Nigeria has one of the lowest electricity consumption per capita in Africa and this is because the power grid capacity has not been able to meet the ever increasing demand for electricity. To remain in business, several business enterprises rely on captive generation of electricity; thus, the hospitality industry is not left out of this experience. Primarily, this study evaluates the energy consumption trend in the Nigerian hotel industry. The energy utilization is modeled in order to apprais...
Abstract According to the United Nation Development Programme, access to modern low-cost energy systems in developing countries is important in the realization of the globally agreed developmental goals, as well as the Millennium Development Goals, and sustainable development, which would assist in the reduction of poverty and to improve the conditions and quality of life for the greater part of the world’s population. Planners have suggested hybrid energy system for the electrification of...
ABSTRACT Several attempts have been made to optimize the design of bridge and roof trusses. This work presents the development of an Expert System (ES) for the optimal design of bridge trusses subjected to moving loads and roof trusses as well. The research improves on such previous attempts in many areas including automation of structure data generation, experience gaining facilities, suggestions and decision making, flexibility, and structural arrangement, shortest possible volume of input...
ABSTRACT Procedures are developed for designing high-speed, modular digital filters. The techniques presented here are based on the use of differences in the data signal in processing. The use of one-bit word, and the use of mapping of differentials in processing to produce a multiplication free, fast, and modular structured digital filters is considered in details in this thesis. A new algorithm for the digital filter is also proposed in the thesis which leads to the possibility of usi...
ABSTRACT This study has investigated the techniques for motion control of industrial robots with an application in which the robotics end-effector is required to track prescribed paths under conditions of changing payload masses, friction and elasticity in the gear boxes. In particular, the minimal configuration (the first three degrees-of-freedom) necessary for positioning the end-effector of a revolute industrial robot arm, MIMO, has been studied in terms of kinematics, dynamics and control...
ABSTRACT Extensive literature abounds on the evaluating techniques of load-point reliability indices of electrical power systems. On the whole, all the efforts of the published works have been the establishment of conventional methods to evaluate load-point reliability indices from raw component reliability data. Any system change that warrants new set of load-point reliability indices would require the whole process of reliability evaluation to be repeated. That is an inherent characteristic...
ABSTRACT The most pertinent problem which must be solved in the design of multicomponent distillation process is the evaluation of the vapour-liquid equilibrium (VLE) ratio and enthalpy (liquid and vapour) values of each component in each of the stages. Good experimental data are not easily obtained but require considerable experimental skill, experience and patience. It is therefore of economical necessity to consider techniques for estimating vapour-liquid equilibrium and enthalpies data fo...
ABSTRACT The steady-state two-dimensional problem of combined free and forced laminar convection with upward flow in inclined rectangular channels heated from below and cooled from above, has been investigated by numerical, parameter perturbation and experimental methods. The results indicate that for air (Pr = 0.73), maximum heat transfer rates occur at the hotwall for inclinations between 30° and 60° to the horizontal. In addition, the perturbation analysis predicts the occurence of maxim...
ABSTRACT With the increase in use of internet access across the world, there has been a shift from classic wired connection technology to the faster and efficient mobile wireless solutions. Zimbabwe as a country is also experiencing this upsurge. However, its hindered by the lack of flexible connection solutions in the densely populated rural areas. A perceived “digital divide” exists between the rural and urban population. This study seeks to explore a new way of breaking this divide by...
ABSTRACT Offshore pipeline and flow line systems define a variety of subsea architectures associated with Floating Production Storage and Offloading units (FPSOs) or Floating Storage and Offloading units (FSOs) that are usually employed for oil and gas production in deep and ultra deep waters. The design of such transmission facilities, must satisfactorily account for various phenomena such as hydrodynamic wave loading, fluid transport velocity, operating pressure and temperature of the inte...
Abstract The design and implementation of this real time taxi monitoring and Passenger inventory system is meant to unleash a new era of systematic taxi operation in Zimbabwe. It introduces a tight close monitoring environment for taxis so as to maximise on returns from the business. In the prevailing situation where there is a general lack of effective monitoring of taxis the employees run a parallel business of their own using the same taxis. This inherent inefficiency in the system adver...
Abstract There has been an emerging demand for quick and easy payment of bills in supermarkets. This project describes how to build an automated and time saving system for the world of retail which will make shopping experience impetuous, customer friendly and secure. In this dissertation, RFID based electronic is proposed that will be capable of generating a bill from the cart itself. The designed trolley helps the shop owner by reducing the shop assistances available on duty at one time th...
ABSTRACT In this study, the use of purely inorganic filler materials to influence the mechanical properties of flexible polyurethane foam has been investigated. The fillers were calcite (CaCO3), dolomite (CaMg(CO))), and kaolin (ALSO(OH)) of volume fractions ranging from 0 - 40 wt%. Each of the filler content ranges was investigated at the following average particle size distributions: 0.06, 0.5, 3.5, 10, 20, and 841 um. The experiment was performed in a discontinuous foaming process based on...
ABSTRACT The focus of this research work is the unraveling of the microbial dynamics of the biodegradation of a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), naphthalene, anthracene and pyrone in an aqueous- soil matrix. The soil used in these studies was characterized as highly porous with a sandy-clay ratio of 85-14%. The microbial growth study was characterized by an initial lag phase, a rapid and an exponential increase in cell biomass, a stationary phase and finally a death phase. T...
Abstract The threat of slugging to production facilities has been known since the 70’s. This undesirable flow phenomenon continues to attract the attention of researchers and operators alike. The most common method for slug mitigation is by choking the valve at the exit of the riser which unfortunately could negatively affect production. The focus therefore is to satisfy the need for system stability and to maximize production simultaneously. Active feedback control is a promising way to ac...