Search results for: water optimization

Authors: E. S. Umdu, Ilker Kahraman, Nurdan Yildirim, Levent Bilir

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Algae-culture offers new applications in sustainable architecture with its continuous productive cycle, and a potential for high carbon dioxide capture. Microalgae itself has multiple functions such as carbon dioxide fixation, biomass production, oxygen generation and waste water treatment. Incorporating microalgae cultivation processes and systems to building design to utilize this potential is promising. Microalgae cultivation systems, especially closed photo bioreactors can be implemented as components in buildings. And these systems be accommodated in the façade of a building, or in other urban infrastructure in the future. Application microalgae bio-reactors of on building’s façade has the added benefit of acting as an effective insulation system, keeping out the heat of the summer and the chill of the winter. Furthermore, microalgae can give a dynamic appearance with a liquid façade that also works as an adaptive sunshade. Recently, potential of microalgae to use as a building component to reduce net energy demand in buildings becomes a popular topic and innovative design proposals and a handful of pilot applications appeared. Yet there is only a handful of examples in application and even less information on how these systems affect building energy behavior. Further studies on microalgae mostly focused on single application approach targeting either carbon dioxide utilization through biomass production or biofuel production. The main objective of this study is to investigate effects of design parameters of microalgae panel bio-reactors on light transmission characteristics and CO2 capture potential during growth of Nannochloropsis occulata sp. A maximum reduction of 18 ppm in CO2 levels of input air during the experiments with a % light transmission of 14.10, was achieved in 6 day growth cycles. Heat transfer behavior during these cycles was also inspected for possible façade applications.

Keywords: building façade, CO2 capture, light transmittance, microalgae

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Authors: Omvati Verma, Shyamashrre Roy

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A field experiment was conducted with three basal nitrogen levels (90, 120 and 150 kg N/ha) and five foliar application of urea (absolute control, water spray, 3% urea spray at anthesis, 7 and 14 days after anthesis) at G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, U.S. Nagar (Uttarakhand) during rabi season in a factorial randomized block design with three replications. Results revealed that nitrogen application of 150 kg/ha produced the highest seed yield, straw and biological yield and it was significantly superior to 90 kg N/ha and was at par with 120 kg N/ha. The number of tillers increased significantly with increase in nitrogen doses up to 150 kg N/ha. Spike length, number of grains per spike, grain weight per spike and thousand seed weight showed significantly higher values with 120 kg N/ha than 90 kg N/ha and were at par with that of 150 kg N/ha. Also, plant height showed similar trend. Leaf area index and chlorophyll content showed significant increase with an increase in nitrogen levels at different stages. In the case of foliar spray treatments, urea spray at anthesis showed highest value for yield and yield attributes. In case of spike length and thousand seed weight, it was similar with the urea spray at 7 and 14 days after anthesis, but for rest of the yield attributes, it was significantly higher than rest of the treatments. Among seed quality parameters protein and sedimentation value showed significant increase due to increase in nitrogen rates whereas, starch and hectolitre weight had a decreasing trend. Wet gluten content was not influenced by nitrogen levels. Foliar urea spray at anthesis resulted in highest value of protein and hectolitre weight whereas, urea spray at 7 days after anthesis showed highest value of sedimentation value and wet gluten content.

Keywords: foliar application, nitrogenous fertilizer, seed quality, yield

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Authors: Sujin Hong, Seokyoon Moon, Heejoong Kim, Yunseok Lee, Youngjune Park

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Gas hydrate is an inclusion compound in which a low-molecular-weight gas or organic molecule is trapped inside a three-dimensional lattice structure created by water-molecule via intermolecular hydrogen bonding. It is generally formed at low temperature and high pressure, and exists as crystal structures of cubic systems − structure I, structure II, and hexagonal system − structure H. Many efforts have been made to apply them to various energy and environmental fields such as gas transportation and storage, CO₂ capture and separation, and desalination of seawater. Particularly, studies on the behavior of gas hydrates by new organic materials for CO₂ storage and various applications are underway. In this study, thermodynamic and spectroscopic analyses of the gas hydrate system were performed focusing on cyclopentanol, an organic molecule that forms gas hydrate at relatively low pressure. The thermodynamic equilibria of CH₄ and CO₂ hydrate systems including cyclopentanol were measured and spectroscopic analyses of XRD and Raman were performed. The differences in thermodynamic systems and formation kinetics of CO₂ added cyclopentane, cyclopentanol and cyclopentanone hydrate systems were compared. From the thermodynamic point of view, cyclopentanol was found to be a hydrate promotor. Spectroscopic analyses showed that cyclopentanol formed a hydrate crystal structure of cubic structure II in the presence of CH₄ and CO₂. It was found that the differences in the functional groups among the organic guest molecules significantly affected the rate of hydrate formation and the total amounts of CO₂ stored in the hydrate systems. The total amount of CO₂ stored in the cyclopentanone hydrate was found to be twice that of the amount of CO₂ stored in the cyclopentane and the cyclopentanol hydrates. The findings are expected to open up new opportunity to develop the gas hydrate based wastewater desalination technology.

Keywords: gas hydrate, CO₂, separation, desalination, formation kinetics, thermodynamic equilibria

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Authors: John Gichimu Mbaka, Jan Helmrich Martin von Baumbach, Celia Somlai, Denis Köpfer, Andreas Maeck, Andreas Lorke, Ralf Schäfer

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Leaf litter decomposition is an important process providing energy to biotic communities. Additionally, methane gas (CH4) has been identified as an important alternative source of carbon and energy in some freshwater food webs.Flow regulation and dams can strongly alter freshwater ecosystems, but little is known about the effect of small impoundments on leaf litter decomposition and methane derived carbon in streams. In this study, we tested the effect of small water storage impoundments on leaf litter decomposition rates and methane derived carbon. Leaf litter decomposition rates were assessed by comparing treatment sites located close to nine impoundments (Rheinland Pfalz state, Germany) and reference sites located far away from the impoundments.CH4 concentrations were measured in eleven impoundments and correlated with the δ13C values of two subfamilies of chironomid larvae (i.e. Chironomini and Tanypodinae). Leaf litter break down rates were significantly lower in study sites located immediately above the impoundments, especially associated with a reduction in the abundance of shredders. Chironomini larvae had the lower mean δ13C values (‒29.2 to ‒25.5 ‰), than Tanypodinae larvae (‒26.9 to ‒25.3 ‰).No significant relationships were established between CH4 concentrations and δ13C values of chironomids (p> 0.05).Mean δ13C values of chironomid larvae (mean: ‒26.8‰, range: ‒ 29.2‰ to ‒ 25.3‰) were similar to those of sedimentary organic matter (SOM) (mean: ‒28.4‰, range: ‒ 29.3‰ to ‒ 27.1‰) and tree leaf litter (mean: ‒29.8 ‰, range: ‒ 30.5‰ to ‒ 29.1‰). In conclusion, this study demonstrates that small impoundments may have a negative effect on leaf litter decomposition in forest streams and that CH4 has limited influence on the benthic food web in stream impoundments.

