Designs

A deep research and analysis of a “critical waste” object has been carried out, understood as a subject that does not fare high on the separate collection and recycling system yet: the cigarette butt. This acknowledged social waste is the first among all the garbage detected everywhere around neighborhoods worldwide, and is therefore the epicenter of a situation so worrying that it is necessary to find a solution concerning the environmental pollution. The present exercise was developed, by means of proper product design methods like TRIZ and QFD driven by DFSS rulings, to conceive of new products and services in order to create incentive for the smokers to lessen the environmental pollution problem. The social implications are about the possibility of modifying the bad habits of the smokers and making the user act consciously towards the environment. Throwing the cigarette-stub in the new collection device, rather than on the ground, enables users to enjoy both moral and economic returns. The “Buttalo” service is aimed to incentivize the population to fight against environmental pollution whilst helping smokers to be conscious about it. Full article

Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) are the backbone of the intelligent transportation system, which consists of high-speed vehicles with huge dynamic mobility. The communication takes place with a vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle to infrastructure, with traffic signals. The major flaw of this kind of network is that due to high mobility in VANETs, the communication overhead is so high that it directly affects the efficiency of the network. Security is also holding a vital role in VANETs. The attackers can easily capture vehicle details of this type. To overcome this drawback, security should also need to get improved. This paper introduces Elliptical Curve Cryptography with Generic Algorithm based Privacy-Aware Secure Routing (ECC-GA-PASR), which is the combination of two methods such as optimal RSU distribution and elliptical curve cryptography (ECC) based authentication. RSU distribution is optimized by using the generic algorithm (GA) as well as to improve the authentication in trusted authority (TA) ECC algorithm is used. By using these two concepts, the proposed method reduced the communication overhead and increased the security of the network. The simulation is conducted throughput NS2 and SUMO. The performance analysis is performed concerning vehicle count, varying speed, and malicious activities. The parameters that are concentrated for this performance analysis are energy efficiency, packet delivery ratio, overhead, and packet loss. The performance of the proposed method is calculated and compared with earlier works such as S-AODV, ES-AODV, and ECC-ACO-AODV. Compared with the earlier works, the proposed ECC-GA-PASR produced 15% better efficiency, 12% better packet delivery ratio, 50% lower overhead, and 30% lower packet loss. Full article

Nature is a continuous source of inspiration for scientists and engineers for creating innovative products. In the past decade, many methods, frameworks, and tools have been developed to support the design and development of biologically inspired products. This research provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art bio-inspired design methods and identifies that there is a need for the development of methods to support multifunctionality in design. Although there are several methods that assist in the development of multifunctional designs inspired by biology, there is still a gap identified in the emulation and integration of biological features to achieve multifunctional bio-inspired designs. This paper presents a comparative analysis of the current methods for multifunctional bio-inspired design based on nine specific criteria and, in the end, introduces a new design method called Domain Integrated Design (DID) that will further aid in the generation of multifunctional design concepts inspired from biology. Full article

Lignocellulosic materials are a mixture of natural polymers which can be considered a great alternative source of chemical products and energy. Hence, pinewood, poplar wood, and rice straw, as representatives of different types of lignocelluloses, were subjected to several pretreatment types in order to increase ethanol production yield. All pretreatments increased enzymatic hydrolysis and ethanol yield, specifically pretreatment with phosphoric acid. This pretreatment increased ethanol yields by 304.6% and 273.61% for poplar wood and pinewood, respectively, compared to untreated substrates. In addition, a number of analyses, including a BET test, buffering capacity, crystallinity, accessible surface area, and composition measurement, were conducted on the pretreated substrates to investigate their structural modifications in detail. Accessible surface area, as one of the most important parameters for performance of enzymes and microorganisms in the fermentation process, was examined by the water retention value test. The results of this method (using centrifuge) showed that the maximum accessible surface area was related to the pretreated samples with phosphoric acid so that it increased WRV to 132.19%, 149.41%, and 68.44% for poplar wood, pinewood, and rice straw, respectively, as compared to untreated substrates. On the whole, pretreatments restructured and opened up the tangled structure of lignocelluloses, resulting in a considerable increase in ethanol yields. Moreover, in this study, for the first time, a new correlation was presented for each substrate which indicates the relationship between ethanol yield and structural features of the lignocellulosic substrate. Full article

Today’s residential electricity management depends heavily on the Internet of Things (IoT). It is still challenging to create practical, affordable smart condition monitoring, protection, and control systems for residential distribution networks. The performance of the developed system is evaluated for a variety of residential electric loads with different energy consumption patterns. In this paper, a photovoltaic tracking system and also a cleaning system will be connected to a smart board. All input data will be gathered and sent over Bluetooth using a working prototype built on an Arduino board. The mobile application is also used to let individual users monitor the system in real-time, alert users about electrical system issues, display their energy use in real time, and provide other essential alerts and warnings. Full article

