TECHNICAL BASIS AND APPLICATION OF NEW RULES ON FRACTURE CONTROL OF HIGH PRESSURE HYDROGEN VESSEL IN ASME SECTION VIII, DIVISION 3 CODE

ABSTRACT As a part of an ongoing activity to develop ASME Code rules for the hydrogen infrastructure, the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code Committee approved new fracture control rules for Section VIII, Division 3 vessels in 2006. These rules have been incorporated into new Article KD-10 in Division 3. The new rules require determining fatigue crack growth rate and fracture resistance properties of materials in high pressure hydrogen gas. Test methods have been specified to measure these fracture properties, which are required to be used in establishing the vessel fatigue life. An example has been given to demonstrate the application of these new rules

A Study of On-Line and Off-Line Turbine Washing to Optimize the Operation of a Gas Turbine

ABSTRACT This paper highlights the procedure followed in order to establish an effective on-line and off line water wash program on a fleet of 36 small industrial turbines. To determine the efficacy of water washing a program of tests under controlled conditions was organized. With proper condition monitoring techniques, a set of tests were developed in order to identify the proper water wash frequency and the dissolving agent used to water wash. The goal of the water wash program is to maximize turbine power, and efficiency; while minimizing maintenance labor, and material. The Gas Turbine Compressor Isentropic Efficiency, the overall heat rate, and the overall thermal efficiency were used to compare the tests and evaluate the performance of different water wash frequencies and solvents. 8760 points defined each test as the data was taken over a one year time period, at a one hour interval

Demultiplexing of 80-Gb/s Pulse-Position Modulated Data With an Ultrafast Nonlinear Interferometer

Abstract-Pulse-position modulation may be used to reduce patterning effects arising from gain saturation in all-optical switches employing semiconductor optical amplifiers. We present a novel technique for return-to-zero pulse-position modulation of data suitable for use in optical time-division-multiplexed (OTDM) networks. We demonstrate two methods for all-optical demultiplexing of a pulse-position modulated data stream using an ultrafast nonlinear interferometer. Errorfree operation is obtained for demultiplexing from OTDM data rates as high as 80 Gb/s with control pulse energies of 25 fJ

A new device to measure the structural properties of the femuranterior cruciate ligament-tibia complex

Previous studies of biomechanical properties of femur-anterior cruciate ligamenttibia complex (FATC) utilized a wide variety of testing methodologies Introduction The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) has a very complex anatomy which enables it to perform an important role in guiding knee motion. As the knee undergoes flexionextension, internal-external, and varus-valgus rotation, the length and orientation of the ACL change significantly. The broad attachments of the ACL to both the femur and the tibia allow various portions of the ligament to be relatively taut throughout a full range of knee motion. So, given a particular orientation of the knee, some collagen bundles of the ACL experience tension while other bundles are unloaded Previous studies of the biomechanical properties of the femur-ACL-tibia complexes (FATC) utilized knee orientations and loading directions which were poorly documented and seemingly arbitrary with respect to the ligament orientation relative to the direction of applied load. Thus, data are difficult to compare with one another. Viidik [5] investigated the structural properties of the FATC in rabbits with the knee in a fully extended position and with the femur, tibia, and ACL all aligned along the axis of the applied tensile load. Gupta et al. [6] used a similar experimental set up to test the FATC of canines, but with the tibia externally rotated 90 deg relative to the femur to eliminate the natural twist in the ACL. Noyes and Groo

COMPREHENSIVE LABORATORY PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF WMA WITH LEADCAP ADDITIVES

ABSTRACT This paper presents the laboratory test and analysis results from a reference hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixture and warm mix asphalt (WMA) mixtures modified by two different LEADCAP additives (KW3 and KW6) of a wax type. The performance characteristics investigated in this study include rutting, fatigue cracking, and moisture susceptibility. Rutting performance is evaluated by the triaxial repeated load permanent deformation (TRLPD) test and the asphalt pavement analyzer (APA) test. Fatigue performance of the mixtures with and without moisture conditioning is evaluated using the direct tension cyclic test following the simplified viscoelastic continuum damage (S-VECD) protocol. The resulting damage characteristics and dynamic modulus are used in the layered viscoelastic analysis program to assess the fatigue performance and the moisture susceptibility of these mixtures in pavement structures with different asphalt layer thicknesses. Both the TRLPD and APA test results show that the KW3 and KW6 mixtures exhibit more resistance to rutting than the HMA mixture. In particular, the rutting resistance of the KW3 mixture is superior to that of the HMA and KW6 mixtures. In addition, the HMA and KW6 mixtures exhibit approximately the same favorable characteristics of fatigue resistance, whereas the KW3 mixture's fatigue performance is worse than that of the HMA and KW6 mixtures. However, the moisture susceptibility results indicate that the KW6 mixture is more susceptible to moisture damage than the HMA mixture in terms of fatigue resistance. This increased moisture susceptibility in the KW6 mixture is currently being addressed by modifying the KW6 additive. This study demonstrates the importance of the comprehensive performance testing of mixtures for the development and optimal design of a WMA additive

Mahendra D. Rana George B. Rawls Technical Basis and Application of New Rules on Fracture Control of High Pressure Hydrogen Vessel in ASME Section VIII, Division 3 Code

As a part of an ongoing activity to develop ASM

POWER2008-60167 VERIFYING SUITABILITY FOR SERVICE WITH EMI DIAGNOSTICS

ABSTRACT This paper provides examples of conditions found with nuclear plant electrical equipment by the application of EMI (electromagnetic interference) Diagnostics. This is an on-line test that can detect a wide variety of defects in motors, generators, power cables transformers and isolated phase bus

Validation of Microaneurysm-based Diabetic Retinopathy Screening across Retina Fundus Datasets

Abstract—In recent years, automated retina image analysis (ARIA) algorithms have received increasing interest by the medical imaging analysis community. Particular attention has been given to techniques able to automate the pre-screening of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) using inexpensive retina fundus cameras. With the growing number of diabetics worldwide, these techniques have the potential benefits of broad-based, inexpensive screening. The contribution of this paper is twofold: first, we propose a straightforward pipeline from microaneurysm (an early sign of DR) detection to automatic classification of DR without employing any additional features; then, we quantify the generalisation ability of the MA detection method by employing synthetic examples and, more importantly, we experiment with two public datasets which consist of more than 1,350 images graded as normal or showing signs of DR. With cross-datasets tests, we obtained results better or comparable to other recent methods. Since our experiments are performed only on publicly available datasets, our results are directly comparable with those of other research groups. I