Trade-off between Safety and Cost in Planning Construction Site Layouts

Planning construction site layouts involves identifying the positions of temporary facilities on site, and accordingly it has a significant impact on the safety and efficiency of construction operations. Although available models are capable of minimizing the travel cost of resources on site, they do not consider safety as an important and separate objective in the optimization of site layouts. This paper presents the development of an expanded site layout planning model that is capable of maximizing construction safety and minimizing the travel cost of resources on site, simultaneously. The model incorporates newly developed concepts and performance criteria that enable the quantification of construction safety and travel cost of resources on site. The present model is developed in three main phases: (1) formulating decision variables and optimization objectives in this site layout planning problem; (2) identifying and satisfying all practical constraints in this optimization problem; and (3) implementing the model as a multiobjective genetic algorithm. An application example is analyzed to illustrate the use of the model and demonstrate its capabilities in optimizing construction site layouts and generating optimal trade-offs between safety and travel cost of resources on site.     

Factors affecting the external prestressing stress in externally strengthened prestressed concrete beams

The wide use of external prestressing system to strengthen reinforced and prestressed concrete members requires the full understanding of the behaviour of the strengthened members. At ultimate the stress in the external prestressing tendons need to be known in order to calculate the ultimate strength of the strengthened member. Several factors that can influence the increase in the ultimate stress in steel external prestressing tendons have been studied and well understood while the effect of these factors on tendons made from fibre reinforced plastics needs more research.

This research was carried out to study the effect of several factors on the increase in the ultimate stress in external Parafil ropes as well as external steel tendons. These factors were related to the external prestressing system, internal prestressed and ordinary bonded steel, beam geometry and material properties. Also, the accuracy of equations proposed by the Eurocode (EC2), ACI318 and BS8110 to calculate the ultimate stress in external steel and FRP prestressing tendons was examined.

The experimental and the analytical results showed that the studied factors have the same effect on both steel (up to yield) and Parafil ropes though this effect is greater in case of steel tendons. Also, factors such as tendon profile (straight or deviated), high strength of the concrete, effective tendon depth, number of deviators should be taken into consideration when calculating the ultimate stress in the external tendons.     

Characterization of a novel bioactive composite using advanced X-ray computed tomography

A novel bioactive, porous silica–calcium phosphate nanocomposite (SCPC) that can be used to treat large bone defects in load-bearing positions has been tested and has shown great potential for applications in tissue engineering. Porosity is essential to the performance of the composite material as a tissue engineering scaffold, as porous scaffolds provide a physical, 3-D template to support new tissue formation. However, porosity characterization using conventional techniques such as porosimetry or scanning electron microscopy requires extensive preparation of samples and may destroy important features during preparation and analysis stage. In this work, the new composite is characterized using an advanced high resolution X-ray computed tomography, which is a non-destructive testing technique that allows construction of the 3-D topology of the microstructure. The results clearly show the effectiveness and versatility of this technique in characterizing the porous architecture of the novel composite biomaterial. The pore distribution, morphology and interconnectivity in the composite scaffolds were found to be ideal for use in tissue engineering applications.     

Interpolating an Unlimited Number of Curves Meeting at Extraordinary Points on Subdivision Surfaces*

Interpolating curves by subdivision surfaces is one of the major constraints that is partially addressed in the literature. So far, no more than two intersecting curves can be interpolated by a subdivision surface such as Doo‐Sabin or Catmull‐Clark surfaces. One approach that has been used in both of theses surfaces is the polygonal complex approach where a curve can be defined by a control mesh rather than a control polygon. Such a definition allows a curve to carry with it cross derivative information which can be naturally embodied in the mesh of a subdivision surface. This paper extends the use of this approach to interpolate an unlimited number of curves meeting at an extraordinary point on a subdivision surface. At that point, the curves can all meet with either C ⁰ or C ¹ continuity, yet still have common tangent plane. A straight forward application is the generation of subdivision surfaces through 3‐regular meshes of curves for which an easy interface can be used.     

