Application of job scheduling in small scale rice milling firm

Rice is the edible seed of a plant which is a member of the grass family. It is an annual plant which is grown in many countries throughout the world and is the staple diet for over half the world's population. Rice milling firm has therefore occupied a significant position in the small, medium and large scale enterprises of many nations. In application of job scheduling in rice milling activities a framework for proper scheduling of activities (jobs) in rice milling processing firm in Nigeria has been developed. The methodology addresses this problem by supposing we have (n) customers to be served (where n is large); in what way should customers’ order be processed such that the firm’s profit is maximized while the customers are not unnecessarily delayed? The problem is addressed by using makespan as a measure of performance while the job orders were sequentially scheduled according to order of priority to achieve optimum results. The results show that CDS and A1 heuristics are preferred to the traditional method of USO. Accordingly, the CDS heuristic, followed by A1 heuristic, gives the best makespan results

Bandwidth enhancement of circular microstrip antennas

Ali Hussain Ali Yawer and Abdulkareem Abd Ali Mohammed

Microstrip Antennas have many advantages such as low profile, light weight, can be easily matched with microwave integrated circuits which leads to use this type of antennas in different applications, on the other side, the great disadvantage of these antennas is the narrow bandwidth which is 2 to 5 %. In this paper a single element circular Microstrip antenna has been designed which had a narrow bandwidth and then two methods of bandwidth enhancement had been designed and compared to the single patch, these two techniques gave a bandwidth of 10% and 38 % respectively. The three designs had been simulated using Microwave Office Package.

Biomedical image analysis using wavelet tools for emergency medical applications

A. K. M. Fazlul Haque, Md. Hanif Ali and M. Adnan Kiber

In this paper, the analysis of 2D signals, especially emergency biomedical images are performed using the wavelet tools of MATLAB, has been presented for medical application. In terms of 2D signal analysis, an image is taken and added with different four types of noise (Salt and Peeper, Speckle, Gaussian and Poisson). After that all of the noisy images are de-noised for further comparison with the statistical data of the original image. Later the decision is taken based on the impact of the noises, which noise is less harmful and from which noise the signal can be reconstructed mostly. The applications of wavelet in different sectors along with some practical usage are also discussed.

Complex neural network approach to optimal location of facts devices for transfer capability enhancement

D. Venu Madhava Chary and J. Amarnath

This paper concentrates on enhancement of total transfer capability incorporating FACTS devices. Repeated power flow program is used to determine the voltage constrained total transfer capability (TTC). The effect of change in reactance of the line on the transfer capability and reactive power loss is studied. In recent years Complex valued Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) are becoming popular for solving problems involving complex data. As the transfer capability, real and reactive power loss depends on the line parameters a novel method for computing transfer capability and total real and reactive power loss is proposed in this paper using complex valued neural network.

Driving force characteristic and power consumption of 4.75 kw permanent magnet motor for a solar vehicle

Zahari Taha, Rossi Passarella, Nasrudin Abd Rahim and Jamali Md Sah

Abstract:

Electric, hybrid-electric and fuel-cell vehicles have received positive response from the market due to their environmental-friendly factors. However, an electric vehicle powered by a solar energy has not yet being produced commercially because of power reliability and also high production cost. At the moment, solar vehicles are being developed for individual use, demonstration and also for research activities. For example a solar vehicle is being developed for the World Solar Challenge (WSC) 2009. Most of the mechanical components and the electrical components such as the solar panels, batteries, permanent magnet motor, controller and maximum power point trackers (MPPT) are available off-the-shelf. In this paper, the driving force characteristics of the permanent magnet motor are described. The motor’s torque, speed and current characteristics are used to analyse the potential power performance of the vehicle on the road. Road test has shown that the theoretically calculated performance matches the road test results very closely.

Effect of weight percentage on mechanical properties of frit particulate reinforced Al6061 composite

D. Ramesh, R. P. Swamy and T. K. Chandrashekar

Abstract:

Frit-Al6061 alloy composites having 2 wt%, 4 wt%, 6 wt%, 8 wt% and10 wt% of frit particles were fabricated by liquid metallurgy (stir cast) method. The casted ingots were subjected to T6 heat treatment to optimize the properties. The composite specimens were machined as per test standards. The specimens were tested to know the common casting defects using ultra-sonic flaw detector testing system. Some of the mechanical properties have been evaluated and compared with Al6061 alloy. Significant improvement in tensile properties, compressive strength and hardness are noticeable as the wt % of the frit particles increases. The microstructures of the composites were studied to know the dispersion of the frit particles in matrix. It has been observed that addition of frit particles significantly improves ultimate tensile strength along with compressive strength and hardness properties as compared with that of unreinforced matrix.

