Reinforcement learning for traffic light control with emphasis on emergency vehicles

The Journal of Supercomputing - Traffic lights are an important controlling factor in traffic flows, and good policies will facilitate traffic congestion. A car's waiting time is highly related...     

Strain Rate Sensitivity,Work Hardening,and Fracture Behavior of an Al-Mg TiO2 Nanocomposite Prepared by Friction Stir Processing

Annealed and wrought AA5052 aluminum alloy was subjected to friction stir processing (FSP) without and with 3 vol pct TiO₂ nanoparticles. Microstructural studies by electron backscattered diffraction and transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of an ultra-fine-grained structure with fine distribution of TiO₂ nanoparticles in the metal matrix. Nanometric Al₃Ti and MgO particles were also observed, revealing in-situ solid-state reactions between Al and Mg with TiO₂. Tensile testing at different strain rates determined that FSP decreased the strain rate sensitivity and work hardening of annealed Al-Mg alloy without and with TiO₂ nanoparticles, while opposite results were obtained for the wrought alloy. Fractographic studies exhibited that the presence of hard reinforcement particles changed the fracture mode from ductile rupture to ductile-brittle fracture. Notably, the failure mechanism was also altered from shear to tensile rupture as the strain rate increased. Consequently, the fracture surface contained hemispherical equiaxed dimples instead of parabolic ones.     

Numerical assessment of new compound restrainer for seismic retrofit of bridges

This paper studies through numerical simulation a practical compound restrainer to use for the improvement of seismic performance of bridges. A mechanical model has been introduced for the restrainer and a basic optimisation approach has been conducted to evaluate the performance of the restrainer to changes in the properties of its components. A real 2-span simply supported plate girder bridge has been selected for case study. Using a detailed three-dimensional model, several non-linear time history analyses were performed under seismic excitations in order to assess the performance of the bridge retrofitted by conventional restrainers including linear and non-linear viscous dampers on one hand and the new compound restrainer, proposed in this study, on the other hand. The results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed compound restrainer in improving the seismic performance of the bridge by restricting its lateral displacement and applying smaller loads to the substructure. Moreover, noticing past earthquakes have shown the deficiencies of conventional restrainers, the new restrainer seems a suitable alternative since it has been successful in dissipating significant amount of seismic energy as well as reducing the internal forces induced in substructure.     

Microwave- and ultrasound-assisted convective drying of raspberries: Drying kinetics and microstructural changes

The drying kinetics, microstructural alteration, and rehydration properties of raspberry samples were studied experimentally in this work. Five different drying programs with the application of microwaves (MW) and ultrasound (US) were used, including convective drying (CV) as a reference test. The drying experiments were performed using a hybrid chamber dryer equipped with airborne ultrasound and microwave generators. The modified Page model was successfully used to describe the drying kinetics of raspberry fruits. Next, microstructural properties (porosity and total pore volume) of the dried samples were determined from the postprocessing of the images which were acquired using a lab-scale X-ray microtomograph. The results show a significantly shorter drying time by 54–64% for CVUS, 69% for CVMW, and 79% for CVMWUS; and a lower energy consumption resulting in energy saving of 14–23% for CVUS, 54% for CVMW, and 59% for CVMWUS as compared to CV. It is also shown that the average drying rate of raspberry samples increases by maximum fourfold with the application of both ultrasound and microwave radiations in CV. In addition, a higher porosity, total pore volume, and a better rehydration property were found for the raspberry samples dried with US than with MW assistance.     

Evaluation of Thermodynamic Models for Prediction of Sorption Behavior into the Polydimethylsiloxane Membrane in Pervaporation Process

This work focuses on modeling of the sorption step as a main step in the mass transport through the pervaporation process. For this purpose, four thermodynamic models including Flory–Huggins (FH), Universal Quasichemical (UNIQUAC), modified Non-Random Two-Liquid (M-NRTL), and modified Wilson (M-Wilson) were used to predict the equilibrium sorption of ethanol/water mixtures into the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane. In the M-Wilson model, the reference state based on pure enthalpy of components was used to determine the residual term. Moreover, the influences of ethanol feed content and temperature on the liquid sorption level and sorption selectivity were studied experimentally and theoretically. The results indicated that the proposed models were successfully able to determine the sorption level of the ethanol aqueous solutions into the PDMS membrane. Moreover, the M-NRTL and M-Wilson models were found to be much more accurate than the FH and UNIQUAC models to determine the volume fraction of the penetrants in the PDMS membrane. It was also observed that the total and ethanol sorptions increased with an enhancement in the ethanol feed concentration, while the membrane sorption selectivity decreased. Moreover, increasing the operating temperature led to higher sorption of both ethanol and water, whereas the sorption selectivity did not show significant changes with temperature.     

Iterative univariate optimization of nonlinear trusses with fuzzy strain constraints

A univariate iterative method for the optimization of nonlinear trusses with fuzzy constraints is proposed. The method is based on the control of elemental strains rather than stresses and hence it is called the desirable strain design criteria method. The objective of the fuzzy optimization is to find a design so that the weight or volume of the truss as well as all of the constraints on the elemental strains and joint deflections are desirable and satisfactory according to the fuzzy designer expressions. Such expressions are made in the form of fuzzy membership functions. Two illustrative examples, a 3- and a 10-bar truss, are optimized by the proposed method, where it is shown that in both cases the method monotonically converges to the highest desirability.     

Kinetic study of CO hydrogenation on the MgO supported Fe–Co–Mn sol–gel catalyst

The kinetic of the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis over the MgO supported Fe–Co–Mn catalyst prepared using sol–gel procedure, was investigated in a fixed bed micro-reactor. Experimental conditions were varied as follow: reaction pressure 5–20 bar, reaction temperature 220–250 °C, H₂/CO feed molar ratio of 0.67–2 and space velocity range of 2400–3600 h^?1. 18 models according to the Langmuir–Hinshelwood–Hougen–Watson (LHHW) type rate equation were derived, and the reaction rate is fitted fairly well by one kinetic expressions based on LHWW mechanism. The kinetic parameters were estimated with non-linear regression method. The activation energy was obtained 110.9 kJ/mol for the best-fitted model.     

Physicochemical and antibacterial properties of chitosan‐polyvinylpyrrolidone films containing self‐organized graphene oxide nanolayers

Chitosan films have a great potential to be used for wound dressing and food‐packaging applications if their physicochemical properties including water vapor permeability, optical transparency, and hydrophilicity are tailored to practical demands. To address these points, in this study, chitosan (CS) was combined with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets (with a thickness of ～1 nm and lateral dimensions of few micrometers). Flexible and transparent films with a high antibacterial capacity were prepared by solvent casting methods. By controlling the evaporation rate of the utilized solvent (1 vol % acidic acid in deionized water), self‐organization of GO in the polymer matrix was observed. The addition of PVP to the CS/GO films significantly increased their water vapor permeability and optical transmittance. A blue shift in the optical absorption edge was also noticed. Thermal analysis coupled with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy suggested that the superior thermal stability of the nanocomposite films was due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between the functional groups of chitosan with those of the graphene oxide. An improved bactericidal capacity of the nanocomposite films against gram‐positive Staphylococcus aureus and gram‐negative Escherichia coli bacteria was also observed. Highly flexible, transparent (opacity of 6.95), and antimicrobial CS/25 vol % PVP/1 wt % GO films were prepared. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43194.