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Many Ti-alloys were designed by introducing iron (Fe) as an alloying element to improve the mechanical properties and reduce the cost of the alloys. Therefore, new (α+β) titanium alloys, Ti-6Al-(1-3)Fe were developed through complete replacement of vanadium (V) by iron with major composition modifications of Ti–6Al–4V, which is commonly used for aerospace applications. Ti-Al-Fe alloys were melted through vacuum arc melting technique followed by hot rolling. This study aims to investigate the effect of Fe addition on the microstructure and hardness of emerging (Ti-Al-Fe) alloys in comparison with Ti-6Al-4V alloy. Results reveal that the microstructures are typical lamellar structures, and the hardness ranges from 32 to 40.7 HRC. The hardness of the investigated alloys increases with increasing Fe content.

This article focuses on the effect of iron (Fe) addition on the fabrication of Ti-alloys. Fe is a potential inexpensive element that can be added to Ti-alloys to reduce their cost. This metal can also be used to replace expensive β-stabilizing alloying elements, such as vanadium (V) and molybdenum (Mo), for Ti-alloys. Fe has also been utilized as a novel cost-effective alloying element to decrease Ti-alloy costs and to design other alloys, such as Ti metal 62S (Ti-6Al-1.7Fe-0.1Si) and Ti-Fe-O-N Ti-alloy. This technical perspective has been further applied to fabricate new Ti-alloys. For example, Ti8LC and Ti-5.5Al-1Fe with good mechanical features have been developed as novel Ti-alloys in China and Japan, respectively. Nowadays, vanadium (V) of Ti-6Al-4V alloy is completely replaced with Fe to produce Ti-Al-Fe alloy series. Three new alloys, namely, Ti-6Al-xFe, where x = 1, 2, and 3 wt%, are introduced to examine the effect of Fe addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of Ti-alloys.

This paper presents the performance between silicon germanium (SiGe) and crystalline germanium (Ge) solar cells in terms of their simulated open circuit voltage, short circuit current density, fill factor and efficiency. The PC1D solar cell modeling software has been used to simulate and analyze the performance for both solar cells, and the total thickness is limited to 1μm of both SiGe and Ge solar cells. The Si0.1Ge0.9 thickness is varied from 10nm to 100nm to examine the effect of Si0.1Ge0.9 thickness on SiGe solar cell. The result of simulation exhibits the SiGe solar cell give a better performance compared to Ge solar cell. The efficiency of 9.74% (VOC = 0.48V, JSC = 27.86mA/cm2, FF =0.73) is achieved with Si0.1Ge0.9 layer of 0.1μm in thickness whilst 2.73% (VOC = 0.20V, JSC = 27.31mA/cm2, FF =0.50) efficiency is obtained from Ge solar cell.

Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) is a standalone data acquisition and control unit which monitors and controls an equipment at a remote location from the central station that utilizes Distribution Automation System (DAS). The RTU acquires information such as measured values, signal, meter readings and it transmits command or instruction, sets points, controls variables and monitors function time. In the present Distribution Automation System (DAS), the distribution field of automation allows the utilities to implement a flexible control of distribution system to enhance efficiency, reliability, and quality of electric service. The implementation of distribution automation system is highlighted based on two factors; benefit and area of distribution automation system implementation. The hardware design uses PIC16F877A microcontroller to control all the functions of RTU. The types of fault detected are undervoltage and overcurrent. The design consists of MPLAB software development using C programming and hardware assembly. RTU is also designed to communicate with the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system and resulting in RTU’s ability to detect undervoltage and overcurrent fault.

In this study, fibre morphology of microwave-treated oil palm trunks (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) was studied. Thirty years old palm trunks (OPT) were selected, felled and divided into peripheral, middle and inner zones. Only the basal portion of the OPT was used to reduce variability of sampling. Microwave treatment of the OPT samples were conducted by using a domestic microwave oven operating at 2.45 GHz and with maximum rated power output of 950 watt. The samples were microwave-treated at four different power intensities of 950, 700, 500 and 300 watts and for four different exposure durations of 5, 10, 15 and 20 min leading to a total six varying combinations of power and exposure period. The untreated OPT sample was used for comparison purpose. The fibre length, fibre diameter, fibre lumens diameter, and fibre walls thickness were measured between each of the zones of the oil palm trunk in relation to the different microwave treatment. All microwave treated samples showed changes in the fibre with the combinations of microwave treatment with 700 watts power intensities with 15 minutes exposure durations produced the most stretched and elongated fibres. This findings could be useful in finding suitable techniques for processing the OPT into value-added products.