Hybrids for finishing cotton fabric with durable handle performance

New poly(acrylic acid/epichlorohydrin) hybrids were prepared under different polymerization conditions and the proper hybrid was used as a stiffening agent or what may be called hand builder. The latter was incorporated in dimethyloldihydroxy ethylene urea (DMDHEU) finishing formulation and the onset of this on fabric performance as monitored by nitrogen content, wrinkle recovery angle, tensile strength, stiffness, dyeability, and oily stain release was studied. Durability of the new finish was also examined. Results disclose substantial improvement in fabric performance and imply that the hybrid in question acts as a durable hand builder through fixation via its hydroxyl groups within the DMDHEU finish which, in turn, is chemically bonded to cotton cellulose. Scanning electron microscopy of finished fabric revealed that this chemical bonding resulted in hybrid encapsulation, deposition and/or coating of fabric fibers.     

An adaptive multiscale inverse scattering approach to photothermal depth profilometry

Photothermal depth profilometry is formulated as a nonlinear inverse scattering problem. Starting with the one-dimensional heat diffusion equation, we derive a mathematical model relating arbitrary variation in the depth-dependent thermal conductivity to observed thermal wavefields at the surface of a material sample. The form of the model is particularly convenient for incorporation into a nonlinear optimization framework for is particularly convenient for incorporation into a nonlinear optimization framework for recovering the conductivity based on thermal wave data obtained at multiple frequencies. We develop an adaptive, multiscale algorithm for solving this highly ill-posed inverse problem. The algorithm is designed to produce an accurate, low-order representation of the thermal conductivity by automatically controlling the level of detail in the reconstruction. This control is designed to reflect both (1) the nature of the underlying physics, which says that scale should decrease with depth, and (2) the particular structure of the conductivity profile, which may require a sparse collection of fine-scale components to adequately represent significant features such as a layering structure. The approach is demonstrated in a variety of synthetic examples representative of nondestructive evaluation problems seen in the steel industry.The work of authors E. L. Miller and I. Yavuz was supported by a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation MIP-9623721, an ODDR&E MURI under Air Force Office of Scientific Research contract F49620-96-1-0028, and the Army Research Office Demining MURI under grant DAAG55-97-1-0013. The work of authors L. Nicolaides and A. Mandelis was supported by a research contract from Material and Manufacturing Ontario (MMO).     

Effect of ageing treatment on wear properties and electrical conductivity of Cu-Cr-Zr alloy

In this study, the effect of ageing processes on the wear behaviour and electrical conductivity was investigated. Prior to solid solution heat treatment at 920°C and ageing at 470°C, 500°C and 530°C for 1 h, 2 h and 3 h, respectively, the prepared samples were homogenized at 920°C for 1 h. After the ageing processes, all samples were characterized in terms of electrical conductivity, scanning electron microscope (with energy dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS)) and hardness (HV5). In wear tests, pin-on-disc type standard wearing unit was used. As a result, starting from 1 h aged specimens, orderly increase of electrical conductivity was defined. From EDS analyses it was observed that Cr rate increases as precipitates grow. With increase of Cr rate there was also a defined rise of electrical conductivity. From the wear tests, it was observed that the least wear loss was in Cu-Cr-Zr alloy aged at 500°C for 2 h and the most wear loss was in specimens aged at 530°C for 2 h. Furthermore, it was observed that the friction coefficient values resulting from wear rate were overlapped with hardness results and there is a decrease tendency of friction coefficient as wear distance increases.     

The effective role of time in synthesising InN by chemical method at low temperature

This study involves the synthesise of indium nitride (InN) nanoparticles at low temperature using a chemical method. Three samples were synthesised under different times to produce InN nanoparticle of high quality crystallinity. Results showed that the time of synthesise plays an important role for N enhancement in InN nanoparticle structure. The average diameters of cubic phase of InN nanoparticle were 16.5 nm. These properties support the use of InN as a potential material for the manufacture of highly efficient low cost solar cells.     

A CMOS current-mode squaring circuit free of error resulting from carrier mobility reduction

This paper presents a new current-mode squaring circuit. The design is based on MOSFETs translinear principle in strong inversion. A new compensation technique to minimize the second order effects caused by carrier mobility reduction in short channel MOSFETs is proposed. Tanner T-spice simulation tool is used to confirm the functionality of the proposed design in 0.18 µm CMOS process technology. Simulation results indicate that the maximum linearity error is 1.2 %; power consumption is 326 µW and bandwidth of 340 MHz.     

