Study of hydrogen and deuterium emission characteristics in laser-induced low-pressure helium plasma for the suppression of surface water contamination

An experimental study was conducted in search of the experimental condition required for the much needed suppression of spectral interference caused by surface water in hydrogen analysis using laser-induced low-pressure helium plasma spectroscopy. The problem arising from the difficulty in distinguishing hydrogen emission from hydrogen impurity inside the sample and that coming from the water molecules was overcome by taking advantage of similar emission characteristics shared by hydrogen and deuterium demonstrated in this experiment by the distinct time-dependent and pressure-dependent variations of the D and H emission intensities from the D-doped zircaloy-4 samples. This similarity allows the study of H impurity emission in terms of D emission from the D-doped samples and thereby separating it from the H emission originating from the water molecules. Employing this strategy has allowed us to achieve the large suppression of water induced spectral interference from the previous minimum of 400 microg/g to the current value of 30 microg/g when a laser beam of 34 mJ under tight focusing condition was employed. Along with this favorable result, this experimental condition has also provided a much better (about 6-fold higher) spatial resolution, although these results were achieved at the expense of reducing the linear calibration range from the previous 4 300 microg/g to the present 200 microg/g.     

THERMAL DYNAMICS OF A DRUM DRYER

The thermal dynamics of a top-loading drum dryer is studied with a view of deriving the transfer function for the thermal process involved. The drum which initially operates at a steady state, is subjected to a step change in the steam pressure and the response of the temperature of the outer surface of the drum is recorded. The normalised time domain response of the temperature T is analysed using the least squares method to a non-linear function. The time domain response is also transformed into the frequency domain using Fourier transforms and the transfer function is derived.     

Effects of Surfactants on the Properties of Styrene/Methacrylate–Type Superplasticizer in Cement Paste

Copolymer emulsion lattices based on styrene (St) with methacrylate monomers, were synthesized with composition ratio (5/5) in the presence of a co-surfactants that consists of dodecyl benzene sodium sulfonate with polyvinyl alcohol (DBSS/PVA) and DBBS with polyoxyethylene glycol monomethyl ether (DBBS/POE). The obtained latices were characterized by ¹H NMR, rheological and morphological techniques. The effect of latices on the physicomechanical properties of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) pastes was investigated. The results showed that the addition of water mixed to the cement with copolymer improves most of the specific characteristics of OPC.     

Application of expanded polystyrene (EPS) in buildings and constructions: A review

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) is one of the building material capable of enhancing the design and structural integrity of the building. Since its recognition as conventional insulating material in 1950s, EPS has been experiencing swift progress in other new implementations. Currently, EPS is utilized in many building structures owing to its sustainability benefit and improvement in terms of energy efficiency, durability, and indoor environmental quality. This article provides an overview on the application of EPS as aggregates in lightweight concrete, decorative tiles and molding, panel application (structural insulated panels (SIPs) and composite SIPs), and embankment backfilling. Also, this article attempts to describe the properties of EPS in terms of fire behavior, mechanical properties, chemical resistant, water and moisture absorption, and their toxicity to the human and environment. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47529.     

Prediction of industrial debutanizer column compositions using data-driven ANFIS- and ANN-based approaches

Neural Computing and Applications - The work in this paper is based on an industrial debutanizer column in a petroleum refinery located in Malaysia, which produces LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) as...     

Characteristics of lightning surges induced in telecommunication center in tropical area

The characteristics of lightning-induced surges in telecommunication equipment due to a direct lightning strike at a telecommunication center building or tower should be investigated to maintain the reliability of advanced telecommunication systems. In particular, investigations in tropical areas are important because these areas have many thunderstorm days. We observed lightning surges induced in a telecommunication building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The results show that the peak value occurrence frequency and waveforms of direct strike lightning surges were almost the same as those in a temperate area. The peak current relationships between the cables in the building and the tower legs indicate a strong correlation between the current at the tower legs, waveguide, power line, and outer and inner conductors of the coaxial cables. However, the peak value correlations between the tower leg currents and interface cable voltages were not strong. Based on the observation results, we obtained the correlation factors between the peak value at the observation point and the tower legs, and calculated the peak value at the interface cables as a function of the number of thunderstorm days.     

