Enhancing wood efficiency through comprehensive wood flow analysis:Methodology and strategic insights

Wood,an essential natural resource in human civilization,remains widely used despite advances in technology and material substitution.The surge in greenhouse gas emissions and environmental concerns accentuates the need for optimizing wood utilization.Material flow analysis is a powerful tool for tracking material flows and stocks,aiding resource management and environmental decision-making.However,the full extent of its methodological dimensions,particularly within the context of the wood supply chain,remains relatively unexplored.In this study,we delve into the existing literature on wood flow analysis,discussing its primary objectives,materials involved,temporal and spatial scales,data sources,units,and conversion factors.Additionally,data uncertainty,data reconciliation and crucial assumptions in material flow analysis are highlighted in this paper.Key findings reveal the significance of wood cascading and substitution effects by replacing non-wood materials,where they can reduce greenhouse gas emissions more than the natural carbon sink of forests and wood products.The immediate impact of short-term wood cascading might not be as robust as the substitution effect,with energy substitution showcasing better results than material substitution.However,it's crucial to note that these conclusions could experience significant reversal from a long-term and global perspective.Strategies for improving wood efficiency involve maximizing material use,advancing construction technologies,extending product lifespans,promoting cascade use,and optimizing energy recovery processes.The study underscores the need for standardized approaches in wood flow analysis and emphasizes the potential of wood efficiency strategies in addressing environmental challenges.

Sparse Crowd Flow Analysis of Tawaaf of Kaaba During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected the entire world and has put forth high demand for techniques that remotely manage crowd-related tasks.Video surveillance and crowd management using video analysis techniques have significantly impacted today’s research,and numerous applications have been developed in this domain.This research proposed an anomaly detection technique applied to Umrah videos in Kaaba during the COVID-19 pandemic through sparse crowd analysis.Managing theKaaba rituals is crucial since the crowd gathers from around the world and requires proper analysis during these days of the pandemic.The Umrah videos are analyzed,and a system is devised that can track and monitor the crowd flow in Kaaba.The crowd in these videos is sparse due to the pandemic,and we have developed a technique to track the maximum crowd flow and detect any object(person)moving in the direction unlikely of the major flow.We have detected abnormal movement by creating the histograms for the vertical and horizontal flows and applying thresholds to identify the non-majority flow.Our algorithm aims to analyze the crowd through video surveillance and timely detect any abnormal activity tomaintain a smooth crowd flowinKaaba during the pandemic.

Current status and future trends for material flow analysis applications at CSC

Material Flow Analysis（MFA） is a crucial instrument for sustainable development and creating industrial ecology system.MFA studies could balance and analyze the sources,flows,and consumes of specific materials or substances.The results of MFA studies could support the strategies or decisions making for energy, resource,and waste management,especially achieving sustainable resource management.At CSC,the dynamic simulating software,STELLA,is used to develop a MFA model for scenario analysis.CSC also uses the freeware STAN 2.0 as a tool for visualizing and simulating material flows and stocks.Case studies of greenhouse gases MFA for integrated steel works are conducted.The results showed that the carbon content of hot-metal is an important hidden flow for balance analysis,and the different GHG emission scenarios and mitigation action scenarios are assessed.In addition,the Iron-making GHG I/O MFA Model,based on worldsteel Global Steel Sector Approach（GSSA）,is developed for calculating the CO2 and energy intensity of coke making,sintering,and BF processes.This MFA model was used to analyze the CO2 reduction potential for iron-making process.The cases conducted for MFA applications at CSC were such as greenhouse gas,zinc,etc.In the future,CSC is going to develop a 'CSC Environment Management and Decision Supporting System' which combine MFA,LCA（life cycle assessment）,and environment risk assessment.This supporting system expects to promoting energy efficiency and best resource use,supporting environment policymaking,creating environmental information value,etc.

Thermomechanical and Flow Analysis of a Typical Truck Radiator Using PTC-Creo

In automobile engines,it is commonly known that the proper removal of the excess heat,resulting from internal combustion,is of high significance in the prevention of numerous negative consequences.In this regard,the radiator has a pivotal role as the main component of the engine’s cooling system.Hence,its design and analysis are highly important,requiring more comprehensive failure and flow investigations.In this work,a Scania radiator is examined under the thermal and mechanical loads,followed by its analysis under the combined thermomechanical loading.Then,the flow characteristics,including the velocity,pressure,and enthalpy,are studied.In this regard,PTC-Creo software is utilized.The results demonstrate that thermal stress causes seven times more displacement than a mechanical one.When they are combined,this value reaches 1.5 mm.Also,the max­imum failure index value of the Tresca theory is around 4.58,observed at the inlet side of the radiator.Besides,this paper indicates that the PTC-Creo can be considered a reliable and economical tool for the simulation of industrial applications,such as the considered radiator of a heavy-duty cooling system.

