Enhanced heating mechanism of the electric metal melting furnace in traditional foundry

Tasnim Firdaus Ariff and Zairul Azrul Zakaria

The cost to own a furnace to melt metals is very costly; around RM 60, 000 for a 3 litre capacity diesel furnace and may be higher depending upon the crucible capacity. Due to the high cost of raw material i.e. copper and aluminium, the metal industry has become an expensive industry and a burden, especially for the small operators. Thus, this research aims to modify the shape of the heat chamber in the electric furnace in order to improve efficiency and at the same time being affordable to support the traditional foundry. The electric furnace is designed based on the induction concept and used the coil as the heater to melt the non-ferrous metals, namely an aluminium or brass. The conceptual design of the furnace using Solid Works took several important criteria that have been considered; that is the furnace efficiency, the commercial design, the cost involved, the furnace heating mechanism, the heat chamber shape, the internal combustion flow and the mobility of the furnace. The criteria are then analyzed by using the Matrix Evaluation Method (MEM) to find the ultimate design that suits the criteria. From the computational simulation, it is found that the heat flow due to the induction accumulates the entire space in the furnace and is capable to melt the metal completely. Results from the repeated experiments show that the melting time for aluminium is only 45 minutes for the quantity of 1 kg at a temperature of 740°C. This design of induction furnace turned out to be reasonably efficient (78.53%) and is very economical (RM 5160). Therefore, this furnace can be a good solution in helping traditional foundries particularly in Malaysia.

Full Text

Throughput evaluation for the downlink scenario of co-tier interference in heterogeneous network

Mohammad Kamrul Hasan, Ahmad Fadzil Ismail, Aisha-Hassan Abdalla, Wahidah Hashim and Shayla Islam

To extend the coverage and capacity of Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets), femtocells (HeNodeBs) has been impressive to deploy in in-house or apartment. Owing to co-channel spectrum involvement these HeNodeB sources Co-Tier interference (CTI) with neighbor HeNodeBs and users of HeNodeB (HUE) in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing Access (OFDMA). As a result, CTI is occurred which causes of system throughput degradation. This paper investigates the OFDMA subcarrier allocation techniques and algorithms. A Genetic Algorithm based Subcarrier Allocation (GA-SA) framework is evaluated to enhanced throughput of HeNodeB and HUE. The enhancement of the system throughput and Signal to Interference Noise Ratio (SINR) is analyzed to mitigate CTI. The system level simulation is considered to evaluate the performance of the framework. The results show that the throughput is enhanced for HUE and HeNodeB, which can mitigate the CTI in OFDMA.

Full Text

Characterization of RF signal behavior for the use in indoor human presence detection

Mahamat Mahamat Ali, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Nazrul Arif bin Aliasaa, Md Rafiqul Islam and Shihab A. Hameed

This paper presents a method or technique that identifies physical intrusion detection in an indoor environment that is based on received signal strength indicator (RSSI) on radio frequency identification. The objective of this paper is two folds. Firstly, is to characterize the signal behavior in an indoor environment using statistical measures. Secondly, is to identify the existence of a human presence inside a contained environment (e.g., room). The objective is to use simple means like the recorded readings of the received signal strength indicator (RSSI). The characterization was observed during three distinctive time intervals, namely; empty room, with human presence, and transitional period during link crossings. The experiment was repeatedly conducted for 5 minutes to validate the averaged results. In order to emulate real-life environment, experiments were conducted using Zigbee-compliant iris mote XM2110 and MIB510 programming boards with transmitter and receiver antennas, and interfaced using TinyOS software on Linux. Our results show that there are distinctive statistical features that can utilized as flags to classify the three cases stated above, empty room, occupied and link being crossed. These results motivate the design of alarm system to detect human presence using RSSI statistics only.

Full Text

Coalition formation for throughput enhancement in cognitive radio wireless networks

Mohammad Tahir, M.H. Habaebi and M. Rafiqul Islam

Recently there have been numerous studies exploring the benefits of the coalition formation in a cognitive radio network and it has been shown that coalition formation tends to improve the performance of cognitive radio. In this paper we use the concepts from matching theory, specifically we use Gale-Shapley algorithm, to form the coalition among cognitive radio user for collaborative spectrum sensing under target detection probability constraint. In the proposed model we modify Gale-Shapley algorithm for the cognitive radio users to form coalitions of varying size to improve their individual gains (.e.g. throughput and probability of false alarm). We show using simulations that using the modified gale shapely algorithm for coalition formation yields significant gains in term of reduced false alarm probability and increased throughput per cognitive radio user as compared to non-cooperative scenario.

Full Text

Power management controller for hybrid electric vehicle using fuzzy logic

Muhd Firdause Mangun, Moumen Idres and Kassim Abdullah

This paper presenting a study on hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), using backward facing approach simulation or QSS approach and fuzzy logic power management controller for HEV. The software being used for modelling of HEV and fuzzy logic power management controller is Matlab/Simulink. A comparison study was completed to investigate fuzzy logic power management controller capability compared to optimal ideal controller optimized by dynamic programming. It was concluded that fuzzy logic controller shows excellent performance as HEV final battery SOC lies within 2.8% margin of that dynamic programming. Then, a comparison study was completed after addition of supercapacitor set to this HEV against battery only supply. After fuzzy logic PMC modified to include supercapacitors addition, it was observed that fuel economy improved by 54.34% from 57.6 mpg to 88.9 mpg, and total energy consumption reduced by 27.27%.

Full Text

Modeling and analysis of flutter-based thin-film cantilever microgenerator

Abdul Hakim Javid, Raed Kafafy , Erwin Sulaeman, Sany Ihsan and Moumen Idres

This paper presents a model for design and analysis of flutter-based microgenerators and a new concept for wind energy harvesting using thin-film cantilever with coils embedded on the sides of the cantilever. The analytical model predicts the flow-induced response of the thin-film cantilever at various parameters as well as the frequency of flutter at a wind speed which is crucial for designing a flutter based microgenerator. A complete analytical model unites various physics involved, flow induced forces on the cantilever, mechanical vibrations, electromagnetic coupling, and electric power output. The flutter frequency predicted by the analytical model is verified against finite element analysis using NASTRAN. The effect of span, width of the cantilever, length of coil on the cantilever and load resistance is investigated on the performance of the harvester. The results predicted by the analytical model agree reasonably well with the finite element analysis results paving way of using such an analytical model to design and optimize a fluttering wind energy harvester.

Full Text

QoS amendment toward seamless handover in network mobility NEMO

Loay F. Hussein, Aisha-Hassan A. Hashim, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi and Akram M. Zeki

Network Mobility Basic Support (NEMO BS) protocol is an extension of Mobile IPv6. It provides collective mobility for a bunch of nodes in vehicular area network. The standard NEMO BS (RFC 3963) protocol suffers from a number of limitations, such as inefficient routing and increased handover latency. Most previous studies attempted to solve such problems have imposed an extra signalling load. Therefore, the mechanism of proposed scheme is based on Fast Hierarchical Mobile IPv6, which enhances Mobile IPv6 by reducing the latency of address configuration and the home-network registration. In this paper, to achieve seamless handover and delivery of real-time traffic in mobile environment, Differentiated Service model is deployed in NEMO network. The QoS management is coupled with mobility management at the IP level. In
order to evaluate QoS within Mobility environment, NS-2 has been used. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is a valuable solution for promising NEMO applications.

Full Text

Optimizing the preparation of cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEA)- Amylase from supermeal worm (ZOPHOBAS MORIO)

Muhammad Noor Bin Easa and Faridah Bte Yusof

Cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEA) technology has been gaining more attention recently due to their advantages in industrial application. Various CLEA- enzymes has been successfully prepared with diverse advantages. Among the benefits of CLEA are; more stability, easy to prepare, cheap and reusable as compared to the free enzymes. This particular study has attempted to optimize the production of CLEA-amylase, which sourced from supermeal worm protein extract. One Factor at a Time (OFAT) and Response Surface Methodology (RSM) had been used to achieve the goal. Screening of several additives had been conducted to enhance the recovery activity of CLEA-amylase. The final preparation of CLEA- amylase was done by applying acetone as precipitant, glutaraldehyde as cross-linking agent and BSA as proteic feeder. Under Face Centered Central Composite Design (FCCCD), the interactions between those three influential parameters were observed. From the 20 runs, the optimum activity was recorded at Run 11 (26.65%), under the condition of using 60% acetone, 90mM glutaraldehyde and 2.5 mg/ml bovine serume albumin (BSA) as additive. The model equation was considered valid after been tested through validation test. Acetone and glutaraldehyde concentration had shown the most dominant factor from this study, while BSA concentration had insignificant effects.

Full Text

Low temperature solder alloys for ultrasonic soldering of glass

Mustafa M. Y., Hilmy I. and Adesta E. Y. T.

The research focused on improving the adhesion of low melting temperature lead free solders to soda lime glass through ultrasonic soldering. All soldering parameters involving temperature, time, vibration amplitude and frequency were kept constant except for the new alloying elements to Sn40Bi solders. Improvement on adhesion strength of Sn40Bi solders was attempted by alloying with Al, Mg, Zn and Ag elements. Tensile test was applied on soldered specimen to determine shear separation strength. The positive effect of metal oxide passivation from alloying elements was observed on the adhesion strength. Tensile test and the rmogravimetry analysis were applied to determine mechanical and chemical properties of selected solder alloys (Sn40Bi)0.3Mg and (Sn40Bi)0.5Al. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) were used to examine the bonding mechanism of the selected solders to glass. Sn and Bi were observed to remain in metallic form without adhering to glass. Mg and Al were observed to passivate to metal oxide form. MgO from (Sn40Bi)0.3Mg forms metal oxide bond to glass. Al2O3 from (Sn40Bi)0.5Al forms metal oxide bond to glass.

Full Text

The effect of piezoelectric actuation on stress distribution in aluminum plate with circular hole

Ahmed Abuzaid, M. S. I. Shaik Dawood and Meftah Hrairi

Structures with holes have been widely used in engineering designs. However, these structures have the tendency to develop critical crack growth because of stress concentration. This paper investigates the stress concentration factor (SCF) of an aluminum plate with circular hole and adhesively bonded piezoelectric actuator above the hole. The plate was subjected to uniaxial remote tensile stress while the actuator was excited with different voltages. The effect of the piezoelectric excitation on the stress in the host plate was analyzed using the finite element method (FEM). The stress distribution was evaluated by the stress concentration factor as an effectiveness criterion. The results indicated that the SCF is strongly affected by the applied voltage. Negative voltage tends to increase the SCF while the positive voltage tends to reduce the SCF. However, these effects are also dependent on the hole diameter and the size of the actuator.

Full Text

Investigation on routing aspects towards RPL optimization

Wan Fariza binti Wan Abdul Rahman, Md. Rafiqul Islam and Aisha Hassan Abdalla

Routing in Low-power and Lossy Networks (LLNs) requires low overhead on data packets, low routing overhead, minimal memory and computation requirements, and support for sleeping nodes considering battery saving. Most of the devices are distinguished by their low bandwidth, short range, scarce memory capacity, limited processing capability and other attributes of inexpensive hardware. These devices are designed to be compatible with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. IPv6 over IEEE 802.15.4 has been defined to carry IPv6 packets over IEEE 802.15.4 and similar networks, due to its capability to support routing over possibly various types of interconnected links. The IETF Routing Over Low Power and Lossy Networks (ROLL) working group has designed the IPv6 route-over Routing Protocol for LLNs, known as RPL, which covers the routing requirements of all application domains. However, there are still a number of routing aspects to be tackled in RPL, including memory efficiency, routing overhead and loops occurrence. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to highlight these issues and investigate the efforts/approaches for solving them.