The development of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) applications and products is closely related to the market penetration of the renewable energy technologies. With the initial aim of matching the phase shift between resource availability and demand in solar energy systems, the range of PCM applications expanded rapidly during the last decades, entering economic sectors where some form of passive thermal regulation was required. This review focuses on examining both conventional applications and recent advances and niche areas—such as space applications—where PCM-based systems demonstrated a potential to improve the operation at process level. The literature survey conducted here gave special attention to recent application of PCM-based systems such as data centres cooling and electric vehicles battery thermal management. Recent advances in PCM-based systems designs were surveyed in the second part of the article. The main PCM containment and system integration directions were discussed and recent representative studies were discussed. Some topics considered marginal but nevertheless essential to large scale implementation of PCM-based systems were mentioned and their coverage in the literature was assessed: health risks, environmental and lifecycle issues. Full article

The coordination of two collaborative robots to handle and hold huge parts is the main topic of this research. This study shows how flexible systems may accommodate large-volume components while situating components with a displacement precision between robots of no more than 10 mm into the parts, with the assistance of a single operator. The robots must be able to keep the parts in place while coordinating their movements to handle the parts and reducing external stressors. This paper suggests using collaborative robots to integrate flexible tools for adaptability to various elements in order to accomplish this goal without endangering the operators. The software architecture is described in full in this paper, including machine states to choose task executions, robot referencing in the workspace, remote monitoring via the digital twin, generation paths, and distributed control using a high-level controller (HLC). Full article

In order to improve the efficiency of the system and promote its application in other industries, the performance of a thermoelectric subcooled CO₂ transcritical heat pump system was studied. A simulation model of the system was established using steady-state lumped parameter technology, and the experimental data were compared with the simulation results. The effects of cooling and chilled water flow rate and temperature, subcooling degree, compressor discharge pressure on the coefficient of performance (COP), and heating coefficient of performance (COPh) were analyzed. The results showed that COP/COPh increased with the increase in cooling and chilled water flow rate and chilled water temperature and decreased with the increase in cooling water temperature. The experimental COPh and COP of the system with a thermoelectric subcooler increased by 4.19% and 4.62%, respectively, compared to the system without it. The simulated data was in good agreement with the experimental data, and the error was within 10%, thus verifying the correctness of the model. When the subcooling degree increased to 11 °C, the system simulation results showed that COP/COPh increased by about 40% and 13.3%, respectively. The optimal high pressure was about 8.0 MPa, which corresponded to the maximum COP and COPh of the system of 3.25 and 4.25, respectively. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for future system optimization. Full article

A product development framework called LeanDfX has been conceived at INEGI, aiming at organizing the product design and development process benefitting from lean thinking and DfX paradigms. The design of the metallic structure for an automated guided vehicle (AGV) focusing on its static, dynamic and fatigue characteristics was a recent opportunity to enhance and further develop the framework through the consideration and integration into the process of several existing tools such as FMEA (failure mode and effect analysis), QFD (quality function deployment) or fuzzy logic. This paper describes the integration of those tools in the LeanDfX framework and an application to the design of an AGV structure. The methodology presented involves systematic consideration of a substantial number of design requirements and more detailed product specification characterization. Such a number might be seen as delaying the development process, but the present case study showed that the inverse was true, thanks to the structured systematic approach and timely elimination of less desirable alternatives. Full article

This paper describes the preliminary analysis, design and implementation phases of a DC/DC boost converter dedicated to the Futura catamaran propulsion chain developed by the UniBoAT team at the University of Bologna. The main goal of the project was the reduction of the converter’s weight by eliminating the use of heat sinks and by reducing the component size, especially inductors and capacitors. The obtained converter is directly integrated into the structure containing the fuel-cell stack. The realized converter was based on an interleaved architecture with six phases controlled through the average current mode control. The design was validated through simulations carried out using the LT-Spice software, whereas experimental validations were performed by means of both bench tests and on-field tests. Detailed thermal and efficiency analyses were provided with the bench tests under the two synchronous and non-synchronous operating modes and with the adoption of the phase-shedding technique. Prototype implementation and performance in real operating conditions are discussed in relation to on-field tests. The designed converter can be used in other applications requiring a voltage-controlled boost converter. Full article

