Innovative Projects Realized

La vitesse de propagation des ondes de cisaillement pour la caractérisation des enrobés recyclés à froid

Il devient commun de mesurer Vs, la vitesse de propagation des ondes de cisaillement, en vue de la caractérisation sismique d’un site, en ingénierie des sols (géotechnique). Le paramètre Vs peut être mesuré à la fois en laboratoire et sur le terrain. Le projet vise à développer la mesure de Vs en laboratoire sur des enrobé bitumineux retraités et recyclés à froid (ERF). L’utilisation de ces matériaux est avantageuse pour des raisons économiques et environnementales. Mais il est difficile d’établir leur résistance en jeune âge puisqu’ils sont trop mous pour que les méthodes usuelles de caractérisation soient utilisées. Il paraît opportun d’envisager l’utilisation de Vs comme paramètre de caractérisation des ERF. Pour ce faire, il est nécessaire d’établir des procédures en laboratoire et des valeurs types. TO BE CONT’D

Numerical investigations of Geophysical Data

Geophysic is concerned with the study of the earth’s properties, and it is of great importance to oil and mineral

exploration and in the environmental investigation. With the advanced in modern technology, enormous

geophysical data are now available from the ground measurements and airborne surveys. One of the crucial

tasks in geophysical investigation is to extract the important subsurface information and features of the earth

from the massive data, and numerical analysis and computational techniques play a vital role in the recent

progress and development in geophysics. The objective of the present MITACS Accelerate Internship is

twofold. First, numerical procedures will be developed to efficiently invert subsurface resistivity distribution.

Secondly, robust algorithms will be examined to solve an ill?posed inverse problem. The developed numerical

techniques will be tested using real ground data and magnetic data provided by the TerraNotes Ltd

Geophysics. The anticipated results of this project have potential applications in solving geophysical problems

of significance to Alberta industry.

Développement d’un outil d’interpolation entre les régimes de fonctionnement d’une turbine hydraulique

Ce projet a pour but le développement d’un outil pour améliorer nos capacités à prédire la nature et les amplitudes des sollicitations mécaniques sur une roue de turbine hydraulique type Francis pour les régimes stationnaire et transitoire. Plus spécifiquement, le projet a pour objectif le développement et la validation d’un modèle de calibration et d’interpolation des contraintes dynamiques de la roue entre les conditions d’opérations mesurées ou simulées. Les données utilisées sont issues des simulations numériques (EF) et des mesures in situ afin d’obtenir une estimation cohérente des niveaux de contraintes prenant en compte les deux types de données. Les résultats d’un tel modèle sont exploités dans un modèle probabiliste pour estimer la fiabilité résiduelle de la roue.

NMR analysis of the enzymatically produced propylene glycol mono- and di- esters of canola oil

Emulsifiers as multifunctional additives can develop low-caloric, high-quality foods. Beside the monoacylglycerols (MAGs), or mixtures with diacylglycerols (DAGs), propylene glycol (1,2-propanediol) esters (PGEs) are the commonly used emulsifiers in the food industry. Emulsifiers are currently produced using costly and environmentally unfriendly “enzyme in solvent” systems and also have some shortcomings in certain food applications. This research will determine the feasibility of a novel method of PGEs manufacture-enzymatic catalysis in supercritical carbon dioxide-using canola oil, which we propose will be a cost effective and “green” solution to current solvent systems and will allow for improved health and food product formulation attributes compared to current options in the marketplace. NMR analysis of the PGEs which are produced in supercritical CO2 (SCCO2) as a low temperature technology is the focus of this study. TO BE CONT’D

Investigating Learning Cultures and Practices that Foster Experiential, Collaborative and Self-Directed Learning

The fundamental purpose of this research is to identify and understand ways in which workplaces can become “schools”, and facilitate meaningful learning for their employees. The intern will describe the main characteristics of an organizational learning culture that fosters experiential, self-directed and collaborative learning, document organizational practices that support such a learning culture and collect stories from organizations who have successfully developed such a culture. e180 will benefit from this research by gaining a deeper understanding of how people learn at work, and how technology can support these efforts. They will also gain insight to inform the writing of their book, Meet Human Greatness.

