Loading Criteria and Deposit Layer Characteristics as Causes of Sediment Settlement in an Estuary

Sediment compaction due to the extraction of groundwater and self-weight consolidation, and monitoring land settlement of the river delta using geodetic measurement has been executed in several studies, while sediment settlement in the estuary is hypothesized due to dynamic loads. The present study aimed to observe clues for the occurrence of sediment settlement due to loading variation and deposit layer characteristics in the estuary. This research was based on four loading data for examination, i.e., hydraulic head pressure, sediment transport rate, sediment deposition, and water density. Two years of previous research simulations, including the rainy and dry seasons, were recalculated to gain the load pressure and were considered to assess the maximum load prediction. This review found evidence that dynamic loads predominated in maximum pressure changes in boreholes (BH2) and (BH3), and were due to river discharge and tidal occurrence, respectively. The dynamic load of sediment in BH2 contributed more than in BH3, where it was almost nonexistent. Observing the sediment layer characteristics, both settled for almost a month and two weeks, respectively, showed sediment settlement of more or less than 2 and 8 mm. Despite insignificant loading changes, these findings can further our understanding of loading criteria and settlement in different geometric locations.

Design and research of 2D piston pumps with a stacked cone roller set

A new type of two-dimensional (2D) piston pump with a stacked cone roller set was introduced to eliminate the influence of the gap between the guiding rail and the cone roller. First, the structure and working principle of the 2D piston pump were studied; then, a corresponding mathematical model which considered the oil viscosity and oil churning loss caused by the rotation of the guiding rail in the enclosed chamber was established to examine the volumetric and mechanical efficiency of the 2D piston pump. The effects of different speeds, load pressures, and rolling friction coefficients between the guiding rail and the cone rollers on the efficiency were considered. During the test, when the speed was 6000 r/min and the load pressure was 6 MPa and 8 MPa, the volumetric efficiency reached 98.3% and 96.8%, respectively, basically consistent with the theoretical analysis. Because the temperature rise of the tested pump caused the oil viscosity and the eccentricity of the piston and piston rings increased the leakage, the test result was slightly lower than that of the theoretical analysis. When the speed was 1000 r/min and the load pressure was 5 MPa, the mechanical efficiency was 69.3%, and the mechanical efficiency model was consistent with the test results. However, with the increase in speed and load pressure, the difference between the test results and theoretical analysis results increased because the supporting force of the cone roller on the guiding rail increased, increasing the rolling frictional losses.

An attempt to apply the kinematic method of rigid solids in the study of bearing capacity of shallow foundations

In the geotechnical engineering field, shallow foundations are frequently needed to ensure good fieldwork stability. They are also intended to permanently and uniformly transmit all load pressure on the seating floor. However, numerous mechanical constraints, such as bearing capacity of foundations, durability, stability, design of shallow foundations, lead, unfortunately, to a serious realization challenge. Finding an adequate solution presents the main goal and effort of both scholars and professionals. Indeed, the corresponding drawback is observed through the high number of reported damages that occurred in the structure of foundations and the punching failure. The failure mechanisms of shallow foundations, verified in full size or on scale models, show “sliding surfaces” and rigid (solid) blocks, which can be described with the kinematic method of rigid solids. The main objective of this study is the application of the kinematic method of rigid solids in the study of the stability of shallow foundations with respect to punching, the purpose of which is to determine the bearing capacity factors Nc, N γ, and the passive earth pressure coefficient Kp of foundations. In this context, two mechanical models have been proposed with 5 and 7 rigid solids, and a program developed via the MathCAD environment is applied to check the validity of the two previous models. The kinematic method of rigid solids gives results very close and comparable with that of Caquot/Kerisel for the factors of the bearing capacity and passive earth pressure coefficient - the ratio Kp - according to the five- and seven-solid model.

