Digital Processing Elements Research Articles

Component analysis for energy-efficient multimedia networks utilizing 5G radio access technologies

The object of the research is the energy-efficient multimedia networks based on 5G wireless access technologies. The research is aimed at developing energy-efficient multimedia networks based on 5G wireless access technologies, considering the increasing importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) in modern society. With the proliferation of wireless access networks and the advancement of fifth-generation mobile networks (5G), there is a need to assess and reduce the environmental impact of ICT. The article specifically focuses on the challenges related to energy consumption and CO2 emissions in radio access networks, highlighting the responsibility to balance technological advancements with environmental concerns. The paper examines various components and technologies necessary for enhancing energy efficiency in multimedia networks. It discusses the concept of multimedia, including digital storage, data processing, and interactive elements. Statistical data is provided to underscore the significant energy consumption and carbon footprint of the ICT industry, with an emphasis on radio access networks. Heterogeneous networks, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) technologies, and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technologies are identified as key components for achieving energy efficiency. The importance of reducing the distance between transmitters and receivers in heterogeneous networks is emphasized, as well as the use of energy-saving strategies such as putting small base stations into sleep mode during low network loads. Special attention is given to the role of green data centers in reducing CO2 emissions and optimizing the use of green energy in high-performance networks. Proposed methods include leveraging renewable energy sources, improving hardware energy efficiency, and implementing energy-efficient routing. The findings offer valuable insights for the development and implementation of energy-efficient multimedia networks, particularly in the context of 5G networks. The interdisciplinary approach advocated in the conclusion emphasizes the collective efforts needed to address environmental challenges in the field of information and communication technologies. The combination of these technologies ensures efficient resource utilization and reduced environmental impact compared to similar known approaches.

Spatial Distribution and Diffusion Characterisation of Water in Coal Samples: An Experimental Study

Comprehending the water absorption process inherent to coal, including the associated spatial distribution patterns of water, proves indispensable in the design and evaluation of coal pillar dams in underground water reservoirs. To better understand this process, a series of NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) tests were carried out on cylindrically shaped coal samples immersed in water for varying durations, with the upper and lower surfaces of the samples sealed. A method involving image digital processing and finite element simulation was used to quantitatively characterise the water absorption process, as well as the spatial distribution of water in the samples. The results showed that NMR imaging colour brightness differences were positively correlated with water content and that the wetted ring gradually increased in width as the water immersion time increased. The expectation and sum of squared deviations of the pixel greyscale values of the NMR images, which were used to characterise the water saturation and spatial distribution of the coal samples, represented positive and negative exponential functions of the water immersion time, respectively. This indicated that the water saturation gradually increased and became more uniformly distributed. Furthermore, based on the set threshold value of the target variable rate of change, the limiting expectation of the pixel greyscale values was obtained, and the limiting water absorption time of the coal sample was predicted. The water diffusion equation was then used to characterise the water absorption process of the coal samples, and a water diffusion model was developed to accurately obtain the wet ring boundary data. A reasonable value of the diffusion coefficient was determined by comparing and correcting the results of the numerical simulation and physical experiments with full consideration of the non-homogeneity of the numerical model. This water diffusion model can better characterise the water transport phenomena in the macroscopic barrier zone of coal pillar dams. Finally, the application prospects in terms of practical engineering were investigated.

Novel Reliability Evaluation of Existing Structures Using Digital Image Processing and Random Finite Element Simulation

Reinforced concrete (RC) structures are susceptible to deterioration as a result of concrete cracking and steel corrosion. Evaluations of current RC structures are undertaken to ascertain adherence to building codes, the necessity for enhancements, or to rectify structural inadequacies. Reliability techniques are utilized to quantitatively assess the structural integrity of existing RC structures, taking into account the inherent uncertainties related to the applied loads and the resistance of the structure. The main difficulty in evaluating the safety of current RC structures, namely in determining the reliability index, is to formulate accurate resistance models. This problem is particularly pronounced when observable indications of structural deterioration, such as cracking and steel corrosion, are evident. The primary aim of this research is to implement a new computational framework for evaluating the structural integrity of RC elements. This framework utilizes digital image processing (DIP) techniques in conjunction with random finite element (RFE) simulation. In this approach, actual images of the structure under investigation are employed to construct finite element (FE) models, while random fields are utilized to represent the spatial variability in material properties. The recommended framework is proven to enhance the accuracy of the reliability estimate by mitigating the uncertainty associated with the concrete crack pattern and minimizing the uncertainty related to the corrosion process in steel.

