Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering最新文献

Lattice structures, particularly triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS), have attracted recent attention, as metal foam phase change material (MFPCM) composites within latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems, due to their large surface areas and lower thermal resistance. However, their thermal–hydraulic performance compared to conventional lattice and fin structures under identical porosity remain underexplored. In this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was employed to perform a comparative analysis of metal foam structures that can enhance heat transfer in MFPCM composites within LHTES systems. Three triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) lattices (Gyroid, Primitive, IWP), three conventional lattices (simple cubic, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic), and a conventional fin design were evaluated under isothermal and isoflux heating scenarios. In each scenario, adding a metal foam speeds up melting compared to pure PCM. Under isothermal heating, the fin design melts the fastest (∼2.5 × pure PCM) and achieves the highest average heat transfer coefficient, followed closely by the IWP and Primitive TPMS lattices. Non-TPMS lattices designs melt more slowly, except the simple cubic performs comparably to the Gyroid due to its straight conduction paths. Under isoflux heating, all composites melt at similar times (within ~ 19%), but the fin and certain TPMS designs produce more uniform temperature distributions while strongly suppressing natural convection. Overall, despite the recent attention on TPMS structures, the current study shows that under the specified composite (number of unit cells, unit cell size, and porosity) conventional fins can provide the best balance of thermal performance and manufacturing simplicity for LHTES systems.

Reinforced concrete is widely used in establishing infrastructure for human development. Its use is dictated by the easy availability of the constituent materials and affable preparation methods. While it possesses acceptable compressive strength, it is weak in tension. Consequently, concrete has to be reinforced to cater to the tensile stresses imposed on a structure. In addition to the structural drawbacks, concrete may face durability problems on exposure to aggressive environments, such as high temperature, humidity, salinity, acid exposure, etc. However, extensive research has solved concrete durability problems to a great extent in structures exposed to severe exposure conditions. This review highlights research work conducted to develop materials for dense and impermeable concrete. Advances include the use of supplementary cementitious materials, alkali-activated binders, corrosion inhibitors, nanomaterials, fiber reinforcement, and self-healing systems to mitigate cracking and chloride diffusion. Protective measures, such as surface treatments, cathodic protection, and non-metallic reinforcement have also been discussed. Other developments include, use of admixtures, curing techniques, surface coatings, corrosion-resistant steel reinforcement, etc. While each method offers distinct benefits, no single technique can universally guarantee protection. Maximum durability is achieved when solutions are conjointly used, such as combining admixtures, curing compounds, protective coatings, specialty reinforcement, etc., and tailored to site-specific conditions.

Flat plate solar collectors (FPSC) remain a cost-effective option for harnessing solar energy, yet their performance is strongly influenced by climatic conditions and system design. In high-altitude semi-arid regions such as Abha, Saudi Arabia, conventional FPSCs experience reduced output due to moderate irradiance and significant heat losses. To address these limitations, a modified collector was developed by integrating a layer of dark natural pebbles on the absorber plate and side-mounted polished aluminum reflectors. The experimental system was installed and monitored under real outdoor conditions, and its performance was compared against a baseline collector. Thermal efficiency was determined using first-law analysis, while supporting simulations were carried out using ANSYS Fluent to validate heat transfer trends and temperature distributions. The baseline collector exhibited the lowest efficiency, averaging ~ 0.45. The pebble-modified collector showed clear improvement, reaching an average of ~ 0.54, owing to enhanced heat absorption and thermal storage that stabilized outlet temperatures. The combined pebble–reflector system achieved the highest performance, with efficiencies between 0.55 and 0.75 and a mean of ~ 0.66. Reflectors increased incident solar flux and raised absorber temperatures, while pebbles acted as a sensible heat reservoir, extending useful operation into late hours. Uncertainty analysis confirmed the robustness of the measurements, with efficiency errors within ± 2–3%. The results demonstrate that low-cost, locally available materials can significantly enhance FPSC efficiency in challenging climates. The integration of optical concentration and thermal storage strategies provides a practical pathway toward sustainable and high-performance solar water heating.

The adverse consequences of rising CO₂ emissions are already evident, including the accelerated melting of Arctic sea ice, rising sea levels, shifts in rainfall patterns, more frequent droughts, and heightened intensity of wildfires. While the adoption of sustainable energy sources and improvements in energy efficiency remain essential measures for reducing CO₂ emissions, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) offers significant additional potential to mitigate climate impacts. CCS has made significant progress in recent years, with global capture capacity reaching more than 45 million tonnes of CO₂ per year and over 700 projects in various stages of development worldwide, 77 of which are operational; representing a 54% increase in just the last year. Recent advancements include next-generation solvent technologies that reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. Additionally, large-scale storage hubs, such as offshore saline formations, are expanding, with some sites now licensed to store over 5 million tonnes of CO₂ annually. These developments indicate accelerating momentum toward deploying CCS as a key tool for industrial decarbonization. This paper provides a focused review of recent advances in CCS, covering both capture methods for anthropogenic emissions and geological storage technologies, and concludes by summarizing key research achievements, unresolved challenges, and future directions, while underscoring the strong CCS potential of the Gulf countries.

