bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Improved Steel Beam-Column Connections in Industrial Structures
Authors: Bishay-Girges N. W.
Published: November 2020

Beam-to-column connection is a rigid connection used in steel moment frames which acts as the main resisting system in structural design. Haunches with double beam section height at the eave, ridge and crane bracket are usually used to resist the large bending moment at the critical locations of the steel frames. Damper devices can be used as the main source of producing forces used to reduce the bending moment due to different static and dynamic loads. This study focuses on improving the steel beam-column connection with the proposed control system in the eave connection which can also be used under the bracket which supports crane beam in industrial buildings. The purpose of this study is to describe the development of the beam-column steel connection incorporating dampers installed to beam bottom flange to reduce the effect of applied load on the frame without the need to create haunches to make the connection design more efficient.
Comparative Study of Fatigue Damage Models Using Different Number of Classes Combined with the Rainflow Method
Authors: Zengah S. , Aid A. , Benguediab M.
Published: November 2020

Fatigue damage increases with applied load cycles in a cumulative manner. Fatigue damage models play a key role in life prediction of components and structures subjected to random loading. The aim of this paper is the examination of the performance of the “Damaged Stress Model”, proposed and validated, against other fatigue models under random loading before and after reconstruction of the load histories. To achieve this objective, some linear and nonlinear models proposed for fatigue life estimation and a batch of specimens made of 6082T6 aluminum alloy is subjected to random loading. The damage was cumulated by Miner’s rule, Damaged Stress Model (DSM), Henry model and Unified Theory (UT) and random cycles were counted with a rain-flow algorithm. Experimental data on high-cycle fatigue by complex loading histories with different mean and amplitude stress values are analyzed for life calculation and model predictions are compared.
Evaluation of Allocated Areas for Parks and their Attributes: Hail City
Authors: Said M. A. , Touahmia M.
Published: November 2020

Accessibility to parks and open spaces plays an important role in the urban quality of life. Public parks play a vital role that affects all members of society regardless of their social ranking. Accessibility (visitation) to parks and recreational areas has increased significantly all over the world. This scenario to some extent is the same in Hail city, where the area allocated for parks and open spaces is very small. Parks in Hail are still suffering from many planning and design aspects that discourage people from frequent visitations. This study, therefore, aims to address this phenomenon by examining the area allocated for parks and park attributes. The study’s data are collected from the relevant literature regarding parks and their attributes. An assessment tool is designed and utilized to evaluate parks in Hail. Google maps software was used to measure the areas of neighborhoods and parks in addition to park distribution. This study shows that the areas allocated for parks are far below WHO requirements, and park attributes do not fully meet all visitors’ requirements.
A Study of Modeling Techniques of Building Energy Consumption
Authors: Zerroug A. , Dzelzitis E.
Published: November 2020

Residential energy consumption accounts for more than 40% of the total energy consumed in the world. The residential sector is the biggest consumer of energy in every country, and therefore focusing on the reduction of energy consumption in this sector is very important. The energy consumption characteristics of the residential sector are very complicated and the variables affecting the consumption are wide and interconnected, so more detailed models are needed to assess the impact of adopting efficient and renewable energy technologies suitable for residential applications. The aim of this paper is to review some of the techniques used to model residential energy consumption. They are gathered in two categories: top-down and bottom-up. The top-down approach considers the residential sector as an energy sink and does not take into account the individual end-uses. The bottom-up approach uses the estimated energy consumption of a representative set of individual houses and extrapolates it to regional and national levels. Based on the strengths, shortcomings, and purposes, an analytical review of each technique, is provided along with a review of models reported in the literature.
Evaluation of Reactive Power Support Capability of Wind Turbines
Authors: Chung P. D.
Published: November 2020

Reactive power plays an important role in the operation of power systems, especially in the case of wind energy integration. This paper aims to evaluate the reactive power support capability of wind turbines in both normal and voltage sag conditions. The three 2MW wind turbines studied are a fixed speed wind turbine and two variable speed wind turbines with full-scale and power-scale power converters. Comparison results indicate that at normal operation, the fixed speed wind turbine with a static synchronous compensator is able to consume the highest reactive power, while the variable speed wind turbine with full-scale power converter can supply the highest reactive power. In case of low voltage, the fixed speed wind turbine with the static synchronous compensator can support the highest reactive power if the static synchronous compensator’s capacity is similar to the wind turbine’s capacity, while if its capacity is equal to 25% of the generator’s capacity, the variable speed wind turbine with full-scale power converter has the best performance.
Financial Mismanagement: A Leading Cause of Time and Cost Overrun in Mega Construction Projects in Pakistan
Authors: Shaikh F. A.
Published: November 2020

