Search results for: high temperature exposure
3685 Ballistics of Main Seat Ejection Cartridges for Aircraft Application
Authors: B. A. Parate, K. D. Deodhar, V. K. Dixit, V. Venkateswara Rao
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This article outlines the ballistics of main seat ejection cartridges for aircraft application. The ballistics of main seat ejection cartridges plays a vital role during the ejection of the pilot in an emergency. The ballistic parameters such as maximum pressure, time to reach the maximum pressure, and time required to reach half the maximum pressure that responsible to the spinal injury of the pilot are assessed. Therefore, the evaluations of these parameters are very critical during various stages of development. Elaborate testing is carried out for main seat ejection cartridges on seat ejection tower (SET) at different operating temperatures considering physiological limits. As these trials are cumbersome in nature, a vented vessel (VV) testing facility is devised to lay down the performance parameters at hot and cold temperature conditions. Single base (SB) propellant having hepta-tubular configuration is selected as the main filling. Gun powder plays the role of a booster based on ballistic requirements. The evaluation methodology of various performance parameters of main seat ejection cartridges is explained in this paper. Physiological parameters such as maximum seat ejection velocity, acceleration, and rate of rising of acceleration are also experimentally determined on SET. All the parameters are observed well within physiological limits. This paper addresses the internal ballistic of main seat ejection cartridges, propellant selection, its calculation, and evaluation of various performance parameters for aircraft application.
Keywords: Ballistics of seat ejection, ejection seat, gas generator, gun propulsion, main seat ejection cartridges, maximum pressure, performance parameters, propellant, progressive burning and vented vessel.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7773684 An Inclusion Project for Deaf Children into a Northern Italy Contest
Authors: G. Tamanza, A. Bossoni
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84 deaf students (from primary school to college) and their families participated in this inclusion project in cooperation with numerous institutions in northern Italy (Brescia-Lombardy). Participants were either congenitally deaf or their deafness was related to other pathologies. This research promoted the integration of deaf students as they pass from primary school to high school to college. Learning methods and processes were studied that focused on encouraging individual autonomy and socialization. The research team and its collaborators included school teachers, speech therapists, psychologists and home tutors, as well as teaching assistants, child neuropsychiatrists and other external authorities involved with deaf persons social inclusion programs. Deaf children and their families were supported, in terms of inclusion, and were made aware of the research team that focused on the Bisogni Educativi Speciali (BES or Special Educational Needs) (L.170/2010 - DM 5669/2011). This project included a diagnostic and evaluative phase as well as an operational one. Results demonstrated that deaf children were highly satisfied and confident; academic performance improved and collaboration in school increased. Deaf children felt that they had access to high school and college. Empowerment for the families of deaf children in terms of networking among local services that deal with the deaf also improved while family satisfaction also improved. We found that teachers and those who gave support to deaf children increased their professional skills. Achieving autonomy, instrumental, communicative and relational abilities were also found to be crucial. Project success was determined by temporal continuity, clear theoretical methodology, strong alliance for the project direction and a resilient team response.
Keywords: Autonomy, inclusion, skills, well-being.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11893683 Reduction of Plutonium Production in Heavy Water Research Reactor: A Feasibility Study through Neutronic Analysis Using MCNPX2.6 and CINDER90 Codes
Authors: H. Shamoradifar, B. Teimuri, P. Parvaresh, S. Mohammadi
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One of the main characteristics of Heavy Water Moderated Reactors is their high production of plutonium. This article demonstrates the possibility of reduction of plutonium and other actinides in Heavy Water Research Reactor. Among the many ways for reducing plutonium production in a heavy water reactor, in this research, changing the fuel from natural Uranium fuel to Thorium-Uranium mixed fuel was focused. The main fissile nucleus in Thorium-Uranium fuels is U-233 which would be produced after neutron absorption by Th-232, so the Thorium-Uranium fuels have some known advantages compared to the Uranium fuels. Due to this fact, four Thorium-Uranium fuels with different compositions ratios were chosen in our simulations; a) 10% UO2-90% THO2 (enriched= 20%); b) 15% UO2-85% THO2 (enriched= 10%); c) 30% UO2-70% THO2 (enriched= 5%); d) 35% UO2-65% THO2 (enriched= 3.7%). The natural Uranium Oxide (UO2) is considered as the reference fuel, in other words all of the calculated data are compared with the related data from Uranium fuel. Neutronic parameters were calculated and used as the comparison parameters. All calculations were performed by Monte Carol (MCNPX2.6) steady state reaction rate calculation linked to a deterministic depletion calculation (CINDER90). The obtained computational data showed that Thorium-Uranium fuels with four different fissile compositions ratios can satisfy the safety and operating requirements for Heavy Water Research Reactor. Furthermore, Thorium-Uranium fuels have a very good proliferation resistance and consume less fissile material than uranium fuels at the same reactor operation time. Using mixed Thorium-Uranium fuels reduced the long-lived α emitter, high radiotoxic wastes and the radio toxicity level of spent fuel.