Keywords: river functioning, chironomids, Alder tree, stable isotopes, methane oxidation, shredder

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Authors: Temenuzhka Spasova, Nadya Yanakieva

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Snow modulates the hydrological cycle and influences the functioning of ecosystems and is a significant resource for many populations whose water is harvested from cold regions. Snow observations are important for validating climate models. The accumulation and rapid melt of snow are two of the most dynamical seasonal environmental changes on the Earth’s surface. The actuality of this research is related to the modern tendencies of the remote sensing application in the solution of problems of different nature in the ecological monitoring of the environment. The subject of the study is the dynamic during the different seasons on Livingstone Island, South Shetland Islands in Antarctica and on Svalbard in Arctic. The objects were analyzed and mapped according to the Еuropean Space Agency data (ESA), acquired by sensors Sentinel-1 SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), Sentinel 2 MSI and GIS. Results have been obtained for changes in snow coverage during the summer-winter transition and its dynamics in the two hemispheres. The data used is of high time-spatial resolution, which is an advantage when looking at the snow cover. The MSI images are with different spatial resolution at the Earth surface range. The changes of the environmental objects are shown with the SAR images and different processing approaches. The results clearly show that snow and snow melting can be best registered by using SAR data via hh- horizontal polarization. The effect of the researcher on aerospace data and technology enables us to obtain different digital models, structuring and analyzing results excluding the subjective factor. Because of the large extent of terrestrial snow coverage and the difficulties in obtaining ground measurements over cold regions, remote sensing and GIS represent an important tool for studying snow areas and properties from regional to global scales.

Keywords: climate changes, GIS, remote sensing, SAR images, snow coverage

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Authors: Vivek B. Ravindran, Aravind Surapaneni, Rebecca Traub, Sarvesh K. Soni, Andrew S. Ball

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Parasitic diseases have a devastating, long-term impact on human health and welfare. More than two billion people are infected with soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), including the roundworms (Ascaris), hookworms (Necator and Ancylostoma) and whipworm (Trichuris) with majority occurring in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Despite its low prevalence in developed countries, the removal of STHs from wastewater remains crucial to allow the safe use of sludge or recycled water in agriculture. Conventional methods such as incubation and optical microscopy are cumbersome; consequently, the results drastically vary from person-to-person observing the ova (eggs) under microscope. Although PCR-based methods are an alternative to conventional techniques, it lacks the ability to distinguish between viable and non-viable helminth ova. As a result, wastewater treatment industries are in major need for radically new and innovative tools to detect and quantify STHs eggs with precision, accuracy and being cost-effective. In our study, we focus on the following novel and innovative techniques: -Recombinase polymerase amplification and Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (RPA-SERS) based detection of helminth ova. -Use of metal nanoparticles and their relative nanozyme activity. -Colorimetric detection, differentiation and enumeration of genera of helminth ova using hydrolytic enzymes (chitinase and lipase). -Propidium monoazide (PMA)-qPCR to detect viable helminth ova. -Modified assay to recover and enumerate helminth eggs from fresh raw sewage. -Transcriptome analysis of ascaris ova in fresh raw sewage. The aforementioned techniques have the potential to replace current conventional and molecular methods thereby producing a standard protocol for the determination and enumeration of helminth ova in sewage sludge.

Keywords: colorimetry, helminth, PMA-QPCR, nanoparticles, RPA, viable

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Authors: Aliro Villacorta, Laura Rubio, Mohamed Alaraby, Montserrat López Mesas, Victor Fuentes-Cebrian, Oscar H. Moriones, Ricard Marcos, Alba Hernández.

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Micro and nano plastics (MNPLs) are emergent environmental pollutants requiring urgent information on their potential risks to human health. One of the problems associated with the evaluation of their undesirable effects is the lack of real samples matching those resulting from the environmental degradation of plastic wastes. To such end, we propose an easy method to obtain polyethylene terephthalate nano plastics from water plastic bottles (PET-NPLs) but, in principle, applicable to any other plastic goods sources. An extensive characterization indicates that the proposed process produces uniform samples of PET-NPLs of around 100 nm, as determined by using a multi-angle and dynamic light scattering methodology. An important point to be highlighted is that to avoid the metal contamination resulting from methods using metal blades/burrs for milling, trituration, or sanding, we propose to use diamond burrs to produce metal-free samples. To visualize the toxicological profile of the produced PET-NPLs, we have evaluated their ability to be internalized by cells, their cytotoxicity, and their ability to induce oxidative stress and induce DNA damage. In this preliminary approach, we have detected their cellular uptake, but without the induction of significant biological effects. Thus, no relevant increases in toxicity, reactive oxygen species (ROS) induction, or DNA damage -as detected with the comet assay- have been observed. The use of real samples, as produced in this study, will generate relevant data in the discussion about the potential health risks associated with MNPLs exposures.

Keywords: nanoplastics, polyethylene terephthalate, physicochemical characterization, cell uptake, cytotoxicity

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Authors: Amir E. Amirzadeh, Richard K. Strand

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Moisture-induced problems are a significant concern for building owners, architects, construction managers, and building engineers, as they can have substantial impacts on building enclosures' durability and performance. Computational analyses, such as hygrothermal and thermal analysis, can provide valuable information and demonstrate the expected relative performance of building enclosure systems but are not grounded in absolute certainty. This paper evaluates the hygrothermal performance of common enclosure systems in hospitals in cold climates. The study aims to investigate the impact of exterior wall systems on hospitals, focusing on factors such as durability, construction deficiencies, and energy performance. The study primarily examines the impact of air leakage and vapor retarding layers relative to energy consumption. While these factors have been studied in residential and commercial buildings, there is a lack of information on their impact on hospitals in a holistic context. The study integrates various research studies and professional experience in hospital building design to achieve its objective. The methodology involves surveying and observing exterior wall assemblies, reviewing common exterior wall assemblies and details used in hospital construction, performing simulations and numerical analyses of various variables, validating the model and mechanism using available data from industry and academia, visualizing the outcomes of the analysis, and developing a mechanism to demonstrate the relative performance of exterior wall systems for hospitals under specific conditions. The data sources include case studies from real-world projects and peer-reviewed articles, industry standards, and practices. This research intends to integrate and analyze the in-situ and as-designed performance and durability of building enclosure assemblies with numerical analysis. The study's primary objective is to provide a clear and precise roadmap to better visualize and comprehend the correlation between the durability and performance of common exterior wall systems used in the construction of hospitals and the energy consumption of these buildings under certain static and dynamic conditions. As the construction of new hospitals and renovation of existing ones have grown over the last few years, it is crucial to understand the effect of poor detailing or construction deficiencies on building enclosure systems' performance and durability in healthcare buildings. This study aims to assist stakeholders involved in hospital design, construction, and maintenance in selecting durable and high-performing wall systems. It highlights the importance of early design evaluation, regular quality control during the construction of hospitals, and understanding the potential impacts of improper and inconsistent maintenance and operation practices on occupants, owner, building enclosure systems, and Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, even if they are designed to meet the project requirements.

