Design, modelling and measurement of a hybrid powerplant for unmanned aerial systems

Hybrid powerplants combining internal combustion engines and electric motor prime movers have been extensively developed for land- and marine-based transport systems. The use of such powerplants in airborne applications has been historically impractical due to energy and power density constraints. Improvements in battery and electric motor technology make aircraft hybrid powerplants feasible. This paper presents a technique for determining the feasibility and mechanical effectiveness of powerplant hybridisation. In this work, a prototype aircraft hybrid powerplant was designed, constructed and tested. It is shown that an additional 35% power can be supplied from the hybrid system with an overall weight penalty of 5%, for a given unmanned aerial system. A flight dynamic model was developed using the AeroSim Blockset in MATLAB Simulink. The results have shown that climb rates can be improved by 56% and endurance increased by 13% when using the hybrid powerplant concept.

Acoustic emission activity from the two main types of small multi-cylinder diesel engine fuel injection systems

Effective fuel injector operation and efficient combustion are two of the most critical aspects when Diesel engine performance, efficiency and reliability are considered. Indeed, it is widely acknowledged that fuel injection equipment faults lead to increased fuel consumption, reduced power, greater levels of exhaust emissions and even unexpected engine failure. Previous investigations have identified fuel injector related acoustic emission activity as being caused by mechanisms such as fuel line pressure build-up; fuel flow through injector nozzles, injector needle opening and closing impacts and premixed combustion related pulses. Few of these investigations however, have attempted to categorise the close association and interrelation that exists between fuel injection equipment function and the acoustic emission generating mechanisms. Consequently, a significant amount of ambiguity remains in the interpretation and categorisation of injector related AE activity with respect to the functional characteristics of specific fuel injection equipment. The investigation presented addresses this ambiguity by detailing a study in which AE signals were recorded and analysed from two different Diesel engines employing the two commonly encountered yet fundamentally different types of fuel injection equipment. Results from tests in which faults were induced into fuel injector nozzles from both indirect-injection and direct-injection engines show that functional differences between the main types of fuel injection equipment results in acoustic emission activity which can be specifically related to the type of fuel injection equipment used.

Valé Bunny Watson? Law librarians, law libraries, and legal research in the post-internet era

Katharine Hepburn’s entertaining portrayal of reference librarian Bunny Watson in Desk Set (1957) moves her character from apprehension about new technology to an understanding that it is simply another tool. This article outlines the impact of technology on academic legal research. It examines the nature of legal research and the doctrinal method, the importance of law libraries (and librarians) in legal research, and the roles and implications of the Internet and web search engines on legal research methods and education.

Flying robots to the rescue

UAVs could one day save the lives of lost civilians and those sent to find them, and a competition in outback Australia is proving how soon that day might come. We have all seen news stories of people who ventured beyond the day-to-day reach of the community and got lost: search parties are formed, aircraft drafted in, and often large sums of money expended in the quest to find them.

The role of non-thermal plasma technique in {NOx} treatment: A review

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) has been introduced over the past several years as a promising method for nitrogen oxide (NOx) removal. The intent, when using NTP, is to selectively transfer input electrical energy to the electrons, and to not expend this in heating the entire gas stream, which generates free radicals through collisions, and promotes the desired chemical changes in the exhaust gases. The generated active species react with the pollutant molecules and decompose them. This paper reviews and summarizes relevant literature regarding various aspects of the application of {NTP} technology on {NOx} removal from exhaust gases. A comprehensive description of available scientific literature on {NOx} removal using {NTP} technology is presented, including various types of NTP, e.g. dielectric barrier discharge, corona discharge and electron beam. Furthermore, the combination of {NTP} with catalyst and adsorbent for better {NOx} removal efficiency is presented in detail. The removal of {NOx} from both simulated gases and real diesel engines is also considered in this review paper. As {NTP} is a new technique and is not yet commercialized, there is a need for more studies to be performed in this field.

Experimental and statistical investigation of Australian native plants for second-generation biodiesel production

This work explores the potential of Australian native plants as a source of second-generation biodiesel for internal combustion engines application. Biodiesels were evaluated from a number of non-edible oil seeds which are grow naturally in Queensland, Australia. The quality of the produced biodiesels has been investigated by several experimental and numerical methods. The research methodology and numerical model developed in this study can be used for a broad range of biodiesel feedstocks and for the future development of renewable native biodiesel in Australia.