One important and well-known issue for the majority of construction projects such as buildings, roads, bridges, airports and many more projects all over the world is time and cost overrun. Project pricing and time period delay are also major issues. The current investigation is taking into consideration the mega construction projects in the provinces of Pakistan, looking into various components controlling and dominating time and cost overrun. A total of 29 factors were identified from literature work and one questionnaire was designed and distributed among 160 respondents. All collected data were analyzed by the average index method. Factors having value more than 3.6 were selected as main factors of cost and time overrun, and five factors were revealed to surpass this barrier. Time and cost overrun are of the leading financial mismanagement issues of the economy of Pakistan. This study will be helpful for stakeholders to control both cost and time overrun in the mega construction projects of Pakistan.
Perspectives of Heat Stroke Shield: An IoT based Solution for the Detection and Preliminary Treatment of Heat Stroke
Authors: Javed S. , Ghazala S. , Faseeha U.
Published: November 2020

Heat stroke is considered a major problem in Karachi, with a considerable number of people recorded as victims each year. The proposed Internet-of-Things (IoT) based heat stroke shield works under heat stroke conditions, depending on a heat index value (atmospheric temperature and humidity). The system comprises of a wristband, a hardware kit and an alert system which can pre-notify a wearer regarding his body parameter readings. Moreover, the system can also work as a problem solver, in heat stroke condition, by showering water on the victim. In both cases, an alert will also be generated to the wearer’s caretakers with his GPS location.
The Immersion Corrosion Resistance of Shot Peening and MAO Applied on AZ31−0.5% La Sheets
Authors: Elmansouri G. , Kara I. H. , Ahlatci H. , Turen Y.
Published: November 2020

In this study, the effect of Shot Peening (SP) and Micro Arc Oxidation (MAO) process on the corrosion resistance of 0.5% La with added AZ31 Mg alloy, hot rolled at different rolling speeds, was investigated. It was found that the surface of the rolled material at a rolling speed of 4.7m/min had higher surface smoothness values than the one rolled at 10m/min. It was observed that the corrosion rate changed in the first 40 of 168 hours. In the following hours, the corrosion rate showed different results according to the initial microstructure properties of the base materials. Initially, pore size was the dominant factor determining corrosion resistance, although, after coating, the corrosion rate was affected by the twins formed, based on rolling speed, which enhanced the corrosion rate between 48 and 168 hours.
Flow Assessment of Self-Compacted Concrete incorporating Fly Ash
Authors: Memon M. A. , Memon N. A. , Memon A. H. , Bhanbhro R. , Lashari M. H.
Published: November 2020

Flowability is one of the prime characteristics of good concrete and plays a key role in Self Compacting Concrete (SCC). This study assesses the flowability of SCC with reduced cement content which is replaced by fly ash. Several mixes were prepared by using 5% to 30% fly ash. From the experimental work it was realized that by adjusting a suitable percentage of Super Plasticizer (SP), fly ash dosage can be increased with satisfactory fresh properties of concrete in accordance with the guidelines of EFNARC. At T50cm time the optimum amount of SP was 2%. It was noted that with increase in dosage of fly ash the slump flow increased but T50cm and V-funnel time were reduced. J-Ring height value varied from 9 to 10 for all mixes.
Sliding Mode Observer and Event Triggering Mechanism Co-design
Authors: Amara H. E. , Latreche S. , Sid M. A. , Khemliche M.
Published: November 2020

Sliding mode observer and event triggering mechanism co-design is the subject of this paper. The synthesis of a sliding mode observer under any event triggering mechanism is given, where the proposed observer can be viewed as a special structure of the Kalman filter. Then, the event triggering condition is updated according to the coverage index value computed with the help of the reachability set representation. A numerical example illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Modeling of Fatigue Crack Propagation in Aluminum Alloys Using an Energy Based Approach
Authors: Khelil F. , Aour B. , Belhouari M. , Benseddiq N.
Published: November 2020

Materials fatigue is a particularly serious and unsafe kind of material destruction. Investigations of the fatigue crack growth rate and fatigue life constitute very important and complex problems in mechanics. The understanding of the cracking mechanisms, taking into account various factors such as the load pattern, the strain rate, the stress ratio, etc., is of a first need. In this work an energy approach of the Fatigue Crack Growth (FCG) was proposed. This approach is based on the numerical determination of the plastic zone by introducing a novel form of plastic radius. The experimental results conducted on two aluminum alloys of types 2024-T351 and 7075-T7351 were exploited to validate the developed numerical model. A good agreement has been found between the two types of results.
Application of using Hybrid Renewable Energy in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Al-Ammar E. A. , Malik N. H. , Usman M.
Published: November 2020

One of the major world wide concerns of the utilities is to reduce the emissions from traditional power plants by using renewable energy and to reduce the high cost of supplying electricity to remote areas. Hybrid power systems can provide a good solution for such problems because they integrate renewable energy along with the traditional power plants. In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia a remote village called Al-Qtqt, was selected as a case study in order to investigate the ability to use a hybrid power system to provide the village with its needs of electricity. The simulation of this hybrid power system was done using HOMER software.
Analysis of Void Growth and Coalescence in Porous Polymer Materials. Coalescence in Polymer Materials
Authors: Reffas S. A. , Elmeguenni M. , Benguediab M.
Published: November 2020