Keywords: hygrothermal analysis, building enclosure, hospitals, energy efficiency, optimization and visualization, uncertainty and decision making

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Authors: Kaustav Mukherjee

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In this paper we propose a Neural Style Transfer solution whereby we have created a Lightweight Separable Convolution Kernel Based GAN Architecture (SC-GAN) which will very useful for designing filter for Mobile Phone Cameras and also Edge Devices which will convert any image to its 2D ANIMATED COMIC STYLE Movies like HEMAN, SUPERMAN, JUNGLE-BOOK. This will help the 2D animation artist by relieving to create new characters from real life person's images without having to go for endless hours of manual labour drawing each and every pose of a cartoon. It can even be used to create scenes from real life images.This will reduce a huge amount of turn around time to make 2D animated movies and decrease cost in terms of manpower and time. In addition to that being extreme light-weight it can be used as camera filters capable of taking Comic Style Shots using mobile phone camera or edge device cameras like Raspberry Pi 4,NVIDIA Jetson NANO etc. Existing Methods like CartoonGAN with the model size close to 170 MB is too heavy weight for mobile phones and edge devices due to their scarcity in resources. Compared to the current state of the art our proposed method which has a total model size of 31 MB which clearly makes it ideal and ultra-efficient for designing of camera filters on low resource devices like mobile phones, tablets and edge devices running OS or RTOS. .Owing to use of high resolution input and usage of bigger convolution kernel size it produces richer resolution Comic-Style Pictures implementation with 6 times lesser number of parameters and with just 25 extra epoch trained on a dataset of less than 1000 which breaks the myth that all GAN need mammoth amount of data. Our network reduces the density of the Gan architecture by using Depthwise Separable Convolution which does the convolution operation on each of the RGB channels separately then we use a Point-Wise Convolution to bring back the network into required channel number using 1 by 1 kernel.This reduces the number of parameters substantially and makes it extreme light-weight and suitable for mobile phones and edge devices. The architecture mentioned in the present paper make use of Parameterised Batch Normalization Goodfellow etc al. (Deep Learning OPTIMIZATION FOR TRAINING DEEP MODELS page 320) which makes the network to use the advantage of Batch Norm for easier training while maintaining the non-linear feature capture by inducing the learnable parameters

Keywords: comic stylisation from camera image using GAN, creating 2D animated movie style custom stickers from images, depth-wise separable convolutional neural network for light-weight GAN architecture for EDGE devices, GAN architecture for 2D animated cartoonizing neural style, neural style transfer for edge, model distilation, perceptual loss

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Authors: Anne R. Fernandez, Mohammad Akmal Adnan, Tanes Prasat, Indu Bala Jaganath, Brian Kirby, Kamalan Jeevaratnam

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Introduction: Plants from the Phyllantus genus have been used indigenously for the treatment of a variety of ailments for generations. A cocktail of phytonutrients prepared from a plant of the genus Phyllanthus has demonstrated the potential to alleviate ailments which include cardiovascular disorders. In this study, we investigated the cholesterol modulating properties of a highly purified proprietary extract of a Phyllanthus species in hypercholesteraemic mice. Methods: Hypercholesteraemia was induced in ICR mice by ad-libitum feeding of high fat diet daily for six weeks. The mice were then divided into 3 groups and force fed with 10mg/kg of atorvastatin, 200mg/kg of the proprietary Phyllanthus extract and water respectively. Blood samples were taken at the end of fourth week of treatment by a tail prick. At the end of the eighth week of treatment, mice were sacrificed and serum levels of total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and triglycerides were measured. Results: The mean cholesterol levels in the mice fed with high fat diet were 44% (p < 0.05) higher than the mice on normal diet thus validating the model developed. The plasma HDL was significantly elevated in mice treated with the formulation (p ˂ 0.05) in comparison to the statin-treated and control mice. The total cholesterol levels in the mice treated with the proprietary extract were reduced significantly (p < 0.05) at the end of 4 weeks of treatment in comparison to the mice treated with atorvastatin. By the end of 8 weeks of treatment, there was no significant difference in the cholesterol levels of the mice in all groups. Conclusion: These results demonstrate that this proprietary extract from Phyllanthus species has the beneficial effect of reducing total cholesterol level more rapidly than atorvastatin and increasing HDL levels. Since an increase in the HDL cholesterol can reduce the risk of heart disease, this proprietary extract is a useful and safe therapeutic option compared to atorvastatin.

Keywords: high-density lipoprotein, hypercholesteraemic mice model, ICR mice, Phyllanthus spp.

Procedia PDF Downloads 437

Authors: M. Lu

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The paper presents part of the results of EU-funded projects: SoCool@EU (Sustainable Organisation between Clusters Of Optimized Logistics @ Europe), DG-RTD (Research and Innovation), Regions of Knowledge Programme (FP7-REGIONS-2011-1). It will provide an in-depth review of emerging technologies for further improving urban mobility and freight transport systems, such as (information and physical) infrastructure, ICT-based Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), vehicles, advanced logistics, and services. Furthermore, the paper will provide an analysis of the barriers and will review business models for the market uptake of innovations. From a perspective of science and technology, the challenges of urbanization could be mainly handled through adequate (human-oriented) solutions for urban planning, sustainable energy, the water system, building design and construction, the urban transport system (both physical and information aspects), and advanced logistics and services. Implementation of solutions for these domains should be follow a highly integrated and balanced approach, a silo approach should be avoided. To develop a sustainable urban transport system (for people and goods), including inter-hubs and intra-hubs, a holistic view is needed. To achieve a sustainable transport system for people and goods (in terms of cost-effectiveness, efficiency, environment-friendliness and fulfillment of the mobility, transport and logistics needs of the society), a proper network and information infrastructure, advanced transport systems and operations, as well as ad hoc and seamless services are required. In addition, a road map for an enhanced urban transport system until 2050 will be presented. This road map aims to address the challenges of urban transport, and to provide best practices in inter-city and intra-city environments from various perspectives, including policy, traveler behaviour, economy, liability, business models, and technology.

