A new manufacturable filter design approach for spectral reflectance estimation

Selection of the best possible filter set among a set of available filters is the obvious method of increasing dimension of camera signals for spectral reflectance reconstruction. There are also methods that are focusing on the filter design regardless of noticing to the constructability of the designed filters. This study shows that direct optimization of physical variables of filter manufacturing technique is more reliable than indirect approach of designing and then physical manufacturing of the designed filters. Direct optimization of the transmission‐controlling primaries in filter manufacturing process would guarantee having the designed filters in reality. Combination of some solvent dyes was used as the spectral transmission matching system for filter manufacturing. As a conventional technique, filters were designed and best possible dye concentrations that match the desired filters were calculated. As an alternative approach, filters were also designed using direct optimization of dyes concentrations. The results showed that direct optimization of dye concentrations exhibits better performance in comparison with the conventional technique. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 42, 316–326, 2017     

Fabrication and characterization of silk/forsterite composites for tissue engineering applications

In this research, novel composite scaffolds consisting of silk fibroin and forsterite powder were prepared by a freeze-drying method. In addition, the effects of forsterite powder contents on the structure of the scaffolds were investigated to provide an appropriate composite for bone tissue engineering applications. The morphology studies using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques showed that the forsterite ceramic was well distributed throughout the structures of SF/forsterite scaffolds. Furthermore, the forsterite powder (up to 40 wt%) was homogenously distributed within the silk fibroin as a matrix.     

Application of artificial neural network for vapor liquid equilibrium calculation of ternary system including ionic liquid: Water, ethanol and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate

A feed forward three-layer artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed for VLE prediction of ternary systems including ionic liquid (IL) (water+ethanol+1-butyl-3- methyl-imidazolium acetate), in a relatively wide range of IL mass fractions up to 0.8, with the mole fractions of ethanol on IL-free basis fixed separately at 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 0.98. The output results of the ANN were the mole fraction of ethanol in vapor phase and the equilibrium temperature. The validity of the model was evaluated through a test data set, which were not employed in the training case of the network. The performance of the ANN model for estimating the mole fraction and temperature in the ternary system including IL was compared with the non-random-two-liquid (NRTL) and electrolyte non-random-two-liquid (eNRTL) models. The results of this comparison show that the ANN model has a superior performance in predicting the VLE of ternary systems including ionic liquid.     

Control of Hybrid Active Power Filter Based on Switching Function Coefficients

A pulse width modulation (PWM)-based control method for a three-level, four-wire neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter employed in a hybrid active power filter (HAPF) is proposed in this paper. The control method is based on switching function coefficients (SFCs) for harmonic compensation. An interior loop is also proposed for control and balancing of the DC-link voltages. In the proposed control system, one carrier signal is employed in the PWM unit in order to simplify its hardware as compared with traditional PWMs. Based on Fourier decomposition technique, mathematical analysis of the proposed control method is also presented. To decrease the NPC inverter rated power, passive power filters (PPFs) are designed to eliminate fifth and seventh order harmonic currents and to compensate source reactive currents. The proposed control system is implemented by a digital signal processing (DSP) in a laboratory prototype. The experimental results confirmed the validity of the proposed control method in compensation of harmonic currents under non-linear conditions     

Online Droop Tuning of a Multi-DG Microgrid Using Cuckoo Search Algorithm

This article presents an intelligent strategy to achieve appropriate real power sharing among distributed generators in a microgrid. The presented strategy employs two droop-based control methods and automatically adjusts their parameters. The first method is unit power control, which has specifications similar to the conventional droop method, and the second is feeder flow control, showing significant characteristics in both grid-connected and islanded modes operation of a microgrid. A combination of unit power control and feeder flow control methods is used for a multi-distributed generator microgrid. The microgrid operation mode passes from the grid-connected to the islanded through a transition. A new evolutionary algorithm called cuckoo search is employed to coordinate the power management of distributed generators within an on-line droop tuning. In comparison to the predecessor evolutionary algorithms, the cuckoo search algorithm represents more effective random processes with fewer parameters. Using the proposed control strategy, while the distributed generators contribute to load demand provision based on their rated powers, their powers are optimized in terms of overshoot and settling time. Digital time-domain simulation studies are carried out in the MATLAB/SIMULINK (The MathWorks, Natick, Massachusetts, USA) environment to verify the performance of the proposed control system.     

Multi-objective Phasor Measurement Unit Placement in Electric Power Networks: Integer Linear Programming Formulation

A multi-objective optimal phasor measurement unit placement model using integer linear programming is presented in this article. The proposed model simultaneously optimizes two objectives, i.e., minimization of phasor measurement unit numbers and maximization of measurement redundancy. To calculate the redundancy criteria, the single-line outage and the phasor measurement unit loss are considered simultaneously. A linear formulation is presented for both objective functions. Also herein, to address conflicting attributes and identify Pareto optimal solutions of the multi-objective optimal phasor measurement unit placement problem, a new multi-objective mathematical programming method is proposed. Finally, a new index, i.e., minimum distance to utopia point, is implemented to select the most preferred solution among the available Pareto front based options on the goal to achieve judicious decision makers. Two test systems, i.e., a modified 9-bus and an IEEE 118-bus test systems, are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.     

