Hygrothermal behavior modeling of the hygroscopic envelopes of buildings: A dynamic co-simulation approach

High levels of humidity in buildings lead to building pathologies. Moisture also has an impact on the indoor air quality and the hygrothermal comfort of the building’s occupants. To better assess these pathologies, it is necessary to take into account the heat and moisture transfer between the building envelope and its indoor ambience. In this work, a new methodology was developed to predict the overall behavior of buildings, which combines two simulation tools: COMSOL Multiphysics© and TRNSYS. The first software is used for the modeling of heat, air and moisture transfer in multilayer porous walls (HAM model: Heat, Air and Moisture transfer), and the second is used to simulate the hygrothermal behavior of the building (BES model: Building Energy Simulation). The combined software applications dynamically solve the mass and energy conservation equations of the two physical models. The HAM-BES coupling efficiency was verified. In this paper, the use of a coupled (HAM-BES) co-simulation for the prediction of the hygrothermal behavior of building envelopes is discussed. Furthermore, the effect of the 2D HAM modeling on relative humidity variations within the building ambience is shown. The results confirm the importance of the HAM modeling in the envelope on the hygrothermal behavior and energy demand of buildings.     

Discrete wavelet transform and support vector machine‐based parallel transmission line faults classification

This paper presents a scheme for classification of faults on double circuit parallel transmission lines using combination of discrete wavelet transform and support vector machine (SVM). Only one cycle post fault of the phase currents was employed to predict the fault type. Two features for each phase current were extracted using discrete wavelet transform. Thus, a total of 12 features were extracted for the six phase currents. The training data were collected, and SVM was employed to establish the fault classification unit. After that, the fault classification unit was tested for different fault states. The power system simulation was conducted using the MATLAB/Simulink program. The proposed technique took into account the mutual coupling between the parallel transmission lines and the randomness of the faults on transmission line considering time of occurrence, fault location, fault type, fault resistance, and loading conditions. The results show that the proposed technique can classify all the faults on the parallel transmission lines correctly. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Kinetic and prediction studies of ascorbic acid degradation in normal and concentrate local lemon juice during storage

Kinetics of the loss of ascorbic acid (AA) in local lemon juice of 9° and 50° Brix stored at 25, 35, and 45 °C for 4 months have been investigated. The results indicate that increases of concentrations and temperatures increase the rate of AA degradation. The calculated values of activation energies (E^≠) and frequency factors (A) at different Brix imply that the concentration of juice does not change the mechanism of degradation. Thermodynamic functions of activation (ΔG^≠, ΔH^≠, ΔS^≠ and K^≠) have been determined and considered briefly. A direct equation for estimation of the shelf life of stored juice with respect to first-order losses of AA, at any specific temperature and degradation ratio, has been derived and programmed successfully.     

Autonomous Vision-based Target Detection and Safe Landing for UAV

International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems - Target detection is crucial for many applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) such as search and rescue, object transportation,...     

Reducing Affective Responses to Surgical Images and Videos Through Stylization

We present the first empirical study on using colour manipulation and stylization to make surgery images/videos more palatable. While aversion to such material is natural, it limits many people's ability to satisfy their curiosity, educate themselves and make informed decisions. We selected a diverse set of image processing techniques to test them both on surgeons and lay people. While colour manipulation techniques and many artistic methods were found unusable by surgeons, edge-preserving image smoothing yielded good results both for preserving information (as judged by surgeons) and reducing repulsiveness (as judged by lay people). We then conducted a second set of interview with surgeons to assess whether these methods could also be used on videos and derive good default parameters for information preservation. We provide extensive supplemental material at osf.io/4pfes/ .     

State estimation of discrete event systems for RUL prediction issue

This paper concerns Remaining Useful Life (RUL) estimation of discrete event systems. For that purpose, physics-based models with partially observed stochastic Petri nets are used to represent the system and its sensors. The advantage of the proposed modelling approach is to provide a realistic representation of the system, including the interaction between the normal behaviours and the failure processes. From the proposed modelling and collected measurements, timed trajectories, which are consistent with the observations, are obtained. Based on the event dates, our approach consists in evaluating the probabilities of the consistent behaviours using probabilistic models. State estimation is obtained as a consequence. The most probable future degradations, from the current state, are then considered and a method for fault prognosis is presented. Finally, the prognosis result is used to estimate the RUL as a time interval. A case study is proposed to show the applicability of the proposed method.     

Cooperative Q-learning based channel selection for cognitive radio networks

Wireless Networks - This paper deals with the jamming attack which may hinder the cognitive radio from efficiently exploiting the spectrum. We model the problem of channel selection as a Markov...     

Diamond nanowires for highly sensitive matrix-free mass spectrometry analysis of small molecules

This paper reports on the use of boron-doped diamond nanowires (BDD NWs) as an inorganic substrate for matrix-free laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) analysis of small molecules. The diamond nanowires are prepared by reactive ion etching (RIE) with oxygen plasma of highly boron-doped (the boron level is 10(19) B cm(-3)) or undoped nanocrystalline diamond substrates. The resulting diamond nanowires are coated with a thin silicon oxide layer that confers a superhydrophilic character to the surface. To minimize droplet spreading, the nanowires were chemically functionalized with octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) and then UV/ozone treated to reach a final water contact angle of 120°. The sub-bandgap absorption under UV laser irradiation and the heat confinement inside the nanowires allowed desorption/ionization, most likely via a thermal mechanism, and mass spectrometry analysis of small molecules. A detection limit of 200 zeptomole for verapamil was demonstrated.     

Investigation of the corrosion behaviour of steel coated with amorphous silicon carbon alloys

Thin amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and carbonated silicon (a-Si_1 − xC_x:H) layers were deposited on stainless steel substrates using plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) in a “low-power” regime. The carbon content of the carbonated silicon (a-Si_1 − xC_x:H) alloys was varied between 0.1 and 0.37 at.%. The performance of these interfaces as effective corrosion barriers in 3% sodium chloride aqueous solutions was evaluated. Potentiodynamic polarisation curves and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used next to X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to investigate the protection efficiency of the different barriers. The a-Si:H coated showed better corrosion resistance as compared to the carbonated silicon alloys. No degradation was observed after 14 days immersion of the steel substrate coated with a-Si:H in 3% sodium chloride aqueous solution, making this coating an attractive candidate as corrosion barrier.