Simplified Monthly Hydrology and Irrigation Water Use Model to Explore Sustainable Water Management Options in the Murray-Darling Basin

We aimed to provide whole-of-basin simulations of flows and diversions in the Murray-Darling Basin for economic and policy analysis. We describe a model based on a subdivision of the basin into 58 catchments. In each catchment, the monthly runoff, river flow and irrigation demand are modelled as lumped processes. This is the first single model of the whole of the Murray-Darling Basin. The model was calibrated using monthly flow and annual diversion records, both by trial and error and using an automated method. We use the model to examine the impact on the flow and diversions in the Murray-Darling Basin of proposed diversion reductions and climate change. The diversion reductions return water to the environment, increasing river flows below the main irrigation areas. However, a middle-of-the-range climate change projection may result in a 13 % decrease in total flows in 2030, which offsets the enhancement to flows gained by diversion reductions.     

Characterization and Studies on Hydro Dynamically Stable Operation of an Angular Jet SOG for COIL

Chemical oxygen-iodine Laser (COIL) is one of the fast emerging high power laser source for near Infrared (λ=1.315μm) laser generation. The heart of the system is the singlet oxygen generator (SOG) which is a pumping source for this laser. A Jet type SOG with a novel approach was designed and fabricated. Singlet oxygen was taken out of the SOG at an angle of 40° thus avoiding the carry over of droplets, which is one of the major drawbacks of horizontal system. The preliminary results have been reported in our earlier publication. The present paper discusses the performance of this generator for various operational conditions viz. diluent's gas nitrogen / helium, basic hydrogen peroxide composition, generator pressure and gas velocity. Further, conditions for the stable operation from generator as well as chlorine injection point of view have been identified.     

Agricultural productivity in the lower Mekong Basin: trends and future prospects for food security

This paper examines the spatial and temporal variability and trends of agricultural productivity in the Lower Mekong River Basin. We also show the future productivity requirements for both food security and the maintenance of the basin’s export potential at the current level for the projected increase in population by 2030. We considered both rice and upland crops grown in the basin and estimated physical and economic productivity in terms of land and population. Both physical and economic productivity of rice in terms of land area and population is highest in Vietnam, moderate in Laos and lowest in Thailand and Cambodia. However, the physical productivity of upland crops such as sugarcane and maize is highest in Thailand. Economic productivity of upland crops is highest in Laos followed by Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, respectively and is much higher than that of rice. Total economic productivity is dominated by rice in all countries except Laos. In general, productivity has increased in all four riparian countries between 1993 and 2004 and there appears to be considerable scope for further increases, which will allow maintenance of the current level of rice export in the future, despite population growth.

DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR ARC-DRIVEN HF/DF CHEMICAL LASERS

The article focuses on the development of a data acquisition system (DAS) working in a noisy and hostile environment for an arc-operated hydrogen fluoride/deuterium fluoride (HF/DF) chemical laser. PC-based DAS has been configured using Advantech plug and play modules with fiber link connectivity. This article also focuses on implementation of an orifice-based precise gas flow control system. The plasma arc discharge in an arc heater/generator is essentially employed for inducing thermal dissociation of sulfur hexafluoride SF₆ for production of fluorine atoms, and DAS has been used for performance optimization of the composition of the lasing mixture by independently varying the flow rate, pressure, and temperature of its constituents. Since arc load is complex with high voltage transients and electromagnetic noise, an optical fiber link has been implemented for data transmission. This article also discusses digital output interface circuitry for various electro-pneumatic actuators/solenoid valves. The developed DAS has been used for monitoring and performance evaluation of parameters for 50 kW arc tunnel.     

Design of 4-element microstrip array of wideband reflector antenna with stable high gain characteristics

In this paper, three microstrip antennas with and without reflector are proposed with stable and high gain characteristics. The proposed antennas are simple to design and do not involve loading of any active elements on the patch or ground plane. The designed antennas cover the total frequency range of 10.5–44.5 GHz and operate well within the 5G communication frequency band of 27–30 GHz; consequently, making proposed antennas suitable for upcoming wireless technology. Furthermore, a 2 × 2 antenna array with phase diversity is proposed which offers an almost stable gain of about 14 dBi within the operating band. The proposed antennas are analyzed by finite element method based Ansys HFSS simulator. The fabricated prototypes of the optimized designs are made and simulated results are found in good agreement with the measured results.