Full Cycle Cold Flow Analysis of the Effect of Twin Swirl Combustion Chamber Design in a Diesel Engine

New designs and adaptation methods are experimented to ensure compliance to ever increasing emissions and efficiency requirements of modern diesel engines. Piston head structure which influences the mixing rate and timing of the fuel within in the combustion chamber is known to enable increase in combustion efficiency and thus lower emission rates. In this paper, computation analysis of flow within a diesel engine cylinder with a twin swirl combustion chamber design throughout a full cycle is presented. The results obtained indicate that the effect of the twin swirl combustion chamber on the cold flow conditions is noteworthy and further analysis together with experiments may reveal information that may prove to be useful in further new designs.

Analysis of the Flow Field and Impact Force in High-Pressure Water Descaling

This study aims to improve the performances of the high-pressure water descaling technology used in steel hot rolling processes.In particular,a 2050 mm hot rolling line is considered,and the problem is investigated by means of a fluid–structure interaction(FSI)method by which the descaling effect produced by rolling coils with different section sizes is examined.Assuming a flat fan-shaped nozzle at the entrance of the R1R2 roughing mill,the outflow field characteristics and the velocity distribution curve on the strike line(at a target distance of 30–120 mm)are determined.It is found that the velocity in the center region of the water jet with different target distances is higher than that in the boundary region.As the target distance increases,the velocity of the water jet in the central region decreases.Through comparison with experimental results,it is shown that the simulation model can accurately predict the impact position of the high-pressure water on the impact plate,thereby providing a computational scheme that can be used to optimize the nozzle space layout and improve the slabs’descent effect for different rolling specifications.

A network-based virtual slack bus model for energy conversion units in dynamic energy flow analysis

Integrated energy system(IES) is a viable route to “carbon peak and carbon neutral”. As the basis and cornerstone of economic operation and security of IES, energy flow calculation(EFC) has been widely studied. Traditional EFC focuses on the single or distributed slack bus models, which results in the lack of unlimited power to maintain system operation, especially for electric power grid working in islanded or coupled mode. To deal with this problem, this paper proposes a network-based virtual-slack bus(VSB) model in EFC. Firstly, considering the anticipated growth of energy conversion units(ECUs) with power adjustment capacity, the generators and ECUs are together modeled as a virtual slack bus model to reduce the concentrated power burden of IES. Based on this model, a power sensitivity method is designed to achieve the power sharing among the ECUs, where the power can be allocated adaptively based on the network conditions. Moreover, the method is helpful to maintain the voltage and pressure profile of IES. With these changes, a dynamic energy flow analysis including virtual slack bus types is extended for IES.It can realize the assessment of the system state. Finally, simulation studies illustrate the beneficial roles of the VSB model.

The Building of Papermaking Enterprise's Recycling Economy Evaluation Index System Based on Value Flow Analysis

At present,the research on circular economy has made a lot of substantive results both at home and abroad.But for the papermaking enterprise,which is the representative of the light industry,few studies have analyzed the evaluation index system of circular economy.Since the current material flow analyses have limitations that the researchers cannot calculate materials with different units.The authors take advantage of the intrinsic correlation between the basic principle of value flow analysis and circular economy,and then analyze the dynamic changes of material flow and value flow through enterprises internal production process.Considering the resource output,the authors set up the layered structure of the evaluation index system,and then preliminarily determine the index form.Next,the authors use the frequency statistics analysis method to adjust indicators,forming a preliminary index system.After that,the principal component analysis and independent analysis are applied for screening.Finally,the authors build a circular economy evaluation index system for papermaking enterprise to provide scientific guidance for the process of circular economy.

Flow analysis of major and trace elements in residues from large-scale sewage sludge incineration

Increase of sewage sludge(SS)has led to the construction of more incineration plants,exacerbating to the production of SS incineration residues.However,few studies have considered the mass balance of elements in large-scale SS incineration plants,affecting the residues treatment and utilization.In this study,flow analysis was conducted for major and trace elements in the SS,the fly ash(sewage sludge ash,SSA)and bottom ash from two large-scale SS incineration plants.The elemental characteristics were compared with those of coal fly ash(CFA),and air pollution control residues from municipal solid waste incineration(MSWIA),as well as related criteria.The results showed that the most abundant major element in SSA was Si,ranging from 120 to 240 g/kg,followed by Al(76–348 g/kg),Ca(26–113 g/kg),Fe(35–80 g/kg),and P(26–104 g/kg),and the trace elements were mainly Zn,Ba,Cu,and Mn.Not all the major elements were derived from SS.Most trace elements in the SS incineration residues accounted for 82.4%–127%of those from SS,indicating that SS was the main source of trace elements.The partitioning of heavy metals in the SS incineration residues showed that electrostatic precipitator ash or cyclone ash with high production rates were the major pollutant sinks.The differences in some major and trace elements could be indicators to differentiate SSA from CFA and MSWIA.Compared with related land criteria,the pollutants in SSA should not be ignored during disposal and utilization.

