Development and performance evaluation of locally fabricated thermal conductivity apparatus

This paper presents the design and construction of a Guarded Hot Plate (GHP) apparatus for the accurate assessment of thermal conductivities of some Nigerian local building materials. The GHP apparatus is a steady-state measurement device. This apparatus is designed to measure the thermal conductivities of masonry building materials of different compositions. The design features included hot and cold plates fabricated with aluminum plates of 6 mm thickness and varying dimensions; the guard plates also made of aluminum, but of 6.35 mm thickness, forms a rigid enclosure for the specimen all encased in a mild steel housing. The operating measuring temperature range is from -20 for varying specimen thickness up to 60mm. Results are presented for concrete, laterite, and a mixture of cement with laterite, clay, and sand respectively, and it covers a range of thermal conductivities of 0.77W/mK to 1.80 W/mK. Moisture effect on concrete was recorded for the lightweight concrete as the thermal conductivity value reduced from 1.80W/m.K to 1.32W/m.K for the oven-dried concrete sample over a 1.5% (by weight) reduction in water content. The performance evaluation of the locally fabricated GHP apparatus showed a 3.03% percentage difference over ASHRAE’s published data on oven-baked concrete thermal conductivitie

DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A MOTORIZED/ POWER OPERATED PLANTAIN SLICER FOR OPTIMUM CHIPS PRODUCTION

In Nigeria, plantain chips are in high demand and this demand is not being met by most small scale food industries and shops due to some critical factors. Shops are only able to fulfill approximately two-thirds of the demand. The biggest obstacle towards attaining self-sufficiency in the production of plantain chips is the intensity of labor involved and the tediousness of the process which often culminate into prolonged production time. Plantain has a large amount of sap and this causes the skin to adhere to the fruit inside. After peeling, they must be sliced into discs to fry into chips. Worker will hold up to eight plantains in one hand and rapidly slice them using a wooden mandolin. Because of the rapid pace at which they slice plantain and the absence ofhand gloves on the workers, accidents are very often unavoidable. These presents health hazards to both the worker, who may develop infections from their injuries, and customers who may consume an unsanitary product. This development is very uncomfortable and tasking on the workers. They must hold the mandolin over the fryer so the plantains will fall in, which causes splashing of the boiling hot oil that occasionally hits and injures the worker. This research focused on design and fabrication of motorized / power operated plantain slicer to meet the raising demands for plantain chips in Nigeria. The objectives of this research was met as the machine has the capacity to produce plantain chips of uniform size in shorter time and a greater slicing efficiency of up to 96.84% while keeping the cost of themachine at an affordable price

Figures of Merit for Wind and Solar PV Integration in Electricity Grids

349-357In future electrical grids, high levels of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) penetration including solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy is expected. This poses a challenge in system operation and planning especially in balancing electricity demand and supply. This paper examines figures of merit for wind and solar integration in electricity grids. Quantitative tools such as load duration curves, correlation analyses, and the Fourier transform were used to study the intermittency/variability of wind and solar PV power. Time series data on power production from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E), and Réseau de Transport d'Électricité (RTE) were used for the analyses. The analyses illustrate that despite the valuable amount of energy that can be obtained from wind and solar PV, these energy sources cannot be used as baseload power supply. Solar PV power is available for approximately 50% of the time year-round. Wind power output on the other hand can reach very small magnitudes of just a few megawatts several times in a year. More to that, wind is positively correlated over long distances, even exceeding 3000 km and aggregating wind fleets over a large geographic area might not guarantee continuous availability of wind power. Nonetheless, these sources can still be integrated in electricity grids in high proportions, provided intermittency mitigation options such as energy storage, curtailment, and demand-response are implemented

Anaerobic Digestion and Co-digestion of Poultry Droppings (PD) and Cassava Peels (CP): Comparative Study of Optimal Biogas Production

An investigation of the effects of poultry droppings (PD) on the anaerobic co-digestion of cassava peels (CP) has been conducted in order to determine the kinetics for optimal biogas production. The laboratory batch anaerobic digestion were carried out in five (5) different ten-litre anaerobic digesters which were used for the fermentation of the substrates with cumulative biogas production of 13.1, 24.6, 16.7, 8.6 and 7.1L/g volatile solid(VS). The digesters A, B, C, D and E with process conditions of (100% PD and 0% CP), (75% PD and 25% CP), (50% PD and 50% CP), (25% PD and 75% CP) and (0% PD and 100% CP) respectively, were incubated for forty four (44) days at ambient mesophilic temperature of 37±1 oC at a pH of 6.7. The gas production did not begin until the second day for the first four digesters while that of digester E started on the fourth day, (this is as a result of high cellulose content) and then increased steadily until it reached a maximum biogas yield between the 18 th and 22nd day of anaerobic digestion. The highest biogas production of 24.6L/g volatile solid(VS) recorded in digester B could be attributed to better synergy of microorganisms in the digester as a result of the presence of some limited quantity of cassava peels and a C/N ratio of 23.4. This result shows that biogas production could be enhanced effectively through co-digestion process of substrates.. Keywords: Anaerobic, Biogas, Co-digestion, Feedstock, Mesophili

