Explore the vast range of titles available.

With increasing concerns and challenges to climate change in recent years, green operations management (GOM) has gained significant attention from society for achieving sustainable growth. GOM is a set of practices that can be applied in production processes to produce goods with improved productivity and significantly reduced threats of carbon emission to the environment and Mother Nature. GOM mainly includes green manufacturing, green design, green logistics, and green purchases. In the paper, fuzzy best-worst method (FBWM) is used to determine the best and worst criteria affected by GOM practices. Thus, the paper attempts to explicitly analyze and highlight the significance of GOM in preserving the environment and manage the triple bottom line for achieving overall sustainable business operations.

Purpose This research outlines the development and characterization of advanced composite materials and their potential applications in the aerospace industry for interior applications. Advanced composites, such as carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers and ceramic matrix composites, offer significant advantages over traditional metallic materials in terms of weight reduction, stiffness and strength. These materials have been used in various aerospace applications, including aircraft, engines and thermal protection systems. Design/methodology/approach The development of design of experiment–based hybrid aluminum composites using the stir-casting technique has further enhanced the performance and cost-effectiveness of these materials. The design of the experiment was followed to fabricate hybrid composites with nano cerium oxide (nCeO2) and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) as reinforcements in the Al-6061 matrix. Findings The Al6061 + 3% nCeO2 + 3% GNPs exhibited a high hardness of 119.6 VHN. The ultimate tensile strength and yield strength are 113.666 MPa and 73.08 MPa, respectively. A uniform distribution of reinforcement particulates was achieved with 3 Wt.% of each reinforcement in the matrix material, which is analyzed using scanning electron microscopy. Fractography revealed that brittle and ductile fractures caused the failure of the fractured specimens in the tensile test. Practical implications The manufactured aluminum composite can be applied in a range of exterior and interior structural parts like wings, wing boxes, motors, gears, engines, antennas, floor beams, etc. The fan case material of the GEnx engine (currently using carbon-fiber reinforcement plastic) for the Boeing 7E7 can be another replacement with manufactured hybrid aluminum composite, which predicts weight savings per engine of close to 120 kg. Originality/value The development of hybrid reinforcements, where two or more types of reinforcements are used in combination, is also a novel approach to improving the properties of these composites. Advanced composite materials are known for their high strength-to-weight ratio. If the newly developed composite material demonstrates superior properties, it can potentially be used to replace traditional materials in aircraft manufacturing. By reducing the weight of aircraft structures, fuel efficiency can be improved, leading to reduced operating costs and environmental impact. This allows for a more customized solution for specific application requirements and can lead to further advancements in materials science and technology.

This research work is carried out to study the mechanical and wear behaviour of inorganic particle filled polymers. Epoxy matrix filled with varying ratios of Solid glass microspheres (SGM) were fabricated using mechanical stirring process. The weight percentage of SGM were varied from 0 - 30, with a step size of 5wt%. Effect of weight percentage of SGM particles on bending strength, compression strength and compression modulus of the composites was evaluated. The Wear resistance of the composites against En-32 steel disk, was evaluated in terms of mass loss for various ratios of SGM using pin-on-disk test rig. Besides these, density of the composites was also evaluated. Mechanical and wear properties of the composites were improved by adding suitable percentage of the filler. Moreover density increased with the increase in percentage of SGM particles in the composites.

The current study deals with mechanical and microstructural analyses of Al6061/GNPs/CeO 2 hybrid composites. Hybrid aluminum metal matrix composites (HAMMCs) were manufactured using the 2-step stir-casting method, with the addition of GNPs and CeO 2 at varying weight percentage ratios (1:3, 3:3, and 3:1). The highest tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength were 113.666 MPa, 73.08 MPa, and 13.062 J, respectively. The hardness increased by 21.47 percent with a reduced particle grain size of 6.36 nm. The FESEM study verified fine grain refinement and homogeneous reinforcement distribution, whereas surface fractography of the tensile specimens determined the failure caused by the formation of cracks, pores, debonding, and large-sized dimples in the stir-cast alloy and HAMMCs.

Copper foams have various uses in applications such as electrode for fuel cells and batteries, filters for water purification, thermal conductivity enhancer for phase change materials, etc. This study shows the process of processing copper foams with an average pore size of 200-300 μm with 40 and 70 volume % porosity through a powder metallurgy route. Space holder technique has been employed to process the copper foams. A lubricant space holder material acrawax has been used which possesses superior properties compared to all the previously used space holders. Copper foam's physical and mechanical properties have been studied with the change in compaction pressure. Simple mathematical models have also been developed in this work using 2N factorial method. The models can be used to get the values of pore size and porosity present in the foams according to the changing parameters like amount of space holder, compaction pressure, sintering time and temperature.

