Browsing by Author "Burca, Genoveva"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • No Thumbnail Available
    ItemOpen Access
    Data for feasibility study on using combined tomography and spectroscopy techniques to evaluate the physical and chemical characteristics of organo-mineral fertilisers
    (Cranfield University, 2025-05-16) Sakrabani, Ruben; Mosca, Sara; Liptak, Alexander; Burca, Genoveva
    Fertilisers play a key role in agriculture, providing key nutrients needed by crops to ensure a secure food supply. However, with increasing prices and rising environmental concerns, there is a growing need to rely on alternative and sustainable fertiliser sources, introducing the opportunity to use organic amendments to formulate organo-mineral fertilisers (OMF). Despite their environmental advantages, the inherent variability in composition of organic amendments within OMF poses a challenge for their standardisation. This study aims to use OMF derived from anaerobic digestate and coupled with carbon capture technologies to analyse for its physical characteristics and chemical composition using neutron computed tomography (NCT), X-ray computed tomography (XCT) and Raman spectroscopy (RS). This work represents the first attempt to utilise a combination of imaging techniques to investigate on OMF and demonstrates their feasibility for measuring the variability between individual samples. This is a proof-of-concept study which shows that combining NCT and XCT can provide images on how uniformly packed each OMF pellet are. The use of RS is to characterise OMF is more challenging largely due to the high fluorescence background arising from its matrix. This study needs to be further developed to enable image-based analysis using machine learning algorithms to determine characteristics of large batches of OMF.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Feasibility study on using combined tomography and spectroscopy techniques to evaluate the physical and chemical characteristics of organo-mineral fertilisers
    (Frontiers, 2025-06-04) Sakrabani, Ruben; Mosca, Sara; Liptak, Alexander; Burca, Genoveva
    Fertilisers play a key role in agriculture, providing key nutrients needed by crops to ensure a secure food supply. However, with increasing prices and rising environmental concerns, there is a growing need to rely on alternative and sustainable fertiliser sources, introducing the opportunity to use organic amendments to formulate organo-mineral fertilisers (OMF). Despite their environmental advantages, the inherent variability in composition of organic amendments within OMF poses a challenge for their standardization. This study aims to use OMF derived from anaerobic digestate and coupled with carbon capture technologies to analyze for its physical characteristics and chemical composition using neutron computed tomography (NCT), X-ray computed tomography (XCT) and Raman spectroscopy (RS). This is a feasibility study to assess using non-destructive techniques on OMF as previously this has not been explored. This work represents the first attempt to utilize a combination of imaging techniques to investigate on OMF and demonstrates their feasibility for measuring the variability between individual samples. This is a proof-of-concept study which shows that combining NCT and XCT can provide images on how uniformly packed each OMF pellet are. The use of RS is to characterize OMF is more challenging largely due to the high fluorescence background arising from its matrix. This study needs to be further developed to enable image-based analysis using machine learning algorithms to determine characteristics of large batches of OMF. Further development is needed building on this work to quantify OMF pellet characteristics so that it can be confidently used as novel fertilisers in agriculture.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ItemOpen Access
    Neutron diffraction and neutron imaging residual strain measurements on offshore wind monopole weldments
    (Elsevier, 2018-12-31) Jacob, Anaïs; Mehmanparast, Ali; Kelleher, Joe; Burca, Genoveva
    Residual stress measurement is of fundamental interest in order to estimate the service life of engineering components and structures subjected to various loading conditions operating in different environments. Destructive and non-destructive techniques are used for the evaluation of residual stresses. Neutron diffraction, as a non-destructive technique, is widely used to measure the elastic strain component of a specific atomic plane from which residual stresses can be calculated. Neutron imaging is an alternative technique which enables residual stresses to be measured through strain mapping of the area of interest. In this study, neutron diffraction measurements were performed in conjunction with neutron imaging to evaluate residual strains in a compact tension, C(T), specimen extracted from a welded plate made of S355 structural steel. Neutron diffraction and imaging are two complementary techniques which have been employed in this work by performing measurements on the Engin-X and newly developed IMAT instruments, respectively, at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Neutron diffraction residual strain measurements in all three directions were conducted within the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) of the weld area whereas longitudinal residual strains were measured using the neutron imaging technique. A comparison of the neutron diffraction and neutron imaging preliminary results has shown that neutron imaging can provide acceptable measure of residual strains compared to those of obtained from neutron diffraction. The results have been discussed in terms of the possible sources of error encountered in each measurement technique and the accuracy of each technique against the other.