95,851 research outputs found

    Design and development of auxiliary components for a new two-stroke, stratified-charge, lean-burn gasoline engine

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    A unique stepped-piston engine was developed by a group of research engineers at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), from 2003 to 2005. The development work undertaken by them engulfs design, prototyping and evaluation over a predetermined period of time which was iterative and challenging in nature. The main objective of the program is to demonstrate local R&D capabilities on small engine work that is able to produce mobile powerhouse of comparable output, having low-fuel consumption and acceptable emission than its crankcase counterpart of similar displacement. A two-stroke engine work was selected as it posses a number of technological challenges, increase in its thermal efficiency, which upon successful undertakings will be useful in assisting the group in future powertrain undertakings in UTM. In its carbureted version, the single-cylinder aircooled engine incorporates a three-port transfer system and a dedicated crankcase breather. These features will enable the prototype to have high induction efficiency and to behave very much a two-stroke engine but equipped with a four-stroke crankcase lubrication system. After a series of analytical work the engine was subjected to a series of laboratory trials. It was also tested on a small watercraft platform with promising indication of its flexibility of use as a prime mover in mobile platform. In an effort to further enhance its technology features, the researchers have also embarked on the development of an add-on auxiliary system. The system comprises of an engine control unit (ECU), a directinjector unit, a dedicated lubricant dispenser unit and an embedded common rail fuel unit. This support system was incorporated onto the engine to demonstrate the finer points of environmental-friendly and fuel economy features. The outcome of this complete package is described in the report, covering the methodology and the final characteristics of the mobile power plant

    Towards the realisation of an integratated decision support environment for organisational decision making

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    Traditional decision support systems are based on the paradigm of a single decision maker working at a stand‐alone computer or terminal who has a specific decision to make with a specific goal in mind. Organizational decision support systems aim to support decision makers at all levels of an organization (from executive, middle management managers to operators), who have a variety of decisions to make, with different priorities, often in a distributed and dynamic environment. Such systems need to be designed and developed with extra functionality to meet the challenges such as collaborative working. This paper proposes an Integrated Decision Support Environment (IDSE) for organizational decision making. The IDSE distinguishes itself from traditional decision support systems in that it can flexibly configure and re‐configure its functions to support various decision applications. IDSE is an open software platform which allows its users to define their own decision processes and choose their own exiting decision tools to be integrated into the platform. The IDSE is designed and developed based on distributed client/server networking, with a multi‐tier integration framework for consistent information exchange and sharing, seamless process co‐ordination and synchronisation, and quick access to packaged and legacy systems. The prototype of the IDSE demonstrates good performance in agile response to fast changing decision situations

    An open platform for rapid-prototyping protection and control schemes with IEC 61850

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    Communications is becoming increasingly important to the operation of protection and control schemes. Although offering many benefits, using standards-based communications, particularly IEC 61850, in the course of the research and development of novel schemes can be complex. This paper describes an open-source platform which enables the rapid prototyping of communications-enhanced schemes. The platform automatically generates the data model and communications code required for an intelligent electronic device to implement a publisher-subscriber generic object-oriented substation event and sampled-value messaging. The generated code is tailored to a particular system configuration description (SCD) file, and is therefore extremely efficient at runtime. It is shown here how a model-centric tool, such as the open-source Eclipse Modeling Framework, can be used to manage the complexity of the IEC 61850 standard, by providing a framework for validating SCD files and by automating parts of the code generation process. The flexibility and convenience of the platform are demonstrated through a prototype of a real-time, fast-acting load-shedding scheme for a low-voltage microgrid network. The platform is the first open-source implementation of IEC 61850 which is suitable for real-time applications, such as protection, and is therefore readily available for research and education

    Construction and commissioning of a technological prototype of a high-granularity semi-digital hadronic calorimeter

