Broad Analysis Of Pollutants Using Fuzzy Logic Could Guide Water Quality Improvement

Apr. 18, 2008 A fuzzy logic approach to analyzing water quality could help reduce the number of people in the developing world forced to drink polluted and diseased water for survival. Writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, an Inderscience publication, researchers from the University of Malaya, explain how a new approach to water quality assessment uses fuzzy logic to combine disparate problems and provide a more accurate indicator of overall quality.
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Rivers are often the main source of freshwater resources for citizens of developing nations. Their social well-being, economics and political development float on the availability and distribution of these freshwater resources. However, in many parts of the world dam construction, irrigation development, and flood mitigation have led to an increased incidence of diseases, such as malaria, Japanese encephalitis, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis and others. Water quality assessment is an essential part for maintaining good water quality, explained by Ramani Bai Gopinath and Mohamad Rom Tamjis. They explain that a river ecosystem and the quality of the water depend mainly on pH (acidity), levels of dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, and the presence of chemicals including chlorides, phosphates, nitrates and sodium. The researchers have developed a data mining approach to water quality assessment that uses a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) to extract patterns of river water quality from water sampling data. They have demonstrated the efficacy of this approach using data collected from the river Kerayong of the Klang river basin in West Malaysia. The principle of "fuzzy" analysis is based on using approximations in the calculations rather than precise values to give a broad and potentially more useful response. Moreover it allows disparate parameters to be combined in a meaningful way even though their values may not be related. Just as apples and oranges are different but all represent the quality of fruitiness, so biochemical oxygen demand and chemical concentrations, for instance, may represent a particular aspect of water quality and so can be combined through fuzzy analysis. In the present study, the fuzzy analysis of the river Kerayong reveals that it is highly polluted river with a very low water quality index, despite superficial analysis of individual parameters are necessary. This suggests that the quality of life of those relying on the river as a freshwater source could be improved considerably by addressing the individual pollution problems. "We recommend further studies on data mining capabilities of the Fuzzy Inference System using more than six indicators of water quality," the researchers conclude.

Behavior analysis of synthesis unit in fertilizer plant

Document Information: Title: Author(s): Behavior analysis of synthesis unit in fertilizer plant Harish Garg, (Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India), S.P. Sharma, (Department of

Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India) Citation: Harish Garg, S.P. Sharma, (2012) "Behavior analysis of synthesis unit in fertilizer plant", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 29 Iss: 2, pp.217 - 232 Availability, India, Maintainability, Maintenance reliability, Petri net,Reliability, Reliability management, Urea industry Research paper 10.1108/02656711211199928 (Permanent URL) Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the referees for providing very helpful comments and suggestions. Also, the corresponding author (Harish Garg) acknowledges the Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD), India for all financial support to carry out the research work. Abstract:

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a technique for analyzing the behavior of an industrial system utilizing vague, imprecise, and uncertain data. The synthesis unit of a urea plant situated in northern part of India has been considered to demonstrate the proposed approach. Sensitivity analysis of system's behaviour has also been done in it. Design/methodology/approach In the proposed approach, traditional Lambda-Tau technique is used to analyze the behavior of a complex repairable synthesis unit of a fertilizer industry up to a desired degree of accuracy. This technique has been demonstrated by computing eight well-known reliability indices which are used for behaviour analysis of the considered system in a more promising way. Findings The study of analysis of reliability, availability, maintainability etc can help in increasing the production and quality of synthesis. To ensure the system performance throughout its service life, it is necessary to set up proper maintenance, planning and control which can be done after studying the variation of reliability, availability with respect to

time. Thus, it may be a more useful analysis tool to access the current system condition and involved uncertainties. The present paper suggested an approach to improve the system's performance. Originality/value The paper suggests a technique for analyzing the stochastic behavior of an industrial subsystem by computing eight well-known reliability indices in the form of fuzzy membership function. The benefits for the methodology include the ability to model and deal with highly complex system as fuzzy sets can deal easily with approximations and it helps in improving and handling the uncertainties and possibilities.

Analysis of sequential failures for assessment of reliability and safety of manufacturing systems
Angela Adamyan, David He
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Intelligent System Modeling and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, The University of Illinois at Chicago, 842 West Taylor Street, 3049 ERF, Chicago, IL 60607, USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0951-8320(02)00013-3, How to Cite or Link Using DOI Permissions & Reprints

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Abstract
Assessment of reliability and safety of a manufacturing system with sequential failures is an important issue in industry, since the reliability and safety of the system depend not only on all failed states of

system components, but also on the sequence of occurrences of those failures. Methods that are currently available in sequential failure analysis always start with given sequences of the failures in the system, which is not the case in real life situations; therefore, the sequences of the failures should be identified and the probability of their occurrence should be determined. In this paper, we represent a methodology that can be used for identifying the failure sequences and assessing the probability of their occurrence in a manufacturing system. The method employs Petri net modeling and reachability trees constructed based on the Petri nets. The methodology is demonstrated on an example of an automated machining and assembly system.

Keywords
Reliability; Manufacturing systems safety; Sequential failures; Petri nets