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Full-Text Articles in Engineering

Fatigue Of Swollen Elastomers May 2015

Fatigue Of Swollen Elastomers

Faculty of Engineering University of Malaya

The compatibility of the properties of elastomer with conventional diesel fuel has made it favourable in many engineering applications. However, due to global energy insecurity issues, there is an urgent need to find alternative renewable sources of energy as replacements to conventional diesel. In this respect, biodiesel appears to be a promising candidate. Hence, research into the compatibility and fatigue characteristics of elastomers exposed to biodiesel becomes essential. The present paper introduces the first attempt to investigate the effect of different solvents on the fatigue of swollen elastomers. The filled nitrile rubbers are immersed in the palm biodiesel and conventional …


Surface Properties And Interaction Forces Of Biopolymer-Doped Conductive Polypyrrole Surfaces By Atomic Force Microscopy, Jani M. Pelto, Suvi P. Haimi, Aliisa S. Siljander, Susanna S. Miettinen, Kirsi M. Tappura, Michael J. Higgins, Gordon G. Wallace Mar 2014

Surface Properties And Interaction Forces Of Biopolymer-Doped Conductive Polypyrrole Surfaces By Atomic Force Microscopy, Jani M. Pelto, Suvi P. Haimi, Aliisa S. Siljander, Susanna S. Miettinen, Kirsi M. Tappura, Michael J. Higgins, Gordon G. Wallace

Gordon Wallace

Surface properties and electrical charges are critical factors elucidating cell interactions on biomaterial surfaces. The surface potential distribution and the nanoscopic and microscopic surface elasticity of organic polypyrrole-hyaluronic acid (PPy-HA) were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in a fluid environment in order to explain the observed enhancement in the attachment of human adipose stem cells on positively charged PPy-HA films. The electrostatic force between the AFM tip and a charged PPy-HA surface, the tip-sample adhesion force, and elastic moduli were estimated from the AFM force curves, and the data were fitted to electrostatic double-layer and elastic contact models. The …


Cation Exchange At Semiconducting Oxide Surfaces: Origin Of Light-Induced Performance Increases In Porphyrin Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, Matthew J. Griffith, Kenji Sunahara, Akihiro Furube, Attila J. Mozer, David L. Officer, Pawel Wagner, Gordon G. Wallace, Shogo Mori Mar 2014

Cation Exchange At Semiconducting Oxide Surfaces: Origin Of Light-Induced Performance Increases In Porphyrin Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells, Matthew J. Griffith, Kenji Sunahara, Akihiro Furube, Attila J. Mozer, David L. Officer, Pawel Wagner, Gordon G. Wallace, Shogo Mori

Gordon Wallace

The origin of simultaneous improvements in the short-circuit current density (Jsc) and open-circuit voltage (Voc) of porphyrin dye-sensitized TiO2 solar cells following white light illumination was studied by systematic variation of several different device parameters. Reduction of the dye surface loading resulted in greater relative performance enhancements, suggesting open space at the TiO2 surface expedites the process. Variation of the electrolyte composition and subsequent analysis of the conduction band potential shifts suggested that a light-induced replacement of surface-adsorbed lithium (Li+) ions with dimethylpropylimidazolium (DMPIm+) ions was responsible for an increased electron lifetime by decreasing the recombination with the redox mediator. …


Fabrication Of Robust Superconducting Granular Aluminium/Palladium Bilayer Microbolometers With Sub-Nanosecond Response, Thomas E. Wilson Feb 2014

Fabrication Of Robust Superconducting Granular Aluminium/Palladium Bilayer Microbolometers With Sub-Nanosecond Response, Thomas E. Wilson

Thomas E. Wilson

We provide a convenient recipe for fabricating reliable superconducting microbolometers as acoustic phonon detectors with sub-nanosecond response, using imagereversal optical lithography and dc-magnetron sputtering, and our recipe requires no chemical or plasma etching. Our approach solves the traditional problem for granular aluminium bolometers of unreliable (i.e., non-Ohmic) electrical contacts by sequentially sputtering the granular aluminium film and then a palladium capping layer. We use dc calibration data, the method of Danilchenko et al. [1], and direct nanosecond-pulsed photoexcitation to obtain the microbolometer’s characteristic current, thermal conductance, characteristic relaxation time, and heat capacity. We also demonstrate the use of the deconvolution …


Failure Analysis Of Retrieved Uhmwpe Tibial Insert In Total Knee Replacement Dec 2010

Failure Analysis Of Retrieved Uhmwpe Tibial Insert In Total Knee Replacement

A.S. Md Abdul Haseeb

This study involves the failure analysis of an ultra high molecular polyethylene (UHMWPE) tibial insert from Apollo® Total Knee System, which was removed after 10. years of service from 70. years old female patient. The tibial insert was investigated by using a stereoscope, scanning electron microscope (SEM), infinite focus microscope (IFM) and energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS) to characterize the morphology and composition of the bearing surface. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Fourier transform spectroscopy (FTIR) were employed to characterize the degradation and crystallinity of the component. Gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) was used to measure the polyethylene tibial insert molecular weight. Results …


Study On Properties Of Rice Husk Ash And Its Use As Cement Replacement Material, Hilmi Mahmud Apr 2010

Study On Properties Of Rice Husk Ash And Its Use As Cement Replacement Material, Hilmi Mahmud

Hilmi Mahmud

This paper investigates the properties of rice husk ash (RHA) produced by using a ferro-cement furnace. The effect of grinding on the particle size and the surface area was first investigated, then the XRD analysis was conducted to verify the presence of amorphous silica in the ash. Furthermore, the effect of RHA average particle size and percentage on concrete workability, fresh density, superplasticizer (SP) content and the compressive strength were also investigated. Although grinding RHA would reduce its average particle size (APS), it was not the main factor controlling the surface area and it is thus resulted from RHA's multilayered, …


A Comparative Wear Study On Heat-Treated Aluminium-Lithium Alloy And Pure Aluminium Jan 1999

A Comparative Wear Study On Heat-Treated Aluminium-Lithium Alloy And Pure Aluminium

A.S. Md Abdul Haseeb

Wear behaviour of solution-treated and aged aluminium-lithium alloy (2.5% Li, 2% Cu, 1% Mg and 0.15% Zr) was compared with that of pure aluminium. Wear tests were carried out in ambient air in a pin-on-disc type apparatus under dry sliding conditions using hardened steel disc as the counterbody. A normal load of 10 N and a linear speed of 0.98 m s-1 were used during the tests. Microscopic investigation, microhardness measurement on the subsurface of wear scars on pins, X-ray diffraction study and morphological examination of wear debris were done to elucidate wear mechanism. It has been found that the …


Analysis Of Eddy‐Current Interaction With A Surface‐Breaking Crack, Nicola Harfield, John R. Bowler Jan 1994

Analysis Of Eddy‐Current Interaction With A Surface‐Breaking Crack, Nicola Harfield, John R. Bowler

Nicola Bowler

The change in electromagnetic impedance of a conductor due to the presence of a long, perpendicular surface‐breaking crack in a normally incident, uniform electric field is calculated in closed form in the high‐frequency limit. At high frequencies, where the skin depth is much smaller than the depth of the crack, the fields near the edge and corners of the crack are effectively decoupled. This means that the solution may be formulated as the sum of contributions from the corners, faces, and edge of the crack. Simple analytical expressions for the electric field are found and used to calculate the impedance …