Thermal and thermoelastic properties of fast extrusion furnace (FEF) carbon black loaded SBR vulcanizates

The effect of FEF carbon black as filler on the thermal capacity c, diffusivity a, and thermal conductivity λ, of styrene butadiene rubber (SBR) composites in the temperature range 300–420 K was studied. The filler strongly increases the thermal diffusivity, whilst strongly decreasing the thermal capacity and the thermal conductivity (except at high FEF content ≥80 phr). The influence of the filler on the thermoelastic behaviour of the same composites was also investigated. It was found that the thermoelastic temperature change (ΔT) increased with carbon black concentration as well as the entropy change per unit extension.     

Power and Wheel Wear for Grinding Nickel Alloy with Plated CBN Wheels

Electroplated CBN grinding wheels are manufactured with a single layer of abrasive grains. The grinding performance of these plated wheels changes significantly as the wheel wears down. The present investigation was undertaken to understand the transient grinding behavior with electroplated CBN wheels in order to provide a logical basis for process control. In this paper, particular attention is directed to the effect of wheel wear and operating parameters on grinding of a nickel alloy. Wheels were worn to various stages and then used to perform grinding tests under various grinding conditions to measure grinding forces and power and to produce ground specimens. Based on models for grinding with conventional aluminum oxide wheels, a power model for grinding of a nickel alloy with plated CBN wheels was established and validated. Microscopic observations of the ground specimens reveal that thermal damage in the form of a White Etch Layer (WEL) appears only when grinding with a worn wheel under conditions that lead to high temperatures.     

Investigations on mode-division multiplexed free-space optical transmission for inter-satellite communication link

Wireless Networks - Inter-satellite data transmission links are very crucial for providing global inter-connectivity. We report designing and investigations on high date rate inter-satellite...     

Analysis of viscoelastic Bernoulli–Euler nanobeams incorporating nonlocal and microstructure effects

The present study introduces an analytical–computational model to simulate the effects of different simultaneous aspects on the behavior of nanobeams. The first one deals with the space nonlocality interaction and taking into account the microstructure effects, which has been formulated by using the nonlocal couple-stress elasticity. The second factor deals with the memory-dependent effect and has been investigated in the framework of linear viscoelasticity theory. It is the first time to apply the coupled effects of the microstructure and long-range interactions between the particles, to reflect the size-dependency of viscoelastic structures. Bernoulli–Euler nanobeam is taken as a vehicle to present the details of the proposed model. Eringen nonlocal elasticity and the modified couple-stress theory are used to formulate the two phenomena of long-range cohesive interaction and the microstructure local rotation effects, respectively. Boltzmann superposition viscoelastic model, endowed by Wiechert series, is used to simulate the linear behavior of isotropic, homogeneous and non-aging viscoelastic materials. The extended Hamilton’s principle is applied to formulate the analytical model of mechanical behavior of the nonlocal couple-stress nanobeam. The model has been verified and some results are compared with those published in the literature and a good agreement has been obtained. It is shown that the material-length scale parameter, nonlocal parameter, viscoelastic relaxation time and length-to-thickness ratio have a significant effect on the bending response of viscoelastic nanobeams with various boundary conditions.     

Fabrication of hollow, 3D,micro-scale metallic structures by micro-powder injection moulding

Architectures of current micro-scale metallic structures are unable to meet some requirements of micro-component designers, particularly when a design calls for truly three-dimensional internal micro-geometries. Such complex geometries are particularly important for emerging microsystem applications such as high-performance microfluidics for analytical applications, or micro-engines for power generation. Here we report on a strategy by which miniaturized metallic structures with 3D cavities can be fabricated. We show results for a particular form of the strategy in which fabrication of sub-millimetre cavities with radii of 150 μm is achieved in 316L stainless steel. Fabrication of the cavities is achieved by a method which uses micro-polymer insert moulding, micro-powder over-moulding, catalytic debinding and sintering. This work establishes for the first time the feasibility of micro-moulding based fabrication routes for the production of 3D internal geometries in miniaturized metallic structures.     

Osmotic Dehydration Kinetics of Pomegranate Seeds Using Date Juice as an Immersion Solution Base

Pomegranate seeds were osmodehydrated using date juice added with sucrose (final °Brix, 55) as immersion solution. The kinetics of osmotic dehydration showed that the most significant changes of mass transfer took place during the first 20 min of the process, regardless of date juice varieties. During this time, seed water loss and solid gain were estimated to be ∼39% and ∼6%, respectively. After 20 min of the process, the percentage of water loss and solid gain varied slightly and ranged on average close to ∼40% and ∼9%, respectively. During osmotic dehydration, there was a leaching of natural solutes from seeds into the solution, which is quantitatively not negligible, and might have an important impact on the sensorial and nutritional value of seeds and date juices. Both scanning electron microscopy and texture (compression) analysis revealed that osmotic dehydration process induced modifications of seed texture and cell structure. Sucrose was found to be the essential element which influences the texture of seed and the viscosity of date juice. Additionally, natural sugar present in date juice permits substituting 35% of the total quantity of sucrose added to the osmotic solution.     

Recycling of used engine oil by different solvent

The refining of lubricating oils from waste lubricating oil was examined utilizing a novel blend of solvent extraction and activated alumina adsorbent. The activity of these solvent extraction blends {toluene, butanol and methanol (A)}, {toluene, butanol and ethanol (B)} and {toluene, butanol and isopropanol (C)} was evaluated experimentally, oil to solvent proportions from 1:1 to 1:3 were analyzed for mixture blend (C). The results confirm solvent mixture (A) gave good efficiency with the highest percent sludge removal. The maximum percent of sludge removal improves with the increase of solvent to oil ratios. The physical properties of the recycle oil were measured. The results show the change in the properties of recycling oil and have good efficiency.     

Multistage bayesian autonomy for high‐precision operation in a large field

This paper presents a generalized multistage bayesian framework to enable an autonomous robot to complete high‐precision operations on a static target in a large field. The proposed framework consists of two multistage approaches, capable of dealing with the complexity of high‐precision operation in a large field to detect and localize the target. In the multistage localization, locations of the robot and the target are estimated sequentially when the target is far away from the robot, whereas these locations are estimated simultaneously when the target is close. A level of confidence (LOC) for each detection criterion of a sensor and the associated probability of detection (POD) of the sensor are defined to make the target detectable with different LOCs at varying distances. Differential entropies of the robot and target are used as a precision metric for evaluating the performance of the proposed approach. The proposed multistage observation and localization approaches were applied to scenarios using an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Results with the UGV in simulated environments and then real environments show the effectiveness of the proposed approaches to real‐world problems. A successful demonstration using the UAV is also presented.