bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Primary Standards for Pipeline Operation Safety and Security in China
Authors: Zheng Juan , Zhao Jinyun , Shui Biyuan , Wu Kaixuan , Zhang Lili
Published: July 2013

Over 40,000 kilometers of pipeline transporting natural gas, oil, and other hazardous liquids have been built from 2001 to 2010 in China. More than 100,000 kilometers pipeline will be constructed from 2011 to 2015. While being considered as an efficient and safe means, many pipelines carry materials with the risk to cause public injury and environmental damage. Pipeline safety and security issues involve with many groups: the government, oil and gas pipeline companies, and local communities. Standards play an important role to ensure these groups working together to achieve common goals. Pipeline operation safety and security mainly rely on the partial or complete incorporation of standards by reference. Standards Development Organizations (SDO) and pipeline companies have done lots of work to make the standards working well in the past ten years. The “standard analysis project” was one of them that were taken to improve pipeline safety and security.

This paper briefly reviews the primary standards which consist of national standards, industry standards and enterprise standards for pipeline operation safety and security. Combined with the technical development and the pipeline operation situation, the standards were analyzed, especially for the differences of technical specifications in the standards. Several aspects are pointed out as the key issues to improve pipeline operation safety and security standards, including pipeline integrity management standards, pipeline Safety Instrumented System standards, standards preventing pipeline from Third Party Damages, standards protecting environment from unexpected oil pollution, and permafrost areas pipeline operation and maintenance standards. In addition to the issues mentioned above, the related legislation situation in China is also taken into consideration. Keeping and improving pipeline safety and security is a task that not only needs the development of supporting standards but the implementation of the standards. According to the analysis results, SDOs will continue improving pipeline safety and security standards by launching relevant standard development projects and encouraging research and development achievements transfer to standards.
Assessment of the Complexity of Stress/Strain Conditions of X100 Steel Pipeline and the Effect on the Steel Corrosion and Failure Pressure Prediction
Authors: Xu Luyao , Cheng Frank Y.
Published: July 2013

In this work, a finite element (FE) model was developed to simulate the complex stress/strain conditions potentially exerted on the northern pipelines due to the synergism of internal pressure, soil strain and local stress/strain concentration at corrosion defects. The effects of pre-strain on corrosion of the steel and the pipeline failure pressure were investigated. Results demonstrated that a high intensity stress/strain field generates preferentially at the bottom of corrosion defect. The increase of operating pressure would increase the stress concentration at defect and the plastically deformed area. Both tensile and compressive soil strains increase the stress intensity and plastic deformation. Thus, a pipe containing corrosion defects or mechanical dents is susceptible to hoop cracking or local bulking under the tensile and compressive soil strains, respectively. Moreover, while an elastic strain enhances slightly the steel corrosion, the effect of plastic strain is much remarkable. In optimal pipeline design, the reliable risk assessment of high-strength steel pipelines should consider the corrosion enhancement and defect propagation under the complex stress/strain conditions.
Analysis and Testing of a 13Cr Pipeline to Demonstrate “Leak Before Break”
Authors: Andrews Robert M. , Millwood Neil , Tiku Sanjay , Pussegoda Nick , Hoekstra Menno , Smith Stephen
Published: July 2013

As part of a safety case for a subsea 13Cr pipeline, the operator wished to demonstrate that if a circumferential through wall crack developed, the crack would remain stable as a leak rather than growing to a full bore rupture. An initial fracture mechanics analysis had suggested that the margins on crack length were too small to make such a “leak before break” argument. This paper reports an integrated programme of small scale testing, numerical modelling and full scale testing which showed that a leak before break case could be made.

13Cr martensitic steel generally shows excellent toughness at the service temperature, as does the super duplex weld metal that was used for the girth welds. However, as the pipeline had been installed by reeling, there was some concern that the toughness may have been reduced. Hence a programme of fracture toughness testing was designed to generate tearing resistance curves for both as-received and pre-strained parent material and weld metal. Deep and shallow through thickness notched specimen geometries were tested to explore the effect of constraint on the toughness. Finite element analysis was used to predict the stress intensity for a range of crack lengths, including the effects of misalignment. Non-linear analyses were used to estimate the limit load for the cracked pipe. The test results were used as input to tearing analyses to Level 3 of BS 7910. These showed that the tolerable length of a through wall crack exceeded the length of anticipated defects by a factor of at least two.

