Laboratory procedures to determine the breakaway behavior of luminaire supports in minisized vehicle collisions. Volume 2. Technical report. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Safety Design Division, McLean, Va.

Laboratory procedures to determine the breakaway behavior of luminaire supports in minisized vehicle collisions. Volume 3. FOIL operation and safety plan.

Federal Highway Administration, Safety Design Division, McLean, Va.

Level-restricted NOR network transduction procedures /

"UILU-ENG 77 1703."

Procedures for estimating maximum possible precipitation.

Mode of access: Internet.

Efficiency, costs and trade-offs in marine reserve system design

With marine biodiversity conservation the primary goal for reserve planning initiatives, a site's conservation potential is typically evaluated on the basis of the biological and physical features it contains. By comparison, socio-economic information is seldom a formal consideration of the reserve system design problem and generally limited to an assessment of threats, vulnerability or compatibility with surrounding uses. This is perhaps surprising given broad recognition that the success of reserve establishment is highly dependent on widespread stakeholder and community support. Using information on the spatial distribution and intensity of commercial rock lobster catch in South Australia, we demonstrate the capacity of mathematical reserve selection procedures to integrate socio-economic and biophysical information for marine reserve system design. Analyses of trade-offs highlight the opportunities to design representative, efficient and practical marine reserve systems that minimise potential loss to commercial users. We found that the objective of minimising the areal extent of the reserve system was barely compromised by incorporating economic design constraints. With a small increase in area (< 3%) and boundary length (< 10%), the economic impact of marine reserves on the commercial rock lobster fishery was reduced by more than a third. We considered also how a reserve planner might prioritise conservation areas using information on a planning units selection frequency. We found that selection frequencies alone were not a reliable guide for the selection of marine reserve systems, but could be used with approaches such as summed irreplaceability to direct conservation effort for efficient marine reserve design.

The design of a high pressure solvent extraction process using liquid ammonia as solvent

The literature on the potential use of liquid ammonia as a solvent for the extraction of aromatic hydrocarbons from mixtures with paraffins, and the application of reflux, has been reviewed. Reference is made to extractors suited to this application. A pilot scale extraction plant was designed comprising a Scm. diameter by 12Scm. high, 50 stage Rotating Disc Contactor with 2 external settlers. Provision was made for operation with, or without, reflux at a pressure of 10 bar and ambient temperature. The solvent recovery unit consisted of an evaporator, compressor and condenser in a refrigeration cycle. Two systems were selected for study, Cumene-n-Heptane-Ammonia and Toluene-Methylcyclohexane-Ammonia. Equlibrium data for the first system was determined experimentally in a specially-designed, equilibrium bomb. A technique was developed to withdraw samples under pressure for analysis by chromatography and titration. The extraction plant was commissioned with a kerosine-water system; detailed operating procedures were developed based on a Hazard and Operability Study. Experimental runs were carried out with both ternary ammonia systems. With the system Toluene-Methylcyclohexane-Ammonia the extraction plant and the solvent recovery facility, operated satisfactorily, and safely,in accordance with the operating procedures. Experimental data gave reasonable agreement with theory. Recommendations are made for further work with plant.

The design and engineering of a reactor test facility for thermal processing of biomass

This thesis describes the design and engineering of a pressurised biomass gasification test facility. A detailed examination of the major elements within the plant has been undertaken in relation to specification of equipment, evaluation of options and final construction. The retrospective project assessment was developed from consideration of relevant literature and theoretical principles. The literature review includes a discussion on legislation and applicable design codes. From this analysis, each of the necessary equipment units was reviewed and important design decisions and procedures highlighted and explored. Particular emphasis was placed on examination of the stringent demands of the ASME VIII design codes. The inter-relationship of functional units was investigated and areas of deficiency, such as biomass feeders and gas cleaning, have been commented upon. Finally, plant costing was summarized in relation to the plant design and proposed experimental programme. The main conclusion drawn from the study is that pressurised gasification of biomass is far more difficult and expensive to support than atmospheric gasification. A number of recommendations have been made regarding future work in this area.