Full Text

Effect of surface roughness on adhesion strength in ultrasonic soldering of glass

Mustafa M.Y., Hilmy I. and Adesta E. Y. T.

The research focused on improving the adhesion strength of low melting temperature lead free solder to soda lime glass through ultrasonic soldering. This was conducted by analyzing the effect of glass surface roughness on shear separation strength and shear separation energy between glass and solders. Analysis was conducted through tensile stress test. Other soldering parameters involving temperature, time, vibration amplitude, solder alloys and frequency were kept constant. (Sn40Bi)0.3Mg and (Sn40Bi)0.5Al solder alloys were selected due to their low melting temperatures and good adhesion to glass. Shear separation strength and extension before fracture data from the tensile stress test was used to derive shear separation energy values. Solder adhesion strength and solder adhesion energy between solder alloys and glass improved with increasing glass surface roughness. Study on bonding mechanism was conducted by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Bond between ultrasonic soldering of glass and solder alloys consists of metal oxide adhesion and mechanical adhesion.

Full Text

Medium voltage range energy harvester application using boost converter

Nurul Arfah Che Mustapha, A. H. M. Zahirul Alam, Sheroz Khan and Amelia Wong Azman

Energy obtained from the surrounding is usually very low and scarce. Such energy can be found from the vibration, solar and heat to name few. Often this energy is less than 1.5 V. Based on this motivation, DC-DC boost converter circuit is choose and design to convert low energy to sufficient amount to be used in normal circuit device and system application. This paper introduces a medium range output voltage using conventional DC-DC boost converter for low input supply range. Simulation has been done and compared with the experiment results. The purpose of this paper is to show the possibility of conversion very low energy to up to 50 V and to discuss a brief operation involved. A linear 4 V to 49 V output voltage trend was obtained from the experiment, under low switching frequency, 2 kHz. The targeted input used in this paper is between 0.1 V to 1.5 V suitable for energy harvesting purpose.

Full Text

Studies on classification of FMRI data using deep learning approach

Nur Farahana Mohd Suhaimia, Zaw Zaw Htike and Nahrul Khair Alang Md Rashid

Brain as main server for entire human body is a complex composition. It is a challenging task to read and interpret the brain. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) has become one of the means to do the task. FMRI is a non-invasive technique to measure brain activity of a human subject according to various stimuli. However, the FMRI datasets for each subject is huge and high-dimensional. For instance, the dataset has four dimensions for 3D images time series. Pre-processing and analyzing using pattern recognition are insignificance for datasets with varied anatomical structures and dimensions. On the other hand, supervised learning or biomarker is employed to reduce the curse-of-dimensionality of FMRI datasets. Yet, the process is difficult and subjective to the labeled datasets. Therefore, a well-versed approach in signal processing, natural language processing (NLP) and object recognition, known as deep learning is seen to have higher standard than usual classification approach. Deep learning is the improved version of neural network with higher capability and accuracy. This paper aims to review the deep learning approach in fMRI classifications based on three studies on FMRI data classifications.

Full Text

The effect of black liquor on rattan waste binderless board (BPB) produced via digestion-hot pressing (DHP) process

Maisarah T., Zuraida A. and Marjan A.

This paper investigates the feasibility of integrating Black Liquor (BL) on a Binderless Board (BB) from rattan waste that has undergone a Digestion-Hot Pressing process (DHP). In this project, the BL was produced by means of a kraft pulping process and was characterized in terms of its viscosity, alkalinity and functional group (using FTIR). The BB was fabricated on laboratory scales by adding different compositions of BL (0% BL, 10% BL, 20% BL and 30% BL) to the rattan waste. Performance evaluation was executed to study the effect of BL on the properties of BB. The BB with 30% BL gave the highest strength values of Modulus of Rupture (MOR) and Modulus of Elasticity (MOE), while BB with 20% BL gave the highest value of internal bond (IB) strength. However, the BB with 0% BL, which performed as control, had the lowest dimensional stability properties in terms of Water Absorption (WA) and thickness swelling. Higher amounts of BL increased the properties of rattan waste BPB due to increase in lignin content and so reducing the void spaces among particles. Therefore, adding BL into BB resulted in positive effects on the properties of BBs produced.

Full Text

Development of Cardioid based graph ECG heart abnormalities classification technique

Siti Nurfarah Ain Mohd Azam, Nur Izzati Zainal and Khairul Azami Sidek

In this study, the development of Cardioid based graph electrocardiogram heart abnormalities classification technique is presented. ECG signals in this work were acquired from a public online database UCD Sleep Apnea database (UCDB) with sampling rate of 250 Hz. Each recording has 60 seconds of electrocardiogram signals. Unique features were extracted using the Pan Tompkins algorithm, later Cardioid based graph was formed as the result of the differentiation process. The various shapes of closed-loop created were then observed. From the Cardioid loop, we evaluated the area and standard deviation to differentiate between normal and abnormal heartbeats. As a result, the area and standard deviation values of abnormal heartbeat were twice the value of a normal heartbeat thus indicating the differences between two types of heart morphologies. In order to justify the results, the signals is then classified by using Bayes Network classifier. Classification outcomes suggests that the proposed technique gives heart abnormality identification with a classification accuracy of as low as 12.5% when normal and abnormal heartbeat are matched (two different conditions). Thus, the output of the study suggests the proof-of-concept of our proposed mechanisms to detect heart abnormalities and has the potential to act as an alternative to the current techniques.

Full Text

MESH-DHT approach for efficient resource sharing in P2P based wireless mesh network

P. Prasanna Murali Krishna, M. V. Subramanyam and K. Satya Prasad

Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) is a popular communication paradigm due to its low cost and rapid deployment. A large-scale WMN needs a look-up structure to support storage, client mobility and generic services. A Distributed Hash Table (DHTs) spreads construction and maintenance load of abstract index infrastructure over participating nodes, providing simple data access interface. This study proposes a Mesh-DHT as a concept exploiting nodes physical locality to construct an overlay routing geometry using node identifiers reflecting wireless neighbor relations. As WMN s Quality of Service (QoS) parameters are Non-Deterministic Polynomial (NP) hard problem, we propose to use Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to identify best solution. A location aware Chord protocol is proposed to incorporate nodes locality in DHT construction.

Full Text

Fuzzy logic based vehicle speed control performance considering different membership types

Hamzah Ahmad, and Siti Nur Aini Basiran

Vehicle dynamics like acceleration, braking, and other factors can be controlled based on its speed. This paper design and analyze a fuzzy logic controller to control the speed of a vehicle to achieve the optimum control characteristics. Different number of fuzzy sets and fuzzy membership types known as triangular, trapezoid and Gaussian are configured to obtain the best solution for the problem. The vehicle speed as the inputs for the system is varied to simulate different cases of vehicle movement to determine the effectiveness of the system. The vehicle acceleration as the output is then being tuned to match and decide the vehicle motion appropriately with smooth movement. The effectiveness and the validity of the controller will be verified by some simulations and are assessed based on time consumption. Result has shown that Gaussian membership type has better results for less than four fuzzy sets.

Full Text

Solving optimal reactive power planning problem utilizing nature inspired computing techniques

Mohd Herwan Sulaiman, Zuriani Mustaffa, Hamdan Daniyal, Mohd Rusllim Mohamed and Omar Aliman

This paper presents the application of recent nature inspired computing (NIC) techniques in solving the Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch (ORPD) problem. As been known, ORPD is a well-known nonlinear optimization problem in power system operation and planning. In order to obtain the best combination of control variables such as generator voltages, tap changing transformers ratios and the amount of reactive compensation devices, optimization approach need to be done so that the loss minimization as objective function can be achieved. In this paper, four NIC techniques namely Cuckoo Search Algorithm (CSA), Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) and Firefly Algorithm (FA) have been applied into ORPD problem. The quality of each technique in obtaining the combination of control variables is tested on IEEE 57- bus system.

Full Text

Fire recognition using RGB and YCbCr color space

Norsyahirah Izzatibinti Zaidi, Nor Anis Anezabinti Lokman, Mohd Razali bin Daud, Hendriyawan Achmad and Khor Ai Chia

Fire departments in Malaysia always facing difficulties to reach fire scene location on short time due to lack of information regarding congestion condition of the roads that connecting to the location. Another problem faced by them is false calls from unknown callers. This study is looking for an alternative solution to overcome the problems by developing a vision based fire recognition system. The system is operated on Matlab r2013 environment and based on a set of rules developed to identify the value of R, G, B, Y, Cb and Cr component in an image. However, this study scope is limited to fire recognition only. The performance of the system is verified using one hundred images. The images are taken during morning, afternoon and evening to ensure the system is robust to different surrounding brightness. However, the images will undergoes several steps of pre-processing to minimize noises. Experimental results show that the both color spaces, RGB and YCbCr have high detection rate of fire which is 90% and 100%, respectively. YCbCr color space shows the best performance compared to RGB because it can separate luminance from chrominance more effectively than RGB color space.

Full Text

Arduino based power meter using instantaneous power calculation method

Tiong Meng Chung and Hamdan Daniyal

This paper describes the design and development of a single phase power meter using instantaneous power calculation method. It is an electrical device that is used in power system to measure the amount of electric power consumed by electrical appliance. It is closely related to the field of monitoring electric energy consumption which it involve both current and voltage signal from power system. In this research study, an accurate power meter is to be produced by using instantaneous power calculation method from the signal obtained from voltage and current sensors. Voltage and current signal are sampled and analyzed by using Arduino Due as control unit, where the instantaneous power calculation takes place. The developed power meter is suitable to be used on single phase electrical appliances with its maximum current not exceeding 13A with operating accuracy up to 96.54%.

Full Text

Grey wolf optimizer for solving economic dispatch problem with valve-loading effects

Mohd Herwan Sulaiman, Wong Lo Ing, Zuriani Mustaffa and Mohd Rusllim Mohamed

This paper presents the application of recent swarm intelligence (SI) techniques in solving the Economic Dispatch (ED) problem. ED is known as one of the fundamental problems in power system operation which aimed to obtain the combination of the fuel based power generation so that the minimum cost can be achieved. In this paper, the effect of valve-loading will be considered in order to solve the complex optimization problem. The recent SI algorithm namely Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) will be utilized in this paper. To show the effectiveness of GWO in solving ED problem, 13-units and TAIPOWER 40-units systems are used and then the performance of GWO will be compared to the other recent techniques.

Full Text

3D Panorama scene reconstruction using Kinect camera

Mohd Razali Daud, Nur Afzan Murtadza, M.S. Hendriyawan Achmad and Saifudin Razali

In this paper, 3D panorama scene is constructed by moving around the Kinect Xbox 360 camera horizontally in indoor environment. The Kinect sensor is used because its price is cheaper than other devices but able to provide bountiful data for image processing purpose. By integrating the Kinect for windows with MATLAB, all computations, programming and processing of this project are done using the MATLAB itself. The overall system undergoes three major sectors which are the Image Acquisition Module, Image Processing and Analysis Module, and Result Processing and Displaying Module. The proposed system uses the latest "Point Cloud Processing" that was introduced in the MATLAB R2015a. Based on the result obtained, the system is able to reconstruct the 3D scene environment via offline and also real-time using the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for ease of use. The online system however, may need further improvement in terms of stabilization. Furthermore, the system is able to function with minimum lighting i.e. dark room or at night.

