Design Performance Assessment Research Articles

PV water pumping systems for domestic uses in remote areas: Sizing process, simulation and economic evaluation

Abstract PV water pumping technology is recognized as a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution to provide water for domestic use. The appropriate design and smooth operation mostly rely on available solar irradiation, domestic water demand and appropriate configuration of the proposed system. Therefore, the aim of this work is to examine an optimum PV system configuration that is capable of supplying a solar submersible pump system to fulfill domestic water needs of five isolated houses located in a Moroccan remote area. A detailed approach for the design of an optimized PV water pumping system based on real water usage data is proposed. Besides, system design work and performance assessment were carried out based on hourly climatic conditions. Overall, two approaches were investigated for an optimum design of the proposed system. Annual simulations indicated that the direct coupling, as a first option, appears to be unfitting configuration for water pumping in this case. In turn, results proved that second system including a MPPT DC converter with less PV arrays could pump more water and its performance remarkably surpassed the direct coupling configuration. In addition, economic analysis has shown that proposed systems are cost competitive against the conventional water supply methods.

The State of the Art: Application of Green Technology in Sustainable Pavement

A wide range of literature on predominant green technologies for sustainable pavements is summarized in this paper. It covers two major aspects: energy harvesting technologies and permeable pavement systems. Fundamental mechanics of energy harvesting techniques and possible designs of energy harvesters are described, with the evaluation of energy conversion efficiency, and advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the designs of permeable pavement systems are discussed, along with their advantages and disadvantages. The latest technical innovations are highlighted. It is found that green technologies are promising for developing more sustainable pavements. Application issues are also pointed out, including construction challenges, durability, and life‐cycle cost‐benefit assessment. Future research directions are suggested to address practical challenges, such as efficient design, construction challenge, timely maintenance, and life‐cycle performance assessment.

PENGEMBANGAN PERANGKAT PENILAIAN KINERJA DAN SIKAP PADA PRAKTIKUM TITRIMETRI DAN GRAVIMETRI SMK-SMTI MAKASSAR

This research aims to produce performance assessment and attitudes tools on titrimetric and gravimetric Laboratory which valid, reliable, and practical. Validity based on judgment of expert on performance assessment tools and attitudes that are developed, reliability obtained from Alpha Cronbach coefficient values based SPSS, and practicality is obtained from the value of teachers' questionnaire responses and performance assessment tools developed attitude. This development step consists of five steps: (1) preliminary investigation with excute identify information, analyze information, to limit the problem, and plan continuation activity; (2) design with excute design performance and attitude assessment in form matriks performance and attitude assessment; (3) realization or construction with excute to make first draft; (4) test, evaluation, and revision with excute to judgement of ekspert; and (5) implementation with excute to trials carried out. The instrument which used are classifier for paper validation for measure validity and reability as well as teachers' questionnaire responses for measure practicality. The results showed that the performance assessment and practical attitude on titrimetric and gravimetric meet the criteria of valid, reliable, and practical. Mean valid, reliable, and practical in sequence are 0,965; 0,807; and 64,87 assessments is based on both validator and based on trials carried out at the Department of Industrial Chemistry students SMK-SMTI Makassar.

The Workshop Program on Authentic Assessment for Science Teachers

A study on implementing authentic assessment program through workshop was conducted to investigate the improvement of the competence of science teachers in designing performance assessment in real life situation at school level context. A number of junior high school science teachers and students as participants were involved in this study. Data was collected through questionnaire, observation sheets, and pre-and post-test during 4 day workshop. This workshop had facilitated them direct experience with seventh grade junior high school students during try out. Science teachers worked in group of four and communicated each other by think-pair share in cooperative learning approach. Research findings show that generally the science teachers’ involvement and their competence in authentic assessment improved. Their knowledge about the nature of assessment in relation to the nature of science and its instruction was improved, but still have problem in integrating their design performance assessment to be implemented in their lesson plan. The 7th grade students enjoyed participating in the science activities, and performed well the scientific processes planned by group of science teachers. The response of science teachers towards the workshop was positive. They could design the task and rubrics for science activities, and revised them after the implementation towards the students. By participating in this workshop they have direct experience in designing and trying out their ability within their professional community in real situation towards their real students in junior high school.