The use of polymeric materials in engineering applications is growing more and more all over the world. This issue requests new methodologies of analysis in order to assess the material’s capability to withstand complex loads. The use of polyacetal in engineering applications has increased rapidly in the last decade. In order to evaluate the behavior, the damage and coalescence of this type of polymer, a numerical method based on damage which occurs following several stages (nucleation of cavities, their growth and coalescence in more advanced stages of deformation) is proposed in this work. A particular attention is given on the stress-strain and the volumetric strain evolution under different triaxiality and for three initial void shapes. Its application to polyacetal allows approving this approach for technical polymers. Finally, this method allow us to compare the obtained results of basic calculations at different triaxiality and to discuss their possible influence on the initial size and the geometrical shape of the porosity on the material failure.
Steady State Stability Analysis and Improvement using Eigenvalues and PSS: A Case Study of a Thermal Power Plant in Jamshoro, Pakistan
Authors: Shahani Z. A. , Hashmani A. A. , Shaikh M. M.
Published: November 2020

The efficient handling and distribution of electrical power consist one of the most complex and appealing research problems. Due to the interconnection of different power plants and intensity of load, which gradually changes due to continuous change in load on generating units, careful treatment of the small disturbances in a power system which may lead to severe disturbance is necessary. Stability is an essential part in electrical power system operation and control. The stability problem is related with the behavior of synchronous machine after the power system is subjected to trouble. This work presents Steady State Stability (SSS) analysis of a Jamshoro Thermal Power Plant (JTPP) by using eigenvalue analysis of the different cases by varying load at three different positions. A mathematical model has been used for the JTPP with real data in order to examine the behavior of the system and to find the eigenvalues. A Simulink model of the JTTP for waveform analysis in MATLAB/Simulink has been used without and with Power System Stabilizer (PSS). Numerical quantification of the eigenvalues under the examined cases categorizes the stability of the system. The waveforms of the system are analyzed, and in cases of instability, the proposed procedure utilizing PSS helps in maintaining the system’s usual working conditions. The eigenvalue analysis and simulation results show the behavior of synchronous machines when loading changes gradually. The existing system becomes stable after more swings, whereas by using PSS in the existing system, stable regimes are attained in less time. The obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution for SSS examination and securing of the disturbances of the JTPP.
Tank Drainage for an Electrically Conducting Newtonian Fluid with the use of the Bessel Function
Authors: Khaskheli M. A. , Memon K. N. , Sheikh A. H. , Siddiqui A. M. , Shah S. F.
Published: November 2020

In this study, an unsteady flow for drainage through a circular tank of an isothermal and incompressible Newtonian magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) fluid has been investigated. The series solution method is employed, and an analytical solution is obtained. Expressions for the velocity field, average velocity, flow rate, fluid depth at different times in the tank and time required for the wide-ranging drainage of the fluid (time of efflux) have been obtained. The Newtonian solution is attained by assuming σΒ02=0. The effects of various developing parameters on velocity field υz and depth of fluid H(t) are presented graphically. The time needed to drain the entire fluid and its depth are related and such relations are obtained in closed form. The effect of electromagnetic forces is analyzed. The fluid in the tank will drain gradually and it will take supplementary time for complete drainage.
Effects of Heat Treatment on the Corrosion Behavior of ASTM A-36 Steel
Authors: Alenezi I.
Published: November 2020

The effects of different tempering temperatures and heat treatment times on the corrosion resistance of rolled ASTM A-36 steel in various concentrations of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sodium chloride (NaCl) were studied in this work, using the conventional weight loss measurement. Rolled and heat-treated specimens were placed in the acidic media for five days and for seven days in NaCl, respectively, and the corrosion rates were evaluated. The microstructure of steel before and after heat treatment was studied. Corrosion resistance revealed remarkable changes from the effect of tempering after water or oil quenching of steel. Generally, the corrosion rate increases from the effect of steel hardening. Tempering of water-quenched steel at 450Co for one hour highly improves the corrosion resistance of 0.27% carbon steel.
Evaluation of Power System Reliability and Quality Levels for (N-2) Outage Contingency
Authors: Alshammari B. M.
Published: November 2020

One of the main objectives of electric power utilities keeping up a continuous and adequate power supply to the customers at a sensible cost. This paper contributes to the solution of the reliability and quality assessment problems in power systems, using the (N-2) outage contingency scenario to evaluate power system’s reliability and quality levels. Therefore, the methodology presented in this paper is based on the integration of reliability measures, quality indices, and contingency analysis. While reliability formulas have traditionally been applied to small and illustrative power systems, large-scale reliability and quality assessment go far beyond direct implementation of formulas. Systems with hundreds of buses and tens of complex stations can only be analyzed using advanced and numerically effective large-scale algorithms for reliability and quality assessment as demonstrated in this paper.
Available Transfer Capability Determination for the Electricity Market using Cuckoo Search Algorithm
Authors: Duong T. L. , Nguyen T. T. , Nguyen N. A. , Kang T.
Published: November 2020

