Survey on the idle capacity of fish processing (freezing) plants in India - 1. West Coast

The extent of idle capacity in fish processing (freezing) plants estimated by stratified random sampling is reported. The estimates for 1978 and 1979 for the processing plants on the west coast of India were 76.9 % and 73.2 % respectively at the rate of 250 working days per annum and two shifts per day. The percentage error of estimates worked out to 6.04 for 1978 and 6.98 for 1979. Substantial under utilization of processing plants noticed in all the states accounts mainly to the non-availability of raw material (prawn), high cost of production and shortage of power.

A comparison of four sustainable manufacturing strategies

Effective use of materials is one possible component of a sustainable manufacturing strategy. There are many such strategies proposed in the literature and used in practice, with confusion over what they are, what the differences among them may be and how they can be used by practitioners in design and manufacture to improve the sustainability of their product and processes. This paper reviews the literature on sustainable manufacturing strategies that deliver improved material performance. Four primary strategies were found: waste minimisation; material efficiency; resource efficiency; and eco-efficiency. The literature was analysed to determine the key characteristics of these sustainable manufacturing strategies and 17 characteristics were found. The four strategies were then compared and contrasted against all the characteristics. While current literature often uses these strategy titles in a confusing, occasionally inter-changeable manner, this study attempts to create clear separation between them. Definition, scope and practicality of measurement are shown to be key characteristics that impact upon the ability of manufacturing companies to make effective use of the proposed strategy. It is observed that the most actionable strategies may not include all of the dimensions of interest to a manufacturer wishing to become more sustainable, creating a dilemma between ease of implementation and breadth of impact. © 2008 Taylor & Francis.

Experimental investigation of stratified combustion: Application of laser diagnostic techniques

In order to better understand the stratified combustion, the propagation of flame through stratified mixture field in laminar and turbulent flow conditions has been studied by using combined PIV/PLIF techniques. A great emphasis was placed on developing methods to improve the accuracy of local measurements of flame propagation. In particular, a new PIV approach has been developed to measure the local fresh gas velocity near preheat zone of flame front. To improve the resolution of measurement, the shape of interrogation window has been continuously modified based on the local flame topology and gas expansion effect. Statistical analysis of conditioned local measurements by the local equivalence ratio of flames allows the characterization of the properties of flame propagation subjected to the mixture stratification in laminar and turbulent flows, especially the highlight of the memory effect.

Application of scalar dissipation rate model to siemens DLE combustors

The standard design process for the Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery, Lincoln, Dry Low Emissions combustion systems has adopted the Eddy Dissipation Model with Finite Rate Chemistry for reacting computational fluid dynamics simulations. The major drawbacks of this model have been the over-prediction of temperature and lack of species data limiting the applicability of the model. A novel combustion model referred to as the Scalar Dissipation Rate Model has been developed recently based on a flamelet type assumption. Previous attempts to adopt the flamelet philosophy with alternative closure models have failed, with the prediction of unphysical phenomenon. The Scalar Dissipation Rate Model (SDRM) was developed from a physical understanding of scalar dissipation rate, signifying the rate of mixing of hot and cold fluids at scales relevant to sustain combustion, in flames and was validated using direct numerical simulations data and experimental measurements. This paper reports on the first industrial application of the SDRM to SITL DLE combustion system. Previous applications have considered ideally premixed laboratory scale flames. The industrial application differs significantly in the complexity of the geometry, unmixedness and operating pressures. The model was implemented into ANSYS-CFX using their inbuilt command language. Simulations were run transiently using Scale Adaptive Simulation turbulence model, which switches between Large Eddy Simulation and Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes using a blending function. The model was validated in a research SITL DLE combustion system prior to being applied to the actual industrial geometry at real operating conditions. This system consists of the SGT-100 burner with a glass square-sectioned combustor allowing for detailed diagnostics. This paper shows the successful validation of the SDRM against time averaged temperature and velocity within measurement errors. The successful validation allowed application of the SDRM to the SGT-100 twin shaft at the relevant full load conditions. Limited validation data was available due to the complexity of measurement in the real geometry. Comparison of surface temperatures and combustor exit temperature profiles showed an improvement compared to EDM/FRC model. Furthermore, no unphysical phenomena were predicted. This paper presents the successful application of the SDRM to the industrial combustion system. The model shows a marked improvement in the prediction of temperature over the EDM/FRC model previously used. This is of significant importance in the future applications of combustion CFD for understanding of hardware mechanical integrity, combustion emissions and dynamics of the flame. Copyright © 2012 by ASME.

