Adapted DTW joint with wavelet transform for isolated digit recognition

Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) is a template matching approach based on dynamic programming algorithm. This paper proposes an adapted DTW algorithm for calculating the global distance matrix. Speech signals are decomposed using Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) into various frequency sub-bands and the resulted sub-bands of unknown; template digit utterances are compared using the adapted DTW. The performance of the proposed approach is tested with TIDIGITs data. The results indicate that there is a reduction in the order of complexity compared to DTW and increase in the performance.

Utilization of data mining techniques for diagnosis of diabetes mellitus - a case study

Thirumal. P. C and Nagarajan. N

Data mining looks through a large amount of data to extract useful information. The most important and popular data mining techniques are classification, association, clustering, prediction and sequential patterns. In health concern businesses, data mining plays an important role in early prediction of diseases. In general to detect a disease numerous tests must be conducted in a patient. The usage of data mining techniques in disease prediction is to reduce the test and increase the accuracy of rate of detection. One of the most common diseases among young adult is Diabetes mellitus. This develops at a middle age and more common in obese children and adolescents. In order to reduce the population with diabetes mellitus it should be detected at an earlier stage, hence a quick and efficient detection mechanism has to be discovered.  The principle of this study is to apply various data mining techniques which are noteworthy to prediction of diabetes mellitus and extract hidden patterns from the PIMA Indian diabetes dataset available at UCI Machine Learning Repository.

Considered technological schemes of construction tree trunks workings of vertical shafts. Analyzed studies in the evaluation of the stress-strain state of mining and development of solutions to improve their sustainability. The technique of numerical simulation of the vertical shaft, the input data and characteristics of the materials. Perform step numerical modeling portion of the barrel in the construction zone near-wellbore production. Analyzed the data and the main regularities of stress-strain state of the lining of the trunk. The efficiency gain by bolting the barrel device reinforcing layer of high-strength carbon-fiber laminate. The dependence of the bearing capacity of the lining of the reinforcement ratio and sets out the scope of the solution. Developed a method to determine the required percentage of reinforcement for strengthening concrete lining vertical shafts. Conclusions based on research findings.

Supercharging systems in small aircraft diesel common rail engines derived from the automotive field

Luca Piancastelli and Leonardo Frizziero

Common rail automotive diesels are always turbocharged. This engine works at limited altitude and should output torque at low rotational speeds. Not so for engines that work coupled to propeller and fans. This is the case of aircraft and helicopter engines. In this case it is important to have high output power at high rpm and to keep throttle authority and power as high as possible. Some basic concepts to achieve this result are introduced in this paper. Single turbocharging systems are introduced and an option to improve the altitude performance is discussed. Far from being exhaustive, this paper is an initial step in the long and awkward technology of aircraft common rail diesels. The basic combustion principles and the basic concepts for efficiency are also discussed.

Simulation and analysis of gear faults using finite element analysis software

Abstract:

Gears are a major part of every mechanical system and research methods aimed at gear fault analysis is an important sphere of research. A new direction in research in gear fault analysis can help better the existing trend. ANSYS simulation of gear faults has been rarely followed as a practise of helping to diagnose and analyse gear faults. This paper is purposeful in achieving the said task of using ANSYS.inc software to analyse the effects of various types of gear faults on the gears using finite element analysis.

Modeling of extremity distal field hemodynamic

Abstract:

In this paper the construction of a model of the distal vessels is considered on the basis of O. Frank’s and A.P. Favorskii’s works. An algorithm for numerical solution of the equation of hemodynamics is proposed. A.P. Favorskii’s model is added refined equation of state; the explicit scheme is applied to the intermediate spatial filtering of high-frequency oscillations of the velocity profiles, pressure and cross-section.

Characteristics of engine at various speed conditions by mixing of HHO with gasoline and LPG

The major threat, the scientific community facing today is global warming and fuel source depletion. Entire world is looking out for low emission fuels. Hydrogen is a promising alternate green fuel. Since fuel hydrogen leads to several issues, hydrogen fuel cell can be added to the engine unit. In this experimental work testing is conducted on a 150cc single cylinder petrol engine. The test is conducted for mixing oxy-hydrogen (HHO) with gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at various engine speeds and measuring performance and emissions. The test outcome shows that both mixtures of hydrogen with gasoline and hydrogen with LPG lead to an effective minimization of fuel consumption and emission. By adopting HHO as supplementary fuel, both fuel consumption and emission are curbed; hence global warming can be reduced.

Application of fractional wavelet transform for image authentication

G.K. Rajini, G. Ramachandra Reddy

Abstract:

In this paper Fractional Wavelet Transform (FrWT) is chosen for fingerprint authentication. It is a new family of wavelet transform that is based on well defined scaling functions, the Fractional B-splines. Fractional wavelet transforms perform better than other wavelets due their superiority of more energy compactation in approximation coefficients. This paper also presents simulation results of filter banks of FrWT and reveals the suitability and superiority of this transform for fingerprint authentication. Experimental results using Block Based Approach demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed algorithm in fingerprint authentication. Parameters like Energy, SSIM, UIQI, FAR and FRR are measured. It is observed that the proposed method outperforms some of the other existing algorithms with respect to above parameters.

Sear: Secured energy-aware routing with trusted payment model for wireless networks

Abstract:

In a multi-hop wireless network, a source node that needs to communicate with a destination node relies on other nodes in the network to forward the packets. This multi-hop packet transmission can extend the network coverage area using limited power and improves area spectral efficiency. The proposed Secured Energy-Aware Routing (SEAR) integrates multi-hop wireless network with payment and trust model. The goal of SEAR is to enhance reliable and stable routes. Payment model is used to charge those nodes that send packets and reward those nodes which forward the packet. On the other hand, trust model is used to evaluate nodes trustworthiness and reliability in forwarding packets. Multi-dimensional trust values are calculated for each node to send packets from source to destination. Moreover, trusted nodes with sufficient energy are used for routing and also to minimize the possibility of breaking the route. To evaluate trust, recommendation from each node is included in the process run by Trust Party (TP) and nodes are rewarded according to their status of packet forwarding. The SEAR in multi-hop wireless network is implemented using Network Simulator (NS2). The performance evaluation is done for measuring Quality of Service (QoS) parameters such as Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR), Call Acceptance Ratio (CAR) and Route Lifetime (RL).

