Experience on horizontal‐tube falling‐film evaporation simulation by lattice‐Boltzmann method

Complex heat and mass transfers through falling‐film or spray‐film evaporation are widely used in chemical, refrigeration, petroleum refining, desalination, and food industries. Considering that microscopic effects, like surface tension, flow, mass, and heat transfers, are interdependent phenomena, the high‐precision simulation of falling‐film evaporation through a mesoscopic method is of great importance. In the current study, the lattice‐Boltzmann method and the phase‐field model with a proper source term are used for evaporation simulation in a horizontal‐tube falling film. Here, the curvature of the tube is captured by appropriate boundary conditions. Nondimensional numbers and the geometry of the model are determined in a range of practical values. By comparing the film thickness, mass, and heat transfer with valid references in the literature, an acceptable agreement is observed, which reveals the effectiveness of this method in understanding the details and predictions. Overall, the time evolution of temperature contours and streamlines during falling‐film evaporation approves the superiority of this method in keeping details along with lower difficulty and cost compared with the classical methods.     

Parametric study of automotive composite bumper beams subjected to low-velocity impacts

Fuel efficiency and emission gas regulations are the main causes for reducing the weight of passenger cars by using composite structures. Bumper beams are one of the main structures of passenger cars that protect them from front and rear collisions. In this paper, a commercial front bumper beam made of glass mat thermoplastic (GMT) is studied and characterized by impact modeling using LS-DYNA ANSYS 5.7 according to the E.C.E. UNITED NATIONS AGREEMENT [UNITED NATIONS AGREEMENT, Uniform Provisions concerning the Approval of Vehicles with regards to their Front and Rear Protective Devices (Bumpers, etc.), E.C.E., 1994]. Three main design factors for this structure: shape, material and impact conditions are studied and the results are compared with conventional metals like steel and aluminum. Finally the aforementioned factors are characterized by proposing a high strength SMC [Composite and metallic crash performance, Hawaii University, 1999, Available from: http://www.eng.hawaii.edu/˜nejhad/BUMPER/bumper.html] (sheet molding compound) bumper instead of the current GMT. The advantages of the proposed model: equal strength and rigidity of the structure, reduction of material, ease of manufacturing by simplifying geometrical shape and reduction of production cost are studied and proved.     

A conceptual design aid environment for expert-database systems

With the actual penetration of expert systems into the business world, the question is, how the expert system idea can be used to enhance the existing information systems with more intelligence in usage and operation. This interest is not surprising due to the advancement of the fifth generation of computer technology, and avid interest in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Therefore design of an information system for an application becomes more complex, and the inability of the human designer to deal with it increases. For designing intelligent systems, we have to be able to forecast the behavior of the information system more precisely before implementing it, i.e. we'have to support the specification process.Clearly the technology, such as Data base systems, is leading on efficiency issues as those needed for the construction, retrieval and manipulation of large shared data base. On the other hand, the AI techniques have improved significantly with function such as deductive reasoning and natural language processing. It is important to find way to merge these technologies into one mainstream of computing. A meeting point for the two areas is the issue of conceptual knowledge modelling, so that models can be created that will define the role and the ways to use data in AI systems. In the framework of this study, one possible expert system design aid environment has been suggested to assist the designer in his work.In a conceptual modelling environment a model is given for analysing complex real world problems known as the Conceptual Knowledge Model (CKM), represented by a Graphical and a Formal Representation. The Graphical Representation consists of three graphs: Conceptual Requirement Graph, Conceptual Behavior Graph, and Conceptual Structure Graph. These graphs are developed by involving the expert during the design process. The graphs are then transformed into first-order predicate logic to represent the logical axioms of a theory, which constitutes the knowledge base of the Expert System. The model suggested here is a step towards closing the gap between the theory of the conventional data base theory and AI databases.     

Synergistic Effect of Graphene Oxide for Impeding the Dendritic Plating of Li

Dendritic growth of lithium (Li) has severely impeded the practical application of Li‐metal batteries. Herein, a 3D conformal graphene oxide nanosheet (GOn) coating, confined into the woven structure of a glass fiber separator, is reported, which permits facile transport of Li‐ions thought its structure, meanwhile regulating the Li deposition. Electrochemical measurements illustrate a remarkably enhanced cycle life and stability of the Li‐metal anode, which is explained by various microscopy and modeling results. Utilizing scanning electron microscopy, focused ion beam, and optical imaging, the formation of an uniform Li film on the electrode surface in the case of GO‐modified samples is revealed. Ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations suggest that Li‐ions initially get adsorbed to the lithiophilic GOn and then diffuse through defect sites. This delayed Li transfer eliminates the “tip effect” leading to a more homogeneous Li nucleation. Meanwhile, C? C bonds rupture observed in the GO during AIMD simulations creates more pathways for faster Li‐ions transport. In addition, phase‐field modeling demonstrates that mechanically rigid GOn coating with proper defect size (smaller than 25 nm) can physically block the anisotropic growth of Li. This new understanding is a significant step toward the employment of 2D materials for regulating the Li deposition.     

