PC-based Data Research Articles

Test bench development and implementation for experimental determination of mechanical losses in single cylinder internal combustion engines

As mechanical efficiency has great relevance in the alternative engine performance, the authors research in the development of testing facilities to characterize the sources of engine mechanical losses. The present paper deals with the realization of a hardware platform to conduct experimental studies in small combustion engines to experimentally characterize the mechanical losses of a single-cylinder internal combustion engine by means of the indicated diagram and motoring methods. The system was completed by means of an electrical motor-generator coupled to a single-cylinder air-cooled spark ignition engine, a self-developed electronic hardware control, and a PC-based instrumentation and data acquisition system. Specifications of load-motoring-starting system, including the description of the proprietary electronic load regulation system, are detailed. Also, the instrumentation system of in-cylinder and intake pressures; Temperatures of intake air, exhaust gases, lubricant oil, and engine block; effective torque and crankshaft position are described, including the signal acquisition system. The methodologies for indicated diagram and motoring method are described, mentioning the required measurements to apply each method and the engine load-temperature considerations when an engine is tested in fired or motored conditions. The platform was used to study the mechanical losses of the engine under motored and fired conditions under a wide range of rotational speeds and throttle openings, allowing to draw conclusions about the operating features of the developed test bench in itself, and also about the mechanical losses of the engine tested. Initially, samples of cylinder pressure, torque, intake pressure as function of crank angle and indicate diagram were obtained, showing similar waveforms present in related literature. Then, variations of the aforementioned temperatures against rotation speed and throttle opening and results for the mechanical losses determined by indicated diagram and motoring methods are shown. Finally, two empirical correlations are proposed to estimate the mechanical losses. In the future the hardware platform will be utilized to investigate in-cylinder engine parameters, detailed thermal and mechanical engine performance

Active Pattern Classification for Automatic Visual Exploration of Multi-Dimensional Data

The practice of applying a classifier (called a pattern classifier and abbreviated as PC below) in a visual analysis system to identify patterns from interactively generated visualizations is gradually emerging. Demonstrated cases in existing works focus on ideal scenarios where the analyst can determine all the pattern types in advance without adjusting the classifier settings during the exploration process. However, in most real-world scenarios, analysts know nothing about data patterns before exploring the dataset and inevitably find novel patterns during the exploration. This difference makes the traditional classifier training and application mode less suitable. Analysts have to artificially determine whether each generated visualization contains new data patterns to adjust the classifier setting, thus affecting the automation of the data exploration. This paper proposes a novel PC-based data exploration approach. The core of the approach is an active-learning indicator for automatically identifying visualizations involving new pattern classes. Analysts thus can apply PCs to explore data while dynamically adjusting the PCs using these visualizations. We further propose a PC-based visualization framework that takes full advantage of the PC in terms of efficiency by allowing analysts to explore an exploring space, rather than a single visualization at a time. The results of the quantitative experiment and the performance of participants in the user study demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of the method.

Low cost acoustic transducer calibration system

An acoustic calibration system was developed primarily for underwater acoustic transducers, although applicable for a variety of acoustic applications. Historically, such systems have been large, highly customized, and very expensive. With the advent of compact cost-effective digital PC-based oscilloscopes and data acquisitions systems (e.g., devices from TiePie, Cleverscope, and Digilent), a development that began as a senior capstone-design project has recently been demonstrated. Our system is based on the TiePie Digital Oscilloscope, a PC based signal generation and acquisition systems, a power amplifier, optional preamplifier and stepper motor with controller for radiation patterns. More specifically, the receive sensor signals are acquired with a TiePie Handyscope HS6 DIFF (1000MS/s, USB 3.0 oscilloscope, with four differential analogue channels) and the transmit signal (signal generation, transmit voltage and current acquisition) utilizes a TiePie HS5-540XM 5 (500 MHz, 1-channel generator, 2-channel acquisition) measuring system. The calibration and data display is controlled with MATLAB and controlled through a graphical user interface (GUI). Examples of Transmit Pressure Response per Volt (TR/V or TVR), Free Field Voltage Sensitivity (FFVS), and Beam Pattern measurements will be provided. [Work supported by BTech Acoustics LLC.]

