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pH of fluids is an important indicator in biomedical and environmental studies. Conventional pH analysis techniques are often either instrumentation-intensive, expensive or qualitative in nature. Microfluidics based analytical devices have emerged as powerful alternative to overcome some of the existing limitations. These devices are characterized by low reagent and sample volumes, controlled flow, cost-effectiveness and portability. In this work, we report a microfluidic paper-based lab-on-a-chip pH sensing platform that incorporates passive fluid flow of samples. The colorimetric pH detection is integrated with mobile phone based image acquisition, followed by digital image processing and analysis for quantitative interpretation of data. The images are analyzed using image processing algorithms and color space. Regression analysis of data acquired from digital image analysis was used to evaluate the mathematical model for estimation of pH. The insights gained by this work would prove useful in development and deployment of portable and miniaturized sensors.

Burning joss paper is a traditional and long-term historical custom in Oriental countries. However, joss paper contains a lot of toxic components [1] , which can be released into the environment during the burning stage [2] , [3] and caused health risk [4] . The objective of this study is to assess the heavy metals in bottom ash and dust fume by using a burning chamber in the laboratory; thereby, it also assesses the ambient air from the incinerator – a case study at Thien Hau pagoda, District 5, HCM city. The initial result showed that there is a significant amount of heavy metals in the dust fume and bottom ash in order Al [5] ) with 236.21 ppm Cu, 4.93 ppm Cd, and 128 ppm Pb. Moreover, the results of assessing the ambient air quality at a pagoda indicated that the incinerator (S3) was the source with the highest of dust concentration and had a significant impact on air quality to the location around.

Various detrimental effects of petroleum-based lubricants have encouraged the use of vegetable oil as a replacement due to its better lubricity and environmental friendliness. This study evaluated the performance of virgin and emulsified vegetable oil as cutting fluid for the turning of titanium alloy with ceramic inserts. The performance was determined using signal to noise (S/N) ratio with few input parameters such as lubricant type, cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut. Palm oil and coconut oil were used as the vegetable oil. The virgin oil was mixed with a portion of water to produce emulsified oil. The machining operation applied minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) throughout the experiment. The performance of each type of oil was evaluated in terms of S/N ratio for cutting temperature, and chip reduction coefficient, and percentage of cutting tool wear in order to obtain the best cutting condition. Results showed that the virgin palm oil had better performance on the cutting temperature, tool wear, and chip reduction coefficient. Furthermore, the virgin coconut produced better performance compared to emulsified coconut oil. Hence, it is concluded that virgin vegetable oils perform better as cutting fluid compared to emulsified vegetable oil.

India is the largest producer of sugar in the world and thereby produces tremendous amount of bagasse. Sugar industries utilize the bagasse to recover energy and the waste byproduct commonly termed as sugarcane bagasse ash (SBA) is discarded in landfills that impacts the environment at large. The SBA primarily contains calcium oxides, silica and aluminium ion that has the potential for developing sustainable building material. This study aims to find the effect of the industrial byproducts, micro silica (MS) and SBA on the durability and strength properties of M40 grade of concrete. In this study, the cement was partially substituted with varying percentages of SBA while MS was replaced by 10% of weight of cement. The durability of the blended concrete against sulphate and chloride attack was assessed by immersing the cured concrete cubes in 5% diluted (v/v) acids (sulfuric and hydrochloric). The loss in weight of the concrete cubes and compressive strength was examined at the end of 56 days and 90 days distinctly in both the acids. The blended concrete gives optimal resistance to sulphate and chloride attack when cement is replaced in the concrete with 10% SBA and 10% MS by weight.

The present experiment is carried out to study the effect excess cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) on four-stroke, single-cylinder, air-cooled direct injection (DI) diesel engine. The biodiesel used is 100% JOME (Jatropha Oil Methyl Ester). Here jatropha oil methyl ester fuel is transesterified to reduce the viscosity as per ASTM standard. The experiment is conducted by different BMEP with a constant speed of 1500 rpm. An Extensive level of EGR (up to 75%) was used to achieve lower emissions. Experimental results were showed a reduction in NOx higher rate compares to another emission. Exhaust gas Emissions of hydrocarbons, Nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide was measured using gas analyzer. Thermocouple mounted on tailpipe is used to observed the exhaust gas temperature. The calculated thermal efficiency and exhaust emissions are compared with diesel. Reduction in NOx was 62.5% at 75% EGR at 50% load was observed but hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide emissions are increased with rising of EGR percentage.

Wastes made from used high density polyethylene (HDPE), scrap tyres, and waste oil imparted to a significant number of total waste disposal into environment. The materials exhibit detrimental effects on local environment if not properly disposed or repurposed. The study was conducted to formulate these wastes into a modifier and compatibilising agent for the modified bitumen. The process involved heating and mixing of a predetermined ratio of the wastes, neat bitumen and crude oil. About 20 wt% of neat bitumen, and pre-determined ratios of HDPE waste, crumb rubber, crude oil, and used motor oil were used in the study for the formulation. The modified bitumen was further tested for the softening point and the penetration tests to evaluate the properties of the formulated bitumen. The modified bitumen was further processed into emulsified bitumen with the addition of polyethylenimine, 80% ethoxylated solution which is the novelty of this work. The result shows that the modified bitumen has the softening point of 33.85 and 41.70 ℃, and the penetration value of 386.8 and 383 (1/10 mm) for Formulation 1 and Formulation 2, respectively. The best ratio of 20:2:39:39 (bitumen: HDPE: crude oil: used oil) was used for the emulsification process.

