Experimental Study For a Laminar Natural Convection Heat Transfer From an Isothermal Heated Square Plate With and Without Circular Hole

An experimental investigation of natural convection heat transfer from an isothermal horizontal,vertical and inclined heated square flat plates with and without circular hole, were carried out in two cases, perforated plates without an impermeable adiabatic hole "open core" and perforated plates with an impermeable adiabatic hole "closed core" by adiabatic plug. The experiments covered the laminar region with a range of Rayleih number of (1.11x106 ≤RaLo≤4.39x106 ), at Prandtle number (Pr=0.7). Practical experiments have been done with variable inclination angles from horizon (Ф=0o ,45o,90o,135oand 180o),facing upward (0o≤Ф<90o), and downward (90o ≤Ф<180o). The results showed that the temperature gradient increases while the thermal boundary layer thickness decreases when Grashof number and perforation ratio (m) increase . The temperature gradient for inclined position facing upward is less than facing downward,while the thermal boundary layer thickness is greater. The temperature gradient decreases while the thermal boundary layer thickness increases for perforated plates with an adiabatic core as compared with perforated plates without an adiabatic core. The value of average Nusselt number increases with increasing perforation ratio, and Grashof number for all specimens with and without an adiabatic core, also increases by increase in inclination of plates approaching the higher value at vertical position (Ф=90o ), then decreases with increasing inclination of plates till horizontal position (Ф=180o). The average Nusselt number values for perforated plates with an adiabatic core are lower than for perforated plates without an adiabatic core for all perforation ratios. Maximum heat transfer rate occurs at perforated plate with perforation ratio of (m=0.1) without adiabatic core for vertical position (Ф=90o), at a range of Grashof number (1.576x106≤GrLo≤6.292x106 ), while the rate of heat transfer decreases with increasing perforation ratio for plates with and without adiabatic core for decrease in heat transfer rate area. The rate of heat transfer for perforated plates with circular hole is more than for perforated plates with square hole at the same perforation ratios (m=0.1,0.16,0.24 and 0.36). It found that the lack of core flow decreases the overall heat transfer rate by (6.477%) . There was a good agreement for the experimental present work results compared with other pervious results .

A Reactive Tabu Search for the Vehicle Routing Problem

The classical vehicle routing problem (VRP) involves determining affect of homogeneous size vehicles and designing an associated set of routes that minimizes the total cost. Our tabu search (TS) algorithm to solve the VRP is based on reactive tabu search (RTS) with a new escape mechanism, which manipulates different neighbourhood schemes in a very sophisticated way in order to get a balanced intensification and diversification continuously during the search process. We compare our algorithm with the best methods in the literature using different data sets and report results including new best known solutions for several well-known benchmark problems

International labor migration and social change in rural Sindh, Pakistan

This study examines why and how labor migration from a village in Sindh, Pakistan to Saudi Arabia has influenced changes for the left-behind families and the community. We find that while migration impacts positively on the material conditions of individual migrants and their families in the village, the potential of migration to impact on other aspects of living conditions, social change and development at community levels is shaped and often limited by existing structures of power, including gender structures and other socio-political structures. In the absence of investment in school infrastructures by the state, remittances from migration have not translated into improved educational outcomes for the children of migrants. We also find that the male migrants are leveraging their new status in the family to exercise more choice in marriage matters with possible negative impact on women

Heuristic Methods for the VRP with Backhauls

The vehicle routing problem with deliveries and pickups is a challenging extension to the vehicle routing problem that lately attracted growing attention in the literature. This paper investigates the relationship between two versions of this problem, called "mixed" and "simultaneous". In particular, we wish to know whether a solution algorithm designed for the simultaneous case can solve the mixed case. To this end, we implement a metaheuristic based on reactive tabu search. The results suggest that this approach can yield good results

Reactive tabu adaptive memory programming search for the vehicle routing problem with backhauls

A heuristic approach based on a hybrid operation of reactive tabu search (RTS) and adaptive memory programming ( AMP) is proposed to solve the vehicle routing problem with backhauls (VRPB). The RTS is used with an escape mechanism which manipulates different neighbourhood schemes in a sophisticated way in order to get a continuously balanced intensification and diversification during the search process. The adaptive memory strategy takes the search back to the unexplored regions of the search space by maintaining a set of elite solutions and using them strategically with the RTS. The AMP feature brings an extra robustness to the search process that resulted in early convergence when tested on most of the VRPB instances. We compare our algorithm against the best methods in the literature and report new best solutions for several benchmark problems

The mountain-lowland debate: Deforestation and sediment transport in the upper Ganga catchment

The Himalaya-Gangetic Plain region is the iconic example of the debate about the impact on lowlands of upland land-use change. Some of the scientific aspects of this debate are revisited by using new techniques to examine the role of deforestation in erosion and river sediment transport. The approach is whole-of-catchment, combining a history of deforestation with a history of sediment sources from well before deforestation. It is shown that deforestation had some effect on one very large erosional event in 1970, in the Alaknanda subcatchment of the Upper Ganga catchment, but that both deforestation and its effects on erosion and sediment transport are far from uniform in the Himalaya. Large magnitude erosional events occur for purely natural reasons. The impact on the Gangetic Plain of erosion caused by natural events and land cover change remains uncertain