Drowsiness Detection using Android Application and Mobile Vision Face API

ABSTRACT Absence of forbearance among drivers, fatigue and irresponsible behaviour among drivers result in countless fatal crashes and road traffic injuries. Driver drowsiness is a highly problematic issue which impairs judgment and decision making among drivers resulting in fatal motor crashes. This paper describes a simple drowsiness detection approach for a smartphone with Android application using Android Studio 3.6.1 and Mobile Vision API for drowsiness detection before and while driving. Physiological analysis and a quick facial analysis were performed to check drowsiness before the driver starts driving. The smartphone camera was used for analysing the heart rate by tracking colour changes due to blood flow on the fingertip. Facial analysis was undertaken by Google Vision API which determined the head position, blinking duration and yawning frequency through the eye opening and mouth opening probabilities. The heart rate, blinking duration, yawning frequency and speeding were used as indicators for drowsiness. The facial analysis was repeated with speeding data while driving with results analysed each one minute. A performance accuracy of the combined results with speeding detection proved to be around 93.3%. Additional keywords: Drowsiness detection; Facial analysis; Heartrate; Mobile Vision API; Physiological analysis.

Fatigue Life Testing of Locally Additive Manufactured AlSilOMg Test Specimens

ABSTRACT In order for additive manufacturing to become a viable manufacturing methodfor aerospace engineering, it is required that exhaustive static and fatigue testing be performed. The testing is required in order to describe material properties in a statistical manner. Fatigue tests were performed on standard additive manufactured ASTM E466 test specimens in order to obtain the low (1000 cycles) to high cycle (1E6 cycles) behaviour of AlSi10Mg. The specimens were manufactured using non-heat treated, but stress relieved specimens. Specimens were printed in three build directions, namely the XY (parallel with build plate), 45 degree and vertical direction as measured with respect to the build baseplate. The three different directions were chosen to investigate the sensitivity of the material properties to the build direction. The specimens were stress relieved on the baseplate. Static testing was also performed on specimens according to ASTM E8/E8M. The specimens were produced to have a surface finish representative of standard deburring techniques used in the aerospace industry. The surface roughness on the specimens were measured. The scatter in test data as a result of the surface finish on material properties is quantified. It is a requirement to quantify the effect of the surface roughness on fatigue failure allowable values since a machined type finish (less than 3.2 micrometer) is not always practically possible to achieve with additive manufactured structures. This is because the organic shapes produced with additive manufacturing makes some surfaces inaccessible to normal surface finishing techniques. Furthermore, some internal structures such as lattice structures are completely inaccessible to surface finishing techniques such as polishing or lapping. In addition to the surface roughness the roundness of the test section was also measured using inspection equipment. This was required since the industrial deburring techniques did not yield a completely concentric test section as a lathe operation would produce. Once again this is representative of an additive manufactured structure. The fatigue tests were performed at an R-ratio of 0.1. The test results were used to produce Wöhler or S-N curves for the material in all three material directions. The scatter was quantified using industry accepted methods. The results were compared with fatigue test results from literature of specimens produced with a lathe in order to compare a practical industrial surface finish on an additive manufactured component with a machined surface finish. It was found that the build support structures of the additive manufacturing process causes stress concentrations in the fatigue test specimens. This leads to a reduction in fatigue life and an increase in the scatter of the results. Additional keywords: Additive manufacturing, fatigue testing, static testing, aluminium, AlSi10Mg.

Modelling of a Heated Gas-solid Fluidised Bed using Eulerian Based Models

ABSTRACT An Eulerian-Eulerian granular model was used to simulate the flow and heat transfer through a heatedgassolid fluidised bed. The primary objective of the study was to determine whether the Eulerian-Eulerian granular model adequately predicts the chamber pressure drop, temperature, and bed expansion through the bed. The model predictions were assessed and validated for various flow-regimes, namely the fixed-bed, smooth, bubbling fluidisation, and the maximum fluidisation regimes. This was done on an experimental scale heated gas-solid fluidised bed. However, the results are generalisable for heated gas-solid fluidised beds when the flow is laminar. Numerical models were created using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The CFD-model predictions were investigated, analysed, and compared to experimental results. Basic experiments were carried out to obtain varying hydrodynamic characteristics. The results showed a slight overprediction of pressure drop and bed expansion, however, the results were still in close agreement with the experiment. In contrast, underprediction of chamber temperatures were obtained. Based on the results of this study, it is recommended that the Eulerian model be used to predict dynamic flow behaviour. Before minimum fluidisation, when in a fixed bed regime, pressure drop in the chamber increases with no increase in bed height. No visible bubbles were present in the fixed bed regime. When fluidisation has been reached, the bed height rises whereas the pressure drop tends to a constant value. Bubble size increases with chamber height and increased superficial velocities. Bubble speed increased with increased chamber height. With increased superficial velocity, the chamber temperatures increase to a maximum temperature of326.65 K with an initial heating element temperature of373.15 K. However, when excessive heat is present in the gas-solid fluidised bed, other methods that sufficiently incorporate particle-particle interactions and bubble-bubble interactions, are recommended. An investigation should be lent to bubble-bubble interactions in the fluidised beds with relation to heat transfer. Additional keywords: Heated fluidised bed, computational fluid dynamics, CFD, Eulerian, granular, fluidisation, gas-solid

