Abstract: The location template matching (LTM) method is a source localization method and is often applied to structural health monitoring and large-scale human–computer interface (HCI) systems. Despite the fact that the cross-correlation between measured signals resulting from impacts at different points on a structure is a key element, the essential properties of cross-correlation for implementing the LTM method have not been studied yet. In this paper, two practical properties of the cross-correlation between two transient vibration signals are investigated: the number of vibration modes contained in a measured signal and variation of the correlation coefficient value with respect to the distance between two neighboring impact points. Two interesting results are obtained through extensive computer simulations and experiments. First, if the number of vibration modes contained in a measured signal is more than three or four, it is sufficient for the LTM method. This is a useful result because any unnecessarily high-frequency components can be filtered out to increase the signal-to-noise ratio of a measured signal. Second, the correlation coefficient value does not decrease monotonically as the distance between two neighboring impact points increases, but it fluctuates considerably, thereby indicating that there is an optimum grid spacing range for the LTM method.

Abstract: In this study, an experimental method is described to identify and differentiate materials that act as constraints on a host structure, which define the boundary conditions. The main structure is composed of a tooth with a stainless steel bracket bonded to the crown, which in turn is coupled to a “smart” beam (piezoelectric materials attached) fixed to the bracket slot. The root portion of the tooth is imbedded in different supporting materials (substructures), which generate clamped conditions to the tooth. A substructure composed by piezoelectric transducers is bonded to the beam to generate vibrations to the system. The method applies high frequency vibrations (between 5-10 KHz) through the beam which in turn moves the tooth, obtaining a mechanical response from the material where it is implanted. To quantify the mechanical responses, the electrical impedance is read from piezo-transducers by means of electromechanical impedance technique (EMI). In a window observation in frequency, it was possible to identify a similar trend in the derivatives of the electrical impedance obtained for five different materials made for two teeth; molar and canine. Results suggest that the measurements are invariant to the interface (in this case, the tooth) that couples supporting substances, implying that the materials were identified, independently of the tooth.

Abstract: Head garment was used as one of methods in managing hypertrophic scar treatments. The application of the head garment produced pressure which increase healing process. Although there are many types of head garments were produced, limited studies reported the amount of pressure generated from its application. The objective of this study is to measure the pressure exerted by full face head garment produced by Occupational Therapist (OT) from local hospital. A pressure measurement system was developed using Flexiforce pressure sensor combined with Arduino microcontroller board. Sensor was placed underneath the garment at different locations. Results from the experiment indicates pressure outputs of 0mmHg to 48mmHg. The experiment also discovered that the area near nasal and eyes does not produced any pressure.

Abstract: The cavi¬tation is created in complex and changeable physical phenomena, such as high speed, high pressure, multiple phases, phase transition, turbulence, and unstable features. Thus, the vapor fraction and pressure distribution have always been key problems in determining cavitation behavior and its role on the hydrolysis reaction. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of water cavitations at various pressures on the hydrolysis reaction that breaks the oil into fatty acids and glycerol. Numerical simulations are performed to determine the flow-field characteristics of both inside and outside the nozzle of a submerged water jet. The factors that influence the cavitation intensity of pres¬sure are simulated. The cavities were generated by injecting water via a nozzle into palm oil in the helle shaw cell, with volumes of 3ml at pressures varying between 2, 6, 10, and 16 MPa. Glycerol formed by the reaction in this study, prove that the cavitation generated energy greater than the energy of ester bond between carbon and oxygen. The turbulence kinetic energy plays important role in determining the cavitation energy.

Abstract: This study proposes an integration of Environmentally Conscious Quality Function Deployment (ECQFD) and Weighted Decision Matrix in Conceptual design stage, so that selection of the final design among the alternatives with regard to environmental concerns can be done. Once several possible design alternatives are generated, ECQFD methodology which consists of four phases is used to identify the most relevant criteria that collected from customer needs focused on environmental aspects. Then, Weighted Decision Matrix is applied to evaluate the design alternatives based on criteria in the phase III of ECQFD. An example of designing an office chair using this approach is illustrated.

