Abstract

This chapter discusses man-machine interface. PLC has to “connect” to human operators, accepting commands from them and displaying the status of the plant in a form that can readily and easily be understood. A digital display driven in BCD normally uses one of the unused binary codes, 1010 to 1111, to generate a blank display. Simple digital inputs (pushbuttons, joysticks, switches) are normally allocated one input per motion and do not require anything particularly special. Concerning PLC with analog signals, flows, temperatures, pressures, etc., these will usually be displayed to the operator. A graphics terminal has just two connections to the outside world, a serial link connection and a power supply. The Allen Bradley Panelview family was designed to replace switches, pushbuttons, numeric displays, and similar devices. The Panelview built up a graphics screen with semigraphic characters placed on a screen with a “pick and place” menu approach. Siemens provides a vast range of operator terminals from simple text-only message displays to complete computer-based Scada systems. One major advantage of graphical displays is that mistakes can be rectified without leaving scars, albeit at some cost. The operator will need to input data and initiate actions. Where a simple text message is to be displayed, possibly with embedded data, message displays driven by a simple serial link carrying ASCII coded characters can be used. PCs have much better graphics capability than the average PLC, so it is not surprising that PCs are increasingly being used as the link between humans and PLC systems. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Traffic jams are a fact of life for many car drivers. Every morning millions of drivers around the world sit motionless in their vehicles for long periods of time as they try to get to work, and then repeat the experience on their journeys home in the evening. The same thing often happens when they are driving to the coast for the weekend or to the airport to go on their holidays. They blame other drivers, increasing volumes of traffic and, inevitably, roadworks. So what has any of this got to do with physics? Document type: Book

Abstract

This paper gives information about Renewable Energy Generation and its impacts on E-Mobility. By 2050, the two pillars of modern transformation are E-Mobility and Renewable Energy. This transformation requires adaptation to meet demographic and economic growth without increasing pollution and congestion. The modern world needs affordable, secure and inclusive, sustainable and integrated with customer-centric infrastructure and services. There is a great fundamental change needed in road transportation sector, which is to achieve its objective of a long term transition to a low-carbon economy. Electric Vehicles when charged with the electricity generated from Renewable Energy Sources can reduce future emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from road transport. Electric Vehicles combined with renewable energy paint a different picture from the oversimplification of gas miles versus electric miles.Smart Mobility and Smart Grid technologies make people live more sustainable and efficiently.

Abstract

The article deals with the issues concerning acoustic signals propagation in the large-diameter oil pipelines caused by mechanical action on the pipe body. Various mechanisms of signals attenuation are discussed. It is shown that the calculation of the attenuation caused only by internal energy loss, i.e, the presence of viscosity, thermal conductivity and liquid pipeline wall friction lead to low results. The results of experimental studies, carried out using the existing pipeline with a diameter of 1200 mm. are shown. It is experimentally proved that the main mechanism of signal attenuation is the energy emission into the environment. The numerical values of attenuation coefficients that are 0,14- 0.18 dB/m for the pipeline of 1200 mm in diameter, in the frequency range from 50 Hz to 500 Hz, are determined.

Abstract

In this paper we propose acoustic power transfer as a method for the remote powering of pipeline sensor nodes. A theoretical framework of acoustic power propagation in the ceramic transducers and the metal structures is drawn, based on the Mason equivalent circuit. The effect of mounting on the electrical response of piezoelectric transducers is studied experimentally. Using two identical transducer structures, power transmission of 0.33 mW through a 1 m long, 118 mm diameter cast iron pipe, with 8 mm wall thickness is demonstrated, at 1 V received voltage amplitude. A nearlinear relationship between input and output voltage is observed. These results show that it is possible to deliver significant power to sensor nodes through acoustic waves in solid structures. The proposed method may enable the implementation of acousticpowered wireless sensor nodes for structural and operation monitoring of pipeline infrastructure.

