UNIZIK Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences

Effects of volume fraction of palm kernel shell nanoparticles on the pH and electrical conductivity of Ethylene Glycol (EG)/deionised water

Okafor A. A — 2024-04-08

Comprehensive research has been carried out on the synthesis of nanofluid produced from metals, nonmetals and their various oxides. But, little or no work has been carried out using bio-based nanoparticles. The need for the use of bio-based nanoparticles in nanofluids research is important to reduce over-dependence on toxic nanoparticles. Bio-based materials like palm kernel shell (PKS) constitute environmental waste, its conversion to useful products for engineering application will go a long way in solving environmental problems. In this paper, nanoparticles was produced from Palm kernel shell (PKS) using a ball-milling machine. The PKS nanoparticles with an average size of 200 nm were dispersed in a mixture of ethylene glycol (EG)/ deionised water (50:50) base fluid up to 1.5% of the volume fraction (0.3%, 0.6 %, 0.9 % 1.2 % and 1.5%). The pH and electrical conductivity of PKS–deionised water and EG (50:50) were investigated for temperature ranging from 30 to 70◦C. The obtained results showed that the pH and the electrical conductivity increased as the volume fraction of the PKS nanoparticle was increased from 0.3 to 1.5%. However, the pH decreased with an increase in the temperature while the electrical conductivity increased with an increase in the volume fraction and temperature. This shows the effects of palm kernel shell nanoparticles and temperature on the PH and electrical conductivity of the palm kernel shell nanofluid. The experimental results shows the effects of palm kernel shell nanoparticles and temperature on the pH and electrical conductivity of the palm kernel shell nanofluid.

Assessment of Flooding Impact of River Ngadda in Borno State

U. A. Ibrahim — 2024-04-13

Flooding is a threat to the environment that requires appropriate measures to be taken to mitigate it effects. Flood frequency analysis of River Ngadda was carried out using available historical streamflow data (1981 – 2000). Preventive measures to mitigate the impact of flooding were also proposed. Statistical analysis revealed that River Ngadda experienced flood in 7 years from the period of 1981 to 2000 with an annual mean flow discharge of 7728.7m³/s and skewness of 0.86. Furthermore, results showed that River Ngadda experienced another 7 years of flood from the period of 2001 to 2022 with annual average streamflow and skewness of 4241.44m³/s and 1.04 respectively. To this end, the present study suggested that government should ensure compliance to the environmental management policies that are properly enforced in the country. Equally, development control activities should be taken seriously to avoid erecting on flood plains and flood-prone areas. Finally, regular environmental education should be given priority in society as it is always ascribed that knowledge is power, and with power, there is no limit to achievement.

Effect of projectile shape on laminate composite materials (mild steel-bulk metallic glass-dyneema) as ballistic protection using computational analysis

Orueri D. U — 2024-04-13

This study investigated the influence of projectile geometry on the ballistic performance of laminate composite materials for protective systems. Advanced computational analysis using Abaqus Explicit FEA software compared two projectile configurations, blunt-nose and conical, against laminate materials including mild steel, Bulk metallic glass, and Dyneema, with a 9 mm plate thickness target. The study reveals that over a velocity range of 215 m/s to 275 m/s, the conical projectile induces significantly higher Von Mises stress levels compared to the blunt-nose projectile. This effect is attributed to the conical projectile's piercing action causing localized plastic strain and petal-like formations, while the blunt projectile results in plug ejection from the target material. The research highlights the complex failure mechanisms associated with different projectile geometries, with the conical projectile inducing radial necking and petalling, and the blunt projectile causing indentations and plug ejection. These findings underscore the reproducibility of established trends and contribute to understanding the ballistic behavior of laminate composite materials.

Comparing impact of open-flow firewall on the SG-IoT-AMI-infrastructure, a well-designed cloud-based network against non-open flow firewall