This study examines the micro-hardness and abrasive wear resistance of WC-CoCr cladding produced by tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding process. The effect of argon flow rate and standoff distance on the microstructure and properties of the cladding was also investigated. The morphology of WC-CoCr powder and its corresponding claddings was examined by FE- SEM analysis. The tribological behaviour of cladding was analysed by using pin-on-disc wear tribometer. High hardness and wear resistance were observed at higher values of standoff distance and argon flow rate. Wear in the cladding is mainly due to pull out of tungsten carbide particles along with plastic flow caused by yielding and extrusion of CoCr binder.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the corrosion behavior of stir-cast hybrid aluminum composite reinforced with CeO2 and graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) nanoparticulates used as cylinder liner material in the engines (automotive, aerospace and aircraft industries). Design/methodology/approach The composites were prepared using the stir-casting technique, and their microstructure and corrosion behavior was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and potentiodynamic polarization test, respectively. Findings The results showed that the addition of CeO2 and GNPs improved the corrosion resistance of the composites, and the optimal combination of these two nanoparticles was found to be 3 wt.% CeO2 and 3 wt.% GNPs. The enhanced corrosion resistance was attributed to the formation of a protective layer on the surface of the composite, as well as the effective dispersion and uniform distribution of nanoparticles in the matrix. The 0.031362 was noted as the lowest corrosion rate (mmpy) and was noticed in 94% Al-6061 alloy + (3 Wt.% CeO2 + 3 Wt.% GNPs) sample at room temperature and at elevated temperatures; the corrosion rate (mmpy) was observed as 0.0601 and 0.0636 at 45 °C and 75 °C, respectively. Originality/value In the vast majority of the published research publications, either cerium oxide or graphene nanoplatelets were utilized as a single reinforcement or in conjunction with other types of reinforcement such as alumina, silicon carbide, carbon nano-tubes, tungsten carbide, etc., but on the combination of the CeO2 and GNPs as reinforcements have very less literatures with 2 wt.% each only. The prepared hybrid aluminum composite (reinforcing 1 wt.% to 3 wt.% in Al-6061 alloy) was considered for replacing the cylinder liner material in the piston-cylinder arrangement of engines.

Connecting rod is one of the most important components of an internal combustion engine and transfers motion from the piston to the crankshaft and function as a lever arm. Existing connecting rod is manufactured by using C-70 alloy steel. In the current study, connecting rod is replaced by E-glass/Epoxy composite material for universal tractor. The static strength of connecting rod is analyzed in detail and the maximum stress is found. Some improvement methods are also provided for the material selection of connecting rod. Connecting rod is modeled in CATIA V5 software and it is imported in ANSYS 14 workbench for analysis. The main objective of this study is to perform the static analysis of universal tractor connecting rod to find out its static strength using ANSYS 14 workbench. Finite element analysis is done by considering composite materials. The best combination of parameters like Von mises stress, deformation and weight reduction for connecting rod is carried out.

The aim of the present study is to develop eco-friendly, low cost and light weight plastic based composite material using eggshells (bio-waste) ash as filler material. The study describes the development of carbonized eggshells loaded hybrid glass-jute fibre reinforced (GJFR) polyester bio-composites and reports the effect of fillers loading on its wear behaviour and mechanical properties. Carbonized eggshell ash powder as a filler, glass and jute fibre rovings as hybridized fibre and unsaturated polyester resin as a matrix material were used for the development of novel FRP composites using the pultrusion process. Eggshells ash powder was used in different weight (wt) % as 3.5 wt%, 6.5 wt%, 9.5 wt%, 12.5 wt%, and 15.5 wt%. A pin-on-disc tribometer was employed to analyse the wear behaviour. Two variable load conditions as 30 N and 50 N were selected to wear test runs while sliding speed, sliding distance, and track diameter as 3 m/s, 1500 m, and 60 mm respectively were kept constant. The developed hybrid composites with 9.5 wt% and 3.5 wt% carbonized eggshells filler involvement showed maximum and minimum tensile strength as 75 MPa and 62 MPa respectively. The composites with 12.5 wt% and 3.5 wt% eggshells fillers showed maximum and minimum compressive strength as 99 MPa and 49 MPa respectively. The maximum wear resistance was exhibited by composites with 9.5 wt% filler loading and at 50 N applied load conditions. The carbonized eggshell fillers inclusion in a limited amount was recommended to strengthen the wear resistance of the GJFR polyester composites in combination with tensile and compressive strengths. A scanning electron microscope study was conducted to notice the wearing procedure and tensile and compressive fracture of the GJFRP composites.

Order review and release in job shop with sequence-dependent setup times is one of the most complex job shop scheduling problems. This article analyses the effect of sequencing rules on different order release policies for performance measures i.e. mean throughput time, total setups, mean setup time, number of tardy jobs and makespan in a stochastic and dynamic job shop with sequence-dependent setup time. Four sequencing rules, viz. first-come-first-serve, planned release date, earliest due date, shortest processing time and five order review and release policies i.e. aggregate workload trigger, workcentre workload trigger, corrected workload trigger, upper bound release and lancaster university management school corrected order release are taken into consideration. A simulation model using Promodel® is developed for experimental purpose. Results indicate that for a given order review and release policy, there is an effect of sequencing rule in a stochastic and dynamic environment with consideration of sequence-dependent setup time and the best performing sequencing rule is different for different order review and release policies for a given performance measure.