This paper presents the results of a field study undertaken all over the Punjab, Pakistan, to evaluate the socio-economic and climatic impact of photovoltaic-operated high-efficiency irrigation systems (HEIS), i.e., drip and sprinkler irrigation systems. Nearly half of the rural population relies on agriculture for a living, and the recent energy crisis has had a negative impact on rural communities. Farmers’ reliance on fossil fuels for the operation of irrigation systems has increased exponentially, resulting in the high costs of agricultural production. Primary data regarding on-farm agriculture and irrigation practices used in this study were collected through an intensive on-farm survey, while secondary data were taken from published reports and statistics. The results of the current investigation show that the installation of PV systems has resulted in the increased adoption of high-efficiency irrigation systems, a reduction in the high operational costs incurred on account of old diesel-powered pumping systems (with an annual saving of 6.6 million liters of diesel), a 100% increase in farmer’s income, a reduction of 17,622 tons of CO₂ emissions per annum, and 41% savings in water. The unit cost of PV-powered HEIS was found to be 0.1219 USD/kWh, which was 4% and 66% less than subsidized electricity cost and diesel cost, respectively.

Electric discharge machining with a powder mix dielectric is a promising technique to harden a work piece’s surface using electricity with a high energy density. The quality of the electrical discharge-machined surface is related to its surface integrity in which the surface’s roughness, residual stresses, micro hardness and surface micro cracks are some of the major factors. In this research, graphite powder was mixed in a dielectric with a particle size of 20 µm, 30 µm, and 40 µm, with the concentration of the graphite powder ranging from 2 g/L to 4 g/L. Moreover, the peak current and pulse time on were also coupled with an additive of graphite powder to investigate the effect on the surface quality, i.e., the recast layer thickness, micro hardness and crater depth as well as the material removal rate (MRR) and tool wear rate (TWR). A Box–Behnken design was employed to design the experiments and the experimental results revealed that the graphite powder size and concentration coupled with the electrical parameters (peak current and pulse time on) significantly influenced the recast layer thickness, micro hardness, crater size, MRR and TWR. The crater depth and micro hardness were maximized at a higher concentration and particle size, while the recast layer thickness was reduced with a higher gain size.

The world is moving towards renewable energy sources rapidly and, at present, fossil fuels are reducing day by day. In this scenario, biofuels have become an attractive alternative to conventional diesel fuels. In the present work, the vaporization of Thumba biodiesel is numerically modeled using the finite volume-based approach in ANSYS Fluent and the results are compared with diesel fuel. Evaporation of fuels is governed by the conservation equations of energy, momentum, and mass. Owing to high temperature and pressure conditions, turbulence is present in the engine cylinder. To account for the turbulence effects, the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) turbulence model is used. Heat transfer to droplet and mass lost by the droplets is governed by the discrete phase model equations. The obtained results include the droplet lifetime, increase in temperature of a droplet, and velocity profiles. It is observed that the size and temperature of fuel droplets and ambient temperature have a significant effect on the evaporation time of fuel droplets in the engine cylinder. By reducing the droplet size, the complete evaporation of fuels can be achieved. Droplets having a high temperature have a short evaporation time and high evaporation rate. It is noted that, at a higher temperature, biodiesel evaporates more quickly than diesel fuel, thus producing complete combustion and hence giving maximum power output.

The rising need for sustainable energy sources and less dependence on fossil fuels leads to research on alternative fuels. Motorcycles across a wide range of categories often use single-cylinder, spark-ignition, four-stroke engines. This research analyzes the performance of a single-cylinder engine with different bioethanol–gasoline blends at varying engine speeds. The present study used the numerical simulation tool AVL BOOST for one-dimensional simulation. A numerical model was developed for the single-cylinder engine in order to determine its performance, where a number of fuel mixtures were considered at different engine speeds. Parameters such as power, torque, engine efficiency, temperature, BMEP, BSFC, and fuel consumption were obtained to analyze the engine performance. The current results indicate that engines operating on lower ethanol blends achieve maximum power output at lower speeds. The E20 blend produces 12.29% more power and 4% more torque than gasoline. Additionally, E20 demonstrates a 2.89% increase in mechanical efficiency compared to gasoline. The E30 blend performs similarly to E20 and shows potential for reduced fuel consumption at lower speeds, though only E20 exhibits marginal power gains at lower speeds, achieving 52% more power than gasoline. Furthermore, the results highlight that both power and indicated efficiency increase with higher ethanol content in the blends, while the brake mean effective pressure (BMEP) slightly decreases after 2000 RPM. The brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) ranges from 0.6 to 0.9 kg/kw.h Fuel consumption rises gradually with engine speed; however, after 2000 RPM, fuel consumption using ethanol (E0) increases significantly. Each blend recorded slightly different exhaust gas temperatures. Overall, the findings identify E20 as a promising alternative to pure gasoline for the investigated single-cylinder engine, offering improved power output, torque, and mechanical efficiency. This study provides numerical insights into the influence of ethanol–gasoline blending ratios on motorcycle engine performance and supports the potential use of bio-ethanol blends as a means of improving engine performance and reducing dependence on conventional fossil fuels.

Technological advancements have improved energy efficiency and increased energy requirements requiring improved energy density solutions to optimally utilize the existing landscape. The renewable energy density of urban rooftops can be increased by introducing micro wind farms consisting of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT). VAWTs do not require directed flow thus a feasible choice. In this paper, the preliminary study for parametric design of horizontal distance between two identical Savonius wind turbines is presented. Three different simulations were performed to reveal important insights about this problem with an inlet velocity of 2 m/s. The results suggest 3D analysis for accurate insights.

This paper aims to analyze the performances of the interpolation covers method in the enrichment of a standard four-node quadrilateral finite element (FE) solution. The interpolation covers (IC) method has shown to be efficient in the local enrichment of the solution by increasing the polynomial degree of approximation using neighboring elements within a predefined set of covers. The enriched FE approximation is capable of capturing high stress gradients accurately, even using coarse mesh, thereby reducing the computational cost. As reported in existing studies, researchers have used neighboring nodes and polynomial enrichment to construct interpolation covers, but the combined effect of the selection of the number of neighboring nodes and their position in the patches and polynomial enrichment has not explored been yet. This study therefore performs a parametric investigation of these factors for enriched four-node, quadrilateral-shell finite elements. Two numerical applications are treated to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. It is found that the selection of the closest neighboring nodes results in high solution accuracy.