Abstract: This article presents a dynamic analysis of the behaviour of a sample of hygroscopic particulate compressed material in the context of diverse scenarios of the product’s lifecycle. The analysis is executed using two complementary methods: (a) an experimental study that recreates a particular impact situation in a controlled physical environment, and (b) a static virtual analysis developed under the Finite Element Method (FEM) for the evaluation of vibration effects on the product. The objective of the analysis is to determine, on one hand, the precise compressing pressure that enables the powder to maintain cohesion throughout the handling and transporting stages, and yet be easily disaggregated manually for it to be used as intended in the final stage of its lifecycle. On the other hand, it is expected of both simulations to estimate an incidence in the behaviour of the compressed powder sample derived from its geometric characteristics and its particular handling and transportation situation, with the goal of defining ideal conditions for the product packaging.

Abstract: Inexpensive digital valves are implemented to accurately control the position of a pneumatic cylinder using pulse width modulation (PWM) technique. A fuzzy PI controller is designed and implemented to overcome the nonlinearity inherited in the system due to air compressibility, dry friction and the nature of the digital valves. The actuator under control is a vertical double-acting single-rod pneumatic cylinder of 158 mm stroke and 20 mm bore diameter. Four one way digital valves are employed in such a way that two valves supply the pressurized air to the cylinder while the others are used to exhaust the outlet air. The fuzzy controller is designed in Labview environment and coded by the graphical language. The fuzzy rules along with the membership functions are carefully adjusted to produce a satisfactory fuzzy surface capable of controlling the system non-linearities. Results of the open loop experiments showed a considerable delay at the starting of the piston motion associated with a non-linear behaviour which are dependent on the duty cycle (signal ON time over cycle time). Also the valve operating range is found to be between 12.5% and 60% cycle duty at 95 Hz. The gain selection of the fuzzy PI parameters (Ke, K∆e, K∆u) is investigated experimentally based on root mean square error minimization, and found to be Ke=1, K∆e=4, K∆u=5. The capability of the proposed controller in tracking is tested in response to a square wave reference input with different frequencies of 0.05 Hz, 0.1 Hz, 0.2 Hz and 0.3 Hz and constant duty cycle of 50%. The results shows a good transient behavior with no overshoot with max absolute steady state error of 0.8 mm and a rise time of 265 msec. The controller performance is also tested with sinusoidal, triangular and sawtooth reference wave input at a frequency of 0.1 Hz. A good response is also achieved with no overshoot and max absolute peak to peak error of 1.5 mm.

Abstract: The experimental design incorporated to study the response of a turbulent pressure drop fluctuations to differently shaped longitudinal grooves, involved three conformations or structures being triangular, trapezoidal and spaced triangular grooves with height 800μm. The ratios of the groove height to groove space for triangular were: 1, 0.8, 0.6 and 0.4. Experiments were therefore performed at free stream velocity up to 0.44 m/sec, which were corresponding to Reynolds number (Re) 5.3×〖10〗^4. The development of the obtained turbulent layer downstream of the grooves was then compared with the results from the corresponding smooth-wall case. To conclude, the effect of the spaced triangular riblets on the turbulent characteristics seemed to be more pronounced than the effects of the triangular and trapezoidal riblets.

Abstract: Bone tissue scaffold had been ventured over the decades in compromising bone failure and trauma. Starch is the most common natural polymer that have been used to fabricate the scaffold and there is many resource of starch. The native starch contribute differently in their structure regarding the amylose content, interactions between granules, swelling power and solubility in which those differences mainly due to botanical and planted origin. In Malaysia itself, there is a various resources of rice starch. No research yet have been made in application Malaysian rice starch with bone tissue scaffold. Balik Wangi rice was reviewed due to high amylose content which correlate with the mechanical strength of scaffold. Via solvent casting and salt leaching technique, this experiment conducted to fabricate the scaffold based on Balik Wangi rice starch originally planted in Sarawak, Malaysia. From this experiment, porosity, density, and pore size achieved is relevant with the optimum value of natural bone. The interaction between Balik Wangi rice starch and hydroxyapatite shows a good combination.In a nutshell, Balik Wangi rice starch is a good resource of starch to be incorporated with hydroxyapatite to form tissue scaffolds.

