Evolution of Texture,Grain Boundary Constitution,Strain, and Corrosion Behavior of Electrodeposited Ni–P Coatings as a Function of Deposition Current Density

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - Ni–P coatings with low P content (P wt pct < 1.0) were fabricated at different applied current densities of electrodeposition...     

Hot wire chemical vapour deposition (HWCVD) of boron carbide thin films from ortho-carborane for neutron detection application

Detection of neutrons is possible if suitable converters such as Li, LiF or ¹⁰B in the form of thin films are used along with the semiconductor device. The use of boron (¹⁰B) in some host matrix as a neutron detector is attractive due to its large neutron capture cross-section. Boron carbide (BC) films are deposited on silicon substrates by HWCVD technique using solid ortho-carborane (o-C₂B₁₀H₁₂) precursor with argon as carrier gas. The films contain ¹⁰B required for neutron detection as confirmed by the Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy. Variations in its structure as well as the chemical bonding configurations using Fourier Transform Infra-Red, Raman and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy have been studied.     

Kinetic study approach of remazol black-B use for the development of two-stage anoxic-oxic reactor for decolorization/biodegradation of azo dyes by activated bacterial consortium

The laboratory-isolated strains Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Rhodobacter sphaeroides, Proteus mirabilis, Bacillus circulance, NAD 1 and NAD 6 were observed to be predominant in the bacterial consortium responsible for effective decolorization of the azo dyes. The kinetic characteristics of azo dye decolorization by bacterial consortium were determined quantitatively using reactive vinyl sulfonated diazo dye, remazol black-B (RB-B) as a model substrate. Effects of substrate (RB-B) concentration as well as different substrates (azo dyes), environmental parameters (temperature and pH), glucose and other electron donor/co-substrate on the rate of decolorization were investigated to reveal the key factor that determines the performance of dye decolorization. The activation energy (E(a)) and frequency factor (K(0)) based on the Arrhenius equation was calculated as 11.67 kcal mol(-1) and 1.57 x 10(7)mg lg MLSS(-1)h(-1), respectively. The Double-reciprocal or Lineweaver-Burk plot was used to evaluate V(max), 15.97 h(-1) and K(m), 85.66 mg l(-1). The two-stage anoxic-oxic reactor system has proved to be successful in achieving significant decolorization and degradation of azo dyes by specific developed bacterial consortium with a removal of 84% color and 80% COD for real textile effluents vis-à-vis >or=90% color and COD removal for synthetic dye solution.     

Effects of the inclination angle on natural convection heat transfer and entropy generation in a square porous enclosure

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we analyze numerically the effects of the inclination angle on natural convection heat transfer and entropy generation characteristics in a two-dimensional square enclosure saturated with a porous medium. There is a significant alteration in Nusselt number with the orientation of the enclosure at higher values of Rayleigh number. It reveals that the variation of entropy generation rate with the inclination angle is significant for higher values of Darcy number. The dominant source of irreversibility is due to heat transfer at low values of Darcy number, whereas entropy generation due to fluid flow dominates over that due to heat transfer for larger values of Darcy number.     

Investigation on the effect of oxalic acid,succinic acid and aspartic acid on the gas hydrate formation kinetics

Gas hydrate reserves are potential source of clean energy having low molecular weight hydrocarbons trapped in water cages. In this work, we report how organic compounds of different chain lengths and hydrophilicities when used in small concentration may modify hydrate growth and either act as hydrate inhibitors or promoters. Hydrate promoters foster the hydrate growth kinetics and are used in novel applications such as methane storage as solidified natural gas, desalination of sea water and gas separation. On the other hand, gas hydrate inhibitors are used in oil and gas pipelines to alter the rate at which gas hydrate nucleates and grows. Inhibitors such as methanol and ethanol which form strong hydrogen bond with water have been traditionally used as hydrate inhibitors. However, due to relatively high volatility a significant portion of these inhibitors ends up in gas stream and brings further complexity to the safe transportation of natural gas. In this study, organic additives such as oxalic acid, succinic acid and L-aspartic acid (all three) having—COOH group(s) with aspartic acid having an additional—NH₂ group, are investigated for gas hydrate promotion/inhibition behavior. These compounds are polar in nature and thus have significant solubility in liquid water; the presence of weak acidic and water loving (carboxylic/amine groups) moieties makes these organic acids an excellent candidate for further study. This study would pave ways to identify a novel(read better) promoter/inhibitor for gas hydrate formation. Suitable thermodynamic conditions were generated in a stirred tank reactor coupled with cooling system; comparison of gas hydrate formation kinetics with and without additives were carried out to identify the effect of these acids on the formation and growth of hydrates. The possible mechanisms by which these additives inhibit or promote the hydrate growth are also discussed.     

