32 research outputs found

    Effects of Correlated Interferers in Multi-User Radio Systems

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    Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

    Variability of bed drag on cohesive beds under wave action

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    © The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Water 8 (2016): 131, doi:10.3390/w8040131.Drag force at the bed acting on water flow is a major control on water circulation and sediment transport. Bed drag has been thoroughly studied in sandy waters, but less so in muddy coastal waters. The variation of bed drag on a muddy shelf is investigated here using field observations of currents, waves, and sediment concentration collected during moderate wind and wave events. To estimate bottom shear stress and the bed drag coefficient, an indirect empirical method of logarithmic fitting to current velocity profiles (log-law), a bottom boundary layer model for combined wave-current flow, and a direct method that uses turbulent fluctuations of velocity are used. The overestimation by the log-law is significantly reduced by taking turbulence suppression due to sediment-induced stratification into account. The best agreement between the model and the direct estimates is obtained by using a hydraulic roughness of 10 m in the model. Direct estimate of bed drag on the muddy bed is found to have a decreasing trend with increasing current speed, and is estimated to be around 0.0025 in conditions where wave-induced flow is relatively weak. Bed drag shows an increase (up to fourfold) with increasing wave energy. These findings can be used to test the bed drag parameterizations in hydrodynamic and sediment transport models and the skills of these models in predicting flows in muddy environments.This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research funding of contracts N00014-07-1-0448, N00014-07-1-0756

    Impact behavior of model porous concretes

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    In this work, findings of a numerical study performed to investigate the impact behavior of porous concrete, modeled as a four phase cementitious composite consisting of aggregates, cement paste, interfacial transition zones (ITZ) and air, are presented. The numerical analyses contributed to the process of designing a special type of concrete for safety purposes i.e. as a protective building material to be used in safety walls outside important buildings or munition magazines for storing explosives. In case of an explosion, large concrete fragments that are formed, cause a very important threat. Therefore, in the scope of a research project, designing a special type of concrete having sufficient strength, but fracturing into small fragments under impact loading was aimed. In the numerical analyses, model porous concretes, in which the amounts and properties of pores and aggregates could be varied individually, were used to see the sole effect of each parameter. According to the results, it was found that at constant total porosity, the impact strength increased with decreasing pore size while multiple fragmentation was observed. On the other hand, the impact strengths of porous concretes with different size aggregates (with constant total aggregate content and porosity) were approximately the same when no ITZ was defined. However, when ITZ was present, the impact strength was found to decrease as the aggregates were finer. This trend was also valid for the respective full concretes. Representative experimental results of porous concretes were also presented in order to support the numerical results.Accepted Author ManuscriptApplied MechanicsMaterials and Environmen

    The brand equity: evidence on marketing investment

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    The author presents a model of the brand equity dimensions and how the model behaves if there are different marketing investments in the value of the brand. The goal of this research is to establish which dimensions and how they influence the brand equity performance in the researched industry in order to help development of more effective business strategies. The author studies an aggregate data set for 85 enriched juice brands in the Italian market. The enriched juice industry covers a broad category of healthy products, such as dietary, organic, functional and conventional juices with added value, etc. He found out that marketing investment, price, packaging and perceived quality were highly associated with the brand equity when it was analyzed from different approaches: as brand functional characteristics, brand name and producer name. The author discusses the managerial implication of the presented models as well as possible future research enhancements.brand management, marketing investment in brand, juice industry

    Primary and A-sludge treatment by anaerobic membrane bioreactors in view of energy-positive wastewater treatment plants

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    Energy-rich sludge can be obtained from primary clarifiers preceding biological reactors. Alternatively, the incoming wastewater can be sent to a very-high-loaded activated sludge system, i.e., a so-called A-stage. However, the effects of applying an A-stage instead of a primary clarifier, on the subsequent sludge digestion for long-term operation is still unknown. In this study, biogas production and permeate quality, and filterability characteristics were investigated in a lab-scale anaerobic membrane bioreactor for primary sludge and A-stage sludge (A-sludge) treatment. A higher specific methane yield was obtained from digestion of A-sludge compared to primary sludge. Similarly, specific methanogenic activity was higher when the anaerobic membrane bioreactor was fed with A-sludge compared to primary sludge. Plant-wide mass balance analysis indicated that about 35% of the organic matter in wastewater was recovered as methane by including an A-stage, compared to about 20% with a primary clarifier.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Sanitary Engineerin

    Impact of primary sedimentation on granulation and treatment performance of municipal wastewater by aerobic granular sludge process

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    Aerobic granules contain microorganisms that are responsible for carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus removal in aerobic granular sludge (AGS) process in which aerobic/anoxic/anaerobic layers (from surface to core) occur in a single granule. Optimizing the aerobic granular sludge (AGS) process for granulation and efficient nutrient removal can be challenging. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of settling prior to AGS process on granulation and treatment performance of the process. For this purpose, synthetic wastewater mimicking municipal wastewater was fed directly (Stage 1), and after primary sedimentation (Stage 2) to a laboratory-scale AGS system. In full-scale wastewater treatment plants, primary sedimentation is used to remove particulate organic matter and produce primary sludge which is sent to anaerobic digesters to produce biogas. Performances obtained in both stages were compared in terms of treatment efficiency, granule settling behavior, and granule morphology. Granulation was achieved in both stages with more than 92% chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies in each stage. High nutrient removal was obtained in Stage 1 since anaerobic phase was long enough (i.e., 50 min) to hydrolyze particulate matter to become available for PAOs. Primary sedimentation caused a decrease in influent organic load and COD/N ratio, as a result, low nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies were observed in Stage 2 compared to Stage 1. With this study, the effect of the primary sedimentation on the biological removal performance of AGS process was revealed. COD requirement for nutrient removal in AGS systems should be assessed by considering energy generation via biogas production from primary sedimentation sludge.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.BT/Environmental Biotechnolog
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