Selection criteria of induction machines for speed-sensorless drive applications

Induction motors, both three and single phase, are used extensively for adjustable-speed drives' applications. These machines are structurally very robust and are a primary source of motive power and speed control where DC machines cannot be used. For closed-loop control of these machines, sensorless speed estimation is usually preferred. Among the current estimation techniques available for speed-sensorless induction motor drives, speed measurement based on rotor-slot-related harmonic detection in machine line current happens to be a prominent one. While these harmonics can be strong in certain kinds of machines, some other machines may exhibit very weak rotor slot harmonics that can be obscured by noise. Skewing, slot shapes and types, structural unbalances, etc., also have a prominent effect on the detectability of these harmonics. This paper attempts to investigate this problem based on the interaction of pole pairs, number of rotor bars, and stator winding. Although the analysis and experimental results have been mainly provided for three-phase squirrel-cage induction motors, single-phase and slip-ring induction motors have also been addressed. Further, it has been shown that eccentricity-related fault detection could also be easily accommodated with this kind of speed detection technique at no or negligible extra cost when certain motors are selected.     

Neural networks of data inhibiting long memory pattern

We experiment with three neural network models for forecasting to better understand the performance of neural networks for the case when the data exhibits a long memory pattern. To obtain the optimum networks, the effect of network characteristics such as the training parameters, the number of hidden layers, and the testing and training percentages are simulated. The third model, which consists of a combination of individual time series forecasts, provides superior results.     

Scene change detection techniques for video database systems

Scene change detection (SCD) is one of several fundamental problems in the design of a video database management system (VDBMS). It is the first step towards the automatic segmentation, annotation, and indexing of video data. SCD is also used in other aspects of VDBMS, e.g., hierarchical representation and efficient browsing of the video data. In this paper, we provide a taxonomy that classifies existing SCD algorithms into three categories: full-video-image-based, compressed-video-based, and model-based algorithms. The capabilities and limitations of the SCD algorithms are discussed in detail. The paper also proposes a set of criteria for measuring and comparing the performance of various SCD algorithms. We conclude by discussing some important research directions.     

On the Computational Complexity of Consumer Decision Rules

A consumer entering a new bookstore can face more than 250,000alternatives. The efficiency of compensatory and noncompensatory decisionrulesfor finding a preferred item depends on the efficiency of their associatedinformation operators. At best, item-by-item information operators lead tolinear computational complexity; set information operators, on the other hand,can lead to constant complexity. We perform an experiment demonstrating thatsubjects are approximately rational in selecting between sublinear and linearrules. Many markets are organized by attributes that enable consumers toemploya set-selection-by-aspect rule using set information operations. In cyberspacedecision rules are encoded as decision aids.     

Finding an optimization of the plate element of Egyptian research reactor using genetic algorithm

The second Egyptian research reactor ET-RR-2 went critical on the 27th of November 1997. The National Center of Nuclear Safety and Radiation Control （NCNSRC） has the responsibility of the evaluation and assessment of the safety of this reactor. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach to optimization of the fuel element plate. For an efficient search through the solution space we use a multi objective genetic algorithm which allows us to identify a set of Pareto optimal solutions providing the decision maker with the complete spectrum of optimal solutions with respect to the various targets. The aim of this paper is to propose a new approach for optimizing the fuel element plate in the reactor. The fuel element plate is designed with a view to improve reliability and lifetime and it is one of the most important elements during the shut down. In this present paper, we present a conceptual design approach for fuel element plate, in conjunction with a genetic algorithm to obtain a fuel plate that maximizes a fitness value to optimize the safety design of the fuel plate.     

Investigation of wall mass transfer characteristics downstream of an orifice

Numerical simulations were performed to determine the effect of Reynolds number and orifice to pipe diameter ratio (d_o/d) on the wall mass transfer rate downstream of an orifice. The simulations were performed for d_o/d of 0.475 for Reynolds number up to 70,000. The effect of d_o/d was determined by performing simulations at a Reynolds number of 70,000 for d_o/d of 0.375, 0.475 and 0.575. The momentum and mass transport equations were solved using the Low Reynolds Number (LRN) K-? turbulence model. The Sherwood number (Sh) profile downstream of the orifice was in relatively good agreement with existing experimental results. The Sh increases sharply downstream of the orifice, reaching a maximum within 1–2 diameters downstream of the orifice, before relaxing back to the fully developed pipe flow value. The Sh number well downstream of the orifice was in good agreement with results for fully developed pipe flow estimated from the correlation of Berger and Hau (1977). The peak Sh numbers from the simulations were higher than that predicted from Tagg et al. (1979) and Coney (1980).