Investigation of thermal performance of SAC variables using fuzzy logic based expert system

The thermal performance of a solar air collector (SAC) is investigated experimentally under the different climatic conditions of north eastern India using fuzzy logic based expert system (FLES). The FLES based on subtractive clustering (SC) with the fuzzy logic method where here, SC is used for extraction of optimal fuzzy IF-THEN rules while a fuzzy logic is used for modeling of SAC variables. This work considered four input variables [like mass flow rate (m), collector tilt angles (θ), solar radiation (Q), temperature (T)] and the four output variables [i.e. efficiency (η), exergetic efficiency (η_II), temperature rise (∆T), and pressure drop (∆P)]. First, 272 trials of experimentation on SAC are performed by varying m from 0.0078 to 0.0118 kg/s and θ from 30 to 60°, whereas the variation of metrological data is obtained in different working days. Then modeling and parametric analysis is carried out for SAC. Experimental results reveal that the value of η increases with the increase in m, Q, T and θ up to 45°. The higher value of m results in a higher value of ∆P and that reduces the value of η_II. Also, FLES model provides comparable and acceptable values for SAC. At last, validation of the FLES model is done via published data to confirm the results.

     

The Effect of NaCl on the Krafft Temperature and Related Behavior of Cetyltrimethylammonium Bromide in Aqueous Solution

This paper presents the effect of NaCl on the Krafft temperature (T _K), surface adsorption and bulk micellization of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) in aqueous solution. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of CTAB in the presence of NaCl increased and then decreased with increasing temperature. Thus, the CMC–temperature data can be represented by a bell-shaped curve. The micellar dissociation (fraction of counterion binding) and energetic parameters (free energy, enthalpy and entropy changes) of both adsorption and micellization were calculated. The processes were found to be both enthalpy and entropy controlled and appeared to be more and more enthalpy driven with increasing temperature. An enthalpy–entropy compensation rule was observed for both adsorption and micelle formation. The T _K of the surfactant decreased significantly in the presence of NaCl, which is a sharp contrast to the usual behavior of the effect of electrolytes on the T _K of classical ionic surfactants. The surface excess concentrations decreased with increasing temperature. However, the values were much higher in the presence of NaCl compared to the corresponding values in pure water. The solubilization behavior of a water-insoluble dye, Sudan red B (SRB), in the micellar system was studied by the UV–visible spectrophotometric technique. The molar solubilization ratio in the presence of NaCl was found to be about three times higher than that in pure water, indicating that the solubilization of SRB in the CTAB micelles significantly increases in the presence of NaCl.     

Coupling Analysis of GaAs-Based Microdisk Lasers With Different External Claddings

In this paper, we analyze the coupling of light from a GaAs microdisk laser into a waveguide. Starting from an air cladding, we examine several configurations to couple light into the waveguide with different cladding structures aimed to foster light coupling into the waveguide: photonic crystal and metallic (plasmonic cladding). In these coupling schemes, we tried to optimize the coupling of the emitted light into the waveguide, while maintaining a reasonable quality factor to allow the lasing operation of the device. We show that a plasmonic layer, introduced beside the waveguide can lead to a significant improvement in the coupling efficiency, reaching an efficiency close to 80%.