A survey on gas leakage source detection and boundary tracking with wireless sensor networks

Gas leakage source detection and boundary tracking of continuous objects have received a significant research attention in the academic as well as the industries due to the loss and damage caused by toxic gas leakage in large-scale petrochemical plants. With the advance and rapid adoption of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in the last decades, source localization and boundary estimation have became the priority of research works. In addition, an accurate boundary estimation is a critical issue due to the fast movement, changing shape, and invisibility of the gas leakage compared with the other single object detections. We present various gas diffusion models used in the literature that offer the effective computational approaches to measure the gas concentrations in the large area. In this paper, we compare the continuous object localization and boundary detection schemes with respect to complexity, energy consumption, and estimation accuracy. Moreover, this paper presents the research directions for existing and future gas leakage source localization and boundary estimation schemes with WSNs

Recent advances in green industrial networking

[EN] The articles in this special section focus on green industrial networking. Due to the explosive increase in energy usage, it is essential that governmental and industrial institutions address this problem. Therefore, the development of green and low-carbon economy has recently become a hot issue in the industry. It is envisioned in such cases to meet the growing demands for industrial networking with limited resources. This is considered one of the challenges that needs to be addressed. Addressing such key problems will hopefully allow us to reach the realization of sustainable development. We believe that network technologies will be critical and will greatly contribute to achieving large-scale energy savings in all areas of industrial production. In addition, the role of green industrial networking technologies includes not only emission reduction and energy savings in products and services, but also enabling low-carbon emissions in other industries. To meet the requirement of low-carbon economic development, it is necessary to reduce the energy consumption of industrial networking. The need for green industrial networking technologies has been recognized as a challenge during the last few years by our research communities. However, many issues still remain to be addressedHan, G.; Guizani, M.; Lloret, J.; Wu, H.; Chan, S.; Rayes, A. (2016). Recent advances in green industrial networking. IEEE Communications Magazine. 54(10):14-15. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2016.75882231415541

Internet of things for disaster management: state-of-the-art and prospects

Disastrous events are cordially involved with the momentum of nature. As such mishaps have been showing off own mastery, situations have gone beyond the control of human resistive mechanisms far ago. Fortunately, several technologies are in service to gain affirmative knowledge and analysis of a disaster's occurrence. Recently, Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm has opened a promising door toward catering of multitude problems related to agriculture, industry, security, and medicine due to its attractive features, such as heterogeneity, interoperability, light-weight, and flexibility. This paper surveys existing approaches to encounter the relevant issues with disasters, such as early warning, notification, data analytics, knowledge aggregation, remote monitoring, real-time analytics, and victim localization. Simultaneous interventions with IoT are also given utmost importance while presenting these facts. A comprehensive discussion on the state-of-the-art scenarios to handle disastrous events is presented. Furthermore, IoT-supported protocols and market-ready deployable products are summarized to address these issues. Finally, this survey highlights open challenges and research trends in IoT-enabled disaster management systems. © 2013 IEEE

Air Quality Monitoring, Assessment and Management

Human beings need to breathe oxygen diluted in certain quantity of inert gas for living. In the atmosphere, there is a gas mixture of, mainly, oxygen and nitrogen, in appropriate proportions. However, the air also contains other gases, vapours and aerosols that humans incorporate when breathing and whose composition and concentration vary spatially. Some of these are physiologically inert. Air pollution has become a problem of major concern in the last few decades as it has caused negative effects on human health, nature and properties. This book presents the results of research studies carried out by international researchers in seventeen chapters which can be grouped into two main sections: a) air quality monitoring and b) air quality assessment and management, and serves as a source of material for all those involved in the field, whether as a student, scientific researcher, industrialist, consultant, or government agency with responsibility in this area

IoT Resources and Their Practical Application, A Comprehensive Study

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a paradigm shifter, connecting an enormous number of smart devices and facilitating seamless data exchange for a diverse array of applications. The availability and effective use of the IoT ecosystem's resources are key factors in determining how its practical applications will develop as they mature. The IoT resources and their practical application across several areas are thoroughly explored in this paper. The paper begins by classifying and describing the various sensor types, their applications in various fields, and IoT resources, highlighting their contributions to real-time data collection, processing, and transmission. It then goes on to demonstrate a wide range of real-world uses for these resources, such as smart cities, education, agriculture, business, healthcare, environment monitoring, transportation, and industrial automation. However, utilizing IoT resources effectively is not without difficulties. Critical difficulties such as resource allocation, scalability, security, interoperability, and privacy concerns are identified and discussed in the paper. Furthermore, the paper also highlights future directions and emerging trends in IoT resource management, including edge computing, cloud computing, human machine integration, and compatibility with other systems. These developments aim to increase the dependability of IoT applications in diverse settings and optimize resource allocation. This paper's conclusion highlights the crucial role that IoT resources play in advancing real-world applications across a variety of areas. Researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders may collaborate together to effectively leverage the full potential of IoT resources to build intelligent, effective ecosystems that meet the needs of contemporary society by solving difficulties and utilizing developing trends

Environmental engineering applications of electronic nose systems based on MOX gas sensors