Design of high performance copyright protection watermarking based on lifting wavelet transform and bi empirical mode decomposition

This paper developed new and efficient image watermarking scheme for copyright protection based on Lifting wavelet transform (LWT) and Bi- dimensional Empirical Mode Decomposition (BEMD). A LWT has been selected because it is fast, less computational cost and maintains the integrity of the recovered watermark. The BEMD transform can separate the image from the most robust to the least sensitive or fragile frequency bands. This advantage is utilised in this study for the purpose of embedding the watermark in the robust part of BEMD, i.e. the residue (r). In addition, the embedding process has been performed in the low sub-band of LWT decomposed image as the low sub-band is more robust to image processing such as JPEG compression. The robust watermark which is grey scale image is decomposed using DWT to enhance the security and select only high sub-band as it has less impact on the quality of the watermarked image. As a result, the original image’s visual quality can be preserved and the concealed watermark could be successfully retrieved even if the watermarked images have undergone severe attacks like JPEG, rotation, Gamma correction, filtering, additive noise, translation, shearing, and scaling. Furthermore, the improved scheme offers greater robustness against many image processing operations, in comparison to the current schemes about copyright protection.     

Effect of DEM Resolution,Source, Resampling Technique and Area Threshold on SWAT Outputs

Application of an inappropriate Digital Elevation Model (DEM) might lead to uncertainty in modelling of the hydrological cycle. The novelty of this work is the development of a comprehensive framework to evaluate the effect of DEM resolution (12 to 500 m), source (TanDEM-X, SRTM, AW3D30 and ASTER GDEM2), resampling technique (nearest neighbour, bilinear interpolation, cubic convolution and majority) and area threshold (1000 to 50,000 ha) on Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) outputs based on five criteria: (1) river network extraction, (2) streamflow simulation, (3) topography, slope and basin characteristics, (4) hydrological and (5) water quality simulations. Kelantan River Basin, a tropical basin in Peninsular Malaysia was selected as study area. The major findings are summarized as follows: (1) TanDEM-X had better river network extraction capability than ASTER GDEM2, (2) better monthly streamflow simulations were obtained between 20 m and 60 m DEM resolutions, with the smallest area threshold (1000 ha), (3) TanDEM-X and SRTM DEMs outperformed ASTER GDEM2 on monthly streamflow simulation, (4) DEM resolution, source and resampling technique were insensitive to most of the hydrological components, except the lateral flow, (5) area threshold was sensitive to SWAT-simulated surface runoff, soil water content and evapotranspiration, (6) DEM scenarios had a larger impact on sediment yield simulations compared to the total nitrogen and total phosphorus simulations. We recommend a preliminary assessment of DEM uncertainties on SWAT outputs to obtain more reliable modelling outputs.     

Copper-phthalocyanine and nickel nanoparticles as novel cathode catalysts in microbial fuel cells

In this study, four different catalysts (i.e., carbon black, nickel nanoparticle (Ni)/C, Phthalocyanine/C and copper-phthalocyanine/C), were tested in a two-chamber Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) and their performances were compared with Pt as the common cathode catalyst in MFC. The characterization of catalysts was done by TEM, XPS and EDX and their electrochemical characteristics were compared by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and Linear Sweep Voltammetry (LSV). The results proved that copper phthalocyanine and nickel nanoparticles are potential alternatives catalyst for Pt. Even copper-phthalocyanine generated power is almost the same as Pt. The CV and LSV results reported high electrochemical activity of these catalysts. The maximum power density and coulombic efficiency was achieved by copper-phthalocyanine/C as 118.2 mW/m² and 29.3%.     

CONDUCTIVE DRYlNG CHARACTERISTICS OF GELATINIZED RICE STARCH

The main objective of the experiment in thispaper is to investigate the influence of the ratio of the thickness of the plate and that of the film, and initial condi- tions on the conductive drying characteristics of thin films of gelatinized rice starch on a hot plate under constant heat and mass transfer to the surroundings. The plate was. supported on one arm of a sensitive balance which measured and recorded the weight loss due to drying. Tbennocouples situated at the upper and lower surfaces of the plate recorded the respective temperatures. The gelatinized starch was prepared by cooking a slurry of rice starchin a heated and agitated vessel at slightly above the gelatinization temperatureof the starch 70C. The film was applied after the plate was heated to its initial temperature which ranged from 70C to 119C. The weight 10s and the temperature of the upper and lower surfaces of the plate were recorded. The m3isture content of the dried sample was determined by measuring the weight loss after heating it in an oven at 90C for 24 hours.The dimensionless average moisture content was fitted to the drying rate eauation of the form The dimensionless temperature of tbe filmplate interface data was fitted to the following equation It was found that the critlcal moisture content Xc increases when both the intial temperature level and the ratio of the thickness of the plate to that of the film are raised. The dimensionless avenge moisture content profiles against dimensionless time and the dimensionless drying rate ploti against the dimensionless moisture content are not affected at all by this ratio. There was an initial cooling period fol lowed by a continuous rue in temperature. The dimensionless temperature is independent of the ratio of the thickness of rbe plate to that of the film. The dimen