Ibtissem Moussa¹, Noureddine Baaka¹, Ramzi Khiari^1,2,3*, Ali Moussa⁴, Gérard Mortha³, Mohamed Farouk Mhenni¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.6, No.1, pp. 55-67, 2018, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634141

Abstract Natural dyes have become an interesting subject of study because of their better ecological properties in comparison to their synthetic counterparts. This article concerns the dyeing of wool, silk, and polyamide fabrics with natural dyes extracted from almond shells and stems. The developed method of dyeing by these extracts is interesting and very attractive for several reasons: firstly, the extracts used are the black liquor discharged from the industries of delignification, which is a chemical process for removing lignin from agricultural wastes to produce a cellulosic fiber; (ii) these natural dyes are renewable and available More >

Shurong Li^1,*, Yulei Ge², Renlin Zang²

CMES-Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences, Vol.114, No.1, pp. 95-116, 2018, DOI:10.3970/cmes.2018.114.095

Abstract In this paper, an interacting multiple-model (IMM) method based on data-driven identification model is proposed for the prediction of nonlinear dynamic systems. Firstly, two basic models are selected as combination components due to their proved effectiveness. One is Gaussian process (GP) model, which can provide the predictive variance of the predicted output and only has several optimizing parameters. The other is regularized extreme learning machine (RELM) model, which can improve the over-fitting problem resulted by empirical risk minimization principle and enhances the overall generalization performance. Then both of the models are updated continually using meaningful… More >

Wenqi Zhang¹, Yunqing Gu^1,*, Jiegang Mou¹

FDMP-Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing, Vol.14, No.4, pp. 243-258, 2018, DOI:10.32604/fdmp.2018.03836

Abstract It is of great significance for the production of micro robots and new sensors to develop actuators with “muscle” properties. As a kind of electroactive polymers (EAPs), IPMC (ionic polymer-metal composite) can exhibit significant deformation for very low electrical excitation. These composites, known as the “artificial muscle”, can be regarded as intelligent bionic materials. With regard to the mechanism of deformation of IPMC, a large number of experimental studies have proved that the variety of electrodes and water contents relating to IPMC have great influence on its electro-mechanical and mechanical properties. Recent research results about… More >

V. Gopinath¹, R. S. Bhuvaneswaran²

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.57, No.2, pp. 341-352, 2018, DOI:10.32604/cmc.2018.04006

Abstract Cloud computing is the highly demanded technology nowadays. Due to the service oriented architecture, seamless accessibility and other advantages of this advent technology, many transaction rich applications are making use of it. At the same time, it is vulnerable to hacks and threats. Hence securing this environment is of at most important and many research works are being reported focusing on it. This paper proposes a safe storage mechanism using Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) for the Transaction Rich Applications (TRA). With ECC based security scheme, the security level of the protected system will be increased More >

Jinhua Cui^1,2, Yuanyuan Zhang³, Zhiping Cai^1,*, Anfeng Liu⁴, Yangyang Li⁵

CMC-Computers, Materials & Continua, Vol.55, No.1, pp. 17-35, 2018, DOI:10.3970/cmc.2018.055.017

Abstract While smart devices based on ARM processor bring us a lot of convenience, they also become an attractive target of cyber-attacks. The threat is exaggerated as commodity OSes usually have a large code base and suffer from various software vulnerabilities. Nowadays, adversaries prefer to steal sensitive data by leaking the content of display output by a security-sensitive application. A promising solution is to exploit the hardware visualization extensions provided by modern ARM processors to construct a secure display path between the applications and the display device. In this work, we present a scheme named SecDisplay More >

A. El Mansouri^a,b, M. Hasnaoui^a,*, A. Amahmid^a , Y. Dahani^a , M. Alouah^a , S. Hasnaoui^a , R. Khaoula^a , M. Ouahas^a, R. Bennacer^b

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.9, pp. 1-14, 2017, DOI:10.5098/hmt.9.28

Abstract A two-dimensional numerical simulation is conducted to study natural convection flow and heat transfer characteristics in a square cavity filled with a micropolar fluid. The lower and upper walls of the cavity are respectively subject to isothermal heating and cooling while the temperatures of both vertical sides decrease linearly in the upwards direction. The Lattice-Boltzmann Method (LBM), with the multi-relaxation time (MRT) scheme for the collision process, is used to solve the problem with the objective to assess the ability and efficiency of this numerical method to describe the micropolar fluid behavior under the effect… More >

Kun Li, Xiaona Li, Jing Luo, Jingjing Li, Qiang Gao^*, Jianzhang Li^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, Suppl.1, pp. 31-38, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634131

Abstract The objective of this study was to use soybean meal and 1,4-butanediol diglycidyl ether (BDDE) to develop a highly water-resistant, soy-based bioadhesive for plywood fabrication. The physical properties and performance characteristics of the resulting adhesive, including solid content, viscosity, water resistance, crystallinity, fracture morphology, thermal behavior, and cracks, were evaluated. The proposed adhesive was compared against the traditional soy adhesive with polyamidoamine-epichlorohydrin (PAE). Results showed that adding 8 g of BDDE into the adhesive formulation improved the solid content up to 32.83% and reduced the viscosity to 27340 mPa·s. The wet shear strength of plywood More >

Joaquín E. González-Hernández¹, Jorge M. Cubero-Sesin^1,2*, Elena Ulate-Kolitsky¹, Priscilla Navarro¹, Stephen Petretti¹, Zenji Horita^3,4

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.3-4, pp. 300-306, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634120

Abstract In this work, a modification of the microstructure of a commercial Ti-6Al-7Nb alloy was accomplished by high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature, to produce a bulk nanostructure on discs of 10 mm diameter and ~0.8 mm thickness. The metallographic analyses of the discs were performed by optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy. The results confirmed the presence of aluminum (Al) and niobium (Nb) as the sole alloying elements, promoting a duplex (α + β) titanium (Ti) microstructure prior to HPT processing. After HPT processing, nanostructure refinement was attained, reflected in the More >

Xiaoying Li¹, Xiaoan Nie^1,2*, Jie Chen¹, Yigang Wang¹, Ke Li¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.2, pp. 154-164, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634101

Abstract Cardanol, an agricultural by-product of the industrial processing of cashew, was used to synthesize epoxidized cardanol laurate (ECDL) plasticizer. The target product was characterized using FTIR, 1H NMR and 13C NMR. The plasticizing effect of ECDL substitution for petroleum-based plasticizer dioctyl phthalate (DOP) in soft poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) was investigated using dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and mechanical testing, and compared to PVC incorporated with commercial epoxidized soybean oil (ESBO). When DOP was partially substituted by EDCL, there was a slight increase of 5% in glass transition temperature (Tg) and a maximum increase… More >

Mohamed Ammar¹, Ramzi Khiari^2,3,4*, Mohamed Naceur Belgacem^3,4*, Elimame Elaloui¹

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, No.2, pp. 116-123, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2016.634136

Abstract The present study investigated the preparation of biomatrices from Stipa tenacissima L. and its valorization for fiberboard application. Resins were produced by extracting lignin from the Stipa tenacissima L. black liquor by soda process and combining it with glyoxal as crosslinking agent to produce lignin-glyoxal-resin (LGR). The matrix was characterized by several methods, such as FTIR and ATG/ATD, and then mixed with date palm rachis as reinforcing fibers in different proportions of 30 and 50% (w/w with respect to the matrix) to produce biodegradable composite materials. Then, their thermal and mechanical properties were determined, using More >