Search results for: drinking water treatment plants

Authors: Jeremy J. Schmidt

Abstract:

Securing instream flows for aquatic ecosystems is critical for sustainable water management and the promotion of human and environmental health. Using a case study from the semiarid region of southern Alberta (Canada) this paper considers how the determination of instream flow standards requires judgments with respect to: (1) The relationship between instream flow indicators and assessments of overall environmental health; (2) The indicators used to determine adequate instream flows, and; (3) The assumptions underlying efforts to model instream flows given data constraints. It argues that judgments in each of these areas have an inherently ethical component because instream flows have direct effects on the water(s) available to meet obligations to humans and non-humans. The conclusion expands from the case study to generic issues regarding instream flows, the growing water ethics literature and prospects for linking science to policy.

Keywords: ethics, instream flows, policy, science, watermanagement

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Authors: Anika Zafiah M. Rus, S. Shafizah

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This study was developed to compare the behavior and the ability of polymer foam composites towards sound absorption test of Shorea leprosula wood (SL) of acid hydrolysis treatment with particle size <355μm. Three different weight ratio of polyol to wood particle has been selected which are 10wt%, 15wt% and 20wt%. The acid hydrolysis treatment is to optimize the surface interaction of wood particle with polymer foam matrix. In addition, the acoustic characteristic of sound absorption coefficient (α) was determined. Further treatment is to expose the polymer composite in UV irradiation by using UV-Weatherometer. Polymer foam composite of untreated Shorea leprosula particle (SL-B) with respective percentage loading shows uniform pore structure as compared with treated wood particle (SL-A). As the filler percentage loading in polymer foam increases, the α value approaching 1 for both samples. Furthermore, SL-A shows better α value at 3500-4500 frequency absorption level (Hz), meanwhile α value for SL-B is maximum at 4000-5000 Hz. The frequencies absorption level for both SL-B and SL-A after UV exposure was increased with the increasing of exposure time from 0-1000 hours. It is therefore, concluded that the α for each sound absorbing material, with or without acid hydrolysis treatment of wood particles and it’s percentages loading in polymer matrix effect the sound absorption behavior.

Keywords: Polymer foam composite, sound absorption coefficient, UV-irradiation, wood.

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Authors: Vasudha Bansal, M. L. Singla, C. Ghanshyam

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The effect of nonthermal pulsed electric field (PEF) and thermal treatment (90⁰C for 60s) was studied on quality parameters of emblica officinalis juice for the period of 6 weeks at 4⁰C using monopolar rectangular pulse of 1µs width. The PEF treatment was given using static chamber at 24kV/cm for 500µs. The quality of emblica officinalis juice was investigated in terms of non enzymatic browning index (NEBI), 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF), total polyphenol content and antioxidant capacity. ⁰Brix, pH and conductivity were evaluated as physical parameters. The aim of the work was to investigate the effect of PEF on the retention of bioactive compounds and retardation of browning activity. The results showed that conventional thermal treatment had led to a significant (p < 0.05) decrease of 48.15% in polyphenol content (129.56 mg of GAE L^-1), with higher NEBI and HMF formation (p < 0.05) whilst PEF suppressed NEBI and retained higher polyphenol compounds (168.59 mg GAE L^-1) with limiting the loss to 32.56% along maximum free radical scavenging activity (92.07%). However, pH, ⁰brix and electrical conductivity of treated juice samples remain unaffected. Therefore, PEF can be considered as an effective nonthermal treatment for retaining bioactive compounds along suppressing browning of emblica juice.

 

Keywords: Emblica officinalis juice, Free radical scavenging activity, Pulsed electric field, Total polyphenol content.

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Authors: Abdallah Al-Shammari

Abstract:

This study discusses the effect of uncertainty on production levels of a petrochemical complex. Uncertainly or variations in some model parameters, such as prices, supply and demand of materials, can affect the optimality or the efficiency of any chemical process. For any petrochemical complex with many plants, there are many sources of uncertainty and frequent variations which require more attention. Many optimization approaches are proposed in the literature to incorporate uncertainty within the model in order to obtain a robust solution. In this work, a stability analysis approach is applied to a deterministic LP model of a petrochemical complex consists of ten plants to investigate the effect of such variations on the obtained optimal production levels. The proposed approach can determinate the allowable variation ranges of some parameters, mainly objective or RHS coefficients, before the system lose its optimality. Parameters with relatively narrow range of variations, i.e. stability limits, are classified as sensitive parameters or constraints that need accurate estimate or intensive monitoring. These stability limits offer easy-to-use information to the decision maker and help in understanding the interaction between some model parameters and deciding when the system need to be re-optimize. The study shows that maximum production of ethylene and the prices of intermediate products are the most sensitive factors that affect the stability of the optimum solution