A modified high efficiency ZVZCS boost converter for PV power generation system

K. Parkavi kathirvelu and B. Viswanathan

Abstract:

Photovoltaic is credible technology budding worldwide in the production of electricity for terrestrial applications. The major drawback of this technology is low efficiency produced by PV panels and power converters. Maximum power point tracking techniques are used to improve the efficiency of the PV panels while the switching loss of converters reduces the efficiency. In this proposed work a modified Zero voltage Zero current switching boost converter is designed and integrated with the PV panel to produce lossless operation thereby increases the efficiency. In this work a well known perturb and observe algorithm is used to track maximum available power from the PV panel. The proposed system is simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK software and also the results were verified with experimental outcomes.

An efficient software defect prediction model using optimized tabu search branch and bound procedure

Pandiyan G and P. Krishnakumari

Software fault localization is considered to be one of the most tedious procedures that involves larger amount of time during the debugging of program. With this, there arises an increasing desire for software fault localization to be practiced with minimum amount of human intervention. This resulted with the design of several methods, each of which provides means to address the issues related to software fault localization to be more significant in its own notable and innovative manner. While the automatic structure based fault localization using genetic programming retains the program by avoiding a specific error, but failed to repair new types of bugs and programs. Most of the present software fault localization method overcomes the individual software failures and faults. However, an in-depth insight into the work reveals that, localization does not support several combinations of heuristics faults while performing software component testing. Finally, high automatic fault localization demand led to the proposal and development of software functionality on predicting the faults at an earlier stage with minimal prediction time. To overcome the defect on software fault localization, Tabu Search Fault Localization with Path Branch and Bound procedure on Software Engineering (TSFL-PBB) is proposed in this paper. TSFL-PBB divides the work into two phases. The first phase identifies (i.e.,) search doubtful software programming code which contain bugs (i.e.,) faults using Meta-heuristic Tabu search method. The mathematical operational based optimization checks with the immediate neighbors to handle different combinations of heuristics faults. The second phase of the TSFL-PBB software engineering model develops the Path Branch and Bound procedure. The branch and bound procedure in TSFL-PBB uses the travelling salesperson operation on localizing the faults at a faster prediction rate with higher readability and maintainability of software quality. Experiment is performed on factors such as fault prediction rate, processing time, repair cost.

Extended fuzzy switching median filter and morphological algorithm for medical image segmentation

This paper is concerned with object segmentation in large database medical images. Object segmentation scheme is presented using a hybrid fuzzy median filter with the voting segmentation algorithm. Input image is pre-processed using the hybrid filter. Here, the hybrid filter is designed with the simple mean and the fuzzy switching median filter for contrast enhancement. After preprocessing, object is segmented using a voting segmentation algorithm which combines three segmentation algorithms like Marker control watershed segmentation algorithm, Multiscale gray level morphological open and close reconstruction and Gradient multiscale gray level morphological open and close reconstruction algorithm. Finally, the majority voting segmentation scheme is developed to extract the object. For experimental evaluation, different filtering techniques such as Median filter, Wiener filter, Fuzzy Switching Median filter along with different segmentation algorithms are implemented. From experimental evaluation both the PSNR and Segmentation accuracy are improved.

Effect of high CO2 content on scale and corrosion formation in oil production systems in a Colombian field

This work is focused on studying the effect of high-CO2-content oil reservoirs content on scale and corrosion formation by analyzing the physical and chemical variables involved and the thermodynamical models that allow studying the mentioned phenomena. A computer software tool based on the Oddo and Thomson model was developed to predict the required conditions for the occurrence of inorganic deposition. The model uses the ionic interactions theory proposed by Pitzer which allows evaluating the effect of pressure, temperature and ion concentration presented in production/injection waters. Both literature and results from this study coincide that CO2 effect on scale formation influences carbonate generation; however, the designed tool allows predicting most commonly scale formation types such as calcite, anhydrite, semi-hydrated gypsum, gypsum, barite, gypsum, strontium sulfate, siderite, halite at different temperature and pressure conditions. The software also allows calculating saturation indexes (IS), change of saturation index (ΔIS) and the amount of deposited mass in hydrocarbon production systems. CO2 effect on corrosion was evaluated developing software based on the model proposed by de Waard and Lotz to calculate the corrosion velocity at a given point and to evaluate the corrosion degree. Besides, it also performs a corrosion profile to determine the most critical corrosion zones along the pipe. The formation of scale from calcite and siderite shows abundance of carbonate ions and the presence of corrosion which is normally severe.

Transient-rate analysis hydraulically-fractured horizontal wells in naturally-fractured shale gas reservoirs

Freddy Humberto Escobar, Juan Diego Rojas and Alfredo Ghisays-Ruiz

The actual energetic production is focused on searching for new supply sources which permit the constant-growing need of energy. This necessity and the depletion of conventional resources place as a goal the finding of such new oil resources as unconventional shale gas reservoirs. Then, an appropriate, accurate and practical way of characterizing these types of reservoirs is strongly needed and important for a better exploitation and managing of these fields. In this work new expressions are presented for rectangular geometry (slab) reservoirs using characteristic points found on the reciprocal-rate derivative vs. time log-log plot of tests run in such very low permeability formations as gas shales, based on the linear dual porosity model proposed by El-Banbi which describes the transient behavior of a hydraulically-fractured well in a shale gas formation. Equations were developed for estimating the fracture permeability the half-fracture length, the total matrix surface area draining into the fracture system, the interporosity flow parameter and the dimensionless storativity ratio. The equations were successfully tested with synthetic examples.