Abstract: This work introduces experimental results of an Al2O3 -water based nanofluids as the working fluids for flat tube in plate type solar collector with the effect of three different flow rates. Experimental test setup comprises a solar collector, closed working fluid system and measurement devices (flowmeter, thermocouples, temperature meter and digital solar power meter). The Base case was experimented with di-ionized water. In second and third cases, Al2O3 nanoparticles are mixed in di-ionized water to get nanofluids of 0.1% and 0.5%) of volume fraction concentration. the maximum outlet-inlet temperature difference was achieved at (2 lpm) at the peak value of the curve which is (23.5 ̊C) and at 0.5% , 0.1% Nanofluid volume fraction concentration respectively, while in case of water the maximum temperatures difference was 10.7 ̊ C.

Abstract: Nowadays, natural fiber is increasingly used in automotive sectors especially for the non-load bearing application parts. Limited applications of natural fiber reinforced composite is due to the fact that the mechanical properties of natural fiber are full of uncertainties. In order to overcome this problem, natural fiber is formed into yarn fibers and then weaved to fabricate woven yarn kenaf fiber mats. In this work, woven kenaf mats are used to produce the cylindrical composite tubes when they are hardened with polymeric resin. Different fiber orientations and number of layers are used. The tubes are then compressed quasi-statically and the forces versus displacements are recorded automatically. The energy absorption performances and other crashworthiness parameters are calculated and discussed relating with fiber orientations and number of layers. It is found that higher energy absorption capabilities can be obtained if higher numbers of layers are used. However, it is depend on the fiber orientations. In term of failure mechanisms, the composite wall collapsed through the localized wall buckling and progressively collapsed as the force increased. Similar patterns of crushing mechanisms are observed especially in the second stage of deformation due to the larger wall fragmentations.

Abstract: This paper presents on the variation of parameters, bandwidth between the disturbance observer (DOB) and reaction torque observer/reaction force observer (RTOB)/(RFOB), and the gains at the outer-loop/performance controller effects to the bilateral teleoperation control system. These design constraints affect during the design of bilateral teleoperation control system. Somehow the stability, robustness and performance of the DOB and RTOB based robust motion control system influenced by these design constraints. Similarly, the position and force control system also interconnected with the DOB and RTOB based robust motion control system. It is crucial to acknowledge the design constraints in order to design a bilateral control system. Moreover, improving the degree of reproducibility and operationality are important in bilateral control system. It indicates the transparency of the bilateral teleoperation control system which can be considered for further development. Thus, the aim of this paper is to conduct experiments to analyze on the design constraints of the robust motion control system in bilateral teleoperation control system. From these experiment results, the stability, robustness and performance of the DOB and RTOB based robust motion control system are validated. Moreover, improvement in the degree of reproducibility and operationality of bilateral teleoperation control system by the design constraints are analyzed.

Abstract: In this research the reinforcement of the resin materials was made with two types of powder and short fiber to produce an isotropic hyper composite material. So it is composed of three materials, polyester resin material and two reinforcements: short glass fiber and powder in the form of glass or date palm nuts. The composite structure was studied to estimate the mechanical properties (modulus of elasticity E, yield stress y) experimentally and analytically, whereas the natural frequencies were estimated theoretically, experimentally and numerically. The theoretical method includes the solution of the general equation of motion of the composite plate. The numerical approach includes the estimation of the natural frequency of the plate using finite element method operating on ANSYS software version 11. The effects of powder type’s reinforcement for different aspect ratios of plate were studied for different boundary conditions. The results show that, when using the date palm nuts powder, the yield stresses and the fundamental natural frequency are increased. This encourage using this type of hyper composite plate safely in the engineering applications where high loads are encountered in a wide range of operating frequencies. Finally, good agreement is obtained of the fundamental natural frequency between the experimental and numerical results .The maximum error is found 7.16 per cent.

