Membrane technology has emerged as a dynamic field of study in academia and industry for treating produced oily wastewater. ZrO2 nanoparticles (ZrO2 NPs) filler-based mixed matrix polyethersulfone/cellulose acetate microfiltration membranes were fabricated and inspected in the oily wastewater remediation. The fabricated bare PES membrane, PES/CA blended polymers membrane, and PES/CA blended polymers incorporating ZrO2 NPs (ZrO2@PES/CA) membranes by phase inversion technique were inspected by field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and measurement of water contact angle and porosity. The ZrO2@PES/CA membrane which consisted of 0.5 wt.% ZrO2 NPs (0.5%ZrPC) afforded

In this paper, a compact genetic algorithm (CGA) is enhanced by integrating its selection strategy with a steepest descent algorithm (SDA) as a local search method to give I-CGA-SDA. This system is an attempt to avoid the large CPU time and computational complexity of the standard genetic algorithm. Here, CGA dramatically reduces the number of bits required to store the population and has a faster convergence. Consequently, this integrated system is used to optimize the maximum likelihood function lnL(φ1, θ1) of the mixed model. Simulation results based on MSE were compared with those obtained from the SDA and showed that the hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) and I-CGA-SDA can give a good estimator of (φ1, θ1) for the ARMA(1,1) model. Anot

A novel planar type antenna printed on a high permittivity Rogers’ substrate is proposed for early stage microwave breast cancer detection. The design is based on a p-shaped wide-slot structure with microstrip feeding circuit to eliminate losses of transmission. The design parameters are optimized resulting in a good reflection coefficient at −10 dB from 4.5 to 10.9 GHz. Imaging result using inhomogeneous breast phantom indicates that the proposed antenna is capable of detecting a 5 mm size cancerous tumor embedded inside the fibroglandular region with dielectric contrast between the target and the surrounding materials ranging from 1.7 : 1 to 3.6 : 1.

One of the main parts in hydraulic system is directional control valve, which is needed in order to operate hydraulic actuator. Practically, a conventional directional control valve has complex construction and moving parts, such as spool. Alternatively, a proposed Magneto-rheological (MR) directional control valve can offer a better solution without any moving parts by means of MR fluid. MR fluid consists of stable suspension of micro-sized magnetic particles dispersed in carrier medium like hydrocarbon oil. The main objectives of this present research are to design a MR directional control valve using MR fluid, to analyse its magnetic circuit using FEMM software, and to study and simulate the performance of this valve. In this research, a

The specifications of lubricating oil are fundamentally the final product of materials that have been added for producing the desired properties. In this research, spherical nanoparticles copper oxide (CuO) and titanium oxides (TiO₂) are added to SAE 15W40 engine oil to study the thermal conductivity, stability, viscosity of nano-lubricants, which are prepared at different concentrations of 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5%, and 1% by weight, and also their pour point, and flash point as five quality parameters. The obtained results show that CuO nanoparticles in all cases, give the best functionality and effect on engine oil with respect to TiO₂. With 0.1 wt. % concentration, the thermal conductivity of CuO/oil and TiO₂/

The purpose of this paper is to gain a good understanding about wake region behind the car body due to the aerodynamic effect when the air flows over the road vehicle during its movement. The main goal of this study is to discuss the effect of the geometry on the wake region and the aerodynamic drag coefficient. Results will be achieved by using two different shapes, which are the fastback and the notchback. The study will be implemented by the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) by using STAR-CCM+^® software for the simulation. This study investigates the steady turbulent flow using k-epsilon turbulence model. The results obtained from the simulation show that the region of the air separation behind the vehicle

    Soft clays are generally characterized by low shear strength, low permeability and high compressibility. An effective method to accelerate consolidation of such soils is to use vertical drains along with vacuum preloading to encourage radial flow of water.  In this research numerical modeling of prefabricated vertical drains with vacuum pressure was done to investigate the effect of using vertical drains together with vacuum pressure on the degree of saturation of fully and saturated-unsaturated soft soils.  Laboratory experiments were conducted by using a specially-designed large consolidometer cell where a central drain was installed and vacuum pressure was applied. All tests were conducted

This paper reports test results and describes a numerical investigation of the effectiveness of using carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) fabrics for strengthening concrete cylinders that have been undamaged and damaged due to heating under preload. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether there is any difference in the performance of CFRP-wrapped cylinders if the wrapping is done under preload, and those for which neither heating, cooling nor wrapping was done under preload. The cylinders were exposed to 30% of maximum load at ambient temperature during heating and cooling before being wrapped under preload. Of 18 Ø 100 × 200 mm identical cylinders, 6 were left as control samples without heating, 12 were exposed t