Keywords: Burn-up, heavy water reactor, minor actinides, Monte Carlo, proliferation resistance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10083682 Analysing the Renewable Energy Integration Paradigm in the Post-COVID-19 Era: An Examination of the Upcoming Energy Law of China
Authors: Lan Wu
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China’s declared transformation towards a ‘new electricity system dominated by renewable energy’ requires a cleaner electricity consumption mix with high shares of renewable energy sourced-electricity (RES-E). Unfortunately, integration of RES-E into Chinese electricity markets remains a problem pending more robust legal support, evidenced by the curtailment of wind and solar power due to integration constraints. The upcoming Energy Law of the PRC (Energy Law) is expected to provide such long-awaiting support and coordinate the existing diverse sector-specific laws to deal with the weak implementation that dampening the delivery of their desired regulatory effects. However, in the shadow of the COVID-19 crisis, it remains uncertain how this new Energy Law brings synergies to RES-E integration, mindful of the significant impacts of the pandemic. Through the theoretical lens of the interplay between China’s electricity market reform and legislative development, this paper investigates whether there is a paradigm shift in Energy Law regarding renewable energy integration compared with the existing sector-specific energy laws. It examines the 2020 Draft for Comments on the Energy Law and analyses its relationship with sector-specific energy laws focusing on RES-E integration. The comparison is drawn upon five critical aspects of the RES-E integration issue, including the status of renewables, marketisation, incentive schemes, consumption mechanisms, access to power grids and dispatching. The analysis shows that it is reasonable to expect a more open and well-organised electricity market, enabling the absorption of high shares of RES-E. The present paper concludes that a period of prosperous development of RES-E in the post-COVID-19 era can be anticipated with the legal support by the upcoming Energy Law. It contributes to understanding the signals China is sending regarding the transition towards a cleaner energy future.
Keywords: energy law, energy transition, electricity market reform, renewable energy integration
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7023681 A Damage Level Assessment Model for Extra High Voltage Transmission Towers
Authors: Huan-Chieh Chiu, Hung-Shuo Wu, Chien-Hao Wang, Yu-Cheng Yang, Ching-Ya Tseng, Joe-Air Jiang
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Power failure resulting from tower collapse due to violent seismic events might bring enormous and inestimable losses. The Chi-Chi earthquake, for example, strongly struck Taiwan and caused huge damage to the power system on September 21, 1999. Nearly 10% of extra high voltage (EHV) transmission towers were damaged in the earthquake. Therefore, seismic hazards of EHV transmission towers should be monitored and evaluated. The ultimate goal of this study is to establish a damage level assessment model for EHV transmission towers. The data of earthquakes provided by Taiwan Central Weather Bureau serve as a reference and then lay the foundation for earthquake simulations and analyses afterward. Some parameters related to the damage level of each point of an EHV tower are simulated and analyzed by the data from monitoring stations once an earthquake occurs. Through the Fourier transform, the seismic wave is then analyzed and transformed into different wave frequencies, and the data would be shown through a response spectrum. With this method, the seismic frequency which damages EHV towers the most is clearly identified. An estimation model is built to determine the damage level caused by a future seismic event. Finally, instead of relying on visual observation done by inspectors, the proposed model can provide a power company with the damage information of a transmission tower. Using the model, manpower required by visual observation can be reduced, and the accuracy of the damage level estimation can be substantially improved. Such a model is greatly useful for health and construction monitoring because of the advantages of long-term evaluation of structural characteristics and long-term damage detection.Keywords: Smart grid, EHV transmission tower, response spectrum, damage level monitoring.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10703680 Physicochemical Parameters and Economic Evaluation of Bio Ethanol Produced from Waste of Starting Dates in South Algeria
Authors: Insaf Mehani, Bachir Bouchekima
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The fight against climate change and the replacement of fossil energies nearing exhaustion gradually emerge as major societal and economic challenges. It is possible to develop common dates of low commercial value, and put on the local and international market a new generation of products with high added values such as bio ethanol. Besides its use in chemical synthesis, bio ethanol can be blended with gasoline to produce a clean fuel while improving the octane.
Keywords: Bio energy, waste dates, bio ethanol.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18313679 Effect of Jatropha curcas Leaf Extract on Castor Oil Induced Diarrhea in Albino Rats
Authors: Fatima U. Maigari, Musa Halilu, M. Maryam Umar, Rabiu Zainab
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Plants as therapeutic agents are used as drug in many parts of the world. Medicinal plants are mostly used in developing countries due to culture acceptability, belief or due to lack of easy access to primary health care services. Jatropha curcas is a plant from the Euphorbiaceae family which is widely used in Northern Nigeria as an anti-diarrheal agent. This study was conducted to determine the anti-diarrheal effect of the leaf extract on castor oil induced diarrhea in albino rats. The leaves of J. curcas were collected from Balanga Local government in Gombe State, north-eastern Nigeria; due to its bioavailability. The leaves were air-dried at room temperature and ground to powder. Phytochemical screening was done and different concentrations of the extract was prepared and administered to the different categories of experimental animals. From the results, aqueous leaf extract of Jatropha curcas at doses of 200mg/Kg and 400mg/Kg was found to reduce the mean stool score as compared to control rats, however, maximum reduction was achieved with the standard drug of Loperamide (5mg/Kg). Treatment of diarrhea with 200mg/Kg of the extract did not produce any significant decrease in stool fluid content but was found to be significant in those rats that were treated with 400mg/Kg of the extract at 2hours (0.05±0.02) and 4hours (0.01±0.01). A significant reduction of diarrhea in the experimental animals signifies it to possess some anti-diarrheal activity.Keywords: Anti-diarrhea, Diarrhea, Jatropha curcas, Loperamide.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18673678 Review of Downscaling Methods in Climate Change and Their Role in Hydrological Studies
Authors: Nishi Bhuvandas, P. V. Timbadiya, P. L. Patel, P. D. Porey
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Recent perceived climate variability raises concerns with unprecedented hydrological phenomena and extremes. Distribution and circulation of the waters of the Earth become increasingly difficult to determine because of additional uncertainty related to anthropogenic emissions. The world wide observed changes in the large-scale hydrological cycle have been related to an increase in the observed temperature over several decades. Although the effect of change in climate on hydrology provides a general picture of possible hydrological global change, new tools and frameworks for modelling hydrological series with nonstationary characteristics at finer scales, are required for assessing climate change impacts. Of the downscaling techniques, dynamic downscaling is usually based on the use of Regional Climate Models (RCMs), which generate finer resolution output based on atmospheric physics over a region using General Circulation Model (GCM) fields as boundary conditions. However, RCMs are not expected to capture the observed spatial precipitation extremes at a fine cell scale or at a basin scale. Statistical downscaling derives a statistical or empirical relationship between the variables simulated by the GCMs, called predictors, and station-scale hydrologic variables, called predictands. The main focus of the paper is on the need for using statistical downscaling techniques for projection of local hydrometeorological variables under climate change scenarios. The projections can be then served as a means of input source to various hydrologic models to obtain streamflow, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and other hydrological variables of interest.
