Design of miniaturized wireless sensor mote and actuator for building monitoring and control

In this paper, a wireless sensor network mote hardware design and implementation are introduced for building deployment application. The core of the mote design is based on the 8 bit AVR microcontroller, Atmega1281 and 2.4 GHz wireless communication chip, CC2420. The module PCB fabrication is using the stackable technology providing powerful configuration capability. Three main layers of size 25 mm2 are structured to form the mote; these are RF, sensor and power layers. The sensors were selected carefully to meet both the building monitoring and design requirements. Beside the sensing capability, actuation and interfacing to external meters/sensors are provided to perform different management control and data recording tasks. Experiments show that the developed mote works effectively in giving stable data acquisition and owns good communication and power performance

A study of the RF characteristics for wireless sensor deployment in building environment

In this paper, The radio Frequency (RF) Monitoring and Measurement of the Environmental Research Institute (ERI) located in Cork city will be monitored and analyzed in both the Zigbee (2.44 GHz) and the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM 433 MHz). The main objective of this survey is to confirm what the noise and interferences threat signals exist in these bands. It was agreed that the surveys would be carried out in 5 different rooms and areas that are candidates for the Wireless Sensors deployments. Based on the carried on study, A Zigbee standard Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) will be developed employing a number of motes for sensing number of signals like temperature, light and humidity beside the RSSI and battery voltage monitoring. Such system will be used later on to control and improve indoor building climate at reduced costs, remove the need for cabling and both installation and operational costs are significantly reduced

Developing wireless measurement system for building deployed capacitive sensors with optimized RF front end circuit

In this paper, a prototype of miniaturized, low power, bi-directional wireless sensor node for wireless sensor networks (WSN) was designed for doors and windows building monitoring. The capacitive pressure sensors have been developed particularly for such application, where packaging size and minimization of the power requirements of the sensors are the major drivers. The capacitive pressure sensors have been fabricated using a 2.4 mum thick strain compensated heavily boron doped SiGeB diaphragm is presented. In order to integrate the sensors with the wireless module, the sensor dice was wire bonded onto TO package using chip on board (COB) technology. The telemetric link and its capabilities to send information for longer range have been significantly improved using a new design and optimization process. The simulation tool employed for this work was the Designerreg tool from Ansoft Corporation

Development of miniaturized wireless sensor nodes suitable for building energy management and modelling

Buildings consume 40% of Ireland's total annual energy translating to 3.5 billion (2004). The EPBD directive (effective January 2003) places an onus on all member states to rate the energy performance of all buildings in excess of 50m2. Energy and environmental performance management systems for residential buildings do not exist and consist of an ad-hoc integration of wired building management systems and Monitoring & Targeting systems for non-residential buildings. These systems are unsophisticated and do not easily lend themselves to cost effective retrofit or integration with other enterprise management systems. It is commonly agreed that a 15-40% reduction of building energy consumption is achievable by efficiently operating buildings when compared with typical practice. Existing research has identified that the level of information available to Building Managers with existing Building Management Systems and Environmental Monitoring Systems (BMS/EMS) is insufficient to perform the required performance based building assessment. The cost of installing additional sensors and meters is extremely high, primarily due to the estimated cost of wiring and the needed labour. From this perspective wireless sensor technology provides the capability to provide reliable sensor data at the required temporal and spatial granularity associated with building energy management. In this paper, a wireless sensor network mote hardware design and implementation is presented for a building energy management application. Appropriate sensors were selected and interfaced with the developed system based on user requirements to meet both the building monitoring and metering requirements. Beside the sensing capability, actuation and interfacing to external meters/sensors are provided to perform different management control and data recording tasks associated with minimisation of energy consumption in the built environment and the development of appropriate Building information models(BIM)to enable the design and development of energy efficient spaces

Research Article Surface Roughness Effects on Discharge Coefficient of Broad Crested Weir

Abstract: The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of surface roughness sizes on the discharge coefficient for a broad crested weirs. For this purpose, three models having different lengths of broad crested weirs were tested in a horizontal flume. In each model, the surface was roughed four times. Experimental results of all models showed that the logical negative effect of roughness increased on the discharge (Q) for different values of length. The performance of broad crested weir improved with decrease ratio of roughness to the weir height (Ks/P) and with the increase of the total Head to the Length (H/L). An empirical equation was obtained to estimate the variation of discharge coefficient C d in terms total head to length ratio, with total head to roughness ratio

Design and deployment of a new wireless sensor node platform for building environmental monitoring and control

It is commonly agreed that a 15–40% reduction of building energy consumption is achievable by efficiently operated buildings when compared with typical practice. Existing research has identified that the level of information available to Building Managers with existing Building Management Systems and Environmental Monitoring Systems is insufficient to perform the required performance-based building assessment. The majority of today’s buildings are insufficiently sensored to obtain an unambiguous understanding of performance. The cost of installing additional sensors and meters is extremely high, primarily due to the estimated cost of wiring and the needed labour. From these perspectives wireless sensors technology proves to have a greater cost-efficiency while maintaining high levels of functionality and reliability. In this paper, a wireless sensor network mote hardware design and implementation are introduced particularly for building deployment application. The core of the mote design is based on the 8-bit AVR microcontroller, Atmega1281 and 2.4 GHz wireless communication chip, CC2420. The sensors were selected carefully to meet both the building monitoring and design requirements. Beside the sensing capability, actuation and interfacing to external meters/sensors are provided to perform different management control and data recording tasks

Stabilization of Soft Soil by a Sustainable Binder Comprises Ground Granulated Blast Slag (GGBS) and Cement Kiln Dust (CKD)

Due to its significant deficiencies such as low permeability, low bearing and shear strength, and excessive compressibility, soft soil is one of the most problematic types of soil in civil engineering and soil stabilization can be considered a suitable technique for pavements. This study investigates the use of ground granulated blast slag (GGBS) and cement kiln dust (CKD) as stabilizers for soft soil. Thus, this study involves two optimization stages; in the first stage, GGBS was incorporated into 0%, 3%, 6%, 9%, and 12% by the weight of cement to obtain the optimal percentage, which was 6%. Then, the optimal GGBS was blended with CKD in a binary system at 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% by the dry weight of the soil. The testing program used in this paper was Atterberg limits with compaction parameters to investigate the physical properties and unconfined compressive strength (USC) at 7 and 28 days to examine the mechanical characteristics. In addition, the microstructures of the soil specimens were tested at 7 and 28 days using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The findings reveal that the binary system enhanced the physical and mechanical properties of the soft soil. The optimum binder achieved in this study was 6% (25% GGBS and 75% CKD), which generates an increase in strength of about 3.3 times in 7 days, and of 5.5 times in 28 days in comparison to the untreated soil. The enhancement was attributed to the formation of the hydration products as approved by SEM. Consequently, in the case of soft subgrade soils, this technique can increase the pavement’s bearing capacity and performance

Physics Potential of the ICAL detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO)

The upcoming 50 kt magnetized iron calorimeter (ICAL) detector at the India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) is designed to study the atmospheric neutrinos and antineutrinos separately over a wide range of energies and path lengths. The primary focus of this experiment is to explore the Earth matter effects by observing the energy and zenith angle dependence of the atmospheric neutrinos in the multi-GeV range. This study will be crucial to address some of the outstanding issues in neutrino oscillation physics, including the fundamental issue of neutrino mass hierarchy. In this document, we present the physics potential of the detector as obtained from realistic detector simulations. We describe the simulation framework, the neutrino interactions in the detector, and the expected response of the detector to particles traversing it. The ICAL detector can determine the energy and direction of the muons to a high precision, and in addition, its sensitivity to multi-GeV hadrons increases its physics reach substantially. Its charge identification capability, and hence its ability to distinguish neutrinos from antineutrinos, makes it an efficient detector for determining the neutrino mass hierarchy. In this report, we outline the analyses carried out for the determination of neutrino mass hierarchy and precision measurements of atmospheric neutrino mixing parameters at ICAL, and give the expected physics reach of the detector with 10 years of runtime. We also explore the potential of ICAL for probing new physics scenarios like CPT violation and the presence of magnetic monopoles.Comment: 139 pages, Physics White Paper of the ICAL (INO) Collaboration, Contents identical with the version published in Pramana - J. Physic

Effects of front surface plasma expansion on proton acceleration in ultraintense laser irradiation of foil targets

The properties of beams of high energy protons accelerated during ultraintense, picosecond laser-irradiation of thin foil targets are investigated as a function of preplasma expansion at the target front surface. Significant enhancement in the maximum proton energy and laser-to-proton energy conversion efficiency is observed at optimum preplasma density gradients, due to self-focusing of the incident laser pulse. For very long preplasma expansion, the propagating laser pulse is observed to filament, resulting in highly uniform proton beams, but with reduced flux and maximum energy

Properties of cement mortar incorporated high volume fraction of GGBFS and CKD from 1 day to 550 days

This study aims to investigate the effect of cement replacement with high volume fraction of ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) and cement kiln dust (CKD) on mechanical, durability and microstructural properties of cement mortar from 1day to 550 days. Compressive strength and ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) were used to evaluate the mortars' performance. Besides, statistical analyses were conducted to predict mortars' mechanical and durability performance as well as investigate the influence of mortars’ properties (mixture and curing time) on their performance. The results indicated that replacing the cement with up to 60% GGBFS and CKD showed a comparable behavior to the cement after 28 days of curing onward. The statistical analysis revealed that the developed models achieved high level of agreement between the predicted and observed results with a coefficient of determination (R2) of more than 0.97. The findings in this study announced on the development of promising binder that can be used in different construction sectors with the benefits of reducing the CO2 emissions