Yes / Polymer extrusion is an energy intensive production process and process energy e ciency has become a key concern in the current industry with the pressure of reducing the global carbon footprint. Here, knowledge of the pattern of energy usage and losses of each component in the plant is highly useful in the process energy optimization. Moreover, it is essential to maintain the melt quality while improving the energy e ciency in polymer processing. In this work, an investigation was made on the total energy consumption, drive motor energy consumption, power factor and the melt temperature profile across the die melt flow (as an indication of the melt thermal quality) of an industrial scale extruder with three di erent screw geometries, three polymer types and wide range of processing conditions (altogether 135 di erent processing situations were observed). This aims to widen the knowledge on process energy and thermal behaviors while exploring possible correlation/s between energy demand and melt quality (in terms of melt temperature fluctuations across the melt flow). The results showed that the level and fluctuations of the extruder’s power factor is particularly dependent upon the material being processed. Moreover, it seems that there is a relation between the level of energy demand of the heaters and the level of melt temperature fluctuations. While the extruder specific energy consumption decreases with increasing screw speed, specific energy consumption of the drive motor may have either increasing or decreasing behavior. Overall, this study provides new insights in a wide range on process energy demand and melt thermal quality in polymer extrusion. Moreover, further research is recommended to establish strong correlation/s between process energy consumption and melt thermal quality which should help to enhance process control and hence the product quality in single screw polymer extrusion.

A wireless sensor network is a distributed network system consisting of miniature spatially distributed autonomous devices designed for using sensors to sense the environment and cooperatively perform a specific goal. Each sensor node contains a limited power source, a sensor and a radio through which it can communicate with other sensor nodes within its communication radius. Since these sensor nodes may be deployed in inaccessible terrains, it might not be possible to replace their power sources. The radio transceiver is the hardware component that uses the most power in a sensor node and the optimisation of this element is necessary to reduce the overall energy consumption. In the data link layer there are several major sources of energy waste which should be minimised to achieve greater energy efficiency: idle listening, overhearing, over-emitting, network signalling overhead, and collisions. Sleep scheduling utilises the low-power sleep state of a transceiver and aims to reduce energy wastage caused by idle listening. Idle listening occurs when the radio is on, even though there is no data to transmit or receive. Collisions are reduced by using medium reservation and carrier sensing; collisions occur when there are simultaneous transmissions from several nodes that are within the interference range of the receiver node. The medium reservation packets include a network allocation vector field which is used for virtual carrier sensing which reduces overhearing. Overhearing occurs when a node receives and decodes packets that are not destined to it. Proper scheduling can avoid energy wastage due to over-emitting; over-emitting occurs when a transmitter node transmits a packet while the receiver node is not ready to receive packets. A protocol stack is proposed that achieves an ultra-low duty cycle sleep schedule. The protocol stack is aimed at large nodal populations, densely deployed, with periodic sampling applications. It uses the IEEE 802.15.4 Physical Layer (PHY) standard in the 2.4 GHz frequency band. A novel hybrid data-link/network cross-layer solution is proposed using the following features: a global sleep schedule, geographical data gathering tree, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) slotted architecture, Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), Clear Channel Assessment (CCA) with a randomised contention window, adaptive listening using a conservative timeout activation mechanism, virtual carrier sensing, clock drift compensation, and error control. AFRIKAANS : 'n Draadlose sensor-netwerk is 'n verspreide netwerk stelsel wat bestaan uit miniatuur ruimtelik verspreide outonome toestelle wat ontwerp is om in harmonie saam die omgewing te meet. Elke sensor nodus besit 'n beperkte bron van energie, 'n sensor en 'n radio waardeur dit met ander sensor nodusse binne hulle kommunikasie radius kan kommunikeer. Aangesien hierdie sensor nodusse in ontoeganklike terreine kan ontplooi word, is dit nie moontlik om hulle kragbronne te vervang nie. Die radio is die hardeware komponent wat van die meeste krag gebruik in 'n sensor nodus en die optimalisering van hierdie element is noodsaaklik vir die verminder die totale energieverbruik. In die data-koppelvlak laag is daar verskeie bronne van energie vermorsing wat minimaliseer moet word: ydele luister, a uistering, oor-uitstraling, oorhoofse netwerk seine, en botsings. Slaap-skedulering maak gebruik van die lae-krag slaap toestand van 'n radio met die doel om energie vermorsing wat veroorsaak word deur ydele luister, te verminder. Ydele luister vind plaas wanneer die radio aan is selfs al is daar geen data om te stuur of ontvang nie. Botsings word verminder deur medium bespreking en draer deteksie; botsings vind plaas wanneer verskeie nodusse gelyktydig data stuur. Die medium bespreking pakkies sluit 'n netwerk aanwysing vektor veld in wat gebruik word vir virtuele draer deteksie om a uistering te verminder. Afluistering vind plaas wanneer 'n nodus 'n pakkie ontvang en dekodeer maar dit was vir 'n ander nodus bedoel. Behoorlike skedulering kan energie verkwisting as gevolg van oor-uistraling verminder; oor-uistraling gebeur wanneer 'n sender nodus 'n pakkie stuur terwyl die ontvang nog nie gereed is nie. 'n Protokol stapel is voorgestel wat 'n ultra-lae slaap-skedule dienssiklus het. Die protokol is gemik op draadlose sensor-netwerke wat dig ontplooi, groot hoeveelhede nodusse bevat, en met periodiese toetsing toepassings. Dit maak gebruik van die IEEE 802.15.4 Fisiese-Laag standaard in die 2.4 GHz frekwensie band. 'n Nuwe baster datakoppelvlak/netwerk laag oplossing is voorgestel met die volgende kenmerke: globale slaap-skedulering, geogra ese data rapportering, Tyd-Verdeling-Veelvuldige-Toegang (TVVT) gegleufde argitektuur, Draer-Deteksie-Veelvuldige-Toegang met Botsing-Vermyding (DDVT/BV), Skoon-Kanaal-Assessering (SKA) met 'n wisselvallige twis-tydperk, aanpasbare slaap-skedulering met 'n konserwatiewe aktiverings meganisme, virtuele draer-deteksie, klok-wegdrywing kompensasie, en fout beheer. Copyright / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / unrestricted