Variability of power generation due to the prevalence of cloud cover over solar photovoltaics(PV)power plants is a challenge faced by grid operators and independent system operators(ISOs)in the integration of solar en...Variability of power generation due to the prevalence of cloud cover over solar photovoltaics(PV)power plants is a challenge faced by grid operators and independent system operators(ISOs)in the integration of solar energy into the grid.Solar forecasts generated through ground⁃based sky imaging systems are useful for short⁃term cloud motion predictions.However,the cost of sky imaging systems currently available in industries is relatively high.Hence,a ground⁃based camera system utilizing a simple webcam is proposed in this study.The proposed method can produce predictions with high levels of accuracy.Forecasts were generated through video analysis using MATLAB for the computation of cloud motion predictions.The image processing involved in the implementation of the proposed system is based on the detection of cloud regions in the form of a cluster of white pixels within individual frames and tracking their motion through comparison of subsequent frames.This study describes the techniques and processes used in the development of the proposed method,along with the evaluation of performance through analysis of the results.The predictions were carried out over multiple time horizons.The time horizons selected include 5,10,15,20,25,and 30 s.The overall results computed showed promising accuracy levels above 94.60%,which makes it adequate for generating reliable forecasts.展开更多
This article presents the generation of Orbital AngularMomentum(OAM)vortex waves with mode 1 using Uniform Circular Array(UCA)antenna.Two different designs,namely,UCA-1(4-element array antenna)and UCA-2(8-element arra...This article presents the generation of Orbital AngularMomentum(OAM)vortex waves with mode 1 using Uniform Circular Array(UCA)antenna.Two different designs,namely,UCA-1(4-element array antenna)and UCA-2(8-element array antenna),were designed and fabricated using FR-4 substrate to generate OAM mode 1 at 3.5 GHz(5G mid-band).The proposed antenna arrays comprised rectangular microstrip patch elements with inset fed technique.The elements were excited by a carefully designed feeding phase shift network to provide similar output energy at output ports with desired phase shift value.The generated OAM waves were confirmed by measuring the null in the bore sight of their 2D radiation patterns,simulated phase distribution and intensity distribution.The measurement results agree well with the simulation results.Moreover,a detailed mode purity analysis of the generated OAM waves was carried out considering different factors.The investigation found that the greater the number of elements,the higher the purity of the generated OAM wave.Compared with other previous works,the proposed antenna design of this paper is very simple to design and fabricate.In addition,the proposed antennas are compact in design even at lower frequency band with very wide bandwidth to meet the requirements of 5G mid-band applications.展开更多
Objective:To determine the involvement and the modulatory effects of IL-33 during Plasmodium berghei ANKA(PbA)infection.Methods:PbA infection in male ICR mice was utilized as a model of malaria.Systemically circulatin...Objective:To determine the involvement and the modulatory effects of IL-33 during Plasmodium berghei ANKA(PbA)infection.Methods:PbA infection in male ICR mice was utilized as a model of malaria.Systemically circulating IL-33 levels were determined in blood plasma by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).After 24 hours post-inoculation of PbA,recombinant IL-33 and ST2,and antibodies against IL-33 and IgG treatments were administered daily for 3 days.Tissue expression and localization of IL-33 were assessed in organs generally affected by malaria via immunohistochemistry.Moreover,histopathological examination was performed to assess the effects of the treatments.Results:The levels of systemic IL-33 were elevated at the critical phase of PbA infection.Likewise,immunohistochemical analysis revealed a significant upregulation of IL-33 expression at the critical phase in the brain,lungs,and spleen of PbA-infected mice as compared to healthy controls.Treatment with IL-33 protected against experimental cerebral malaria development and reduced pathological features in the brain and lungs of the PbA-infected mice.Conclusions:A potential critical role and involvement of IL-33 in PbA infection may hint at the resolution of immunopathological sequelae associated with malaria.展开更多
