Engineering Commons^™

Optimal Design Of Grillage Structures With Steel Crossed Beams Using Genetic Algorithms, Ersilio Tushaj, Niko Lako, Fatjon Saliu

UBT International Conference

The optimal problem in the structural design is an important issue in the engineering design. Various authors have analyzed the optimization of steel structures using algorithmic approaches. These techniques are generally grouped in deterministic or meta-heuristic techniques. From the introduction of structural optimization in the 1960’ up to now, various methods have been proposed. A genetic algorithm, is built and applied in this study using MatLab soft R2017a to a crossed beams system. The structural analysis is done with the direct stiffness method with constraints verification based on EuroCode 3:2005 criteria. Results are reported in the study.

Beam- Column Joints For R/C Structures According To En 1998-1:2004, Xhemshir Mulliqi

UBT International Conference

Joints are crucial zones for the transfer internal forces effectively between the connecting elements like beams and columns .The behaviour of reinforced concrete moment resisting frame structures in recent earthquakes all over the world has highlighted the consequences of poor performance of beam column joints. The basic requirement of design is that the joint must be stronger than the adjoining hinging members, usually the beams or columns. This paper aims to present design approach for Beam- Column joints for reinforced concrete (R/C) structures according to the EN 1998-1:2004.

The Effect Of Elevated Temperature On The Lightweight Concrete Containing Waste Pet Aggregate, Semiha Akçaözoğlu

UBT International Conference

In this study, the effect of waste PET as lightweight aggregate (WPLA) replacement with conventional aggregate on the some physical and mechanical properties and residual compressive strength of concrete was investigated. For this purpose, five different mixtures were prepared (the reference mixture and four WPLA mixtures including 30%, 40%, 50% and 60% waste PET aggregate by volume). The fresh and dry unit weights, compressive strengths, flexural-tensile strengths, water absorption and porosity ratios of the mixtures were measured. In addition the specimens exposed to elevated temperatures at 150, 300 and 450 °C and the residual compressive strengths were measured. Test results …

The Effect Of Fine Material Amount On Optimum Water Content Of Roller Compacted Concrete, Kubilay Akçaözoğlu, Bedrettin Menemencioğlu

UBT International Conference

In this study the effect of fine material amount on the optimum water content of roller compacted concrete (RCC) was investigated. The fine aggregate was replaced with calcite which maximum particle size was 63 μ, in amount of 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 10% and 14% by weight of total aggregate. Six different mixtures were prepared in the study. The optimum water contents of the mixtures were determined by using modified proctor test. Optimum water content, maximum dry unit weight and maximum fresh unit weight of produced specimens were measured. Optimum water content of specimens decreased depending on increasing fine aggregate …

Research On System Communication By Using Unified Registry Model & Elements, Kujtim Gashi, Atdhe Buja, Fatos Idrizi

UBT International Conference

Trends of Development of Information Society in the Republic of Kosovo must fit the criteria and standards of the EU. The main objective of the paper is the identification of individual IT systems used by the Republic of Kosovo public institutions related to the trade and working out analysis and recommendations for optimizing their communication (interoperability), eventual unification in the hardware & software level and increase the efficiency of the entire economic system information. The analytical analysis outlined these points, as it follows: current technologies used by public administration of the Republic of Kosovo, risk analysis, analysis of data structures …

Smia: Improving Kosovo's Education Management System, Lazar Adjijgogov, Dejan Stamenov, Edmond Jajaga

UBT International Conference

Successful management of today’s education systems requires effective policy-making and system monitoring through data and information. To this end, countries around the world have invested significant resources into collecting, processing, and managing more and better data through education management information systems (EMIS). SMIA is a modern EMIS, which offers easier management of educational process in Kosovo. It facilitates decision-making, resource planning, strategy building, monitoring and evaluation of educational system through a rich set of analytical and statistical tools. For over six years of activity, the system has efficiently tracked and thus helped the development of the educational process for every …

