Biodiesel production from oleander (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Thevetia Peruviana</Emphasis>) oil and its performance testing on a diesel engine

Oleander oil has been used as raw material for producing biodiesel using ultrasonic irradiation method at the frequency of 20 kHz and horn type reactor 50 watt. A two-step transesterification process was carried out for optimum condition of 0.45 v/v methanol to oil ratio, 1.2% v/v H₂SO₄ catalyst, 45 °C reaction temperature and 15min reaction time, followed by treatment with 0.25 v/v methanol to oil ratio, 0.75% w/v KOH alkaline catalyst, 50 °C reaction temperature and 15 min reaction time. The fuel properties of Oleander biodiesel so obtained confirmed the requirements of both the standards ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 for biodiesel. Further Oleander biodiesel-diesel blends were tested to evaluate the engine performance and emission characteristics. The performance and emission of 20% Oleander biodiesel blend (B20) gave a satisfactory result in diesel engines as the brake thermal efficiency increased 2.06% and CO and UHC emissions decreased 41.4% and 32.3% respectively, compared to mineral diesel. Comparative investigation of performance and emissions characteristics of Oleander biodiesel blends and mineral diesel showed that oleander seed is a potential source of biodiesel and blends up to 20% can be used for realizing better performance from an unmodified diesel engine.     

Dynamically controlled fibrillation under combination of ionic liquid with mechanical grinding

Combination of mortar grinder mill (MG) and ionic liquid (IL) treatment was employed in order to fibrillate fibers from oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF) in one‐step. The structural changes of OPMF before and after the treatment were examined by Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transformed infrared (FT‐IR) spectra, Wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD), Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Compared with the only use of 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIM[BF₄]), combination of MG and IL helped to remove hemicellulose and lignin components partially from OPMF, and also fibrillated OPMF fibers at average particle diameter of 127 nm. Afterwards, the fibrillated fibers were utilized as reinforcement material for the purpose of enhancement of mechanical properties of poly(?‐caprolactone)(PCL). The addition of OPMF treated with the combined method led to a 64% increase in tensile strength in comparison with that of untreated OPMF. These results indicate that the combined method enables effective fibrillation. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134 , 44469.     

Model-driven estimation approach for system reliability using integrated tasks and resources

The increasing complexity of software systems in embedded systems or industrial business domains has led to the importance of reliability analysis for current systems. Reliability analysis has become a crucial part of the system development life cycle, and a new approach is needed to enable an early analysis for reliability estimation, especially for the system under design. However, the existing approach neglects the correlation between system resource and system task for estimating system reliability. This subsequently restricts accuracy of the estimation as well as causing difficulties in identifying critical resources and tasks during the design phase. This paper proposes a model-driven system reliability estimation using a scenario-based approach to estimate system reliability and identify its critical resources and system tasks during the design phase. This model is based on the PerFAM model, which can specifically view timing failures through a system scenario. The proposed approach is validated by the application of a sensitivity analysis into one case study. The case study demonstrates an essential relationship between system reliability, as well as both resources and tasks, which ultimately becomes the integral part for a system reliability estimation assessment.     

Processing and mechanical properties of organic filler–polypropylene composites

The addition of organic fillers into thermoplastic polymers is an interesting issue, which has had growing consideration and experimentation during the last years. It can give rise to several advantages. First, the cost of these fillers is usually very low. Also, the organic fillers are biodegradable (thus contributing to an improved environmental impact), and finally, some mechanical and thermomechanical properties can be enhanced. In this study, the effect of the addition of different organic fillers on the mechanical properties and processability of an extrusion‐grade polypropylene were investigated. The organic fillers came from natural sources (wood, kenaf, and sago) and were compared to short glass fibers, a widely used inorganic filler. The organic fillers caused enhancements in the rigidity and thermomechanical resistance of the matrix in a way that was rather similar to the one observed for the inorganic filler. A reduction in impact strength was observed for both types of fillers. The use of an adhesion promoter could improve their behavior. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 96: 1906–1913, 2005     

The effect of organoclay on the mechanical properties and morphology of injection‐molded polyamide 6/polypropylene nanocomposites

Nanocomposites containing a thermoplastic blend and organophilic layered clay (organoclay) were produced by melt compounding. The blend composition was kept constant [polyamide 6 (PA6) 70 wt % + polypropylene (PP) 30 wt %], whereas the organoclay content was varied between 0 and 10 wt %. The mechanical properties of the nanocomposites were determined on injection‐molded specimens in both tensile and flexural loading. Highest strength values were observed at an organoclay content of 4 wt % for the blends. The flexural strength was superior to the tensile one, which was traced to the effect of the molding‐induced skin‐core structure. Increasing organoclay amount resulted in severe material embrittlement reflected in a drop of both strength and strain values. The morphology of the nanocomposites was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy‐dispersion X‐ray analysis (EDX), and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). It was established that the organoclay is well dispersed (exfoliated) and preferentially embedded in the PA6 phase. Further, the exfoliation degree of the organoclay decreased with increasing organoclay content. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 175–189, 2004     

