An experimental study of forced convective heat transfer for fully developed Al 2 O 3 –water nanofluid in an annulus tube

Nanofluids have been known as practical materials to ameliorate heat transfer within diverse industrial systems. The current work presents an empirical study on forced convection effects of Al₂O₃–water nanofluid within an annulus tube. A laminar flow regime has been considered to perform the experiment in high Reynolds number range using several concentrations of nanofluid. Also, the boundary conditions include a constant uniform heat flux applied on the outer shell and an adiabatic condition to the inner tube. Nanofluid particle is visualized with transmission electron microscopy to figure out the nanofluid particles. Additionally, the pressure drop is obtained by measuring the inlet and outlet pressure with respect to the ambient condition. The experimental results showed that adding nanoparticles to the base fluid will increase the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) and average Nusselt number. In addition, by increasing viscosity effects at maximum Reynolds number of 1140 and increasing nanofluid concentration from 1% to 4% (maximum performance at 4%), HTC increases by 18%.     

Evaluation of performance enhancing proxies in internet over satellite

Performance enhancing proxies (PEPs) are widely used to improve the performance of TCP over high delay‐bandwidth product links and links with high error probability. In this paper we analyse the performance of using TCP connection splitting in combination with web caching via traces obtained from a commercial satellite system. We examine the resulting performance gain under different scenarios, including the effect of caching, congestion, random loss and file sizes. We show, via analysing our measurements, that the performance gain from using splitting is highly sensitive to random losses and the number of simultaneous connections, and that such sensitivity is alleviated by caching. On the other hand, the use of a splitting proxy enhances the value of web caching in that cache hits result in much more significant performance improvement over cache misses when TCP splitting is used. We also compare the performance of using different versions of HTTP in such a system. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new adaptation of mapping method to study mixing of multiphase flows in mixers with complex geometries

The main objective of the present work is to modify the traditional mapping method for the simulation of distributive mixing of multiphase flows in geometries involving moving parts such as, internal mixers or twin-screw extruders without a limitation on their geometrical periodicity. The periodicity condition, limits the results of traditional mapping method to tracking mapping mesh between specific discrete time intervals or distances for that geometry is repeated, hence, result is only for fixed orientation of rotors. Imaginary domain method is introduced to track mapping mesh from one state to the next free of geometrical periodicity limitations. In this work the method is introduced and its applicability and accuracy is discussed in details. A two-dimensional (2D) simulation of mixing of two Newtonian fluids with different viscosities in an intermeshing internal mixer is used as a test case study. In this example the key issues of ability to predict mixing state in details for all orientations of rotors is presented. To reduce diffusion errors of mapping method in the boundaries of the rotors, mapping mesh refinement technique that relies upon one single reference mesh is also presented.     

Decreasing the Sampling Time Interval in Radioactive Particle Tracking

The study of the movement of solids in multiphase reactors using radioactive particle tracking is currently limited to fairly modest particle velocities because of count‐rate limitations of the detection system. In this work, this restriction was overcome by increasing the activity of the radioactive tracer, by decreasing the sampling time interval and by modifying the particle tracking software to recognize which detectors were saturated and to use only the data from the remaining unsaturated detectors. Higher tracer activity resulted in lower standard deviation of the calculated tracer coordinates.     

Hematoxylin multi-wall carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode for electrocatalytic oxidation of hydrazine

A new hydrazine sensor has been fabricated by immobilizing hematoxylin at the surface of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) modified with multi-wall carbon nanotube (MWCNT). The adsorbed thin films of hematoxylin on the MWCNT modified GCE show one pair of peaks with surface confined characteristics. The hematoxylin MWCNT (HMWCNT) modified GCE shows highly catalytic activity toward hydrazine electro-oxidation. The results show that the peak potential of hydrazine at HMWCNT modified GCE surface shifted by about 167 and 255 mV toward negative values compared with that at an MWCNT and activated modified GCE surface, respectively. In addition, at HMWCNT modified electrode surface remarkably improvement the sensitivity of determination of hydrazine. The kinetic parameters, such as the electron transfer coefficient, α, and the standard heterogeneous rate constant, k⁰, for oxidation of hydrazine at the HMWCNT modified GCE were determined and also is shown that the heterogeneous rate constant, k′, is strongly potential dependent. The overall number of electron involved in the catalytic oxidation of hydrazine and the number of electrons involved in the rate-determining steps are 2 and 1, respectively. The amperometric detection of hydrazine is carried out at 220 mV in 0.1 M phosphate buffer solution (pH 7) with linear response range 2.0-122.8 μM hydrazine, detection limit of 0.68 μM and sensitivity of 0.0208 μA μM⁻¹. Finally the amperometric response for hydrazine determination is reproducible, fast and extremely stable, with no loss in sensitivity over a continual 400 s operation.     

