3D FEM model development from 3D optical measurement technique applied to corroded steel bars

Understanding the mechanical effects of the corrosion pits on the steel surface requires an accurate definition of their geometry and distribution along the rebar. 3D optical measurement technique is used to obtain the outer geometry of artificially corroded bars tested under cyclic or monotonic loads. 3D FEM model development from the 3D scanning results were carried out in order to investigate the failure process and local effects on the pits, which are responsible of the variation of the mechanical properties in corroded steel reinforcement. In addition, a validation of a simplified model, which allows the mechanical steel properties determination given an estimated corrosion level, is presented. 3D models were convenient to observe and measure the local effects on the pits.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Transcritical Carbon Dioxide Charge-Discharge Energy Storage with Integration of Solar Energy

New and improved energy storage technologies are required to overcome non-dispatchability, which is the main challenge for the successful integration of large shares of renewable energy within energy supply systems. Energy storage is proposed to tackle daily variations on the demand side, i.e., storing low-price energy during off-peak or valley periods for utilization during peak periods. Regarding electrical energy storage, several technologies are available with different potentials for scalability, density, and cost. A recent approach for grid-scale applications is based on transcritical carbon dioxide charge and discharge cycles in combination with thermal energy storage systems. This alternative to pumped-hydro and compressed air energy storage has been discussed in scientific literature, where different configurations have been proposed and their efficiency and costs calculated. The potential of the concept has been demonstrated to be an economical alternative, including hybrid concepts with solar thermal storage. Even at low temperatures, the addition of solar energy has proved to be cost effective. This paper explores the effect of introducing solar-based high temperature heat on the performance of different configurations of “Transcritical carbon dioxide ‒ thermal energy storage system” cycles. A base-cycle with 8-hour discharge time is compared with different layouts. Discussions include details on the models, parametric analyses -including solar technology alternatives-, and simulation results. Round trip efficiency of the base case, without solar support and at pressure ratio of 9.4, is 52%. When solar input is considered, the efficiency is above 60%, increasing the turbine inlet temperature to 950 K. Estimated levelized cost of electricity values are in the range of pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage, 90-140 USD/MWh in agreement with other works on this thermal storage technology. The global analysis shows clear advantages for advancing in the study and definition of this technology for exploitation of synergies at different power ranges, integrated with mid/high temperature solar power plants and with smaller-scale renewable installations.Unión Europea. Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional SOE1 / P3 / P0429E

Structural effects of steel reinforcement corrosion on statically indeterminate reinforced concrete members

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1617/s11527-016-0836-2Steel corrosion in reinforced concrete structures produces loss of reinforcement area and damage in the surrounding concrete. As a consequence, increases in deflections, crack widths and stresses may take place, as well as a reduction of the bearing capacity, which depends on the structural scheme and redundancy. In this paper an experimental study of twelve statically indeterminate beams subjected to different levels of forced reinforcement corrosion is presented. Different sustained loads were applied during the corrosion phase to assess their influence on the effects of corrosion. An important increase in deflections was registered in all corroded beams, especially in those subject to higher load levels. It was also found that the rate of corrosion was affected by the load level. Internal forces redistributions due to induced damage were measured. Finally, the experimental results were compared with those predicted by a non-linear time-dependent segmental analysis model developed by the authors, obtaining in general good agreement.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Optimal Microgrid Topology Design and Siting of Distributed Generation Sources Using a Multi-Objective Substrate Layer Coral Reefs Optimization Algorithm

n this work, a problem of optimal placement of renewable generation and topology design for a Microgrid (MG) is tackled. The problem consists of determining the MG nodes where renewable energy generators must be optimally located and also the optimization of the MG topology design, i.e., deciding which nodes should be connected and deciding the lines’ optimal cross-sectional areas (CSA). For this purpose, a multi-objective optimization with two conflicting objectives has been used, utilizing the cost of the lines, C, higher as the lines’ CSA increases, and the MG energy losses, E, lower as the lines’ CSA increases. To characterize generators and loads connected to the nodes, on-site monitored annual energy generation and consumption profiles have been considered. Optimization has been carried out by using a novel multi-objective algorithm, the Multi-objective Substrate Layers Coral Reefs Optimization algorithm (Mo-SL-CRO). The performance of the proposed approach has been tested in a realistic simulation of a MG with 12 nodes, considering photovoltaic generators and micro-wind turbines as renewable energy generators, as well as the consumption loads from different commercial and industrial sites. We show that the proposed Mo-SL-CRO is able to solve the problem providing good solutions, better than other well-known multi-objective optimization techniques, such as NSGA-II or multi-objective Harmony Search algorithm.This research was partially funded by Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, project number TIN2017-85887-C2-1-P and TIN2017-85887-C2-2-P, and by the Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid, project number S2013ICE-2933_02

Aplicación de la biología molecular al estudio de la epidemiología y erradicación de la enfermedad aleutiana del visón: detección ambiental y estudios filogenéticos

