Mass transfer from outer surface of thin tubes in parallel turbulent flow

The mass transfer coefficients from the outer surface of tubes or cylinders held in parallel turbulent steams have been calculated using integral momentum and mass transfer equations. The solution uses a hydrodynamics independent constant, λ _c which depends only upon Schmidt number. The results exhibit significant effect of curvature. For Schmidt number less than 108, Sherwood number can be predicted by $Sh_d Sc^{ - 1/3} = 0.039Sc^{0.208} \times \left( {\frac{L} {d}} \right)^\alpha \operatorname{Re} _d^{0.8}$Sh_d Sc^{ - 1/3} = 0.039Sc^{0.208} \times \left( {\frac{L} {d}} \right)^\alpha \operatorname{Re} _d^{0.8}, where α = −0.169Sc^−0.0103. The effect of the curvature is insignificant where $\frac{L} {d}\operatorname{Re} _L^{ - 0.2} - 0.033 \times \ln (Sc) \leqslant 0.214$\frac{L} {d}\operatorname{Re} _L^{ - 0.2} - 0.033 \times \ln (Sc) \leqslant 0.214.     

The effect of tool edge radius on the chip formation behavior of tool-based micromachining

Chip formation behavior of micromachining is governed by the tool edge radius effect as reflected by the characteristic changes in plastic deformation at varying combinations of tool edge radius, r, and undeformed chip thickness, a. At high a/r above unity, concentrated plastic deformation takes place at the primary and secondary deformation zones akin to conventional macromachining. Decreasing a/r below unity promotes localized deformation ahead of the tool edge radius, with the expansion in fraction of the primary deformation zone and the simultaneous shrinkage in fraction of the secondary deformation zone following the reductions in total tool–chip contact length. Further decrease of a/r below a critical threshold brings forth a total suppression of secondary deformation zone and resulted in an ultimate localization of plastic deformation ahead of the tool edge radius. This is perceived as a transition in chip formation mechanism from concentrated shearing to a thrust-oriented behavior.     

CO2 methanation over Ni and Rh based catalysts: Process optimization at moderate temperature

H₂ was produced from aluminum/water reaction and reacted with CO₂ over Ni and Rh based catalysts to optimize the process conditions for CO₂ methanation at moderate temperature. Monometallic catalysts were prepared by incorporating Ni and Rh using nickel nitrate hexahydrate (Ni(NO₃)₂·6H₂O) and rhodium(III) chloride trihydrate (RhCl₃·3H₂O)as a precursor chemical. The preliminary study of the catalysts revealed higher activity and CH₄ selectivity for Rh based catalyst compared to that of Ni based catalyst. Further, Rh based catalyst was investigated using response surface methodology (RSM) involving central composite design. The quadratic model was employed to correlate the effects of variable parameters including methanation temperature, %humidity, and catalyst weight with the %CO₂ conversion, %CH₄ selectivity, and CH₄ production capacity. Analysis of variance revealed that methanation temperature and humidity play an important role in CO₂ methanation. Higher response values of CO₂ conversion (54.4%), CH₄ selectivity (73.5%) and CH₄ production capacity (8.4 μmol g^?1 min^?1) were noted at optimum conditions of 206.7°C of methanation temperature, 12.5% humidity and 100 mg of the catalyst. The results demonstrated the ability of Rh catalyst supported on palm shell activated carbon (PSAC) for CO₂ methanation at low temperature and atmospheric pressure.     

Sensorless operation of surface mount permanent magnet AC (PMAC)motors

A sensorless field oriented control scheme for a surface mount permanent magnet AC (PMAC) motor with split phase stator windings is presented. This motor is obtained by splitting the phase windings of a conventional three phase motor. The six-phase motor, however is run as a three-phase motor by connecting the split phase stator windings in series, while the taps are made available for voltage measurements. By measuring the terminal voltages and the line currents, absolute position of the permanent magnet AC motor driven by a current regulated PWM inverter with a hysteresis controller is estimated. The estimated position information is independent of the stator resistance, thus this scheme is even applicable at low speeds. Results are presented to show the effectiveness of the new controller, and it is also shown that the position error is negligible     