Durian peel can be the main contributor to agricultural wastes and becomes an environmental problem when it is discarded into the landfill site or even burning it. The average of entire durian fruit weight is about 255,353 MT for all over the country. The loading rate of landfills is increasing, especially with the massive amount and size of the durian waste that requires a larger space to dispose of. Therefore, it is certainly important to utilize durian husk as an adsorbent to improve water quality, especially groundwater source. Groundwater commonly has a higher hardness level than surface water. The higher hardness in water becomes a major concern, especially in every cleaning task. This research aimed to investigate the potential of durian husk in reducing water hardness, electrical conductivity (EC), and total dissolved solids (TDS). Durian husk was treated with NaOH solution to improve adsorption efficiency. Laboratory analyses such as the ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) titration method were performed for the water hardness, total dissolved solids, and conductivity concentrations respectively to test the performance of the removal efficiency before and after the treatments. As the results, the removal of hardness concentrations by durian husk has significantly dropped with dosage and settling time. However, not for TDS and EC concentrations removal, which it went sudden increased for a higher dosage. The novelty of this study is that it is the first-ever experiment using the real on-site samples in the field as for initial concentrations, different from other previous studies by lab-scale the synthetic hard water and most of them using the highest concentration of hardness which up to 700 mg/L of CaCO3 as to find out the removal efficiency for water softening in water treatment using durian husk, compare to this study using a concentration that is too low within 300 mg/L and below.

Environmental degradation resulting from waste disposal from coal industry and palm oil mills along with greenhouse gasses released by cement manufacturing industry needs to be resolved. Realizing that the use of free granite lightweight aggregate concrete is rewarding in terms of environmental sustainability and construction cost reduction through reduced foundation size, the present research delves further in oil palm shell (OPS) lightweight concrete research. The influence of fly ash as partial cement replacement on compressive strength, porosity and acid resistance of OPS lightweight aggregate concrete were investigated. Five types of concrete mixes were casted by replacing fly ash from 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% by weight of cement. All the cubes were subjected to air curing for 28 days. The compressive strength and porosity of concrete were conducted 28 days of curing age. The acid resistance of concretes was evaluated by measuring the mass loss of the cubes after immersed in sulphuric acid solution for 1800 h. The findings show that OPS lightweight aggregate concrete exhibit strength reduction and increment in porosity value when more fly ash is used. Concrete produced with lesser quantity of fly ash experience lower mass loss and strength drop after immersed in acidic environment.

This study presents biomagnetic nanoparticles (BMNPs) as a biostimulant for wastewater treatment and biogas upgrading to natural quality (>90% CH4). Notwithstanding, application of anaerobic digestion (AD) in wastewater settings is still limited with slow kinetics and low methanation yield. Here, four BMNPs (CuO, Fe2O3, TiO2, Cu/Fe-TiO2) were investigated to enhance the high-rate anaerobic system for complete degradation of organic waste to value – added products (water and biogas). Sugar refinery wastewater was used as a substrate and activated sludge as inoculum. This was carried out in 800 mL working volume bioreactors at a mesophilic temperature of 35 °C and hydraulic retention time of 30 days. Results showed the substrate – inoculum degradation in the control system, when induced with the BMNPs increased the methane (CH4) potential from 63% to 100%. Likewise over 75% water index of chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, and volatile solids were removed. Stimulatingly, the biogas production and wastewater treatability was significantly improved upon adding the BMNPs to the bioreactors which enriched the methanogenic activities. The post-sludge analysis showed the morphological and elemental distribution of the BMNPs, and their biomagnetic interactions with the micobes which enhanced the adsorptive removal of the contaminants and the biogas production yield. The Gompertz modified kinetic model significantly (P

Increasing population, urbanization and changing lifestyle has led to enormous generation of municipal solid waste which is ultimately disposed in sanitary landfills leading to the problem of leachate pollution. Leachate needs to be treated with an effective method before its disposal. Among various options available the treatment using anaerobic technology is preferred in this study. The performance of a modified anaerobic baffled reactor (MABR) treating landfill leachate containing heavy metals at different organic loading rates (OLRs) was investigated in this study. The MABR was seeded with granular sludge taken from an anaerobic digester and fed gradually with landfill leachate at OLRs of 1.4, 1.86, 2.8 and 5.6 kgCOD/m3/d at hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 4,3,2 and 1d, respectively. Experimental results revealed that 76% chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal was achieved at the OLR of 1.4 kgCOD/m3·d. However, when the OLR was increased to 5.6 kgCOD/m3/d, a minor decrease in the COD removal efficiency (70%) was observed. Heavy metals such as arsenic (As), Chromium (Cr), Iron (Fe) and color removal values decreased from 88%, 89%, 88%, and 78% to 8%, 59%,64%, and 37% respectively. Overall Biogas production showed the increasing trend from 0.1, 0.15, 0.32 and 0.4 L/d at OLRs of 1.4, 1.86 and 2.8 and 5.6 kg COD/m3/d, respectively. There was no significant difference in the pH profiles (8.0–8.6) and volatile acids (VA) during the variation of OLRs (1.4–5.6 kgCOD/m3/d). The VA concentration in the effluent (CH4) of the reactor was in the range of 37 to 57 mg/L HOAC, indicating the fatty acids were utilized by the microorganisms. Toxicity caused by heavy metals in the bioreactors is one of the problems of concern in the treatment of wastewaters. This study evaluated the performance of MABR in the treatment of landfill leachate containing arsenic (As), Chromium (Cr), Iron (Fe) and the production of biogas by varying the hydraulic retention time (HRT) and subsequently, organic loading rate (OLR). The study reveals that MABR system can be used efficiently in the treatment of landfill leachate.

