Process involved in designing of an intelligent additional track mechanism tracked vehicle for swamp peat terrain

Different types of off road vehicles are widely used in agriculture, oil industry, mining and military operations but none of them can effectively operate over the swamp peat terrain because of its low bearing capacity of 7kN/m 2. Segmented rubber tracked vehicle and intelligent air-cushion system tracked vehicle were developed in Malaysia for swamp peat terrain.16kN/m2 of ground pressure was exerted by using the segmented rubber tracked vehicle during field operation therefore could not be operated efficiently. The air-cushion tracked vehicle increased the floatation capacity but at the same time increased the frictional effects therefore the tracks of the vehicle easily slipped out from the traction wheels during operation. Addressing these issues an intelligent additional track mechanism for tracked vehicle has been designed to improve the mobility over swamp peat terrain where the additional track would be increased the ground surface area and reduced the vehicle ground pressure. This paper presents the process involved in designing the intelligent additional track mechanism tracked vehicle for transportation of agricultural and industrial goods on the swamp peat terrain with bearing capacity of 7kN/m2. The mechanical design comprises of track vehicle frame with track mechanism. Additional track mechanism with Fuzzy expert system. The design parameters are optimized using developed mathematical model based on the dynamics and kinematics behavior of the vehicle. In order to increase the vehicle contact surface area and reduce the surface contact pressure the additional track mechanism is designed in such way that it can be folded and unfolded from its position by using the ball-screw scissor lift mechanism. While, Fuzzy expert system is used to control the movement of the lift mechanism based on 70mm critical sinkage of vehicle detected from a set of sensors. The completed to vehicle system would be used for off-road applications as required

The enhancement of heavy metal removal from polluted river water treatment by integrated carbon-aluminium electrodes using electrochemical method

The heavy metal removal enhancement from polluted river water was investigated using two types of electrodes consist of integrated carbon-aluminium and a conventional aluminium plate electrode at laboratory-scale experiments. In the integrated electrode systems, the aluminium electrode surface was coated with carbon using mixed slurry containing carbon black, polyvinyl acetate and methanol. The electrochemical treatment was conducted on the parameter condition of 90V applied voltage, 3cm of electrode distance and 60 minutes of electrolysis operational time. Surface of both electrodes was investigated for pre and post electrolysis treatment by using SEM-EDX analytical technique. Comparison between both of the electrode configuration exhibits that more metals were accumulated on carbon integrated electrode surfaces for both anode and cathode, and more heavy metals were detected on the cathode. The atomic percentage of metals distributed on the cathode conventional electrode surface consist of Al (94.62%), Zn (1.19%), Mn (0.73%), Fe (2.81%) and Cu (0.64%), while on the anode contained O (12.08%), Al (87.63%) and Zn (0.29%). Meanwhile, cathode surface of integrated electrode was accumulated with more metals; O (75.40%), Al (21.06%), Zn (0.45%), Mn (0.22), Fe (0.29%), Cu (0.84%), Pb (0.47%), Na (0.94%), Cr (0.08%), Ni (0.02%) and Ag (0.22%), while on anode contain Al (3.48%), Fe (0.49 %), C (95.77%), and Pb (0.26%). According to this experiment, it was found that integrated carbon-aluminium electrodes have a great potential to accumulate more heavy metal species from polluted water compare to the conventional aluminium electrode. Here, heavy metal accumulation process obviously very significant on the cathode surface

Sustainable Nanopozzolan Modified Cement: Characterizations and Morphology of Calcium Silicate Hydrate during Hydration

There are environmental and sustainable benefits of partially replacing cement with industrial by-products or synthetic materials in cement based products. Since microstructural behaviours of cement based products are the crucial parameters that govern their sustainability and durability, this study investigates the microstructural comparison between two different types of cement replacements as nanopozzolan modified cement (NPMC) in cement based product by focusing on the evidence of pozzolanic reactivity in corroboration with physical and mechanical properties. Characterization and morphology techniques using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were carried out to assess the pozzolanic reactivity of cement paste modified with the combination of nano- and micro silica as NPMC in comparison to unmodified cement paste (UCP) of 0.5 water to cement ratio (w/c). Results were then substantiated with compressive strength (CS) results as mechanical property. Results of this study showed clear evidence of pozzolanicity for all samples with varying reactivity with NPMC being the most reactive

Sustainable Nanopozzolan Modified Cement: Characterizations and Morphology of Calcium Silicate Hydrate during Hydration

There are environmental and sustainable benefits of partially replacing cement with industrial by-products or synthetic materials in cement based products. Since microstructural behaviours of cement based products are the crucial parameters that govern their sustainability and durability, this study investigates the microstructural comparison between two different types of cement replacements as nanopozzolan modified cement (NPMC) in cement based product by focusing on the evidence of pozzolanic reactivity in corroboration with physical and mechanical properties. Characterization and morphology techniques using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were carried out to assess the pozzolanic reactivity of cement paste modified with the combination of nano- and micro silica as NPMC in comparison to unmodified cement paste (UCP) of 0.5 water to cement ratio (w/c). Results were then substantiated with compressive strength (CS) results as mechanical property. Results of this study showed clear evidence of pozzolanicity for all samples with varying reactivity with NPMC being the most reactive

Surface Analysis of Thermally Growth Ge Oxide on Ge(100)

The understanding of Ge oxidation is utmost importance in order to form the good quality dielectric/Ge interface in fabricating Ge Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFETs). In addition, the mechanism of Ge oxidation is still under intensive studies. For Silicon oxidation, Deal and Grove Model have been accepted to explain the Si Oxidation mechanism. The purpose of this paper is to report the mechanism of Ge oxidation at two different temperatures, 375 and 490°C and the detail of Ge oxide composition at Ge oxide/Ge interface. After wet chemical cleaning with HCl, the thermal oxidation was performed at temperature 375 and 490°C at atmospheric pressure. The thickness and composition of Ge oxide were measured with spectroscopic ellipsometry and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. It was observed that the n value extracted from a log-log plot of oxidation time versus oxide thickness was dependent on the oxidation temperature. The oxygen-deficient region was formed during thermal oxidation of Ge and the electronic states of suboxide component were observed in the region within 2.3eV above the top valence band. The novelty of this work is to investigate the kinetics oxidation of Ge and evaluate the composition of oxide layer after thermal oxidation that becomes useful information for the development of Ge MOSFETs