Engineering Commons^™

Design Of Holes And Web Openings In Railway Prestressed Concrete Sleepers, Erosha Kahawatta Gamage, Sakdirat Kaewunruen, Alex M. Remennikov

Sakdirat Kaewunruen

As the crosstie beam in railway track systems, the prestressed concrete sleepers (or railroad ties) are principally designed in order to carry wheel loads from the rails to the ground. Their design takes into account static and dynamic loading conditions. It is evident that prestressed concrete has played a significant role as to maintain the high endurance of the sleepers under low to moderate repeated impact loads. In spite of the most common use of the prestressed concrete sleepers in railway tracks, there have always been many demands from rail engineers to improve serviceability and functionality of concrete sleepers. For …

Love Is A Two Way Street, William W. Riggs, John Gilderbloom

William W. Riggs

A half a century ago, we were in love with our streets. They were also living things. They were the open-air living room of our society, the conduct for neighborhood play and discussion, the glue of our social fabric. One of the key urban theorists of the 20th century, Jane Jacobs wrote in Fortune Magazine that the street “…works harder than any other part of downtown. It is the nervous system; it communicates the flavor, the feel, the sights. It is the major point of transaction and communication. Users of downtown know very well that downtown needs not fewer streets, …

An Islanding Detection Strategy For Distribution Network Connected With Hybrid Dg Resources

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

The exponential growth in electricity demand has driven the Distributed Generation (DG) technology a boost in the power system. The use of DG is beneficial to power utilities, DG owners', and end-users in terms of reliability, power quality, and economics. However, to fully utilize the benefits of DGs, some technical issues need to be addressed. Islanding condition is one of the most important issue in this context. Until now, several islanding detection techniques have been proposed for detecting the islanding condition. This paper presents a brief overview of existing islanding detection techniques with their relative merits and demerits. Apart from …

Design And Analysis Of A Mars Supply Spacecraft, Tristan Plante, Alex Holland, Landon Klein, Jordan Forbord, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, David Whalen

Jeremy Straub

This poster considers one part of a space solar power-based mission to sup-ply wireless power for use on the Mar-tian surface. It presents a cargo capsule designed to house the necessities for human survival, as well as research equipment , and safely deliver them to a predetermined destination on Mars.

Innovative Hybrid Bonding Method For Strengthening Reinforced Concrete Beam In Flexure

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

This paper presents the test results of the experimental behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with the newly proposed hybrid bonding technique, which is the wise combination of plate bonding and near surface mounting (NSM) technique. Many studies have focused on the experimental behavior of RC beams strengthened with externally bonded steel plates. However, the presence of high interfacial shear stresses at the end of the plate may reduce the resistance to failure of the strengthened structure. Recently, to a certain extent, the development of the near surface mounted strengthening technique can reduce the problem of this premature end …

A Review Of Survivability And Remedial Actions Of Tidal Current Turbines

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

Tidal current energy is one of the most predictable ocean renewable energies. Survivability of the device used to harness tidal power and its remedial actions are critical to ensure a successful power generation. Marine environment is harsh with the continuous attacks of waves, current saline water and microorganism. Support structures are discussed including gravity base, monopile, tripod/piled jacket and floating structure. Extreme weather increases the wave height and current speed to produce high loading at the turbine. Support structure is designed to sustain the loadings from the extreme weather. Protective seabed unit should be included to prevent the seabed scouring. …

Zigbee-Based Data Acquisition System For Online Monitoring Of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

For grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system, monitoring is considered as a crucial aspect for observing the stability and performance of the system. The simplest method is to have the data collected and transmitted across data cables. Due to the cost and technical limitations of the data cable, the monitoring station needs to be located reasonably close to the monitored plant. Apart being inconvenient, the use of data cable often adds capital and maintenance cost to the system. In this research project, a Zigbee-based wireless monitoring system is developed for online monitoring of a grid-connected photovoltaic system. Parameters like temperature, irradiation, PV …

Development Of Novel Passive Check Valves For The Microfluidic Cd Platform

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

Microfluidic CD platforms are utilized to perform different biological processes and chemical analyses. In general, a microfluidic CD implements the centrifugal force that is created by the spinning of the platform to pump liquid through the microfluidic network of chambers and channels. Over the last few decades, a wide range of active and passive valving methods were proposed and tested on various microfluidic platforms. Most of the presented valves are too complex to design and involve lengthy fabrication processes. In this paper, easy to fabricate air and liquid check valves for centrifugal microfluidic platforms are presented: a Terminal Check Valve …

