Engineering Commons^™

A Step Forward Towards Advanced And Self-Sustainable Greenhouse Agriculture, Mohammad Nur E Alam, Mikhail Vasiliev, Jacqualine Anne Thomas

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

It is now time for the future-generation and advanced greenhouse design practices to address a range of issues, from the energy and land use efficiency to providing plant-optimised growth techniques. In this Encyclopaedia record, we report on the practical development of spectrally selective and specialist-type advanced metal-dielectric thin-film filters that produce the optimized illumination spectrum when exposed to natural sunlight that can help maximize the biomass productivity of coated-glass greenhouse crops. Our experimental case study has been performed for the lettuce species, Lactuca sativa, L., yielding promising results.

Investigating Optimum Wavelength(S) For Growth Of Lactuca Sativa, L. Using Tunable Led Sources And Developing Thin-Film Filters For Glass Greenhouses, Jacqualine Anne Thomas

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

With the increase in world population, the continued advances in modern greenhouse agriculture and plant growth practices are expected to help overcome the global problem of future food shortages. This research investigates a way to assist in stemming the problem of food shortage by using optimised light irradiation (within the constraints of the experiment) on a sample plant species of lettuce (Lactuca sativa, L.). Whilst lettuce is often grown in hydroponic systems, the current research is conducted in stand-alone pots with hand watering, due to the requirements of health and safety and available resources.

The experiments were designed …

Energy Efficiency Of A Flat-Plate Solar Collector Using Thermally Treated Graphene-Based Nanofluids: Experimental Study, Omer A. Alawi, Haslinda Mohamed Kamar, Hussein A. Mohammed, A. R. Mallah, Omar A. Hussein

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

© The Author(s) 2020. A covalent functionalization approach was utilized for the preparation of highly dispersed pentaethylene glycol-thermally treated graphene-water as the absorbing material inside a flat-plate solar collector. Four mass fractions of nanofluids were prepared (0.025, 0.05, 0.075, and 0.1 wt% pentaethylene glycol-thermally treated graphene-water). Graphene nanoparticles were characterized by energy dispersive X-ray analysis with a scanning electron microscope. Measurements of the thermophysical properties were subsequently carried out for the nanosuspensions. The raw investigation data were collected from an indoor flat-plate solar collector test setup. The experimental procedure included different sets of variables such as input temperatures of 303, …

Application Of Heat Pumps And Thermal Storage Systems For Improved Control And Performance Of Microgrids, Ali Baniasadi

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The high penetration of renewable energy sources (RES), in particular, the rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems in power systems, causes rapid ramps in power generation to supply load during peak-load periods. Residential and commercial buildings have considerable potential for providing load exibility by exploiting energy-e_cient devices like ground source heat pump (GSHP). The proper integration of PV systems with the GSHP could reduce power demand from demand-side. This research provides a practical attempt to integrate PV systems and GSHPs e_ectively into buildings and the grid. The multi-directional approach in this work requires an optimal control strategy to reduce energy cost and …

Optimisation Of Stand-Alone Hybrid Energy Systems For Power And Thermal Loads, Barun Kumar Das

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Stand-alone hybrid energy systems are an attractive option for remote communities without a connection to a main power grid. However, the intermittent nature of solar and other renewable sources adversely affects the reliability with which these systems respond to load demands. Hybridisation, achieved by combining renewables with combustion-based supplementary prime movers, improves the ability to meet electric load requirements. In addition, the waste heat generated from backup Internal Combustion Engines or Micro Gas Turbines can be used to satisfy local heating and cooling loads. As a result, there is an expectation that the overall efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Emissions of …

On A Joint Physical Layer And Medium Access Control Sublayer Design For Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks And Applications, Mahir Lumumba Meghji

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are distributed networks comprising small sensing devices equipped with a processor, memory, power source, and often with the capability for short range wireless communication. These networks are used in various applications, and have created interest in WSN research and commercial uses, including industrial, scientific, household, military, medical and environmental domains. These initiatives have also been stimulated by the finalisation of the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which defines the medium access control (MAC) and physical layer (PHY) for low-rate wireless personal area networks (LR-WPAN).

Future applications may require large WSNs consisting of huge numbers of inexpensive wireless sensor …

Energy Efficiency Performance Improvements For Ant-Based Routing Algorithm In Wireless Sensor Networks, A. M. Zungeru, Kah Phooi Seng, Li-Minn Ang, W.C. Chia

Research outputs 2013

The main problem for event gathering in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is the restricted communication range for each node. Due to the restricted communication range and high network density, event forwarding in WSNs is very challenging and requires multihop data forwarding. Currently, the energy-efficient ant based routing (EEABR) algorithm, based on the ant colony optimization (ACO) metaheuristic, is one of the state-of-the-art energy-aware routing protocols. In this paper, we propose three improvements to the EEABR algorithm to further improve its energy efficiency. The improvements to the original EEABR are based on the following: (1) a new scheme to intelligently initialize …

Performance Of Termite-Hill Routing Algorithm On Sink Mobility In Wireless Sensor Networks, Adamu M Zungeru, Li-Minn Ang, Kah Phooi Seng

Research outputs 2012

High efficient and energy-aware routing is an important issue for the design of resource constrained environments like Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Many protocols have been developed for WSN that try to overcome the constraints that characterized this type of networks. Termite based routing protocols can add a significant contribution to assist in the maximization of the network lifetime without performance degradation. But this is only possible by means of an adaptable and balanced algorithm that takes into account the main constraints of WSN. This paper presents a biological inspired self-organized routing protocol for WSN which is based on termite colony …