Performance Evaluation of an Experimental Turbojet Engine

AbstractAn exergy analysis is presented including design parameters and performance assessment, by identifying the losses and efficiency of a gas turbine engine. The aim of this paper is to determine the performance of a small turbojet engine with an exergetic analysis based on test data. Experimental data from testing was collected at full-load of small turbojet engine. The turbojet engine exhaust data contains CO

Reconciliation of the mining value chain - mine to design as a critical enabler for optimal and safe extraction of the mineral reserve

In order to reach the goal of optimal and safe extraction of the mineral reserve, the mining industry is increasingly focusing on reconciliation across the mining value chain to ensure that the mining process occurs in a progressively more predictable manner. This will consequently improve the understanding of mine plans and their associated implementation risks, ultimately leading to increased investor confidence. In terms of geotechnical engineering, mine to design performance assessment is a critical aspect of mine to plan adherence focusing on the complex aspects influencing slope performance. A mine to design reconciliation process therefore needs to systematically track implementation and geotechnical aspects in order to review or update slope design criteria and pit layouts according to the mine planning cycle as the mine is developed. ��./)*(./*�/ -,./*/!.'-,/-,/ -,-, �+(#./&�+-,/).&*,&-(-+ %-*, ���!�� �! ����!�� � !���

Evaluation of recombinant enzyme calibration to harmonize lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 activity results between instruments

ObjectivesEnzymatic activity of lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2) mediates vascular inflammation in coronary heart disease (CHD). Calibration of Lp-PLA2 activity measurements using a recombinant enzyme was performed to assess intra- and inter-laboratory assay precision and accuracy in routine clinical settings. Design and methodsTest performance assessment included recovery, analytical sensitivity, linear range, within-lab and site-to-site precision, interference, and analyte stability. Results using the Beckman-Coulter AU400 analyzer were compared to other chemistry analyzers. ResultsLp-PLA2 activity ranged from 84 to 303nmol/min/mL in 300 subjects, with 82.0% and 18.0% measurements below and at or above a cut-point of 225nmol/min/mL, respectively. Results of matched K2-EDTA plasma and serum (n=131) were similar with a slope of 1.00, y-intercept of 0.05, and R-value of 0.988. Mean recovery ranged from 90 to 106% of baseline after storage at different temperatures and time periods. Limit of detection was ≤10nmol/min/mL, without deviation from linearity between 10 and 382nmol/min/mL. Endogenous substances and medications did not interfere with the activity measurements. Overall intra- and inter-laboratory precision among three sites showed coefficients of variation of ≤3.8% and ≤5% respectively. Limit of quantitation was 1.3nmol/min/mL. Method comparison studies for multiple analyzers demonstrated slopes, intercepts or R2 coefficients ranging from 0.96 to 1.06, −5.6 to 2.0, or 0.997 to 0.999, respectively. ConclusionAnalytical performance of the calibrated PLAC® test for Lp-PLA2 enzyme activity assay in CHD is resistant to a wide variety of pre-analytical factors, with site-to-site reproducibility on multiple analyzers sufficient to standardize results in diverse laboratory settings.

Design Analysis and Performance Assessment of Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna for WLAN

Design Analysis and Performance Assessment of Rectangular Microstrip Patch Antenna for WLAN

DESIGN, DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF NEW SWIRL EFFERVESCENT INJECTOR

The swirl effervescent injector has more desirable characteristics because it allows a system to run on low injection pressure and yet is still able to achieve an efficient atomization. In previous studies on other types of injectors, spray breakup length was reported as one of the important spray characteristics since a shorter spray breakup length tend to provide an earlier atomization. However, intensive studies on spray characteristics of the swirl effervescent injector are scarce. This paper is intended to describe the geometrical design procedures and performance assessments of a newly developed swirl effervescent injector. In designing the injector, a similitude technique was deployed to find the best design attributes among 4 existing injectors. The desired attributes were incorporated into the development of the injector. The swirl chamber was made from Perspex to permit visualization of the internal flow. A test rig was built to evaluate the injector’s performance. Water was used as the working fluid and nitrogen gas as the atomizing agent. The spray breakup characteristics were observed at different GLR and recorded using high-speed shadowgraph technique. For the analyses of the video recordings and the conversion into image sequences, ImageJ and specific software have been deployed. It was found that the introduction of the swirl-generating vane prior to the discharge orifice has assisted in shortening the spray breakup length at any amount of GLR.

Sea water reverse osmosis - energy efficiency & recovery

The Adelaide desalination plant, located in South Australia, was designed and built by the AdelaideAqua construction consortium for the South Australian Water Corporation (SA Water), a wholly owned public utility. Construction commenced in 2009 at a green field site (Port Stanvac) south of Adelaide, with drinking water production from October 2011 and full production capability and handover to the plant operator on 12 December 2012. The facility uses 100% renewable energy and provides the people of South Australia with one of the most energy efficient sea water desalination plants in the World. This paper examines the performance of the Adelaide desalination plant in terms of energy efficiency. Specific energy saving technologies and innovations are described, including assessment of design and actual performance. The Adelaide desalination plant has achieved 8% lower energy consumption compared to the project's initial design requirements and the specific energy consumption of 3.48 kWh/m3 compares well with industry benchmark efficiencies.