Keywords: Linear programming, Petrochemicals, stability analysis, uncertainty

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Authors: Alfrina Marwan, Erna Sulistyawati

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Class III malocclusion shows both skeletal and dentoalveolar component. Sketal Class III malocclusion can have variants in different region, maxilla or mandibular. Skeletal Class III malocclusion during growth period is considered to treat to prevent its severity in adulthood. Orthopedics treatment of skeletal Class III malocclusion in growing patient can be treated by using reverse twin block with expansion screw to modify the growth pattern. The objective of this case report was to describe the functional correction of skeletal Class III maloclussion using reverse twin block with expansion screw in growing patient. A patient with concave profile came with a chief complaint of aesthetic problems. The cephalometric analysis showed that patient had skeletal Class III malocclusion (ANB -5⁰, SNA 75º, Wits appraisal -3 mm) with anterior cross bite and deep bite (overjet -3 mm, overbite 6 mm). In this case report, the patient was treated with reverse twin block appliance with expansion screw. After three months of treatment, the skeletal problems have been corrected (ANB -1°), overjet, overbite and aesthetic were improved. Reverse twin block appliance with expansion screw can be used as orthopedics treatment for skeletal Class III malocclusion in growing patient and can improve the aesthetic with great satisfaction which was the main complaint in this patient.

Keywords: Growing patient, maxilla retrognatism, reverse twin blocks, skeletal Class III malocclusion.

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Authors: Lolita Tomsone, Zanda Kruma, Ruta Galoburda

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Horseradish (Armoracia rusticana) is a perennial herb belonging to the Brassicaceae family and contains biologically active substances. The aim of the current research was to determine best method for extraction of phenolic compounds from horseradish roots showing high antiradical activity. Three genotypes (No. 105; No. 106 and variety ‘Turku’) of horseradish roots were extracted with eight different solvents: n-hexane, ethyl acetate, diethyl ether, 2-propanol, acetone, ethanol (95%), ethanol / water / acetic acid (80/20/1 v/v/v) and ethanol / water (80/20 by volume) using two extraction methods (conventional and Soxhlet). As the best solvents ethanol and ethanol / water solutions can be chosen. Although in Soxhlet extracts TPC was higher, scavenging activity of DPPH˙ radicals did not increase. It can be concluded that using Soxhlet extraction method more compounds that are not effective antioxidants.

Keywords: DPPH˙, extraction, solvent, Soxhlet, TPC

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Authors: H. Almohammadi, Sh. Nasiri Vatan, E. Esmaeilzadeh, A. Motezaker, A. Nokhosteen

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In the present study, Convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of Al2O3/water nanofluid in laminar flow regime under constant heat flux conditions inside a circular tube were experimentally investigated. Al2O3/water nanofluid with 0.5% and 1% volume concentrations with 15 nm diameter nanoparticles were used as working fluid. The effect of different volume concentrations on convective heat transfer coefficient and friction factor was studied. The results emphasize that increasing of particle volume concentration leads to enhance convective heat transfer coefficient. Measurements show the average heat transfer coefficient enhanced about 11-20% with 0.5% volume concentration and increased about 16-27% with 1% volume concentration compared to distilled water. In addition, the convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluid enhances with increase in heat flux. From the results, the average ratio of (fnf/fbf) was about 1.10 for 0.5% volume concentration. Therefore, there is no significant increase in friction factor for nanofluids.

Keywords: Convective heat transfer, Laminar flow regime, Nanofluids, Pressure drop

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Authors: Khaled M. Fetyan

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Power Factor (PF) is one of the most important parameters in the electrical systems, especially in the water pumping station. The low power factor value of the water pumping stations causes penalty for the electrical bill. There are many methods use for power factor improvement. Each one of them uses a capacitor on the electrical power network. The position of the capacitors is varied depends on many factors such as; voltage level and capacitors rating. Adding capacitors on the motor terminals increase the supply power factor from 0.8 to more than 0.9 but these capacitors cause some problems for the electrical grid network, such as increasing the harmonic contents of the grid line voltage. In this paper the effects of using capacitors in the water pumping stations to improve the power factor value on the harmonic contents of the electrical grid network are studied. One of large water pumping stations in Kafr El-Shikh Governorate in Egypt was used, as a case study. The effect of capacitors on the line voltage harmonic contents is measured. The station uses capacitors to improve the PF values at the 1 lkv grid network. The power supply harmonics values are measured by a power quality analyzer at different loading conditions. The results showed that; the capacitors improved the power factor value of the feeder and its value increased than 0.9. But the THD values are increased by adding these capacitors. The harmonic analysis showed that; the 13th, 17th, and 19th harmonics orders are increased also by adding the capacitors.

Keywords: Water pumping stations, power factor improvement, total harmonic distortions (THD), power quality.

