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Title: Optimization of Partial Oxidation of Methane for Hydrogen Production on NiO-CoO/MgO Catalyst Using Design of Experiment
Author(s): T. D. Kusworo, A. R. Songip, N. A. S. Amin
Pages: 1-7 Paper ID: 101201-8282-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: Statistical experimental method was employed to study the effect of Co/Ni ratio, temperature and CH4/O2 ratio on partial oxidation of methane. Full factorial design and response surface methodology (RSM) coupled with central composite design (CCD) were used to optimize the partial oxidation of methane for hydrogen production. A central composite design was used to determine the optimum variables (Co/Ni ratio, temperature and CH4/O2 ratio) in obtaining the maximum conversion of methane and selectivity of hydrogen. The optimal conditions for maximum conversion of methane were found as follows: Co/Ni ratio = 0.8, CH4/O2 ratio = 1.8 and T = 572 oC while corresponding values of 0.8, 2 and 560 oC, respectively for maximum hydrogen selectivity.
Keywords: Optimization, response surface methodology, central composite design
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 440 KB
Title: System Design for Data Registration and Analysis
Author(s): Ahmad Ali Al-Zubi
Pages: 8-13 Paper ID: 101301-9494-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: This paper reviews a suggested design for information system of observational data registration and its analysis, which is usually called Monitoring System (MS). The data in such systems is often weak or partially structured. Its structure depends on a specific observation and it changes over time. Generally, a data model for monitoring system was developed.
Keywords: Monitoring, Observation, Monitoring System, Real World, Mini-World Object, Parameter.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 469 KB
Title: Energy Use Patterns in Tomato Paste Production: A case study of Savannah Integrated Farms Limited, Dadin-kowa, Gombe State, Nigeria
Author(s): Mohammed Shu’aibu Abubakar, Bobboi Umar, Desa Ahmad
Pages: 14-18 Paper ID: 101601-7878-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: A study was conducted on the evaluation of energy use patterns in tomato paste production in Integrated Farms Limited, Dadin-kowa, Gombe State. Energy use and production data in this agro-allied company for seven years (1998-2004) were collected through the administration of a structured questionnaire. Results show of the two energy sources examined diesel fuel consumed accounted for 98% of the total energy inputs over the years under review. The balance of 2% was in the form of manual energy. The minimum and maximum values of energy use ratios were 11.3:1 and 31.1:1 in 2003 and 2002, respectively. A correlation between energy inputs and outputs with R2 value of 0.94 was obtained. Some energy use lapses were identified in the course of the study, which includes malfunctioning of some electric motors and other auxiliary equipment and general wastage. Manufacture, Transport and Repair (MTR) energy was not evaluated due to insufficient data on the masses of machines available in the industries and on their usage. Thus, the results of energy use obtained from the industries are incomplete because the MTR energy plays a significant role in energy use analysis. The significance of the results obtained in this work is that since the level of use of each energy source was determined, the agro-allied industry would be able to relate energy use with commodity production so as to enhance production with minimum energy input.
Keywords: Energy use, Manual energy, Diesel fuel energy, Tomato paste production, Nigeria.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 170 KB
Title: Kinetics of Leaching of Alumina from Discarded High Alumina Refractory Bricks
Author(s): N. A. Siddique, A. S. W. Kurny
Pages: 19-22 Paper ID: 102201-9696-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: The effects of the process variables on the leaching in sodium hydroxide solution of alumina from discarded high alumina refractory bricks were studied. Phases present in the samples were corundum (a-Al2O3), periclase (MgO), maghemite (?-Fe2O3), spienel (MgAl2O4), graphite (C), silimanite (Al2O3.SiO2). Effect of size of particles of the crushed brick, concentration of the leaching reagent, temperature and time of leaching on the rate of leaching was investigated. The extent of extraction of alumina was found to increase with increasing fineness of the particles, higher concentration of leaching reagent, time and temperature of leaching. The best results were obtained by leaching for 4 hours of particles of -200+270 mesh in a 5 M NaOH solution with a solid-liquid ratio of 1:5 at 85oC. The reaction order was found to be 1.7. Activation energy determined by differential approach was 39.12 KJ/mol or 9.314 KCal/mol.
