Electrical energy conservation through human behavior change: Perspective in Bangladesh

All the existing energy sources have environmental, social and economic impacts. The greenhouse effect results global warming, air pollution and energy security have led to increasing interest and more development in energy conservation. Electrical energy conservation is one of them. In this paper, critical electrical energy situation in one of the developing countries in the world, Bangladesh was considered in general. It is possible to serve maximum number of electrical energy consumers by maintaining proper use of the electrical energy. During hot summer the electrical power shortage is about 1000 MW to 1500 MW each year. If energy conservation is achieved through human behavior change, around 390 GWh of electrical energy per month and 4,683 GWh per year can be saved in Bangladesh. A related case study is conducted for this study and a bottom up method is used to conduct this study. The case study and many other literature shows that it is possible to save the electrical energy through behavior change from 3% to 20%

AHP based Anthropometric Analysis of University Hall Bed Design in Bangladesh

In university hall, different types of bed are used for providing sleeping environment to the students. Although there are wide variations in the design of students’ bed in Bangladeshi university hall, none of them are designed properly considering the anthropometric data. In this study, four anthropometric measurements related to normal students’ bed dimensions were measured from 300 students from a public university hall in Bangladesh. The feedbacks regarding different health problems and their reasons were collected from considering practical situations of the students and gathering experts’ opinions. Chi-square test showed that back pain, blood circulation problem, fatigue, comfort, and sleeping problem are related to students’ anthropometric measurements. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) analysis identified students’ bed length as the most responsible attribute for ergonomic problems of the students. Finally, the linear regression and correlation analysis suggested the bed dimensions based on stature of the students. This study can be a helpful guideline for industrial engineers and manufacturers in designing more comfortable students’ bed

Assessment of wind energy prospect by weibull distribution for prospective wind sites in Australia

In this study, three potential wind sites such as Hamilton Island, Proserpine, and South Johnstone wind speed data has been analyzed using Weibull distribution. The half-hourly time series wind speed data used in this analysis were obtained from Bureau of Meteorology, Australia wind monitoring stations. With the aim assessing the wind energy potential, method of moments (MOM), empirical method (EM), and power density method (PDM) were employed for determining the Weibull factors of the available data. The accuracy of the results was analyzed using a statistical test tool named chi-square error (χ2). The EM method was found to be the best method among the three studied methods for calculating Weibull parameters. Based on the analyzed data, a horizontal axis wind turbine specification was proposed. Finally, wind power profile of Hamilton Island site was evaluated for the proposed turbine specification

Prospects and technological advancement of cellulosic bioethanol ecofuel production

Prospects and technological advancement of cellulosic bioethanol ecofuel productio

Customer driven quality improvement of a specific product through AHP and entropy-based QFD: A case study

Understanding the voice of the customers (VOCs) and properly incorporating their preferences and perceptions into the conceptual design process is the core step of customer-driven product development. To improve customer satisfaction and market profitability, the design team should have a customer-driven quality management and product development system. Quality function deployment (QFD) is an important customer-driven quality management tool that helps identify customer requirements and translate them into proper technical measures. This paper focuses on the application of the AHP and an entropy-based QFD approach on a manufacturing company to improve the quality of its product (blender) and determine the priorities for further improvement. The paper shows how customer requirements can be identified and applied to prioritize the design requirements for improving the quality of a blender. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is integrated to determine the final importance of the weights of the customer needs, and entropy is used to determine the set of priority ratings. This integrated framework can help achieve an effective evaluation of the final design solution for product development by overcoming the pitfalls of the traditional QFD approach. An application in a Bangladeshi company that produces blenders is presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed approach

Investigation of diesel engine in cylinder flow phenomena using CFD cold flow simulation

This chapter investigates the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation of diesel engine cold flow behavior at the speed of 2400 rpm. In this investigation, a three-dimensional (3D) combustion chamber model with an inlet and exhaust port was developed using the numerical tool. The dynamic meshing was done for different piston positions, inlet, and outlet valves operation for the entire range of the engine cycle (0°-720° crank angle (CA)). The standard k-ε turbulence model was used for CFD analysis to observe velocity, pressure, and temperature distribution. The entire process is highly complex, which requires more computational time with the powerful machine. The numerical simulation was carried out using a high-performance computing (HPC) system with 16 parallel cores and a 100 GB memory machine. The result shows the outstanding in-cylinder flow behavior, velocity, temperature, pressure, and turbulent kinetic energy for the diesel engines. The outcome of this study will be helpful to the engine designers for designing a fuel-efficient engine combustion chamber with minimum emission

