Joint quality control and preventive maintenance strategy for imperfect production processes

In this paper, we develop a joint quality control and preventive maintenance policy for a production system producing conforming and nonconforming units. The considered system consists of one machine which must supply another production line operating on a just-in-time basis. Each lot produced by the machine is subject to a quality control. According to the proportion l of nonconforming units observed and compared to a threshold value l _m , one decides to undertake or not maintenance actions on the system. In order to palliate perturbations caused by the stopping of the machine for preventive and corrective maintenance actions of random durations, a buffer stock h is built up to ensure the continuous supply of the subsequent production line. The proposed strategy is modelled using simulation and experimental design. This approach allows to generate a second order response surface allowing to easily determine the optimal rate, l_m^*{l_{m}^*}, of nonconforming units on the basis of which preventive maintenance actions should be performed, and the optimal size, h*, of the buffer stock to be built. These values minimize the total cost per time unit which includes the costs related to maintenance, quality and inventory.     

Inspection strategy for availability improvement

In this paper, an inspection strategy is proposed for systems subject to random shocks and whose state is only known through inspection. The shocks magnitudes and times between shocks arrivals are random variables. Each shock induces an amount of damage to the system which is gradually weakened as damage accumulates. The system fails when the total damage exceeds some threshold level. The proposed inspection strategy suggests to inspect the system at predetermined times T₁, T₂,...T _k . If failure is detected, then the system is repaired to a state as good as new, otherwise, it is kept operating. The expression of the system availability is derived. A numerical procedure is developed to generate an inspection sequence which maximizes the system availability. The proposed strategy has been developed for some critical subsystems of trees harvesters. An illustrative example is provided.     

Pollution source identification using a coupled diffusion model with a genetic algorithm

A new approach for the source quantification has been developed on the basis of real air pollutant hourly concentrations of SO₂, measured by three monitoring stations, during 9 h, around a group of three industrial sources. This inverse problem has been solved by coupling a direct model of diffusion (Pasquill’s Gaussian model) with a genetic algorithm, to search solutions leading to a minimum error between model outputs and measurements. The inversion performance depends on the relationship between the wind field and the configuration sources–receptors: good results are obtained when the monitoring stations are downwind from the sources, and in these cases, the order of magnitude of emissions is retrieved, sometimes with less than 10% error for at least two sources; there are some configurations (wind direction versus source and receptor locations) which do not permit to restore emissions. The latter situations reveal the need to conceive a specific network of sensors, taking into account the source locations and the most frequent weather patterns.     

Combination of information retrieval methods with LESK algorithm for Arabic word sense disambiguation

In this paper, we propose to use Harman, Croft and Okapi measures with Lesk algorithm to develop a system for Arabic word sense disambiguation, that combines unsupervised and knowledge based methods. This system must solve the lexical semantic ambiguity in Arabic language. The information retrieval measures are used to estimate the most relevant sense of the ambiguous word, by returning a semantic coherence score corresponding to the context that is semantically closest to the original sentence containing the ambiguous word. The Lesk algorithm is used to assign and select the adequate sense from those proposed by the information retrieval measures mentioned above. This selection is based on a comparison between the glosses of the word to be disambiguated, and its different contexts of use extracted from a corpus. Our experimental study proves that using of Lesk algorithm with Harman, Croft, and Okapi measures allows us to obtain an accuracy rate of 73%.     

Enhanced energetic reasoning-based lower bounds for the resource constrained project scheduling problem

We present new and effective lower bounds for the resource constrained project scheduling problem. This problem is widely known to be notoriously difficult to solve due to the lack of lower bounds that are both tight and fast. In this paper, we propose several new lower bounds that are based on the concept of energetic reasoning. A major contribution of this work is to investigate several enhanced new feasibility tests that prove useful for deriving new lower bounds that consistently outperform the classical energetic reasoning-based lower bound. In particular, we present the results of a comprehensive computational study, carried out on 1560 benchmark instances, that provides strong evidence that a deceptively simple dual feasible function-based lower bound is highly competitive with a state-of-the-art lower bound while being extremely fast. Furthermore, we found that an effective shaving procedure enables to derive an excellent lower bound that often outperforms the best bound from the literature while being significantly simpler.     

Extracting TSK-type Neuro-Fuzzy model using the Hunting search algorithm

This paper proposes a Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) type Neuro-Fuzzy model tuned by a novel metaheuristic optimization algorithm called Hunting Search (HuS). The HuS algorithm is derived based on a model of group hunting of animals such as lions, wolves, and dolphins when looking for a prey. In this study, the structure and parameters of the fuzzy model are encoded into a particle. Thus, the optimal structure and parameters are achieved simultaneously. The proposed method was demonstrated through modeling and control problems, and the results have been compared with other optimization techniques. The comparisons indicate that the proposed method represents a powerful search approach and an effective optimization technique as it can extract the accurate TSK fuzzy model with an appropriate number of rules.     

Removal of lead(Pb(Ⅱ))and zinc(Zn(Ⅱ))from aqueous solution using coal fly ash(CFA)as a dual-sites adsorbent

Coal fly ash(CFA)is composed of minerals containing some oxides in crystalline phase(i.e.,quartz and mullite),as well as unburned carbon as mesoporous material,thus enabling CFA to act as a dual-sites adsorbent with unique properties.This work focused on the adsorption of Pb(Ⅱ)and Zn(Ⅱ)from binary system,a mixture containing two metal ion solutions present simultaneously,onto NaOH-modified CFA(MCFA).Several adsorption tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of several parameters,includ-ing pH and contact times.The experiment results indicated that chemical treatment of CFA with NaOH increased pore volume from 0.021 to 0.223 cm3 g-1.In addition,it could also enhance the availability of functional groups on both minerals and unburned carbon,resulting in almost 100％Pb(Ⅱ)and 97％Zn(Ⅱ)adsorbed.The optimum pH for adsorption system was pH=3 and quasi-equilibrium occurred in 240 minutes.Equilibrium data from the experimental results were analyzed using Modified Extended Langmuir(MEL)and Competitive Adsorption Langmuir-Langmuir(CALL)isotherm models.The analysis results showed that the CALL isotherm model could better describe the Pb(Ⅱ)and Zn(Ⅱ)adsorption pro-cess onto MCFA in binary system compared with MEL isotherm model.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of intermittent drying of timber

Intermittent drying may be of interest in the future to address energy issues. Such drying conditions are also likely to help stress relaxation through mechanosorptive creep. The influence of applying oscillations of temperature and relative humidity during the drying of beech timber on time and drying stresses is discussed in the paper by means of nonsymmetrical and loaded drying. Experimental data were used to validate a numerical model in the case of intermittent drying. The model was then used to perform a numerical investigation of the possibility of using an intermittent energy source to dry wood.     

Noise estimation for speech enhancement algorithms with post-smoothness processor incorporating global posterior SNR

Multimedia Tools and Applications - Performances of speech enhancement algorithms depend greatly on the accuracy of the estimated noise. In this paper, we explain in details the relationship...     

Microstructural,hydraulic conductivity and geochemical changes of drying mature fine oil sand tailings in column experiments

This study offers new insights into two-lift deposition of mature fine tailings under atmospheric drying. The interaction of newly added lift and former lift(s) was evaluated using column experiments in terms of volumetric water content, electrical conductivity (EC), hydraulic conductivity, geochemistry and microstructure. Water content and EC followed the same trend and decreasing of water content appears to be responsible for significant reduction in EC. Evaporation on top of the column reduced the water content to almost zero. The obtained results support the coupling between the hydraulic and chemical processes that should be considered by active operators.