In the field of construction project management, time and cost are the most important factors to be considered in planning every project, and their relationship is complex. The total cost for each project is the sum of the direct and indirect cost. Direct cost commonly represents labor, materials, equipment, etc.
Indirect cost generally represents overhead cost such as supervision, administration, consultants, and interests. Direct cost grows at an increasing rate as the project time is reduced from its original planned time. However, indirect cost continues for the life of the project and any reduction in project time means a reduction in indirect cost. Therefore, there is a trade-off between the time and cost for completing construction activities.
In this research, modeling of time-cost optimization, generating global optimum solution for time and cost problem, and lowering construction time and cost using ant colony optimization algorithm
Phenol is one of the worst-damaging organic pollutants, and it produces a variety of very poisonous organic intermediates, thus it is important to find efficient ways to eliminate it. One of the promising techniques is sonoelectrochemical processing. However, the type of electrodes, removal efficiency, and process cost are the biggest challenges. The main goal of the present study is to investigate the removal of phenol by a sonoelectrochemical process with different anodes, such as graphite, stainless steel, and titanium. The best anode performance was optimized by using the Taguchi approach with an L16 orthogonal array. the degradation of phenol sonoelectrochemically was investigated with three process parameters: current de
... Show MoreSummary The aim of this study is the evaluation the resistance of S. marcescence obtained from soil and water to metals chlorides (Zn+2, Hg+2, Fe+2, Al+3, and Pb+2). Four isolates, identified as Serratia marcescence and S. marcescena (S4) were selected for this study according to their resistance to five heavy metals. The ability of S. marcescena (S4) to grow in different concentrations of metals chloride (200-1200 µg/ml) was tested, the highest concentration that S. marcescence (S4) tolerate was 1000 µg/ml for Zn+2, Hg+2, Fe+2, AL+3, pb+2 and 300 µg/ml for Hg+2 through 24 hrs incubation at 37 Co. The effects of temperature and pH on bacteria growth during 72 hrs were also studied. S. marcescence (S4) was affected by ZnCl2, PbCl2, FeC12
... Show MoreAs a result of rapid industrialization and population development, toxic chemicals have been introduced into water systems in recent decades. Because of its excellent efficiency and simple design, the three-dimensional (3D) electro-Fenton method has been used for the treatment of wastewater. The goal of the current study is to explore the efficiency of phenol removal by the 3D electro-Fenton process, which is one of the advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). In the present work, the effect of the addition of granular activated carbon (GAC) particles to the electro-Fenton system as the third electrode would be investigated in the presence of graphite as the anode and nickel foam as the cathode, which is the source of electro-generated hydrogen
... Show MoreAn optimization study was conducted to determine the optimal operating pressure for the oil and gas separation vessels in the West Qurna 1 oil field. The ASPEN HYSYS software was employed as an effective tool to analyze the optimal pressure for the second and third-stage separators while maintaining a constant operating pressure for the first stage. The analysis involved 10 cases for each separation stage, revealing that the operating pressure of 3.0 Kg/cm2 and 0.7 Kg/cm2 for the second and third stages, respectively, yielded the optimum oil recovery to the flow tank. These pressure set points were selected based on serval factors including API gravity, oil formation volume factor, and gas-oil ratio from the flow tank. To impro
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In this paper, the speed control of the real DC motor is experimentally investigated using nonlinear PID neural network controller. As a simple and fast tuning algorithm, two optimization techniques are used; trial and error method and particle swarm optimization PSO algorithm in order to tune the nonlinear PID neural controller's parameters and to find best speed response of the DC motor. To save time in the real system, a Matlab simulation package is used to carry out these algorithms to tune and find the best values of the nonlinear PID parameters. Then these parameters are used in the designed real time nonlinear PID controller system based on LabVIEW package. Simulation and experimental results are compared with each other and showe
... Show MoreSewer network is one of the important utilities in modern cities which discharge the sewage from all facilities. The increase of population numbers consequently leads to the increase in water consumption; hence waste water generation. Sewer networks work is very expensive and need to be designed accurately. Thus construction effective sewer network system with minimum cost is very necessary to handle waste water generation.
In this study trunk mains networks design was applied which connect the pump stations together by underground pipes for too long distances. They usually have large diameters with varying depths which consequently need excavations and gathering from pump stations and transport the sewage
... Show MoreThe clutch system is essential for gently transmitting power from the engine to the gearbox, in addition to other tasks such as absorbing vibration, inertia reducing, and working as a protector against the overload for the motor and the components of power transmission. A new approach is developed for this research paper, to find a dry clutch system’s optimal design and operational parameters to improve performance and thermal behavior. Three design factors were selected to design the numerical tests based on the Taguchi method which are the friction material, the applied pressure function, and the dimensionless radius ratio R. A three-dimensional finite element model was developed, and the numerical cases were designed using the Taguchi
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