ANN based long-term sector-wise electrical energy forecasting

J. Kumaran Kumar and G. Ravi

Long term load forecasting is an important aspect of electric utility resource planning and utility expansion. This paper presents an ANN based forecasting model that predicts the sector-wise electrical energy demand in India for the future years up to 2025. The model requires per capita GDP and population and offers the sector-wise electrical energy demand forecast. The comparisons of the results with that of RM exhibit the effectiveness of the proposed model.

Study of nonlinear vibration of laminated composite plates using variational approach

H. Jodeiri and S. Tabrizi Zarrin Ghabaei

In this paper free vibration characteristics of laminated composite plates is considered. A model is developed for a composite layer based on the consideration of non-linear terms in Von-Karman’s non-linear deformation theory. The governing partial equation of motion is reduced to an ordinary non-linear equation and then solved using He’s variational approach method. The variation of frequency ratio of the Isotropic and composite plates is brought out considering parameters such as aspect ratio, fiber arrangements (orientation), number of layers and modal ratios.

Transient analysis of smart material plates using higher order theory

Smart materials have many properties which are quickly responded to external stimuli such as temperature, moisture, stress, magnetic or electric fields. In this work an analytical procedure has been developed for investigating transient characteristics of smart material plates based on higher order shear deformation theory subjected to electromechanical loading. Navier’s technique has been adopted for obtaining solutions of symmetric and anti-symmetric cross-ply and angle-ply laminates with simply supported boundary conditions. Newmark’s method has been used for obtaining transient response of a laminated composite plate attached with piezoelectric layer. Effects of various parameters such as ply orientation, no of layers of composite laminated plates attached with piezoelectric layer subjected to electromechanical loadings are studied. Results predicted in this work are compared with those available in the literature.

Galloping of small aspect ratio square cylinder

A. N. Ryabinin and V. D. Lyusin

A mathematical model of galloping is considered in a quasi-steady approximation. Normal force aerodynamic coefficients C_y of square cylinder are measured in the subsonic wind tunnel at different angles of attack α. The cylinder aspect ratio is 10. The same cylinder is tested with end plates as well. A new function for the approximation of the aerodynamic coefficients dependence on the angle of attack is used. Krylov-Bogoliubov method is applied. Mathematical model allows predicting the critical air velocity at which oscillations occur. The amplitude of the oscillations can be calculated as a function of flow velocity. It appeared that the end plates significantly change the aerodynamic coefficients at low angles of attack. The critical air velocity reduces. The inflection point appears on the dependence C_y (α). Results of mathematical simulation are verified in the wind tunnel experiments. Square cylinder is suspended on two springs across the flow generated in the wind tunnel working section. The tension of the spring is measured with semiconductor tensoconverter. The output signal from tensoconverter is recorded in a computer file for further processing. In a separate experiment, the elastic damping system is measured. The calibration of instruments allows determine the amplitude of steady oscillations of the cylinder. The results of calculation and experiment are in good agreement for all the stable modes of oscillation.

Design of low power write driver circuit for 10t SRAM cell

V. Rukkumani and N. Devarajan

Aggressive scaling of transistor dimensions with each technology generation has resulted an increased integration density and improved device performance at the expense of increased leakage current. Diagnosis is becoming a major concern with the rapid development of semiconductor memories. In this paper, we propose a very low cost Design-for-Diagnosis (DfD) solution for design of write driver circuit and to improve access time in write operation, in which two decoders and one sense amplifier are used in each column of 10T Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) cell. In SRAM bit- cells utilizing minimum sized transistors are susceptible to various random process variations. The 10T SRAM cell for low voltage and energy constrain application is analyzed with respect to power dissipation. The analyzed 10T SRAM cell is compared with low power 6T SRAM cell. The simulation result based on 32nm technology shows that 37.03% power reduction compared to 6T SRAM bit cell. A control circuitry is used to enable the both column decoder and row decoder. However, there is a marginal increment in the area due to additional components used in the proposed design without compromising with the power.

Service contract management with availability improvement and cost reduction

H. Husniah, U.S. Pasaribu and B. P. Iskandar

This paper deals with a maintenance service contract for a warranted product. A situation where an agent offers more than one service contract options is considered and the optimal option is selected by the owner of equipment (a company). This case is typically found in the mining industry where the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) is the only maintenance service provider. As the availability of the equipment is directly influenced the revenue of the company, hence the availability target of the equipment needs to be included. In this paper, the maintenance service contract considering the availability target is studied from both the owner and OEM point of views and use a non-cooperative game formulation to determine the optimal strategy (pricing structure) for the OEM, and the optimal option for the owner.

Continually mounting utilization of fossil fuel and petroleum commodities has been a matter of great apprehension for developing countries like India.  Augment in inflation, pollution and associated health hazards, global warming, energy security and exhaustion of fossil fuel have propelled alternative energy. An experimental analysis has been carried out to evaluate the performance and emission characteristics of a compression ignition engine fuelled with dissimilar compositions of karanja biodiesel and its blend at 5%, 10%, 20%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% with mineral diesel. HC, CO, CO₂ and smoke were measured, found lower with karanja biodiesel fuel. However, NO_x emissions of karanja biodiesel and its blend were higher than diesel. The combustion analysis was done using peak cylinder pressure and heat release rate with respect to crank angle. The peak cylinder pressure and heat release rate was lower for karanja biodiesel. Results confirm that the performance of the engine fuelled with karanja biodiesel and its blends with diesel fuel is by and large comparable with pure diesel.

Supplementary integration block for energy detection based UWB demodulation

M. Devanathan and V. Ranganathan

In this paper, it is researched the non-logical demodulation of the 2PPM tweaked UWB signal, in view of energy location. This sort of demodulation prompts a straight forward collector construction modeling, low power utilization and the profit of multipath energy detection. On the other hand, this strategy is extremely delicate to commotion and channel impedance. To minimize this impairment, advancements have been proposed regarding the lessening of the incorporation windows size and transfer speed of info matched channel. Instead of decreasing the integration windows measure, the including of a second integral part is proposed. Thusly, a comparable impact is acquired by the dynamic amassing of energy, the front-side input-signal having a greater addition in correlation to later noise based signal. The simulation demonstrates a change in BER execution with respect to the essential system for energy detection and identification.