     

Operational Plans and Performance in the Phitsanulok Irrigation System,Thailand

Key performance aspects of a 92 000 ha rice irrigation system in central Thailand are reviewed, with reference to water-distribution performance, agricultural performance and plan-implementation performance. Farmers have invested heavily in recent years in pumps, principally for access to shallow groundwater. This allows independent agricultural decision making by farm households. It is shown that tail-end farmers, who have the highest intensity of pumps, achieve the best agricultural performance. The performance in terms of canal water distribution and plan implementation is erratic. Absence of appropriate water-measurement facilities, insufficient information flows concerning water quantities and wide variations of farmer strategies seem to be significant reasons for these difficulties.     

Low profile multiband rectenna for efficient energy harvesting at microwave frequencies

This paper presents the design and development of a multiband rectenna for ambient RF energy harvesting. The proposed rectifying antenna consists of fractal-based geometry to obtain GSM 0.9 GHz (0.8–1.2 GHz), GSM 1.8 GHz (1.6–2.1 GHz), WLAN 2.5 GHz (2.2–2.8 GHz), Wi-MAX 3.5 GHz (3.1–4.0 GHz), WLAN 5.5 GHz (5.3–6.4 GHz) and 7.35 GHz (7.0–7.8 GHz) resonating bands. The designed sensing antenna is low profile, lightweight and small in size with two circularly polarized bands at frequencies 1.8 and 2.5 GHz. In the proposed rectenna, a dual-stage voltage doubler rectifying circuit is utilized for converting surrounding RF signals into DC power. A matching network is connected between the fractal antenna and the rectifying circuitry for realizing a good impedance matching between them. To verify the proposed design, a prototype rectenna is fabricated and measured results are compared with the simulated results. The proposed rectifier provides an RF to DC conversion efficiency of 78%.     

Real Time Gas Flow Control and Analysis for High Power Infrared Gas Lasers

The composition of various gas effluents and their flow parameters viz. flow rate, pressure and Mach number are very crucial in determining the output of high power infrared gas lasers. PC based real time gas Flow Control and Analysis (FCA) System which is the heart of the high power infrared gas lasers such as CO₂ Gas Dynamic Laser (10.6μm), Hydrogen Fluoride-Deuterium Fluoride (2.7–3.4μm) and Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (1.315μm) has been developed and successfully tested for its applications in Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL). The system has been realized using the state of the art PCI bus based high-speed data processing electronics, a personal computer and electro-pneumatic components. The system has demonstrated its capability of controlling the flow rates in the range of 1-6500 lpm (in case of nitrogen) with a response time of 50 msec which is mainly limited by the response of the electro-pneumatic valves and pressure reducers used in the present system. The developed system also has the potential to monitor, estimate and display various flow parameters at critical locations of the laser system. More than 600 successful power runs of the COIL have been given using the developed FCA system.     

Water productivity responses and adaptation to climate change in the lower Mekong basin

A crop growth simulation model was used to study the impact of climate change for the period 2010–2050 on water productivity of rainfed rice. In general, the results suggest that water productivity of rainfed rice may increase significantly in the upper basin in Laos and Thailand and may decrease in the lower basin in Cambodia and Vietnam. Significant net increases in water productivity can be achieved by applying simple adaptation options such as shifting the planting dates, applying supplementary irrigation, and increasing fertilizer inputs.     

Implementation of four-port MIMO diversity microstrip antenna with suppressed mutual coupling and cross-polarized radiations

A compact four-element MIMO microstrip antenna is designed, analyzed and proposed for high frequency modern wireless applications. Proposed antenna is compact in size and offers a frequency band of about 6 GHz ranging from 23 to 29 GHz with a peak gain of 7.1 dBi and suppressed mutual coupling and cross-polarization level. Presented antenna possess better diversity with minimum mutual coupling among its all four elements. Diversity is verified in terms of envelope correlation coefficient, directive gain, total active reflection coefficient and ratio of mean effective gain. All the diversity parameters are found within the appropriate limit standardized for a MIMO device. Experimental results of fabricated prototypes verified the proposed results.