Free vibration of partially supported piles with the effects of bending moment, axial and shear force

The pile parts above the soil and embedded in the soil are called the first region and the second region, respectively. The fourth order partial differential equations of both regions for free vibration of partially supported pile subjected to bending moment, axial force and shear force are obtained using the small-displacement theory and the Winkler model. It is assumed that the behavior of the material is linear-elastic, and that axial force along the pile length and modulus of subgrade reaction for the second region to be constant. Shear effect is included in the partial differential equations by the second derivative of the elastic curve function with respect to shear deformation. Natural circular frequencies and relative stiffness of the pile are calculated for non-trivial solution of linear homogeneous system of equations obtained due to the values of axial forces acting on the pile, the shape factors, and the boundary conditions of the pile with both ends free and both ends simply supported; the results are presented in graphs.     

Analysis of antioxidants extracted from polypropylene by supercritical fluid extraction.

Maximal potential migration of six antioxidants (AO) from five polypropylene (PP) formulations was determined by two supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) procedures, both of which contained static and dynamic steps. All analytical conditions affecting the extraction were studied and optimized using Irgafos 168 as standard. SFE was more efficient as temperature and fluid density increased. During the static step in which the samples were exposed to the fluid without flux, the introduction of hexane and methanol as fluid modifiers significantly improved the extraction. Hexane appears to facilitate polymer swelling while methanol solvates the antioxidants. In the dynamic step (in which the extraction actually occurs) time is the key parameter. Extraction for 90 min results in an efficiency of around 75%. The introduction of modifiers during this step (by an HPLC-SFE procedure) did not produce any significant improvement. When SFE was carried out on all samples, extraction efficiency was around 75% except for Irganox 1010 and Hostanox O3. The large molecular volume of these antioxidants may be responsible for the considerable reduction of extraction efficiency. Particle size and shape of polymer sample were also important. The greater the surface to volume ratio the greater the extraction efficiency.     

Batch process monitoring in the original measurement's space

Quality control and safety related issues have become more and more important in industrial production of high added value products and chemical specialities during last years. In this regard, many successful applications of multivariate statistical process control (MSPC) for monitoring and diagnosis of batch processes have been presented. It is a common industrial practice to monitor the batch progress by exploiting the information contained in a historical database of successful batches using projection techniques such as principal components analysis (PCA), partial least squares (PLS) and independent component analysis (ICA). In this work, a new MSPC strategy for batch process monitoring is presented. Its distinctive feature is that it works in the space of the original variables. The technique uses only the T²-statistic for detection and identification purposes. The identification of the set of observations that signal the fault is accomplished by decomposing the T²-statistic as a unique sum of each variable contribution. Performance comparisons among the proposed strategy and the most popular PCA-based approaches are carried out by simulation of polymerization and penicillin cultivation batch processes. Results show that the new approach can be successfully applied to monitor this kind of processes since it works very well during both fault detection and identification stages.     

TangiWheel: A Widget for Manipulating Collections on Tabletop Displays Supporting Hybrid Input Modality

In this paper we present TangiWheel,a collection manipulation widget for tabletop displays.Our implementation is flexible,allowing either multi-touch or interaction,or even a hybrid scheme to better suit user choice and convenience.Different TangiWheel aspects and features are compared with other existing widgets for collection manipulation.The study reveals that TangiWheel is the first proposal to support a hybrid input modality with large resemblance levels between touch and tangible interaction styles.Several experiments were conducted to evaluate the techniques used in each input scheme for a better understanding of tangible surface interfaces in complex tasks performed by a single user (e.g.,involving a typical master-slave exploration pattern).The results show that tangibles perform significantly better than fingers,despite dealing with a greater number of interactions,in situations that require a large number of acquisitions and basic manipulation tasks such as establishing location and orientation.However,when users have to perform multiple exploration and selection operations that do not require previous basic manipulation tasks,for instance when collections are fixed in the interface layout,touch input is significantly better in terms of required time and number of actions.Finally,when a more elastic collection layout or more complex additional insertion or displacement operations are needed,the hybrid and tangible approaches clearly outperform finger-based interactions.     

