• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
• /
• 제17권2호
• /
• pp.245-266
• /
• 2004

Incremental launching method is one of the highly competitive techniques for construction of concrete bridges. It avoids costly and time consuming form work and centralizes all construction activities in a small casting yard, thus saving in cost and time against conventional bridge construction. From the quality point of view, it eliminates the uncertainty of monolithic behaviour by allowing high repetitiveness and industrial environment. But, from analysis and design point of view, the most characteristic aspect of incrementally launched bridges is that, it has to absorb the stresses associated with the temporary supports that are gradually taken on by the deck during its launch. So, it is necessary to analyse the structure for each step of launching which is a tedious and time consuming process. Effect of support settlements or temperature variation makes the problem more complex. By using transfer matrix method, this problem can be handled efficiently with minimal computational effort. This paper gives insight into method of analysis, formulation for optimization of the structural system, effect of support settlement and temperature gradient, during construction, on the stress state of incrementally launched bridges.

• 국제초고층학회논문집
• /
• 제6권1호
• /
• pp.49-72
• /
• 2017

The Guangzhou International Finance Centre (IFC) is a landmark building that symbolizes the emerging international strength of Guangzhou, China's third largest city. It is also one of the dual iconic towers along the main axis of Guangzhou Zhujiang New Town. Arup adopted a total engineering approach in embracing sustainability and aiming at high efficiency solutions based on performance-based design principles covering structures, building services, fire engineering, vertical transportation, and façade performance to constitute an efficient and cost-effective overall building design. Through dynamic integration of architectural and engineering principles, Guangzhou IFC represents a pioneering supertall building in China. It adopts a diagrid exoskeleton structural form that is clearly expressed through the building's façade and gives the building its distinctive character. The aerodynamic shape of the building not only presents the aesthetic quality of elegant simplicity, but also reduces the effects of wind, thereby reducing the size and weight of the structure. State-of-the-art advanced engineering methods, such as optimization techniques and nonlinear finite element modelling, were applied in parallel with large-scale experimental programs to achieve an efficient and high-performance design taking into account the constructability and cost-effectiveness for a project of this scale.

• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
• /
• 제4권1호
• /
• pp.94-101
• /
• 2005

This paper presents the first known application of a meta-heuristic algorithm, variable neighbourhood descent (VND), to the redundancy allocation problem (RAP). The RAP, a well-known NP-hard problem, has been the subject of much prior work, generally in a restricted form where each subsystem must consist of identical components. The newer meta-heuristic methods overcome this limitation and offer a practical way to solve large instances of the relaxed RAP where different components can be used in parallel. The variable neighbourhood descent method has not yet been used in reliability design, yet it is a method that fits perfectly in those combinatorial problems with potential neighbourhood structures, as in the case of the RAP. A variable neighbourhood descent algorithm for the RAP is developed and tested on a set of well-known benchmark problems from the literature. Results on 33 test problems ranging from less to severely constrained conditions show that the variable neighbourhood descent method provides comparable solution quality at a very moderate computational cost in comparison with the best-known heuristics. Results also indicate that the VND method performs with little variability over random number seeds.

• 국제학술발표논문집
• /
• The 4th International Conference on Construction Engineering and Project Management Organized by the University of New South Wales
• /
• pp.453-458
• /
• 2011

The construction industry's importance to nation building, economic empowerment, and contributions to global commerce cannot be over emphasised. However, poor productivity, accidents, rework, time and cost overruns, and client dissatisfaction have characterised the industry performance in a multi-dimensional way. The central issue in this particular research is the seemingly inadequate achievement of optimum performance in the construction process, either with respect to value for money for the client and the entire construction supply chain or value in terms of the utility derived from built assets in spite of efforts by government and governmental bodies such as the Construction Industry Development Board (cidb) to increase industry performance. Therefore, based upon an extensive review of related literature, the paper reports on effects and causes of non-value adding activities in the construction industry in general, and South African construction in particular. The research findings indicate that activities that can be referred to as non-value activities are not only prevalent, but they can also be held responsible for performance related issues in terms of cost, time, quality and health and safety (H&S) in construction; and the exploration of pluralism in the research methodology may result in a robust model based upon the system dynamics approach. Therefore, the study suggests that there is major scope for value optimisation in the construction process especially in terms of availability and implementation of interventions, which have not only proven successful in other industries, but are also adaptable in the construction industry context.

• 한국펄프종이공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국펄프종이공학회 2006년도 PAN PACIFIC CONFERENCE vol.2
• /
• pp.215-225
• /
• 2006

Today's requirements for print-press runnability and print quality demand an optimised absorption and adhesion of printing ink on the paper surface. Modern coating concepts for high glossing offset grades use ultra fine pigments, whereas binder level has continuously been decreased to a minimum in recent years to achieve the highest possible sheet gloss development and for economical reasons. Both the ultra fine pigments and the reduced binder levels lead in many cases to a faster ink setting rate. On the other hand, matt paper grades use relatively coarse pigments leading to a slow ink setting compared to the high glossing papers. Both too fast and too slow ink setting properties implicate drawbacks in print quality and print press runnability. The mechanisms behind the interactions between ink and coating have been presented in many previous publications. The purpose of this study was to determine and quantify how the ink setting rate is influenced by pigment system (GCC and GCC/clay blends), latex level and latex properties in the topcoat of double coated sheet fed offset paper. The roles of binder level and type in the precoat were also assessed. The effect of calendering (temperature and pressure) was studied with one formulation. The resulting ink setting characteristics were tested using three different laboratory testing instruments. The correlation amongst the different laboratory testing methods is discussed. The results show that by varying the latex properties, the pigment system and/or latex addition level, the ink tack development of ink applied to a topcoat pigment system can be significantly influenced. It can be slowed down as often desired with ultra fine pigments or speeded up in the case of coarse pigments. There was no visible effect on the ink setting rate by using different binder systems in the precoat..

