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The Technical University of Mombasa provides hot meals for about 2,000 students a day. To achieve this, 800 kg of wood and 120 kg of LPG a month are needed. This master’s thesis focuses on two major problems: the use of fossil fuels which contributes to global warming and the management of organic food waste. To address these issues, this master’s thesis covers the design and implementation of a biogas installation. The installation processes organic waste from the kitchen in the most optimal way. This will produce biogas that will be used for cooking and digestate that will serve as a fertilizer. A literature study was conducted to arrive at the optimal fixed-dome digester. The digester combined with a floating-drum gasholder was the first version of the system. At a further stage, this installation was expanded into a hybrid system. This was done by covering the overflow tank, which eliminates the gas losses in the tank and reduces greenhouse gases. In addition, the installation was expanded with a balloon-type digester, which provides better efficiency and a more complete digestion process. To determine the volume of the gasholder, a simulation was performed. The hybrid biogas installation is expected to produce 11.88 m³ of biogas a day, which reduces the energy consumption for cooking activities by 27%. Additionally, the system is also used as a pilot plant for educational purposes. As a further development of this project, the biogas production will be measured and the quality of the biogas and digestate will be analyzed.
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In samenwerking met IMO-IMOMEC onderzocht deze masterthesis het opschalen van dia-mantafzetting voor coatingapplicaties naar een industriële schaal. Momenteel is dit enkel mo-gelijk in kleine hoeveelheden op laboschaal. Opschaling wordt volbracht met behulp van een ultrasone spraycoater en nano diamanten in water of aceton als solvent. In dit werk worden de procesparameters iteratief geoptimaliseerd tot de gewenste kwaliteit bij 45nm laagdikte wordt bekomen. Als substraat werd gekozen voor Corning Eagle 2000. Er worden resultaten gegeven naar optimalisatie van parameters omtrent: reiniging, bevochti-ging, ultrasoon spraycoater, en inkt samenstelling voor de verschillende solventen. Deze wor-den via AFM, PDS, TRS, SEM, en optische microscopie onderzocht naar zuiverheid van de laag. Hiernaast wordt onderzoek verricht naar de tijdsafhankelijke bevochtigbaarheid van het substraat waarop diamantinkt wordt beneveld. Goede bevochtigbaarheid is nodig voor een homogeen dekkende laag. Dit toonde aan dat voorbehandeling met UV-O3 een significant langere bevochtiging oplevert dan met O2-plamsa. Een homogene, defectvrije laag werd bekomen voor water en aceton. De voorgestelde me-thode is tevens schaalbaar voor industriële toepassingen. Het onderzoek heeft de relaties tus-sen de verschillende procesparameters aangetoond. Deze relaties maken het mogelijk het proces te optimaliseren naar verschillende parameters zoals: ruwheid, dekkingsgraad, pro-cestijden, of diamantgebruik.
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Hash functions are vital building blocks for many networking and security applications. In these applications, the speed of hashing is of crucial importance, affecting the overall throughput of the system. The goal of this thesis is to design novel non-cryptographic hash functions based on reduced-round versions of symmetric-key ciphers, and to analyze the avalanche properties and timing characteristics of these algorithms. The considered ciphers are Speck, Pyjamask, GIFT, AES and Skinny. The number of rounds required are determined so that satisfactory avalanche properties are met, both with and without the addition of the key. After finding the optimal number of rounds, the timing properties are evaluated using hardware design tools. Each hash function is implemented as the reduced version of the original cipher on different FPGA platforms, both with and without the addition of a key. The maximum possible operating frequency is calculated and the resources required at that frequency are also measured. The throughput is calculated based on the maximum operating frequency. The analysis results show that different ciphers have different performance characteristics. Also, the obtained hash functions show better avalanche properties and outperform most of the existing non-cryptographic hash functions.
