Applications In Engineering Research Research Articles

IoT-Driven Experimental Framework for Advancing Electrical Impedance Tomography

This research paper focuses on the current emphasis on the latest industrial revolution, particularly the innovative integration of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT). The study explores the seamless integration of Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) with IoT, presenting a groundbreaking framework where impedance-based sensing plays a vital role in enhancing the dynamic and adaptable qualities of IoT ecosystems. This contribution facilitates intelligent decision-making and real-time monitoring. The research investigates the application of non-invasive Electrical Impedance Tomography for the rapid identification of minor changes in the electrical impedance of the body or a simulated object. Electrodes positioned at the ends of the phantom’s cylinder measure impedance changes through the application of a high-frequency, low-current signal. Image reconstruction employs both forward and inverse solutions, utilizing a triangular finite element method (FEM) mesh to determine conductivity distribution based on recommended phantom models. The integration of IoT enables data capture, enhancing accessibility through remote monitoring. The novel IoT system proves advantageous for various engineering research applications, providing easily monitored parameters in both commercial and clinical contexts.

Preparation and Characterization of Nano-waste glass powder

This experimental study investigates top-down grinding to turn used waste glass into nano-glass powder. The study explores a new instrument locally manufactured to synthesize nano-glass powder. The high-energy ball mill was manufactured based on design, material, assembly, testing, optimization, and quality control. Two milling environments were examined: wet with water as a surfactant liquid and dry with varying grinding times. In addition, this study compared the output of nano glass created from mechanical and chemical grinding processes. Blaine's method for surface area measurement results of nanoscale powder samples produced by the wet grinding method showed a steady increase commensurate with the grinding duration, as the 12-h grinding specimen was the highest in surface area. In contrast, dry grinding samples showed anomalies in some instances due to the agglomerate phenomenon, such as 8- and 10-h grinding samples. Moreover, FE-SEM showed that the 12-h grinding specimen has the smallest particle size. But the AFM illustrated accurately with the 2D measurement that these particles have cortical shapes, which may describe the secret beyond the high surface area. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and AFM tests showed that in the case of nanoscale glass particles, regardless of their morphology status, the shape of the particle itself is the deciding factor in giving the Nano powder the highest particle surface area. The specimen milled with 4 h of dry grinding is best suited for civil engineering research applications, while other applications that need a small amount of nano glass are recommended to use chemical methods despite their dangerous processes.

Design of Cloud-Based Real-Time Eye-Tracking Monitoring and Storage System

The rapid development of technology has led to the implementation of data-driven systems whose performance heavily relies on the amount and type of data. In the latest decades, in the field of bioengineering data management, among others, eye-tracking data have become one of the most interesting and essential components for many medical, psychological, and engineering research applications. However, despite the large usage of eye-tracking data in many studies and applications, a strong gap is still present in the literature regarding real-time data collection and management, which leads to strong constraints for the reliability and accuracy of on-time results. To address this gap, this study aims to introduce a system that enables the collection, processing, real-time streaming, and storage of eye-tracking data. The system was developed using the Java programming language, WebSocket protocol, and Representational State Transfer (REST), improving the efficiency in transferring and managing eye-tracking data. The results were computed in two test conditions, i.e., local and online scenarios, within a time window of 100 seconds. The experiments conducted for this study were carried out by comparing the time delay between two different scenarios, even if preliminary results showed a significantly improved performance of data management systems in managing real-time data transfer. Overall, this system can significantly benefit the research community by providing real-time data transfer and storing the data, enabling more extensive studies using eye-tracking data.

Research of expendable turbojet tubular combustion chamber

This paper presents research related to the tubular combustion chamber of an expendable turbojet. Although annular combustors are dominant at present, tubular combustors are still attractive because they are simpler to produce and require lower amounts of air flow for testing. The objective of this research was to assess the combustor’s primary zone configuration, and four configurations were tested to obtain experimental answers for use in future work. The configuration of the combustion chamber is a simple and classic design in line with its expendable purpose. The test methodology was to perform initial testing of the primary and secondary zones under atmospheric conditions using the four configurations, and then to subsequently complete the combustor using the best configuration. The complete combustor was then tested under both atmospheric conditions and working conditions. The results showed that the stability margin was wide enough to cover the combustor’s entire working area. The measured efficiency and pressure drop were in very good agreement with the corresponding designed values. The design and testing methodology proposed here could be used for similar scientific and engineering research applications.