A comparative evaluation of friction and electron beam welds of near-α titanium alloy

Electron beam and friction welding studies have been carried out on a TIMET 834 a near-α titanium alloy. The study was also focused on the post-weld heat treatment aspects and their influence on mechanical properties. The influence of parent metal microstructure on the toughness has been evaluated to explain the trends observed on the toughness of welds. Electron beam welds contained micro-porosity while friction welds were free from such solidification related defects. Friction welds exhibited very fine equiaxed prior β grains as compared to electron beam welds. Electron beam welds exhibited better creep and stress rupture properties and marginally higher strength. The impact toughness of both the welds was comparable. Post-weld ageing of welds resulted in reduction in impact toughness due to precipitation of silicides along the martensite lath boundaries.     

Reduction of Iron-Ore Pellets Using Different Gas Mixtures and Temperatures

Direct reduction of iron ore (DRI) is gaining an increased attention due to the growing need to decarbonize industrial processes. The current industrial DRI processes are performed using reformed natural gas, which results in CO₂ emission, although it is less than carbothermic reduction in the blast furnace. Carbon-free reduction may be realized through the utilization of green H₂ as a reducing agent, in place of natural gas. Herein, the effects of various gas mixtures and temperature on the reduction kinetics of the hematite iron-ore pellets are focused on in this work. Pellets are reduced at 700, 800, 850, and 900 °C in hydrogen and using various gas mixes at 850 °C. Morphology of the pellets is investigated with the help of scanning electron microscopy and mercury intrusion porosimetry. The effects of temperature and gas composition on the reduction kinetics and porosity of the pellets are discussed. A notable effect of reduction rate on the internal structure of the pellets is detected, slower reduction rate yielded bigger pores offsetting the gas composition. Higher temperature results in coarser pores and higher porosity. Increase of CO content in the gas mix also leads to bigger pore size.     

A subtree‐based transformation model for cryptosystem using chaotic maps under cloud computing environment for fuzzy user data sharing

Cloud computing technologies have been prospering in recent years and have opened an avenue for a wide variety of forms of adaptable data sharing. Taking advantage of these state‐of‐the‐art innovations, the cloud storage data owner must, however, use a suitable identity‐based cryptographic mechanism to ensure the safety prerequisites while sharing data to large numbers of cloud data users with fuzzy identities. As a successful way to guarantee secure fuzzy sharing of cloud data, the identity‐based cryptographic technology still faces an effectiveness problem under multireceiver configurations. The chaos theory is considered a reasonable strategy for reducing computational complexity while meeting the cryptographic protocol's security needs. In an identity‐based cryptographic protocol, public keys for individual clients are distributed, allowing the clients to separately select their own network identities or names as their public keys. In fact, in a public‐key cryptographic protocol, it is for the best that the confirmation of the public key is done in a safe, private manner, because this way the load of storage on the server's side can be considerably relieved. The objective of this paper is to outline and examine a conversion process that can transfer cryptosystems using Chebyshev's chaotic maps over the Galois field to a subtree‐based protocol in the cloud computing setting for fuzzy user data sharing, as opposed to reconcocting a different structure. Furthermore, in the design of our conversion process, no adjustment of the original cryptosystem based on chaotic maps is needed.     

A study on the behaviour of M-type barium hexagonal ferrite based microwave absorbing paints

This paper deals with development of single and double-layer microwave absorbing paints using Mn-substituted barium hexagonal ferrite. The comparative studies of both theoretical and experimental results at Ku band have been reported. It has been found that the single layer absorbing paint exhibits peak absorption of 12.3 dB at 17.4 GHz for a thickness of 1.12 mm. Double layer absorbing paint with each layer of different composition of ferrite gives a broad band characteristics, but at the cost of lowered absorption.     

Gap-coupled microstrip array antenna for wide-band operation

The theoretical and experimental investigations carried out on a gap-coupled microstrip array antenna reveal that there is a significant improvement in VSWR and bandwidth characteristics of the gap-coupled microstrip array antenna as compared with a conventional microstrip array antenna. The input impedance and the resonant frequency of the gap-coupled patch are found to depend heavily on the gap length as well as on the dielectric constant of the substrate material.