Design, Fabrication and Performance Evaluation of Chicken De-Feathering Machine

Due to its low fat and calorie content, chicken meat is popular among non-vegetarians all over the world. The design, fabrication, and performance evaluation of a chicken de-feathering machine using locally available materials are described in this paper. The design calculations were done correctly to guarantee the right shaft diameter, as this might impact the machine's efficiency. The machine uses rubber fingers to do the actual removal of the feathers. The rubber fingers are attached to a rotating plate against a stationary plucking basin carrying protruding rubber fingers. From the analysis, a 1.0 H.P electric motor is required to drive the machine and this was used to drive the machine. Following the design and fabrication of the machine, three different types of chickens were used to test its performance. The chickens were immersed in hot water between 60 and 90 degrees Celsius and held between the 40s and 60s. The machine removed feathers without any major damage to the chickens. At each trial, the efficiency was calculated. In conclusion, the machine performed efficiently and effectively, leaving behind products that are readily marketable. Keywords: [Chicken, De-feathering, Efficiency. Fingers, Scalding, Rubber.]

Managing Safety and Ensuring Asset Integrity Through Judicious PFP Application

Passive fire protection (PFP) is applied to steel structures in process plants to delay temperature rise and maintain structural integrity until active firefighting methods are deployed and fire is contained. Our largest gas plant was developed in several phases spanning over 25years with fireproofing designed and applied as per existing philosophy during respective execution phases. During recent Risk Management Survey, potential gaps in fireproofing were observed and survey recommended a campaign to review and identify similar gaps across entire Plant. This paper highlights the approach for gap identification, assessment and optimal recommendations which ensure safety and asset integrity while avoiding high OPEX. Fire hazard evaluation is carried out based on risk assessment of fire and hydrocarbon leakage scenarios in process plant, and recommendations for fire prevention, protection and firefighting measures are provided. Requirement of fire protection is dependent on fire source and resulting fire influence zone (fireproofing zone drawings, FPZ). Structures which are located within the FPZ are then evaluated as per identified criteria in a sequential approach (e.g. whether sudden collapse will cause significant damage, structure supports equipment containing toxic material etc.). Further detailed assessment of structural members and their impact on overall structural stability and integrity is carried out for identified structures to determine fireproofing needs. Based on the outcome, fireproofing is applied for identified members. The scope involved assessment of structural steel fireproofing in the entire complex comprising of over 40 numbers process units and 12 numbers utility units. Several teams conducted physical site survey to identify the actual fireproofing based on zone drawings across the entire plant. Desktop assessment and identification of gaps were carried out primarily based on Project fireproofing specifications, fireproofing zone drawings, fireproofing location drawings, fireproofing schedule, structural design calculations and 3-D models wherever available for respective areas. Study revealed that actual fireproofing at site in each phase of plant is consistent within all process units installed as part of that particular project, however inconsistencies were observed when compared across the different phases, probably due to different interpretation of requirements. To ensure consistency a common criteria was established considering fire source, equipment supported by structure, criticality of member and industry standards. Optimized solutions was recommended to avoid high OPEX while ensuring asset integrity and safety. Fireproofing criteria are general guidelines susceptible to various interpretations by respective users. Establishment of common criteria and elimination of ambiguities in specifications enables consistent application of fireproofing, resulting in optimization while ensuring asset safety and integrity. The approach adopted by ADNOC Gas Processing can be shared with other group companies to enable each organization be prepared to justify the actions in case of any external / internal audits.