In the electricity market, power producers and customers share a common transmission network for wheeling power from generation to consumption points. All parties in this open access environment may try to produce energy from cheaper sources for greater profit margin, which may lead to transmission congestion, which could lead to violation of voltage and thermal limits, threatening the system security. To solve this, available transfer capability (ATC) must be accurately estimated and optimally utilized. Thus, accurate determination of ATC to ensure system security while serving power transactions is an open and trending research topic. Many optimization approaches to deal with the problem have been proposed. In this paper, Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA) is applied for determining ATC problem between the buses in deregulated power systems without violating system constraints such as thermal, voltage constraints. The suggested methodology is tested on IEEE 14 and IEEE 24-bus for normal and contingency cases. The simulation results are compared with the corresponding results of EP, PSO, and GWO and show that the CSA is an effective method for determining ATC.
Emission and Noise Characteristics of a Diesel Engine Fuelled with Diesel-Chicken Oil Biodiesel Blends
Authors: Khaskheli A. A. , Arain H. J. , Memon I. A. , Rajput U. A. , Ahsan M. J.
Published: November 2020

Biodiesel is a significant renewable, safe, and environmentally friendly source of energy that produces a lesser amount of greenhouse effect gasses. The studied biodiesel source is local chicken frying oil, synthesized by the trans-esterification process. In this research, the Particulate Matter (PM) exhaust gas emissions and sound emissions are examined. Emissions such as PM (PM1.0, PM2.5, PM7.0, and PM10), nitric oxides (i.e. NO and NO2), CO, CO2, and noise were investigated at variable loads with constant engine speed. Fuel samples, i.e. pure diesel (D100) and 20% Biodiesel (B20) and 30%Biodiesel (B30) blends were tested. Conventional diesel was found to emit more particulate and sound emissions, while B30 had lower emissions than B20 and conventional diesel. The lowest average values regarding exhaust gas emissions were 0.00690ppm for PM1.0, 7.44ppm for NO2 was, and 190.727ppm for CO, presented in B30. However, emissions from the engine decreased with an increase in the blending ratio of biodiesel. Furthermore, the lowest average value of CO2 was found in B30 and was about 1.457%.
Numerical Analysis of Density-Driven Reactive Flows in Hele-Shaw Cell Geometry
Authors: Bekkouche S. , Kadja M.
Published: November 2020

In this paper, a two-dimensional numerical simulation of the unsteady state of a two non-isothermal immiscible liquids layer system filling a reactor formed by two closely spaced parallel glass sheets, which is called an Hele-Shaw cell, vertically oriented, with an expected neutralization reaction between an acid and a base in the lower layer, under the action of gravity, is studied. Attention is given on the general behavior of the complete temporal pattern evolution (velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles) and the identification of the exothermic reaction’s role in giving birth to chemo-hydrodynamic patterns that occur because of concentration gradients. The effects of gravity and changes in initial acid and base concentrations on the formed patterns were studied. The mathematical model governing the phenomenon was solved numerically by the CFD software package COMSOL Multiphysics, with the finite element method and a comparison with the experimental data was made. The results show that this numerical tool is promising for the understanding of the reactive instabilities happening when two immiscible fluids come into contact.
Effects of Severe Plastic Deformation on the Mechanical Properties of Welded ST37-2 Steel
Authors: Sahhal A. , Gunay M.
Published: November 2020

Cold treatment techniques are used to enhance the mechanical properties of metal alloys, whose most important characteristics are strength, roughness, and microstructure. The aim of this research is to test the effect of Conventional Shot Peening (CSP) and Severe Shot Peening (SSP) on the mechanical properties of ST37-2 steel. The results of the experiments showed enhancements in surface roughness and tensile strength. However, shot peening decreased the ductility of the metal and caused changes in its microstructure that are indicated in the XRF and XRD tests. Results’ data are provided as an original contribution to the literature while they are compared with the existing data.
Optimal Location and Size of Distributed Generators in an Electric Distribution System based on a Novel Metaheuristic Algorithm
Authors: Ton T. N. , Nguyen T. T. , Truong A. V. , Vu T. P.
Published: November 2020

This paper proposes a method for optimizing the location and size of Distributed Generators (DGs) based on the Coyote Algorithm (COA), in order to minimize the power loss in an Electric Distribution System (EDS). Compared to other algorithms, COA does not need control parameters during its execution. The effectiveness of COA was evaluated in an EDS with 33 nodes for two scenarios: the optimization of location and capacity of DGs in an initial radial configuration, and the best radial configuration for power loss reduction. Results were compared with other methods, showing that the proposed COA is a reliable tool for optimizing the location and size of DGs in an EDS.
EDAMS: Efficient Data Anonymization Model Selector for Privacy-Preserving Data Publishing
Authors: Qamar T. , Bawany N. Z. , Khan N. A.
Published: November 2020

