Synthesis and Characterization of Spark Plasma Sintered FeAl and In situ FeAl–Al2O3 Composite

In the present work, nanocrystalline FeAl and FeAl–Al₂O₃ composite were synthesized by high energy ball milling and subsequent compaction by spark plasma sintering. Microstructural changes during all stages of processing are studied using X-ray analysis. After 20 h of milling, the disordered FeAl and some amount of Fe rich solid solution was obtained in both of these compositions. Subsequent heat treatment results in formation of ordered FeAl. However, disordering of FeAl was observed in both compositions after spark plasma sintering. Nanocrystallinity is retained in both the compositions even after sintering at high temperature of 1,000 °C. Very high hardness of ~575 HV₁ and ~600 HV₁ was exhibited by FeAl and FeAl–Al₂O₃ composite.     

Reliability based design optimization using response surfaces in application to multidisciplinary systems

Traditionally, reliability based design optimization (RBDO) is formulated as a nested optimization problem. For these problems the objective is to minimize a cost function while satisfying the reliability constraints. The reliability constraints are usually formulated as constraints on the probability of failure corresponding to each of the failure modes or a single constraint on the system probability of failure. The probability of failure is usually estimated by performing a reliability analysis. The difficulty in evaluating reliability constraints comes from the fact that modern reliability analysis methods are themselves formulated as an optimization problem. Solving such nested optimization problems is extremely expensive for large scale multidisciplinary systems which are likewise computationally intensive. In this research, a framework for performing reliability based multidisciplinary design optimization using approximations is developed. Response surface approximations (RSA) of the limit state functions are used to estimate the probability of failure. An outer loop is incorporated to ensure that the approximate RBDO converges to the actual most probable point of failure. The framework is compared with the exact RBDO procedure. In the proposed methodology, RSAs are employed to significantly reduce the computational expense associated with traditional RBDO. The proposed approach is implemented in application to multidisciplinary test problems, and the computational savings and benefits are discussed.     

Homotopy methods for constraint relaxation in unilevel reliability based design optimization

In reliability based design optimization, a methodology for finding optimized designs characterized with a low probability of failure the main objective is to minimize a merit function while satisfying the reliability constraints. Traditionally, these have been formulated as a double-loop (nested) optimization problem, which is computationally intensive. A new efficient unilevel formulation for reliability based design optimization was developed by the authors in earlier studies, where the lower-level optimization was replaced by its corresponding first-order Karush–Kuhn–Tucker (KKT) necessary optimality conditions at the upper-level optimization and imposed as equality constraints. But as most commercial optimizers are usually numerically unreliable when applied to problems accompanied by many equality constraints, an optimization framework for reliability based design using the unilevel formulation is developed here. Homotopy methods are used for constraint relaxation and to obtain a relaxed feasible design and heuristic scheme is employed to update the homotopy parameter.     

Damping identification in rotors from run-up beat responses using Hilbert transforms

In a rotor bearing system operating with constant angular acceleration, after passing through the critical speed, typical beat characteristics are observed because the transverse vibration response contains both excited and natural motion, and shortly after passing resonance, vibrations with close frequencies appear. The present study explains a method for estimating damping of rotor bearing systems from transient beat vibration signals observed during run up stage. A mathematical derivation to prove that a part of run-up vibration of the rotor system consists of beat phenomenon when the system crosses critical speed. It is also observed from the mathematical model that the beat vibrations depend on the damping in the system. This beat response is considered for Hilbert analysis and the damping is estimated. Increase in angular acceleration of the rotor will increase the damping. This paper investigates how the damping varies with respect to different angular acceleration values of the rotor bearing system. Experimental validation of the beat phenomenon and damping estimation are done for the rotor system. The proposed method is validated by using half-power band width method applied to run-up response.     

Antioxidant activity and hepatoprotective potential of Phyllanthus niruri

Antioxidant activity and hepatoprotective potential of Phyllanthus niruri, a widely used medicinal plant, were investigated. Methanolic and aqueous extract of leaves and fruits of P. niruri showed inhibition of membrane lipid peroxidation (LPO), scavenging of 1,1-diphenyl-2picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical and inhibition of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in vitro. Antioxidant activity of the extracts were also demonstrable in vivo by the inhibition of the carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) – induced formation of lipid peroxides in the liver of rats by pretreatment with the extracts. CCl₄ – induced hepatotoxicity in rats, as judged by the raised serum enzymes, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) and glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT), was prevented by pretreatment with the extracts, demonstrating the hepatoprotective action of P. niruri.     