To confirm the fracture mechanics predictions, two full scale tests were carried out. These used pressure cycling to grow a through wall crack by fatigue. These cracks were stable under an internal pressure equal to the pipeline design pressure. The cracked specimens were then axially loaded to failure. Extensive tearing occurred before final failure at loads above those predicted by the fracture analysis, confirming the conservatism of the predictions.
Applying the Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA) to Improve Safety Management of Oil and Gas Pipeline Stations in China
Authors: Feng Wenxing , Xiang Xiaoqiang , Jia Guangming , Dai Lianshuang , Gu Yulei , Yang Xiaozheng , Feng Qingshang , Zhou Lijian
Published: July 2013

The oil and gas pipeline companies in China are facing unprecedented opportunities and challenges because of China’s increasing demand for oil and gas energy that is attributed to rapid economic and social development. Limitation of land resource and the fast urbanization lead to a determinate result that many pipelines have to go through or be adjacent to highly populated areas such as cities or towns. The increasing Chinese government regulation, and public concerns about industrial safety and environmental protection push the pipeline companies to enhance the safety, health and environmental protection management.

In recent years, PetroChina Pipeline Company (PPC) pays a lot of attention and effort to improve employees and public safety around the pipeline facilities. A comprehensive, integrated HSE management system is continuously improved and effectively implemented in PPC. PPC conducts hazard identification, risk assessment, risk control and mitigation, risk monitoring. For the oil and gas stations in highly populated area or with numerous employees, PPC carries out quantitative risk assessment (QRA) to evaluate and manage the population risk. To make the assessment, “Guidelines for quantitative risk assessments” (purple book) published by Committee for the Prevention of Disasters of Netherlands is used along with a software package.

The basic principles, process, and methods of QRA technology are introduced in this article. The process is to identify the station hazards, determinate the failure scenarios of the facilities, estimate the possibilities of leakage failures, calculate the consequences of failures and damages to population, demonstrate the individual risk and social risk, and evaluate whether the risk is acceptable. The process may involve the mathematical modeling of fluid and gas spill, dispersion, fire and explosion. One QRA case in an oil pipeline station is described in this article to illustrate the application process and discuss several key issues in the assessment.

Using QRA technique, about 20 stations have been evaluated in PPC. On the basis of the results, managers have taken prevention and mitigation plans to control the risk.

QRAs in the pipeline station can provide a quantitative basis and valuable reference for the company’s decision-making and land use planning. Also, QRA can play a role to make a better relationship between the pipeline companies and the local regulator and public. Finally, this article delivers limitations of QRA in Chinese pipeline stations and discusses issues of the solutions.
Integrity Assessment of Interaction of Dents With Residual Stresses of Welds Using Probabilistic Design Analysis
Authors: Al-Muslim Husain Mohammed , Arif A. F. M.
Published: July 2013

The interaction of dent with the weld has always been considered a threat to the pipeline. Therefore, Codes and procedure impose more stringent rules than normally applied to plain dents. For example, ASME B31.8 considers dents deeper than 2% and interacting with welds to be injurious and requires an engineering assessment if they are to be left without repair. The objective of this paper is to present a new method of assessment that utilizes finite element analysis couples with probabilistic design analysis. In this paper, the impact of interaction of dent with longitudinal welds and girth welds will be under static and cyclic pressure conditions will be evaluated. The combined effects are included in a single FEA model and the welds will be simulated by imposing initial residual stresses along the weld line. The first part of the paper uses deterministic analysis to present strain and stress contours at the end of indentation stage as well as the stress range and fatigue cycles at the end of pressure cycle stage for a longitudinal weld case as well as girth weld case. The second part uses probabilistic design analysis with variable geometry, material and pressure in addition to the weld location and residual stress value to determine the sensitivity of the strain, stress, and stress range to the input. Two probabilistic design analyses are conducted: one for the interaction of dent with longitudinal welds, the other for the interaction of dent with girth welds.
Extreme Value Analysis of In-Service Robotic Storage Tank Floor Inspection
Authors: Kang Yewei , Wang Weibin , Lin Mingchun , Feng Zhanjun , Ren Zhong
Published: July 2013

Robotic technology is the most advanced quantitative in-service inspection technology for storage tank floor in the word, which can densely scan the tank floor and get thickness of tank floor without opening and cleaning the tank. Compared with the traditional sampling inspection with ultrasonic thickness gauge after opening the tank, in-service robotic inspection is more reliable and efficient. However in some situation robot can’t fully scan the tank floor due to the restriction of the internal structure of tank. Here the extreme value analysis (EVA) method is applied to the data process of robotic tank floor inspection to improve its reliability, and to make this technology adapt to the situation where there are some obstacles and unreached zones on the tank floor. The procedure of EVA is introduced in detail and an example based on field inspection data is demonstrated to verify the benefits of this method.
Simulation of Thermal Fields in the Permafrost With Seasonal Cooling Devices
Authors: Filimonov Mikhail Yu. , Vaganova Nataliia A.
Published: July 2013