The evolution of internet to the Internet of Things (IoT) gives an exponential rise to the data collection process. This drastic increase in the collection of a person’s private information represents a serious threat to his/her privacy. Privacy-Preserving Data Publishing (PPDP) is an area that provides a way of sharing data in their anonymized version, i.e. keeping the identity of a person undisclosed. Various anonymization models are available in the area of PPDP that guard privacy against numerous attacks. However, selecting the optimum model which balances utility and privacy is a challenging process. This study proposes the Efficient Data Anonymization Model Selector (EDAMS) for PPDP which generates an optimized anonymized dataset in terms of privacy and utility. EDAMS inputs the dataset with required parameters and produces its anonymized version by incorporating PPDP techniques while balancing utility and privacy. EDAMS is currently incorporating three PPDP techniques, namely k-anonymity, l-diversity, and t-closeness. It is tested against different variations of three datasets. The results are validated by testing each variation explicitly with the stated techniques. The results show the effectiveness of EDAMS by selecting the optimum model with minimal effort.
Towards a New Model to Secure IoT-based Smart Home Mobile Agents using Blockchain Technology
Authors: Sabir B. E. , Youssfi M. , Bouattane O. , Allali H.
Published: November 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming an indispensable part of the actual Internet and continues to extend deeper into the daily lives of people, offering distributed and critical services. Mobile agents are widely used in the context of IoT and due to the possibility of transmitting their execution status from one device to another in an IoT network, they offer many advantages such as reducing network load, encapsulating protocols, exceeding network latency, etc. Also, Blockchain Technology is growing rapidly allowing for the addition of an approved security layer in many areas. Security issues related to mobile agent migration can be resolved with the use of Blockchain. This paper aims to demonstrate how Blockchain Technology can be used to secure mobile agents in the context of the IoT using Ethereum and a Smart Contract. The transactions within the Blockchain are used to detect the malevolent mobile agents that could infiltrate the IoT systems. The proposed model aims to provide a secure migration of mobile agents to ensure security and protect the IoT applications against malevolent agents. The case of a smart home with multiple applications is applied to verify the proposed solution. The model presented in this paper could be extended to a wider selection of IoT systems outside of the smart home.
Α Modified EMD-ACWA Denoising Scheme using a Noise-only Model
Authors: Tellala I. , Amardjia N. , Kesmia A.
Published: November 2020

This paper describes a modified denoising approach combining Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and Adaptive Center-Weighted Average (ACWA) filter. The Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs), resulting from the EMD decomposition of a noisy signal, are filtered by the ACWA filter, according to the noise level estimated in each IMF via a noise-only model. The noise levels of IMFs are estimated by the characteristics of fractional Gaussian noise through EMD. It is found that this model provides a better estimation of noise compared to the absolute median deviation of the signal used in the conventional method. The proposed EMD-ACWA scheme is tested on simulation and real data with different white Gaussian noise levels and the results are compared with those obtained by the conventional EMD-ACWA, EMD Interval Thresholding (EMD-IT) and wavelet methods. Test results show that the proposed approach has a superior performance over the other methods considered for comparison.
Extreme Wide Band MIMO Antenna System for Fifth Generation Wireless Systems
Authors: Alsaif H.
Published: November 2020

A new compact 2×2 Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna is presented in this paper, suitable for the new wireless communications. The proposed design also covers the complete ultra-wideband for short wireless systems. The antenna system is characterized by a super wideband covering radio frequency (RF) band starting from 2.97GHz to 19.82GHz. The MIMO system contains two ship-shaped monopoles with trimmed edges. These antennas are printed on a single layer of Rogers Duroid RT5880Lz with relative permittivity εr=1.96 and loss tangent δ of 0.0009. The overall size of the MIMO system is 20mm×47mm×1.6mm. The peak-achieved gain is 8.12dB with nearly omni-directional isotropic far field patterns. The design and simulation has been performed via an industrial simulation code.
Flood Hazard Spatialization Applied to The City of Batna: A Methodological Approach
Authors: Harkat N. , Chaouche S. , Bencherif M.
Published: November 2020