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Scheurvorming is een courant probleem in metselwerkwanden. Deze masterproef onderzoekt de haalbaarheid van de toepassing van mesoschaal eindige-elementenmodellen voor de analyse van dergelijke metselwerkschade. In zulke modellen worden mortelvoegen en bakstenen expliciet gemodelleerd. Het gebruik van dilatatievoegen – die dankzij zulke mesomodellen ook expliciet gemodelleerd kunnen worden – is een van de mogelijke oplossingen om scheurvorming te beperken. De eindige-elementenmodellen zijn geïmplementeerd in een MATLAB-omgeving. Hiervoor maakt men gebruik van een preprocessing tool en een analysesoftware die binnen de onderzoeksgroep CERG zijn ontwikkeld. Enerzijds worden hiermee de grenzen van het mesoschaalmodel opgezocht en anderzijds bekijkt men de toepassing van dilatatievoegen op vlak van de optimale locatie. Simulaties toonden aan dat mesoschaalmodellen gelimiteerd zijn omwille van de grootte van de mesh. Voor grote metselwerkwanden bekomt men een grotere mesh, waardoor de rekentijd significant toeneemt. Omwille van de toename van het aantal (niet-lineaire) elementen in de mesh, kampt de stijfheidsmatrix binnen MATLAB regelmatig met een slecht conditiegetal. Hierdoor treedt divergentie op, waardoor de solver geen oplossing vindt. Verder concludeert men ook dat de toepassing van dilatatievoegen optimaal is nabij hoekpunten van openingen om scheurvorming te beperken.
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The conventional production process of MEMS, silicon micromachining, is expensive and lengthy. Printing and coating techniques such as screen printing, inkjet printing, and blade coating could be a solution to this problem, reducing costs and turnover time. In this study, the materials and production process for a thermal actuator MEMS is selected and tested. The structure of the print is as follows: the substrate, the sacrificial layer, and the structural layer. After depositing this layer, the sacrificial material is dissolved and removed to achieve a freestanding structure. PVA, PMMA, and PEO are tested for their usability in the process as a sacrificial material. The main criterium for the sacrificial layer is that it can be dissolved after the production process with no negative impact on the MEMS. For the structural material, a silver nanoparticle and microflake ink are tested. PVA was selected as a sacrificial material because of its dissolving under 15 min. in water of 85°C. It was applied using blade coating. For the structural material, screen printing was found most suitable. Both inks are strong enough to support a freestanding actuator up to 9mm long, however, the nanoparticle ink was brittle and broke down easily. In thermoelectric testing, temperatures of 170°C were achieved for both inks which translates to simulated deflections of up to 224µm. A proof of concept achieved deflections of 100µm, however, further optimisation of the process and design is needed due to deformations that occur in the structure.
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The chemical company Kaneka Belgium N.V. provides polypropylene-based foam particles, used to produce moulded parts which are applied in different sectors. Today, the company’s customers are striving for sustainability following the European guidelines for 2030, which directly involve recycling of end products. In this context, it is compulsory for KB to start re-introducing a fraction of reprocessed material into their process. In order to do so, it is necessary to assess its effect on the properties and deterioration of the end product. First, this work focusses on the impact of going through multiple extrusion cycles on virgin material. In addition, the influence of adding stabilizers to the recipe at different reprocessing steps to prevent further deterioration is evaluated. Thirdly, the impact of implementing a fraction of external recycled particles into the recipe is elaborated. Different characterization techniques were performed: rheology, DSC and mechanical techniques. Generally, it can be concluded that the reprocessed samples remain stable with favourable properties, in contrast to the recycled samples who do not guarantee this stability. The rheological results demonstrated a decrease in viscosity, caused by β-chain scission. Adding the recycling stabilizer minimized this decrease. Secondly, the DSC curves indicated a small rise in crystallinity. Finally, the mechanical tests indicated a decrease in tensile strength, compression strength and elongation at break for both the recycled and reprocessed blends.
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