Topic Review
Smart Manufacturing and Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 is an advanced strategy introduced by the German government to promote the integration of diverse technologies that make manufacturing process smarter. For instance, the technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Internet of Service (IoS), social product development, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and radio frequency identification (RFID) have been widely implemented to achieve smarter production system. The combination of this technology will foster mass customization, inexpensive product planning, accurate control of the manufacturing process, condition base maintenance, as well as the automated manufacturing process.These technological trends are designed to facilitate machine to machine (M2M) communication using minimal to null dependence on human force. Industry 4.0 transform processes, operations, machinery, supply chain management, and the entire energy footprint of manufacturing enterprises. It also enhances and monitors the after-purchase performance such as maintenance and servicing. At the global front, manufacturing enterprises are already exploring the limitless possibilities of Industry 4.0 and are reimagining the future. The traditional manufacturing processes and machinery are undergoing digitization and technological transformation to accelerate efficiency, flexibility, and speed to survive the fierce market competition.
  • 913
  • 16 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Manned Orbiting Laboratory
The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL), originally referred to as the Manned Orbital Laboratory, was a never-flown part of the United States Air Force 's human spaceflight program, a successor to the canceled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane project. The project was developed from several early Air Force and NASA concepts of crewed space stations to be used for reconnaissance purposes. MOL evolved into a single-use laboratory, with which crews would be launched on 40-day missions and return to Earth using a Gemini B spacecraft, derived from NASA's Project Gemini. The MOL program was announced to the public on 10 December 1963 as an inhabited platform to prove the utility of putting people in space for military missions. Astronauts selected for the program were later told of the reconnaissance mission for the program. The contractor for the MOL was the Douglas Aircraft Company. The Gemini B was externally similar to NASA's Gemini spacecraft, although it underwent several modifications, including the addition of a circular hatch through the heat shield, which allowed passage between the spacecraft and the laboratory. MOL was canceled in 1969, during the height of the Apollo program, when it was shown that uncrewed reconnaissance satellites could achieve the same objectives much more cost-effectively. U.S. space station development was instead pursued with the civilian NASA Skylab (Apollo Applications Program) which flew in the mid-1970s. In the 1970s, the Soviet Union launched three Almaz military space stations, similar in intent to the MOL, but cancelled the program in 1977 for the same reasons. There is a MOL space suit on display at the Oklahoma City Science Museum, presumably never used.
  • 913
  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Thermal-Hydraulic Performance and Optimization
In order to make the heat exchanger achieve high thermal hydraulic performance, researchers have made a lot of explorations. However, most studies only focus on thermal-hydraulic optimization of PCHE core geometric parameters and operating conditions, and pay little attention to the influence of head on flow distribution and flow heat transfer characteristics of PCHE. PCHE is considered as a potential choice of the S-CO2Brayton cycle system, so S-CO2is the most used working fluid in PCHE.
  • 913
  • 24 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Construction Site Safety Management with Internet-of-Things
A considerable number of fatalities and injuries are reported in construction projects annually, and the adoption of digital technologies could provide safer construction sites. The adoption of IoT-based technologies in construction projects has offered myriad benefits, especially in the field of construction safety management. Barriers to the adoption of IoT-based technologies in construction site safety management (CSSM) have been studied. Then, the most significant barriers were determined using a comprehensive fuzzy Delphi method. Once the external validity of the findings had been checked through semi-structured interviews, 18 barriers were found to hamper the adoption of IoT-based technologies in CSSM. 
  • 912
  • 28 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Automotive Light Detection and Ranging Sensors
In the future, autonomous vehicles with full self-driving features will populate the public roads. However, fully autonomous cars will require robust perception systems to safely navigate the environment, which includes cameras, RADAR devices, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors. LiDAR is a key sensor for the future of autonomous driving since it can read the vehicle’s vicinity and provide a real-time 3D visualization of the surroundings through a point cloud representation. These features can assist the autonomous vehicle in several tasks, such as object identification and obstacle avoidance, accurate speed and distance measurements, road navigation, and more. However, it is crucial to detect the ground plane and road limits to safely navigate the environment, which requires extracting information from the point cloud to accurately detect common road boundaries. 