Hybrid polymer matrix composite (UHMWPE-HPMC) as solid particle erosion resistant coating for sharp pipe elbows using numerical simulation and experimental analysis

A hybrid polymer matrix composite coating, resistant to solid particle erosion inside sharp elbows, consisting interlocking chains of molecules with the ability to deflect the surface impact stress and to uniformly distribute stresses along the hard-ceramic reinforcement mixture surface was developed. Formulated mixture of ceramic reinforcement particles mixtures (alumina, tungsten carbide, and silicon carbide) with polymer coupling agents; to increase adhesion to the metal surface, led to 600–700 HVN in ternary and 500–550 HVN in binary mixtures. This behavior coincides with high shear strength of 70–76 MPa, Young's and shear modulus of 8.86 and 13.4 GPa in ternary 15%Al₂O₃-5%WC-10%SiC, respectively. The low erosion weight loss of 0.1% and small coefficient of friction near 0.18 indicates the significant wear resistance of the ternary sample. The electron microscopic micrographs determined the dense smooth coating surfaces with adhesive interfaces with the substrate.     

Particle Swarm Optimization for Sorted Adapted Gaussian Mixture Models

Recently, we introduced the sorted Gaussian mixture models (SGMMs) algorithm providing the means to tradeoff performance for operational speed and thus permitting the speed-up of GMM-based classification schemes. The performance of the SGMM algorithm depends on the proper choice of the sorting function, and the proper adjustment of its parameters. In the present work, we employ particle swarm optimization (PSO) and an appropriate fitness function to find the most advantageous parameters of the sorting function. We evaluate the practical significance of our approach on the text-independent speaker verification task utilizing the NIST 2002 speaker recognition evaluation (SRE) database while following the NIST SRE experimental protocol. The experimental results demonstrate a superior performance of the SGMM algorithm using PSO when compared to the original SGMM. For comprehensiveness we also compared these results with those from a baseline Gaussian mixture model-universal background model (GMM-UBM) system. The experimental results suggest that the performance loss due to speed-up is partially mitigated using PSO-derived weights in a sorted GMM-based scheme.     

Model-based PI–fuzzy control of four-wheeled omni-directional mobile robots

The purpose of this study is to suggest and examine a PI–fuzzy path planner and associated low-level control system for a linear discrete dynamic model of omni-directional mobile robots to obtain optimal inputs for drivers. Velocity and acceleration filtering is also implemented in the path planner to satisfy planning prerequisites and prevent slippage. Regulated drivers’ rotational velocities and torques greatly affect the ability of these robots to perform trajectory planner tasks. These regulated values are examined in this research by setting up an optimal controller. Introducing optimal controllers such as linear quadratic tracking for multi-input–multi-output control systems in acceleration and deceleration is one of the essential subjects for motion control of omni-directional mobile robots. The main topics presented and discussed in this article are improvements in the presented discrete-time linear quadratic tracking approach such as the low-level controller and combined PI–fuzzy path planner with appropriate speed monitoring algorithm such as the high-level one in conditions both with and without external disturbance. The low-level tracking controller presented in this article provides an optimal solution to minimize the differences between the reference trajectory and the system output. The efficiency of this approach is also compared with that of previous PID controllers which employ kinematic modeling. Utilizing the new approach in trajectory-planning controller design results in more precise and appropriate outputs for the motion of four-wheeled omni-directional mobile robots, and the modeling and experimental results confirm this issue.