BIOCHEMICAL SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERISATION OF COBALT NANOPARTICLES

There is a need for competitive techniques for the synthesis of nanomaterials in the materials science research industry. Nanomaterials have significant relevance in the emerging technologies and cobalt nanoparticle being a modern nanomaterial is in high demand in this regard. In this research, cobalt nanoparticles have been synthesised through a simplified combined chemical-plant based technique which is non-toxic to the environment and most importantly less time consuming. The obtained cobalt nanoparticles were crystalline with uniformly distributed sizes, spherical in shape with little pores along the particles. The technique was simple and it can be replicated in the synthesis of other metal nanoparticles

Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Pack Carburization on Impact Strength and Hardness Property of ASTM A516/516M-05 Steel Plate Weldment

This study investigates the effect of pack carburization on hardness property of ASTM A516/516M-05 steel plate weldment. Sixteen (16) samples were structured, prepared and machined into twelve (12) and four (4) for impact and Vickers hardness tests, respectively. Eight (8) samples were carburized at a constant temperature of 920oC, withholding time of 15 minutes and the other eight (8) samples act as a control. The result obtained shows that the welded and heat treated (WHT) sample has the highest impact strength with an average impact value of 218 J, closely follow by the non-welded but heat treated (NWHT) sample with an average impact strength of 198 J. The Welded but not heated treated (WNHT) sample has an average impact test of 176 J while the non-welded non-heat treated (NWNHT) recorded a value of 168 J. Also, the Vickers hardness result shows that the welded and heat treated, non-welded but heat treated and the non-welded non-heat treated samples have an average hardness numbers of 218, 213.7 and 181.4, respectively. Also, the hardness values were uniformly distributed across the surface layers of the steel.  However, for the welded but not heat treated samples, it has a hardness number of 193.9 with an appreciable variation of hardness value from the fusion zone to the heat affected zone (HAZ) and the parent metal. It was observed that carburization of ASTM A516/516M-05 steel increases the hardness and impact strength of the material

Analysis and Application of Natural Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composites to Automobile Fender

In Nigeria, little attention has been given to the analyses and applications of natural fibers for automobile body parts production. Hence in this work, an attempt is made to evaluate the compressive and impact strength of plantain fiber reinforced polyester composites (PFRC) and to develop an automobile fender using plantain fiber reinforced polyester composites. The PFRC automobile fender was constructed using the hand lay-up technique. The method adopted to achieve the PFRC fender involved fiber extraction, fiber surface treatment, laminates development for impact and compressive test experiment and the development of automobile fender. Experimental investigations for compressive and impact tests were carried out on the laminates which were prepared according to the ASTM D256 and ASTM D1621 standards, respectively. The impact strength result of the PFRC with volume fraction 0.25 and 0.3 was 12.22J/m2 and 12.83J/m2, respectively. The compressive strength, shear stress and resultant stress results of PFRC laminates with volume fraction 0.25 and 0.3 were 62.52MPa, 31.26MPa, 69.99MPa and 68.98MPa, 34.49MPa, 77.12MPa, respectively. From the results, it was observed that the strength of the plantain fiber reinforced polyester composites depend on the fiber volume fraction. The constructed automobile fender was simulated in a Solidworks software environment and was found that the edges, especially the circular part of the automobile fender have high stress concentrations. The production of the automobile fender using PFRC was done at low cost

Development of a Mini Single-Tube Biomass Boiler

This paper reports the design and construction of a biomass boiler that can generate steam from locally available wood charcoal. Various parts of the boiler were designed using the ASME standard, and appropriate components for safety and measurement were selected. The boiler tube was a 58 liters capacity cylindrical vessel with hemispherical base with thickness of 6 mm, designed for maximum pressure of 15 bar. After construction, the designed boiler was tested by heating with wood charcoal with intention to identify the boiler response time. The new boiler performed satisfactorily

Analysis and Application of Natural Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composites to Automobile Fender

In Nigeria, little attention has been given to the analyses and applications of natural fibers for automobile body parts production. Hence in this work, an attempt is made to evaluate the compressive and impact strength of plantain fiber reinforced polyester composites (PFRC) and to develop an automobile fender using plantain fiber reinforced polyester composites. The PFRC automobile fender was constructed using the hand lay-up technique. The method adopted to achieve the PFRC fender involved fiber extraction, fiber surface treatment, laminates development for impact and compressive test experiment and the development of automobile fender. Experimental investigations for compressive and impact tests were carried out on the laminates which were prepared according to the ASTM D256 and ASTM D1621 standards, respectively. The impact strength result of the PFRC with volume fraction 0.25 and 0.3 was 12.22J/m2 and 12.83J/m2, respectively. The compressive strength, shear stress and resultant stress results of PFRC laminates with volume fraction 0.25 and 0.3 were 62.52MPa, 31.26MPa, 69.99MPa and 68.98MPa, 34.49MPa, 77.12MPa, respectively. From the results, it was observed that the strength of the plantain fiber reinforced polyester composites depend on the fiber volume fraction. The constructed automobile fender was simulated in a Solidworks software environment and was found that the edges, especially the circular part of the automobile fender have high stress concentrations. The production of the automobile fender using PFRC was done at low cost

Modelling the impact of intervention measures on total accident cases in Nigeria using Box-Jenkins methodology: A case study of federal road safety commission

Road traffic accidents (RTA) have been a very big problem in many developing countries including Nigeria, causing many deaths and disabilities. The aim of this research is to model the effects of intervention measures adopted by the Nigerian government in curbing RTA. In the research road traffic accident data from 1960 to 2014 were analyzed using Box-Jenkins intervention methodology. The result of the modeling and analysis showed that the establishment of Federal Road Safety Commission in 1987, a Nigerian Government intervention measure, had an abrupt temporary impact on RTA in Nigeria (ω0 = −2,423). The findings also showed that the total number of accident cases in Nigeria from 1961 to 1987 (26 years), the period before the intervention, was 657,280 while the total number of accident cases from 1988 to 2014 (26 years), the period after the intervention, was 430,721. This represents a 34.5% reduction in total accident cases after the intervention. In terms of accident density there was a 67.4% reduction in accident density during the post intervention period under consideration. It can be concluded that the establishment of the road safety agency has a positive impact on total cases of RTA in Nigeria by reducing it significantly, although RTA still continues to be a big problem in Nigeria. This model and analysis will assist road safety agencies to re-strategize in their policy implementation in order to further reduce RTA occurrence, the number of persons killed and injured in Nigeria

Artificial neural network model for cost optimization in a dual-source multi-destination outbound system

Cost optimization is one of the most important issues in distribution operations of any manufacturing system. Most real life problems are non-deterministic polynomial-time hard, and solving such problems are quite challenging. Managing Dual Source multi-destination Inventory system is extensively more difficult than managing a single source multi-destination inventory structure. Undesirably, most managers rely on traditional method while making allocation decision. There is need for efficient and robust computational algorithm. This study emphasizes the importance of creative algorithm, artificial neural network (ANN) in decision-making. ANN model was applied to a double-source multi-destination system in a paint manufacturing company. The accuracy of the model was evaluated using mean square error and correlation coefficient (®values for actual and predicted standards. ANN Feed-Forward Back-Propagation learning with sigmoid transfer function [3–10–1–1] was considered using 74% of available data for training and 26% for testing and validation. The result showed that the proposed method (ANN) outperforms the classical method in use. Approximately 17% of the current operational cost was saved using the soft computing technique