Volume 16 Issue 3

S.No.	Article Title & Authors (Volume 16, Issue 3, June - 2023)	Page Nos.	Status
1.	Refining Porosity Analysis in High-Strength Microconcretes through Manual Threshold Segmentation in X-ray Microtomography Arthur Aviz Palma e Silva, Valdirene Maria Silva Capuzzo, Eugenia Fonseca da Silva, Andre Maues Brabo Pereira International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology (IJAET), Volume 16 Issue 3, pp. 46-56, June 2023. ABSTRACT The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the image segmentation technique utilizing the Threshold method for the measurement of porosity in high-strength microconcrete samples that incorporate metakaolin. Specifically, X-ray microtomography testing was conducted on the microconcrete samples after 7 days of curing, and the voxel size was set at 20µm. Subsequently, the images were subjected to pre-processing measures including histogram regularization and noise reduction. Thereafter, the regions of interest within the images were demarcated through segmentation, enabling the isolation of the porosity from the other phases of the microconcrete. To execute the segmentation, grayscale values were systematically adjusted via the Threshold method to elucidate the impact of such variations on the determination of porosity properties. The study findings indicate that the proposed technique yields reliable measurements of the total porosity percentage of the material, despite the human factor inherent in the manual Threshold segmentation approach. However, caution should be exercised while performing segmentation when assessing pore quantity and dimensions as these are substantially influenced by this technique.	46-56	Online
2.	Maintenance Management Models in a Supermarket Network in the South of Santa Catarina Vilson Menegon Bristot, Leopoldo Pedro Guimaraes Filho, Julio Cesar Cota Alves, Mateus Alexandre Floriano, Lucas Fogaca de Sousa and Nara Regina Zanelatto International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology (IJAET), Volume 16 Issue 3, pp. 57-65, June 2023. ABSTRACT In a modern world where there is a growing technological expansion combined with globalization, competitiveness among organizations becomes increasingly fierce. As a result, there is a need for these organizations to be prepared to serve their customers in the best possible way. In this context, maintenance management is gaining more and more prominence, as it is an important part of institutions in order to ensure good performance and efficiency of equipment and machines in various sectors, so that they can make the most of their resources. The methodology used has a qualitative approach with some quantitative aspects, descriptive and exploratory in nature. The objective of this study was to investigate the companies of the supermarket network in the extreme south of Santa Catarina in order to get to know the maintenance sector, the selection process for maintenance sector employees, the total number of maintenance personnel as a percentage of the total network employees, employee turnover in the maintenance sector, training, maintenance actions, and budget planning for them. A questionnaire was used to collect data, which was applied to the person in charge of the maintenance sector of eight large and medium-sized supermarket networks in the region. It can be concluded that the study objectives were achieved and based on the information gathered in the interviews, it can be seen that maintenance management in supermarket networks has some aspects that are subject to improvement.	57-65	Online
3.	The Effects of Climate Change on the Performance of Asphaltic Pavement Structures Carla Beatriz Costa de Araujo, Francisco de Assis de Souza Filho, Jorge Barbosa Soares and Samuel Almeida Torquato e Silva International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology (IJAET), Volume 16 Issue 3, pp. 66-84, June 2023. ABSTRACT An integrated climate-pavement model is presented to predict service performance. A total of 144 scenarios were considered from a combination of different pavement shoulder conditions (0.0 m; 0.5 m; 1.0 m; 1.5 m), water depth levels (3.0 m; 3.5 m; 4.0 m; 4.5 m), varied thicknesses of asphalt surface courses (2.0 cm; 5.0 cm; 10.0 cm), and three rainy periods (above average, below average, average), applicable to the Metropolitan Region of Fortaleza (MRF). In addition, it was considered the MRF climate change predictions for the 21st century (2031-2070) using 5 climate change models based on the CMIP5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) RCP (Representative Concentration Pathways) scenarios 8.5 and 4.5. Without taking into account the climatic variability the performance analysis estimated a structural service life ranging from 1.0 to 5.6 years less, indicating that without the integrated methodology, the project is likely to be undersized. For MRF, the climate change models show that the average rainfall should decrease and years of above-average rainfall will be less frequent. In general, it was observed that the integrated methodology provides gains in the development of infrastructure projects and allows to predict how climate change scenarios may affect these projects.	66-84	Online
