4 research outputs found
The impact of bad sensors on the water industry and possible alternatives
Advanced monitoring of water quality in order to perform a real-time hazard analysis prior to
Water Treatment Works (WTW) is more important nowadays, both to give warning of contamination and also to
avoid downtime of the WTW. Downtimes could be a major contributor to risk. Any serious accident will cause a
significant loss in customer and investor confidence. In this paper, two treatment plants (case studies) were
examined. One was a groundwater WTW and the other a river WTW. The results showed that good correlations
existed between the controlling parameters measured at the river WTW, but not at the Groundwater Treatment
Works (GWTW), where there was a lack of good correlation between warning parameters. Results emphasised
the value of backup monitoring and self-adjusting automation processes that are needed to counteract the rise in
power costs. The study showed that a relationship between the different types of sensors and/or measured
parameters can be deduced in order to cross-check the sensors performance and be used as a guide to when
maintenance is really needed. Operating hierarchal procedures within the WTWs could also be used to cut costs,
by improving condition monitoring. Both of the case studies highlighted the need for new non-invasive/remote
sensors and some new investment in information technology infrastructure
The influence of vibration transducer mounting on the practical measurement of railway vibration
When assessing ground-borne vibration related to railways, careful consideration needs to be given to the mounting and coupling of the transducers. This paper presents the results of research investigating some of these fundamental issues. Different couplant materials and
four of the most commonly used transducer-to-ground coupling techniques (spikes, buried,
slabs, and the transducer directly plastered to the ground), were compared and analysed
within the frequency range 5 Hz to 500 Hz.
The data demonstrate that transducer vertical alignment has limited influence at small angles. “Blu-tack” showed to be an adequate couplant. Above 50 Hz coupling systems can influence the reading by up to 20 dB. Using the train as a source of vibration yields a high degree of non-linearity on the coupling systems performance
Procedures for estimating environmental impact from railway induced vibration: a review
Railway induced ground-borne vibration is among the most
common and widespread sources of perceptible environmental
vibration. It can give rise to discomfort and disturbance,
adversely impacting on human activity and the operation of
sensitive equipment. The rising demand for building new
railway lines or upgrading existing lines in order to meet
increasing transit flows has furthered the need for adequate
vibration assessment tools during the planning and design
stages. In recent years many studies in the fields of rail and
ground dynamics have encouraged many prediction techniques
giving rise to a wide variety of procedures for estimating
vibration on buildings. Each method shows potential for
application at different levels of complexity and applicability to
varying circumstances. From the perspective of railway
environmental impact assessment, this paper reviews some
relevant prediction techniques, assessing their degree of
suitability for practical engineering application by weighting
their methodology (i.e. considerations and requirements) against
practicality and precision. The review suggests that not all
procedures are practicable (e.g. the attainment of representative
parameters needed to run the procedures) whilst others
predicate on assumptions which revealed to be too relaxed
resulting in insufficient accuracy; however, a combination of
methods may provide the necessary balance
Development of an Industry Foundation Classes Assembly Viewer
The construction industry has invested considerable effort into integration of project information in the last decade. One such
effort is the definition of Industry Foundation Classes IFCs to facilitate data sharing across applications through a shared project model.
In order to achieve the integration objectives, the industry software vendors need to commit to the implementation of IFC in their
products. IFC is defined in EXPRESS, which is a platform-independent, object-flavored, data modeling language. The EXPRESS-based
models must be translated into some programming language model for specific implementation. To achieve this, developers need to
evaluate and select a suitable model and programming language for their implementation. Developers therefore need to understand both
EXPRESS and a host of programming languages. This initial knowledge requirement may hinder the take-off or adoption of IFC-based
implementation. This paper describes a software solution that reduces this initial knowledge requirement considerably by providing a
.NET class library translation and an implementation view of the IFC model, based on the EXPRESS definitions. Complemented by the
online documentation provided with the IFC definitions, the software provides a hierarchical view of the IFC-based programming objects
with drill-down facility for developers to capture and appreciate the information requirement for specific objects