Superconductivity At Т≈200 K In Bismuth Cuprates Synthesized Using Solar Energy, J. Chigvinadze, Juana Acrivos, S. Ashimov, D. Gulamova, G. Donadze

Faculty Publications, Chemistry

When investigating low-frequency (0.1 Hz) oscillations of multiphase high-temperature cuprate superconductors (HTCS) Bi1,7Pb0,3Sr2Ca(n-1)CunOy (n=2-30), a wide attenuation peak (ΔT~100 К) with a maximum at Т≈200 К was detected. This peak was particularly pronounced in field cooling (FC) experiments, i.e. after abrupt cooling of the sample in the external magnetic field at the temperature Т<Тс with subsequent slow warming up to room temperature with invariance of the applied field. The attenuation peak height depended on the preliminaryorientation (before cooling) of the samples θ in the measured permanent magnetic field Н. On the one hand, it is well known that, after the FC procedure and subsequent slow warming up, at the temperatures close to the critical temperature Тс, the attenuation peak associated with “melting” of the Abrikosov frozen vortex structure and its disappearance at Т >Тс is detected in monophase samples. At the same time, in most multiphase bismuth HTCS samples, synthesized using solar energy and superfast quenching of the melt, the attenuation peak with the maximum at Т≈200 К was observed.Depending on the conditions of synthesis, the attenuation peak could …

Special Issue On Supercapacitors, Xiao-Gang Zhang

Journal of Electrochemistry

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Strategies To Enhance Energy Density For Supercapacitors, Jun-Wei Lang, Xu Zhang, Ru-Tao Wang, Xing-Bin Yan

Journal of Electrochemistry

The biggest advantage of supercapacitor lies in not only the excellent pulse and fast charging-discharging performance, but also the characteristics of long cycle life and wide operating temperature window with no pollution. However, the energy density of supercapacitor is low. In this paper, the working principle, the development status, defects and improvement method of supercapacitors are introduced. Based on the research workes of the supercapacitors with high energy density in our group, combined with the literature reports in recent years, the strategies to promote the energy density of supercarpacitors will be focused. The strategies for the enhancement of energy density …

Porous Carbon Materials Produced By Koh Activation For Supercapacitor Electrodes, Jiang-Lin Ye, Yan-Wu Zhu

Journal of Electrochemistry

Porous carbon materials with high specific surface area and excellent conductivity have wide applications in supercapacitor electrodes. Much effort has been made to synthesize and tailor the microstructures of porous carbon materials via various activation procedures (physical and chemical activations). In particular, the chemical activation using potassium hydroxide (KOH) as an activating reagent is promising because of the well-defined micropore size distribution and ultrahigh specific surface area up to 3000 m²·g^-1 of the resulting porous carbons. Based mainly on the previous works taken by the authors and collaborators in the field, we have summarized the activation mechanism …

Recent Advances On Carbon And Transition Metallic Compound Electrodes For High-Performance Supercapacitors, Dun Lin, Xi-Yue Zhang, Yin-Xiang Zeng, Ming-Hao Yu, Xi-Hong Lu, Ye-Xiang Tong

Journal of Electrochemistry

Supercapacitors (SCs) have stimulated intensive interests for their promising applications in electric vehicles and portable electronics, etc. Electrode material is the most important key component of SCs, which vastly determines the performance of SCs. Carbon and transition metallic compound materials have attracted considerable attention and been widely explored as electrode materials. However, the insufficient capacitance of carbon materials and unsatisfactory conductivity and cyclic stability of transition metallic compounds severely limit their implementation as robust SC electrodes. Herein, we highlight our recent efforts to boost the capacitive performance of carbon and metal oxide/nitride electrodes by rationally structural and componential design. The …

Lithium Ion Hybrid Capacitor With High Energy Density, Xian-Zhong Sun, Xiong Zhang, Kai Wang, Yan-Wei Ma