Nowadays, the electronic nose (e-nose) has gained a huge amount of attention due to its ability to detect and differentiate mixtures of various gases and odors using a limited number of sensors. Its applications in the environmental fields include analysis of the parameters for environmental control, process control, and confirming the efficiency of the odor-control systems. The e-nose has been developed by mimicking the olfactory system of mammals. This paper investigates e-noses and their sensors for the detection of environmental contaminants. Among different types of gas chemical sensors, metal oxide semiconductor sensors (MOXs) can be used for the detection of volatile compounds in air at ppm and sub-ppm levels. In this regard, the advantages and disadvantages of MOX sensors and the solutions to solve the problems arising upon these sensors’ applications are addressed, and the research works in the field of environmental contamination monitoring are overviewed. These studies have revealed the suitability of e-noses for most of the reported applications, especially when the tools were specifically developed for that application, e.g., in the facilities of water and wastewater management systems. As a general rule, the literature review discusses the aspects related to various applications as well as the development of effective solutions. However, the main limitation in the expansion of the use of e-noses as an environmental monitoring tool is their complexity and lack of specific standards, which can be corrected through appropriate data processing methods applications

Internal in-service inspection of petrochemical storage tank floors to detect underside corrosion with Non-Destructive Testing Robot

This research develops a new robotics technology for the in-service inspection of floor plates of the majority for the world’s petrochemical storage tanks. The new robotic system aims to decrease inspection cost, reduce human inspector exposure to chemical and hazard environment during the inspection and eliminate tank outage entirely if the floor is found to contain no corrosion. The research focus is on the design and development of a Non-Destructive Testing Robot (NDTBOT) prototype that uses active buoyancy control for its locomotion mechanism and uses NDT ultrasound to measure floor plate thickness as an indication of corrosion thinning. The NDTBOT hops from one location of the floor to another location to make ultrasound thickness measurements of a tank floor, thus avoiding issues of motion on a dirty tank floor (due to oil sludge). Also, a novel radio frequency (RF) data communication system is investigated and developed that can operate while submerged in oil. This system allows control commands to be sent to the NDTBOT by an operator outside the tank and NDT data to be recovered for analysis. To evaluate the performance of the NDTBOT making thickness measurement in the tank, three types of measurement techniques were used. First, the real thickness was measured using a Vernier caliper, the second method used a standard hand-held ultrasonic thickness measurement instrument and finally the in-service inspection thickness measurements were made with the NDTBOT operating in a water tank. The NDTBOT thickness measurements with an immersion ultrasound probe obtained more accurate results than hand-held contact ultrasonic testing. Petrochemical storage tank size varies from 20 to 200 meters in diameter, rapid corrosion inspection in such tanks with a swarm of robots requires that a number of NDTBOTs be deployed inside the tank to perform the NDT. Such deployment needs coordination and control work between the robots to send the NDT data to the NDT inspector. Therefore, an investigation and experimental radio frequency wireless transmission is done in order to compare different radio frequency communication. Simulation with commercial software CADFEKO is used to perform simulation of RF wave transmission in petroleum and vegetable oil with selected radio frequencies of 200 MHz, 300 MHz, and 433 MHz. The experimental work and simulation results give confidence. The RF communication in petroleum medium is feasible for both control of NDTBOTs inside the tank and NDT data transmission back to a technician’s console placed outside the tank

HTGR Measurements and Instrumentation Systems

This report provides an integrated overview of measurements and instrumentation for near-term future high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs). Instrumentation technology has undergone revolutionary improvements since the last HTGR was constructed in the United States. This report briefly describes the measurement and communications needs of HTGRs for normal operations, maintenance and inspection, fuel fabrication, and accident response. The report includes a description of modern communications technologies and also provides a potential instrumentation communications architecture designed for deployment at an HTGR. A principal focus for the report is describing new and emerging measurement technologies with high potential to improve operations, maintenance, and accident response for the next generation of HTGRs, known as modular HTGRs, which are designed with passive safety features. Special focus is devoted toward describing the failure modes of the measurement technologies and assessing the technology maturity

CONDITION-BASED RISK ASSESSMENT STRATEGY AND ITS HEALTH INDICATOR WITH APPLICATION TO PUMPS AND COMPRESSORS

Large rotating machinery, such as centrifugal gas compressors and pumps, are widely applied as crucial components in the petrochemical industries. To enable in-time and effective maintenance of these machines, the concept of a health indicator is arousing great interest. A suitable health indicator indicates the overall health of the machinery and it is closely related to maintenance strategies and decision-making. It can be obtained either from near misses and incident data, or from real-time measured data. However, the existing health indicators have some limitations. On the one hand, the near misses and incident data may have been obtained from similar systems, reflecting population characteristics but not fully accounting for the individual features of the target system. On the other hand, the existing health indicators that use condition monitoring data, mainly focused on detecting incipient faults, and usually do not include financial cost factors when calculating the indicators. Therefore, there is the requirement to develop a single system "Health Indicator", that can show the health condition of a system in real-time, as well as the likely financial loss incurred when a fault is detected in the system, to assist operators on maintenance decision making. This project has developed such an integrated health indicator for rotating machinery. The integrated health indicator described in this thesis is extracted from a novel condition-based risk assessment strategy, which can be regarded as an integration of risk-based maintenance with improved conventional condition-based maintenance, with financial factors taken into account. The value of the health indicator is that it directly illustrates the risk to the system (or equipment), including likely financial loss, which makes it easier for operators to select the optimal time for maintenance or set alarm thresholds given the specific conditions in their companies or plants. This thesis provides a guide to set up an integrated maintenance model for large rotating machinery. It provides a useful reference for researchers working on condition-based fault detection and dynamic risk-based maintenance