ABSTRACT
Ultrasonic concentration meters have widely been used at water purification, sewage treatment and waste water treatment plants to sort and transfer high concentration sludges and to control the amount of chemical dosage. When an unusual substance is contained in the sludge, however, the attenuation of ultrasonic waves could be increased or not be transmitted to the receiver. In this case, the value measured by a concentration meter is higher than the actual density value or vibration. As well, it is difficult to automate the residuals treatment process according to the various problems such as sludge attachment or sensor failure. An ultrasonic multi-beam concentration sensor was considered to solve these problems, but an abnormal concentration value of a specific ultrasonic beam degrades the accuracy of the entire measurement in case of using a conventional arithmetic mean for all measurement values, so this paper proposes a method to improve the accuracy of the sludge concentration determination by choosing reliable sensor values and applying a neuro-fuzzy learning algorithm. The newly developed meter is proven to render useful results from a variety of experiments on a real water treatment plant.
ABSTRACT
We demonstrate self-aligned liquid crystals (LCs) using a wrinkled-wall polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) wrinkle structure, which is a key factor to obtain a stable homogeneous alignment state with positive LCs. We constructed the wrinkled walls via localised surface exposure to IB radiation, which passed through a long length localised pattern mask. The creation of the wrinkled wall helped to align the LC molecules homogeneously because the wrinkled wall acted as a guide for the arrangement of positive LC molecules. In addition, we confirmed the stability of the alignment state as the width of the wrinkled wall was changed. Although this wrinkled-wall method is a non-contact method, LC alignment is achieved via an anisotropic topographical guide, which provides the LC molecules with stable homogeneous alignment.
ABSTRACT
Solution-derived YZO films were investigated as liquid crystal (LC) alignment layers modified by ion beam (IB) irradiation. Solution processing was adopted in place of the sputtering method for the deposition of YZO films as LC alignment layers. Uniform and homogeneous LC alignment was achieved to produce a high performance LC system. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis showed that surface reformation of YZO films by annealing and IB irradiation affects the uniformity of the LC alignment. Superior electro-optical characteristics of twisted nematic LC cells constructed from IB-irradiated YZO films were observed, which indicates that the proposed solution-derived YZO films have strong potential for use in the production of advanced LC displays.