Turbomatching of small aircraft diesel common rail engines derived from the automotive field

Luca Piancastelli, Leonardo Frizziero and Giampiero Donnici

Common rail automotive (Direct Injection) Diesels (DID) are always turbocharged. This engine works at limited altitude and should output torque at low rotational speeds. Not so for engines that work coupled to propeller and fans. This is the case of aircraft and helicopter engines. In this case it is important to have high output power at high rpm and to keep throttle authority and power at the higher altitude possible. Some basic concepts to achieve this result are introduced in this paper. Single turbocharging systems are introduced and an option to improve the altitude performance is discussed. Far from being exhaustive, this paper is an initial step in the long and awkward technology of turbocharging automotive-derived engines. The basic concepts for efficiency are also discussed.

Novel design broadband CPE-FED monopole antenna with trapezium shaped-stub for communication system

Karim A. Hamad

A broadband coplanar waveguide CPW-fed planar monopole antenna for s_11< -10dB, wireless applications is presented in this paper. The designed microstrip patch antenna as trapezium-shaped is used to improve the bandwidth with theta = 40°degree.the antenna covers the 5.2 / 5.8 and 5.5 GHz WLAN and WiMaX applications at impedance bandwidth 1641.4MHz (4.8483-6.4897 ) GHz, VSWR< 2 and stable radiation patterns.

Soft computing based controllers for electric drives - a comparative approach

M. Gowrisankar

PID controllers are widely used in industrial plants because it is simple and robust. Industrial processes are subjected to variation in parameters and parameter perturbations, which when significant makes the system unstable. The aim of this paper is to design a controller for applications of various electric drives in industry by selection of PID parameters using soft computing techniques. Z-N methods whose performance have been compared and analyzed with the intelligent tuning techniques like Genetic algorithm, Evolutionary programming, particle swarm optimization and bacterial foraging optimization. Soft computing methods have proved their excellence in giving better results by improving the steady state characteristics and performance indices.

Assessing impact of climate change through design of a fuzzy expert system

V. Priya, G. Sagambari Devi and S. Krishna Anand

The growth of technology has taken place in leaps and bounds over the years. The rate of increase is more pronounced in the recent years. The level of developments is found to be profound in many areas of science and technology. However, not much importance has been given to maintenance of eco-friendly environment. A wide variety of species are getting extinct and amount of carbon dioxide emissions have shot up over a period of time. This work hence focuses on identifying relationships between changes on environmental parameters and its consequences. Special care has been taken to ensure that production levels do not take a steep fall by taking into consideration the inherent uncertainties involved.

High speed application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) design of convolution and related functions using vedic multiplier

ASIC implementation of convolution plays a pivotal role in digital signal processing and analysis. One of the factors in performance evaluation of any system is its speed. In this paper, direct method of computing the discrete linear convolution of finite length sequences was used in order to speed up the process. Convolution related functions such as cross-correlation and auto-correlation were also implemented. Multipliers are the building blocks of a convolution system. Since they dominate most of the execution time, for optimizing the speed, 4×4 bit Vedic multipliers based on ‘Urdhva-Tiryagbhyam’ (UT) sutra was used. The Verilog HDL coding for the proposed design was done and implemented using Cadence RTL complier with standard 90nm CMOS technology and the results were compared with other conventional methodologies.

Design and implementation of monitoring and control system based on wireless sensor networks for an energy conservation in building

Shanthi. G and M. Sundarambal

Wireless Sensor Network provides a potential technique for monitoring the indoor environment. This paper presents a Building Monitoring and control system based on Wireless Sensor Networks .The excess usage of energy in a building is controlled and conserved using LabVIEW. The usage of excess energy for electric appliances in human absence is detected and itis switched-off by using ARM controller, mbed NXP LPC1768 integrated with the LabVIEW, to continuous monitoring of appliance status. The fan and light are automatically controlled by monitoring the human activity in the indoor environment using PIR Sensor. Thehuman activity information are tracked and sent to LabVIEW to control the electric appliances through feedback control system. The system modeled provides the efficient energy conservation strategy.

Speed efficient VLSI design of lifting based 2d DWT architecture using vedic mathematics

S. Senthil Kumar, R. Radhakrishnan

This paper presents VLSI architecture for lifting based 2D DWT architecture with reduced delay. The proposed structure offers high speed and high area efficiency. Fast computation is achieved by replacing conventional multiplier units of DWT architecture with Vedic multiplier. Three sutras of Vedic multiplication are employed to reduce logic shifting operations of multiplier units and so high speed is made possible. The computation techniques of three DWT structures have been compared to prove high performance of proposed 2D DWT architecture. The proposed 2D DWT architecture is modelled and implemented using XILINX ISE 9.1.

Study on the effects of variation of fuel injection pressure on single cylinder diesel engine

P. Bridjesh. and G. Arun Kumar

Various parameters influence the performance of the compression ignition engine. The parameter like fuel injection pressure plays an important role. If the fuel injection pressure is increased, performance parameters like brake thermal efficiency and brake power increased. When the fuel injection pressure decreases, brake specific fuel consumption increased. This work is carried out to find the optimum fuel injection pressure, which gives good performance of the compression ignition engine .Test results shows that the brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption and brake power are improved at 160 N/m² fuel injection pressure.

Context aware routing in manet with ant colony optimization

Senthil Kumar. M and Asokan. R

Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANETs) have attracted significant research due to their flexibility. MANETs are a collection of mobile nodes using radio waves as transmission medium to communicate using multihop links without any infrastructure. This study uses Context Aware Routing (CAR) in MANET with Adhoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) to improve performance metrics like average end to end delay, average packet delivery ratio, average number of hops to sink and jitter. Results prove that the new ACO-CAR performs better.