Effective Utilization Of Excess Energy In Standalone Hybrid Renewable Energy Systems For Improving Comfort Ability And Reducing Cost Of Energy: A Review And Analysis

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

One of the features that characterize renewable energy sources is their variability and intermittency. Intermittency covers both the predictable and unpredictable variations of their power outputs and uncertainty in the power availability. To overcome the drawback of intermittency, special design considerations should be taken into account. These additional design considerations increases the overall cost of the renewable energy systems. Adding storage system and/or backup source to the renewable sources is one of the measures used to guarantee the continuity of power supply to the loads, and therefore improve the reliability of the renewable energy systems. The operation of renewable energy …

Fuzzy Swinging-Up With Sliding Mode Control For Third Order Cart-Inverted Pendulum System

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

Cart Inverted Pendulum (CIP) system is a benchmark problem in nonlinear automatic control. In this paper, two third-order differential equations were derived to create a combining model for the cart-pendulum with its DC motor dynamics. Motor voltage was considered the system input in the presented model. The friction between the cart and rail was included in the system equations through a nonlinear friction model. Fuzzy Swinging-up controller was designed to swing the pendulum to the upright position, once reaching the upward position; Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) is activated, to balance the system. In order to verify the performance of the …

Using Theory To Improve Design Instruction In A New Common First-Year Programme For Engineers, Una Beagon, Ted Bruke, Shannon M. Chance, C. Fionnuala Farrell, John Mcgrory

Shannon M. Chance

We represent a group of lecturers teaching a design module in a new common first-year engineering programme, delivered for the first time in the 2014-5 academic year, which provides a single entry point for all honours Bachelor of Engineering majors at our institution. In this paper, we describe the rationale and format of the Design Projects module. We explain how we used theories by Crismond and Adams [1] in the module and what we observed in doing so. The Design Projects module comprises three separate group-based design projects. It has four weekly contact hours over the entire academic year and …

Guided Routing On Spinning Microfluidic Platforms

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

Flow directionality, valving and liquid routing in centrifugal microfluidics (Lab-on-CD) are typically controlled by applying centrifugal and Coriolis forces and have been the subject of active research interest in recent years. Determining and switching the flow direction at a T-junction is a common fluidic operation important for implementing several chemical and clinical assays for Lab-on-CDs. The present work describes a novel approach to route samples and control flow direction on a spinning disc that employs a guiding microstructure that relies on a two-stage valve comprised of an auxiliary inlet, which is a recess embedded at a T-junction, and a bent …

Design And Biomechanical Performance Analysis Of A User-Friendly Orthotic Device

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

Material selection and proper design are essential for developing a new product, especially biomedical devices. Stance-control-orthosis (SCO) are walking assistive device for the patients with weak quadriceps. This manuscript presents the development of a prefabricated SCO with suitable material and design. It is 45% lighter than commercially available prefabricated device. It contains some adjustable features to make it competent for wide range of patients in terms of height (153-183 cm) and weight. Finite element analysis (FEA) was used for selecting the best material and optimizing weight of different components of this device. Basic structures the device were made of aluminum …

Modified Robust External Force Control With Disturbance Rejection With Application To Piezoelectric Actuators

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

In micromanipulation applications, controlling the force exerted on the object is of great importance. In such cases, any uncontrolled forces may damage the object or cause system failure. However, the presence of disturbances such as impedance uncertainties and hysteresis can strongly degrade force control performance and even lead to instability. Therefore, accurate force control when internal and external disturbances occur is a significant challenge. Conventional control methods usually have a number of restrictive conditions especially on the disturbance bounds. To rectify those issues, a modified robust disturbance rejection-based force control approach is proposed in this paper. For this purpose, an …

Practical Performance Analysis Of An Industrial-Scale Ultrafiltration Membrane Water Treatment Plant

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

Common design and operational issues to evaluate the performance of an ultrafiltration (UF) membrane water treatment plant are highlighted with a case study on an industrial-scale drinking water treatment plant located in Malaysia. This treatment plant has been in operation since February 2013 using dead-end polyethersulfone UF membrane filtration system to produce up to 14 million litres a day of drinking water to a small township. Literature solutions are compared with the practised solutions and elucidated with the case study. Gaps between literature solutions which are mainly based on lab-scale research and industry practices are identified. Reducing this gap will …

