Journal of Engineering and Technological Sciences

Chloride Salt-Intercalated Ti2C Membranes for Ultraquick Cationic Dye Removal

Fuja Sagita — 2026-06-09

Ti₂C is a 2D nanomaterial with an ultrathin layered structure. This material has remarkable properties due to the -O, -F, and -OH functional groups in surface termination, which makes it hydrophilic and suitable for membrane applications. Herein, we reported the chloride salt-intercalated Ti₂C membrane for methylene blue (MB) removal. The modification was done by a simple mixing method between chloride salt and Ti₂C. First, Ti₂C was synthesized from its parent phase of Ti₂AlC using in-situ HF etchant. Then, Ti₂C was modified using chloride salt (NaCl, KCl, MgCl₂, and CaCl₂), and mixed cellulose ester (MCE) was used as a membrane support to produce a MXene-based membrane (MXM). The results show that chloride salt ions enhance the interlayer spacing of Ti₂C due to the ability of salt cation to be inserted and replace the Li⁺ as intercalant. This result is also evidenced by the difference in d-spacing in XRD analysis. In methylene blue removal, the flux of the membrane was excellent, around 2000-3000 L m^-² h^-¹, with a dye removal value above 97%. The high dye removal is correlated with the electrostatic interaction between the negative surface of Ti₂C and the positive charge of MB. Then, the remarkable performance was reached by MXM-KCl with flux and rejection of 3303.31 L m^-² h^-¹and 99.01%, respectively. The excellent flux of MXM-KCl correlated with the Gibbs free energy hydration of K⁺ is lower than the other salt cations (Na⁺, Mg²⁺, and Ca²⁺). In addition, all membranes exhibit great fouling resistance, with an FRR value of about 90%.

Analysis of Mechanical Properties and Acoustic-Thermal Response Characteristics of Water-Soaked Gabbro

Zhi Bin — 2026-06-09

With the national strategy being implemented and taking root in the infrastructure sector, the increased of water erosion in rock formations during railway construction has risen significantly, posing a considerable risk to the stability and structural integrity of engineering rock formations. Consequently, there is a critical need to investigate how water influences the mechanical properties of gabbro. Uniaxial compression experiments were performed on both arid and water-soaked gabbro pieces, simultaneously monitoring the characteristics of acoustic emission (AE) and infrared radiation (IR) response. The Particle Flow Code (PFC) was utilized to examine the microscopic processes of crack propagation, coalescence, and damage progression in the rock pieces. Observations show that water considerably impacts the mechanical characteristics of gabbro. In comparison to arid pieces, the peak strength of water-soaked pieces showed a reduction of 4.98%, while the elastic modulus was diminished by 16.5%. The failure behavior of the pieces shifted progressively from tensile splitting in the arid condition to tensile-shear failure. Both arid and water-soaked pieces displayed pre-shock-main shock patterns in their AE parameters. By creating a damage variable based on cumulative AE ring counts, the damage evolution of the pieces was categorized into three phases: incipient damage, steady damage, and expedited damage phases. Throughout loading and fracturing, the AIRT (average infrared radiation temperature) curve exhibited a downward trend, followed by a sharp rise, featuring a "V"-shaped turn prior to piece failure. The evolution of AIRT in water-soaked pieces showed strong alignment with stress variations. Numerical simulations using PFC revealed that the quantity of shear cracks in water-soaked pieces increased, constituting a larger share of the total cracks in contrast to arid pieces. After loading, water-soaked pieces generated more strong force chains, with the load borne by bonds gradually increasing, making them more susceptible to failure.

Comparison of PI and PID Controllers for UPQC Integrated Hybrid Renewable Energy System

Manpreet Singh — 2026-07-02

Unified Power Quality Conditioner (UPQC) plays a key role in improving power quality by alleviating voltage and current troubles in electrical distribution systems. The ability of UPQC to respond effectively to power quality turbulences is essentially determined by its control technique. The proportional-integral (PI) and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers are the two most popular control techniques for UPQC. The primary objective of this article is to present a comparative analysis of UPQC performance using PI and PID controllers. The proposed system integrates a photovoltaic system, wind turbine and battery energy storage with UPQC. The PI and PID controllers are employed to regulate the dynamic response of the system. The comparative analysis of the controllers is done on the basis of qualitative parameters such as current response, voltage stability, fast fourier transform (FFT) analysis, step response and quantitative parameters such as total harmonic distortion, maximum overshoot, settling time, power factor, voltage regulation and DC-link deviation. Qualitatively, PID offers smoother current and voltage responses, stronger damping, better harmonic mitigation, and faster transient recovery. Quantitatively, the PID achieves 48% lower THD, 50% reduction in overshoot, halved settling time, improved power factor (0.99 vs. 0.95), and improved voltage regulation (1.7% vs. 4.2%).

