UNIT II:

METHODS AND MATERIALS

In this Unit, we shall be concentrating on that part of the research article which at least
appears to be the easiest to write, namely, the section often called Experimental, Procedure
or, in our case, simply, Methods and Materials.
It is simpler perhaps because it is more descriptive; however, as we shall see in some cases,
the information contained in this section is often very dense and requires considerable
content knowledge to fully understand it.

Contents
Activity

2.1 Methodology section: features

2.2 Grammar focus: the passive voice

2.3. Discourse focus: specialized knowledge

2.4 Methodology section: content

2.5 Materials

Activity 2.1 Methodology section: features

Most of us associate the writing of the experimental or methodological section of any

academic study with certain formal linguistic features such as the passive voice and, of
course, we need to study these aspects more closely in this Unit
However, an alternative starting point is to notice how the reader needs to use his or her
specific subject knowledge to understand the “connections” between parts of the text.

1. Take this example. All you have is the complete experimental part and the title of the
article.
Read through it and discuss these questions:

1. How much do you really understand about this study? Could you give a short oral
summary of it?
2. Look at the way some important parts of the process are “named” or “labelled”. Does this
help your comprehension or not? How typical is this kind of “naming” in your particular
area of interest?
3. Notice how the text is quite repetitive. Underline those parts of it which seem to repeat
what was said before but also add some “new” information. Is this a typical feature of this
type of text?
4. The spaces (……) in the text are connectors of the sequential type – first next, then finally,
as soon as, in the first place, secondly, the first step and so on. Which words would you
place in these gaps? Could we add any more connectors to the text? If so, which and
14
 where?

Title:
Consideration on the Mechanical Properties of Gamma Irradiated Polyethylene
Reinforced with Sisal Fibers” (Albano, C, et. al, Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniería,
Vol.18, No. 1, 2003)

EXPERIMENTAL
HDPE Resilin 2908 was used (MFI: 6.3 gr/10 min, MW: 28500). Sisal fibers were used as
reinforcement (d: 0.06 mm, 1: 124.10 mm). The fibers used to make the layers of
reinforcement of the compound material were subjected to two treatments: one group was
washed with distilled water and ……. dried for 48 hours at 75 0C in a stove with continuous
air flow.
A second group was subjected to alkaline treatment with a solution of 18% p/p of NaOH.
They were soaked for 30 minutes and …… washed with water to remove excess NaOH.
………. they were dried in a stove for 48 hours at 75 0C. The samples were irradiated by
integral doses up to 10, 25, 50, 60 and 70 KGy with a dose rate of 4.8 Kgy/h in an oxygen
atmosphere and at room temperature. Impact tests were carried out according to ASTM
D256-77a. Tensile tests were carried out according to ASTM D638-78e in an Instron
machine, model 1131-C6, with a crosshead speed of 2.5 cm/min. A Hitachi S-2400
scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to observe the morphology of the samples.

2. Choose any of the following texts and analyze it in terms of what we have discussed so
far, adding any new ideas of your own.

The methodological or experimental section of many articles contains recognizable

linguistic features. Read through the following two examples and try to work out what two
of these features are.

A:

STRAIN HARDENING OF ALUMINIUM AT HIGH STRAINS

A. Korbel, F. Dobrzanski, & M.Richert

EXPERIMENTAL

(1) The investigations were carried out using commercially pure aluminium (99.5% Al). (2)
The aluminium ingots were reduced by hot rolling to the thickness of 12 mm.(3) The
temperature at the beginning of the hot rolling was 783 K (5100C). (4) The differences in
the value of the preliminary strain, and thus the different degree of strain hardening was
obtained through cold rolling. (5) Table 1 gives the scheme of the applied reductions and

15
the corresponding values of the true (logarithmic) strain. (6) The hot and cold rolling were
carried out under industrial conditions.

(7) The properties of the material after hot rolling and the effect of cold deformation were
determined on the basis of tensile tests and structural observations conducted by using both
optical and electron microscopy.

(8) The samples for the tensile tests were cut out parallel to the rolling direction. (9) The
tensile tests were carried out at room temperature and at a strain rate of 10--4s--1.