Organic inverter: Theoretical analysis using load matching technique

This paper reports the analysis of key parameters affecting voltage transfer characteristics of pseudo PMOS organic inverters. Pentacene has been used as active material for PMOS Organic Thin Film transistor (OTFT). We have used two different inverter configurations for thorough analysis. Each configuration comprises of an enhancement mode driver (V_Threshold = −9.7 V) and a depletion mode load (V_Threshold = 11.7 V). First configuration has its source and gate terminals shorted. While, second configuration differs with its drain and gate terminals shorted. In order to surmise the theoretical performance of the inverters, we have used load matching technique. After investigating various parameters such as inverting gain, noise margin values (immunity to noise error signals) and threshold voltage value, influencing the voltage inverting efficiency of the two configurations mentioned above, it was found that an inverter with shorted source-gate load configuration is better of the two due to privileges such as saturation mode operation of load, low driver current with early saturation of enhancement mode driver, which facilitates full swing output voltage operation. Second configuration with shorted drain-gate load, lacks saturation mode operation of load and fails to deliver high voltage swing along with acceptable noise margin values and inverting gain.     

Strong Reactivity Enhancement through Molecular Traffic Control in Zeolites

In the past, the investigation of catalytic reactivity enhancement through molecular traffic control (MTC) by means of dynamical Monte Carlo simulations of catalysis was initiated in simple, idealized zeolite channel networks. These results are reviewed here and, emphasizing more recent work, the conditions of reactivity enhancement through MTC are examined for a realistic channel topology based on the pore structure of the zeolite TNU‐9. For a wide range of reaction rates a very strong MTC effect can be found that increases with grain size. This effect is argued to be a generic feature of a certain class of zeolite pore topologies.     

An OTA-based CMOS bandpass filter for NMR applications

One of the very popular medical imaging techniques used in present-day radiology is the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which is based on the phenomenon of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the hydrogen atoms present in the body. There is ever-increasing research in electronic circuit design for biomedical applications using NMR. Earlier magnetic resonance imagers operated at a magnetic field strength of 0.3?T. The present imagers operate at a magnetic field of 1.5?T, the resonance frequency of the nuclei being 64?MHz. This article presents a CMOS bandpass filter (BPF) design for NMR applications. The overall BPF design is realised in 180?nm CMOS technology which occupies an active area of 24.23?×?33.125?µm² and consumes 0.165?mW of power from a 1.5?V supply.     

Coordinated control of TCSC and UPFC to aid damping oscillations in the power system

A valid damping of oscillations is an upcoming extensive challenge while maintaining the stability of the power system. This oscillation generally occurs due to the fluctuation raised, when two systems are interconnected. This paper addresses the oscillation occurred in the power system as the main challenge, which thus performs an effective simulation in 68-bus system. Here, it promotes a sufficient CC with two FACTS devices such as TCSC and UPFC, which are connected with PSS. Further, it adopts firefly algorithm to enable the CC among the FACTS devices. To the next of the simulation, this paper compares the performance of the FF- CC with conventional optimisations include GSO, PSO, GA and ABC algorithms to enable CC. Further, it provides a detailed analysis of the impact of PSS and loading effects on CC. As a result, the performance of FF-CC hands over the stable power system with powerful damping of oscillations, after comparing it with the existing methods.

Abbreviations: ABC, Artificial Bee Colony; ICA, Imperialist Competitive Algorithm; AVR, Automatic Voltage Regulators; NETS, New England test system; BFOA, Bacteria Foraging Optimization Algorithm; NYPS, New York power system; BSO, Bacterial Swarm Optimization; PSO, Particle Swarm Optimization; CC, Coordinated Control; PSS, Power System Stabilizers; COA, Chaotic Optimization Algorithm; STATCOM, Static Synchronous Compensator; CS, Cuckoo Search; SSSC, Static Synchronous Series Compensator; FACTS, Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System; SVC, Static Var Compensator; GA, Genetic Algorithm; TCSC, Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitor; GSO, Gravitational Search Algorithm; UPFC, Unified Power Flow Controller