Analysis of coupled transmission lines with power-lawcharacteristic impedance

We present a frequency-domain method for analyzing multiple-coupled nonuniform lossless transmission lines with power-law characteristic impedance. The method of the solution is based on the modal decomposition method. Using the modal decomposition method the system of coupled partial differential equations are decomposed to a number of uncoupled ordinary wave equations, which are then solved in the frequency-domain. Finally, the fast Fourier transform algorithm is used to find the time-domain response     

Electrical and thermal phenomena in low-density polyethylene/carbon black composites near the percolation threshold

Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)/carbon black (CB) composites were fabricated via melt-compounding technique. The percolation threshold was found to be around 20 wt % CB, and an electrical network formed by conductive CB was proven by scanning electron microscopy investigation. Dielectric responses depicted an interfacial relaxation peak at 20 wt % CB content. LDPE/CB composites showed an electric field-dependent conductivity as and a hysteresis behavior around the percolation threshold region. The CB particles with high thermal conductivity increased the heat conductance of the LDPE/CB20 up to 56%. The dynamic mechanical analysis of the LDPE/CB composites exhibited a noticeable contribution of CB throughout the composites, increasing the storage and loss modulus. The physical interactions between CB particles in the filler network enhanced the thermal degradation of the LDPE/CB25 composite for more than 76°C. The maximum breakdown strength of the LDPE/CB composites appeared with an approximately 10% improvement for LDPE/CB5 than pure LDPE. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47043.     

Metal paste nanocomposite electrodes as a new generation of metallic electrodes

Fabrication of metal paste nanocomposite electrodes is introduced using metal nanostructures and ionic liquids. The combined application of unique properties of nanomaterials and ionic liquids in the design of these metal paste nanocomposites results in electrodes with interesting advantages compared to the conventional metal disk electrodes. In contrast to conventional metallic electrodes, which are usually prone to fouling effects and suffer from weak repeatability and reproducibility, these metal paste nanocomposite electrodes have very exciting advantages. Ease of electrode fabrication; cleaning and activating the electrode surface, together with high electrocatalytic activity; increased degree of active area and surface roughness; antifouling effect; good signal-to-noise ratio; low cost; and low weight are among the advantageous features of these electrodes. Compared to dropping mercury electrodes that have high toxicity, these metal paste nanocomposite electrodes have much less toxicity. Such abilities promote new opportunities for a wide range of electrochemical, sensing, and biosensing applications.     

Estimation of the depth of frost penetration in both uniform and layered soils in frost-affected regions

One of the most important factors affecting pavement performance is climate, including frost action and precipitation. The performance of pavements in frost-affected regions depends to a large degree on the depth of frost penetration. In this paper, a simple predictive tool is developed to calculate a new correction coefficient depending upon the thermal ratio and fusion parameter. The new correction coefficient can be used in follow-up calculations to estimate the depth of frost penetration for both uniform and layered soils in frost-affected regions to evaluate the performance of pavement. The results of the proposed method are found to be in excellent agreement with reported data in the literature with average absolute deviation being less than 0.8%. The predictive tool is simple, straightforward and can be readily implemented in any standard spreadsheet programme leading to accurate, smooth and non-oscillatory data points. The prime application of the method is as a quick-and-easy evaluation tool in conceptual development and scoping studies in which the depth of frost penetration for both uniform and layered soils in frost-affected regions is being considered. The method may also serve as a benchmark in numerical and rigorous simulation studies.     

Effect of microwave irradiation on crystal growth of zeolitized coal fly ash with different solid/liquid ratios

In the present work, coal fly ash (CFA) was converted to zeolite (CFAZP) experimentally at atmospheric pressure via a conventional hydrothermal heating for 6 h at low temperature (90 ± 3 °C) followed by microwave irradiation for 30 min. The synthesized products were characterized using XRD, TGA/DTA, SEM, PSD, BET, and cation-exchange capacity (CEC) techniques. The effect of microwave on the crystal growth of nucleated CFAZP at different solid/liquid ratios (suspended CFA mass to NaOH solution volume, g/mL) was studied. A three-variable, three level central composite statistical experimental design was applied to investigate the effect of the independent variables on the response function defined as the ratio of the characteristic peak intensity at 2θ: 28° of a sample to that of the same peak of a sample run for 24 h with conventional heating. The relative peak intensity of CFAZP as high as 97% was achieved under optimum experimental conditions with 1 M of NaOH concentration, 6 h of conventional heating followed by 30 min microwave irradiation with a solid/liquid ratio of 0.40 g/mL. Under constant microwave energy, higher solid/liquid ratios led to higher relative peak intensity of the product.     

A QoS Aware Dynamic Scheduling Scheme Using Fuzzy Inference System for IEEE 802.16 Networks

Providing quality of service (QoS) for diverse multimedia services is an important issue in IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) networks. A scheduling mechanism that satisfies the QoS requirements has become more important for multimedia networks. In addition, scheduling algorithms for wireless networks are much more complex than that of wired networks because of channel quality variations and radio resource limits. This paper introduces a QoS Aware Scheduling System, based on fuzzy logic, for traffic management in WiMAX point-to-multi-point (PMP) networks. The proposed method attempts to guarantee delay and throughput QoS criteria. It considers QoS criteria and radio quality of each user in decision making processes. A series of simulation experiments have been carried out to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheduling system. The results show that the proposed method performs effectively to achieve QoS criteria and attains significant system performance for different types of traffic.     

Design of a diffractive optical element for pattern formation in a bilingual virtual keyboard

Pattern formation is one of the many applications of diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for display. Since DOEs have lightweight and slim nature compared to other optical devices, using them as image projection device in virtual keyboards is suggested. In this paper, we present an approach to designing elements that produce distinct intensity patterns, in the far field, for two wavelengths. These two patterns are images of bilingual virtual keyboard. To achieve this with DOEs is not simple, as they are inherently wavelength specific. Our technique is based on phase periodic characteristic of wavefront using iterative algorithm to design the phase profiles.