Keywords: synchromodality, multimodal transport, logistics, Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS)

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Authors: Todor Nickolov Stoyanov

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Cooperatives are present in all countries and in almost all sectors, including agriculture, forestry, food, finance, health, marketing, insurance and credit. Strong cooperatives are able to overcome many of the difficulties faced by private owners. Cooperatives use seven principles, including the 'Community Concern" principle, which enables cooperatives to work for the sustainable development of the community. The members of cooperatives may use different systems for generating year-round employment and for receiving sustainable income through performing different forestry activities. Various methods are used during the preparation of the report. These include literature reviews, statistics, secondary data and expert interviews. The members of the cooperatives are benefits exclusively from increasing the efficiency of the various products and from the overall yield of the harvest, and ultimately from achieving better profit through cooperative efforts. Cooperatives also use other types of activities that are an additional opportunity for cooperative income. There are many heterogeneous activities in the production and service sectors of the forest cooperatives under consideration. Some cooperatives serve dairies, distilleries, woodworking enterprises, tourist homes, hotels and motels, shops, ski slopes, sheep breeding, etc. Through the revenue generated by the activity, cooperatives have the opportunity to carry out various environmental and protective activities - recreation, water protection, protection of endangered and endemic species, etc., which in the case of small-scale forests cannot be achieved and the management is not sustainable. The conclusions indicate the results received in the analysis. Cooperative management of forests and forest lands gives higher incomes to individual owners. The management of forests and forest lands through cooperatives helps to carry out different environmental and protective activities. Cooperative forest management provides additional means of subsistence to the owners of poor forest lands. Cooperative management of forests and forest lands support owners to implement the forest management plans and to apply sustainable management of these territories.

Keywords: cooperative, forestry, forest owners, principles of cooperation

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Authors: L.L. Costa, A. M. G. Brito, S. Khan, L. Schaeffer

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Microstructure resulting from the forging process is studied as a function of variables such as temperature, deformation, austenite grain size and cooling rate. The purpose of this work is to study the thermomechanical behavior of DIN 42CrMo4 (AISI 4140) steel maintained at the temperatures of 900°, 1000°, 1100° and 1200°C for the austenization times of 22, 66 and 200 minutes each and subsequently forged. These samples were quenched in water in order to study the austenite grain and to investigate the microstructure instead of quenching the annealed samples after forging they were cooled down naturally in the air. The morphologies and properties of the materials such as hardness; prepared by these two different routes have been compared. In addition to the forging experiments, the numerical simulation using the finite element model (FEM), microhardness profiles and metallography images have been presented. Forging force vs position curves has been compared with metallographic results for each annealing condition. The microstructural phenomena resulting from the hot conformation proved that longer austenization time and higher temperature decrease the forging force in the curves. The complete recrystallization phenomenon (static, dynamic and meta dynamic) was observed at the highest temperature and longest time i.e., the samples austenized for 200 minutes at 1200ºC. However, higher hardness of the quenched samples was obtained when the temperature was 900ºC for 66 minutes. The phases observed in naturally cooled samples were exclusively ferrite and perlite, but the continuous cooling diagram indicates the presence of austenite and bainite. The morphology of the phases of naturally cooled samples has shown that the phase arrangement and the previous austenitic grain size are the reasons to high hardness in obtained samples when temperature were 900ºC and 1100ºC austenization times of 22 and 66 minutes, respectively.

Keywords: austenization time, thermomechanical effects, forging process, steel AISI 4140

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Authors: R. S. Komartin, B. Balanuca, R. Stan

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the last decades, studies about the use of polymeric materials of plant origin, considering environmental concerns, have captured the interest of researchers because these represent an alternative to petroleum-derived materials. Vegetable oils are one of the preferred alternatives for petroleum-based raw materials having long aliphatic chains similar to hydrocarbons which means that can be processed using conventional chemistry. Epoxidized vegetable oils (EVO) are among the most interesting products derived from oil both for their high reactivity (epoxy group) and for the potential to react with compounds from various classes. As in the case of epoxy resins starting from petrochemical raw materials, those obtained from EVO can be crosslinked with different agents to build polymeric networks and can also be reinforced with various additives to improve their thermal and mechanical performances. Among the multitude of known EVO, the most common in industrial practice are epoxidized linseed oils (ELO) and epoxidized soybean oils (ESO), the first with an iodine index over 180, the second having a lower iodine index but being cheaper. On the other hand, lignin (Ln) is the second natural organic material as a spread, whose use has long been hampered because of the high costs associated with its isolation and purification. In this context, our goal was to obtain new composite materials with satisfactory intermediate properties in terms of stiffness and elasticity using the characteristics of ELO and Ln and choosing the proper curing procedure. In the present study linseed oil (LO) epoxidation was performed using peracetic acid generated in situ. The obtained bio-based epoxy resin derived from linseed oil was used further to produce the new composites byloading Ln in various mass ratios. The resulted ELO-Ln blends were subjected to a dual-curing protocol, namely photochemical and thermal. The new ELO-Ln composites were investigated by FTIR spectrometry, thermal stability, water affinity, and morphology. The positive effect of lignin regarding the thermal stability of the composites could be proved. The results highlight again the still largely unexplored potential of lignin in industrial applications.

Keywords: composite materials, dual curing, epoxidized linseed oil, lignin

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Authors: Ergin Kosa, Ali Göksenli

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Erosion and abrasion are wear mechanisms reducing the lifetime of machine elements like valves, pump and pipe systems. Both wear mechanisms are acting at the same time, causing a “Synergy” effect, which leads to a rapid damage of the surface. Different parameters are effective on erosive abrasive wear rate. In this study effect of particle impact angle on wear rate and wear mechanism of ductile and brittle materials was investigated. A new slurry pot was designed for experimental investigation. As abrasive particle, silica sand was used. Particle size was ranking between 200-500 µm. All tests were carried out in a sand-water mixture of 20% concentration for four hours. Impact velocities of the particles were 4,76 m/s. As ductile material steel St 37 with Brinell Hardness Number (BHN) of 245 and quenched St 37 with 510 BHN was used as brittle material. After wear tests, morphology of the eroded surfaces were investigated for better understanding of the wear mechanisms acting at different impact angles by using optical microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscope. The results indicated that wear rate of ductile material was higher than brittle material. Maximum wear was observed by ductile material at a particle impact angle of 300. On the contrary wear rate increased by brittle materials by an increase in impact angle and reached maximum value at 450. High amount of craters were detected after observation on ductile material surface Also plastic deformation zones were detected, which are typical failure modes for ductile materials. Craters formed by particles were deeper according to brittle material worn surface. Amount of craters decreased on brittle material surface. Microcracks around craters were detected which are typical failure modes of brittle materials. Deformation wear was the dominant wear mechanism on brittle material. At the end it is concluded that wear rate could not be directly related to impact angle of the hard particle due to the different responses of ductile and brittle materials.