(10) The number of samples cut out from a rolled band after each reduction and examined
in the tensile test was 60. (11) This made possible a statistical study of the experimental
results. (12) The following parameters were used for the description of a given feature X:

Acta metall., Vol.31, No.2, 1983

B:

MATERIALS AND METHODS

(1)A field and laboratory study was conducted on a Hord silt loam, the former at the
Management Systems Evaluation Area (MSEA), Shelton, NE, and the latter on intact soil
cores, obtained from the same site, but incubated in the laboratory. (2)Some characteristics
of the soil are given in Table 1.

Field Study

(3)Six PVC cylinders (28.7 cm i.d. by 1.8 m) were individually pushed into the soil to a
depth of 1.2 m using a metal collar placed on top of the cylinder and the bucket of a large
front-end loader, which provided about 10,000 kg of down loading from the loader bucket
placed on top of the collar. (4)A trench (2.1 by 2.1 by 4.2 m) was dug next to the columns
so that one side of the columns was exposed and timber shoring erected so that the columns
were held in positions for the duration of the study. (5)Gas probes were inserted through
holes, drilled in the walls of the cylinders, into the center of the soil column, at depths of
30, 60, 90, and 120 cm from the soil surface. (6)Distilled water (11.1 L) containing 30 mg
L-1 NO3-N (76.6 atom% 15N) was added to the top of all columns while three columns also
received an addition of 10 mL of ethanol with the NO 3 solution. (7)These additions
corresponded to application rates of 51.8 kg NO3-N ha-1 and 644 kg C ha-1, respectively.
(8)The ethanol requirement was calculated according to McCarty et al. (1969) using the
concentration of NO3 in the soil profile to a depth of 120 cm before the application of the
treatments (mean value of 31.7 mg N kg -1 soil) and the concentration of NO3 in the added
solution. (9)The solutions were allowed to percolate through the columns over 4 d. (10)The
16
headspace above the soil in the column was sampled every 6 h by capping the column for 1
h and taking gas samples after 0, 30 and 60 min. (11)Gas samples were also obtained from
the gas probes within the soil columns after 6 h. (12)At the end of 4 d, three soil cores were
taken from inside each of the soil columns to a depth of 1.2 m and bulked across depths in
30 cm increments.

(13)The gas samples were analyzed for N2O and CO2 by gas chromatography (Weier et al.,
1993) and for 15N-(N2O + N2) by isotope mass spectrometry (Mosier et al., 1986).
(14)Fluxes of 15N-(N2O + N2) from the soil surface within the columns were calculated as
described by Hutchinson and Mosier (1981). (15)The results were corrected for the
solubility of N2O and CO2 in soil water (Moraghan and Buresh, 1977)

(Water Quality: Potential for Bioremediation of High Nitrate Irrigation Water Via
Dentrification, KL Weier et al., Journal of Environmental Quality, 23:105-110 (1994).)

(c)

Frequency Tracking in Power Networks in the Presence of Harmonics

Miroslav M. Begovic et al., IEEE transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 8, No. 2, April, 1993)

Abstract
Three new techniques for frequency measurement are proposed in the paper. The first is a modified zero
crossing method using curve fitting of voltage samples. The second method is based on polynomial fitting of
the DFT quasi-stationary phasor data for calculation of the rate of change of the positive sequence phase
angle. The third method operates on a complex signal obtained by the standard technique of quadrature
demodulation. All three methods are characterized by immunity to reasonable amounts of noise and harmonics
in power systems. The performance of the proposed techniques is illustrated on several scenarios by computer
simulation

The three methods discussed in sections 3-5 have been tested by computer simulation
Several scenarios have been tried, and their performance documented. Whenever the term
true frequency is used, it refers to the quantity (2) obtained from the signal, which is
represented in the form (1). Simulated transients are disturbances of the waveform
represented by the equation (1), with the following modulations and disturbances added:

∙ The tracking abilities need to be tested under transient conditions. A 1 Hz swing was
modulated on the nominal frequency, with a maximum value of 1 rad/sec.

∙ Various amounts of measurement noise, modelled according to (2), were added to the
signal. Typical values of standard deviation are of the order of 1%.

∙ Quantization noise was added to the samples. It corresponds to the 12-bit A/D converters
used in the phasor measurement system. The sampling rate was 1440 Hz (24 samples per
cycle), which allows for 12 harmonics to be present in the signal without aliasing effects.

