In-line monitoring and control of rheological properties through data-driven ultrasound soft-sensors

The use of continuous processing is replacing batch modes because of their capabilities to address issues of agility, flexibility, cost, and robustness. Continuous processes can be operated at more extreme conditions, resulting in higher speed and efficiency. The issue when using a continuous process is to maintain the satisfaction of quality indices even in the presence of perturbations. For this reason, it is important to evaluate in-line key performance indicators. Rheology is a critical parameter when dealing with the production of complex fluids obtained by mixing and filling. In this work, a tomographic ultrasonic velocity meter is applied to obtain the rheological curve of a non-Newtonian fluid. Raw ultrasound signals are processed using a data-driven approach based on principal component analysis (PCA) and feedforward neural networks (FNN). The obtained sensor has been associated with a data-driven decision support system for conducting the process

Phytochemicals as antibiotic alternatives to promote growth and enhance host health

There are heightened concerns globally on emerging drug-resistant superbugs and the lack of new antibiotics for treating human and animal diseases. For the agricultural industry, there is an urgent need to develop strategies to replace antibiotics for food-producing animals, especially poultry and livestock. The 2nd International Symposium on Alternatives to Antibiotics was held at the World Organization for Animal Health in Paris, France, December 12-15, 2016 to discuss recent scientific developments on strategic antibiotic-free management plans, to evaluate regional differences in policies regarding the reduction of antibiotics in animal agriculture and to develop antibiotic alternatives to combat the global increase in antibiotic resistance. More than 270 participants from academia, government research institutions, regulatory agencies, and private animal industries from >25 different countries came together to discuss recent research and promising novel technologies that could provide alternatives to antibiotics for use in animal health and production; assess challenges associated with their commercialization; and devise actionable strategies to facilitate the development of alternatives to antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) without hampering animal production. The 3-day meeting consisted of four scientific sessions including vaccines, microbial products, phytochemicals, immune-related products, and innovative drugs, chemicals and enzymes, followed by the last session on regulation and funding. Each session was followed by an expert panel discussion that included industry representatives and session speakers. The session on phytochemicals included talks describing recent research achievements, with examples of successful agricultural use of various phytochemicals as antibiotic alternatives and their mode of action in major agricultural animals (poultry, swine and ruminants). Scientists from industry and academia and government research institutes shared their experience in developing and applying potential antibiotic-alternative phytochemicals commercially to reduce AGPs and to develop a sustainable animal production system in the absence of antibiotics.Fil: Lillehoj, Hyun. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; ArgentinaFil: Liu, Yanhong. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Calsamiglia, Sergio. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Fernandez Miyakawa, Mariano Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria. Centro de Investigación en Ciencias Veterinarias y Agronómicas. Instituto de Patobiología; ArgentinaFil: Chi, Fang. Amlan International; Estados UnidosFil: Cravens, Ron L.. Amlan International; Estados UnidosFil: Oh, Sungtaek. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; ArgentinaFil: Gay, Cyril G.. United States Department of Agriculture. Agricultural Research Service; Argentin

2016 Emission factors for diesel Euro-6 passenger cars, light commercial vehicles and Euro-VI trucks

Emissiefactoren belangrijk voor betrouwbare luchtkwaliteitsberekeninge

POD generator project: a numerical assessment of the inspection of fatigue cracks using TOFD

Risk based inspection strategies rely on detailed knowledge of the performance of inspection techniques. The objective of the "POD generator" project is to develop a numerical modeling approach to assess the effectiveness of specific inspection techniques. Simulation offers flexibility and reliability at acceptable costs. Therefore numerical models have been developed and validated for accurately simulating the physics of inspection techniques. These numerical models are then used to generate quantitative probability of detection (POD) curves. In the case of ultrasonic time-of-flight-diffraction (TOFD) inspections, the human factor is included on two levels. First in the way a TOFD scan is carried out (positioning variations). And secondly, in the fact that simulated inspection results are interpreted by real operators. This paper shows the assessment of the inspection of fatigue cracks using TOFD using this numerical approach. The influence of high-low and the human interpretation on the performance of the inspection was investigated by generating multiple POD-curves under different circumstances. This way we show that the numerical modeling approach is an efficient and reliable way of determining the sensitivity of inspection techniques for complex influencing factors

Integrating a macro emission model with a macroscopic traffic model

This paper presents a macro emission module for macroscopic traffic models to be used for assessment of ITS and traffic management. It especially focuses on emission estimates for different intersection types. It provides emission values for CO, CO2, HC, NOx, and PM10. It is applied and validated for a macroscopic traffic model developed by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, called the ‘Regional Traffic Management Explorer’ (or Regionale BenuttingsVerkenner, RBV). In this paper, the development of the module and some validation results are presented.Transport and PlanningCivil Engineering and Geoscience