Deforestation and foreign transfers: a Stackelberg differential game approach

In this paper, our concern is with deforestation as a global environmental issue. Foreign transfers from developed or Northern countries to developing or Southern countries have been proposed to deal with that issue. We use a Stackelberg differential game approach where the two players are: a donor community (the leader) and a recipient country (the follower). We study the impact of different specifications for the transfer function, related to the different information structures the players can consider when playing the Stackelberg game. The different scenarios are compared both from the environmental and economic points of view.     

Optimal hydro scheduling and offering strategies considering price uncertainty and risk management

Hydro energy represents a priority in the energy policy of Portugal, with the aim of decreasing the dependence on fossil fuels. In this context, optimal hydro scheduling acquires added significance in moving towards a sustainable environment. A mixed-integer nonlinear programming approach is considered to enable optimal hydro scheduling for the short-term time horizon, including the effect of head on power production, start-up costs related to the units, multiple regions of operation, and constraints on discharge variation. As new contributions to the field, market uncertainty is introduced in the model via price scenarios and risk management is included using Conditional Value-at-Risk to limit profit volatility. Moreover, plant scheduling and pool offering by the hydro power producer are simultaneously considered to solve a realistic cascaded hydro system.     

Protection of wind energy systems against the indirect effects of lightning

This paper is concerned with the protection of wind energy systems against the indirect effects of lightning. As wind energy is gaining increasing importance throughout the world, lightning damages involving wind energy systems have come to be regarded with more attention. Nevertheless, there are still very few studies in Portugal regarding lightning protection of wind energy systems using models of the Electro-Magnetic Transients Program (EMTP). Hence, a new case study is presented in this paper, based on a wind turbine with an interconnecting transformer, considering that lightning strikes the soil near the tower at a distance such that galvanic coupling occurs through the grounding electrode. Computer simulations obtained by using EMTP-RV are presented and conclusions are duly drawn.     

Study and Analysis of the Effect of Harmonics on the Hot Spot Temperature of a Distribution Transformer Using Finite-Volume Method

Transformers are critical components in power systems and their failure can cause long interruption of power supply. The condition of a transformer can be monitored by performing thermal analysis. The use of non-linear devices, such as rectifiers and converters, draws harmonic currents that increase losses in transformers, thereby increasing their operating temperature. In this article, a new numerical approach is presented for determining the rise in hot spot temperature in a 5-kVA, 400/400-V dry-type three-phase transformer laboratory prototype. The key novelty is that the additional winding eddy current loss due to non-linear loads is considered in the numerical modeling. The winding eddy current loss corresponding to harmonic distortion is estimated by conducting experiments and calculations. Numerical simulations are carried out for a wide range of non-linear loads using a commercial computational fluid dynamics package, FLUENT 6.3. The proposed numerical methodology is validated by performing experiments on the transformer for possible non-linear loads and comparing the measured hot spot temperature with the simulated values. Correlation equations for rise in hot spot temperature as a function of total harmonic distortion are presented, which can be used for estimating the life of transformers when connected to different types of loads.     

Engineering model for intumescent coating behavior in a pilot‐scale gas‐fired furnace

In the event of a fire, intumescent fire protective coatings expand and form a thermally insulating char that protects the underlying substrate from heat and subsequent structural failure. The intumescence includes several rate phenomena, which have been investigated and quantified in the literature for several decades. However, various challenges still exist. The most important one concerns mathematical model validation under realistic exposure conditions and/or time scales. Another is the simplification of advanced models to overcome the often‐seen lack of a complete set of input and adjustable model parameters for a given coating, thereby providing models for industrial applications. In this work, these two challenges are addressed. Three experimental series, with an intumescent coating inside a 0.65 m³ gas‐fired furnace, heating up according to so‐called cellulosic fire conditions, were conducted and a very good repeatability was evident. The experiments were run for almost 3 h, reaching a final gas temperature of about 1100°C. Measurements include transient temperature developments inside the expanding char, at the steel substrate, and in the mineral wool insulation placed behind the substrate. A mathematical model, describing the intumescent coating behavior and temperatures in the furnace using a single overall reaction was developed and validated against experimental data. By including a decomposition front movement through the char, a good qualitative agreement was obtained. After further validation against experiments with other coating formulations, it has potential to become a practical engineering tool. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 3947–3962, 2016