Ratio Of Useful Work Research Articles

Evaluation System for Agricultural Machinery Operation Based on Smartphone Sensors

HighlightsAn evaluation system for agricultural machinery operation was developed.Quantitatively evaluating agricultural machinery operators can support the precision management for agricultural machinery service organizations.The evaluation system can detect and quantify subtle and transient operating behaviors based on smartphone sensors.The evaluation system can distinguish the relative pros and cons of the operating skills of agricultural machinery operators.Abstract. To support the precision management of agricultural machinery operators, scaled agricultural machinery service organizations require comprehensive evaluations for the operating behaviors of each operator, particularly subtle and transient operating behaviors (e.g., sudden acceleration and unstable operating velocities), which greatly influence the operation quality. In this paper, embedded smartphone sensors were utilized to collect high-frequency motion information for agricultural machinery operation, and then, an Agricultural Machinery Operation Evaluation System (AMOES) was designed to evaluate the operating behaviors of the corresponding operators. In AMOES, four evaluation items (the ratio of useful work, the effect on machinery health, the quality of working operation, and the efficiency of U-turn) were defined specifically for the evaluation of subtle and transient operating behaviors, and they were quantified using motion information. Moreover, a case of a scaled agricultural machinery cooperative in Beijing was performed, and AMOES was used to evaluate the operating behaviors of six operators (two autonomous-driving and four manual-driving operators). The case study indicated that the motion data collected by smartphone sensors could capture subtle and transient operating behaviors and that AMOES could effectively detect and quantify subtle operating behaviors. Keywords: Agricultural machinery, Operating behavior, Operation evaluation, Smartphone sensors.

Research on energy efficiency of operation of city gas networks

The task of choosing the criterion of energy efficiency of operation of city gas networks of high and medium pressure, under the condition of transition to the system of individual energy supply is set and solved. It is shown
 that in conditions of substantial increase of prices for natural gas and deepening of its deficit, the city gas network is often not able to provide consumers with energy in a given volume, so the approach to forecasting its operating modes should fundamentally change. First of all it concerns the field of permissible modes, which in such conditions considerably expands. Given the reloading of the gas distribution network as a result of changing the nature of gas consumption, a large role is given to the criteria for energy efficiency of gas transportation and to ensure maximum operational reliability while being within the scope of optimal maintenance.
 In order to assess the energy efficiency of gas transportation by gas pipelines of a distribution network, it is suggested to use the notion of the net efficiency coefficient, which is determined by the ratio of useful work performed when providing a given volume of gas transportation by pipelines to total energy consumption. It is shown that the efficiency of the distribution network or its individual elements differs fundamentally from the coefficient of its hydraulic efficiency, which is a characteristic of the technical state of the system. On the basis of analytical studies, the correlation between them is established.
 Calculated dependencies are proposed for determining the coefficient of hydraulic efficiency of a branched gas pipeline as an element of an urban gas distribution network. The influence of various factors on the value of the coefficient of hydraulic efficiency of the urban gas distribution network has been analyzed. The examples of calculating the efficiency of the network are given, conclusions on improving the efficiency of operation are made.

Implementing the data center energy productivity metric

As data centers proliferate in size and number, the endeavor to improve their energy efficiency and productivity is becoming increasingly important. We discuss the properties of a number of the proposed metrics of energy efficiency and productivity. In particular, we focus on the Data Center Energy Productivity (DCeP) metric, which is the ratio of useful work produced by the data center to the energy consumed performing that work. We describe our approach for using DCeP as the principal outcome of a designed experiment using a highly instrumented, high-performance computing data center. We found that DCeP was successful in clearly distinguishing different operational states in the data center, thereby validating its utility as a metric for identifying configurations of hardware and software that would improve (or even maximize) energy productivity. We also discuss some of the challenges and benefits associated with implementing the DCeP metric, and we examine the efficacy of the metric in making comparisons within a data center and among data centers.