Retracted: Predicting the Elastic Modulus of Nanoparticle-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites Based on Digital Image Processing and Finite Elements

Retracted: Predicting the Elastic Modulus of Nanoparticle-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites Based on Digital Image Processing and Finite Elements

Correlations between mineral composition and mechanical properties of granite using digital image processing and discrete element method

This study investigated the correlations between mechanical properties and mineralogy of granite using the digital image processing (DIP) and discrete element method (DEM). The results showed that the X-ray diffraction (XRD)-based DIP method effectively analyzed the mineral composition contents and spatial distributions of granite. During the particle flow code (PFC2D) model calibration phase, the numerical simulation exhibited that the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) value, elastic modulus (E), and failure pattern of the granite specimen in the UCS test were comparable to the experiment. By establishing 351 sets of numerical models and exploring the impacts of mineral composition on the mechanical properties of granite, it indicated that there was no negative correlation between quartz and feldspar for UCS, tensile strength (σt), and E. In contrast, mica had a significant negative correlation for UCS, σt, and E. The presence of quartz increased the brittleness of granite, whereas the presence of mica and feldspar increased its ductility in UCS and direct tensile strength (DTS) tests. Varying contents of major mineral compositions in granite showed minor influence on the number of cracks in both UCS and DTS tests.

Research on the particle characteristics of manufactured sands affecting the flow ability of fresh mortar

This paper combined digital image processing (DIP) and discrete element method (DEM) to investigate the relationship between the particle characteristics of manufactured sand and the flow ability of mortar, and clarified the key characteristics parameters of particle shape influencing the flow ability of mortar. A method for batch calculation of shape characteristic parameters (elongation ne, angularity index na and fullness ratio nf) of aggregates based on DIP was proposed. The fluidity tests and corresponding simulations of mortar at different water-cement ratios were carried out respectively, and the results showed that the errors of simulated fluidity (fm) were around 7%. The simulation results demonstrated that the fm decreased with increasing content of large-size aggregates in the mortar. The augment of both ne and na reduced the flowability of mortar. The magnitude of rolling/sliding friction coefficients of aggregates are the important parameters that determine the flowability of mortar.

Design and Development of an FPGA Board for Software-Defined Radio Research

This paper describes the design and development of a cost-affordable yet powerful software-defined radio system. The main application environment of the board is in academia where it is used to deliver a multidisciplinary approach in a number of fundamental engineering topics in communications. A moderately fast ADC together with an audio DAC are used for the analog components while an off-the-shelf FPGA is used as the digital processing element. To demonstrate the boards capabilities, hardware blocks to demodulate amplitude modulation and digital modulation were developed.

Predicting the Elastic Modulus of Nanoparticle-Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites Based on Digital Image Processing and Finite Elements

“Composite” means composition of two or more separate components. Composites are materials composed of two or more components that are chemically separated from each other on a macroscopic scale, and there are interfaces between these components. Conceptually, fiber-reinforced composites have existed since about 800 B.C. The aim of this paper is to predict the elastic modulus of nanoparticle-reinforced polymer matrix composites based on digital image processing and finite elements and to investigate the presence of interfaces in three-phase particle-reinforced composites. In this paper, the interfacial layer is designed as a spring model with the help of the effective modulus law, a statistical debonding criterion is proposed to represent the proceeding changes, and metallurgical methods are used to optimize the particles and prepare different composites with uniform dispersion. The experimental results of this paper show that the highest increase in tensile strength of the composites is about 8% and the highest increase in elastic modulus is 40% after the addition of nanoparticle materials, and the highest increase in tensile strength is 18% and the highest increase in elastic modulus is 50% after the addition of CNFs.

Analyzing the mixing performance of a rotary spader using digital image processing and discrete element modelling (DEM)

In order to incorporate a range of surface applied materials into the soil profile to ameliorate crop production constraints, rotary spaders have recently been adopted in Australia. However, no fundamental studies have been carried out to quantify the mixing ability of rotary spaders. The discrete element method (DEM) has the potential to model soil to rotary spader interaction in terms of soil movement. In this study a full scale rotary spader was tested in the field and then simulated using DEM. The DEM model predicted top soil burial to a similar depth in the soil profile as was measured in the field. A method to compare and quantify soil movement was also developed using digital image processing. The forward soil movement which was not examined in the field was also simulated using DEM and it was found that higher forward speed increases the bite lengths, and hence results a heterogeneous top soil mixing. It was also found that in order to carry out a proper analysis, both cross section and forward soil movement must be considered while quantifying the mixing ability of the rotary spader. The results of this study proves that (1) DEM can be used to model soil to rotary spader interaction to analyse different operation conditions without time consuming and costly field tests which can only be performed certain times of the year and (2) digital image processing can be used as a method to quantify and validate simulations of field experiments.

