MERCon - 2021

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/18493

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 128

item: Conference-Full-text
Activity Participation Patterns of Individuals in Sri Lanka
(IEEE, 2021-07) Malshan, TMP; De Silva, GLDI; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Activity-based models are replacing commonly used traditional four-step models due to their high temporal and spatial resolution, integrity, interdependency, and behavioural basis. The foundation of an activity-based model is the activity participation pattern of an individual in the study area considered. This paper uses the time use survey data, collected by the Department of Census and Statistics and analyses them as the first step of building an activity-based model for Sri Lanka. Variations on weekday and weekend activity patterns were analysed separately. Since they are considerably different, the focus was on weekday activity participation patterns. The differences in activity participation patterns across gender, age, and geographical location were identified which are useful when building an activity-based model for Sri Lanka.
item: Conference-Full-text
An analytical design & optimization approach to enhance warehouse operations
(IEEE, 2021-07) Dissanayake, S; Rupasinghe, T; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
This paper presents an overview of integrating warehouse design and optimization modelling approach to enhance the supply chain performance. The approach is derived through a literature review as well as by considering the practitioners approach in the Sri Lankan context. The method is explained along with the framework to integrate the isolated solutions and derive the overall warehouse design solution, simulation, and optimization models. The main contribution of this paper is to guide the practitioners in consistently maintaining an optimum warehouse operation through warehouse design to enhance supply chain performance.
item: Conference-Full-text
Application of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in the construction industry: the case of Sri Lanka
(IEEE, 2021-07) Safshath, MIM; Waidyasekara, KGAS; Tennakoon, GA; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Nanotechnology is one of the evolving modern technologies, increasingly being adopted in the construction industry. Nanomaterials provide numerous advantages over conventional materials such as improvements in quality and sustainability performance and reduction in cost and time for use. Sri Lanka is geographically rich with mineral resources that contain suitable raw materials for producing nanomaterials. Despite this, adoption of nanotechnology in the Sri Lankan construction industry is low. This paper therefore aims to investigate the availability and application of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in the Sri Lankan construction industry. Considering the novelty of the area, a qualitative research approach was adopted for this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with experts in the field of nanotechnology to gather the required data and content analysis techniques were used to analyze the qualitative data collected. The study findings reveal that nanomaterials can be produced using locally available mineral resources. However, Sri Lanka is yet to realize the optimum value from its mineral resources that can be used in the production of nanomaterials. Further empirical opinions regarding the feasibility of producing nanomaterials in Sri Lanka are also offered through this research.
item: Conference-Full-text
An Artificial Appendage for Swimming Microrobots in Non-Newtonian Fluids
(IEEE, 2021-07) Perera, KNM; Amarasinghe, YWR; Dao, DV; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Micron-scale mobile robots are being widely used in bioengineering applications, such as in a lab-on-a-chip (LOC) device, due to their capabilities of manipulation, sensing and transportation. Shear rate dependency of rheological properties of a non-Newtonian fluid enables swimming using geometrically reciprocal motion for a microswimmer. Therefore, it is not mandatory to use propulsive mechanisms that are slender in nature such as artificial flagella or cilia to generate non-reciprocal motion. We propose a design approach based on numerical simulations to select a suitable artificial appendage geometry to be used as a propulsion mechanism for a mobile microrobot. Here, the artificial appendage is considered to undergo rowing motion to generate propulsion. The fluid-structure interaction is computed numerically and three criteria are considered for the selection. In this study, a rectangular and a circular geometry are compared highlighting the proposed approach. The circular geometry showed better capability in terms of propulsion force generation, making it more suitable as a propulsion mechanism.
item: Conference-Full-text
Assessing the oil supply chain risk in Sri Lankan petroleum industry
(IEEE, 2021-07) Fernando, M; Sigera, I; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Energy security is a critical challenge in today's world. The petroleum product supply chain is highly uncertain due to geopolitical tension and inherent complexity. Sri Lankan petroleum product requirement entirely relies on the global oil supply chain. The research was planned to study the oil supply chain risk in Sri Lanka. Risk factors and disruptions were identified using a literature review and a pilot survey. The expert opinion survey was conducted along with probability impact analysis to assess the risk factors. It was highlighted that the lack of infrastructure facilities is the main barrier to ensure energy security in Sri Lanka. Gasoline was identified as the most vulnerable refined product type due to ever-increasing demand. Subsequently, a forecasting model was developed using ARIMA to determine the future Gasoline demand. It was revealed that additional monthly Gasoline shipment will be required in the next two years' time.