El virus de la enfermedad aleutiana del visón (Parvoviridae) infecta sobre todo al visón de granja, pero también a mustélidos, y constituye uno de principales problemas sanitarios de estas explotaciones por las pérdidas económicas que ocasiona y las dificultades que entraña su erradicación. Los objetivos de esta tesis han sido el diseño y puesta a punto de una técnica qPCR para su detección en muestras ambientales y el estudio de su distribución en granjas infectadas. Se evaluó también el grado de protección de diferentes tipos de EPI empleados en las visitas a las granjas y se realizó la caracterización molecular y análisis filogenético de la mayoría de las cepas circulantes en el suroeste de Europa en el periodo 2012-2020

Pensar y actuar en Salud Ambiental Infantil

Fil: Fernández, Ricardo Antonio. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud; Argentin

CMOS Vision Sensors: Embedding Computer Vision at Imaging Front-Ends

CMOS Image Sensors (CIS) are key for imaging technol-ogies. These chips are conceived for capturing opticalscenes focused on their surface, and for delivering elec-trical images, commonly in digital format. CISs may incor-porate intelligence; however, their smartness basicallyconcerns calibration, error correction and other similartasks. The term CVISs (CMOS VIsion Sensors) definesother class of sensor front-ends which are aimed at per-forming vision tasks right at the focal plane. They havebeen running under names such as computational imagesensors, vision sensors and silicon retinas, among others. CVIS and CISs are similar regarding physical imple-mentation. However, while inputs of both CIS and CVISare images captured by photo-sensors placed at thefocal-plane, CVISs primary outputs may not be imagesbut either image features or even decisions based on thespatial-temporal analysis of the scenes. We may hencestate that CVISs are more “intelligent” than CISs as theyfocus on information instead of on raw data. Actually,CVIS architectures capable of extracting and interpretingthe information contained in images, and prompting reac-tion commands thereof, have been explored for years inacademia, and industrial applications are recently ramp-ing up.One of the challenges of CVISs architects is incorporat-ing computer vision concepts into the design flow. Theendeavor is ambitious because imaging and computervision communities are rather disjoint groups talking dif-ferent languages. The Cellular Nonlinear Network Univer-sal Machine (CNNUM) paradigm, proposed by Profs.Chua and Roska, defined an adequate framework forsuch conciliation as it is particularly well suited for hard-ware-software co-design [1]-[4]. This paper overviewsCVISs chips that were conceived and prototyped at IMSEVision Lab over the past twenty years. Some of them fitthe CNNUM paradigm while others are tangential to it. Allthem employ per-pixel mixed-signal processing circuitryto achieve sensor-processing concurrency in the quest offast operation with reduced energy budget.Junta de Andalucía TIC 2012-2338Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC 2015-66878-C3-1-R y TEC 2015-66878-C3-3-

In the quest of vision-sensors-on-chip: Pre-processing sensors for data reduction

This paper shows that the implementation of vision systems benefits from the usage of sensing front-end chips with embedded pre-processing capabilities - called CVIS. Such embedded pre-processors reduce the number of data to be delivered for ulterior processing. This strategy, which is also adopted by natural vision systems, relaxes system-level requirements regarding data storage and communications and enables highly compact and fast vision systems. The paper includes several proof-o-concept CVIS chips with embedded pre-processing and illustrate their potential advantages. © 2017, Society for Imaging Science and Technology.Office of Naval Research (USA) N00014-14-1-0355Ministerio de Economía y Competitiviad TEC2015-66878-C3-1-R, TEC2015-66878-C3-3-RJunta de Andalucía 2012 TIC 233

Performance evaluation over HW/SW co-design SoC memory transfers for a CNN accelerator

Many FPGAs vendors have recently included embedded processors in their devices, like Xilinx with ARM-Cortex A cores, together with programmable logic cells. These devices are known as Programmable System on Chip (PSoC). Their ARM cores (embedded in the processing system or PS) communicates with the programmable logic cells (PL) using ARM-standard AXI buses. In this paper we analyses the performance of exhaustive data transfers between PS and PL for a Xilinx Zynq FPGA in a co-design real scenario for Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) accelerator, which processes, in dedicated hardware, a stream of visual information from a neuromorphic visual sensor for classification. In the PS side, a Linux operating system is running, which recollects visual events from the neuromorphic sensor into a normalized frame, and then it transfers these frames to the accelerator of multi-layered CNNs, and read results, using an AXI-DMA bus in a per-layer way. As these kind of accelerators try to process information as quick as possible, data bandwidth becomes critical and maintaining a good balanced data throughput rate requires some considerations. We present and evaluate several data partitioning techniques to improve the balance between RX and TX transfer and two different ways of transfers management: through a polling routine at the userlevel of the OS, and through a dedicated interrupt-based kernellevel driver. We demonstrate that for longer enough packets, the kernel-level driver solution gets better timing in computing a CNN classification example. Main advantage of using kernel-level driver is to have safer solutions and to have tasks scheduling in the OS to manage other important processes for our application, like frames collection from sensors and their normalization.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-