Semi-Z-Source Inverter Topology For Grid-Connected Photovoltaic System

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

Transformer-less inverters are necessary parts for grid-connected renewable energy resources. Owing to its cost effectiveness, downsize and less weight, great attention has been paid to these inverters development. With these aforementioned advantages, these inverters have limitations like the flow of leakage current through photovoltaic arrays, high total harmonic distortion (THD) at inverter's output and DC current injection to the grid. This study presents coupled inductor-based single-phase transformer-less semi-Z-source inverter topology to lessen those limitations. Since the DC input and AC output voltage share a common ground, the presented inverter system is categorised under doubly grounded topologies. For the purpose of …

Effect Of Using Adjusted Parameters, Local And Global Optimums, For Phase Equilibrium Prediction On The Synthesis Of Azeotropic Distillation Columns, Claudia Gutierrez-Antonio, Andrea Ojeda-Gasca, Adrian Bonilla-Petriciolet, Juan Gabriel Segovia-Hernández, Abel Briones-Ramírez

Adrian Bonilla-Petriciolet

We analyze the effect of using adjusted parameters, corresponding to local and global optimums, in the NRTL thermodynamic model on the complete process synthesis (design, optimization and control) of homogeneous azeotropic distillation columns. The adjusted parameters that corresponding to a global optimum were obtained with simulated annealing technique, while the adjusted parameters that corresponding to a local optimum were taken from Dechema Collection. Both sets of parameters were used to design a conventional sequence, a side-stream column and a Petlyuk sequence. These designs were used as initial solution to a multiobjective genetic algorithm with constraints handling, coupled to a processes …

Optimization Of Alternative Distillation Sequences For Natural Gas Sweetening, Carlos E. Torres-Ortega, Juan Gabriel Segovia-Hernandez, Fernando I. Gomez-Castro, Salvador Hernandez, Adrian Bonilla-Petriciolet, Beng G. Rong, Massimiliano Errico

Adrian Bonilla-Petriciolet

The separation of CO2 and/or H2S from the natural gas processing is focused on preventing some undesired effects, as decreasing the heat capacity in the natural gas, and so on. Moreover, the carbon dioxide removal has an extensive interest in other application fields, like mitigating CO2 emissions, being an entrainer in EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery), among others. One novelty alternative to deal with CO2 separation consists in the use of cryogenic extractive distillation by utilizing as entrainer the liquid hydrocarbon fraction obtained in the process. This process has some advantages, such as that the entrainer is CO2 selective, noncorrosive, and …

Best Source For Patent Drawing Rules & Regulations, Bernadette Marshall

Bernadette Marshall

It is with great pleasure that I announce something new from NBG-Drafting and Design. This is our first Newsletter - Special Edition; In this edition we will cover our preferred sources for patent drawing rules & regulations. Finding resources for information regarding patent drawing rules can be frustrating. Much of the information refers to out-of-date methods, like hand drawings using ink pens on board. It is hard to imaging creating any type of mechanical/technical drawings today without the use of CADD (software application for computer aided design and drafting). Most skilled patent draftspersons today are practicing in CADD.

Oxidative Mineralisation Of Petroleum Refinery Effluent Using Fenton-Like Process, Abdul Aziz Abdul Raman

Abdul Aziz Abdul Raman

Petroleum refinery effluents (PREs) are wastewaters characterised by high values of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC). Mineralisation of PRE is not commonly reported. For Fenton oxidation, in particular, reported PRE mineralisation is low. In this paper, treatability of a petroleum refinery effluent using a Fenton-like oxidative reaction is described. A statistically designed experimental matrix was used to evaluate the individual and combined effects of process variables based on a five-level central composite design (CCD). Response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to optimise the parameters of interest (COD and TOC), and response surface equations were subsequently developed. …

State Of The Art / Novel Rotary-Turbo-Inflow Tech / Featured Development - Gearturbine Project - Atypical Motor Engine Type, Carlos Barrera

Carlos Barrera

GEARTURBINE PROJECT Atypical InFlow Thermodynamic Technology Proposal Submission Novel Fueled Motor Engine Type

*State of the art Innovative concept Top system Higher efficient percent. Have similar system of the Aeolipile Heron Steam device from Alexandria 10-70 AD. -New Form-Function Motor-Engine Device. Next Step, Epic Design Change, Broken-Seal Revelation. -Desirable Power-Plant Innovation.