Flood flows can cause destruction to properties and infrastructure or even cost human lives. Batna is an Algerian city that is highly exposed to the risk of flooding, with an average of one flood every three to four years. The current methods utilized to analyze flood hazards are limited to the hydrology of the watershed. Limiting the analysis of flood hazards could mislead the decision-makers from proper management of such risks. The objective of the current study is to propose a simplified flood hazard model called HEC RAS-DTM (Hydrologic Engineering Centers River Analysis System (HEC RAS)-Digital Terrain Model (DTM)) and to evaluate it utilizing data gathered from the hydrological context and the hydraulic modeling of Batna city. The model entails two distinct phases. Initially, it attempts to use descriptive statistical methods based mainly on frequency analysis, which consists of studying flood flows in order to determine the probability of future flood occurrence. The analysis of the hydrological context of the city of Batna has revealed that peak flows from stream floods have been predicted at various return periods. Subsequently, HEC RAS was deployed to produce hydraulic modeling in order to extract the water heights and speeds corresponding to these expected flows. These data, along with DTM, are crucial for the spatialization of flood hazards. The hydraulic modeling and simulation using HEC-RAS and Geographic Information System (ArcGIS) of water flow at the two main valleys, Oued Batna and Oued El Gourzi, allowed predicting the extent of flooding that could occupy a large part of the city. The mapping of the flood hazard revealed the sectors that would be most exposed. The results obtained from the suggested model confirm that a significant portion of the city of Batna remains vulnerable to floods in relevance with the predicted flood return periods. The suggested model has indicated significant growth in flood locality. Additionally, the model was proved to be efficient for the analysis of flood flows, and it could easily substitute conventional analysis methods. Further studies or investigations are advised in order to replicate the study in different contexts. The article entails suggestions for properly managing flood risks. Future studies on flood risk alleviation in Batna city could be likewise considered.
Probabilistic Evaluation of a Power System’s Reliability and Quality Measures
Authors: Alshammari B. M.
Published: November 2020

Reliability and performance quality measures computed so far are deterministic in nature. They represent one operating state (a snapshot of the system conditions) in which the required demand and generation and transmission capacities are known with 100% certainty. In this paper, a general and coherent formulation is presented, which can be used to account for the randomness associated with the load level as well as the availability of generation and transmission capacities. The general probability formulation can be used to calculate various reliability indices and quality measures. The paper describes the new approach for computing probabilistic evaluation (expected value) of the reliability indices and performance quality measures and presents illustrative applications. The methodology used in this paper constitutes a new line of research in the probabilistic reliability evaluation of a system where the derived system-wide performance quality indices are capable of classifying and exhibitionistic areas of deficiencies, bottlenecks and redundancies in large-scale power grids.
Miniaturization of Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna for RFID Reader Applications
Authors: Mekki K. , Necibi O. , Boussetta C. , Gharsallah A.
Published: November 2020

This paper presents a Circularly Polarized Microstrip Patch Antenna (CPMPA) miniaturization with parasitic elements, suitable for UHF RFID systems. The antenna consists of a half E-shaped patch with cuts. A truncated corner patch can generate an additional Circular Polarization (CP) radiation mode and further enhance the axial ratio. Two symmetric cross shaped slots along the horizontal axis of the CPMPA have been embedded, and its dimension optimization has been based on parametric analysis. Thanks to this slotted structure and reduced surface area, good CP quality has been obtained with a 25% overall size reduction. The proposed antenna is lightweight, low profile, simple, and easily produced. The structure’s simulation is made using CST Studio Suite 2014 to compute return loss (S11), gain, and the axial ratio of the antenna while the overall miniaturized antenna’s volume is 77mm×58mm×1.6mm operating at 915MHz.
A Short Review of Influencing Factors of Islamic Architecture in Aleppo, Syria
Authors: Noaime E. , Osman A. , Said M. A. , Abdullah G. , Touahmia M. , Nasser Y. , Salah K. , Hassan M.
Published: November 2020

This research aims to examine Aleppo’s distinctive architectural design profiles, most precisely those of residential buildings, and to highlight factors that indicate how the Islamic culture influenced the architectural structure in the pre-civil war era. Descriptive research, observation, and documentation of architectural elements that determine the general characteristics of housing in the city of Aleppo were used. The study focused on Wakil and Zamriah houses as case studies because of their accessibility and excellent exemplary style. The current study sheds light on the history of Aleppo’s urban development and its influence by the Islamic civilization during the late Ottoman era up to the Syrian civil war in 2011. It is shown how Islamic civilization influenced Aleppo's residential buildings in terms of simplicity, respect for human scale, equality, and privacy.
A Survey of Road Accident Reporting and Driver’s Behavior Awareness Systems: The Case of Tanzania
Authors: Mrema I. J. , Dida M. A.
Published: November 2020

Road traffic accidents are a leading cause of death in developed and developing countries. It has been shown that road accident reporting systems could reduce their effects by minimizing response time and mapping road accident-prone areas. This paper provides an overview of the systems and applications for road accident reporting and drivers’ behavior awareness. A field survey, conducted in Dar es Salaam region in Tanzania, investigated the current state of road traffic accident reporting. Findings showed that the main means of reporting road accidents were physical reporting and police emergency phone calls. The absence of alternative means for reporting road accidents causes information delay and lack of precise accident location for the emergency first responders. This paper concludes by proposing a mobile application system for road accident reporting and drivers’ over-speed awareness, in order to improve road safety in developing countries.
Impact of Endogenous Risk Factors on Risk Cost in PPP Projects in Saudi Arabia
Authors: Alfraidi Y. , Alzahrani S. M. , Abdelhafez M. H. H. , Boussabaine H.
Published: November 2020