Hearing loss assessment and analysis of hearing impaired subjects using a facile audiometric technique

S. Rajkumar, S. Muttan, V. Jaya and S. S. Vignesh

The objective of the work is to design and develop an expert system embedded in a computer to assess the hearing loss of an individual, and also for the subsequent analysis of the audiometric test results. 256 subjects (176 male, 80 female) were tested with the proposed system, and also with the standard conventional audiometer for proof of validation, and the test results were analyzed. The sensitivity of the proposed audiometer is 93.8%, and its specificity is 82.2%, which proves that the proposed system has more sensitivity in determining the hearing loss. The proposed system has a high positive predictive value of 92.2%, a Negative predictive value of 85.7% and an accuracy of 90.2%. The Pearson’s correlation coefficient was calculated, between the value of the pure tone average obtained in both modalities (R2 = 0.884, p < 0.001); it proves an almost linear relation between them. The system was rated for its performance by the calculated values of accuracy, sensitivity, and other statistical parameters with the analysis of the test results. Because of its high sensitivity and simplicity, it can be used for mass screening to identify the level of hearing.

High temperature oxidation and hot corrosion behaviour of plasma sprayed YSZ coating on sa213 t92 steel in air and salt at 900°c under cyclic condition

M. Makesh, P. Palanisamy and K. Devakumaran

Oxidation and hot corrosion has been considered as the principal destructive factors in thermal barrier coating systems during service. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are extensively used to protect turbine blades against high temperature oxidation and corrosion. At the present time, problems of component materials reliability in power plant focus on assessing the potential behavior of coatings, in order to avoid expensive failure in service. Hot corrosion studies were conducted on both coated and uncoated specimen in air and salt (Na₂SO₄–60% V₂O₅) at 900°C under cyclic conditions for 50 cycles. An each cycle of one hour heating at 900°C followed by 20 minutes of cooling in air. Yttria-Stabilised Zirconia (YSZ) coatings were deposited on T-92 boiler steel weldments. In this paper present a comparison on the experimental performance of YSZ coating has been made to understand their hot corrosion behavior. This YSZ coatings increase the resistance to corrosion substantially which can be attributed to formation of zirconium oxides (ZrO₂) and yttrium oxide (Y2O₃). This coating was more significant in salt environment and there is an additional phase of ZrS. Thermo-gravimetric technique was used to establish oxidation kinetics and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy/Energy Dispersive Spectrometry (SEM/EDS) techniques were used to characterize the oxide scales.

Multi histogram equalization based contrast enhancement for images

P. Jagatheeswari, S. Suresh Kumar and T. A. Sivakumar

The fundamental and important pre-processing stage in image processing is the image contrast enhancement technique. Histogram equalization is an effective contrast enhancement technique and thus in this paper, a histogram equalization based technique called Quadrant Dynamic with Automatic Plateau Limit Histogram Equalization (QDAPLHE) is introduced. In this method, a hybrid of dynamic and clipped histogram equalization methods are used to increase the brightness preservation and to reduce the over enhancement. Initially, the proposed QDAPLHE algorithm passes the input image through a Decision based modified median filter (DBMMF) to remove the noises present in the image. Then the histogram of the filtered image is divided into four sub histograms while maintaining second separated point as the mean brightness. Next, the clipping process is implemented by calculating automatically the plateau limit as the clipped level. The clipped portion of the histogram is modified to reduce the loss of image intensity value. Finally, the clipped portion is redistributed uniformly to the entire dynamic range and the conventional histogram equalization is executed in each sub-histogram independently. Hence, the contrast enhancement is improved and the noise amplifying artifacts are reduced. Based on the qualitative and the quantitative analysis, the QDAPLHE method outperforms compared to some existing methods in literature.

Study of nonlinear vibration of an elastically restrained tapered beam using Hamiltonian approach

H. Jodeiri, S. Tabrizi Zarrin Ghabaei

In this paper free vibration an elastically restrained tapered beam is investigated. The governing ordinary non-linear equation of motion has been solved using Hamiltonian approach. To assess the accuracy of solutions, we compare the results with the HBM and IPM methods. The obtained results are in excellent agreement with previous results. The results show that the present method can be easily extended to other nonlinear oscillations and it can be predicted that Hamiltonian approach can be found widely applicable in engineering and physics.

Survey of maximum power point tracking techniques in solar pv system under partial shading conditions

P. Sivachandran, D. Lakshmi and R. Janani

Conventional energy sources such as thermal, diesel appliances, and nuclear are difficult to generate the electricity for the presence of greenhouse emission, maintenance problem. To overcome such problems, solar energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy sources across the globe. In recent trends, solar power generation has tremendous growth. Solar energy offers various advantages such as contamination free, quiet in operation, long life, zero input energy cost, low maintenance. From the sunlight the light beams will be hit on a photovoltaic cell, it emitted the electrons from n-type to p-type layer and it will generate the power. Partial shading may takes place due to clouds, trees, dirt and dust in solar power generation systems. In partial shading, multiple peaks are followed in the PV characteristic curve. MPPT is a technique used to track the maximum power point of the PV source. MPPT can minimize the system cost and maximize the array efficiency. For tracking the GMPP, different types of algorithms and various techniques for MPPT are reported in various literatures. This paper reviews about the various MPPT algorithms of PV system based on partial shading conditions.

Synthesis of integrated inertial and satellite navigational systems on the basis of stochastic filter, invariant to object model

It is shown the principal possibility of the problem solution of synthesis of tight integrated inertial and satellite navigational systems on the basis of theory of stochastic filtering without information engaging on object model, on character of its motion, etc. The offered suboptimal Kalman's algorithms of estimation, being invariant to object model, provide inconvertible high-precision estimation of navigational vector both in the presence of satellite measuring, and at their loss as well.