Heavy metal polluted water threatens the integrity of ecosystem.The use of agricultural waste as adsorbent becomes popular due to its biodegradability and availability.However,limited research works has been done to p...Heavy metal polluted water threatens the integrity of ecosystem.The use of agricultural waste as adsorbent becomes popular due to its biodegradability and availability.However,limited research works has been done to process agricultural waste for heavy metal adsorption purpose.The objective of this study is to propose a new approach to treat banana peel using ZnCl_(2) prior to alkali and acid treatment and explore the potential of dragon fruit peels as the adsorbent for Cu^(2+)adsorption.Seven adsorption isotherm was adopted to identify the adsorption mechanism and four statistical parameters were calculated for model verification purpose.The experiment was conducted by dispersing ZnCl_(2) treated and untreated adsorbents into Cu^(2+) solution.Results showed that ZnCl_(2) treated adsorbents performed better in terms of Cu^(2+) removal compared with untreated adsorbents due to higher surface area for Cu^(2+) adsorption.The treated banana peel(Act.-B)performed approximately 30%better than the treated dragon fruit peel(Act.-D)due to the presence of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups.The equilibrium adsorptive capacity of Act.-B was 1872.8 mg Cu^(2+)/g and the experimental data fitted Freundlich isotherm well with R^(2)=0.9978,0.0161 of residual sum of error(SSE),0.0068 of χ^(2),and 0.0567 of root mean square error(RMSE)values.This suggests non⁃linear adsorption and multilayer adsorption on heterogenous surfaces.Thus,it is recommended to further improve the surface properties of Act.-B by steam pyrolysis and surface modification.展开更多
Heavy metals⁃polluted water has negative impact on the ecosystem.In Malaysia,minimum discharge limit for Cu^(2+)and Zn^(2+)are 1 mg/L and 2 mg/L,respectively.Zeolite is a highly porous adsorbent and its performance is...Heavy metals⁃polluted water has negative impact on the ecosystem.In Malaysia,minimum discharge limit for Cu^(2+)and Zn^(2+)are 1 mg/L and 2 mg/L,respectively.Zeolite is a highly porous adsorbent and its performance is affected by various factors,including contact time and pH.Thus,the objective of this study is to identify an ideal operating condition to treat Cu^(2+)and Zn^(2+)solutions up to the allowable discharge limit,by considering the pH and contact time factors.Six kinetic models were studied to identify the adsorption mechanism of the heavy metal removal process.Single solute batch adsorption experiment was conducted within pH 3-11 from 30 to 150 min.Results showed that hydration enthalpy(ΔHhyd)governed the selectivity of heavy metals,where a maximum of 90.87%Zn^(2+)(ΔH_(hyd)=-1955 kJ/mol)and 82.15%Cu^(2+)(ΔH_(hyd)=-2010 kJ/mol)removals were found at pH≥7.Without pH adjustment,selectivity towards Cu^(2+)was higher compared with Zn^(2+)due to the size of hydration radii,where Cu^(2+)is 0.11Åsmaller than Zn^(2+).By considering both pH and contact time factors,this study shows that by adjusting the pH of Zn^(2+)solutions to a minimum pH value of 7,the contact time required to achieve maximum Zn^(2+)removal rate was 90%,which can be achieved within 60 min.Meanwhile,zeolite performed better in Cu^(2+)removal without any pH adjustment where a maximum of 94%was achieved at 120 min.Final concentration of 0.523 mg/L Cu^(2+)and 0.981 mg/L Zn^(2+)were obtained in this study.Kinetic study showed that Ritchie’s equation predicted Cu^(2+)adsorption the best,while Zn^(2+)adsorption could be represented by Elovich model.This suggested that the adsorption on the activate site governed Cu^(2+)and Zn^(2+)removal process.Hence,future work should focus on modifying zeolite surface to improve the adsorptive performance.展开更多
Zincalume steel(G550)is commonly used in various construction fields because of its high corrosion resistance and good mechanical properties.In recent years,a number of steel companies have massively produced zincalum...Zincalume steel(G550)is commonly used in various construction fields because of its high corrosion resistance and good mechanical properties.In recent years,a number of steel companies have massively produced zincalume steel(G550)with large volumes of waste.For the reduction of massive industrial wastes,the zincalume steel(G550)was welded in the lap joint configuration using different welding parameters in the metal inert gas(MIG)welding and laser beam welding(LBW)process in this study.The MIG welding and LBW are more welcomed welding methods due to their high efficiency and low cost.However,they are different as the LBW offers welding speed three to five times faster than MIG welding,while LBW’s heat transfer to workpieces is much less than MIG welding,which can avoid some distortions.The microstructure of zincalume steel(G550)was investigated using scanning electron microscopy(SEM)and the microstructure characterizations of welded specimens were analyzed.The experiment found the columnar dendrites extended under the heat flow direction during the MIG welding and LBW process.Thus,the columnar grains were formed in between the equiaxed zone and fusion zone(FZ)at high heat input and slow cooling rate.Moreover,the grain size of FZ was comparatively smaller than heat affected zone(HAZ)and base metal(BM).展开更多
