A Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture for contextual visualisation of task-based multi-dimensional energy KPIs in a manufacturing process

Existing energy-monitoring tools do not offer to monitor the basic 3 C’s of energy, that is, cost, carbon emission and more importantly direct energy consumption with its associated value-added and auxiliary components in a single envelope during the entire hierarchy of a manufacturing process. The visualisation of these hierarchical Key process indicators (KPIs), however, poses a multi-dimensional and hierarchal data visualisation problem. We in this paper introduce through Focus-plus-Context and treemap visualisation techniques, a platform-independent pervasive software solution, providing task-based contextual visualisation of hierarchical, multi-dimensional and relevant energy KPIs such as Total Production Units with total production energy consumed, Energy Intensity, Energy cost per production unit and Carbon emission through the entire manufacturing hierarchy of a product drilling down from the factory level to specific production lines, machines or processes. A comparison of existing energy management software along with multi-dimensional visualisation techniques is also presented in this paper.     

Estimation of long-term creep behavior of polycarbonate by stress-time superposition and effects of physical aging

Long-term property estimation is required for the long-term load bearing applications of thermoplastics. In the present work, short-term creep behavior of commercial grade polycarbonate was evaluated using an in-house manufactured testing rig at various creep stress levels keeping the testing temperature constant. Creep curves were shifted with respect to the time scale and a Master curve was obtained using stress-time superposition principle. To assess the effects of physical aging on the creep behavior, various specimens with different aging histories were tested. It was observed that aging had an insignificant effect on the creep behavior of polycarbonate under the employed conditioning and testing conditions.     

Structural and electrical characterisation of nanostructure electrodes for SOFCs

This paper reports the effects of sintering temperature on structure, particle size and conductivity of electrodes (Sn_0.2Zn_0.8Fe_0.2O & Sn_0.8Zn_0.2Fe_0.2O). The electrode material was prepared by the chemical method combining a solid state reaction. Structural analyses were performed using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. The particle size of the material obtained using Scherrer's formula was 50–60 nm and the nanostructure's surface was studied using electrochemical characterisations tools. Electrical conductivity was determined using the 4-probe DC method, which was compared with the 4-probe AC method. These results suggest a promising substitute for the conventional electrodes of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). It is known that a sintering temperature above 1000 °C causes an increase in density and a reduction of porosity. Therefore, we optimised the sintering temperature at 1000 °C and obtained electrical conductivity of about 5 S cm⁻¹. Thus, this electrode could play a vital role in the development of high performance SOFCs at intermediate temperatures.     

Biocatalytically Triggered Co‐Assembly of Two‐Component Core/Shell Nanofibers

For the development of applications and novel uses for peptide nanostructures, robust routes for their surface functionalization, that ideally do not interfere with their self‐assembly properties, are required. Many existing methods rely on covalent functionalization, where building blocks are appended with functional groups, either pre‐ or post‐assembly. A facile supramolecular approach is demonstrated for the formation of functionalized nanofibers by combining the advantages of biocatalytic self‐assembly and surfactant/gelator co‐assembly. This is achieved by enzymatically triggered reconfiguration of free flowing micellar aggregates of pre‐gelators and functional surfactants to form nanofibers that incorporate and display the surfactants’ functionality at the surface. Furthermore, by varying enzyme concentration, the gel stiffness and supramolecular organization of building blocks can be varied.     

Synthesis and characterizations of Ni0.8Zn0.2Fe2O4-MWCNTs composites for their application in sea bed logging

Sea bed logging is new technique for the detection of hydrocarbon reservoir. Magnitude of EM waves is important for the detection of deep target hydrocarbon reservoir below 4000 m from the sea floor. A new aluminium based EM transmitter is developed and NiZn (Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄) ferrite with and with out multiwall carbon nano tubes (MWCNTs) polymer composites as magnetic feeders are used in a scaled tank. Nickel zinc ferrite plays an important role in many applications due to its best magnetic properties. Nanocrystalline NiZn (Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄) ferrite and novel Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄-MWCNTs composites were prepared by sol-gel route. The samples were sintered at 750-950 °C and were characterized by XRD, FESEM, HRTEM and Raman spectroscopy. Single phase of Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄ having [3 1 1] major peak was obtained by sol-gel method at 750 °C and 950 °C. FESEM micrographs show that grain size increases with the increase of sintering temperature and ranges from 24 to 60 nm. FESEM and HRTEM results showed coating of Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄ on MWCNTs and show better morphology at the sintering temperature of 750 °C. The magnetic properties measured from impedance vector network analyzer showed that sample (Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄-MWCNTs) sintered at 750 °C have higher initial permeability (20.043), Q-factor (50.047), and low loss factor (0.0001) as compared Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄-MWCNTs sintered at 950 °C. Due to better magnetic properties, Sample (Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄-MWCNTs sintered at 750 °C) composites were used as magnetic feeders for the EM transmitter. It was found that magnitude of EM waves from EM transmitter increased up to 243% by using Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄-MWCNTs polymer composites.     