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Authors: Fatima Muhammad Abdulkadir, D. B. Maikaje, Y. A. Umar

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A study conducted to determine cercariae diversity and prevalence of trematode infection in freshwater snails from six freshwater bodies selected by systematic random sampling in Kaduna State was carried from January 2013 to December 2013. Freshwater snails and cercariae harvested from the study sites were morphologically identified. A total of 23,823 freshwater snails were collected from the six freshwater bodies: Bagoma dam, Gimbawa dam, Kangimi dam, Kubacha dam, Manchok water intake and Saminaka water intake. The observed freshwater snail species were: Melanoides tuberculata, Biomphalaria pfeifferi, Bulinus globosus, Lymnaea natalensis, Physa sp., Cleopatra bulimoides, Bellamya unicolor and Lanistes varicus. The freshwater snails were exposed to artificial bright light from a 100 Watt electric bulb in the laboratory to induce cercarial shedding. Of the total freshwater snails collected, 10.55% released one or more types of cercariae. Seven morphological types of cercariae were shed by six freshwater snail species namely: Brevifurcate-apharyngeate distome, Amphistome, Gymnocephalus, Longifurcate-pharyngeate monostome, Longifurcate-pharyngeate distome, Echinostome and Xiphidio cercariae. Infection was monotype in most of the freshwater snails collected; however, Physa species presented a mixed infection with Gymnocephalus and Longifurcate-pharyngeate distome cercariae. B. globosus and B. pfeifferi were the most preferred intermediate hosts with the prevalence of 13.48% and 13.46%, respectively. The diversity and prevalence of cercariae varied among the six freshwater bodies with Manchok water intake having the highest infestation (14.3%) and the least recorded in Kangimi dam (3.9%). There was a correlation trend between the number of freshwater snails and trematode infection with Manchok exhibiting the highest and Bagoma none. The highest cercarial diversity was observed in B. pfeifferi and B. globosus with four morphotypes each, and the lowest was in M. tuberculata with one morphotype. The general distribution of freshwater snails and the trematode cercariae they shed suggests the risk of human and animals to trematodiasis in Manchok community. Public health education to raise awareness on individual and communal action that may control snail breeding sites, prevent transmission and provide access to treatment should be intensified.

Keywords: Cercariae, diversity, freshwater snails, prevalence, trematodiasis.

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Authors: Pianpian Zhang, Qingping Luo

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Currently, there is a great tendency that more and more villages in China are trying to increase income by development of tourism. Especially in Zhejiang Province, 'Beautiful Rural Construction' provides an excellent opportunity for the development of tourism. In this context, development orientation, transportation routes and tourism service facilities are analyzed under the perspective of water resources protection and regional integration based on the development tourism industry of the six villages in Pujiang County, Zhejiang Province as a research object. In the program, the biggest issue is the contradiction between the ecological protection of the water and the development of economy. How to deal with the relationship between protection and development is the key to the design of this case. Furthermore, the six villages are regarded as a whole, connecting to each other by the system of five-path and the landscape along the lake. Every village has its own features, but cannot develop without one another. The article is actively exploring for suggestions and countermeasures to promote the development premised on protection and based on a regional view.

Keywords: Development, integration, protection, rural tourism.

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Authors: Karim Shiraazi, Mahyar Asheghi Milani, Alireza Sadeghi, Eram Azami, Ahadollah Azami

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A passive system "Qanat" is collection of some underground wells. A mother-well was dug in a place far from the city where they could reach to the water table maybe 100 meters underground, they dug other wells to direct water toward the city, with minimum possible gradient. Using the slope of the earth they could bring water close to the surface in the city. The source of water or the appearance of Qanat, land slope and the ownership lines are the important and effective factors in the formation of routes and the segment division of lands to the extent that making use of Qanat as the techniques of extracting underground waters creates a channel of routes with an organic order and hierarchy coinciding the slope of land and it also guides the Qanat waters in the tradition texture of salt desert and border provinces of it. Qanats are excavated in a specified distinction from each other. The quantity of water provided by Qanats depends on the kind of land, distance from mountain, geographical situation of them and the rate of water supply from the underground land. The rate of underground waters, possibility of Qanat excavation, number of Qanats and rate of their water supply from one hand and the quantity of cultivable fertile lands from the other hand are the important natural factors making the size of cities. In the same manner the cities with several Qanats have multi central textures. The location of cities is in direct relation with land quality, soil fertility and possibility of using underground water by excavating Qanats. Observing the allowable distance for Qanat watering is a determining factor for distance between villages and cities. Topography, land slope, soil quality, watering system, ownership, kind of cultivation, etc. are the effective factors in directing Qanats for excavation and guiding water toward the cultivable lands and it also causes the formation of different textures in land division of farming provinces. Several divisions such as orderly and wide, inorderly, thin and long, comb like, etc. are the introduction to organic order. And at the same time they are complete coincidence with environmental conditions in the typical development of ecological architecture and planning in the traditional cities and settlements order.