  • 912
  • 13 Jan 2023
Topic Review
‘Helete Güneşi’, a New Walnut Cultivar
‘Helete Güneşi’ was selected among different genotypes obtained from crossing ‘Maraş 18’ × ‘Chandler’ in Turkey. The present study compares phenological and pomological traits of ‘Helete Güneşi’ with those of its parents so as to scale their performances. ‘Helete Güneşi’ staged leaf out on 22 April, whereas its parents, ‘Chandler’ and ‘Maraş 18’, did on 20 and 12 April, respectively. The harvest date of ‘Helete Güneşi’ was as early as 17 September, whereas ‘Chandler’ and ‘Maraş 18’ began to be harvested on 5 October and 15 September, respectively. Defoliation in ‘Helete Güneşi’ occurred about 1 month earlier than ‘Chandler’. The nut weight and kernel percentage of ‘Helete Güneşi’ were 13.41 g and 53.39%, respectively, whereas in ‘Chandler’ the values were 12.73 g and 48.23%, respectively, but were 14.62 g and 53.76% in ‘Maraş 18’. ‘Helete Güneşi’ had a higher yield value compared to its parents. The results demonstrated that ‘Helete Güneşi’ has superior traits in being selected for late leafing date, early harvest date, high yield, and good nut quality. Therefore, it can be considered as a valuable genetic resource in future breeding programs around the world.
  • 912
  • 02 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Renewable Carbon
Renewable carbon is one of the most important materials which have been used in a wide range of applications, such as chemical catalysis, medicinal purification, environmental cleaning and metal extraction. Meanwhile, with the development of technology, the use field of renewable carbon keeps expanding to new areas, such as electrode and super-capacitors for energetic cell, as well as many other innovative industries. Similar to carbon nanotube (CNT) or graphene, it has variable characteristics of surface groups, along with high interface reactivity. These surface groups provide abundant reaction sites for chemical modification via electrostatic/van der Waals force, chemical bonding or noncovalent π-π interactions, thus imparting carbon particles with excellent natural affinity toward a large number of substrates. Moreover, the highly developed porous structure renders renewable carbon with a large range of surface area (500-3000 m2/g). It consists of thin graphite layers with exceptional mechanical strength, which highlights its great potential to be used as reinforcement agent in advanced packaging composites.
  • 911
  • 01 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Biomass Pyrolysis Processes for Bioenergy Production
Bioenergy has emerged to be among the primary choices for the short- and medium-term replacement of fossil fuels and the reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The most practical method for transforming biomass into biofuel is thermochemical conversion, which may be broken down into combustion, torrefaction, pyrolysis, hydrothermal liquefaction, and gasification.
  • 910
  • 08 Aug 2023
Topic Review
The Advanced Micro-Drilling Process
The increased demand for miniature components has drawn the attention of researchers, engineers, and industry users to manufacture precision micro and mesoholes on foils, sheets, and plates made from a variety of engineering materials. Due to the inherent limitations of conventional drilling processes, the modern or advanced drilling processes are being used to fabricate fine and deep precision holes in a wide range of materials. The spark erosion based drilling is one of them. A comprehensive detail on miniature hole fabrication by micro spark erosion machining (µ-SEM) and micro spark erosion drilling (µ-SED) is given.
  • 910
  • 04 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Sustainable Energy Development
The global COVID-19 pandemic has had strong impacts on national and international freight, construction and tourism industry, supply chains, and has resulted in a rapid decline in the demand for traditional energy sources. In fact, research has outlined that urban areas depend on global supply chains for their day-to-day basic functions, including energy supplies, food and safe access to potable water. The disruption of global supply chains can leave many urban areas in a very vulnerable position, in which their citizens may struggle to obtain their basic supplies, as the COVID-19 crisis has recently shown. Therefore, solutions aiming to enhance local food, water and energy production systems, even in urban environments, have to be pursued. The COVID-19 crisis has also highlighted in the scientific community the problem of people’s exposure to outdoor and indoor pollution, confirmed as a key element for the increase both in the transmission and severity of the contagion, on top of involving health risks on their own. In this context, most nations are going to adopt new preferential policies to stimulate the development of relevant sustainable energy industries, based on the electrification of the systems supplied by renewable energy sources as confirmed by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Thus, while there is ongoing research focusing on a COVID 19 vaccine, there is also a need for researchers to work cooperatively on novel strategies for world economic recovery incorporating renewable energy policy, technology and management. In this framework, the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems (SDEWES) conference provides a good platform for researchers and other experts to exchange their academic thoughts, promoting the development and improvements on the renewable energy technologies as well as their role in systems and in the transition towards sustainable energy systems. The 14th SDEWES Conference was held in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It brought together around 570 researchers from 55 countries in the field of sustainable development. The present Special Issue of Energies,
  • 910
  • 02 Nov 2020
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