Keywords: Climate Change, Downscaling, GCM, RCM.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 33793677 Acid Attack on Cement Mortars Modified with Rubber Aggregates and EVA Polymer Binder
Authors: Konstantinos Sotiriadis, Michael Tupý, Nikol Žižková, Vít Petránek
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The acid attack on cement mortars modified with rubber aggregates and EVA polymer binder was studied. Mortar specimens were prepared using a type CEM I 42.5 Portland cement and siliceous sand, as well as by substituting 25% of sand with shredded used automobile tires, and by adding EVA polymer in two percentages (5% and 10% of cement mass). Some specimens were only air cured, at laboratory conditions, and their compressive strength and water absorption were determined. The rest specimens were stored in acid solutions (HCl, H2SO4, HNO3) after 28 days of initial curing, and stored at laboratory temperature. Compressive strength tests, mass measurements and visual inspection took place for 28 days. Compressive strength and water absorption of the air-cured specimens were significantly decreased when rubber aggregates are used. The addition of EVA polymer further reduced water absorption, while had no important impact on strength. Compressive strength values were affected in a greater extent by hydrochloric acid solution, followed by sulfate and nitric acid solutions. The addition of EVA polymer decreased compressive strength loss for the specimens with rubber aggregates stored in hydrochloric and nitric acid solutions. The specimens without polymer binder showed similar mass loss, which was higher in sulfate acid solution followed by hydrochloric and nitric acid solutions. The use of EVA polymer delayed mass loss, while its content did not affect it significantly.
Keywords: Acid attack, mortar, EVA polymer, rubber aggregates.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21633676 Morphological and Electrical Characterization of Polyacrylonitrile Nanofibers Synthesized Using Electrospinning Method for Electrical Application
Authors: Divyanka Sontakke, Arpit Thakre, D. K Shinde, Sujata Parmeshwaran
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Electrospinning is the most widely utilized method to create nanofibers because of the direct setup, the capacity to mass-deliver consistent nanofibers from different polymers, and the ability to produce ultrathin fibers with controllable diameters. Smooth and much arranged ultrafine Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers with diameters going from submicron to nanometer were delivered utilizing Electrospinning technique. PAN powder was used as a precursor to prepare the solution utilized as a part of this process. At the point when the electrostatic repulsion contradicted surface tension, a charged stream of polymer solution was shot out from the head of the spinneret and along these lines ultrathin nonwoven fibers were created. The effect of electrospinning parameter such as applied voltage, feed rate, concentration of polymer solution and tip to collector distance on the morphology of electrospun PAN nanofibers were investigated. The nanofibers were heat treated for carbonization to examine the changes in properties and composition to make for electrical application. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) was performed before and after carbonization to study electrical conductivity and morphological characterization. The SEM images have shown the uniform fiber diameter and no beads formation. The average diameter of the PAN fiber observed 365nm and 280nm for flat plat and rotating drum collector respectively. The four probe strategy was utilized to inspect the electrical conductivity of the nanofibers and the electrical conductivity is significantly improved with increase in oxidation temperature exposed.
Keywords: Electrospinning, polyacrylonitrile carbon nanofibres, heat treatment, electrical conductivity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6903675 Evaluating the Capability of the Flux-Limiter Schemes in Capturing the Turbulence Structures in a Fully Developed Channel Flow
Authors: Mohamed Elghorab, Vendra C. Madhav Rao, Jennifer X. Wen
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Turbulence modelling is still evolving, and efforts are on to improve and develop numerical methods to simulate the real turbulence structures by using the empirical and experimental information. The monotonically integrated large eddy simulation (MILES) is an attractive approach for modelling turbulence in high Re flows, which is based on the solving of the unfiltered flow equations with no explicit sub-grid scale (SGS) model. In the current work, this approach has been used, and the action of the SGS model has been included implicitly by intrinsic nonlinear high-frequency filters built into the convection discretization schemes. The MILES solver is developed using the opensource CFD OpenFOAM libraries. The role of flux limiters schemes namely, Gamma, superBee, van-Albada and van-Leer, is studied in predicting turbulent statistical quantities for a fully developed channel flow with a friction Reynolds number, ReT = 180, and compared the numerical predictions with the well-established Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) results for studying the wall generated turbulence. It is inferred from the numerical predictions that Gamma, van-Leer and van-Albada limiters produced more diffusion and overpredicted the velocity profiles, while superBee scheme reproduced velocity profiles and turbulence statistical quantities in good agreement with the reference DNS data in the streamwise direction although it deviated slightly in the spanwise and normal to the wall directions. The simulation results are further discussed in terms of the turbulence intensities and Reynolds stresses averaged in time and space to draw conclusion on the flux limiter schemes performance in OpenFOAM context.
