Ultra Wideband Co-planer Microstrip Patch Antenna for Wireless Applications

In this paper, a comparative study of co-planar gap coupled rectangular and elliptical microstrip patch antenna is presented. It is analyzed by using circuit theory concept. The proposed antennas show ultra wideband operations which depend on dimensions of the patches, gap between them as well as air gap thickness. It is observed that the performance of gap coupled elliptical patch antenna is better than that of rectangular patch antenna while the area of rectangular and elliptical patches is same. The bandwidth of proposed rectangular patch antenna is found to be 50.7 % with average gain of 6.5 dBi while for elliptical patch antenna the bandwidth and gain further improves up to 57.6 % and 9.5 dBi respectively. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the simulated results obtained from IE3D simulation software.     

Iron doped nanostructured TiO2 for photoelectrochemical generation of hydrogen

This paper describes the photoelectrochemical studies on nanostructured iron doped titanium dioxide (TiO₂) thin films prepared by sol-gel spin coating method. Thin films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, spectral absorbance, atomic force microscopy and photoelectrochemical (PEC) measurements. XRD study shows that the films were polycrystalline with the photoactive anatase phase of TiO₂. Doping of Fe in TiO₂ resulted in a shift of absorption edge towards the visible region of solar spectrum. The observed bandgap energy decreased from 3.3 to 2.89 eV on increasing the doping concentration upto 0.2 at.% Fe. 0.2 at.% Fe doped TiO₂ exhibited the highest photocurrent density, ∼0.92 mA/cm² at zero external bias. Flatband potential and donor density determined from the Mott–Schottky plots were found to vary with doping concentration from −0.54 to −0.92 V/SCE and 1.7 × 10¹⁹ to 4.3 × 10¹⁹ cm⁻³, respectively.     

Three-dimensional piezoelasticity solution for dynamics of cross-ply cylindrical shells integrated with piezoelectric fiber reinforced composite actuators and sensors

A benchmark three-dimensional (3D) exact piezoelasticity solution is presented for free vibration and steady state forced response of simply supported smart cross-ply circular cylindrical shells of revolutions and panels integrated with surface-bonded or embedded monolithic piezoelectric or piezoelectric fiber reinforced composite (PFRC) layers. The effective properties of PFRC laminas for the 3D case are obtained based on a fully coupled iso-field model. The governing partial differential equations are reduced to ordinary differential equations in the thickness coordinate by expanding all entities for each layer in double Fourier series in span coordinates, which identically satisfy the boundary conditions at the simply-supported ends. These equations with variable coefficients are solved using the modified Frobenius method, wherein the solution is constructed as a product of an exponential function and a power series. The unknown constants of the general solution are finally obtained by employing the transfer matrix method across the layers. Results for natural frequencies and the forced response are presented for single layer piezoelectric and multilayered hybrid composite and sandwich shells of revolution and shell panels integrated with monolithic piezoelectric and PFRC actuator/sensor layers. The present benchmark solution would help assess 2D shell theories for dynamic response of hybrid cylindrical shells.     

Natural convection from a vertical cone in a porous medium due to the combined effects of heat and mass diffusion with non-uniform wall temperature/concentration or heat/mass flux and suction/injection

An analysis has been carried out to study the non-Darcy natural convention flow of Newtonian fluids on a vertical cone embedded in a saturated porous medium with power-law variation of the wall temperature/concentration or heat/mass flux and suction/injection with the streamwise distance x. Both non-similar and self-similar solutions have been obtained. The effects of non-Darcy parameter, ratio of the buoyancy forces due to mass and heat diffusion, variation of wall temperature/concentration or heat/mass flux and suction/injection on the Nusselt and Sherwood numbers have been studied.     

Growth of manganese doped cadmium mercury thiocyanate single crystals — Gel technique

Some of the doped crystals of bimetallic thiocyanate complexes are found to exhibit excellent nonlinear optical properties. Manganese doped cadmium mercury thiocyanate single crystals of appreciable size have been obtained from silica gel by the process of diffusion. The X-ray diffraction studies show the crystal lattice to be tetragonal revealing that doping does not alter the structure of the parent crystal. To study the crystalline perfection of the grown crystals, high resolution X-ray diffraction analysis was carried out. Being a nonlinear crystal, Kurtz powder test was carried out to confirm its second harmonic generation efficiency. The results are discussed in comparison with pure CMTC.     