Full Text

Design of inductive power transfer (IPT) for low-power application

Muhammad Asri Zainal Abidin, Wan Ismail Ibrahim and Mohd Shawal Jadin

Inductive power transfer (IPT) is preferred for numerous applications nowadays, ranging from microwatt bio-engineering devices to high power battery charging system. IPT system is based on the basic concept of electromagnetics induction which able to transfer the power from a source of electrical to the load without using any type of physical interconnection. This paper present a low-cost designed and implementation of IPT system via magnetic resonant coupling. NI Multisim 14.0 software was used to simulate the circuit diagram and the hardware prototype was developed for testing.

Full Text

Simulation on modified hysteresis current control in half-bridge bidirectional DC-DC converter

Nurul Azwa Othman, Hamdan Daniyal and Mohd Shafie Bakar

This paper proposes a modified hysteresis current control method for half bridge bidirectional DC-DC converter (HBDC). Hysteresis current controller is modified by adding logic circuit at input signal S1 and S2 to change performance of inductor current, IL. According to current direction transition, IL stays at zero in a moment. It is happens when Irefpis crossing zero and continues bouncing when Irefmis crossing zero. This method is applied to reduce loss in HBDC performance, which as a result will achieve reduction in switching losses and conduction losses. The conduction losses and switching losses has been analyzed which conduction losses has slight changes in losses reduction and switching losses is reduce from 6.31 J to 4.53 J. The proposed hysteresis current controller was simulated using PSIM and the losses is verify on each switching changes. The result validated proposed hysteresis current control capability in losses reduction.

Full Text

A backstepping based PID controller for stabilizing an underactuated X4-AUV

Nur Fadzillah Harunand Zainah Md. Zain

The autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) mostly has fewer control inputs than the degree of freedoms (DOFs) in motion and be classified into underactuated system. It is a difficult tasks to stabilize that system because of the highly nonlinear dynamic and model uncertainties. It is usually required nonlinear control method and this paper presents the stabilization of an underactuated X4-AUV using backstepping based PID nonlinear control techniques. The X4-AUV system is executed by separating system into two subsystems which is translational and rotational subsystems. Integral backstepping control is applied for translational subsystem and PID backstepping control for the rotational subsystem. As a results the x-position and all angles is stabilized into desired point. The effectiveness of the proposed control technique for an underactuated X4-AUV demonstrates through simulation.

Full Text

Pressure control of wall climbing robot using PID controller

Rita Jelai Johnson and Mohd Helmi Suid

Nowadays, wall climbing robot plays a vital role in the rapid growth of technology development. Potential applications are quite numerous, such as inspection, maintenance and cleaning operations of civil infrastructures which involve a high number of dangerous manual operations and represent a danger even for skilled workers. In view of the present situation of hazardous inspection environment, wall-climbing robot generally divided into adhesion part, movement part and control part. The rough surface wall environment is a challenging problem for adhesion. To address the problem, a negative pressure adhesion mechanism with adaptive control based on proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is proposed. The minimum revolving speed (RPM) that robot can adhere on the wall reliably is verified by the experiment conducted. The ducted fan model is analyzed using Solid Works Flow Simulation and the relationship between the motor speed and the adhesion force is described in detail. The feasibility of robot which adopts pressure adhesion adaptive control method using PID is demonstrated in MATLAB Simulink. Last but not least, the simulations with gap interference were done and its results are discussed, respectively.

Full Text

The implementation of indoor child monitoring system using trilateration approach

Normazatul Shakira Darmawati and Nurul Hazlina Noordin

This paper presents the child monitoring system by implementing one of the indoor positioning techniques. Over the years, there have been numerous reports on missing children in crowded areas such as in shopping complexes. One of the reasons is the difficulty to monitor these children and this demands a system that could enable parents to track their children s whereabouts. Unlike outdoor monitoring system which makes use of the GPS signals, indoor positioning system makes use of the Wi-Fi signals. The aim of this project is to implement an Indoor Positioning System that is able locate their child in a confined space as Global Positioning System are limited to outdoor tracking. The proposed system will be based on Wi-Fi signal strength that uses trilateration technique to calculate the exact location of the child. The proposed system uses three access points and the strength of the WI-FI signals at each access points is used in order to calculate the position of the children. The system is implemented using Intel Galileo Development board. The measured results of the proposed system achieved 90% accuracy.

Full Text

Investigation of the potential harnessing tidal energy in Malaysia

N. A. Mohd Yusoff, N. L. Ramli and M. R. Mohamed

Tidal energy has been recognized as one of the promising technologies for future electricity generation for its predictability as compared to solar and wind energy, yet traditionally it has been renowned as a technology that's relatively needed detail analysis for availability sites identification and cost. This paper presents an analysis of potential harnessing tidal energy for a country that has low tidal ranges like Malaysia. Tides Table Malaysia 2014 published by National Hydrographic Centre Malaysia has been used in identifying potential sites for harnessing tidal energy in Malaysia. The data are tabulated in monthly and the most potential site for harness tidal energy is presented in hourly versus the height of water for every each of coastal area in Malaysia for better comparison with the results shown.

Full Text

Enhancement of environment-friendly power grids' flexibility to successfully host RESs and EVs

S. Gasim Mohamed, J. Jasni, M. A. M. Radzi and H. Hizam

Besides the economic aspect behind the renewable energy sources (RESs) and the electric vehicles (EVs), burning less fossil fuel is a significant response to the calls for the environment preservation. The RESs and EVs can optimize the grid operation. However, the RESs are intermittent in nature, and the EVs have different operation modes. Their changing pattern of operation is challenging and may initiate serious problems in the power grid. They necessitate enhancing the flexibility of the grid to enable handling the dynamics. This paper investigates the problem of lines flow congestion as a result of the arising dynamics. Then, the congestion is relieved through the action of the Phase Shifting Transformer (PST) as used to control the active power flow. It is found that two PSTs are sufficient to enhance the flexibility of the grid to enable securely facing operating conditions like EVs fleet connection-disconnection, power system components outage, wind farm s output drop or complete shutdown considering 11.08% penetration level, and various combinations of such changing circumstances. MATLAB/SIMULINK is used to model a modified IEEE-14 bus system, the RESs, the EVs, and the PSTs. The results revealed the successful interaction of the grid with the dynamics of the RESs and EVs, and components outage.

Full Text

Double integrator model and invariant manifold theory algorithm for an X4-AUV

Z. M. Zain, M. R. Arshad and K. A. A. Rahim

Autonomous underwater vehicle (X4-AUV) with four inputs and 6 degrees of freedom (DOFs) is an underactuated system and has a nonholonomic features. There exist various studies on nonholonomic underactuated control so far, but most of them are confined into the case of systems with two inputs and therefore there are a few studies for the systems with three or more inputs. Control approaches for nonholonomic systems have utilized canonical forms. A nonholonomic double integrator model is the one of canonical forms for nonholonomic systems. In this paper an algorithm for an extended double integrator with four inputs is presented. Then a control law for an X4-AUV in extended double integrator model is derived using invariant manifold theory. It is expected that each state of the controlled object will be converge smoothly to the origin by using this type of control.

Full Text

Chipless radio frequency identification tag with high encoding capacity based on three coding levels

O. J. Ibrahim, Alyani Ismail, Nor Kamariah and H. Adam

One of the key factors that provides the potential for chipless radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags as an excellent alternative to conventional barcode tags is the capacity of identities produced. This study proposes a design of chipless RFID tag with high bit capacity. Base-3 levels encoding, which consists of three encoding levels (0, 1, and 2), is employed. This new technique ensures the efficient use of each resonance frequency in the ultra-wide band (UWB) region, which entails a high encoding capacity compared with conventional base-2 levels encoding. The proposed tag comprises two coplanar wave guide (CPW) UWB monopole antennas with a CPW multiresonator that connects the antennas. The insertions loss of the multiresonator is investigated here in terms of magnitude and phase. The uniplanar propriety of the proposed tag makes this tag fully printable and low cost. Thus, the proposed technique is suitable for tagging low-cost items, such as paper documents.

Full Text

Modeling and simulation of split plug-in hybrid electric vehicle using advisor

Muhammad Ikram Mohd Rashid and Hamdan Danial

With increasing concern over the environment and ever stringent emissions regulations, the electric vehicle has been investigated as an alternative form of transportation. However, the electric vehicle suffers from relatively short range and long charging times and consequently has not become an acceptable solution to the automotive consumer. The addition of an internal combustion engine to extend the range of the electric vehicle is one method of exploiting the high efficiency and lack of emissions of the electric vehicle while retaining the range and convenient re-fuelling times of a conventional gasoline powered vehicle. The term that describes this type of vehicle is a hybrid electric vehicle. Many configurations of hybrid electric vehicles have been designed and implemented, namely the series, parallel and power-split configurations. This paper discusses the modeling and simulation of split plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. Modeling methods such as physics-based Resistive Companion Form technique and Bond Graph method are presented with powertrain component and system modeling examples. The modeling and simulation capability of existing tools such as ADvanced VehIcle SimulatOR (ADVISOR) is demonstrated through application examples. Since power electronics is indispensable in hybrid vehicles, the issue of numerical oscillations in dynamic simulations involving power electronics is briefly addressed.

Full Text

Sizing, positioning and air ducting analysis for solar-based car ventilator

Rosmiwati Mohd-Mokhtarand Asirah Roslan

This paper presents a study on solar based car ventilation system by observing its effectiveness in reducing the temperature inside the car that is parked unroofed under the sun. The performance of the motor, power produced from the solar panel, airflow rate effect, tilt angle effect and air duct effect were investigated. A commercially available ventilator and a redesigned ventilator have been used to benchmark the analysis. The present study shows that the commercial ventilator only provided 6.86% of reducing interior temperature inside a car compared to without ventilator. Size of solar panel, placement and position angle as well as air duct became contributing factors that affect the performance. A redesigned ventilator that considers those factors is developed and analyzed. From result, a redesigned ventilator provided at least 19.83% better result of reducing the interior temperature inside the parked car as compared to the existing ventilator.

Full Text

Power quality improvement of grid connected wind energy systems using Statcom-battery energy storage system

Ashok kumar L. Archana N. and Vidhyapriya R.

For the past few year renewable energy resources, without challenging environmental concerns has lead to significant increase in global power generation. Out of that wind energy is considered to be the most mature renewable energy source. However, the exploitation of wind energy is particularly challenging due to the stochastic nature of wind. This weak interconnection of wind generating source in the electrical network affects the power quality and reliability. FACTS technologies have already been used to enhance the controllability and power transfer capability of transmission system. Recently other important functions have been added such as harmonic elimination and dynamic voltage regulation, as a solution for power quality problems. In this paper FACTS device is used to enable smooth and proper integration of wind energy system to the grid is taken as the main objective. Furthermore, the detailed investigations using MATLAB/SIMULINK is explored in this paper for the enhancement of power quality using STATCOM, integrated with battery energy storage system. The STATCOM model is tested using a hardware setup.

Full Text

Detection of sputum smear cell based on image processing analysis

F. I. Azman, K. H. Ghazali and Z. Mohamed and R. Hamid

Sputum is a liquid substance or mucus produced in the lungs and in the airways leading to the lungs. Sputum can be categorized in a type of bloody that often found in tuberculosis (hemoptysis), rusty colored where it can be found in pneumonia, purulent, foamy white and frothy pink. A patient suspected having respiratory infection could be examined by sputum diagnosis. Pulmonary infection is the most cases for the respiratory infection and it can cause of morbidity and mortality. Sputum sample that contain of pus cells, squamous cells, gram-positive and gram-negative organisms are usually examines by microbiology technologist using visualize inspection through microscope image. It is less practical to examine the huge sample of sputum by manually visualizing image under the microscope. Hence, it is crucial to introduce an automatic system using image processing technique where it can overcome the inefficient practice of examine the sputum sample. In this paper we proposed an image processing technique to detect the types of cells in sputum smear. The image processing methods used to analyze the cells are color, morphology, image arithmetic operation, K-Mean clustering and thresholding technique. The sputum image has been tested for the cell detection where we obtained more than 95% detection of squamous cell.

