Preparation and characterization of novel HgO/MoO<Subscript>2</Subscript> nanocomposite by ultrasound-assisted precipitation method to enhance photocatalytic activity

In this work, the HgO/MoO₂ as novel nanocomposite has been successfully synthesized for the first time. The nanocomposite has been synthesized using simple ultrasound-assisted precipitation method and using organic molecular [2-hydroxybenzaldehyde] as precursor. The as-prepared nanocomposites were characterized by X-ray-diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray Microanalysis (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV–Vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) techniques. Some parameters such as surfactant effect (CTAB, SDS, SDBS and PEG-200) and solvent (distilled water, propylene glycol) effect were investigated to found grain size, shape, purity and reach the optimum conditions. These catalytic systems displayed high activity in the photodegradation of rhodamine B in a liquid phase under UV irradiation. The results show that the photocatalytic activity of HgO/MoO₂ nanocomposite with PEG-200 surfactant has improved than another surfactant to degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) dye under ultraviolet irradiation.     

Handling multiple materials for exposure of digital forgeries using 2-D lighting environments

The distribution of incident light is an important physics-based cue for exposing image manipulations. If an image has been composed from multiple sources, it is likely that the illumination environments of the spliced objects differ. Johnson and Farid introduced a proof-of-principle algorithm for a forensic comparison of lighting environments. However, this baseline approach suffers from relatively strict assumptions that limit its practical applicability. In this work, we address one of the biggest limitations, namely the need to compute a lighting environment from patches of homogeneous material. To compute a lighting environment from multiple-color surfaces, we propose a method that we call “intrinsic contour estimation” (ICE). ICE is able to integrate reflectances from multiple materials into one lighting environment, as long as surfaces of different materials share at least two similar normal vectors. We validate the proposed method in a controlled ground-truth experiment on two datasets, with light from three different directions. These experiments show that using ICE can improve the median estimation error by almost 50 %, and the mean error by almost 30 %.     

A Grid-Insensitive LDA Method on Triangular Grids Solving the System of Euler Equations

The performance of the classic upwind-type residual distribution (RD) methods on skewed triangular grids are rigorously investigated in this paper. Based on an improved signals distribution, an improved second order RD method based on the LDA approach is proposed to faithfully replicate the flow physics on skewed triangular grids. It will be mathematically and numerically shown that the improved LDA method is found to have minimal accuracy variations when grids are skewed compared to classic RD and cell vertex finite volume methods on scalar equations and system of Euler equations.     

Microencapsulation of disperse dye particles with nano film coating through layer by layer technique

Throughout the past ten years, comprehensive understanding of fundamental and applied research has focused on functional coating and specifically on microencapsulaion. In this study, weak polycation poly(allylamine hydrochloride) and strong polyanion poly(sodium styrene sulfonate) were used for fabrication of nano film through layer by layer technique on the surface of disperse dye particles. Then micron‐sized particles were surrounded by poly(urea formaldehyde) using in‐situ polymerization. Chemical structure, surface morphology, and size distribution of these novel microcapsules were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectrometry, differential scanning calorimetry, optical microscopy, and scanning electronic microscopy. Size and surface morphology of the microcapsules can be optimized by selecting proper weight ratio of urea to formaldehyde and core to shell material type, and amount of surfactant and agitation rate. This technology demonstrated good capability in several applications in textile industry, such as dying fabrics because of saving huge amount of water and showing slow‐release property of dye without using dye assistant agents. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011     

Buckling of magneto-electro-hygro-thermal piezoelectric nanoplates system embedded in a visco-Pasternak medium based on nonlocal theory

Microsystem Technologies - In this present work the critical loading of magneto-electro-viscoelastic-hygro-thermal (MEVHT) piezoelectric nanoplates embedded in a viscoelastic foundation are...     

Fault detection and approximation for a class of linear impulsive systems using sliding‐mode observer

The objective of this paper is to develop a method for fault detection and approximation of linear impulsive systems exposed to actuator faults. Utilizing proposed sliding mode observer, states of the impulsive system are estimated. It is proved that estimation error dynamical system is asymptotically stable between jumps. In addition, an upper bound of the state estimation errors at jump instants has been derived explicitly. State estimations are used to reconstruct the fault signal. Furthermore, an upper bound of the fault estimation errors is obtained. Proficiency of the proposed method is evaluated under different fault scenarios using numerical simulations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Centrifugal compressor shape modification using a proposed inverse design method

This paper is concerned with a quasi-3D design method for the radial and axial diffusers of a centrifugal compressor on the meridional plane. The method integrates a novel inverse design algorithm, called ball-spine algorithm (BSA), and a quasi-3D analysis code. The Euler equation is solved on the meridional plane for a numerical domain, of which unknown boundaries (hub and shroud) are iteratively modified under the BSA until a prescribed pressure distribution is reached. In BSA, unknown walls are composed of a set of virtual balls that move freely along specified directions called spines. The difference between target and current pressure distributions causes the flexible boundary to deform at each modification step. In validating the quasi-3D analysis code, a full 3D Navier-Stokes code is used to analyze the existing and designed compressors numerically. Comparison of the quasi-3D analysis results with full 3D analysis results shows viable agreement. The 3D numerical analysis of the current compressor shows a huge total pressure loss on the 90° bend between the radial and axial diffusers. Geometric modification of the meridional plane causes the efficiency to improve by about 10%.