Kinetic model of algal biodiesel production under supercritical methanolysis

Ashraf Amin, S. A. AboEl-Enin, G. El Diwani and S. Hawash

A model for the supercritical trans-esterification reaction of algae is developed to study the effect of the operating parameters on the process kinetics. A well-mixed batch reactor equation was used to express the lab scale reactor. The model is based on experimental data described in a previous study. The experimental work were designed to study the effect of reaction time between 5-50 min; reaction temperatures of 423-573K, and methanol to dry algae volume/weight (vol./wt.) ratios of 12:1-40:1. The fitting of the data indicated that the reaction is a forward first order reaction in terms of triglycerides. Two parameters were introduced to consider the effect of methanol to algae ratio and reaction time. The activation energy is 9.91 kJ/mol. Excellent fitting between the experimental results and model prediction is observed. The model shows that the optimum methanol to algae ratio and reaction time were 26 and 27 min. respectively. The triglyceride at the model optimum conditions at 600K is almost completely converted to biodiesel.

Cyclical composition of Permian rocks

N. G. Nurgalieva and D. K.Nurgaliev

Permian rocks within Volga-Kama rivers region were considered in light of environments and mechanisms of sedimentary cycles during Middle and Late Permian. Cycles are reconstructed on a lot of lithological data series (grain size, carbonates, magnetic susceptibility) in variations along the sections and in statistical models of spectral analysis. It is mathematically showed that coarse grains parameter is important to reconstruct cyclical composition of section consisted of marine and continental facies. Analysis of cycles on other lithological properties should be carried out in parts of sections with no signs of major breaks and scores.

A low cost automated table tennis launcher

Barath Ponnusamy, Wong Fei Yong and Zulkifli Ahmad

The purpose of this project is to innovate a low-cost table tennis robot with unique control system. Currently, the available table tennis robots are very expensive, and almost all of them are with wired controller where the player himself cannot control the machine when training sessions. A new design and concept are developed in order to solve these problems. This innovation called automated table tennis launcher, a self-table tennis training kit prototype which is integrated with a microcontroller better known as Arduino. This machine is controlled by the use of Android smart phones to enhance the user-friendliness and the use of wooden support and PVC pipes to fabricate greatly reduces the manufacturing cost. A 3D virtual prototype is developed by using SolidWorks software before the fabrication process and tested for function ability. This fabricated prototype can shoot the ball in three different directions and with adjustable spinning direction, which helps the user to practice almost all types of strokes in this sport. The machine is being tested and analyzed in terms of ball speed, ball shooting coverage, feeding rate and shooting distance. The results show reliable data where this machine could develop a player’s ability to return the ball with proper strokes as well as improve the player’s reaction. Furthermore, this machine is considerably very cheap for its function compared to the currently marketed products. As a conclusion, this automated table tennis launcher able to function as expected and can perform better when fabricated into the real products by using the customized size for every part.

Adsorption of lead (II) ions in aqueous solution using selected agro-waste

Sarifah Fauziah Syed Draman, Norzila Mohd, Nor Hafiza Izzati Wahab, Nurul Syahirah Zulkfli and Nor Fatin Adila Abu Bakar

Contamination of water by toxic metal is a worldwide problem. Discharging of heavy metal including lead to the water stream without treating it can cause a significant health threat to all organisms. Lead poisoning in human cause’s severe damage to the kidney, liver, nervous and reproductive systems. It also can cause to nephrotoxic effects of high exposure level and bone damage for long term exposure. Adsorption is one of the methods to remove lead. This study was conducted to determine whether local agro-waste which are tea waste and peanut shell are capable to remove lead (Pb) (II) ion from aqueous solution using batch method. Then, the effect of adsorbent dose and contact time in removing Pb (II) ion were also carried out. The prepared bioadsorbents were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The percentage removal of Pb (II) ion was analyzed using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The result of FTIR spectroscopy revealed that both tea waste and peanut shell have functional group that capable to bind appreciable amounts of Pb (II) from aqueous solutions. FTIR spectra peaks representing phenols, carboxyl and carbonyl were observed in 3330 cm^-1, 1640 - 1604 cm^-1 and 1027 cm^-1, respectively. The percentage removals of Pb (II) at 0.5 g, 1.0 g, 1.5 g were 87.89%, 88.33% and 89.6%, respectively for tea waste as bioadsorbent. Meanwhile, the percentage removals of Pb (II) for peanut shells as bioadsorbent were 74.36%, 74.57% and 74.05% for 0.5 g, 1.0 g, 1.5 g, respectively.  Both bioadsorbents showed the percentage removal of Pb (II) increase with the increasing of contact time. All the results reported that local tea waste and peanut shell has the potential and economic to be used as bioadsorbent for removal of Pb (II) ions from contaminated waters.

Biocomposite material to enhance heat transfer of wood (Shorea faguetiana and palaquim sp) for green building in Malaysia

Siti Aminah Ibrahim, Mazlan Mohamed, Sitti Fatimah Mohd Ramle, Mohd Hazim Mohamad Amini, M.S. Abdul Azi and Zairi Ismael Rizman

This paper presents a review of material efficiency that became one of major component of green building. Selections of materials from renewable and recycled sources are encouraged since it can help to minimize environmental impact, especially on waste production. The uses of materials that contain recycled content are the third priority for selecting building products. In the construction industry, bio-composite is a new material developed for building materials. It is believe that bio-composites or natural fibre composite can be an economical material for construction. In this study, the performance of bio-composite on wood to enhance heat transfer is investigated. The models of house are building using two types of Malaysian wood, Nyatoh (Shorea Faguetiana) and Meranti (Palaquim Sp.) with addition of bio-composites from saw dust and rice husk. The results of experiment are then compared with simulation result that has done using GAMBIT and FLUENT software.

Effect of biocomposite materials to enhance durability of selected wood species (Intsia palembanica miq, neobalanocarpus heimii, shorea plagata) in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to improve the recent technology which only used the solid wood as a product like bridge, water tanks, furniture, and others that might have some lacking. It is also to determine the wood properties in terms of durability in mechanical properties when combining with wood composite materials. Recent studies show that the wood itself have some disadvantages of wood properties, which covers the solid wood will get moulds, easily broken, not flexible, not durable because of termite attacks, and others. In those researches, they stated that the disadvantages of using wood fibers are their low bulk density, low thermal stability, high tendency to absorb moisture, and susceptibility to biological degradation. Thus, this research study aims an innovation, which is to determine and compare the impact of different wood composites when laminating with different type of solid wood, so that it can be applied to the industry when the durability is enhanced. In order to get most accurate result, this study used SolidWorks simulation software to predict the suitability of bio composite materials. Method used in the experiment is by using Charpy impact test, to figure out the energy needed to fracture the samples. The energy then is converted to Force (N) to find the stress value. The value also needed to be included as parameters like force and type of woods in simulation design. Combination of Merbau wood and plywood is determined as the most effective bio composite material because the value increase up to 41.57%. SolidWorks simulation also had predicted the value well with the percentage difference only from 1.14% until 23.24% from the experimental design.

