Technical and economic considerations on induction motor oversizing

In industry, due to conservative system design, safety factors associated with uncertainty in the load requirements, discrete availability of commercial rated power, and/or load power variation, most three-phase squirrel-cage induction motors are oversized. Besides the extra capital investment, the oversizing of direct-on-line fixed-speed induction motors can lead to a significant efficiency and power factor reduction. However, the part-load efficiency of oversized motors can still be higher than the full-load efficiency of well-sized smaller motors because, in general, the nominal efficiency increases with the rated power. In this paper, an analysis of potential benefits and drawbacks of motor oversizing is carried out. On the basis of the catalogue technical data provided by one of the largest motor manufacturers for IE1-, IE2-, IE3-, and IE4-class four-pole induction motors, the main results of a simulation-based study on the oversizing energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness are presented. A method to estimate the motor efficiency and power factor for any load level using commercial catalogue data is proposed and applied. Some technical issues associated with motor oversizing are also briefly addressed. It is shown that, if the additional reactive energy consumption due to poorer power factor and the slight speed increase are ignored, for IE1-, IE2- and, to a much less extent, IE3-class motors, oversizing can be cost effective for many motor rated powers, resulting in a higher average efficiency and a lower motor lifecycle cost, as well as in an extended motor lifespan. For most IE3- and IE4-class motors, the oversizing is not cost effective because of the lower nominal efficiency gain when moving to a higher oversized rated power. Additionally, the oversizing impact on the motor energy consumption strongly depends on the load profile of the application. When an old motor fails, it will probably be an IE0- or IE1-class equivalent motor, and this situation provides a golden opportunity for replacing the old motor with a properly sized IE3- or IE4-class motor, which offers significantly higher efficiency for a wide range of loads.     

Oxygen reduction reaction on a Pt/carbon fuel cell catalyst in the presence of trace quantities of ammonium ions: An RRDE study

The effect of trace quantities of ammonia on oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on carbon-supported platinum catalysts in perchloric acid solutions is assessed using rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) technique. The study demonstrates that ammonia has detrimental effects on ORR. The most significant effect takes place in the potential region above 0.7 V vs RHE. The effect is explained by the electrochemical oxidation of ammonia, which blocks Pt active sites and increases the formation of H₂O₂. This leads to losses in the disk currents and increments in the ring currents. The apparent losses in ORR currents may occur in two ways, namely, through the blocking of the active sites for ORR as well as by generating a small anodic current, which is believed to have a lower contribution. In addition, a detrimental effect of sodium cations in the potential range below 0.75 V vs RHE was demonstrated. This effect is most likely due to the co-adsorption of sodium cations and perchlorate anions on the Pt surface.     

Bayesian data analysis to quantify the uncertainty of intact rock strength

One of the main difficulties in the geotechnical design process lies in dealing with uncertainty. Uncertainty is associated with natural variation of properties, and the imprecision and unpredictability caused by insufficient information on parameters or models. Probabilistic methods are normally used to quantify uncertainty. However, the frequentist approach commonly used for this purpose has some drawbacks.First, it lacks a formal framework for incorporating knowledge not represented by data. Second, it has limitations in providing a proper measure of the confidence of parameters inferred from data. The Bayesian approach offers a better framework for treating uncertainty in geotechnical design. The advantages of the Bayesian approach for uncertainty quantification are highlighted in this paper with the Bayesian regression analysis of laboratory test data to infer the intact rock strength parameters σ_(ci) and m_i used in the Hoek-Brown strength criterion. Two case examples are used to illustrate different aspects of the Bayesian methodology and to contrast the approach with a frequentist approach represented by the nonlinear least squares(NLLS) method. The paper discusses the use of a Student's t-distribution versus a normal distribution to handle outliers, the consideration of absolute versus relative residuals, and the comparison of quality of fitting results based on standard errors and Bayes factors. Uncertainty quantification with confidence and prediction intervals of the frequentist approach is compared with that based on scatter plots and bands of fitted envelopes of the Bayesian approach. Finally, the Bayesian method is extended to consider two improvements of the fitting analysis. The first is the case in which the Hoek-Brown parameter, a, is treated as a variable to improve the fitting in the triaxial region. The second is the incorporation of the uncertainty in the estimation of the direct tensile strength from Brazilian test results within the overall evaluation of the intact rock strength.     

