ABSTRACT A gravitational drip Irrigation system was designed and constructed using available materials; and tested for the use of small scale farmers.
ABSTRACT Two field experiments were conducted to compare the growth and yield of tomatoes using experimentation and FAO AquaCrop model at the University of Cape Coast Teaching and Research Farm in the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly of the Central Region of Ghana. The Randomized Complete Block Design was used with four (4) treatments and four(4) replications for the two experiments. The treatments used for both experiments were T1 – Full irrigation (100 %), T2 – 90 % irrigation, T3 – 8...
INTRODUCTION In the recent times, the application of interactive software algorithms have made tremendous impact in the field of technology and engineering, various computer-aided methods are now used in virtually dl its aspects of human endeavour. This work is on the development of a software algorithm to model and forecast energy Loads with a possible choice of three different forecasting models. The developed software does not only remove the medium associated with Energy modeling and fore...
abstract Modelling and prediction of wind speed are essential prerequisites in the sitting and sizing of wind power applications. The profile of wind speed in Nigeria is modelled using artificial neural network (ANN). The ANN model consists of 3-layered, feed-forward, back-propagation network with different configurations, designed using the Neural Toolbox for MATLAB. The monthly mean daily wind speed data monitored at 10 m above ground level for a period of 20 years (1983–2003) for 28 grou...
ABSTRACT Earth dam failures could result in the loss of lives, damage to properties, health, environmental and social problems. Distressed dams cost a lot of resources and inconveniences to remediate. There is paucity of data on failures and distresses of many earth dams located in the north-eastern part of Nigeria. This study was designed to determine the geological, hydrometeorological, engineering factors and soil properties responsible for the failures and distresses of earth dams. A tota...
ABSTRACT Boundaries of six selected countries one from each continent were studied, using fractal dimension technique. The Area – Perimeter relation method was used, where land area covered and boundary length of designated countries were measured in the unit of known box size (Box counting). The loglog plots of these variables were obtained and the slopes were measured as the required dimensions. Fractal dimensions determined lie between 1.19 and 1.55. The scale size of the maps, and the n...
ABSTRACT Engineering research is a sine-qua-non for development of new products, new production processes, hence production lines in the quest for self reliance in any economy. Modeling and simulation is a veritable tool for such research and development. This paper presents the multifaceted use of modeling and simulation as decision tools for engineering facet of an economy drawing examples from two different engineering disciplines- Metallurgical and Civil.
ABSTRACT In this study, the short-term load pattern for the University of Ibadan was investigated and a multilayered feed-forward artificial neural networks (ANN) model was developed to forecast the time series half-hourly load pattern of the system using the load data for a period of 5 years (2000 to 2004). The study showed that the mean half hourly load for the period of study ranged between 1.3 and 2.2 MW, and the coefficient of determination (R2 -values) of the ANN predicted and the measu...
ABSTRACT Commercial act~vated carbons are produced from bituminous and lignite coal. The environmental impacts and potentially increasing cost of coal has encouraged the search for other alternatives in agricultural wastes. The objectives of this study were to develop process flow diagrams for the large scale production of activated carbon from three agricultural wastes namely: coconut shells, oil-palm shells, and sugarcane bagasse as well as carrying out an economic evaluation to estimate th...
ABSTRACT This study explores the potentiality of decimal digits distribution to differentiate between chaotic and random numbers. Ten thousand (10000) random and chaotic numbers each were generated using computer inbuilt random number generator and Logistic equation respectively. The random and chaotic numbers were obtained using FORTRAN codes. Logistic equation was solved for only parameters (Ks7) known to exhibit chaotic behaviour with initial value of 0.3 for all cases. Graphs of decimal d...
ABSTRACT Smoking and drying are major methods of processing and preserving fish in Nigeria. However, inadequate packaging using cartons, baskets, jute and mat bags with transparent polyethylene are the most common which offer little protection against external agents and has been a major challenge. There is dearth of information on the developments of appropriate fish packaging thereby limiting fishery preservation to small scale business. The use of composite packaging materials for storage ...
Abstract A simulation study of the effect of shear stresses in non-reinforced and reinforced structures was carried in this work. Using the Finite Element Method and equations of elasticity, columns and concrete deck of a simple storey structure were subjected to plane strain conditions. The results showed that proper reinforcement causes stresses to be directed into the reinforcements with the resultant shear stresses in the steel reinforcements far below the yield stresses of the steels. In...
ABSTRACT Modeled grain structures of normalized carbon steels using voronoi tessellation is reported in this work. Three stages of programming were used in modeling the microstructures. The first stage was iteration of the voronoi cells in order to obtain equivalent grain size with experimental specimens. In the second stage, the pearlite phase was introduced using the lever rule represented by a plot of random points. The third layer was modeled to reveal the grain boundaries of the carbon s...
Abstract Timber log processing is an energy intensive process which involves converting log into lumber of different sizes and shapes using different and varied methods. The energy supply problems facing Nigeria have adversely affected many log processing industry in the country leading to self-generation of energy. There have been various energy audits in some industries but with little or no attention on the log processing industry in Nigeria. Thus, this study investigated the pattern of en...
ABSTRACT Locally processed rice (Oryza sativa L.) is characterized with high percentage of broken grains and impurities which impair the quality and reduces the market value. Reducing the proportion of broken rice and impurities after milling remains a challenge. There is therefore a need to develop a machine which cleans and grades the rice kernels based on quality. The objective of this work was to develop a cleaner - grader to improve the quality of milled rice. The physical and aerodyna...