Analytical solution of mixed electromagnetic/pressure driven gaseous flows in microchannels

The influences of wall-slip/jump conditions on the fluid flow and heat transfer for hydrodynamically and thermally fully developed electrically conducting gaseous flow subject to an electromagnetic field inside a parallel plate microchannel with constant heat flux at walls are studied under the assumptions of a low-magnetic Reynolds number. The governing equations are non-dimensionalized and then analytical solutions are derived for the friction and the heat transfer coefficients. The fluid flow and the heat transfer characteristics obtained in the analytical solutions are discussed in detail for different parameters such as the Knudsen, Hartmann, and Brinkman numbers. The velocity profiles verify that even with a constant Knudsen number, applying a stronger electromagnetic field gives rise to an increase in the slip velocity. The results also reveal that on increasing the Hartmann number, the heat transfer rate as well as the friction factor is enhanced, whereas it tends to suppress the movement of the fluid. Further, it is found that the Nusselt and the Poiseuille numbers are less sensitive to the electromagnetic field effects with increase in rarefaction.     

An isogeometrical approach to structural topology optimization by optimality criteria

The Isogeometric Analysis (IA) method is applied for structural topology optimization instead of finite elements. For this purpose, a control point based Solid Isotropic Material with Penalization (SIMP) method is employed and the material density is considered as a continuous function throughout the design domain and approximated by the Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline (NURBS) basis functions. To prevent the formation of layouts with porous media, a penalization technique similar to the SIMP method is used. For optimization an optimality criteria is derived and implemented. A few examples are presented to demonstrate the performance of the method. It is shown that, dissimilar to the element based SIMP topology optimization, the resulted layouts by this method are independent of the number of the discretizing control points and checkerboard free.     

The specific enthalpy of fracture for beta Ti-15-3 alloy

Fatigue crack propagation (FCP) experiments were conducted on beta Ti-15-3 alloy under various loading conditions to examine the constancy of the specific enthalpy for fracture, advanced by the Crack Layer (CL) theory as a material parameter characteristic of its intrinsic toughness. The energy release rate and the irreversible work were determined from load-displacement curves during crack propagation. Microscopic and diffraction analyses were conducted to identify the damage mechanisms ahead of the crack tip. A damage zone whose geometry exhibited plane strain character at the initial stage of crack propagation was observed optically. The damage zone transformed into plane stress configuration when the crack reached half its critical length. Damage mechanisms involved slip lines and microcracking which is believed to ensue from intense accumulation of slip processes. The magnitude of microcracking became more weighty as the crack moved deeper into plane stress dominance. The damage preceding crack advance was quantitatively assessed as the crack resistance moment which is the volume of transformed material per unit crack extension. Application of the CL theory to the data generated under a wide range of applied stress levels gave rise to a constant value of the specific enthalpy of fracture, 20 MJ/m³. This value is in close agreement with the specific energy of slip lines computed from microstructural considerations.     

Stress-Induced Lattice Imperfections: the Principal Motive in Enhancing some Physico-Chemical and Electrical Properties of some Quartz Varieties

Silicon - Chemical reactivity, grindability and zeta potential have been measured and correlated for three variably deformed quartz varieties from three different areas. Results show that there is...     

Experimental determination of gas holdup and volumetric mass transfer coefficient in a jet bubbling reactor

The hydrodynamics and mass transfer characteristics of a lab-scale jet bubbling reactor(JBR) including the gas holdup, volumetric mass transfer coefficient and specific interfacial area were assessed experimentally investigating the influence of temperature, p H and superficial gas velocity. The reactor diameter and height were 11 and 30 cm,respectively. It was equipped with a single sparger, operating at atmospheric pressure, 20 and 40℃, and two p H values of 3 and 6. The height of the liquid was 23 cm, while the superficial gas velocity changed within 0.010–0.040 m·s~(-1) range. Experiments were conducted with pure oxygen as the gas phase and saturated lime solution as the liquid phase. The liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient was determined under unsteady-state oxygen absorption in a saturated lime solution. The gas holdup was calculated based on the liquid height change, while the specific interfacial area was obtained by a physical method based on the bubble size distribution(BSD) in different superficial gas velocities. The results indicated that at the same temperature but different p H, the gas holdup variation was negligible, while the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient at the p H value of 6 was higher than that at the p H = 3. At a constant p H but different temperatures, the gas holdup and the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficients at 40℃ were higher than that of the same at 20℃. A reasonable and appropriate estimation of the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient(kla) in a pilot-scale JBR was provided which can be applied to the design and scale-up of JBRs.     