Keywords: High alumina refractory bricks, leaching, order of reaction, activation energy.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 332 KB
Title: Effect of Modification on the Physicochemical and Thermal Properties of Organophilic Clay Modified with Octadecylamine
Author(s): Salawudeen T. Olalekan, Isam Y. Qudsieh, Nassereldeen A. Kabbashi, Ma’an Alkhatib, Suleyman
Pages: 23-31 Paper ID: 102901-8383-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: Organophilic clay was modified by ion exchange reactions using Octadecylamine. The reaction process was carried out at a temperature of 70oC for 90 minutes reaction time in a batch reactor equipped with a mechanical stirrer rotating at a speed of 300 rpm. Physicochemical and thermal properties of the clay before and after modification were determined and compared using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope/ Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (FESEM/EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). FESEM images show clearly the micro structural differences between the modified and unmodified clay while EDX shows a compositional changes between modified and unmodified clay with the presence of 7.27% carbon in the modified clay. The analysis of FT-IR spectra shows the attachment of some functional groups which are mostly alkyl and hallo-alkyl groups. This is an indication of proper modification. TGA plots of both pure unmodified and organically modified clay attained stability at a temperature between 500oC and 900oC after reduction in weight due to evaporation of moisture and decomposition of the adhered Alkylammonium salts between 30oC and 500oC. This confirmed that thermal stability of the organically modified clay compared favorably with pure natural clay under TGA.
Keywords: Alkyl group, Hallo-alkyl group, Organophilic clay, Octadecylamine.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 524 KB
Title: Design and Manufacture of a Control Unit for Monitoring Welding Parameters in Resistance Spot Welding
Author(s): Fouad, Y., El Batanouny, M. M
Pages: 32-35 Paper ID: 104301-7878-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: Resistance spot welding machines does not always offer the advantage of monitoring the welding parameters during welding. In other words, the complete number or cycles or welding time as well as the welding currents can not be monitored and recorded in every single spot weld. This work presents a simple, inexpensive designed and manufactured separate control unit that can be attached to any resistance spot welding machine; with the required alterations in the software, to monitor, measure, record and display on a PC screen the welding time and welding current. The recoded time is expressed in both seconds and cycles. This control unit is of great importance as there had always been no data recorded from the resistance spot welding machine existed here in the GUC welding workshop. This resistance spot welding machine is quiet small in size and used in educational purposes only. So, with the aid of this control unit, data could be obtained, stored for better use of the machine. This could also benefit in case of producing specific procedure for every welding situations. Experiments on different types of base material sheets have been conducted once by using a stop watch and another by using the control unit. Results have been compared in the two situations for further analysis.
Keywords: (Resistance spot welding control unit, control units application in resistance spot welding).
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 236 KB
Title: Feasible C7+ Splitting Methods An Object-Oriented Approach
Author(s): Hassan S. Naji
Pages: 36-42 Paper ID: 105301-6767-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: When using equations of state to predict the phase behavior of hydrocarbon mixtures, problems occur with the C7+ fraction that exists in such mixtures. Minimizing such problems requires breaking down (splitting) the C7+ fraction into a number of pseudo-components with a single carbon number; e.g. C7, C8, C9…, etc. Extensive compositional analyses of too many reservoir fluids from all over the world have shown exponential molar distributions (mole fraction/molecular weight relation) of the C7+ pseudo-components. Hence exponential methods are extensively used by many researchers as a first choice for splitting the C7+ fraction. Other researchers are still suggesting improvements and enhancements to such methods. This is due to their feasibility in the sense that they do not contain too many unknown or difficult-to-determine parameters. In addition, C7+ characterization represents only a minor portion of the process of compositional reservoir simulation. This paper revisits the most common splitting methods that were presented in literature and have gotten a wide acceptance in the oil industry. A worthwhile aspect of the paper, however, is that it proposes an improvement to the Katz constant-parameter splitting method. The improved method compared well with other splitting methods for all tested data sets. Another aspect of the paper is that the program has been coded in an object-oriented manner, which offers flexibility in programming and allows the different parts of the code to be described easily and in a natural manner as if they were real world objects. Some examples that were cited in literature are presented.
