Recent Developments in Engineering Research Vol. 1

Water Content Effect on Shear Strength Parameters in Coir Fiber Reinforced Pilani Soil: Recent Observations

2021-08-27T10:50:43+00:00

Recently, much work has been done on strength deformation behaviour of fiber reinforced soil and it has been established beyond doubt that addition of fiber in soil improves the overall engineering performance of soil. Fiber reinforced soil is effective in all types of soils (i.e. sand, silt and clay). Use of natural fibers in civil engineering construction practice is often advantageous as they are cheap, locally available, biodegradable, and ecofriendly. Among the available natural fibers (jute, coir, bamboo, etc.), coir is produced in large quantities in South Asian countries, such as India, Ceylon, Indonesia, Philippines, etc. and has better mechanical properties, such as tensile strength. In this paper, results on the cohesion and angle of internal friction behavior (obtained from direct shear testing) of local soil reinforced with coir fibers are presented at varied water contents. Soil sample reinforced with randomly distributed coir fibers of 2.5 cm length and 2.85 mm to 0.64 mm average diameter range (measured using screw gauge) were made for direct shear testing at 0.5% fiber content. Testing was done at four different water contents. The results show that cohesion increased and angle of internal friction decreased with increase in water content. Unreinforced in-situ local soil has negligible cohesion and angle of internal friction around 280 under similar direct shear testing conditions. Practical significance of the study has also been discussed.

A Comparative Analysis of Using Indexed View to Improve the Performance of SQL

2021-08-27T10:55:10+00:00

This article is part of a collection of apps, operators and techniques related to the SQL Insert argument. In SQL, insert query is used to insert the record into database table. There are various ways are available to insert the record into table. Depend upon the requirement user can use the appropriate way of insert command. End user point of view, they may require summary of the data or only specific records at a glance. In such cases, aggregate functions are used. As we know aggregate function returns a single cell value. Clustered indexes are defined by the main importance of the data used in the list. The columns in the index description are the most significant values. Only one clustered index can be provided in increasing view, as only one series can organize the data rows themselves. A further benefit of having an index is that the optimizer continues to use the view index on questions that do not call the view explicitly in the FROM clause. Current queries may benefit from increased data recovery performance without re-coding from the indexed view.

Design of Active and Passive Solar Elements for Sustainable Contemporary Architecture: Scientific Overview

2021-08-27T11:02:06+00:00

This paper describes the design and development of technological innovative modules to be applied in architecture cladding. They combine passive solar features like solar protection, solar thermal energy storage, ventilated and Trombe wall effects with active solar thermal collectors and photovoltaic systems. The proposed solar protection features can also include a biological element, proving support for vertical gardens and shelter for small birds. This novel modular system comprises several multifunctional technical parts. A prototype of the thermodynamic module was constructed with cork, ceramic, glass and copper materials.

All modules and prototype were designed based on the Mediterranean most influential architecture geometric patterns. Five different experimental hexagonal-based (typical Islamic geometry) geometric parts with different functions were considered. Being the thermal performance one of the most important characteristic of the parts proposed, a prototype was built and experimentally tested. The results (temperatures of the heated water) evidence excellent performance taking into account the concept design and materials selected. In fact, relatively to the thermodynamic functional part, no loss of thermal efficiency was observed because it was similar to the same of conventional commercial thermodynamic systems.

Natural Green Corrosion Inhibitors for Mild Steel-A Review

2021-08-27T11:15:09+00:00

Corrosion of mild steel in construction field poses safety, financial and environmental threat. It can be handled effectively using inhibitors. Despite having an advantage, the inorganic and synthetically produced inhibitors impart huge cost and toxicity. As a result of extensive research towards green technology quite significant numbers of green corrosion inhibitors from plants shows promising results at low cost and eco-friendly option. The constituents in plants acts in a similar way like its chemical counterpart and provide best inhibition efficiency. This paper provides an overview of types of corrosion, corrosion process, and mainly recent work done on the application of natural plant extracts as corrosion inhibitors for mild steel.

Calculations of Novel AFS Performance Modeling with Elliptical and Spherical Geometries

2021-08-27T11:19:41+00:00

Surface mine production scheduling and sequencing are used to maximize the expected profit and investment returns from mining operations. They are also used to determine future mining investments, evaluate alternative investment options, and conserve and develop the pit resources. These processes are complicated by the fact that open pit operations are conducted on multiple benches and involve concurrent excavation of both ore and waste. The pit geometries and expansion rates, and the periodic volume of materials from different benches in a multi-bench, multi-face open pit mine determine the equipment requirements, which impact the maximized pit value. Under such regimes, fast, accurate and repeatable estimation of pit volumes are required for just-in-time (JIT) production decisions. The analytical geometric volume calculations require time lags that prevent rapid information for JIT decisions. The introduction of the novel at-face-slurry (AFS) oil sands method require fast, accurate and repeatable pit volume estimation using continuous flow process.

