INFLUENCE OF SHOT AND STEP RESPONSE ON PARAMETRIC SENSITIVITY UNDER THE STIMULUS-RESPONSE OF ANALYSIS

Shot and step response measurements were carried out with inert bed and adsorption bed both under iso-thermal conditions.Parameter values were determined from a time domain analysis of the measured inputand response signal.Sensitivity test in the parameter values showed that shot response measurements maygive more reliable parameter values than step measurements.Since Kubin[1]and Kucera[2]proposed a parameter estimation technique based on a moment methodfor adsorption system,attention has been focused on dynamic input-output measurements with variouspacked bed systems for the parameter estimation.The object of this work is to compare shot and step re-sponse measurements and see which measurement gives more reliable parameter values.

Prediction of rock fragmentation in a fiery seam of an open-pit coal mine in India

Spontaneous combustion of coal increases the temperature in adjoining overburden strata of coal seams and poses a challenge when loading blastholes.This condition,known as hot-hole blasting,is dangerous due to the increased possibility of premature explosions in loaded blastholes.Thus,it is crucial to load the blastholes with an appropriate amount of explosives within a short period to avoid premature detonation caused by high temperatures of blastholes.Additionally,it will help achieve the desired fragment size.This study tried to ascertain the most influencial variables of mean fragment size and their optimum values adopted for blasting in a fiery seam.Data on blast design,rock mass,and fragmentation of 100 blasts in fiery seams of a coal mine were collected and used to develop mean fragmentation prediction models using soft computational techniques.The coefficient of determination(R^(2)),root mean square error(RMSE),mean absolute error(MAE),mean square error(MSE),variance account for(VAF)and coefficient of efficiency in percentage(CE)were calculated to validate the results.It indicates that the random forest algorithm(RFA)outperforms the artificial neural network(ANN),response surface method(RSM),and decision tree(DT).The values of R^(2),RMSE,MAE,MSE,VAF,and CE for RFA are 0.94,0.034,0.027,0.001,93.58,and 93.01,respectively.Multiple parametric sensitivity analyses(MPSAs)of the input variables showed that the Schmidt hammer rebound number and spacing-to-burden ratio are the most influencial variables for the blast fragment size.The analysis was finally used to define the best blast design variables to achieve optimum fragment size from blasting.The optimum factor values for RFA of S/B,ld/B and ls/ld are 1.03,1.85 and 0.7,respectively.

Probabilistic Durability Assessment of Concrete Structures in Marine Environments:Reliability and Sensitivity Analysis

A probabilistic framework for durability assessment of concrete structures in marine environments was proposed in terms of reliability and sensitivity analysis, which takes into account the uncertainties under the environmental,material, structural and executional conditions. A time-dependent probabilistic model of chloride ingress was established first to consider the variations in various governing parameters, such as the chloride concentration,chloride diffusion coefficient, and age factor. Then the Nataf transformation was adopted to transform the nonnormal random variables from the original physical space into the independent standard Normal space. After that the durability limit state function and its gradient vector with respect to the original physical parameters were derived analytically, based on which the first-order reliability method was adopted to analyze the time-dependent reliability and parametric sensitivity of concrete structures in marine environments. The accuracy of the proposed method was verified by comparing with the second-order reliability method and the Monte Carlo simulation. Finally, the influences of environmental conditions, material properties, structural parameters and execution conditions on the time-dependent reliability of concrete structures in marine environments were also investigated. The proposed probabilistic framework can be implemented in the decision-making algorithm for the maintenance and repair of deteriorating concrete structures in marine environments.

A new model for predicting hydraulic fracture penetration or termination at an orthogonal interface between dissimilar formations

Vertical height growth of hydraulic fractures(HFs)can unexpectedly penetrate a stratigraphic interface and propagate into neighboring layers,thereby resulting in low gas-production efficiency and high risk of groundwater contamination or fault reactivation.Understanding of hydraulic fracture behavior at the interface is of pivotal importance for the successful development of layered reservoirs.In this paper,a twodimensional analytical model was developed to examine HF penetration and termination behavior at an orthogonal interface between two dissimilar materials.This model involves changes in the stress singularity ahead of the HF tip,which may alter at the formation interface due to material heterogeneity.Three critical stress conditions were considered to assess possible fracture behavior(i.e.,crossing,slippage,and opening)at the interface.Then,this model was verified by comparing its theoretical predictions to numerical simulations and three independent experiments.Good agreement with the simulation results and experimental data was observed,which shows the validity and reliability of this model.Finally,a parametric study was conducted to investigate the effects of key formation parameters(elastic modulus,Poisson’s ratio,and fracture toughness)between adjacent layers.These results indicate that the variation in the introduced parameters can limit or promote vertical HF growth by redistributing the induced normal and shear stresses at the interface.Among the three studied parameters,Poisson’s ratio has the least influence on the formation interface.When the fracture toughness and elastic modulus of the bounding layer are larger than those of the pay zone layer,the influence of fracture toughness will dominate the HF behavior at the interface;otherwise,the HF behavior will more likely be influenced by elastic modulus.

Kinetics modeling for the mixed reforming of methane over Ni-CeO_2/MgAl_2O_4 catalyst

Kinetics model was developed for the mixed （steam and dry） reforming of methane, which is useful for the control of H2/CO ratio. The equilibrium constants of reaction rate were determined using the experimental equilibrium data at different reaction temperatures, while the forward reaction rate constants were estimated using the experimental data under non-equilibrium （high inert fraction and high space velocity） conditions. The comparison between calculated and experimental data clearly showed that the developed model described satisfactorily, and further analysis using the parametric sensitivity determined the wall temperature and CO2 fraction in the feed gas as effective parameters for the manipulation of CH4 conversion and H2/CO ratio of synthesis gas under the equilibrium condition. Meanwhile, the inert fraction, rather than the residence time, was selected as additional parameter under non-equilibrium condition.