Engineering

Engineering Research Papers/Topics

Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Vegetable Oil Refinery

ABSTRACT Energy and exergy analysis was conducted for a vegetable oil refinery in the Southwest of Nigeria. The plant, powered by two boilers and a 500 kVA generator, refines 100 tonnes of crude palm kernel oil (CPKO) into edible vegetable oil per day. The production system consists of four main group operations: neutralizer, bleacher, filter, and deodorizer. The performance of the plant was evaluated by considering energy and exergy losses of each unit operation of the production process. Th...

Developing Archetypal Machines for a Sequence of FoodSlurry Processing Operations: An Overview

ABSTRACT The importance of cereal gruel as a highly nutritious food for infants in many countries in Africa cannot be overstated. Conventional methods of producing these food-slurries prior to their consumption as food cannot meet up with the high demand for these gruels. This current work is targeted at developing various archetypal machines for the improvement of the production of these food slurries. Three prototype machines have been developed and discussed in this paper, namely, the suct...

Finite Element Modeling of Low Heat Conducting Building Bricks

ABSTRACT Heat conduction through conventional and interlocking building bricks with cavities was studied in this work. Heat transfer analysis was carried out using MATLAB® partial differential equation toolbox. Regular and staggered hole arrangements were studied. Results showed that four staggered holed interlocking bricks were effective in thermal resistance into the bricks and increasing the holes beyond four did not give any thermal resistance advantage. For the conventional bricks stag...

Modelling the association between in vitro gas production and chemical composition of some lesser known tropical browse forages using artificial neural network

ABSTRACT In vitro gas production of four different browse plants (Azadirachta indica, Terminalia catappa, Mangifera indica and Vernonia amygdalina) was investigated under different extractions. The relationship between the forage composition parameters (dry matter, organic matter, crude protein, acid detergent fibre, neutral detergent fibre and acid detergent lignin), process parameters (extraction mode and incubation time), and volume of gas production were modelled with artificial neural ne...

Multi objective methods for welding flux performance optimisation

ABSTRACT The traditional welding flux development is by lengthy and costly trial and error experiments and the optimum welding flux formulation is not guaranteed. This paper presents discussions on promising multiobjective decision making (MODM) methods that can mitigate the limitations of the traditional approach to welding flux design. The methods are weighted-sum scalarization (WSS), desirability indices, goal programming and compromise programming. The steps a welding flux designer (WFD) ...

A Survey of Livestock Strcutures in South Western Nigeria

ABSTRACT A survey involving the use of structured questionnaires and personal communication was undertaken in South Western Nigeria to identify the livestock in the area, and their housing methods.. Chicken, pigs, rabbits, goats, sheep and cattle were the  major animals found while the housing structures include baskets, battery cages, deep litter houses, cages, hutches, eggs, sheds and yards. In about half of the sites surveyed animals kept were not provided with housing, while in other pla...

Potentials and projections of freshwater resources in Sub-Saharan Africa; focus on Nigeria

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the abundance of freshwater availability in Nigeria which is approximately 0.51 % of world freshwater resources. It further highlights the projected freshwater crises in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. Base-t on analyzed country data retrieved from International Organizations, Nigeria and in fact many developing countries in Sub Saharan Africa is presently termed water secure based on total Actual Renewable Water Resources, but projections into the nearest future ...

Hydration Behaviour and Infrared Spectroscopy of Pre-treatments Effect on Portland Cement-Eremospatha macrocarpa and Laccosperma secund~jZorum Systems

ABSTRACT The effects of cold water extraction, incorporation of calcium chloride (CaC1,) and aluminium sulphate (Al,(SO,),) on the setting time (LA, maximum hydration temperature (T,,), time ratio (td and surface chemistry of Eremospatha macrocarpa and Laccosperma secundiflorum particles mixed with Portland cement was investigated. The mixtures were placed in thermally sealed thermos flasks for 24 h after which L,, T,, and t, were measured. The &, T,,andt,were 12.4 and 11.9 h, 59.1 and 583"C,...

Fractal Characterization and [so-mapping of Parameter Plane of Harmonically Excited Pendulum

This study utilized fractal disk dimension characterization to investigate the system response of a nonlinear, harmonically driven pendulum of mass, m (or weight. W) and length I over a well-defined parameter plane of excitation amplitude versus damping factor. The system response was simulated at three drive ffequencies (symbol,*) of 1/3, 2/3 and 313. A Runge-Kutta fourth order algorithm, coded in FORTRAN programming language was used to simulate the System response over a 101 by 101 para...

Chaos Diagram of Harmonically Excited Vibration Absorber Control Duffing's Oscillator

ABSTRACT This study utilised positive Lyapunov exponents' criteria to develop chaos diagram on the parameters space of &dimensional harmonically excited vibration absorber control Duffing's Oscillator. Relevant simulations were effected by choice combination of constant step Runge-Kutta methods and Grahm Schmidt Orthogonal rules. Simulations of 4-dimensional hyper-chaotic models of modified Lorenz and R&ler were used for validation purposes. Lyapunov's spectrums were obtained at (197 x 307) m...

Simulation and Lyapunov's Exponents Characterisation of Lorenz .and Rosler Dynamics

ABSTRACT This study investigated the characterisation of the dyamnic responses of 3 dimensional Lorenz md Rosler models by Lyapunov's exponents using popular but laborious to implement Grahm Schmidt orthogonal rules over wider range of models driven parameters. The study also verifies a new proposed model for the validation of Lyapunov's spectrum when the requisite matrix depends on position of the model attractor. 

A TYPE CURVE APPROACH TO QUALITATIYEDESCRIPTION OF REsERVOIR FLUIDS

ABSTRACT Qualitative description of reservoir fluids is normally based on such parameters as saturation pressure, gas in solution, viscosity and density. Most Engineers ignore compositional data unless when phase behavior predictions or compositional simulation are to be undertaken. This work describes a simple, quick method of qualitative reservoir crude assessment, using the well known Type Curve matching techniques with fluid compositional data. The method is demonstrated for some Niger De...

THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS AND SIMULATION OF COMBINED ADSORPTION HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEM

ABSTRACT This paper presents the description and thermodynamic analysis of a new hybrid system of solar powered water heater and adsorption ice maker. Mathematical models were generated based on heat transfer in the collector, heat and lpuass transfer within the adsorbent-adsorbate pair and the themodynamics of the adsorption process. The numerical models developed from finite difference transformation of the resulting equations were developed into a MATLAB computer code for easy implementat...

Multi-objective methods for welding flux performance optimization

Abstract: The traditional welding flux development is by lengthy and costly trial and error experiments and the optimum welding flux formulation is not guaranteed. This paper presents discussions on promising multiobjective decision making (MODM) methods that can mitigate the limitations of the traditional approach to welding flux design. The methods are weighted-sum scalarization (WSS), desirability indices, goal programming and compromise programming. The steps a welding flux designer (WFD...

DETERMINING THE OPTIMUM SHAPE AND ORIENTATION OF A GREENHOUSE ON THE BASIS OF TOTAL RADIATION AVAILABILITY

ABSTRACT Greenhouse is a feasible option for sustainable crop production in the regions of adverse climatic conditions. For a succe5sM greenhouse design, the selection of shape and orientation is of paramount importance. In this study, three most commonly used single span shapes of greenhouses namely even-spin, uneven-span and vinery type have be& selected for comparison. The length, width and height (at the center) are kept same for all the selected shapes. The relevance of this paper was t...


466 - 480 Of 627 Results