An Approach for Despeckling a Sequence of Ultrasound Images Based on Statistical Analysis

In this paper, a denoising approach taking into account the statistical properties of the ultrasound image is proposed. In the proposed method, the time correlation between the different frames of a video sequence are taken into consideration to find the maximum a posteriori probability estimate of a noisy pixel. The proposed algorithm is tested on both synthetic and real ultrasound images to verify the effectiveness of the system. The paper provides a model for time correlation of the noise between different frames of the ultrasound video data. To simulate the speckle noise in a natural image, an attempt is made to study the probability density function of speckle noise in an ultrasound video sequence. From our analysis, it is concluded that the speckle noise is multiplicative Gaussian in nature. Certain statistical tests are also conducted to verify the effectiveness of our proposed method. Experimental results show that the proposed despeckling method shows superior performance than its counterparts.     

Effects of silica aerogel particle sizes on the thermal–mechanical properties of silica aerogel – unsaturated polyester composites

Silica aerogels with a surface area as high as 773?m²?g^?1 and a density of 0.077?g?cm^?3 were produced from rice husk via sol–gel process and ambient pressure drying. A particulate composite material was prepared by adding silica aerogel particles of three different particle sizes (powder, granules and bead) to unsaturated polyester resin with a fixed volume fraction of 30%. Thermogravimetric and thermal conductivity studies revealed that silica aerogel composites were having higher thermal stability and thermal insulation than the neat resin. It was suggested that the preservation of aerogel pores from resin intrusion is important for better thermal properties. Larger silica aerogel particles have more porous area (unwetted region) which results in a lower degradation rate and lower thermal conductivity of the base polymer. However, the addition of silica aerogel into resin has reduced the tensile modulus of the polymer matrix where smaller particle size displayed higher toughness than those with bigger particle size.     

A first principles study of key electronic,optical, second and third order nonlinear optical properties of 3-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(pyridin-3-yl) prop-2-en-1-one: a novel D-$$\pi $$-A type chalcone derivative

In this work we assess the significant electrooptic properties of a novel chalcone derivative 3-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(pyridin-3-yl) prop-2-en-1-one using a computational approach. The ground-state molecular geometry was optimized, and geometrical parameters and vibrational modes are established and found to be in strong correlation with experimental results. The excitation energy is observed to be 326 nm (3.8 eV), calculated at the TD/B3LYP/6-31G level (stands for time dependent/Becke’s three Lee-Yang-Parr/basis set). Additionally, a unique insight was gained on a number of properties of the molecular levels such as the HOMO-LUMO gap (i.e. \({\sim } 4\,\hbox {eV}\)) and electrostatic potential maps. The potential applications of the 3-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-(pyridin-3-yl)prop-2-en-1-one (CPP) molecule in nonlinear optics are confirmed by second and third harmonic generation studies at five different characteristic wavelengths. The static and dynamic polarizability are found to be many-fold higher than that of urea. The second and third harmonic generation values of the titled molecule are found to be 56 and 158 times higher than standard urea molecule, respectively, computed at same wavelength (i.e. 1064.13 nm). From these studies it is clear that the material possesses superior properties and could be applied in optoelectronic device fabrications.     

Nitrogen-doped multiwalled carbon nanotubes decorated with copper(I) oxide nanoparticles with enhanced capacitive properties

We report on the enhanced capacitive properties of a copper(I) oxide nanoparticle (Cu₂O NP)-decorated multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) forest with nitrogen (N) doping. A careful in situ solid-state dewetting and plasma doping method was developed that ensured homogeneous decoration and contamination-free Cu₂O NPs with N doping on the nanotube sidewalls. The morphology and structure of the hybrid materials were characterised by scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The electrochemical performance of the hybrid materials was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge tests in a 0.1 M Na₂SO₄ electrolyte. The electrochemical tests demonstrated that the Cu₂O NP/N-MWCNT electrode exhibits a specific capacitance up to 132.2 F g^?1 at a current density of 2.5 A g^?1, which is 30% higher than that of the pure MWCNT electrode. Furthermore, the electrode could retain the specific capacitance at 85% stability over 1000 cycles. These observations along with the simple assembly method for the hybrid materials suggest that the Cu₂O NP/N-MWCNT could be a promising electrode for supercapacitor applications.