Keywords: Flux limiters, MILES, OpenFOAM, turbulence structures, TVD schemes.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11323674 Solving Differential's Equation of Carrier Load on Semiconductor
Authors: Morteza Amirabadi, Vahid Fayaz , Fereshteh Felegary, Hossien Hossienkhani
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The most suitable Semiconductor detector, Cadmium Zinc Teloraid , has unique properties because of high Atomic number and wide Brand Gap . It has been tried in this project with different processes such as Lead , Diffusion , Produce and Recombination , effect of Trapping and injection carrier of CdZnTe , to get hole and then present a complete answer of it . Then we should investigate the movement of carrier ( Electron – Hole ) by using above answer.Keywords: Semiconcuctor detector, Trapping, Recommbination, Diffusion
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14613673 Loss Function Optimization for CNN-Based Fingerprint Anti-Spoofing
Authors: Yehjune Heo
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As biometric systems become widely deployed, the security of identification systems can be easily attacked by various spoof materials. This paper contributes to finding a reliable and practical anti-spoofing method using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) based on the types of loss functions and optimizers. The types of CNNs used in this paper include AlexNet, VGGNet, and ResNet. By using various loss functions including Cross-Entropy, Center Loss, Cosine Proximity, and Hinge Loss, and various loss optimizers which include Adam, SGD, RMSProp, Adadelta, Adagrad, and Nadam, we obtained significant performance changes. We realize that choosing the correct loss function for each model is crucial since different loss functions lead to different errors on the same evaluation. By using a subset of the Livdet 2017 database, we validate our approach to compare the generalization power. It is important to note that we use a subset of LiveDet and the database is the same across all training and testing for each model. This way, we can compare the performance, in terms of generalization, for the unseen data across all different models. The best CNN (AlexNet) with the appropriate loss function and optimizers result in more than 3% of performance gain over the other CNN models with the default loss function and optimizer. In addition to the highest generalization performance, this paper also contains the models with high accuracy associated with parameters and mean average error rates to find the model that consumes the least memory and computation time for training and testing. Although AlexNet has less complexity over other CNN models, it is proven to be very efficient. For practical anti-spoofing systems, the deployed version should use a small amount of memory and should run very fast with high anti-spoofing performance. For our deployed version on smartphones, additional processing steps, such as quantization and pruning algorithms, have been applied in our final model.
Keywords: Anti-spoofing, CNN, fingerprint recognition, loss function, optimizer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4293672 Six Sigma Solutions and its Benefit-Cost Ratio for Quality Improvement
Authors: S. Homrossukon, A. Anurathapunt
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This is an application research presenting the improvement of production quality using the six sigma solutions and the analyses of benefit-cost ratio. The case of interest is the production of tile-concrete. Such production has faced with the problem of high nonconforming products from an inappropriate surface coating and had low process capability based on the strength property of tile. Surface coating and tile strength are the most critical to quality of this product. The improvements followed five stages of six sigma solutions. After the improvement, the production yield was improved to 80% as target required and the defective products from coating process was remarkably reduced from 29.40% to 4.09%. The process capability based on the strength quality was increased from 0.87 to 1.08 as customer oriented. The improvement was able to save the materials loss for 3.24 millions baht or 0.11 million dollars. The benefits from the improvement were analyzed from (1) the reduction of the numbers of non conforming tile using its factory price for surface coating improvement and (2) the materials saved from the increment of process capability. The benefit-cost ratio of overall improvement was high as 7.03. It was non valuable investment in define, measure, analyses and the initial of improve stages after that it kept increasing. This was due to there were no benefits in define, measure, and analyze stages of six sigma since these three stages mainly determine the cause of problem and its effects rather than improve the process. The benefit-cost ratio starts existing in the improve stage and go on. Within each stage, the individual benefitcost ratio was much higher than the accumulative one as there was an accumulation of cost since the first stage of six sigma. The consideration of the benefit-cost ratio during the improvement project helps make decisions for cost saving of similar activities during the improvement and for new project. In conclusion, the determination of benefit-cost ratio behavior through out six sigma implementation period provides the useful data for managing quality improvement for the optimal effectiveness. This is the additional outcome from the regular proceeding of six sigma.Keywords: Six Sigma Solutions, Process Improvement, QualityManagement, Benefit Cost Ratio
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21423671 Adaptive Transient and CW RF Interference Mitigation in HF OTH Radar: Experimental Results
Authors: Pavel Turcaj, Yuri I. Abramovich, Gordon J. Frazer
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We introduce an adaptive technique for the joint mitigation of transients and continuous-wave radio-frequency co-channel interference (CW RFI) in high-frequency (HF) over-the-horizon radars (OTHRs). The performance of this technique is illustrated using data from an operational surface-wave radar (SECAR) and from recent experimental trials with sky-wave (SW) and sky-wave–line-of-sight (SKYLOS) HF OTHRs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16173670 'Performance-Based' Seismic Methodology and Its Application in Seismic Design of Reinforced Concrete Structures
Authors: Jelena R. Pejović, Nina N. Serdar
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This paper presents an analysis of the “Performance-Based” seismic design method, in order to overcome the perceived disadvantages and limitations of the existing seismic design approach based on force, in engineering practice. Bearing in mind, the specificity of the earthquake as a load and the fact that the seismic resistance of the structures solely depends on its behaviour in the nonlinear field, traditional seismic design approach based on force and linear analysis is not adequate. “Performance-Based” seismic design method is based on nonlinear analysis and can be used in everyday engineering practice. This paper presents the application of this method to eight-story high reinforced concrete building with combined structural system (reinforced concrete frame structural system in one direction and reinforced concrete ductile wall system in other direction). The nonlinear time-history analysis is performed on the spatial model of the structure using program Perform 3D, where the structure is exposed to forty real earthquake records. For considered building, large number of results were obtained. It was concluded that using this method we could, with a high degree of reliability, evaluate structural behavior under earthquake. It is obtained significant differences in the response of structures to various earthquake records. Also analysis showed that frame structural system had not performed well at the effect of earthquake records on soil like sand and gravel, while a ductile wall system had a satisfactory behavior on different types of soils.