A new mathematical model of heat distribution in permafrost soils is considered taking into account different climatic and physical factors. The first group of factors includes consideration of solar radiation, seasonal changes of air temperature, leading to periodic thawing (freezing) of soil, and possible snow layers. The second group of factors is the heterogeneity of the soil, the presence of a number of piles, or foundation structures, seasonal cooling devices. Seasonal cooling devices are vapor-fluid devices consisting of a hermetically sealed and seasoned with coolant, metal pipe with diameter 57 mm, length up to 10 meters or more, consisting of aerial parts (condenser fins) up to 2.5 meters and an underground part. These devices operate without external power sources only by the laws of physics. Taking into account these factors leads to solution of three-dimensional quasilinear heat distribution equation (quasi-linear equation due to the dependence of the thermophysical parameters on temperature) of the Stefan problem in a rectangular parallelepiped, but also with a nonlinear boundary condition at the soil surface associated with solar radiation. It is assumed that the lateral faces of the computational domain are insulated and are chosen sufficiently far from the location of engineering structures, and a computational grid of large dimension to be used, with adaptation to the heat (cold) sources. Software product is designed for numerical simulation of thermal fields in permafrost and melted soil, taking into account thermal diffusion properties of the soil and heat exchange between the soil and air, including also due to heat loss by radiation. The paper is devoted to the results of numerical simulations carried out for the project work in several oil and gas fields in Russia, located in the permafrost zone.
Seismic Design Guidelines to Mitigate Upheaval Buckling of Small Diameter Pipes
Authors: Shinkai Hajime , Hatsuda Yoshito , Suzuki Nobuhisa
Published: July 2013

This paper describes The Draft Seismic Design Guidelines to Mitigate Upheaval Buckling of Small Diameter Pipes which were reported by Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 2011. Upheaval buckling of small diameter gas pipes occurred in a high-pressure gas pipeline and three middle-pressure city lines due to the strong ground motion during the 2007 Niigata Chuetsu Offshore earthquake which was a powerful earthquake with moment magnitude of 6.6. A three year research program had been conducted since 2008 to investigate the upheaval buckling behaviors and develop seismic design guidelines to ensure seismic integrity of small diameter high-pressure gas pipelines and middle-pressure main distribution lines.
Digital Analysis of Rod Coupons for NACE Test Method TM0172: “Determining the Corrosive Properties of Petroleum Cargos”
Authors: Place Trevor , Murray Dave , Kosik Tom
Published: July 2013

NACE Test Method TM0172, “Determining the Corrosive Properties of Petroleum Cargoes” [1] is a simple and valuable test to determine whether refined products, such as motor fuels, are sufficiently dosed with inhibitor to prevent corrosion in the event that water enters the product stream. This test is based on optical examination of the area of the coupon affected by corrosion after a specified exposure to a hydrocarbon/water mixture. Letter “grades” from A to E are subjectively determined by the technician performing the test. Experience has shown that if enough inhibitor is present to produce B+ or better results as defined in this standard, general corrosion in flowing pipelines may be controlled. Grade “B+” or better represents a practical absence of corrosion (less than 5% area).

For the purposes of confirming a practical absence of corrosion, the subjective evaluation by a technician is adequate. However, as this test may be applied to less refined, uninhibited products where larger areas of corrosion may be observed, the letter grading does not provide discrimination within very wide ranges of corrosion affected area (20–25% of coupon area). Pipeline integrity managers interested in the relative susceptibility to internal corrosion caused by uninhibited hydrocarbons may be interested a higher level of corrosion discrimination and precision.

Enbridge Pipelines proposed a digital image analysis technique in 2009, and this technique has been developed, refined, and successfully employed by Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures (AITF). This paper discusses the development of this technique, as well as comparative results using both the original letter grading system and the digital analysis method. Other observations regarding the application of the TM0172 method on a variety of hydrocarbon categories are presented.
Cathodic Disbondment Testing Comparison of Carbon Fiber, Fiberglass, and Hybrid Composite Repair Systems for Pipelines
Authors: Green Matthew A. , Deaton Larry , Lazzara Christopher J.
Published: July 2013

Composite repair systems are being successfully and heavily utilized for the repair of a wide variety of pipeline systems operating at high internal pressures worldwide. Many of these pipelines employ cathodic protection systems as a preventative measure of insuring that the pipeline does not corrode. Even with advanced cathodic protection systems, there are still times that a pipeline may become damaged or corroded and composite repair systems are a popular choice. In order to qualify a composite repair system for use on a cathodically protected pipeline, the repair system must undergo specific testing to insure that there will be no issues of disbondment of the composite due to the cathodic protection system.

This paper discusses the testing of composite repair systems with varying fiber types, resins, and installation methods. Results have been gathered for several repair system options and indicate that there is variance in the results depending on the above mentioned variables. The results of each of these systems and the impact of the fibers utilized will be discussed and conclusions made as to the effect of cathodic protection on each.
Development and Production of Heavy Gauge X70 Pipeline Plate for Deep Water Pipe Applications at Shougang Steel
Authors: Li Shaopo , Jiang Zhonghang , Li Yongdong , Stalheim Douglas , Li Qun , Zhang Guodong
Published: July 2013

In recent years, there has been development of several significant offshore pipeline projects for the transmission of oil and gas from harsh, deep water environments. The production of gas transmission pipelines for offshore application demands heavy thickness, high strength, lower temperature toughness, good weldability and sour service crack resistance.

