A Review on Mechanical Properties of Natural Fiber Reinforced Hybrid Polymer Composites

Natural fibres will take a major role in the emerging “green” economy based on energy efficiency, the use of renewable materials in polymer products, industrial processes that reduce carbon emissions and recyclable materials that minimize waste. Natural fibres are a kind of renewable resources, which have been renewed by nature and human ingenuity for thousands of years. They are also carbon neutral;they absorb the equal amount of carbon dioxide they produce. These fibers are completely renewable, environmental friendly, high specific strength, non-abrasive, low cost, and bio-degradability. Due to these characteristics, natural fibers have recently become attractive to researchers and scientists as an alternative method for fibers reinforced composites. This review paper summarized the history of natural fibers and its applications. Also, this paper focused on different properties of natural fibers (such as hemp, jute, bamboo and sisal) and its applications which were used to substitute glass fiber.

Development of Palmprint Verification System Using Biometrics

Palmprint verification system using Biometrics is one of the emerging technologies, which recognizes a person based on the principle lines, wrinkles and ridges on the surface of the palm. These line structures are stable and remain unchanged throughout the life of an individual. More importantly, no two palmprints from different individuals are the same, and normally people do not feel uneasy to have their palmprint images taken for testing. Therefore palmprint recognition offers a promising future for medium-security access control systems. In this paper, a new approach for personal authentication using hand images is discussed. Gray-Scale palm images are captured using a digital camera at a resolution of 640×480. Each of these gray-scale images is aligned and then used to extract palmprint and hand geometry features. These features are then used for authenticating users. The image acquisition setup used here is inherently simple and it does not employ any special illumination nor does it use any pegs that might cause any inconvenience to users. Experimental results show that the designed system achieves an acceptable level of performance.

Sero-Prevalence of Paratuberculosis (Johne's Disease) in Cattle Population of South-Western Bangalore Using ELISA Kit

Johne's disease or paratuberculosis is a chronic mycobacterial infection that affects cattle, sheep, goats and other ruminants, adversely, leading to huge economic losses throughout the world. The estimation of sero-prevalence of this disease in the cattle population of south-western Bangalore, Karnataka, using an immunological assay and statistical analyses, was the objective of this study. One of the diagnostic tools used to detect an antigen or an antibody in animal serum or milk is the Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay, which has been widely used in the research and diagnosis of animal and human diseases as its accuracy is of nanogram-picogram/milliltre level. In the present study, indirect-ELISA was used to diagnose and estimate the sero-prevalence of paratuberculosis in cattle showing diarrhoea and/or anaemia, at 5 local dairy farms in south-west Bangalore, India. Out of 350 bovine serum samples, 53 (15.14%) were positive, 55 milk samples out of 300 were found positive (18.33%) for antibody against Johne's disease by indirect ELISA. The positive samples were then confirmed by direct smear examination of dung by Ziehl-Neelsen staining. Statistical analyses were carried out to indicate the seroprevalence of Johne's disease in the cattle population of this region to be 15 ± 10%, taking a confidence interval of 95%. The results emphasize the need to prevent the further spread of infection to other susceptible animals and humans as the causative organism, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis is implicated in Crohn's disease, an irritable bowel syndrome in humans.

Influence of Nano-Modification on the Interlaminar Shear Strength of Unidirectional Glass Fiber-Reinforced Epoxy Resin

Interlaminar shear properties of the fibre reinforced polymer composites are very important in many structured applications. It has been reported that interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of fibre reinforced polymer composites may be improved by the modification of the matrix. In this paper, diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA)/triethylene tetramine (TETA) system is used as the starting epoxy matrix. Alumina nanoparticles are employed to modify the epoxy matrix at various concentrations. Unmodified and modified epoxy resins are used along with unidirectional glass fibres for fabricating composite laminates by vaccum bagging method. The interlaminar shear strength of the glass fibre reinforced composites is investigated and the results indicate that introduction of the alumina nanoparticles enhances the ILSS. In particular, the addition of 0.8 wt% alumina nanoparticles leads to maximum enhancement in the ILSS;however, there is a decrease in the value with further addition. The dispersion of alumina nanoparticles and the fracture surfaces of the fibre reinforced composites are examined by the scanning electron microscope. The graphs are employed to explain the results.

Quantum Computational Techniques for Prediction of Cognitive State of Human Mind from EEG Signals

The utilization of quantum states for the representation of information and the advances in machine learning is considered as an efficient way of modeling the working of complex systems.The states of mind or judgment outcomes are highly complex phenomena that happen inside the human body.Decoding these states is significant for improving the quality of technology and providing an impetus to scientific research aimed at understanding the functioning of the human mind.One of the key advantages of quantum wave-functions over conventional classical models is the existence of configurable hidden variables,which provide more data density due to its exponential state-space growth.These hidden variables correspond to the amplitudes of each probable state of the system and allow for the modeling of various intricate aspects of measurable and observable physical quantities.This makes the quantum wave-functions powerful and felicitous to model cognitive states of the human mind,as it inherits the ability to efficiently couple the current context with past experiences temporally and spatially to approach an appropriate future cognitive state.This paper implements and compares some techniques like Variational Quantum Classifiers(VQC),quantum annealing classifiers,and hybrid quantum-classical neural networks,to harness the power of quantum computing for processing cognitive states of the mind by making use of EEG data.It also introduces a novel pipeline by logically combining some of the aforementioned techniques,to predict future cognitive responses.The preliminary results of these approaches are presented and are very encouraging with upto 61.53%validation accuracy.

