The availability of daylight from tropical skies—a case study of Malaysia

In Malaysia, no long-term daylight data are measured. It was only recently that the need to measure the availability of daylight became urgent when the importance of daylighting in buildings was rediscovered. The hourly daylight availability has been simulated for the Malaysian sky using daylight modelling techniques based on empirical and measured solar irradiation and cloud cover data. This paper presents the techniques involved in producing exterior illuminance data. These data were then compared with measured illuminance at Shah Alam and Bangi, Malaysia. The global illuminance levels are generally high, with values exceeding 80,000 lux at noon during the months when solar irradiation is highest. Even during the months when the ground receives less solar irradiation, the peak illuminance can reach 60,000 lux. Applications and uses of such data are in daylighting design, both for visual and thermal comfort, task illuminance and energy-conscious design of buildings. Recommendations are made at the end of the paper on the various climatic data that are required to be measured for overall daylighting design applications.     

Transition to turbulence in rotating-disk boundary layers—convective and absolute instabilities

This work is an experimental study of mechanisms for transition to turbulence in the boundary layer on a rotating disk. In one case, the focus was on a triad resonance between pairs of traveling cross-flow modes and a stationary cross-flow mode. The other was on the temporal growth of traveling modes through a linear absolute instability mechanism first discovered by Lingwood (1995, J Fluid Mech 314:373–405). Both research directions made use of methods for introducing controlled initial disturbances. One used a distributed array of ink dots placed on the disk surface to enhance a narrow band of azimuthal and radial wave numbers of both stationary and traveling modes. The size of the dots was small so that the disturbances they produce were linear. Another approach introduced temporal disturbances by a short-duration air pulse from a hypodermic tube located above the disk and outside the boundary layer. Hot-wire sensors primarily sensitive to the azimuthal velocity component, were positioned at different spatial (r,θ) locations on the disk to document the growth of disturbances. Spatial correlation measurements were used with two simultaneous sensors to obtain wavenumber vectors. Cross-bicoherence was used to identify three-frequency phase locking. Ensemble averages conditioned on the air pulses revealed wave packets that evolved in time and space. The space–time evolution of the leading and trailing edges of the wave packets were followed past the critical radius for the absolute instability, r _{c A} . With documented linear amplitudes, the spreading of the disturbance wave packets did not continue to grow in time as r _{c A} was approached. Rather, the spreading of the trailing edge of the wave packet decelerated and asymptotically approached a constant. This result supports the linear DNS simulations of Davies and Carpenter (2003, J Fluid Mech 486:287–329) who concluded that the absolute instability mechanism does not result in a global mode, and that linear-disturbance wave packets are dominated by the convective instability. In contrast, wave-number matching between traveling cross-flow modes confirmed a triad resonance that lead to the growth of a low azimuthal number (n = 4) stationary mode. At transition, this mode had the largest amplitude. Signs of this mechanism can be found in past flow visualization of transition to turbulence in rotating disk flows.     

Effect of silicon and heat-treatment temperature on the morphology and mechanical properties of silicon - substituted hydroxyapatite

The precipitation method was used to synthesize silicon-substituted hydroxyapatite with different Si contents of 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 wt.% (0.4, 0.8 and 1.6Si-HA) using silicon acetate [Si(OCOCH₃)₄] as a Si source. As-synthesized hydroxyapatite (HA) and Si-HA powders/bulks were heat-treated at different temperatures of 1150, 1200 and 1250 °C for 1 h. Pure 0.4Si-HA and 1.6Si-HA were obtained after heat-treatment at all temperatures, whilst α-TCP phase was formed in the 0.8Si-HA sample after heat-treatment at 1250 °C. SEM observation clearly showed that the substitution of Si in HA inhibited the grain growth of Si-HA even at high heat-treatment temperatures (1200 or 1250 °C). The highest diametral tensile strength (DTS) of 15.93 MPa was obtained in the 1.6Si-HA sample after heat-treatment at 1250 °C.     

Shortcoming, problems and analytical comparison for flooding-based search techniques in unstructured P2P networks

Peer-to-Peer networks attracted a significant amount of interest because of their capacity for resource sharing and content distribution. Content distribution applications allow personal computers to function in a coordinated manner as a distributed storage medium by contributing, searching, and obtaining digital content. Searching in unstructured P2P networks is an important problem, which has received considerable research attention. Acceptable searching techniques must provide large coverage rate, low traffic load, and optimum latency. This paper reviews flooding-based search techniques in unstructured P2P networks. It then analytically compares their coverage rate, and traffic overloads. Our simulation experiments have validated analytical results.     