Keywords: erosive wear, particle impact angle, silica sand, wear rate, ductile-brittle material

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Authors: Ioanna Skoufali

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The present study is directed towards adaptation to climate change closely related to the phenomenon of the urban heat island (UHI). This issue is widespread and common to different urban realities, but particularly in Mediterranean cities that are characterized by dense urban. The attention of this work of redevelopment of the open space is focused on mitigation techniques aiming to solve local problems such as microclimatic parameters and the conditions of thermal comfort in summer, related to urban morphology. This quantitative analysis, evaluation, and verification survey involves the methodological elaboration applied in a real study case by Serres, through the experimental support of the ENVImet Pro V4.1 and BioMet software developed: i) in two phases concerning the anteoperam (phase a1 # 2013) and the post-operam (phase a2 # 2016); ii) in scenario A (+ 25% of green # 2017). The first study tends to identify the main intervention strategies, namely: the application of cool pavements, the increase of green surfaces, the creation of water surface and external fans; moreover, it obtains the minimum results achieved by the National Program 'Bioclimatic improvement project for public open space', EPPERAA (ESPA 2007-2013) related to the four environmental parameters illustrated below: the TAir = 1.5 o C, the TSurface = 6.5 o C, CDH = 30% and PET = 20%. In addition, the second study proposes a greater potential for improvement than postoperam intervention by increasing the vegetation within the district towards the SW/SE. The final objective of this in-depth design is to be transferable in homogeneous cases of urban regeneration processes with obvious effects on the efficiency of microclimatic mitigation and thermal comfort.

Keywords: cool pavements, microclimate parameters (TAir, Tsurface, Tmrt, CDH), mitigation strategies, outdoor thermal comfort (PET & UTCI)

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Authors: Liliane Samara Ferreira Leite, Francys Kley Vieira Moreira, Luiz Henrique Capparelli Mattoso

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The increasing environmental concern regarding the plastic pollution worldwide has stimulated the development of low-cost biodegradable materials. Proteins are renewable feedstocks that could be used to produce biodegradable plastics. Gelatin, for example, is a cheap film-forming protein extracted from animal skin and connective tissues of Brazilian Livestock residues; thus it has a good potential in low-cost biodegradable plastic production. However, gelatin plastics are limited in terms of mechanical and barrier properties. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) are efficient nanofillers that have been used to extend physical properties of polymers. This work was aimed at evaluating the reinforcing efficiency of CNC on gelatin films. Specifically, we have employed the continuous casting as the processing method for obtaining the gelatin/CNC bionanocomposites. This required a first rheological study for assessing the effect of gelatin-CNC and CNC-CNC interactions on the colloidal state of the aqueous bionanocomposite formulations. CNC were isolated from eucalyptus pulp by sulfuric acid hydrolysis (65 wt%) at 55 °C for 30 min. Gelatin was solubilized in ultra-pure water at 85°C for 20 min and then mixed with glycerol at 20 wt.% and CNC at 0.5 wt%, 1.0 wt% and 2.5 wt%. Rotational measurements were performed to determine linear viscosity (η) of bionanocomposite solutions, which increased with increasing CNC content. At 2.5 wt% CNC, η increased by 118% regarding the neat gelatin solution, which was ascribed to percolation CNC network formation. Storage modulus (G’) and loss modulus (G″) further determined by oscillatory tests revealed that a gel-like behavior was dominant in the bionanocomposite solutions (G’ > G’’) over a broad range of temperature (20 – 85 °C), particularly at 2.5 wt% CNC. These results confirm effective interactions in the aqueous gelatin-CNC bionanocomposites that could substantially increase the physical properties of the gelatin plastics. Tensile tests are underway to confirm this hypothesis. The authors would like to thank the Fapesp (process n 2016/03080-3) for support.

Keywords: bionanocomposites, cellulose nanocrystals, gelatin, viscoelastic characterization

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Authors: Ahmed Stifi, Sascha Gentes

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The German nuclear industry, while implementing the German policy, believes that the journey towards the green-field, namely phasing out of nuclear energy, should be achieved through green techniques. The most important techniques required for the wide range of decommissioning activities are decontamination techniques, cutting techniques, radioactivity measuring techniques, remote control techniques, techniques for worker and environmental protection and techniques for treating, preconditioning and conditioning nuclear waste. Many decontamination techniques are used for removing contamination from metal, concrete or other surfaces like the scales inside pipes. As the pipeline system is one of the important components of nuclear power plants, the process of decontamination in tubing is of more significance. The development of energy sectors like oil sector, gas sector and nuclear sector, since the middle of 20th century, increased the pipeline industry and the research in the decontamination of tubing in each sector is found to serve each other. The extraction of natural products and material through the pipeline can result in scale formation. These scales can be radioactively contaminated through an accumulation process especially in the petrochemical industry when oil and gas are extracted from the underground reservoir. The radioactivity measured in these scales can be significantly high and pose a great threat to people and the environment. At present, the decontamination process involves using high pressure water jets with or without abrasive material and this technology produces a high amount of secondary waste. In order to overcome it, the research team within Karlsruhe Institute of Technology developed a new sustainable method to carry out the decontamination of tubing without producing any secondary waste. This method is based on vibration technique which removes scales and also does not require any auxiliary materials. The outcome of the research project proves that the vibration technique used for decontamination of tubing is environmental friendly in other words a sustainable technique.

Keywords: sustainable technologies, decontamination, pipeline, nuclear industry

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Authors: Ricky Saputra, Rashmi Walvekar, Mohammad Khalid

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Landfills, water contamination, and toxic gas emission are a few impacts faced by the environment due to the increasing number of αof waste rubber tires (WRT). In spite of such concerning issue, only minimal efforts are taken to reclaim or recycle these wastes as their products are generally not-profitable for companies. Unlike the typical reclamation process, devulcanization is a method to selectively cleave sulfidic bonds within vulcanizates to avoid polymeric scissions that compromise elastomer’s mechanical and tensile properties. The process also produces devulcanizates that are re-processable similar to virgin rubber. Often, a devulcanizing agent is needed. In the current study, novel and sustainable ammonium chloride-based ternary deep eutectic solvents (TDES), with a different number of α-hydrogens, were utilised to devulcanize ground rubber tire (GRT) as an effort to implement green chemistry to tackle such issue. 40-mesh GRT were soaked for 1 day with different TDESs and sonicated at 37-80 kHz for 60-120 mins and heated at 100-140oC for 30-90 mins. Devulcanizates were then filtered, dried, and evaluated based on the percentage of by means of Flory-Rehner calculation and swelling index. The result shows that an increasing number of α-Hs increases the degree of devulcanization, and the value achieved was around eighty-percent, thirty percent higher than the typical industrial-autoclave method. Resulting bondages of devulcanizates were also analysed by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), Horikx fitting, and thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). The earlier two confirms only sulfidic scissions were experienced by GRT through the treatment, while the latter proves the absence or negligibility of carbon-chains scission.