An Inertial Sensing-Based Approach to Swimming Pose Recognition and Data Analysis

In this paper, inertial sensing is used to identify a swimming stance and analyze its swimming stance data. A wireless monitoring device based on a nine-axis microinertial sensor is designed for the characteristics of swimming motion, and measurement experiments are conducted for different intensities and stances of swimming motion. By comparing and analyzing the motion characteristics of various swimming stances, the basis for performing stroke identification is proposed, and the monitoring data characteristics of the experimental results match with it. The stance reconstruction technology is studied, PC-based OpenGL multithreaded data synchronization and stance following reconstruction are designed to reconstruct the joint association data of multiple nodes in a constrained set, and the reconstruction results are displayed through graphic image rendering. For the whole system, each key technology is organically integrated to design a wearable wireless sensing network-based pose resolution analysis and reconstruction recognition system. Inertial sensors inevitably suffer from drift after a long period of position trajectory tracking. The proposed fusion algorithm corrects the drift of position estimation using the measurement of the visual sensor, and the measurement of the inertial sensor complements the missing measurement of the visual sensor for the case of occlusion of the visual sensor and fast movement of the upper limb. An experimental platform for upper-limb position estimation based on the fusion of inertial and visual sensors is built to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, the full paper is summarized, and an outlook for further research is provided.

LABORATORY SCALE PLANT FACTORY ARTIFICIAL LIGHT: PRIMARY EVALUATION OF THE LIGHT ENVIRONMENT, RESOURCES CONSUMPTION AND YIELDS

Plant factory artificial light (PEAL) is an attractive technology for producing high-value plants and medical-grade herbs. The PFAL research and development in Thailand are in their early stages. This article aims to design and construct the lab-scale PFAL, which includes several key features such as the lighting quality, the controls of the environment, and the embedded technology monitoring system. The lab-scale PEAL must evaluate the preliminary results of the artificial light parameters, resources consumption, the plant production yield, and the correlation between LED artificial light and the plant yields. The results demonstrated that our lab-scale PFAL consists of 27 m3 cultivation volumes. White-LED T8 (4091K) artificial light emitted, on average, the PPFD of 187±23 µmol m-2 s-1 with an R:B ratio of 1.8. The lettuce production yields show a strong positive correlation with the PPFD. The lettuce production yield is 76.23 g plant-1 under the temperature of 24.05℃, RH of 79.3%, and 923 ppm of CO2 concentration with a light period of 16/8 h. The PC-based monitoring and data acquisition control worked well during the crop experiments. The environmental parameters indicated that the results did not differ from the other PFALs. Electrical energy consumption data were also reasonable at 45%, 37%, and 17% of LED artificial light, air condition units, and other types of equipment, respectively. The artificial light sources have to improve the light uniformity and increase intensity. The lab-scale PFAL is very helpful in developing students’ skills in education and disseminating the knowledge and technical design of our PFAL to academic services. For future studies, efforts will be put in developing this PFAL to achieve higher productivity by balancing the resources consumption with the cloud-based control and monitor system.

Analysis and evaluation of healthcare delivery to patients with coronary artery disease using PC-based medical data

Aim. Using PC-based medical information technologies, analyze and evaluate inpatient and outpatient care for patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) with the development and testing of machine learning algorithms. Material and methods . In 2017, 586 patients with myocardial infarction (MI) under the age of 70 years were identified according to the electronic database of the Uniform State Health Information System. Of these, 349 patients received reperfusion therapy, and 237 did not. In all 586 patients, lethal outcomes, hospital and ICU length of stay were determined. In 342 out of 586 patients after MI, using PC-based medical data, number of completed outpatient treatment cases, ambulance calls, and emergency hospitalizations for CAD were identified. According to the Uniform State Health Information System, the dynamics of heart failure (HF) and angina class was determined in patients at the end of the year. Results. In patients with reperfusion therapy, in comparison with MI patients without it, significantly shorter hospital (13,17±0,17 vs 15,35±0,46 days) and ICU (1,73±0,06 vs 2,56±0,29 days) length of stay, as well as significantly lower (2,9 times) mortality. In the post-infarction period, there were no differences between these groups in the number of completed cases of outpatient CAD treatment and ambulance calls due to CAD. The number of emergency hospitalizations was significantly (1,4 times) more in the group of patients who did not receive reperfusion therapy. In both groups of patients, there was a positive dynamic in angina class and HF stage. Conclusion. PC-based personalized medical services are informative material for assessing the results of inpatient and outpatient care for patients with CAD. It is rational to consider assessing deaths, hospital and ICU length of stay, ambulance calls, emergency hospitalizations, angina class and HF stage changes after MI as an algorithm for machine learning and computer analysis of the treatment results in patients with CAD.

