Spatiotemporal evolution of the El Biar landslide (Algiers): new field observation data constrained by ground-penetrating radar investigations

Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment - A better understanding of the spatiotemporal evolution of landslides in urban zones is a key factor in assessing the risk of future slides...     

A Real Time Self-Tuning Motion Controller for Mobile Robot Systems

This paper proposes an intelligent controller for motion control of robotic systems to obtain high precision tracking without the need for a real-time trial and error method. In addition, a new self-tuning algorithm has been developed based on both the ant colony algorithm and a fuzzy system for real-time tuning of controller parameters. Simulations and experiments using a real robot have been addressed to demonstrate the success of the proposed controller and validate the theoretical analysis. Obtained results confirm that the proposed controller ensures robust performance in the presence of disturbances and parametric uncertainties without the need for adjustment of control law parameters by a trial and error method.      

Performance evaluation and tuning of an IEEE 802.11 audio video multicast collision prevention mechanism

Wireless Networks - Since the introduction of the original IEEE 802.11 medium access mechanism, the definition of the multicast access mechanism has been the subject of numerous amendments and...     

Achievement in hydrogen storage on adsorbents with high surface-to-bulk ratio – Prospects for Si-containing matrices

In hydrogen storage, the concept of the reversible capture still remains a major issue to be addressed. The advances in chemical storage provide useful data that demonstrate that purely physical adsorption offer promising prospects, even though the hydrogen uptakes barely attain 11 wt%. The emerging nanotubes, fullerenes, metal-organic frameworks are sophisticated structures that display weak affinity toward hydrogen, and require complex synthesis procedures. Adsorption rather consists of a gas condensation at low temperatures and/or high pressures. That is why the present review is devoted to the most recent achievements in developing novel microporous materials with emphasis on silicon-based structures, aluminosilicates and related materials. Their large availability and low production costs open promising prospects. On aluminosilicates, low Si:Al ratio, high porosity and specific surface area, along with alkali or alkaline-earth exchangeable cations are essential requirements for effective hydrogen adsorption even at room temperature.     

Alginate@Layered Silicate Composite Beads: Dye Elimination,Box–Behnken Design Optimization and Antibacterial Property

Journal of Inorganic and Organometallic Polymers and Materials - The discharge of industrial waste comprising organic pollutants into aquatic environment induces numerous health risks. Crosslinked...     

Quartz Ore Beneficiation by Reverse Flotation for Silicon Production

Silicon - In this work the reverse flotation as beneficiation process for high-purity silica valorization from Draissa quartz deposits (Algeria) is studied as a potential raw material for...     

Class D amplifier for a power piezoelectric load

We present a high efficiency inverter (>90%) that can drive an acoustic cavitation reactor with a 2 kW power between 10 and 100 kHz. This reactor is composed of numerous piezoelectric transducers and is particularly used to accelerate various industrial chemical reactions and destroy a variety of organic contaminants in water. The class-D amplifier or inverter is composed of power MOSFETs, type IRFP460, in a full bridge configuration driven by IR2110 circuits in bootstrap mode. The specific nature of the problem comes from the fact that, at frequencies slightly different from a resonant frequency frn, the load is mostly capacitive. The insertion of an appropriate low-pass filter in front of the load allowed an efficient solution to the problem due to the load being capacitive for harmonics. The realized system can provide nearly 2 kW to this type of piezoelectric load, with an efficiency of more than 95%     

Intrinsic growth rate: a new approach to evaluate the effects of temperature, photoperiod and phosphorus-nitrogen concentrations on duckweed growth under controlled eutrophication

A comprehensive model based on a new approach was developed to simulate the duckweed growth under controlled conditions. Contrary to other approaches which use the specific growth rate, this approach uses the intrinsic growth rate which permits to differentiate the effect of duckweed mat density from that of temperature, photoperiod and phosphorus-nitrogen concentrations. The model was calibrated using data from laboratory experiments carried out during the present study and validated using other data from two literature sources. In both cases, the results demonstrated that the model was capable of predicting duckweed growth with a reliability of 95%.     

Nonlinear state feedback design for continuous polynomial systems

The objective of this paper is to simplify the complexity of practical implementation of the input-state feedback linearization technique for the control of input-affine systems. A polynomial approach which makes use of the Taylor series expansion and the Kronecker product is developed. Our work aims to address the problem of synthesizing a polynomial control via a nonlinear analytical coordinates transformation. To check the effectiveness of the investigated approach, we consider the control problem of a series DC motor. A comparative study with the input-state feedback linearization control is developed.