Keywords: ammonium, sustainable, deep eutectic solvent, α-hydrogen, waste rubber tire

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Authors: Malay K. Das, Bhanu P. Sahu

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Furosemide is a weakly acidic diuretic indicated for treatment of edema and hypertension. It has very poor solubility but high permeability through stomach and upper gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Due to its limited solubility it has poor and variable oral bioavailability of 10-90%. The aim of this study was to enhance the oral bioavailability of furosemide by preparation of nanosuspensions. The nanosuspensions were prepared by nanoprecipitation with sonication using DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) as a solvent and water as an antisolvent (NA). The prepared nanosuspensions were sterically stabilized with polyvinyl acetate (PVA).These were characterized for particle size, ζ potential, polydispersity index, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern and release behavior. The effect of nanoprecipitation on oral bioavailability of furosemide nanosuspension was studied by in vitro dissolution and in vivo absorption study in rats and compared to pure drug. The stable nanosuspension was obtained with average size range of the precipitated nanoparticles between 150-300 nm and was found to be homogenous showing a narrow polydispersity index of 0.3±0.1. DSC and XRD studies indicated that the crystalline furosemide drug was converted to amorphous form upon precipitation into nanoparticles. The release profiles of nanosuspension formulation showed up to 81.2% release in 4 h. The in vivo studies on rats revealed a significant increase in the oral absorption of furosemide in the nanosuspension compared to pure drug. The AUC0→24 and Cmax values of nanosuspension were approximately 1.38 and 1.68-fold greater than that of pure drug, respectively. Furosemide nanosuspension showed 20.06±0.02 % decrease in systolic blood pressure compared to 13.37±0.02 % in plain furosemide suspension, respectively. The improved oral bioavailability and pharmacodynamics effect of furosemide may be due to the improved dissolution of furosemide in simulated gastric fluid which results in enhanced oral systemic absorption of furosemide from stomach region where it has better permeability.

Keywords: furosemide, nanosuspension, bioavailability enhancement, nanoprecipitation, oral drug delivery

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Authors: Kayode Fatokun, Nozipho N. Motsa

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Field experiments were carried out during the summer/autumn (first trial) and winter/spring (second trial) seasons of 2019 and 2021 inDlangubo, Ngwelezane, and Mtubatubaareas of KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa to study the drought amelioration effects and impact of 2 locally available organic wastes [filter cake (FC) and macadamia husk compost (MHC)] on the productivity, and physiological responses of 4 orange-fleshed sweet potato cultivars (Buregard cv., Impilo, W-119 and 199062.1). The effects of FC and MHC were compared with that of inorganic fertilizer (IF) [2:3:2 (30)], FC+IF, MHC+IF, and control. The soil amendments were applied in the first trials only. Climatic data such as humidity, temperature, and rainfall were taken via remote sensing. The results of the first trial indicated that filter cake and IF significantly performed better than MHC. While the strength of filter cake may be attributable to its rich array of mineral nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, zinc, copper, manganese, iron, and phosphorus. The little performance from MHC may be attributable to its water holding capacity. Also, a positive correction occurred between the yield of the test OFSP cultivars and climatic factors such as rainfall, NDVI, and NDWI values. Whereas the inorganic fertilizer did not have any significant effect on the growth and productivity of any of the tested sweet potato cultivars in the second trial; FC, and MHC largely maintained their significant performances. In conclusion, the use of FC is highly recommended in the production of the test orange-fleshed sweet potato cultivars. Also, the study indicated that both FC and MHC may not only supply the needed plant nutrients but has the capacity to reduce the impact of drought on the growth of the test cultivars. These findings are of great value to farmers, especially the resource-poorones.

Keywords: amendments, drought, filter cake, macadamia husk compost, sweet potato

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Authors: Richard Adu Antwako

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Coastal wetland destruction and its consequences have recently taken the center stage of global discussions. This phenomenon is no gray area to humanity as coastal wetland-human interaction seems inevitably ingrained in the earliest civilizations, amidst the demanding use of its resources to meet their necessities. The severity of coastal wetland destruction parallels with growing civilizations, and it is against this backdrop that, this paper interrogated the causes of coastal wetland destruction in Harper City in Liberia, compared the degree of coastal wetland stressors to the non-equilibrium thermodynamic scale as well as suggested an integrated coastal zone management to address the problems. Literature complemented the primary data gleaned via global positioning system devices, field observation, questionnaire, and interviews. Multi-sampling techniques were used to generate data from the sand miners, institutional heads, fisherfolk, community-based groups, and other stakeholders. Non-equilibrium thermodynamic theory remains vibrant in discerning the ecological stability, and it would be employed to further understand the coastal wetland destruction in Harper City, Liberia and to measure the coastal wetland stresses-amplitude and elasticity. The non-equilibrium thermodynamics postulates that the coastal wetlands are capable of assimilating resources (inputs), as well as discharging products (outputs). However, the input-output relationship exceedingly stretches beyond the thresholds of the coastal wetlands, leading to coastal wetland disequilibrium. Findings revealed that the sand mining, mangrove removal, and crude dumping have transformed the coastal wetlands, resulting in water pollution, flooding, habitat loss and disfigured beaches in Harper City in Liberia. This paper demonstrates that the coastal wetlands are converted into developmental projects and agricultural fields, thus, endangering the future society against nature.

Keywords: amplitude, crude dumping, elasticity, non-equilibrium thermodynamics, wetland destruction

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Authors: W. Stawiński, A. Wegrzyn, O. M. Freitas, S. A. Figueiredo

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Water is a life supporting resource, crucial for humanity and essential for natural ecosystems, which have been endangered by developing industry and increasing human population. Dyes are common in effluents discharged by various industries such as paper, plastics, food, cosmetics, and textile. They produce toxic effects on animals and disturb natural biological processes in receiving waters. Having complex molecular structure and resistance to biological decomposition they are problematic and difficult to be treated by conventional methods. In the search of efficient and sustainable method, sorption has been getting more interest in application to wastewaters treatment. Clays are minerals that have a layer structure based on phyllosilicate sheets that may carry a charge, which is balanced by ions located between the sheets. These charge-balancing ions can be exchanged resulting in very good ion-exchange properties of the material. Modifications of clays enhance their properties, producing a good and inexpensive sorbent for the removal of pollutants from wastewaters. The presented work proves that the treatment of a clay, vermiculite, with nitric acid followed by washing in citric acid strongly increases the sorption of two cationic dyes, methylene blue (C.I. 52015) and astrazon red (C.I. 110825). Desorption studies showed that the best eluent for regeneration is a solution of NaCl in ethanol. Cycles of sorption and desorption in column system showed no significant deterioration of sorption capacity and proved that the material shows a very good performance as sorbent, which can be recycled and reused. The results obtained open new possibilities of further modifications on vermiculite and modifications of other materials in order to get very efficient sorbents useful for wastewater treatment.

