Faculty of Engineering and Technology

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Characterisation and evaluation of pulp and paper from selected Ugandan grasses for paper industry.
(Cellulose Chemistry and Technology, 2014) Kamoga, Omar L; Kirabira, J B; Byaruhanga, J K; Godiyal, R D; Anupam Kumar
The consumption of paper worldwide has escalated by 400 percent in the last 4 decades and around 4 billion trees are cut across the globe for pulp and paper mills on every continent.1 This has caused global deforestation and forest degradation, creating an ecological and climatic imbalance, in addition to making homeless 300 million people who consider forests their home around the globe.2 Realizing such severe consequences, major pulp and paper producing companies worldwide have considered not to cut down natural forests any longer,3 while groups of researchers in pulp and paper are working towards exploring non-wood lignocellulosic materials and recyclable fibres for assessment and expansion of their pulp and papermaking capability.4 Non-wood fibrous materials and recycled fibres offer a great opportunity to decrease or even replace the use of wood fibres.5 In recent years, the attention has been focused on g rasses6 and the hope of many countries, including Uganda, with insufficient forest resources lies in grasses for production of any virgin pulp. Uganda, a country spread on 236,040 km2 with a population of about 35 million, has a forest cover estimated at 14% of the land surface and it is decreasing at a rate of 2% per year due to increasing population, which relies on agriculture for survival and much on wood for energy. 7 Nevertheless, Uganda is blessed with conducive equatorial type climate, which is ideal for the growth of many types of grasses that stand as potential raw materials for paper industry. These highly prospective grasses need to be investigated. Currently, many grasses are regarded as bothersome weeds in gardens and as a burden to farmers during the planting seasons. In urban areas, grasses that are cleared from compounds burden municipal authorities, in terms of their disposal since they don’t bring any economic benefits to most communities.
Effect of enzyme and plasma treatments of bark cloth from ficus natalensis : morphology and thermal behavior.
(The Journal of the Textile Institute, 2015) Rwawiire, Samson; Tomkova, Blanka; Weiner, Jakub; Militky, Jiri
Utilization of natural vegetable fibers as fillers in polymer composites is on the rise due to numerous advantages such as low specific weight, renewability, greenhouse gas emission mitigation, and less energy requirement in processing compared to synthetic fibers.Bark cloth is a naturally occurring non-woven fabric,produced in Uganda from majorly three tree species: Antiaris toxicaria, Ficus brachypoda, and Ficus natalensis. The most commonly used species is F. natalensis which after various processing routes is used in art and design to produce fashion articles. For efficient processing and mechanical properties of natural fiber-reinforced composite structures, there is a need for fiber surface treatment in order to enhance fiber to matrix adhesion and the wettability of the fibers. Bark cloth being a natural fibrous non-woven fabric, the surface microfibers have plant material in the form of flakes and waxes for which if the fabric were to effectively undergo further processing, there is a need of dissolving the impurities.
Classification and measure of quantitative difference between polyester and cotton fabrics based on sensory analysis.
(GEMTEX Laboratory, ENSAIT, Université Lille 1, 2016) Kamalha, Edwin; Koehl, Ludovic; Campagne, Christine
The proportion of global fiber consumption of cotton has steadily fallen from over 80% in the early 50’s, to about 32% to date, while polyester now dominates at about 54%. PET competes with cotton in global apparel share, BOTH averaging between 31% and 36% since 2010 [1]. The exclusive use of PET in apparel is still limited due to some inferior properties, including sensory related. Textile sensory attributes may relate to: tactility, moisture, pressure, temperature, aesthetics, and acoustics; all influenced by characteristics of fiber, yarn, fabric, and finishing [2-4]. PET has good moisture wicking properties, and is well priced. Considering sustainability, polyester production requires less land and water to cotton. The lifecycle assessment of cotton and polyester has been detailed with pros and cons for both cotton and PET [5]. Sensory evaluation is premised on the competence of humans, to execute objective measurements of sensations. Studies have been undertaken to develop and use instruments to measure sensory related attributes [6-8]. But, measured parameters cannot directly reflect human sensation in a precise way. Multivariate analysis and methods based on intelligent techniques (e.g. neural networks, fuzzy logic) have been used to model fabric sensory attributes, in relation to process parameters and instrumental measurements [9-10]. Intelligent algorithms, which we partly employed, are particularly robust and effective, as they imitate the human process of intuition through pair-wise comparisons.