Abstract

Safety and reliability of hydrocarbon transportation pipelines represent a critical aspect for the Oil an Gas industry. Pipeline failures caused by corrosion, external agents, among others, can develop leaks or even rupture, which can negatively impact on population, natural environment, infrastructure and economy. It is imperative to have accurate inspection tools traveling through the pipeline to diagnose the integrity. In this way, over the last few years, different techniques under the concept of structural health monitoring (SHM) have continuously been in development.This work is based on a hybrid methodology that combines the Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) and Principal Components Analysis (PCA) approaches. The MFL technique induces a magnetic field in the pipeline's walls. The data are recorded by sensors measuring leakage magnetic field in segments with loss of metal, such as cracking, corrosion, among others. The data provide information of a pipeline with 15 years of operation approximately, which transports gas, has a diameter of 20 inches and a total length of 110 km (with several changes in the topography). On the other hand, PCA is a well-known technique that compresses the information and extracts the most relevant information facilitating the detection of damage in several structures. At this point, the goal of this work is to detect and localize critical loss of metal of a pipeline that are currently working. Document type: Article

Abstract

Contrary to traditional thinking and driver intuition, here we show that there is no benefit to ground vehicles increasing their packing density at stoppages. By systematically controlling the packing density of vehicles queued at a traffic light on a Smart Road, drone footage revealed that the benefit of an initial increase in displacement for close-packed vehicles is completely offset by the lag time inherent to changing back into a ‘liquid phase’ when flowresumes. This lag is analogous to the thermodynamic concept of the latent heat of fusion, as the ‘temperature’ (kinetic energy) of the vehicles cannot increase until the traffic ‘melts’ into the liquid phase.These findings suggest that in situations where gridlock is not an issue, drivers should not decrease their spacing during stoppages in order to lessen the likelihood of collisions with no loss in flowefficiency. In contrast, motion capture experiments of a line of people walking from rest showed higher flow efficiency with increased packing densities, indicating that the importance of latent heat becomes trivial for slower moving systems. Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology Document type: Article

Abstract

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are used to derive information from the morphology of a land. The topographic attributes obtained from the DEM data allow the construction of watershed delineation useful for predicting the behavior of systems and for studying hydrological processes. Imagery acquired from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and 3D photogrammetry techniques offer cost-effective advantages over other remote sensing methods such as LIDAR or RADAR. In particular, a high spatial resolution for measuring the terrain microtopography. In this work, we propose a Structure from Motion (SfM) pipeline using UAVs for generating high-resolution, high-quality DEMs for developing a rainfall-runoff model to study flood areas. SfM is a computer vision technique that simultaneously estimates the 3D coordinates of a scene and the pose of a camera that moves around it. The result is a 3D point cloud which we process to obtain a georeference model from the GPS information of the camera and ground control points. The pipeline is based on open source software OpenSfM and OpenDroneMap. Encouraging experimental results on a test land show that the produced DEMs meet the metrological requirements for developing a surface-runoff model. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. This work has been partly funded by Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar project (FI2006T2001). The authors thank Direccion de Investigaciones Universidad Tecnologica de Bolivar for their support.

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a number of electric charge sensors. The sensors have been developed specifically to investigate triboelectric charge transfer which takes place between particles and the pipeline wall, when powdered materials are conveyed through a pipeline using air. A number of industrial applications exist for such gas–solids pipelines, including pneumatic conveyors, vacuum cleaners and dust extraction systems. The build-up of electric charge on pipelines and powdered materials can lead to electrostatic discharge and so is of interest from a safety viewpoint. The charging of powders can also adversely affect their mechanical handling characteristics and so is of interest to handling equipment engineers. The paper presents the design of the sensors, the design of the electric charge test rig and electric charge measurement test results. Document type: Conference object

Abstract

Trabajo presentado a la 13th European Workshop on Advanced Control and Diagnosis (ACD 2016). Inland waterways are large-scale networks used principally for navigation. Even if the transport planning is an important issue, the water resource management is a crucial point. Indeed, navigation is not possible when there is too little or too much water inside the waterways. Hence, the water resource management of waterways has to be particularly efficient in a context of climate change and increase of water demand. This management has to be done by considering different time and space scales and still requires the development of new methodologies and tools in the topics of the Control and Informatics communities. This work addresses the problem of waterways management in terms of modeling, control, diagnosis and fault-tolerant control by focusing in the inland waterways of the north of France. A review of proposed tools and the ongoing research topics are provided in this paper. Peer Reviewed