Exergetic and sustainability performance comparison of novel and conventional air cooling systems for building applications

This study presents energy and exergy analyses and sustainability assessment of one novel and three conventional types of air cooling systems for building applications. First, effectivenesses of the systems are determined using energy analysis method. Second, exergy aspects of the systems are investigated for twelve different dead state temperatures varying from −5 °C to 50 °C with a temperature interval of 5 °C. The specific exergy flows of humid air, dry air and water, exergy efficiency, and specific exergy destruction are then calculated. Sustainability index is also used to define and discuss the systems’ sustainability aspects. Finally, the results obtained here show that at the dead state temperatures of higher than 23 °C (comfort temperature), exergy efficiency and sustainability of the novel system, which is based on the novel Maisotsenko cycle (M-Cycle), is higher than those of the conventional systems. At a dead state temperature of 50 °C, novel cooling system's exergy efficiency can reach 60.329% as the maximum, while the minimum exergy efficiency of other conventional cooling systems becomes as low as 35.866%, respectively.     

Density and humidity gradients in veneers of oil palm stems

Large variations in the stem of oil palm in terms of moisture content and density hinder its full utilization in the plywood industry. In this study, the density and moisture content (MC) pattern throughout the trunk of the oil palm tree were measured and established. The veneer samples were taken from various sections i.e., top, bottom, outer and inner parts of the trunk and the density and moisture content of each veneer were then measured. The results showed that there was a decrease of density and an increase of moisture content in the veneers as they were peeled progressively towards the inner portion of the trunk. It was also discovered that veneers taken from the top part of the stem had higher density but did not have a significant difference in MC compared to veneers taken from the bottom part of the stem.     

Generalized Magneto-thermoelastic Interaction in a Fiber-Reinforced Anisotropic Hollow Cylinder

In this article, an estimation is made to investigate the transient phenomena in the magneto-thermoelastic model in the context of the Lord and Shulman theory in a perfectly conducting medium. A finite element method is proposed to analyze the problem and obtain numerical solutions for the displacement, temperature, and radial and hoop stresses. The boundary conditions for the mechanical and Maxwell’s stresses at the internal and outer surfaces are considered. An application of a hollow cylinder is investigated where the inner surface is traction free and subjected to thermal shock, while the outer surface is traction free and thermally isolated. The displacement, incremental temperature, and the stress components are obtained and then presented graphically. Finally, the effects of the presence and absence of reinforcement on the temperature, stress, and displacement are studied.     

Thermomechanical Analysis of (Cu0.5Tl0.5)-1223 Substituted by Pr and La

The thermomechanical analysis (TMA) of Cu 0.5 Tl 0.5 Ba 2 Ca 2 x R x Cu 3 O 10 δ,where R=Pr and La,with 0.0≤x≤0.15,was carried out in temperature range from 450 to 1145 K.The samples were prepared by singlestep solid state reaction technique.The prepared samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The superconductivity of the prepared samples was investigated by electrical resistivity measurement.The results showed that low substitution content enhanced the (Cu 0.5 Tl 0.5)1223 phase formation,while the higher substitution content degraded this phase.The higher superconducting transition temperatures T c were found to be 114 K and 109 K at x= 0.025 for Pr-and La-substitutions,respectively.The average linear thermal expansion coefficient increased as x increased,while the shrinkage temperature decreased as x increased.Those results were emphasized by porosity and Vickers microhardness calculations.Debye temperature θ D was calculated from the linear thermal expansion coefficient data and correlated to T c to estimate the electron-phonon coupling λ ep.     

Patent analysis of wind energy technology using the patent alert system

Using publicly available information effectively is important to remain competitive in technology related industries. The main difficulty in this is determining how to use the information effectively and in a manner that will yield results that can be acted upon. Several different methodologies are being developed in the Technology Watch area of research including the Patent Alert System (PAS) by Dereli and Durmusoglu. By using two different variations of the Patent Alert System, this paper will analyze two different technologies based on wind energy. These variations include Linear Regression based PAS and Fuzzy Logic based PAS. Each approach uses a different methodology to evaluate the available data and generate a trend that will be used to predict future values of patent counts in the applied area of technology. The results of these different approaches are compared in order to determine if either method produces more reliable results which would then lead to better decisions by the organization. In order to connect the results with real-world events, trend changes will be evaluated against global events which should have an impact on technological development in this area.