ERU - 2005

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.248.9.226/handle/123/14682

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item: Conference-Full-text
Proceedings of the 11th annual symposium 2005 (Pre Text)
(The Engineering Research Unit University of Moratuwa, 2005-09) Dias, D
item: Conference-Full-text
Synthesis of a biodegradable copolymer of styrene and cotton cellulose
(2005) Nizam, N; Jayasuriya, CK; Premachandra, JK
With the increasing demand for polymers for variety of applicatio~s, replacing conventional materials such as metals, their disposal has become a major environmental issue since most of them are nondegradable. Hence, the fabrication of environmentally friendly polymeric systems has been a major research interest. In the current research, synthesis of a block copolymer of styrene with cellulosic segments has been carried out.
item: Conference-Full-text
Surface roughness measurement of ultrasonic echo amplitude technique
(2005) Munasinghe, N; De Silva, I; Sivahar, V
The foundry industry has a major role to play in the economic development of our country. Unfortunately in Sri Lanka the technological development of this industry has stagnated. The quality of foundry products manufactured in Sri Lanka is not up to the competent level with international market. Through a structured questionnaire survey it was revealed that one of the most significant quality parameter of the castings such as ornaments, door and window fitting etc is the surface roughness. Presently the surface roughness of the castings is measured by using JISB0659 surface roughness gauge. But it is not an advance scientific method as the sensitivity and the accuracy of this method is not up to the satisfactory level. The most common and standard method used for measure the surface roughness is stylus profilometry. But this method is not suitable for measuring the surface roughness of castings with complex shapes.
item: Conference-Full-text
Study of natural rubber latex - filler interaction
(2005) Gunapala, O; Gunapala, PY; Peris, CN
An attempt has been made to investigate interaction of Natural Rubber (NR) Latex with modified kaolin by means of application of 1800 peel test of flexible to rigid joints and to study the effect of the NR latex - filler interaction on the performance properties of filled rubber latex products.
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Stack emission modeling in the process industry
(2005) Illangasinghe, K; Gunasekera, M; De Alwis, A
Air being an important part of the environment is always required to be in a satisfactory condition for proper functioning of the entire eco system. Air quality is affected due to several reasons such as increasing number of industries and vehicles. Therefore current practice is to carrying out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before a new industry is started. The purpose of the EIA is to predict and identify potentially significant environmental impacts of development proposals and to suggest mitigation measures to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive impacts. Further, monitoring emissions from industrial activities during plant operation helps identification and prevention of adverse environmental impacts.
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Sensitivity analysis of soil creep by using a constitutive soil creep model
(2005) Madurapperuma, MAKM; Puswewala, UGA
Multi-dimensional (2-D and 3-D) soil creep models are generalized from Bjerrum's I-D creep model (Bjerrum, 1967), which is based on field test data. This model is based on an expression for creep strain rate, and was later modified for transient loading conditions. In the present work, this differential form of I-D creep model is extended to multi-dimensional (2-D and 3-D) state of stress and strain by incorporating concepts of visco-plasticity. The devised 2-D and 3-D creep models take into account both volumetric creep strain and deviatoric creep strain, and creep deformation of the soil is defined by several material parameters. A non-linear, time incrementing finite element program, along with iterative corrections within each time step, had been developed by the second author (Puswewala et al. 1992). Certain modifications were done in the latter main program to incorporate the present model as an element subroutine for plane strain condition. The numerical model will enable to check the sensitivity of model parameters on predicted results as well as the time-dependent solution of complicated foundation-soil interaction problems involving creep of soil. Numerical analyses are conducted using published experimental data and parametric studies are conducted to evaluate the sensitivity of different input parameters of the model. The verified program will be an important resource tool for estimating settlements in structures founded on soils exhibiting creep.
item: Conference-Full-text
Removal of iron (fe) from industrial wastewaters by constructed wetlands: an application of water Hyacinth (EICHHORNIA CRASSIPES (mart.) solms) stands
(2005) Jayaweera, MW; Kasturiarachchi, JC; Kularatne, RKA
Severe contamination of water resources including groundwater with iron (Fe) due to various anthropogenic activities has been a major environmental problem in the industrial areas of Sri Lanka. At present Fe rich industrial' wastewaters are mostly treated with chemical precipitation. Moreover this technique is generally costly, depends on many intrinsic environmental parameters and requires intensive management and long-term maintenance. Hence the use of the obnoxious weed water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes (Mart.) Solms) in constructed wetlands to phytoremediate Fe rich wastewaters seems to be an appealing option. Although several studies have documented that hyacinths are good metal accumulating plants none of these studies have documented the effects of the nutritional status of the plants on the phytoremediation of metal rich industrial wastewaters. Hence in this paper we report the possible Fe removal efficiencies under different nutritional conditions of water hyacinth in batch type constructed wetlands. This study was conducted for 15 weeks by culturing water hyacinth in 590 I capacity fiberglass tanks under different nutrient concentrations of 2-fold (56 TN mg/l and 15.4 TP mg/l), l-fold, 112-fold, 114-fold and lI8-fold with Fe rich industrial wastewaters containing 9.27 Fe mg/l. A control set-up of hyacinths containing only Fe as a heavy metal but without any nutrients was also studied. A mass balance was conducted to investigate the phytoremediation efficiencies and to determine the different mechanisms governing Fe removal from the wastewaters
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Reality of financing toll highways in Sri Lanka
(2005) Gunathilaka, KDS; Ranasinghe, M
Highway infrastructure and good road network play important roles in the economic development of a country and their condition affects the economic returns of a nation. Traffic congestion is a critical problem due to poor road network in most countries today and improving the road network properly is essential. Most developing countries like Sri Lanka face difficulties to improve the road infrastructure because of unstable economic conditions and lack of investment funds. As a result, few Class A highways are available in the road network of Sri Lanka and no expressways have been completed so far. The concept of toll highway was initiated during last decade and it was perceived to be a better solution for solving funding problems for expressway constructions in developing countries. It allows private entities to participate, as there are several strategies for financing infrastructure projects on this basis. However, the nation's first toll highway, the Colombo-Katunayake Expressway (CKE) is held up at the construction stage and it lends to the argument that the toll highway concept is not viable for Sri Lanka.