Full Text

Performance analysis of active power filter for harmonic compensation using PI-PSO

Ekhlas Mhawi Thajeel, Hamdan Bin Daniyal and Mohd Herwan Sulaiman

In recent years the world has witnessed an increase in the use of non-linear loads. These loads draw harmonic non-sinusoidal currents and voltages in the connection point with the utility and distribute them through it.A shunt active power filters (SAPF) have been proposed as an effective tool for improving power quality and reactive power compensation. The simulated system is a three phase balanced voltage system with nonlinear load. A particle swarm optimization (PSO) is implemented to optimize the gains of a proportional-integral (PI) algorithm to control the SAPF. The control of the DC voltage of the APF is of great importance. The DC voltage passes by a transient after load variation. This transient is a function of the controller parameters and the load variation. The aim of this work is to determine if the control schemes will be able to adapt to the changing conditions. Different studied for SAPF are implemented in MATLAB\Simulink and results are tabulated and discussed. Results show that the proposed filter can effectively reduce harmonics while keeping its DC-link balanced.

Full Text

Internet traffic analysis with goodness of fit test on campus network

Murizah Kassim, Mohd Azrul Abdullah and Maizura Mohd Sani

This paper presents an analysis of internet traffic flows in a campus university network. Internet traffic is collected at the backbones network where two important traffics which are inbound and outbound are collected in 7 days. Statistical analysis is performed to understand the characteristic of traffic population. Empirical cumulative distribution function (CDF) is evaluated and important statistical parameters are characterized. Goodness of Fit (GOF) test with Anderson-Darling (AD) estimation technique is used to identify the best fitted distribution model such as Normal, Lognormal, Weibull and Exponential distribution. Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) is also measured that presents important Weibull distribution characteristics. Results present analysis characteristics on both AD and MLE techniques of the internet traffic are fits to Weibull Traffic model. AD techniques fits presents the value-p probability parameter and MLE fits presents Weibull scale and shape parameters. Correlation results between the two inbound and outbound traffic are presented and discussed. This results help in modeling new algorithms to model new Tele-traffic algorithm based on time to control both inbound and outbound traffic in a network.

Full Text

Medium term load forecasting using evolutionary programming-least square support vector machine

Zuhaila Mat Yasin, Zuhaina Zakaria, Muhammad Anwar Abd Razak and Nur Fadilah Ab. Aziz

This paper presents new intelligent-based technique namely Evolutionary Programming- Least-Square Support Vector Machine (EP-LSSVM) to forecast a medium term load demand. Medium-term electricity load forecasting is a difficult work since the accuracy of forecasting is influenced by many unpredicted factors whose relationships are commonly complex, implicit and nonlinear. Available historical load data are analyzed and appropriate features are selected for the model. Load demand in the year 2008 until 2010 are used for features in combination with day in months and hour in days. There are 3 inputs vectors for this proposed model consists of day, month and year. As for the output, there are 24 outputs vectors for this model which represents the number of hour in a day. In EP-LSSVM, the Radial Basis Function (RBF) Kernel parameters are optimally selected using Evolutionary Programming (EP) optimization technique for accurate prediction. The performance of EP-LSSVM is compared with those obtained from LS-SVM using cross-validation technique in terms of accuracy. The experimental results show that the proposed approach gives better performance in terms of Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) and coefficients of determination (R2) for the entire period of prediction.

Full Text

A review of the fault ride through requirements in different grid codes concerning penetration of PV system to the electric power network

Ali Q. Al-Shetwi, Muhamad Zahim Sujod and Noor Lina Ramli

The growing of Photovoltaic (PV) power generation and integration into the electric power has started to touch on the stability and reliability of the network. As a result, standards have to be defined in guaranteeing a secure and reliable operation of the power system and one of the important topics is the capability of the PV system to ride through fault during the disturbance. This paper provides an overview and comparison study about Fault Ride-Through (FRT) capability requirements in the recent grid codes, which are enforced by transmission and distribution system operators in different Grid Codes (GCs) regarding the penetration of Photovoltaic Power Plant (PVPP) to medium and low voltage level of the network. This study compared the following common requirements such as FRT either Low Voltage Ride-Through (LVRT) or High Voltage Ride Through (HVRT), reactive current injection during and after the fault, restoring active power and frequency variations. In addition, by depending on this comparison and through studying the Malaysian grid standards, there is a similarity to USA standard thus this paper presents a proposal of FRT capability and frequency deviation for the Malaysian electric grid.

Full Text

Automatic phototherapy garment (APG) using blue led for jaundice treatment- A preliminary design

Mitra Mohd. Addi, Siti Asmah Daud, Nurul Atiqah Abdul Ghani and Fauzan Khairi Che Harun

Phototherapy is a form of treatment for skin conditions, using light sources which are regularly used to treat jaundice. Common light sources used in phototherapy systems include fluorescent lamp, halogen lamp, fibre optic and also light emitting diodes (LED). Currently, blue LEDs are found to be used in phototherapy devices due to its unique characteristics which include high sensitivity towards bilirubin reduction, power efficient, light in weight, less heat production, low in cost and a longer lifetime. Experiments were conducted to compare the efficiency of blue LEDs in reducing bilirubin level in bilirubin solutions, compared to fluorescent light which are commonly used in hospitals. A bilirubin level detector was designed using LabView to measure the bilirubin concentration. Results show that the blue LED were more efficient in reducing bilirubin compared to the fluorescent light (10% - 20% bilirubin degradation) for a time exposure of 30 minutes to 3 hours. In this paper, the design of an automatic phototherapy garment (APV) for infants, using blue LEDs and Arduino microcontroller for use in jaundice treatment is proposed. The proposed garment phototherapy device is portable, uses a small power supply and is easily operated.

Full Text

Comparison of the effect of filter designs on the total harmonic distortion in three-phase stand-alone photovoltaic systems

Yew Weng Kean, Pang Siew Yong, Agileswari Ramasamy and V. K. Ramachandaramurthy

The world has turned their attention to renewable energy with the increasing demand of power supply and the limited source of fossil fuel. In Malaysia, solar PV energy is growing steadily as the sunlight is easily available throughout the year. As more solar PV system being installed, stand-alone operation is being looked into to bring solar PV to rural areas. However, in stand-alone operations there is no voltage support from the grid which will lead to harmonic problems. Passive filter is one of the methods used to mitigate the harmonic issues in a stand-alone system. This paper focuses on the design of passive filters and the effects of the filter on the total harmonic mitigation in a 8kW three-phase stand-alone PV system are compared. The design of the proposed filters are validated by simulation results in PSCAD software. The simulation results show that the double tuned filter design is able to meet the THD and individual harmonic limit standards better as compared to the single tuned filter and LC filter design.

Full Text

The effect of a circular nickel wire as electrodes of a ph-sensor for acidity measurement

M. Julius St., Sudjito Eko Siswanto and Denny Widhiyanuriyawan

The aim of this research is to measure acidity using circular nickel wire as electrodes of a pH-sensor. Nickel has been chosen as material due to its benefit of being easy to find in the market with relatively cheap price. The variations of nickel wire diameter used during the measurement were 0.8 mm, 0.9 mm, 1.0 mm, 1.2 mm and 1.4 mm, whereas the variations of distance between electrodes were 0.50 cm, 1.00 cm and 1.50 cm. To ensure the distance, resin has been used to fix the bond between electrodes. A liquid pH-buffer has been used during the acidity measurement. The electrodes of the pH-sensor have been immersed during one minute in the liquid buffer. The results show that the best sensitivity has been obtained for acidity measurement along the pH-range of 1-7 using the combination of 1.0 cm of distance between electrodes and -1.1 volt corresponding with pH-level increment of 1.

Full Text

Islanding detection using inverter dc-link voltage

Saidu Kumo Mohammed, Norman Mariun Mohd Amran Mohd Radzi, Noor Izzri Abdul Wahab and Sabo Mahmoud Lurwan

Integration of Renewable Energy Resources (RERs) such as wind turbines and photovoltaic (PV) in to the electric power distribution network is on the increase. One of the integration requirements, in accordance with IEEE 1547 and UL 1741, is the islanding detection, basically implemented as Under Over Voltage (UOV) protection. This method has high Non Detection Zone (NDZ) due to the standard utility allowable voltage operation limits. In this paper, an inverter DC-Link voltage is used as an alternative for islanding detection with reduced NDZ compared with the UOV. MATLAB/ Simulink was used to simulate a 0.1 MW inverter-based, grid-connected PV system, as a test bench for the proposed islanding detection method.

Full Text

A random synchronous-asynchronous particle swarm optimization algorithm with a new iteration strategy

Nor Azlina Ab Aziz, Shahdan Sudin, Marizan Mubin, Sophan Wahyudi Nawawi and Zuwairie Ibrahim

Particle swarm optimisation (PSO) is a population-based stochastic optimisation algorithm. Traditionally the particles update sequence for PSO can be categorized into two groups, synchronous (S-PSO) or asynchronous (A-PSO) update. In S-PSO, the particles performances are evaluated before their velocity and position are updated, while in A-PSO, each particle s velocity and position is updated immediately after individual performance is evaluated. Recently, a random asynchronous PSO (RA-PSO) has been proposed. In RA-PSO, particles are randomly chosen to be updated asynchronously, the randomness improves swarm s exploration. RA-PSO belongs to the asynchronous group. In this paper, a new category; hybrid update sequence is proposed. The new update sequence exploits the advantages of synchronous, asynchronous, and random update methods. The proposed sequence is termed as, random synchronous-asynchronous PSO (RSA-PSO). RSA-PSO divides the particles into groups. The groups are subjected to random asynchronous update, while the particles within a chosen group are updated synchronously. The performance of RSA-PSO is compared with the existing S-PSO, A-PSO, and RA-PSO using CEC2014 s benchmark functions. The results show that RSA-PSO has a superior performance compared to both A-PSO and RA-PSO, and as good as S-PSO.

Full Text

Modeling and simulation of UPFC for dynamic voltage control in power system using PSCAD/EMTDC software

S. N. Fadilah, N. Md. Saad, M. F. Abas, N. L. Ramli

This paper discussed the effect of Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) controllers for enhancement of power system voltage regulation and power flows in the transmission system. The model of UPFC are studied and validated in power system computer aided design & electromagnetic transient direct current (PSCAD/EMTDC) environment. The basic operations are explained, as well as the control strategies and circuit configurations of the controller. PI controller is used for control scheme. In this proposed work, the 4 bus test system is used to verify the proposed model. The steady-state analysis is done to show the capability of the controller in improving voltage regulation in the transmission system.

Full Text

A simulation analysis of mobility models for network mobility environments

Shayla Islam, Aisha-Hassan A. Hashim, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Suhaimi A. Latif and Mohammad Kamrul Hasan

In real world scenarios, there is an increasing concern in placement as well as assessment of mobility management protocols for Network Mobility (NEMO). Mobility models have a substantial impact on the performance evaluation of any new mobility management protocol in NEMO. A considerable assessment of any protocol and comparison with other equivalent protocol cannot be completed without making use of an accurate mobility model. The choice of the mobility model can majorly affect the performance assessment of mobility protocols. As a result, it is really essential to pick a detailed mobility model which correctly symbolizes the movement pattern of Mobile Routers (MRs). This paper details the most prevalent mobility models utilized such as Random Way Point (RWP) and Constant Velocity (CV) mobility model to characterize the MR mobility rate in NEMO. After that, Network Simulator version 3 (NS-3) simulation results will be presented using movement pattern of MR as well as road maps to show the significance of selecting an appropriate mobility model on PMIPv6 domain in NEMO (PNEMO) environment.

