Abstract. Road design has been undergoing incremental upgradation over the past decades. Author developed a new innovative smart road lane separator that can be embedded into the road surface for road illumination and conveying useful information to the road users such as traffic density, sudden stoppage in traffic, road blockage or changes in road geometry. In this regards the presented research work details the numerical modeling and analysis of the proposed device under the action of impact loading generated due to moving truck wheel. This analysis simulates the real-world situation for the newly proposed device. The purpose of analysis was to evaluate the design performance of the proposed device. Three cases of varying support were taken into consideration to simulate real world application, these include fully supported, partially supported and edge supported to simulate the condition when the sub-base material of the road gets eroded owing to gradual wear and tear or due to rains and flooding. Furthermore, analysis was conducted for truck wheel moving along a straight line and in a zig-zag motion along the length of the lane separator. The results indicated that the loading case with minimum support, simulating flooding erosion is the most severe case resulting in cracking of the device. However, no damage was observed in the other cases. Furthermore, a slight uplift of the end of the device was noticed; which can be eradicated using traditional anchoring. From the presented analysis and results it can be concluded that the newly developed smart road lane separator device can be used for real world application in both flexible and rigid pavements.

Abstract. The scheduling of the Renewable Energy Resources generation units which feed the small loads in the context of micro–grid while considering all the technical constraints can essentially be stated as a Mixed–Integer optimization problem. This paper is the first of two and presents the mathematical formulation of the optimal operation scheduling of a micro–grid with the corresponding small loads considered as a deterministic optimization problem. This problem is formulated as a Mixed–Integer Quadratic Programming model (MIQP) due two types of variables, integer and continuous corresponding to the decision that must be taken into account and the output power respectively, while satisfying all technical constraints minimizing the total marginal power generation cost. This model is solved by a deterministic optimization technique CPLEX–based, and is implemented in General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS).In the second part, the implementation of the micro–grid power system based on renewable energy resources, which consists of a wind turbine, a solar unit, a fuel cell and two storage battery banks is described. The proposed algorithm presented in this first part is then used as Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) software to control the micro–grid. The SCADA software with Programming Logic Control (PLC)can control the generation units, assuring an optimal global functioning of all equipment, including the loads shedding when necessary, taking into account the maintenance, operation, measurement and control considering all involved costs.

Abstract. This paper is the second part of two and presents the optimal operation scheduling of a real case of renewable energy resources connected as a micro–grid. It consists of a wind turbine, a solar unit, a fuel cell and two storage batterybanks implemented at the Laboratory. The algorithm proposed in the first part has been used as SCADA software to operate the generation units, assuring a global functioning of all equipment’s efficiently, taking into account the maintenance, operation andthe generation measurement and control considering all involved costs. The optimal dispatch software acts similar to a simple personal computer network to link together seldom–used equipment (standby)and all loads allowing its optimal control by a mini Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) devices. The application of the methodology to a real case represented by a small power system connected as a micro–grid for one week period optimal scheduling,one week power dispatch, demonstrates the effectiveness, and the robustness of the proposed model. The low execution time for solving 672 MIQP problems simultaneously is also verified in this research work. The proposed model helps operation engineers to minimize the operation cost of generating units and storage systems by an intelligent optimal method, taking into account the reliability expressed in the undelivered energy cost.

Abstract. Web-based services have been utilized to facilitate many electronic government services that may be exposed to attacks based on some automated tools. In order to prevent these attacks, a method has been proposed to distinguish between humans and bots users. This method is a CAPTCHA, which stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. It is a mechanism which is widely used nowadays for protecting web-based services from malicious users and automated spammers. A good CAPTCHA should be usable and robust. Since electronic services (e-services) have recently been released in Saudi Arabia, this paper investigates the usability and robustness aspects of CAPTCHAs that are applied in a number of these services. The results showed that several applied CAPTCHA schemes in some e-services in Saudi Arabia need an improvement in terms of both usability and robustness aspects.