CVD growth of ZrC layers at different temperatures.
(SciEP, 2016) Alawad, BAB; Biira, S; Bissett, H; Nel, J; Hlatshwayo, TT; Crouse, PL; Malherbe, JB
Zirconium carbide (ZrC) layers were grown on a graphite substrate by chemical vapour deposition(CVD) at 1250°C, 1300°C and 1350°C. Zirconium tetrachloride (ZrCl4), methane (CH4), hydrogen (H2) and argon(Ar) were used as precursors. The deposited ZrC layers were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XDR showed ZrC characteristic peaks with free carbon. Free carbon incorporated in the ZrC layer increased with deposition temperature. The average of grain size also increased with deposition temperature. The latter findings were confirmed by SEM results. Keywords: chemical vapour deposition (CVD), ZrC, XRD, SEM
Dyeing and stiffness characteristics of cellulose-coated cotton fabric.
(Springer Science, 2016) Kale, Bandu Madhukar; Wiener, Jakub; Militky, Jiri; Rwawiire, Samson; Mishra, Rajesh; Abdul, Jabbar
In this study, the effect of cellulose coating on dyeing and other properties of cotton fabric was investigated. Three different reactive dyes were used for dyeing coated cotton fabric. The effect of cellulose coating on the dyeing properties of cotton fabric was studied by determining the K/S values of coated substrate at different concentrations of cellulose and dye. The K/S value decreased by 40–60 % with increasing coating concentration of cellulose from 0 to 5 %. The results show that the stiffness was increased from 0.16 to 2.50 N/m by coating of cellulose on the surface of cotton fabric. The stiffness was permanent as confirmed by ten multiple washings. Mechanical properties remained excellent. X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the amount of cellulose II increased slightly after solvent treatment. Fastness properties of cellulose-coated cotton fabrics against rubbing, washing, and perspiration were good.
Optimization design of cycling clothes’ patterns based on digital clothing pressures.
(Shanghai, 2016) Liu, Kaixuan; Kamalha, Edwin; Wang, Jianping; Agrawal, Tarun-Kumar
Enormous research has focused on the analysis of garment wear-comfort using clothing pressure; however, optimization of clothing pressure based garment comfort has remained elusive. In this context, we propose a new method to optimize cycling clothes’ patterns based on the difference of static-to-dynamic clothing pressure (DSDCP). Firstly, we mapped 53 measuring points on an upper cycling garment on which we measured garment pressures in both static and dynamic conditions. We then analyzed DSDCP to find the rightful garment patterns to adjust according to the analyzed results. A garment optimization degree (OD) is proposed to carry out a quantitative analysis for garment comfort optimization. Finally, two upper cycling garments were made according to the original patterns and optimized patterns. A comparative analysis through cyclist wear trials of the cycling garments to test the optimization effect was done. Results show that our proposed method improves dynamic wear comfort significantly. Moreover, the optimized upper cycling garment, offers additional improvement of dynamic wear comfort.
Nanocellulose coated woven jute/green epoxy composites : characterization of mechanical and dynamic mechanical behavior.
