Engineering Commons^™

Improved Harmonic Suppression Efficiency Of Single-Phase Apfs In Distorted Distribution Systems, Samet Biricik, Soydan Redif, Shafiuzzaman Khadem, Malabika Basu

Articles

In this study, a control method is proposed to improve the harmonic suppression efficiency of the single phase active power filter in a distorted power system to suppress current harmonics and reactive power. The proposed method uses the self-tuning filter (STF) algorithm to process single phase grid voltage in order to provide a uniform reference grid current, which increases the efficiency of the system. The results of the simulation study are presented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control technique in this study.

Structural Simulations And Conservation Analysis: Historic Building Information Model (Hbim), Conor Dore Dr., Maurice Murphy, S. Mccarthy, F. Brechin, C. Cassidy, E. Dirix

Conference papers

In this paper the current findings to date of the Historic Building Information Model (HBIM) of the Four Courts in Dublin are presented. The Historic Building Information Model (HBIM) forms the basis for both structural and conservation analysis to measure the impact of war damage which still impacts on the building. The laser scan survey was carried out in the summer of 2014 of the internal and external structure. After registration and processing of the laser scan survey, the HBIM was created of the damaged section of the building and is presented as two separate workflows in this paper. The …

Photonic Crystal Fibre Wgm Resonators For Magnetic Field Sensing, Aseel Mahmood, Vishnu Kavungal, Yuliya Semenova, S. S. Ahmed

Conference Papers

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) micro-resonators are remarkable optical devices whose small modevolumes and high Q-factors make them attractive for a wide range of applications such as filters, lasers, modulators and sensors [1]. WGMs can be excited in dielectric structures with circular symmetry, such as microspheres, micro-disks, and optical fibres, and can be imagined as closed-trajectory rays confined within the cavity by almost total reflections from the curved surface of the resonator. The spectral positions of the WGM resonances are highly sensitive to the geometrical dimensions of the resonator and refractive indices of both the resonator itself and its surrounding medium …

Human Factors Engineering In System Design: A Roadmap For Improvement, Maria Chiara Leva, Farzad Naghdali, Costanza Ciarapica Alunni

Conference Papers

This paper summarises current industrial practices and standards promoting Human Factors Engineering (HFE) at design stage and revise them with an action research approached based on the concrete case studies performed during a European project called TOSCA. The paper highlights how HFE can significantly impact the costs and risk associated with a plant lifecycle and the current gaps and issues encountered. The gaps identified are used to guide industrial practices and standards towards a more valuable inclusion of Human Factors knowledge in structured system design processes to support human performance and reduce the potential for human errors in operations and …

Human Factors Engineering At Design Projects For Process Industry - Challenges And Lessons Learned, Maria Chiara Leva, Farzad Naghdali

Conference Papers

This paper summarises current industrial practices and standards promoting Human Factors Engineering (HFE) at design stage and revise them with an action research approached based on the concrete case studies performed during a European project called TOSCA. The paper highlights how HFE can significantly impact the costs and risk associated with a plant lifecycle and the current gaps and issues encountered. The gaps identified are used to guide industrial practices and standards towards a more valuable inclusion of Human Factors knowledge in structured system design processes to support human performance and reduce the potential for human errors in operations and …

Measuring And Monitoring Speech Quality For Voice Over Ip With Polqa, Visqol And P.563, Andrew Hines, Eoin Gillen, Naomi Harte

Conference papers

There are many types of degradation which can occur in Voice over IP (VoIP) calls. Of interest in this work are degradations which occur independently of the codec, hardware or network in use. Specifically, their effect on the subjective and objec- tive quality of the speech is examined. Since no dataset suit- able for this purpose exists, a new dataset (TCD-VoIP) has been created and has been made publicly available. The dataset con- tains speech clips suffering from a range of common call qual- ity degradations, as well as a set of subjective opinion scores on the clips from 24 …

Study Of Uhf And Vhf Compact Antennas, Abraham Loutridis

Doctoral

This thesis presents and describes designs of small antennas that operate in UHF and VHF frequency bands. The proposed antennas are designed for integration into small volumes, therefore low profile, compact size and good radiation properties are the key parameters in this work. A further investigation on miniaturization techniques, as well as the ground plane effects on the general performance, is also made. The main objective is the design of novel compact sized geometries, lightweight and cost efficient, operating in the lower UHF and VHF frequency bands. The groundplane size and the antenna position with respect to it, are two …

The Contribution Of Non-Thermal And Advanced Oxidation Technologies Towards Dissipation Of Pesticide Residues, N. Misra

Articles

Background

The use of pesticides has stabilised the food production to a great extent and their usage cannot be avoided anymore. Nevertheless, common food processing operations always allowed dissipating pesticide residues in foods to some extent. Within the food science community and the food processing sector, non-thermal food technologies are being researched and commercialised at a great pace over the past three decades.