item: Conference-Full-text
Assessment of measure of effectiveness of two-lane roads under non-homogeneous traffic conditions
(IEEE, 2021-07) Rajapaksha, G; Bandara, S; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
One aspect of measure of effectiveness of two-lane road is freedom of passing manoeuvre. Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) use percent time spent following (PTSF) as a measure to evaluate freedom of passing manoeuvre. Several researchers found that PTSF is incompatible with nonhomogeneous traffic conditions. Different follower-related performance measures, namely, percent followers (PF), follower density (FD) and the number of followers as a proportion of capacity (NFPC), Percent Impeded (PI), have been evaluated and a new measure called Stripped Based Follower Density (SFD) is introduced considering driving behavior of heterogeneous traffic condition. Data is collected from 12 two lane roads in Sri Lanka using a 2.5 second time gap suggested as driver perception -reaction time by AASSHTO to identify followers. LOS threshold values for SFD were introduced using K-mean clustering technique and compared with HCM LOS threshold.
item: Conference-Full-text
Atmospheric cold plasma to improve printability of polyethylene terephthalate
(IEEE, 2021-07) Sandanuwan, T; Hendeniya, N; Attygalle, D; Amarasinghe, DAS; Weragoda, SC; Samarasekara, AMPB; ; Hemachandra, K; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M
Though paper is still the most common substrate in the printing industry, polymeric substrates are becoming common by the day. Commercially available polymers such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polypropylene (PP) surfaces have lower density of polar functional groups. Thus, the adhesion characteristics of these materials are naturally poor. Consequently, producing a quality print on such polymer substrates has become a challenge. Hence, surface modification has become a necessity for such surfaces. This study investigates the technical viability of cold plasma-based surface treatment technologies on polymeric materials. The effect of plasma pre-treatment, on the printability of PET substrates, was studied. The surfaces of these polymer substrates were subjected to different cold plasma treatments, using 80% N2 and 20% O2 as feed gas. The study covers the effect of the plasma dose and the plasma intensity on the printability and the degree of surface modification. The study determined the optimum plasma conditions for quality and durable prints.
item: Conference-Full-text
Atmospheric pressure plasma treatment as a cost-effective and eco-friendly pre-treatment method to enhance seed perfomance in germination and early seedling growth
(IEEE, 2021-07) Hendeniya, N; Sandanuwan, T; Amarasinghe, DAS; Attygalle, D; Weragoda, S; Ranaweera, B; Rathnayake, K; Lalanka, M; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Novel methods of improving the seed quality have gained a lot of attention recently, cold atmospheric pressure plasma being one of the most promising methods. The effects of cold atmospheric pressure plasma treatment of chili - MI 2 (Capsicum annuum L.) and snake gourd - MI short (Trichosanthes cucumerina) seeds have been compared with a conventional fungicide seed coating and a biological coating treatment. The plasma exposure times used were 4min, 6min and 10min. Cold atmospheric pressure plasma treatment has shown improved effects on seed germination for both Capsicum annuum L. and Trichosanthes cucumerina seeds. Both seed types showed the best germination results under 6 min treatment while displaying the best Seed Vigor Index through 4 min plasma treatment. Compared with the coating treatments, cold atmospheric pressure plasma has shown a significant stimulation in seed germination and early growth.
item: Conference-Full-text
Bamboo cane as an alternative reinforcement in reinforced concrete beam
(IEEE, 2021-07) Yathushan, K; Kishok, S; Thevarajah, BE; Nithurshan, M; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Concrete is one of the most energy consumed materials in construction, which has higher compressive strength but poor in tensile strength. Steel is used to compromise the tensile strength of the concrete. Bamboo is a versatile and fast-growing natural material that has high compressive and tensile strength. The use of bamboo as an alternative to steel reinforcement will reduce the energy consumption in construction and reduce the cost. To investigate the feasibility of using bamboo as an alternative reinforcement, the bamboo fiber mix concrete, and bamboo reinforcement in a structural element such as beam were tested under compressive and flexural tests. The experimental study consisted of 12 cubes and 6 beams specimens. Results show that the load-carrying capacity of concrete beams reduced because of the usage of bamboo fiber in concrete. However, the ultimate load-carrying capacity in a hybrid beam was observed to almost equal to the steel-reinforced beam and showed a similar deflection. Based on this study results, it was concluded that the bamboo can be used as an alternative reinforcement in reinforced concrete beams, and it can reduce the cost of beams in the construction.
