Effect of the use of mineral filler on the properties of concrete

Engineers of the concrete technology are increasingly concerned with the material passing through a sieve of the size under 0.149 mm. Materials called very fine aggregate or mineral filler may affect the performance of concrete in an either positive or a negative way. Discussions on aggregate containing very fine material are vitally important. Washing the aggregate residue has been the sole way to solve this matter to date. This is mainly based on the debatable opinion that materials of this kind are regarded as clay material. The goal of the study was to determine how the content of mineral filler might affect properties of concrete. Two types of aggregates with different amounts of cement and mineral filler were used. Basically, mineral filler replaced sand. The effect of applying different amounts of mineral filler on concrete was then determined. The addition of 7-10% of mineral filler to fine aggregate (0-2 mm) was found to considerably improve the properties of concrete.     

The desalting and recycling of wastewaters from textile dyeing operations using reverse osmosis

The wastewater from the textile dyeing operations was separated into a concentrate stream, rich in salts and dyes, and a purified product water stream using reverse osmosis membranes. Three membrane materials and three module configurations were used, namely : polyamide (hollow fine fiber configuration ), cellulose acetate ( spiral wound and tubular configurations ) and hydrous Zr(IV)- polyacrylate ( tubular configuration ). The modules were tested for periods ranging from 600 hours to more than 1000 hours under actual field conditions. Membrane flux and rejection were monitored throughout the operation and samples of the feed and product water were analysed chemically. The successful operation of the R.O. equipment under field conditions demonstrated the applicability of this process in the desalination of dyeing wastewater.     

A study on melt recycling of bio-based polypropylene/thermoplastic starch compound

The compulsion to use bioplastics has increased significantly today. One of the important aspects of plastics is their recyclability. Therefore, the important question of this research is that although bio-based compounds containing starch are sensitive to thermal-mechanical recycling processes, are such products thermally recyclable? To answer the question, polypropylene (PP)/thermoplastic starch (TPS) compound granules were extruded up to five times, and in the other part, single-extruded granules were blended at different ratios with virgin granules by extrusion. In order to characterize these samples, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, rotational disc rheometry, tensile properties, and appearance evaluation were used. The results showed that it is possible to recycle PP/TPS granules up to four times repetition of the extrusion operation and the fifth repetition also showed slight changes. There was also a blend of single-extruded granules with virgin material up to a 50:50% composition without significant variation.     

An extended PID type iterative learning control

This paper presents a new iterative learning control (ILC) for discrete-time single-input single-output (SISO) linear time-invariant (LTI) systems. To establish this ILC, the input of the controlled system is modified by using a novel four-parametric algorithm. This algorithm is called the extended proportional plus integral and derivative (EPID) type, since by eliminating the fourth parameter of it one would get to the PID type ILC, therefore PID type ILC is a special case of it. The convergence of the proposed ILC is analyzed and an optimal method is presented to determine its parameters. It is shown that the given ILC has a better performance than the PID-type one. Three illustrative examples are included to demonstrate the effectiveness and the preference of the presented ILC.     

Earthquake onset detection using spectro-ratio on multi-threshold time–frequency sub-band

Automatic onset detection and picking algorithm has been proposed by applying the spectro-ratio on time–frequency sub-band. The proposed algorithm does not need any parameter settings as it will work on data generated by either short or very broad band seismometers. Our algorithm is applied on local events from Cairo region recorded by three stations of the Egyptian National Seismic Network (ENSN). Maximum standard deviation is observed to be 0.113 s of the corresponding manual picks made by analysts.     

Design and simulation of autonomous military vehicle control system based on machine vision and ensemble movement approach

The Journal of Supercomputing - On the battlefield, early detection of armored vehicles can have a positive effect. Because according to this issue, timely and appropriate reactions can be done....     

Recovery of sensor embedded washing machines using a multi-kanban controlled disassembly line

Product recovery involves the recovery of materials and components from returned or end-of-life products. Disassembly, an element of product recovery, is the systematic separation of an assembly into its components, subassemblies or other groupings. Stricter environmental regulations together with dramatic decrease in natural resources and landfills have increased the importance of disassembly as all product recovery options require some level of disassembly. Due to changes made during the lifetime of a product by customers or service personnel, the number and the version of components prior to disassembly is unknown. Customers may also discriminate between and demand different versions of components. The existence of non-functional components further adds to the uncertainty associated with disassembly yield. Sensors implanted into products during their production can address this uncertainty by providing information on the number, condition and version of components prior to disassembly. In this study, we evaluate the impact of sensor embedded products (SEPs) on the various performance measures of a washing machine (WM) disassembly line controlled by a multi-kanban system, which takes into consideration the highly stochastic behavior of the line while managing material and kanban flows. First, separate design of experiments studies based on orthogonal arrays are performed for conventional products and SEPs. In order to observe the response of each experiment, detailed discrete event simulation (DES) models for both types of products are developed considering the precedence relationships among the components of a WM. Then, pair-wise t-tests are conducted to compare the two cases based on different performance measures. According to the results, SEPs provide significant reductions in all costs (viz., backorder, holding, disassembly, disposal, testing and transportation) while increasing revenue and profit.     

Robust adaptive boundary control of a perturbed hybrid Euler-Bernoulli beam with coupled rigid and flexible motion

In this paper, a robust adaptive boundary controller is proposed to stabilize the coupled rigid-flexible motion of an Euler-Bernoulli beam in presence of boundary and distributed perturbations. Applying Hamilton’s principle, the dynamics of the hybrid beam model, including the actuators hub and the payload at its ends, is represented through four nonhomogeneous nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) subject to ordinary differential equations (ODEs) of boundary conditions. Using a Lyapunov-based control synthesis procedure, a robust nonlinear boundary controller is established that asymptotically stabilizes the perturbed beam vibration while regulating the rigid motion coordinates. A redesign of the proposed control laws produces a robust adaptive boundary controller that achieves control objectives in the presence of both parametric and modelling uncertainties. Control design is directly based on system PDEs without truncating the model so that instabilities from spillover effects are mitigated. The control inputs to the beam consist of three forces/torque applied to the actuators hub and a transverse force applied to the tip payload. Simulation results are used to investigate the efficiency of the proposed approach.