This paper reports on the experience with the production of linepipe up to 31.8mm in wall thickness grade X70 intended for offshore applications in China. The plate was produced at Shougang Steel’s 4.3 m heavy wide plate mill in Qinhuangdao China (Shouqin). Alloy/processing design along with production parameters are introduced. The achieved mechanical properties in both plate and pipe are reported. The pipe tensile test results in transverse and longitudinal directions achieved yield strength and ultimate tensile strength of 571MPa and 668MPa respectively, which are higher than plate yield and ultimate strengths of 510MPa and 658MPa respectively. The increase of strength during pipe making is due to the creation of a fine uniform acicular ferrite microstructure from the alloy/processing design. Even with this X70 strength level and heavy wall thickness the low temperature fracture toughness achieved was excellent. Transverse charpy impact testing resulted in absorbed average energy of 480 J @ – 20 °C with 100% shear. Drop weight tear testing (DWTT) achieved an average of 94% shear at −15 °C.

Evaluation of the heavy gauge X70 sour service performance was performed according to specifications of NACE TM 0284 and DNV-OS-F101 utilizing HIC and SSCC testing in low pH (∼3) solution A. The low carbon, low sulfur, clean steel and homogeneous fine acicular ferrite microstructure had extremely high resistance to HIC and SSCC failure in the testing. All of these results demonstrated that the heavy wall X70 production at Shougang Steel’s 4.3 m wide heavy plate mill (Shouqin) can meet the technical specifications of “The South China Sea Deepwater Gas Development” and DNV-OS-F101.
Analysis of Historical Failure Rates to Improve Risk Algorithms
Authors: Desjardins Guy , Cheng Kar Mun , Kariyawasam Shahani , Ong Boon , Kwong Pauline
Published: July 2013

As part of its ongoing continuous improvement efforts, TransCanada has analyzed the system-wide historical failure data to understand trends and benchmark risk algorithms. The analysis of historical in-service and hydrostatic-test failures is a good diagnostic tool to assess threats to the pipeline system. This knowledge and understanding can be used to build risk algorithms. Quantification of failure rates also enables risk values among different threats and along the pipeline to be benchmarked appropriately. This paper focuses on the assessment of the expected failure frequency of the pipeline to SCC and corrosion.
A Combined Approach to Characterization of Dent With Metal Loss
Authors: Wang Rick Yahua , Kania Richard , Arumugam Udayasankar , Gao Ming
Published: July 2013

Current in-line inspection technologies (e.g., Caliper/MFL or Combo) for mechanical damage characterization can detect dent with metal loss but with limited ability to discriminate metal loss between corrosion, gouge and crack with certainty. There are also some cases that metal loss signals were detected but not reported by ILI vendors because of either signals below threshold for reporting or other reasons. Practical experience showed that, with assistance of strain based dent analysis and strain limit damage criteria; detailed characterization of MFL tri-axial signals could effectively facilitate to discriminate metal loss features and identify potential risk of cracks or gouges in the dent. In this paper, the newly developed approach is utilized to identify the critical dents in the pipelines and discriminate those dents associated with metal loss reported by combined ILI technologies. A case study was performed with four real dent features, as an example to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. The details of the case study, results and findings are summarized in this paper.
Accounting for Natural Crack Growth Shapes During Environmental Cracking
Authors: Shim Do-Jun , Brust Fredrick , Wilkowski Gery
Published: July 2013

Environmental cracking, such as stress-corrosion cracking (SCC), is a significant issue for a variety of industries, such as those dealing with power generation — nuclear, oil and gas production, and pipeline transmission, etc. SCC is particularly of concern in that catastrophic failures can occur even at low applied stress levels (e.g., residual stress produced by welding). Thus, it is critical to evaluate the behavior of SCC for structural integrity assessments.

In this paper, three different crack growth methods (i.e., idealized crack growth analysis, crack growth analysis using finite element alternating method; FEAM, and the natural crack growth method) are summarized. These methods all utilize the stress intensity factor for crack growth evaluations. Thus, these methods can be used for assessment of environmental cracking that is based on stress intensity factor. Various examples are shown in this paper to demonstrate the applicability of these methods. Comparisons of results obtained from different methods are also provided in this paper.
Structural Integrity Assessment Criteria and Service Life Prediction of Cold Wrinklebends
Authors: Zhu Xian-Kui , Leis Brian N.
Published: July 2013