In this study, a continuous flow process via partial differential equations (PDEs) has been used to model material volume, as well as pit layout changes from circular and elliptical geometries of an oil sands mine and compared with analytical geometric methods. The models were solved within Matlab. The results show very close agreement between geometric values and those obtained from PDEs for the pit configurations. This work represents the first successful attempt at using PDE in geometric calculations for open pit mines. The economic analysis shows that the NPV of the current mining system (CMS) is $3.2 x 10¹⁰ while that for the cyclic excavator conveyor belt control system (CycEx CBCS) is $4.06 x 10¹⁰. The PI for the CMS and CycEx CBCS options are 19.37 and 43.37 respectively. The IRR of the CMS option is 29.02% while that of the CycEx CBCS option is 33.37%. The DPBP for the CMS and CycEx CBCS options are 3.24 months and 1.92 months, respectively. The CMS option has an operating cost of $1.386/tonne ($2.774/barrel) while that of the CycEx CBCS option is $0.779/tonne ($1.558/barrel). The economic parameters show that the CycEx CBCS option is more economically viable, and the requirement for a fast, accurate and repeatable process for generating pit volumes is met by using PDEs.

Sol-Gel and Hydrothermal Derived Mn-doped ZnO Films with Optical and Piezoelectric Properties

2021-08-27T11:28:39+00:00

In this work, Mn-doped ZnO films obtained by sol-gel (SG) and hydrothermal (HT) methods were prepared for possible optical and piezoelectric applications. The amount of Mn dopant was 1, 2 and 5at% and the films were deposited on glass and Si/SiO₂/Ti/Pt substrates. The comparative characterization of the films for their structure, morphology, optical and piezoelectric properties was achieved. SG films exhibit equiaxed nanoparticles, with diameters around 50 nm, while uniform 1D nanorods, sized about 30 nm diameter and 200-300 nm length, were obtained for the films prepared by HT method. XRD diffractograms reveal the presence of zincite phase, with an improvement in crystallinity of the HT films, which present a stronger orientation along (002) plane (c-axis). Spectroscopic ellipsometry shows that the films obtained by SG are much thinner than the ones obtained by HT, and that the refractive index is increasing with the percent of dopant. The maximum transmission is the highest for the undoped ZnO film and decreases with Mn concentration, but remains over 78% in the visible range. The piezoelectric tests have shown for both SG and HT derived films low d₃₃ coefficient. The highest value of d₃₃ is obtained for HT film with 2at% dopant. Based on the obtained results the research directions for the improvement of piezoelectric properties could be outlined.

Assessing the Behavior of Steel Concrete Composite Columns under Lateral Load

2021-08-27T11:35:16+00:00

These days, composite areas of the steel and cement have been used and considered the world over, yet filled cylindrical sections require more thought. Wide assessment work has been done in Japan in the latest 15 years on this. This current endeavor shows a preliminary report on the presentation of Concrete Filled steel Tubular segments (CFT). The present research work portrays about implying the use of Concrete Filled steel Tubular segments (CFT) rather than Reinforced Columns and to decide the direct of composite segments. For this reason sixteen quantities of segments with different cross region and distinctive thickness of steel tube (8 short sections and 8 long segments) is exposed to outside pivotal prestress and horizontal burdens. The roundabout and square composite sections are casted with various L/D distribute and divider thickness. The solid utilized is M20. It is seen that Circular composite sections has less redirection and high burden bearing limit with conceded clasping while contrasted with the square composite segments.

Environment Friendly Magneto Hydro Dynamic Generator

2021-08-27T11:39:52+00:00

Modern society requires a variety of goods and services which require energy as the diversity of range of services increases so is the demand for energy. Electrical energy because of its versatility takes major share. About 55% of electrical energy is generated by thermal stations, which is the primary cause for pollutants in air, water and soil. Coal has to be transported to thermal stations located away from coalfields by railways and power has to be transmitted over large distances from pithead stations. These problems can be eliminated or reduced by converting coal into SNG (synthetic natural gas) at pithead and transporting the gas by pipe-grid to all thermal stations. The efficiency of power station can be increased by adopting combined cycle. Topping combined cycle by MHD generators failed to materialize. THERMAL CELL is now suggested for development as a topping addition for combined cycle to further improve the efficiency.

Computational Modelling of Forces Acting on the Femur Bone: Stress Analysis in CFD Modules with Parallel Processing

2021-08-27T11:43:13+00:00

The increasing incidence of bone fractures in the elderly or injured is considered to be a surgical challenge for exerts. Following an experience of force applied to the femur bone surface triggered by an external force at the level of bone articulation, increasing the risk of fracture following the modification of biomechanics. Using the analysis by dynamic computational fluid (CFD), this study aims to analyze the evolution of the proximal femur biomechanics in such cases and to extract parameters such as strain and stress measurements which can predict the probability of fracture within the femur bone and to simulate stress measurement in the bone and study their impact in the case of external force exerted with successive values 10N, 50N and 100N.