Improved quasi-newton method via SR1 update for solving symmetric systems of nonlinear equations

The systems of nonlinear equations emerges from many areas of computing, scientific and engineering research applications. A variety of an iterative methods for solving such systems have been developed, this include the famous Newton method. Unfortunately, the Newton method suffers setback, which includes storing matrix at each iteration and computing Jacobian matrix, which may be difficult or even impossible to compute. To overcome the drawbacks that bedeviling Newton method, a modification to SR1 update was proposed in this study. With the aid of inexact line search procedure by Li and Fukushima, the modification was achieved by simply approximating the inverse Hessian matrix with an identity matrix without computing the Jacobian. Unlike the classical SR1 method, the modification neither require storing matrix at each iteration nor needed to compute the Jacobian matrix. In finding the solution to non-linear problems of the form 40 benchmark test problems were solved. A comparison was made with other two methods based on CPU time and number of iterations. In this study, the proposed method solved 37 problems effectively in terms of number of iterations. In terms of CPU time, the proposed method also outperformed the existing methods. The contribution from the methodology yielded a method that is suitable for solving symmetric systems of nonlinear equations. The derivative-free feature of the proposed method gave its advantage to solve relatively large-scale problems (10,000 variables) compared to the existing methods. From the preliminary numerical results, the proposed method turned out to be significantly faster, effective and suitable for solving large scale symmetric nonlinear equations.

User-oriented approach to developing modular video analysis systems for engineering research applications

This paper introduces an enhanced method for developing video analysis tools, in the context of engineering research applications. It aims to expand the usual boundaries for design of image analysis systems to include explicitly ease of use, maintenance and upgradeability by researchers who have little or no background in image analysis. This challenge moves the emphasis away from the design of optimally efficient (but esoteric) tools for the processing of video- and image-based data, and shifts it towards the development of tools that perform satisfactorily, while being easy to understand, maintain and develop. In the proposed design methodology, this balance is struck using popular commercial software that has a thoroughly tried and tested user interface and yet supports modular expansion through the use of 'plug-ins'. This approach eliminates the need to deal with the vast majority of image analysis infrastructure, while focusing attention on the development of the code at the core of the required image analysis functionality. The development of this core code is then simplified through the selection of a plug-in creator tool that opts for visual programming 'in lieu' of procedural programming as far as possible. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of this proposed new system design approach, a case study is investigated that involves developing a solution to a real image analysis problem faced by research colleagues at the University of Brighton. This concerns a study of the air-side fouling phenomenon of compact heat exchangers by large particles. The implemented system delivers close monitoring of a radiator's surface so as to track the clogging mechanism during the execution of a series of wind-tunnel experiments, which attempt to replicate the fouling phenomenon realistically. The data extracted are presented in the form of several graphs, which describe the progress of these experiments, and have made a definite contribution to the work of the primary researchers. Primary researchers report that they have found the system easy to use, and have adapted it to suit their needs better.

Modelling the factors affecting image quality for the RAL-Birmingham positron camera

The RAL-Birmingham positron camera is based on position sensitive multiwire technology developed originally for particle physics. It provides quantitative images of positron emitting tracers in a wide variety of process engineering research applications. A simulation of the camera has been developed to give insights into how the physical process underlying positron-based imaging affect the overall performance. It is shown, by comparison with real data, that the simulation reproduces the useful data logging rate and spatial resolution to within 5% of the real values over the whole field of view. It reproduces the detector efficiency as a function of energy to better than 10% in the range 50 keV to 511 keV and better than 15% in the range 511 keV to 1.3 MeV. A series of point source measurements has been simulated to study the effect on spatial resolution of photon scattering in the object and in the detectors themselves. This shows that detector scatter contributes 0.9 mm to the FWHM and 3.2 mm to the FWTM of the point spread function (PSF) of a central 18F source. Scatter in the object, or additional γ-rays accompanying positron decay, produces a broad background on the PSF that contains little spatial information.