An efficient methodology for FPGA acceleration of high-order 3D iterative stencil loops over large 3D-grids was developed. Spatial (tiling) and temporal (combined iterations) blocking are used to circumvent the FPGAs’ limitations and maximize throughput. Implemented as a fully asynchronous SW-HW pipeline, it can compute high-order stencils on 3D grid without any limitations on the grid size or the number of iterations. An 8th-order, 25-point 3D stencil was used to demonstrate the methodology and possible optimizations of performance, resource utilization, and power efficiency. Results show that throughput is only limited by the FPGA off-chip memory bandwidth. Comparisons with published results for the same stencil showed that the developed methodology can achieve a throughput equivalent to ~ 43-Haswell cores (22 nm technology) or ~ 13 Milan-x cores (7 nm technology) running at 2.3 and 2.45 GHz, respectively. Compared to an A100 NVIDIA GPU implementation of the same stencil, it achieved ~ 41% better power efficiency (Watts per GB/s). The methodology was extended to support multiple FPGAs. With two FPGA boards, the total latency was reduced by ~ 27%.

This study examines how structured project management can strengthen the management of low-to-moderate nuclear incidents in Saudi Arabia’s emerging nuclear power program. The problem addressed is the absence of an integrated framework that combines internationally recognized risk management practices with practical project execution suited to the Kingdom’s demanding desert environment. The methodology draws on ISO 31000 and Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) as guiding structures, supported by a review of INES Level 1–3 incident cases and benchmarking against international experience to identify technical, human, and environmental vulnerabilities. These insights were contextualized for Saudi Arabia, where extreme heat, airborne dust, and grid variability create distinct operational pressures. The results indicate that aligning ISO 31000’s risk identification, analysis, and treatment processes with PMBOK’s planning, execution, and monitoring activities creates a coherent, phased strategy across preincident, during incident, and postincident stages. This combined approach improves early detection through predictive maintenance, strengthens response coordination during abnormal events, and supports systematic recovery through structured lessons learned processes. Discussion of international benchmarks, including Barakah and Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, demonstrates that incident outcomes improve when preventive planning and disciplined project execution are integrated. The study concludes that the ISO–PMBOK framework provides Saudi Arabia with a practical, transparent, and adaptable strategy for managing INES 1–3 events. Expected outcomes include improved regulatory readiness, enhanced safety culture, and greater public confidence, offering a standalone and concise summary distinct from the extended narrative presented in the introduction.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly deployed in high-stakes domains such as healthcare, autonomous systems, finance, and critical infrastructure, ensuring their trustworthiness has become imperative. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of neuro-symbolic AI, a hybrid paradigm that combines the learning capabilities of neural networks with the reasoning strengths of symbolic AI, through the lens of three foundational dimensions: robustness, uncertainty quantification (UQ), and intervenability. We first establish the limitations of purely data-driven “black-box” models in handling distribution shifts, ambiguous inputs, and human oversight. In contrast, neuro-symbolic systems offer enhanced interpretability, verifiability, and control, making them promising candidates for real-world deployment. We systematically review state-of-the-art techniques for modeling robustness, quantifying uncertainty, and enabling intervenability. We further examine how logic, probability, and learning can be integrated into unified or modular architectures to support transparent, adaptive reasoning. Finally, we outline current challenges and identify key research opportunities for advancing neuro-symbolic AI as a trustworthy paradigm. This survey aims to equip researchers and practitioners with a structured understanding of how to build reliable, interpretable, and interactive AI systems by bridging statistical learning and symbolic reasoning.

Security is an essential attribute of quality software. Detecting and mitigating different types of attacks are essential for producing high-quality software. Organizations spend large amounts of money purchasing intrusion detection systems, antivirus software, and antispyware software. However, these solutions are insufficient, and organizations continue to face security risks due to an ever-growing list of security vulnerabilities. One such security vulnerability is a zero-day attack. A zero-day attack refers to the threat of an unknown security vulnerability in software that either the application developers are unaware of or for which no security patch has been released. Zero-day attacks are complex to analyze due to the lack of data until such attacks are discovered. Despite the significance of zero-day attacks, relatively little empirical research has been conducted to gain a deeper understanding of these attacks. Currently, no model exists to assess the maturity of managing zero-day attacks in an organization. This study aims to develop a zero-day attack maturity model that enables organizations to assess their current capabilities in responding to zero-day attacks and identify areas for improvement, based on defined knowledge areas and maturity levels. A multivocal literature review approach was used to identify best practices for managing zero-day attacks. A zero-day attack maturity model was designed and structured into knowledge areas and maturity levels. Next, case studies were conducted to validate the maturity model. The study outcomes include the maturity model, which outlines best practices for managing zero-day attacks, and the interactive web tool that operationalizes the model. We believe that the study outcomes will increase awareness of such attacks, help assess organizations’ levels of maturity in dealing with zero-day vulnerabilities, and serve as a baseline for further research in this area, supporting industries and developers.

The study presents a bibliometric overview of the Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering (AJSE) on its 50th anniversary. The data were extracted from the Web of Science database, obtaining 10,482 records. The paper analyzes publication and citation trends, productive authors and institutions, and thematic development. AJSE has grown considerably since 1975 and currently publishes around 1,000 articles per year and has achieved nearly 100,000 citations. The results show an exponential growth of the number of publications and citations, especially in the last decade. The journal’s impact factor has improved steadily to reach 2.9 in 2024, and now AJSE is being ranked as a quartile 2 (Q2) journal in the Web of Science and Q1 in Scopus (88th percentile). Co-authorship and institutional collaboration networks have strong international scope, mainly including Asia and the Middle East. Some highly cited articles show the diversity of the journal’s impact, in areas such as fuzzy systems, nanotechnology, computational intelligence, material and environmental engineering. The visual analyses through VOSviewer and Bibliometrix also show AJSE’s knowledge structure dynamics and thematic diversity. The findings provide valuable insights for researchers, editors, and policy makers who are interested in tracking the development and academic influence of AJSE regarding its global scientific research output.