Abstract: Incremental forging processes of long plates having an inclined cross-section and local thickening were developed. A long plate was compressed with an inclined punch to produce long parts having an inclined cross-section. Since local deformation was repeated in incremental forging, the forging load is comparatively small and hence small mechanical presses conventionally used in the forming industry can be used. Although waving and depression of the plate were decreased by a tapper bottom inclined punch, the plate curvature was large. A grooved die was employed to eliminate the curvature of the forged plate having an inclined cross-section. Plates having local thickening were also produced by beading and compression. The plate was freely compressed by a punch to form a beaded portion at the center of the sheet. The beaded portion was then compressed to form a local thickening without changing the width of the plate. The thick part possesses higher strength as compared to the thin part due to work-hardening during compression.

Abstract: The adequate selection of machining parameters is of prime importance to take into the account in of advanced engineering materials. The main focus of this experimental study is to observe the effect of electrode material and machining parameters viz. peak current, main voltage and duty factor on Electrical Discharge Machining(EDM) of Cobalt-Chromium-Molybdenum (Co-Cr-Mo) using copper and brass electrodes. The findings highlight that electrode material significantly affects the process performance with respect to material removal rate and electrode wear as indices to examine machinability. Better performance and higher efficiency is achieved by copper electrode. Peak current, voltage and duty factor play important roles in EDM performance and efficiency in terms of reducing machining time and improve tool utilization time and life.

Abstract: Maintaining interface stresses within the adequate levels while minimizing the stress shielding in the prosthesis surrounding bone consider a design challenge in total hip replacement.Functionally graded materials (FGMs), coatings and hip femoral stem designs considered as the most important concepts used for this purpose. The current investigation compares the biomedical performance of these three concepts. Five femoral stem material cases were studied for three different stem geometrical configurations. These cases include uncoated titanium stem, vertically distributedFGM stem, Ti-stem with homogenous hydroxyapatite coating and Ti-stem with FGM coatings distributedradially and vertically.Titanium and hydroxyapatite are the principal constituents’ of FGMs. Five FGM composition variation control parameters (m = 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 10) were considered in FGM cases. Moreover, threecoating thicknesses (100 µm, 300 µm and 500 µm) employed for coated stem cases.The results revealed that, the values and distributions of shear stresses at different interfaces and von Mises stressesdeveloped at femoral stems, cement and bone vary from one prosthesis profile to another. Furthermore, vertically distributed FGM stem develops the lower stresses in the femoral prosthesis and the higher stresses in bone which will reduce the stress shielding and will increase the lifespan of the total hip replacement.

Abstract: This study highlights the influences of internal airflow on the motion of an object in an air tunnel to determine an alternative method of transporting goods from one place to another through such air tunnel. Flow analysis is performed using the FLUENT software version 16.1 to understand the movement of an object inside an air tunnel. The flow domain along the air tunnel is discretized using tetrahedron grids with the governing equation of fluid motion solved by employing the SIMPLE algorithm. Accordingly, the required turbulence modeling is provided by the k-ε turbulence model. The object is set to have a box shape with a rectangular wing attached on it. The air movement was created by the presence of a pressure difference between the flow condition at the inlet and outlet of the air tunnel. FLUENT produces the result that describes the movement of the object and flow pattern that appears inside the air tunnel. Result indicates the possibility of defining an object, which has a particular geometry to float and move when the air is moving through the air tunnel.

Abstract: Environmental sustainability demands on the development of green composites for tribo-materials due to their low density, low cost and eco-friendly characteristics. The aim of this work is to investigate the tribological properties of composites fabricated using bio-waste horn fibre (HF) and epoxy resin. Composites were fabricated in accordance with Taguchi L9 (3x3) orthogonal array. Epoxy LY-556, hardener HY-951 mixed in the ratio of 10:1 was used as matrix and HF particles were used as bio-filler. The mixture was compression molded and cured at room temperature to produce the specimens. Properties like density, porosity, water absorption, oil absorption, hardness, coefficient of friction (COF), wear rate, surface roughness and microstructure of the specimens were investigated. Optimization of factors was done using grey relational analysis (GRA) and ANOVA. The optimum factor levels are found to be the lowest NaOH concentration (T1 i.e., 0.1 N), the biggest sized particles (S3 i.e., 425 µm) and the highest volume % (V3 i.e., 30%). The contribution of influencing factors in decreasing order are found to be HF size with 83.7%, HF volume % with 11.3% and NaOH concentration with 1.47%. Comparison between predicted and experimental values of optimum specimen reveals that the variations are within 2.4%. Comparing the optimum specimen with untreated HF specimen, it is found that optimum specimen has lesser density and higher COF and hence can be used in frictional applications like brake pads and clutch discs.