Experimental study of surface roughness noise

A turbulent boundary-layer flow over a rough wall generates a dipole sound field as the near-field hydrodynamic disturbances in the turbulent boundary-layer scatter into radiated sound at small surface irregularities. In this paper, phased microphone arrays are applied to the experimental study of surface roughness noise. The radiated sound from two rough plates and one smooth plate in an open jet is measured at three streamwise locations, and the beamforming source maps demonstrate the dipole directivity. Higher source strengths can be observed in the rough plates than the smooth plate, and the rough plates also enhance the trailing-edge noise. A prediction scheme in previous theoretical work is used to describe the strength of a distribution of incoherent dipoles over the rigid plate and to simulate the sound detected by the microphone array. Source maps of measurement and simulation exhibit encouraging similarities in both source pattern and source strength, which confirms the dipole nature and the predicted magnitude of roughness noise. The simulations underestimate the streamwise gradient of the source strengths and overestimate the source strengths at the highest frequency. © 2007 by Yu Liu and Ann P. Dowling.

Towards a unified description of rocking structures

Numerous studies on the rigid rocking block have generated a wealth of knowledge about rocking behavior. However, evaluation of more complex rocking systems requires the derivation and solution of complicated equations of motion. This paper investigates the possibility of a unified description of several rocking systems through investigation of rocking mechanisms which describe the masonry wall and the masonry arch. Effective rocking parameters are derived for each of these structures, and the similarity of the rocking behavior is discussed. The error of the proposed approximation, which defines the limitations for this approach, is quantified for the example structures considered. Where appropriate, a unified description of rocking would allow the use of rocking spectra, which would be useful to readily predict the response of a wide array of rocking structures.

High efficiency and broad bandwidth grating coupler between nanophotonic waveguide and fibre

A high efficiency and broad bandwidth grating coupler between a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanophotonic waveguide and fibre is designed and fabricated. Coupling efficiencies of 46% and 25% at a wavelength of 1.55 mu m are achieved by simulation and experiment, respectively. An optical 3 dB bandwidth of 45 nm from 1530 nm to 1575 nm is also obtained in experiment. Numerical calculation shows that a tolerance to fabrication error of 10 nm in etch depth is achievable. The measurement results indicate that the alignment error of +/-2 mu m results in less than 1 dB additional coupling loss.

Accurate mode analysis of ultraviolet-written channel waveguides

The transfer matrix method combined with the effective index method is adopted to model the silica-based channel waveguide patterned by UV writing. The effective indexes of the graded index channel waveguides with different dimension are calculated. The maximal error of the effective index is less than 3 x 10(-5). By this method, the number of the guided mode and the dimension range to guide certain modes can be obtained easily. Finally, the dimension range to guide a single mode is presented. (c) 2005 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Mode analysis of the UV-written channel waveguide - art. no. 60340J

The effective index method (EIM) was adopted to model the channel waveguide patterned by the UV in photosensitive silica film. The effective indexes of the different dimension symmetrical and asymmetrical channel waveguides were calculated, and the resource of the error of the method was pointed out. At last, the dimension rang to propagate single mode was presented.

Analytical method of predicating the instabilities of a micro arch-shaped beam under electrostatic loading

An arch-shaped beam with different configurations under electrostatic loading experiences either the direct pull-in instability or the snap-through first and then the pull-in instability. When the pull-in instability occurs, the system collides with the electrode and adheres to it, which usually causes the system failure. When the snap-through instability occurs, the system experiences a discontinuous displacement to flip over without colliding with the electrode. The snap-through instability is an ideal actuation mechanism because of the following reasons: (1) after snap-through the system regains the stability and capability of withstanding further loading; (2) the system flips back when the loading is reduced, i.e. the system can be used repetitively; and (3) when approaching snap-through instability the system effective stiffness reduces toward zero, which leads to a fast flipping-over response. To differentiate these two types of instability responses for an arch-shaped beam is vital for the actuator design. For an arch-shaped beam under electrostatic loading, the nonlinear terms of the mid-plane stretching and the electrostatic loading make the analytical solution extremely difficult if not impossible and the related numerical solution is rather complex. Using the one mode expansion approximation and the truncation of the higher-order terms of the Taylor series, we present an analytical solution here. However, the one mode approximation and the truncation error of the Taylor series can cause serious error in the solution. Therefore, an error-compensating mechanism is also proposed. The analytical results are compared with both the experimental data and the numerical multi-mode analysis. The analytical method presented here offers a simple yet efficient solution approach by retaining good accuracy to analyze the instability of an arch-shaped beam under electrostatic loading.