Journal of Electrochemistry

Lithium ion hybrid capacitors are electrochemical energy storage devices combining the advantages of both Li-ion battery and electrochemical capacitor. They can be extensively used in many fields. However, the commercialization of lithium ion hybrid capacitor has been encountered several problems, e.g., the device structure design, the screening of materials, the pre-lithiation process, and the interface between electrolyte and electrode, etc. This review summarizes the recent research advances in lithium ion hybrid capacitor with high energy density, including the selection of the active materials in cathode/anode and the separator, the pre-lithiation method using the three-electrode structure, the high- and low-temperature performances, …

Template Induced Fabrication Of Nitrogen Doped Carbon Sheets As Electrode Materials In Supercapacitors, Tao Huang, Guang-Zhi Tao, Chong-Qing Yang, Deng Lu, Lie Ma, Dong-Qing Wu

Journal of Electrochemistry

Due to the good electrical conductivity, high specific surface area, and excellent chemical/mechanical stability, carbon nanomaterials with two-dimensional morphology have gradually become the hot topic of the research on supercapacitors. Herein, we report for the first time the fabrication of nitrogen doped carbon sheets (NCSs). In our approach, the sheet-like magnisum aluminum (MgAl) layered double hydroxide was used as the hard template, which was mixed with o-phenylene diamine and iron chloride. The following thermal treatment could render the polymerization and carbonization of o-phenylene diamine. The NCSs with ordered hexagonal architectures were formed by final etching process of the thermally treated …

Preparation And Characterization Of Cellulose Acetate-Based Separator For Lithium-Ion Batteries, Hua-Feng Luo, Yuan-Dong Qiao

Journal of Electrochemistry

To improve the electrolyte wettability and thermal resistance of separators used for lithium-ion battery, a novel cellulose acetate (CA)-based separator is facilely prepared by non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) wet-process and investigated in lithium-ion batteries. Systematical investigations including morphological characterization, electrolyte wettability and thermal resistance testing were carried out. The results demonstrated that the CA-based separator exhibited well developed three-dimensional porous structures with porosity up to 65%, which is 1.5 times higher than that of PE separator. The CA separator also showed excellent electrolyte uptake (285%) and thermal stability at 150 ^oC for 30 min. Compared with the commercial …

Evaluation Of Physical - Chemical Contaminants In Lumbardhi River In Prizren For The Period May - June 2017, Gashi Sami, Bajmaku Ymerr, Besar Veseli, Drini Petrit

UBT International Conference

This paper covers the monitoring of water pollution in the river basin from the source to the White Drin flow monitoring the river flow both in the rural and urban areas of water quality. The biggest problem in environmental protection is the quality of surface water. The results from the analysis of the study will serve to know the pollution from these physical-chemical parameters and at the same time to manage the eco-status in order to prevent negative trends and create a desirable balancing of so important the ecosystem as it is the system consist of Lumbardhi River, with biodiversity …

Monitoring Of Air Quality In The Urban And Industrial Areas In Kosovo, Besa Veseli, Sami Gashi, Shkumbin Shala

UBT International Conference

Environmental pollution has a direct or indirect effect, and is mainly caused by human activity or environmental processes that have harmful effects in the environment and human life.In Kosovo the air pollution in Kosovo is quite evident in the industrial areas. The power plant of KEK (TCA and TCB), from the Cement Factory and ferronickel etc.

In the vast majority of cases, the pollution is caused by the emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2), azotes (NOx), ozone, lead and other heavy metals, such as carbon monoxide (CO), dust, PM10,PM2,5 and steamy organic components.

The aim of this inquiry is to study …

Improving Efficiency, Reduction Of Pollution And Co2 Emission From Power Plant Kosovo, Afrim Syla

UBT International Conference

In recent years, global warming has been a major issue due to continuous growth of greenhouse gas emissions from different sources. Earth’s atmosphere is composed of a variety of chemical compounds that act as greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is of primary concern due to growing global emissions in recent history. Since the expansion of coal use during the industrial revolution and the expansion of petroleum use during the 20th century, CO2 emissions have risen steadily.