Abstract: This paper introduces a multi objective optimization model to solve production planning problems for a multi products, multi period, and multi echelon manufacturing chain to minimize the total cost and maximize the overall service level of customers. The model is formulated using mixed integer linear programming optimization form. The obtained results are compared with the results of a similar model which maximizes the total profit. It was proved that the configuration of the network and consequently its performance differs with the corresponding objectives and constraints taken into consideration when designing the network. Analysis of results prescribed that cost minimization is not always lead to maximizing profit.

Abstract: Different grouping measures have been published in the literature for evaluation of machine-part matrices. In this paper three of these measures have been studied and analyzed against some manufacturing systems having alternative optimal solutions with the same sum of voids and exceptions and different cells size. The results of using these three measures showed the disability of distinguish between these manufacturing systems. The disability is due to the fact that cell size and quality of individual cells are not taken into consideration. To overcome these limitations a modified grouping measure based on cell utilization is proposed in this paper (Average Cell Utilization). The proposed measure has been tested and compared with these groping measures. The result shows that our proposed measure has the ability of distinguish between these manufacturing systems, which will lead to avoid or reduce the effects of some of the physical, technological, or organizational constraints and hence reduce costs.

Abstract: The yaw rate and the body sideslip angle (BSA) of vehicle are the most important parameters to describe vehicle stability and performance. The main goal of this paper is to improve the stability of in-wheel motored vehicle, this will be done by construct Simulink model using Matlab includes 2DOF vehicle dynamics as a reference model, 4 four wheel drive nonlinear vehicle model, and the structure of the fuzzy PID controller. Compared to conventional PID controller, the fuzzy PID controller can regulate the proportional, integral, and derivative parameters and improve the responds of vehicle system. Many simulation results show the vehicle stability control system using fuzzy PID controller can improve the handling and stability of the vehicle.

Abstract: In this invetigation, theoritical and experimental study was performed for the adhesive joining, resistance spot welding and weld bonding (combination of adhesive and resistance spot welding) on Stainless Steel of Grade 304 as a work picece (100 × 25 × 1 mm) and 2-C Plain Epoxy Resin as a adhesive by using PECO Bench Spot welding machine for spot weld. The adhesive joints were cured on Furnace. The Tensile - Shear tests were performed on prepared samples using Universal Testing Machine (UTM). It is observed that ultimate shear tensile load of adhesive joints are greater than the resistance spot weld and shear tensile load of weld-bonds are greater than the spot welding and adhesive bonding alone. It is also observed that surface roughness of 220 emery grade gave maximum adhesive joint strength to 304 grade of stainless steel. After the tensile shear test, the nugget size and hardness of the resistance spot weld and weld bond (which is cured at 120 0C for 60 minutes) were observed. It was found that the hardness of weld nugget and HAZ lies in the range of (358-414 VHN) and (417-464 VHN) respectively.

Abstract: This study concerns experimental work for pneumatic position control using online self-tuning PID controller with a neural network (denoted as STNPID controller) using back propagation scheme. The actuator under control is a vertical double-acting single-rod pneumatic cylinder of 158 mm stroke and 20 mm bore diameter. Inexpensive high speed digital control valves (up to 150 Hz) are implemented to accurately control the cylinder piston position using Pulse Width Modulation (denoted as PWM) technique. The STNPID controller is a technique to apply neural networks for online tuning of the PID controller’s gains in a way of human tune the gains depending on the environmental and systems requirements in order to make the nonlinear system unaffected by the unpredictability of system’s parameters and disturbances such as noise. The inputs of STNPID include the sequences of tracking error, set point and control action, while the output of the neural network is optimized gains kp, ki and kd developed by Error back-propagation method. Results show that the STNPID controller is able to track both constant and variable set point trajectories efficiently by the pneumatic actuator system. By comparing the results of STNPID with the conventional PID controller showed that self-tuning of the PID gains can treat with the nonlinearity of the pneumatic system which is incompatible with a linear behavior of the conventional PID controller, so the tracking performance of the pneumatic cylinder enhanced with STNPID controller. For step response, the overshoot and steady state error decrease while the rising and descending times remain unchanged. The oscillation behavior for the sinusoidal response of the conventional PID controller is damped by The STNPID controller and better performance is observed. Also, the actuator sinusoidal wave response acts smoothly and uniformly compared to the conventional PID controller with more oscillatory actuator performance.