Full Text

Closed loop control for reactive power compensation using combined facts devices

S. Marlin, S. D. Sundar Singh Jebaseelan and C. N. Ravi

This paper deals with improvements of reactive power using flexible AC transmission system controllers. UPFC and TCSC are the two FACTS devices which are used as compensators in this work. UPFC and TCSC models are developed with closed loop control. The PID controller is used to control the UPFC and TCSC performance based in thirty bus systems and shows the comparison of open loop and closed loop.

Full Text

Computerized toll collection system using SMART card with RFID

M. Sumithra and B. Buvaneswari

This research paper describes the automated toll collection system for tollgate based on SMART card technology. Most of the toll collection system is in manual transaction. Nowadays, there is a huge rush in toll plaza in order to pay the toll tax. It results in traffic jam, fuel waste and time waste. The objective of this paper is to transform manual transaction to automated toll collection system using SMART card technology. The automation of toll plaza is by using the combination of microcontroller, RFID reader and Smart card. There are four portions in the toll collection system. They are RFID system, GSM interface, TWO-WAY deduction, and SMART CARD barring. For the RFID system, 13.56 MHz high frequency RFID reader and SMART tags are used. The balance deduction is implemented with GSM. Embedded C is used to implement this system. The PIC microcontroller is used to display every detail on the LCD. This paper proposes a system, which automatically identifies a forthcoming vehicle and records vehicle’s number and time. If the vehicle is an authorized one, automatically the toll gate opens and a predetermined amount is automatically deducted from its smart card. By using this system, it will save time, reduces fuel consumption and no need to stop vehicle at the toll gate.

Full Text

Sifting undesirable substance in online interpersonal organization in light of mlsoft classifier

S. Venkatraman, D. Kamalakannan, S. Raja and V. Vijayaraja

In Online Informal communities the customers have quite recently less access to control the unessential commands posted on their dividers. So as to spare the client dividers from undesirable substance by a framework permitting OLO shoppers to possess an immediate get to manage over the messages announce on their dividers. This can be access to through Associate in Nursing variable guideline based mostly framework that allows purchasers to regulate the separating conditions to be connected to their dividers, System Learning-based delicate classifier naturally recognize messages considering substance and channels those messages. When compile that rejects the undesirable messages from dividers and give a cautioning message to the individuals who posted on the other client dividers. The ability of the work relating to separation selections is upgraded through the administration of BLs. The greater bit of these recommendations fundamentally to give clients an arrangement system to keep away from they are overpowered by useless information.

Full Text

A hybrid classification model employing genetic algorithm and root guided decision tree for improved categorization of data

R. Geetha Ramani, Lakshmi Balasubramanian and Alaghu Meenal A.

Data mining algorithms play a major role in analyzing the vast data available in many fields like multimedia, medicine, business, education etc. Classification techniques have been extensively adopted for the purpose of pattern analysis. Several classification algorithms have been proposed in the literature. Yet demand exists for classification algorithms that yield higher accuracies. Hybrid classification procedures were also attempted in the literature. In this paper, the concept of Genetic Algorithm and Decision Tree is employed collectively for achieving better accuracies. The proposed methodology adopts genetic search to generate subsets of the attributes of the data and these subsets are evaluated using the Root Guided Decision Tree. This process results in a final decision tree with relevant set of attributes and yielding higher accuracy. The algorithm is validated on the datasets obtained from UCI repository and retinal dataset acquired from a publicly available High Resolution Fundus image Dataset.

Full Text

Synthesis of dualband band pass filter using multi objective PSO

A. Thenmozhi

A novel synthesis procedure for the design of microwave dualband band pass filter using multi objective Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) for 3.5 GHz and 5.5GHz Wimax applications is presented in this paper. This filter provides an an insertion loss  within the pass band is around -5 dB and return loss is -35 dB at the first pass band and insertion loss within the pass band is around -7 dB and return loss is -15 dB at the second pass band.

Full Text

Effects of stirring speed and time on water absorption performance of silica aerogel/epoxy nanocomposite

M. S. M. Basri, N. Mazlan and F. Mustapha

Aerogel reinforced epoxy nanocomposite are known as efficient materials in a broad range of high performance application in many industries including aviation and marine industries. This paper investigated on the effect of stirring speed and time, as separate factors on water absorption performance silica aerogel/epoxy nanocomposite. Silica aerogel/epoxy nanocomposites were prepared variously by mixing silica powder, epoxy resin and hardener at a fixed ratio. The uncured solutions of aerogel/epoxy were then subjected to different combination of parameters of stirring speeds and stirring times. Resulted weight gained from water absorption analysis of the cured aerogel/epoxy nanocomposite was recorded at various time intervals up to 99 days. Presence of trapped air bubbles during fabrication of silica aerogel/epoxy nanocomposite was examined morphologically under Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Fickian diffusion analysis was used to predict water uptake by the epoxy nanocomposites. Results showed that blank epoxy stirred at higher speed and lower time exhibit the lowest rate of water absorption with only 7.30%. As for the epoxy filled nanocomposite samples, they obtained higher rate of water absorption approximately more than 9.10% compared to blank epoxy. For mix 1 (silica and epoxy resin), lower stirring speed and higher stirring time provided good result. For mix 2 (mix 1 and hardener), higher stirring speed and lower stirring time provided good result. It can be indicated that water absorption rate were influenced by stirring speed, time and adding of filler.

Full Text

Glass/epoxy woven composite laminate design based on nonlinear results

Hazatul Nabila, Sanusi Hamat, Logeswaran Arumugam, Ain Umaira, Ibrahim M Alibe, Milad Golshan and Dayang Laila Majid

The purpose of this case study is to analyse the effect of the stacking sequence and lay-up orientation of the fiber of laminated composite materials employing plain weave C-glass fibres with varying fibre densities. The study was divided into two parts which are simulation and experimental analysis. Through the simulation analysis, three designs were proposed and the best design with the highest UTS was chosen to be fabricated in order to validate the simulation results. All designs are symmetric in terms of angle of orientation which only utilized 00/900 and ±450 plies. The simulation analysis were performed using ABAQUS and the finite element model was simulated in a non-linear mode with displacement of 3mm. The second part of this study is to fabricate the best design with the highest UTS based on the ABAQUS analysis. The specimen was fabricated through hand lay-up method before being cut into a rectangular shaped coupon with standard dimensions according to ASTM D3039. The prepared coupons were then tested using the tensile testing machine in a standard room temperature to find the UTS. The experimental results were analysed to get the stress strain curve. The UTS values determined from both numerical and experimental analysis were compared. The percentage of error between the two values were calculated which determine the accuracy of the ABAQUS analysis to the real experimental result. The comparison showed that the percentage of error is 5% which is an acceptable value.

Full Text

Computational study on the influence of dynamic stall on the unsteady aerodynamics of flapping wing ornithopter

Alif Syamim Syazwan Ramli and Harijono Djojodihardjo

The potential of Flapping Wing Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) for sensing and information gathering relevant for environmental and disaster monitoring and security surveillance leads to the identification and modeling the salient features and functional significance of the various components in the flying reasonably sized biosystems. The dynamics, kinematics and aerodynamics of their wing systems and the production of mechanical power output for lift and thrust will be synthesized following a simplified and generic, but meticulous, model for a flapping wing ornithopter. Basic unsteady aerodynamic approach incorporating viscous effect and leading-edge suction is utilized. The study is focused on a bi-wing ornithopter. Numerical computation under effect of specified stall conditions is executed to inspect the behavior of lift and thrust forces. Also, the incorporation of non-linear aerodynamic modeling is introduced. Results are discussed in comparison with various selected simple models in the literature and the parametric study of phase shift between pitching and flapping motion is done, with a view to develop a practical ornithopter model.

Full Text

Discovering RAZI acceleration in multiple rotating coordinate frames system

A. S. Mohd Harithuddin and P. M. Trivailo

This paper outlines the procedure of calculating inertial acceleration in a kinematic system involving more than two relatively rotating coordinate frames. The equation of relative motion between two frames – one inertial and one rotating – exhibits inertial acceleration terms like centripetal, Coriolis and tangential accelerations. It is shown that by introducing a third relatively-rotating frame, the Razi acceleration term appears in the equation, complementing the three aforementioned inertial acceleration terms. This is demonstrated by extending the application of Euler derivative transformation formula to include multiple coordinate frames. To show the appearance of the Razi acceleration, an experimental investigation is conducted using a multiple-axis robotic arm to simulate an “enclosed rotation” motion. A sensor is attached to the end-effector of the robotic arm to measure its acceleration. A comparison of the result with the equation produced by the derivative transformation formula is presented to show the effect of the Razi acceleration on a rigid body undergoing rotation about multiple axes.

Full Text

Relative position-based collision avoidance system for swarming UAVS using multi-sensor fusion

Rethnaraj Rambabu, Muhammad Rijaluddin Bahiki and Syaril Azrad Md Ali

This paper presents the development of a quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is capable of quad-directional collision avoidance with obstacles in swarming applications through the implementation of relative position-based cascaded PID position and velocity controllers. A collision avoidance algorithm that decides evasive manoeuvres in two dimensional flight by the means of net error calculation was developed. Sensor fusion of ultrasonic (US) and infrared (IR) sensors was performed to obtain a reliable relative position data of obstacles which is then fed into collision avoidance controller (CAC) for generating necessary response in terms of attitude commands. Flight tests performed proved the capability of UAV to avoid collisions with the obstacles and dummy non-flying UAVs that existed at a closer distance in its four primary directions of detections during flight successfully.

Full Text

Two-Dimensional CFD simulation for visualization of flapping wing ornithopter studies

Harijono Djojodihardjo and Khairul Afiq A. Rahim

A Two-Dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamic (2D-CFD) study is carried out on an oscillating flat plate at various flow situations in order to gain insight on the flow field and forces acting on a generic flapping wing in a viscous flow within a certain flying conditions. The dimensions and parameters associated with the amplitude and frequency of the oscillating flat plate simulating flapping wing are designed meticulously with reference to those suggested from literature study and observation.

Full Text

Review on the cost and performance of a WIGE craft: A commercialization prospective

Cheong Ming Yin, Surjatin Wiriadidjaja, Dayang Laila Abd Majid, Fairuz Izzudin bin Romli, Azmin Shakrine Mohd Rafie and Amzari Zhahir

This study is prepared as an analysis on potential application and commercialization of the wing-in-ground effect craft (WIGE craft) as a new transportation system for domestic market. As the needs analysis and concept exploration phases commonly carried out within the concept development of a new complex system, this study may serve as validation answers to some basic questions such as “Is there a valid need for this new system?”, “Is there a practical approach to satisfying such need?”, “What performance is required?”, and “Is there at least one feasible approach to achieving such performance at an affordable cost?”. The analysis on potential of application and commercialization of WIGE craft would constitute a basis for making a decision as to whether or not to invest in a further development effort. The conducted analysis can be also considered as a “feasibility study”, which in this case has been based on comparison of certain key features of a WIGE craft with those of other existing transportation vehicles that remain offering services as the “proven” alternative concepts. The key features of a WIGE craft should be in the first place in its capabilities, operational effectiveness, and in its performance requirements, which are supposed to achieve the most beneficial balance between capability, operational life, and cost. During the process of study, it has been found that a WIGE craft may fill in the gap between aircrafts and marine vehicles in terms of technological and operational advantages. However, the operational costs of WIGE craft have been found to be relatively higher if compared to those of other existing transport vehicles. Besides, as a matter of fact, a WIGE craft has never reached acceptance as mainstream transport vehicles, because apparently a WIGE craft contains inherent stability problem due to coupled effect of variation in angle of attacks and in altitude above the surface, which require a solid and generic solution. A further development effort beyond this current study would be the engineering development, which commences with the identification and reduction of development risks. Nevertheless, it can be stated that the development of a WIGE craft may give invaluable advantages in the development of new concept and technology.