Sustainable design indicators: Roadway project as an example

Environmental sustainability has been more examined in the construction industry in recent years. But it is still difficult for engineering designers to incorporate sustainability into their work without practical methods. The design stage is key in the life cycle to integrating sustainability into construction projects. Assessment of sustainable design performance can be an initiative to pursue sustainability.This paper proposes the ratio of items considered/adopted and man-hour spending to measure project sustainable design performance. The two indicators were tested on six roadway projects to validate their applicability on engineering design.The results show that the ratios of items considered and adopted are from 34% to 87%, meaning the many suggested sustainability items can be incorporated into design. The man-hours spent on sustainability are from 2% to 12%, meaning sustainable design initially takes more time than conventional design.The engineering design itself does not cause environmental impact. But the proposed indicators can examine the effort devoted into sustainability in the design stage. This early step helps predict the future environmental performance of designed products.

Considering the Effect of Masonry Infill Walls on the Seismic Behavior of R/C Frames with a Simplified Method

Generally, in practice, effect of infill walls is not taken into account in the design or seismic performance assessment of RC buildings. In order to consider this effect, certain calculations and assumptions should be made. In this study, a simplified method, which considers this effect by employing a coefficient, is investigated and the criteria defined to employ this method is examined. A similar recommendation is investigated in detail given in the recent code namely “Determination of Seismically Vulnerable Buildings” in the context of “Urban Transformation Law”, where a single coefficient was defined to consider the effect of masonry infill walls. Column shear forces, inter-story drift ratio, mode shapes and the corresponding periods are the engineering demand parameters used in the assessments. Analytical model of a four-story RC building is generated and the effect of infill walls on its seismic response is investigated. It was found out that the coefficient proposed by the code “Determination of Seismically Vulnerable Buildings” to consider the effect of infill wall leads to column shear demands that are on the safe side in most of the cases. On the other hand, unsymmetrical arrangement of infill walls can cause torsion in the structure, which increases the shear demands in certain columns. Accordingly, it is suggested to add a further limitation in the application of the simplified method in the relevant item of the code “Determination of Seismically Vulnerable Buildings” when the infill walls cause torsion in the structural system.

Quantification of Design Challenges and Performance Assessment of WiMAX Resource Allocation Algorithms

Resource allocation management is one of the effective factors in the performance of WiMAX base station. Various goals could be achieved when the resource allocation scheme exploits in the right direction. However, resource allocation schemes lack a uniform assessment metrics. Where, most of the researches trying to show author's perspective in the results to show design pros, whilst the overall performance in resource allocation perspective is mostly missing. This paper presents the coordination between goals and design parameters that must be considered in the design phase to exploit the available features of the PHY and MAC layers and avoid the limitations. Moreover, this paper proposes a new method of primary assessment for resource allocation algorithms to ease conducting a fair comparison between the relevant algorithms. The assessment methodology based on a set of evaluation questions. The obtained results showed that the new assessment method distinguishes the overall performance to provide fair comparison.

Fracture toughness of cemented carbides: Testing method and microstructural effects

Fracture toughness is one the most important parameters for design applications and performance assessment of WC–Co cemented carbides (hardmetals). Different from hardness, fracture toughness is commonly a property more difficult to evaluate, particularly in brittle materials. A large number of different testing methods have been introduced to evaluate toughness of hardmetals, but in general all of them have either theoretically debatable issues or important experimental difficulties. In this study, three different fracture toughness testing methodologies are investigated: three-point bending on Chevron notched specimen (“reference” baseline), Palmqvist indentation test, and Hertzian indentation method. The work is conducted in several cemented carbide grades with different microstructures, in terms of both WC grain size and Co binder content. It is found that Chevron-notched three-point bending test yields suitable fracture toughness values for a wide range of cemented carbide grades with varying hardness. Concerning indentation methods, the Hertzian one may be particularly recommended, as compared to Palmqvist method, as far as hardness (HV30) drops below 1300. On the other hand, if HV30 is higher than 1300 Palmqvist indentation procedure yields reliable fracture toughness measurements. Experimental findings are finally analyzed and discussed on the basis of two theoretical models proposed in the literature.