Physicochemical properties and pollen spectrum of imported and local samples of blossom honey from the Pakistani market

Fifteen samples of different geographical origin including Pakistan were analysed for density, ash, water content, electrical conductivity, total acidity, pH, total solid, hydroxylmethylfurfural (HMF), minerals and trace metals. The physicochemical parameters were found to be within acceptable ranges (specific gravity 1.40–1.46, ash 0.03–0.21%, moisture 15.6–19.2, total solid 78.7–81.4%, free acidity 23.55–58.52 meq kg^?1, conductivity 0.27–0.37 mS cm^?1, pH 3.29–4.05, viscosity 33.4–136.4 poise). However, the analysis of HMF showed that imported samples were either exposed to a high temperature during processing or were overage. Greater attention is required, therefore, in the analysis of HMF and in deciding the shelf life, particularly for the imported samples before marketing. Pollen analysis revealed that all the analysed samples were of a multifloral type. All the data were statistically tested using principal component analysis (PCA) with the aim of characterizing the honeys and identifying the most significant parameters in the analysed samples.     

Preparation of high purity nickel film from industrial effluent by the distribution of charge over microelectrodes using newly designed free electrolytic diffusion approach

The present work deals with the development of a newly designed free electrolytic diffusion approach (the distribution of charge over microelectrodes) for the purification of metals and was successfully applied for the purification of nickel from the industrial effluent containing high proportion of nickel. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS) analyzed the purified nickel deposited on working microelectrodes. The results obtained show that the purity of nickel was enhanced from 95% to 99.9% with traces of copper etc. It was concluded that distribution of charge over the microcathodes at a rate of 50 cycles per second (cps) shows better results for the production of high purity (HP) nickel as compared to 25 cycles per second (cps).     

High Diversity Transceiver for Low Power Differentially Encoded OFDM System

In this work, we investigate differentially encoded blind transceiver design in low signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) regimes for orthogonal frequency‐division multiplexing (OFDM) signaling. Owing to the fact that acquisition of channel state information is not viable for short coherence times or in low SNR regimes, we propose a time‐spread frequency‐encoded method under OFDM modulation. The repetition (spreading) of differentially encoded symbols allows us to achieve a target energy per bit to noise ratio and higher diversity. Based on the channel order, we optimize subcarrier assignment for spreading (along time) to achieve frequency diversity of an OFDM modulated signal. We present the performance of our proposed transceiver design and investigate the impact of Doppler frequency on the performance of the proposed differentially encoded transceiver design. To further improve reliability of the decoded data, we employ capacity‐achieving low‐density parity‐check forward error correction encoding to the information bits.     

Flexural and Split Cylinder Strengths of HSC at Elevated Temperatures

This paper investigates the effect of elevated temperature on the flexural strength (FS) and split cylinder strength (SCS) of high strength concrete (HSC). Four concrete mixes of 50, 90, 110, and 130 MPa grade were prepared and subjected to elevated temperature exposure of 200°C and 400°C, and cooled under slow and quick cooling conditions. In addition, 130 MPa grade concrete specimens were also subjected to 100°C and 600°C exposure temperatures to compare FS and SCS under elevated temperatures. It was observed that with the increase in the elevated temperature, the FS and SCS experienced significant losses. The loss was found to be higher for richer concretes. FS was observed to experience a sharp loss at low temperatures that became gradual later at high temperatures. SCS, however, experienced a gradual loss, though sharper than FS, with the increase in temperature. The results indicated that cooling had a significant effect on the residual values and quick cooling caused greater loss in FS and SCS, than slow cooling at elevated temperatures. The quick cooling was noted to produce maximum loss over slow cooling at temperatures around 400°C.     

Kinetic studies for Ni(II) biosorption from industrial wastewater by Cassia fistula (Golden Shower) biomass

The present study explores the ability of Cassia fistula waste biomass to remove Ni(II) from industrial effluents. C. fistula biomass was found very effective for Ni(II) removal from wastewater of Ghee Industry (GI), Nickel Chrome Plating Industry (Ni-Cr PI), Battery Manufacturing Industry (BMI), Tanner Industry: Lower Heat Unit (TILHU), Tannery Industry: Higher Heat Unit (TIHHU), Textile Industry: Dying Unit (TIDU) and Textile Industry: Finishing Unit (TIFU). The initial Ni(II) concentration in industrial effluents was found to be 34.89+/-0.01, 183.56+/-0.08, 21.19+/-0.01, 43.29+/-0.03, 47.26+/-0.02, 31.38+/-0.01 and 31.09+/-0.01mg/L in GI, Ni-Cr PI, BMI, TILHU, TIHHU, TIDU and TIFU, respectively. After biosorption the final Ni(II) concentration in industrial effluents was found to be 0.05+/-0.01, 17.26+/-0.08, 0.03+/-0.01, 0.05+/-0.01, 0.1+/-0.01, 0.07+/-0.01 and 0.06+/-0.01mg/L in GI, Ni-Cr PI, BMI, TILHU, TIHHU, TIDU and TIFU, respectively. The % sorption Ni(II) ability of C. fistula from seven industries included in present study tend to be in following order: TILHU (99.88)>GI (99.85) approximately BMI (99.85)>TIFU (99.80)>TIHHU (99.78)>TIDU (99.77)>Ni-Cr PI (90.59). Sorption kinetic experiments were performed in order to investigate proper sorption time for Ni(II) removal from wastewater. Batch metal ion uptake capacity experiments indicated that sorption equilibrium reached much faster in case of industrial wastewater samples (480min) in comparison to synthetic wastewater (1440min) using same biosorbent. The kinetic data were analyzed in term of pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order expressions. Pseudo-second-order model described well the sorption kinetics of Ni(II) onto C. fistula biomass from industrial effluents in comparison to pseudo-first-order kinetic model. Due to unique high Ni(II) sorption capacity of C. fistula waste biomass it can be concluded that it is an excellent biosorbent for Ni(II) uptake from industrial effluents.