A coupling method incorporating digital image processing and discrete element method for modeling of geomaterials

PurposeThis paper aims to present a digital image processing (DIP)-based discrete element method (DEM) for the analysis of heterogeneous geomaterials. Taking a soil and rock mixture as an example, the direct shear test is used to illustrate the application of this method. The numerical result is validated by the laboratory experiment and implies its feasibility in the analysis of heterogeneous geomaterials.Design/methodology/approachThis method has two major steps. Based on a modification of the connected-component labeling algorithm, a novel vectorization method, which can transform the digital photos to vectorized geometry automatically, is proposed first. Then, a simple yet effective method for the generation of heterogeneous DEM models is presented using the simulation of simplicity technique.FindingsDIP-DEM method is a feasible approach for the analysis of mechanical behavior of heterogeneous material. For soil and rock mixtures (SRM), the horizantal deformation at peak shear point becomes larger with the normal stress. Compared with pure soil, the rock aggregates mainly improve the friction angle of SRM.Originality/valueAs a universal method taking advantage of both DIP and DEM, this method has broad application prospects in related fields.

Low Power Adder based ANN

This paper presents an overview of datapath realizations of the Hardware neural network models which perform massive parallel operations for best results and real time applications. Digital implemented neural models processing element – adder with low power consumption is proposed for real-time multimedia applications. Proposed adder is illustrated in the 23-1 tree layer artificial neural network (ANN). Designs were modeled with Verilog HDL and implemented in FPGA domain by targeting the Virtex 7 device.

Three-dimensional simulation of pore scale fluid flow in granular ore media with realistic geometry

The images of granular ore media were captured by X-ray CT scanner. Combined with digital image processing and finite element techniques, the three-dimensional geometrical model, which represents the realistic pore structure of the media, was constructed. With this model, three dimensional pore scale fluid flow among particles was simulated. Then the distributions of fluid flow velocity and pressure were analyzed and the hydraulic conductivity was calculated. The simulation results indicate the fluid flow behaviors are mainly dominated by the volume and topological structure of pore space. There exist obvious preferential flow and leaching blind zones simultaneously in the medium. The highest velocities generally occur in those narrow pores with high pressure drops. The hydraulic conductivity obtained by simulation is the same order of magnitude as the laboratory test result, which denotes the validity of the model. The pore-scale and macro-scale are combined and the established geometrical model can be used for the simulations of other phenomena during heap leaching process.

Simulation of pore scale fluid flow of granular ore media in heap leaching based on realistic model

Two-dimensional images of the granular ore media with different grain sizes were obtained from the X-ray computed tomography. Combined with the digital image processing and finite element techniques, the original grayscale images were transformed into the finite element models directly. By using these models, the simulations of pore scale fluid flow among particles were conducted with the COMSOL Multiphysics, and the distribution characteristics of fluid flow velocity and pressure were analyzed. The simulation results show that there exist obvious preferential flow and leaching blind zone in each granular medium. The flow velocity at pore throat is larger than that of pore body and the largest velocity reaches 0.22 m/s. The velocity decreases gradually from the center of pore throat and body to the surface of particles. The flow paths of granular media with larger grain size distribute equally, while the fluid flow velocities in most of areas of granular media with smaller grain size are lower, and some of them approach to zero, so the permeability is very low. There exist some pore clusters with different pressures, which is the basic reason for the uneven flow velocity distribution.

The Universal Circuit Simulator: A Mixed-Signal Approach to $n$-Port Network and Impedance Synthesis

A mixed-signal universal architecture able to emulate the behavior of an n-port analog circuit is presented. It exploits second-generation current conveyors as analog input/output blocks and a field programmable gate array circuit as digital processing element. A prototype is also discussed for the specific case of a two-port network synthesis and experimental results in agreement with expected ones are provided.

