ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS: PRINCIPLE AND APPLICATION TO MODEL BASED CONTROL OF DRYING SYSTEMS - A REVIEW

Abstract

This paper reviews the developments in the model based control of drying systems using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). Survey of current research works reveals the growing interest in the application of ANN in modeling and control of non-linear, dynamic and time-variant systems. Over 115 articles published in this area are reviewed. All landmark papers are systematically classified in chronological order, in three distinct categories; namely, conventional feedback controllers, model based controllers using conventional methods and model based controllers using ANN for drying process. The principles of ANN are presented in detail. The problems and issues of the drying system and the features of various ANN models are dealt with upto-date. ANN based controllers lead to smoother controller outputs, which would increase actuator life. The paper concludes with suggestions for improving the existing modeling techniques as applied to predicting the performance characteristics of dryers. The hybridization techniques, namely, neural with fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms, presented, provide, directions for pursuing further research for the implementation of appropriate control strategies. The authors opine that the information presented here would be highly beneficial for pursuing research in modeling and control of drying process using ANN     

Design of a power efficient,high slew rate and gain boosted improved recycling folded cascode amplifier with adaptive biasing technique

This paper presents an adaptive Improved Recycling Folded Cascode (IRFC) amplifier with improved gain, high slew rate, high phase margin and reduced power consumption. The proposed design is implemented using 180 nm technology with a supply voltage of 1.8 V and a capacitive load of 1 pF. The proposed design is compared with basic two stage op-amp, cascode amplifier and conventional recycling folded cascode amplifier (RFC). Analysis demonstrates that the flexible structure of IRFC with adaptive biasing shows an improvement in gain to 87.74 dB, approximately three times enhancement in slew rate to 53.8 V/µs when compared with the design specifications. The phase margin was observed to be 64.86°. The design also reports an increase in output swing. The gain increases to 109 dB when a cascode stage is added to the IRFC structure.

     

Experimental study on mix proportion and fresh properties of fly ash based geopolymer for 3D concrete printing

This paper presents the material design and fresh properties of geopolymer mortar developed for 3D concrete printing application. Unlike traditional casting, in 3D printing, extruded materials are deposited layer-by-layer to build complex architectural and structural components without the need of any formwork and human intervention. Extrudability, shape retention, buildability and thixotropic open time (TOT) are identified as critical early-age properties to characterize the 3D printable geopolymer material. Five different mix designs of geopolymer are tested in a systematic experimental approach to obtain a best printable mix and later it is used to print a 60-centimeter-tall freeform structure using a concrete gantry printer to validate the formulation.     

Effects of polymer molecular weight,concentration, and role of polyethylene glycol as additive on polyacrylonitrile homopolymer membranes

Polyacrylonitrile (PAN), is an important base polymer to cast porous membranes. In this work, a detailed study of the effects of molecular weight of PAN homopolymer and its concentration on the cast membrane has been undertaken. The effects of molecular weight of additive polyethylene glycol (PEG) and its concentration have also been investigated. The membranes are cast using dimethyl formamide as solvent using phase inversion technique. They are characterized in terms of porosity, water permeability, molecular weight cut off, average pore diameter, contact angle, and tensile strength at breaking point. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy are used to characterize the chemical and morphological changes of the membrane surface. Further studies have been considered to evaluate the antifouling property of various membranes using filtration of bovine serum albumin solution. Membrane modified by PEG 400 membrane shows an improved separation performance and antifouling characteristics. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:2375–2391, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Green synthesis and antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles using wild medicinal mushroom Ganoderma applanatum (Pers.) Pat. from Similipal Biosphere Reserve,Odisha, India

