Engineering Sector

This paper is focused on the implementation of fuzzy logic controllers and a combination between fuzzy logic control and proportional control to control the speed of a combined cycle electric power plant (CCPP). The system is simulated using Matlab/ Simulink and the fuzzy controller is implemented as a box in the simulation. Different types of the fuzzy controller have been tried in order to obtain the required speed response which achieves certain transient and steady state behavior.

The basic part of the vertical form, fill and seal packaging machine is the forming collar. The forming collar provides the shape over which packaging film is smoothly formed at high speed into a cylindrical shape. Describing the forming collar geometry and hence its design is, however, remarkably difficult. This paper presents, for the first time, a flexible methodology for calculating the complete geometry of the film rather than the usually non-complete collar over which the film is formed. That is, a methodology to calculate the film geometry over the collar including the seam along which the film is longitudinally sealed. The film geometry is calculated such that it has minimum deformation energy. Advantages of the proposed methodology include its great flexibility to generate collars with different configurations for different needs. Among the collar generation methods reviewed, the proposed methodology is the first that can systematically consider all collar configuration parameters such as the seam configuration, general package cross-section, flat or straight part of the collar, collar back angle, etc. A means for obtaining the exact collar geometry is also demonstrated. This enables right-first-time and repeatable collar production and reduces the time and cost for producing next generation packaging machines.

In this paper, a new control law is designed for flexible manipulator systems. Kharitonov theorem is used as a design tool to derive the robust control in robotic systems. Stability is guaranteed not only at one operating condition but also for a wide range of system uncertainty. Both the non-linear behaviour of the gearbox stiffness and the end load variations are tackled as interval uncertainties in the model. Particle swarm optimisation (PSO) is used to tune controller parameters, such that, the greatest real parts of closed loop eigenvalues among Kharitonov-extreme polynomials is minimised to assure the highest possible relative stability.

A new process for the co-production of vinyl acetate monomer and acetic acid from ethane feedstock was studied. Various configurations were proposed and simulation results were given for each case to optimize process variables. This new process offers an overall yield values above 70% with minimum separation steps involved and the possibility of utilities integration. The process does not involve any CO production, thus becoming environmentally more favorable. The initial capital investment of the proposed process is much lower compared to the conventional route.

Accurate load forecasting is very important for electric utilities in planning for new plants. Also it is very significant for the routine of maintaining, scheduling daily, electrical generation, and loads. In this study, emphasis was considered on short-term load forecasting which is important for real time operation and control of power systems. Artificial intelligence and stochastic forecasting models were examined. The performance of these models is dependent on the characteristics of electric loads and is based on the assumption that electric load patterns are basically invariant with time. Two different models were considered and a new stochastic model (called REGARIMA) was introduced and compared with ANFIS model. Both models were tested and shown to be the best one that represents the available data. The results obtained using the two approaches are very accurate and mutually competitive. Furthermore, they are very promising in short term forecasting techniques, which could be applied as well on wind speed forecasting.

The sophisticated Application of Artificial Intelligent Approaches was introduced recently in renewable energy in electric power systems. However, these approaches started with introducing Fuzzy Logic (FL) in the last decades of the last century. Furthermore, Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was introduced to solve many problems in electric power systems. Among these problems is forecasting of wind speed.

This paper describes a new pressure measurement technique for measuring the pressure over rotating blades of an industrial axial flow fan. The new technique is called the pressure sensitive foil (PS-Foil) technique. In this technique, a very thin aluminum foil is coated with pressure sensitive paint using anodization. The resulting PS-Foil can be stuck on any blade using a very thin layer of silicon. The PS-Foil technique shows a very fast time response like conventional porous anodized aluminum and can be applied to any rotor blade without fabricating the blade from aluminum. The total thickness of the aluminum foil and silicon layer is as small as 200 mm. An intensity based method and prior calibration procedures are used to obtain the calibrated PSP image. The unsteady experimental setup presented here shows that the PS-Foil time response is on the order 30 ms which is close to the conventional porous anodized aluminum method. Two applications are considered here to assess the applicability of this technique. Subsonic jet-plate impingement, and rotating blade of industrial fan. The pressure distribution over the impingement plate at different plate angles, and over the rotating blade at various speeds could be obtained with sufficient spatial resolution.

A new nonlinear finite element model is provided for the nonlinear flutter response of shape memory alloy (SMA) hybrid
composite plates under the combined effect of thermal and aerodynamic loads. The nonlinear governing equations for
moderately thick rectangular plates are obtained using first-order shear-deformable plate theory, von Karman straindisplacement
relations and the principle of virtual work. To account for the temperature dependence of material properties,
the thermal strain is stated as an integral quantity of thermal expansion coefficient with respect to temperature.
The aerodynamic pressure is modeled using the quasi-steady first-order piston theory. Newton-Raphson iteration
method is employed to obtain the thermal post-buckling deflection, while the linearized updated mode method is implemented
in predicting the limit-cycle oscillation at elevated temperatures. Numerical results are presented to show the
thermal buckling and flutter characteristics of SMA hybrid composite plates, illustrating the effect of the SMA volume fraction
and pre-strain value on the aero-thermo-mechanical response of such plates.