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Natural and enhanced contaminated waters
(2005) Hettiarachchi, M; Karunarathne, S; Dissanayake, K
Chromium is a highly soluble transition metal of vital industrial importance. It occurs in both trivalent and hexavalent forms. Due to many well identified adverse impacts of chromium to human health and natural ecosystems, treatment of chromium contaminated waters and remediation of contaminated aquatic systems has become a major concern of environmental engineers. The currently practiced conventional mechano-chemical treatment systems for remediation of chromium contaminated waters have high operational costs, therefore alternative natural attenuation systems are becoming the focus of modern research. This paper presents an analytical review on application of natural attenuation methods in removal of chromium in Sri Lanka. Some results presented on phyto-remediation and sorption of chromium by gravels are original research findings of the authors. Some possibilities sited in-literature are also reviewed.
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Intelligent behaviors and sensor fusion for mobile robot based on fuzzy realization
(2005) Pallegedara, A; Jayasiri, DDAS; Udawatta, L; Dassanayaka, P
This paper describes how fuzzy control can be applied to a sonar-based mobile robot. Behavior-based fuzzy control for robot behaviors was designed using sonar sensors. (10) Throughout this research work experimental mobile robot is used as the development platform to embody some basic behaviors. That can further be combined to build more complex behaviors. Avoid - Obstacle, Left-Right wall following, Move To-Point, Vision information detection and Emergency behaviors will be designed and embody as basic robot behaviors. (1) However, this effort basically emphasized in terms of sonar base obstacle avoidance behavior. The results show that Fuzzy behaviors are used to make the robot work intelligently, where Fuzzy rules are defined based on the tasks. The final robot commands will be depended on the Fuzzy selection that integrates and coordinates all behaviors, in which a simple Fuzzy reasoning is assigned to one elemental behavior consisting of a single input - output relation.
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Implementation and adaptation framework for ERP systems in Sri Lankan organizations
(2005) Dharmarathne, KNN; Perera, HSC
There is an increasing need to implement a total business solution, which supports major functionalities of a business. ERP software is designed to meet this need, and has been adopted by many of the largescale organizations in Sri Lanka. Currently, ERP system implementation remains in its infancy in Sri Lankan manufacturing, services and financial sector.
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Genetic algorithm based signature training
(2005) Jayasekara, AGBP; Udawatta, L
Signature recognition has many practical applications in criminology, document authenticity, banking sector and organizational level record keeping. A trained template of sample input signatures can be used to recognize signatures by using a mapping technique. Therefore the signature template training process is very vital. In this paper we proposed a signature template training method based on Genetic Algorithm (GA). The training process mainly consists of two phases, signature preprocessing and GA based signature template training. Signature preprocessing stage includes signature acquisition using a scanner, signature background dependency adjustments, scale and translation invariance implementation and input signature image conversion to binary format.
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Experience of the Indian Ocean tsunami on the Sri Lankan coast
(2005) Hettiarachchi, SSL; Samarawickrama, SP
The Indian Ocean Tsunami de 'r-stated the- coastline of Sri Lanka. This paper sumrnarises the initial efforts in understanding the tsunami wave and its hydraulic impact on the Sri Lankan coastline. It focuses attention on the hydraulic processes which led to large scale inundation, analysis of wave- current measurements recorded offshore of Colombo Harbour and describes post tsunami field investigations to assess the overall impact on the coastline. The paper identifies the need for modeling of potential tsunamis and discusses briefly issues relating to the planning of countermeasures.