Keywords: Ductile wall, frame system, nonlinear time-history analysis, performance-based methodology, RC building.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14993669 Conditions of the Anaerobic Digestion of Biomass
Authors: N. Boontian
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Biological conversion of biomass to methane has received increasing attention in recent years. Grasses have been explored for their potential anaerobic digestion to methane. In this review, extensive literature data have been tabulated and classified. The influences of several parameters on the potential of these feedstocks to produce methane are presented. Lignocellulosic biomass represents a mostly unused source for biogas and ethanol production. Many factors, including lignin content, crystallinity of cellulose, and particle size, limit the digestibility of the hemicellulose and cellulose present in the lignocellulosic biomass. Pretreatments have used to improve the digestibility of the lignocellulosic biomass. Each pretreatment has its own effects on cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, the three main components of lignocellulosic biomass. Solidstate anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) generally occurs at solid concentrations higher than 15%. In contrast, liquid anaerobic digestion (AD) handles feedstocks with solid concentrations between 0.5% and 15%. Animal manure, sewage sludge, and food waste are generally treated by liquid AD, while organic fractions of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and lignocellulosic biomass such as crop residues and energy crops can be processed through SS-AD. An increase in operating temperature can improve both the biogas yield and the production efficiency, other practices such as using AD digestate or leachate as an inoculant or decreasing the solid content may increase biogas yield but have negative impact on production efficiency. Focus is placed on substrate pretreatment in anaerobic digestion (AD) as a means of increasing biogas yields using today’s diversified substrate sources.
Keywords: Anaerobic digestion, Lignocellulosic biomass, Methane production, Optimization, Pretreatment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 42503668 Effect of Three Drying Methods on Antioxidant Efficiency and Vitamin C Content of Moringa oleifera Leaf Extract
Authors: Kenia Martínez, Geniel Talavera, Juan Alonso
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Moringa oleifera is a plant containing many nutrients that are mostly concentrated within the leaves. Commonly, the separation process of these nutrients involves solid-liquid extraction followed by evaporation and drying to obtain a concentrated extract, which is rich in proteins, vitamins, carbohydrates, and other essential nutrients that can be used in the food industry. In this work, three drying methods were used, which involved very different temperature and pressure conditions, to evaluate the effect of each method on the vitamin C content and the antioxidant efficiency of the extracts. Solid-liquid extractions of Moringa leaf (LE) were carried out by employing an ethanol solution (35% v/v) at 50 °C for 2 hours. The resulting extracts were then dried i) in a convective oven (CO) at 100 °C and at an atmospheric pressure of 750 mbar for 8 hours, ii) in a vacuum evaporator (VE) at 50 °C and at 300 mbar for 2 hours, and iii) in a freeze-drier (FD) at -40 °C and at 0.050 mbar for 36 hours. The antioxidant capacity (EC50, mg solids/g DPPH) of the dry solids was calculated by the free radical inhibition method employing DPPH˙ at 517 nm, resulting in a value of 2902.5 ± 14.8 for LE, 3433.1 ± 85.2 for FD, 3980.1 ± 37.2 for VE, and 8123.5 ± 263.3 for CO. The calculated antioxidant efficiency (AE, g DPPH/(mg solids·min)) was 2.920 × 10-5 for LE, 2.884 × 10-5 for FD, 2.512 × 10-5 for VE, and 1.009 × 10-5 for CO. Further, the content of vitamin C (mg/L) determined by HPLC was 59.0 ± 0.3 for LE, 49.7 ± 0.6 for FD, 45.0 ± 0.4 for VE, and 23.6 ± 0.7 for CO. The results indicate that the convective drying preserves vitamin C and antioxidant efficiency to 40% and 34% of the initial value, respectively, while vacuum drying to 76% and 86%, and freeze-drying to 84% and 98%, respectively.
Keywords: Antioxidant efficiency, convective drying, freeze-drying, Moringa oleifera, vacuum drying, vitamin C content.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18023667 Effect of Injection Moulding Process Parameter on Tensile Strength Using Taguchi Method
Authors: Gurjeet Singh, M. K. Pradhan, Ajay Verma
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The plastic industry plays very important role in the economy of any country. It is generally among the leading share of the economy of the country. Since metals and their alloys are very rarely available on the earth. Therefore, to produce plastic products and components, which finds application in many industrial as well as household consumer products is beneficial. Since 50% plastic products are manufactured by injection moulding process. For production of better quality product, we have to control quality characteristics and performance of the product. The process parameters plays a significant role in production of plastic, hence the control of process parameter is essential. In this paper the effect of the parameters selection on injection moulding process has been described. It is to define suitable parameters in producing plastic product. Selecting the process parameter by trial and error is neither desirable nor acceptable, as it is often tends to increase the cost and time. Hence, optimization of processing parameter of injection moulding process is essential. The experiments were designed with Taguchi’s orthogonal array to achieve the result with least number of experiments. Plastic material polypropylene is studied. Tensile strength test of material is done on universal testing machine, which is produced by injection moulding machine. By using Taguchi technique with the help of MiniTab-14 software the best value of injection pressure, melt temperature, packing pressure and packing time is obtained. We found that process parameter packing pressure contribute more in production of good tensile plastic product.