The wrapping of concrete structures with fiber polymers has been an essential part of concrete technology aimed at the improvement of concrete performance indices during the construction and lifelong usage of the structures. In this paper, a universal representative database was collected from multiple literature materials on the effect of different fiber-reinforced polymers on the confined compressive strength of wrapped concrete columns (Fcc). The collected data show that the Fcc value depends on the FRP thickness (t), tensile strength (Ftf), and elastic modulus (Ef), in addition to the column diameter (d) and the confined compressive strength of concrete (Fco). Five AI techniques were applied on the collected database, namely genetic programming (GP), three artificial neural networks (ANN) trained using three different algorithms, “back Propagation BP, gradually reduced gradient GRG and genetic algorithm GA”, and evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR). The results of the five developed predictive models show that (t) and Ftf have a major impact on the Fcc value, which presents the effect of confinement stress (t. Ftf/d) on the confined compressive strength (Fcc). Comparing the predicted values with the experimental ones showed that the GP model is the least accurate one, and the EPR model is the next least accurate, while the three ANN models have almost the same level of high accuracy, with an average error percentage of 5.8% and a coefficient of determination R² of 0.961. The ANN model is more accurate than the EPR and GP predictive models, but they are suitable for manual calculation because they are closed-form equations. Full article

Design practice has shifted towards a performance approach that is based on an awareness of sustainability goals. Achieving this goal requires the integration of all participants through communication, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing (CCKs), specifically at the design stage. The participants are from different stages of the project which are design management (DM), project management (PM), and facility/property management (FM). The current research has not been able to clearly describe the practice in achieving design performance, especially involving the main three stakeholders (DM, PM, and FM). Thus, this study aims to fill the research gap by focusing on the influence of factors CCKs on the design performance of the commercial property, especially retail property. This will form a design, construction, and operational integration model to achieve the performance of retail properties in forming an optimal space. This study uses a method of quantitative study using a questionnaire survey. It was collected from 111 practitioners of the project participants (DM, PM, FM) in retail property development in Indonesia. There are different results in the correlation that the higher the factor value, the lower the space value performance. This correlation occurs in collaboration for PM, communication for DM, and knowledge-sharing for FM. This interesting finding can be explained empirically according to the preferences of each participant. This study contributes to knowledge about the influence of CCKs, which focus on the design of performance-based retail buildings to get the highest space value. Full article

The eddy current brake (ECB) is a braking technology that continues to be developed. The use of the ECB has excellent potential to be applied to vehicles. Various studies have proposed the design, characteristics, and advantages of each. However, further analysis is needed to assess the performance of the ECB and what factors affect the performance. However, no studies have been found that discuss eddy current brakes using bibliometric analysis. Bibliometric analysis is a method used for mapping and knowledge of existing gaps in a particular topic. This article aims to provide a complete discussion with bibliometric statistical methods that have never been presented before in the field of eddy current brakes, especially the phenomenon of heat generation. In addition, the prediction of research gaps in this field can be identified as the initial results of further research. The analysis was carried out using VOSviewer and Biblioshiny integrated through the RStudio tool. The data are obtained through the Scopus database, which is then exported in CSV form. Obtaining the data depends on the keywords used. In this case, the obtained document is filtered with the features provided by Scopus. From the analysis conducted, it was found that the topic related to heat in eddy current brakes is still a recent discussion. Discussions on the heat increase in the ECB are still limited and require mapping and analysis of what parts still need development. The phenomenon of heat generation is one novelty that allows it to be researched. One example from the scientific data obtained is that there are 207 documents in the form of articles and conference papers with a total of 533 authors. Full article

This paper presents a diagnostic method for THz pulses produced by EA-FEL. Experimental results present a comparison between ZnTe and GaAs crystals for the detection of a single terahertz pulse using electro-optic sampling. In order to match an electro-optic detector for the EA-FEL radiation, the THz pulse from a source was simultaneously detected by ZnTe and GaAs electro-optic detectors. The GaAs detection system was found to have a shorter response time but low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to the ZnTe system. The GaAs crystal is suitable for the detection of short THz pulses due to fiber coupling, and the SNR of the GaAs system can be improved using a faster and more sensitive photodetector. Full article

The intelligent analysis of electrical parameters has been facilitated by the Internet of Things (IoT), with capabilities to access a lot of data with customized sampling times. On the contrary, binary classifiers using support vector machines (SVM) resolve nonlinear cases through kernel functions. This work presents two binary classifiers of presence in the home using total household active power data obtained from the automated reading of an IoT device. The classifiers consisted of SVM using kernel functions, a linear function, and a nonlinear function. The data was acquired with the Emporia Gen 2 Vue energy monitor for 20 days without interruption, obtaining averaged readings every 15 min. Of these data, 75% was for training the classifiers, and the rest of the data was for validation. Contrary to expectations, the evaluation yielded accuracies of 91.67% for the nonlinear SVM and 92.71% for the linear SVM, concluding that there was similar performance. Full article