Performance prediction of shaded pole induction motors

The authors present an analysis for evaluating the performance characteristics of reluctance-augmented shaded pole motors. The proposed model is based on the d-q axis technique and is valid for steady-state and dynamic conditions. An efficient method of predicting the steady-state operating characteristics of the triac-controlled shaded pole motor is presented. This method calculates the currents and average torque as a function of conduction and control angles of the triac. The effect of critical parameters on the motor performance is investigated. Simulated results are compared with experimental values of a two-pole single phase test induction motor     

Role of drivers' personal characteristics in understanding traffic sign symbols

This study investigated the role of age, marital status, gender, nationality, educational background and monthly income in drivers' comprehension of traffic signs. The populations sampled here were from five Arabian Gulf Countries. A total of 28 symbolic warning and regulatory signs were investigated. A questionnaire specially prepared to collect the necessary data was distributed to over 9000 drivers in the five countries; 4774 responded (53%). The results indicated substantial problems with the level of comprehension among the drivers about the traffic signs. The percentages of drivers who correctly identified the regulatory signs and warning signs were around 55 and 56%, respectively. Age, gender, education and income played major roles in determining drivers' comprehension of signs, whereas marital status showed no significant effect. Drivers who are young, female, those with lower levels of education or lower incomes understand the signs significantly worse than drivers who are older, male, with higher levels of education or higher incomes. Drivers from Europe and USA are significantly better than Asian and Arab drivers. These findings are believed to be important for the designers of road signs for international applications.     

A hybrid surrogate and pattern search optimization method and application to microelectronics

A hybrid method for robust and efficient optimization process is developed by integrating a new response surface method and pattern search algorithm. The method is based on: (1) multipoint approximations of the objective and constraint functions, (2) a multiquadric radial basis function (RBF) for the zeroth-order function approximation and a new RBF plus polynomial-based moving least-squares approximation for the first-order enhanced function approximation, and (3) a pattern search algorithm to impose a descent condition and applied adaptive subregion management strategy. Several numerical examples are presented to illustrate accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed method for both function approximation and design optimization. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid method, it is applied to obtain optimum designs of a microelectronic packaging system. A two-stage optimization approach is proposed for the design optimization. The material properties of microelectronic packaging system and the shape parameters of solder ball are selected as design variables. Through design optimization, significant improvements of durability performances are obtained using the proposed hybrid optimization method.     

Spectral Network (SpecNet)—What is it and why do we need it?

Effective integration of optical remote sensing with flux measurements across multiple scales is essential for understanding global patterns of surface-atmosphere fluxes of carbon and water vapor. SpecNet (Spectral Network) is an international network of cooperating investigators and sites linking optical measurements with flux sampling for the purpose of improving our understanding of the controls on these fluxes. An additional goal is to characterize disturbance impacts on surface-atmosphere fluxes. To reach these goals, key SpecNet objectives include the exploration of scaling issues, development of novel sampling tools, standardization and intercomparison of sampling methods, development of models and statistical methods that relate optical sampling to fluxes, exploration of component fluxes, validation of satellite products, and development of an informatics approach that integrates disparate data sources across scales. Examples of these themes are summarized in this review.     

Optimal digital filtering for tremor suppression

Remote manually operated tasks such as those found in teleoperation, virtual reality, or joystick-based computer access, require the generation of an intermediate electrical signal which is transmitted to the controlled subsystem (robot arm, virtual environment, or a cursor in a computer screen). When human movements are distorted, for instance, by tremor, performance can be improved by digitally filtering the intermediate signal before it reaches the controlled device. This paper introduces a novel tremor filtering framework in which digital equalizers are optimally designed through pursuit tracking task experiments. Due to inherent properties of the man-machine system, the design of tremor suppression equalizers presents two serious problems: 1) performance criteria leading to optimizations that minimize mean-squared error are not efficient for tremor elimination and 2) movement signals show ill-conditioned autocorrelation matrices, which often result in useless or unstable solutions. To address these problems, a new performance indicator in the context of tremor is introduced, and the optimal equalizer according to this new criterion is developed. Ill-conditioning of the autocorrelation matrix is overcome using a novel method which we call pulled-optimization. Experiments performed with artificially induced vibrations and a subject with Parkinson's disease show significant improvement in performance. Additional results, along with MATLAB source code of the algorithms, and a customizable demo for PC joysticks, are available on the Internet at http:?tremor-suppression.com.