(Elsevier, 2016) Jabbar, Abdul; Militký, Jiř í; Jakub, Wiener; Bandu, Madhukar Kale; Usman, Ali; Rwawiire, Samson
This paper presents the preparation and characterization of nanocellulose coated woven jute/green epoxy composites. Waste jute fibers were used as precursor to purify and extract nanocellulose by chemical treatments. The prepared suspensions with 3, 5 and 10 wt% of nanocellulose were coated over jute fabric followed by preparation of composites by compression molding technique. The surface morphologies of treated jute fibers, jute cellulose nanofibrils (CNF), nanocellulose coated jute fabrics and fractured surfaces of composites were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The crystallinity of jute fibers after different chemical treatments was measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effect of nanocellulose coating over jute reinforcement on the tensile, flexural, fracture toughness and dynamic mechanical properties of prepared composites has been investigated. Fracture toughness was measured using single end notched bend (SENB) specimens and dynamic mechanical test was performed in three point bending mode. The results revealed the improvement in tensile Samson modulus, flexural properties and fracture toughness except the decrease in tensile strength of nanocellulose coated woven jute/green epoxy composites as compared to uncoated jute composite. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) results also showed the increase in storage modulus and reduction in tangent delta peak height of nanocellulose coated jute composites. Keywords: Jute fibers, nanocellulose coating, mechanical properties, fracture toughness, dynamic mechanical analysis.
Fuzzy classification of young women's lower body based on anthropometric measurement.
(Elsevier, 2016) Liu, Kaixuan; Wang, Jianping; Tao, Xuyuan; Zeng, Xianyi; Bruniaux, Pascal; Kamalha, Edwin
The traditional method of body classification is discrete, using crisp and rather dichotomous classification methods; there are many shortcomings for ergonomic design of clothing products by this method. This paper proposes a fuzzy method to classify lower body shapes based on triangular fuzzy numbers. By using factor analysis and correlation analysis, we found that the height, the waist girth, and the difference of hip-waist are crucial dimensions to represent lower body shape. We then classified the lower body shape into three categories according to the difference of hip-to-waist, and finally used the membership of triangular fuzzy numbers to represent the lower body shapes. Results show that the fuzzy method of body classification can more accurately represents body information than the traditional method without increasing the number of body types. Additionally, we established that the mean of the height, waist girth and hip girth of the young women of northeast China increased by about 0.8 cm, 1.5 cm and 1.4 cm respectively compared with ten years ago. Relevance to industry: Anthropometric data is the basis of garment pattern design, and body classification is a necessary precondition for developing a garment size system. These research achievements will add value to the pattern design of young women's lower body clothing, the development of new sizing systems and related industries.
Parametric design of garment flat based on body dimension.
(Elsevier, 2016) Liu, Kaixuan ,; Zeng, Xianyi; Wang, Jianping; Tao, Xuyuan; Xua, Jun; Jiang, Xiaowen; Ren, Jun; Kamalha, Edwin; Agrawal, Tarun-Kumar; Bruniaux, Pascal
Garment flats have a wide application in product development production and designing stages. However, the traditional drawing methods of garment flat are very time-consuming, and need professional drawing skills. In this paper, a parametric design method was proposed based on body dimension to draw garment flats. The relations among human body, flats and garment show that a garment flat has a close relation with human body and real garment. Graphic analysis shows that a garment flat is constrained by two kinds of parameters: geometric and dimensional parameters. Then, the parametric relation model between garment flat and human body dimensions was constructed. According to the parametric relation model, all the dimensions of a garment flat can be represented by several dimensional parameters and style parameters. Finally, an application program (JFRS, 2016) based on the proposed method was developed to generate garment flats. The result shows that the proposed method is more effective than traditional methods. Moreover, the engineering design methods have been successfully applied to improve design efficiency in artistic design in this research. This is a novel research idea in the field of fashion design, and could be further applied in other design domains.
Machine learning for plant disease incidence and severity measurements from leaf images.