Scope and Approach

In this review we provide a critical analysis of the literature pertinent to the fate of pesticide residues during non-thermal processing of solid and liquid foods. We also identify the opportunities for further development …

A Printed Triangular Monopole With Wideband Circular Polarization, Afshin Panahi, Xiulong Bao, Giuseppe Ruvio, Max Ammann

Articles

A printed triangular monopole antenna with wideband circular polarization is presented. The wideband circular polarization is achieved by asymmetrical excitation of a triangular ground plane and planar triangular monopole. The combined radiation provides a wide axial-ratio bandwidth spanning from 1.42 to 2.7 GHz (62%). A parametric study of key geometric parameters is given for clear understanding of the radiation mechanism.

Whispering Gallery Modes In A Ferronematic-Infiltrated Fibre Micro-Resonator For Magnetic Field Sensing, Aseel Mahmood, Vishnnu Kavungal, Sudad S. Ahmed, Peter Kopcansky, Vlasta Zavisova, Gerald Farrell, Yuliya Semenova

Conference Papers

Introduction Whispering gallery mode (WGM) micro-resonators are remarkable optical devices whose small mode volumes and high Q-factors make them attractive for a wide range of applications such as filters, lasers, modulators and sensors [1]. WGMs can be excited in dielectric structures with circular symmetry, such as microspheres, micro-disks, and optical fibres, and can be imagined as closed-trajectory rays confined within the cavity by almost total reflections from the curved surface of the resonator. Spectral positions of the WGM resonances are highly sensitive to the geometrical dimensions of the resonator and refractive indices of both the resonator itself and its surrounding …

Contactless Measurement Of Angular Velocity Using Circularly Polarized Antennas, Vit Sipal, Adam Narbudowicz, Max Ammann

Articles

An innovative method to measure the angular velocity using circularly polarized antennas is proposed. Due to the properties of circular polarization, the angular velocity is frequency modulated (FM) on a wireless carrier. This enables a low-cost precise continuous measurement of angular velocity using a standard FM demodulator. The hardware can be easily adapted for both high and low angular velocity values. The precise alignment angle between the antennas can be determined if the initial antenna orientation is known. The angular error is shown to be

Impact Of Hub Location On The Performance Of Wireless Body Area Networks For Fitness Applications, Vit Sipal, Domenico Gaetano, Patrick Mcevoy, Max Ammann

Articles

This letter compares the propagation properties of Wireless Body Area Networks for three different locations (head, foot and waist) of the hub/internet gateway on the human body. The wireless channels between the hubs and four nodes (chest, back, and upper arms) are measured on a female and a male subject performing push-ups and squats. A framework using spider plots is used for cumulative performance description. The results show that the best overall performance is for hub located on the left temple and the worst overall performance is achieved for a hub on the waist. These results are expected to stimulate …

Multifunctional Glazing System: Solution For Modern Smart Glazing, Aritra Ghosh, Brian Norton, Aidan Duffy

Conference papers

Multifunctional glazing combines various glazing ,that have potential to control solar heat gain by changing the window transmittance and low heat loss. In autonomous multifunctional glazing it s function will be powered by PV layer attached to the glazing. This glazing obviates the necessity for shading devices to control the glare. Glare control for such a small scale south facing vertical surface multifunctional glazing is discussed.