A Centrifuge Calibrator Based on Personal Computer Equipped with Data Processor

Calibration is an activity to determine the conventional truth of the value of the appointment of a measuring instrument by comparing traceable standards to national and international standards for measurement and / or international units and certified reference materials. The purpose of this study is to develop a system of efficient and practical centrifuge calibrators by sending the calibration results directly via bluetooth to a PC. The main series of centrifuge calibrators are Arduino modules, laser sensors and Bluetooth.The high low signal is obtained from the reflection of the laser beam aimed at the reflector point on the centrifuge plate, processed in the Arduino module and displayed on the LCD, the calibration results can be directly seen in the Delphi program. The design of this module is also equipped with a Bluetooth transmitter to send data to a PC. This module can be used in medical equipment calibration laboratories. Based on the results of testing and data collection on the 8 Tube centrifuge with a Lutron Tachometer ratio, the error value was 0.0136%. After planning, experimenting, making modules, testing modules, and collecting data, it can be concluded that the tool "centrifuge calibrator equipped with PC-based data processors" can be used and according to planning because the fault tolerance does not exceed 10%.Keywords—Holter Monitor; Heart Monitoring; Arduino Microcontroller; SD Card Memory

Simulation and experimental performance analysis of a modified PV panel to a PVT collector

Abstract A retrofitted PVT collector assembled and installed together with a conventional PV panel, on northern hemisphere, facing south-west and tilted to 40°. In order to evaluate the system’s performance during the autumn to winter period, outdoor experiments were conducted and a PC-based automatic data acquisition unit has been used. The results show that the PVT collector managed to slightly increase its average electrical energy yield by 0.32% during the experimentation period and obtained additional thermal energy with daily average efficiency of 20.33%. Moreover, PVT’s moderate thermal insulation revealed a detrimental factor regarding its thermal energy generation. Furthermore, a steady state model was created based on Hotel-Wilier equation modified for PVT collectors by Florschuetz. Two typical days were chosen and simulated for the model’s evaluation. The simulation outcomes revealed good agreement between the model and the measurements, with average figures of 3.12% for useful heat and for electricity between −4.46% and 10.72%. Finally, the PVT’s model, managed to predict the system’s operation on an average day’s values with −8.25% and 7.49% for useful thermal energy and electrical energy respectively, while the corresponding monthly figures of standard deviation were 2.23% for useful heat energy and 5.71% for electricity.

1-335 グラフィカルプログラミング言語(LabVIEW)によるPCベース計測実習とその教育効果 : 太陽電池検査システムの作成((03)実験・実技-III,口頭発表)

1-335 グラフィカルプログラミング言語(LabVIEW)によるPCベース計測実習とその教育効果 : 太陽電池検査システムの作成((03)実験・実技-III,口頭発表)

Tunisian European Cooperation Project: PEM Fuel Cells Technology

This paper presents one of the research goals of Empowering Tunisian Renewable Energy Research Activities (ETRERA). ETRERA is a cooperation project between the Research and Technologies Centre of Energy (CRTEn) from Tunisia and European partners. European partners are CNR-ITAE and Innovabic from Italy and polytechnic Nantes from France. This paper focuses on the design and realization of a fuel cell test station. The test station is used to advance CRTEn's activities in new and emerging alternative energy technologies. The fuel cell test station was developed and built in order to evaluate and qualify proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). A circuit of gas was developed and a rack was designed and built taking in consideration several aspects such as pressure drop, condensation phenomena and security. Development of an interface in the LABVIEW environment was performed to enable mass flow controller and the solenoid valves control. It also allows PC-based data acquisition of fuel cell power, temperature, pressure and others. Preliminary tests have been conducted to confirm the proper functioning of the test bench.

Fast blood flow monitoring in deep tissues with real-time software correlators.

We introduce, validate and demonstrate a new software correlator for high-speed measurement of blood flow in deep tissues based on diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS). The software correlator scheme employs standard PC-based data acquisition boards to measure temporal intensity autocorrelation functions continuously at 50 - 100 Hz, the fastest blood flow measurements reported with DCS to date. The data streams, obtained in vivo for typical source-detector separations of 2.5 cm, easily resolve pulsatile heart-beat fluctuations in blood flow which were previously considered to be noise. We employ the device to separate tissue blood flow from tissue absorption/scattering dynamics and thereby show that the origin of the pulsatile DCS signal is primarily flow, and we monitor cerebral autoregulation dynamics in healthy volunteers more accurately than with traditional instrumentation as a result of increased data acquisition rates. Finally, we characterize measurement signal-to-noise ratio and identify count rate and averaging parameters needed for optimal performance.