External influence as an indicator of scholarly importance

Although the external influence of scholars has usually been approximated by publication and citation count, the array of scholarly activities is far more extensive. Today, new technologies, in particular Internet search engines, allow more accurate measurement of scholars' influence on societal discourse. Hence, in this article, we analyse the relation between the internal and external influence of 723 top economists using the number of pages indexed by Google and Bing as a measure of external influence. We not only identify a small association between these scholars’ internal and external influence but also a correlation between internal influence, as captured by receipt of such major academic awards as the Nobel Prize and John Bates Clark Medal, and the external prominence of the top 100 researchers (JEL Code: A11, A13, Z18).

The responsibility of intermediaries: Emerging IP protection schemes, from Content ID, to three-strikes and follow-the-money

The only effective and scalable way to regulate the actions of people on the internet is through online intermediaries. These are the institutions that facilitate communication: internet service providers, search engines, content hosts, and social networks. Governments, private firms, and civil society organisations are increasingly seeking to influence these intermediaries to take more responsibility to prevent or respond to IP infringements. Around the world, intermediaries are increasingly subject to a variety of obligations to help enforce IP rights, ranging from informal social and governmental pressure, to industry codes and private negotiated agreements, to formal legislative schemes. This paper provides an overview of this emerging shift in regulatory approaches, away from legal liability and towards increased responsibilities for intermediaries. This shift straddles two different potential futures: an optimistic set of more effective, more efficient mechanisms for regulating user behaviour, and a dystopian vision of rule by algorithm and private power, without the legitimising influence of the rule of law.

Incorporating visual information for spoken term detection

Spoken term detection (STD) is the task of looking up a spoken term in a large volume of speech segments. In order to provide fast search, speech segments are first indexed into an intermediate representation using speech recognition engines which provide multiple hypotheses for each speech segment. Approximate matching techniques are usually applied at the search stage to compensate the poor performance of automatic speech recognition engines during indexing. Recently, using visual information in addition to audio information has been shown to improve phone recognition performance, particularly in noisy environments. In this paper, we will make use of visual information in the form of lip movements of the speaker in indexing stage and will investigate its effect on STD performance. Particularly, we will investigate if gains in phone recognition accuracy will carry through the approximate matching stage to provide similar gains in the final audio-visual STD system over a traditional audio only approach. We will also investigate the effect of using visual information on STD performance in different noise environments.

Effects of biodiesel chemical composition on the chemical and physical properties of the primary and secondary diesel particulate matter

This thesis improves our insight towards the effects of using biodiesels on the particulate matter emission of diesel engines and contributes to our understanding of their potential adverse health effects. The novelty of this project is the use of biodiesel fuel with controlled chemical composition that enables us to relate changes of physiochemical properties of particles to specific properties of the biodiesel. For the first time, the possibility of a correlation of the volatility and the Reactive Oxygen Species concentration of the particles is investigated versus the saturation, oxygen content and carbon chain length of the fuel.

A 4D automatic simulation tool for construction resource planning: A case study

Purpose Traditional construction planning relies upon the critical path method (CPM) and bar charts. Both of these methods suffer from visualization and timing issues that could be addressed by 4D technology specifically geared to meet the needs of the construction industry. This paper proposed a new construction planning approach based on simulation by using a game engine. Design/methodology/approach A 4D automatic simulation tool was developed and a case study was carried out. The proposed tool was used to simulate and optimize the plans for the installation of a temporary platform for piling in a civil construction project in Hong Kong. The tool simulated the result of the construction process with three variables: 1) equipment, 2) site layout and 3) schedule. Through this, the construction team was able to repeatedly simulate a range of options. Findings The results indicate that the proposed approach can provide a user-friendly 4D simulation platform for the construction industry. The simulation can also identify the solution being sought by the construction team. The paper also identifies directions for further development of the 4D technology as an aid in construction planning and decision-making. Research limitations/implications The tests on the tool are limited to a single case study and further research is needed to test the use of game engines for construction planning in different construction projects to verify its effectiveness. Future research could also explore the use of alternative game engines and compare their performance and results. Originality/value The authors proposed the use of game engine to simulate the construction process based on resources, working space and construction schedule. The developed tool can be used by end-users without simulation experience.