The formation of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) contracts is based on the grounds that the construction, progress, operation, and investment of a project must be allocated to a private organization under a contract. The risks associated with PPP projects are usually associated with resource improvement and development as well as the long-term operation of the project. It is known that cost and time overruns are among the obvious risks faced by a project during the development phase. Cost and time overruns are major sources of monetary risk. The risk and its impact may vary at different phases during the life cycle of a PPP project. In traditional procurement, all of the monetary risks are covered by the public sector. Most of the projects delivered under traditional procurement involve a price confirmation to indicate standard cost risks. This paper aims to investigate the impact of endogenous factors on budget overrun in PPP projects in Saudi Arabia. The paper briefly illustrates the content regarding the PPP risk evaluating systems and explains the association between risk occurrences and cost overrun in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The paper concludes with recommendations for future research.
Highly Stable Photonic Local Carriers for Phased Array Receiver System
Authors: Khan M. R. H. , Hoque M. A.
Published: November 2020

In this paper, a complete system analysis of photonic local carrier generation technique has been investigated. The generated carrier is potentially suitable to replace the existing microwave/RF Local Carrier (LC) used in commercial Low Noise Blocks (LNBs) for the Phased Array (PA) receiver system. The optical LC generated from heterodyning of two commercialized lasers is being stabilized with an Optical Frequency Lock Loop (OFLL). This approach resulted in a generated carrier at the Ku-band (10.7GHz to 12.75GHz) signal received from a PA receiver. Various loop parameters of the OFLL have been investigated to comply with the requirements of the commercial LNBs The proposed OFLL shows a 2400 fold improvement in the frequency stability at 1000s averaging time compared to its free running condition. It is also demonstrated that with an optimized loop gain of 30dB, the loop response time of the proposed OFLL becomes 11μs.
Solar Panel and Wireless Power Transmission System as a Smart Grid for Electric Vehicles
Authors: Bendib M. E. , Mekias A.
Published: November 2020

In this work, a smart grid system consisting of solar panels and a battery is presented for an electric or hybrid vehicle. For the integration of green power in our system, solar panels are used to charge the accumulator while the power exchange between the vehicle and the grid is realized by power wireless transfer. This paper presents the design, control, and tests of the wireless power transmission, using the basics of magnetic resonant coupling. Numerical data of the power transfer efficiency of the receiver are presented. Graphs are given to show the comparison of power and efficiency with the distance of the coils. Magnetic and electric models of the system are used to analyze the problem. Using the analysis outcome, a compromise is made to come to an acceptable design achieving both requirements. In particular, appropriate design parameters and resonance frequency are obtained. The analytical results are confirmed by 3D Finite Element Method (FEM) analysis.
Calculated Optimized Structure and Geometric Analysis of Oxygenated Fuel Additives: Alcohols and Ethers
Authors: Gurkan Aydin S. , Polat O. , Ozgen A. , Turali E.
Published: November 2020

Oxygenated fuel additives are added to gasoline in order to reduce the gases released from vehicle engines, to increase the octane number, and to expand the use of renewable resources. In this study, molecular and geometric analysis of oxygenated fuel additives was conducted theoretically and the energy values of optimized structures were calculated. The effect of molecular energy and the bond structure between C, H and O on the chemical and physical properties of some oxygen fuel additives were investigated. The obtained results will form the basis for future studies in obtaining more environmentally friendly fuels.
Robust Edge Detection Method for Segmentation of Diabetic Foot Ulcer Images
Authors: Mwawado R. H. , Maiseli B. J. , Dida M. A.
Published: November 2020

Segmentation is an open-ended research problem in various computer vision and image processing tasks. This pre-processing operation requires a robust edge detector to generate appealing results. However, the available approaches for edge detection underperform when applied to images corrupted by noise or impacted by poor imaging conditions. The problem becomes significant for images containing diabetic foot ulcers, which originate from people with varied skin color. Comparative performance evaluation of the edge detectors facilitates the process of deciding an appropriate method for image segmentation of diabetic foot ulcers. Our research discovered that the classical edge detectors cannot clearly locate ulcers in images with black-skin feet. In addition, these methods collapse for degraded input images. Therefore, the current research proposes a robust edge detector that can address some limitations of the previous attempts. The proposed method incorporates a hybrid diffusion-steered functional derived from the total variation and the Perona-Malik diffusivities, which have been reported to can effectively capture semantic features in images. The empirical results show that our method generates clearer and stronger edge maps with higher perceptual and objective qualities. More importantly, the proposed method offers lower computational times—an advantage that gives more insights into the possible application of the method in time-sensitive tasks.
Hydrodynamic Condition Modeling along the North-Central Coast of Vietnam
Authors: Cham D. D. , Son N. T. , Minh N. Q. , Hung N. T. , Tien Thanh N.
Published: November 2020