The major factor in Kosovo’s political, social, and economic life today is the development and social sustainability. The biggest challenge for Kosovo remains the …

Evaluation Of The Ereniku River Waters In The Locations Where The Lukac River Flows, Faton Maloku, Luan Daija, Xhelal Këpuska

UBT International Conference

The fate and transport of many anthropogenic pollutants have an impact not only on hydrological cycles, but also on physico-chemical processes.Water resource monitoring will assess the quality of water, identify its depreciation, and help policymakers make decisions that will preserve not only natural areas but also improve quality of life.Therefore the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the physical and chemical parameters of the locations where the river Lukac flows into the Erenik river. Erenik is a river in the western part of Kosovo.The water quality of the Ereniku river comes from anthropogenic activities, mainly from sewage discharges, from …

Economic Aspect Of The Electricity Production In Subsidiary Mpc Oslomej, Imer Zenku

UBT International Conference

The need to increase the production of electricity in the Subsidiary MPC Oslomej (Mining Power Complex-Oslomej), which operates as part of JSC ELEM (Macedonian Power Plants), 100% state owned company, represents a significant economic activity.

Therefore, the analysis in this paper focuses and aims at the economic aspect of the current electricity production, that is, the impact of the expenditures of the Subsidiary on the price of electricity produced by ELEM JSC, a price also regulated by the Energy Regulatory Commission of the Republic of Macedonia (ERC).

This shall draw attention to the necessity to timely prepare and adjust the …

Study Of The Power Consumption Of Pseudo Random Bit Generator Circuits Implemented On Fpga, Galia Marinova

UBT International Conference

Pseudo Random Bit and Number Generator (PRB/NG) circuits being very widely used for security, compressive sensing and diverse other applications in telecommunications are studies in different aspects in the laboratory of Computer-aided Design in Telecommunications in Technical University-Sofia. Some results of this study are published in [1] where tests for randomness from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) suit are applied on commonly used PRB/NGs. Other aspects of the PRB/NG circuits study is their power consumption in the aim of green communications as noticed in [2,3] and the concern about low power consuming devices for Internet of Things’ …

Computer Science: Application Of Technology/Iot In Hydropower Dams, Orjola Jaupi

UBT International Conference

As time passes by, we barely see how much time it costs people to stay at work, fixing problems that happen every day. As people we should do more about humanity and technology is the door that opens opportunities for us to do this. Technology today is transforming every human daily life routine and it’s only the beginning of what technology can bring. By 2020 we know that technology will connect the unconnected by introducing the real idea of Internet of Things. Every little, tiny thing all over the world will be connected, but also big and important projects like …

Review Of Artificial Intelligence Development, Its Impact And Its Challenges, Litvane Spahija, Festim Halili

UBT International Conference

The field of Artificial Intelligence, which started roughly half a century ago, has a turbulent history. In the 1980s there has been a major paradigm shift towards embodiment. While embodied artificial intelligence is still highly diverse, changing, and far from “theoretically stable”, a certain consensus about the important issues and methods has been achieved or is rapidly emerging. In this paper we briefly characterize the field, summarize its achievements, and identify important issues for future research.

With the popularization of the Internet, permeation of sensor networks, emergence of big data, increase in size of the information community, and interlinking and …

Characteristics And Temporal Behavior Of Internet Backbone Traffic, Artan Salihu, Muharrem Shefkiu, Arianit Maraj

UBT International Conference

With the rapid increase demand for data usage, Internet has become complex and harder to analyze. Characterizing the Internet traffic might reveal information that are important for Network Operators to formulate policy decisions, develop techniques to detect network anomalies, help better provision network resources (capacity, buffers) and use workload characteristics for simulations (typical packet sizes, flow durations, common protocols).