Testing Deformation and Compressive Strength of the Frozen Fine-Grained Soils with Changed Porosity and Density

Current paper focuses on the laboratory experiments performed wit aim to test the deformation in the frozen loam soil specimens. Loam frozen soils are subject to the external effects, such as climate and environmental impacts including temperature changes. Soil heave is one of the key features restraining possible area development: construction of buildings, roads and railways. Necessarily, this requires the improvements of methods of the assessment of heave. This research evaluated the compressive strength and deformation in several specimens of the frozen soil. The approach included varying load and physical properties of soil specimens: porosity, pore filling, moisture, density of soil particles and dry soil density. Besides during the experiment, the external conditions were changed: decreased temperature and increased load pressure. The experiment is based on the UPG-MG4-01. The paper presented the laboratory tests of heave and compressive strength of the frozen soils using applied geotechnical methods.

Solar Power System Assessments Using ANN and Hybrid Boost Converter Based MPPT Algorithm

The load pressure on electrical power system is increased during last decade. The installation of new power generators (PGs) take huge time and cost. Therefore, to manage current power demands, the solar plants are considered a fruitful solution. However, critical caring and balance output power in solar plants are the highlighted issues. Which needs a proper procedure in order to minimize balance output power and caring issues in solar plants. This paper investigates artificial neural network (ANN) and hybrid boost converter (HBC) based MPPT for improving the output power of solar plants. The proposed model is analyzed in two steps, the offline step and the online step. Where the offline status is used for training various terms of ANNs in terms of structure and algorithm while in the online step, the online procedure is applied with optimum ANN for maximum power point tracking (MPPT) using traditional converter and hybrid converter in solar plants. Moreover, a detail analytical framework is studied for both proposed steps. The mathematical and simulation approaches show that the presented model efficiently regulate the output of solar plants. This technique is applicable for current installed solar plants which reduces the cost per generation.

Investigation on the Transient Characteristics of Self-Priming Pumps with Different Hub Radii

Self-priming pumps, important fluid equipment, are widely used in the disaster relief and emergency fields. Meanwhile, the impeller is the only rotational unit of the self-priming pump, which plays an essential part in the power capability of the pump. In this paper, impellers with different hub radii are proposed; by comparing the internal flow characteristics, blade surface load, pressure pulsation characteristics, and radial force distribution of each scheme, the relationship between transient characteristics and hub radius is obtained. The results present that the impeller with a large hub radius can not only weaken the pressure pulsation, blade surface load, and radial force distribution, but also improve the ability of the blade to work on the internal flow field. Finally, the relevant hydraulic experiment is conducted, with the difference between the experiment and calculation below 3%, which ensures the accuracy of the calculation results.

Application of the Comparison of Multibeam Echo-Sound Records to the Study of Stability of a Toxic Waste Stockpile Located on the Margin of a Tidal System: Tinto Estuary, Huelva, SW Spain

For more than 40 years, the industrial complex which developed near Huelva (in SW Spain) produced a huge amount of phosphogypsum as a waste product of manufacturing fertilizers. This waste was stockpiled in a stack 25 m high, covering 1200 ha of what was once a salt marsh. The weight of that enormous amount of waste produced active subsidence in the underlying sediment. Part of the sediment was injected into the marginal areas, where the load pressure is minor, causing significant vertical movement in the floor of the estuarine channel. This manuscript describes several surficial features using multibeam echosound. A crest formed by cones and a bulge area could be interpreted as injection structures. The evolution of the topographic position of the floor was also analyzed by comparing different records of the estuarine bed in the margins of the stockpile. The data in this work document the changes in the dynamics of the estuary in relation to these vertical movements. These changes in dynamicsled to erosion and deposition in various areas of the bed.