Keywords: cationic dyestuffs, sorption and regeneration, vermiculite, wastewater treatment

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Authors: Yusuf Hussaini Atulukwu, Daramola Japheth, Tabitit S. Tabiti, Daramola Elizabeth Lara

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In view of the recent limitations faced by the township concerning poorly constructed and in some cases non - existence of drainage facilities that resulted into incessant flooding in some parts of the community poses threat to life,property and the environment. The research seeks to address this issue by showing the spatial distribution of drainage network in Bida Urban using Geographic information System techniques. Relevant features were extracted from existing Bida based Map using un-screen digitization and x, y, z, data of existing drainages were acquired using handheld Global Positioning System (GPS). These data were uploaded into ArcGIS 9.2, software, and stored in the relational database structure that was used to produce the spatial data drainage network of the township. The result revealed that about 40 % of the drainages are blocked with sand and refuse, 35 % water-logged as a result of building across erosion channels and dilapidated bridges as a result of lack of drainage along major roads. The study thus concluded that drainage network systems in Bida community are not in good working condition and urgent measures must be initiated in order to avoid future disasters especially with the raining season setting in. Based on the above findings, the study therefore recommends that people within the locality should avoid dumping municipal waste within the drainage path while sand blocked or weed blocked drains should be clear by the authority concerned. In the same vein the authority should ensured that contract of drainage construction be awarded to professionals and all the natural drainages caused by erosion should be addressed to avoid future disasters.

Keywords: drainage network, spatial, digitization, relational database, waste

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: Luís Miguel Estevão Cristóvão, Constâncio Augusto Machanguana, Fernando Chichango, Salvador Grande

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Sub-Saharan African nations depend greatly on agriculture, a sector mainly marked by low production. Most of the farmers live in rural areas and employ basic labor-intensive technologies that lead to time inefficiencies and low overall effectiveness. Even with attempts to enhance farmers’ welfare through improved seeds and fertilizers, meaningful outcomes are yet to be achieved due to huge amounts of post-harvest losses. Such losses significantly endanger food security, economic stability, and result in unsustainable agricultural practices because more land, water, labor, energy, fertilizer, and other inputs must be used to produce more food. Drying, as a critical post-harvest process involving simultaneous heat and mass transfer, deserves attention. Among alternative green-energy sources, solar energy-based drying garners attention, particularly for small-scale farmers in remote communities. However, the intermittent nature of solar radiation poses challenges. To address this, energy storage solutions like rock-based thermal energy storage offer cost-effective solutions tailored to the needs of farmers. Methodologically, three solar dryers were constructed of metal, wood, and clay brick. Several tests were carried out with and without energy storage material. Notably, it has been demonstrated that soapstone stands out as a promising material due to its affordability and high specific energy capacity. By implementing these greener technologies, Sub-Saharan African countries could mitigate post-harvest losses, enhance food availability, improve nutrition, and promote sustainable resource utilization.

Keywords: energy storage, food security, post-harvest, solar dryer

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Authors: Zahra Bahadoran, Parvin Mirmiran, Hanieh-Sadat Ejtahed, Maryam Tohidi, Fereidoun Azizi

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Background and Aim: Broccoli sprouts, rich source of bioactive compounds specially sulforaphane (SFN), have unique functional properties. This study was conducted to investigate the possible treatment effects of high-SFN broccoli sprouts powder on metabolic and liver disorders in rats fed with high-fructose corn syrup. Methods: Thirty-two male wistar rats, pretreated with an eight-week high-fructose diet (water containing 30% fructose), were randomly allocated into three groups: Baseline control (BC), control (C) (normal diet), and BSP-diet (normal diet+5% BSP). The duration of the study was 6 weeks. Biochemical measurements, liver weight and triglyceride content were evaluated and histopathological examination of liver was performed. Results: After 6-weeks, the liver weight was significantly lower in BSP group compared to controls (13.4 g vs. 11.4 g, P<0.05). After 6 weeks, a significant decrease was observed in fasting serum glucose, total cholesterol and triglyceride levels in both experimental groups (P<0.05). Compared to controls, serum levels of HDL-C were significantly higher in BSP group. The liver TG content in BSP compared to control group was lower (14.6 vs. 16.4 mg/mg tissue). The hepatic levels of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and γ-glutamyl transferase had not considerable changes in the groups after the intervention period but the level of alkaline phosphatase significantly decreased in BSP group (P<0.05). The histopathological examination of liver confirmed a decrease lobular and portal inflammation and ballooning in BSP group compared to control. Conclusion: High-SFN broccoli sprouts powder has beneficials effect on metabolic and liver changes-induced by high fructose corn syrup.

Keywords: broccoli sprouts, metabolic disorders, fatty liver, food science

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Authors: Masood Otarod, Ronald M. Supkowski

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This abstract discusses a method that reduces the general dispersion model in cylindrical coordinates to a second order linear ordinary differential equation with constant coefficients so that it can be utilized to conduct kinetic studies in packed bed tubular catalytic reactors at a broad range of Reynolds numbers. The model was tested by 13CO isotope transient tracing of the CO adsorption of Boudouard reaction in a differential reactor at an average Reynolds number of 0.2 over Pd-Al2O3 catalyst. Detailed experimental results have provided evidence for the validity of the theoretical framing of the model and the estimated parameters are consistent with the literature. The solution of the general dispersion model requires the knowledge of the radial distribution of axial velocity. This is not always known. Hence, up until now, the implementation of the dispersion model has been largely restricted to the plug-flow regime. But, ideal plug-flow is impossible to achieve and flow regimes approximating plug-flow leave much room for debate as to the validity of the results. The reduction of the general dispersion model transpires as a result of the application of a factorization theorem. Factorization theorem is derived from the observation that a cross section of a catalytic bed consists of a solid phase across which the reaction takes place and a void or porous phase across which no significant measure of reaction occurs. The disparity in flow and the heterogeneity of the catalytic bed cause the concentration of reacting compounds to fluctuate radially. These variabilities signify the existence of radial positions at which the radial gradient of concentration is zero. Succinctly, factorization theorem states that a concentration function of axial and radial coordinates in a catalytic bed is factorable as the product of the mean radial cup-mixing function and a contingent dimensionless function. The concentration of adsorbed compounds are also factorable since they are piecewise continuous functions and suffer the same variability but in the reverse order of the concentration of mobile phase compounds. Factorability is a property of packed beds which transforms the general dispersion model to an equation in terms of the measurable mean radial cup-mixing concentration of the mobile phase compounds and mean cross-sectional concentration of adsorbed species. The reduced model does not require the knowledge of the radial distribution of the axial velocity. Instead, it is characterized by new transport parameters so denoted by Ωc, Ωa, Ωc, and which are respectively denominated convection coefficient cofactor, axial dispersion coefficient cofactor, and radial dispersion coefficient cofactor. These cofactors adjust the dispersion equation as compensation for the unavailability of the radial distribution of the axial velocity. Together with the rest of the kinetic parameters they can be determined from experimental data via an optimization procedure. Our data showed that the estimated parameters Ωc, Ωa Ωr, are monotonically correlated with the Reynolds number. This is expected to be the case based on the theoretical construct of the model. Computer generated simulations of methanation reaction on nickel provide additional support for the utility of the newly conceptualized dispersion model.