Based on the grounded theory,with NVivo11,from the perspectives of teachers,parents,kindergarten administrators,students who major in preschool education,children and policies,the author did the qualitative research a...Based on the grounded theory,with NVivo11,from the perspectives of teachers,parents,kindergarten administrators,students who major in preschool education,children and policies,the author did the qualitative research and analysis on the texts,videos,radios,and pictures that reflected children’s lives,games,and studies.The result showed happiness,respect to children,love,health,the growth and development of life,habit formation,intelligence enlightenment,and the favorable environment can reflect the essential characteristics of preschool education.However,interest classes and the tendency to make a kindergarten as an elementary school are abnormal in preschool education and deviate from the essence of preschool education and should be corrected.展开更多
Low thermal conductivity of binary fatty acid mixture of palmitic and lauric acids(PA-LA)within the value range of 0.15-0.17 W/(m·K)restricts its wide utilization as thermal energy storage material in the active ...Low thermal conductivity of binary fatty acid mixture of palmitic and lauric acids(PA-LA)within the value range of 0.15-0.17 W/(m·K)restricts its wide utilization as thermal energy storage material in the active regime of solar heating applications at low operating temperatures.Nevertheless,this mixture as phase change material(PCM)has a suitable phase-change temperature and heat of 36℃and 176.3 J/g,respectively.Hence,the objective of this study is to formulate a novel form-stable composite PCM with the PA-LA mixture and expanded graphite(EG)as a thermal enhancer.PA-LA eutectic mixture with varied concentrations of EG was prepared and characterized.The thermal conductivity of PA-LA/EG increased gradually with the mass of EG.Optimum thermal properties were observed in PA-LA/(5%EG)composite,where its melting(T_(m)),freezing temperature(T_(t)),latent melting heat and thermal conductivity was 35.53℃,34.84℃,174 J/g,and 1.19 W/(m·K),respectively.Also,the composite PCM is characterized by good chemical-thermal stability and thermal reliability for long-term usage.In conclusion,it can be utilized as a prospective form-stable PCM for thermal energy storage in solar heating systems,overheat treatment systems,and other thermal storage applications at low operating temperatures.展开更多
This study proposes a solution for optimizing the distance between a solar module and reflector for an indoor energy harvesting system.It is a process in which energy(ambient light)is captured and converted directly i...This study proposes a solution for optimizing the distance between a solar module and reflector for an indoor energy harvesting system.It is a process in which energy(ambient light)is captured and converted directly into electricity.Inside a building,this energy could be used to supply power to wide range of portable equipment or offset other electrical energy usage and associated costs.The proposed reflector element was designed and tested in a real indoor environment to confirm its effectiveness.A distance⁃optimization method for the placement of a polycrystalline photovoltaic(PV)module and a mirror was described,and the performance characteristics of the system were investigated qualitatively through visual observation and quantitatively through measuring voltage and ampere values.The solar PV system with a reflector element displayed a 10%increase in voltage when compared with that without.As the distance between PV module and the reflector increased,the voltage and ampere reading decreased,thus the distance was optimized to gain maximum readings.Various studies employing reflectors have also showed increases in voltage readings with different designs,suggesting that reflectors are economically viable optical elements that can boost the voltage output of a PV module.In practice,the distance⁃optimized PV module can be placed in buildings with extended indoor lighting duration away from disrupting building activity.展开更多