Keywords: Injection moulding, tensile strength, Taguchi method, poly-propylene.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 37723666 Oil Prices Impact on Energy Policy of Kazakhstan
Authors: K. Gabdullin, Y. Bek Ali, N. Aldabek
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This paper explores oil prices changes impact on energy policy of Kazakhstan in 2001-2009. It involves the role of oil income to the economic development, process of diversification of internal and external energy policy of Kazakhstan, and the changes in oil law towards subsoil users.
Keywords: diversification, internal energy policy, external energy policy, high oil prices, modernization
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25493665 The Effects of Shot and Grit Blasting Process Parameters on Steel Pipes Coating Adhesion
Authors: Saeed Khorasanizadeh
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Adhesion strength of exterior or interior coating of steel pipes is too important. Increasing of coating adhesion on surfaces can increase the life time of coating, safety factor of transmitting line pipe and decreasing the rate of corrosion and costs. Preparation of steel pipe surfaces before doing the coating process is done by shot and grit blasting. This is a mechanical way to do it. Some effective parameters on that process, are particle size of abrasives, distance to surface, rate of abrasive flow, abrasive physical properties, shapes, selection of abrasive, kind of machine and its power, standard of surface cleanness degree, roughness, time of blasting and weather humidity. This search intended to find some better conditions which improve the surface preparation, adhesion strength and corrosion resistance of coating. So, this paper has studied the effect of varying abrasive flow rate, changing the abrasive particle size, time of surface blasting on steel surface roughness and over blasting on it by using the centrifugal blasting machine. After preparation of numbers of steel samples (according to API 5L X52) and applying epoxy powder coating on them, to compare strength adhesion of coating by Pull-Off test. The results have shown that, increasing the abrasive particles size and flow rate, can increase the steel surface roughness and coating adhesion strength but increasing the blasting time can do surface over blasting and increasing surface temperature and hardness too, change, decreasing steel surface roughness and coating adhesion strength.Keywords: surface preparation, abrasive particles, adhesionstrength
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 90813664 Stress Analysis of Hexagonal Element for Precast Concrete Pavements
Authors: J. Novak, A. Kohoutkova, V. Kristek, J. Vodicka, M. Sramek
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While the use of cast-in-place concrete for an airfield and highway pavement overlay is very common, the application of precast concrete elements is very limited today. The main reasons consist of high production costs and complex structural behavior. Despite that, several precast concrete systems have been developed and tested with the aim to provide a system with rapid construction. The contribution deals with the reinforcement design of a hexagonal element developed for a proposed airfield pavement system. The sub-base course of the system is composed of compacted recycled concrete aggregates and fiber reinforced concrete with recycled aggregates place on top of it. The selected element belongs to a group of precast concrete elements which are being considered for the construction of a surface course. Both high costs of full-scale experiments and the need to investigate various elements force to simulate their behavior in a numerical analysis software by using finite element method instead of performing expensive experiments. The simulation of the selected element was conducted on a nonlinear model in order to obtain such results which could fully compensate results from experiments. The main objective was to design reinforcement of the precast concrete element subject to quasi-static loading from airplanes with respect to geometrical imperfections, manufacturing imperfections, tensile stress in reinforcement, compressive stress in concrete and crack width. The obtained findings demonstrate that the position and the presence of imperfection in a pavement highly affect the stress distribution in the precast concrete element. The precast concrete element should be heavily reinforced to fulfill all the demands. Using under-reinforced concrete elements would lead to the formation of wide cracks and cracks permanently open.
Keywords: Imperfection, numerical simulation, pavement, precast concrete element, reinforcement design, stress analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7693663 Design and Development of Constant Stress Composite Cantilever Beam
Authors: Vinod B. Suryawanshi, Ajit D. Kelkar
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Composite materials, due to their unique properties such as high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and impact resistance have huge potential as structural materials in automotive, construction and transportation applications. However, these properties often come at higher cost owing to complex design methods, difficult manufacturing processes and raw material cost. Traditionally, tapered laminated composite structures are manufactured using autoclave manufacturing process by ply drop off technique. Autoclave manufacturing though very powerful suffers from high capital investment and higher energy consumption. As per the current trends in composite manufacturing, Out of Autoclave (OoA) processes are looked as emerging technologies for manufacturing the structural composite components for aerospace and defense applications. However, there is a need for improvement among these processes to make them reliable and consistent. In this paper, feasibility of using out of autoclave process to manufacture the variable thickness cantilever beam is discussed. The minimum weight design for the composite beam is obtained using constant stress beam concept by tailoring the thickness of the beam. Ply drop off techniques was used to fabricate the variable thickness beam from glass/epoxy prepregs. Experiments were conducted to measure bending stresses along the span of the cantilever beam at different intervals by applying the concentrated load at the free end. Experimental results showed that the stresses in the bean at different intervals were constant. This proves the ability of OoA process to manufacture the constant stress beam. Finite element model for the constant stress beam was developed using commercial finite element simulation software. It was observed that the simulation results agreed very well with the experimental results and thus validated design and manufacturing approach used.
