Construction contractors usually undertake multiple construction projects simultaneously. Such a situation involves sharing different types of resources, including monetary, equipment, and manpower, which may become a major challenge in many cases. In this study, the financial aspects of working on multiple projects at a time are addressed and investigated. The study considers dealing with financial shortages by proposing a multi-project scheduling optimization model for profit maximization, while minimizing the total project duration. Optimization genetic algorithm and finance-based scheduling are used to produce feasible schedules that balance the finance of activities at any time with the available funds. The model has been tested in multi scenarios, and the results are analyzed. The results show that negative cash flow is minimized from −693,784 to −634,514 in enterprise I and from −2,646,408 to −2,529,324 in enterprise II in the first scenario and also results show that negative cash flow is minimized to −612,768 with a profit of +200,116 in enterprise I and to −2,597,290 with a profit of +1,537,632 in enterprise II in the second scenario.
Human Interactive Proofs (HIPs) are automatic inverse Turing tests, which are intended to differentiate between people and malicious computer programs. The mission of making good HIP system is a challenging issue, since the resultant HIP must be secure against attacks and in the same time it must be practical for humans. Text-based HIPs is one of the most popular HIPs types. It exploits the capability of humans to recite text images more than Optical Character Recognition (OCR), but the current text-based HIPs are not well-matched with rapid development of computer vision techniques, since they are either vey simply passed or very hard to resolve, thus this motivate that
... Show MoreThis paper presents a fuzzy logic controller for a two-tank level control system, which is a process with a dead time. The fuzzy controller is a proportional-integral (PI-like) fuzzy controller which is suitable for steady state behavior of the system. Transient behavior of the system was improved without the need for a derivative action by suitable change in the rule base of the controller. Simulation results showed the step response of the two-tank level control system when this controller was used to control this plant and the effect of the dead time on the response of the system.
A non-parametric kernel method with Bootstrap technology was used to estimate the confidence intervals of the system failure function of the log-normal distribution trace data. These are the times of failure of the machines of the spinning department of the weaving company in Wasit Governorate. Estimating the failure function in a parametric way represented by the method of the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE). The comparison between the parametric and non-parametric methods was done by using the average of Squares Error (MES) criterion. It has been noted the efficiency of the nonparametric methods based on Bootstrap compared to the parametric method. It was also noted that the curve estimation is more realistic and appropriate for the re
... Show MoreImpressed current cathodic protection controlled by computer gives the ideal solution to the changes in environmental factors and long term coating degradation. The protection potential distribution achieved and the current demand on the anode can be regulated to protection criteria, to achieve the effective protection for the system.
In this paper, cathodic protection problem of above ground steel storage tank was investigated by an impressed current of cathodic protection with controlled potential of electrical system to manage the variation in soil resistivity. Corrosion controller has been implemented for above ground tank in LabView where tank's bottom potential to soil was manipulated to the desired set poi
... Show MoreA new method based on the Touchard polynomials (TPs) was presented for the numerical solution of the linear Fredholm integro-differential equation (FIDE) of the first order and second kind with condition. The derivative and integration of the (TPs) were simply obtained. The convergence analysis of the presented method was given and the applicability was proved by some numerical examples. The results obtained in this method are compared with other known results.
Ultimate oil recovery and displacement efficiency at the pore-scale are controlled by the rock wettability thus there is a growing interest in the wetting behaviour of reservoir rocks as production from fractured oil-wet or mixed-wet limestone formations have remained a key challenge. Conventional waterflooding methods are inefficient in such formation due to poor spontaneous imbibition of water into the oil-wet rock capillaries. However, altering the wettability to water-wet could yield recovery of significant amounts of additional oil thus this study investigates the influence of nanoparticles on wettability alteration. The efficiency of various formulated zirconium-oxide (ZrO2) based nanofluids at different nanoparticle concentrations (0
... Show MoreThe clayey soils have the capability to swell and shrink with the variation in moisture content. Soil stabilization is a well-known technique, which is implemented to improve the geotechnical properties of soils. The massive quantities of waste materials are resulting from modern industry methods create disposal hazards in addition to environmental problems. The steel industry has a waste that can be used with low strength and weak engineering properties soils. This study is carried out to evaluate the effect of steel slag (SS) as a by-product of the geotechnical properties of clayey soil. A series of laboratory tests were conducted on natural and stabilized soils. SS was added by 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20% to the soil.
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