Electricity demand is also known as load in electric power system.This article presents a Long-Term Load Forecasting(LTLF)approach for Malaysia.An Artificial Neural Network(ANN)of 5-layer Multi-Layered Perceptron(MLP)...Electricity demand is also known as load in electric power system.This article presents a Long-Term Load Forecasting(LTLF)approach for Malaysia.An Artificial Neural Network(ANN)of 5-layer Multi-Layered Perceptron(MLP)structure has been designed and tested for this purpose.Uncertainties of input variables and ANN model were introduced to obtain the prediction for years 2022 to 2030.Pearson correlation was used to examine the input variables for model construction.The analysis indicates that Primary Energy Supply(PES),population,Gross Domestic Product(GDP)and temperature are strongly correlated.The forecast results by the proposed method(henceforth referred to as UQ-SNN)were compared with the results obtained by a conventional Seasonal Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average(SARIMA)model.The R^(2)scores for UQ-SNN and SARIMA are 0.9994 and 0.9787,respectively,indicating that UQ-SNN is more accurate in capturing the non-linearity and the underlying relationships between the input and output variables.The proposed method can be easily extended to include other input variables to increase the model complexity and is suitable for LTLF.With the available input data,UQ-SNN predicts Malaysia will consume 207.22 TWh of electricity,with standard deviation(SD)of 6.10 TWh by 2030.展开更多
Accurate prediction of wind turbine power curve is essential for wind farm planning as it influences the expected power production.Existing methods require detailed wind turbine geometry for performance evaluation,whi...Accurate prediction of wind turbine power curve is essential for wind farm planning as it influences the expected power production.Existing methods require detailed wind turbine geometry for performance evaluation,which most of the time unattainable and impractical in early stage of wind farm planning.While significant amount of work has been done on fitting of wind turbine power curve using parametric and non-parametric models,little to no attention has been paid for power curve modelling that relates the wind turbine design information.This paper presents a novel method that employs artificial neural network to learn the underlying relationships between 6 turbine design parameters and its power curve.A total of 198 existing pitch-controlled and active stall-controlled horizontal-axis wind turbines have been used for model training and validation.The results showed that the method is reliable and reasonably accurate,with average R^(2)score of 0.9966.展开更多
Aircraft engine design is a complicated process,as it involves huge number of components.The design process begins with parametric cycle analysis.It is crucial to determine the optimum values of the cycle parameters t...Aircraft engine design is a complicated process,as it involves huge number of components.The design process begins with parametric cycle analysis.It is crucial to determine the optimum values of the cycle parameters that would give a robust design in the early phase of engine development,to shorten the design cycle for cost saving and man-hour reduction.To obtain a robust solution,optimisation program is often being executed more than once,especially in Reliability Based Design Optimisations(RBDO)with Monte-Carlo Simulation(MCS)scheme for complex systems which require thousands to millions of optimisation loops to be executed.This paper presents a fast heuristic technique to optimise the thermodynamic cycle of two-spool separated flow turbofan engines based on energy and probability of failure criteria based on Luus-Jaakola algorithm(LJ).A computer program called Turbo Jet Engine Optimiser v2.0(TJEO-2.0)has been developed to perform the optimisation calculation.The program is made up of inner and outer loops,where LJ is used in the outer loop to determine the design variables while parametric cycle analysis of the engine is done in the inner loop to determine the engine performance.Latin-Hypercube-Sampling(LHS)technique is used to sample the design and model variations for uncertainty analysis.The results show that optimisation without reliability criteria may lead to high probability of failure of more than 11%on average.The thrust obtained with uncertainty quantification was about 25%higher than the one without uncertainty quantification,at the expense of less than 3%of fuel consumption.The proposed algorithm can solve the turbofan RBDO problem within 3 min.展开更多
In recent years,intensive studies have been carried out to find an alternative for Tin(Sn)⁃Lead(Pb)solder alloys with increasing demand over lower temperature solder alloys in current electronic packaging industry.Hig...In recent years,intensive studies have been carried out to find an alternative for Tin(Sn)⁃Lead(Pb)solder alloys with increasing demand over lower temperature solder alloys in current electronic packaging industry.High temperature operational solder alloys seem to produce drawback to other components on the printed circuit board(PCB).Low melting temperature Sn58Bi substrate as a potential replacement was investigated in this paper based on the melting properties,wettability,and shear strength.The Sn58Bi was soldered at a temperature below 200℃on the Cu substrate,and the shear strength and contact angle were calculated.A peak temperature(melting temperature,T_(M))of 144.83℃was identified.Single lap joint method was performed at a strain rate of 0.1 mm/min and an average shear strength of 23.4 MPa was found from three samples.The contact angle(wettability)was calculated to study the solder joint behaviour at reflow temperature of 170℃.The contact angle of the Sn58Bi was found to be 32.4°and considered to be desired value since the angle is less than 50°.The low temperature soldering provides a preliminary result to allow further application on the real PCB.展开更多