(IEEE, 2016) Owomugisha, Godliver; Mwebaze, Ernest
In many fields, superior gains have been obtained by leveraging the computational power of machine learning techniques to solve expert tasks. In this paper we present an application of machine learning to agriculture, solving a particular problem of diagnosis of crop disease based on plant images taken with a smartphone. Two pieces of information are important here; the disease incidence and disease severity. We present a classification system that trains a 5 class classification system to determine the state of disease of a plant. The 5 classes represent a health class and 4 disease classes. We further extend the classification system to classify different severity levels for any of the 4 diseases. Severity levels are assigned classes 1 - 5, 1 being a healthy plant, 5 being a severely diseased plant. We present ways of extracting different features from leaf images and show how different extraction methods result in different performance of the classifier. We finally present the smartphone- based system that uses the classification model learnt to do real- time prediction of the state of health of a farmers garden. This works by the farmer uploading an image of a plant in his garden and obtaining a disease score from a remote server.
Makerere builds solar power irrigation pump
(New Vision, 2017-01-06) Nantambi, Agnes
Makerere University's college of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences has fabricated a solar-powered pump with capacity to irrigate up to 10 acres.
President Museveni's simplicity: Why all water is not safe for irrigation
(New Vision, 2017-01-06) Kanyarusoke, Kant Ateenyi
Are you inventing a rain-making machine? A close relative and childhood playmate, now in Kampala- Grace Kiiza- teased me during my protracted doctor of engineering research in solar energy. She had learnt I was working on some solar-related invention and both of us were concerned about the changing climate of the country leading to droughts even in regions that had been wet during our youth.
Uganda's small miners to benefit from ACP-EU's sh43b soft loans
(New Vision, 2017-07-10) Odyek, John
Uganda's miners are set to benefit from a $12m (about Sh43b) loan from the European Union (EU), to support those mining development materials. The loan targets small businesses that quarry, manufacture and trade in industrial minerals, such as gravel, clay, granite, gypsum and other local materials critical for development in five African countries.
Specialised Technical Services big on fuel system installation
(New Vision, 2017-07-13) Naigino, Stella
Today, many people are opening up fuel stations, but few are aware of the dos and don'ts for the business. It is for this reason that some fuel stations catch fire. However, with the right information on safety measures at a fuel station, fires can be avoided.
Smart jackets detects pneumonia faster
(Sunday Vision, 2017-07-30) Affedda, Emmanuel
A group led by Brian Turyabagye has created a jacket-like device named 'mama ope'. The jacket helps detect pneumonia early in order to facilitate quick life-saving treatment.
Experts warn on negative impacts of oil pipeline
(New Vision, 2017-08-02) Rwothungeyo, Billy
After a period of somewhat slow activity, developments in the oil and gas industry are picking pace ahead of the 2020 production year. Works on key infrastructure such as the refinery, pipelines and storage facilities will have to be done before thee production date and with these developments come impacts.
Why cyber labs can never replace traditional practicals
(New Vision, 2017-08-02) Nakajubi, Gloria
Gloria Nakajubi explores the effectiveness of cyber labs as alternative to hazardous chemicals used in science experiments.
Government to buy local ICT innovations- Rugunda
(New Vision, 2017-08-02) Kayiwa, Edward
Prime Minister Dr Ruhakana Rugunda has said the Government will purchase ICT applications that are created locally in its bid to improve service delivery ahead of the vision 2020. "We should develop and adopt ICTs for smarter cities, education, environment, agriculture, healthcare and commerce." Rugunda.
Govt orders Mubende gold miners to vacate.
(Saturday Vision, 2017-08-05) Kiwawulo, Chris; Kagiri, Luke
The army and police yesterday morning directed all people operating in Mubende gold mines to vacate as they moved to close the mines. The first division commandant, Col. Joseph Balikuddembe, at around 9:00am went to Kampala gold mine located in Kitumbi sub-county and directed all paople there to vacate within two hours.
Karuma hydropower dam set to open next year.
(New Vision, 2017-08-08) Bwambale, Taddeo
A person travelling on the Gulu-Masindi highway will have no idea that 100 metres beneath them, water will be flowing back to the never through two parallel 8km- long runnels. The runnels will discharge water that has been diverted to the powerhouse back to the River Nile,

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