Keywords: Qanat, Settlement Formation, Hot-Arid Region, Sustainable Development

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Authors: Nurul' Ain Ab Jalil, Hassan Basri

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This paper reviews the objectives, methods and results of previous studies on biodrying of solid waste in several countries. Biodrying of solid waste is a novel technology in developing countries such as in Malaysia where high moisture content in organic waste makes the segregation process for recycling purposes complicated and diminishes the calorific value for the use of fuel source. In addition, the high moisture content also encourages the breeding of vectors and disease-bearing animals. From the laboratory results, the average moisture content of organic waste, paper, plastics and metals are 58.17%, 37.93%, 29.79% and 1.03% respectively for UKM campus. Biodrying of solid waste is a simple method of waste treatment as well as a cost-efficient technology to dry the solid waste. The process depends on temperature monitoring and air flow control along with the natural biodegradable process of organic waste. This review shows that the biodrying of solid waste method has high potential in treatment and recycling of solid waste, be useful for biodrying study and implementation in Malaysia.

Keywords: Biodrying of solid waste, Organic waste, Fuel source.

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Authors: Georgios Linardatos, Miltiadis Zamparas, Vlasoula Bekiari, Georgios Bokias, Georgios Hotos

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Hydrogels are three-dimensional, hydrophilic, polymeric networks composed of homopolymers or copolymers and are insoluble in water due to the presence of chemical or physical cross-links. When hydrogels come in contact with aqueous solutions, they can effectively sorb and retain the dissolved substances, depending on the nature of the monomeric units comprising the hydrogel. For this reason, hydrogels have been proposed in several studies as water purification agents. At the present work anionic hydrogels bearing negatively charged –COO- groups were prepared and investigated. These gels are based on sodium acrylate (ANa), either homopolymerized (poly(sodiumacrylate), PANa) or copolymerized (P(DMAM-co-ANa)) with N,N Dimethylacrylamide (DMAM). The hydrogels were used to extract some model organic dyes from water. It is found that cationic dyes are strongly sorbed and retained by the hydrogels, while sorption of anionic dyes was negligible. In all cases it was found that both maximum sorption capacity and equilibrium binding constant varied from one dye to the other depending on the chemical structure of the dye, the presence of functional chemical groups and the hydrophobic-hydrophilic balance. Finally, the nonionic hydrogel of the homopolymer poly(N,Ndimethylacrylamide), PDMAM, was also used for reasons of comparison.

Keywords: Anionic organic hydrogels, sorption, organic dyes, water purification agents.

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Authors: B.M.N. Nik Hisyamudin, S. Yokoyama, M. Umemoto

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In the current study, we have conducted an experimental investigation on the utilization of electronic arc furnace (EAF) reducing slag for the absorption of CO2 via wet grinding method. It was carried out by various grinding conditions. The slag was ground in the vibrating ball mill in the presence of CO2 and pure water under ambient temperature. The reaction behavior was monitored with constant pressure method, and the changes of experimental systems volume as a function of grinding time were measured. It was found that the CO2 absorption occurred as soon as the grinding started. The CO2 absorption was significantly increased in the case of wet grinding compare to the dry grinding. Generally, the amount of CO2 absorption increased as the amount of water, weight of slag and initial pressure increased. However, it was decreased when the amount of water exceeds 200ml and when smaller balls were used. The absorption of CO2 occurred simultaneously with the start of the grinding and it stopped when the grinding was stopped. According to this research, the CO2 reacted with the CaO inside the slag, forming CaCO3.

Keywords: CO2 absorption, EAF reducing slag, vibration ball mill, wet grinding.

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Authors: N. Garba, A. Adamu, A. I. Augie

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Energy is the major force that drives any country`s socio-economic development. Without electricity, the country could be at risk of losing many potential investors. As such, good policy implementation could play a significant role in harnessing all the available energy resources. Nigeria has the prospects of meeting its energy demand and supply if there are good policies and proper implementation of them. The current energy supply needs to improve in order to meet the present and future demand. Sustainable energy development is the way forward. Renewable energy plays a significant role in socio-economic development of any country. Nigeria is a country blessed with abundant natural resources such as, solar radiation for solar power, water for hydropower, wind for wind power, and biomass from both plants and animal’s waste. Both conventional energy (fossil fuel) and unconventional energy (renewable) could be harmonized like in the case of energy mix or biofuels. Biofuels like biodiesel could be produced from biomass and combined with petro-diesel in different ratios. All these can be achieved if good policy is in place. The challenges could be well overcome with good policy, masses awareness, technological knowledge and other incentives that can attract investors in Nigerian energy sector.