Three-dimensional elastic-plastic finite element analysis (FEA) is performed in this paper to simulate the complicated stresses and deformation of wrinklebends in a pipeline from its bending formation to operation under cyclic loading. Three plastic hardening models (isotropic, kinematic and combined isotropic/kinematic) are discussed and used in FEA of wrinklebend response that considers strain hardening and Bauschinger effects. The FEA simulation is carried out first for an elbow held at constant pressure while subject to cyclic bending, which serves as a benchmark case. The results show that the three hardening models lead to very different outcomes. Comparable FEA simulations are then developed for wrinklebends under cyclic pressure. Detailed parametric analysis is considered, including finite-element type, element sensitivity, computation time, and material input data. Based on those results viable nonlinear FEA model is developed as the basis to quantify wrinklebend response under service-like conditions. Based on the FEA results, fatigue damage is quantified using the Smith, Watson and Topper (SWT) parameter, and thereafter a damage criterion is proposed to predict the fatigue life of a wrinklebend under the pressure cycles of 72%–10% of SMYS for typical X42 pipeline steel. The results show that the wrinkle aspect ratio H/L is a key parameter to control the service life of a wrinklebend.
On the Influence of the Fluid Dynamics Over the Valve Line Break Set Point in a Dual Phase Gas Pipeline
Authors: Baptista Renan Martins , de Oliveira Paulo Henrique Mello , dos Santos Renata Nunes Ramos , da Silva Marcos José Moraes
Published: July 2013

Shut down valves (SDV) actuated by a reaction against a pressure decay are an approach to face pipeline leakages, full ruptures, amidst several other important operational events. They are ordinarily employed at single phase pipelines throughout the world. Their usage at a dual phase gas pipeline is however subjected to specific scenarios in which their actuators (usually line breaks) are not impacted somehow by the presence of liquids, and other particular effects of fluid dynamics.

This paper approaches a study based on dual phase numerical flow simulations, using a commercial flow simulator, performed for a Brazilian pipeline, in which a relevant amount of liquid is always present, as well as one or two pigs. The main focus is on the upper bound of the time derivative of pressure distributed along the developed length, aiming to produce a sensitivity analysis, describing situations in which this variable may falsely and appropriately trigger a SDV closure.

As most of other important flow events, the critical moment is when the pig approaches the pipeline tail, when major variations on important variables such as flow, pressure and holdup are experienced. Those effects may be deeply augmented when worst case scenarios are imposed and coupled with pigs’ arrivals/withdrawals, such as a pipeline blockage at it’s head or flow rate relevant increase at the tail. These scenarios are simulated and analysed, and the way pressure may relate to the dimensioning of line brakes, is commented.
Fitness-for-Service Analysis of Skelp-End Welds in Spiral Pipes
Authors: Liu Ming , Wang Yong-Yi , Rapp Steve
Published: July 2013

For large diameter spiral pipes, there can be one skelp-end weld (SEW) in every 5–7 joints of pipes. The industry acceptance of SEWs is uneven although API 5L permits SEWs in finished pipes. A joint industry project (JIP) [1] was formed to develop uniformly acceptable inspection and test plans (ITPs) for SEWs. The development was conducted through two parallel processes: (1) fitness-for-service analysis of the SEWs under a variety of loading conditions expected in their life time and (2) consensus building based on the best practice and quality control protocols.

This paper details the fitness-for-service analysis of SEWs. A companion paper provides a summary of the recommended ITPs developed in the JIP [2]. In the fitness-for-service analysis, the SEWs were subjected to a variety of loading conditions covering construction, commissioning, and normal service with and without internal pressure. For in-service loading, both static and cyclic loading was considered. The extensive fitness-for-service analysis demonstrated that there is no inherent integrity risk associated with the SEWs when these welds are manufactured, tested, and inspected using generally accepted quality control measures applied to helical seam welds. Additional inspection and quality control for coil end properties and T-joints are recommended in the companion paper.
Fate and Transport Modeling: Quantifying Potential Impacts for Pipeline Integrity and Emergency Response Preparedness
Authors: Humber Jason , Cote Edgar Ivan , Glass Mitch , Denby Allison
Published: July 2013

Regulations for pipeline operators within the Oil and Gas Pipeline Industry are becoming increasingly rigorous especially in the fields of pipeline integrity and emergency response and as such the need for equally rigorous approaches to analyzing, understanding, managing, and reporting of the effects of a pipeline release has increased.

Trans-Northern Pipelines (TNPI) undertook a detailed fate and transport modeling project for its Ontario and Quebec based pipeline systems. These pipeline systems are relatively complex products delivery systems that handle multiple fluids and, for some pipeline segments, allow for flow in either direction. The goals of the project included understanding and improving risk management of the systems through consequence reduction and to identify and quantify potential impact to surrounding areas and risk receptors within the vicinity of the pipeline systems. The receptors are the focal points that receive the negative impact if there is a leak (i.e. pin-hole, small and large scenarios) or rupture of the pipeline. These can include health/safety, environmental, property damage, reputation and public disruption, and financial impacts.