Air cavity-based vibrational piezoelectric energy harvesters

Introduction. Known vibrational energy harvesting methods use a source of vibration to harvest electric energy. Piezoelectric material works as a sensing element converted mechanical energy (vibration) to electrical energy (electric field). The existing piezoelectric energy harvesting (PEHs) devices have low sensitivity, low energy conversion, and low bandwidth. The novelty of the proposed work consists of the design of PEH’s structure. Air cavity was implemented in the design where it is located under the sensing membrane to improve sensitivity. Another novelty is also consisting in the design structure where the flexural membrane was located at the top of electrodes. The third novelty is a new design structure of printed circuit board (PCB). The purpose of improvised design is to increase the stress in between the edges of PEH and increase energy conversion. With the new structure of PCB, it will work as a substrate that absorbs surrounding vibration energy and transfers it to sensing element. Methods. Three techniques were successfully designed in PEH and fabricated namely PEH A, PEH B, and PEH C were characterized by two experiments: load and vibration. The load experiment measured load pressure towards the PEH, whereas the vibration experiment measured stress towards the PEH. Results. PEH C has the highest induced voltage for a weight of 5.2 kg at the frequency of 50 Hz and the highest stored voltage for a period of 4 min. The three techniques applied in PEHs were showed improvement in transducer sensitivity and energy conversion. Practical value. A piezoelectric acoustic generator was used in the experiment to compare the performance of the designed PEH with available piezoelectric transducers in the market. The new flexible membrane worked as a sensing element was worked as a cantilever beam. PVDF was used as a sensing element due to the flexibility of the polymer material, which is expected to improve sensitivity and operating bandwidth.

Simulation and Experimental Analysis of Pressure Pulsation Characteristics of Pump Source Fluid

The output flow pulsation characteristics of the hydraulic pump due to the structural characteristics may cause pump source fluid pressure pulsation and even cause the equipment to vibrate, which will affect the life and working reliability of the equipment. Scholars have done a lot of theoretical and simulation analysis on the characteristics of fluid flow and pressure pulsation caused by the specific structure and structure of the plunger pump, but there are few comparisons and analyses of the simplified model of the plunger pump and the pressure pulsation characteristics with experiments. In this paper, AMESim software is utilized to establish a simplified model of one seven-plunger hydraulic pump, and simulate and analyze the pump source fluid pressure pulsation characteristics of different system load pressures at a constant speed. An experimental platform for testing pump fluid pressure pulsation was designed and built, and the actual measurement and simulation results of pump fluid pressure pulsation were compared and analyzed. The results show that the system simulation data is in good agreement with the measured data, which verifies the correctness of the simplified model of the plunger pump. At the same time, it is found that the fluid pressure pulsation of the pump source exhibits broadband and multi-harmonic characteristics. At a constant speed, as the load pressure of the hydraulic system increases, the pump source fluid pressure pulsation amplitude increases, the pressure pulsation rate decreases, and the impact on the fundamental frequency amplitude is the most significant. The research results can provide a theoretical basis for suppressing the pressure pulsation of the pump source fluid and reducing the vibration response of a hydraulic pipeline under the action of the pulsating harmonic excitation.

Effect of clearance on volumetric efficiency in 2D piston pumps

In order to solve the limitations of the friction pairs in axial piston pumps on rotational speed and mechanical efficiency, a 2D piston pump whose 2D piston has two-degree-of-freedom motions of rotation and reciprocating motion was proposed by the author team. The volumetric efficiency of 2D pumps predicted by the original volumetric efficiency model is higher than the experimental results. A new mathematical model of the volumetric efficiency is researched by considering effect of clearance between the cone roller and the guiding rail. In previous studies, the volumetric losses of the 2D pump were considered to be composed of leakage and compressibility loss. However, it is found that the effect of the clearance on the volumetric efficiency in 2D pumps is greater than that of leakage and compressibility loss. The experimental results show that the difference between the prediction of the new model and the volumetric efficiency of the tested pump with 0.19 mm clearance is reduced from 8% to 1.5% comparing with the original model. The volumetric efficiency of the tested pump without the clearance is 96.5% at 5000 rpm rotational speed and 8 MPa load pressure.