Volume 2, Issue 2, May 2011

Modeling the Main Physical Properties of Banana Fruit Based on Geometrical Attributes

Mahmoud Soltani, Reza Alimardani and Mahmoud Omid

Department of Agricultural Machinery Engineering, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and
Technology University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

Abstract– To design and develop a machine for different tasks, the physical characteristics of fruit and their relationships must be known. The objective of this study was to develop models to predict the mass, surface and projected areas of banana fruit as functions of its physical properties. To measure the projected and surface areas, the image processing technique was used. Results showed that a multiple regression modeling based on the three dimensions had the highest R2 with values of 0.972, 0.974 and 0.974 for mass, surface area and projected area, respectively. Modeling based on three independent variables is a time-consuming method; therefore, single regression models were also investigated. Among one-dimensional equations, models based on the length of the fruit were proper to predict the mass, surface and projected areas of fruit. It is ideal to predict the surface and projected areas as a function of fruit mass because of the easiness of mass measuring. A good model of surface area was found to be a function of the banana mass, but this result was not achieved for the projected area.

Keywords—Banana Fruit, Modeling and Image Processing

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A Graph Theoretic Approach to Quality Evaluation of a Typical Gas Turbine System

Naresh Yadav, I. A. Khan and Sandeep Grover

Mechanical Engineering Department of Jamia Millia Islamia , New Delhi, India
Mechanical Engineering Department, YMCA University of Science and Technology, Faridabad, Haryana, India

Abstract– In the present paper, the quality evaluation of a Gas turbine system has been carried out by considering its different characteristics which govern the qualitative aspects of the gas turbine system. The graph theoretic approach has been adopted for the quality evaluation of the gas turbine system. By using this methodology, the gas turbine system has been modeled and various attributes contributing to the quality of the gas turbine system have been identified. A digraph of the characteristics which contributes to the quality of the gas turbine system significantly has been developed. The interdependency of the attributes as well as their inheritances has been identified at the gas turbine subsystem level and its representation in matrix form has been further used for the calculation of quality index of the gas turbine system through its variable permanent quality function. The sensitivity analysis of the gas turbine systems have been carried out for studying the effects of attributes over the quality of the gas turbine systems as well as their optimal selection over its various operating stages.

Keywords—Gas Turbine System Quality, Gas Turbine System Quality Index, Diagraph and Matrix Methods

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Influence of Cracking on the Physical and Chemical Properties of Concrete Containing Wastes

A. M. EL – Dakroury

Atomic Energy Authority, Hot Lab. Center, 13759, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract– Cement and concrete are used extensively to isolate waste materials from the environment and to control groundwater flow rates in mining. High quality concrete is a very low permeability material; however it is brittle and subject to cracking. In practice, the permeability of concrete is controlled by the fractures or cracks which form in the structures. The study of cracks in concrete is very important to understand its behavior under load and to improve this material. This study was done to compare new mix designs with the standard mix design under actual freeze-thaw cycling (ASTMC 666 standard) to evaluate the durability of mixes. Fly ash is a by-product of coal-fired power plants. This material can be used as a partial cement substitute in portland cement concrete. Rate of radionuclide migration and compressive strength in additive presence of (fly ash) was improve by 20 – 35 % and leachabilty time was decreased.

Keywords—Cementitious Materials, Freeze-thaw Durability and Pozzolanic Materials

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Physico-chemical Study of Subsurface Water from Parts of Taraba State, Nigeria

Arabi, S. A; Kwaya, M. Y; Iliyasu, J; and Jaoji, A. A

Centre for Energy Research and Training, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria-Nigeria
Department of Fisheries, Federal University of Technology, Yola-Nigeria
Department of Civil Engineering Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Damaturu

Abstract– Groundwater is believed to be the safest and purest of all waters and because of these, there is an over exploration and exploitation of groundwater. On irrigation fields, aquifers are dewatered, polluted by herbicide and chemical fertilizers and returned back to the subsurface. These trend posses a great threat to the future of our water resources. Therefore, there is the need to study our water resources in order to guard and manage its future effectively. This study of physico-chemistry of groundwater utilizes a total of eleven groundwater samples collected from boreholes and hand dug wells in and around Mika in Taraba State north-eastern Nigeria in order to appraise its quality for household and irrigation purposes. Sampled points were generated using Spatial Analysis and Decision Assistant (SADA) software. The area sampled falls within latitude 08° 48’ to 09° 08’ and longitude 11° 27’ to 11° 50’. Analysis of the samples collected were carried using HACH model V2000 multi-analyte photometer and Flame photometer while interpretation of the results was carried out using RockWare Aq•QA spreadsheet for water analysis.....