Road Oriented Traffic Information System for Vehicular Ad hoc Networks

Over the last few years, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have gained popularity for their interesting applications. To make efficient routing decisions, VANET routing protocols require road traffic density information for which they use density estimation schemes. This paper presents a distributed mechanism for road vehicular density estimation that considers multiple road factors, such as road length and junctions. Extensive simulations are carried out to analyze the effectiveness of the proposed technique. Simulation results suggested that, the proposed technique is more accurate compared to the existing technique. Moreover, it facilitate VANET routing protocols to increase packet delivery ratio and reduce end-to-end delay.     

Studies on the formation of yttrium iron garnet (YIG) through stoichiometry modification prepared by conventional solid-state method

Y₃Fe₅O₁₂ (YIG) prepared by conventional solid-state method can rarely be of high purity. However, this study suggests that high purity YIG can be produced via conventional solid-state methods, through stoichiometry modification. This is achieved by adding various amounts of excess Fe₂O₃ to control the YIG stoichiometric ratios. In this work, ferrite and yttria were calcined at 1100 °C (for 8 h) and sintered at 1420 °C (6 h). In most samples, the formation of YIG, with YFeO₃ (YIP) and/or Fe₂O₃ as associated phases were detected. Uniform microstructures of YIG are also observed. YIP phase in YIG is found to be inversely related to the addition of excess Fe₂O₃, up to 8 wt%. At above 8 wt% Fe₂O₃ addition, YIP disappears, leaving unreacted excess Fe₂O₃ as a new associated phase. From the investigation, it is safe to conclude that the purity of YIG can be increased with the addition of excess Fe₂O₃.     

Optimization of rotor speed based on stretching,efficiency, and viscous heating in nonintermeshing internal batch mixer: Simulation and experimental verification

Optimization of rotor speed based on stretching, efficiency, and viscous heating in nonintermeshing internal batch mixer has been investigated using polymer melt. A practical optimization technique was followed for optimization. Four different rotor speeds were used and characterized numerically with viscous dissipation and stretching. The heat distribution between rotor edge and mixer wall was calculated. Stretching experienced by the fluid was analyzed and the result was verified experimentally using particle tracking method. Exponential increase of energy dissipation between the rotor edge and the barrel at higher speed highlighted the importance of choosing the thermal properties of the polymer to avoid thermal degradation. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013     

Resolution of a Five-Component Mixture of Quaternary Ammonium Surfactants on Silica Gel 60 <Emphasis Type=Italic>F</Emphasis><Subscript>254</Subscript> High Performance Thin Layer Chromatographic Plates

The mutual separation of a mixture of cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (CTAC), methyl trioctyl ammonium bromide (MTOB), dodecyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (DTAC), benzyltrimethyl ammonium chloride (BTAC) and tetrabutyl ammonium bromide (TBAB), was achieved on silica high performance thin layer chromatographic plates using dimethyl sulfoxide with aqueous sodium-l-tartrate dibasic dihydrate as the solvent system. The effect of concentration of sodium-l-tartrate dibasic dihydrate on the mobility of all the five quaternaries was examined. The limit of detection of CTAC, MTOB, DTAC, BTAC and TBAB was estimated as 0.6, 0.6, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.3 μg/zone, respectively. The method developed was utilized to identify these surfactants in different spiked water samples after their preliminary separation.     

Compatibilization Effects of PE-g-MA on Mechanical,Thermal and Swelling Properties of High Density Polyethylene/Natural Rubber/Thermoplastic Tapioca Starch Blends

Effect of polyethylene grafted maleic anhydride (PE-g-MA) on mechanical, thermal and swelling characteristic of high density polyethylene (HDPE)/natural rubber (NR)/thermoplastic tapioca starch (TPS) blends were studied. The measurements from differential scanning calorimetric (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), proved the effectiveness of PE-g-MA as compatibilizer in improving the miscibility between HDPE/NR – TPS blends. A decrement in crystallinity index was found after adding PE-g-MA. It is due to restriction in mobility of the HDPE chains. In the presence of PE-g-MA, the blends have better thermal stability. On top of that, the storage modulus which is reflected to the blend stiffness also increased as indicated the improvement in HDPE/NR – TPS interaction.     

Carbothermal nitridation process of mechanically milled silica sand using Taguchi's method

This paper reported on the work performed to study the formation of silicon nitride and silicon carbide whiskers using the carbothermal nitridation process. A distinctive aspect of the present study lies in the use of the mechanical milling method to alter the regularity of the crystalline network of the silica sand. In order to optimise the processing parameters for the synthesis of silicon carbide, the concept of Taguchi's Design of Experiments was considered, the analysis being based on Taguchi's signal to noise ratio and variance techniques to obtain optimum combination of process parameters. Important factors influencing the formation of silicon carbide were the duration of the mechanical milling, followed by temperature, time and heating rate.