Full Text

Reaction wheel configurations for high and middle inclination orbits

Zuliana Ismail and Renuganth Varatharajoo

The purpose of this paper is to identify the low-power Reaction Wheel (RW) configuration for a 3-axis satellite attitude control at high and middle inclination orbits. All of the proposed RW configurations are evaluated through the numerical simulations with respect to an identical reference mission. The simulations are tested for two different orbit positions; first, at a high inclination (e.g., 83°), second, at a middle inclination (e.g., 53°). All configurations are analyzed in terms of their total torques and attitude performances. The stable attitude accuracies (˜0.001°) are achieved in all the configurations either at 83° or 53° inclinations. Results also revealed that the change of orbit inclination slightly influences the determination of the low-power RW configurations. This research provides a quick summary on a possible low-power arrangement of reaction wheels onboard a small satellite.

Full Text

Numerical investigation of MHD flow in combined attitude and thermal control system

Junxian Chew and Renuganth Varatharajoo

Combined Attitude and Thermal Control System (CATCS) was proposed for the implementation of an integrated solution for the satellite thermal and attitude control. This paper focuses on the CATCS numerical simulation of the Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) driven flow of liquid metal within its channel. The numerical solution to the core mean velocity of liquid flowing through CATCS duct is obtained through the coupling of electric and magnetic fields towards an integrated solution in describing the MHD flow. The conventional Navier-Stokes equation is modified using Reynolds Averaging, yielding Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation to solve the respective flow profile. Additional constraint is placed upon the flow in consideration of Hartmann layer effects. Simulation is also performed based on the variation of injected magnetic flux densities and induced thermoelectric currents to yield for different magnitudes of Lorentz forces that drive the liquid. Results show that the core mean velocity is mainly governed by the injected currents; whereas the flow profile shape is governed mainly by the magnetic fields.

Full Text

Energy detector assisted by geolocation database scheme utilizing radar bands

Mohamoud Ali Mohamoud, Elsheikh Mohamed Ahmed and Mohamed Hadi Habaebi

Cognitive Radio (CR) is an intelligent method for opportunistic access of idle resources and a solution for spectrum resources scarcity. In this article a new technique for spectrum access is proposed. This technique combines energy detector with geolocation database. The proposed technique is employed in radar bands of (960-1400 MHz, 2.7-3.6 GHz and 5-5.85 GHz). These bands occupy quite large bandwidth and they are utilized only about 5%of the time. The new proposed technique is expected to solve the problem of hidden receivers faced by energy detector. It also poses a solution for the static nature of geolocation database method. It minimizes the interference caused by secondary users by improving the probability of detection. Furthermore, it improves the spectrum utilization through the improvement of false alarm probability.

Full Text

Organizing value analysis value engineering (VAVE) during new product development (NPD)

Ainul Farahin Binti Abdullah, Erry Yulian Triblas Adesta and Fawaz M K H Al-Fadhli

This paper presents one of the methodologies applied during New Product Development (NPD) phase; Value Analysis Value Engineering (VAVE). VAVE can lead to high-quality products which meet customer desires and at the same time increase the operating income requirements for an organization. The application of VAVE to NPD can enhance the products value by increasing performance without increasing the cost and affecting the quality, saleability or maintainability. A case study has been discussed and an analysis has been made following the fundamentals of VAVE. At the end, results obtained are discussed.

Full Text

The study on performance of naturally aspirated spark ignition engine equipped with waste heat recovery mechanism

Safarudin Gazali Herawan, Abdul Hakim Rohhaizan, Ahmad Faris Ismail² and Shamsul Anuar Shamsudin

The waste heat from exhaust gases represents a significant amount of thermal energy, which has conventionally been used for combined heating and power applications. This paper explores the performance of a naturally aspirated spark ignition engine equipped with waste heat recovery mechanism (WHRM). The amount of heat energy from exhaust is presented and the experimental test results suggest that the concept is thermodynamically feasible and could significantly enhance the system performance depending on the load applied to the engine. However, the existing of WHRM affects the performance of engine by slightly reducing the power.

Full Text

Mobility determination and estimation based on smart phones-review of sensing and systems

Yazan Aljeroudi, Ari Legowo and Erwin Sulaeman

Smartphones devices, due to its complex sensory capability and comparable processing power, have proven their capability of handling mobility-related applications. This article aims at addressing the need for research on the development of mobility determination and estimation systems based on smart phones. Essentially, three main types of systems are addressed: human activity recognition (HAR), physical activity monitoring and evaluation, and indoor navigation. Some systems are developed as stand-alone smart phone application, while others are augmented with auxiliary sensors to improve functionality and performance. This article shows the main challenges that researchers aim at resolving in developing satisfactory smartphone based mobility determination and estimation systems.

Full Text

Implementation of functional analysis using value analysis value engineering (VAVE)

Ainul Farahin Binti Abdullah and Erry Yulian Triblas Adesta

This paper presents one of the tools used in Value Analysis Value Engineering (VAVE) methodology; Functional Analysis and its implementation during New Product Development (NPD) phase. Current vehicle outer door handle has been redesigned through its functions in order to meet customer requirements of having higher value vehicle, by increasing performance while trying to decrease the cost without scarifying the quality, saleability and maintainability. An analysis has been made and discussed using Function Analysis System Technique (FAST) diagram to achieve product optimization. Finally, results obtained are discussed.

Full Text

A critique study on phase optimized generalized discrete fourier transform based partial transmit sequence for PAPR in OFDM systems

Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Asma. Ali H. Budalal, Abdallah M. A. Awad, Ismail M. Ali, Abdouraouf S. Youssouf and Shihab A. Hameed

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a revolutionary digital modulation technique which known as a next generation of wireless communication 5^th Generation. OFDM supports high speed data rate and multi user technique where it can accommodate large number of users showing spectral efficiency to meet the fast growing demands for better throughput and quality of service.  However, OFDM-time domain signal suffering from a large peak-to-average power ratio PAPR .Fortunately several schemes have been proposed to reduce the problems of PAPR. One of the effective methods is partial transmit sequence PTS with pseudo-random sub-blocks portioning as it has better PAPR performance.  Many techniques introduced to improve the performance of PTS scheme. In this paper a critique study on the use of phase optimized from the theory of generalized discrete Fourier transform GDFT is carried out.  this method, generates nonlinear phase to OFDM sub blocks after taken of IFFT for each sub block, then the output phase is rotated by coefficients depending on number of side information bits ‘m’ to produces minimum PAPR. Simulation results elaborate that phase modification of OFDM frames before applying PTS that has achieved acceptable reduction in both complexity and PAPR.

Full Text

Stress analysis of thin-walled laminated composite beams

J. S. Mohamed Ali, Meftah Hrairi and Masturah Mohamad

An educational software which can aid students in stress analysis of thin wall open sections made of composite material has been developed. The software enables students to easily calculate stresses of thin wall open section and evaluate the stresses in each ply. Results obtained through this software have been validated against ANSYS V14. The software is intended to be used as a resourceful tool for effective teaching and learning process on thin-walled structures, aircraft structures and composite structures courses.

Full Text

A modified effective path length for predicting rain attenuation based on measurements in Penang-Malaysia

Ali Kadhim Lwas, MD. Rafiqul Islam, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Singh Jit Mandeep, Ahmad Fadzil Ismail, Jamal Ibrahim Daoud and Alhareth Zyoud

A modification to an effective path length for predicting rain attenuation in Malaysia is proposed in this paper. Due to the scarcity of actual signal measurements at high frequencies-bands in tropical climates make predicted models are key resource for generating rain attenuation. A modification to calculate the effective path length is introduced in the original model. A control parameter rho is also induced based on the rain intensity variations along the slant path. A new value is suggested according to measurements in Malaysia. The results showed that modified rain attenuation model has significantly improved the rain attenuation prediction in Malaysia.

Full Text

Hydroxyapaptite layer formation on titanium alloys surface using micro-arc oxidation

S. A. Adeleke, I. Sopyan and A. R. Bushroa

In recent years, research on titanium and its alloys had increased significantly for hard tissue replacement and dental applications due to their excellent mechanical properties such as high strength to weight ratio, low density and biocompatibility. However, there are some surface originated problems associated with titanium (Ti): poor implant fixation, lack of osseoconductivity, wear and corrosion in physiological environment. As the interaction between the implant and host bone is a surface phenomenon, surface properties play a prominent role in determining both the biological response to implant and the material response to the biological condition. To improve osseointegration of titanium with bone, hydroxyapatite (HA) has been widely used due to its close similarity to bone mineral. Promising new studies have been reported regarding coating titanium implant with HA using various surface modification techniques to improve the long term stability of titanium implants. Micro-arc oxidation (MAO) has attracted a lot of interest owing to its ability to produce a thick microporous oxide layer on titanium implants. The significant part of MAO is that HA can be incorporated in the oxide layer when processed in electrolytes containing calcium and phosphorous ions. The oxide layer containing hydroxyapatite can be subsequently increased via hydrothermal treatment. The HA produced on titanium surfaces has attractive features such as high porosity and adherent layer which facilitate good clinical outcomes. This review presents the state of the art of MAO and possible further suggestion of MAO for the production of HA on titanium implants.

Full Text

Forecasting of monthly temperature variations using random forests

Wai Yan Nyein Naing, Zaw Zaw Htike

This study utilized a random forest model for monthly temperature forecasting of KL by using historical time series data of (2000 to 2012). Random Forest is an ensemble learning method that generates many regression trees (CART) and aggregates their results. The model operates on patterns of the time series seasonal cycles which simplifies the forecasting problem especially when a time series exhibits nonstationarity, heteroscedasticity, trend and multiple seasonal cycles. The main advantages of the model are its ability to generalization, built-in cross-validation and low sensitivity to parameter values. As an illustration, the proposed forecasting model is applied to historical load data in Kuala Lumpur (2000 to 2012) and its performance is compared with some alternative models such as K-Nearest Neighbours , Least Medium square Regression , RBF (Radial Basic Function) network  and MLP (Multilayer Perceptron) neural networks. Application examples confirm good properties of the model and its high accuracy.

Full Text

Vision-based estimation of altitude from aerial images

Rayan A. A. Alharazi, Muhammad A. Ahmad, Zaw Zaw Htike and Wai Yan Nyein Naing

One of the wide engineering fields is aircraft technologies and one of the most common needs for Airplane or UAV is estimating the altitude, which is some time difficult to estimate due to weather fluctuations and instability of the main parameters like pressure and speed. However, a combination of different sensors has been used to estimate altitude to guarantee an accurate reading and it is the method used these days. To overcome this problem is to use more capable technology such as machine vision based system to estimate the altitude, as advantages light weight, intelligence and accuracy, cheaper than commercial sensors as well as, computationally inexpensive.  In this paper, we propose a vision-based system that can perform altitude estimation from aerial images. The satisfactory experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system.