A 3D femur bone models are constructed by configuring material and boundary conditions and respecting patients' specific features, providing realistic and performant structural analysis. This study describes a 3D construction process as well as the generation of the mesh based on a parallel processing of eight processors.

Nano Level Force in Protein Plays Applications of Maximum Untold Understanding of Life Form

2021-08-27T11:47:06+00:00

There are many interactive forces between atoms applied to solve the problem of nature of molecules. One would go on applying this to several diseases and sufferings. On doing so, we have discovered that a new dimension of atomic arrangements playing a role in existence of force of interaction at nano level say at 1.6 nm. Arrangements are in such way that it maintains a carbon fraction of 0.3144 in the structure of biologically important molecule called protein. Arrangements are important from maintaining structure and another way of interaction due to the deficiency of this domain formation. All our analysis conclude that there is new kind of force of attraction available for advancing the science here in biology and other field as well as other elements possess this nano level forces of attraction. Our results are validated with crystal availability because of force existence. Otherwise other may have to be studied accordingly. Bond of all atoms involved in domain formation are altered from original value of bond formation but increased or decreased according to the type of bonds. Alteration can be a measure of this newly identified nano level force of interaction. Our analysis can be extended to other problems in our science of untold answer.

Technical Investigation, Analysis and cDNA Microarray Image Segmentation Based on Hough Circle Transform

2021-08-27T11:49:42+00:00

The investigation of cDNA microarray image involves of several steps; gridding, segmentation, and quantification that can meaningfully reduce the quality of gene expression data, and henceforth decrease our self-reliance in any derived research consequences. Circular Hough Transformation (CHT) is a powerful feature extraction system used in image analysis, computer vision, and digital image processing. CHT algorithm is applied on the cDNA microarray images to progress the exactness and the efficiency of the spots localization, addressing and segmentation process. Thus, microarray data processing steps turn out to be critical for performing optimal microarray data analysis and deriving eloquent biological data from microarray images. Segmentation is the procedure, by which each individual cell in the grid must be carefully chosen to define the spot signal and to assessment the background hybridization. In this paper, a proposed segmentation method is reconnoitered, “Adaptive Shape Segmentation”.

Relationship between Shallow Seismicity and Fluid Exploitation in the Northern Burgos Basin (Nuevo León, México)

2021-08-27T12:03:37+00:00

This paper examines the relationships between recent shallow seismicity and exploitation of fluids in the northern Burgos Basin where cumulative seismic events recorded in the State of Nuevo Leon reach a total of 304 earthquakes between 2006 and 2016. In detail, 2 to 5 yearly events occurred from 2006 to 2011; but a later remarkable increase was evident as follows: 89 in 2012, 69 in 2013, 75 in 2014, 31 in 2015 and 27 in 2016. This behavior doesn’t match the random fluctuations from natural seismicity rates. A statistical analysis allowed us to determine that the sequence of earthquakes after 2011 could be related to the activity of exploratory wells in the Burgos Basin, which were drilled down to the Pimienta (Upper Jurassic) and Agua Nueva (Upper Cretaceous) shale gas plays. The epicenters located in the State of Nuevo Leon, in the municipalities of China, General Terán, Montemorelos and Los Ramones, were associated with the Upper Jurassic Pimienta and Upper Cretaceous Agua Nueva shale gas fields. Only 17 earthquakes had magnitudes ranging from 4.0 - 4.5 Richter magnitude and those were associated with the exploratory wells Anhelido-1, Arbolero-1, Batial-1, Durian-1, Kernel-1, Mosquete-1, Neritas-1, Nuncio-1, Serbal-1 and Tangram-1. The hypocenters correspond to the depth at which the Pimienta and Agua Nueva Formations lie; hence, sharp changes in the minor shock frequencies were considered as indicators of induced seismicity related to hydraulic fracturing for fluid extraction. The scatterplot of the frequency and magnitude of events for 2009-2014 shows slopes between -7.0963 to -1.1538 that were considerably more negative than the natural seismicity values which span from 0.75 to 0.9. The slopes for 2012, 2013 and 2014 are negatives (-7.0963, -0.3656 and -0.1333), respectively. These dramatic changes in increasing of the minor shock sequences in the Burgos Basin allow us to be considered as indicators of induced seismicity due to fluid exploitation. This interpretation is based on the frequency and magnitude of shocks which achieve values of hydraulic fracturing-induced earthquakes associated with anthropogenic fracking, similar to other seismicity data obtained in different parts of the world where this technique is applied.

Study on Basic Parameters during Anaerobic Degradation of Raw Coconut Waste

2021-08-27T12:13:31+00:00

Disposal of coconut coir waste has been a difficult task for the coir industry. Coir pith is being piled up in the outskirts of the coir industry. A solution to the coir pith disposal is the biogas production from it. Raw coir pith without any treatment was tested for its potential to produce biogas. There was very little biogas generated from raw coir pith. Due to the constraints of high electrical conductivity and high lignin content, direct anaerobic treatment of raw coir pith cannot be an efficient solution. Treatment of coir pith is required for increasing the quantity of biogas produced.