Ergonomic design of a Bangladesh bus passenger seat

BACKGROUND: Passenger seats need to be designed according to ergonomic guidelines for long hour sitting travel. In Bangladesh, passenger seats are designed and fabricated by the local manufacturers who have no knowledge about anthropometry. As a result, passenger has to face stress, fatigue, headache and other disorders. OBJECTIVE: To compare passengers' anthropometric measurements and relevant existing seat dimensions for identifying possible discrepancy and recommending an optimum design. METHODS: In this study the passengers' anthropometric measurements and relevant existing seat dimensions were compared to identify possible discrepancy. RESULTS: The result represented a considerable mismatch between body dimensions of passengers and the existing seat dimensions. The recommended new seat dimensions would enhance match percentage. CONCLUSIONS: The design and allocation of passenger seats were given on the basis of passenger's anthropometry. The proposed seat dimensions would ensure a safe and comfortable journey for the passengers

Experimental investigation of different characteristics of biodiesel derived from waste cooking and pure sunflower oil

In this investigation, waste cooking and pure sunflower oil were selected as feedstock for biodiesel synthesis under microwave irradiation and conventional heating systems. Experiments were conducted in order to evaluate the effects of reaction variables, such as catalysts amount (0.5- 1.5wt %), oil: methanol volumetric ratio (4:1-8:1) and time (1-6 min) in microwave method and time (30-60 min) in conventional method. The best yield of biodiesel (97%) was obtained by the condition of 1 wt% NaOH, 4:1 oil to methanol volumetric ratio, and 4 min using microwave heating system. The important properties of biodiesel were analyzed and found to be within the limits of biodiesel standards. Compared with the conventional heating method the results show that microwave heating can be applied effectively to obtain high yield and reducing the reaction time from 1 h to 4 minutes. The use of microwave will help in providing an energy efficient and economical route for biodiesel production. Results also showed that the biodiesel obtained under optimum conditions from pure sunflower oil (PSO) and waste cooking sunflower oil (WCSO) exhibited no considerable difference but the cost of producing biodiesel from WCSO was lower than PSO. This research demonstrated that biodiesel obtained under optimum condition from PSO and WCSO was of good quality and could be used as a diesel fuel which is considered as renewable energy and environmental recycling process from waste oil after frying

Garments furniture design for Bangladeshi workers considering ergonomic principles

BACKGROUND: In Bangladesh, workers typically spend at least eight hours a day at garment factories in sitting and/or standing position. Prolonged sitting on ergonomically unfit furniture causes back, neck, and shoulder pain, which reduces the working efficiency and leading to low productivity. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to design ergonomically correct furniture for Bangladeshi garment workers considering multivariate analysis on the anthropometric data. METHODS: Twelve anthropometric measures and five furniture dimensions were measured. The sample comprised of 600 volunteer workers from different garment industry. The furniture dimensions were compared with the relevant anthropometric characteristics and found a high level of mismatch (e.g. seat height (male 18%, female 94.25%), seat depth (male 96%, female 63.50%), seat width (male 9.50%, female 36.25%), sewing table height (male 56.50%, female 50%), and desk height for inspection, cutting and ironing table (male 100%, female 100%). RESULTS: New design specifications were proposed of the worker which improved the match percentage. The multivariate anthropometric analysis generated 8 cases and for each case the ranges of anthropometric measurements have been identified. CONCLUSION: The results will help to design robust ergonomic garments furniture

Solar pyrolysis: Converting waste into asset using solar energy

This chapter focuses on the incorporation of solar energy into pyrolysis reactor heating and investigates its feasibility in replacement of conventional heating. At the beginning of the chapter, an overview of pyrolysis and the historical background of pyrolysis are discussed. Furthermore, the chapter presents the issues and challenges of conventional heating of reactor during thermal decomposition of biomass. The background of solar heating and different approaches along with its updated design concepts are presented to give attention for integrating solar-assisted heating reactor in pyrolysis. The chapter also depicts the applications and feasibility of solar-integrated pyrolysis technology. At the end, possible challenges and future development scope of solar-integrated pyrolysis technology are explained