Facility location dynamics: An overview of classifications and applications

In order to modify the current facility or develop a new facility, the dynamics of facility location problems (FLPs) ought to be taken into account so as to efficiently deal with changing parameters such as market demand, internal and external factors, and populations. Since FLPs have a strategic or long-term essence, the inherited uncertainty of future parameters must be incorporated in relevant models, so these models can be considered applicable and ready to implement. Furthermore, due to largely capital outlaid, location or relocation of facilities is basically considered as a long-term planning. Hence, regarding the way in which relevant criteria will change over time, decision makers not only are concerned about the operability and profitability of facilities for an extended period, but also seek to robust locations fitting well with variable demands. Concerning this fact, a trade-off should be set between benefits brought by facility location changes and costs incurred by possible modifications. This review reports on literature pointing out some aspects and characteristics of the dynamics of FLPs. In fact, this paper aims not only to review most variants of these problems, but also to provide a broad overview of their mathematical formulations as well as case studies that have been studied by the literature. Finally, based on classified research works and available gaps in the literature, some possible research trends will be pointed out.     

Modeling dynamic viscosity of n-alkanes using LSSVM technique

One of the important thermophysical properties is viscosity which expresses the resistance of fluid to flow. The least squares support vector machine (LSSVM) algorithm is proposed as a novel method for prediction of dynamic viscosity of different normal alkanes in a wide range of pressure and temperature. As this study is purely computational, 228 experimental data points were gathered from literature for training and validation of the model. The outcomes of the LSSVM algorithm were compared with the actual data with acceptable average absolute relative deviation and the coefficient of determination (R²) of 1.014 and 0.9968, respectively. The comparisons showed that the predicting model has the potential of prediction of n-alkane dynamic viscosity in terms of pressure, temperature, and carbon number of n-alkane, so this strategy can be used as a simple tool for predicting the behavior of reservoir fluids.     

Sensitivity analysis of surface topography using the submerged non uniform piezoelectric micro cantilever in liquid by considering interatomic force interaction

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - The aim of this study is modeling and investigating the micro-cantilever (MC) vibration behavior of atomic force microscopy (AFM) more accurately by...     

A new manufacturable filter design approach for spectral reflectance estimation

Selection of the best possible filter set among a set of available filters is the obvious method of increasing dimension of camera signals for spectral reflectance reconstruction. There are also methods that are focusing on the filter design regardless of noticing to the constructability of the designed filters. This study shows that direct optimization of physical variables of filter manufacturing technique is more reliable than indirect approach of designing and then physical manufacturing of the designed filters. Direct optimization of the transmission‐controlling primaries in filter manufacturing process would guarantee having the designed filters in reality. Combination of some solvent dyes was used as the spectral transmission matching system for filter manufacturing. As a conventional technique, filters were designed and best possible dye concentrations that match the desired filters were calculated. As an alternative approach, filters were also designed using direct optimization of dyes concentrations. The results showed that direct optimization of dye concentrations exhibits better performance in comparison with the conventional technique. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 42, 316–326, 2017     

Fabrication and characterization of silk/forsterite composites for tissue engineering applications

In this research, novel composite scaffolds consisting of silk fibroin and forsterite powder were prepared by a freeze-drying method. In addition, the effects of forsterite powder contents on the structure of the scaffolds were investigated to provide an appropriate composite for bone tissue engineering applications. The morphology studies using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques showed that the forsterite ceramic was well distributed throughout the structures of SF/forsterite scaffolds. Furthermore, the forsterite powder (up to 40 wt%) was homogenously distributed within the silk fibroin as a matrix.     

Design and Fabrication of a Movable Langmuir Probe for Plasma Edge Parameters Measurement in the IR-T1 Tokamak

For the edge plasma parameters measurement, a movable Langmuir probe is fabricated and installed on the IR-T1 tokamak. The set-up consists of two sets of single Langmuir probes with tungsten tip movable in the radial direction. Edge plasma parameters including electron temperature, Ion density, floating potential and the corresponding radial changes are measured. Using two-point correlation technique clearly reveal that in the SOL region the poloidal propagation of floating potential fluctuation is in the direction of ion diamagnetic drift and in the edge it propagates in the electron diamagnetic drift direction.     

Application of artificial neural network for vapor liquid equilibrium calculation of ternary system including ionic liquid: Water, ethanol and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate

A feed forward three-layer artificial neural network (ANN) model was developed for VLE prediction of ternary systems including ionic liquid (IL) (water+ethanol+1-butyl-3- methyl-imidazolium acetate), in a relatively wide range of IL mass fractions up to 0.8, with the mole fractions of ethanol on IL-free basis fixed separately at 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 0.98. The output results of the ANN were the mole fraction of ethanol in vapor phase and the equilibrium temperature. The validity of the model was evaluated through a test data set, which were not employed in the training case of the network. The performance of the ANN model for estimating the mole fraction and temperature in the ternary system including IL was compared with the non-random-two-liquid (NRTL) and electrolyte non-random-two-liquid (eNRTL) models. The results of this comparison show that the ANN model has a superior performance in predicting the VLE of ternary systems including ionic liquid.     

Control of Hybrid Active Power Filter Based on Switching Function Coefficients

A pulse width modulation (PWM)-based control method for a three-level, four-wire neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter employed in a hybrid active power filter (HAPF) is proposed in this paper. The control method is based on switching function coefficients (SFCs) for harmonic compensation. An interior loop is also proposed for control and balancing of the DC-link voltages. In the proposed control system, one carrier signal is employed in the PWM unit in order to simplify its hardware as compared with traditional PWMs. Based on Fourier decomposition technique, mathematical analysis of the proposed control method is also presented. To decrease the NPC inverter rated power, passive power filters (PPFs) are designed to eliminate fifth and seventh order harmonic currents and to compensate source reactive currents. The proposed control system is implemented by a digital signal processing (DSP) in a laboratory prototype. The experimental results confirmed the validity of the proposed control method in compensation of harmonic currents under non-linear conditions     

Online Droop Tuning of a Multi-DG Microgrid Using Cuckoo Search Algorithm

This article presents an intelligent strategy to achieve appropriate real power sharing among distributed generators in a microgrid. The presented strategy employs two droop-based control methods and automatically adjusts their parameters. The first method is unit power control, which has specifications similar to the conventional droop method, and the second is feeder flow control, showing significant characteristics in both grid-connected and islanded modes operation of a microgrid. A combination of unit power control and feeder flow control methods is used for a multi-distributed generator microgrid. The microgrid operation mode passes from the grid-connected to the islanded through a transition. A new evolutionary algorithm called cuckoo search is employed to coordinate the power management of distributed generators within an on-line droop tuning. In comparison to the predecessor evolutionary algorithms, the cuckoo search algorithm represents more effective random processes with fewer parameters. Using the proposed control strategy, while the distributed generators contribute to load demand provision based on their rated powers, their powers are optimized in terms of overshoot and settling time. Digital time-domain simulation studies are carried out in the MATLAB/SIMULINK (The MathWorks, Natick, Massachusetts, USA) environment to verify the performance of the proposed control system.