An extremely dynamic morphology of the estuary is observed in the coastal regions of Vietnam under the governing processes of tides, waves, and river system flows. The primary target of this paper is to provide insight into the governing processes and morphological behavior of the NhatLe estuary, located in the north-central coast of Vietnam. Based on measured data from field surveys and satellite images combined with numerical model simulations of MIKE and Delft3D, the influences of seasonal river flow, tides, and wave dynamics on the sediment transport and morphological changes are fully examined. The study showed that freshwater flow in the flood season plays a central role in cutting off the southern sandspit, maintain and shaping the main channel. The prevailing waves in winter and summer induce longshore drift and sediment transport in the southeast to northwest direction. In the low flow season, this longshore sediment transport is dominant, causing sediment to deposit on the southern side of the ebb tidal delta and elongating the southern sandspit which narrows the estuary entrance and reorients the main channel.
An Optimized Multilevel Inverter Topology with Symmetrical and Asymmetrical DC Sources for Sustainable Energy Applications
Authors: Manjunatha B. M. , Nagaraja Rao S. , Suresh Kumar A. , Shaguftha Zabeen K. , Lakshminarayanan S. , Reddy A. V.
Published: November 2020

This paper proposes an optimized Multi-Level Inverter (MLI) topology with symmetrical and asymmetrical DC sources for sustainable energy applications. The proposed MLI has optimized components to reduce size, cost, and installation area in comparison with traditional MLIs. It also improves output power quality by reducing harmonics in the stepped output, and hence it can be used for sustainable energy applications with a grid interface. The proposed inverter is equipped with six switching devices, one clamping diode, and two DC sources. It produces a five-level stepped output when using symmetrical DC sources and a seven-level stepped output when using asymmetrical DC sources. In this topology, the six switching devices are divided into two units, namely the level generator and the polarity generator units, the switches used in the level generator are responsible for producing the required number of levels in the form of rectified stepped output and the switches used in the polarity generator are responsible for converting the rectified stepped waveform to stepped AC output. The simulation results verify the operation of the MLI when fed with linear load with symmetrical and asymmetrical DC sources, and the experimental output results are presented for validation.
Multi-Objective Optimal Allocation of Electric Vehicle Charging Stations and Distributed Generators in Radial Distribution Systems using Metaheuristic Optimization Algorithms
Authors: Ponnam V. K. B. , Swarnasri K.
Published: November 2020

The acceptance rate of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the transport industry has increased substantially due to the augmented interest towards sustainable transportation initiatives. However, their impact in terms of increased power demand on the electric power market can increase real power losses, decrease voltage profile, and consequently decrease voltage stability margins. It is necessary to install Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCSs) and Distributed Generators (DGs) at optimal locations to decrease the EV load effect in the Radial Distribution System (RDS). This paper addresses a multi-objective optimization technique to obtain simultaneous EVCS & DG placement and sizing. The problem is formulated to optimize real power losses, Average Voltage Deviation Index (AVDI), and Voltage Stability Index (VSI) of the electrical distribution system. Simulation studies were performed on the standard IEEE 33-bus and 69-bus test systems. Harries Hawk Optimization (HHO) and Teaching-Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) algorithms were selected to minimize the system objectives. The simulation outcomes reveal that the proposed approach improved system performance in all aspects. Among HHO and TLBO, HHO is reasonably successful in accomplishing the desired goals.
Performance Analysis of Hyperparameters on a Sentiment Analysis Model
Authors: Kandhro I. A. , Jumani S. Z. , Ali F. , Shaikh Z. U. , Arain M. A. , Shaikh A. A.
Published: November 2020

This paper focuses on the performance analysis of hyperparameters of the Sentiment Analysis (SA) model of a course evaluation dataset. The performance was analyzed regarding hyperparameters such as activation, optimization, and regularization. In this paper, the activation functions used were adam, adagrad, nadam, adamax, and hard_sigmoid, the optimization functions were softmax, softplus, sigmoid, and relu, and the dropout values were 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4. The results indicate that parameters adam and softmax with dropout value 2.0 are effective when compared to other combinations of the SA model. The experimental results reveal that the proposed model outperforms the state-of-the-art deep learning classifiers.
Shunt Connected FACTS Devices for LVRT Capability Enhancement in WECS
Authors: Ganthia B. P. , Barik S. K. , Nayak B.
Published: November 2020

When a Double Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) primarily based Type-III Wind Turbine (WT) is connected to the grid without a digital power interface, the terminal voltage or reactive electricity output can’t be managed accordingly. Many techniques have been developed to overcome the issue of low voltage due to faults. This paper tries to define such active methods by presenting a complete analysis of LVRT strategies for DFIG-based Wind Energy Conversion Systems (WECS) in terms of overall adaptive performance, operation complexity of controllers, and cost-effectiveness. This paper aims to highlight the methods of increasing the ability of LVRT relying on the configuration of the relationship into 3 major areas according to its grid integrations. Shunt connections of FACTS devices are used in WECS to study their effectiveness and benefits. The system models are simulated in MATLAB/Simulink and the results are discussed.