Investigating an Inverse Finite Element Approach for Characterising Soft Materials

ABSTRACT Soft materials, such as soft biological tissue and soft silicone rubber, are non-linear materials which require the classical uniaxial and biaxial tensile testing methods for characterisation. Unfortunately, in special cases, such as for soft biological tissue, the samples are smaller than 10 mm χ 10 mm in size and these classical tensile testing methods produce unwanted stress and strain gradients due to the fastening techniques associated with these methods. Micro-indentation is proposed as an alternative method for characterising soft materials. Using inverse Finite Element (FE) analysis and a known Mooney-Rivlin three parameter material model, six different micro-indentation tests were proposed. A theoretical approach was used to determine which indentation test best characterised a silicone sample, by using two FE models. The results showed that microindentation is capable of characterising a soft material in ideal conditions with a cylindrical indenter applied in a diagonal orientation over the sample, as the best indentation method. Finally, it was observed that the material model can either match the displacements with the smallest objective function or the stress vs. stretch curve can be matched to 99 % over the whole stretch range but not both simultaneously. Additional keywords: Inverse Finite Elements analysis, Micro-indentation, Gradient optimisation, Mooney-Rivlin hyper-elastic material model.

Over-attemperation and Short-term Overheating in Pendant-type Superheaters

ABSTRACT A water-wedge is often suspected to be the root cause for short-term overheating in fossil-fuelled boiler superheaters. However, it can be argued that evaporation of the water-wedge would cool the tube sufficiently and prevent overheating. This study aims to determine if the thermo-physical conditions occurring at low loads support this claim by studying the transient behaviour of a representative superheater segment under postulated conditions. A flow model was constructed to facilitate direct comparison with a boiler pendant superheater of a full-scale fossil-fuelled power plant. Several scenarios of water-wedges sustained by attemperation spraywater were simulated at low load operating conditions. The temperature evolution of the tube wall was tracked and, together with calculated equivalent stresses including thermal stress, was compared to the yield strength of the material. The results show that the stresses exerted over the tube wall and throughout the tube length are not sufficient to overcome the yield strength of the tube material, even for an aged tube under severe process conditions of boiler overfiring. Evaporation of the water-wedge provides sufficient cooling to the superheater tube to prevent failure. It was concluded that water-wedging alone is unlikely to be the root cause of short-term overheating at low boiler loads. Additional keywords: Short-term overheating; water-wedge; boiler superheater tube; attemperation; thermal stress, evaporation.

The Structural Design of a High-Performance WBD Brake Disc

ABSTRACT A high performance, newly-developed wire-woven bulk diamond (WBD) ventilated brake disc is introduced to reduce the operating temperatures and mass of conventional brake discs. The use of the highly porous material requires a deeper understanding of the mechanical stresses developed within a brake disc to be developed to improve the disc core strength to withstand the high stresses developed during braking. In this study, experimentally determined solid brake disc stress distribution results, separated into the compressive stresses due to the pad clamping force and the shear stresses due to the applied brake torque, were applied to the reinforcement ofthe WBD core brake disc. The analysis was based on the maximum predicted deceleration conditions of a medium sized truck (Mercedes-Benz Atego). While the WBD core material possessed sufficient strength to withstand the shearing due to the braking torque, the pad clamping load was predicted to cause disc failure. Consequently, straight radial ribs were designed to reinforce the ventilated core, with final rib dimensions of 74x14x2.5 mm, manufactured from mild steel (SAE1006). A total of 10 ribs at 36° intervals were added to reinforce the core, increasing the mass by 0.20 kg compared to the original disc. The newly reinforced WBD brake disc remains lighter than a commercially available pin-finned disc, and is expected to maintain superior thermal performance while possessing the required mechanical strength. Additional keywords: Ventilated disc, mechanical stresses, braking, stress distribution