In this paper, using passive monitoring and measurements, we show collected data traffic at Internet backbone routers. First, we reveal main observations on patterns and characteristics of this dataset including packet sizes, traffic volume for inter and intra domain and protocol …

Applying A Revised Approach Of Fuzzy Cognitive Maps On A Hybrid Electrical Energy System, Ekavi Antoniou, Eleni S. Vergini, Peter P. Groumpos

UBT International Conference

Complex systems modeling is a rapidly developing research field which incorporates various scientific sectors from bio medicine and energy to economic and social sciences. However, as the systems’ complexity increases pure mathematical modeling techniques prove to be a rather laborious task which demands wasting many resources and in many occasions, could not lead to the desired system response. This realization led researchers turn their attention into the field of computational intelligence; Neural Networks and Fuzzy Logic etc. In this way scientists were able to provide a model of a system which is strongly characterized by fuzziness and uncertainties. Fuzzy Cognitive …

Permission-Based Privacy Analysis For Android Applications, Erza Gashi, Zhilbert Tafa

UBT International Conference

While Information and Communication Technology (ICT) trends are moving towards the Internet of Things (IoT), mobile applications are becoming more and more popular. Mostly due to their pervasiveness and the level of interaction with the users, along with the great number of advantages, the mobile applications bring up a great number of privacy related issues as well. These platforms can gather our very sensitive private data by only granting them a list of permissions during the installation process. Additionally, most of the users can find it difficult, or even useless, to analyze system permissions. Thus, their guess of app’s safety …

An Overview Of Zero Energy Buildings With An Emphasis On Energy Savings, Lazaros Aygeris, Peter P. Groumpos

UBT International Conference

The indiscriminate exploitation of the planet's energy sources has nowadays led to an uncontrolled form of climate change, with negative consequences for both humankind and the environment. In an effort to curb this situation, energy savings in both the building sector and other sectors of activity (industry, transport, etc.) is a primary objective and an indispensable component of any energy policy been planned today all around the world. As the building sector consumes 40% of the energy required at European level, the European Union (EU) has made considerable efforts to significantly reduce these consumption levels. In recent years, the European …

A Critical Overview Of Data Mining For Business Applications, George Telonis, Peter P. Groumpos

UBT International Conference

Everybody looks to a world that does not remain the same. Furthermore no one can deny that the world is changing, and changing very fast.

Technology, education, science, environment, health, communicating habits, entertainment, eating habits, dress - there is hardly anything in life that is not changing. Some changes we like, while others create fear and anxiety around us. Everywhere there is a feeling of insecurity.

What will happen to us tomorrow, or what will happen to our children, are questions we keep frequently asking. One thing, however, is clear.

It is no more possible to live in the way …

Decision Making Based On Data Analyses Using Data Warehouses, Valdrin Haxhiu

UBT International Conference

Data warehouses are a collection of several databases, whose goal is to help different companies and corporations make important decisions about their activities. These decisions are taken from the analyses that are made to the data within the data warehouse. These data are taken from data that companies and corporations collect on daily basis from their branches that may be located in different cities, regions, states and continents. Data that are entered to data warehouses are historical data and they represent that part of data that is important for making decisions. These data go under a transformation process in order …

Mobile Cloud Computing: A New Way Of Cloud Computing, Festim Halili, Verda Misimi, Rilinda Iseini, Mirije Salihi

UBT International Conference

Cloud Computing seems to be the most promising technology of the century we are living. It provides a new manner of sharing distributed resources and services that may be part of different organizations, geographically located in different places and different time zones. Mobile Cloud Computing offers partially the same functionality, with the only additional requirement that, at least, some of the devices are mobile. In this paper, we will try to provide a detailed explanation of Mobile Cloud Computing concept by providing different examples, figures and charts showing usage, accessibility, pros and cons and comparison of different cloud platforms.

Wind Turbine Technology Enables Sustainable Development Of Electricity In Kosovo, Vehebi Sofiu

UBT International Conference

The requirements of the EU directives for the renewable energy market, in particular wind turbines, enable sustainable development to meet the requirements for electricity generation. Global changes and environmental disasters resulting from industrial pollution do not allow a sustainable development of alternative natural resource exploitation. Balkan states and Kosovo are obliged to increase energy efficiency, to increase the discipline related to flow of fossil fuel emissions, which means less CO2 and greenhouse gases, and to advance the renewable energies by 20% up to 2020. Wind generation turbines are used to transform energy from a rotational mechanical action to generate electricity. …