文摘Variability of power generation due to the prevalence of cloud cover over solar photovoltaics(PV)power plants is a challenge faced by grid operators and independent system operators(ISOs)in the integration of solar energy into the grid.Solar forecasts generated through ground⁃based sky imaging systems are useful for short⁃term cloud motion predictions.However,the cost of sky imaging systems currently available in industries is relatively high.Hence,a ground⁃based camera system utilizing a simple webcam is proposed in this study.The proposed method can produce predictions with high levels of accuracy.Forecasts were generated through video analysis using MATLAB for the computation of cloud motion predictions.The image processing involved in the implementation of the proposed system is based on the detection of cloud regions in the form of a cluster of white pixels within individual frames and tracking their motion through comparison of subsequent frames.This study describes the techniques and processes used in the development of the proposed method,along with the evaluation of performance through analysis of the results.The predictions were carried out over multiple time horizons.The time horizons selected include 5,10,15,20,25,and 30 s.The overall results computed showed promising accuracy levels above 94.60%,which makes it adequate for generating reliable forecasts.
基金supported by Ministry of Higher Education through the FundamentalResearch Grant Scheme(FRGS)under a grant number of FRGS/1/2020/ICT09/UNIMAP/02/2.
文摘This article presents the generation of Orbital AngularMomentum(OAM)vortex waves with mode 1 using Uniform Circular Array(UCA)antenna.Two different designs,namely,UCA-1(4-element array antenna)and UCA-2(8-element array antenna),were designed and fabricated using FR-4 substrate to generate OAM mode 1 at 3.5 GHz(5G mid-band).The proposed antenna arrays comprised rectangular microstrip patch elements with inset fed technique.The elements were excited by a carefully designed feeding phase shift network to provide similar output energy at output ports with desired phase shift value.The generated OAM waves were confirmed by measuring the null in the bore sight of their 2D radiation patterns,simulated phase distribution and intensity distribution.The measurement results agree well with the simulation results.Moreover,a detailed mode purity analysis of the generated OAM waves was carried out considering different factors.The investigation found that the greater the number of elements,the higher the purity of the generated OAM wave.Compared with other previous works,the proposed antenna design of this paper is very simple to design and fabricate.In addition,the proposed antennas are compact in design even at lower frequency band with very wide bandwidth to meet the requirements of 5G mid-band applications.
基金supported by the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme(FRGS)from the Malaysia Ministry of Higher Education(FRGS/1/2016/SKK10/UPM/02/1).
文摘Objective:To determine the involvement and the modulatory effects of IL-33 during Plasmodium berghei ANKA(PbA)infection.Methods:PbA infection in male ICR mice was utilized as a model of malaria.Systemically circulating IL-33 levels were determined in blood plasma by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA).After 24 hours post-inoculation of PbA,recombinant IL-33 and ST2,and antibodies against IL-33 and IgG treatments were administered daily for 3 days.Tissue expression and localization of IL-33 were assessed in organs generally affected by malaria via immunohistochemistry.Moreover,histopathological examination was performed to assess the effects of the treatments.Results:The levels of systemic IL-33 were elevated at the critical phase of PbA infection.Likewise,immunohistochemical analysis revealed a significant upregulation of IL-33 expression at the critical phase in the brain,lungs,and spleen of PbA-infected mice as compared to healthy controls.Treatment with IL-33 protected against experimental cerebral malaria development and reduced pathological features in the brain and lungs of the PbA-infected mice.Conclusions:A potential critical role and involvement of IL-33 in PbA infection may hint at the resolution of immunopathological sequelae associated with malaria.