MMLT: A mutual multilevel trust framework based on trusted third parties in multicloud environments

In this article, a mutual multilevel trust framework is proposed, which involves managing trust from the perspective of cloud users (CUs) and cloud service providers (CSPs) in a multicloud environment based on a set of trusted third parties (TTPs). These independent agents are trusted by CUs and CSPs and distributed on different clouds. The TTPs evaluate the CUs' trustworthiness based on the accuracy of feedback ratings and assess the CSPs' trustworthiness based on the quality of service monitoring information. They are connected themselves through the trusted release network, which enables a TTP to obtain trust information about CSPs and CUs from other clouds. With the objective of developing an effective trust management framework, a new approach has been provided to improve trust-based interactions, that is, able to rank the trusted cloud services (CSs) based on CU's priorities via fuzzy logic. Fuzzy logic is applied to manage the different priorities of CUs, all the CUs do not have the same priorities to use trusted CSs. Customizing service ranking allows CUs to apply trusted CSs based on their priorities. Experiments on real datasets well matched the analytical results, indicating that our proposed approach is effective and outperforms the existing approaches.     

Reducing the network overhead of user mobility–induced virtual machine migration in mobile edge computing

With the popularity of mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets) and the development of the Internet of Things, mobile edge computing is envisioned as a promising approach to improving the computation capabilities and energy efficiencies of mobile devices. It deploys cloud data centers at the edge of the network to lower service latency. To satisfy the high latency requirement of mobile applications, virtual machines (VMs) have to be correspondingly migrated between edge cloud data centers because of user mobility. In this paper, we try to minimize the network overhead resulting from constantly migrating a VM to cater for the movement of its user. First, we elaborate on two simple migration algorithms (M-All and M-Edge), and then, two optimized algorithms are designed by classifying user mobilities into two categories (certain and uncertain moving trajectories). Specifically, a weight-based algorithm (M-Weight) and a mobility prediction–based heuristic algorithm (M-Predict) are proposed for the two types of user mobilities, respectively. Numerical results demonstrate that the two optimized algorithms can significantly lower the network overhead of user mobility–induced VM migration in mobile edge computing environments.     

Visible-light-active silver- , vanadium-codoped TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> with improved photocatalytic activity

Optimized doped TiO₂ is necessary for efficient visible light harvesting and widening the applications spectrum of TiO₂-based materials. Titanium dioxide doped with silver and/or vanadium has been synthesized by one-pot hydrothermal method without post-calcination. Codoping induced visible light absorption while maintaining the photoactive anatase phase along with good crystallinity. Synthesized products are in nanometer range and possess high specific surface area. Having nearly spherical morphology, the particles are distributed and the particle size estimated from TEM observation is in accordance with the XRD results. Spectroscopic investigations reveal that the doped atoms successfully entered the TiO₂ lattice modifying the band structure. The narrowed band gap allows visible light photons for absorption, and the codoped samples displayed enhanced visible light absorption among the synthesized samples. Photodegradation performance evaluated under visible light irradiations showed that silver- , vanadium-codoped TiO₂ have the best visible light photocatalytic activity attributed to stable configuration, high visible light absorption, coupling between silver and vanadium and their optimal doping concentration.     

Distributed faulty node detection and recovery scheme for wireless sensor networks using cellular learning automata

Wireless Networks - In a wireless sensor network (WSN), there is always the possibility of failure in sensor nodes. Quality of Service (QoS) of WSNs is highly degraded due to the faulty sensor...     

Integration of geographic and hierarchical routing protocols for energy saving in wireless sensor networks with mobile sink

Wireless Networks - Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is used for the internet of things, and Pervasive/Ubiquitous computing. These networks consist of intelligent nodes which sense data and forward...     

A novel micromechanical model of nonlinear compression hysteresis in compliant interfaces of multibody systems

A micromechanical model of nonlinear hysteretic compression between interacting bodies of multibody systems, covered with fibrous structures, has been created and validated experimentally in this work. As an application, a multibody dynamic model of an upright piano action mechanism with felt-covered contacting bodies is considered, and the obtained results were verified using experiments. Felt, as a typical nonwoven fiber assembly, has been used in various contact surfaces of piano action mechanisms to transfer the force applied on the key to other components, smoothly and continuously. To keep the simulation time tractable in the mechanistic multibody dynamic model, interaction between felt-lined interfaces has to be simplified enough so that in each step of simulation time, contact forces can be calculated as a function of penetration depth between colliding objects. The developed micromechanical approach is capable of estimating nonlinear bulk response of felt in terms of microstructural parameters of the network, assuming a binomial distribution of the number of fiber contacts and bending of constituent fibers. Hysteresis is included based on a fiber-to-fiber friction approach, which generates a speed-independent response to compressive loading schemes, as has been observed in experiments. A computational algorithm is introduced to apply the sophisticated hysteretic micromechanical model to the multibody systems simulation, including transitions between loading–unloading stages.