Tannery wastewater was considered as a heavily industrial wastewater with very high amount of wastewater discharged everyday but not well-treating. The tanning wastewater from producing process contains various high strength toxic chemicals which could do the inhibition for biological treatment process leading to low quality effluent. It is required to perform the pre-treatment process by physical–chemical treatment including coagulation and flocculation in order to reduce the content of toxic chemicals before biological treatment. This study focused on investigate on the performance of Poly Ferric Chloride (PFC) as a flocculant for flocculation process in tannery wastewater treatment due to its advantages which could apply in a wide range of industries to help remove materials suspended in water. The application of PFC was conducted in batch test to find the optimum conditions including pH, PFC dose, and rotation speed in term of treating tannery wastewater performance. In addition, a common flocculant polyaluminium chloride (PAC) was chosen to compare with PFC in term of treatment efficiency and cost effective. As the result, with 0.4 ml/l PFC, pH – 10.4 with 100 rpm spins, it reaches its efficient treatment COD process to 93,3%; NH4+ 90,4% and SO42- 79,2% with could easily promote a potential alternative flocculant with excellent performance but lower cost.

This paper deals with preparation of graphene using so-called transfer-free method. Graphene layers have been prepared from the structures C/Co/SiO2/Si together with several modifications. The said method has been used to prepare bi-layer graphene, which can be for example used for construction of unipolar transistors.

In the last year, the investigation of two-dimensional materials as graphene oxide is a fundamental goal to produce innovative devices with wide range of applications in many areas. In the present work, we report a systematic study of structural and electronic properties of graphene oxide for different oxidations levels (25%, 50%, 75%, 100%) using density functional calculations for electronic ground state and a statistical approach on carbon-carbon bond length obtained after the geometric optimization of graphene covered with epoxide and hydroxyl functional groups. The theoretical models proposed and studied here are accord with the well-known experimental data. Our statistical results of the carbon-carbon bond length shown that hydroxyl groups disturbs the structure of graphene more than epoxide groups, however, both hydroxyl and epoxide groups are responsible of the change of hybridization sp2 to sp3, while the degree of oxidation increase. In addition, our electronic structure calculations confirm that with low degree of oxidation, the graphene oxide is semiconductor, and with full degree of oxidation graphene oxide is an insulating material. The minimum of total energy is found when the graphene oxide has full coverage. This work can contribute to understand the plasticity and ductility properties of graphene oxide recently reported.

Spherical iron oxide nanostructures (FexOy NPs) are obtained by laser ablation technique, which are formed primarily by α-hematite (α- Fe2O3), γ-hematite (γ-Fe2O3) and goethite (FeOOH) phases, the dimensions of which are among the 30-60 nm by using the Scanning Electronic Mycroscope (SEM) analysis. These were incorporated superficially on graphite microflakes (MFG, microflakes of graphite) and / or a few layers of graphene microflakes (FLG, few-layer graphene), through a thermal process, in order to observe their influence on the electro-optical properties on MFG and FLG, tested by Raman microspectroscopy, we detect a correlation of Raman shifts before and after doping. This is explained as a change in the dispersion of two phonons at the edges of the C-C chains forming the FLG against the formation of surface defects due to interaction with FexOy NPs after insertion. Finally, a study of the position, the FWHM, the ration between the intensities and the areas of the G and 2D bands was made in all samples with two Raman lasers (λ = 534 nm and 422 nm).

Cotton detection is the localization and identification of the cotton in an image. It has a wide application in robot harvesting. Various modern algorithms use deep learning techniques for detection of fruits/flowers. As per the survey, the topics travelled include numerous algorithms used, and accuracy obtained on using those algorithms on their data set. The limitations and the advantages in each paper, are also discussed. This paper focuses on various fruit detection algorithms- the Faster RCNN, the RCNN, YOLO. Ultimately, a rigorous survey of many papers related to the detection of objects like fruits/flowers, analysis of the assets and faintness of each paper leads us to understanding the techniques and purpose of algorithms.

Dysphagia, or difficulty swallowing, affects 10–30 % of persons above 65 years old. Texture-modified, easy-to-swallow, puree-like food in the form of timbales is usually served to this group of patients. Due to the characteristics of timbale, its appearance only remotely reminds of the original ingredients, leading to reduced appetite, reduced nutrition intake, and even malnutrition. 3D food printing of timbales can potentially preserve dysphagia patients’ quality of life and prevent undernourishment by producing more realistic and aesthetically pleasing food. 3D food printing of timbales is however challenging: creation and industrialization of food formulations adapted to the 3D food printing process; speed, hygiene, and reliability of the 3D food printers, etc. In a research project in the context of Swedish elderly care, both technological and economical aspects were investigated. This paper uncovers that the business model dominating the 3D food printing industry is not suitable for this particular market segment. This paper presents several business model alternatives and shows that the choice of the business model will influence and guide the further technological development of timbale printing. The paper also outlines to which extent these findings can be applied to other countries and to similar markets where AM has not taken off or has not been widely adopted.