The molecular design of a new solvent for the absorption of carbon dioxide

Gas absorption, the removal of one or more constitutents from a gas mixture, is widely used in chemical processes. In many gas absorption processes, the gas mixture is already at high pressure and in recent years organic solvents have been developed for the process of physical absorption at high pressure followed by low pressure regeneration of the solvent and recovery of the absorbed gases. Until now the discovery of new solvents has usually been by expensive and time consuming trial and error laboratory tests. This work describes a new approach, whereby a solvent is selected from considerations of its molecular structure by applying recently published methods of predicting gas solubility from the molecular groups which make up the solvent molecule. The removal of the acid gases of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from methane or hydrogen was used as a commercially important example. After a preliminary assessment to identify promising moecular groups, more than eighty new solvent molecules were designed and evaluated by predicting gas solubility. The other important physical properties were also predicted by appropriate theoretical procedures, and a commercially promising new solvent was chosen to have a high solubility for acid gases, a low solubility for methane and hydrogen, a low vapour pressure, and a low viscosity. The solvent chosen, of molecular structure Ch3-COCH2-CH2-CO-CH3, was tested in the laboratory and shown to have physical properties, except for vapour pressures, close to those predicted. That is gas solubilities were within 10% but lower than predicted. Viscosity within 10% but higher than predicted and a vapour pressure significantly lower than predicted. A computer program was written to predict gas solubility in the new solvent at the high pressures (25 bar) used in practice. This is based on the group contribution method of Skold Jorgensen (1984). Before using this with the new solvent, Acetonyl acetone, the method was show to be sufficiently accurate by comparing predicted values of gas solubility with experimental solubilities from the literature for 14 systems up to 50 bar. A test of the commercial potential of the new solvent was made by means of two design studies which compared the size of plant and approximate relative costs of absorbing acid gases by means of the new solvent with other commonly used solvents. These were refrigerated methanol(Rectisol process) and Dimethyl Ether or Polyethylene Glycol(Selexol process). Both studies showed in terms of capital and operating cost some significant advantage for plant designed for the new solvent process.

Accessing networked services : a user interface design problem

This research investigates the general user interface problems in using networked services. Some of the problems are: users have to recall machine names and procedures to. invoke networked services; interactions with some of the services are by means of menu-based interfaces which are quite cumbersome to use; inconsistencies exist between the interfaces for different services because they were developed independently. These problems have to be removed so that users can use the services effectively. A prototype system has been developed to help users interact with networked services. This consists of software which gives the user an easy and consistent interface with the various services. The prototype is based on a graphical user interface and it includes the following appJications: Bath Information & Data Services; electronic mail; file editor. The prototype incorporates an online help facility to assist users using the system. The prototype can be divided into two parts: the user interface part that manages interactlon with the user; the communicatIon part that enables the communication with networked services to take place. The implementation is carried out using an object-oriented approach where both the user interface part and communication part are objects. The essential characteristics of object-orientation, - abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism - can all contribute to the better design and implementation of the prototype. The Smalltalk Model-View-Controller (MVC) methodology has been the framework for the construction of the prototype user interface. The purpose of the development was to study the effectiveness of users interaction to networked services. Having completed the prototype, tests users were requested to use the system to evaluate its effectiveness. The evaluation of the prototype is based on observation, i.e. observing the way users use the system and the opinion rating given by the users. Recommendations to improve further the prototype are given based on the results of the evaluation. based on the results of the evah:1ation. . .'. " "', ':::' ,n,<~;'.'

A systematic approach to establish fundamental principles of computer applications packages design

This work attempts to create a systemic design framework for man-machine interfaces which is self consistent, compatible with other concepts, and applicable to real situations. This is tackled by examining the current architecture of computer applications packages. The treatment in the main is philosophical and theoretical and analyses the origins, assumptions and current practice of the design of applications packages. It proposes that the present form of packages is fundamentally contradictory to the notion of packaging itself. This is because as an indivisible ready-to-implement solution, current package architecture displays the following major disadvantages. First, it creates problems as a result of user-package interactions, in which the designer tries to mould all potential individual users, no matter how diverse they are, into one model. This is worsened by the minute provision, if any, of important properties such as flexibility, independence and impartiality. Second, it displays rigid structure that reduces the variety and/or multi-use of the component parts of such a package. Third, it dictates specific hardware and software configurations which probably results in reducing the number of degrees of freedom of its user. Fourth, it increases the dependence of its user upon its supplier through inadequate documentation and understanding of the package. Fifth, it tends to cause a degeneration of the expertise of design of the data processing practitioners. In view of this understanding an alternative methodological design framework which is both consistent with systems approach and the role of a package in its likely context is proposed. The proposition is based upon an extension of the identified concept of the hierarchy of holons* which facilitates the examination of the complex relationships of a package with its two principal environments. First, the user characteristics and his decision making practice and procedures; implying an examination of the user's M.I.S. network. Second, the software environment and its influence upon a package regarding support, control and operation of the package. The framework is built gradually as discussion advances around the central theme of a compatible M.I.S., software and model design. This leads to the formation of the alternative package architecture that is based upon the design of a number of independent, self-contained small parts. Such is believed to constitute the nucleus around which not only packages can be more effectively designed, but is also applicable to many man-machine systems design.

