Graphitic mesoporous carbon as a durable fuel cell catalyst support

Highly stable graphitic mesoporous carbons (GMPCs) are synthesized by heat-treating polymer-templated mesoporous carbon (MPC) at 2600 °C. The electrochemical durability of GMPC as Pt catalyst support (Pt/GMPC) is compared with that of carbon black (Pt/XC-72). Comparisons are made using potentiostatic and cyclic voltammetric techniques on the respective specimens under conditions simulating the cathode environment of PEMFC (proton exchange membrane fuel cell). The results indicate that the Pt/GMPC is much more stable than Pt/XC-72, with 96% lower corrosion current. The Pt/GMPC also exhibits a greatly reduced loss of catalytic surface area: 14% for Pt/GMPC vs. 39% for Pt/XC-72.     

CFD simulation of large-scale bubble plumes: Comparisons against experiments

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been carried out to simulate a turbulent, bubble plume in a liquid pool. A two-fluid enhanced k-? model has been used, with the extra source terms introduced to account for the interaction between the bubbles and the liquid and transient calculations have been performed to study the plume growth, the acceleration of the liquid due to viscous drag, and the approach to steady-state conditions. In order to obtain correct spreading of the plume observed experimentally, it was observed that interfacial forces like lift and turbulent dispersion plays important role. The sensitivity analysis for drag coefficient and two different turbulent dispersion forces is presented. The development of the flow variables has been compared with the experimental data. From the CFD predictions obtained in the present work, it can be concluded that a two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetric assumption in this case is justified, with 2D model predictions in good agreement with the experimental data and those of a three-dimensional (3D) model, except for the shear stresses and turbulent kinetic energy. In general, quantitative comparison with the experimental data has revealed that, by applying proper models of inter-phase momentum transfer, and performing simulations based on the two-fluid model, satisfactory predictions of mean flow quantities can be obtained for this application away from the injector.     

Optical and structural properties of highly porous shell structured Fe doped TiO2 thin films

TiO2thin films with 0.2 wt%, 0.4 wt%, 0.6wt%, and 0.8 wt% Fe were prepared on glass and silicon substrates using sol–gel spin coating technique. The optical cut-off points are increasingly red-shifted and the absorption edge is shifted over the higher wavelength region with Fe content increasing. As Fe content increases, the optical band gap decreases from 3.03 to 2.48 eV whereas the tail width increases from 0.26 to 1.43 eV. The X-ray diffraction（XRD） patterns for doped films at 0.2 wt% and0.8 wt% Fe reveal no characteristic peaks, indicating that the film is amorphous whereas undoped TiO2exhibits（101） orientation with anatase phase. Thin films of higher Fe content exhibit a homogeneous, uniform, and nanostructured highly porous shell morphology.     

Filter Bank Channelizers for Multi-Standard Software Defined Radio Receivers

The ability to support multiple channels of different communication standards, in the available bandwidth, is of importance in modern software defined radio (SDR) receivers. An SDR receiver typically employs a channelizer to extract multiple narrowband channels from the received wideband signal using digital filter banks. Since the filter bank channelizer is placed immediately after the analog-to-digital converter (ADC), it must operate at the highest sampling rate in the digital front-end of the receiver. Therefore, computationally efficient low complexity architectures are required for the implementation of the channelizer. The compatibility of the filter bank with different communication standards requires dynamic reconfigurability. The design and realization of dynamically reconfigurable, low complexity filter banks for SDR receivers is a challenging task. This paper reviews some of the existing digital filter bank designs and investigates the potential of these filter banks for channelization in multi-standard SDR receivers. We also review two low complexity, reconfigurable filter bank architectures for SDR channelizers based respectively on the frequency response masking technique and a novel coefficient decimation technique, proposed by us recently. These filter bank architectures outperform existing ones in terms of both dynamic reconfigurability and complexity.     