4.	Life Cycle Assessment Method in Educational Institutions Towards Circular Economy: a Systematic Literature Review and Bibliometric Analysis Laice de Souza Scotelano, Artur Goncalves, Ueliton da Costa Leonidio, Cristina Gomes de Souza and Ronney Arismel Mancebo Boloy International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology (IJAET), Volume 16 Issue 3, pp. 85-104, June 2023. ABSTRACT This article presents a systematic review of the literature using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method associated with a bibliometric analysis of life cycle assessment (LCA) in Educational Institutions. OpenRefine and VOSviewer software supported bibliometric analysis. The scientific gap was identified by correlating the observed co-authorship interactions with countries and the co-occurrence with the keyword "author". A total of 22 papers were selected and categorized into five fields: Reference, Objective, Focus, Journal, and Key Findings. After reading the articles a total of 13 papers were included for meta-analysis and were selected into seven fields: Reference, Topic, Fields, Method, Integrated Method, Software, and Impacts. Considering the application of LCA in educational institutions from a Circular Economy perspective, the systematic literature review showed that there are few studies with the LCA in educational institutions especially in the waste management field. The studies are mostly focused on environmental science and the methodological basis of application is the LCA governed by ISO 14.040/14.044. The studies mostly use the Ecoinvent database and the OpenLCA software for data collection and calculation procedures. The most cited impact is the Global Warming Potential (GWP).	85-104	Online
5.	Application of the Monte Carlo Method to Reduce Data Storage in SHM Bruno P. Barella, Stanley W. F. de Rezende, Jose R. V. de Moura Jr and Valder Steffen Jr International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology (IJAET), Volume 16 Issue 3, pp. 105-117, June 2023. ABSTRACT In general, the electromechanical impedance-based SHM method (ISHM) uses a piezoelectric transducer as a sensor/actuator to excite/measure the dynamic response of a mechanical structure under investigation to find incipient damage. The SHM method requires many samples of impedance signatures to analyse the behaviour of the system and draw a diagnostic. This contribution proposes a method to generate new impedance signatures as based on a few measured signatures. The signature generator operates through the Monte Carlo method. This approach proposes drastically reducing the number of measured samples normally used in the ISHM. This reduction can be as large as 93%. For this aim, a case study is proposed using an “I” profile structure with four levels of damage. Moreover, 33 impedance signatures for each level of damage were measured. Then, the Monte Carlo method was used to generate 400 virtual signatures. Finally, the generated signatures were compared with the experimentally acquired ones to measure the error associated with the generated signatures. In conclusion, this contribution presents a method that uses the properties of impedance signatures to store them and, if necessary, uses these signatures to generate numerical signatures, thus reducing the need to store a large amount of data.	105-117	Online
6.	Use of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) Method to Analyze the Acquisition of Raw Materials in a Metallurgical Industry Alice Machado de Souza, Grasiele Amoriso Benedet, Monica Santana, Paola Martins Elias, Vilson Menegon Bristot, Leopoldo Pedro Guimaraes Filho and Angela Beatriz Coelho Arnt International Journal of Advances in Engineering & Technology (IJAET), Volume 16 Issue 3, pp. 118-128, June 2023. ABSTRACT This article aims to analyze how COVID-19 impacted the metallurgical industry and its significant increase in the market. The study's metallurgical company used steel for turning work, and the main concern was the acquisition of raw materials due to scarcity, which resulted in a significant increase in purchase price. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify, using the AHP method, the best raw material supplier for part production. In terms of nature, it is an applied research with practical interests, and it is considered bibliographic as written materials were used for definitions and understanding of the tool. The application of the method allowed verifying its effectiveness in decision-making support, as the method enables a comprehensive analysis of the problem. Through the application of the model, it was found that the best raw material supplier achieved a composite priority of 37%, the second-place supplier 36%, and the third-place supplier 27%.	118-128	Online