The outcomes from the project included a continuum of potential release volumes along the pipeline systems for each product and operational scenario from which a spatial representation of the potential impact areas (due to overland flow) along the pipeline system were derived and locations were identified where potential release volumes (i.e. initial and drain down volumes) could affect streams and could possibly be transported along the stream. Potential impact areas and representations of the stream transport were used to identify possible risk receptors.

A unique aspect to this modeling project was that it was undertaken utilizing a four dimensional (4D) model thus allowing for the results to be visualized within a GIS and as animations; both of which facilitated visualization of potential release impact over time (e.g. a 48 hour period). Utilizing the time domain provided unique insights that were used to augment TNPI’s emergency response plan.

Based on a review of the preliminary results Trans-Northern undertook additional effort to investigate what-if scenarios for valve placement. The purpose of these what-if scenarios was to quantify the improvement of additional valves on lowering the overall potential impact and thus allowing for a quantitative basis for valve placement.
High Throughput Electrohydrodynamic-Jet Printing System
Authors: Sutanto Erick , Alleyne Andrew G. , Shigeta Kazuyo , Rogers John A. , Barton Kira L.
Published: July 2013

This paper discusses the design and implementation of a multi-nozzle printhead for simultaneous Electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) printing for high resolution devices. The E-jet process combines high resolution printing with a large variety of printing materials, making E-jet suitable for applications ranging from flexible electronics to high resolution biosensors. Throughput improvement is critical to fully realize the potential of this emerging manufacturing process. This paper addresses this need by introducing a high resolution multi-nozzle printhead. In this work, an initial characterization of the electrostatic interference introduced in the multi-nozzle design is performed and a significant decrease in printing time is demonstrated. This research shows that a 2 micron nozzle can be placed within 80 microns of another nozzle without eliciting an electrostatic interference during printing. Additionally, the use of a 3 nozzle printhead resulted in a corresponding 3 times reduction in printing time for a single device without loss of part fidelity. This work demonstrates that arrays of E-jet printheads have the potential to radically improve the throughput of the process, which will lead to new applications and improved performance for this promising technology.
A Multimodal Environment for the Simulation and Training of Maintenance Operations: A Case Study
Authors: Ferrise Francesco , Bordegoni Monica , Cugini Umberto
Published: July 2013

The paper describes the development of a multimodal environment that can be used as a tool to train operators to perform maintenance tasks of industrial products during their lifecycle. The environment provides a visual and haptic representation of a product through the use of commercially-available hardware and software technologies. The new environment mixes interactive simulations of products, based on Virtual Reality technologies, and the information included in the traditional instruction manuals. The paper discusses about what can be effectively simulated with the available technology, and how the current technological limitations can be overcome by using the potentialities offered by a multimodal approach. Technology limitations can also be overcome by mixing two different strategies for coupling parts: the physics-based and the constraint-based approach. A case study provided by a company working in the field of household appliances has been used to prove the concept, to develop, test and finally refine the multimodal environment. The paper describes the development of the multimodal environment and presents the results of the user tests.
Prognosis Informed Stochastic Decision Making Framework for Operation and Maintenance of Wind Turbines
Authors: Tamilselvan Prasanna , Wang Yibin , Wang Pingfeng , Twomey Janet M.
Published: July 2013

Advances in high performance sensing and signal processing technology enable the development of failure prognosis tools for wind turbines to detect, diagnose, and predict the system-wide effects of failure events. Although prognostics can provide valuable information for proactive actions in preventing system failures, the benefits have not been fully utilized for the operation and maintenance decision making of wind turbines. This paper presents a generic failure prognosis informed decision making tool for wind farm operation and maintenance while considering the predictive failure information of individual turbine and its uncertainty. In the presented approach, the probabilistic damage growth model is used to characterize individual wind turbine performance degradation and failure prognostics, whereas the economic loss measured by monetary values and environmental performance measured by unified carbon credits are considered in the decision making process. Based on the customized wind farm information inputs, the developed decision making methodology can be used to identify optimum and robust strategies for wind farm operation and maintenance in order to maximize the economic and environmental benefits concurrently. The efficacy of proposed prognosis informed maintenance strategy is compared with the condition based maintenance strategy and demonstrated with the case study.
3-D Image Measurement System for Small Machine Parts With Glossy Metal Surfaces
Authors: Sato Motoyoshi , Shimamoto Ryo , Mizoguchi Masanobu
Published: July 2013

