Cell loading and family scheduling for jobs with individual due dates to minimise maximum tardiness

This paper focuses on cell loading and family scheduling in a cellular manufacturing environment. The performance measure is minimising the maximum tardiness of jobs. What separates this study from others is the presence of individual due dates for every job in a family and also allowing family splitting among cells. Three methods are examined in order to solve this problem, namely mathematical modelling, genetic algorithms (GA) and heuristics. The results showed that GA is capable of finding the optimal solution with varying frequency of 60–100% and it is efficient as compared to the mathematical modelling especially for larger problems in terms of execution times. The heuristics, on the other hand, were easy to implement but they could not find the optimal solution. The results of experimentation also showed that family splitting was observed in all multi-cell optimal solutions and therefore it can be concluded that family splitting is a good strategy for the problem considered in this paper.     

High‐performance liquid chromatography of some natural dyes: analysis of plant extracts and dyed textiles

In this study, wool fibre samples were mordanted by means of 25% alum mordant solution. The mordanted wool samples were dyed in 50%Reseda luteola L. (weld), 20%Rhamnus petiolaris Boiss (buckthorn) and 50%Datisca cannabina L. (bastard hemp) dyebaths. A reverse‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography with diode‐array detection method was utilised for the identification of dyes in the dyed wool samples and the plant extracts. The extraction of dyes was carried out with a hydrogen chloride/methanol/water (2:1:1; v/v/v) mixture.     

A Modular Superconducting Generator for Offshore Wind Turbines

In this study, a new claw-pole type transverse flux superconducting generator topology is presented. The machine has a stationary superconducting field winding, which eliminates electrical brushes and cryocouplers. The machine is specifically designed for low-speed high torque applications such as large offshore wind turbines. The proposed machine is robust and has a modular structure. A 30 kW, 100 rpm prototype is planned to be manufactured to prove the concept. MgB2, YBCO, and BSSCO wires are compared in terms of wire length, operating temperature, and critical temperature. The magnetic flux penetrating into superconducting wire has been simulated using 3D FEA software. Moreover, mechanical loads are estimated and the deflections in the structure are analysed.     

Natural periods of steel plate shear wall systems

In most seismic building codes, the design base acceleration is computed using the natural period of vibration of the structure. Design specifications provide empirical formula to estimate the fundamental natural period of a system. In this study a class of steel plate shear walls, that have uniform properties through their height, was considered. The fundamental natural periods of this class of structures were determined using three dimensional geometrically linear finite element analyses and were compared against the estimates provided by seismic design specifications. Comparisons reveal that estimations using approximate formula can lead to unsatisfactory results. Based on this observation a simple hand method has been developed to predict the fundamental period of a steel plate shear wall. In the development of the hand method the steel plate shear wall has been recognized as a vertical cantilever for which simplified analytical solutions exist. Contributions of shear and bending stiffness of the wall have been explicitly taken into account. Furthermore, this simple method has been extended to dual systems having plate walls and special moment frames in the context of theories on wall-frame structures. Natural period estimations using the method that was developed in this study are compared with the finite element solutions and a good agreement is demonstrated. In addition, the effects of geometrical and material nonlinearities on the fundamental period were explored. The fundamental periods of steel plate walls were investigated at various drift levels. Based on the numerical analysis, elongation of the periods due to buckling and yielding of infill plates were quantified and are presented herein.     

Performance analysis of concatenated BCH and convolutional coded OFDM system

ABSTRACT

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a widely used technique for wireless communications. But uncoded OFDM is not sufficient by itself, that is why channel coding is included to increase the system performance. In this study, concatenated Bose Chaudhuri Hocquenghem (BCH) and Convolutional Coded (CC) OFDM system is investigated for multipath fading channel with Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN). The simulation results show that the proposed concatenated code needs lower Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) when compared with single BCH code, single convolutional code and even with other concatenated systems. Throughout the simulations BCH coding is performed with 128, 256, 512 Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) lengths; whereas convolutional coding is performed with 1/2, 1/3 coding rates. Furthermore, interleavers are added to the system to prevent the burst errors that occur over the channel. With the proposed system, the best result is obtained by using BCH(511,340) and CC(3,1,7) concatenation which is 8.2 dB SNR value for 10^?3 Bit Error Rate (BER). This result is very close to ideal AWGN channel value, which is 8 dB for 10^?3 BER.     

