Utilization pattern of fuelwood plants by the Halam community of Tripura,Northeast India

The present study was undertaken to identify the fuelwood plant species and their utilization pattern by the Halam community of Tripura. The main objective of this study was to assess the species preference as fuelwood, the total value index, and the fuelwood value index (FVI) of 22 species. The majority of the households use the plant resources for domestic purpose. Although the community’s mostly preferred fuelwood species were Tectona grandis L.f, Shorea robusta C. F. Gaertn, and Gmelina arborea Roxb, a total of 22 species were reported from the study site. Trewia nudiflora L., Albizia procera Benth., Dysoxylum procerum Hierm., and Cassia siamea Lam. were also reported as fuelwood species with good wood quality (FVI). Thus awareness on the use of these species as fuelwood can be increased in the community to reduce stress on the preferred species and the surrounding forest.     

Exploring the Influence of Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate as a Modifier for Ethylene Vinyl Acetate/Thermoplastic Polyurethane Blends

Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) blend at various blend ratios has been modified via reactive processing with 4,4′-methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). Modification of the blends with even small amount of MDI shows significant improvement in physico-mechanical properties for EVA/TPU 50/50 and 30/70 blends, and it is also supported by the superior melt rheological behavior and dramatic improvement in oil resistance property. After the treatment of electron beam (dose range: 50–150?kGy), radiation crosslinked EVA/TPU (30:70) blend reveals further improvement in various properties. This particular material can find potential application as cable sheathing component.     

Lossy magnetic energy storage units for improvement in automatic generation control

Fast-acting energy storage devices can effectively damp electromechanical oscillations in a power system, because they provide storage capacity in addition to kinetic energy of the generator rotor, which can share the sudden changes in power requirement. Earlier studies showed the effectiveness of superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) for this purpose. The present paper analyses the characteristics of lossy magnetic energy storage (LMES) and shows the effectiveness of small-sized LMES units in improving power system transient response. Computer studies show that the optimal parameter settings of the power system are changed with the addition of an energy storage element.     

Wavelet domain analysis for identification of vehicle axles from bridge measurements

Bridge weigh-in-motion (B-WIM) is a process by which the axle and gross vehicle weights of vehicles travelling at highway speeds can be determined from instrumented bridges. The traditional method of attaching strain transducers to the soffit of the bridge and placing axle detectors on the road surface has been replaced here by using additional transducers underneath the bridge for axle detection and nothing-on-the-road (NOR). This paper presents a wavelet based analysis of strain signals and shows the efficacy of using wavelets in pattern recognition of these signals. The transformed signals are used to identify axle passage and hence the vehicle velocity and the axle spacing. In addition to numerically generated strains, signals acquired from such a NOR instrumentation of a bridge in Slovenia have been analysed by the method of wavelet transformation to extract axle position information that was not readily detectable using existing methods.     

The Structure And Properties of a Thermo‐mechanically Processed Low Carbon High Strength Steel

Research efforts were given towards development of low carbon high strength steels since recent past. The present study deals with the development of a low carbon high strength steel alloyed with Mn, Ni, Mo, Cu and microalloyed with Ti and Nb. The steel was subjected to three stage controlled rolling operation followed by accelerated cooling. The structure and properties of the steel at various processing conditions were evaluated. Microstructural observation reveals predominantly lath martensite along with twinned martensite structure at all processing conditions. High strength values at higher finish rolling temperatures have been obtained due to fine martensitic structure along with tiny precipitates of microalloying carbide and carbonitride. The strength value increases marginally at lower finishing temperature due to comparatively finer lath size of martensite and increased precipitation density of carbides, carbonitrides along with Cu particles. The variation in impact toughness properties at different finish rolling temperatures is found to be negligible at ambient and subambient temperatures. The formation of stable and large TiN/TiCN particles during casting have impaired the impact toughness values at ambient and at ‐40°C temperatures.     

Swing-up and stabilization of a cart–pendulum system under restricted cart track length

This paper describes the swing-up and stabilization of a cart–pendulum system with a restricted cart track length and restricted control force using generalized energy control methods. Starting from a pendant position, the pendulum is swung up to the upright unstable equilibrium configuration using energy control principles. An “energy well” is built within the cart track to prevent the cart from going outside the limited length. When sufficient energy is acquired by the pendulum, it goes into a “cruise” mode when the acquired energy is maintained. Finally, when the pendulum is close to the upright configuration, a stabilizing controller is activated around a linear zone about the upright configuration. The proposed scheme has worked well both in simulation and a practical setup and the conditions for stability have been derived using the multiple Lyapunov functions approach.     

Chemically deposited zinc oxide thin film gas sensor

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were prepared by a low cost chemical deposition technique using sodium zincate bath. Structural characterizations by X-ray diffraction technique (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicate the formation of ZnO films, containing 0.05–0.50 m size crystallites, with preferred c-axis orientation. The electrical conductance of the ZnO films became stable and reproducible in the 300–450 K temperature range after repeated thermal cyclings in air. Palladium sensitised ZnO films were exposed to toxic and combustible gases e.g., hydrogen (H₂), liquid petroleum gas (LPG), methane (CH₄) and hydrogen sulphide (H₂S) at a minimum operating temperature of 150 °C; which was well below the normal operating temperature range of 200–400 °C, typically reported in literature for ceramic gas sensors. The response of the ZnO thin film sensors at 150 °C, was found to be significant, even for parts per million level concentrations of CH₄ (50 ppm) and H₂S (15 ppm).     

A selective review of the finite element-ABC and the finite element-boundary integral methods for electromagnetic scattering

Annals of Telecommunications - This paper reviews two hybrid (frequency domain) finite element methods for electromagnetic scattering applications. Specifically, the progress over the last five...