• International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
• /
• 제22권10호
• /
• pp.374-388
• /
• 2022

Cloud computing has been one of the most critical technology in the last few decades. It has been invented for several purposes as an example meeting the user requirements and is to satisfy the needs of the user in simple ways. Since cloud computing has been invented, it had followed the traditional approaches in elasticity, which is the key characteristic of cloud computing. Elasticity is that feature in cloud computing which is seeking to meet the needs of the user's with no interruption at run time. There are traditional approaches to do elasticity which have been conducted for several years and have been done with different modelling of mathematical. Even though mathematical modellings have done a forward step in meeting the user's needs, there is still a lack in the optimisation of elasticity. To optimise the elasticity in the cloud, it could be better to benefit of Machine Learning algorithms to predict upcoming workloads and assign them to the scheduling algorithm which would achieve an excellent provision of the cloud services and would improve the Quality of Service (QoS) and save power consumption. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the use of machine learning techniques in order to predict the workload of Physical Hosts (PH) on the cloud and their energy consumption. The environment of the cloud will be the school of computing cloud testbed (SoC) which will host the experiments. The experiments will take on real applications with different behaviours, by changing workloads over time. The results of the experiments demonstrate that our machine learning techniques used in scheduling algorithm is able to predict the workload of physical hosts (CPU utilisation) and that would contribute to reducing power consumption by scheduling the upcoming virtual machines to the lowest CPU utilisation in the environment of physical hosts. Additionally, there are a number of tools, which are used and explored in this paper, such as the WEKA tool to train the real data to explore Machine learning algorithms and the Zabbix tool to monitor the power consumption before and after scheduling the virtual machines to physical hosts. Moreover, the methodology of the paper is the agile approach that helps us in achieving our solution and managing our paper effectively.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
• /
• 제20권7호
• /
• pp.1135-1155
• /
• 2007

Selenium is considered to be one of the most controversial trace elements. On the one hand, it is toxic at high doses and there is a great body of information related to environmental issues of Se contamination. On the other hand, Se deficiency is a global problem related to an increased susceptibility to various diseases of animals and humans and decreased productive and reproductive performance of farm animals. Optimisation of Se nutrition of poultry and farm animals will result in increased efficiency of egg, meat and milk production and even more important, will improve quality. From the data presented in the review it is clear that the main lesson which we have to learn from nature is how to use organic selenium in animal and human diets. Selenium-enriched yeast (Sel-Plex) is the result of such a lesson and it is just a matter of time before animal nutrition moves completely from using ineffective sodium selenite to organic selenium. Other lessons from nature will follow. Recent advances in genomics and proteomics, in association with descriptions of new selenoproteins, will be a driving force in reconsidering old approaches related to Se nutrition. Probably 90% of all Se research has been conducted with sodium selenite and we now understand that the natural form of selenium is different. The main advances in Se status assessment and Se requirements were established based on the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), an enzyme which for many years was considered to be the main selenoprotein. Recently it was discovered that it is only one of at least 25 various selenoproteins. Se research and practical applications are developing quickly and they are very exciting and promising.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
• /
• 제8권3호
• /
• pp.279-292
• /
• 2017

This study was aimed at ultrafiltration (UF) as a pretreatment before reverse osmosis (RO) within the scheme of hybrid reverse osmosis-multistage flush (RO-MSF) desalination. Seawater at elevated temperature (after MSF heat-exchangers) was used as a feed in this process. The pretreatment system was represented as a set of functionally-linked technological segments such as: UF filtration, backwashing, chemical- enhanced backwashing, cleaning, waste disposal, etc. The process represents the sequences of operating cycles. The cycle, in turn, consists of the following unit operations: filtration, backwashing and chemical-enhanced backwashing (CEB). Quantitative assessment was based on the following indicators: normalized permeability, transmembrane pressure, specific energy and water consumption, specific waste generation. UF pre-treatment is accompanied by the following waste streams: $W1=1.19{\times}10$ power of $-2m^3$ (disposed NaOCl with 0.0044% wt.)/$m^3$ (filtrate); $W2=5.95{\times}10$ power of $-3m^3$ (disposed $H_2SO_4$ with 0.052% wt.)/$m^3$(filtrate); $W3=7.26{\times}10$ power of $-2m^3$ (disposed sea water)/$m^3$ (filtrate). Specific energy consumption is $1.11{\times}10$ power of $-1kWh/m^3$ (filtrate). The indicators evaluated over the cycles with conventional (non-chemical) backwashing were compared with the cycles accompanied by CEB. A positive impact of CEB on performance indicators was demonstrated namely: normalized UF resistance remains unchanged within the regime accompanied by CEB, whereas the lack of CEB results in 30% of its growth. Those quantitative indicators can be incorporated into the target function for solving different optimization problems. They can be used in the software for optimisation of operating regimes or in the synthesis of optimal flow- diagram. The cycle characteristics, process parameters and water quality data are attached.