• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.394-399
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• 2013

The recalcitrant hairs which are accumulated in the U-trap equipped to prevent the stench from the drainage produce the phenomenon of blocking the flow of water through the home drainage pathway. The chemical dissolution solutions commercially manufactured are excessively poured into U-trap to solve this blocking problem. In this study, the specially designed instrument was developed for the experiments to cut and crush the hairs of which main component are the recalcitrant keratin proteins. The performance of the instrument for cutting and crushing hairs was investigated using experimental methods. The cutting and weighing method was used in order to obtain the average length of a large amount of hairs cut by instrument. This method is relatively simple to measure the weight of cutting hairs to obtain the average length of the fibers, the values of average length showed not greater tolerances. Also the average cutting number was defined to evaluate the performance of the cutting and crushing instruments designed for this study. We were able to apply these evaluation methods to provide the criteria to obtain the optimal structure of instrument and proper operation time in the given experimental conditions. These experimental methods and results will provide the good example to design and to analyze the various device that can be used for cutting the fibers. The cutting and crushing instrument developed in this study showed the effective abilities to cutting the hairs. The general using the cuttting and crushing instrument at every home would be helpful to prevent water environmental pollution.

• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.34 no.6
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• pp.409-415
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• 2021

Medical waste management is becoming increasingly important, specifically in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, as hospitals, clinics, quarantine centers, and medical research institutes are generating tons of medical waste every day. Previously, a traditional incineration process was utilized for managing medical waste, but the lack of landfill sites, and accompanying environmental concerns endanger public health. Consequently, an innovative sterilization shredding system was developed to resolve this problem. In this research, we focused on the design and numerical analysis of a shredding system for hazardous and infectious medical waste, to establish its operational performance. The shredding machine's components were modeled in a CAD application, and finite element analysis (FEA) was conducted using ABAQUS software. Static, fatigue, and dynamic loading conditions were used to analyze the structural stability of the cutting blade. The blade geometry proved to be effective based on the cutting force applied to shred medical waste. The dynamic stability of the structure was verified using modal analysis. Furthermore, an S-N curve was generated using a high cycle fatigue study, to predict the expected life of the cutting blade. Resultantly, an appropriate shredder system was devised to link with a sterilization unit, which could be beneficial in reducing the volume of medical waste and disposal time, thereof, thus eliminating environmental issues, and potential health hazards.