This paper looks into the emerging trends of makerspaces and outsourced 3D printing services, and examines the natural progression between them. Also, by presenting survey empirical data, it investigates the reasons why individual users and enterprises have started to choose such services and the benefits acquired from this choice, that lead to the promotion of creativity, innovation, and competition. Fundamental working principles both for makerspaces and outsourced 3D printing services are being analyzed. Through the conduction of a survey among two different makerspaces’ users, authors attempt to further clarify the factors that motivate users to choose to participate in makerspaces or use the services offered by an outsourced 3D printing provider. 3D printing technologies have been recognized as being the new industrial revolution. However, because of the nature of the additive manufacturing process, a high level of expertise is required in order to accomplish an acceptable result. The recent proliferation of makerspaces as well as outsourced 3D printing services offers alternative solutions towards overcoming the aforementioned challenges. Makerspaces are currently growing rapidly, aiming to help local communities to get accustomed with emerging manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing, especially in modern STEM educational practices. On the other hand, outsourcing has emerged as one of the top business practices of our time due to its numerous benefits for the companies involved. The paper makes a comparison between makerspaces and outsourced services and presents relevant original survey data from users.

In comparison to earlier concrete structures, recent decades' structures have experienced early deterioration. The majority of the time, this is due to the severe corrosion found in today's ribbed rebars. The adoption of PSGWC-bars, which have a plain surface and a gentle wave-type configuration, can extend the life of concrete structures by several times by reducing the rate of rebar corrosion. Beams strengthened with PSGWC-bars performed significantly better in tests conducted at several colleges. To establish its viability as a replacement for traditional rebars in columns, the load carrying capacity of PSGWC bars and other rebars must be tested. In this paper an attempt has been made to improve load carrying capacity of column with rebars. The impact of plain bars, epoxy coated plain bars, galvanised plain bars, PSGWC-bars of five different types, ribbed bars, epoxy coated ribbed bars, and ribbed bars with galvanising on the performance of sustainable columns was examined in this paper. It has been discovered that the use of PSGWC-bars increases load-carrying capacities in concrete columns as well.

The rise in urban waste generation in India comes from the consumerist behaviour and the ever-increasing population density in the cities. A vast majority of this collected waste is dumped into landfills. The rural situation is somewhat akin except for the amount of waste generated is less and the traditionally informal method for waste recovery and reuse have been implemented for a long time. So, to scale down the perplexity and minimize the human effort, an enticing idea of a cost-effective ‘Automatic waste segregator’ has been conceptualized for segregation of waste. The automatic waste segregator is designed to be installed in housing colonies and organisations like schools and facilitates efficient sorting of dry wastes into three separate categories namely: ferromagnetic metals, paper and plastic. A shredder is used to mince the lump to the required size while a magnetic drum is implemented for removing ferromagnetic metals from the pile. A plastic and paper separating unit is designed and developed based on the thermal principle. Various explicit dynamics investigations have been carried out by means of a finite element tool to analyse the total deformation of components and transient thermal analysis in order to understand the temperature variation. The prototype segregates household and institutional wastes with an average overall efficiency of 86.78% and 91.82% respectively.

Sustainability deals with the impact of various processes and products on the economy, environment, and society. Due to the outburst of deadly coronavirus disease (COVID-19), sustainability which has three dimensions i.e., economy, environment, and social have been severely afflicted. Logistics has been stopped due to the spread of COVID-19 by which disruption in supply and demand takes place. This paper involves the study of the impact of COVID-19 on sustainability enablers. Also, the sub-attributes of sustainability enablers are studied and the performance index is calculated for pre and during COVID-19 with the help of the Graph-theoretic approach (GTA). With the help of the graph-theoretic approach (GTA), the inter-relationship between the sustainability enablers pre and during COVID-19 has been studied thereby quantitatively measuring the extent to which COVID-19 has an impact on sustainability enablers. The objective of this study is to identify a performance index by analyzing different sub-attributes of sustainability enablers. Also, digraphs are shown for the whole system and sub-systems representing inter-relationships and dependencies between various enablers and attributes to interpret the performance of the sustainability enablers before and during the time of COVID-19. This paper provides the impacts of COVID-19 on these three factors and provides the framework how to identify the performance index pre and during COVID-19.

Biomimicry is the process of imitating nature to solve complex human problems. The concept of biomimicry can be used in different fields like material production, engineering, architecture etc. This paper is focused on structural design concept inspired by human skeleton. Structurally, Human body is a stable vertical slender element of frameworks using bones. The key idea is taken by considering the femur bone as adaptation model for columns. In this paper, the behaviour of human bone is studied using F.E.A (finite element analysis). The human bone is efficient in resisting compressive force. The modelling of real proximal human bone is done using MIMICS and is analyzed in ANSYS under compressive force. Five different shapes (Round, Square, Stepped, Tapered, Mimicked) of compression member similar to bone is modelled and analysed. The mimicked model is found to be the best fit model for further study. Fifteen different shapes of models were derived by varying the diameter to half and double along the length. The stress pattern of real bone and the models (Compression member) were compared and studied. Many models have been derived out of which a particular configuration after iteration has given an optimal stress level. A particular model with M40 grade of concrete is found suitable as optimised based on shape and stress pattern.