Sistem Akuisisi Data Multiplatform Berbasis PC dengan Tampilan Hasil di Twitter

Computer or Personal Computer (PC) based data acquisition system had enabled the measurement of physical parameters, not only to display and store them in the computer but also to send them to a website. Twitter as one of web services for social media that provides the facility to display 140-character length of text status has been deemed sufficient for the purpose of displaying the latest data and is accessible through available Application Programming Interface (API). The purpose of this research is to design a PC-based data acquisition system which is capable to conduct measurement, storage and transmission of data to the web service via Twitter API. The proposed system was consisted of LM35 temperature sensor to measure room temperature, Arduino Nano microcontroller and a data acquisition application in PC to display and store data in a Comma-Separated Values (CSV) file. Based on test results for processes involving Analog to Digital Converter (ADC), the obtained error is 3.71% for voltage value and the average difference between measured values and displayed ones is 0.01 V. Average error for temperature measurement is 5.13% and the difference between measured values and the displayed ones is 1.34°C. Built application had produced an adequate display of interface and fulfilled all required functionalities. Average response time of Twitter API to Choreo is 0.18 s while average time to transmit data from application to Twitter is 2.15 s or 11.75 times longer. In later development, LM35 should be replaced with a more precise sensor. The occurrence of randomness in measurement results could be minimized by adding an active filter circuit between sensor and microcontroller.

Calibration of non-contact incremental linear encoders using a macro–micro dual-drive high-precision comparator

The accuracy of a linear encoder is determined by encoder-specific errors, which consist of both long-range and cyclic errors. Generally, it is difficult to measure the two errors of a non-contact incremental linear encoder with a large measuring range and small signal period in one measurement because of the contradiction between long travel range and high resolution. To resolve this issue, a prototype high-precision interferometric comparator with a macro–micro dual-drive system is presented. The measurement and motion resolution of the comparator are 1 nm and 3 nm, respectively. A measuring range of 320 mm is realized and the theoretical maximum range of the comparator is 2 m. The comparator mainly includes a high-accuracy aerostatic linear-motion stage, a constant displacement ratio piezoelectric-driven stage, two laser interferometers, a 6-DOF grating pair position adjustment devices and a PC-based data processor. The measurable linear movement is afforded, respectively, by the long-stroke stage and the piezoelectric-driven stage for the long-range error and cyclic error measurement. The movement can be measured by the encoder and then be calibrated by the corresponding laser interferometer. In the experiment, the accuracy of a non-contact incremental linear encoder with a 20 μm-long signal period and 320 mm measuring range proposed by our team was calibrated after proper mounting. The long-range error is measured to be 3.123 μm, and the cyclic error is within ±0.159 μm, which matches well with the theoretical estimation given by ±0.145 μm. The measurement uncertainties are estimated and the results confirm the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed scheme and instruments.

Electric arc furnace design and construction for metallurgical and semiconductor research

In this work, a small electric arc furnace (EAF) was designed and constructed for the growth of silicon carbide (SiC) and metallurgical-grade silicon (MG-Si) widely used in photovoltaic and electronic applications. A new design of DC electric arc furnace was developed in order to work with powder raw materials and to optimize the temperature’s homogeneity. The optimization of some parameters, such as the minimization of heat’s losses, and control of furnace temperature, is a necessary step for an objective and trustworthy data acquisition which lead to produce good-quality materials. This work consists of two major parts, sizing and design part in one hand and construction and optimization part in the other hand. The sizing and design part includes not only the mechanical design of different furnace’s components but also the thermal protection and the dimensioning of the reactor. It includes also the electrical design and the development of an interface in LABVIEW environment to enable mass flow controller and the solenoid valves control. It also allows the PC-based data acquisition (temperature, flow, etc.). Congestion, security, accessibility, and mobility are considered during this part. The construction and optimization part includes mechanical manufacture using locally available equipments and the assembly of the different pieces. It includes also the preliminary measurements and tests made with our furnace. The analyses by Raman spectroscopy confirm the production of silicon carbide and metallurgical silicon using this EAF.

Development of a Remote Automatic Weather Station with a PC-based Data Logger

This paper presents the development of a prototype weather station to measure the following weather data: air temperature, relative humidity, dew point, wind speed, and rainfall. The weather station, which has been designed for remote operation, performs automatic or unmanned measurements of weather data and transmits it wirelessly to a PC for logging and display by means of a graphical user interface. The remote station is powered using solar energy through a battery which also stores charge for a 24-hour operation of the system. Experimental results show that the measured data is quite consistent with those obtained by similar weather measurement devices.