Statistical Modelling of Soybean Crop Yield in Regions of Central India through Mathematical and Computational Approach

In this paper, we have discussed a number of fitting methods to predict crop yield of soybean depending on the nature of environment and a comparison is done between them on the basis of available data set. Later we have suggested a suitable method for the prediction of the crop yield on the basis of residual (error) terms. Statistical analysis is also used for getting the relationships between different components (variables) of available data set. At last, we have discussed about Chaos that can distort the whole mathematical analysis and a computational approach.

Micro Controller Based Ac Power Controller

This paper discusses the design and implementation of single phase PWM inverter using 8051 microcontrol-ler. The main features of 8051 based PWM inverter are simpler design, low cost, maximum range of voltage control and compact in size. The designed PWM inverter is tested on various AC loads like AC motor and intensity control of incandescent lamp in a closed loop environment.

Effect of laminate thickness on moisture diffusion of polymer matrix composites in artificial seawater ageing

The influence of laminate thickness of polymer matrix composites on moisture diffusion in seawater immersion, as well as the resulting mechanical property degradation for composites of glass/isopolyester （G/IPE）, carbon/isopolyester （C/IPE）, glass/vinylester （G/VE） and carbon/vinylester （CNE）, was investigated in this paper. Laminates 3 and 10 mm in thickness, fabricated using the wet hand lay-up technique, were characterized for moisture absorption in artificial seawater medium, and their flexural strength and interlaminar shear strength （ILSS） degradations were studied. Moisture diffusion was observed to be anamolous to the Fick＇s law for both 3 and 10 mm thick samples in the later stage of diffusion. Moisture permeability of 10 mm thick samples was two to three order greater than that of 3 mm thick ones, while the time to moisture saturation remained unchanged. With the increase of laminate thickness, moisture saturation increased by 1.4% for CNE and 7% for GriPE. The residual flexural strength and ILSS were greater in case of 10 mm thick specimens after 200 days of exposure. SEM examination of the fractured specimens showed greater levels of fibre/matrix debonding in 10 mm thick specimens.

Mechanical behavior of organo-modified Indian bentonite nanoclay fiber-reinforced plastic nanocomposites

The aim of the research was to examine the influence of organo-modified Indian bentonite （IB） nanoclay dispersed in vinyisster on the mechanical properties of nanoclaylvinylesterlglass nanocomposRes. Nanoclay was organically modified using cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide （HDTMA-Br） by cation exchange method and dispersed in vinylester using ultrasonication and twin screw extrusion. XRD of nanoclaylvinylester revealed exfoliaUon at 4 wt.% nanoclay indicating uniform dispersion in the polymer. DSC results showed improvement in glass transition temperature by 22.3% in 4 wt.% nanoclaylvinylester/glass when compared with that of vinylester/glass. Nanoclay/vinylester/glass with 4 wt,% nanoclay showed 29.23%, 23.84% and 60.87% improvement in ultimate tensile strength （UTS）, fiexural strength （FS） and interlaminar shear strength （ILSS） respectively when compared with those of vinylester! glass. The mode of tensile failure examined by SEM showed no agglomeration of nanoclay in 4 wt.% nanoclayNinylester/glass specimens.

Mechanical, thermal and fire nanoclay/vinylester retardation behaviours of nanocomposites

The dispersion of montmorillonite （MMT） in vinylester for preparing nanoclay/vinylester gel coat was reported. Two sets of MMT/vinylester specimens, namely Type I and Type 2, were prepared for comparative studies. Type I specimens were prepared using ultrasonication only, and Type 2 specimens were prepared using both ultrasonication and twin-screw extrusion. According to XRD and TEM results, Type 2 specimens showed lower levels of nanoclay agglomeration and higher levels o! exfoliation. DSC results showed that the glass transition temperatures of Type 2 specimens are higher than those of Type 1 specimens. TGA results showed that the residual weight of 4 wt.% MMT/vinylester of Type 1 was 7.38%, while the corresponding value of Type 2 was 13,5%, indicating lower thermal degradation in the latter. MMTt vinylester/glass and MMT/vinylester/carbon specimens were fabricated and tested for mechanical and fire retardation behaviours. Type 2 based nanocomposite laminates showed greater values of ultimate tensile strength, flexural strength, interlaminar shear strength, impact strength, horizontal burning rate, and vertical burning rate than Type 1 based laminates. SEM images of tensile fractured surfaces revealed that Type 2 based laminates have no or less agglomeration of nanoclay than Type 1 based laminates.