Keywords: Nigeria, renewable energy, Renewable Energy and Efficiency Partnership, Rural Electrification Agency, International Renewable Energy Agency, ECOWAS, Energy Commission of Nigeria

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Authors: M. Sadeghi, A.H. Jafari, S.M.P. Firoozabadi

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Deep Brain Stimulation or DBS is a surgical treatment for Parkinson-s Disease with three stimulation parameters: frequency, pulse width, and voltage. The parameters should be selected appropriately to achieve effective treatment. This selection now, performs clinically. The aim of this research is to study chaotic behavior of recorded tremor of patients under DBS in order to present a computational method to recognize stimulation optimum voltage. We obtained some chaotic features of tremor signal, and discovered embedding space of it has an attractor, and its largest Lyapunov exponent is positive, which show tremor signal has chaotic behavior, also we found out, in optimal voltage, entropy and embedding space variance of tremor signal have minimum values in comparison with other voltages. These differences can help neurologists recognize optimal voltage numerically, which leads to reduce patients' role and discomfort in optimizing stimulation parameters and to do treatment with high accuracy.

Keywords: Chaos, Deep Brain Stimulation, Parkinson's Disease, Stimulation Parameters, tremor.

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Authors: A. Talapatra, N. R. Bandhyopadhyay, J. Datta

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In the present study, two TRIP-assisted steels were designated as A (having no Cr and Cu content) and B (having higher Ni, Cr and Cu content) heat treated under different conditions, and the correlation between its heat treatment, microstructure and properties were investigated. Micro structural examination was carried out by optical microscope and scanning electron microscope after electrolytic etching. Non-destructive electrochemical and ultrasonic testing on two TRIP-assisted steels was used to find out corrosion and mechanical properties of different alter microstructure phase’s steels. Furthermore, micro structural studies accompanied by the evaluation of mechanical properties revealed that steels having martensite phases with higher corrosive and hardness value were less sound velocity and also steel’s microstructure having finer grains that was more grain boundary was less corrosion resistance. Steel containing more Cu, Ni and Cr was less corrosive compared to other steels having same processing or microstructure.

Keywords: TRIP-assisted steels, heat treatment, corrosion, electrochemical techniques, micro-structural characterization, non-destructive (ultrasonic) technique.

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Authors: S. J. Matlan, M. Mukhlisin, M. R. Taha

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Characterization of the engineering behavior of unsaturated soil is dependent on the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC), a graphical representation of the relationship between water content or degree of saturation and soil suction. A reasonable description of the SWCC is thus important for the accurate prediction of unsaturated soil parameters. The measurement procedures for determining the SWCC, however, are difficult, expensive, and timeconsuming. During the past few decades, researchers have laid a major focus on developing empirical equations for predicting the SWCC, with a large number of empirical models suggested. One of the most crucial questions is how precisely existing equations can represent the SWCC. As different models have different ranges of capability, it is essential to evaluate the precision of the SWCC models used for each particular soil type for better SWCC estimation. It is expected that better estimation of SWCC would be achieved via a thorough statistical analysis of its distribution within a particular soil class. With this in view, a statistical analysis was conducted in order to evaluate the reliability of the SWCC prediction models against laboratory measurement. Optimization techniques were used to obtain the best-fit of the model parameters in four forms of SWCC equation, using laboratory data for relatively coarse-textured (i.e., sandy) soil. The four most prominent SWCCs were evaluated and computed for each sample. The result shows that the Brooks and Corey model is the most consistent in describing the SWCC for sand soil type. The Brooks and Corey model prediction also exhibit compatibility with samples ranging from low to high soil water content in which subjected to the samples that evaluated in this study.

Keywords: Soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC), statistical analysis, unsaturated soil.

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Authors: Khwaja Naweed Seddiqi, Zabihullah Mahdi, Shigeo Honma

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Recently increasing oil production from petroleum reservoirs is one of the most important issues in the global energy sector. So, in this paper, the recovery of oil by the waterflooding technique from petroleum reservoir are considered. To investigate the aforementioned phenomena, the relative permeability of two immiscible fluids in sand is measured in the laboratory based on the steady-state method. Two sorts of oils, kerosene and heavy oil, and water are pumped simultaneously into a vertical sand column with different pumping ratio. From the change in fractional discharge measured at the outlet, a method for determining the relative permeability is developed focusing on the displacement mechanism in sand. Then, displacement mechanism of two immiscible fluids in the sand is investigated under the Buckley-Leveret frontal displacement theory and laboratory experiment. Two sorts of experiments, one is the displacement of pore water by oil, the other is the displacement of pore oil by water, are carried out. It is revealed that the relative permeability curves display tolerably different shape owing to the properties of oils, and produce different amount of residual oils and irreducible water saturation.

