Natural composites are emerging as promising alternative materials for 3D printing in biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility, sustainability, and unique mechanical properties. The use of natural composites offers several advantages, including reduced environmental impact, enhanced biodegradability, and improved tissue compatibility. These materials can be processed into filaments or resins suitable for various 3D printing techniques, such as fused deposition modeling (FDM). Natural composites also exhibit inherent antibacterial properties, making them particularly suitable for applications in tissue engineering, drug delivery systems, and biomedical implants. This review explores the potential of utilizing natural composites in additive manufacturing for biomedical purposes, discussing the historical development of 3D printing techniques; the types of manufacturing methods; and the optimization of material compatibility, printability, and mechanical properties to fully realize the potential of using natural fibers in 3D printing for biomedical applications.

This paper presents background information relevant to the modelling of soil-structure interaction. The interaction between the structural element (i.e. pile foundation or abutments) and the soil medium is believed to have the potential to alter considerably the actual behaviour of any structure. Modelling of the structural element is rather simple and straightforward when compared to modelling the structure in interaction with soil. It is known that the structural analysis simplifies soil behaviour, while geotechnical analysis simplifies structural behaviour. The choice of an appropriate soil constitutive model may have significant influence on the accuracy of soil-structure interaction analyses. A 2D finite element analysis on a pile-cap-pile-soil model replicating actual field work was performed in this paper using OASYS SAFE to further substantiate the choice of an appropriate soil constitutive model for the purpose of soil-structure interaction modelling.

A railway track system is comprised of several components such as rail, sleeper and ballast. Ballast is the weakest component in the track system and it is subjected to latent dynamic shifting. Constant and continuous loads lead to wear and breaking up of the ballast, thus, diminish the quality of track geometry. This causes unaccounted periodical tamping of track bed. A holistic solution to slow down this process is by installing rubber sleeper pads. Numerical investigation is performed using the general-purpose finite element software ABAQUS for the track system with varying rubber pad thickness and locality. The elastic properties of rubber are expected to lengthen the bending line of the rails and reduce the direct dynamic load on the ballast. Four separate models of the same load, sleeper and rail but with different rubber pad thicknesses is modelled using the finite element software ABAQUS to investigate the effect of the variation of rubber pad thickness in terms of the static stress distribution of the rail-sleeper. Spring supports are used at the bottom of the sleeper to represent the elastic stiffness of ballast bed and subgrade. The results indicate a reduction of sleeper stress along the depth of the cross-section of the concrete sleeper against increased thickness of rubber sleeper pad. Sleeper pad with 10mm exhibit a stress value of 2737kPa, whereas a stress reduction of approximately 10% and 17% was obtained if a 15mm and 20mm sleeper pad was used respectively. Nevertheless, the author concluded that the economics of using rubber sleeper pads is in the range between 22mm to 25mm. The suggested range was derived from the optimizing the behaviour of stress for both the concrete sleeper and rubber sleeper pads. The sleeper pads have the tendency to minimise excessive stress from developing within naked concrete sleepers.

This review paper aims to understand the current processing plant maintenance systems and further identify on-stream phased array corrosion mapping (PACM) to reduce turnaround maintenance (TAM) activity during plant operations. Reducing the TAM duration and extending the TAM interval are common goals of most researchers. Thus, a detailed review was performed to understand the maintenance systems and the problems faced. Furthermore, a review of the current PACM application and the possibility of applying it during on-stream inspection was also performed. PACM has better detectability for localized corrosion, and the results can be obtained for a range of thicknesses, which is the main advantage of this method. However, applying PACM during on-stream inspections at elevated temperatures presents challenges owing to the limitations of the ultrasonic properties and increased probe contact. Future research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of PACM on piping systems that can be utilized for inspection during plant operation at elevated temperatures. This will enable the detection of general and localized corrosion in common materials, thereby reducing the TAM duration and extending TAM intervals. Detecting and monitoring corrosion growth without shutdown is critical for ensuring the safety and reliability of the processing plants. This literature review provides a more precise direction for future research to address these challenges and to advance the field of on-stream corrosion monitoring.

The escalating global population and subsequent demand for agricultural products have led to a surge in agricultural waste generation, posing significant disposal challenges. Conventional disposal methods such as burning and dumping not only harm the environment but also jeopardize human health...