TOC determination of Gadvan Formation in South Pars Gas field, using artificial intelligent systems and geochemical data

Potentially, TOC content is affected by logging data in a source rock (density, sonic, neutron and resistivity logs). Hence, to analyze these logs, which we make a quick and reliable assessment of a source rock. So, it is a quick and economically cheaper method rather than direct geochemical analysis. A source rock interval poses to less density, lower velocity, higher sonic porosity, higher gamma ray values and increase in resistivity. In this research, Gadvan Formation was studied in two boreholes as potential of source rock. The log data of two wells were used to construct of intelligent models in a source rock of the South Pars Gas field in southwest of Iran. A suite of geophysical logs (neutron, density, sonic and resistivity logs) and cutting chip data samples data were applied for determining TOC content of this formation. Rock-Eval pyrolysis data reveal that Gadvan Formation is poor source rock (less than 0.5%). Hence we attempted a correlation between geophysical data and direct TOC content measurements of using ? Log R, Rock-Eval, neural network and fuzzy logic techniques.The results showed that intelligent models were successful for prediction of TOC content from conventional well logs data. Meanwhile, similar responses from other different intelligent methods indicated that their validity for solving complex problems.     

Improving energy productivity of sunflower production using data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach

BACKGROUND: Efficient use of energy in agriculture is one of the conditions for sustainable agricultural production. This study applies the data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach to the data of 95 randomly selected farms to investigate the technical and scale efficiencies of farmers with respect to energy use for sunflower production in Golestan province, Iran. The study also helps to identify the wasteful usage and the optimum level of energy from different inputs. RESULTS: According to the results of DEA models, about 36% of farmers were found to be technically efficient and the mean efficiency of sunflower producers was found to be 0.87 and 0.96 under the constant and variable returns to scale assumptions respectively. The optimum energy requirement was calculated as 8448.3 MJ ha^?1; accordingly, a potential reduction of 10.8% (1020.3 MJ ha^?1) in total energy input could be achieved by raising the performance of farmers to the highest level. CONCLUSION: Applying a better machinery management technique and conservation tillage methods, application of fertilisers by performance monitoring and utilisation of alternative sources of energy such as compost and chopped residues may be the pathways for improving energy productivity and reducing the environmental footprint. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

An improved meshless method for analyzing the time dependent problems in solid mechanics

In this paper, the local radial point interpolation method (LRPIM) is developed for the investigation of time dependent problems in solid mechanics. By a new integration scheme considered for the obtained meshless weak form, integrands are approximated up to the second order of the Taylor series and the integrals are evaluated on some points, which are located inside the local quadrature domains, called integration points. In order to show the efficiency of the suggested method, some time dependent mechanical problems are considered for the engineering structures such as beams and plates, which are subjected to dynamical loads, the deflections and stresses are evaluated. Finally, it has been shown that using the proposed method greatly reduces the number of integration points without affecting the accuracy of the results.     

Heterogeneous Wafer-Scale Circuit Architectures

This article has presented circuit architectures that allow for the 3D integration and on-wafer packaging through the concept of an Si interposer. The presented 3D integration schemes have allowed for the design and fabrication of a fully integrated receiver that performs at 10 GHz. High-Q passives and 3D interconnects allow for the design of low-cost, high-density circuits that also exhibit very high performance     

Separation of Ethylene Glycol/Water Mixtures using NaA Zeolite Membranes

Inorganic membranes and particularly zeolite membranes are usually used for the dehydration of organic solvents by pervaporation (PV). This work reports an experimental study on the PV dehydration of ethylene glycol (EG)/water mixtures using commercial nanoporous NaA zeolite membranes. The concentration range investigated (C_EG > 70 wt %) was selected according to existing industrial requirements. The recirculation flow rate was kept at a value of 1.5 L/min. The fluxes and separation factors were monitored as the dehydration proceeded. In addition, the activation energy of permeation (E_a) was calculated. The effect of temperature was investigated in the range 50–70 °C. The results obtained demonstrated the successful performance of the membrane for the dehydration of EG/water mixtures. It was observed that at 70 °C and with 70 wt % initial EG concentration, larger fluxes and separation factors could be obtained, i.e., 0.94 kg m^–2h^–1 and 1177, respectively. The Pervaporation Separation Index (PSI) of the membrane was found to be high compared to that of polymeric membranes.     