This paper aims to acquaint the readers about the research trends in machining of titanium alloy related literature based on the data collected from Web of Science (WoS) databases using bibliometric analysis. A total of 1291 results were obtained from WoS database. The results were analyzed based on aspects like distribution of the obtained research documents based on language, type, subject areas covered, total publications of authors, and citation counts of authors over the years in WoS database. Most of the publications are either in the engineering and material science domain. Further, lists of most productive authors, institutions, countries (along with geographical representation) are presented. China is the leading country in this research field but the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics of China have the highest number of publications among all other institutes around the world. The author's keywords co-occurrence analysis network is visualized using VOS viewer. The study shows that ‘Minimum quantity lubrication (MQL)’, ‘nanofluid’, ‘cryogenic machining’, ‘cutting temperature’, ‘CFD’, ‘microstructure’, ‘sustainable machining’, ‘green machining’, ‘tool wear’, ‘micromachining’, ‘optimization parameters’, ‘tool life’ with major machining process like turning, milling, grinding, drilling, EDM and WEDM, etc. are the most recent keywords that indicate the hot topics and future research directions in the machining of titanium alloy field. This study also shows that the annual growth rate in machining of titanium alloy research is 16.94%, which indicates that machining of titanium alloy research has gained rapid attention since 2016 and gradually evolved over the years. By referring to this paper, researchers will be able to make calculated decisions and will get useful information for future research directions.

In the present decade, energy demand is one of the most challenging issues being faced throughout the world. To overcome the problems in the high energy production, the recent advances in nanotechnology, with a huge range of nanostructured materials have become all the rage for energy storage applications. A great number of devices have been developed in recent decades with the advancement of nanoscience. In the concept of renewable energy resources, Solar Energy can be referred to as the “elixir of power production” throughout the world. Extensive research is being carried out for distinguished Nanomaterials on energy storage applications by researchers and scientists to produce an efficient power absorption and storage material with high thermal conductivity and high corrosion resistance. In this paper, reviewing the concepts of nanotechnology in solar energy applications is made excessively focussing on PCM, Nano fluids, and Nanocomposites. Also by considering several other important factors in energy storage applications a statistical/graphical approach is presented for a better understanding by taking different research and review articles. This paper extensively would give researchers ease in the selection of material for energy storage applications.

The aim of the paper is to show one of the soil strengthening technologies - mass mixing. Two variations are to be distinguish – dry and wet type. In the first case the binding process take place with the use of ground water and the binder (cement, fly ash). In wet mass mixing the soil; is mixed with cement or cement-fly ash grout. The application of each type is dependent of the type of soil and its moisture content. The paper describes case studies of dry type: S5 road in the section Korzensko – Widawa, open pool complex in Olawa, Szczecinek bypass. Wet type case study is described as well – part of the “Wiślanka” gallery in Żory and site in Warsaw. The analysis of mentioned case studies has shown that the technology can be used in all type of civil engineering objects. While it is one of the technologies which is based on mixing of the existing soil, it is especially important to do comprehensive soil investigation and trial mixes before the start of the jobsite. One of the advantages is that the quality control in case of wet mass mixing is made similarly to DSM (deep soil mixing).

This paper examines the mechanical, durability and scanning electron micrograph results of bi-material concrete encompassing mesh type fibrillated polypropylene fibre which depicts the smooth texture on the surface even though the unflawed bond has been observed between control mix and fibre concrete layer. The main aim of this paper is to investigate bond strength between controlled concrete and fibre test specimen interaction and their bonding properties at various levels described. The examinational tests of concrete in the hardened state performed to assess compressive, flexural, pull-off strengths and durability properties corresponding abrasion test for the heterogeneous proportions. The results of compressive and flexural strength gain anonymously in bi-material concrete. Microstructural properties of interface observed and scrutinised through a scanning electron microscope and optical microscopy tests conducted and evaluated the crack growth prediction and resistance to crack growth due to bi-material fibred concrete. Investigational tests conducted to assess the bi-material interface characteristics accompanied multifarious proportions of fibre in concrete. Executed results provide an advance understanding of the function of bi-material interfaces and further development in the experimental performance of fibre cementitious materials.

The aim of this paper is to examine the static internal pressure and static crash developed in lorry diesel tank. Pressure and crash analysis will be performed by finite element method (FEM). In this paper, a part of the project which aims to develop a computer aided methodology for finding the maximum displacement and stress area of the fuel tanks based on internal pressure and crash load under static condition. The simulation investigation was performed to calculate critical deformation and critical stress value for the fuel tank under critical pressure condition. Finally, it was concluded that the critical deformation value for the fuel tank is 5.2 cm and critical stress value is 620 N/cm2. Further research can be undertaken to improve the safety futures in order to avoid explosion of the fuel tank while it is in crash loading condition.

Reverse engineering is needed to acquire knowledge of design that is lost, obsolete or withheld. Techniques have evolved from manual measurements, to utilizing the possibilities that lie within 3D scanning technologies. This paper surveys literature to map the possibilities and challenges connected to methodologies and technologies using 3D scanning for reverse engineering and production control. A case study on reverse engineering using a handheld 3D laser scanner is conducted to compare with the findings in literature. In the case study, a 3D printed component with complex internal features is 3D scanned and the point cloud is optimized before two different surface modelling techniques are tested. The dimensional errors of the output CAD design are mapped before the process and results are compared with the findings in literature. The findings of this paper show that using 3D scanning technologies for RE and PC is possible but significant challenges exists in developing accurate surface reconstruction algorithms that deals with point cloud imperfections like i.e., noise and holes. Using 3D scanning for RE purposes is found to be most suitable for components with complex geometry like free-form surfaces that are hard to measure manually.