The problem of bamboo’s strength depends on the length used. From past experiments, it was found that the physical properties of bamboo have thickness at the bottom and a tapered end, resulting in the strength of the bamboo in each part being different. The bottom part can resist more compression than the tip, which corresponds to the physical characteristics of bamboo. To use bamboo for main construction, such as columns, many select raw bamboo that measures approximately 3 m from the ground and is considered the strongest part. The present bamboo laminated products are limited to 2.4 m in length due to the capabilities of today’s compression machines and the factor of length as mentioned above. The column is an important infrastructure, which must have sufficient strength and capacity to solve the problem of high space. However, based on the above limitations, it is particularly important to study the connectivity of increasing column length. A wood joint is a traditional method to secure two pieces of wood together. Tongue and groove joints are most common in floorings, such as wood flooring, laminate flooring, and flooring. One of the hardest methods of securing wood is end to end of edge to edge. In order to further develop green building materials, TDG bamboo is processed into laminated columns (TDGLC). It is considered important because, in addition to increasing income for farmers, it will also enable the development of building materials to replace wood in the future. Therefore, this research demonstrates the benefits of developing locally available materials such as bamboo. To develop laminated bamboo columns for use in a structure, we chose 3–4-year-old TDG bamboo and glued it to obtain a 100 mm cross-section column in order to maximize the benefits of using TDG bamboo for real use. Test specimens are joined by tongue-groove joints to a column length of 1 m, 2 m, and 3 m by joining joints in four different areas: Top (T), middle (M), top-bottom (TB), and bottom (B), to test for compressive strength. The test results showed that TDGLC + TG at the top specimens 4L01 T–4L03 T can resist a load range of 100–65%, and for the middle specimen 4L01 M–4L03 M, the load is between 88 and 57%. At the top-bottom 4L01 TB–4L03 TB, the load is between 30 and 20%. At the bottom 4L01 B–4L03 B, the load is between 28 and 18%. Full article

This paper investigates the design and implementation of a small greenhouse, based on an estimation of the required annual electrical loads, using robust energy modelling free software, namely OpenStudio. The greenhouse optimum materials, shape and orientation were estimated from this software, using weather file data and established environmental set points. Real-world electrical load estimations for the temperature, irrigation and lighting subsystems were consequently made, resulting in a good estimation of the required solar panel and battery combination. Sensors and actuators to physically establish the environmental set points were described, controlling with a microcontroller, while minimizing power losses. To maximize power throughput to the battery, a maximum power point tracking algorithm was described and modelled in Simulink, specifically for this system, using the microcontroller to implement a Perturb and Observe algorithm. Full article

Indonesia is the largest archipelagic country and has the potential to become the world’s maritime axis. Two-thirds of Indonesia’s territory is ocean, with a total coastline of 54,716 km. Therefore, Indonesia must have solid systems and tools to overcome the various threats in the maritime sector. One of the technologies that can be developed to protect Indonesia’s naval territory is fast patrol boats. Indonesia requires efficient patrol boats that can optimally monitor the large Indonesian sea area and various potential threats in the maritime sector. Thus, research on the hydrodynamic criteria for the hull design of patrol boats is fundamental. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the design method based on hydrodynamic characteristics to obtain the primary dimensions and shape of the ship’s hull. We designed and analysed 11 ship models in terms of the following criteria: the resistance, stability, and seakeeping performance. The 11 models included five reference models of patrol boats with varying dimensions and block coefficients between 0.42 and 0.53, three ship models with the regression method with the exact dimensions and block coefficients between 0.45 and 0.46, and three ship models with the scale method with the exact measurements and block coefficients between 0.43 and 0.45. According to the analysis results, the regression method had better total hydrodynamic criteria and greater similarity to the reference vessel. With a shorter processing time, the regression method was more efficient than the scaling method and reference ship. Full article

This study presents a hybrid Artificial Intelligence-Finite Element Method (AI-FEM) predictive model to estimate the modulus of a subgrade reaction of a strip footing rested on a bi-layered profile. A parametric study was carried out using 2D Plaxis FEM models for strip footings with width (B) and rested on a bi-layered profile with top layer thickness (h) and bottom layer thickness (H). The soil was modeled using the well-known Mohr-Coulomb’s constitutive law. The extracted load-settlement curve from each FEM model is approximated to hyperbolic function and its factors (a, b) were determined. The subgrade reaction value (Ks) is the (stress/settlement), hence (1/Ks = a·Δ + b). Both inputs and outputs of the parametric study were collected in a single database containing the geometrical factors (B, h & H), soil properties of the top and bottom layers (c, φ & γ) and the extracted hyperbolic factors (a, b). Finally, three AI techniques—Genetic Programming (GP), Evolutionary Polynomial Regression (EPR) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN)—were implemented to develop three predictive models to estimate the values of (a, b) using the collected database. The three developed models showed different accuracy values of (50%, 65% and 80%) for (GP, EPR and ANN), respectively. The innovation of the developed model is its ability to capture the degradation of a subgrade reaction by increasing the stress (or the settlement) according to the hyperbolic formula. Full article