Exploring the recovery of fatigue damage in bituminous mixtures: the role of rest periods

Recovery capability of bituminous materials plays a significant role in the development of new technologies for extending the service life of asphalt pavements. This capability originates from various phenomena such as thixotropy, cooling, relaxation of hardening, or healing. However, their real effect on mechanical response is not clear. This article aims to investigate how rest periods (RPs) available between traffic loads can contribute to the damage recovery of bituminous materials. For this purpose, different types and durations of RPs were applied during the laboratory evaluation of fatigue resistance of these materials using the University of Granada Fatigue Asphalt Cracking Test method. The results indicate that the addition of RPs to the loading regime could lead to an extension in the fatigue life of bituminous materials. Additionally, an increase in the RP duration showed a positive impact on the resistance of the materials against cyclic loading. Nonetheless, these benefits are not only related to the recovery of lost properties during RPs, but also a growth in the amount of plastic deformations as a result of the applying RPs could delay the appearance of damages (i.e. cracking). Consequently, the bituminous material can tolerate a higher number of load cycles during fatigue test.     

Saddle-node equilibrium points on the stability boundary of nonlinear autonomous dynamical systems

A complete characterization of the stability boundary of an asymptotically stable equilibrium point in the presence of type-k saddle-node non-hyperbolic equilibrium points, with k ≥ 0, on the stability boundary is developed in this paper. Under the transversality condition, it is shown that the stability boundary is composed of the stable manifolds of the hyperbolic equilibrium points on the stability boundary, the stable manifolds of type-0 saddle-node equilibrium points on the stability boundary and the stable centre and centre manifolds of the type-r saddle-node equilibrium points with r ≥ 1 on the stability boundary. This characterization is the first step to understanding the behaviour of stability regions and stability boundaries in the occurrence of saddle-node bifurcations on the stability boundary.     

Yoghurt‐type beverage with partial substitution of milk by a chickpea extract: Effect on physicochemical and flow properties

The objective of this study was to determine the evolution of physicochemical and flow properties of a yoghurt‐type beverage partially replaced with a chickpea extract over a period of 22 days. From two chickpea extracts, Blanco Noroeste was selected for its higher protein content. Six yoghurt‐type formulations were prepared, stored at 4 °C and analysed on days 1, 8, 15 and 22. pH was 4.24–4.75, while brightness was 81.7–94.5. Flow properties of the yoghurt‐type exhibited a non‐Newtonian behaviour. From three formulations that underwent sensory evaluation, the 30:70 mix obtained the highest acceptation. This yoghurt‐type beverage exhibited characteristics similar to natural yoghurt.     

Energy-saving scheduling on IaaS HPC cloud environments based on a multi-objective genetic algorithm

The Journal of Supercomputing - Nowadays, cloud computing is a growing scenario applied to many scientific and manufacturing areas due to its flexibility for adapting to highly demanding computing...     

Generalised multivariable supertwisting algorithm

The purpose of this paper is to present an extension of the generalised supertwisting algorithm (STA) to the multivariable framework. We begin by introducing an algorithm that may be deemed as a linear, quasicontinuous, or discontinuous multivariable system, depending on the functions that define them. For the class represented by such an algorithm we prove the robust, Lyapunov stability of the origin and characterise the perturbations that preserve its stability. In particular, when its vector field is discontinuous or quasicontinuous our algorithm is endowed with finite‐time stability. Due to its resemblance to the scalar case, we denote such finite‐time stable systems as generalised multivariable STA. Furthermore, the class of finite‐time stable systems comprise the currently available versions of STAs. To finalise, by means of simulation examples, we show that our proposed finite‐time stable algorithms are well suited for signals online differentiation and highlight their dynamical traits.     

Point-to-hyperplane ICP: fusing different metric measurements for pose estimation

The objective of this article is to provide a generalized framework of a novel method that investigates the problem of combining and fusing different types of measurements for pose estimation. The proposed method allows to jointly minimize the different metric errors as a single measurement vector in n-dimensions without requiring a scaling factor to tune their importance. This paper is an extended version of previous works that introduced the Point-to-hyperplane Iterative Closest Point (ICP) approach. In this approach, an increased convergence domain and a faster alignment were demonstrated by considering a four-dimensional measurement vector (3D Euclidean points + Intensity). The method has the advantages of the classic point-to-plane ICP method, but extends this to higher dimensions. For demonstration purposes, this paper will focus on a RGB-D sensor that provides colour and depth measurements simultaneously and an optimal error in higher dimensions will be minimized from this. Results on both, simulated and real environments will be provided and the performance of the proposed method will be carried on real-time visual SLAM.