Keywords: Petroleum reservoir engineering, relative permeability, two-phase flow, immiscible displacement in porous media, steady-state method, waterflooding.

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Authors: Nuttawan Yoswathana, M. N. Eshtiaghi

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Rambutan is a tropical fruit which peel possesses antioxidant properties. This work was conducted to optimize extraction conditions of phenolic compounds from rambutan peel. Response surface methodology (RSM) was adopted to optimize subcritical water extraction (SWE) on temperature, extraction time and percent solvent mixture. The results demonstrated that the optimum conditions for SWE were as follows: temperature 160°C, extraction time 20min. and concentration of 50% ethanol. Comparison of the phenolic compounds from the rambutan peels in maceration 6h, soxhlet 4h, and SWE 20min., it indicated that total phenolic content (using Folin-Ciocalteu-s phenol reagent) was 26.42, 70.29, and 172.47mg of tannic acid equivalent (TAE) per g dry rambutan peel, respectively. The comparative study concluded that SWE was a promising technique for phenolic compounds extraction from rambutan peel, due to much more two times of conventional techniques and shorter extraction times.

Keywords: Subcritical water extraction, Rambutan peel, phenolic compounds, response surface methodology

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Authors: Tien-Shun Chan, Yung-Chung Chang, Cheng-Yu Chu, Wen-Hui Chen, Yuan-Lin Chen, Shun-Chong Wang, Chang-Chun Wang

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98% of the energy needed in Taiwan has been imported. The prices of petroleum and electricity have been increasing. In addition, facility capacity, amount of electricity generation, amount of electricity consumption and number of Taiwan Power Company customers have continued to increase. For these reasons energy conservation has become an important topic. In the past linear regression was used to establish the power consumption models for chillers. In this study, grey prediction is used to evaluate the power consumption of a chiller so as to lower the total power consumption at peak-load (so that the relevant power providers do not need to keep on increasing their power generation capacity and facility capacity). In grey prediction, only several numerical values (at least four numerical values) are needed to establish the power consumption models for chillers. If PLR, the temperatures of supply chilled-water and return chilled-water, and the temperatures of supply cooling-water and return cooling-water are taken into consideration, quite accurate results (with the accuracy close to 99% for short-term predictions) may be obtained. Through such methods, we can predict whether the power consumption at peak-load will exceed the contract power capacity signed by the corresponding entity and Taiwan Power Company. If the power consumption at peak-load exceeds the power demand, the temperature of the supply chilled-water may be adjusted so as to reduce the PLR and hence lower the power consumption.

Keywords: Gery system theory, grey prediction, chller.

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Authors: Taekyun Kim, Jongho Park, Jinwoong Choi, Sun-Kyu Park

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Recently, the abnormal climate phenomenon has enlarged due to the global warming. As a result, temperature variation is increasing and the term is being prolonged, frequency of high and low temperature is increasing by heat wave and severe cold. Especially for reinforced concrete structure, the corrosion of reinforcement has occurred by concrete crack due to temperature change and the durability of the structure that has decreased by concrete crack. Accordingly, the textile reinforced concrete (TRC) which does not corrode due to using textile is getting the interest and the investigation of TRC is proceeding. The study of TRC structure behavior has proceeded, but the characteristic study of the concrete used in TRC is insufficient. Therefore, characteristic of the concrete by changing mixing ratio is studied in this paper. As a result, mixing ratio with different water-binder ratio has influenced to the strength of concrete. Also, as the water-binder ratio has decreased, strength of concrete has increased.

Keywords: Concrete, mixing ratio, textile, TRC.

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Authors: V. G. Cappellesso, D. M. G. da Silva, J. A. Arndt, N. dos Santos Petry, A. B. Masuero, D. C. C. Dal Molin

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Concrete elements are subject to cracking, which can be an access point for deleterious agents that can trigger pathological manifestations reducing the service life of these structures. Finding ways to minimize or eliminate the effects of this aggressive agents’ penetration, such as the sealing of these cracks, is a manner of contributing to the durability of these structures. The cementitious self-healing phenomenon can be classified in two different processes. The autogenous self-healing that can be defined as a natural process in which the sealing of this cracks occurs without the stimulation of external agents, meaning, without different materials being added to the mixture, while on the other hand, the autonomous seal-healing phenomenon depends on the insertion of a specific engineered material added to the cement matrix in order to promote its recovery. This work aims to evaluate the autogenous self-healing of concretes produced with different water/cement ratios and exposed to wet/dry cycles, considering two ages of crack openings, 3 days and 28 days. The self-healing phenomenon was evaluated using two techniques: crack healing measurement using ultrasonic waves and image analysis performed with an optical microscope. It is possible to observe that by both methods, it possible to observe the self-healing phenomenon of the cracks. For young ages of crack openings and lower water/cement ratios, the self-healing capacity is higher when compared to advanced ages of crack openings and higher water/cement ratios. Regardless of the crack opening age, these concretes were found to stabilize the self-healing processes after 80 days or 90 days.