Keywords: Beams, Composites, Constant Stress, Structures.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 43953662 Study of Mechanical Properties of Glutarylated Jute Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites
Authors: V. Manush Nandan, K. Lokdeep, R. Vimal, K. Hari Hara Subramanyan, C. Aswin, V. Logeswaran
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Natural fibers have attained the potential market in the composite industry because of the huge environmental impact caused by synthetic fibers. Among the natural fibers, jute fibers are the most abundant plant fibers which are manufactured mainly in countries like India. Even though there is a good motive to utilize the natural supplement, the strength of the natural fiber composites is still a topic of discussion. In recent days, many researchers are showing interest in the chemical modification of the natural fibers to increase various mechanical and thermal properties. In the present study, jute fibers have been modified chemically using glutaric anhydride at different concentrations of 5%, 10%, 20%, and 30%. The glutaric anhydride solution is prepared by dissolving the different quantity of glutaric anhydride in benzene and dimethyl-sulfoxide using sodium formate catalyst. The jute fiber mats have been treated by the method of retting at various time intervals of 3, 6, 12, 24, and 36 hours. The modification structure of the treated fibers has been confirmed with infrared spectroscopy. The degree of modification increases with an increase in retention time, but higher retention time has damaged the fiber structure. The unmodified fibers and glutarylated fibers at different retention times are reinforced with epoxy matrix under room temperature. The tensile strength and flexural strength of the composites are analyzed in detail. Among these, the composite made with glutarylated fiber has shown good mechanical properties when compared to those made of unmodified fiber.
Keywords: Flexural properties, glutarylation, glutaric anhydride, tensile properties.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7103661 The Nuclear Energy Museum in Brazil: Creative Solutions to Transform Science Education into Meaningful Learning
Authors: Denise Levy, Helen J. Khoury
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Nuclear technology is a controversial issue among a great share of the Brazilian population. Misinformation and common wrong beliefs confuse public’s perceptions and the scientific community is expected to offer a wider perspective on the benefits and risks resulting from ionizing radiation in everyday life. Attentive to the need of new approaches between science and society, the Nuclear Energy Museum, in northeast Brazil, is an initiative created to communicate the growing impact of the beneficial applications of nuclear technology in medicine, industry, agriculture and electric power generation. Providing accessible scientific information, the museum offers a rich learning environment, making use of different educational strategies, such as films, interactive panels and multimedia learning tools, which not only increase the enjoyment of visitors, but also maximize their learning potential. Developed according to modern active learning instructional strategies, multimedia materials are designed to present the increasingly role of nuclear science in modern life, transforming science education into a meaningful learning experience. In year 2016, nine different interactive computer-based activities were developed, presenting curiosities about ionizing radiation in different landmarks around the world, such as radiocarbon dating works in Egypt, nuclear power generation in France and X-radiography of famous paintings in Italy. Feedback surveys have reported a high level of visitors’ satisfaction, proving the high quality experience in learning nuclear science at the museum. The Nuclear Energy Museum is the first and, up to the present time, the only permanent museum in Brazil devoted entirely to nuclear science.
Keywords: Nuclear technology, multimedia learning tools, science museum, society and education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12323660 Hydrogen Production at the Forecourt from Off-Peak Electricity and Its Role in Balancing the Grid
Authors: Abdulla Rahil, Rupert Gammon, Neil Brown
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The rapid growth of renewable energy sources and their integration into the grid have been motivated by the depletion of fossil fuels and environmental issues. Unfortunately, the grid is unable to cope with the predicted growth of renewable energy which would lead to its instability. To solve this problem, energy storage devices could be used. Electrolytic hydrogen production from an electrolyser is considered a promising option since it is a clean energy source (zero emissions). Choosing flexible operation of an electrolyser (producing hydrogen during the off-peak electricity period and stopping at other times) could bring about many benefits like reducing the cost of hydrogen and helping to balance the electric systems. This paper investigates the price of hydrogen during flexible operation compared with continuous operation, while serving the customer (hydrogen filling station) without interruption. The optimization algorithm is applied to investigate the hydrogen station in both cases (flexible and continuous operation). Three different scenarios are tested to see whether the off-peak electricity price could enhance the reduction of the hydrogen cost. These scenarios are: Standard tariff (1 tier system) during the day (assumed 12 p/kWh) while still satisfying the demand for hydrogen; using off-peak electricity at a lower price (assumed 5 p/kWh) and shutting down the electrolyser at other times; using lower price electricity at off-peak times and high price electricity at other times. This study looks at Derna city, which is located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea (32° 46′ 0 N, 22° 38′ 0 E) with a high potential for wind resource. Hourly wind speed data which were collected over 24½ years from 1990 to 2014 were in addition to data on hourly radiation and hourly electricity demand collected over a one-year period, together with the petrol station data.