Keywords: C7+ splitting; hydrocarbon plus fractions; phase behavior; equations of state; OOP application.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 282 KB
Title: Drop on Demand Non-contact Hydrophilic Electrostatic Deposition Head
Author(s): Ahsan Rahman, J. B. Ko, Adnan Ali, Saleem Khan, Khalid Rahman, B. S. Yang, H. C. Kim, Y. H. Doh, D. S. Kim, K. H. Choi
Pages: 43-49 Paper ID: 106801-7272-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: There have been growing interests in direct patterning of metallic contents on the surface of the substrate without including complex steps of the micro fabrication lithography process. The direct fabrication process using ink-jet printing can be expected to be a powerful tool for both nanotechnology research and applications such as micro electronics. Inkjet printers operate by propelling various size droplets of conductive ink onto the substrate. The electrostatic inkjet system is one of the important candidates, in terms of cost and time effected manufacturing of printed electronics like RFID, electronic devices and flexible display, solar cell, sensors etc. Paper experimentally studies and analyze hydrophilic electrostatic head design having nozzle with micron orifice for the contactless deposition of metallic contents.. The lab fabricated electrostatically -micro machined actuated inkjet head, tested for low power and high resolution with nano-particle ink containing metallic particle as pigments. The issues like the drop on demand using metallic ink and ejection at low voltage with stability problems are also addressed. The meniscus formation on the nozzle orifice with the relation to hydrophilic properties is also analyzed experimentally and optimize model for metallization is proposed. The electrostatic forces enable the system to overcome the mechanical actuation which is often require high fabrication cost, actuation limitation and integration problems to produce printed electronics and electrical patterns at higher frequencies rate.
Keywords: Drop on demand, electrostatic inkjet head, hydrophilic head, and meniscus control
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 419 KB
Title: Nanopositioning Fuzzy Control for Piezoelectric Actuators
Author(s): Basem M. Badr, Wahied. G. Ali
Pages: 50-54 Paper ID: 108301-6262-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: This paper aims to design a fuzzy controller to manipulate piezoelectric (PZT) actuators for nanopositioning applications. A Bouc-Wen model is adopted to represent the dynamics and hysteresis behavior in a piezo-actuated positioning stage. A simulation work is carried out for fuzzy control development and the results are compared to that obtained using PI controller based on observer. The results affirmed the potential of the developed fuzzy control algorithm whereas the tracking error is reduced to a sub-nanometer precision.
Keywords: Actuators, Fuzzy control, Nanotechnology, Position control.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 314 KB
Title: Radio Access Network Audit & Optimization in GSM (Radio Access Network Quality Improvement Techniques)
Author(s): Mudassar Ali, Asim Shehzad, M. Adeel Akram
Pages: 55-58 Paper ID: 108401-2727-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: Network audit is necessary to judge the network performance and maintain QOS standards. The network audit identifies inconsistencies or limitations in current overall network design, helps to improve processes resulting in optimized network and improved quality of service. Radio Access Network audit includes many aspects of network like performance, neighbor, parameter, frequency, competitive benchmark audits. In this paper, real GSM Radio Access network evaluated, and different issues, findings, trials and improvements have been summarized and observations/recommendations have been listed to correlate the practical aspects of RF optimization, which affect the performance, and QoS of an operational cellular network.
Keywords: RAN, BSC, MSC, BTS, CSSR, CDR, HSR, TCH, COVERAGE, QUALITY, KPI, DT and QoS.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 520 KB
Title: Reliability Evaluation for a Multi-State System Subject to Imperfect Repair and Maintenance
Author(s): Masdi Muhammad, M. Amin Abd Majid, Ainul Akmar Mokhtar
Pages: 59-63 Paper ID: 108501-6464-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: Effective maintenance management is essential to reduce the adverse effect of equipment failure to operation. This is accomplished by accurately predicting the equipment failure such that appropriate actions can be planned and taken in order to minimize the impact of equipment failure to operation. This paper presents a development of model based on Markov process for a degraded multi-state system to evaluate the system performance. The system degradation was quantified by five distinct level of system’s production output ranging from perfect functioning state to complete failure with zero output. At any point in time, the system can experience Poisson failure from any state upon which an imperfect repair will be performed while imperfect preventive maintenance will be performed at the last acceptable state as indicated by minimum acceptable production output. This research explored a method of estimating of transition matrix for the five state Markov process by utilizing production output data. The results indicate the applicability of Markov where comparison with traditionally binary model is presented.
Keywords: Multi-State system reliability, Markov process, imperfect repair.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 342 KB
Title: Degradation of Hydrophobic Properties of Composite Insulators in Simulated Arid Desert Environment
Author(s): Yasin Khan
Pages: 64-68 Paper ID: 108901-2626-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: Electrical insulators form a very important component of high voltage electric power networks. Along with the traditional insulators i.e. glass and porcelain, etc. presently the polymeric insulators are also used world widely. These polymeric insulators are very sensitive to various environmental parameters such temperature, environmental pollution, UV-radiations, etc. which seriously effect their electrical, chemical and hydrophobic properties. The UV radiation level in the central region of Saudi Arabia is high as compared to the IEC standard for the accelerated aging of the composite insulators. Commonly used suspension type of composite EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) insulator was subjected to accelerated stress aging as per modified IEC standard simulating the inland arid desert’s atmospheric condition and also as per IEC-61109 standard. The hydrophobic characteristics were studied by measuring the contact angle along the insulator surface before and after the accelerated aging of the samples. It was found that EPDM insulator loses it hydrophobic properties more proportional to the intensity of UV radiations and its rate of recovery is very low as compared to Silicone Rubber insulator. The effect of water salinity and drop size on the contact angle characteristics was also investigated.
