A P-graph approach for the synthesis of national-wide bio-hydrogen network from palm oil mill effluent

The shift from conventional hydrogen production that utilised fossil-based energy towards a more sustainable practice is essential. Recently, the interest in utilising renewable hydrogen sources associated with bio-gas has risen. This work aims to develop a P-graph methodology for bio-hydrogen network synthesis, where oil refineries and ammonia plants act as bio-hydrogen sinks, while palm oil mills serve as the bio-hydrogen sources. The latter produces huge amount of palm oil mill effluent (POME) which may be converted to bio-hydrogen. The model is optimised with the aim to minimise the total network cost, whilst fulfilling the demand of all hydrogen sinks. Two case studies in Malaysia are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Results show that the overall network cost can be reduced by 45.6% (first case study) and 85.8% (second case study) when bio-hydrogen is supplied from the abundant POME in the study areas. Besides, the capability of the proposed P-graph framework in conducting uncertainty analysis and technology benchmarking study, are also demonstrated.     

Optimum stiffened panel design with fundamental frequency constraint

A generic analysis/design method for prismatic plate assemblies, using exact plate stiffnesses which are transcendental functions of loading and/or vibration frequency, has long been validated by the established program . Hitherto vibrations were permitted only in analysis because design uses the Wittrick–Williams algorithm to modify the design predicted by a linear optimiser to be ‘just stable’ by scaling all layer thicknesses by F. This works because buckling loads, unlike the fundamental frequency f₁, vary monotonically with F. The paper considers additionally scaling all plate breadths by F^α such that the buckling loads and f₁ all vary monotonically with F. Theoretical consideration of simple limiting cases establishes bounds on the permitted values of α as 0.1≤α≤0.4. Then results for typical stiffened panels demonstrate the method to be correct and are used to investigate the value of α which is most effective in returning stabilised designs of least mass and with least computation.     

Sintered silver finite element modelling and reliability based design optimisation in power electronic module

This paper discusses the design for reliability of a sintered silver structure in a power electronic module based on the computational approach that composed of high fidelity analysis, reduced order modelling, numerical risk analysis, and optimisation. The methodology was demonstrated on sintered silver interconnect sandwiched between silicon carbide chip and copper substrate in a power electronic module. In particular, sintered silver reliability due to thermal fatigue material degradation is one of the main concerns. Thermo-mechanical behaviour of the power module sintered silver joint structure is simulated by finite element analysis for cyclic temperature loading profile in order to capture the strain distribution. The discussion was on methods for approximate reduced order modelling based on interpolation techniques using Kriging and radial basis functions. The reduced order modelling approach uses prediction data for the thermo-mechanical behaviour. The fatigue lifetime of the sintered silver interconnect and the warpage of the interconnect layer was particular interest in this study. The reduced order models were used for the analysis of the effect of design uncertainties on the reliability of the sintered silver layer. To assess the effect of uncertain design data, a method for estimating the variation of reliability related metrics namely Latin Hypercube sampling was utilised. The product capability indices are evaluated from the distributions fitted to the histogram resulting from Latin Hypercube sampling technique. A reliability based design optimisation was demonstrated using Particle Swarm Optimisation algorithm for constraint optimisation task consists of optimising two different characteristic performance metrics such as the thermo-mechanical plastic strain accumulation per cycle on the sintered layer and the thermally induced warpage.     

Thermoeconomic considerations in the allocation of heat transfer inventory for irreversible refrigeration and heat pump systems

In this paper, thermoeconomic considerations are given to heat exchanger inventory allocation in irreversible refrigeration cycles and heat pumps with finite thermal capacitances. Investigation is made with respect to specified rate of cooling and heating for the refrigeration cycle and heat pump, respectively. Exact expressions are obtained without the use of an internal irreversibility parameter. The optimum hot-to cold-end unit cost ratio resulted in unequal division of heat exchanger conductances for the heat pump in contrast to the endoreversible case where they were the same. At a constant evaporator to condenser fluid temperature ratio, the COP of both refrigeration and heat pump systems was found to vary in an almost asymptotic manner in contrast to the endoreversible case where it was constant. In conclusion, it is best to measure the effect of internal dissipation by deriving exact mathematical expressions as the effect on some performance parameters could be lost due to the averaging effect of the internal irreversibility parameter.     

Optimal design of a light commercial freezer through the analysis of the combined effects of capillary tube diameter and refrigerant charge on the performance

In this work, a discussion on a methodology to optimize the performance of a commercial freezer by using a simulation tool is presented. In order to provide a practical tool for deciding the best combination of refrigerant charge and capillary tube diameter, the results of the numerical studies are shown in the form of two-dimensional maps. The usefulness of this type of representation lies in the possibility of selecting the best operating point of the system, taking into account not only the efficiency or the power consumption but also the technical constrictions imposed by parameters such as the suction line temperature, the condenser subcooling, the evaporator superheat, and the run-time ratio. The discussion leads to the conclusion that the useful performance map is drastically reduced when all the operation requirements must be satisfied. Once the system design had been optimized, an additional numerical study, aimed at identifying the influence of the external conditions on the system behavior, was performed. The results show that the performance reduction can be effectively minimized modifying the refrigerant charge.     