Software for Stresses and Mohr’s Circle Computation, Transformation and Sensitivity Analysis

Software has been developed for stress and Mohr’s circle computation, transformation and sensitivity analysis. It is developed to help students visualize the state of stress at a point and to understand the nature and effects of stress transformation which is one of the leading importance phenomena in the field of engineering. The software shows the effect of stresses on materials inclined at different angles and subjected to axial compressive loading. The software is developed in java programming language, because it is simple, objectoriented and user friendly. The developed software calculates normal stress, tangential stress, resultant stress as well as obliquity of resultant stress with changing orientation while Mohr circle is used to support the graphics. It also shows the behaviour of stresses on materials as the angle of inclination varies. Keywords — Stress, Software, Stress transformation, Mohr’s Circle, Principal stress, Tangential stress, Resultant Stress, Obliquity of resultant Stres

Comparative study of the optimal ratio of biogas production from various organic wastes and weeds for digester/restarted digester

This study carried out a comparative analysis of the rates of production of biogas fromvarious organic wastes and weeds which enabled the determination of optimal ratio of poultrydroppings to domestic wastes. Digester was prepared for the anaerobic fermentation of the domes-tic wastes and weeds. The gas production did not begin until the 7th day and increased steadily atfirst, and then increased sharply until it reached its peak on the 18th day before declining. The totalgas produced within the 22 days of experimentation was 1771 cm3. The maximum volume of gasamounting to 809 cm3was produced by the sample containing 50% poultry dropping and 50%weeds. This indicates that this sample possesses the best C/N ratio of all the samples prepared.For restarted digester, gas production began on the 2nd day as against the 7th day with no restarteddigester and the gas production peaked earlier

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF AN AUTOMATIC FISH FEEDER MACHINE

Fish cultivation has become a worthwhile business activity, as it promotes food security and poverty eradication in developing countries; however, the feeding processes are done manually in Nigeria. Therefore, to solve the problem associated with manual feeding in aquaculture, an automated fish feeder was designed, fabricated and tested that automatically feed the feeder at a predetermined time. This eliminates the drudgery associated with manual feeding. The machine was electrically powered and had the capacity to dispense 420g of feed pellets at 90sec. The maximum shaft speed was 250rpm

Dataset on cellular and geo-spatial information of a 10 km distance along Akure-Ilesha road

This dataset contains cellular and geo-spatial information of a 10 km distance along Akure-Ilsha road in Ondo state, Nigeria. The data was acquired using a designed data acquisition system which was kept inside golf3 vehicle interfaced with Acer laptop, the data was acquired as the vehicle moves from the reference point (7.39919, 5.05944 ) to its destination point (7.32818, 5.10836), it harvests GSM signal Strengths from a base station in intervals with its time, latitude and longitude simultaneously as the vehicle moves along the travelled rout; the data acquired shows the variation of signal strength against distance along the road from one base station to another in the travelled path. The raw data of this work is hosted in the Mendeley repositor

Dataset on cellular and geo-spatial information of a 10 km distance along Akure-Ilesha road

This dataset contains cellular and geo-spatial information of a 10 km distance along Akure-Ilsha road in Ondo state, Nigeria. The data was acquired using a designed data acquisition system which was kept inside golf3 vehicle interfaced with Acer laptop, the data was acquired as the vehicle moves from the reference point (7.39919, 5.05944 ) to its destination point (7.32818, 5.10836), it harvests GSM signal Strengths from a base station in intervals with its time, latitude and longitude simultaneously as the vehicle moves along the travelled rout; the data acquired shows the var- iation of signal strength against distance along the road from one base station to another in the travelled path. The raw data of this work is hosted in the Mendeley repository DOI:10.17632/ tmksc8mkt8.

COMPARATIVE CALORIFIC EVALUATION OF BIOMASS FUEL AND FOSSIL FUEL

In recent years, fossil fuels have been preferably used industrial purposes. Fossil fuels are highly flammable and effective but are very hazardous to the human environment. It is also one of the causes of the ozone layer depletion which humanity is battling presently. Biomass fuels are ma waste materials which have good properties that aid combustion, less hazardous and are effective for some domestic activities and in small presents the calorific evaluation and analysis of fossil fuel and bio highlights the effects of fossil fuels in terms of the dangers of increasing CO concentration in the atmosphere. It presents biomass fuel as a potential substitute for fossil fuel as a renewable energy by comparing the calorific values combustible samples such as: rice husk, petrol, diesel, corn cob using a C200 bomb calorimeter at the Landmark University energy laboratory to determine the calorific values and to examine if biomass can be used as a suitable replacement for fos asp 1576 [email protected] 1576–1590, Article ID: IJCIET_09_13_15 0976-6316 Scopus Indexed CALORIFIC EVALUATION OF FOSSIL FUEL C. O. Osueke Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State T. M. A. Olayanju Engineering Department, Landmark University, Omu Kwara State C. A. Ezugwu Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State A. O. Onokwai Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State I. Ikpotokin Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara D. C. Uguru-Okorie Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State F.C. Nnaji Landmark University, Omu-Aran Kwara State both for domestic and majorly agricultural small-scale industries. This paper biomass fuel. It also 158 C SIL Omu-Aran State jorly mass CO2 of various fossi