∙ A subsynchronous oscillation of 6 Hz was modulated on top of the transient swing of 1

17
Hz. Even though this type of oscillation is not very common, it would test the tracking
performance of the proposed methods in that important frequency region.

∙ Various amounts of harmonics were used in the signal. Three scenarios are presented in
the paper: 5% 3rd. harmonic, 5% distortion from the harmonics (3,5,7,9,11), and 25%
distortion from the same group of harmonics.

Activity 2.2 Grammar focus: the passive voice

Perhaps the two most striking linguistic aspects of the above texts are that practically all the
sentences begin with nominal groups (i.e. a noun or noun group) and that the verbal form
used in the passive voice in the past tense.

(7) The properties of the material after hot rolling and the effect of cold deformation were
determined .....

(3)Six PVC cylinders (28.7 cm i.d. by 1.8 m) were individually pushed into the soil ...

Before we go any further, let us first look at the passive voice.

 In very general terms, the passive voice is used if the agent (the subject) is
considered less important than the action or if the agent is very general (we, they,
the people, the police) or simply unknown (someone, something).
 In describing processes/experiments the passive voice is also frequent, the agent
almost invariably being the researcher(s).

In terms of form, the following more difficult examples may be useful:

Active Passive

Infinitive to choose to be chosen

Perfect Infinitive to have chosen to have been chosen

Participle and Gerund choosing being chosen

Perfect Participle and Gerund having chosen having been chosen

As for more information on when to use the passive voice, the following notes should
provide the necessary information:

1. When the active form would mean the use of an indefinite or vague pronoun or noun as
subject.
18
(a) I’ve been robbed! (Someone has robbed me!)

(b)The building had to be demolished. (They had to demolish the building.)

(c) It is assumed that the Government will do something about the situation.

(People assume that the Government will do something about the situation.)

2. To avoid a change of subject in the middle of a sentence.

The President stepped off the plane and was immediately surrounded by reporters.

(The President stepped off the plane and reporters immediately surrounded him.)

3. To make a statement sound impersonal, either out of modesty or to avoid personal

responsibility.

(a) The new working methods that are to be introduced may result in some staff cuts. (This
is bad news for the workers, but it’s not really our fault!)

Compare this with:-

(b) The new working methods we are introducing will result in higher salaries for all
workers. (Don’t forget to take off your hats when you see us!)

4. The passive is therefore not just an equivalent alternative to the active. While both may
be syntactically possible, we tend to choose the passive for one of the reasons above or if
we are interested in what happened to “x” rather than what “y” did. Thus:-

(a) The murderer was arrested 2 days later would be preferred to The police arrested the
murderer 2 days later. if we are more interested in what happened to the murderer, telling
the story, as it were, from his (or her?) point of view.

Similarly,

(b) Several trees were struck by lightning in last night’s storm would probably be preferred
to Lightning struck several trees in last night’s storm. since we are likely to be more
concerned with what happened to the trees than in what the lightning did, although in this
case the agent (by the ......) is included.
19
5. Remember, though, that sometimes either the active or the passive may be used, and the
choice is simply one of “focus of interest”. Take:-

(a) Manchester United beat Liverpool by 3 goals to 1.

(b) Liverpool was beaten by Manchester United by 3 goals to 1.

A:

Read the texts in 2.1 again. Underline all the examples of the passive voice.

(b) Now read this text. Just for a change it does not deal with anything scientific or academic!

HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS FINED!!

Hollywood actress Melissa Cheesecake’s career took another downward turn yesterday
after the star was found guilty by a California court of shoplifting. She was fined $10,000
and was ordered to do six months’ community service and was told by the judge that if she
committed any further offences she would be sent to prison.
Ms.Cheesecake, who was accompanied to court by her husband, former heavyweight
boxing champion, Johnny “The Fist” Freeman, stood with her head bowed as the sentence
was passed.
So, what’s next for this favourite of the gossip columns? Readers will remember that last
year she was axed from the popular TV series “Enemies” because of her well-publicized
drinking problems. Now, although successfully cured, after receiving treatment at the Los
Angeles Drug and Alcohol Abuse Center, it is doubtful whether her career can be
resurrected.
On leaving the courtroom, Ms. Cheesecake refused to speak to the press, but her lawyer,
Jacob Feinstein, said in a short statement that his client had been wrongfully accused and
that an appeal against the sentence would be made as soon as possible.

