Energy Harvesting System Design and Optimization Using High Bandwidth Rectenna for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Today’s world has a keen interest in systems which are battery-less and can harvest energy from their surroundings. There is an increased demand for...     

Development of LTCC micro-hotplate with PTC temperature sensor for gas-sensing applications

Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) micro-hotplates show wide applications in gas sensors and micro-fluidic devices. It is easily structured in three-dimensional structures. This paper presents the low power consumption micro-hotplates which were developed with PTC (positive temperature coefficient) temperature sensor and inter-digitated electrodes. The paper presents two different structures for micro-hotplate with platinum as a heating element. The PTC temperature sensor using two different materials viz. PdAg and platinum paste are developed with micro-hotplates. The simulation has been achieved through COMSOL for LTCC and alumina micro-hotplates. The temperature variation with power consumption has been measured for the developed LTCC micro-hotplates. The change in resistance of PTC temperature sensors was measured with micro-hotplate temperature. The aim of this study was to place a temperature sensor with the gas sensor module to measure and control the temperature of micro-hotplate. A SnO₂ sensing layer is coated on LTCC micro-hotplate using screen printing and characterized for the sensing of carbon monoxide gas (CO). This study will be beneficial for designing hotplates based on LTCC technology with low power consumption and better stability of temperature for gas-sensing applications.     

A modified flow enforcement technique for ATM networks

In ATM networks the requirement of providing the negotiated Quality of Service (QOS) needs an efficient flow enforcement technique that will result in preventive congestion control. A very effective technique is the Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) method. In this paper, we have suggested improvements to the EWMA and call it the Enhanced EWMA (EEWMA). Simulation results show that the EEWMA is consistently better than the EWMA in most of the situations. We present comparisons of cell loss under various conditions. No theoretical analysis is presented.     

Melt intercalation/exfoliation of polystyrene-sodium-montmorillonite nanocomposites using sulfonated polystyrene ionomer compatibilizers

Quaternary ammonium salts of sulfonated polystyrene (SPS) were used as compatibilizers for melt intercalation of PS and pristine Na-montmorillonite. Tetra-octyl ammonium SPS and tetra-decyl ammonium SPS ionomeric compatibilizers produced significant exfoliation and a homogeneous dispersion of the polymer-clay nanocomposites. Wide angle X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were primarily used to characterize the morphology of the nanocomposites. Image analysis was used to measure the percentage exfoliation. Exfoliation increased with the increasing length of the alkyl chain of the ammonium counter-ion of the SPS ionomer. The nanocomposites containing ionomers exhibited higher storage moduli compared to nanocomposites without the compatibilizer.     

Resorbable calcium phosphate bone substitute

Bacteroides fragilis strains isolated from different sources, i.e. 1 strain (AA1) from an aquatic environment, 1 strain from normal flora (118310) and the type strain (ATCC 25285) originally isolated from clinical material, were analysed for both cell envelope proteins composition and surviving under oxidative stress starvation. All strains examined showed a similar survival response when cultured in drinking water with a ten-fold decrease in viable counts per day during the 7 days of analysis. The outer membrane protein (OMP) profiles of all strains were quite similar during the stress period as determined by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). However, the periplasmic proteins of the strain 118310 showed two protein bands at 48 and 58 kDa, respectively, that were absent in the strains AA1 and ATCC 25285 during the incubation period in potable water. Whole cells and periplasmic 35S-labelled proteins from bacteria cultured in drinking water showed a significant increase in proteins at 16, 18, 24, 26, 35, 48, and 58 kDa and 18, 22, 24, 48, 58, and 70 kDa, respectively, in all strains when compared to cells grown in BHI-PRAS media as detected by autoradiography following SDS-PAGE. These data suggest that B. fragilis may have a synthesis mechanism that allows them to adapt to adverse environments.     

Supporting collaborative engineering design

The complexity of current engineering design demands the collaboration of specialists. Collaboration involves both communication between and coordination among members of a design team. Currently, design collaboration is carried out through the use of schedules, specifications and drawings which only capture the end results of the design process. They fail to record important design information such as the reasoning behind design decisions. In this paper, we describe a tool CADS, that supports collaboration in engineering design. CADS is based on an extension to the Axiomatic Design methodology which not only captures the design elements but also the rationale used to conceive them. CADS serves as a shared database of design information with facilities that support communication and coordination in engineering design.Currently at the Media Laboratory, MIT.     

Esterification of acrylic acid with methanol by reactive chromatography: Experiments and simulations

The esterification of acrylic acid with methanol using Amberlyst 15 as a stationary phase has been investigated using a chromatographic reactor. Several experimental runs at various operating conditions have been conducted on a batch column. A classical reactive chromatography model including lumped kinetics, a linear driving force transport model and a heterogeneous kinetic model for the catalytic reaction has been developed. The additional dispersion of concentration fronts due to density gradient effects has been accounted for in the model. The model parameters have been determined in a fast and reliable way by directly fitting the batch column experiments. In general, a good agreement between experimental and calculated results is obtained. The evaluation of the covariance of the fitted model parameters reveals important insights about the system behavior.Based on the detailed batch column model, a complete model of a simulated-moving-bed reactor has been implemented and its optimal point of operation for the synthesis of methyl acrylate from acrylic acid has been determined. Particularly when considering the low-operating temperature, we can regard this process as a possible competition for current technologies.     

The effect of feedstock and process conditions on the synthesis of high purity CNTs from aromatic hydrocarbons

High purity multi-walled carbon nanotubes were synthesized from aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, xylene and trimethyl benzene) using ferrocene as the source of Fe catalyst. Screening studies of aromatic feeds at 675 °C, residence time of 14 s and Fe/C atom ratio of 1.07%, resulted in feedstock carbon conversion of 20-31%, CNT yield of 19.8-30.5%, and catalyst yield of 5.3-8.3 (g CNT/g catalyst). While the quality of the CNTs as determined by TGA, SEM, TEM and Raman spectroscopy, were high and comparable for different feedstocks; their carbon conversion, CNT yield and catalyst yield differed noticeably. A process optimization study for toluene feed showed that carbon conversion of more than 39%, CNT yield of 38.7% and catalyst yield of 18.3 can be achieved at temperature of 800 °C, Fe/C atom ratio of 0.47%, and residence time of 10-20 s.