Designing of ship shafts made of polymer composite materials

В работе предложены процедуры для выполнения проектировочного расчета судовых валов из полимерных композиционных материалов. Рассматривалась цилиндрическая оболочка, являющаяся основным телом промежуточного судового вала. Она сформирована из пакетов монослоев, состоящих из армирующего волокна и связующей матрицы. Определяющей нагрузкой на судовой вал принят крутящий момент. Заданы ограничения на параметры напряженно-деформированного состояния, характеризующие формы отказов для оболочки в целом и пакета монослоев. Получены аналитические зависимости, связывающие параметры проектирования с крутильной жесткостью, касательными напряжениями потери устойчивости оболочки и нормальными напряжения в волокне. При заданных характеристиках материала проектирование сведено к определению радиуса и толщины оболочки вала. Выполнена серия проектировочных расчетов, различающихся типом активных ограничений. Полученные варианты проектирования проанализированы с помощью метода конечных элементов. Произведена проверка удовлетворения всех ограничений. Предложены условия проектирования, обеспечивающие приемлемые варианты проектов валов из ПКМ. The paper proposes procedures for performing the design calculation of ship shafts made of polymer composite materials. The cylindrical shell, which is the main body of the intermediate ship shaft, was considered. It is formed from packages of monolayers consisting of a reinforcing fiber and a binding matrix. The determining load on the ship's shaft is assumed to be the torque. Restrictions are set on the parameters of the stress-strain state that characterize the failure forms for the shell as a whole and the monolayer package. Analytical dependences linking the design parameters with torsional stiffness, tangential stresses of the shell loss of stability and normal stresses in the fiber are obtained. With the specified material characteristics, the design is reduced to determining the radius and thickness of the shaft shell. A series of design calculations, differing in the type of active constraints, has been performed. The obtained design options are analyzed using the finite element method. The check of satisfaction of all restrictions is made. The design conditions that provide acceptable variants of shaft designs from PCM are proposed.

Stable and functionally diverse versatile peroxidases by computational design directly from sequence

White-rot fungi secrete a repertoire of high-redox potential oxidoreductases to efficiently decompose lignin. Of these enzymes, versatile peroxidases (VPs) are the most promiscuous biocatalysts. VPs are attractive enzymes for research and industrial use, but their recombinant production is extremely challenging. To date, only a single VP has been structurally characterized and optimized for recombinant functional expression, stability and activity. Computational enzyme optimization methods can be applied to many enzymes in parallel, but they require accurate structures. Here, we demonstrate that model structures computed by deep-learning based ab initio structure prediction methods are reliable starting points for one-shot PROSS stability-design calculations. Four designed VPs encoding as many as 43 mutations relative to the wild type enzymes are functionally expressed in yeast whereas their wild type parents are not. Three of these designs exhibit substantial and useful diversity in reactivity profile and tolerance to environmental conditions. The reliability of the new generation of structure predictors and design methods increases the scale and scope of computational enzyme optimization, enabling efficient discovery and exploitation of the functional diversity in natural enzyme families.

Design Calculation for A (G +10) Building (Encode Steel)

The proposed steel building at Mumbai consisting of G+10 storeys, has a built-up area of about 165m2. The typical floor height is 3m above GL and the total height of the building above GL is 33m.Withreference to given plan, the architectural drawings and structural drawings showing plan, elevation, sectional views and connection drawings are drawn by using AUTOCAD 2017.Design calculations (Dead Load, Live Load, Wind Load, Seismic Load) are calculated manually-As per IS codes which are mentioned in technical details. The rolled steel sections for beam and column has been chosen from IS 12778:2004. High tensile steel grade-E350BR has been used for steel sections. And, the analysis of structure is done by using STAAD.Pro V8i SS5.Design of beam and column are manually calculated-As per IS: 800-2007. And, spread sheet has been created to check the beam and column, whether it is safe or not. The connection designs are calculated-As per IS codes by using Welding-As per IS 9595-1996 and Fasteners-As per IS 3757-1985. Bracings are provided in the ground floor between the column to avoid soft storey failure. The material requirements are mentioned based on the design calculations. The total estimation of the building is 1.11cr.

A New Model for Shaft Design of Engine Using MATLAB-GUI

Shaft design is still has the most significant effect in design of machine elements as shafts are common elements in aircraft engines, gear boxes and mechanisms. In this paper, a MATLAB code is established to obtain the optimum shaft design automatically. A friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) is developed to receive all design parameters such as; rotational speed, transmitted power, shaft material…etc. the proposed GUI also receives design parameters of shaft components such as pulleys and gears. Two case studies are introduced to illustrate the proposed shaft design tool to confirm its validity. All reaction forces, bending moment diagrams and torque diagrams are obtained using the proposed MATLAB code. These results are consistent with manual traditional design calculations.

Assessing and enhancing foldability in designed proteins

Recent advances in protein-design methodology have led to a dramatic increase in its reliability and scale. With these advances, dozens and even thousands of designed proteins are automatically generated and screened. Nevertheless, the success rate, particularly in design of functional proteins, is low and fundamental goals such as reliable de novo design of efficient enzymes remain beyond reach. Experimental analyses have consistently indicated that a major cause of design failure is inaccuracy and misfolding relative to the design model. To address this challenge, we describe complementary methods to diagnose and ameliorate suboptimal regions in designed proteins: first, we develop a Rosetta atomistic computational mutation scanning approach to detect energetically suboptimal positions in designs; second, we demonstrate that the AlphaFold2 ab initio structure prediction method flags regions that may misfold in designed enzymes and binders; and third, we focus FuncLib design calculations on suboptimal positions in a previously designed low-efficiency enzyme, thereby improving its catalytic efficiency by 330 fold. Thus, foldability analysis and enhancement may dramatically increase the success rate in design of functional proteins.