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    A large prototype of 1.3m3 was designed and built as a demonstrator of the semi-digital hadronic calorimeter (SDHCAL) concept proposed for the future ILC experiments. The prototype is a sampling hadronic calorimeter of 48 units. Each unit is built of an active layer made of 1m2 Glass Resistive Plate Chamber(GRPC) detector placed inside a cassette whose walls are made of stainless steel. The cassette contains also the electronics used to read out the GRPC detector. The lateral granularity of the active layer is provided by the electronics pick-up pads of 1cm2 each. The cassettes are inserted into a self-supporting mechanical structure built also of stainless steel plates which, with the cassettes walls, play the role of the absorber. The prototype was designed to be very compact and important efforts were made to minimize the number of services cables to optimize the efficiency of the Particle Flow Algorithm techniques to be used in the future ILC experiments. The different components of the SDHCAL prototype were studied individually and strict criteria were applied for the final selection of these components. Basic calibration procedures were performed after the prototype assembling. The prototype is the first of a series of new-generation detectors equipped with a power-pulsing mode intended to reduce the power consumption of this highly granular detector. A dedicated acquisition system was developed to deal with the output of more than 440000 electronics channels in both trigger and triggerless modes. After its completion in 2011, the prototype was commissioned using cosmic rays and particles beams at CERN.Comment: 49 pages, 41 figure

    Scaling up a learning technology strategy: Supporting student/faculty teams in learner‐centred design

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    Many post‐secondary institutions are experiencing the challenge of scaling up their learning technology initiatives without a matching increase in staff resources. This mismatch is particularly acute at the design stage of projects, where both domain knowledge and instructional design expertise are needed. To address this, we are developing structures and tools for a small cadre of instructional design experts to support a growing number of learning technology projects developed by student/faculty teams. One of these tools, the Learner‐Centred Design Idea Kit, is an interactive WWW‐based resource now in a fourth iteration of use in an undergraduate course, Designing Learning Activities with Interactive Multimedia. The course and the LCD Idea Kit which supports it are part of a larger institutional strategy to introduce technology‐enabled change in the learning process, working ‘bottom‐up’ with individual faculty and using the LCD Idea Kit to scale up the course across multiple university departments. In this paper, we describe the course and the Kit in detail and provide and overview of our current status and lessons learned

    Effect of gap lenghts of sphere-sphere electrodes on air breakdown level under lightning impulse

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    Impinging jets are a best method of achieving particularly high heat transfer coefficient and are therefore employed in many engineering applications. In this study we seek to understand the mechanism of the distributed heat on the curve surface with the goal of identifying preferred methods to predicting jet performance. The goals that have been achieved in the numerical results displayed are determine the influence of impingement jet characteristics on thermal and flow field on a curve surface, determine the variation of Nusselt numbers (NuD) along the curve surface in order to understand the heat transfer characteristics and study the effect of position (in the center, in the mid and in the end) and angle (α=90°, 60° and 30°) of jet impingement on curve surface, different Reynolds numbers (ReD) in range of (5000, 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000). The program, which was extracted results it is (GAMBIT 2.4.6) and (FLUENT 6.3), simulation is (2-D) in submerged jet flow and the continuity, momentum and energy equations were solved by means of a finite volume method (FVM). This study covers the effect of different Reynolds numbers (ReD) on average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg) and local Nusselt numbers (NuD). From the result, the average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg) increased with the increase of Reynolds numbers (ReD) for all cases, in comparison between different positions (center, mid and end), of nozzle on curve surface at angle (α=90°) the maximum value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=388.3) is found when the nozzle locate in the end followed by the mid position and smallest value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=182.25) in the center of curve surface. In case of slant angle (α=60º) the maximum value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=387.47) is found when the nozzle locate in the end followed by the mid position and smallest value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=308.3) in the center of curve surface

    Automation of Aircraft Engine Fuel Controls Tests: An Industrial Case Study involving PID Control of a Nozzle Emulator

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    The test of fuel control systems used on civil aircraft engines is performed with a network of distributed and, by design, isolated systems. The co-ordination of these test systems is performed manually by human operators in order to verify the airworthiness of a fuel control system throughout the products’ lifecycle. The main objective of this study is the automation of an existing network of systems for fuel control tests. The aspect of automation that is considered in this paper is the control of the engine nozzle emulator which is critical to determine the airworthiness of repaired fuel control systems. This system is realized using a model following PID controller design approach. The results from simulation studies and a hardware-in-the-loop test are presented. These demonstrate that this PID control structure provides the necessary level of accuracy and robustness for this engineering process
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