Aluminum metal matrix composites (AlMMCs) have been incredibly popular in different industries because of their well-known properties as good formability and high castability. AlMMCs have exceptionally good mechanical characteristics and fairly low costs, so they are a very feasible choice for various applications. The popular materials for specialized applications are primarily AlMMCs, as their characteristics can be customized by the selection of reinforcement materials according to requirements. AlMMCs are preferred and extensively used in industries as well as other domestic applications. The versatility of such composites is that their mechanical properties can effectively be configured in any manner by choosing their composition of reinforcing and matrix materials, but AlMMCs have significant weaknesses in terms of production expense. Research is required to build AlMMCs that are cost-effective and work on high-temperature industrial applications. The key goal is therefore to develop a cost-effective manufacturing process. The emphasis of this paper is a study on effective and popular methods for the fabrication of AlMMCs, including liquid, solid fabrication routes such as the compo-casting method, stir-casting, squeeze-casting and powder metallurgy. This paper discusses these production processes. This article aims to include a literature analysis of the current basic approaches utilized to produce AlMMCs and their technological applications.

Structural Synthesis and Analysis plays a major role in identifying the Isomorphism and Symmetry of a Planetary Gear Train (PGT). In synthesis process, detection of isomorphism in PGTs with given number of links and Degree of Freedom (DOF) is essential. One gear pair and one turning pair will be added to the existing link to generate next level PGT. One isomorphic PGT is selected at random to generate higher link PGTs. Graph theory and matrix methods are used by different kinematicians to identify the symmetry and isomorphism in PGTs. Every method has its own merits and demerits. In this paper a comparison was made between the Hamming number technique and Modified Path Matrix (MPM) approach. For easy analysis, PGTs are converted in to graphs and matrices are extracted from these graphs. In this paper isomorphism is checked by using Adjacency matrix and Modified path Matrix. 4-link and 6-link PGTs were considered for analysis in both the methods and compared the results. It is observed that Hamming Number approach is simple and feasible method among the two to identify the symmetry and isomorphism in PGTs.

Bio mimicry is the examination of nature, its model, system, process and element. It is used to solve human problems by imitating these in an appropriate manner. Biological creatures build amazing structures which support the required function over the duration as needed. Nature can teach us about systems, materials, processes, structures and aesthetics. The mass of the building plays a vital role with the intensity of earthquake. This paper is focused on structural design concept inspired by human skeleton. Structurally, Human body is a stable vertical slender element of frameworks using bones. This key idea is taken were humerus as the adaption model for tie member. In this paper, the behaviour of human bone is studied using F.E.A (finite element analysis). The human bone is efficient in resisting compressive and tensile force. The modelling of real proximal human humerus bone is done using MIMICS and is analyzed in ANSYS under various boundary conditions. Five different shapes (Rectangle, Rectangle cross section with Parabolic curve, Rectangle cross section with Circular curve, Circular cross section and Rectangle with Hollow) of tension member which is similar the bone is modelled and analyzed. The stress pattern of real bone and the models were compared and studied. Rectangle cross section with circular curve and rectangular cross section with parabolic curve is found to be the best fit model based on the percentage of maximum stress area. Twenty shapes of models have been derived taking the rectangle circular as the reference model. A particular configuration after iteration with M40 grade of concrete is found suitable. Displacement, Stiffness, Stress and Volume of concrete were the parameters considered to define the optimised model. The model is found optimised for a tension member based on the shape and the stress pattern.

A structure that has difference between centre of mass and centre of rigidity is called an Irregular building. Among the different types of irregularities in the building, this paper focuses on Planar Irregularity. Planar irregular buildings are quite commonly constructed Multi-storey structures with the present construction capabilities and space requirements. These multi storeyed buildings are subjected to most dangerous seismic waves during earthquakes. The main reason found that RCC building failure is caused due to Irregularity in its plan dimension and lateral force distribution. This paper tries to study the linear behavior of buildings under static and dynamic earthquake excitation. To investigate the analytical behavior of buildings with increasing irregularity under Linear Dynamic (Response Spectrum) Analysis for different Excitation angles. Efforts are made to bring out the scope of rationalization in IS code provisions for dynamic analysis on irregular structural. A regular building, ‘T’ shape, ‘L’ Shaped and Fan shaped of 13 storeys of 3 m height are considered for this paper. The buildings are modelled and analysed using MIDAS Gen 2019 (V2.1) and IS Code 1893:2002 (part 1) is considered.

In recent days, the power extraction from renewable energy resources has become a major research area. To generate electricity from the solar energy, the Photovoltaic (PV) modules are connected either in series or parallel or series–parallel combination. The characteristics of PV modules with different environment factors are considered for simulating model in MATLAB software. In this paper, the PV modules with Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) algorithm for extracting maximum power is simulated using MATLAB Simulink software. The algorithm is used to extract maximum power from the solar energy with various dynamic conditions especially irradiance and temperature levels of the PV panels. For the changing values of temperature and irradiance the voltage, current and output power of various PV modules are determined. All the results from MATLAB Simulink are verified with the theoretical calculations. The proposed model helps in understanding and analysing the various PV modules and their characteristics with changing environment conditions. In this paper 500 W of Photo Voltaic modules with AC/DC loads for domestic cooking is designed. The simulation results are compared and analysed for different types of PV modules. The results obtained from the Simulink model blocks are very similar to the actual PV modules. The simulated results obtained from MATLAB/SIMULINK which are same as reference PV modules, compatible with different types of PV module and its analysis are user-friendly.