When we read certain types of text, even this one above about a “famous” person, we can
find lots of examples of verbs in the passive voice.
What exactly is the passive voice?
In very general terms, the passive voice is used if the agent (the subject) is considered less
important than the action or if the agent is very general (we, they, the people, the police) or
simply unknown (someone, something).
In our news article, for example, we are as much, if not more, interested in what has
happened to Melissa Cheesecake than what she has done.

c) Passive Voice and Active Voice.

As we can see from activities (a) and (b), we use the Passive Voice when we are more
interested in what happened to someone or something rather than what someone or
something did.
20
If we change, for example, the first part of the Melissa story and make all the verbs active,
we change the focus: we are apparently more interested in what the Court and the judge
did, rather than what happened to Melissa as a consequence of what she did.

Hollywood actress Melissa Cheesecake’s career took another downward turn yesterday
after a California court found her guilty of shoplifting. The court fined her $10,000 and
ordered her to do six months’ community service and the judge told her that if she
committed any further offences he would send her to prison.

(d) Of course, we also use the Passive Voice for other reasons.

Look at these sentences in column A. Which of the alternate pairs is the best way to
continue each one? Why? Make your choices and discuss your answers with classmates and
teacher.
A B
1. He lives in a small house. a. Somebody built it about 40 years ago.
b. It was built about 40 years ago.
2. English is worth learning. a. People speak it in a lot of countries.
b. It is spoken in a lot of countries.
3. He bought a sports car, but didn’t like it. a. So he sold it.
b. So it was sold.
4. That new Tarantino film is great! a. They are showing it at the Lido.
b. It is being shown at the Lido.
5. My uncle is a writer. a. He has just finished another novel.
b. Another novel has just been finished by
him.

(e) Passive Voice: tense and structure.

So far, we have looked at some examples of passive (and active) voice verbs and discussed
some of the main reasons why it is used. Now it’s time to review the structure or formation
of verbs in the passive voice as well as the various tenses it can take.

First, it is important to remember that only verbs which can take an object (transitive verbs)
can be used in the passive voice.

The plant produces only 200 cars a year.

SUBJECT verb OBJECT

Only 200 cars are produced (by the plant) a year.

SUBJECT passive verb (optional) OBJECT

21
Secondly, to form the passive voice we need to use the verb BE together with the past
participle of the main verb. If we ignore verb forms with –s (third person singular, present
tense) and –ing (gerund or present participle), verbs have three basic forms:

BASE PAST SIMPLE PAST PARTICIPLE

produce produced produced

start started started
make made made
drive drove driven

As you can see with these examples, a verb may be considered regular or irregular,
depending on whether the past simple and past participle forms end in –ed or not.

The form of the verb BE depends on person (singular or plural) and either tense (present,
past, present perfect, etc.) or modality (words like must, can, may, etc.). Study the
following table and examples.

Passive tense Structure Example

Simple present am/are/is + past participle English is spoken here.
present progressive am/are/is being + pp Excuse the mess! The house is
being painted.
Simple past was/were + pp We weren’t invited, but we went
anyway.
past progressive was/were/ being + pp I don’t know, but I felt I was being
watched.
present perfect have/has + pp Mary has been offered the job.
past perfect had been + pp He thought he had been forgotten.
will “future” will be + pp You’ll be informed as soon as
possible.
future perfect will have been + pp Everything will have been done by
next Wednesday.
Going to future am/are/is going to be + pp They’re going to be fired, I’m sure.

Examples of passive infinitives: (to) be told – I don’t like to be told what to do.

(to) have been taken – It appears to have been taken by

one of the professors.

Examples of passive –ing forms: being told – On being told the good news, she gave
everyone in the room a kiss.

having been taken – After having been taken to the place

of execution by an excited crowd,
22
 the professor was guillotined.

Modal passives:
should / shouldn’t
must / mustn’t
can / cannot be taken
could / couldn’t
may / may not
might / might not

His plans must be taken seriously.