Keywords: Accelerated aging, contact angle, EPDM composite insulators, hydrophobicity UV-A radiation.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 352 KB
Title: PIW: A QoS Provisioning Scheme for Efficient Real Time Data Transmission in Hybrid Wireless Networks
Author(s): Wajahat Abbas, Adeel Akram, Asim Shahzad
Pages: 69-71 Paper ID: 108701-2525-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: The enhancement of QoS has emerged as a major research area in Real Time Multimedia Transmission in Hybrid Wireless networks. The network made up of Infrastructure and Adhoc Wireless Networks is sometimes referred to as Hybrid wireless network. We propose a scheme named PIW (PSNR Improvement in Wireless) to improve PSNR by using RTP/RTCP . RTCP provides control information that is used, by adjusting the compression rate, to achieve effiecient real time data transmission. Pre and Post analysis of network on NS-2 shows that significant improvement in overall efficiency and PSNR of hybrid wireless network is observed by using PIW.
Keywords: Multimedia Transmission, QoS, Network Simulator (NS-2), Hybrid Wireless Network, RTP/RTCP protocol
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 248 KB
Title: Printed Patterns Adhesion dependency on Contact Angle of Ink on Substrate
Author(s): Adnan Ali, Ahsan Rahman, Khalid Rahman, Nauman Malik Muhammad, Arshad Khan, J. B. Ko, Saleem Khan, B. S. Yang, H. C. Kim, Y. H. Doh, D. S. Kim, K. H. Choi
Pages: 72-75 Paper ID: 107701-0909-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: In this paper electro-statically inkjet printed pattern's adhesion is studied with respect to contact angle of ink on substrates. Contact angle of conductive ink on different substrates is measured with Image-Xp software. Ink has made different contact angles on different substrates. Pin to pin setup is used for printing patterns. Patterns are obtained by forcing ink through a small glass capillary orifice by electrostatic forces to adhere with substrate. It is investigated that contact angle has direct relationship with surface roughness of the substrate. Higher the contact angle of ink on a substrate, higher the adhesion on that substrate. After curing, adhesion of patterns with substrate is tested by 3M 610 pressure sensitive tape by following the ASTM D 3359 method B. Life of printed patterns and its stability on different substrates can be evaluated by this study. From this study optimized properties of ink and substrate combination can be obtained.
Keywords: Adhesion, ASTM D3359 B, Contact angle, Pressure sensitive tape, RMS
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 312 KB
Title: Industrial Pollution and Implication on Source of Water Supply in Kano, Nigeria
Author(s): Salisu Dan’azumi, Mustapha Hassan Bichi
Pages: 76-81 Paper ID: 102701-8585-IJET-IJENS Published: February, 2010
Abstract: The study analyzed the effect of Industrial waste discharge on River Challawa and Tamburawa old water treatment plant, located downstream of the effluent discharge points. Mean level of heavy metals including chromium, copper, lead, zinc, iron and manganese discharged into the river were 2.297, 1.290, 1.051, 2.986, 9.408 and 2.054mg/l respectively. Similarly, mean level of total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), pH, and conductivity in the effluent were 47183mg/l, 3105mg/l, 10.11, and 5942 micromhos/cm respectively. With the exception of iron and manganese, discharge of other pollutants measured has exceeded the maximum permissible limit given by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency of Nigeria (FEPA) and WHO. Presence of some of these pollutants, at various points along the Challawa River, was observed and level of these pollutants at varying degrees was found. Similarly, it was discovered that level of chromium, lead, manganese, iron, and TSS in the raw water used by the treatment plant have exceeded the maximum permissible limits of drinking water recommended by FEPA and WHO. Since the treatment given to the raw water is disinfection alone, there is tendency of these pollutants to persist in the water and its uptake may cause long term health problems.
Keywords: Industrial Effluent Discharge, Heavy Metals, Kano- Nigeria, River Pollution.
Full Text (.pdf)  International Journals Of Engineering and Science | 252 KB