Experimental evaluation of cyclically loaded, large-scale, planar and 3-d buckling-restrained braced frames

Buckling-restrained braced frames (BRBFs) are becoming a more common seismic-resisting system in the U.S. BRBs have more equal and stable cyclic axial response than traditional, steel sections which buckle and this makes them attractive for use in seismic applications. Past experiments demonstrating their behavior have tested an isolated BRB and these tests have demonstrated their superior axial behavior. More recent tests, including those summarized in this paper, have tested BRBs in a frame and, unfortunately, those experiments have demonstrated shortcomings of BRBFs. These tests include both planar and 3-dimensional BRBF experiments. The experiments showed that the hysteretic behavior of the BRBFs was very good for moderate inelastic deformations; however severe damage and instabilities may occur at large story drifts. In most cases, these unwanted behavior resulted from inelastic deformation of the beams and columns at the connection. At large story drifts, significant frame damage occurred. This result indicates that BRBs experience significantly different demands in a system than those imposed by simple axial test as required by the BRB prequalification test. This difference should be considered in the connection design and system performance assessment.

Modeling and performance of contact-free discharge systems for space inertial sensors

This article presents a detailed overview and assessment of contact-free ultraviolet light discharge systems (UVDSs) needed to control the variable electric charge level of free-flying test masses, which are part of high-precision inertial sensors in space. A comprehensive numerical analysis approach on the basis of experimental data is detailed. This includes ultraviolet light ray tracing, the computation of time variant electric fields inside the complex inertial sensor geometry, and the simulation of individual photoelectron trajectories. Subsequent data analysis allows determination of key parameters to set up an analytical discharge model. Such a model is an essential system engineering tool needed for requirement breakdown and subsystem specification, performance budgeting, onboard charge control software development, and instrument modeling within spacecraft end-to-end performance simulators. Different types of UVDS design concepts are presented and assessed regarding their robustness and performance. Critical hardware aspects like electron emission from air-contaminated surfaces, interfaces with other subsystems, and spacecraft operations are considered. The focus is on the modeling and performance evaluation of the existing UVDS onboard the LISA Pathfinder, a European Space Agency technology demonstrator spacecraft, which is in implementation phase. The results have motivated the design of a more robust discharge system concept for cubical test mass inertial sensors for future space missions. The analysis tools developed have been used for design optimization and performance assessment of the proposed design. A significant improvement of relevant robustness and performance figures has been achieved.

Simple Parametric Model for Quick Assessment of IGCC Performance

Abstract Even though almost all components of an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant are proven and mature technologies, the sheer number of them, the wide variety of competing technologies (e.g., gasifiers, gas clean-up systems, heat recovery options), and system integration options (e.g., cryogenic air separation unit and the gas turbine), including the recent addition of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) with its own technology and integration options, render fundamental IGCC performance analysis a monumental task. Almost all published studies utilize highly complex chemical process and power plant heat balance software, including commercially available packages and in-house proprietary codes. This makes an objective assessment of comparable IGCC plant designs, performance (and cost), and other perceived advantage claims (IGCC versus other technologies, too) very difficult, if not impossible. This paper develops a coherent simplified parametric model based on fully physics-based grounds to be used for quick design performance assessment of a large variety of IGCC power plants with and without CCS. Technology parameters are established from complex model runs and supplemented by extensive literature search. The model is tested using published data to establish its confidence interval and is satisfactory to carry conceptual design analysis at a high level to identify promising alternatives and development areas and assess the realism in competing claims.

Design, Construction and Hydraulic Performance Assessment of an Infiltration Gallery

The Alton Mill is located in Caledon, Canada, on a tributary of the Credit River that discharges into Lake Ontario. The Alton Mill initiative is aimed at conve…

Validation of Sliding Mode Observer FDI Schemes on the ADDSAFE Functional Engineering Simulator

This paper presents evaluation results from using second order sliding mode observer FDI schemes on the ADDSAFE Functional Engineering Simulator. This has provided fault detection and isolation design verification and performance assessment in preparation for the industrial evaluation in DEIMOS. This paper presents design verifications for three ADDSAFE benchmark problems: one sensor fault scenario and two actuator fault scenarios. The performance of each of the FDD schemes is assessed using the FES's pseudo-Monte-Carlo setup, where a predetermined grid or sequence is used to cover a wide range of flight conditions and perturbations in the aircraft parameters. Detection logic and statistical assessment for the three FDD schemes are presented.

Service Life Prediction Based on Carbonation Reliability Theory for Reinforced Concrete under Mechanical Load

A carbonation model of reinforced concrete structures subjected to mechanical load based on experimental work is proposed in the paper. Correspondingly, a series of reliability analysis and service life prediction is carried out and reasonable results are acquired. Besides the effect of concrete cover, it indicates that mechanical load impacts the reliability and service life of the reinforced concrete structures significantly through example calculation. In the case of concrete cover of 40mm, the service life is shortened nearly half under a tensile load of 60% while the service life is lengthened 30% under a compressive load of 30%. In service life design or long term performance assessment, more work should be done with the consideration of the mechanical load effect.