Characteristics of rectangular dielectric waveguide with sinusoidally varying width

Wave propagation along a rectangular dielectric waveguide with slowly varying width has been studied using a transformed coordinate system and an effective cross-section approach. The associated differential equation has been solved using numerical analysis and Hill's analysis. The computed results have been verified using the cascaded transmission line matrix analysis of the structure in the original coordinate system. The agreement is found to be excellent. Many properties of the modulated periodic structure, for example, the propagation constant, the phase and the group velocities, the axial dependence of the E^y₁₁ mode. and the space harmonic, have been studied. The results and the method will be useful in computer-aided design of dielectric waveguide phase shifters and filters. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An experimental investigation of cylindrical wire electrical discharge turning process

The cylindrical wire electrical discharge turning (CWEDT) process was developed to generate precise cylindrical forms on hard, difficult to machine materials. A precise, flexible, and corrosion-resistant submerged rotary spindle was designed and added to a conventional five-axis CNC wire electrical discharge machine (EDM) to enable the generation of free-form cylindrical geometries. The hardness and strength of the work material are no longer the dominating factors that affect the tool wear and hinder the machining process. In this study, the effect of machining parameters on surface roughness (R _a) and roundness in cylindrical CWEDT of a AISI D3 tool steel is investigated. The selection of this material was made taking into account its wide range of applications in tools, dies, and molds and in industries such as punching, tapping, reaming, and so on in cylindrical forms. Surface roughness and roundness are chosen as two of the machining performances to verify the process. In addition, power, pulse off-time, voltage, and spindle rotational speed are adopted for evaluation by full factorial design of experiments. In this case, a 2²?×?3² mixed full factorial design has been selected considering the number of factors used in the present study. The main effects of factors and interactions were considered in this paper, and regression equations were derived using response surface methodology. Finally, the surfaces of the CWEDT parts were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to identify the macro-ridges and craters on the surface. Cross sections of the EDM parts were examined using the SEM and microhardness tests to quantify the sub-surface recast layers and heat-affected zones under specific process parameters.     

Resolution Improvement of Scanning Acoustic Microscopy Using Sparse Signal Representation

Scanning acoustic microscopy is an imaging method in which the focused high frequency ultrasound is used to visualize the micro structures. The morphology and acoustic properties of the biological tissues can be evaluated using scanning acoustic microscope system. To determine thin tissues having micrometer thickness, the high acoustic frequency is required for conventional SAM. In practice the acoustic frequency is restricted by the penetration depth through the material. Characterization of thin sliced tissue is difficult, as the reflected signals from top and bottom are superimposed. In order to improve the axial resolution of conventional SAM, a technique based on sparse signal representation in overcomplete time–frequency dictionaries is investigated and among the great number of algorithms for finding sparse representation, we first apply matching pursuit (MP) and basis pursuit (BP) and then propose the orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) and stagewise orthogonal matching pursuit (StOMP) algorithms to decompose the A-scan signal to an overcomplete Gabor dictionary. Different criteria are used for measuring the performance of these algorithms in C-scan imaging. The proposed method can separate closely space overlapping echoes beyond the resolution of conventional SAM systems and also the final results show that StOMP performs best overall in extracting the specific echo, since this algorithm is precise and fast.     

Contact based delamination and fracture analysis of composites

A new approach based on the concepts of the discrete element method, is presented for impact resistance analysis of composites. The method is capable of analysing the progressive fracturing and fragmentation behaviour, as well as potential post-cracking interactions caused by the newly created crack sides and segments. The imminence of a material crack is monitored by an anisotropic Hoffman model. To avoid the mesh dependency of the results, a bilinear local softening model, based on modes I and II, is also adopted in this study to account for release of energy and redistribution of forces that caused the formation of a crack. A special re-meshing method has been developed to geometrically model an individual crack by splitting the element, separating the failed node, creating new nodes and dividing the neighbouring elements to preserve the compatibility conditions. Numerical simulations have been performed to assess the performance of the proposed algorithm. The method has proved to be an efficient approach for impact analysis of composites undergoing progressive delamination and cracking.     

Effect of different acids during the synthesis of urea-formaldehyde adhesives and the mechanical properties of medium-density fiberboards bonded with them

The characteristics of urea-formaldehyde (UF) adhesives condensed by catalysis with four different acids, namely formic (HCOOH), hydrochloric (HCl), phosphoric (H₃PO₄), and sulfuric (H₂SO₄) acids, under alkaline–acidic–alkaline conditions at a molar ratio F/U = 1.12 were studied. The thermal curing properties of UF adhesives catalyzed with acid were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry at 10 °C/min heating rate. The resin structure examined by ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy showed that the resin catalyzed with HCl had a lower proportion of methylol groups, resulting in a lower level of formaldehyde emission. It was interesting to note that HCOOH resulted in the best overall mechanical properties of the medium-density fiberboard (MDF) panels. The HCl catalyst resulted in the poorest performance, providing the lowest internal bond strength, modulus of elasticity, and thickness swelling, with the exception of the free formaldehyde content. The resin catalyzed with H₂SO₄ had the highest free formaldehyde and the highest formaldehyde emission. H₂SO₄ and H₃PO₄ resulted in MDF mechanical properties relatively lower than for HCOOH. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47256.