TY - JOUR A1 - Stubning, Tobias A1 - Denes, Istvan A1 - Gerhard, Reimund T1 - Tuning electro-mechanical properties of EAP-based haptic actuators by adjusting layer thickness and number of stacked layers BT - a comparison JF - Engineering research express N2 - In our fast-changing world, human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are of ever-increasing importance. Among the most ubiquitous examples are touchscreens that most people are familiar with from their smartphones. The quality of such an HMI can be improved by adding haptic feedback-an imitation of using mechanical buttons-to the touchscreen. Thin-film actuators on the basis of electro-mechanically active polymers (EAPs), with the electroactive material sandwiched between two compliant electrodes, offer a promising technology for haptic surfaces. In thin-film technology, the thickness and the number of stacked layers of the electroactive dielectric are key parameters for tuning a system. Therefore, we have experimentally investigated the influence of the thickness of a single EAP layer on the electrical and the electro-mechanical performance of the transducer. In order to achieve high electro-mechanical actuator outputs, we have employed relaxor-ferroelectric ter-fluoropolymers that can be screen-printed. By means of a model-based approach, we have also directly compared single- and multi-layer actuators, thus providing guidelines for optimized transducer configurations with respect to the system requirements of haptic applications for which the operation frequency is of particular importance. KW - haptic feedback KW - vinylidenefluoride(VDF)-based polymers KW - screen-printed KW - systems KW - thin-film actuators KW - multi-layer systems KW - equivalent-circuit KW - modelling KW - electro-mechanically active polymers Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1088/2631-8695/abd286 SN - 2631-8695 VL - 3 IS - 1 PB - Institute of Physics CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ayzel, Georgy A1 - Heistermann, Maik T1 - The effect of calibration data length on the performance of a conceptual hydrological model versus LSTM and GRU BT - a case study for six basins from the CAMELS dataset JF - Computers & geosciences : an international journal devoted to the publication of papers on all aspects of geocomputation and to the distribution of computer programs and test data sets ; an official journal of the International Association for Mathematical Geology N2 - We systematically explore the effect of calibration data length on the performance of a conceptual hydrological model, GR4H, in comparison to two Artificial Neural Network (ANN) architectures: Long Short-Term Memory Networks (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU), which have just recently been introduced to the field of hydrology. We implemented a case study for six river basins across the contiguous United States, with 25 years of meteorological and discharge data. Nine years were reserved for independent validation; two years were used as a warm-up period, one year for each of the calibration and validation periods, respectively; from the remaining 14 years, we sampled increasing amounts of data for model calibration, and found pronounced differences in model performance. While GR4H required less data to converge, LSTM and GRU caught up at a remarkable rate, considering their number of parameters. Also, LSTM and GRU exhibited the higher calibration instability in comparison to GR4H. These findings confirm the potential of modern deep-learning architectures in rainfall runoff modelling, but also highlight the noticeable differences between them in regard to the effect of calibration data length. KW - Artificial neural networks KW - Calibration KW - Deep learning KW - Rainfall-runoff KW - modelling Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2021.104708 SN - 0098-3004 SN - 1873-7803 VL - 149 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Koç, Gamze A1 - Natho, Stephanie A1 - Thieken, Annegret T1 - Estimating direct economic impacts of severe flood events in Turkey (2015-2020) JF - International journal of disaster risk reduction : IJDRR N2 - Over the past decades, floods have caused significant financial losses in Turkey, amounting to US$ 800 million between 1960 and 2014. With the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR), it is aimed to reduce the direct economic loss from disasters in relation to the global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. Accordingly, a methodology based on experiences from developing countries was proposed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) to estimate direct economic losses on the macro-scale. Since Turkey also signed the SFDRR, we aimed to adapt, validate and apply the loss estimation model proposed by the UNDRR in Turkey for the first time. To do so, the well-documented flood event in Mersin of 2016 was used to calibrate the damage ratios for the agricultural, commercial and residential sectors, as well as educational facilities. Case studies between 2015 and 2020 with documented losses were further used to validate the model. Finally, model applications provided initial loss estimates for floods occurred recently in Turkey. Despite the limited event documentation for each sector, the calibrated model yielded good results when compared to documented losses. Thus, by implementing the UNDRR method, this study provides an approach to estimate the direct economic losses in Turkey on the macro-scale, which can be used to fill gaps in event databases, support the coordination of financial aid after flood events and facilitate monitoring of the progress toward and achievement of Global Target C of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. KW - Direct economic loss KW - Flood KW - Turkey KW - Event documentation KW - UNISDR KW - Loss KW - modelling Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102222 SN - 2212-4209 VL - 58 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -