This study aims to evaluate the melting characteristics of a phase change material (PCM) in a latent heat storage system equipped with hemispherical and quarter-spherical fins. A vertical triple-pipe heat exchanger is used as the PCM-based heat storage unit to improve the melting performance compared with a double-pipe system. Furthermore, the fins are arranged in inline and staggered configurations to improve heat transfer performance. For the quarter-spherical fins, both upward and downward directions are examined. The results of the system equipped with novel fins are compared with those without fins. Moreover, a fin is added to the heat exchanger’s base to compensate for the natural convection effect at the bottom of the heat exchanger. Considering similar fin volumes, the results show that the system equipped with four hemispherical fins on the side walls and an added fin on the bottom wall has the best performance compared with the other cases with hemispherical fins. The staggered arrangement of the fins results in a higher heat transfer rate. The downward quarter-spherical fins with a staggered configuration show the highest performance among all the studied cases. Compared with the case without fins, the heat storage rate improves by almost 78% (from 35.6 to 63.5 W), reducing the melting time by 45%.
Soil water use and water storage vary by vegetative management practices, and these practices affect land productivity and hydrologic processes. This study investigated the effects of agroforestry buffers (AB), grass buffers (GB), and biofuel crops (BC), relative to row crops (RC) on soil water use for a claypan soil in northern Missouri, USA. The experiment located at the Greenley Memorial Research Center included RC, AB, GB, and BC established in 1991, 1997, 1997, and 2012, respectively. Soil water reflectometer sensors installed at 5‐, 10‐, 20‐, and 40‐cm depths monitored soil water from April to November in 2017 and 2018. Results showed significant differences in weekly volumetric water content (VWC) among treatments for all fou
... Show MoreThe evolution of the Internet of things (IoT) led to connect billions of heterogeneous physical devices together to improve the quality of human life by collecting data from their environment. However, there is a need to store huge data in big storage and high computational capabilities. Cloud computing can be used to store big data. The data of IoT devices is transferred using two types of protocols: Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). This paper aims to make a high performance and more reliable system through efficient use of resources. Thus, load balancing in cloud computing is used to dynamically distribute the workload across nodes to avoid overloading any individual r
... Show MoreBackground: Frovatriptan succinate (FVT) is an effective medication used to treat migraines; however, available oral formulations suffer from low permeability; accordingly, several formulations of FVT were prepared. Objective: Prepare, optimize, and evaluate FVT-BE formulation to develop enhanced intranasal binary nano-ethosome gel. Methods: Binary ethosomes were prepared using different concentrations of phospholipid PLH90, ethanol, propylene glycol, and cholesterol by thin film hydration and characterized by particle size, zeta potential, and entrapment efficiency. Furthermore, in-vitro, in-vivo, ex-vivo, pharmacokinetics, and histopathological studies were done. Results: Regarding FVT-loaded BE, formula (F9) demonstrated the best paramet
... Show MoreSeawater might serve as a fresh‐water supply for future generations to help meet the growing need for clean drinking water. Desalination and waste management using newer and more energy intensive processes are not viable options in the long term. Thus, an integrated and sustainable strategy is required to accomplish cost‐effective desalination via wastewater treatment. A microbial desalination cell (MDC) is a new technology that can treat wastewater, desalinate saltwater, and produce green energy simultaneously. Bio‐electrochemical oxidation of wastewater organics creates power using this method. Desalination and the creation of value‐added by‐products are expected because of this ionic mov
Crocidolomia binotalis (Cb) (Zeller) is one of the main pests of cabbage which is difficult for farmers to control in the Ijen Crater in Indonesia. The demand for cabbage in Indonesia is increasing every year, so intensification efforts are continuously being made. Farmers intensively use synthetic pesticides as the primary control of Cb. The purpose of this study is to examine several control agents that can be used as an alternative to synthetic pesticides. Then, it provides recommendations to Ijen Crater farmers to adapt in reducing the use of synthetic pesticides. The biopesticide used was based on the Nuclear Polyhedrosis Virus strains of Spodoptera litura (SlNPV) and Helicoverpa armigera (HaNPV), botanical pesticides, and
... Show MoreCorncob is an agricultural biomass waste that was widely investigated as an adsorbent of contaminants after transforming it into activated carbon. In this research carbonization and chemical activation processes were achieved to synthesize corncob-activated carbon (CAC). Many pretreatment steps including crushing, grinding, and drying to obtain corncob powder were performed before the carbonization step. The carbonization of corncob powder has occurred in the absence of air at a temperature of 500 °C. The chemical activation was accomplished by using HCl as an acidic activation agent. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) facilitate
... Show MoreThis paper reports the effect of Mg doping on structural and optical properties of ZnO prepared by pulse laser deposition (PLD). The films deposited on glass substrate using Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm) as the light source. The structure and optical properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmittance measurements. The films grown have a polycrystalline wurtzite structure and high transmission in the UV-Vis (300-900) nm. The optical energy gap of ZnO:Mg thin films could be controlled between (3.2eV and 3.9eV). The refractive index of ZnO:Mg thin films decreases with Mg doping. The extinction coefficient and the complex dielectric constant were also investigate.
In subterranean coal seam gas (CSG) reservoirs, massive amounts of small-sized coal fines are released during the production and development stages, especially during hydraulic fracturing stimulation. These coal fines inevitably cause mechanical pump failure and permeability damage due to aggregation and subsequent pore-throat blockage. This aggregation behavior is thus of key importance in CSG production and needs to be minimized. Consequently, such coal fines dispersions need to be stabilized, which can be achieved by the formulation of improved fracturing fluids. Here, we thus systematically investigated the effectiveness of two additives (ethanol, 0.5 wt % and SDBS, 0.001 and 0.01 wt %) on dispersion stability for a wide range of condit
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