YouTube; * Atypical New • GEARTURBINE / Retrodynamic = DextroRPM VS LevoInFlow + Ying Yang Thrust Way Type - Non Waste Looses

-This innovative concept consists of hull and core where are held all 8 bteps of the work-flow which make the concept functional. The core has several gears …

Application Of Natural Clay To Formulate Nontraditional Completion Fluid That Triples Oil Productivity, Abdul Aziz Abdul Raman

Abdul Aziz Abdul Raman

Adverse effect of the highly biorecalcitrant compound phenol to the environment is well established and its concentrations in industrial effluents vary greatly from 2.8 to 6,800 mg/l depending on the source. Fenton process effectively mineralises to CO(2) and H(2)O but reported works consumed more reagents and require longer reaction times. Due to the strong interaction between the several predictor variables in the Fenton oxidation, response surface methodology was used to optimise the mineralization treatment. Efficient, faster and economical operating conditions for phenol removal were explored by investigating four parameters namely the concentration ratio of hydrogen peroxide to phenol - ((H(2)O(2)):(Phenol)), …

Fabricate An 8.35-Ghz Frequency Synthesizer, A. Attaran, Hossein Ameri Mahabadi, M. Moghavvemi

Hossein Ameri Mahabadi

The article presents information on designing a low-noise frequency synthesizer for achieving low-phase-noise outputs past 8 GHz for digital microwave radios (DMRs). These synthesizers can be used with the DMRs, depending on advanced digital modulation such as quadrature-amplitude-modulation (QAM) and quadrature-phase-shift-keying (QPSK) formats.

Turning Packaging Into Profit, Rihaz Z. Chughatta

Rihaz Z Chughatta

Packaging can be an expensive function to maintain, but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, Packaging can be a source of income for a company. More accurately, what if you took a look at your company’s Profit and Loss and saw Packaging as a negative expense? That’s right, you can turn packaging into profit for your company. How do you accomplish this feat? Glad you asked … read on to find three simple ways to start this process (and satisfy your curiosity) …

Outsourcing The Packaging Function, Rihaz Z. Chughatta

Rihaz Z Chughatta

If you are currently working in the packaging department of a major corporation in the pharmaceutical, food or consumer products industry, you have probably been exposed to some form of outsourcing, which is a global trend that has emerged over the past decade, and continues to evolve, within the packaging field.

Field-Programmable Smart-Pixel Arrays: Design, Vlsi Implementation, And Applications, Sherif S. Sherif, Stefan K. Griebel, Albert Au, Dennis Hui, Ted H. Szymanski, Harvard Scott Hinton

H. Scott Hinton

A smart-pixel array is a two-dimensional array of optoelectronic devices that combine optical inputs and outputs with electronic processing circuitry. A field-programmable smart-pixel array (FP-SPA) is a smart-pixel array capable of having its electronic functionality dynamically programmed in the field. Such devices could be used in a diverse range of applications, including optical switching, optical digital signal processing, and optical image processing. We describe the design, VLSI implementation, and applications of a first-generation FP-SPA implemented with the 0.8-μm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor–self-electro-optic effect device technology made available through the Lucent Technologies–Advanced Research Projects Agency Cooperative (Lucent/ARPA/COOP) program. We report spice simulations …

Design And Characterization Of A Microchannel Optical Interconnect For Optical Backplanes, Yongsheng Liu, Brian Robertson, David V. Plant, Harvard Scott Hinton, William M. Robertson

H. Scott Hinton

The design, modeling, and experimental characterization of a microchannel-based free-space optical interconnect is described. The microchannel interconnect was used to implement a representative portion of an optical backplane that was based on field-effect transistor, self-electro-optic device smart-pixel transceivers. Telecentric relays were used to form the optical interconnect, and two modes based on two different optical window clusterings were implemented. The optical system design, including the optical geometry for different degrees of clustering of windows supported by a lenslet relay and the image mapping associated with a free-space optical system, is described. A comparison of the optical beam properties at the …

Novel Rotary-Turbo-Inflow Tech - Gearturbine Project - Featured Development, Carlos Barrera

Carlos Barrera

GEARTURBINE PROJECT Atypical InFlow Thermodynamic Technology Proposal Submission Novel Fueled Motor Engine Type

*State of the art Innovative concept Top system Higher efficient percent. Have similar system of the Aeolipile Heron Steam device from Alexandria 10-70 AD. -New Form-Function Motor-Engine Device. Next Step, Epic Design Change, Broken-Seal Revelation. -Desirable Power-Plant Innovation.

YouTube; * Atypical New • GEARTURBINE / Retrodynamic = DextroRPM VS LevoInFlow + Ying Yang Thrust Way Type - Non Waste Looses

-This innovative concept consists of hull and core where are held all 8 bteps of the work-flow which make the concept functional. The core has several gears …