Proceedings of IWAMISSE 2018 the International Workshop on Advanced Materials and Innovative Systems in Structural Engineering: Seismic Practices

The International Workshop on Advanced Materials and Innovative Systems in Structural Engineering: Seismic Practices, IWAMISSE 2018, is co-organised by The International Federation for Structural Concrete Turkey Branch, fib-Turkey, and Istanbul Technical University, ITU, on November 16, 2018 at ITU. The International Federation for Structural Concrete, fib, is a not-for-profit association formed by 45 national member groups and approximately 1000 corporate and individual members. The fib’s mission is to develop at an international level the study of scientific and practical matters capable of advancing the technical, economic, aesthetic and environmental performance of concrete construction. Istanbul Technical University (ITU) was established in 1773 and is a state university which defined and continues to update methods of engineering and architecture in Turkey. It provides its students with innovative educational facilities while retaining traditional values, as well as using its strong international contacts to mould young, talented individuals who can compete not only within their country borders but also in the global arena. With its educational facilities, social life and strong institutional contacts, ITU has always been preferred by Turkey’s most distinguished students since its foundation and has achieved justified respect. The workshop covers the topics of advanced materials and innovative systems in structural engineering with a focus on seismic practices as well as other issues related with steel fiber reinforced concrete, anchors/fasteners, precast structures, and recent advances on different types of structural systems such as reinforced concrete, steel, and reinforced masonry structures. This proceeding book contain sixteen papers from ten countries worldwide. We have no doubt that the up-to-date subjects covered during the workshop will be extremely beneficial for the workshop participants both from academia and industry. We would like to thank all authors for their contributions to the workshop as well as the members of the International Scientific Committee for their rigorous work for reviewing the papers. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the sponsoring companies and we express our sincere thanks to organization committee for their tireless efforts in the overall organization of the workshop. Many thanks go as well to undergraduate and graduate students from ITU for their assistance during all stages of the workshop

Benelux meeting on systems and control, 23rd, March 17-19, 2004, Helvoirt, The Netherlands

Book of abstract

Research Reports: 1984 NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Program

A NASA/ASEE Summer Faulty Fellowship Program was conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC). The basic objectives of the programs are: (1) to further the professional knowledge of qualified engineering and science faculty members; (2) to stimulate an exchange of ideas between participants and NASA; (3) to enrich and refresh the research and teaching activities of the participants' institutions; and (4) to contribute to the research objectives of the NASA Centers. The Faculty Fellows spent ten weeks at MSFC engaged in a research project compatible with their interests and background and worked in collaboration with a NASA/MSFC colleague. This document is a compilation of Fellows' reports on their research during the summer of 1984. Topics covered include: (1) data base management; (2) computational fluid dynamics; (3) space debris; (4) X-ray gratings; (5) atomic oxygen exposure; (6) protective coatings for SSME; (7) cryogenics; (8) thermal analysis measurements; (9) solar wind modelling; and (10) binary systems

Marshall Space Flight Center Research and Technology Report 2015

The investments in technology development we made in 2015 not only support the Agency's current missions, but they will also enable new missions. Some of these projects will allow us to develop an in-space architecture for human space exploration; Marshall employees are developing and testing cutting-edge propulsion solutions that will propel humans in-space and land them on Mars. Others are working on technologies that could support a deep space habitat, which will be critical to enable humans to live and work in deep space and on other worlds. Still others are maturing technologies that will help new scientific instruments study the outer edge of the universe-instruments that will provide valuable information as we seek to explore the outer planets and search for life