In the present study, green synthesis and cost effective approach of silver nanoparticles using wild medicinal mushroom Ganoderma applanatum (Pers.) Pat. from Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Odisha, India is reported. The biosynthesised AgNPs were characterised using UV‐visible spectroscopy, particle analyser and scanning electron microscopy studies. It was found by dynamic light scattering analysis, that the average size and charges of the AgNPs were 133.0 ± 0.361 nm and −6.01 ± 5.30 mV, respectively. Moreover, the Fourier transform infrared study was also conducted to identify the biomolecules or functional groups responsible for the reduction of Ag and stabilisation of the AgNPs. The potential biomedical application with reference to antimicrobial activity of the synthesised AgNPs was investigated against some pathogenic microorganisms viz. Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Vibrio cholerae, Staphylococcus aureus and Shigella flexneri.Inspec keywords: antibacterial activity, biomedical materials, nanomedicine, nanofabrication, materials preparation, ultraviolet spectra, visible spectra, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectra, molecular biophysics, reduction (chemical), biochemistry, microorganisms, silver, nanoparticlesOther keywords: green synthesis, antimicrobial activity, silver nanoparticles, wild medicinal mushroom, Ganoderma applanatum Pat, Similipal Biosphere Reserve, Odisha, UV‐visible spectroscopy, particle analyser, scanning electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering analysis, Fourier transform infrared study, biomolecules, functional groups, silver reduction, AgNP stabilisation, biomedical application, pathogenic microorganisms, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Vibrio cholerae, Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella flexneri, Ag

Abbreviations

AgNPs

‐ Silver Nanoparticles

SPR

‐Surface plasmon resonance

AgNO3

‐Silver nitrate

nm

‐ Nanometer

mm

‐Milimetre

     

Impact of Drain Thickness Asymmetry on DC and Analog/RF Performance of an n-type SiGe/Si Double Gate TFET

Silicon - This paper suggests an n-type tunnel field effect transistor (TFET) with asymmetric architecture. The asymmetry is considered in terms of reduced drain thickness. The drain current...     

Alumina dissolution process to fabricate bimodal pore architecture alumina with superior green and sintered properties

Herein, a straightforward, adaptable, and cost-effective approach has been proposed to realize the concept of dissolution of alumina in acidic aqueous media to fabricate porous alumina showing exceptional green machining properties and exhibiting good thermomechanical properties through in situ generated blowing agents and thermo-foaming process. The process involves dissolving alumina in concentrated sulfuric acid to generate aluminum hydroxide and aluminum sulfate, which act as blowing agents to produce pores in the final structure through a decomposition process at elevated temperatures. By varying the concentration of deionized water and acidification using sulfuric acid, different alumina slurries are prepared. Sintering shrinkage is well countered through simultaneous consolidation and decomposition process during the heat treatment, and a minimum shrinkage of 0.88% is achieved. In addition to its pore-forming properties, aluminum sulfate also provides strong binding effects to green bodies, contributing to their exceptional green machining properties. The resulting porous alumina exhibits a green flexural strength of up to 17 MPa, making it capable of bearing loads and forces during green machining. The sintered porous alumina fabricated in the study has a porosity range of 34.43%–59.24% and a flexural strength of 27.84–53.21 MPa. The prepared porous alumina also exhibits satisfactory thermal resistivity, with a minimum thermal conductivity of 1.23 W/m K, and has intra/intergranular space in the nano range. The coexistence of a combination of bimodal pores in a single monolithic matrix makes it exceptionally porous and suitable for an extensive spectrum of applications.     

Microstructure and Mechanical Characterization of Stainless Steel and Copper Joint by Metallurgical Modification in GTAW Process

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - The dissimilar metal joining of stainless steel (SS)/copper (Cu) was done cost-effectively with Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW). A combination of...     

A novel region-based multimodal image fusion technique using improved dictionary learning

Recently, the sparse representation (SR) based algorithms have gained much attention from the researchers in the area of image fusion (IF). The building of a compact discriminative dictionary plays a vital role in the sparse-based IF techniques. In this context, an efficient multimodal IF method based on improved dictionary learning is investigated. The key contributions of this paper are: (a) An improved KSVD algorithm is suggested for the dictionary learning process, (b) to reduce the computational time, only the informative patches are selected using energy feature, and (c) a novel region-based fusion scheme is suggested for the first time for the problem on hand. The suggested technique is tested with a number of multimodal images from Harvard Medical School brain database. The results are compared with state-of-the-art multiscale transform-based methods and modified SR-based methods. Unlike earlier methods, our proposed technique generates an adaptive dictionary through selection of informative patches only. This results in a compact dictionary with improved computational efficiency. The experimental results reveal that our approach outperforms other methods. The potential application of the suggested method could be in pathological images for follow-up study and better treatment planning.