Improvement of compressive testing instrument with wide range of speed for examining agricultural materials

Since the construction of a static and dynamic compressive testing instrument for examining biological materials, particularly fruits and tubercular roots, the need has arisen for the construction of a computer-controlled instrument that can bridge the gap between static and dynamic investigations in this field. The main utilisation possibilities of this instrument are demonstrated some measurement results with apple. The recently developed, easy-to-use instrument presented herein is suitable for serial measurements. In its present implementation, this instrument is capable of performing compressive testing with loading sticks of typical size with constant, linear slope and cosine force–time functions in single or cyclic mode. The force is generated by a PC-controlled servo system, and the deformation is measured by a laser sensor. The excitation force is 0–15N within 1% FS accuracy in 0–300Hz frequency range. Deformation measuring range is 10mm with 12μm resolution. The system contains a PC-based data logger.

PC-based data acquisition system for PLC-controlled linear switched reluctance motor

In this study, a linear switched reluctance motor (LSRM) with 250 W, 6/4 poles, 3 phases, and 24 V was controlled with a programmable logic controller (PLC). Some parameters of the LSRM were set, and for PC monitoring, software developed by the authors was used. A serial port was used for communication between the PC and the PLC. The software was developed with Visual C#.Net 2008 for monitoring and controlling. This user interference allows for controlling of the motor's travelling distance with a running strategy. The first and second destination can be defined and the system provides that the motor operates between these points continuously. The phase and velocity currents of the motor were shown and curved with the software. The existing position of the motor and the number of pulses were determined and displayed with a linear incremental encoder. The windings of the motor phases were energized depending on their position using a classical bridge converter. This PLC-controlled LSRM study leads industrial practices and the educational sector to highlight the importance of linear motion, which is used in many implementations. Furthermore, all types of LSRMs can be used in the developed system.

A novel approach for realization of primary vibration calibration standard by homodyne laser interferometer in frequency range of 0.1 Hz to 20 kHz

The paper discusses the primary vibration calibration standard of NPL, India capable of calibrating the reference accelerometers in frequency range from 0.1Hz to 20kHz as per ISO 16063-11. The excitation subsystem produces constant vibration at a specified amplitude and frequency, while the measurement system uses NI interface for measuring the quadrature output. The acceleration level and voltage level at the calibration frequency f is determined by applying a Discrete Fourier Transform to the voltage and displacement signals, and then examining the spectral component at frequency f. A PC-based data acquisition system acquires the accelerometer voltage signal and analog quadrature interferometer photodetector signal pair as well as a digital quadrature pair whereby the software processes the demodulated photodetector signals to reconstruct the armature displacement. The validation of the calibration results for standard reference accelerometers with manufacturer results and uncertainty in calibration in entire frequency range 0.1Hz to 20kHz is reported in the present work.

Design and performance of the South Pole Acoustic Test Setup

The South Pole Acoustic Test Setup (SPATS) was built to evaluate the acoustic characteristics of the South Pole ice in the 10–100kHz frequency range, for the purpose of assessing the feasibility of an acoustic neutrino detection array at the South Pole. The SPATS hardware consists of four vertical strings deployed in the upper 500m of the South Pole ice cap. The strings form a trapezoidal array with a maximum baseline of 543m. Each string has seven stages equipped with one transmitter and one sensor module (glaciophone). Sound is detected or generated by piezoelectric ceramic elements inside the modules. Analogue signals are sent to the surface on electric cables where they are digitized by a PC-based data acquisition system. The data from all strings are collected on a central computer in the IceCube Laboratory from where they are sent to a central data storage facility via a satellite link or stored locally on tape. A technical overview of SPATS and its performance is presented.

Controllable Hydraulic Loading Unit for Rowing Simulator

The hydraulic oar load unit for rowing simulator has been designed that simulates oar. The device is developed on the base of experimental investigations and computer modeling and ensures the load on the oar similar to the acting during on-water rowing. The load control is organized by the control system consisting of proportional flow control valve and programmable logic controller, changing the working liquid flow through the valve. Three encoders, supported by controller with PC-based supervisory control and data acquisition system are used for positioning of the oar. Suggested system allows significantly expand simulator using possibilities to master new training methods and to identify training potentiality of athletes. Ill. 6, bibl. 6, tabl. 1 (in English; abstracts in English and Lithuanian). http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eee.116.10.881