Full Text

Vision-based verification of authentic JAKIM halal logo

Sumirah M. Razali, Nurul F. Isa, Zaw Zaw Htike and Wai Yan Nyein Naing

In Malaysia, the authenticity of halal logo has been a great concern to its Muslim community due to the existence of different types of halal logo in the market. Due to this situation, in this paper, a detection system was developed to classify the authentic Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM) halal logo from the unauthentic ones. All the distinct features from the authentic logo were used in the implementation part of this project with the intention of producing a reliable detection system. The methods that are chosen to be used are SURF, SIFT, GIST, and k-means.  These methods can be said is reliable and practical as the resulted accuracy which was 86.6667 was quite high.

Full Text

Rice grading using image processing

Wan Putri N. W. M. Tahir, Norhaida Hussin, Zaw Zaw Htike and Wai Yan Nyein Naing

This paper focusing about the methods used for rice grading using image processing. Various approaches have been applied by previous researchers to solve different types of difficulties in grading the quality of rice. Machine vision has been used in most application of rice grader to differentiate rice grade based on special features such as shape, length, chalkiness, color and internal damage of rice. RGB color model, histogram, edge detection are some ways which have been used to differentiate and analyzed degree level of rice. In this paper, we are also discussing and suggesting another method in rice grading for Malaysia’s type of rice using image processing method based on several features which is length, colour and shape.

Full Text

Parametric study on UWB impulsed interrogation based chipless RFID tag

Abul K. M. Z. Hossain, Muhammad I. Ibrahimy and S. M. A. Motakabber

The ultra-wide band passive RFID system is receiving a great consideration for the researchers with the aim of substituting the conventional barcode system. The dimension of the chipless tag still rests as a big question that makes the use of tagging the object difficult as well as costly. Different backscattered signal with time delay can successfully be read which is generated from the conventional UWB chipless tag by impulse interrogation signal instead of continues chirp signal. This approach can reduce the dimension of the tag, but it is still challenging to obtain a useful size by reducing further and to make comparable to cost of a barcode. In this paper, approaches have been made to find out the proper dimension of the tag with the help of CST MWS. The relation between the patch length and the substrate length has been established and hence the tag dimension is determined as 81.4mm × 81.4mm.

Full Text

Sub-distribution to Cox’s model for partly interval-censored data with application to aids studies

F. A. M. Elfaki

In this paper, we consider incomplete survival data that is, partly-interval failure time data where observed data include both exact and interval-censored observation on the survival time of interest. We presented a modification of Fine and Gray (1999) which proposed a class of estimation procedures for semi-parametric proportional hazards regression model for the sub-distribution of a competing risks model using the partial likelihood principle and weighting techniques. The method is evaluated using simulation studies and illustrated by AIDS data set.

Full Text

Some greedy based algorithms for multi periods degree constrained minimum spanning tree problem

Wamiliana, Faiz A. M. Elfaki, Mustofa Usman and M. Azram

In Indonesia, the fund for a project or an activity is usually divided into terms which can be two or three terms. Therefore, in order to optimize the utility, the team of the project need to design the project so that the project can be used as soon as possible without violating the restriction given by the government. The Multi Periods Degree Constrained Minimum Spanning Tree Problem (MPDCMST) is a problem that concerns about finding a minimum networks installations for a certain commodity so that the networks does not violate the reliability restriction whilst also satisfying the fund limitation in every stages of installations. In this paper we proposed three algorithms by modifying Kruskal’s and Prim’s algorithms. We implemented our algorithms on 300 generated problems with vertex order ranging from 10 to 100, and compared them with those that already in the literature. The result shows that the algorithms proposed perform better.

Full Text

Effect of utilizing different permeable material in air-to-air fixed plate energy recovery heat exchanger on energy saving

Mohammad Shakir Nasif

The performance of air-to-air fixed plate energy recovery heat exchanger utilizing porous paper and Mylar film as the heat and moisture transfer media used in ventilation energy recovery systems is presented. This performance is represented by the heat exchanger sensible and latent effectiveness. A simplified air conditioning system which is represented by cooling coil that incorporates air-to-air fixed plate heat exchanger to cool office space is developed. Energy analysis for tropical climate shows that utilizing paper surface heat exchanger in a standard air conditioning system will lead to 78% energy saving as compared with utilizing Mylar plastic film which recovers only sensible heat.

Full Text

Development of energy harvesting system using rotation mechanism of a revolving door

Syed Faizan-ul-HaqGilani, Syed Ihtsham-ul-Haq Gilani, Zuhairi Baharudin and Rosdiazli Ibrahim

Conventional energy sources are depleting with time. There is a dire need to find new sources of energy. The new sources of energy should be able to replace dwindling sources of energy. Energy Harvesting is one such method where ambient energy from environment is converted in to useful energy. The purpose of this study is to show that the ambient energy in the surroundings can be utilized to generate electricity. In this project, the energy used to open a revolving door is being converted in to electrical energy. Accordingly, a revolving door prototype is designed, fabricated and tested. The test results show that 15.67 Joules can be produced from one push of the door. A carbon comparison case study is carried out based on the results. This prototype can be further optimized in terms of size to generate more electrical energy.

Full Text

Experimental investigation on heat transfer enhancement by using porous twisted plate as an inserts in a fitted tube

This article reports the investigation on the effects of porous twisted plate as insert to enhance heat transfer performance and flow characteristic fora single fitted tube. The porous twisted plate was designed with 3 different numbers of holes (1Hole, 2Holes and 3Holes) with 4mm diameter on each segment. The actual fitted tube of the boiler was used and inserted with plain and porous twisted plates. The collecting result was compared with the plain tube without any insert. The result  shows  that  creation  of  holes  changed  the  flow  profile  and  generating  secondary flow  and approaching turbulence flow. Furthermore, the velocity of the flow was increased and allowing more fluid mixing inside the tube thus provide more heat transfer across the tube. Porous twisted plate with larger numbers of holes enhance better heat transfer rate compared to plain tube and plain twisted plate.

Full Text

Parametric analysis of carbon dioxide transcritical and supercritical power cycles using low grade heat source

Baheta A. T. and Mohammed A. Emad

This paper considers carbon dioxide transcritical and supercritical power cycles driven by low temperature flue gases exhaust from a gas turbine. Transcritical CO₂ Rankineand supercritical CO₂ Brayton cycles were studied at steady state conditions and their performance were compared. Furthermore, the study carried out parametric analysis to investigate the cycles’ performance in terms of thermal efficiency and the network output at different turbine inlet temperatures. A mathematical model was developed to carry out the analysis based on the first law of thermodynamics. In order to simulate cycle performance and generate parametric tables a simulation model was developed using Engineering Equations Solver (EES). The efficiencies of the cycles were compared and it was found that transcritical Rankine cycle generates higher efficiency and net power output compared to supercritical Braytoncycle for the same turbine inlet conditions. Parametric analysis showed that as the turbine inlet temperature increases, the gas heater pressure that gives optimum efficiency increases.

Full Text

Design and modeling of electrical machine for ceiling fan system

N. F. Zulkarnain, T. Ibrahim and H. Z. Hashim

The purpose of this research is to conduct an empirical research to design the electrical machine of a ceiling fan system purposely to generate additional electrical power. The conventional single-phaseceiling fan using an induction motor has a lower 30% efficiency. In addition, the wasted kinetic energy from the mechanical rotor rotation can be converted from mechanical energy to electrical energy. Literature review on topologies of an electrical machine, ceiling fan technologies, previous research on ceiling fan and air gap configurations was systematically analyze in order to obtain the optimum proposed designs configuration. In this research, the permanent magnet machine configuration was selected to propose two designs of ceiling fan machine. The newly introduced design concept in this study is the use of concept single rotor double stator that combining the motor and generator in one system. In this research, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) has been performed to justify and to compare the outcome of the proposed designs using the An soft Maxwell software by analyzing the induced voltage, flux linkage, flux distribution and air gap flux density. The selected optimized design will be used to develop a prototype for validating the procedure between the simulation result and experimental result. The testing of the prototype will be conducted experimentally to validate the output with the conventional ceiling fan in term of output power, efficiency and speed.

Full Text

The largest studentized residual test for bad data identification in state estimation of a power system

Zahid Khan, Radzuan B.Razali, Hanita Daud, Nursyarizal Mohd Nor and Mahmud Fotuhi Firuzabad

Power system state estimation is a reliable tool used in Energy Management System (EMS) to identify the existence state of the system during its operating hours. The results of this estimation are values for unknown state parameters of the power system. The presence of systematic errors can alter the results of state estimation. The chi-square and normalized residual tests are the common post estimation procedures usually used for detection and identification of gross errors in the estimation algorithm. These tests are based on two separate test statistics and are not so powerful for detection of smaller magnitudes of gross errors. In this paper, an implementation of largest studentized residual (LSR) testis presented that combines both the results of chi-square and normalized test for detection and identification of bad data. Based on LSRtest, a comprehensive strategy is developed for detection and identification of multiple gross errors which may exist simultaneously in the data. A six-bus power system data is used for the application of LSR test for detecting and identifying the gross errors in the processed measurements. The reporting results are presented showing that the method is most powerful and effective for practical implementation in conventional procedures of the state estimation problem.

Full Text

Effect of the water spray stress on swirling fluidized bed height

Muhammad Yasin Naz, Shaharin Anwar Sulaiman Zakaria Man and Bambang Ariwahjoedi

This study was designed to investigate the effect of spray stress and pressure drop on the height of a swirling fluidized bed of plastic beads. The motivation for conducting this work was primarily an interest in elaborating the fluidized particles response to the water sprayed from top of the bed. It is revealed that the bed height is greatly influenced by both parameters: the pressure drop and spray stress regardless of the bed weight. The air pressure above the bed abruptly decreased with the spray stress whereas an increasing trend in pressure was depicted just below the bed. The increased pressure difference across the bed suddenly lifted the plastic beads from packed to minimal fluidization, then to slug-wavy followed by swirling and a vigorously bubbling bed with lower layer swirling. Overall the height of the bed exposed to the top spray was higher than that without the spray stress. The height of the settled bed of 200 g beads was calculated as 140 mm, which increased to 200 mm with pressure drop of 150 mmH₂O.

Full Text

Performance assessment of heat recovery steam generator at district cooling plant

Adzuieen Nordin and Mohd Amin Abd Majid

Heat Recovery Steam Generators are important components in cogeneration plants. The steam produced by the Heat Recovery Steam Generatoris used to produce chilled water at a District Cooling plant. The performance of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator will affect the performance of the overall District Cooling plant. This study presents the performance of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator which is based on the first and second laws of the thermodynamic principle. The following parameters, energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, exergy of fuel, exergy of product and exergy destruction of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator were analyzed. The results showed that as the mass flow rate of fuel increased, the energy and exergy efficiencies of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator increased. From the results of the exergy analysis, the exergy destruction indicated the presence of the inefficiencies of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator. In order to obtain a higher performance of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator, the value of the exergy destruction must be lower.

Full Text

Transient modeling of multi-pass solar thermal collector with sensible energy storing matrix

M. W. Kareem, Khairul Habib, M. H. Ruslan and Kashif Irshad

Transient modeling of multi-pass solar hot air dryer as a physical system is presented in this present work. SIMSCAPE/SIMULINK tool was utilized for the theoretical study of hot air passing through transparent flat plates and anodized aluminium as solar thermal collector. Pebble bed made of granite was obtained locally to sever as the sensible heat reservoir. The thermal energy balance was resolved using lumped component technique. The parameters, variables and operating conditions of materials that constitute the thermal system forms the modeling input with available weather data collected in the Solar Research Site, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (4.385693^o N and 100.979203^o E). The model revealed improved on the multi-pass system performance efficiency by 12.4% and 10.1% when compared to the reported single pass and double pass solar air heaters. Closed loop control mechanism was imposed to achieve a steady heat flow 471.2 Js^-1 to the drying compartment. A temperature gradient of 31.21 K was predicted which is suitable for the drying operation of many agricultural products. The theoretical result was in agreement with output obtained from the humidity controlled drying test system in the Solar Energy Laboratory, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. However, there was need to improve the boundary condition accuracy and flexibility to accept various materials for system boundary.