Optimization of Aspergillus niger Fermentation for the Production of Glucose Oxidase

A number of nutritional factors influencing glucose oxidase (EC 1.1.3.4) production by Aspergillus niger NCIM 545 were studied. The synthesis of glucose oxidase by A. niger was investigated in two steps using submerged fermentation at 30 ± 2 °C and 180 rpm for 96 h. Primarily, nutritional components were selected by one-factor-at-a-time method, and the significance of each component with respect to glucose oxidase production was identified by Plackett–Burman design (seven variables including six nutritional viz. sucrose, sodium nitrate, peptone, calcium carbonate, magnesium sulfate, and potassium dihydrogen phosphate, and one dummy or unassigned variable were studied with eight experiments). In the second step, concentration of most significant factors and their interaction were studied with response surface methodology (central composite design). Each variable in the design was studied at five different levels, with all variables taken at a central coded value of zero. Considerable amount of glucose oxidase was produced from A. niger species with sucrose as the carbon source, sodium nitrate as the inorganic nitrogen source, and peptone as the organic nitrogen source. Glucose oxidase activity increased remarkably by 28.93 fold (from 0.00993 to 0.29 U ml⁻¹) with CaCO₃-supplemented media. The outcome of Plackett–Burman design showed CaCO₃, peptone, and MgSO₄ as significant parameters. Further optimization using a three-factor central composite design with 20 experiments increased yield of glucose oxidase from 0.29 to 2.05 U ml⁻¹ (sevenfold) with a decrease in cultivation time from 96 to 72 h.     

Flame structure of LPG-air Inverse Diffusion Flame in a backstep burner

The present experimental study characterizes the turbulent LPG Inverse Diffusion Flame (IDF) stabilized in a backstep burner in terms of visible flame length, dual flame structure, centerline temperature distribution, and oxygen concentration. The visible flame length for a fixed fuel jet velocity is found to reduce with increase in air jet velocity. Besides this, the effect of air and fuel jet velocities on visible flame length is interpreted using a new parameter, Global Momentum Ratio (GMR). Interestingly, GMR seems to be correlating well with the visible flame length for the air and fuel velocity ranges considered in the present study. Moreover, the dual flame structure of IDF is identified with the help of CH-chemiluminescence signature. The existence of dual flame structure of IDF is confirmed further with the centerline temperature and oxygen concentration measurements.     

Meso-scale studies in fracture of concrete: A numerical simulation

The fracture behaviour of concrete is complex due to highly heterogeneous nature of the material. The heterogeneity of concrete manifests itself at various scales. At mesoscale, the presence of aggregates influences the strength of concrete by developing a zone of weakness in the form of aggregate–matrix interface. These lead to an increased distributed micro-cracking and enhances the energy absorption capacity of the material. The energy absorption capacity of structure is dependent not only on material properties but also on structural geometry and loading conditions. The present work attempts to identify the material and structural parameters that influence the overall behaviour, by using discrete numerical modelling of the material at mesoscale. Lattice modelling, a technique to model the heterogeneity using lattice elements is used to study the fracture behaviour of the material. Effect of aggregate volume fraction, specimen thickness and depth on the global behaviour is studied.     

An efficient video watermarking based security model

Microsystem Technologies - Watermarking is defined as about hiding any valuable information set in the particular digital media by itself through modifying the particular graphic contents. In our...     

Strength distributions and size effects for 2D and 3D composites with Weibull fibers in an elastic matrix

Monte Carlo simulation and theoretical modeling are used to study the statistical failure modes in unidirectional composites consisting of elastic fibers in an elastic matrix. Both linear and hexagonal fiber arrays are considered, forming 2D and 3D composites, respectively. Failure is idealized using the chain-of-bundles model in terms of -bundles of length , which is the length-scale of fiber load transfer. Within each -bundle, fiber load redistribution is determined by local load-sharing models that approximate the in-plane fiber load redistribution from planar break clusters, as predicted from 2D and 3D shear-lag models. As a result the -bundle failure models are 1D and 2D, respectively. Fiber elements have random strengths following either a Weibull or a power-law distribution with shape and scale parameters and , respectively. Under Weibull fiber strength, failure simulations for 2D -bundles, reveal two regimes: When fiber strength variability is low (roughly >2) the dominant failure mode is by growing clusters of fiber breaks, one of which becomes catastrophic. When this variability is high (roughly 0<<2) cluster formation is suppressed by a dispersed failure mode due to the blocking effects of a few strong fibers. For 1D -bundles or for 2D -bundles under power-law fiber strength, the transitional value of drops to 1 or lower, and overall, it may slowly decrease with increasing bundle size. For the two regimes, closed-form approximations to the distribution of -bundle strength are developed under the local load-sharing model and an equal load-sharing model of Daniels, respectively. The results compare favorably with simulations on -bundles with up to 1500 fibers.