(f) Write passive sentences:

1. Chinese (speak) in Singapore.

___________________________________________________________________
2. The Taj Mahal (build) around 1640.
___________________________________________________________________
3. The new hospital (open) next year.
___________________________________________________________________
4. She (interview) now.
___________________________________________________________________
5. He found that all his money (steal).
___________________________________________________________________
6. These computers (make) in Korea.
___________________________________________________________________
7. Passengers (ask) not to speak to the driver.
___________________________________________________________________
8. I (rob).
___________________________________________________________________
1. The suspected killer (arrest) early this morning.
___________________________________________________________________
2. All projects (must finish) by the end of the month at the latest.
_____________________________________________________________________________

23
(g) Passive voice and translation.

Sometimes you will want to translate parts of text, not only from English into Spanish but
also from Spanish into English if you need just to publish an Abstract, for example.
Consider the following:-

El Componente Ambiental en la Formación de Profesionales de la Ingeniería en la UCV

Se presenta un análisis preliminar de la situación actual de la Facultad de Ingeniería de la

Universidad Central de Venezuela con relación la incorporación del componente ambiental
en la formación de los futuros profesionales en esta área de conocimiento. A través de una
revisión de los planes de estudio vigentes y un análisis cuantitativo preliminar de los
diversos componentes que intervienen en la estructuración de los planes de estudio de las
diferentes carreras se pudo mostrar que existe un incipiente esfuerzo por incorporar las
nuevas tendencias en la formación de recursos humanos con pensamiento ambiental,
basado fundamentalmente en añadir asignaturas aisladas y de carácter electivo relacionadas
con el tema. (124 words)

The Environmental Component in Engineering Professional Formation at the Universidad Central de

Venezuela

A preliminary analysis of the current situation at the Engineering Faculty of the

Universidad Central de Venezuela with regard to the incorporation of an environmental
component in the formation of future Engineers is presented. Through a review of the
curricula and a quantitative analysis of the components present in the structure of the study
plans of the specialties offered in the Faculty, it could be shown that some incipient efforts
are being made to include the latest advances in environmental studies in the formation of
human resources, based fundamentally on the inclusion of isolated, optional courses on the
subject. (113 words)

(taken from Revista de la Facultad de Ingeniería, UCV, Vol.19, No.2, 2004: El

Componente Ambiental en la Formación de Profesionales de la Ingeniería en la UCV –
Griselda Ferrara de Giner & Rebeca Sánchez)

The English version is shorter (113 words v. 124 in Spanish). One reason for this could be
that the authors are native speakers of Spanish and it is normal that when they write in
another language, like English, they try to make their language as “simple” as possible.
Of course, both versions are typical of academic writing: they both aim to be as “objective”
as possible. But, if we compare them, there are some interesting differences: not in terms of
content, but in how the sentences are put together, especially nominal groups, and the use
and position in the sentence of passive-type verb forms.

Read and compare the two versions. Then complete the Table. You are given one example
to help you.

Spanish versión English version

24
 Se presenta ……… (verbo al inicio) ……………..is presented (VP- at the end)

(h) Re-write the following texts using the passive voice where appropriate.

1.
We base the technique we use to determine tower surge impedance on a comparison of
tower potentials which we measure on models with values which we calculate by travelling
wave methods. We described this technique briefly in a previous paper (1) and discuss it
here for completeness.
To determine the value of surge impedance we ascribe to a particular tower, we construct
an exact scale model of the tower and line. We impress model stroke current waves on the
line and measure tower top potentials.

_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
2. We included three types of tests in the testing program: (1) the stiffness test, (2) the
strength test, and (3) the repaired strength test. In the stiffness test, we tested each specimen
as a whole unit to determine the elastic in-plane stiffness characteristics of the slab panels.
As we show in Fig. 3(a), we tested the specimens in both symmetrical and ant symmetrical
loadings. We used two small in-plane forces with equal magnitude to ensure elastic
response.

_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
25
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________

Activity 2.3 Discourse focus: specialized knowledge

What is also noticeable about the methods section is that in some areas, the description
seems to depend very heavily upon the knowledge the reader brings to the text. The
sentences are like stones across a river, stones which only the specialized reader can jump
from one to the next to reach the other side.

For example, in text A in 2.1 the naive reader might ask, what is hot rolling? what is cold
rolling? what are the industrial conditions under which these rollings were made?

The following is by no means an extreme example of this. Read through it and underline
those parts of it you consider to be only comprehensible to the “expert” reader.

