This work presents a new conception of a hybrid solar cooker. The new conception consists mainly of a glass cover, a dark absorber plate exposed to the solar radiation, parabolic reflectors, electrical resistance and thermal insulation. Eelectricity is used only for starting; accelerate the growing temperature, and when the period is lacking insufficient sunshine for cooking. The models of the different sections of the system are developed and numerically simulated to help in predicting the behavior of the system in various climatic changes. The new conception presents a contribution in the development of a hybrid solar system to substitute conventional energy used for cooking. The system is tested and the measuring stagnation temperatures offer a good condition for cooking.

This paper presents findings of a laboratory study aimed at investigating the effects of asphalt mixtures incorporating geometrically cubical aggregate to optimize the design of HMA mix. A total of 75 specimens with a high degree of cubicity were tested for stability and flow. The Marshall Test results of five different coarse cubical aggregate percentages show the substantial effect of aggregate shape on mix mechanical properties. The partial substitution of normal aggregate in hot-mix asphalt (HMA) with geometrically cubical aggregate was investigated. The process and mechanism of aggregate cubisizing within the rock on rock impact crusher is unique as the crusher was effectively tuned to reshape and treat the much finer fractions. In this research, the crushing technology effectively crushed, trimmed and churned up normal aggregate to produce coarse and fine aggregates. This study also quantified the properties of geometrically cubical and normal shape surface texture of both fine and coarse aggregates. The morphological properties of fine and coarse aggregates were analyzed and observed under the Light Microscope and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The results indicate that, in general, incorporation of geometrically cubical aggregate was beneficial in improving physical and mechanical characteristics of coarse aggregate in HMA.

In the paper, we extend the differential transform method to solve nonlinear fractional partial differential equations. The time- and space-fractional Burgers equations with initial conditions are chosen to illustrate our method. As a result, we successfully obtain some available approximate solutions of them. The results reveal that the proposed method is very effective and simple for obtaining approximate solutions of nonlinear fractional partial differential equations. The fractional derivatives are considered in the Caputo sense.

This paper proposes the identification of maximum power point (MPP) function for photovoltaic (PV) module using the genetic algorithm (GA). Then deduction of the required function to generate the reference values to drive the tracking system in the PV system at MPP is done with the aid of Artificial Neural Network (ANN). This function deals with the more probable situations for variable values of temperature and irradiance to get the corresponding voltage and current at maximum power. The mathematical PV module modeling depends on Schott ASE-300-DGF PV panel with the aid of MATLAB environment. The aim of this paper is to pick peaks of the power curves (maximum points). The simulation results at MPP are well depicted in 3-D figures to be used as training or learning data for the ANN model.

In this paper, we proposed a novel hybrid group method of data handling least squares support vector machine (GLSSVM) algorithm, which combines the theory a group method of data handling (GMDH) with the least squares support vector machine (LSSVM). With the GMDH is used to determine the inputs of LSSVM method and the LSSVM model which works as time series forecasting. The aim of this study is to examine the feasibility of the hybrid model in tourism demand forecasting by comparing it with GMDH and LSSVM model. The tourist arrivals to Johor Malaysia during 1970 to 2008 were employed as the data set. The comparison of modeling results demonstrate that the hybrid model outperforms than two other nonlinear approaches GMDH and LSSVM models.

In this paper, we introduce a method for buffer sizing in Critical Chain project scheduling. Proposed approach considers lognormal distribution for modeling activities’ execution time. The inherent uncertainty of activities considered as a main factor to size the buffer in proposed method. For comparing with traditional methods we used problems presented in literature. The results depict that proposed method outperforms critical chain buffer sizing method.

Extraction of propionic acid was studied using different diluents (aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, esters, alcohols and ketone). The data were presented in terms of distribution coefficient, partition coefficient (P) and dimerization constants (D). The differences in degree of extraction of propionic acid by these diluents were explained in terms of relative permittivity, dipole moment and ET values. The value of P and D shows that there is a close relation between these values and the chemical nature of solvent. Attempts have been made to correlate with the physico-chemical parameters of the diluents chosen. However, no general correlation could be found. So it is necessary to have an empirical parameter that should give assessment of solvation energy of the solute and show the effect of intramolecular forces better. The parameters used in the study ET parameter. It is found that higher the ET value of the solvent higher is the .Effect of temperature on P and D was also studied. Diluents oleyl alcohol, ethyl acetate, MIBK, 1-decanol and 1-octanol were used for the study. In alcohols P was found to increase with increase in temperature, however, for ethyl acetate and MIBK it decreases. ΔH and ΔS values were also calculated for the physical extraction of carboxylic acids using 1-octanol. It can be seen that ΔH and ΔS values were positive, thus the partitioning process is endothermic and is entropy driven process and the order of system increases.

Industrial waste constitutes the major source of various kinds of metal pollution in natural water. There are at least 20 metals which cannot be degraded or destroyed. The important toxic metals are Cd, Zn, Pb, Cr, Cu, and Ni. There are numerous methods currently employed to remove and recover the metals from our environment and many physico-chemical methods have been proposed for their removal from wastewater. Adsorption is one of the alternatives for such cases and is an effective purification and separation technique used in industry especially in water and wastewater treatments. Cost is an important parameter for comparing the adsorbent materials. Therefore, there is increasing research interest in using alternative low-cost adsorbents. In recent years, tea factory waste (TFW) is also gaining grounds due to its potential to overcome heavy metal pollutants. Insoluble cell walls of tea leaves are largely made up of cellulose and hemicelluloses, lignin, condensed tannins and structural proteins. In present paper a review on potential of TFW as an adsorbent for the removal of toxic metals were discussed. Characterization of various type of TFW, equilibrium studies, kinetic studies, thermodynamic studies and batch studies for the removal of toxic metals by adsorption were presented.

A number of studies currently focus on the renewable fuels to reduce the reliance on petroleum fuels. Biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol have been studied and tested in many countries including India. One of the methods to reduce the use of fossil fuel is blending ethanol with fossil diesel. However, an emulsifier or a co-solvent is needed to homogenize the diesel-ethanol blends. The rice bran oil biodiesel offers an alternative application as an emulsifier for diesel and ethanol blends. The present research is aimed to investigate experimentally the performance and exhaust emission characteristics of a direct injection (DI) diesel engine when fuelled with conventional diesel fuel, rice bran oil biodiesel, a blend of diesel and rice bran oil biodiesel and three blends of diesel-biodiesel-ethanol over the entire range of load on the engine. The experimental results showed that the highest brake thermal efficiency was observed with 15% ethanol in diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blends. The exhaust gas temperature and the sound intensity from the engine reduced with the increase of ethanol percentage in diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blends. The Carbon monoxide and smoke emissions reduced significantly with higher percentage of ethanol in diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blends. The unused oxygen with 5% ethanol in diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blend was lower than that of diesel fuel. The Hydrocarbons, Oxides of nitrogen and carbon dioxide emissions increased with the increase of ethanol percentage in diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blends but the hydrocarbon emissions were still lower than that of diesel fuel. As the brake thermal efficiency increased and carbon monoxide, sound, hydrocarbons and smoke were lower than that of diesel fuel with the diesel-biodiesel-ethanol blends, the rice bran oil biodiesel can be used as an additive to mix higher percentages of ethanol in diesel-ethanol blends to improve the performance and reduce the emissions of a diesel engine.