item: Conference-Full-text
Estimation and forecasting of time dependent parameter models using reliable software
(2005) Cooray, TMJA
Until recently, the dominant paradigm in the analysis and forecasting of nonstationary time series has been the approach proposed originally by Box and Jenkins in 1970, which involves the en bloc processing of time series data that have been reduced to stationarity by pre-processing, using techniques such as differencing and use of transformation. A more flexible and widely applicable alternative, which is now favored in many different scientific disciplines, is to analyse the time series directly in their non stationary form using recursive estimation and fixed interval smoothing. Here, the estimates of model parameters or state variables are updated sequentially, so allowing for the estimation of the time variable or state dependent parameters that can be used to characterise models of nonstationary systems. This paper provides an introduction to the latest techniques, developed by the author using MATLAB tool box, in optimal recursive estimation and concentrates on the simplest class of models for nonstationary systems; namely time variable parameter, or Vector Auto Regressive Moving Averages with eXogenous variables (VARMAX), Generalised AutoRegressive Conditional Heteroscedastic (GARCH) errors, as well as the closely related time variable parameter version of the State Space time dependant (SDP) models. In all cases, the utility of these methods is demonstrated through examples
item: Conference-Full-text
Environmental management options for skim rubber industry
(2005) Yasaratna, PDTN; Wijeyekoon, SLJ; Peiris, S
Natural rubber processing factories generate large amount of wastewater containing organic pollutants and various process chemicals. The effluents exhibit high BOD, COD, NH4+-N and suspended solid concentrations. The discharge of untreated effluents into streams or paddy fields result in the emission of obnoxious odour and low pH levels. The acidic effluent is found to cause damage to crops especially to paddy and coconut. Except for a few, most rubber processing factories do not treat the effluent prior to disposal due to high capital and recurrent costs involved for end of the pipe treatment. Therefore sustainable environmental management dictates the adoption of Cleaner Production (CP) strategies to meet environmental regulations and reduce treatment costs.
item: Conference-Full-text
Effect of disc spacing on twist level of the friction disc false- twist texturing
(2005) Wickrarnasinghe, GLD; Foster, PW
The aim of the research was to investigate the effect of disc spacing of the friction discs on twist level in false-twist texturing. Basically, development of the false-twisting is based on higher level of twist
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Development of soil-water characteristic curve for a residual soil using triaxial and pressure-plate apparatus
(2005) Puswewala, UGA; Tharanganie, BGN
The soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) of the soil found at Pussellawa landslide site is developed for a wide range of metric suction values, based on the results obtained from a series of laboratory triaxial tests on unsaturated samples. The SWCC of the same soil is developed for a range of metric suction values, based on the results obtained from laboratory tests using a 5 bar Pressure plate apparatus. The developed SWCC's are compared with each other and typical soil-water characteristic curves reported in literature.
item: Conference-Full-text
Comparison of accident rates between vehicle types in Sri Lanka
(2005) Jayaratne, MDRP; Kumarage, AS
Accidents have steadily increased with time on Sri Lankan roads. While there are a host of contributory factors, the rapidly increasing vehicle fleet is the primary reason. According to the accident statistics; 92,610 vehicles were involved in the 54,911 road accidents reported in 2002. Of this 2,967 vehicles were involved in 2,024 fatal accidents. The main objective of this paper is to find out the most risky vehicle type that was involved in road accidents in terms of the number of vehicles, faulty rate and fatality rate etc.
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Cleaner production in palm oil industry, Sri Lanka
(2005) Ratnayake, N; Weerasekara, HM
Oil palm was introduced to Sri Lanka from Malaysia in late nineteen sixties. As of now it has spread over 10,000 acres of the southern part of the Island. However the country does have only one palm oil mill processing over 19,000 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches annually. To fulfil the main objective of developing cleaner production options for the factory operations, a walk-through audit was carried out followed by a detail audit considering each and every process step of the factory. Detailed assessments were conducted in areas including material handling & consumption and waste generation with their characteristics. Electrical & thermal energy utilisation was analysed in detail to evaluate the current operational efficiencies and methods to minimise the losses. Energy and material balances were done in calculating actual process requirements and estimating existing losses. Technical feasibility, financial viability and environmental sustainability were the main evaluating criteria of selecting the key options. Results revealed that there were electrical and thermal energy utilisation inefficiencies, possibilities of reduction of material wastage and producing by-products from waste. It was identified that by making simple changes to the existing handling systems the product losses could be minimized and at the same time final product quality could be improved, making the operation more profitable. In addition, additional income from by-products will enhance the economic viability of implementing the selected cleaner production options.
item: Conference-Full-text
Biodegradable introducing polyethylene polymeric composites starch oleates into prepared by low-density
(2005) Dias, GMGD; Premachandra, BAJK; Walpalage, S
As a solution to the environmental damage caused by the synthetic polymers in wasted materials, the use of biodegradable polymers has gained much attention during the last couple of years. The current research involved the preparation and characterization of novel biodegradable polymeric composites. In these composites, Low-Density Polyethylene was used as the continuous phase. Tapioca starch, a naturally occurring biodegradable polymer available in Sri Lanka was used as the other component in the composites. Compatibility of starch with (LDPE) was increased by replacing hydrophilic OH groups in starch molecules to different extents by oleate fatty-ester moieties. Mechanical properties, morphology, water absorptivity and biodegradability of the resulting composites were investigated.

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