Experimental Analysis

Total organic carbon (TOC) was analyzed on a Shimadzu TOC analyzer Model 500
(Shimadzu Co., Japan). Total TOC of the effluent was analyzed after the suspended
bacterial flocs in the sample were completely disrupted in a Tomy Ultrasonic Disrupter
Model UD-201 (Tomy Seiko Co. Ltd, japan). Soluble TOC of the effluent was analyzed
after filtering it through a 1 mm membrane filter (Advantec, Japan). The difference between
total and soluble TOC gave the effluent suspended solids TOC (SS-TOC) concentration.
Methanol and gas composition were measured by a gaschromatograph using FID and TCD
respectively as elaborated previously (Bhatti et al., 1993b). Low molecular weight VFA´s
were analyzed gaschromatographically using a Hitachi 263-50 GC (Hitachi Co., Japan)
equipped with 2 m x 3 mm (i/d) glass column packed with Unisole F-200 (30/60 mesh).
The column temperature was 1400C and that of injection and FID port was 180 0C. Nitrogen
was used as the carrier gas flowing at a rate of 37 ml/min. Hydrogen partial pressure was
determined by detecting the amount of H2 in the gas phase. For this purpose, samples taken
in an air-lock syringe were analyzed on a Hitachi GC model 063 (Hitachi Co., Japan) with
TCD equipped with 3 m x 3 mm (i/d) stainless-steel column packed with a molecular seive
13X (80/100 mesh). The carrier gas was nitrogen at a flow rate of 32 ml/min. Column
temperature was 420C while injector and detector ports were at room temperature. All other
analyses were carried out according to Standard methods (APHA 1985).

26
(Feasibility of Methanolic Waste Treatment in USAB Reactors, Z.I. Bhatti et al. , Water
Research, 1996.)

Activity 2.4 Methodology section: content

Turning our attention now to the content of a typical experimental section, many of the
following aspects will no doubt be included:

1. Overview
2. Sample/Population/Location
3. Restrictions (Variables)
4. Sampling Technique
5. Materials*
6. Procedure*
7. Statistical Treatment

Although the two marked sections (*) are alone in being virtually obligatory, any or most of
the others will often be found, especially in studies that are based on laboratory or field
experiments.

Read the second and third text in 2.1 again (the one on Water Quality on pages 15-16), and
identify what aspects are included, noting down which sentences correspond to which
features.

Aspect Text 1: Water Quality Text 2: Frequency ....

Overview
Sample/Pop./Location
Sampling Technique
Materials
Procedure
Statistical Treatment

Text 2:

27
The three methods discussed in sections 3-5 have been tested by computer simulation
Several scenarios have been tried, and their performance documented. Whenever the term
true frequency is used, it refers to the quantity (2) obtained from the signal, which is
represented in the form (1). Simulated transients are disturbances of the waveform
represented by the equation (1), with the following modulations and disturbances added:
∙ The tracking abilities need to be tested under transient conditions. A 1 Hz swing was
modulated on the nominal frequency, with a maximum value of 1 rad/sec.

∙ Various amounts of measurement noise, modelled according to (2), were added to the
signal. Typical values of standard deviation are of the order of 1%.

∙ Quantization noise was added to the samples. It corresponds to the 12-bit A/D converters
used in the phasor measurement system. the sampling rate was 1440 Hz (24 samples per
cycle), which allows for 12 harmonics to be present in the signal without aliasing effects.

∙ A subsynchronous oscillation of 6 Hz was modulated on top of the transient swing of 1

Hz. Even though this type of oscillation is not very common, it would test the tracking
performance of the proposed methods in that important frequency region.

∙ Various amounts of harmonics were used in the signal. Three scenarios are presented in
the paper: 5% 3rd. harmonic, 5% distortion from the harmonics (3,5,7,9,11), and 25%
distortion from the same group of harmonics.

(Frequency Tracking in Power Networks in the Presence of Harmonics, Miroslav M.

Begovic et al., IEEE transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 8, No. 2, April, 1993)

Activity 2.5 Materials

If a fairly detailed description is required of the materials used, some of the following
features may be present.