Identification of collagen in solid waste Keropok Lekor

Sopiah Ambong @ Khalid, Zarina Omar, Mohd Shahrul Nizam Salleh, Azmi Mahmood, Noraini Razali, Abdul Razak Abu Kassim, Nik Abd Hafiidz Nik Abd Malek and Abdul Haffiz Nordin

Collagen is a protein made up of amino-acids and comprising approximately 20% to 30% of total body protein content. In Terengganu, the by-product of the ‘Keropok Lekor’ which primarily from the fish was dispose and the purpose of this study is to utilize those waste. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether collagen can be extracted from ‘Keropok Lekor’ and its solid waste. The ‘Keropok Lekor’, waste skin, bone, fins and scale were treated with sodium hydroxide, Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and butanol. Then, the samples were extracted using acetic acid for few weeks using acid soluble collagen (ASC) extraction. From this research, collagens were successfully extracted from ‘Keropok Lekor’ and its solid waste. The collagens extracted were light in colour, viscous properties and acidic odour. These studies also identify collagen using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC), determining the yield of extracted collagen and characterization of collagen using FTIR. Based on the result, the retardation factor of TLC shows the possible content of amino acid for each sample. The yield of precipitate collagen obtain form skin, bone and scale waste are 16.00 %, 23.00% and 7.33% and the other collagen sample does not precipitated properly.  The characteristic of Amide A, Amide B, Amide I, Amide II and Amide III is determined using FTIR and shows similarities from previous studies.

Identification of outliers: a simulation study

Sharifah Sakinah Syed Abd Mutalib and Khlipah Ibrahim

This paper compares two approaches in identifying outliers in multivariate datasets; Mahalanobis distance (MD) and robust distance (RD). MD has been known suffering from masking and swamping effects and RD is an approach that was developed to overcome problems that arise in MD. There are two purposes of this paper, first is to identify outliers using MD and RD and the second is to show that RD performs better than MD in identifying outliers. An observation is classified as an outlier if MD or RD is larger than a cut-off value. Outlier generating model is used to generate a set of data and MD and RD are computed from this set of data. The results showed that RD can identify outliers better than MD. However, in non-outliers data the performance for both approaches are similar. The results for RD also showed that RD can identify multivariate outliers much better when the number of dimension is large.

Investigation on temperature profiles of piston using low cost burner rig

Engines like a compressed natural gas with direct injection system (CNGDI) and diesel engine (heavy duty and marine transportation) have a tendency to produce extreme temperature level which may lead to high thermal stress. Inappropriate heat transfer will cause the pistons fail to operate effectively. In order to imitate the condition of high temperature like in a combustion chamber, burner rig is developed to obtain the steady-state temperature profiles. In this work, a low-cost burner rig is developed as preparation to determine the heat transfer mechanism of piston instead of using real engine. The function ability of the end-product burner rig will be evaluated to ensure its quality. Piston samples were tested using the rig and shows different temperature at various region of piston compared to the steady-state temperature on the piston crown.

Prediction of nanofiltration membrane performance: analysis of ion transport mechanisms

Norhaslina Mohd Sidek, Sarifah Fauziah Syed Draman, Nora’aini Ali and Ilyani Abdullah

The previous studies on nanofiltration (NF) more focusing on the work to update the existing predictive models to enhance its application in order to optimize the separation prediction. There is still lack of research which successfully assesses ion transport mechanisms modes for separation process prediction optimization. In this study, the percentage contribution of three transport modes: diffusion, electromigration and convection as described in Extended Nernst-Planck (ENP) equation were further evaluated. Prior the prediction, locally fabricated polysulfone (PSf) membranes with three different polymer concentrations; 19%, 21% and 23% were characterized in terms of pore radius, r_p ratio of membrane thickness to porosity, ∆x/A_k and effective charge density, X_d using uncharged and charged solutes rejection data, utilizing DSP prediction model in our developed NF-BIN system. The rejection prediction performance was then performed to predict the percentage contribution of ion transport mechanism at three cases; at limiting chloride ion rejections, at various r_p with constant ζ=3.5 and at various ζ with constant r_p=1.14 nm. The results obtained from this study indicated that diffusion is the most dominant and significant ion transport mode.

Purification of IGM monoclonal antibody from ascites fluids by using fast protein liquid chromatography

Mohammad Abdullah and Abdul Manaf Ali

Hybridoma clone C3A8 was established as a result of fusion between the lymphocytes of Balb/c mice immunized with the MCF-7 breast carcinoma cell line and Sp2/0-Ag14 myeloma cells. The clone was secreted the monoclonal antibodies (Mab) either in culture supernatant or ascites fluid and still have a contaminants which need to be purify in order to get the desired antibody. The main objective of this study is to purify the Mab. The monoclonal antibodies were purified by using HiTrap IgM Purification column and Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography (FPLC). The flow rate for FPLC system was 1 ml/min and 0.3 bar pressures which successfully separated IgM in crude monoclonal antibodies. Before purification process, the recloning of hybridoma cells by limiting dilutions was carried out in this study and it showed the clone C3A8 secreted IgM monoclonal antibody with kappa light chain. The purified IgM was analyzed using sodium dodecyl sulphate polyalcrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) indicated that purified IgM had 55 kDa of heavy chain and 27 kDa of light chain. Screening by cell-ELISA showed the purified Mab C3A8 reacted strongly with breast cancer cells (MCF7) and colon cancer cells (HT29). Through immunofluorescence staining, the antigen was detected to be located in the cytoplasm of MCF7 and HT29 cell lines but there were no positive staining detected on cervical cancer (HeLa) and fibroblast normal cells (3T3). The purified Mab was found to react specifically against a 55 kDa protein that was present in the extract of MCF7 and HT29 cell lines when immunoblotting was carried out. All the results mentioned above, suggest that the purified Mab C3A8 could be detected in breast and colon cancers cells.