Assessment of the heat loss coefficient of a renovated historical dwelling using a co-heating test

Twelve quasi-identical almshouses with an architectural-historic value were reno-vated, because of their high energy use, poor indoor comfort and numerous moisture problems. Aerogel plaster was applied for the hygrothermal upgrade of the uninsulated brick walls, while limiting the reduction of living space in these very small houses and keeping the monumental character of the facades in their original state. Several quality assurance tests were executed to evaluate the quality of the renovation of the building envelope and to compare the results with the initial theoretical design calculations. It appeared that the existing materials performed considerably better than the assumed conservative default values. On the other hand, the newly installed insulation materials performed somewhat less than declared, for example due to on-site processing. This resulted in a strong overestimation of the improvement in thermal performance by the renovation works. Field measurements of the existing situation can help to close this gap.

CONTROL OF THE FORMATION OF DESTRUCTIVE PRECESSES IN THE GEOTECHNICAL MONITORING SYSTEM

В данной статье предлагается алгоритм контроля образования деструктивных процессов в геотехнических системах. Предлагаемый алгоритм на практике корректирует диапазон допустимых параметров геотехнической системы на основе комплексной обработки данных о внешних факторов и комбинаций реакций системы, построенного на основе теории бифуркаций. По результатам работы алгоритма происходит формирование оценки изменения состояния геотехнической системы. В статье так же описаны результаты практического применения разработанного алгоритма на основе данных геотехнического мониторинга (наблюдения осуществлялись с 2016 по 2021 год)параметров грунтового основания, а также физико-механических параметров элементов конструкций фундамента и сооружения. В качестве сооружения выступало трехэтажное здание, возведенное на кирпичном ленточном фундаменте. Объект исследования находится в г. Муроме Владимирской области. В ходе применения разработанного алгоритма были выделены наиболее уязвимые ключевые точки геотехнической системы в которых развиваются скрытые деструктивные процессы. Полученные результаты также подтверждаются результатами моделирования в ЛИРА-САПР напряжений в конструкции фундамента здания при изменении долей природной влажности верхних слоев грунта. Таким образом, хотя в решении задач геотехнического мониторинга и оценки устойчивости геотехнических систем существуем множество подходов, тем не менее постоянно возникающие за проектные ситуации, приводящие к возникновению аварий и катастроф техногенного и природного характера, показывают их не высокую эффективность. Поэтому, применение разработанного алгоритма актуально при прогнозировании устойчивости геотехнической системы за счет коррекции в динамическом режиме допустимых пределов варьирования физико-механических параметров устойчивости геотехнической системы, полученных в проектных расчетах. This article proposes an algorithm for controlling the formation of destructive processes in geotechnical systems. In practice the proposed algorithm corrects the range of acceptable parameters of the geotechnical system based on complex data processing on external factors and combinations of reactions of the system. It built on the basis of the theory of bifurcations. Based on the results of the algorithm, an assessment of changes is formed in the state of the geotechnical system. The article also describes the results of the practical application of the developed algorithm based on geotechnical monitoring data (observations were carried out from 2016 to 2021) of the parameters of the soil base, as well as the physical and mechanical parameters of the structural elements of the foundation and structure. The structure was a three-story building erected on a brick ribbon foundation. The object of the research is located in the city of Murom, Vladimir region. During the application of the developed algorithm, the most vulnerable key points of the geotechnical system were identified in which hidden destructive processes develop. The obtained results are also confirmed by the results of modeling in LIRA-CAD of stresses in the structure of the foundation of a building with a change in the proportion of natural humidity of the upper layers of the soil. Thus, although there are many approaches to solving the problems of geotechnical monitoring and assessing the stability of geotechnical systems, nevertheless, constantly emerging project situations that lead to accidents and catastrophes of a man-made and natural nature show their low efficiency. Therefore, the application of the developed algorithm is relevant when predicting the stability of the geotechnical system due to the correction in the dynamic mode of the permissible limits of variation of the physical and mechanical parameters of the stability of the geotechnical system obtained in the design calculations.