The prediction of chemical oxygen demand (cod) or suspended solid (SS) removal using statistical methods and the artifical neural network in the sugar industrial wastewaters

Gülay Özkan, Banu aliplik akın and Göksel özkan

A static model and Artificial neural network for The prediction of COD or Suspended solid (SS) removal by chemical coagulation have been examined in a sugar industrial wastewaters and the performance of ANN model has been compared with the statistical model based on central composite experimental design. Three independent variables which effecting amount of COD or SS removal were selected. Namely are quantities of the chemicals, pH and mixing rates. Amount of COD or SS removal were chosen as the dependent variable (target data). A second order statistical model has been considered to show the dependence of the amount of COD and SS removal on the operating parameters. A back-propagation ANN has been used to develop a model relating to amount of COD removal. It is observed that a neural network architecture having one input layer with three neurons, one hidden layer with three neurons, one output layer with one neuron and an epoch size of 48 gives better prediction. The predictions are more accurate than those obtained from regression models.

Position control of a dc motor: an experimental comparative assessment between fuzzy and state feedback controller

A. A. Bature, Mustapha Muhammad and Auwalu M. Abdullahi

Mixed life cycle-cost benefit web based-decision tool for lighting load retrofitting and management

Yusak Tanoto, Emmy Hosea and Murtiyanto Santoso

This paper presents a prototype of web based interactive application that has been developed as a decision tool in lighting retrofitting and its loading management. The main purpose of the application is to support Lighting-Demand Side Management program. Life cycle cost method and cost-benefit analysis are both used as financial basis to obtain the best option among selected alternatives, which has the least life cycle cost and the highest net present value that reflect cost-benefit analysis result. An interactive daily lighting loading curve that can be constructed based on several scenarios of lighting utilization is available. This web application, of which accessible online and offline, is developed using Hyper Text Markup Language 5, Cascading Style Sheets, and JavaScript programming.

Quest for housing users satisfaction in the contex of modern trend for global housing scheme

Isah Abdul Anakobe, Mohd Mahmud Jusan and Sani Nura

Housing sector in the context of modern economy is facing a period of considerable structural and cultural transformation based on the different demand of the occupants, with dynamic investment engulf with large-scale regulatory overhauls as driven by scenarios of capital market orientations. Realistically, most of the 20^th century housing design and construction have entirely exhibited architectural innovations compare to the era before the period of time. Generally, there is quest for global advancement in technologies of deferent sorts, and then same technological revolution is expected in building industry. Therefore, the majority of architectural design behind modern buildings and homes are tailored towards being conform to family, cultural and community living norms purposely to enhance users’ satisfaction. In consequence, this paper presents the imperatives of housing users’ satisfaction and discus some parameters with potential influence on housing users’ satisfaction in the context of modern housing structures.

Enhanced network security system using firewalls

Abstract:

The Internet and computer networks are exposed to an increasing number of security threats. With new types of attacks appearing continually, developing flexible and adaptive security oriented approaches is a severe challenge. This paper discusses the security of computing systems and shows how to protect computer-related assets and resources. The paper highlights different security threats and concerns across computer networks and shows how firewalls detect these threats. At the end, different firewalls like Packet Filtering, Application Gateways and Personal Firewall are summarized and compared according to different network scenarios. The paper also proposes a new framework for the vulnerability, threat management and safeguard of network environments.

Laboratory and hec-ras simulations of a single-step weir

Jihan Mahmood Qasim

Abstract:

The River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) software was used to simulate the free flow over the broad-crested single-step weir. The software was used to compute the water surface profile, determine the location of the hydraulic jump, and establish the head-discharge relationship for the weir. The simulation results were verified by a series of laboratory measurements using a horizontal flume 5 m long, 0.45 m deep and 0.30 m wide. The tested weir has the following dimensions: total length was 48 cm; length of the downstream step of the weir was 24 cm; total height was 24 cm; height of the downstream step of the weir was 12 cm. Different inflow rates were applied to the weir for tail water depths of 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 cm under free flow conditions. It was found that HEC-RAS could capture the overall features of the flow profile over the weir with reasonable accuracy. HEC-RAS could also determine the location of the hydraulic jump. It also produced a head-discharge relationship well close to the measured data. Besides, HEC-RAS was found easy to use for this specific flow problem and performed the computations in a short time.

Experimental investigations of a Di-diesel engine with and without thermal barrier coating driven by tetra methyl ammonium bromide-ethanol-diesel emulsion

Peniel Pauldoss, Micheal Kumar and Sundar Raj

An experimental study is conducted to evaluate the effects of using blends of ethanol with conventional diesel fuel with 10%, 20%, 25%and 30% (by vol) ethanol, on the combustion and emissions of a standard, fully in the method four stroke, air cooled, direct injection (DI) with and without thermal barrier coating. New additive Tetra Methyl Ammonium Bromide allows the splash blending of ethanol in diesel in a clear solution. The objective of this investigation is to first create a stable ethanol-diesel blended fuel with 2% additive and then to generate performance combustion and emissions data for evaluation of differential ethanol content on a single cylinder diesel engine with and without thermal barrier coating. Results show improved performance with blends compared to neat fuel for all conditions of the engine. The effect of ethanol blended diesel fuels on brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), brake thermal efficiency (BTE), smoke and NOx emission has been investigated. The results indicate that with the increase of ethanol in the blends, smoke reduces significantly, BTE improves slightly and combustion duration decreases and the reduction is still better for coated engine NOx emissions were found to be low for coated engine than the normal engine for the blends.