文摘Heavy metal polluted water threatens the integrity of ecosystem.The use of agricultural waste as adsorbent becomes popular due to its biodegradability and availability.However,limited research works has been done to process agricultural waste for heavy metal adsorption purpose.The objective of this study is to propose a new approach to treat banana peel using ZnCl_(2) prior to alkali and acid treatment and explore the potential of dragon fruit peels as the adsorbent for Cu^(2+)adsorption.Seven adsorption isotherm was adopted to identify the adsorption mechanism and four statistical parameters were calculated for model verification purpose.The experiment was conducted by dispersing ZnCl_(2) treated and untreated adsorbents into Cu^(2+) solution.Results showed that ZnCl_(2) treated adsorbents performed better in terms of Cu^(2+) removal compared with untreated adsorbents due to higher surface area for Cu^(2+) adsorption.The treated banana peel(Act.-B)performed approximately 30%better than the treated dragon fruit peel(Act.-D)due to the presence of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups.The equilibrium adsorptive capacity of Act.-B was 1872.8 mg Cu^(2+)/g and the experimental data fitted Freundlich isotherm well with R^(2)=0.9978,0.0161 of residual sum of error(SSE),0.0068 of χ^(2),and 0.0567 of root mean square error(RMSE)values.This suggests non⁃linear adsorption and multilayer adsorption on heterogenous surfaces.Thus,it is recommended to further improve the surface properties of Act.-B by steam pyrolysis and surface modification.
文摘Heavy metals⁃polluted water has negative impact on the ecosystem.In Malaysia,minimum discharge limit for Cu^(2+)and Zn^(2+)are 1 mg/L and 2 mg/L,respectively.Zeolite is a highly porous adsorbent and its performance is affected by various factors,including contact time and pH.Thus,the objective of this study is to identify an ideal operating condition to treat Cu^(2+)and Zn^(2+)solutions up to the allowable discharge limit,by considering the pH and contact time factors.Six kinetic models were studied to identify the adsorption mechanism of the heavy metal removal process.Single solute batch adsorption experiment was conducted within pH 3-11 from 30 to 150 min.Results showed that hydration enthalpy(ΔHhyd)governed the selectivity of heavy metals,where a maximum of 90.87%Zn^(2+)(ΔH_(hyd)=-1955 kJ/mol)and 82.15%Cu^(2+)(ΔH_(hyd)=-2010 kJ/mol)removals were found at pH≥7.Without pH adjustment,selectivity towards Cu^(2+)was higher compared with Zn^(2+)due to the size of hydration radii,where Cu^(2+)is 0.11Åsmaller than Zn^(2+).By considering both pH and contact time factors,this study shows that by adjusting the pH of Zn^(2+)solutions to a minimum pH value of 7,the contact time required to achieve maximum Zn^(2+)removal rate was 90%,which can be achieved within 60 min.Meanwhile,zeolite performed better in Cu^(2+)removal without any pH adjustment where a maximum of 94%was achieved at 120 min.Final concentration of 0.523 mg/L Cu^(2+)and 0.981 mg/L Zn^(2+)were obtained in this study.Kinetic study showed that Ritchie’s equation predicted Cu^(2+)adsorption the best,while Zn^(2+)adsorption could be represented by Elovich model.This suggested that the adsorption on the activate site governed Cu^(2+)and Zn^(2+)removal process.Hence,future work should focus on modifying zeolite surface to improve the adsorptive performance.
基金This research was supported in part by the SEGi University Sdn Bhd(Grant Number:SEGiIRF/2018-10/FoEBE-17/80)and in kind contribution of University of Malaya.
