A swift technique for damage detection of determinate truss structures

In this study, a novel two-stage approach for damage detection of determinate truss structures is proposed. The method lies in the group of vibration-based methods but it just needs the first natural frequency and mode shape vector of these structures for identifying the location and severity of damage. In the first stage, the modal residual force vector for different modes of a structure is introduced and the one associated with the first mode is applied to the structure as an external nodal force vector. Then, the residual local nodal force vector can be computed for all elements of the structure. Next, the elements with non-zero residual internal force are considered as damaged elements. In the second stage, the damage severity of each damaged element is determined using a new relation which can be categorized as a force–displacement relation. To show the efficiency and simplicity of the proposed method, three truss structures including a 13-bar planar truss, a 29-bar planar truss, and a 77-bar planar truss under different damage scenarios are studied; the results of which indicate that the method is innovatively capable of suitably detecting, for determinate truss structures, not only damaged members but also their individual damage severity by carrying solely one analysis.

     

A swift technique for damage detection of determinate truss structures (2)

This paper introduces a novel and robust probable statistical approach for the applied damage detection of determinate truss structures. This technique involves two steps; the first is called most probable damaged element identification step and the second is called probable damage severity prediction step. In the first step, a new index based on modal residual forces plays a major role to independently identify damage-suspected elements for each considered mode. Then among them, the elements, the most probable to damage, are extracted. In the second step, the probable damage severity for each most probable damaged element is individually predicted using a novel statistical approach. Finally, to justify the validity and robustness of the technique, three commonly used bridge trusses including a 29-bar Pratt truss, a 29-bar Warren truss, and finally, a 37-bar K truss under different damage scenarios are thoroughly studied while their modal parameters are corrupted by noise. The obtained results indicate that the method is innovatively capable of swiftly predicting, for determinate truss structures, not only damaged elements but also their damage severities by carrying out solely few structural analyses.

     

Simulations of Gas Distributors in the Design of Shallow Bubble Column Reactors

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to simulate the effect of sparger construction in gas holdup and liquid axial velocity in a shallow bubble column reactor for the air‐water system. Model parameters were evaluated in 2‐ and 3‐D simulations by using a two‐fluid model and the standard k‐? turbulence model. The Eulerian‐Eulerian approach was employed to predict the height of column that is affected by the sparger. It was found that increasing the number of orifices in the sparger increases the total gas holdup. Moreover, each orifice causes an increase in the circulation and mixing of liquid in the column. The results of the simulations follow the trends observed in the findings of Dhotre and Joshi [1].     

Analysis of particle-gun-derived dairy powder stickiness curves

The stickiness curves of a range of dairy powders were measured using a particle-gun rig. The stickiness curves for the powders were shown to run parallel but above the curve of the glass transition temperature (T_g) of amorphous lactose. By assuming that the amorphous lactose at the surface of the powder was in equilibrium with the exit conditions of the air from the particle gun, it was found that for any particular dairy powder sample, the amount of powder deposition measured on the particle-gun target disc collapsed into a single function of the temperature difference by which the amorphous lactose T_g at the surface was exceeded. The x-axis intercept of these plots was calculated and designated as (T−T_g)_crit, characterizing the conditions for initiation of stickiness of the powder. The sensitivity of each powder to stickiness problems when placed in conditions where the critical T−T_g value at the surface is exceeded was quantified with the slope of the plot. These results show that it is the amorphous lactose component that is probably the main cause of stickiness in dairy powders and demonstrates how the particle-gun rig can be used to characterize the stickiness behaviour of powders over a wide range of conditions with two parameters.     

When a Rose Is Not a Rose: A Review of Recent Estimates of Congestion Costs

Careful examination of congestion costs leads to some conclusions that are counterintuitive. For example, consumer costs may rise, not fall, as a result of reducing congestion, and minimizing consumer costs may not increase aggregate social wealth.     

Clotting characteristics of milk by Withania coagulans: Proteomic and biochemical study

Extract of Withania coagulans fruit was evaluated for milk clotting activity. The highest enzyme activities were detected at pH 4 and 65°C. A 50 mM CaCl₂ was considered sufficient to decrease the milk clotting activity to an effective level. Rennet coagulation time was steadily increased with increasing NaCl and decreasing enzyme concentrations. The enzymatic activity of extract was completely inhibited by pepstatin-A, an aspartic protease inhibitor. Proteomic and zymographic analysis discovered an aspartic protease with Mw of about 35 KDa and pI of 5.91. Our data demonstrated that use of this plant in traditional cheese making has the scientific bases due to existence of an effective protease.     

Development of a sixth-order two-dimensional convection–diffusion scheme via Cole–Hopf transformation

In this paper, we develop a two-dimensional finite-difference scheme for solving the time-dependent convection–diffusion equation. The numerical method exploits Cole–Hopf equation to transform the nonlinear scalar transport equation into the linear heat conduction equation. Within the semi-discretization context, the time derivative term in the transformed parabolic equation is approximated by a second-order accurate time-stepping scheme, resulting in an inhomogeneous Helmholtz equation. We apply the alternating direction implicit scheme of Polezhaev to solve the Helmholtz equation. As the key to success in the present simulation, we develop a Helmholtz scheme with sixth-order spatial accuracy. As is standard practice, we validated the code against test problems which were amenable to exact solutions. Results show excellent agreement for the one-dimensional test problems and good agreement with the analytical solution for the two-dimensional problem.     

Designing plant experiments for real-time optimization systems

This paper presents a new criterion to design plant experiments for model-based real-time optimization (RTO) systems. Experiments are designed by maximizing total expected profit over a future horizon. The objective function for designing plant experiments includes the gain in profit by reducing the offset and variability after the experiments and loss in profit before and during experimentation. Therefore, large plant movement from the optimum during experimentation and too many experiments are penalized by the profit loss term. By solving the experimental design problem, the time to start the experiments, the number of experiments and the experimental operating conditions are determined. The proposed experimental design approach is applied to the simulated Williams-Otto reactor, where it yields higher profit for several cases than achieved by standard RTO without experimentation.