Performance Optimisation of Coal-fired Boiler Control using Flownex® Simulation Environment and AI

ABSTRACT The inherent variability of renewable energy sources, pump storage plants and combined cycle gas turbines implies that coal-fired plants designed for continuous base load generation in South Africa must now be used for variable load. This has a negative effect on the overall efficiency and life expectancy of these plants. The challenge is, therefore, to balance the network demands with the power station operation, its thermal efficiency, availability and extended plant life expectancy. The focus of the current research is to monitor and optimise the efficiency of the boiler operation and control through modelling of the boiler subsystems during transient states. Flownex® Simulation Environment was used to model a generic boiler and a boiler control system in order to simulate thermo-fluid processes and critical boiler controllers. The developed model was evaluated based on plant data and optimised afterwards by means of PID controllers and Machine Learning algorithms. The process parameters obtained from the Machine Learning algorithms outperform that of the PID controllers for the selected controllers, such as: boiler load control and steam pressure control. Additional keywords: Power generation, boiler control, boiler modelling.

Monte Carlo Simulation of Supply and Demand for Payload Limited Routes

ABSTRACT Large commercial aircraft by design are typically not capable of transporting maximum fuel capacity and maximum payload simultaneously. Beyond the maximum payload range, fuel requirements reduce payload capability. Varying environmental conditions further impact payload capability noticeably. An airline's commercial department requires prior knowledge of any payload restrictions, to restrict booking levels accordingly. Current forecasting approaches use monthly average performance, at, typically, the 85% probability level, to determine such payload capability. Such an approach can be overly restrictive in an industry where yields are marginal, resulting in sellable seats remaining empty. Monte Carlo simulation principles were applied to model the variance in environmental conditions, as well as in the expected payload demand. The resulting forecasting model allows the risk of demand exceeding supply to be assessed continually. Payload restrictions can then be imposed accordingly, to reduce the risk of demand exceeding supply to a required risk level. Additional keywords: Fuel, payload, forecasting, performance, environment.

Simulating Turbulent Air Flow Past a Hemispherical Body

ABSTRACT The flow of air past a smooth surface-mounted hemisphere is investigated numerically using six common RANS turbulence models and seeking steady flow solutions. Where possible, the turbulence models are applied using standard wall functions, resolving the viscous sublayer, and the enhanced wall treatment option in ANSYS Fluent. Results of the simulations are compared against measurements taken in a wind tunnel experiment. The comparison shows that enhanced wall treatment and resolving the boundary layer on a low Reynolds number mesh yields superior accuracy compared to standard wall functions or resolving the boundary layer on a high Reynolds number mesh, for all the turbulence models considered. The RNG k - ε model with enhanced wall treatment applied is found to yield the most accurate prediction of the static pressure distribution across the surface of the hemisphere model. Conversely, the Reynolds Stress model and the standard k - ω model are found to give the least accurate predictions, irrespective of the near-wall modelling approach applied. It is found that good agreement with the experimental data for this case offlows can be attained using each of the near-wall modelling techniques if a well-suited turbulence model is used. Keywords: hemisphere, wind tunnel, turbulence modelling, computational fluid dynamics, steady flow

Performance Enhancement of an Induced Draught Axial Flow Fan Through Pressure Recovery

ABSTRACT This study illustrates that downstream diffusers can significantly aid the performance of an induced draught axial flow fan. Two conical diffusers of length 0.2 and 0.4 times the fan diameter and an annular diffuser with a length equal to the fan diameter are tested. At the design flow rate of the fan, the short conical diffuser increases the available static pressure by 17.6 % and the static efficiency by 8.9 %. The medium-length conical diffuser increases it by 21.9 % and 11.7 %, respectively. The long annular diffuser produces a 28.2 % pressure increase and a 14.2 % efficiency increase. The paper also compares the obtained pressure recovery coefficients of the different discharge diffusers using two-dimensional axisymmetric and three-dimensional computations. It shows that the pressure at the outlet of the fan cannot be assumed to be equal to atmospheric pressure, as is prescribed by the fan testing standards. A new method of measuring pressure recovery from two-dimensional computations is proposed. Additional keywords: Pressure recovery, axial flow fan, diffuser.