obtained when only considering harmful shocks, while a simulation method of RUL distribution is provided when both harmful and beneficial shocks exist. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by a numerical example and two practical case studies.     

Should emoji replace emotion words in questionnaire-based food-related consumer research?

Emotion word questionnaires remain dominant in food-related emotion research despite acknowledged limitations. Emoji questionnaires can overcome some of these limitations but are not yet regarded as a strong alternative to emotion word questionnaires. We believe they have the potential to earn this right and use this invited opinion piece to explain why. Following a brief introduction about emoji, advantages of emoji questionnaires are summarised: – enhanced ecological validity, familiarity and cross-culturally shared meanings. We then address concerns that hinder uptake of emoji questionnaires, including emoji meanings/interpretations, appropriateness for older consumers and ability to represent emotional arousal (activation to deactivation). Finally, we offer suggestions for how to accelerate the uptake of emoji questionnaires in sensory and consumer science, which include: i) more applied studies using emoji questionnaires, ii) establishing emoji meanings in the context of eating of drinking, iii) adopting open-ended question formats, iv) comparing emoji and emotion word questionnaires, and v) establishing guidelines for emoji questionnaires. An important spill-over benefit of research to develop emoji questionnaires is that it exposes the lack of similar research for emotion word questionnaires. We encourage colleagues in the field to engage in the task of conducting needed methodological research on emoji and emotion words alike.     

LNG energy transfer uncertainty–sensitivity to composition and temperature changes

Determining and reducing the measurement uncertainty of LNG energy transfer in custody transfer operations is considered extremely important and challenging for industry. The European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has been focused on reducing the uncertainty in the evaluation of LNG energy transfers by improving existing measurement methods, validating new measurement methods and development of new traceable calibration systems. Part of this project was to produce realistic measurement uncertainty budgets and to determine the sensitivity of the overall LNG energy transfer uncertainty to changes in the composition and temperature of different LNG cargoes.This paper provides details on the development of an uncertainty budget and the results from the sensitivity study. It was found that the uncertainty in the LNG energy transfer ranged from 0.56% to 0.77% when using the uncertainty budget for 461 LNG cargoes. The variation was mainly due to the difference in the LNG composition and its associated uncertainty.     

An experimental study of adaptive control for evolutionary algorithms

In this paper, we investigate how adaptive operator selection techniques are able to efficiently manage the balance between exploration and exploitation in an evolutionary algorithm, when solving combinatorial optimization problems. We introduce new high level reactive search strategies based on a generic algorithm's controller that is able to schedule the basic variation operators of the evolutionary algorithm, according to the observed state of the search. Our experiments on SAT instances show that reactive search strategies improve the performance of the solving algorithm.     

A new numerical algorithm to check the observability and bad-data processing ability of the metering scheme

This paper provides a unified approach for the optimization of measurements placements employed for power system online monitoring through state estimation. The proposed methodology, which can be suitable for the mixed measure system, preserves state estimation observability and bad-data processing capability by employing numerical algorithms for observability checking, critical measurements and critical couple identification. First, node injection radix measurements and measurement categories are defined. According to the above definitions, the coefficient matrix can be solved. The analysis on the column vectors of the coefficient matrix can determine each measurement classification. Furthermore, the numbers of each measurement class contains can determine bad-data processing capability. The observability can be checked by the type number of measurements. The proposed method is illustrated with the IEEE39-bus system and the IEEE118-bus system. Results from the case studies are presented to demonstrate that the approach adequately fulfills the desired properties related to observability, bad-data processing, cost, and robustness.     

基于贝叶斯统计的测量系统误差控制方法仿真

针对传统误差控制方法存在耗时较长、误报率较高以及误差控制精度较低等问题,提出了一种基于贝叶斯统计的测量系统误差控制方法。通过含有区间灰数的模糊子集所处的故障状态,得到测量系统产生误差的条件,利用贝叶斯网络推理算法以及相关的区间运算规则,对规划模型求解,获取测量系统产生误差的概率以及相关部件的重要特征信息。根据求解结果以及相关的空间交汇原理构建待测点坐标、待测距离以及有关于经纬仪观测角的数据模型,通过分析测量系统产生误差的原因,选取满足误差存在条件的数据对网络进行训练,令其逼近非线性函数,完成对测量系统误差的有效控制。实验结果表明,所提方法能够快速、准确地对测量系统产生的误差进行控制。     

Digital Extraction Column: Measurement and Modeling Techniques

The digitization of extraction columns requires a profound knowledge of the present hydrodynamics/mass transport interaction as well as appropriate measurement techniques for the detection of relevant input and target values. In this article, the different techniques for droplet size distribution as well as concentration determination are presented and new methods for online evaluation are discussed. In combination with the simulation of droplet size, holdup and solute concentration distribution, an online-capable process tool for controlling and optimizing extraction columns will be obtained.     

基于GRA-GRNN模型的露天金属矿爆破后矿岩界线位移分析

为了避免露天金属矿爆破后导致爆堆边缘矿石品位贫化损失,需要根据最低品位阈值重新计算矿岩边界,而影响矿岩边界发生改变因素众多,需要确定主要影响因素。因此,利用爆堆爆破前地形方向和爆堆地质数据,构建灰色关联-广义回归神经网络模型(GRA-GRNN)分析爆堆矿岩边界变化主要影响因素。首先对爆堆钻孔品位数据使用析取克里金法进行空间插值,并根据矿山工艺最低品位阈值提取爆破前的矿岩边界;其次,将爆破前后的数字DEM模型进行求差,求得爆破后的爆堆数字DEM模型,并构建爆破前后爆堆数字DEM模型空间分布椭圆,从而确定爆堆爆破后的水平形变方向;对影响爆堆爆破后形变的可能因素进行提取,并应用GRA-GRNN模型选取主要影响因素及对其强度进行分析,并将其结果与BP神经网络模型预测结果进行了对比。从实验结果可知,影响爆堆爆破后形变强度排前三的因素为:爆破前地形方向、爆孔排距和列距,强度分别为0.880、0.760和0.755,预测结果优于BP模型。