The Feasibility of Installing a Small-Scale PV System in a Carport in Kuwait

The need to obtain sustainable energy sources is one of the most important challenges in this century. Several alternatives have been sought, but attention has been focused on Wind turbines and solar energy PV or CSP. The state of Kuwait is one of the countries that is working to Attain a Target of Achieving 15% of its power production in 2030 from clean energy. Since Kuwait is in a hot and sunny region, it was worthwhile to have solar energy as one of the solutions. The state of Kuwait has established the Al-Shagaya clean energy plant, which produces 70 MW moreover, the Consumers and small businesses have established several private ancillary power generation small-scale projects with the encouragement of the Kuwait government that set Laws in 2022 to Allow the Ministry of Elect the city and Water and Renewable Energy MEW to buy Power from citizens and consumers. This research aims to determine the feasibility of small-scale photovoltaic P.V. solar projects

A Comparative Machinability Study of SS 304 in Turning under Dry, New Micro-Jet, and Flood Cooling Lubrication Conditions

The main objective of this experimental investigation is to examine favourable machining conditions by utilising fewer resources of machining industries for the techno-economical and ecological benefits. The machining operations are performed in turning SS 304 using coated carbide tool inserts under dry, water-soluble cutting fluid solution in the form of flood cooling and small-quantity lubrication (SQL) conditions by employing a newly formed micro-jet for a comparative classical chips study and analysis. The machining experiments are conducted in turning by a 25 kW precision CNC lathe with a special arrangement of micro-jets into the machining zone. Machining speeds and feed rates are varied under dry, micro-jet, and flood cooling conditions and their effects are studied on the type of chips and their morphology, chip reduction coefficient (ξ), and chip shear plane distance (d). The effect of machining environments on tool health conditions (such as BUEs, tool-edge chipping, and edge breaking) is examined for the inferences. In the range of low-speed machining (less than 600 m/min), metal cutting seems easier in flood cooling conditions, but it imposes more unfavourable effects (such as edge chipping and edge breaking) on the ceramic cutting tool’s health. On the other hand, the dry machining condition shows a favourable performance for a ceramic cutting tool. The optimum machining condition is found in the micro-jet SQL by the analysis of experimental data and observation results for the tool and work combination. The analysis of the results is carried out by the response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN). The ANN model is found to be more accurate than RSM. The aspects of effective green machining are emphasised

Effect of Alumina Contents on the Physicomechanical Properties of Alumina (Al2O3) Reinforced Polyester Composites

Polyester-based composites filled with various contents of alumina (Al2O3) (i.e., 0, 1, 5, and 10 vol%) have been fabricated in this study. Physical and mechanical properties of the composites have also been analysed. The analysis results showed that the experimental density of the polyester/alumina composites was smaller than the theoretical density, which could be attributed to the formation of voids during preparation of the composites. Meanwhile, the tensile strength, stiffness, and hardness of the composites increased with increasing alumina content, while the strain-at-break of the composites decreased. It was observed that the composites containing 5 vol% of alumina had the best tensile strength, stiffness, and hardness. The uniform distribution and dispersion of alumina particles were likely responsible for the improvement of the mechanical properties. In other hand, small decrease in tensile strength, stiffness, and hardness of composite was found in the composites with 10 vol% of alumina. The formation of agglomerates and voids was believed to be the main factor for the decrease of the both properties

Numerical Modeling and Simulations of Twinning-Induced Plasticity Using Crystal Plasticity Finite Element Method

In the current work, a fully implicit numerical integration scheme is developed for modeling twinning-induced plasticity using a crystal plasticity framework. Firstly, the constitutive formulation of a twin-based micromechanical model is presented to estimate the deformation behavior of steels with low stacking fault energy. Secondly, a numerical integration scheme is developed for discretizing constitutive equations through a fully implicit time integration scheme using the backward Euler method. A time sub-stepping algorithm and the two-norm convergence criterion are used to regulate time step size and stopping criterion. Afterward, a numerical scheme is implemented in finite element software ABAQUS as a user-defined material subroutine. Finally, finite element simulations are executed for observing the validity, performance, and limitations of the numerical scheme. It is observed that the simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental observations with a maximum error of 16% in the case of equivalent stress and strain. It is also found that the developed model is able to estimate well the deformation behavior, magnitude of slip and twin shear strains, and twin volume fraction of three different TWIP steels where the material point is subjected to tension and compression

Multipoint Forming Using Hole-Type Rubber Punch

Reconfigurable multipoint forming is a flexible sheet forming technique aimed at customised sheet metal products. However, one drawback of multipoint forming is the cost and time needed to set up and align the upper and lower pin matrices. This study introduces an optimisation study of a novel hole-type rubber punch replacing the top pin matrix of multipoint incremental forming, aiming to reduce pins setting up and alignment complexity and time. Finite element modelling and design of experiments were used to investigate the effect of hole-type rubber punch configuration such as hole size, hole type, and the compression ratio on the wrinkling, thickness variation, and shape deviation. This research shows that the most significant process parameter in all responses was the hole size. The compression ratio of the material was found to be insignificant in wrinkling and shape deviation. The hole-type rubber punch parameters were found to be a hole size of 9 mm, circular hole type, and a compression ratio of 75%. This experimentally resulted in an improved parts wrinkling of 80%, when compared to using solid rubber punch, with the added benefits of reduction of the cost and time needed to set up and align the pin matrices