Keywords: Hydrogen filling station off-peak electricity, renewable energy, off-peak electricity, electrolytic hydrogen.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12673659 Contribution of Vitaton (Β-Carotene) to the Rearing Factors Survival Rate and Visual Flesh Color of Rainbow Trout Fish in Comparison With Astaxanthin
Authors: M.Ghotbi, M.Ghotbi, Gh. Azari Takami
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In this study Vitaton (an organic supplement which contains fermentative β-carotene) and synthetic astaxanthin (CAROPHYLL® Pink) were evaluated as pro-growth factors in Rainbow trout diet. An 8 week feeding trial was conducted to determine the effects of Vitaton versus astaxanthin on rearing factors, survival rate and visual flesh color of Rainbow trout (Oncorhnchynchus mykiss) with initial weight of 196±5. Four practical diets were formulated to contain 50 and 80 (ppm) of β- carotene and astaxanthin and also a control diet was prepared without any pigment. Each diet was fed to triplicate groups of fish rearing in fresh water. Fish were fed twice daily. The water temperature fluctuated from 12 to 15 (C˚) and also dissolved oxygen content was between 7 to 7.5 (mg/lit) during the experimental period. At the end of the experiment, growth and food utilization parameters and survival rate were unaffected by dietary treatments (p>0.05). Also, there was no significant difference between carcass yield within treatments (p>0.05). No significant difference recognized between visual flesh color (SalmoFan score) of fish fed Vitaton-containing diets. On the contrary, feeding on diets containing 50 and 80 (ppm) of astaxanthin, increased SalmoFan score (flesh astaxanthin concentration) from <20 (<1 mg/kg) to 23.33 (2.03 mg/kg) and 27.67 (5.74 mg/kg), respectively. Ultimately, a significant difference was seen between flesh carotenoid concentrations of fish feeding on astaxanthin containing treatments and control treatment (P<0.05). It should be mentioned that just raw fillet color of fish belonged to 80 (ppm) of astaxanthin treatment was seen to be close to color targets (SalmoFan scores) adopted for harvest-size fish.Keywords: Astaxanthin, Flesh color, Rainbow trout, Vitaton, β- carotene,
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 34353658 CFD-Parametric Study in Stator Heat Transfer of an Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Machine
Authors: Alireza Rasekh, Peter Sergeant, Jan Vierendeels
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This paper copes with the numerical simulation for convective heat transfer in the stator disk of an axial flux permanent magnet (AFPM) electrical machine. Overheating is one of the main issues in the design of AFMPs, which mainly occurs in the stator disk, so that it needs to be prevented. A rotor-stator configuration with 16 magnets at the periphery of the rotor is considered. Air is allowed to flow through openings in the rotor disk and channels being formed between the magnets and in the gap region between the magnets and the stator surface. The rotating channels between the magnets act as a driving force for the air flow. The significant non-dimensional parameters are the rotational Reynolds number, the gap size ratio, the magnet thickness ratio, and the magnet angle ratio. The goal is to find correlations for the Nusselt number on the stator disk according to these non-dimensional numbers. Therefore, CFD simulations have been performed with the multiple reference frame (MRF) technique to model the rotary motion of the rotor and the flow around and inside the machine. A minimization method is introduced by a pattern-search algorithm to find the appropriate values of the reference temperature. It is found that the correlations are fast, robust and is capable of predicting the stator heat transfer with a good accuracy. The results reveal that the magnet angle ratio diminishes the stator heat transfer, whereas the rotational Reynolds number and the magnet thickness ratio improve the convective heat transfer. On the other hand, there a certain gap size ratio at which the stator heat transfer reaches a maximum.
Keywords: Axial flux permanent magnet, CFD, magnet parameters, stator heat transfer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14843657 A Comparative Study of Single- and Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube Incorporation to Indium Tin Oxide Electrodes for Solar Cells
Authors: G. Gokceli, O. Eksik, E. Ozkan Zayim, N. Karatepe
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Alternative electrode materials for optoelectronic devices have been widely investigated in recent years. Since indium tin oxide (ITO) is the most preferred transparent conductive electrode, producing ITO films by simple and cost-effective solution-based techniques with enhanced optical and electrical properties has great importance. In this study, single- and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT and MWCNT) incorporated into the ITO structure to increase electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, and chemical stability. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were firstly functionalized by acid treatment (HNO3:H2SO4), and the thermal resistance of CNTs after functionalization was determined by thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Thin films were then prepared by spin coating technique and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), four-point probe measurement system and UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The effects of process parameters were compared for ITO, MWCNT-ITO, and SWCNT-ITO films. Two factors including CNT concentration and annealing temperature were considered. The UV-Vis measurements demonstrated that the transmittance of ITO films was 83.58% at 550 nm, which was decreased depending on the concentration of CNT dopant. On the other hand, both CNT dopants provided an enhancement in the crystalline structure and electrical conductivity. Due to compatible diameter and better dispersibility of SWCNTs in the ITO solution, the best result in terms of electrical conductivity was obtained by SWCNT-ITO films with the 0.1 g/L SWCNT dopant concentration and heat-treatment at 550 °C for 1 hour.Keywords: CNT incorporation, ITO electrode, spin coating, thin film.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8313656 Spanner Barb at Thepchana Waterfall, Khao Nan National Park, Thailand
Authors: S. Sutin, M. Pollar, M. Jaroensutasinee, K. Jaroensutasinee
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This study investigated morphology of the Spanner Barb (Puntius lateristriga Valenciennes, 1842) and water quality at Thepchana waterfall. This study was conducted at Thepchana Waterfall, Khao Nan National Park from March to May 2007. There were 40 Spanner Barb collected with 20 males and 20 females. Males had an average of 5.57 cm in standard length, 6.62 cm in total length and 5.18 g in total body weight. Females had an average of 7.25 cm in standard length, 8.24 cm in total length and 10.96 g in total body weight. The length (L) – weight (W) relationships for combining sexes, males and females were LogW = -2.137 + 3.355logL, log W = -0.068 + 3.297logL, and log W = -2.068 + 3.297logL, respectively. The Spanner Barb were smaller size fish with a compressed form; terminal mouth; villiform teeth; ctenoid scale; concave tail; general body color yellowish olive, with slight reddish tint to fins; vertical band beginning below dorsal and horizontal stripe from base of tail almost to vertical band. They also had a vertical band midway between the eye and first vertical band. There was a black spot above anal fin. The bladder looked like J-shape. Inside of the bladder was found small insects and insect lava. The body length and the bowels length was 1:1 ratio. The water temperature ranged from 25.00 – 27.00 °C which was appropriate for their habitat characteristics. Acid - alkalinity ranged from 6.65 – 6.90 mg/l. Dissolved oxygen ranged from 4.55 – 4.70 mg/l. Water hardness ranged from 31.00 – 48.00 mg/l. The amount of ammonia was about 0.25 mg/l.
Keywords: Spanner barb, morphology, water quality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1656