Abstract: The numerical homogenization technique is used in order to compute the effective elastic properties of heterogeneous random 2-phase composites. differents microstructures are considered with different volume fraction. microstructure with random distribution of identical non-overlapping phases inclusions based on the Poisson process. (PBC), boundary conditions are applied on the representative volume element, RVE, of microstructures, for elastic modeling by finite element method. The aim of the work was to examine how spatial distribution and particles volume fraction influences the elastic properties of the composite material. The results were compared to various analytical model.

Abstract: This study is to develop a Pressure Measurement Device, used to measure the compression given by compression garment (knee guard). Flexiforce sensors and microcontroller are the main components used in this project. The sensors are calibrated using 50 gram mass, since the range of pressure is 5332.9072 Pascal or 40 mmHg. A system is designed using an Arduino Uno rev.3 and a Flexiforce sensor. The Arduino programming is compiled and uploaded using Arduino compiler version 1.0.5 r2. The device is programmed to indicate the amount of pressure using LED, where three indicators that were used are yellow, blue and red. The result shows that the pressure exerted by the knee guard is in the range, thus proves that this device is able to measure the compression given by the applicant knee of the knee guard.

Abstract: This study examines a new device aimed at reducing drag on commercial vehicles. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique is utilized to the analysis of air flow around this device and also to optimize the geometry of device that has important effect on drag reduction. At first, simplified dimensions of a commercial vehicle are modeled as demonstrated in literature and the coefficient of the drag is measured through the analysis of the fluid flow. After choosing various different geometries with the addition of the new device and picking out the best geometry, the coefficient of the drag in the new position is measured and a comparison is made with the base model. The results indicate that there is about 22% drag reduction in the new state in comparison to the base model.

Abstract: This paper describe a new computational homogenization methodology of the prediction the effective elastic-plastic response of random N-phase two-dimensional heterogeneous material. A numerical homogenization technique, based on finite element method, with representative volume element, was used with various boundary conditions. It is based on finite element simulations using 2D cells of different size, smaller than the deterministic representative volume element (DRVE) of the microstructure. A 3-phases materials and 4-phases one, are selected to illustrate this approach; it consists of a random dispersion of elastic circular inclusions in an elastic-plastic matrix. It is found that the effective elastic-plastic response of this composite can be precisely determined by computing a sufficient number of small subvolumes of fixed size smaller than the DRVE and containing different realizations of the random microstructure.

Abstract: Rehabilitation robot is a robot for assisting the patient to recover from stroke or other extremity injuries. As the number of post-stroke patients is increased, it needs more rehabilitation robot to support post-stroke patients. Generally, rehabilitation robots used for lower limb rehabilitation are highly priced and not affordable to the lower income segment of the population. This is caused by the application of the current control system that needs expensive hardware system. Therefore, we design the control system by using Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) controller. This paper presents the result of our research that aim to develop lower limb rehabilitation robot control system with a low price by using a PWM controller for voltage manipulation. The system model and hardware implementation have been built to show the effectiveness of the proposed system and to find the optimal conditions.

Abstract: The Integrated Collector Storage Solar Water Heater (ICS-SWH) designed and manufactured in the Alternative and Renewable Energy Research unit, at Technical Engineering College of Najaf. Its consist of a collector box that works as container of receiver cylinder having a length of 1.3m, width 0.83m , short height 0.32 m, and long height 0.81m and receiver cylinder work as the receiver of solar energy to heat the water flows have outer diameter 0.4 m and length 1.1 m. The thermal performance was evaluated extensively throughout the month of March 2015; a maximum temperature difference of 36.3 oC between inlet and outlet of the solar water heater at a mass flow rate of 9 kg/h was achieved. The efficiency of the integrated collector storage solar water heater was calculated. The maximum value during the experimental period was found to be 52%. This reveals a good capability of the system to convert solar energy to heat which can be used for heating water. The objectives of this work are construction solar water heater with minimum law cost and work in Iraq weather.