Keeping core parts of machines in proper condition is essential to improving productivity and quality of products. Metallic wear of knitting needles for circular knitting machines should be controlled within specific conditions. Currently, inspections of them are visually performed by skilled examiners, and automated inspection systems, which can measure 3-D shapes, are demanded. Because the needles have mirror glossed, complexly shaped surfaces, conventional lighting method, such as dome lights and diffuse on-axis lights, cannot irradiate the light evenly throughout the object and causes brightness unevenness, and that leads to 3-D measurement errors in image processors. To increase accuracy, we propose a new 3-D measurement system which equips omnidirectional EL (electroluminescence) lightings and DEHF (Dynamic Enhancement of High Frequency) method. Here, the system applies the shape from focus method, which moves the optical system vertically with respect to the fixed object and obtains a sequence of images that correspond to different levels of object focus. In the formation process of shallow depth of field microscopic images, a defocused imaging system plays the role of a low-pass filter. For this reason, the regions with high frequency components can be regarded as a focused area. The high frequency components are finally regarded as the contour of the object by the method. It recovers the 3-D shape of the object by estimation of height of the contours each image and arranging in the original order of the sequence of the height of the contours. The followings are novelties of our proposed system.

Firstly, omnidirectional EL lightings irradiate an object with uniform lights from all directions. They are composed of the following lights: coaxial through objective lens, object lens perimeter, side and bottom lights, and each of which can adjust brightness; therefore they can reduce unevenness of brightness on the object. We adopted inorganic EL sheet as the lighting device. EL sheet is capable of plane emission and prevent the occurrence of the unevenness of the irradiated light by the point source of light.

Secondly, algorithm for shape from focus can be improved by our DEHF method. Even if the above lightings are applied, there still remains low frequency non-uniformity of brightness. DEFH method removes the low frequency by subtracting mean filtered image from original one, and remaining high frequency content can be emphasized.

We built a microscope based prototype system and conducted experiments. Through them, the validity of our proposed method was confirmed.
A Combined Approach for Production Scheduling and Routing of Automated Guided Vehicles With Layered Time-Space Network
Authors: Hara Yuta , Umetani Shunji , Morita Hiroshi
Published: July 2013

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) are useful for material handling in case that a working area is narrow and layout changes frequently in a factory, such as container terminals and semiconductor fabrications. In the conventional studies, routing of AGVs is usually considered under a given optimal production schedule [1]. However, for the efficient processing operation in overall factory, it is necessary to consider the influence between production scheduling and transportation planning of AGVs.
A Two-Stage Model Based Iterative Learning Control Scheme for a Class of MIMO Mismatched Linear Systems
Authors: Chen Wenjie , Tomizuka Masayoshi
Published: July 2013

This paper discusses the tracking control problem for a class of multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) mismatched linear systems, where there are disturbances in different channels from the control input and the real-time feedback signal is not the output of interest. This mismatch makes it difficult to achieve high tracking performance for the interested output. To address this problem, two model based iterative learning control (ILC) algorithms, namely reference ILC and torque ILC, are designed for different injection locations in the closed loop system. An ad hoc hybrid scheme is proposed to make transitions between the two ILC stages for them to work properly at the same time. The proposed scheme is validated through the experimental study on a single-joint indirect drive system.
A New Heuristic for Traveling Salesman Problem Based on LCO
Authors: Yokoyama Soichiro , Suzuki Ikuo , Yamamoto Masahito , Furukawa Masashi
Published: July 2013

The Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) is one of the most well known combinatorial optimization problem and has wide range of application. Since the TSP is NP-hard, many heuristics for the TSP have been developed. This study proposes a new heuristic for the TSP based on one of these heuristics named Local Clustering Optimization (LCO). LCO is a metaheuristic proposed by Furukawa at el. to give an accurate solution for large scale problems in a reasonable time. However, conventional LCO-based heuristics for the TSP is not suited to solving asymmetric instances. The proposed method iteratively adopts tour construction heuristics such as nearest neighbor and random insertion to get an accurate solution more efficiently for the both asymmetric and symmetric TSP. The proposed method and other heuristics are applied to benchmark instances from TSPLIB and randomly generated instances. The experiment shows the proposed method is superior to conventional LCO in terms of accuracy of the solution. However, the proposed method is inefficient for instances which are not close to Euclidean due to the same property of insertion heuristic.
Drivability Control to Optimize the Operating Freedom in the Hybrid Vehicle Propelling System
Authors: Moriwaki Katsumi
Published: July 2013

A method of drivability control is newly developed for hybrid vehicles. One of the significant advantages of this mechod is to make the most of operating freedom in a propelling system without disturbing drivability. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the significance of the oprating freedom, and then to deccribe the basic concept of the control method and its applications.