Evaluation of the stabilizing effect of CeO2 on the electrochemical performance of Pt/CeO2/C as a catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction in the cathodic compartment of proton exchange membrane fuel cells

openProton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells are the best candidates for replacing the traditional combustion engines used in the automotive sector. The most widespread catalysts implemented in these systems rely on platinum, which is nanosized and supported on high surface area carbons. The main hindrances of PEM Fuel Cells commercialization lie firstly on the high costs of platinum, secondly on the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at platinum-based cathode and finally on the short-term durability associated with degradative mechanisms, which cause the loss of cell performance during its working. Carbon corrosion, due to an oxidative process caused by the operating conditions of PEMFCs, is maybe the worst since it accelerates further degradative phenomena such as sintering and detachment of platinum nanoparticles. Therefore, research has investigated on supports capable of guaranteeing a long-term durability throughout the operating conditions of PEM. Metal oxides have been demonstrated as promising supports as they manifest an elevated corrosion resistance and avoid the migration and detachment of platinum nanoparticles owing to the strong metal-support interaction created at the interface. It has been found that this effect can have an impact on the catalytic activity, as well since electron transfer phenomena can occur at the interface between the metal and metal oxide. Nevertheless, metal oxides taken alone does not afford a sufficient electron conductivity, which is the main requirement of an electrode. Therefore, metal oxide-carbon hybrid supports have been developed in the last few years to achieve an appreciable electrical conductivity. Among the most promising metal oxide ceria, CeO2, utilized in a wide variety of industrial applications, is rated as an interesting compound due to its intriguing feature of easily switching from Ce4+ to Ce3+ and its high oxygen storage capacity. These unique peculiarities have led scientists to study the effects of its presence on the cathodic compartment of PEM fuel cell. It has been proven that its capability of easily changing the oxidation states promotes the quenching of aggressive radicals that can destroy the proton conductive membrane (Nafion) over time. Furthemore, the addition of ceria to Pt/C catalysts has been found to be helpful for improving the CO tolerance in the oxidation of methanol in direct methanol fuel cells and for enhancing the ORR catalytic activity and durability of Pt/C catalysts thanks to the oxygen spillover and the strong metal support interaction. In this thesis ceria was deposited together with platinum by one pot or two-step approach on a commercial carbon, Vulcan XC72 and on home-made biomass-based carbon supports. Home-made carbons were prepared via a pyrolysis treatment of cheap carbon precursor, namely agarose and chitosan, mixed with a template, Pluronic F127 and a graphitizing agent, iron, which was selectively removed from the carbon matrix through an acid washing leaving intact the morphology of carbon. The best performing catalyst of this thesis Pt_3h/CeO2_750_15/CC was synthesized by firstly depositing ceria at 750 °C for 15 min and afterwards platinum at 300 °C for 3 h on a highly graphitized chitosan-based carbon. The final catalyst contains up to 5 wt% of CeO2 and 25 wt% of platinum loading. By performing a linear sweep voltammetry at 1600 rpm and 50 mV s-1 on a rotating disk electrode, its catalytic activity surpassed that of standard Pt/C (with 30 wt% of Pt) showing a mass activity 2.7 times higher and a half-wave potential shift of 30 mV towards more positive compared to Pt/C standard. In gas diffusion electrode the best performance in terms of activity and stability was obtained by using the same conditions but depositing on carbon VulcanXC72.Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells are the best candidates for replacing the traditional combustion engines used in the automotive sector. The most widespread catalysts implemented in these systems rely on platinum, which is nanosized and supported on high surface area carbons. The main hindrances of PEM Fuel Cells commercialization lie firstly on the high costs of platinum, secondly on the sluggish oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at platinum-based cathode and finally on the short-term durability associated with degradative mechanisms, which cause the loss of cell performance during its working. Carbon corrosion, due to an oxidative process caused by the operating conditions of PEMFCs, is maybe the worst since it accelerates further degradative phenomena such as sintering and detachment of platinum nanoparticles. Therefore, research has investigated on supports capable of guaranteeing a long-term durability throughout the operating conditions of PEM. Metal oxides have been demonstrated as promising supports as they manifest an elevated corrosion resistance and avoid the migration and detachment of platinum nanoparticles owing to the strong metal-support interaction created at the interface. It has been found that this effect can have an impact on the catalytic activity, as well since electron transfer phenomena can occur at the interface between the metal and metal oxide. Nevertheless, metal oxides taken alone does not afford a sufficient electron conductivity, which is the main requirement of an electrode. Therefore, metal oxide-carbon hybrid supports have been developed in the last few years to achieve an appreciable electrical conductivity. Among the most promising metal oxide ceria, CeO2, utilized in a wide variety of industrial applications, is rated as an interesting compound due to its intriguing feature of easily switching from Ce4+ to Ce3+ and its high oxygen storage capacity. These unique peculiarities have led scientists to study the effects of its presence on the cathodic compartment of PEM fuel cell. It has been proven that its capability of easily changing the oxidation states promotes the quenching of aggressive radicals that can destroy the proton conductive membrane (Nafion) over time. Furthemore, the addition of ceria to Pt/C catalysts has been found to be helpful for improving the CO tolerance in the oxidation of methanol in direct methanol fuel cells and for enhancing the ORR catalytic activity and durability of Pt/C catalysts thanks to the oxygen spillover and the strong metal support interaction. In this thesis ceria was deposited together with platinum by one pot or two-step approach on a commercial carbon, Vulcan XC72 and on home-made biomass-based carbon supports. Home-made carbons were prepared via a pyrolysis treatment of cheap carbon precursor, namely agarose and chitosan, mixed with a template, Pluronic F127 and a graphitizing agent, iron, which was selectively removed from the carbon matrix through an acid washing leaving intact the morphology of carbon. The best performing catalyst of this thesis Pt_3h/CeO2_750_15/CC was synthesized by firstly depositing ceria at 750 °C for 15 min and afterwards platinum at 300 °C for 3 h on a highly graphitized chitosan-based carbon. The final catalyst contains up to 5 wt% of CeO2 and 25 wt% of platinum loading. By performing a linear sweep voltammetry at 1600 rpm and 50 mV s-1 on a rotating disk electrode, its catalytic activity surpassed that of standard Pt/C (with 30 wt% of Pt) showing a mass activity 2.7 times higher and a half-wave potential shift of 30 mV towards more positive compared to Pt/C standard. In gas diffusion electrode the best performance in terms of activity and stability was obtained by using the same conditions but depositing on carbon VulcanXC72