Benefits of oxygen enrichment in sponge iron rotary kiln emerging from data-driven modelling

Optimal oxygen enrichment conditions for sponge iron rotary kiln have been successfully explored on an industrial scale using a data-driven model. A multi-objective optimisation by genetic algorithm (MOGA) is employed to find the favourable conditions. The objective function for MOGA is derived from neural networks using pre-processed operational data. From industrial experimentations guided by the optimum conditions predicted by the present model, it emerged that when the coal fines injection is maintained at 1.75?tph and the oxygen enrichment is 8 Nm³?t^?1 of sponge iron, a reduction in the specific air requirement from 2609 to 2150?Nm³?t^?1 was obtained, while the end-zone bed temperature remained under control at 1132°C. These conditions resulted in a reduction of specific coal consumption by 6%, an enhancement in the sponge iron production by 6% and an increase in the rotary kiln campaign life from 50 to 100 days.     

Extraction optimisation,antioxidant activity and inhibition on α-amylase and pancreatic lipase of polyphenols from the seeds of Syzygium cumini

The objectives of this study were to determine the optimal extraction conditions of polyphenols from Syzygium cumini seeds by response surface methodology and investigate their antioxidant activity and inhibition on α-amylase and pancreatic lipase. As results, the optimal extraction conditions in the ultrasonic extraction process which maximised total polyphenols content, minimised the IC₅₀ values of α-amylase and pancreatic lipase were determined as follows: extraction time 60 min, ethanol concentration 63% and solvent/solid ratio 44 mL g⁻¹. The main phenolic compounds in partially purified fraction of Syzygium cumini seeds were catechin, epicatechin, kaempferol, gallic, 5-caffeoylquinic, caffeic and ferulic acids. In addition, the partially purified fraction inhibited 87.66 ± 5.55 and 86.61 ± 3.15% of α-amylase and pancreatic lipase, respectively. The results suggested that Syzygium cumini seeds could be explored as a natural antioxidant and could be used as a source of highly antidiabetic and anti-obesity bioactive compounds.     

On power tracking and alleviation by a new controller for fulfilment of the damping and performance requisites for a variable speed wind system: An optimal approach

This paper addresses a new control strategy for a variable wind energy conversion system. The proposed controller aims to regulate the output power tightly in response to the desired value changes and alleviate power oscillations against the disturbances, including wind speed variation and fluctuation of the voltage magnitude, as voltage sag and swell. For the sake of straightforward analysis, an effective and reduced representation for the wind system is developed. In addition to the proper performance, the controller seeks to adequately fulfilment the damping requirements, as though both damping and performance requisites are taken into account control policy. Consequently, the proposed approach focuses on optimal tuning based upon a performance index incorporated into linear quadratic (LQ) cost function, which is subjected to the performance constraints. To validate the controller role, multiple simulation tests are carried out including set point tracking, disturbance rejection against wind speed, voltage sag and swell. Simulation results verify the proposed method features a satisfactory performance and sufficient damping, meeting both aspirations of the power regulation and disturbance suppression.     

Optimisation as a process for understanding and managing river ecosystems

Optimisation can assist in the management of riverine ecosystems through the exploration of multiple alternative management strategies, and the evaluation of trade-offs between conflicting objectives. In addition, it can facilitate communication and learning about the system. However, the effectiveness of optimisation in aiding decision making for ecological management is currently limited by four major challenges: identification and quantification of ecosystem objectives; representation of ecosystems in predictive simulation models; specification of objectives and management alternatives in an optimisation framework; and evaluation of model results against actual ecological outcomes. This study evaluates previous literature in ecology, optimisation and decision science, and provides a strategy for addressing the challenges identified. It highlights the need for better recognition and analysis of assumptions in optimisation modelling as part of a process that generates and shares knowledge.     

An investigation of the performance portability of OpenCL

This paper reports on the development of an MPI/OpenCL implementation of LU, an application-level benchmark from the NAS Parallel Benchmark Suite. An account of the design decisions addressed during the development of this code is presented, demonstrating the importance of memory arrangement and work-item/work-group distribution strategies when applications are deployed on different device types. The resulting platform-agnostic, single source application is benchmarked on a number of different architectures, and is shown to be 1.3–1.5× slower than native FORTRAN 77 or CUDA implementations on a single node and 1.3–3.1× slower on multiple nodes. We also explore the potential performance gains of OpenCL’s device fissioning capability, demonstrating up to a 3× speed-up over our original OpenCL implementation.