Abstract: Aluminium alloys provide an excellent combination of mechanical and physical properties such as high stiffness and low density, which make it an obvious choice for many structural applications. The increasing demand for stronger and lighter structural materials such as aluminium alloy is the driving force for the need to adequately understand its deformation and mechanical properties under different loading conditions. Hot deformation characteristics of AA5083 aluminium alloy have been studied in the temperature range of 350-400 °C and strain rate range 0.001-0.1 s-1 using dilatometer hot compression tests. An empirical model is developed which is consequently used to search for the optimal deformation conditions using particle swarm optimisation algorithm.

Abstract: The purposes of this research are to create a 3D textured map by using image processing of static photo images and video images of an environment around a river and a 3D map model of the environment by using a 3D color printer. Firstly, static photo images and video images of the targeted environment around the river were captured by the fisheye-lens camera mounted on a multi-rotor drone flight-controlled manually. Then, the image processing consisting of five main steps to create the 3D textured map were performed using the static photo images and video images. Furthermore, a thickened 3D map was built by using a selected area in the 3D textured map of the static photo images. Finally, the 3D map model of the environment around the river was built by using the thickened 3D map and a 3D color printer.

Abstract: The production of biodiesel from algae is one of the promising alternative fuel for diesel engines. Algae oil was extracted from microalgae Scenedesmus obliquus. The biodiesel was produced from algal oil by transesterification. Biodiesel blends of 10 and 20% were prepared. Fatty acid analysis showed that fuel properties of S. obliquus were highly affected by fatty acids composition. Chemical and physical properties of biodiesel blends B10 and B20 were close to diesel oil. The performance parameters and exhaust emissions of a diesel engine burning biodiesel blends and diesel fuels were studied. Biodiesel blend B20 showed decrease in specific fuel consumption, exhaust gas temperature and increase in thermal efficiency compared to B10 and diesel fuels. There were reductions in the emissions gas for B20 compared to B10 and diesel fuels. It could be concluded that a high quality of biodiesel could be produced from microalgae S. obliquus and used efficiently and environmentally safe in conventional diesel engine.

Abstract: Lightweight ultra-fine grained ( < 1 m size) SiC-ZrO2(3Y2O3) composites, with a combination of high hardness, high bending strength and high fracture toughness, were successfully prepared by high energy mechanical milling followed by heat treatment. The SiC-ZrO2(3Y2O3) composites exhibitied high hardness (1707 MPa), high bending strenght (as high as 1689 MPa) and high fracture toughness (up to approximately 12.6 MPa.m1/2). Such a combination of mechanical properties was attributed to the fine microstructure with a distinct feature consisting of almost continuous network of ZrO2(3Y2O3) phase around SiC grains, or we call harmonic microstructure. It has been demonstrated that a combination of these unique microstructural characteristics was very effective in supressing the initiation of cracks and governing the path of their subsequent growth during fracture, leading to excellent combination of mechanical properties.

Abstract: Since racing vehicle has greater risk of injury and vehicle damage than any others urban vehicle, this paper presents the design, modeling and performance study of crash damper in a racing electric vehicle. Using lumped parameter model (LPM) as analytical approach, the development model of hydraulic crash damper is used to absorb or to dissipate the kinetic energy on frontal crash. The mathematical model between initial model and development model is derived to obtain responses of both vehicle and occupant. Plot 3D surface from numerical simulation is used to obtain optimum value of development model. The results in time response are also plotted to compare both initial model and development model. Development model also claimed that can reduce in vehicle deceleration, occupant deceleration and vehicle deformation in the range of 25% to 28.1% than initial model.