Mechanical Engineering Advances

Low carbon integrated vehicles and buildings

Kevin Kendall — 2024-01-30

This paper defines vehicles and buildings as main sources of United Kingdom (UK) carbon dioxide (CO₂) and seeks to cut such emissions using green hydrogen made from combined wind and solar energy. Combustion vehicles powered by fossil petroleum emit near half of UK climate-warming CO₂ while buildings heated by natural gas provide a third. First, current UK grid problems are defined: Electricity, gas and petroleum grids. Refueling green vehicles has been a particular problem. Then experiments on the private wire community of Keele University show how green hydrogen could integrate both green vehicles and buildings. Next, the model supply chain is planned and tested. Finally, experiments and calculations are outlined, analyzing the optimum system design criteria proposed. We conclude that economic green hydrogen can displace petroleum in vehicles, while powering buildings instead of natural gas. Also, the prospect in 2024 is that profits can be made all along the green hydrogen supply chain, such that new businesses involved in local private clean communities can cost less than the National Grid monopoly and other dominant fossil energy companies.

The main distinguishing characteristic of active vibration control

Zine Ghemari — 2024-01-05

Active Vibration Control (AVC) stands out as a prominent technique in the realm of vibration mitigation and structural dynamics. Unlike passive vibration control methods that rely on dampers or isolators, AVC systems actively manipulate forces or motions within a structure in real-time to counteract undesirable vibrations. In this paper, the main distinguishing characteristic of AVC lies in its proactive approach, wherein control algorithms and actuators are employed to actively sense and respond to dynamic changes in the system. The application of Newton’s second law allows to model of the vibration sensors operation, followed by simulations to improve their performance, contributes to the advancement of the active vibration control system by enabling more precise detection and measurement of vibrations.

Simulations of the operation of the fast light innovative regional train from “Serbian Railways” in traction and electric braking mode

Branislav Gavrilovic — 2023-11-25

In the paper, the MATLAB-Simulink model of simulation of operation of the fast light innovative regional train from “Serbian Railways” in traction and braking mode is exposed where changes are observed: stator currents of three-phase traction motors, traction electric motor speeds and electric multiple unit, electromagnetic torque on the rotor shaft of the traction electric motor and diirect current bus voltage. The model allowed review of the listed parameters for: different allowed values of contact network voltage and total voltage distortion at the place of connection of the electric multiple unit to the contact network, different mechanical loads of electric multiple unit and traction electric motor and different train speeds and rotation of traction electric motors. Appropriate conclusions were made through the analysis of the simulation results obtained.

A review on Co3O4 nanostructures as the electrodes of supercapacitors

Samatha Kelathaya — 2023-11-22

Usage of supercapacitors in energy storage applications has now become a new trend due to its high auspicious features. Introduction of pseudocapacitance has increased its weightage to be used in greater number of practical utilization. Electrodes are the major constituents of a supercapacitor based on which the electrochemical performance of the supercapacitor is decided. Among varieties of electrode materials available, transition metal oxides are the most suitable ones to fulfill the required its criteria. Due to the occurrence of faradic redox reactions on the surface of electrodes, selection of efficient and favorable electrode material plays major role. Co₃O₄ (Cobalt (III) oxide) is one among the most desiring electrode materials due to its various peculiar features. This paper reviews briefly on several factors of Co₃O₄ as electrode material in supercapacitor applications. It includes comparative discussions towards different synthesize methodologies, influence of its dimensional morphology on the electrochemical outputs like specific capacitance, energy density and the power density.