Effect of electric field on the hydrodynamics of fluidized nanoparticles

The effect of electric field on the hydrodynamics of nanoparticles was studied in a fluidized rectangular bed, with electrodes attached to two parallel walls. It was shown that the electric field of the order of 3 times the gravity markedly decreased the bed expansion and increased the solids volume fraction of nanoparticles fluidized by air. In these experiments, a light diode assembly was utilized to infer the local solids volume fractions within a rectangular bed of 10 nm silica particles. These experimental measurements yielded a two dimensional solids volume fraction distribution within the rectangular bed. The experimental results provided some new insights into the distribution of solids within the bed. The agglomerate diameters were computed using a momentum balance with the drag given by the Ergun equation and the empirical Richardson-Zaki method. Both methods yielded agglomerate diameters of the order of 100 μm and showed dependence on the strength of the electric field. The electric field decreased the granular temperature of the nanoparticles.     

Demonstration of a semiconductor external cavity laser using a UVwritten grating in a planar silica waveguide

The authors report the first demonstration of a semiconductor external cavity waveguide laser, modulated at 2.5 Gbit/s over 100 km of standard optical fibre using a UV written grating in a planar silica waveguide as the feedback element     

Performance Optimizations for Deploying VoIP Services in Mesh Networks

In the recent past, there has been a tremendous increase in the popularity of VoIP services as a result of huge growth in broadband access. The same voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) service poses new challenges when deployed over a wireless mesh network, while enabling users to make voice calls using WiFi phones. Packet losses and delay due to interference in a multiple-hop mesh network with limited capacity can significantly degrade the end-to-end VoIP call quality. In this work, we discuss the basic requirements for efficient deployment of VoIP services over a mesh network. We present and evaluate practical optimizing techniques that can enhance the network capacity, maintain the VoIP quality and handle user mobility efficiently. Extensive experiments conducted on a real testbed and ns-2 provide insights into the performance issues and demonstrate the level of improvement that can be obtained by the proposed techniques. Specifically, we find that packet aggregation along with header compression can increase the number of supported VoIP calls in a multihop network by 2-3 times. The proposed fast path switching is highly effective in maintaining the VoIP quality. Our fast handoff scheme achieves almost negligible disruption during calls to roaming clients     

Experimental demonstration of step-like dispersion profiling inoptical fibre for soliton pulse generation and compression

Generation of 100 GHz trains of 500-700 fs pulses using dual-frequency beat conversion in a step-like dispersion profiled fibre is reported. The authors believe that this is the first time the generation and compression of soliton pulses using such a fibre has been demonstrated. The fabrication of such fibre assemblies does not require any special facilities and relies only on conventional optical fibre technology. They believe that the use of profiling the fibre dispersion by fibre segments instead of continuously dispersion-decreasing fibre is not only possible but preferable in many applications     

Object-oriented intelligent computer-integrated design, processplanning, and inspection

The methodology for developing intelligent integrated computer-aided design and manufacturing systems based on object-oriented principles is discussed. The ways in which the application of these principles affects the nature of these systems are reviewed. The implementation of an automated, intelligent, and flexible computer-integrated-manufacturing (CIM) system prototype using an object-oriented programming environment (Smalltalk-80, Version 4.0) is detailed. A CIM system includes CAD, a process planner, and an inspection planner. Each of these components is discussed individually     

MODELING AND PREDICTIVE CONTROL OF MIMO NONLINEAR SYSTEMS USING WIENER-LAGUERRE MODELS

In this work, a Weiner-type nonlinear black box model was developed for capturing dynamics of open loop stable MIMO nonlinear systems with deterministic inputs. The linear dynamic component of the model was parameterized using orthogonal Laguerre filters while the nonlinear state output map was constructed either using quadratic polynomial functions or artificial neural networks. The properties of the resulting model, such as open loop stability and steady-state behavior, are discussed in detail. The identified Weiner-Laguerre model was further used to formulate a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) scheme. The efficacy of the proposed modeling and control scheme was demonstrated using two benchmark control problems: (a) a simulation study involving control of a continuously operated fermenter at its optimum (singular) operating point and (b) experimental verification involving control of pH at the critical point of a neutralization process. It was observed that the proposed Weiner-Laguerre model is able to capture both the dynamic and steady-state characteristics of the continuous fermenter as well as the neutralization process reasonably accurately over wide operating ranges. The proposed NMPC scheme achieved a smooth transition from a suboptimal operating point to the optimum (singular) operating point of the fermenter without causing large variation in manipulated inputs. The proposed NMPC scheme was also found to be robust in the face of moderate perturbation in the unmeasured disturbances. In the case of experimental verification using the neutralization process, the proposed control scheme was found to achieve much faster transition to a set point close to the critical point when compared to a conventional gain-scheduled PID controller.     

Influence of variables in nickel-manganese-zinc alloy plating from a sulphate bath

An Ni-Mn-Zn alloy has been satisfactorily electrodeposited from a sulphate bath containing nickel sulphate (20–23 g dm⁻³), manganese sulphate (76–88 g dm⁻³), zinc sulphate (18–24 g dm⁻³), ammonium sulphate (30 g dm⁻³), thiourea (18g dm⁻³) and ascorbic acid (0.8 g dm⁻³) under various plating conditions, namely, current density 1.0–3.0 A dm⁻²; temperature 30–45° C; pH 2.7–4.2 and duration of electrolysis 15–30 min. Semibright, blackish-grey, thin films were generally deposited with the proportion of nickel and manganese in the deposits increasing with increasing current density, temperature and duration of electrolysis. However, the amount of zinc increased as the pH of the solution was raised. The cathode efficiency for alloy deposition increased linearly as the temperature or the pH of the solution was decreased, whereas at any particular pH and temperature it continuously rose with increasing current density or the time of deposition. The cathode polarization shifted to more negative values on increasing the current density and to less negative values at higher pH values and temperatures which consequently lowered the throwing power under the latter conditions.     

A data mining approach to characterize road accident locations

Data mining has been proven as a reliable technique to analyze road accidents and provide productive results. Most of the road accident data analysis use data mining techniques, focusing on identifying factors that affect the severity of an accident. However, any damage resulting from road accidents is always unacceptable in terms of health, property damage and other economic factors. Sometimes, it is found that road accident occurrences are more frequent at certain specific locations. The analysis of these locations can help in identifying certain road accident features that make a road accident to occur frequently in these locations. Association rule mining is one of the popular data mining techniques that identify the correlation in various attributes of road accident. In this paper, we first applied k-means algorithm to group the accident locations into three categories, high-frequency, moderate-frequency and low-frequency accident locations. k-means algorithm takes accident frequency count as a parameter to cluster the locations. Then we used association rule mining to characterize these locations. The rules revealed different factors associated with road accidents at different locations with varying accident frequencies. The association rules for high-frequency accident location disclosed that intersections on highways are more dangerous for every type of accidents. High-frequency accident locations mostly involved two-wheeler accidents at hilly regions. In moderate-frequency accident locations, colonies near local roads and intersection on highway roads are found dangerous for pedestrian hit accidents. Low-frequency accident locations are scattered throughout the district and the most of the accidents at these locations were not critical. Although the data set was limited to some selected attributes, our approach extracted some useful hidden information from the data which can be utilized to take some preventive efforts in these locations.