Reading Method and Experimental Evaluation of the UWB System D-DWM-PG3.6 for Local Positioning

Thuan-Tien Tran — 2026-07-02

The UWB D-DWM-PG3.6 is a standalone positioning system based on Decawave’s (now Qorvo) ultra-wideband technology. It is designed for local positioning without requiring satellite data systems, making it effective in areas with weak or unstable GPS signals. This study focuses on developing a method for reading and filtering data from the UWB system to obtain stable position parameters. Outlier data are removed, and filtering by moving average helps to smooth and stabilize the position data. Experiments were conducted in a 40×30 m space to evaluate the method’s accuracy. The results show an average positioning error of 7.1 ± 3.6 cm, with a maximum of 26.9 cm under obstructed conditions. These findings highlight the potential for navigation applications in autonomous devices operating in enclosed spaces, such as warehouses and agricultural greenhouses, at a reasonable cost. However, the error magnitude indicates that the system should be integrated with ultrasonic sensors, recognition cameras, or laser technology to improve accuracy.

Influence of NaOH Treatment Duration on the Properties of High-Loaded Coconut Shell Particle Epoxy Biocomposites

Ismail Ismail — 2026-07-02

The objective of this work is to study the effect of soaking time of coconut shell particles in 10% NaOH solution on the performance of the biocomposites. The soaking time was varied from 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 hours. The size of the coconut shell particles used in this study was 200 mesh. The chemical characterization of coconut shell particles before and after treatment with NaOH was performed using FTIR, XRF, and XRD. The coconut shell biocomposites were prepared by using the press method, consisting of 80 vol.% coconut shell particles and 20 vol.% epoxy resin. The density, porosity, water absorption, thickness swelling, modulus of rupture, modulus of elasticity, and thermal decomposition of biocomposites were measured. The results show that the performance of the biocomposites is significantly affected by the immersion time of coconut shell particles in the NaOH solution. Further, it has been observed that the notable improvements in the properties occur after NaOH treatment of the fillers. SEM images showed a significant reduction in particle agglomeration and porosity after NaOH treatment of the fillers. This indicates that the NaOH treatment modified the surface characteristics of the coconut shell particles by removing lignin, which improved their compatibility and interaction with the epoxy resin.

Coolant Bleed Flow Modeling and Prediction for Aircraft Engines Based on TSO-RF Algorithm

Enlai Zhang — 2026-07-10

Coolant bleed flow forecasting is critical for the engineering health of aircraft engines. Using the datasets from Commercial Modular Aero-Propulsion System Simulation (C-MAPSS), this paper aims to establish high-precision coolant bleed flow models by the random forest (RF) algorithm combined with tuna swarm optimization (TSO). 17 sensor variables that are moderately or highly correlated with the low-pressure turbine (LPT) and high-pressure turbine (HPT) are selected as inputs with LPT and HPT as outputs. After being trained and validated on the FD002 and FD004 datasets, the TSO-RF model significantly reduces mean squared error, mean absolute error and root mean squared error, and improves the determination coefficient R² compared to other RF models. It verifies the superiority of the TSO-RF model in predicting engine coolant bleed flow, providing reliable technical support for subsequent evaluation and management in aircraft engine bleed air system.

Detection of Food Freshness in Chicken Meat Based on Weight Variations Using ZnO Gas Sensor

Siti Amaniah Mohd Chachuli — 2026-07-21

In today's food industry, ensuring the safety and quality of chicken meat is important for protecting the public's health and top priority for both consumers and producers. Reliable detection methods are important to address concerns about eating low-quality chicken meat, especially when determining its freshness or food contamination. Therefore, this study proposed a gas sensor as a device to sense the released gas from the chicken meat at a certain time. The ZnO gas sensor was exposed to the chicken meat based on various weights: 200 g, 100 g, 50 g, 25 g, and 10 g at room temperature for 24 hours. The ZnO gas sensor was fabricated using a screen-printing method on a Kapton film. Integrating the gas sensor with an IoT platform by using the Blynk application makes it easier to monitor and identify freshness in real-time applications. The results highlighted that the highest sensing response value was 55 by ZnO-3 when exposed to the 200 g chicken breast. The average time for chicken breast to be spoiled was approximately 20 hours for all weights of chicken breast, which are 200 g, 100 g, 50 g, 25 g, and 10 g. The results showed that the fabricated ZnO gas sensor outperformed the commercial sensor, MQ137, in detecting the gas released from the chicken meat. Thus, this gas sensor can be used to sense odor gases from the chicken meat.