Abstract: Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services. It includes the movement and storage of raw materials, inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption. In this paper, the supply chain network is mathematically modeled in a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) form considering multi-product, multi-period, multi-echelons and associated cost elements. The model represent both location and allocation decisions of the supply chain which maximizes the total profit. Model outputs have proved its ability to design multi-product, multi-period, multi-echelons networks. In general, the results have shown the effect of customers’ demands from each product in each period in the quantities of material delivered from each supplier too each facility, the quantities of each product delivered from each facility and facility store to each distributor, the inventory of each product in each facility and distributor, the quantities of each type of product delivered from each distributor to each customer in each period. The model has been verified through a detailed example and the implementation of the proposed model has been demonstrated using some numerical example.

Abstract: In this paper, a smart antenna system (switched antenna with adaptive pattern) is realized using Dipole in front of Corner Reflector Antenna (DCRA). The whole antenna pattern is mechanically steered to the directions of interest within the heavy traffic sector, while the antenna pattern is tailored according to the electromagnetic environment. The adaptive pattern is realized by mechanically controlling the DCRA geometrical dimensions. The Corner reflector antenna is designed and simulated using WIPL-D software package. The smartness features of the antenna are examined by varying the DCRA parameters such as dipole spacing, length, width and orientation, reflector angle, and reflector dimensions. The antenna patterns and parameters; specifically directivity and the standing wave ratio; VSWR, are observed for all the cases and the best combination for each case is concluded. The DCRA is designed, analyzed, implemented and measured for base station of GSM 900 cellular networks. The simulated and measured results are compared with the corresponding published results and found satisfactory.

Abstract: An observer-based output feedback controller is presented in order to enhance the transient stability and voltage regulation of a SMIB-SVC (Single Machine Infinite Bus-Static VAR Compensator) system. The generator excitation and the SVC regulator controllers consider the uncertainties of the nonlinear structure and the interconnection between subsystems as perturbations, requiring only local measurements. A control scheme using high-order sliding-mode differentiator is designed obtaining robustness in presence of uncertainties and parameter variations. Simulations are used to validate the performance of the proposed scheme. Numerical results show that transient stability can be effectively improved under fault scenarios and the effect on power quality.

Abstract: This study presents experimental results of a homogenous combustion compressed natural-gas direct injection (CNGDI) engine with 1596 cm^3 capacity, 4-cylinder spark- ignited with a compression ratio of 14. These results were compared with previous simulation results using Star CD, single cylinder CNGDI research experiment (CNGDI- SCRE (4x)) and port injection gasoline engine (CNG-BI, Gasoline-PI) experiment. The engine test was carried out at engine speed ranging from 1500 (RPM) to 4000 (RPM) with 500 (RPM) increments. The engine control unit (ECU) was using Motec 800. Modify the end of injection (EOI) to 120 BTDC. Performance and emission were recorded under wide-open throttle using an engine control system and a portable exhaust gas analyzer. Results show that power increases from 13.18 (KW) to 53 (KW). By comparing the power in CNGDI with the (Gasoline-PI, CNG-BI, simulation), it is increased (18%, 57%, 16%), respectively. The torque also increases from 83.9 (Nm) to 126.8 (Nm) in CNGDI, with high same percentage compared to the (Gasoline-PI, CNG-BI, simulation), respectively. For CNGDI, the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC), the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) is recorded. This study also shows the fuel conversion efficiency (ηf), volumetric efficiency (ηv) and lambda (λ). Furthermore, CO, CO2 and O2 are recorded. The study shows low CO emission in CNGDI in all speeds, but CO2 shows low emission in low speed and high emission in high speed compared to (Gasoline-PI, CNG-BI).