item: Conference-Full-text
Barriers for lean implementation in apparel industry
(IEEE, 2021-07) Fernando, DT; Rathnayake, V; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Lean manufacturing is one of the most widely used tools in the contemporary manufacturing industry to improve the business performance via achieving higher efficiencies at reduced cost structures. However, the apparel industry has not yet been able to realize the full potential benefit scheme of this change initiative. Thus, this research is formulated to identify key barriers faced by the apparel industry which hinder the utilization of the full spectrum of lean benefits. A comprehensive literature review was conducted along with the feedback from the industry professionals to identify key barriers of lean implementation which were categorized under six lean tools. A pilot study was conducted targeting lean practitioners and identified three lean tools (TPM, 5-S and Kanban) as the most decisive tools for further investigations. A detailed survey questionnaire formulated on those prioritized lean tools was distributed to lean practitioners (executives and managers) in lean implemented Sri Lankan apparel factories. Quantitative feedback was obtained using ‘1-5 Likert Scale’ and prioritized using ‘Relative Importance Index’ to identify the most critical barriers pertaining to the feasibility of lean implementation and continuation. A comprehensive list of recommendations was developed using the findings of the literature and the qualitative feedback from the survey.
item: Conference-Full-text
Barriers to use of artificial intelligence on energy conservation in government buildings: awareness as a moderating function of technology acceptance
(IEEE, 2021-07) Jayaratne, W; Dasanayaka, SWSB; Mudalige, D; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Government Buildings enable occupation to thousands of inhabitants, including customers and the management. In these places, everybody uses free energy since nobody feels the need for conservation as there is no impact to their pocket at the end of the month. According to the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) of Sri Lanka sources, the electricity cost of these places exceeds 7.5Billion Rs. It is approximately equivalent to 3% of the annual turnover of CEB. Because of this free energy, nobody is interested in conserving it even though there is a severe energy shortage. Therefore, there is an empirical novelty in investigating this abandoned resource towards conserving energy with artificial intelligence (AI) devices. The study identified five major factors that disturb the use of devices with artificial intelligence. The same instrument develops as the policy directive on the conservation of energy in government buildings.
item: Conference-Full-text
Bilingual lexical induction for sinhala-english using cross lingual embedding spaces
(IEEE, 2021-07) Liyanage, A; Ranathunga, S; Jayasena, S; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Bilingual lexicons are an important resource in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Such resources are scarce for Low Resource languages (LRLs) such as Sinhala. However, research on Bilingual Lexical Induction (BLI) on low resource settings is limited. This paper presents the first-ever implementation of BLI for the Sinhala-English language pair. Following the recently introduced VecMap model, we map the vectors of words belonging to both Sinhala and English into a shared vector space and measure the Cross Lingual (CL) similarity between the words. The closest English word for a given Sinhala word in this CL vector space is taken as the corresponding similar word. Currently, there is no detailed evaluation with respect to the size and the nature of the dataset used to create the word vectors, type of the evaluation dictionary, or the technique used to create the word vectors. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of how these factors affect BLI for Sinhala and English languages and shows that the BLI results have a heavy dependency on these factors.
item: Conference-Full-text
Biochar-based Barricade and Wetland as an Integrated Landfill Leachate Treatment System
(IEEE, 2021-06) Dabare, K; Wijekoon, P; Cooray, A; Athapattu, BCL; Vithanage, M; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Open dumping of municipal solid waste (MSW) imposes severe environmental threats in which landfill leachate generation is considered as the predominant. This study aims on treating landfill leachate using a pilot scale biochar based barricade and wetland system. Biochar was derived from MSW of Karadiyana dumpsite, using the pyrolysis barrel method, providing approximately 500°C of pyrolysis temperature within 2 h of time duration. Characterization of biochar was done using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The wetland was constructed using a mixture of biochar and sand in 1:2 volume ratio, whereas the barricade was filled with 7.5 kg biochar and laterite. For additional removal, Canna indica was planted in the wetland. Leachate was diluted in a 1:1 ratio, allowing it to flow through the system at a rate of 10 ml/min. The analysis was continuously carried out for 7 days. The results showed 99.97, 83.95 and 92.73% removal for ammonium-N, phosphate and COD respectively. Thus, suggesting the potential upscaling of the system with further improvements through testing different ratios of biochar and leachate flow rates.
