Facility layout problems: A survey

Layout problems are found in several types of manufacturing systems. Typically, layout problems are related to the location of facilities (e.g., machines, departments) in a plant. They are known to greatly impact the system performance. Most of these problems are NP hard. Numerous research works related to facility layout have been published. A few literature reviews exist, but they are not recent or are restricted to certain specific aspects of these problems. The literature analysis given here is recent and not restricted to specific considerations about layout design.

We suggest a general framework to analyze the literature and present existing works using such criteria as: the manufacturing system features, static/dynamic considerations, continual/discrete representation, problem formulation, and resolution approach. Several research directions are pointed out and discussed in our conclusion.     

Use of pyrogenic silicas for petroleum oil polar fraction characterisation. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and microelectrophoresis studies

In the power transformer, the presence of polar or charged species in the insulating oil can cause failure and electric discharges. Solid substrates such as silica can be used to extract the polar species and to refine the oil in order to prevent future failure in the power transformer. However, the use of silica for petroleum oil separation and refining will depend on the silica characteristics such as surface charge, surface composition, specific surface area and particle size.Various pyrogenic silicas having various specific surface areas (49-200 m² g⁻¹) and particle sizes (207-500 nm) were used to extract the polar fractions from the neat transformer insulating oils (a new, NO, and used, UO2, oils). The oil covered silica samples were investigated by diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy in the range 4000-600 cm⁻¹. The bare silica surfaces present two main hydroxyl components, a sharper peak at 3745 cm⁻¹, I₃₇₄₅, due to isolated silanols and a second broad, which spreads over 3745-3000 cm⁻¹, I_3745-3000, due to H-bonded silanols. The relative intensities of the two components, I₃₇₄₅/I_3745-3000, varied for the bare and the oil covered silicas depending on the solid surface characteristics. The adsorption of the NO polar fraction onto silica leads to strong reduction in intensity of the sharper peak in favour of the broad one. However, the adsorption of the UO2 polar fraction onto silica leads in all cases to the decrease in the intensity of the both silica OH components. Further, the UO2 adsorption on the silica leads to the apparition of a broad peak at low frequency in the region 3250-3300 cm⁻¹ which, is due to the associated phenolic groups of UO2 oil polar fraction. The analysis of the DRIFT spectra for various samples indicates that the oil polar fraction resembles to asphaltenes compounds.The microelectrophoresis method used to investigate the surface charge at the water/oil polar fraction covered silica interface, indicates negatively charged particles. Further, the negative charge increased with the pH, as resulting from the increase of the ionisation and/or the amount of the oil polar carboxylic and phenolic groups. The oil polar fraction, i.e. the asphaltene components, in contact with both the silica surface and water at high pH values rearrange, due to their amphiphilic character.Finally, the use of the silica substrates seems to be suited to extract and analyse polar species present in petroleum oil. A correlation is found between the nature of the oil, its functionalities, and the magnitude of its zeta potential value at the water/oil covered silica interface.     

Maghnite‐H+, a solid catalyst for the cationic polymerization of α‐methylstyrene

The polymerization of α‐methylstyrene (AMS) catalyzed by Maghnite‐H⁺ (Mag‐H) was investigated. Mag‐H is a montmorillonite sheet silicate clay, exchanged with protons. It was found that the cationic polymerization of AMS is initiated by Mag‐H at ambient temperature in bulk and in solution. The effect of the amount of Mag‐H, the temperature, and the solvent was studied. The polymerization rate increased with increase in the temperature and the proportion of catalyst, and it was larger in nonpolar solvents. These results indicated the cationic nature of the polymerization. It may be suggested that the polymerization is initiated by proton addition to monomer from Mag‐H. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008     

Electrochemical and analytical study of corrosion inhibition on carbon steel in HCl medium by 1,12-bis(1,2,4-triazolyl)dodecane

1,12-bis(1,2,4-triazolyl)dodecane (dTC12) is an excellent corrosion inhibitor for carbon steel in deaerated 1 M HCl solution. In this work electrochemical and analytical techniques were used to study the inhibition of corrosion on carbon steel in acidic medium. The carbon steel corrosion inhibition of dTC12 was attributed to the synergistic effect between chloride anion and quaternary ammonium ion. The protective efficiency of the film was higher than 90%, indicating that corrosion of carbon steel in 1 M HCl is reduced by dTC12.The effect of dissolved oxygen on the inhibition efficiency was also investigated. The results show that the inhibition efficiency increases in early stage and decreases for a long immersion time.     

Studies on the pulping of egyptian cotton linters by the nitric acid process

Egyptian cotton linters were pulped by the nitric acid process. In order to reduce the high ash and silica contents of the resulting pulps it was found necessary to apply hot refining with sodium hydroxide solution. Different conditions of concentration, temperature, and pressure in the refining step were investigated. Refining before and during bleaching were compared.     

Preparation of rechargeable lithium batteries with poly(methyl methacrylate) based gel polymer electrolyte by <Emphasis Type="Italic">in situ</Emphasis>γ-ray irradiation-induced polymerization

An admixture of commercial liquid electrolyte (LB302, 1 M solution of LiPF₆ in 1:1 EC/DEC) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) was enclosed in CR2032 cells. The assembled cells were then -ray-irradiated using configurations of half cells and full cells. Through this in situ irradiation polymerization process, we obtained rechargeable lithium ion cells with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) based gel polymer electrolytes (GPE). Galvanostatic cycling, AC impedance spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry were employed to investigate the electrochemical properties of the cells and the gel polymer electrolyte. This PMMA-based gel polymer electrolyte was found to exhibit a high ionic conductivity (at least 10^–3 S cm^–1) at room temperature. Due to a significant increase in the charge transfer resistance between the GPE and the cathode, the cell impedance of a PMMA-based lithium ion cell is greater than that of a liquid-electrolyte-based cell. The discharge capacity of a LiNi_0.8Co_0.2O₂/GPE/graphite is approximately 145 mAh g^–1 for the first cycle and decreases to123 mAh g^–1 after 20 cycles. In addition, a large initial cell impedance (LICI) was observed in the irradiated positive half cell. In this paper, we propose a possible mechanism related to the detachment of the PMMA layer from the lithium electrode. This detachment of the PMMA layer from the lithium electrode has not been explicitly discussed previously.     

A robust estimation approach for uncertain systems with perturbed measurements

This paper deals with state estimation problem for uncertain continuous‐time systems. A numerical treatment is proposed for designing interval observers that ensures guaranteed upper and lower bounds on the estimated states. In order to take into account possible perturbations on the system and its outputs, a new type of interval observers is introduced. Such interval observers consist of two coupled general Luenberger‐type observers that involve dilatation functions. In addition, we provide an optimality criterion in order to find optimal interval observers that lead to tight interval error estimation. The proposed existence and optimality conditions are expressed in terms of linear programming. Also, some illustrative examples are given. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.