Keywords—Detrimental Effects, Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Hydro-chemistry, Exchangeable Sodium Ratio (ESR) and Saturation Index (SI)

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High Performance of Plastic Optical Fibers Within Conventional Amplification Technique in Advanced Local Area Optical Communication Networks

Abd El–Naser A. Mohamed, Mohammed M. E. EL-Halawany, Ahmed Nabih Zaki Rashed and Sakr A. S. Hanafy

Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering Department
Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Menouf 32951, Menoufia University, Egypt

Abstract– Plastic optical fibers (POF) are the most promising solution for the short transmission distance range in data communication. The combine the inherent benefits of all optical fibers such as high bandwidth, total electromagnetic immunity with additionally amazing simplicity in handling. This paper has proposed the investigation of plastic optical fibers within conventional Raman amplification technique in advanced local area optical communication networks. Plastic optical fiber links are deeply studied over wide ranges of the affecting parameters. Two multiplexing methods are applied, ultra wide space division multiplexing (UW–SDM) and ultra wide wavelength division multiplexing (UW–WDM), where 4000 and 6000 channels are processed to handle the product of transmission bit rate and repeater spacing for cables of multi-links (20 to 120 links per plastic fiber cable core) with employment of transmission and conventional amplification techniques are investigated namely soliton propagation and Raman amplification techniques. The transmission bit rate and bandwidth distance product per optical channel) are treated over wide ranges of the affecting parameters.

Keywords—Plastic Fibers, Conventional Raman Amplification, Space Division Multiplexing, and Local Area Network

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Numerical Simulation of Copper Temperature Field in Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) Process

Ali. Moarrefzadeh

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mahshahr Branch
Islamic Azad University , Mahshahr , Iran

Abstract– Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) uses the arc struck between a continuously fed electrode and the workpiece to melt the metal in the joint area and provide additional filler metal under a blanket of granular flux. In this paper, the Submerged Arc Welding is studied and copper temperature field is gained in this process. The thermal effect of Submerged Arc that specially depends on the electrical arc, flux type and temperature field of it in workpiece, is the main key of analysis and optimization of this process, from which the main goal of this paper has been defined. Numerical simulation of welding process in SIMPELC method and by ANSYS software for gaining the temperature field of copper, the effect of parameter variation on temperature field and process optimization for different cases of Submerged Arc are done. The influence of the welding parameter for each mode on the dimensions and shape of the welds and on their ferrite contents is investigated.

Keywords—Numerical Simulation, Flux, SAW, FSI, SIMPLEC, Temperature Field and Copper

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RunItCloud: Resolving Cross-Platform Issues on Handheld Devices using Virtual Machines

Ali Muhammad, Haq Ehsan ul, Ali Hammad Butt, Saleem Zafar, Aslam Muhammad and Martinez-Enriquez A. M.

Department of CS & E, UET, Lahore, Pakistan
Centre of Investigation and Advanced Studies (CINVESTAV), IPN, D.F. Mexico

Abstract– The synergy between cloud and virtualization has become popular in the recent years. Different handheld devices come with versatile and heterogeneous hardware and operating systems have resulted in incompatibility issues for application users. The user of a specific handheld device is therefore limited to the use of application designed to be exclusively run on that platform. We extend the concept of virtualization to provide a set of virtual machines capable of emulating major operating systems in order to meet the specific requirements of a handheld device allowing its user to run any software on it. Our service provides the user with the ability to make and run major operating systems on our cloud virtual machines. The job of this cloud computing environment is to provide the services of desired process virtual machines and system virtual machines to the users. It allows unlimited portability between different hardware and software architectures if some minor requirements are met. We present the result of our initial testing of running Nokia Symbian application on an android device and presenting the encouraging results.

Keywords—Simulator, Locomotives, Matlab, Modeling, GUI and Controls

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