The drive control is preformed by tracking to satisfy a drive control criterion, which is given as a function of the accelerator pedal position, the vehicle velocity and its acceleration. The criterion, which does not include any characteristics of a power source, facilitates the effective utilization of the operating freedom.
A Heuristic Method for Minimizing Makespan in M-Stage Hybrid Flowshop
Authors: Morizawa Kazuko , Hirabayashi Naoki
Published: July 2013

This paper deals with a scheduling problem to minimize makespan in m-stage hybrid flowshop with unrelated parallel-machines at least one stage. Since the problem is known to be NP-hard, a two-phase heuristic algorithm is proposed to obtain a near-optimum schedule efficiently. In the first phase of the proposed algorithm, some promising schedules with an identical job-sequence to all stages are generated by applying NEH algorithm in various ways, and then search better schedules by applying some heuristic job-moving strategies to these schedules in the second phase. Numerical experiments are implemented to demonstrate that the proposed method can provide a near-optimum schedule within a reasonable computation time.
Modernizing Rail Inspections for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Authors: Gartrell Chad , Reagan Judy , Carter Caleb
Published: July 2013

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) executes inspection programs as part of the U.S. Army Transportation Infrastructure Program (ATIP). These inspection, monitoring and assessment programs include airfields, bridges, dams, railroads, waterfront facilities and ranges. To date, the process for these inspection programs has been manually intensive, time consuming and difficult to scale. The US Army Corps is bringing digital business and spatial data collection methods to its inspection program for the military’s railroad infrastructure. By combining GPS and GIS technologies into a mobile data collection solution, added efficiency and data quality has been brought to the field inspection workflow. This modernization effort also results in streamlined data processing and reporting. These improved processes will lead to higher quality data, better analysis of the new richer data content and better decisions made by the end users and stakeholders.
Rail Track Defect Detection Using Derivative Wavelet Transform
Authors: Taheri Shahyar , Taheri Saied
Published: July 2013

Railroad track monitoring systems are used for finding rail defects that may lead to a derailment of the train. The classical limit-value based defect detection systems are simple but are limited in their capability to detect small defects. As a cutting-edge supervision method, signal derivative filters can help to reveal information in the acceleration signal collected while the train is moving on the rail. The derivative filters are designed based on the required performance of the application. However, their design should be done with caution because they can greatly amplify the noise in the data, especially in high frequencies.

Derivative filters can be implemented in the sample domain of space or time. The derivative filters in time domain are not always sufficient to study all the features of a signal. To explore the signal content, wavelet transformation was chosen, because it gives accurate description of the frequency contents according to their position in time. It should be noted that the wavelet transform that gives the derivative of a signal, has the properties of smoothing and differentiation.

The proposed algorithm processes the data using continuous and discrete derivative wavelets filters, and is able to locate defects and provide information that may help to distinguish between various types of rail and wheel defects, including rail cracks, squats, corrugation, and wheel out-of-rounds. The wavelet-based algorithm developed was applied to a sample accelerometer signal and the results show the potential of this algorithm to locate and diagnose defects from limited bogie vertical acceleration data.
Energy Harvesting Under Combined Aerodynamic and Base Excitations
Authors: Bibo Amin , Daqaq Mohammed F.
Published: July 2013

This paper investigates the transduction of a piezoaeroelastic energy harvester under combined base and aerodynamic loadings. The harvester consists of a typical rigid airfoil supported by hardening flexural and torsional springs. The airfoil is placed in an incompressible air flow and subjected to a harmonic base excitation in the plunge direction. Considering a nonlinear quasi-steady aerodynamic model, the response behavior and electric output of the harvester are analyzed near the flutter instability. A center manifold reduction is implemented to reduce the original five-dimensional system into one nonlinear first-order ordinary differential equation. Subsequently, the normal form of the reduced system is derived to study slow modulation of the voltage amplitude and phase. Several case studies are presented indicating a considerable improvement in the output voltage of the harvester under the combined loading even when the air speed is below the flutter velocity, i.e., even when the harvester cannot maintain steady-state periodic oscillations in the absence of the harmonic base excitation. It is also shown that, when the base-excitation amplitude is sufficiently large and its frequency is close to the frequency of the self-sustained limit-cycle oscillations emanating from the flutter instability, the periodic solution resulting from the base excitation entrains the self-sustained oscillations yielding a periodic output voltage. However, when the excitation frequency is far from the limit-cycle frequency, or the amplitude of base excitation is small, the voltage is two-period quasiperiodic.
Modelling of Mechanical Nonlinearity in an Electromagnetic Vibration Energy Harvester Using a Forced Duffing Equation
Authors: Moss S. D. , Vandewater L. A. , Galea S. C.
Published: July 2013

This work reports on the modelling and experimental validation of a bi-axial vibration energy harvesting approach that uses a permanent-magnet/ball-bearing arrangement and a wire-coil transducer. The harvester’s behaviour is modelled using a forced Duffing oscillator, and the primary first order steady state resonant solutions are found using the homotopy analysis method (or HAM). Solutions found are shown to compare well with measured bearing displacements and harvested output power, and are used to predict the wideband frequency response of this type of vibration energy harvester. A prototype harvesting arrangement produced a maximum output power of 12.9 mW from a 12 Hz, 500 milli-g (or 4.9 m/s2) rms excitation.