文摘Zincalume steel(G550)is commonly used in various construction fields because of its high corrosion resistance and good mechanical properties.In recent years,a number of steel companies have massively produced zincalume steel(G550)with large volumes of waste.For the reduction of massive industrial wastes,the zincalume steel(G550)was welded in the lap joint configuration using different welding parameters in the metal inert gas(MIG)welding and laser beam welding(LBW)process in this study.The MIG welding and LBW are more welcomed welding methods due to their high efficiency and low cost.However,they are different as the LBW offers welding speed three to five times faster than MIG welding,while LBW’s heat transfer to workpieces is much less than MIG welding,which can avoid some distortions.The microstructure of zincalume steel(G550)was investigated using scanning electron microscopy(SEM)and the microstructure characterizations of welded specimens were analyzed.The experiment found the columnar dendrites extended under the heat flow direction during the MIG welding and LBW process.Thus,the columnar grains were formed in between the equiaxed zone and fusion zone(FZ)at high heat input and slow cooling rate.Moreover,the grain size of FZ was comparatively smaller than heat affected zone(HAZ)and base metal(BM).
文摘Based on the grounded theory,with NVivo11,from the perspectives of teachers,parents,kindergarten administrators,students who major in preschool education,children and policies,the author did the qualitative research and analysis on the texts,videos,radios,and pictures that reflected children’s lives,games,and studies.The result showed happiness,respect to children,love,health,the growth and development of life,habit formation,intelligence enlightenment,and the favorable environment can reflect the essential characteristics of preschool education.However,interest classes and the tendency to make a kindergarten as an elementary school are abnormal in preschool education and deviate from the essence of preschool education and should be corrected.
文摘Low thermal conductivity of binary fatty acid mixture of palmitic and lauric acids(PA-LA)within the value range of 0.15-0.17 W/(m·K)restricts its wide utilization as thermal energy storage material in the active regime of solar heating applications at low operating temperatures.Nevertheless,this mixture as phase change material(PCM)has a suitable phase-change temperature and heat of 36℃and 176.3 J/g,respectively.Hence,the objective of this study is to formulate a novel form-stable composite PCM with the PA-LA mixture and expanded graphite(EG)as a thermal enhancer.PA-LA eutectic mixture with varied concentrations of EG was prepared and characterized.The thermal conductivity of PA-LA/EG increased gradually with the mass of EG.Optimum thermal properties were observed in PA-LA/(5%EG)composite,where its melting(T_(m)),freezing temperature(T_(t)),latent melting heat and thermal conductivity was 35.53℃,34.84℃,174 J/g,and 1.19 W/(m·K),respectively.Also,the composite PCM is characterized by good chemical-thermal stability and thermal reliability for long-term usage.In conclusion,it can be utilized as a prospective form-stable PCM for thermal energy storage in solar heating systems,overheat treatment systems,and other thermal storage applications at low operating temperatures.
文摘This study proposes a solution for optimizing the distance between a solar module and reflector for an indoor energy harvesting system.It is a process in which energy(ambient light)is captured and converted directly into electricity.Inside a building,this energy could be used to supply power to wide range of portable equipment or offset other electrical energy usage and associated costs.The proposed reflector element was designed and tested in a real indoor environment to confirm its effectiveness.A distance⁃optimization method for the placement of a polycrystalline photovoltaic(PV)module and a mirror was described,and the performance characteristics of the system were investigated qualitatively through visual observation and quantitatively through measuring voltage and ampere values.The solar PV system with a reflector element displayed a 10%increase in voltage when compared with that without.As the distance between PV module and the reflector increased,the voltage and ampere reading decreased,thus the distance was optimized to gain maximum readings.Various studies employing reflectors have also showed increases in voltage readings with different designs,suggesting that reflectors are economically viable optical elements that can boost the voltage output of a PV module.In practice,the distance⁃optimized PV module can be placed in buildings with extended indoor lighting duration away from disrupting building activity.
基金the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia,under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme(FRGS Grant No.FRGS/1/2016/TK07/SEGI/02/1).