A crossover‐UNIQUAC model for critical and noncritical LLE calculations

A new model, named the crossover‐UNIQUAC model, has been proposed based on the crossover procedure for predicting constant‐pressure liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE). In this manner, critical fluctuations were incorporated into the classical UNIQUAC equation. Coexistence curves were estimated for systems having a diverse range of asymmetries. These systems included the LLE of five different mixtures, composed of nitrobenzene with one of the members of the alkane homologous family (either pentane, octane, decane, dodecane, or tetradecane), as well as an extra system having a different chemical nature, namely the mixture of n‐perfluorohexane and hexane, to further check the validity of the proposed approach. Using these nonideal mixtures, the validity of the new model was investigated within wide ranges, covering near‐critical to regions falling far away from the critical point. The graphical trends, as well as the quantitative comparison with experimental data indicated the good agreement of the proposed model results with the experimental data. A maximum AARD% value of 3.97% was obtained in calculating molar compositions by the proposed model for such challenging systems covering noncritical, as well as critical regions. In addition, to show the strength of the proposed crossover approach to describe properties other than LLE, molar heat capacities were investigated for the system of nitrobenzene + dodecane. © 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 3094–3103, 2015     

Nanomechanical and tribological behavior of hydroxyapatite reinforced ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene nanocomposites for biomedical applications

A hydroxyapatite (HA) particulate reinforced ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) nanocomposite is fabricated by internal mixer at 180°C and using of paraffin oil as a processing aid to overcome the high viscosity of melted UHMWPE. The reinforcing effects of nano‐HA are investigated on nanomechanical properties of HA/UHMWPE nanocomposites by nanoindentation and nanoscratching methods. Results show that the nanocomposite with 50 wt % nano‐HA exhibits a Young's modulus and hardness of 362.5% and 200% higher, and a friction coefficient of 38.86% lower than that of pure UHMWPE, respectively. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2015 , 132, 42052.     

Plastic hinge length of reinforced concrete columns subjected to both far‐fault and near‐fault ground motions having forward directivity

In a strong earthquake, a standard reinforced concrete (RC) column may develop plastic deformations in regions often termed as plastic hinge regions. A plastic hinge is basically an energy dampening device that dampens energy through the plastic rotation of a rigid column connection, which triggers redistribution of bending moments. The formation of a plastic hinge in an RC column in regions that experience inelastic actions depends on the characteristics of the earthquakes as well as the column details. Recordings from recent earthquakes have provided evidence that ground motions in the near field of a rupturing fault can contain a large energy or ‘directivity’ pulse. A directivity pulse occurs when the propagation of the fault proceeds at nearly the same rate as the shear wave velocity. This pulse is seen in the forward direction of the rupture and can cause considerable damage during an earthquake, especially to structures with natural periods that are close to those of the pulse. In the present paper, 1316 inelastic time‐history analyses have been performed to predict the nonlinear behaviour of RC columns under both far‐fault and near‐fault ground motions. The effects of axial load, height over depth ratio and amount of longitudinal reinforcement, as well as different characteristics of earthquakes, were evaluated analytically by finite element methods and the results were compared with corresponding experimental data. Based on the results, simple expressions were proposed that can be used to estimate plastic hinge length of RC columns subjected to both far‐fault and near‐fault earthquakes that contain a forward‐directivity effect. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of plate-like glass fillers on the mechanical properties of dental nanocomposites

In this study, glass flakes were incorporated into the spherical nanosilica component of the dental composites and its effect on the mechanical properties of these composites was investigated. To achieve a good interfacial adhesion between matrix resin and fillers, the particles were surface treated with a silane coupling agent (γ-MPS). Composites with different plate-like and spherical nanoparticle contents were prepared and their mechanical properties, including flexural strength, flexural modulus and fracture toughness were measured. The morphology of the particles and fracture surface of the composites were studied by SEM. The distribution of the flakes in the composite was also monitored using EDXA. Statistical analysis of the data was performed with ANOVA and the Tukey’s post hoc test was at a significance level of 0.05. The results showed that the flexural modulus and fracture toughness of specimens were improved with increasing the glass flake content up to 15 vol % which then declined upon further increase due to the stacking of the flakes on each other. A good interfacial adhesion was observed between matrix resin and particles in the SEM micrographs. The results of this study suggest that incorporation of glass flakes into the dental composites containing spherical nanosilica particles may enhance their mechanical properties.