Keywords: Self-healing, autogenous, water/cement ratio, curing cycles, test methods.

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Authors: Deepak Mohan, Sushma Sharma

Abstract:

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) are a group of widely used drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid diseases and to relieve pain and inflammation due to their analgesic anti-pyretic and anti-inflammatory properties. The therapeutic and many of the toxic effects of NSAIDs result from reversible inhibition of enzymes in the cyclooxygenase (COX) group. In the present investigation the effect of the drug on the concentration of lipids, and on the activity of the enzymes i.e. acid and alkaline phosphatase, GOT, GPT and lipid peroxidase were studied. There was a significant enhancement in the activities of both acid and alkaline phosphatase after 21 days of treatment. Proportionate increase in the MDA contents was observed after different days of diclofenac treatment. Cellular damage in the liver resulted in decrease in the activity of both GOT (Glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase) and GPT (Glutamate pyruvate transaminase) in both low and high dose groups. Significant decrease in the liver contents was also observed in both dose groups.

Keywords: Anti-inflammatory, cyclooxygenase, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase, malondialdehyde.

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Authors: Satish Kumar Dewangan, Santosh Kumar Senapati

Abstract:

The present work focuses on the investigation of the effect of non-Newtonian behavior on the oil-water stratified flow in a horizontal channel using ANSYS Fluent. Coupled level set and volume of fluid (CLSVOF) has been used to capture the evolving interface assuming unsteady, coaxial flow with constant fluid properties. The diametric variation of oil volume fraction, mixture velocity, total pressure and pressure gradient has been studied. Non-Newtonian behavior of oil has been represented by the power law model in order to investigate the effect of flow behavior index. Stratified flow pattern tends to assume dispersed flow pattern with the change in the behavior of oil to non-Newtonian. The pressure gradient is found to be very much sensitive to the flow behavior index. The findings could be useful in designing the transportation pipe line in petroleum industries.

Keywords: Oil-water stratified flow, horizontal channel, CLSVOF, non–Newtonian behavior.

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Authors: Rupinder Kaur, Parmjit S. Panesar, Ram S. Singh

Abstract:

Whey is the lactose rich by-product of the dairy industry, having good amount of nutrient reservoir. Most abundant nutrients are lactose, soluble proteins, lipids and mineral salts. Disposing of whey by most of milk plants which do not have proper pre-treatment system is the major issue. As a result of which, there can be significant loss of potential food and energy source. Thus, whey has been explored as the substrate for the synthesis of different value added products such as enzymes. β-galactosidase is one of the important enzymes and has become the major focus of research due to its ability to catalyze both hydrolytic as well as transgalactosylation reaction simultaneously. The enzyme is widely used in dairy industry as it catalyzes the transformation of lactose to glucose and galactose, making it suitable for the lactose intolerant people. The enzyme is intracellular in both bacteria and yeast, whereas for molds, it has an extracellular location. The present work was carried to utilize the whey for the production of β-galactosidase enzyme using both yeast and fungal cultures. The yeast isolate Kluyveromyces marxianus WIG2 and various fungal strains have been used in the present study. Different disruption techniques have also been investigated for the extraction of the enzyme produced intracellularly from yeast cells. Among the different methods tested for the disruption of yeast cells, SDS-chloroform showed the maximum β-galactosidase activity. In case of the tested fungal cultures, Aureobasidium pullulans NCIM 1050 was observed to be the maximum extracellular enzyme producer.

Keywords: β-galactosidase, fungus, yeast, whey.

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Authors: F. Laaouad, M. Bouguerra, A. Hafaifa, A. Iratni

Abstract:

In this work, we treat the problems related to chemical and petrochemical plants of a certain complex process taking the centrifugal compressor as an example, a system being very complex by its physical structure as well as its behaviour (surge phenomenon). We propose to study the application possibilities of the recent control approaches to the compressor behaviour, and consequently evaluate their contribution in the practical and theoretical fields. Facing the studied industrial process complexity, we choose to make recourse to fuzzy logic for analysis and treatment of its control problem owing to the fact that these techniques constitute the only framework in which the types of imperfect knowledge can jointly be treated (uncertainties, inaccuracies, etc..) offering suitable tools to characterise them. In the particular case of the centrifugal compressor, these imperfections are interpreted by modelling errors, the neglected dynamics, no modelisable dynamics and the parametric variations. The purpose of this paper is to produce a total robust nonlinear controller design method to stabilize the compression process at its optimum steady state by manipulating the gas rate flow. In order to cope with both the parameter uncertainty and the structured non linearity of the plant, the proposed method consists of a linear steady state regulation that ensures robust optimal control and of a nonlinear compensation that achieves the exact input/output linearization.