Asbestos is being banned worldwide due to its carcinogenic nature and potential health hazardousness from its dust and fumes. There is need to replace asbestos friction materials by environmentally friendly material with appropriate frictional and wear characterestics. The aim of this paper is to evaluate tribological behaviour of asbestos free brake pad material. A friction material viz: CL-3003 made up of high amount of fine brass fibres with synthetic nitrile butadiene rubber, were manufactured using hot press compression moulded to prepare a sample. In this paper the tribological behaviour of the material under consideration was studied using DUCOM (TR-20LE) make Pin on disc test rig. Coefficient of friction and wear rate were evaluated under a set of tribo-parameters using Taguchi’s analysis technique. L9 Orthogonal Array was chosen to study an effect of four parameters at three levels. Experimental result reveals S/N ratios, variance analysis and parameter ranking based on their contribution. Mathematical equations were developed for friction and wear rate within the acceptable range of parameters. Further detailed studies can be extended under simulative test conditions to evaluate optimum stopping distance.

Nowadays, the industry uses 3D Scanners for reverse engineering, new product design, rapid manufacturing, multimedia, architecture, inspection, and quality control. The scanning process converts a real object into a digital format. This paper's essential purpose is to show the use of a 3D blue light Scanner/COMET 3D to redesign a carburetor body. The paper identifies different issues involved in the processes to help future users. COMET 3D does scanning of the carburetor body by which COLIN 3D software is used for measurements, editing, and analyzing of the acquired point clouds data. This paper also identifies the necessary steps to undertake 3D Scanning and part dimensioning for a carburetor body. It also discusses the error/problems that occurred during the process. The applications of non-contact blue light 3D Scanners are many as they can be innovatively used to redesign an existing part, architecture designing, and reducing production cycle time, biomedical and associated applications. This paper's contribution lies in achieving a step-by-step procedure of scanning any three-dimensional object as this helps in understanding the 3D scanning hardware and support software. It provides good knowledge of how to resolve the issues that can cause an error during the measurement of the surfaces and scan objects.

Robots play a key role in medical equipment manufacturing industry by safeguarding human workers from hazardous environment and risky jobs. Human robot interaction (HRI) is one of the robotic features that are enhanced in industrial robots. They mimic human behavior while arriving at a decision, contributing to the proficiency of the product. Tasks involving human cognitive skills and flexibility in the workers are combined with robots to obtain high-level accuracy, repeatability, and speed. Further, more challenges are to be met for achieving an effective human-robot interaction. In this paper, risk factors affecting the interaction between both robot and humans are discussed, and a contextual case is performed in a top south Indian medical equipment manufacturing industry. Industrial experts' inputs and relevant literature are considered to recognize the risk factors. Multi-Criteria decision-making method (MCDM) like DEMATEL (Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory) is used to analyze the risk factors influencing HRI in the assembly section. The paper's findings show that automation level and reliability of the robot are the most influential factor in the assembly section and need more attention to control and reduce the risk factor for the effective assembly.

Due to the innovation in the technology field, many researches are happening in the field of blockchain technology and its scope in different industries. Blockchain technology, a chain of blocks which provides a secure environment between the users. To address the security, trust issues, many research studies are attracted towards blockchain in customizing and applying for their working process. In this paper, we propose to survey the research articles related to blockchain in healthcare to identify the security aspects rendering user privacy, transparency. Blockchain could provide secure storage of patient health information. Also, this paper explains new business opportunities in the health industry saving cost.

This article has been retracted at the request of the Publisher. The authors have plagiarized parts of a paper that had already appeared as D. Arcos-Aviles, J. Pascual, L. Marroyo, P. Sanchis and F. Guinjoan, "Fuzzy Logic-Based Energy Management System Design for Residential Grid-Connected Microgrids," in IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 530-543, March 2018, doi: 10.1109/TSG.2016.2555245. One of the conditions of submission of a paper for publication is that authors declare explicitly that their work is original and has not appeared in a publication elsewhere. Re-use of any data should be appropriately cited. As such this article represents a severe abuse of the scientific publishing system. The scientific community takes a very strong view on this matter and apologies are offered to readers of the journal that this was not detected during the submission process. The full Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal can be found at https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal .

There is various navigation technology of wheeled robots are existing for indoor environment and many robots are serving socially in different hospitality sectors also using one from the existing navigation method. Some of the serving robots are very popular like robots of China serving in restaurants are using line follower navigation technology and some papers discussing the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) based navigation technology also. In this research, paper authors are discussing the comparison of SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) based navigation technology with line follower and RFID based Navigation technology respectively to show the increase in efficiency of SLAM based robots in comparison with others.

The corona virus pandemic outbreak in 2019-2020 has almost touched everyone's life and is affecting every sector. The daily routine life has come to a standstill, many sector including businesses, finance, transport and many more critical industries has come to a halt. Only essential sectors like healthcare have been permitted to operate. Many G20 countries-imposed curfew, mandatory stay-in-home orders and lockdown of cities and countries. Among all these close down scenarios and locked down industries, utility companies and energy distribution sector were operational 24/7 round the clock providing uninterrupted power supply for a comfortable lockdown "stay in home". The success of Fighting COVID-19 and shutdowns is highly dependent upon uninterrupted power supply and power consumption by the building residents. This paper reviews the various actions taken by G20 member countries towards electricity consumption while in COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. This research work is an analysis of actions taken by governments under their jurisdictions towards building energy consumers. The outcome of this paper are energy policy recommendations that are based on the different governments responses and actions taken towards energy consumption in buildings.