Reduction-Based Model Updating of a Scaled Offshore Platform Structure

This paper attempts to develop a reduction-based model updating technique for jacket offshore platform structure. A reduced model is used instead of the direct finite-element model of the real structure in order to circumvent such difficulties as huge degrees of freedom and incomplete experimental data that are usually civil engineers' trouble during the model updating. The whole process consists of three steps: reduction of FE model, the first model updating to minimize the reduction error, and the second model updating to minimize the modeling error of the reduced model and the real structure. According to the performance of jacket platforms, a local-rigidity assumption is employed to obtain the reduced model. The technique is applied in a downscale model of a four-legged offshore platform where its effectiveness is well proven. Furthermore, a comparison between the real structure and its numerical models in the following model validation shows that the updated models have good approximation to the real structure. Besides, some difficulties in the field of model updating are also discussed.

Comparison of steroid substrates and inhibitors of P-glycoprotein by 3D-QSAR analysis

Steroid derivatives show a complex interaction with P-glycoprotein (Pgp). To determine the essential structural requirements of a series of structurally related and functionally diverse steroids for Pgp-mediated transport or inhibition, a three-dimensional quantitative structure activity relationship study was performed by comparative similarity index analysis modeling. Twelve models have been explored to well correlate the physiochemical features with their biological functions with Pgp on basis of substrate and inhibitor datasets, in which the best predictive model for substrate gave cross-validated q(2) = 0.720, non-cross-validated r(2) = 0.998, standard error of estimate SEE = 0.012, F = 257.955, and the best predictive model for inhibitor gave q(2) = 0.536, r(2) = 0.950, SEE = 1.761 and F = 45.800. The predictive ability of all models was validated by a set of compounds that were not included in the training set. The physiochemical similarities and differences of steroids as Pgp substrate and inhibitor, respectively, were analyzed to be helpful in developing new steroid-like compounds. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Thermoluminescence characteristics of NaSr4(BO3)(3):Ce3+ under beta-ray irradiation

The thermoluminescence (TL) properties of Ce3+ doped NaSr4(BO3)(3) phosphor under the beta-ray irradiation were reported. The polycrystalline sample was synthesized by high temperature solid-state reaction. The TL glow curve of NaSr4(BO3)(3):Ce3+ phosphor was composed of only one peak. TL kinetic parameters of NaSr4(BO3)(3):Ce3+ were deduced by the peak shape method, the activation energy (E) was 0.590 eV and the frequency factor was 1.008x10(6) s(-1). TL dose response was linear in the range of measurement. The 3-dimensional (3D) TL emission spectrum was also recorded, the emission spectrum consisted of two bands located at 441 and 479 nm respectively, corresponding to the characteristic 4f(0)5d(1)-> F-2((5/2,7/2)) transitions of the Ce3+ ion. The fading behavior of the NaSr4(BO3)(3):Ce3+ phosphor over a period of 15 d was also studied.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization of ginsenosides

Molecular weight of 8 ginsenosides and the component of total saponions in American ginseng have been determined by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). The average error of the molecular weight of each ginsenoside was found less than 0.05%. The results demonstrate that MALDI-MS is a very simple and useful method to measure the molecular weight of some high polar, thermal unstable small molecules with high sensitivity and reproducibility.

Reconstruction of vertical thermal structure from several subsurface temperatures in the China Seas and adjacent waters

Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis is used in this study to generate main eigenvector fields of historical temperature for the China Seas (here referring to Chinese marine territories) and adjacent waters from 1930 to 2002 (510 143 profiles). A good temperature profile is reconstructed based on several subsurface in situ temperature observations and the thermocline was estimated using the model. The results show that: 1) For the study area, the former four principal components can explain 95% of the overall variance, and the vertical distribution of temperature is most stable using the in situ temperature observations near the surface. 2) The model verifications based on the observed CTD data from the East China Sea (ECS), South China Sea (SCS) and the areas around Taiwan Island show that the reconstructed profiles have high correlation with the observed ones with the confidence level > 95%, especially to describe the characteristics of the thermocline well. The average errors between the reconstructed and observed profiles in these three areas are 0.69A degrees C, 0.52A degrees C and 1.18A degrees C respectively. It also shows the model RMS error is less than or close to the climatological error. The statistical model can be used to well estimate the temperature profile vertical structure. 3) Comparing the thermocline characteristics between the reconstructed and observed profiles, the results in the ECS show that the average absolute errors are 1.5m, 1.4 m and 0.17A degrees C/m, and the average relative errors are 24.7%, 8.9% and 22.6% for the upper, lower thermocline boundaries and the gradient, respectively. Although the relative errors are obvious, the absolute error is small. In the SCS, the average absolute errors are 4.1 m, 27.7 m and 0.007A degrees C/m, and the average relative errors are 16.1%, 16.8% and 9.5% for the upper, lower thermocline boundaries and the gradient, respectively. The average relative errors are all < 20%. Although the average absolute error of the lower thermocline boundary is considerable, but contrast to the spatial scale of average depth of the lower thermocline boundary (165 m), the average relative error is small (16.8%). Therefore the model can be used to well estimate the thermocline.