Effect of Ball Milling Time on the Physical,Thermal and Fracture Behaviour of 2MgO.2Al2O3.5SiO2 Precursors

Silicon - In this study, an evaluation has been made into the influence of milling time on the thermo-physical and fracture properties of a MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 system. The powdery and compacted...     

Sulfamic acid functionalized slag for effective removal of organic dye and toxic metal from the aqueous samples

Surface functionalization of blast furnace slag with sulfamic acid(a zwitterion) was performed for the removal of Cr~(3+) and methylene blue dye(MB) from water samples. The slag functionalization process was optimized using Response Surface Methodology Design. Statistical analysis of the parameters that include the sulfamic acid amount(A), reaction time(B), and temperature(C) revealed that(A) increase had a negative effect on the adsorption of both pollutants by the zwitterion slag, whereas(B) and(C)increase presented a positive impact. At the optimum condition of 2 g sulfamic acid amount, 50 min reaction time and 37 °C temperature, the prepared slag showed a removal efficiency of more than 90% for both Cr~(3+) and MB. Surface characterization by SEM/EDS, FTIR, XPS and surface area analyser, showed an improvement in surface properties and the incorporation of zwitterionic NH_2~+ and S@O groups of sulfamic acid. Adsorption isotherm and kinetic studies conducted with the zwitterion slag showed the adsorption process was suited to Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model.The thermodynamic study conducted revealed the spontaneity of the process based on the calculated negative DG(Gibb's free energy) values. The prepared zwitterion slag offered easy regeneration with dilute HCl solution and showed a considerable removal(Cr3+: 65% and MB: 80%) for both pollutants even after 3 cycles of usage.     

Process Noise Parameters of Beamforming Green Nodes

Signals arrive out of phase at the intended receiver from collaborative beamforming (CB) nodes due to the instability in the output frequency signals of the universal software radio peripheral's (USRP) local oscillator (LO). These nodes including the target must synchronize their oscillator frequencies for coherent signal reception. In order to do this, frequencies and phases of the signals should be estimated in software defined radio (SDR) and smoothen with nonlinear filters such as the extended Kalman filter (EKF). The process noise parameters of the NI USRP-2920 nodes will have to be calculated and used with the EKF process noise covariance matrix. These nodes are green communication hardware devices where most of the hardware units are now software defined. This article uses the direct spectrum method to obtain the phase noise values at various frequency offsets of the NI USRP-2920 in order to calculate the power spectral density of fractional frequency fluctuation. By applying the power-law noise model to this obtained value, the generated white frequency noise and random walk frequency noise values are q1=1.9310-21 and q2=5.8610-18, respectively.     

Comparative study of conventional and magnetically coupled piezoelectric energy harvester to optimize output voltage and bandwidth

Energy harvesting has experienced significant attention from researchers globally. This is due to the quest to power remote sensors and portable devices with power requirements of tens to hundreds of μW. Hence, ambient vibration energy has the potential to provide such power demands. Thus, cantilever beams with piezoelectric materials have been utilized to transduce mechanical energy in vibrating bodies to electrical energy. However, the challenge is to develop energy harvesters that can harvest sufficient amount of energy needed to power wireless sensor nodes at wide frequency bandwidth. In this article, piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) beams with coupled magnets are proposed to address this issue. With macro fiber composite as the piezoelectric transducer, mathematical models of different system configurations having magnetic couplings are derived based on the continuum based model. Simulations of the system dynamics are done using numerical integration technique in MATLAB software to study the influence of magnetic interactions in generating power and frequency bandwidth due to base excitations at low frequency range. Experimental results comparing conventional system and the proposed piezoelectric beam configurations with coupled magnets are also presented. Finally, the optimal beam separation distance between the magnetic oscillator and PEH is presented in this work.

     

Residual stress measurement in a repair welded header in the as-welded condition and after advanced post weld treatment

Measurements of the residual stresses in a type 316H stainless steel steam header were made using the deep hole drilling (DHD) technique to characterise the through thickness residual stress distribution in a circumferentially repaired weld in the as-welded condition and after an advanced post weld treatment (APWT) had been applied. The measured residual stress field was compared with finite element (FE) predictions. Overall there was a good correlation between the DHD measurement results and the FE results in the as-welded condition. The results highlighted the generation of high residual stresses due to repair welding. After APWT, there were noticeable differences between the measurements and the FE predictions. The study also demonstrated the feasibility of performing an APWT procedure on components and its significant effect on the redistribution of residual stresses. In particular, it was demonstrated that APWT promoted a finite volume of compressive stresses near the critical area of the header, thus providing increased confidence in the component integrity.