Ilokanuno O — 2024-04-04

This work presents a novel smart grid tampering detection system re-engineered for end user monitoring and pipeline automation. The research focused on distributed energy resources. In context, the end user load profile, and generation capacity were processed in the cloud environment for tampering management. Computational pipelined methodology was adopted using baseline data from an independent electricity consumption data from 2018-2021 Abuja. First, a smart grid (SG) survey was carried using existing home estate at Abuja to ascertain tampering procedures in distributed energy resource domain. From the energy survey, the system architecture was developed and implemented based on computational model curve for dynamic attack vector mitigation. An Unsupervised layered SG Architecture with local concentrator was introduced including Advanced Metering Infrastructure Smart Grid (AMI SG) gateway and control Load Balancer Docker Agent with Binomial sink.SG AMI Network packet processing Scheme and docker Orchestration were characterized for SG AMI Traffic Model. Furthermore, Smart Grid Internet of Things Coordinating Infrastructure (SG-IoT-CI) Dynamic Resource Allocation and Load Balancing/Scheduling was presented. The results showed that there was a significant improvement when leveraging SG-IoT-CI unsupervised grid management. Also, a robust distributed SG-IoT based management architecture that links the processes for end-users was developed. To determine the efficiency of the computational algorithm for SG grid deployment, an experiment was carried out on SG-IoT-CI-AMI optimization model using schemes such as K-Nearest Neighbourhood with Isolated Forest (KNN +IF), Load Prediction with Regression (LPBSVR), Support vector machine (SVM), Load Prediction with Neural Network (LPBNN), Local Outlier Factor (LOF) and Lightweight On-line Detector of Anomaly (LODA) for validation study. For Full Scale Query Response Time (FSQRT) under Open Flow security control, it was observed that the SG-IoT-CI AMI Overflow and Non-Open Flow gave 47.82% and 52.17% respectively from the simulation statistic engine. Full Scale Resource Utilization under Open Flow security aggregation layer and Non Open Flow security aggregation layer gave 2.73% and 92.27% percentile utilization respectively. Using the unsupervised contexts, the Secure SG-IoTCI_AMI Latency for LPBSVR, Proposed KNN +IF, SVM, LPBNN, LOF and LODA gave 20.96%, 11.98%, 19.31%, 19.76%, 19.01% and 8.98% respectively. Secure SGIoTCI_AMI service rate gave 14.03%, 35.09%, 5.26%, 8.77%, 15.79% and 21.05% respectively. Secure SG-IoTCI_AMI Throughput gave 19.13%, 25.04%, 19.27%, 15.47%, 18.28% and 28.12% respectively. Secure SGIoTCI_AMI Accuracy Response gave 26.66%, 31.11%, 15.55%, 0.00%, 22.22% and 4.46% respectively. The results show that tampering control within SG grid ecosystems is feasible and very efficient.

Analysis of air pollution from fossil fuel powered electricity generating set around off-campus student’s hostel: consideration of location and number of generators in use

Victor M. Mbachu — 2024-05-05

Although combustion of fossil fuel has been widely reported to pollute the air and to have hazardous effect on humans and the environment, the students of the study area seem to have this cannot-do-without attitude towards fossil fuel powered electricity generating sets and this has resulted to continuous subscription to this electric power source. The paper attempts to understand the combinatorial effect of the factors affecting the pollution level and how, if possible, same can be minimize within the feasible solution space of proper positioning and optimum number of generators in use. Data were primarily sourced from student’s hostels with many of such generating sets, collated and analyzed using multivariate regression technique. The obtained result shows that although the positioning of the generators has significant effect on the air pollution level in the student’s hostels, for the case analyzed, the optimum distance away from the generator’s house (housing 14 generating sets) is about 35.73 meters for maximum air pollution level of 15 and humidity of 99. While for zero number of operating fossil fuel powered electricity generating sets, at humidity of 99 (highest obtained level), wind direction relative to the observer of 360, and wind speed of 5 (highest obtained level), the air pollution level was found to be 13.76 around the generator’s house, which is within the safe range (0 – 15). It then suggests that replacement of the fossil fuel powered electricity generators with renewable energy sources should be sought rather than the palliative of seeking proper location of the fossil fuel powered generators, considering the space limitation in most of the hostels

Unveiling manganese effects on the hardness and electrical resistivity of Cu-20wt%Zn-xMn alloy

Ifeanacho Uchenna Okeke — 2024-06-30

This paper focuses on the effects of manganese contents on hardness and electrical resistivity of Cu-20wt%Zn-xMn alloy. Manganese was added in concentrations of (x: 0.1, 0.3, and 0.5wt%). The samples were produced by permanent die casting and machined to the required dimensions for the structural analysis and mechanical tests. Physical and mechanical properties studied were electrical resistivity and Brinell hardness respectively. Standard equipment was used to study the structure and calculate the hardness and electrical resistivity of the developed alloy. The results of the structural analysis showed that the control specimen consisted predominantly of coarse and needle-like α-phase of zinc in copper (Cu₃Zn). The samples doped with manganese consisted of refined dendrites of α-phase with patches of secondary phase. Physical and mechanical tests results indicated that addition of manganese to alpha brass increased the hardness and electrical resistivity respectively. The value increase recorded for electrical resistivity and Brinell hardness were from 0.74 x 10⁷Ωm to 1.32 x 10⁷Ωm and 124HB to 150HB respectively.

Influence of heat treatment parameters on mechanical properties and microstructure of Cu-10wt%Si-2wt%Ni alloy

Ukamaka. E. Ezeobi — 2024-06-30

The impact of heat treatment parameters on the tensile properties and microstructural characteristics of Cu-10wt%Si-2wt%Ni alloy produced by sand casting technique were investigated. The samples were subjected to solid solution heat treatment, brine quenched and subsequently analyzed for ultimate tensile strength, elastic modulus, yield strength, and microstructural characteristics. The results showed that solid solution heat treatment refined and modified the structure of Cu-10wt%Si-2wt%Ni alloy and significantly improve the tensile properties. Maximum yield strength (160.8 MPa) and ultimate tensile strength (193.83 MPa) were observed at 800°C for 2.5 hours after heat treatment while maximum elastic modulus of 1979.17 MPa were observed at 900°C for 3.5 hours. Maximum percentage elongation value of 32.79% was observed after solid solution treatment at 700°C for 0.5 hours. Microstructural analysis results revealed a transition from coarse grains dispersed within the copper matrix in the control sample to finer grains of intermetallic compounds in the heat-treated specimens.