Multilevel techniques for compression and reduction of scientific data—the univariate case

We present a multilevel technique for the compression and reduction of univariate data and give an optimal complexity algorithm for its implementation. A hierarchical scheme offers the flexibility to produce multiple levels of partial decompression of the data so that each user can work with a reduced representation that requires minimal storage whilst achieving the required level of tolerance. The algorithm is applied to the case of turbulence modelling in which the datasets are traditionally not only extremely large but inherently non-smooth and, as such, rather resistant to compression. We decompress the data for a range of relative errors, carry out the usual analysis procedures for turbulent data, and compare the results of the analysis on the reduced datasets to the results that would be obtained on the full dataset. The results obtained demonstrate the promise of multilevel compression techniques for the reduction of data arising from large scale simulations of complex phenomena such as turbulence modelling.

     

Trajectory Tracking Control of an Underactuated Underwater Vehicle Redundant Manipulator System

The purpose of this study is to control the position of an underactuated underwater vehicle manipulator system (U‐UVMS). It is possible to control the end‐effector using a regular 6‐DOF manipulator despite the undesired displacements of the underactuated vehicle within a certain range. However, in this study an 8‐DOF redundant manipulator is used in order to increase the positioning accuracy of the end‐effector. The redundancy is resolved according to the criterion of minimal vehicle and joint motions. The underactuated underwater vehicle redundant manipulator system is modeled including the hydrodynamic forces for the manipulator in addition to those for the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The shadowing effects of the bodies on each other are also taken into account when computing the hydrodynamic forces. The Newton‐Euler formulation is used to derive the system equations of motion including the thruster dynamics. In order to establish the end‐effector trajectory tracking control of the system, an inverse dynamics control law is formulated. The effectiveness of the control law even in the presence of parameter uncertainties and disturbing ocean currents is illustrated by simulations.     

Planar expropriation problem with non-rigid rectangular facilities

In this paper, we introduce the planar expropriation problem with non-rigid rectangular facilities. The facilities considered in this study are two-dimensional facilities of rectangular shape. Moreover, we allow the facility dimensions to be decision variables and introduce the concept of non-rigid facilities. Based on the geometric properties of such facilities, we developed a new formulation for this continuous covering location model which does not require employing distance measures. This model is intended to determine the location and formation of facilities simultaneously. For solving this new model, we proposed a continuous branch-and-bound framework utilizing linear approximations for the tradeoff curve associated with the facility formation alternatives. Further, we developed new problem generation and bounding strategies suitable for our particular problem structure. Computational experience shows that the branch-and-bound procedure we developed performs better than conventional mixed-integer nonlinear programming solvers BARON and SBB for solving this particular location model.     

The evaluation of procedures for dyeing silk with buckthorn and walloon oak on the basis of colour changes and fastness characteristics

In this study, silk fabric samples were dyed according to various procedures with buckthorn (Rhamnus petiolaris Boiss) and walloon oak (Quercus ithaburensis Decaisne) extracts. Reversed‐phase high‐performance liquid chromatography with diode‐array detection was utilised for the identification of dyes present in the dyed silk fabrics and the plant extracts. The extraction of dyes was carried out with a hydrochloric acid/methanol/water (2:1:1; v/v/v) mixture. The colour coordinates of the silk fabrics were measured, and the rubbing, wash and light fastness properties of the dyed silk materials were determined and are discussed.     

The Effects of Ozone Treatment on Soybean Fibers

A set of knitted fabrics comprising soybean fibers was ozonated at room temperature for periods ranging from 2.5 to 300 minutes to identify any accompanying effects on either physical properties (specifically whiteness and burst-strength), fiber surface integrity or microstructure. A hydrogen peroxide treatment was applied to some of the fabric in order to provide a comparison. Ozonation was found to produce a promising increase in whiteness which, after the maximum exposure time, was significantly higher than was achieved using hydrogen peroxide.