In wireless communication, the transmitted messages are added with noise. The presence of noise and signal fading develop error messages in the channels. To overcome this problem one has to use forward error-correcting codes (FEC). FEC codes add the redundant bits at the transmitter side such that it can detect the error and correct error present in the channel medium. In this paper, we applied two codes; they are convolution codes and Turbo codes. In this paper, we use the MIMO-OFDM system that is the concatenation of both the “Multiple Input Multiple Output” (MIMO) systems and the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) system. To reduce interference and Increase the data rate OFDM system is used. To improve the performance of the OFDM system we use multiple antennas at a transmitter and a receiver side (MIMO) for reliable transmission. The forward error correction plays an important role in enhancing the performance of the MIMO-OFDM systems. The performance of a MIMO-OFDM system with the Convolutional and Turbo codes is evaluated based on Bit Error Rate (BER). In this paper Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation is applied and transmitted over Rayleigh channel. BER performance is obtained using MATLAB 19b. By comparing both coding techniques, it is determined that the Turbo code outperforms Convolutional code.

This paper reports a systematic study of the effect of nano-crystalline titanium dioxide (TiO2) formulations and annealing temperature conditions on the performance of dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) realized on fluorine tin oxide (FTO) glass substrates. DSSC fabrication is restricted to high temperature (>150 °C) process-compatible materials by the nano-crystalline process of the TiO2. DSSCs benefit from the use of lower cost materials and offer higher efficiency than organic solar cells but high processing temperatures limit their application on, for example, textile substrates. The aim of this study is to develop and optimize a low temperature processable TiO2 formulation suitable for both screen printing and spray coating. The results from this paper can be applied in future fabrication processes on flexible plastic and fabric substrates. The challenge of this research work is to achieve the smooth deposition and processing at 150 °C of TiO2 layers on glass substrates. We report a maximum DSSC efficiency of 4.3% achieved by screen printing and 2.5% achieved by spray coating on a glass substrate using the new low temperature process.

The circular economy requires well-functioning waste management systems. In this regards, packaging waste management (PWM) plays a key role. The Italian PWM system bases on a consortium with operate in compliance with the extended producer responsibility. The key financial mechanism ruling the functioning of the system is the so-called environment contribution. This paper draws up potential socio-economic implications arising from higher recycling targets in the medium-term. Two scenarios are discussed: the baseline, which simulates the environmental contribution according to the current recycling rate along with the reference that reflects higher goals. Results suggest that higher recycling targets are associated with positive effects on job creation, production and value added by virtue of both direct and indirect effects. The application of the model has demonstrated significant positive socio-economic impacts achievable when defining new policies and regulations for the sector. Although limited to Italy, this paper serves as a reference for policy makers since environmental legislation and especially waste management policy deserve careful consideration in the light of the polluter pays principle and shared responsibility.

This paper presents a review of stainless steel material joints manufactured through the microwave hybrid heating technique instead of normally used conventional or other non-conventional welding methods. Starting with a tutorial introduction of the microwave joining process and its applications, the paper reviews the work done by various researchers in the field of microwave joining especially targeting the joints that involved stainless steel as at least one of the specimen to be joined through microwave hybrid heating. Main emphasis has been laid only on stainless steel joints because of their wider application in industry instead of other alloys which can be joined through microwave joining technique. Current issues with microwave joining technique and future directions for research work have also been presented and discussed.

In this paper, we investigate the variation of the shear angle during orthogonal cutting processes. In orthogonal cutting, the material in front of the cutting edge is sheared over a primary shear zone that is approximated by the shear plane. The so-called shear angle corresponding to the shear plane has significant role in theoretical cutting force models and in the dynamics of cutting. This paper is dedicated to determining the shear angle experimentally for stationary and non-stationary cutting based on high-speed camera recordings and cutting force measurements. Furthermore, the relationship between simple theoretical shear angle models and the measured shear angle variation is also provided.

This paper analyzes the enhancement in sensitivity of the proposed surface plasmon resonance biosensor on using metamaterial for the detection of biomolecules. Angular Interrogation has been used for plotting the reflectance curve. Here, the sensitivity of proposed metamaterial based SPR biosensor is compared with conventional SPR biosensor. Significant improvement in sensitivity of proposed surface plasmon resonance biosensor is observed due to strong localization and enhancement of the electromagnetic field by using metamaterial. This paper also compares the performance of proposed metamaterial based sensor for three different adlayers like poly(trifloroethyl methacrylate), toluene and nicotine for biosensing.

Friction Stir Welding (FSW) is a solid state joining process in which the material that is being welded does not melt or recast. The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of process parameters on the friction stir welded joints of AA2014 and AA6061 Aluminium alloys. This paper presents FSW technique for joining of two dissimilar Al- alloys and their mechanical properties were determined. Using RSM, 15 experiments were designed and significance of process parameters were predicted through ANOVA and the optimization is carried through RSM.SEM analysis is performed to investigate the material flow behaviour at the weld zone.