Real-time visual attention on a massively parallel SIMD architecture

Visual attention is the ability to rapidly detect the visually salient parts of a given scene on which higher level vision tasks, such as object recognition, can focus. Found in biological vision, this mechanism represents a fundamental tool for computer vision. This paper reports the first real-time implementation of the complete visual attention mechanism on a compact and low-power architecture. Specifically, the saliency-based model of visual attention was implemented on a highly parallel single instruction, multiple data architecture called ProtoEye. Conceived for general purpose low-level image processing, ProtoEye consists of a 2D array of mixed analog–digital processing elements. To reach real-time, the operations required for visual attention computation were optimally distributed on the analog and digital parts. The currently available prototype runs at a frequency of 14 images/ s and operates on 64×64 gray level images. Extensive testing and run-time analysis of the system stress the strengths of the architecture.

Implementation of phase-mode arithmetic elements for parallel signal processing

We report the preliminary designs and the experimental results of high-speed digital processing elements based on phase-mode logic circuits. The core cell of these elements is a bit-serial adder cell consisting of the ICF gate which is the basic gate of phase-mode logic. Our main target is the application of the logic circuits to Digital Signal Processing. The basic arithmetic operations of DSP are a multiplication and an addition. Basic concept of the phase-mode pipelined parallel multiplier has been proposed previously. We design a 2 /spl times/ 2 AND array block and a 2-bit ripple-carry adder for the primitive parallel pipelined multiplier and also a 2-bit subtractor with a pipelined structure. These processing elements have been fabricated using NEC standard 2.5 kA/cm/sup 2/ Nb/AlOx/Nb process. The low-speed test results of these elements show correct operations. Numerical simulations show that a carry save adder (a 2-bit ripple carry adder) can operate over 10 GHz. We also discuss the prospects of large-scale SFQ DSP based on Nb junction technology.

Direct visualisation of underwater phenomena in soil-fluid interaction and analysis of the effects of an ambient pressure drop on unsaturated media

A description is given of an apparatus in which a wide range of hydraulic conditions can be realised. A unique observation system using optical fibre based 'endoscopes' and an imaging system that includes a significant digital processing element enables the visualisation of grain and fluid motion as well as air bubble behaviour in granular deposits of specified composition and geometry under externally imposed hydraulic conditions. Examples are given and a particular application in which a soil is studied that is fluidized by an external pressure drop. A description of the fluidized behaviour is given and the outcomes are cast in terms of a mathematical/physical model for fluidized material. This model is then used to predict the extent of a fluidized region in a one-dimensional situation.

A robust eigenspace method for obtaining feature values in high-speed massively parallel vision systems

Image-processing systems, each consisting of massively parallel photodetectors and digital processing elements on a monolithic circuit, are currently being developed by several researchers. Some earlyvision-like processing algorithms are installed in the vision systems. However, they are not sufficient for applications because their output is in the form of pattern information, so that, in order to respond to input, some feature values are required to be extracted from the pattern. In the present paper, we propose a robust method for extracting feature values associated with images in a massively parallel vision system.

Methods and applications of a geomorphological GIS: a case study in the Ordos region of China

An information system designed for geomorphology has been established employing GIS tools, statistics, fuzzy mathematics, digital image processing and finite element analysis. In addition, we have reorganized and proposed a series of quantitative geomorphic analysis modules (quantitative analysis, information compound, division and assessment, dynamic simulation and prediction), and developed new technology in computer-aided geomorphic mapping. Then, by the methods mentioned above, we have made a quantitative analysis in a case study and worked out a map series which consists of about 100 maps on morphotectonics in the Ordos region in China. This work contributes to the development of geomorphology, the theory and applications of GIS, and research on regional morphotectonics, which shows that a GIS-based approach to geomorphic modelling has distinct advantages over traditional methods.

Primary Processor and Data Storage Equipment for the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory

Telescopes in space will soon permit astronomers to observe the heavens in more detail than ever before. The Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) is a space vehicle designed to place these telescopes in orbit beyond the earth's atmosphere and to telemeter the collected data back to earth. To aid the orbiting observatory in the fulfillment of its scientific mission, a low-power, long-life, high-density command and memory system has been designed and is currently undergoing qualification testing. The digital command storage and processing element will permit reprogramming of spacecraft orientation and astronomical experiments on each orbit, even when the satellite is not in contact with the ground, while the core memory element will permit storage of experiment data for subsequent transmission to the ground. In the following paper, the functional design of the satellite command and memory system is discussed in detail. In addition, the power conservation methods, reliability design techniques and environmental performance considerations which influenced the design of this equipment are reviewed.