Evaluating design implementation strategies using enterprise simulation

Concurrent engineering and design for manufacture and assembly strategies have become pervasive in use in a wide array of industrial settings. These strategies have generally focused on product and process design issues based on capability concerns. The strategies have been historically justified using cost savings calculations focusing on easily quantifiable costs such as raw material savings or manufacturing or assembly operations no longer required. It is argued herein that neither the focus of the strategies nor the means of justification are adequate. Product and process design strategies should include both capability and capacity concerns and justification procedures should include the financial effects that the product and process changes would have on the entire company. The authors of this paper take this more holistic view of the problem and examine an innovative new design strategy using a comprehensive enterprise simulation tool. The results indicate that both the design strategy and the simulator show promise for further industrial use. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Multi-criteria logistics distribution network design using SAS/OR

This paper explores the use of the optimization procedures in SAS/OR software with application to the contemporary logistics distribution network design using an integrated multiple criteria decision making approach. Unlike the traditional optimization techniques, the proposed approach, combining analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and goal programming (GP), considers both quantitative and qualitative factors. In the integrated approach, AHP is used to determine the relative importance weightings or priorities of alternative warehouses with respect to both deliverer oriented and customer oriented criteria. Then, a GP model incorporating the constraints of system, resource, and AHP priority is formulated to select the best set of warehouses without exceeding the limited available resources. To facilitate the use of integrated multiple criteria decision making approach by SAS users, an ORMCDM code was implemented in the SAS programming language. The SAS macro developed in this paper selects the chosen variables from a SAS data file and constructs sets of linear programming models based on the selected GP model. An example is given to illustrate how one could use the code to design the logistics distribution network.

Incorporating Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) practices into the planning context:the conceptual case for lot-scale developments

In recent decades, a number of sustainable strategies and polices have been created to protect and preserve our water environments from the impacts of growing communities. The Australian approach, Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), defined as the integration of urban planning and design with the urban water cycle management, has made considerable advances on design guidelines since 2000. WSUD stormwater management systems (e.g. wetlands, bioretentions, porous pavement etc), also known as Best Management Practices (BMPs) or Low Impact Development (LID), are slowly gaining popularity across Australia, the USA and Europe. There have also been significant improvements in how to model the performance of the WSUD technologies (e.g. MUSIC software). However, the implementation issues of these WSUD practices are mainly related to ongoing institutional capacity. Some of the key problems are associated with a limited awareness of urban planners and designers; in general, they have very little knowledge of these systems and their benefits to the urban environments. At the same time, hydrological engineers should have a better understanding of building codes and master plans. The land use regulations are equally as important as the physical site conditions for determining opportunities and constraints for implementing WSUD techniques. There is a need for procedures that can make a better linkage between urban planners and WSUD engineering practices. Thus, this paper aims to present the development of a general framework for incorporating WSUD technologies into the site planning process. The study was applied to lot-scale in the Melbourne region, Australia. Results show the potential space available for fitting WSUD elements, according to building requirements and different types of housing densities. © 2011 WIT Press.

Uniform design for the optimization of Al2O3 nanofilms produced by electrophoretic deposition

Surface modification by means of nanostructures is of interest to enhance boiling heat transfer in various applications including the organic Rankine cycle (ORC). With the goal of obtaining rough and dense aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanofilms, the optimal combination of process parameters for electrophoretic deposition (EPD) based on the uniform design (UD) method is explored in this paper. The detailed procedures for the EPD process and UD method are presented. Four main influencing conditions controlling the EPD process were identified as nanofluid concentration, deposition time, applied voltage and suspension pH. A series of tests were carried out based on the UD experimental design. A regression model and statistical analysis were applied to the results. Sensitivity analyses of the effect of the four main parameters on the roughness and deposited mass of Al2O3 films were also carried out. The results showed that Al2O3 nanofilms were deposited compactly and uniformly on the substrate. Within the range of the experiments, the preferred combination of process parameters was determined to be nanofluid concentration of 2 wt.%, deposition time of 15 min, applied voltage of 23 V and suspension pH of 3, yielding roughness and deposited mass of 520.9 nm and 161.6 × 10− 4 g/cm2, respectively. A verification experiment was carried out at these conditions and gave values of roughness and deposited mass within 8% error of the expected ones as determined from the UD approach. It is concluded that uniform design is useful for the optimization of electrophoretic deposition requiring only 7 tests compared to 49 using the orthogonal design method.