A Survey on Path Planning Techniques for Mobile Sink in IoT-Enabled Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Personal Communications - Recently, the Internet of Things (IoT) had emerged very rapidly and became the most important technology in today’s era. In an IoT-based environment, every...     

Computational Modeling of GMAW Process for Joining Dissimilar Aluminum Alloys

A three-dimensional transient model is developed to solve for heat transfer, fluid flow, and species distribution during a continuous gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process for joining dissimilar aluminum alloys. The phase-change process during melting and solidification is modeled using a fixed-grid enthalpy-porositytechnique, and Scheil's model is used to determine coupling among composition, temperature, and the liquid fraction. The effect of molten droplet addition to the weld pool is simulated using a “cavity” model, in which the droplet heat and species addition to the molten pool are considered as volumetric heat and species sources, respectively, distributed in an imaginary cylindrical cavity within the molten pool. To establish the model for joining dissimilar alloys, results for joining two pieces of a similar alloy are also presented. The dissimilar welding model is demonstrated using a case study in which a plate of wrought aluminum alloy (with approximately 0.5 wt% Si) is butt-welded to an aluminum cast alloy plate (with approximately 10 wt% Si) of equal thickness using a GMAW process. Macrosegregation, along with the associated heat transfer and fluid flow phenomena and their role in the weld pool development, are discussed. The model is able to capture some of the key features of the process, such as differential heating of the two alloys, asymmetric weld pool development, mixing of the molten alloys, and the final composition after solidification.     

Jet characteristics from a submerged combustion system

The characteristics of a combustor operating under submerged conditions are affected by the two phase interaction of exhaust gas jet from the combustor with surrounding liquid. The characteristics of combustion gases are simulated with air and helium to represent combustor operation under different conditions. The exhaust gas signatures under submerged conditions are examined using different nozzle exit cross-sections (circular, square, triangular and elliptical with aspect ratio of 1.5 and 2.5) for their effect on sound pressure levels and pressure fluctuations in the combustion chamber. High-speed cinematography is used to examine the two-phase region and the associated instabilities by the gas jet. Dynamic pressure sensor is used to study the effect of submerged jet on the pressure fluctuations in the upstream gas chamber. The sound pressure level from the elliptical nozzle is found to be lower than the circular, square and triangular nozzles. The frequency of jet instabilities is observed to increase with increase in gas jet momentum but independent of nozzle exit cross-section. The pressure fluctuation in the gas chamber is closely coupled with two phase instabilities downstream of the jet region. At lower jet momentum bubbling regime is present but it transitions to more jet like behavior with increase in the jet momentum, representing deep water and shallow water propulsion applications, respectively. These studies provide valuable fundamental information for range of applications in energy systems extending from underwater propulsion, evaporator, heater, desalination and waste water treatment.     

Production of first and second generation biofuels: A comprehensive review

Sustainable economic and industrial growth requires safe, sustainable resources of energy. For the future re-arrangement of a sustainable economy to biological raw materials, completely new approaches in research and development, production, and economy are necessary. The ‘first-generation’ biofuels appear unsustainable because of the potential stress that their production places on food commodities. For organic chemicals and materials these needs to follow a biorefinery model under environmentally sustainable conditions. Where these operate at present, their product range is largely limited to simple materials (i.e. cellulose, ethanol, and biofuels). Second generation biorefineries need to build on the need for sustainable chemical products through modern and proven green chemical technologies such as bioprocessing including pyrolysis, Fisher Tropsch, and other catalytic processes in order to make more complex molecules and materials on which a future sustainable society will be based. This review focus on cost effective technologies and the processes to convert biomass into useful liquid biofuels and bioproducts, with particular focus on some biorefinery concepts based on different feedstocks aiming at the integral utilization of these feedstocks for the production of value added chemicals.     

Simplification of Switching Functions Involving a very Large Number of ‘Don't Care’ States†

A method of simplification of switching functions involving a very large number of ‘ don't care’ states is suggested in the present paper. First a tabular technique is suggested which generates all the prime implicants starting from the maxterm type expressions of switching functions, avoiding generation of the prime implicants formed of ‘don't care’ states only. The technique presented is simple and iterative. Next it is suggested how the knowledge of the sets of prime implicants thus obtained can be utilized for finding minimal or other irredundant sums of switching functions.     

Thermo-hydraulic characteristics of novel MEMS heat sink

Microsystem Technologies - This article details the analysis of the thermo-hydraulic performance of a single-phase MEMS Heat sink with pin fins integrated in micro channels. Circular pin-fins with...     

Silica-silicon composites for near-infrared reflection: A comprehensive computational and experimental study

Compact layers containing embedded semiconductor particles consolidated using pulsed electric current sintering exhibit intense, broadband near-infrared reflectance. The composites consolidated from nano- or micro-silica powder have a different porous microstructure which causes scattering at the air-matrix interface and larger reflectance primarily in the visible region. The 3 mm thick composite compacts reflect up to 72% of the incident radiation in the near-infrared region with a semiconductor microinclusion volume fraction of 1% which closely matches predictions from multiscale Monte Carlo modeling and Kubelka-Munk theory. Further, the calculated spectra predict a reddish tan compact with improved reflectance can be obtained by decreasing the average particle size or broadening the standard deviation. The high reflectance is achieved with minimal dissipative losses and facile manufacturing, and the composites described herein are well-suited to control the radiative transfer of heat in devices at high temperature and under harsh conditions.