Abstract:

In this research, a multilayer perceptron neural network model with multiactivation function called (MLP-MAF) model has been developed for municipal water demand forecasting. The developed model uses different activation functions in the hidden layer neurons. Different combinations of the linear, logistic, tangent hyperbolic, exponential, sine and cosine activation functions were used in the hidden layer neurons. In order to assess the credibility of developed model results, the model was run over the available data which include the time series of daily and monthly municipal water consumption for fourteen years (1/1/1992-31/12/2004) of Tampa city, USA. Each time series was divided into two subsets: the estimate subset for fitting the model and the holdout subset for evaluating the forecasting ability of the model. Additionally, three statistical measurements, namely the coefficient of determination (R²), the root mean square error (RMSE) and the mean absolute percent error (MAPE) and two hypothesis tests, namely the t-test and F-test have been reported for examining the forecasting accuracy of the developed model. The results show that the combination of linear, sine and cosine functions is better than other combinations. Furthermore, the effectiveness assessment of this model shows that this approach is considerably more accurate and performs better than the traditional multilayer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks.

The status of wind resource assessment (WRA) techniques, wind energy potential and utilisation in Malaysia and other countries

S. M. Lawan, W. A. W. Z. Abidin, W. Y. Chai, A. Baharun and T. Masri

Abstract:

Current dependency on finite reserves fossil fuels and adverse environmental effects of conventional power system created new dimension interest in renewable energy sources toward building a sustainable and reliable energy in the near future. Wind energy is renewable and considered as one of the safest, cleanest and fastest growing forms of renewable energy in the world. Generation of electrical energy from wind can only be possible where there is considerable wind resource exists. For this reasons an accurate wind resource is a vital tool for harnessing energy content in a wind. This paper is critically reviews different techniques used in wind resource assessment, prospects and challenges of utilising wind energy in some developed and developing countries; however recent progress and development of wind energy potential and utilisations in the countries neighboring Malaysia are discussed. Several recent wind energy potential studies, areas that are suitable for exploitation of wind energy for electrical power generation as well as current situation of wind energy utilisation in Malaysia and possible recommendations were presented.

Development of water quality index for groundwater in Kolkata city, west Bengal, India

Sanjib Das., Pankaj Kumar Roy and Asis Mazumdar

Abstract:

Water Quality Index is a tool not only to identify the status of the present water quality scenario with respect to priority of parameter against weight value but also to assess the allocation wise suitability towards quality of water. In this paper, water quality index is developed to assess the groundwater scenario of Kolkata city, West Bengal State, India. Eighteen groundwater samples were collected from different locations of the selected site spreading over a period of two year from January 2011 to December 2012 and accordingly physico-chemical parameters have been analysed as per standard procedure. Six parameters have been considered to calculate Water Quality Index such as pH, Turbidity, Total Dissolved Solids, Total Hardness, Chloride and Iron. The tool WQI results show that out of eighteen samples only six water samples are suitable to fit for drinking.

An international review on one and two level innovative unconventional intersection and interchange

Marco Guerrieri and Ferdinando Corriere

The research on road intersection and interchange has recently allowed designing innovative one and two level unconventional layouts (UIIDs) which are of undoubted interest, especially in terms of traffic functionality and safety. The main objective of the paper is to discuss the geometric layouts, the principal advantages and the disadvantages, in terms of cost, safety, performances of the most interesting UIIDs, like two-level signalized intersection (TLSI), single-point urban interchanges (SPUI), center-turn overpass (CTO), echelon interchange (EI), Crossover Diamond interchanges (DCD), Upstream Signalized Crossover Intersection (USC), Median U-turn Intersection (MUT), “Target”, “Flower”, “C” and “Turbo” roundabouts. Although many studies clarify the benefits of unconventional intersection and interchange designs (UIIDs) their implementation around the world is slow, mainly due to poor public support. In any cases, for some layouts the few UIIDs installations so far implemented around the world have not allowed sufficient research in order to analyze the measure of effectiveness (MOE) validated by field observations. Other layouts presented in the paper are prototypes and, for this reason, have been tested only by means of microsimulation, in prefixed traffic scenarios.

Unlike other estuaries in the world, Hooghly estuary in India, (study zone-21^o44^’42^”/87^o56^’00^” to 22^o04^’50^”/88^o13^’25^”) deserve special attention especially in regard of its seasonally varied movement, orientation of its submerged sand bodies i.e., bars and shoals and tortuous shipping route, which are typical of it’s kind. However on account of insufficient data to study the estuarine tidal basin, quantitative analysis (vectorial approach) of the estuarine part vis-à-vis tidal part remains synoptic even till date. Nonetheless the estuarine part, below Diamond Harbour, was less problematic in the past compared to the upper tidal part from Diamond Harbour to Kolkata. But nowadays it is seen that the erratic behaviour of the shoals and bars of the upper part has gained stability to some extent, whereas the estuarine part comprising middle and upper estuary i.e., from Auckland to Diamond Harbour have developed some morphological changes in a rapid progressive manner. The aim of this paper is to set forth in a study on the basis of energy dissipation rate, along with other concomitant parameters like salinity, tide, flux etc associated with the changes of different shipping routes of the estuary (Sagor/sea face to up stream of Nayachara island) and the probable optimization of the length of that route which may be inflicted in future, if new routes are to be opened, as well as enlargement of submerged sand bodies.