Process Simulation Of Biomass Gasification Integrated With A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack, Wayne Doherty, Anthony Reynolds, David Kennedy

Articles

Biomass gasification-solid oxide fuel cell (BG-SOFC) combined heat and power (CHP) systems are of major interest in the context of climate change mitigation, energy security and increasing energy efficiency. Aspen Plus is employed to simulate various BG-SOFC CHP systems. The aim of the research work is to investigate the technical feasibility of these systems and to study the influence of important operating parameters and examine integration options. Systems based on dual fluidised bed steam gasification and tubular SOFC technologies are modelled. The cathode recycle and electric heater integration options are not attractive in comparison to the base case anode recycle …

The Progressive Development Of Turbulence Statistics And Its Impact On Wind Power Predictability, Thomas Woolmington, Keith Sunderland, Jonathan Blackledge, Michael Conlon

Articles

Wind resource assessment is a critical parameter in a diverse range of considerations within the built environment. Engineers and scientists, engaging in building design, energy conservation/application and air-quality/air-pollution control measures, need to be cognisant of how the associated wind resource imposes increased complexities in their design and modelling processes. In this regard, the morphological heterogeneities within these environments, present significant challenges to quantifying the resource and its turbulent characteristics.

This paper presents three aspects of turbulence assessment within the built environment. Firstly, an analysis of how turbulence is currently quantified is considered. The industry standard, Turbulent Intensity (TI) is compared …

Analysing The Impact Of Digital Photography Projects On Student Engagement And Performance In A Higher Education Engineering Discipline, Michael Gleeson

Conference papers

Developing and implementing engaging activities aligned with the learning outcomes of a module within a higher education programme is essential to successful teaching practice in the 21^st century. Substantial research evidence indicates that student engagement plays a pivotal role in the academic performance and success of the student. The aim of this research is to compare student performance after adopting an alternative pedagogic approach utilising digital photography as a tool to engage the student in an engineering discipline. The activity was designed to promote student engagement by integrating digital photography, replicating authentic construction professional practice and focusing on images …

Printed Triple-Band Circularly Polarised Antenna For Wireless Systems, Xiulong Bao, Max Ammann

Articles

A triple-band circularly polarised microstrip patch antenna operating in the 2.4, 3.5 and 5.7 GHz bands is presented. The antenna consists of two substrate layers with an electromagnetically coupled low-band patch in the middle layer and a probe-fed dual-band patch on the top layer. The impedance bandwidths (voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) < 2.5) for the three frequency bands are 112, 118 and 427 MHz with 3 dB axial-ratio bandwidths of 15, 44 and 36 MHz, respectively. The peak gains across the operating bands are 4.2, 5.5 and 4 dBic, respectively.

Economically Rational Trading Between The All Island Single Electricity Market And Great Britain; Theory Vs Practice, Aoife Wilson

Masters

Economic trading across electricity interconnectors is considered to be a key factor in delivering the economic welfare benefits of an integrated European electricity market. This research examines this assumption as it applies to the interconnection between the electricity markets in Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain. In doing so it reviews the assumption of economically rational trading behaviour by participants in the market. This assumption underpinned the cost benefit studies justifying construction of the East-West interconnector. Actual patterns of trading that have arisen post commissioning are compared with projected rational behaviour.

The research also considers the consequences of these behavioural …

Conceptualization Of A Photovoltaic Powered Electrochromic Switching Of A Multifunctional Glazing, Aritra Ghosh, Brian Norton, Aidan Duffy

Conference papers

A multifunctional glazing system has the potential to reduce the heat loss through a window with control of solar heat gain and daylight. Thus it can reduce both the cooling load and heating load depending on weather, occupancy and building construction. A photovoltaic (PV) panel can be used to generate energy to change the colour of the electrochromic (EC) material. Battery storage system has been included to activate the EC behaviour using stored solar electricity. PV area and cost can thus be smaller. As a window can be placed in different sides of a building, incident solar irradiation on a …

Shaping The Axial-Ratio Footprint Of Crossed-Dipole Antennas, Adam Narbudowicz, Max Ammann, Janusz Przewocki

Conference papers

A method is proposed to adaptively change the axial-ratio beam of simple circularly-polarized antennas. It is shown, that by varying the phase shift between two orthogonal elements the axial-ratio beam shape can be dynamically adjusted. This allows control of the direction of minimum axial-ratio and the ability to increase or decrease the beamwidth in one of two planes. The method is intended for satellite navigation systems: it can improve the rejection of reflected signals in varying propagation conditions (e.g. urban canyons), while using simple and low-cost circularly-polarized antennas.