Analysis of defects in gas shielded arc welding of AISI1040 steel using Taguchi method

K. Kishore, P. V. Gopal Krishna, K. Veladri and Syed Qasim Ali

Research on welding of materials like steel is still critical and ongoing. An attempt has been made to analyze the effect of process parameters in qualitative manner for welding of AISI1040 steel using processes of Shielded Metal Gas Welding (MIG and TIG). Taguchi’s method is used to formulate the experimental layout. Exhaustive survey suggest that 5-7 control factors viz., arc voltage, arc current, welding speed, nozzle to work distance and gas pressure predominantly influence weld quality, even plate thickness and backing plate too have their own effect. Design of experiments based on orthogonal array is employed to develop the weldments. The weldments are subjected to testing to find the qualitative properties. The data obtained is checked for adequacy based on ANOVA. The result computed is in form of contribution from each parameter, through which optimal parameters are identified for minimum defects. The data in the present work is collected using ultrasound testing (UT), in which angle beam technique is adopted for the testing of weldments and results are quantified accordingly. The testing of specimens indicated, the presence of defects like LOP, LOF, Blowhole, and Cracks

Empirical delays from actuated and optimised static signal settings compared

Johnnie Ben-Edigbe and Iffazun bt Mohd Ibrahim

Abstract:

Many intersections have varying mechanism for vehicles right of way as they approach the intersection. With actuated signal, induction loops buried in the roadway stop-line, video, infrared or microwave detection system automatically adjusts timings relative to prevailing degree of saturation. An intersection without such detection system operates on fixed times (static). Signal settings are based on fixed proportional distribution of effective green per cycle time. In the paper, daylight and dry weather traffic performances at standalone signalised 4-way intersection were investigated under actuated and optimised signal timing conditions. Based on the hypotheses that peak traffic performance at standalone between optimised static and actuated signal settings are insignificant; discharge rates, delays and effective green timings for both were estimated compared and contrasted. Given that an optimised static signal assigns predetermined time irrespective of traffic demand; saturation flows were fixed at 1900 for straight, 1800 left turning and 1700 right turning vehicles per hour per lane respectively. Results show marginal differences in peak period effective green, discharge rates and delays. The paper concluded that optimised static signal can produce good results and should also be considered especially at standalone intersections where traffic operations are at peak regularly.

Filling in missing peakflow data using artificial neural networks

Steven K. Starrett, Shelli K. Starrett Travis Heier, Yunsheng Su, Denny Tuan, and Mark Bandurraga

Abstract:

The objectives of this study were to: 1) use Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to fill-in missing data from the peak annual flowrate records for the Santa Clara River watershed, and 2) compare the ANN results with linear regression.  Gauging station peaks were modeled with inputs consisting of: peak flows from nearby gauging stations, precipitation data, and temporal data. Model characteristics (number of nodes and layers, transfer functions, data pre-processing methods, etc.) were also studied to optimize the ability of the ANN to learn relationships between the inputs and the peak flows. In general, the models performed well with peak flows from one to four neighboring station, maximum annual 10-d precipitation total data, and the year (representing land use changes); and it was common for testing results to be within 20% of the target. The ANN models had a SSE value 2 to 400 times less than linear regression models.

Numerical investigation of natural convection heat transfer from multiple heat sources in a square enclosure

S. Venkatachalapathy and M. Udayakumar

Abstract:

Natural convection cooling using air as a fluid is commonly used in the cooling of electronic equipment and many other devices. In this work, a three-dimensional numerical study of natural convection heat transfer from multiple protruding heat sources simulating electronic components is conducted. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, FLUENT is used in this analysis. A 4 by 5 array of heat sources are embedded in the bottom wall of an adiabatic square enclosure. The heat sources with a constant heat flux source at the bottom are of square cross-section and arranged in an in-line manner. Each heat source is attached with one thermocouple, which is connected to a data acquisition system and a computer. The steady state temperatures of heat sources, air inlet, outlet and enclosure walls are measured. The analysis is carried out by varying the heat fluxes and outlet areas. The heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number and Grashof number are obtained. Results indicate that the heat sources inside the array are hotter and the heat transfer coefficient increases almost linearly with heat source surface temperatures. Grashof number and outlet opening areas strongly influence the Nusselt number. The heat transfer coefficient for the inner heat sources in a row is lower than those near the enclosure walls. The results of numerical analysis are compared with the experiments and there is a good agreement between the two.

Performance of superplasticised fibrous concrete on RCPT test under thermoshock

G. Elangovan and P. Perumal

Abstract:

This experimental investigation is about the chloride ion penetration of concrete under effect of thermo shock on superplasticised fibrous concrete at 200 degree Celsius. As reported in previous studies concretes made with purely Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) showed evidence of a steady decline in residual strength when subjected to thermoshock under elevated temperatures. In the present study tests were conducted to minimize the reduction of residual strength under compression, minimize the chloride ion penetration of OPC concrete by using chemical admixtures like superplasticiser and with different individual fibers. This paper exposes the details of the test programme, results and also compares against the same with earlier reports. From this test results, it was found that the residual properties of concrete were not affected and data available here will be helpful in assessing the residual strength of concrete after thermoshock.

Stability analysis of two lobe hydrodynamic journal bearing with couple stress lubricant

N. P. Mehta, S. S. Rattan and Rajiv Verma

Abstract:

A generalized Reynolds equation has been derived for carrying out the stability analysis of a two lobe hydrodynamic bearing operating with couple stress fluids that has been solved using the finite element method. A non-dimensional parameter, ‘l’ has been used to indicate the length of the long chain polymer added to the bulk Newtonian fluid. It has been observed that the dynamic characteristics, i.e. the stiffness and the damping coefficients, are greatly influenced with the variation of the couple stress parameter ‘l’. The threshold speed of the journal, obtained as a solution to the linearized equations of motion is used to demonstrate the increased stability of the journal bearing system.