Materials:

laboratory equipment
field equipment
human/animal subjects
natural substances
fabricated materials
surveys/questionnaires
computer models
mathematical models

28
Which parts of the following two texts have recognizable features corresponding to some of
the above?

Text 1:

Application of Fuzzy Control in Chemical Distillation Processes

(Gerhard Klett, IEEE, 1993)

Abstract: Fuzzy control, combined with common control techniques, offers new
possibilities to implement descriptive models for complex control tasks in a brief and
distinct manner. This paper describes the application of fuzzy control in a non-continuous
chemical distillation process.

I Introduction:

Distillation is used widely in the chemical industry to separate components with different
boiling temperatures of a liquid. The distillation apparatus generally consists of a
distillation flask, a packed distillation column, a condenser and valves to adjust the reflux
ratio and for the collection of the separate components. The distillation flask is placed in a
heating bath with adjustable temperature. Sensors for pressure and temperature are attached
to the apparatus. Fig. 1 is a schematic of the distillation apparatus.

The goal of distillation is the separation of the mixture into its components with high
purity. A manual control process is performed in the following way: depending on the
temperature and pressure gradients at several locations inside the apparatus. The
temperature of the bath TB, the pressure p and the reflux ratio are varied inside the
apparatus. Additionally, the human expert bases his control strategy on some non-
quantifiable phenomena such as the shape of the drops at the column head or the
occurrence of “streaks” in the column.

II Fuzzy Logic Based Model:

For the configuration of a fuzzy control we must first extract linguistic variables (LV), their
values and if/then rules from the description a human expert. For controls, which form a
closed loop within the process, it is a basic presumption to have linguistic variables with
related technical values. Each value of a linguistic variable represents a fuzzy set. The
degree of membership of a technical value x to a fuzzy set is determined by a so-called
membership function µ(x) ε[0,1] (see [1] and [2]for more details about fuzzy set
theory. Fig. 2 gives an overview of a fuzzy inference scheme.

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For the design of the control strategy, two things are important: the separated components
of the mixture should be as pure as possible and the stress of the apparatus, expressed as
pressure in the apparatus, should be constant. From Physics it is known that a constant
temperature at the column head T3 (see Fig.1) is equivalent to a constant pressure during
the separation of a component. An increase in this temperature identifies the separation of
the next component. Fig.3 shows the graph of T 3 over time for the separation of two
components.

After the knowledge acquisition, by interviewing the experts, we could isolate eight
linguistic variables and their values: five for input and three for input (Table 1).

We use linear membership functions in our model, giving the technical values linear
weights [3]. Fig.4 shows the membership functions of bath temperature and pressure.

As mentioned above, the expert uses two non-quantifiable values, streaks and dropshape,
for his control strategies. A mathematical model was developed to substitute measurable
signals for these subjective phenomena. Fig.5 shows the structure of the fuzzy control with
input and output variables.

(the remainder of the text is divided into the following sections:)

III Hard and Software Development Environment

IV On-Line Connection to the Process

V Software Structure of the Fuzzy Distillation

VI Results

VII Conclusions

Text 2:

The Equipment

The system is basically constituted by two main units: the remote station and the central
system. The remote station includes the sensor, the signal conditioner, controller, radio and
batteries. The central system is formed by the radio and a personal computer.

The remote station:

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As stated above, because dike J is situated in an area of very difficult access, it was
necessary to choose a capacitive type gauge requiring little maintenance.

It was decided to build the gauge based on two commercial aluminium concentric tubes of
3.2 m. long. The diameter of the internal tube is 1.25 cm. and the external one 6.35 cm.
with a thickness of 5 mm. This ensures that the gauge is strong enough to resist any impact
by floating bodies. On the external tube, 25 cm. x 1 cm. slots were made along its length so
as to guarantee easy access of the fluid and, consequently, an appropriate dynamic
response. To reduce the parasitic effects of fluid conductivity, both of the tubes were
anodized and electrostatically painted. To evaluate the dynamic response of the gauge, a 1
m. model was tested in a 2-D laboratory wave tank with periodic waves. Its output was
compared with a commercially available transducer and no important differences were
observed.

(taken from Remote Water Wave Measurements Using A New Capacitive Transducer, by
H. Navarro et al., III International Congress on Energy, Environment and Technological
Innovation, Proceedings, Vol.3, ps.493-498, 1995)

Activity 2.6 Study check

 In the article you have chosen to work with, analyze the experimental section from a
grammatical point of view. Say which is the most common verb form, highlight
samples of passive voice.
 Describe the methodology
 Materials used if any

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