Self-excited vibrations of optical microresonators

Microresonators in the form of metal coated silicon dioxide strips have been driven into resonant vibration by the application of unmodulated fibre-guided light. The experiments carried out to observe this phenomenon are described, their results presented and discussed, and the implications for multiplexing microresonators sensors in fibre-optic systems are outlined     

Analysis of laminated shells of revolution with laminated stiffeners using a doubly curved quadrilateral finite element

A finite element analysis of laminated shells of revolution reinforced with laminated stifieners is described here-in. A doubly curved quadrilateral laminated anisotropic shell of revolution finite element of 48 d.o.f. is used in conjunction with two stiffener elements of 16 d.o.f. namely: (i) A laminated anisotropic parallel circle stiffener element (PCSE); (ii) A laminated anisotropic meridional stiffener element (MSE).These stifiener elements are formulated under line member assumptions as degenerate cases of the quadrilateral shell element to achieve compatibility all along the shell-stifiener junction lines. The solutions to the problem of a stiffened cantilever cylindrical shell are used to check the correctness of the present program while it's capability is shown through the prediction of the behavior of an eccentrically stiffened laminated hyperboloidal shell.     

Behavior of untreated and crosslinked cotton fibers. I. Contribution of maturity

The physical and structural properties of American Upland cottons of different maturities have been examined carefully in order to identify fiber parameters which make significant contributions to easy-care properties. The cottons studied possess widely different degrees of overall orientation as determined from birefringence measurements and also exhibit slightly different crease recovery angles. These cottons also respond differently to swelling in sodium hydroxide solution of different concentrations. The physical and mechanical properties of these cottons modified by formaldehyde crosslinking are also compared. The increase in crease recovery angles and the concomitant tensile losses vary from cotton to cotton but are not dependent on maturity or fineness. The stiffness of crosslinked fibers decreases rather than increases with increasing bound formaldehyde. A comparison of the changes in the mechanical properties of formaldehyde-crosslinked cottons differing widely in orientation suggests that cottons with very high orientation are not suitable for chemical modification to impart durable press properties.     

Analysis and Implementation of a Time-Interleaved ADC Array for a Software-Defined UWB Receiver

A software-defined radio (SDR) for ultrawideband (UWB) communication systems places several stringent requirements on the analog-to-digital converter (ADC). One alternative to using a single ADC is to sample the received signal with an array of lower speed ADCs that were driven by interleaved sampling clocks; however, mismatches among the ADCs will result in signal distortion. This paper makes three important contributions to overcoming this problem: 1) analytical quantification of the impact of ADC gain, offset, and timing mismatches on the performance of a time-interleaved sampling ADC array for UWB signals; 2) demonstration of the efficacy of using a pilot-based matched-filter architecture to mitigate the impact of timing mismatches in the presence of multipath; and 3) implementation of an 8-ADC time-interleaved UWB SDR testbed that operates at an effective sampling frequency of 6.4 GHz. In addition, our findings allow for the design specification of the number of pilots required to obtain a desired system performance. The simulation and measured performance results from this paper demonstrate that ADC mismatches can be controlled to within plusmn10%, yielding acceptable levels of distortion and bit-error-rate (BER) performance on the UWB SDR testbed. Both analytical and simulation results also demonstrate the efficacy of a pilot-based matched filter in mitigating the impact of timing mismatch errors, even in the presence of multipath.     

Conversion of Extracted Oil Cake Fibers into Bioethanol Including DDGS,Canola, Sunflower,Sesame, Soy,and Peanut for Integrated Biodiesel Processing

We have come up with a novel, integrated approach for making biodiesel by in-house producion of ethanol after fermentation of hexane extracted edible oil cake fiber. In addition, we have demonstrated how ethanol could be manufactured from commonly available oil cakes (such as canola, sunflower, sesame, soy, peanut) and dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS). The edible oil cakes and DDGS were hexane extracted, ammonia fiber expansion pretreated, enzymatically hydrolysed and fermented to produce ethanol. From all the oil cakes tested in this work, DDGS and peanut oil cake showed the most promising results giving more than 180 g of glucose/kg of oil cake. These two feedstock’s were hydrolyzed at 15% solids loading and fermented by a native strain of Pichia stipitis. Most sugars were consumed during the first 24 h, with no pronounced inhibition of P. stipitis by the degradation products in the hydrolysate. Xylose consumption was more effective for peanut cake hydrolyzate compared to DDGS.     

Fire behaviour of hollow structural section steel columns filled with high strength concrete

The use of hollow structural section (HSS) steel columns filled with high strength concrete (HSC) is becoming popular due to many advantages they offer. However, whereas the design rules for HSS columns filled with normal strength concrete are well established, there are many uncertainties for HSS columns filled with HSC. Results from numerical studies on the behaviour of HSS columns filled with HSC are presented. The studies were carried out based on both North American and European material properties for HSC and steel. Results show that required fire resistance in HSS columns can be obtained through the use of bar- or steel fibre-reinforcement in HSC.     

Development of epoxy-cyanate ester-clay nanocomposites offering enhanced thermally stability

The preparation and characterization of blends of a series of dicyanate monomers such as 2,2′-bis(4-cyanatophenyl) propane (DCDPP), bis-4-cyanato-biphenyl (DCBP), bis-4-cyanatonaphthalene (DCN), 3,3′-bis(4-cyanatophenyl)sulphide (DCTDP), 3,3′-bis(4-cyanatophenyl)sulphone (DCDPS), and the diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A are reported. These copolymers are combined with a montmorillionite nanoclay and both epoxy-cyanate blends and epoxy-cyanate blends-nanoclay composites are all analyzed for thermal stability, thermal degradation kinetics, flame retardancy, and impact strength. The nanocomposites are further characterized by X-ray diffraction and SEM to determine morphological features, from which structure–property relationships are determined. Dispersion of the nanoclay is of paramount importance, but its inclusion serves to improve char yield and impact strength, when this is achieved. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47754.     

Experimental evaluation of machinability performance of CNT coated HSS tool during turning of titanium alloy

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - The present research deals with the deposition of carbon nanotubes (CNT) over the HSS tool, and to evaluate the machining performance of the coated...