IoT and Sensor Networks in Industry and Society

The exponential progress of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is one of the main elements that fueled the acceleration of the globalization pace. Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analytics are some of the key players of the digital transformation that is affecting every aspect of human's daily life, from environmental monitoring to healthcare systems, from production processes to social interactions. In less than 20 years, people's everyday life has been revolutionized, and concepts such as Smart Home, Smart Grid and Smart City have become familiar also to non-technical users. The integration of embedded systems, ubiquitous Internet access, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications have paved the way for paradigms such as IoT and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) to be also introduced in high-requirement environments such as those related to industrial processes, under the forms of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT or I2oT) and Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS). As a consequence, in 2011 the German High-Tech Strategy 2020 Action Plan for Germany first envisioned the concept of Industry 4.0, which is rapidly reshaping traditional industrial processes. The term refers to the promise to be the fourth industrial revolution. Indeed, the first industrial revolution was triggered by water and steam power. Electricity and assembly lines enabled mass production in the second industrial revolution. In the third industrial revolution, the introduction of control automation and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) gave a boost to factory production. As opposed to the previous revolutions, Industry 4.0 takes advantage of Internet access, M2M communications, and deep learning not only to improve production efficiency but also to enable the so-called mass customization, i.e. the mass production of personalized products by means of modularized product design and flexible processes. Less than five years later, in January 2016, the Japanese 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan took a further step by introducing the concept of Super Smart Society or Society 5.0. According to this vision, in the upcoming future, scientific and technological innovation will guide our society into the next social revolution after the hunter-gatherer, agrarian, industrial, and information eras, which respectively represented the previous social revolutions. Society 5.0 is a human-centered society that fosters the simultaneous achievement of economic, environmental and social objectives, to ensure a high quality of life to all citizens. This information-enabled revolution aims to tackle today’s major challenges such as an ageing population, social inequalities, depopulation and constraints related to energy and the environment. Accordingly, the citizens will be experiencing impressive transformations into every aspect of their daily lives. This book offers an insight into the key technologies that are going to shape the future of industry and society. It is subdivided into five parts: the I Part presents a horizontal view of the main enabling technologies, whereas the II-V Parts offer a vertical perspective on four different environments. The I Part, dedicated to IoT and Sensor Network architectures, encompasses three Chapters. In Chapter 1, Peruzzi and Pozzebon analyse the literature on the subject of energy harvesting solutions for IoT monitoring systems and architectures based on Low-Power Wireless Area Networks (LPWAN). The Chapter does not limit the discussion to Long Range Wise Area Network (LoRaWAN), SigFox and Narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) communication protocols, but it also includes other relevant solutions such as DASH7 and Long Term Evolution MAchine Type Communication (LTE-M). In Chapter 2, Hussein et al. discuss the development of an Internet of Things message protocol that supports multi-topic messaging. The Chapter further presents the implementation of a platform, which integrates the proposed communication protocol, based on Real Time Operating System. In Chapter 3, Li et al. investigate the heterogeneous task scheduling problem for data-intensive scenarios, to reduce the global task execution time, and consequently reducing data centers' energy consumption. The proposed approach aims to maximize the efficiency by comparing the cost between remote task execution and data migration. The II Part is dedicated to Industry 4.0, and includes two Chapters. In Chapter 4, Grecuccio et al. propose a solution to integrate IoT devices by leveraging a blockchain-enabled gateway based on Ethereum, so that they do not need to rely on centralized intermediaries and third-party services. As it is better explained in the paper, where the performance is evaluated in a food-chain traceability application, this solution is particularly beneficial in Industry 4.0 domains. Chapter 5, by De Fazio et al., addresses the issue of safety in workplaces by presenting a smart garment that integrates several low-power sensors to monitor environmental and biophysical parameters. This enables the detection of dangerous situations, so as to prevent or at least reduce the consequences of workers accidents. The III Part is made of two Chapters based on the topic of Smart Buildings. In Chapter 6, Petroșanu et al. review the literature about recent developments in the smart building sector, related to the use of supervised and unsupervised machine learning models of sensory data. The Chapter poses particular attention on enhanced sensing, energy efficiency, and optimal building management. In Chapter 7, Oh examines how much the education of prosumers about their energy consumption habits affects power consumption reduction and encourages energy conservation, sustainable living, and behavioral change, in residential environments. In this Chapter, energy consumption monitoring is made possible thanks to the use of smart plugs. Smart Transport is the subject of the IV Part, including three Chapters. In Chapter 8, Roveri et al. propose an approach that leverages the small world theory to control swarms of vehicles connected through Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication protocols. Indeed, considering a queue dominated by short-range car-following dynamics, the Chapter demonstrates that safety and security are increased by the introduction of a few selected random long-range communications. In Chapter 9, Nitti et al. present a real time system to observe and analyze public transport passengers' mobility by tracking them throughout their journey on public transport vehicles. The system is based on the detection of the active Wi-Fi interfaces, through the analysis of Wi-Fi probe requests. In Chapter 10, Miler et al. discuss the development of a tool for the analysis and comparison of efficiency indicated by the integrated IT systems in the operational activities undertaken by Road Transport Enterprises (RTEs). The authors of this Chapter further provide a holistic evaluation of efficiency of telematics systems in RTE operational management. The book ends with the two Chapters of the V Part on Smart Environmental Monitoring. In Chapter 11, He et al. propose a Sea Surface Temperature Prediction (SSTP) model based on time-series similarity measure, multiple pattern learning and parameter optimization. In this strategy, the optimal parameters are determined by means of an improved Particle Swarm Optimization method. In Chapter 12, Tsipis et al. present a low-cost, WSN-based IoT system that seamlessly embeds a three-layered cloud/fog computing architecture, suitable for facilitating smart agricultural applications, especially those related to wildfire monitoring. We wish to thank all the authors that contributed to this book for their efforts. We express our gratitude to all reviewers for the volunteering support and precious feedback during the review process. We hope that this book provides valuable information and spurs meaningful discussion among researchers, engineers, businesspeople, and other experts about the role of new technologies into industry and society

XMLFinder : an intelligent agent based on CBR for E-Commerce

Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal