Critical flux-based membrane fouling control of forward osmosis: Behavior, sustainability, and reversibility

Membrane fouling is closely related to the concept of critical flux. Therefore, a fouling control strategy for forward osmosis (FO) membranes that is based on the critical flux is necessary. This study systematically investigated the critical flux behavior of FO membranes (CTA and PA-TFC) in the short-term using a stepping method (draw solution (DS) concentration stepping). In addition, to test the reliability of this method, long-term experiments were conducted to evaluate the influences of operational critical flux on the fouling behavior (sustainable operation and fouling reversibility/irreversibility), thereby determining the critical flux for reversibility. Our results showed that the DS concentration stepping could be applied for critical flux determination in FO. Both membranes exhibited higher critical flux values for alginate fouling compared to other single foulants such as colloidal silica or gypsum. The values were 15.9 LMH for a cellulose triacetate membrane (CTA) and 20.5 LMH for the polyamide thin-film composite (PA-TFC). Whilst these values should be adequate in FO applications they were determined for single foulants. The presence of multispecies of foulants caused a significant decline in the critical flux values. This study found 5.4 LMH for the CTA membrane and 8.3 LMH for the PA-TFC membrane for the combined foulants of alginate + gypsum. This indicates that the critical flux behavior in FO was dependent on the foulant type and membrane type. Importantly, the high restoration of water flux was achieved with the PA-TFC membrane at an operation either close to critical flux (92–98%) or below critical flux (98–100%) (i.e., with negligible irreversible fouling). The critical fluxes for reversibility obtained in this study will aid the efficient operation of practical FO processes

Hybrid protocol for wireless EH network over weibull fading channel: performance analysis

In this paper, the hybrid TSR-PSR protocol for wireless energy harvesting (EH) relaying network over the Weibull fading channel is investigated. The system network is working in half-duplex (HD) mode. For evaluating the system performance, the closed-form and integral-form expressions of the outage probability (OP) are investigated and derived. After that, numerical results convinced that our derived analytical results are the same with the simulation results by using Monte Carlo simulation. This paper provides a novel recommendation for the wireless EH relaying network

Energy harvesting half-duplex AF power splitting protocol relay network over rician channel in case of maximizing capacity

In this letter, we propose a novel power splitting protocol for energy harvesting half-duplex AF relaying communication systems. In our proposed system, the relay harvests energy from the source transmissions, by employing adaptive PS protocol, for powering the retransmissions to the destination. The proposed model system is investigated in cases maximize and non-maximize ergodic capacity. Firstly, we perform the analytical mathematical analysis for deriving the integral closed-form expression of the outage probability and the ergodic capacity. Then, the analytical analysis of the system performance can be convinced by Monte-Carlo simulation with helping Mat Lab software. Finally, the numerical analysis provides practical insights into the effect of various system parameters on the system performance of the proposed system. This paper can be considered as a recommendation for the energy harvesting communication network

Unmanned aerial vehicle-aided cooperative regenerative relaying network under various environments

This paper studies a cooperative relay network that comprises an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) enabling amplify-and-forward (AF) and power splitting (PS) based energy harvesting. The considered system can be constructed in various environments such as suburban, urban, dense urban, and high-rise urban where the air-to-ground channels are model by a mixture of Rayleigh and Nakagami-m fading. Then, outage probability and ergodic capacity are provided under different environment-based parameters. Optimal PS ratios are also provided under normal and high transmit power regimes. Finally, the accuracy of the analytical results is validated through Monte Carlo methods

Performance of multi-hop cognitive MIMO relaying networks with joint constraint of intercept probability and limited interference

In this paper, we propose a multi-hop multiple input multiple output (MIMO) decode-and-forward relaying protocol in cognitive radio networks. In this protocol, a multi-antenna secondary source attempts to send its data to a multi-antenna secondary destination with assistance of multiple intermediate multi-antenna nodes, in presence of a multi-antenna secondary eavesdropper. A primary network includes a primary transmitter and a primary receiver which are equipped with multiple antennas, and use transmit antenna selection (TAS) and selection combining (SC) to communicate with each other. Operating on the underlay spectrum sharing method, the secondary source and relay nodes have to adjust their transmit power so that the outage performance of the primary network is not harmful and satisfy the quality of service (QoS). Moreover, these secondary nodes also reduce their transmit power so that the intercept probability (IP) at the eavesdropper at each hop is below a desired value. To improve the outage performance of the secondary network under the joint constraint of IP and limited interference, the TAS/SC method is employed to relay the source data hop-by-hop to the destination. We derived exact closed-form expressions of the end-to-end (e2e) outage probability (OP) and IP of the proposed protocol over Rayleigh fading channels. Monte Carlo simulations are then performed to verify the theoretical derivations

Effects of steel corrosion to BFRP Strengthened columns under eccentric loading

The experiment consists of twenty-four mid-scale rectangular RC columns (200x200x800mm) strengthening by BFRP sheets and research variables include: BFRP layer (0, 1, and 3 layers); eccentricity (25mm and 75mm); and 4 levels of steel corrosion. The results reveal that SEL (ratio of ultimate load of strengthened member to that of corresponding controlled member) is direct proportion with steel corrosion while SEV (ratio of ultimate vertical displacement of strengthened member to that of corresponding controlled member) is inverse proportion with steel corrosion; SEL slightly increases with the increase of BFRP layer and eccentricity; but SEV decreases noticeably with the increase of BFRP layer and eccentricity. In addition,the interaction between FRP sheets, stirrups, and longitudinal reinforcement in steel degraded BFRP strengthened columns is very strong.However, column design basing on current design manuals and codes as ACI 440.2R and CNR DT 200R1 has not mentioned this affect. Thus, the load capacity prediction of column being strengthened by BFRP sheets should include levels of steel corrosion for reality, reasonable, and integral of the design

Effects of steel corrosion to BFRP Strengthened columns under eccentric loading

The experiment consists of twenty-four mid-scale rectangular RC columns (200x200x800mm) strengthening by BFRP sheets and research variables include: BFRP layer (0, 1, and 3 layers); eccentricity (25mm and 75mm); and 4 levels of steel corrosion. The results reveal that SEL (ratio of ultimate load of strengthened member to that of corresponding controlled member) is direct proportion with steel corrosion while SEV (ratio of ultimate vertical displacement of strengthened member to that of corresponding controlled member) is inverse proportion with steel corrosion; SEL slightly increases with the increase of BFRP layer and eccentricity; but SEV decreases noticeably with the increase of BFRP layer and eccentricity. In addition,the interaction between FRP sheets, stirrups, and longitudinal reinforcement in steel degraded BFRP strengthened columns is very strong.However, column design basing on current design manuals and codes as ACI 440.2R and CNR DT 200R1 has not mentioned this affect. Thus, the load capacity prediction of column being strengthened by BFRP sheets should include levels of steel corrosion for reality, reasonable, and integral of the design

Using real interpolation method for adaptive identification of nonlinear inverted pendulum system

In this paper, we investigate the inverted pendulum system by using real interpolation method (RIM) algorithm. In the first stage, the mathematical model of the inverted pendulum system and the RIM algorithm are presented. After that, the identification of the inverted pendulum system by using the RIM algorithm is proposed. Finally, the comparison of the linear analytical model, RIM model, and nonlinear model is carried out. From the results, it is found that the inverted pendulum system by using RIM algorithm has simplicity, low computer source requirement, high accuracy and adaptiveness in the advantages

Performance of Ozonation Process as Advanced Treatment for Antibiotics Removal in Membrane Permeate

There was an investigation into the removal of 6 types of antibiotics from hospital wastewater through membrane bioreactor (MBR) treatment and ozonation processes. Six types of antibiotics, namely, Sulfamethoxazole (SMZ), Norfloxacin (NOR), Ciprofloxacin (CIP), Ofloxacin (OFL), Erythromycin (ERY), and Vancomycin (VAN) which had high detection frequencies in collected samples from hospital wastewater treatment plant (HWTPs). After MBR treatment, the removal efficiencies of SMZ, NOR, OFL, and ERY were 45%, 25%, 30%, and 16%, respectively. Among of them, almost no elimination was observed for CIP and VAN since their concentrations increased by 0.24 ± 0.18 (μgl-1) and 0.83 ± 0.20 (μgl-1), respectively. Then, residues of the antibiotics were removed from the MBR effluent by the ozonation process. The overall removal efficiencies of SMZ, NOR, CIP, OFL, ERY, and VAN were approximately 66 %, 88 %, 83 %, 80 %, 93 %, and 92 %, respectively. The reason might be depended on different ozone consumption of those antibiotics (ABS) in a range of 313 to 1681 μg ABSgO3-1. Consequently, the ozonation process performed better in the antibiotics removal (e.g. CIP and VAN) so ozonation could be considered as important support for the MBR treatment to reduce the risk of antibiotic residues