Using information flow analysis to detect implicit information leaks for web service composition

Information leak,which can undermine the compliance of web-service-composition business processes for some policies,is one of the major concerns in web service composition.We present an automated and effective approach for the detection of implicit information leaks in business process execution language(BPEL)based on information flow analysis.We introduce an adequate meta-model for BPEL representation based on a Petri net for transformation and analysis.Building on the concept of Petri net place-based noninterference,the core contribution of this paper is the application of a Petri net reachability graph to estimate Petri net interference and thereby to detect implicit information leaks in web service composition.In addition,a case study illustrates the application of the approach on a concrete workflow in BPEL notation.

Tungsten and arsenic substance flow analysis of a hydrometallurgical process for tungsten extracting from wolframite

In this study,the metabolism of a hydrometallurgical process for tungsten extracting from wolframite was studied through substance flow analysis.The mass balance accounts,substance flow charts of tungsten and arsenic were established to evaluate the metabolism efficiency of the investigated system.The results showed that,the total tungsten resource efficiency of the system was 97.56%,and the tungsten recovery of unit process autoclaved alkali leaching,ion exchange,Mo removing,concentration and crystallization was 98.16%,98.94%,99.71%,99.89%,respectively.Meanwhile,for extracting 1 ton of tungsten into the qualified ammonium paratungstate,10.0414 kg of arsenic was carried into the system,with the generation of 7.2801 kg of arsenic in alkali leaching residue,1.5067 kg of tungsten in arsenic waste residue,and 1.2312 kg of tungsten in Mo residue.Besides,7.9 g of arsenic was discharged into nature environment with waste water,15.5 g of arsenic was entrained into the final APT.The distribution and transformation behaviors of arsenic during production were analyzed through phases change analysis,and some recommendations for improving the resource efficiency of tungsten and pollution control during production were also proposed based on the substance flow analysis in this study.

Connection Between Damping Torque Analysis and Energy Flow Analysis in Damping Performance Evaluation for Electromechanical Oscillations in Power Systems

The damping performance evaluation for electromechanical oscillations in power systems is crucial for the stable operation of modern power systems.In this paper,the connection between two commonly-used damping performance evaluation methods,i.e.,the damping torque analysis(DTA)and energy flow analysis(EFA),are systematically examined and revealed for the better understanding of the oscillatory damping mechanism.First,a concept of the aggregated damping torque coefficient is proposed and derived based on DTA of multi-machine power systems,which can characterize the integration effect of the damping contribution from the whole power system.Then,the pre-processing of measurements at the terminal of a local generator is conducted for EFA,and a concept of the frequency-decomposed energy attenuation coefficient is defined to screen the damping contribution with respect to the interested frequency.On this basis,the frequency spectrum analysis of the energy attenuation coefficient is employed to rigorously prove that the results of DTA and EFA are essentially equivalent,which is valid for arbitrary types of synchronous generator models in multi-machine power systems.Additionally,the consistency between the aggregated damping torque coefficient and frequency-decomposed energy attenuation coefficient is further verified by the numerical calculation in case studies.The relationship between the proposed coefficients and the eigenvalue(or damping ratio)is finally revealed,which consolidates the application of the proposed concepts in the damping performance evaluation.

Nature-inspired Hybrid Optimization Algorithms for Load Flow Analysis of Islanded Microgrids

Load flow analysis is a significant tool for proper planning,operation,and dynamic analysis of a power system that provides the steady-state values of voltage magnitudes and angles at the fundamental frequency.However,due to the absence of a slack bus in an islanded microgrid,modified load flow algorithms should be adopted considering the system frequency as one of the solution variables.This paper proposes the application of nature-inspired hybrid optimization algorithms for solving the load flow problem of islanded microgrids.Several nature-inspired algorithms such as genetic algorithm(GA),differential evolution(DE),flower pollination algorithm(FPA),and grasshopper optimization algorithm(GOA)are separately merged with imperialistic competitive algorithm(ICA)to form four hybrid algorithms named as ICGA,ICDE,ICFPA,and ICGOA.Performances of these algorithms are tested on the 6-bus test system and the modified IEEE 37-bus test system.A comparison among the proposed algorithms is carried out in terms of statistical analysis conducted using SPSS statistics software.From the statistical analysis,it is identified that on an average,ICDE takes less number of iterations and consequently needs less execution time compared with other algorithms in solving the load flow problem of islanded microgrids.