item: Conference-Full-text
Characterising the drying behaviour of microwave assisted drying of coconut chips
(IEEE, 2021-07) Muhammed Aadhil, MFH; Amarasinghe, ADUS; Narayana, M; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Drying is the most critical unit operation in coconut oil and desiccated coconut industry. Different technologies are used for drying coconut chips and hot air drying is the most popular method. Microwave (MW) drying has gained attention in many process industries due to its faceted benefits. This study examines the critical parameters governing the microwave drying of coconut chips. Sliced coconut chips of 1cm×1cm×1cm were used. The effect of the two independent variables MW Power (100 W, 180 W, 300 W) and Mass Loading rate (20 g, 40 g, 60 g, 80 g, 100 g) on three response variables, moisture content, drying time and drying rate was examined. Air velocity of 0.6 m/s was circulated in the drying chamber to ensure convective mass transfer. The ratio of Microwave Power to the Mass Loading was found to define two distinct regions for selecting the mass loading for a given microwave power. At high MW power to mass loadings, the total drying time was found to be constant against the mass loading while at low MW power to mass loadings, the total drying time was found to increase with the mass loading for a given MW power. Considering both statistical conformity ( R2>0.995 , SSE and RMSE close to zero) and the simplicity together, Page model was identified as the best thin layer drying model for describing the Microwave Assisted Air Drying of coconut chips.
item: Conference-Full-text
Characterising the Self-opening Behaviour of Single Creased Kapton Polyimide Films
(IEEE, 2021-07) Navaratnarajah, S; Piyumi, C; Mallikarachchi, C; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Use of thin folded membranes for deployable structures are becoming increasingly popular especially in aerospace applications such as a deployable solar array, sun shields, and solar sails. The folding and compaction process of thin membranes, which introduces permanent, nonrecoverable, localized plastic deformation, changes the geometric shape and material properties. The underlying mechanics in the deployment of creased membrane structures are self-opening and then forced-opening beyond a stable stress-free state. The focus of the previous studies was limited to the characterisation of crease behaviour during force opening. This paper presents an experimental study to characterise the crease mechanics of a single creased membrane during self-opening behaviour which is crucial in the design of gossamer structures. A simple analytical study was performed to predict the moment-rotation response of the crease and hence shows a good qualitative agreement with physical experiment results. It is shown that the moment-rotation response of a single crease can be idealized to a linear rotational spring in virtual simulation and the spring stiffness depends on the thickness of the membrane.
item: Conference-Full-text
Collusion set detection within the stock market using graph clustering & anomaly detection
(IEEE, 2021-07) Madurawe, RN; Jayaweera, BKDI; Jayawickrama, TD; Perera, I; Withanawasam, R; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Manipulations that happen within the financial markets directly affect the stability of the market. Therefore detection of manipulation ensures fair market operation. Most of these manipulations occur in the guise of collusion. Collusion in financial markets involves a group of market participants trading amongst themselves to execute a manipulative trading strategy. Most existing models do not consider the seemingly rare yet normal transactions into account when proposing collusive groups. Neither have they considered the effect of time within collusion. This work proposes a model to detect collusion in stock markets through the application of graph mining and anomaly detection. Creation of investor graphs denoting the relationships between investors and timely sampling of these graphs using Graph mining allows this research to consider the effect of time in collusion, subsequent anomaly detection allows for the filtering of results to avoid misnaming normal behaviour within the stock market. This research presents that Graph mining techniques such OPTICS and Spectral clustering perform consistently well to extract meaningful collusive groups, while the Local Outlier Factors work well as an Anomaly detector to filter out results received from Graph Clustering. The combination of these methods creates a pipeline which can outperform existing methodologies.