Steering control method based on tsl1401 linear sensor array

Mohamad Taib Miskon, Ahmad Shahran Ibrahim, Zairi Ismael Rizman and Nuraiza Ismail

The development of an automatic steering control system has been a major concern for most researchers towards the realization of a fully automated car in the near future. It is believed that such system could mitigate the effect of road accidents caused by human errors. Therefore, this project was carried out to develop a prototype of an intelligent car that has the capability to navigate automatically without human interference. A Freescale cup development kit was utilized in this project that consists of a development board, a servo motor, two DC drives, a driver circuit and a vision sensor. A special test track was developed using a white material with black lane along both edges of the track. A vision system, based on TSL1401 Linear Array Sensor, with 128pixels of detection resolution was developed to sense the track condition. The data captured by the sensor was sent to a Freescale FRDM-KL25Z processor and the steering angle of the car was determined. The programming code was written in C language using Freescale CodeWarrior software platform. A steering control method was introduced to navigate the prototype car autonomously. The method utilizes the linear sensor as it inputs parameters to identify current position of the car and determines the output parameters that dictate the car behavior. As a result, the car managed to steer automatically in various route conditions such as straight path, ramp, junction and also sharp turn.

The enhancement of heat transfer of wood (Neobalanocarpus heimii, shorea sp, instia palembanica miq) of bio-composite materials for green building in Malaysia

Amalina Alias, Mazlan Mohamed, Hamid Yusoff, Mohd Hazim Mohamad Amini, M.S. Abdul Aziz and Zairi Ismael Rizman

In this study, heat transfer investigation is done in order to improve the cooling effect for green building without damaging the environment. This proposal is provoked by the desire to reduce the temperature for the green building and to sustain the environment and natural resources. The building industry is also a large consumer of non-renewable materials and this trend has increasing dramatically over the past century. To this end, we have been addressing sustainability concerns related to building construction materials through many research approach applied to building elements where we can collectively influence design, materials, construction, energy consumption and disposal. Bio-composites can best be used in the building industry today and what fundamental advancements are needed to facilitate more widespread application of these clean, energy-efficient and resource-rich construction materials. The use of heat insulation in the building envelope in hot and humid climate is investigated through computer simulation. Simulation of heat transfer in the aspect of reducing the temperature phenomenon inside the green building using FLUENT-GAMBIT. In this project work the simulation of heat transfer and the temperature curve in the traditional wood house and green building model is computed out using gambit and fluent software. The use of thermal insulation in the building envelope in hot and humid climate is investigated through computer simulation. Comparison of temperature profiles of the material in the traditional wood house and green building model using constant temperature heat source and linearly varying temperature of the heat source for unsteady state is done. Also the time for temperature to become steady is compared. The problem will be solved by using the software package FLUENT – GAMBIT. The parameters under analysis focused on changing the influence of exterior walls in the energy consumption for cooling the building.

Multistage turbocharging systems for high altitude flight with common rail diesel engines

Luca Piancastelli and Leonardo Frizziero

A Fiat 1.9jtd diesel engine has been extensively reviewed to output 300HP. This paper introduces a multiple stage turbocharging system that uses commercial turbocharger, taken from the catalogue of a popular manufacturer. The calculation method and the problem connected are widely discussed. Along with the problem that may arise in using these off the shelf unit. The quite heavy result advice the user to adopt ad-designed turbochargers for this task.

Influence of activated carbon filler on the mechanical properties of wood composites

Nor Atikah Abd. Aziz, Mazlan Mohamed, Marinah Mohamad, Mohd Hazim Mohamad Amini, M.S. Abdul Aziz, Hamid Yusoff and Zairi Ismael Rizman

This study is conducted to investigate the influence of activated carbon as filler on the mechanical properties of wood composite. It mainly focused on the strength, stress, and displacement of the wood composites. A composite material is defined as a combination of two or more materials that results in better properties than the individual components are used alone. The wood composite have certain advantages over wood, as they are affordable and have the potential for versatile designs. The materials possess good mechanical properties and have a long service life. Due to the excellent of mechanical properties, wood composite materials have been widely used throughout the last four decades. Structural and non-structural engineered wood composites based on plywood, medium density fibreboard (MDF), laminated veneer lumber (LVL), thermoplastic or wood fiber blends, and are now used in both interior and exterior applications. With advances in existing technology, especially in engineering field in which the use of computer software such as solid work simulation is used to test model digitally for valuable technical insight early in the design process. This type of software reduces weight and materials cost, improve durability and manufacture ability of the product. Simulation also enables representation of the modelled real system and its behaviour in real time by means of computer. From both simulation and experimental method used in this study, MDF composite samples show higher strength value than plywood composite samples due to the increasing of thickness of the activated carbon filler. Overall, the percentage differences between simulation and experimental method is lower than 10% which indicate that simulation is suitable tool use to predict the strength of wood composites.

Novels of nanocactus of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) have been synthesised by electrochemical deposition on the ITO substrate. The aqueous solutions prepared using zinc nitrate, hexamethylenetetramine at room temperature. The orientation and morphology of ZnO were observed with Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and has a high peak intensity at c-axis (002) preferred orientations by investigate with x-ray diffractometer (XRD). The average diameter of the ZnO was estimated around 150nm and the average length of secondary growth of ZnO films was 120nm. EDAX analysis was done for nanocactus ZnO to investigate the ZnO formation with contains Zn and O elements which shown the percentage of weight and atomic values. Photoluminescence (PL) properties of ZnO were indicated the UV emission band peak at 383 nm and the deep level emission band peak at 574 nm wavelength.