Australian Media Law [5th Edition]

Australian Media Law details and explains the complex case law, legislation and regulations governing media practice in areas as diverse as journalism, advertising, multimedia and broadcasting. It examines the issues affecting traditional forms of media such as television, radio, film and newspapers as well as for recent forms such as the internet, online forums and digital technology, in a clear and accessible format. New additions to the fifth edition include: - the implications of new anti-terrorism legislation for journalists; - developments in privacy law, including Law Reform recommendations for a statutory cause of action to protect personal privacy in Australia and the expanding privacy jurisprudence in the United Kingdom and New Zealand; - liability for defamation of internet search engines and service providers; - the High Court decision in Roadshow v iiNet and the position of internet service providers in relation to copyright infringement via their services; - new suppression order regimes; - statutory reforms providing journalists with a rebuttable presumption of non-disclosure when called upon to reveal their sources in a court of law; - recent developments regarding whether journalists can use electronic devices to collect and disseminate information about court proceedings; - contempt committed by jurors via social media; and an examination of recent decisions on defamation, confidentiality, vilification, copyright and contempt.

Control of Ship Roll Motion

The undesirable effects of roll motion of ships (rocking about the longitudinal axis) became noticeable in the mid-nineteenth century when significant changes were introduced to the design of ships as a result of sails being replaced by steam engines and the arrangement being changed from broad to narrow hulls. The combination of these changes led to lower transverse stability (lower restoring moment for a given angle of roll) with the consequence of larger roll motion. The increase in roll motion and its effect on cargo and human performance lead to the development several control devices that aimed at reducing and controlling roll motion. The control devices most commonly used today are fin stabilizers, rudder, anti-roll tanks, and gyrostabilizers. The use of different types of actuators for control of ship roll motion has been amply demonstrated for over 100 years. Performance, however, can still fall short of expectations because of difficulties associated with control system design, which have proven to be far from trivial due to fundamental performance limitations and large variations of the spectral characteristics of wave-induced roll motion. This short article provides an overview of the fundamentals of control design for ship roll motion reduction. The overview is limited to the most common control devices.

Noble Metal Ionic Catalysts

Because of growing environmental concerns and increasingly stringent regulations governing auto emissions, new more efficient exhaust catalysts are needed to reduce the amount of pollutants released from internal combustion engines. To accomplish this goal, the major pollutants in exhaust-CO, NOx, and unburned hydrocarbons-need to be fully converted to CO2, N-2, and H2O. Most exhaust catalysts contain nanocrystalline noble metals (Pt, Pd, Rh) dispersed on oxide supports such as Al2O3 or SiO2 promoted by CeO2. However, in conventional catalysts, only the surface atoms of the noble metal particles serve as adsorption sites, and even in 4-6 nm metal particles, only 1/4 to 1/5 of the total noble metal atoms are utilized for catalytic conversion. The complete dispersion of noble metals can be achieved only as ions within an oxide support. In this Account, we describe a novel solution to this dispersion problem: a new solution combustion method for synthesizing dispersed noble metal ionic catalysts. We have synthesized nanocrystalline, single-phase Ce1-xMxO2-delta and Ce1-x-yTiyMxO2-delta (M = Pt, Pd, Rh; x = 0,01-0.02, delta approximate to x, y = 0.15-0.25) oxides in fluorite structure, In these oxide catalysts, pt(2+), Pd2+, or Rh3+ ions are substituted only to the extent of 1-2% of Ce4+ ion. Lower-valent noble metal ion substitution in CeO2 creates oxygen vacancies. Reducing molecules (CO, H-2, NH3) are adsorbed onto electron-deficient noble metal ions, while oxidizing (02, NO) molecules are absorbed onto electron-rich oxide ion vacancy sites. The rates of CO and hydrocarbon oxidation and NOx reduction (with >80% N-2 selectivity) are 15-30 times higher in the presence of these ionic catalysts than when the same amount of noble metal loaded on an oxide support is used. Catalysts with palladium ion dispersed in CeO2 or Ce1-xTixO2 were far superior to Pt or Rh ionic catalysts. Therefore, we have demonstrated that the more expensive Pt and Rh metals are not necessary in exhaust catalysts. We have also grown these nanocrystalline ionic catalysts on ceramic cordierite and have reproduced the results we observed in powder material on the honeycomb catalytic converter. Oxygen in a CeO2 lattice is activated by the substitution of Ti ion, as well as noble metal ions. Because this substitution creates longer Ti-O and M-O bonds relative to the average Ce-O bond within the lattice, the materials facilitate high oxygen storage and release. The interaction among M-0/Mn+, Ce4+/Ce3+, and Ti4+/Ti3+ redox couples leads to the promoting action of CeO2, activation of lattice oxygen and high oxygen storage capacity, metal support interaction, and high rates of catalytic activity in exhaust catalysis.