Full Text

Design and development of harvester rectenna at GSM band for battery charging applications

E. M. Ali, N. Z.Yahaya, N.Perumal and M. A. Zakariya

This paper describes the design of the harvester RECTENNA for charging mobile applications. A rectenna (RECtifyingan TENNA) is a combination of a receiving antenna and a rectifying circuit which converts RF signal to into direct-current (DC) voltage. The design consists of microstrip patch antenna and Villard voltage doubler circuit which is designed at 900 MHz band.3 stages of Schottky diode voltage doubler circuit are designed and simulated in this paper and matched to the antenna design. CST is used for modeling the antenna using transmission line method, and ADSusedfor the modeling and simulation of the rectifier. The output voltage of the rectifier is 5.014 V which indicates the suitability for charging mobile applications.

Full Text

High-efficiency solar oven for tropical countries

Jebaraj S. and Srinivasa Rao P.

In today's society, pollution is becoming an increasing problem. Since the solar energy is a limitless clean free energy that can be harnessed, suggestions have arisen such that solar energy can be incorporated in our daily lives to produce energy to conserve other non-renewable energy. Solar oven refers to a type of oven which uses the sun's energy to cook food inside of it. It has been planned to design a high efficiency solar oven which is convenient and comfortable for all kind cooking, baking and heating with high efficiency without spoiling the foods nutrients. This solar oven is capable of making a temperature change up to 150⁰C in 60 minutes. Once the prototype was completed, several experiments were conducted to determine the efficiency between two designs which are; without the parabolic dish and with the parabolic dish. With the presence of parabolic dish on top of the box proves that the efficiency increases when compared without using it. It is estimated that the efficiency attained by the solar oven with parabolic collector at 150 minutes is 53.62% whereas, for the same time duration, the solar oven efficiency without parabolic collector is estimated to be 35.86%. This solar oven would be very useful to conserve the electricity and healthy food cooking.

Full Text

Optimizing the efficiency of oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter using genetic algorithm

Perumal Nallagownden, Hussam. M. M. Alhaj and Muhammad Bilal Sarwar

The Oscillating Water Column (OWC) based wave energy converter has now been developed in different part of the world. The OWC converter is a combination of pneumatic system, mechanical system and electrical system. The overall efficiency of OWC is depended on the three systems efficiencies. Maximizing each of these system efficiency can maximize the overall efficiency. This paper describes a method to maximize the pneumatic system efficiency using optimization technique based on Genetic algorithm. This method involves an extraction of maximum incident wave energy corresponding to the wave height, determining of the best deep water length and maximizing the applied damping ratio which can lead to an increase in the pneumatic system efficiency. The result shows that the lower the number of the wave group, the maximum is the wave energy, that can be extracted and, optimum plane solidity and the water deep length can increase efficiency of OWC.

Full Text

Effect of input variables selection on energy demand prediction based on intelligent hybrid neural networks

Badarul Islam, ZuhairiBaharudin and Perumal Nallagownden

Numerous techniques have been applied by the researchers to predict the future electrical energy demand, which can be broadly categorized as parametric (statistical) and non-parametric (intelligent) techniques. The non-parametric or intelligent methods which are based on artificial intelligence are gaining a lot of attention during the recent past years. As compared to the other intelligent techniques, the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) has a tendency to map and memorize the non-linear relations between inputs and output variables. Because of this ability, they are extensively implemented in modern predictive model development. The efficacy of these models depends upon many factors such as, neural network architecture, type of training algorithm, input training and testing data set and initial values of synaptic weights. Among the others, the selection of most influential input variables has a critical effect on the forecast results. In this paper, the important issues related with the best input variable selection for a hybrid model is addressed. A hybrid approach that combines ANN and an evolutionary optimization technique, genetic algorithm (GA) is used for the development of a short term load forecast (STLF) model. GA and correlation analysis are used for the selection of the most influential input variables for the training and testing of the hybrid model. Multiple cases are developed using different optimally selected input variable vectors to train and test the back propagation neural network (BP-NN) and the hybrid model. The results show that hybrid forecast model provide better performance when it is trained and tested with optimally selected input variable vector (IV), containing historical load and meteorological variables. The proposed input variable selection approach not only improves that forecast accuracy but also reduces the computational efforts and training time of forecasting models.

Full Text

Experimental verification of multilevel inverter with MPPT based solar energy

Ramani Kannan, S. Shanmuga Priyan and Joga Dharma Setiawan

This paper concentrates on the implementation of seven level flying capacitor multilevel inverter (FCMLI), focusing on the reduction of total harmonic distortion (THD) in a proposed type of inverter with the help of closed loop control scheme. Among the various types of multilevel inverter (MLI) topologies, FCMLI provides more advantages. The development of closed loop model for seven level FCMLI dramatically reduces the low-order harmonics and THD. Extensive simulation has been applied to compare the performance of the proposed system in closed loop control scheme with that of the open loop control scheme. In order to justify the merits of the proposed system, it is interfaced with the single phase lamp load and analyzed through simulation. This research paper is based on the approach that by tracking the load terminal voltage as the feedback thereby the closed loop scheme is designed. A prototype model for the proposed system is implemented with the single phase induction motor load whose switching is done by using ATmega16 Microcontroller and analyzed the system through hardware results.

Full Text

Calorific value of the sewage sludge in the thermal dryer

Recently, the increasing population as well as tremendous of industrial development has caused the production of sewage sludge rise sharply and the available solution for their disposal cannot afford the amount of sludge produced. In Malaysia, the main solution for sewage sludge disposal is by landfill. However, most of the landfill reaches its capacity and the production of sewage sludge continuously increasing. The available land space for disposal of sewage sludge is limited due to high demand for population for housing and urban. Therefore, there is a needed for a new disposal method for treating sewage sludge that can sustain and environmentally friendly. Converting this waste into energy can resolve the disposal problem of sewage sludge and generate the new sources of energy to human kind. However, the moisture content is sewage sludge is high which more than 85% of moisture content. In order to convert into energy, the small scale disc dryer was developed in order to reduce the moisture content of the sewage sludge which into acceptable level is less than 20% of moisture content for conversion into solid fuel. In this paper, the basic characteristic of the dried sewage sludge for conversion into energy was studied. Besides that, the effect of the temperature of the thermal dryer on the calorific value of the sewage sludge also being investigated. The higher temperature of the thermal dryer will reduce the calorific value of the sewage sludge. The maximum calorific value of the sewage sludge was obtained from the lowest power rating of the burner which is 135 kW which is 12.51 MJ/kg whereas the lowest calorific value of the sewage sludge was obtained from the highest power rating of the burner which is 315 kW which is 4.57 MJ/kg.

Full Text

Experimental investigation of rooftop solar chimney for natural ventilation

Hussain H. Al-Kayiem and Yit Man Heng

Rooftop solar chimney functions to create natural ventilation of buildings. It is a solar driven device which induces buoyancy force through the chimney channel to updraft the air out of the building. The design parameter of the rooftop solar chimney would affect the ventilation performance. This paper presents experimental results of measurements carried out on a modified rooftop solar chimney, with double absorber surfaces, horizontal and vertical. The system performance was evaluated at various design configurations and different operational condition. Three designs were tested and compared. The first design, model 1 was the basic rooftop solar chimney which contain vertical absorber plate, room’s air inlet and total air outlet. The second design, model 2 was with two inlets, from the room and from the ambient through horizontal absorber, and total air outlet. The third design, model 3 was two inlets, but with extra vertical absorber plate installed in the middle of the vertical air outlet passage. The results demonstrated that operating the chimney with ambient air inlet show the lowest performance. Model 3 which is the rooftop solar chimney with additional vertical absorber in the air outlet passage showed performance enhancement with 1.2% and 7.6% compared to model 1 and model 2, respectively.

Full Text

Modeling and simulation of modal analysis-based technique on UTP distribution network for evaluating harmonic resonances

Khairul Nisak M. Hasan and Ahmad Shahir Mohamad

Harmonic resonance is one of main concern when dealing with harmonic in an electrical network. Its presence is most likely to cause amplification of harmonics distortion in the system. Numerous techniques had been deployed to reduce the effects of harmonic resonance in power network. Installation of harmonic filters is a common and cheaper solution. However, it is difficult to identify optimum location to install harmonic filter and there is no particular method that can assist the decision. Modal Analysis-based technique was proposed in evaluating resonance in additional to commonly used frequency-scan technique. In modal approach, further evaluation on finding participating factor and sensitivity analysis was carried out to evaluate resonance in the system. In this paper, harmonic resonance mode analysis (HRMA) is presented and evaluated when implemented on several standard test systems including standard IEEE 14-Bus System. It was then implemented on the new academic building network of Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) electrical network. The load flow of the whole network was obtained prior to that to ensure the reliability of data used for HRMA analysis. The frequency scan result was also obtained for the same network. The HRMA plots were compared to the frequency scan results for verification. Sensitivity evaluation in HRMA technique was carried out to determine participation factor of each buses in the network. From these results, HRMA technique was proven to be reliable and provides a simpler way to evaluate the existence of resonance in the system and at the same time indicates which buses are more dominant to a particular resonance. This provides some basis in assisting personnel to decide on the location to mitigate the resonance and it can be used in complement to the frequency scan technique.

Full Text

Design and optimization of low speed horizontal-axis wind turbine using openFOAM

This paper presents a design and optimization of 7.5m diameter, 6-bladed horizontal-axis wind turbine designed for low speed wind of 4 m/s; using opens source Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software OpenFOAM. The blade configuration was chosen to be as simple as possible such that manufacturing cost can be reduced. In the simulations, a solver called simpleFoam based on the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) with k-w turbulence model and steady-state solution method is used. For validating both drag and torque calculations, three different validation cases were carried out and compared to popularly known experimental results. This validation study shows that by utilizing fine mesh resolutions the numerical errors associated with CFD solutions could be minimized to merely 2-4% compared to the experimental results. Optimization study was then conducted by varying the width of the blade, inclination angle of the outer tip of the blade, and inclination angle of the inner tip of the blade. This optimization yields power efficiency between 38-41%. After a series of geometry fine tunings, the best modification was found at 52% power efficiency. It was found that variation of wind speed had little effect to the power efficiency but it varied the maximum power. On the other hand, the wind angle to wind turbine axis contributes very strong impact to the power efficiency.

Full Text

A multivariate study of energy consumption, urbanization, trade openness and economic growth in Malaysia

Radzuan Razali, Afza Shafie, Abdul Rahman Hassan and Habib Khan

This paper investigates both the short and long term dynamic relationships between energy consumption, trade openness, urbanization and economic growth in Malaysia through econometric model during the period of 1971-2013. The novel methodology in econometric techniques such as unit root without structural breaks, co-integration, and vector error correction model (VECM) are being used to analyze the data. Co-integration has been carried out to find long run relationship between the variables. For short run dynamics relationship among the variables, VECM model has been used. The estimated income elasticities indicate that per capita GDP in real term puts a larger influence on energy consumption. The results showed that all variables are stationary at first difference. Also from the empirical results it is evident that there is long run relationships exist among energy consumption and economic growth for the Malaysian economy.

Full Text