item: Conference-Full-text
A comparative analysis of the environmental and structural performance of pet bottle designs in Sri Lanka
(IEEE, 2021-07) Jagoda, SUM; Gamage, JR; Karunathilake, H; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) has become the most commonly used material in the global beverage bottling industry. PET bottle production has increased by over seven times within the last three decades. However, the use of PET has a considerably detrimental effect on the environment, and many studies have been carried out on curbing this damage. Reducing the amount of material used, design for recycling, repurposing, and reusing are possible approaches for mitigating the negative environmental impacts of the PET bottle industry. The local PET bottle market has a range of products to cater the various customer requirements. To obtain a holistic vision of the actual impacts of this industry, life cycle thinking becomes necessary. The objective of this study is to present a methodological framework for comparing the environmental performance and structural performance of PET bottle designs, using case studies from the Sri Lankan market. A life cycle assessment and a finite element analysis were carried out to evaluate the overall environmental impacts of the PET supply chain and the structural performance of PET bottles. The outcomes of the study are used to provide recommendations on the short and long-term strategies to increase the eco-friendliness of the PET bottle industry.
item: Conference-Full-text
Comparative study of design inputs of overhead transmission line towers
(IEEE, 2021-07) Aluthwaththa, AGHAD; Baskaran, K; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Towers have been considered as the main supporting structures of transmission lines. Cost of the towers ranges from 28 to 40 percent of the total line cost. The transmission line network needs to be upgraded continuously with the increasing power demand. In fact, the towers used in Sri Lanka are the heaviest in the region and the design has been based on the CEB specifications, which has been in use for a few decades and is based on the probabilistic method with safety factors. CEB spends reasonable amount on transmission line construction. However, this cost could be reduced by optimizing the towers. To optimize the towers, need optimized design inputs with an optimum tower configuration. This study intends to identify the economic viability of the CEB design inputs against IS802:1:1 and IEC60826 inputs. The objective of the research was achieved by identifying different design inputs and analyzing two towers (one TDL, one TD3) in PLS tower software. The design was completed with ASCE10-97. Member capacity usage and the support reactions were compared while the results showed that tower weight and foundation size could be reduced by a significant margin through using either IS or IEC codes instead of CEB specifications.
item: Conference-Full-text
comparative study on cure, mechanical and dynamic-mechanical properties of natural rubber compounds formulated with dixp, tbztd, zbec and tbbs accelerators
(IEEE, 2021-07) Samarasinghe, H; Walpalage, S; Edirisinghe, D; Egodage, S; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Today, it is obligatory to replace nitrosamine releasing traditional accelerators owing to the various health, safety and environment regulations and surviving with safe alternative is a one of the key challenges in the rubber industry. In this work four groups of commercially available nitrosamine free/safe accelerators were selected, i,e., diisopropyl xanthogen polysulfide (DIXP), tetrabenzyl thiuramdisulfide (TBzTD), zinc dibenzyl dithiocarbamate (ZBeC) and N-tert-butyl-2-benzothiazole sulfenamide (TBBS). The effect of accelerator type on cure, crosslink density, physico-mechanical and dynamic-mechanical properties of efficient sulfur vulcanized natural rubber (NR) compounds was investigated. Results reveal that accelerator type does not only affect the cure characteristics, but also has a great impact on physical and mechanical properties, DIXP possess the least modulus and strength properties while providing satisfactory optimum cure time for the vulcanization compared to the TBBS accelerator. Improvement in mechanical properties is observed in the order ZBeC, TBzTD, TBBS and corroborates well with the crosslink density. ZBeC and TBzTD show relatively higher hardness, storage modulus and lower hysteresis in the rubbery region indicating different microstructure arrangement compared to commonly use of non-regulated nitrosamine safe TBBS accelerated vulcanizates.
item: Conference-Full-text
Comparative study on protective measures against spalling slab concrete
(IEEE, 2021-07) Senevirathne, L; Baskaran, K; Adhikariwatte, W; Rathnayake, M; Hemachandra, K
Concrete spelling is a major problem in reinforced concrete structures, especially in the public buildings, which were constructed some time ago. In Sri Lanka, many public buildings like schools and hospitals have this problem. Generally, authorities prohibit the use of the building area, where there is potential for concrete spalling instead of immediately repairing, because the repairing work is expensive and time consuming. This research is to study economical protective measures to prevent falling of spalled cover concrete chunks until the proper repair is done. This paper reports the results of an experimental program involving eight small scale concrete slab panels, which were installed with four different materials. Eight concrete slab panels were casted first and after 28 days the materials were installed with two distinct installation methods. The panels were subjected to area loads and failure loads were recorded. This paper includes the findings according to the observations made during the panel testing.

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