Water Desalination Using Solar Energy  June 2011

 Mohannad Al-Haisamawi , Mahmoud Al Faqi, and Amro Messaoudi

Advisors:

Dr. MOUSTAFA EL-SHAFEI, Co-Advisor: Dr. ANWAR SHEIKH

Principle of operation:

Water Desalination using Solar Energy is a joint project between KFUPM and MIT under Clean Water and Clean Energy Collaboration Center (CCWCE). The objective of this project is to efficiently utilize solar energy to desalinate water.

In this project water is desalinated using Reverse Osmosis (RO) concept. The water desalination plant is run completely by the power generated using a photovoltaic module and thus making the entire process completely green. In addition, the solar panel is equipped with a solar tracking system. Different measurements are being collected continuously while the system is running. These measurements indicate the status of the systems parameters and are used to control the system and determine the quality of the product. The whole process is monitored and controlled using two separate fieldpoint controllers (one is for desalination plant and the other is for Solar panel system). The main process parameters can then be displayed on a Human Machine Interface (HMI) for operators’ convenience.

Additionally, the two fieldpoint controllers are connected to a local area network. Thus, all process parameters are displayed on a single HMI providing the user with a comprehensive picture of the system operation. The local area network also enables remote monitoring and control of the process by running the HMI from any computer on the network.

Control Valve Inherent flow Characteristics

227576 DASAH, ASHRAF YUSUF MUHAMMAD

Principle of operation:

 For each control valve there are special mechanical designs to meet desired characteristics asked by the market. The inherent flow characteristic of a control valve is one of the properties that the market looks for, which represents the relation between the stem opening and the flow through the pipe. And this property is one of many factors that are lost or changed while the instrument is installed in the field.

This project proves that it is possible to keep this characteristic while the system is installed in the field which makes the control valve acts as an intelligent instrument.

Also the method used, enables the end user to apply a new inherent characteristic by software without changing the control valve.

This project is now a US Patent # 7,769,493, August, 2010

Robot with voice command and collision avoidance

Mahmoud Raheem  2010/2011

Principle of operation:

Autonomous control has been a wide area of research for more than 60 years. It is simply how to make machines interact as a human-like behavior. The most common sensing elements to be added in a machine in order to have Artificial Intelligence are sensing, tasting, smelling, vision and hearing. In this project; the last two elements were added into a mobile system towards more intelligence. The mobile system motion decision is made by voice command systems in addition to ultrasonic sensors Readings which act as human eyes for obstacles detection. The voice command system was done using Window Speech Recognition Engine integrated with Visual Basic VB Design.

The robot platform was built by Dr. Elshafei (2004-2007). Mr. Raheem added collision avoidance and voice command.

MILLING MACHINE RETROFIT

HAZEM AL-QURASHI, ID.#971296

SALEH AL-ZAHRANI, ID.#980698

SALEEM AL-BULAWI, ID.#990263

2009/2010

Principle of operation:

A Bridgeport Milling   machine was operating by punched tape. Now, it is driven a by PC and  LABVIEW software.

Communication between the PC & the machine is done by interface card.

Commands of this machine are in ASCII code; they are converted to hexadecimal mode and sent by the program. The operator can create and edit G-code and Run the machine directly from the PC. The user interface allows also complete operator control.

Color Mixing Process

Mohamed Mehdi Deriche

ID#200683940

Hassan Al-Hussain

ID# ID#200776130

2009/2010

Principle of operation:

Color mixing process, is a fundamental process in the industry, specially, in painting and dyeing industry, where an accurate composition of mixed colors and a specific amount is demanded. There are different techniques used to extract out certain color from combinations of different colors. The most famous one in the painting dyeing industry is using the three main colors “RBG”, red, blue and green to produce any other color. Color mixing process, includes two phases. The first phase is to create a new color using the three principle colors. This must be done with no complications or limitations. The second phase is to modulate an existing color by the three main colors to produce a new color. This phase has some limitations due to the old color properties, yet, it has a lot of applications in colors wastes.

Computerized Seismograph Station

2009/2010

Principle of operation:

Computer based seismograph for monitoring and recording the vertical component of earthquake signals. The system replaces the current mechanical recorder.  (continued project) (2 students)

The mechanical system

Supervised by:

Prof. Moustafa El-Shafei, (Systems Engineering Department), and Prof. Abdel-Latif Qahwash

(Earth Sciences Department)

Tank-2 (level and flow measurements and control)

Jehad A. Al-Muhaimeed 200775450

Sadiq I. Al-Turab 200775170

2010/2011

Principle of operation:

During this semester we worked on Tank-2 (cold water Tank), figure1.we were assigned to calibrate and control the instruments connected to the tank. A pc-Based controller is deployed to facilitate the activity of controlling. The interfacing to the PC is organized in a writing cabinet that holds signal conditioners and reays.

The instrumentation devices in Tank2 are listed below

- Two RTDs (resistive Temperature Detector)

- load cells

- One Ultrasonic level sensor.

-One solenoid valve

- A water pump