Material flow analysis(MFA)of an eco-economic system:a case study of Wujin District,Changzhou,China

The economic and ecological aspects of a social system are coherently linked and can be examined by its material and energy flows.In this study,we used the material flow analysis(MFA)to model the material input and output of the Wujin District of Changzhou City,Jiangsu Province in China.It was revealed that:(1)total material input and material input per capita increased with economic development,while the total material out-put and material output per capita decreased consistently;(2)except for water,the total material input continued to increase.Input of solid materials grew faster than that of gaseous materials,while the total material output declined.The gas output accounted for the largest pro-portion of the output resulting in primary environmental pollution as burned fossil fuel;(3)water use in agriculture continued with an increasing trend while that in industrial and residential sectors decreased per capita.The total wastewater discharge and wastewater discharge per capita decreased with a faster decreasing rate of residential was-tewater discharge followed by industrial wastewater discharge;(4)material input per unit GDP fluctuated and material output per unit GDP decreased.A decreasing trend in both water use and wastewater discharge per unit GDP was disclosed.These results suggest that the efficiency of resource use in the Wujin District has improved.This weakened the direct link between economic development and environmental deterioration.Additionally,we discussed the harmonic development between environment and economy.Potential limitations of MFA’s application were also discussed.It is suggested that effective measures should be taken for the enforcement of cir-cular economic strategies and the construction of a resource-saving economy.

An analysis method of injection and production dynamic transient flow in a gas field storage facility

A dynamic transient flow analysis method considering complex factors such as the cyclic injection and production history in a gas field storage facility was established in view of the limitations of the existing methods for transient flow analysis and the characteristics of the injection-production operation of strongly heterogeneous gas reservoirs, and the corresponding theoretical charts were drawn. In addition, an injection-production dynamic transient flow analysis model named "three points and two stages" suitable for an underground gas storage(UGS) well with alternate working conditions was proposed. The "three points" refer to three time points during cyclic injection and production, namely, the starting point of gas injection for UGS construction, the beginning and ending points of the injection-production analysis stage;and the "two stages" refer to historical flow stage and injection-production analysis stage. The study shows that the dimensionless pseudo-pressure and dimensionless pseudo-pressure integral curves of UGS well flex downward in the early stage of the injection and production process, and the dimensionless pseudo-pressure integral derivative curve is convex during the gas production period and concave during the gas injection period, and the curves under different flow histories have atypical features. The new method present in this paper can analyze transient flow of UGS accurately. The application of this method to typical wells in Hutubi gas storage shows that the new method can fit the pressure history accurately, and obtain reliable parameters and results.

Vibrational power flow analysis on combined plates partially covered layer of discontinuous material

Vibrational power flow on combined plates with a change in mass and stiffness or with viscoelastic damping layer used widely in engineering is studied. The expressions of flexural displacement and other physical quantities are obtained using Laplace transformation and transfer matrix approach, then influences of changes in mass and stiffness of discontinuous material and the free damping layer on the input power flow and the transmitted power flow are discussed. The conclusions provide theory basis for structural optimization design and reducing noise and

Integrating phosphorus management and cropping technology for sustainable maize production

Achieving high maize yields and efficient phosphorus(P)use with limited environmental impacts is one of the greatest challenges in sustainable maize production.Increasing plant density is considered an effective approach for achieving high maize yields.However,the low mobility of P in soils and the scarcity of natural P resources have hindered the development of methods that can simultaneously optimize P use and mitigate the P-related environmental footprint at high plant densities.In this study,meta-analysis and substance flow analysis were conducted to evaluate the effects of different types of mineral P fertilizer on maize yield at varying plant densities and assess the flow of P from rock phosphate mining to P fertilizer use for maize production in China.A significantly higher yield was obtained at higher plant densities than at lower plant densities.The application of single superphosphate,triple super-phosphate,and calcium magnesium phosphate at high plant densities resulted in higher yields and a smaller environmental footprint than the application of diammonium phosphate and monoammonium phosphate.Our scenario analyses suggest that combining the optimal P type and application rate with a high plant density could increase maize yield by 22%.Further,the P resource use efficiency throughout the P supply chain increased by 39%,whereas the P-related environmental footprint decreased by 33%.Thus,simultaneously optimizing the P type and application rate at high plant densities achieved multiple objectives during maize production,indicating that combining P management with cropping techniques is a practical approach to sustainable maize production.These findings offer strategic,synergistic options for achieving sustainable agricultural development.