Keywords: Compressor, Fuzzy logic, Surge control, Bilinearcontroller, Stability analysis, Nonlinear plant.

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Authors: Jingming Wu, Junqi Yue, Ruikang Hu, Zhaoguang Yang, Lifeng Zhang

Abstract:

Fecal coliform bacteria are widely used as indicators of sewage contamination in surface water. However, there are some disadvantages in these microbial techniques including time consuming (18-48h) and inability in discriminating between human and animal fecal material sources. Therefore, it is necessary to seek a more specific indicator of human sanitary waste. In this study, the feasibility was investigated to apply caffeine and human pharmaceutical compounds to identify the human-source contamination. The correlation between caffeine and fecal coliform was also explored. Surface water samples were collected from upstream, middle-stream and downstream points respectively, along Rochor Canal, as well as 8 locations of Marina Bay. Results indicate that caffeine is a suitable chemical tracer in Singapore because of its easy detection (in the range of 0.30-2.0 ng/mL), compared with other chemicals monitored. Relative low concentrations of human pharmaceutical compounds (< 0.07 ng/mL) in Rochor Canal and Marina Bay water samples make them hard to be detected and difficult to be chemical tracer. However, their existence can help to validate sewage contamination. In addition, it was discovered the high correlation exists between caffeine concentration and fecal coliform density in the Rochor Canal water samples, demonstrating that caffeine is highly related to the human-source contamination.

Keywords: Caffeine, Human Pharmaceutical Compounds, Chemical Tracer, Sewage Contamination.

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Authors: W. EL Khoumsi, A. Hammani, M. Kuper, A. Bouaziz

Abstract:

Oases are complex and fragile agro-ecosystems. They have always existed in environments characterized by an arid climate, scarcity of rainfall, high temperatures and high evaporation. These palms have grown up despite the severity of the physical characteristics thanks to the water's existence and irrigation practice. The oases are generally spread along non-perennial rivers (wadis), shallow water table or deep artesian groundwater. However, the sustainability of oasis system is threatened by water scarcity and declining of water table levels particularly in arid areas. Located in the southern east area of Morocco, Tafilalet plain encompasses one of the largest palm groves in the kingdom. In recent years, this area has become increasingly threatened by water shortage and has seen a sharp deterioration under the effect of several combined anthropogenic and climatic factors. The Bayoud disease, successive years of drought, Hassan Addakhil dam construction etc are all factors that have affected both water and phoenicicole heritage of the area. The objective of this study is to understand the interaction between qualitative and quantitative degradation of groundwater resources, and the palm grove dynamics, while reviewing the assumption that groundwater resources contribute in a direct way to the conservation of this oasis agroecosystem. A historical analysis tracing both the oasis dynamics and the groundwater evolution has been established. Data were collected from satellite images, surveys with different actors (farmers, Regional Office for Agricultural Development, Basin agency...). They were complemented by a synthesis of numerous technical reports in the area. The results showed that within 40 years, the thickness of the groundwater table has dropped in 50 %. Along with this, there has been a downsizing of date palm by 50 %. Areas with higher groundwater level were the least affected by the downsizing. So we can say that the shallow groundwater contribute significantly and directly to the water supply of date palm through its root system, and largely ensures the oasis ecosystem sustainability.

Keywords: Oasis dynamics, Arid environments, Groundwater deterioration, Date palm.

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Authors: Om Prakash Verma, Rajesh Singla, Rajesh Kumar

Abstract:

Conventional controller’s usually required a prior knowledge of mathematical modelling of the process. The inaccuracy of mathematical modelling degrades the performance of the process, especially for non-linear and complex control problem. The process used is Water-Bath system, which is most widely used and nonlinear to some extent. For Water-Bath system, it is necessary to attain desired temperature within a specified period of time to avoid the overshoot and absolute error, with better temperature tracking capability, else the process is disturbed.

To overcome above difficulties intelligent controllers, Fuzzy Logic (FL) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS), are proposed in this paper. The Fuzzy controller is designed to work with knowledge in the form of linguistic control rules. But the translation of these linguistic rules into the framework of fuzzy set theory depends on the choice of certain parameters, for which no formal method is known. To design ANFIS, Fuzzy-Inference-System is combined with learning capability of Neural-Network.

It is analyzed that ANFIS is best suitable for adaptive temperature control of above system. As compared to PID and FLC, ANFIS produces a stable control signal. It has much better temperature tracking capability with almost zero overshoot and minimum absolute error.

Keywords: PID Controller, FLC, ANFIS, Non-Linear Control System, Water-Bath System, MATLAB-7.

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