Modelling and measurement accuracy enhancement of flue gas flow using neural networks

This paper discusses the modeling of the flue gas flow in industrial ducts and stacks using artificial neural networks (ANN's). Based upon the individual velocity and other operating conditions, an ANN model has been developed for the measurement of the volume flow rate. The model has been validated by the experiment using a case-study power plant. The results have shown that the model can largely compensate for the nonrepresentativeness of a sampling location and, as a result, the measurement accuracy of the flue gas flow can be significantly improved

Synthetic TDR Measurements for TEM and GTEM Cell Characterization

This paper describes the main features of the timedomain reflectometry (TDR) measurement technique and, in particular, the TDR analysis performed using a proper operating mode of the vector network analyzer (VNA), which is called synthetic TDR. Furthermore, some results of reflection measurement, which aim to characterize the impedance behavior of transverse electromagnetic (TEM) and gigahertz TEM cells by means of a commercial VNA in time-domain mode, are presented

Optimization of sensor locations for measurement of flue gas flow in industrial ducts and stacks using neural networks

This paper presents a novel application of neural network modeling in the optimization of sensor locations for the measurement of flue gas flow in industrial ducts and stacks. The proposed neural network model has been validated with an experiment based upon a case-study power plant. The results have shown that the optimized sensor location can be easily determined with this model. The industry can directly benefit from the improvement of measurement accuracy of the flue gas flow in the optimized sensor location and the reduction of manual measurement operation with Pitot tube

Measurement of Flow Characteristics in a Bubbling Fluidized Bed Using Electrostatic Sensor Arrays

Fluidized beds are widely applied in a range of industrial processes. In order to maintain the efficient operation of a fluidized bed, the flow parameters in the bed should be monitored continuously. In this paper, electrostatic sensor arrays are used to measure the flow characteristics in a bubbling fluidized bed. In order to investigate the electrostatic charge distribution and the flow dynamics of solid particles in the dense region, time and frequency domain analysis of the electrostatic signals is conducted. In addition, the correlation velocities and weighted average velocity of Geldart A particles in the dense and transit regions are calculated, and the flow dynamics of Geldart A and D particles in the dense and transit regions are compared. Finally, the influence of liquid antistatic agents on the performance of the electrostatic sensor array is investigated. According to the experimental results, it is proved that the flow characteristics in the dense and transit regions of a bubbling fluidized bed can be measured using electrostatic sensor arrays

Biometric Authentication System on Mobile Personal Devices

We propose a secure, robust, and low-cost biometric authentication system on the mobile personal device for the personal network. The system consists of the following five key modules: 1) face detection; 2) face registration; 3) illumination normalization; 4) face verification; and 5) information fusion. For the complicated face authentication task on the devices with limited resources, the emphasis is largely on the reliability and applicability of the system. Both theoretical and practical considerations are taken. The final system is able to achieve an equal error rate of 2% under challenging testing protocols. The low hardware and software cost makes the system well adaptable to a large range of security applications

A programmable microsystem using system-on-chip for real-time biotelemetry

A telemetry microsystem, including multiple sensors, integrated instrumentation and a wireless interface has been implemented. We have employed a methodology akin to that for System-on-Chip microelectronics to design an integrated circuit instrument containing several "intellectual property" blocks that will enable convenient reuse of modules in future projects. The present system was optimized for low-power and included mixed-signal sensor circuits, a programmable digital system, a feedback clock control loop and RF circuits integrated on a 5 mm × 5 mm silicon chip using a 0.6 μm, 3.3 V CMOS process. Undesirable signal coupling between circuit components has been investigated and current injection into sensitive instrumentation nodes was minimized by careful floor-planning. The chip, the sensors, a magnetic induction-based transmitter and two silver oxide cells were packaged into a 36 mm × 12 mm capsule format. A base station was built in order to retrieve the data from the microsystem in real-time. The base station was designed to be adaptive and timing tolerant since the microsystem design was simplified to reduce power consumption and size. The telemetry system was found to have a packet error rate of 10<sup>-</sup><sup>3</sup> using an asynchronous simplex link. Trials in animal carcasses were carried out to show that the transmitter was as effective as a conventional RF device whilst consuming less power

Analysis of knee strength measurements performed by a hand-held multicomponent dynamometer and optoelectronic system

The quantification of muscle weakness is useful to evaluate the health status and performance of patients and athletes. In this paper, we proposed a novel methodology to investigate and to quantify the effects induced by inaccuracy sources occurring when using a hand-held dynamometer (HHD) for knee strength measurements. The validation methodology is based on the comparison between the output of a one-component commercial HHD and the outputs of a six-component load cell, comparable in dimension and mass. An optoelectronic system was used to measure HHD positioning angles and displacements. The setup allowed to investigate the effects induced by: 1) the operator's ability to place and to hold still the HHD and 2) ignoring the transversal components of the force exchanged. The main finding was that the use of a single component HHD induced an overall inaccuracy of 5% in the strength measurements if the angular misplacements are kept within the values found in this paper (≤15°) and with a knee range of motion ≤22°. Extension trials were the most critical due to the higher force exerted, i.e., 249.4 ± 27.3 versus 146.4 ± 23.9 N of knee flexion. The most relevant source of inaccuracy was identified in the angular displacement on the horizontal plane

Partial discharge pulse propagation in power cable and partial discharge monitoring system

Partial discharge (PD) based condition monitoring has been widely applied to power cables. However, difficulties in interpretation of measurement results (location and criticality) remain to be tackled. This paper aims to develop further knowledge in PD signal propagation in power cables and attenuation by the PD monitoring system devices to address the localization and criticality issues. As on-line or in-service PD monitoring sensors commonly comprise of a high frequency current transformer (HFCT) and a high-pass filter, the characteristics of detected PD pulses depend on the attenuation of the cable, the HFCT used and the filter applied. Simulation of pulse propagation in a cable and PD monitoring system are performed, based on analyses in the frequency domain using the concept of transfer functions. Results have been verified by laboratory experiments and using on-site PD measurements. The knowledge gained from the research on the change in pulse characteristics propagating in a cable and through a PD detection system can be very useful to PD denoising and for development of a PD localization technique

In situ characterization of two wireless transmission schemes for ingestible capsules

We report the experimental in situ characterization of 30-40 MHz and 868 MHz wireless transmission schemes for ingestible capsules, in porcine carcasses. This includes a detailed study of the performance of a magnetically coupled near-field very high-frequency (VHF) transmission scheme that requires only one eighth of the volume and one quarter of the power consumption of existing 868-MHz solutions. Our in situ measurements tested the performance of four different capsules specially constructed for this study (two variants of each transmission scheme), in two scenarios. One mimicked the performance of a body-worn receiving coil, while the other allowed the characterization of the direction-dependent signal attenuation due to losses in the surrounding tissue. We found that the magnetically coupled near-field VHF telemetry scheme presents an attractive option for future, miniturized ingestible capsules for medical applications