Optimised Integration Of Grid-Connected Renewable Energy Technologies For Domestic Application In Ireland, Zhe Li

Doctoral

The utilisation of renewable energy resources for electricity and thermal generation is extremely important in Ireland due to the lack of indigenous fossil fuel resources and the high dependence on imported fossil fuels. The release of environmentally-damaging greenhouse gases in the combustion of fossil fuels in electricity and thermal generation is also a major issue. In Ireland, the domestic dwelling is recognised as one of the biggest energy consumers. The use of renewable energy technologies to provide electricity, heating and hotwater can effectively offset the usage of fossil fuels. The aim of this research study was to develop a novel …

Bs News November/December

Building Services Engineering

No abstract provided.

Demographic Growth In Ireland Since 2011: Some Geographic Implications For Future Spatial Planning, Housing And Infrastructure Provision, Brian Hughes

Other Resources

Urbanisation; long-term population growth on the Island of Ireland; recent population growth and where that growth is occurring; Analysis of spatial growth; the demographic components of growth and CSO growth projections; Housing and Infrastructure; City Formation and City-led growth; Nature and Change of ‘Work’, Economics and Wealth Creation; Employment Potential; the Forthcoming National Economic and Spatial Strategy and Growth Options; A case-study of County Mayo and the role of Public Representatives, exemplifying conflicting Urban versus Rural policy objectives.

Six Things That Need To Change In Ireland's Rental Market, Lorcan Sirr

Media

No abstract provided.

Spatial Skills As Predictors Of Success In First-Year Engineering, Sheryl Sorby, Edmund Nevin, Avril Behan, Eileen Mageean, Sarah Sheridan

Conference papers

Numerous research studies have highlighted the importance of well-developed 3-D spatial skills for success in STEM related programs. Poor spatial skills, particularly among first-year students, can place them at a distinct disadvantage when completing introductory courses in mathematics, CAD, descriptive geometry, and graphic communications - first-year requirements in many STEM related programs. This in turn can lead to poor grades and retention issues. Women are disproportionally among the group of students with weak or poorly developed 3-D spatial skills meaning that they are at a greater risk of leaving engineering when compared to their male counterparts. In this study, the …

Online Resource Platform For Mathematics Education, Marisa Llorens, Edmund Nevin, Eileen Mageean

Reports

The aim of this project was to develop and explore the use of a Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) integrating a web-based platform for the study of mathematics as part of an active learning environment. The platform was designed to provide active support to engineering students especially those in their first year of study. Early use of the platform can identify possible areas of weakness and provide the self-learning environment required for students to become more proficient in areas where they are lacking key skills or are finding the concepts difficult to understand.

The platform consists of a set …

Mortgage Clampdown Propsosals Will Have Serious Knock-On Effects, Lorcan Sirr

Media

No abstract provided.

An Optimal Calibration Procedure For A Telemac-2d Model Of The Eastern Coast Of Ireland, Garrett Keane, Andrew Stokes, Zeinab Bedri, John O'Sullivan

Conference papers

A review of the literature shows that most model calibrations involve the adjustment of the bottom friction coefficient to minimise the error between predicted and measured tidal elevations. In this study, an alternative procedure is adopted when calibrating a Telemac2D model covering an area on the Eastern coast of Ireland. The model is forced with eight principal tidal constituents derived from the MIKE 21 global model. It is calibrated separately for the two principal constituents, M2 and S2. The field data comprises tidal elevations recorded at five locations over a full lunar cycle in October 1998 and Spring and Neap …

Pump Design And Development For High Shear Grout Mixing Applications, John Kijak, David Kennedy

Conference Papers

No abstract provided.

Breast Cancer Detection Using Interferometric Music: Experimental And Numerical Assessment, Giuseppe Ruvio, Raffaele Solimene, Antonio Cuccaro, Domenico Gaetano, Jacinta Browne, Max Ammann

Articles

Purpose: In microwave breast cancer detection, it is often beneficial to arrange sensors in close proximity to the breast. The resultant coupling generally changes the antenna response. As an a priori characterization of the radio frequency system becomes difficult, this can lead to severe degradation of the detection efficacy. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the advantages of adopting an interferometric multiple signal classification (I-MUSIC) approach due to its limited dependence from a priori information on the antenna. The performance of I-MUSIC detection was measured in terms of signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR), signal-to-mean ratio (SMR), and spatial displacement (SD) …