Surface modification of ultra‐high‐molecular‐weight polyethylene. II. Effect on the physicomechanical and tribological properties of ultra‐high‐molecular‐weight polyethylene/poly(ethylene terephthalate) composites

We performed surface modification of ultra‐high‐molecular‐weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) through chromic acid etching, with the aim of improving the performance of its composites with poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers. In this article, we report on the morphology and physicomechanical and tribological properties of modified UHMWPE/PET composites. Composites containing chemically modified UHMWPE had higher impact properties than those based on unmodified UHMWPE because of improved interfacial bonding between the polymer matrix and the fibers and better dispersion of the fibers within the modified UHMWPE matrix. Chemical modification of UHMWPE before the introduction of PET fibers resulted in composites exhibiting improved wear resistance compared to the base material and compared to unmodified UHMWPE/PET composites. On the basis of the morphological studies of worn samples, microploughing and fatigue failure associated with microcracking were identified as the principle wear mechanisms. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2006     

Thermodynamics of ionic-association in aqueous solutions of Ca and Mg organic salts using ion-selective electrode technique—II. benzoate, o-toloate, o-chlorobenzoate and salycylate

The stoichiometric association constants, K, the thermodynamic association constant, K_A, and the other thermodynamic parameters such as ΔS°, ΔH° and ΔG° for the association between each of the Ca and Mg ions with benzoate, o-toloate, o-chlorobenzoate and salycylate have been determined at 25°C, 35°C and 45°C in aqueous media. Ion-selective electrode technique has been used in the measurements of Ca and Mg ion activitiesThe trend of association behavior of both Ca and Mg aromatic salts could not be explained on the basis of pK_a of the mother organic acids but could be explained based on the trend of Hammet function σ of these salts themselves relative to the corresponding benzoate salt.     

Graft polymerization of acrylic acid onto starch using potassium permanganate acid (redox system)

Graft polymerization of acrylic acid (AA) onto rice starch using postassium permanganate/acid redox system as initiator was investigated. When starch was reacted with KMnO₄ solution, MnO₂ was deposited onto starch. The dependence of MnO₂ amount deposited was directly related to KMnO₄ concentration. Subjecting the MnO₂-containing starch to a solution consisting of monomer (AA) and acid (citric, tartaric, oxalic and hydrochloric acid) formed poly(AA)–starch graft copolymers. The graft yield, expressed as meq COOH/100 g starch, was measured by the amount of MnO₂ deposited, AA concentration, material-to-liquor ratio, kind and concentration of acid, as well as temperature and duration. Finally, the newly prepared poly(AA)–starch graft copolymers were applied to cotton textiles to determine their suitability as sizing agents. The highest graft yield was obtained with citric acid and the least with hydrochloric acid, with tartaric and oxalic acid in between. The graft yield increased by increasing the concentration of acid to a certain concentration beyond which grafting leveled off. A similar trend was observed when the magnitude of grafting was related to the amount of MnO₂ deposited. The graft yield increased by increasing the polymerization temperature from 30° to 50°C. Increasing the temperature to 60°C is accompanied by decreased grafting. On the other hand, fabric samples sized with poly(AA)–starch graft copolymers acquire higher tensile strength, elongation at break, and abrasion resistance than that sized with native rice starch, i.e., poly(AA)–starch graft copolymers serve as good sizing agents for cotton textiles. A tentative mechanism for grafting rice starch with AA using the KMnO₄/acid redox system was elucidated. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Recognizing arabic handwritten characters using deep learning and genetic algorithms

Automated techniques for Arabic content recognition are at a beginning period contrasted with their partners for the Latin and Chinese contents recognition. There is a bulk of handwritten Arabic archives available in libraries, data centers, historical centers, and workplaces. Digitization of these documents facilitates (1) to preserve and transfer the country’s history electronically, (2) to save the physical storage space, (3) to proper handling of the documents, and (4) to enhance the retrieval of information through the Internet and other mediums. Arabic handwritten character recognition (AHCR) systems face several challenges including the unlimited variations in human handwriting and the leakage of large and public databases. In the current study, the segmentation and recognition phases are addressed. The text segmentation challenges and a set of solutions for each challenge are presented. The convolutional neural network (CNN), deep learning approach, is used in the recognition phase. The usage of CNN leads to significant improvements across different machine learning classification algorithms. It facilitates the automatic feature extraction of images. 14 different native CNN architectures are proposed after a set of try-and-error trials. They are trained and tested on the HMBD database that contains 54,115 of the handwritten Arabic characters. Experiments are performed on the native CNN architectures and the best-reported testing accuracy is 91.96%. A transfer learning (TF) and genetic algorithm (GA) approach named “HMB-AHCR-DLGA” is suggested to optimize the training parameters and hyperparameters in the recognition phase. The pre-trained CNN models (VGG16, VGG19, and MobileNetV2) are used in the later approach. Five optimization experiments are performed and the best combinations are reported. The highest reported testing accuracy is 92.88%.

     

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): survival analysis using deep learning and Cox regression model

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Coronavirus (COVID-19) is one of the most serious problems that has caused stopping the wheel of life all over the world. It is widely spread to the extent that...