Traffic data for local emissions monitoring at a signalized intersection

In order to assist planning efforts for air pollution-responsive dynamic traffic management (DTM) systems, this research assesses the accuracy of local emissions monitoring based on traffic data and models. The study quantifies the benefits of increased data resolution for short-term emissions estimates at a signalized intersection. The emissions estimates are also compared with air quality measurements in the immediate roadside environment. Results show that traffic-based emissions estimates require detailed knowledge of the local vehicle fleet and speed profiles. Traffic-based emissions monitoring enables pollution-responsive DTM, but these results indicate that this approach only applies over long time periods. This limit is due to the inherent stochasticity of vehicle arrivals and emissions rates. Using current tools, even detailed knowledge of on-road vehicles and traffic leaves uncertainty in short-term roadway emissions. ©2010 IEEE

Ecoflex: Improving air quality with green dynamic traffic management based on real time air quality measurements

Across the world, air quality regulations are breached due to localized high pollution episodes in specific locations, or "hotspots". Advances in air pollution monitoring techniques enable hotspots to be identified more effectively; however challenges remain as to how best to reduce the incidence and impact of these episodes. Where road traffic is the dominant source of pollutants, ITS measures, including alternative traffic management strategies, may be deployed to mitigate the hotspot and contribute towards regulatory compliance. This paper demonstrates how the real time local air quality is used as input for a dynamic traffic management system. Based on the current state of the air quality, the traffic management strategy will be adapted in order to improve the local air quality real time in an urban environment. An environmental trigger signal is developed based on the local black carbon concentrations. The trigger decides when to switchthe traffic light control system from the standard control scenario during good air quality to the EcoFLEX control scenario when the air quality is below a certain threshold. This scenario decreases the average queue lengths and number of stops at the intersection for motorized traffic and increases the average speeds, which are all favorable for reducing emissions. EnViVer simulations show an emissions reduction in EcoFLEX mode of 8.2% for NOx. The EcoFLEX system makes hotspot mitigation possible since it is possible to control the air quality locally by adapting the traffic control system, only when necessary. © 2011 by the Intelligent Transportation Society of America

POD generator project, development of numerical modeling tools for quantitative assessment of the performance of non-destructive inspection techniques

Risk based inspection strategies rely on detailed knowledge of the performance of inspection techniques. It is well known that every inspection technique has limitations in terms of reliability and effectiveness. Moreover, these are influenced by many factors. E.g. it depends on operator skills, inspection procedure, defect and object geometry as well as technique specific instrument properties and settings. The objective of the "POD generator" project is to develop a numerical modeling approach to assess inspection effectiveness for a specific technique and situation flexibly and reliably yet at acceptable costs. Besides the models to simulate various degradation mechanisms, numerical models have been developed and validated for accurately simulating the physics of inspection techniques. Also the human factor is taken into account. These numerical models are then used to generate quantitative probability of detection (POD) curves. This will be illustrated for ultrasonic time-of-flight-diffraction (TOFD) inspection of fatigue cracks. © 2009 American Institute of Physics

Development of a Non-Intrusive In-Line Tomographic Ultrasonic Velocity Meter to Measure Liquid Rheology

The number of chemical processes transferred from a batch-wise approach to continuous flow is increasing, due to several advantages of continuous over batch: processes can be operated at more extreme conditions, resulting in higher speed and efficiency. Thus it is critical to evaluate key performance indicators real-time and in-line. For fluid handling processes like mixing and filling, the viscosity of the process fluid is a critical parameter. Also, for non-Newtonian fluids the viscosity varies with the shear rate. Hence the measured rheology is affected by intrusive sensor designs. Moreover, in view of fouling prevention and safety, the pipe wall should not be punctured. We propose a new concept to measure the viscosity as a function of shear rate by measuring the liquid velocity profile in and the pressure drop over the sensor. The concept is in-line, real-time, does not puncture the pipe wall and is non-intrusive. Here, we report on the development and performance of the tomographic ultrasonic velocity meter, which is part of said concept. The device consisted of 9 transducers distributed along the outer surface of a pipe. Tomographic time delay inversion was used to extract the liquid velocity profiles. The performance of the entire measurement chain was predicted using simulations. The transfer functions and acoustic wave fields were measured using a hydrophone setup. The device was tested with water and a high viscosity Newtonian liquid. The sensor successfully measured liquid velocity profiles