文摘Electricity demand is also known as load in electric power system.This article presents a Long-Term Load Forecasting(LTLF)approach for Malaysia.An Artificial Neural Network(ANN)of 5-layer Multi-Layered Perceptron(MLP)structure has been designed and tested for this purpose.Uncertainties of input variables and ANN model were introduced to obtain the prediction for years 2022 to 2030.Pearson correlation was used to examine the input variables for model construction.The analysis indicates that Primary Energy Supply(PES),population,Gross Domestic Product(GDP)and temperature are strongly correlated.The forecast results by the proposed method(henceforth referred to as UQ-SNN)were compared with the results obtained by a conventional Seasonal Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average(SARIMA)model.The R^(2)scores for UQ-SNN and SARIMA are 0.9994 and 0.9787,respectively,indicating that UQ-SNN is more accurate in capturing the non-linearity and the underlying relationships between the input and output variables.The proposed method can be easily extended to include other input variables to increase the model complexity and is suitable for LTLF.With the available input data,UQ-SNN predicts Malaysia will consume 207.22 TWh of electricity,with standard deviation(SD)of 6.10 TWh by 2030.
基金the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia,under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme(FRGS Grant No.FRGS/1/2016/TK07/SEGI/02/1).
文摘Accurate prediction of wind turbine power curve is essential for wind farm planning as it influences the expected power production.Existing methods require detailed wind turbine geometry for performance evaluation,which most of the time unattainable and impractical in early stage of wind farm planning.While significant amount of work has been done on fitting of wind turbine power curve using parametric and non-parametric models,little to no attention has been paid for power curve modelling that relates the wind turbine design information.This paper presents a novel method that employs artificial neural network to learn the underlying relationships between 6 turbine design parameters and its power curve.A total of 198 existing pitch-controlled and active stall-controlled horizontal-axis wind turbines have been used for model training and validation.The results showed that the method is reliable and reasonably accurate,with average R^(2)score of 0.9966.
基金The project is funded by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia,under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme(FRGS Grant No.FRGS/1/2017/TK07/SEGI/02/1).
文摘Aircraft engine design is a complicated process,as it involves huge number of components.The design process begins with parametric cycle analysis.It is crucial to determine the optimum values of the cycle parameters that would give a robust design in the early phase of engine development,to shorten the design cycle for cost saving and man-hour reduction.To obtain a robust solution,optimisation program is often being executed more than once,especially in Reliability Based Design Optimisations(RBDO)with Monte-Carlo Simulation(MCS)scheme for complex systems which require thousands to millions of optimisation loops to be executed.This paper presents a fast heuristic technique to optimise the thermodynamic cycle of two-spool separated flow turbofan engines based on energy and probability of failure criteria based on Luus-Jaakola algorithm(LJ).A computer program called Turbo Jet Engine Optimiser v2.0(TJEO-2.0)has been developed to perform the optimisation calculation.The program is made up of inner and outer loops,where LJ is used in the outer loop to determine the design variables while parametric cycle analysis of the engine is done in the inner loop to determine the engine performance.Latin-Hypercube-Sampling(LHS)technique is used to sample the design and model variations for uncertainty analysis.The results show that optimisation without reliability criteria may lead to high probability of failure of more than 11%on average.The thrust obtained with uncertainty quantification was about 25%higher than the one without uncertainty quantification,at the expense of less than 3%of fuel consumption.The proposed algorithm can solve the turbofan RBDO problem within 3 min.
文摘In recent years,intensive studies have been carried out to find an alternative for Tin(Sn)⁃Lead(Pb)solder alloys with increasing demand over lower temperature solder alloys in current electronic packaging industry.High temperature operational solder alloys seem to produce drawback to other components on the printed circuit board(PCB).Low melting temperature Sn58Bi substrate as a potential replacement was investigated in this paper based on the melting properties,wettability,and shear strength.The Sn58Bi was soldered at a temperature below 200℃on the Cu substrate,and the shear strength and contact angle were calculated.A peak temperature(melting temperature,T_(M))of 144.83℃was identified.Single lap joint method was performed at a strain rate of 0.1 mm/min and an average shear strength of 23.4 MPa was found from three samples.The contact angle(wettability)was calculated to study the solder joint behaviour at reflow temperature of 170℃.The contact angle of the Sn58Bi was found to be 32.4°and considered to be desired value since the angle is less than 50°.The low temperature soldering provides a preliminary result to allow further application on the real PCB.