Extended Technology Assessment of Advanced In-situ Recovery Methods for Oil Sands

In-situ recovery methods for oils sands are applied to reservoirs containing bitumen that are too deep for mining. To date there has been only one commercially viable in-situ recovery method, Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), involving high pressure steam injection and bitumen production using horizontal well pairs located near the base of oil sands formations. While SAGD has enabled conversion of significant resources to reserves (about 170 billion barrels), SAGD has many economic and environmental limitations. SAGD capital and operating costs are high making many projects uneconomic at current low oil prices. Water usage and carbon emissions are also high in SAGD making the process environmentally unsustainable. The Accelerate Cluster projects are aimed at finding new recovery methods that reduce costs of delivering energy to the formations and that also reduce water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. TO BE CONT’D

Development of Artificial Intelligence Algorithms For Improved Correlation of Sensor Responses to Ore Grade

The benefit of ore sorting is rejecting waste material prior to downstream processing. This results in reducing material handling costs and environmental liability, lowering energy consumption, and feeding more consistent and higher ore grades to the concentrator. Sorting allows for a lower cost bulk mining method resulting in lowering the cut-off grade and increasing the resource size. Despite the potential benefits, sorting is not widely applied due to barriers in the current technology. These relate to limited ability of sensors to discriminate between barren rock and valuable rock, and the low throughput capacity of available industrial machines. This project aims improve the use of sensors by developing an advanced AI algorithm applied in sensors to increase the throughput capacity of the sorter. In addition, a pilot scale sorter would be set up based on the advanced algorithm to validate the performance.

Research and development of real-time voltage control and loss minimization method in power distribution grids using micro-PMU and distributed reactive power generation

Enbala Power Networks Inc., a Canadian leader in distributed energy resource management, and the University of British Columbia, Okanagan have teamed up to develop real-time voltage control and loss minimization method for power distribution grids integrating large-scale renewable energy sources. The proposed method uses micro-Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) and distributed reactive power control to achieve real-time voltage control and transmission loss minimization. The proposed method will be implemented in Enbala’s industrial control platform – Symphony Control, and will be tested using OPAL-RT real-time simulator in UBCO power lab. It is expected that the proposed real-time voltage control method will improve voltage quality and grid efficiency when large-scale non-dispatchable renewable energy, e.g. solar and winding generations, are integrated in power distribution grids. The research and development efforts will help Enbala maintaining its leadership in distributed energy resource management and smart grid technologies.

Investigation of Future Footprint Scenario Modeling Approaches in the Peace River Break

The Peace River Break in northeastern British Columbia is an important ecological connection along the Rocky Mountains. The region has a long and rich history of use and occupancy by Indigenous Peoples. In addition to being known for high agricultural, recreation, and tourism values, there is also a lot of industrial economic activity, particularly, forestry, mining and energy. With multiple large-scale resource development projects proposed or underway, the Peace River Break is under significant stress and conservation opportunities are limited. The purpose of this project is to investigate methods to model the future human footprint for the Peace River Break to help inform analysis of the conservation need in the area and land use planning.

Innovative solutions for industrial process management: Process efficiency and delivery sequence improvement for CLT products at Structurlam

Structurlam, a construction-wood products manufacturer located in Penticton, BC, needs to optimize their cross-laminated panels production line, aiming to increase machinery productivity, and minimize time and unnecessary shuffling of finished panels. The purpose of this project is to define equations and rules representing the production process of wood panel to enhance the productivity. The researchers will develop a schedule tool applicable to Structurlam’s facility and production process. The tool will provide the optimum wood panel production sequence. The project will also assess Structurlam‘s production methods, and suggest potential improvements. The scheduling tool will be in the form of a generalizable model, which can be used in similar facilities.

Improving Visibility Testing in Terrain Navigation

In this project, the intern will be tasked with improving the visibility testing algorithms in a

commercial simulation software product. In the software, a large number of entities (such as

military forces or emergency response personnel, including vehicles and people) are moving

around on a two-dimensional map. The inter-entity visibility (that is, which entities are visible

by any given entity) is crucial to the decision-making in the simulation, but the current solution

employed by the software is too time-consuming. The intern will explore and implement more

efficient algorithms for visibility testing. The expected benefit to the partner organization is

faster simulation speed.

Development of a single photon detector with a femtosecond time gate.

Quantum interference is the reason why we see an interference pattern in Young’s double-slit experiment even when sending a stream of single particles (photons, electrons, neutrons, etc.). It is also closely linked to quantum decoherence, one of the biggest issues currently holding back quantum computers. IPL is investigating Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) processes related to quantum interference using high intensity lasers. To this end, IPL is currently developing an extremely sensitive light detector capable of counting individual photons (light particles). The project’s two main objectives are first, to finish the design and testing of a preliminary version of the detector, and second, to integrate this preliminary version into an engineering prototype. This state of the art detection system will uniquely position IPL in the competitive optical characterization market.