Keywords: factorization, general dispersion model, isotope transient kinetic, partial differential equations

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Authors: Weldeabrha Kiros Kidanemaryam, DepaTesfay Kelali Gidey, Yikaalo Welu Kidanemariam

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Dairy services are considered as sources of income, employment, nutrition and health for smallholder rural and urban farmers. The main objective of this study is to assess the interlinkage of dairy farms and small-scale dairy processing in Mekelle, Tigray. To achieve the stated objective, a descriptive research approach was employed where data was collected from 45 dairy farmers and 40 small-scale processors and analyzed by calculating the mean values and percentages. Findings show that the dairy business in the study area is characterized by a shortage of feed and water for the farm. The dairy farm is dominated by breeds of hybrid type, followed by the so called ‘begait’. Though the farms have access to medication and vaccination for the cattle, they fell short of hygiene practices, reliable shade for the cattle and separate space for the claves. The value chain at the milk production stage is characterized by a low production rate, selling raw milk without adding value and a very meager traditional processing practice. Furthermore, small-scale milk processors are characterized by collecting milk from farmers and producing cheese, butter, ghee and sour milk. They do not engage in modern milk processing like pasteurized milk, yogurt and table butter. Most small-scale milk processors are engaged in traditional production systems. Additionally, the milk consumption and marketing part of the chain is dominated by the informal market (channel), where market problems, lack of skill and technology, shortage of loans and weak policy support are being faced as the main challenges. Based on the findings, recommendations and future research areas are forwarded.

Keywords: value-chain, dairy, milk production, milk processing

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Authors: Alaa Fezai, Anuj Sharma, Wolfgang Mueller-Hirsch, André Zimmermann

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Viscoelastic materials have been widely used in the automotive industry over the last few decades with different functionalities. Besides their main application as a simple and efficient surface damping treatment, they may ensure optimal operating conditions for on-board electronics as thermal interface or sealing layers. The dynamic behavior of viscoelastic materials is generally dependent on many environmental factors, the most important being temperature and strain rate or frequency. Prior to the reliability analysis of systems including viscoelastic layers, it is, therefore, crucial to accurately predict the dynamic and lifetime behavior of these materials. This includes the identification of the dynamic material parameters under critical temperature and frequency conditions along with a precise damage localization and identification methodology. The goal of this work is twofold. The first part aims at applying an inverse viscoelastic material-characterization approach for a wide frequency range and under different temperature conditions. For this sake, dynamic measurements are carried on a single lap joint specimen using an electrodynamic shaker and an environmental chamber. The specimen consists of aluminum beams assembled to adapter plates through a viscoelastic adhesive layer. The experimental setup is reproduced in finite element (FE) simulations, and frequency response functions (FRF) are calculated. The parameters of both the generalized Maxwell model and the fractional derivatives model are identified through an optimization algorithm minimizing the difference between the simulated and the measured FRFs. The second goal of the current work is to guarantee an on-line detection of the damage, i.e., delamination in the viscoelastic bonding of the described specimen during frequency monitored end-of-life testing. For this purpose, an inverse technique, which determines the damage location and size based on the modal frequency shift and on the change of the mode shapes, is presented. This includes a preliminary FE model-based study correlating the delamination location and size to the change in the modal parameters and a subsequent experimental validation achieved through dynamic measurements of specimen with different, pre-generated crack scenarios and comparing it to the virgin specimen. The main advantage of the inverse characterization approach presented in the first part resides in the ability of adequately identifying the material damping and stiffness behavior of soft viscoelastic materials over a wide frequency range and under critical temperature conditions. Classic forward characterization techniques such as dynamic mechanical analysis are usually linked to limitations under critical temperature and frequency conditions due to the material behavior of soft viscoelastic materials. Furthermore, the inverse damage detection described in the second part guarantees an accurate prediction of not only the damage size but also its location using a simple test setup and outlines; therefore, the significance of inverse numerical-experimental approaches in predicting the dynamic behavior of soft bonding layers applied in automotive electronics.

Keywords: damage detection, dynamic characterization, inverse approaches, vibration testing, viscoelastic layers

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Authors: Vrinda P. S. Borker

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Major water pollutants are dyes from effluents of industries. Different methods have been tried to degrade or treat the effluent before it is left to the environment. In order to understand the degradation process and later apply it to effluents, solar degradation study of methylene blue (MB) and methyl red (MR), the model dyes was carried out in the presence of photo-catalysts, the oxides of cobalt oxide Co₃O₄, and copper doped cobalt oxides (Co₀.₉Cu₀.₁)₃O₄ and (Co₀.₉₅Cu₀.₀₅)₃O₄. They were prepared from oxalate complex and hydrazinated oxalate complex of cobalt as well as mix metals, copper, and cobalt. The complexes were synthesized and characterized by FTIR. Complexes were decomposed to form oxides and were characterized by XRD. They were found to be monophasic. Solar degradation of MR and MB was carried out in presence of these oxides in acidic and basic medium. Degradation was faster in alkaline medium in the presence of Co₃O₄ obtained from hydrazinated oxalate. Doping of nanomaterial oxides modifies their characteristics. Doped cobalt oxides are found to photo-decolourise MR in alkaline media efficiently. In the absence of photocatalyst, solar degradation of alkaline MR does not occur. In acidic medium, MR is minimally decolorized even in the presence of photocatalysts. The industrial textile effluent contains chemicals like NaCl and Na₂CO₃ along with the unabsorbed dye. It is reported that these two chemicals hamper the degradation of dye. The chemicals like K₂S₂O₈ and H₂O₂ are reported to enhance degradation. The solar degradation study of MB in presence of photocatalyst (Co₀.₉Cu₀.₁)₃O₄ and these four chemicals reveals that presence of K₂S₂O₈ and H₂O₂ enhances degradation. It proves that H₂O₂ generates hydroxyl ions required for degradation of dye and the sulphate anion radical being strong oxidant attacks dye molecules leading to its fragmentation rapidly. Thus addition of K₂S₂O₈ and H₂O₂ during solar degradation in presence of (Co₀.₉Cu₀.₁)₃O₄ helps to break the organic moiety efficiently.

Keywords: cobalt oxides, Cu-doped cobalt oxides, H₂O₂ in dye degradation, photo-catalyst, solar dye degradation

Procedia PDF Downloads 166