Wave-induced flow of pore fluid in a cracked porous solid containing penny-shaped inclusions

An aim of current study is to analyze the contribution of reflected longitudinal waves to wave-induced fluid flow(WIFF)in the cracked porous solid.Initially,we ...     

Wideband circularly polarized square dielectric resonator antenna for WLAN/WiMAX applications

In the present article, a novel single fed square dielectric resonator antenna (SDRA) is presented and two orthogonal modes ( ${\mathrm{TE}}_{111}^{\mathrm{x}}\text{and}{\mathrm{TE}}_{111}^{\mathrm{y}}$) of SDRA are utilized to produce the wideband circular polarization. To generate circular polarization over a broad frequency band, a new technique known as hybrid DRA has been proposed in this article. In this technique, the feeding circuit act as a radiator and also provides feeding to the dielectric resonator which enhances the impedance and axial ratio bandwidth. A 3‐dB axial ratio bandwidth of 26.66% is achieved by the SDRA excited through a rectangular patch united with 50 Ω microstrip line. In order to further increase the axial ratio bandwidth from 26.66% to 48%, a notch is truncated from the rectangular patch. The design antenna prototype has been fabricated and experimentally tested. Experimental results illustrate that the proposed structure has broad impedance and axial ratio bandwidth of 75.86% and 43.75%, respectively, and the entire axial ratio bandwidth fully matched with the impedance bandwidth. The proposed antenna produces a right handed circularly polarized (RHCP) field. By taking the mirror image of the proposed microstrip feeding, the RHCP field is converted into left handed circularly polarized (LHCP) field. This antenna is preferred for wireless applications such as indoors communication, remote sensing, wireless sensor systems and WLAN/WiMAX applications.     

Nanosilica‐Confined Synthesis of Orthogonally Active Catalytic Metal Nanocrystals in the Compartmentalized Carbon Framework

Multifunctionalized porous catalytic nanoarchitectures are highly desirable for a variety of chemical transformations; however, selective installation of different catalysts with spatial and functional precision working synergistically and predictably, is highly challenging. Here, a synthetic strategy is developed toward the customizable combination of orthogonally reactive metal nanocrystals within interconnected carbon‐cavities as a compartmentalized framework by employing aminated‐silica‐directed thermal solid‐state nanoconfined synthesis of metal nanocrystals and endotemplating concomitant carbonization‐mediated interlocking, as key processes. The main advantage of the strategy is the facility to choose any combination of metals, which can be further employed according to the desired application. The strategically synthesized compartmentalized multifunctional catalytic architectures of Pd‐Pt@Com‐CF regulate the O₂‐mediated selective cascade oxidation reaction converting alcohol to acid with high yield and selectivity; and another Pt‐Ir@Com‐CF platform is demonstrated as a bifunctional electrocatalyst for oxygen reduction/evolution reactions.     

Inclusion of low cost activated carbon for improving hydrogen production performance of TiO2 nanoparticles under natural solar light irradiation

Photocatalytic studies are primarily focused on the low cost and sustainable materials with suitable bandgap and high surface area. The ultra-fast electron-hole pair recombination and limited light absorptions affect the efficiency of photocatalyst in an adverse manner, which can be unravelled by choosing an efficient combination of photocatalysts and suitable co-catalyst/support materials. The present work explores the combination of low-cost and high potential activated carbon and TiO₂ as a nanocomposite, prepared through a one-pot hydrothermal process for hydrogen production under natural solar light irradiation. Among the synthesized photocatalysts, the one calcined at 400 °C for 2 h was found to be the best catalyst, which exhibited 3.5 times higher hydrogen production rate than the pristine TiO₂ while tested with water containing 5 vol.% glycerol. Importantly, the optimized nanocomposite was also tested for hydrogen production from simulated seawater under same conditions and it showed a hydrogen production rate of 20,383 μmol g^?1 h^?1, which is 2.4 times higher than the glycerol water solution. The enhanced hydrogen production rate is due to the reduced bandgap of AC-TiO₂ nanocomposite which offered more light absorption in the visible region compared to the pristine TiO₂. The XRD, Raman spectroscopy, TEM, and PL analysis were also examined to investigate the crystallinity, purity, morphology, and charge carrier recombination life time of the synthesized catalysts.     

Channel model for simultaneous backhaul and access for mmWave 5G outdoor street canyon channel

Wireless Networks - Millimeter waves (mmWaves) with very wide frequency bands are proposed for 5G new radio to deliver higher data-speed and capacity. Transmission using mmWaves suffers significant...