Integrating human factors into discrete event simulation: a proactive approach to simultaneously design for system performance and employees’ well being

The aim of this research is to: (1) Develop an approach to integrating both human fatigue-recovery patterns and human learning into Discrete Event Simulation models of a production system to predict productivity and quality; (2) Validate the predicted fatigue against operators’ perceived fatigue; and (3) Demonstrate how this Human Factors-enabled simulation approach can be applied in a case study comparing two manufacturing line designs in the context of electronics assembly. The new approach can predict the accumulation of operator fatigue, fatigue-related quality effects and productivity changes based on system design configurations. In the demonstration comparison, fatigue dosage was 7–33% lower in the proposed system where HF was taken into consideration at the engineering design (ED) stage. In the existing system, the fatigue dose measure correlated with quality deficits with 26% of the variance accounted for – a large portion given the multi-causal nature of production deficits. ED models that do not include human aspects may provide unreliable results in terms of productivity and quality estimates. This research shows that it is possible to design production systems that are more productive while being less hazardous for the system operator.     

An innovative method of die design and evaluation of flow balance for thermoplastics extrusion profiles

In this article, a computational and experimental method for flow balancing of a U‐shaped die profile with nonuniform thicknesses is presented. The approach was to implement a flow restricting mechanism along the melt flow path. A parametric study based on the restrictor dimensions was carried out to attain a preliminary optimal design. Simulations were performed using Fluent software to analyze the flow velocity at the die exit. Experimental study was then carried out at various restrictor positions for the purpose of attaining a desirable flow balance. The velocity at various segments of the die exit was measured utilizing an innovative procedure by implementing the “separating blades.” Experimental findings were compared with those of simulations which showed an acceptable agreement. The results suggest that a flexible die can be designed to achieve a flow balance under various processing conditions. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2009. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Absorption of ethylene from ethylene‐ethane gaseous mixture by AgNO3 solution in a semi‐continuous process

Ethylene absorption from an ethylene–ethane gaseous mixture in the silver nitrate solution is studied at different temperatures and concentrations. Unlike the previous studies, in which the absorption was studied by batch processes, a semi‐continuous process is applied in the present research. The results show that increase in temperature reduces the amount of absorbed ethylene and absorption time. The amount of absorbed ethylene is increased in solutions with higher concentrations of AgNO₃, whereas the mole ratio of absorbed ethylene per silver nitrate is decreased by increasing the AgNO₃ concentration. Total absorption is modelled as a function of the temperature and concentration of absorbing solution. The estimated values from the model are in good agreement with the experimental data.     

An enhanced integer coded genetic algorithm to optimize PWRs

The aim of this work is to develop a new hybrid mutation integer for integer coded genetic algorithm, ICGA, to design the loading pattern, LP, in pressurized water reactors. Because of the huge number of possible combinations for the fuel assemblies, FAs, loading in a core and finding the optimum solution is a truly complex problem. In common genetic algorithms the mutation and crossover techniques are used to optimize an objective function. In this study flattening of power inside a reactor core is chosen as an objective function. To obtain optimal FA arrangement an Enhanced Integer Coded Genetic Algorithm, EICGA, is developed in order to obtain an optimal FA arrangement. This code is applicable to all types of PWR cores having different geometries and designs with many number of FA types. The results show a marked improvement in comparison to published data.     

A comparison between different windows in spectral and cross spectral analysis techniques with Kalman filtering for estimating power quality indices

Fourier based methods are still popular for calculating power quality indices (PQIs) in the technical community such as IEC and IEEE. They are robust towards noise and can be calculated efficiently using the fast Fourier transform (FFT) method. IEEE Std 1459-2010 provides formulations for calculating important PQI for single and three phase systems. The aim of this paper is to present the theory for estimating PQIs using the Welch spectral and cross spectral analysis techniques, and show experimentally the accuracy of the proposed methods when calculating the PQIs. Further it provides a comparison on the windowing techniques (WTs) that accompany the PQI estimations when using FFT based methods. This information has not been documented extensively in the technical literature when trying to calculate the PQI as specified by IEEE Std 1459-2010. Further we present a virtual instrument (VI) with a Kalman filter (KF) to estimate the PQIs. The KF is used to reduce the variance in measurements for the PQI estimation. We also compare experimentally the accuracy of the VI without the KF with the VI using the KF. Specifically we propose good and bad WTs to estimate such PQIs.     

Evaluation of windowed ESPRIT virtual instrument for estimating Power Quality Indices

The use of subspace and Matrix Algebra (MA) methods for estimating Power Quality Indices (PQIs) as defined by IEEE Std 1459-2010 is relatively new. For this reason there is room for further research about these methods and their efficiency applied to estimating PQIs. This document presents the design of a Virtual Instrument (VI) based on modern subspace, MA and Least Square (LS) techniques with a Kalman Filter (KF) for estimating PQIs. Further we claim that the efficiency of the subspace method is comparable to the Fourier based methods in typical power system analysis. Simulation and experiments are conducted to further compare the performance of this VI with other VI's which do not use the KF. We also compare this VI with VI's that use the classical Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based method of estimation.     

Virtual Machine Consolidation in Cloud Computing Systems: Challenges and Future Trends

Wireless Personal Communications - Cloud Computing Systems (CCSs) provides a computing capability through the Internet. It enables organizations or individuals to have a computing power without...     

Synergistic effect between ultraviolet irradiation and electrochemical oxidation for removal of humic acids and pharmaceuticals

The fate of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment is significantly affected by the presence of humic acids (HA). In this work, the synergistic effect of electrochemical oxidation (EO) and ultraviolet irradiation (UVI) was evaluated for HA removal and for the simultaneous degradation of three pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine, propranolol and sulfamethoxazole) in presence of HA. The effectiveness of EO, UVI and their combination for HA removal was assessed using different operating parameters, such as type of anode (Nb/BDD and Ti/IrO₂), supporting electrolyte (NaCl, NaBr and Na₂SO₄), current density (8.1, 16.1, 28.2, 40.3, and 48.4 mA/cm²), pH (3, 7 and 9) and NaCl electrolyte concentration (7, 14 and 21 mM). The use of non‐active anode Nb/BDD, NaCl electrolyte and combination EO‐UVI was the most efficacious option for HA removal, due to the production of hydroxyl radicals as well as active chlorine species (HClO, Cl^● and ClO^?) generated by anodic oxidation and by UVI. The effectiveness of the EO process was enhanced coupling EO with UVI, however the energetic consumption increased. The composition of the electrolyte was the pivotal parameter since a complete degradation of the pharmaceuticals was achieved by both processes EO and EO‐UVI using NaCl as electrolyte; this is attributed to the indirect oxidation by electrogenerated active chlorine which dominates the pharmaceuticals degradation.     

Readout responses of inclined strips in position-sensitivedetectors

Readout responses for the inclined strips in position-sensitive detectors have been studied using theoretical predictions and experimental results. Inclined strips are almost along the displacement direction of incident particles. Rotating conventional strips to near horizontal strips decreases the number of strips by a tangential factor for long-length position sensing. In addition to the channel reduction, the inclined strips modify about 10% in the readout linearity compared to the long-length zigzag patterns. There is resolution degradation because of the inherent high sensitivity of these strips to the avalanche size (about 8% of the detector full length). Double peak responses were observed for sensing the positions of the incident particles. Our theoretical predictions and experimental results are discussed in this paper