The control of paracetamol particle size and surface morphology through crystallisation in a spray dryer

The parameters governing the crystallisation of paracetamol using various conventional techniques has been extensively studied, however the factors influencing the drug crystallisation using spray drying is not as well understood. The aim of this work was to investigate the crystallisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient through evaporative crystallisation using a spray dryer to study the physicochemical properties of the drug and to use semi-empirical equations to gain insight into the morphology and particle size of the dried powder. Paracetamol solutions were spray dried at various inlet temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C and also from a series of inlet feed solvent compositions ranging from 50/50% v/v ethanol/water to 100% ethanol and solid-state characterisation was done. The size and morphology of the dried materials were altered with a change in spray drying parameters, with an increase in inlet temperature leading to an increase in particle Sauter mean diameter (from 3.0 to 4.4 µm) and a decrease in the particle size with an increase in ethanol concentration in the feed (from 4.6 to 4.4 µm) as a result of changes in particle density and atomised droplet size. The morphology of the dried particles consisted of agglomerates of individual crystallites bound together into larger semi-spherical agglomerates with a higher tendency for particles having crystalline ridges to form at higher ethanol concentrations of the feed.     

超高强7055铝合金铸锭均匀化工艺优化

采用光学显微镜、扫描电镜、差热分析及透射电镜等手段,对一种航空用超高强7055铝合金大尺寸铸锭的均匀化工艺进行分析与优化。提出分级提高均匀化温度的方法,在确保不发生过烧的情况下,最大限度改善铸锭质量。结果显示:低温预均匀化时,铸锭中析出大量的Al₃Zr相,能够大幅度降低对后续挤压变形的再结晶比例;对铸锭采用400 ℃×4 h+465 ℃×16 h+474 ℃×8 h的分级均匀化处理工艺,能够显著消除铸锭中低熔点相的含量,提高铸锭质量,同时相比于原工艺节省约13 h。新的均匀化处理工艺,不仅提高了生产效率,还能够为后续工艺提供良好的铸锭。     

New insight to the oxidation kinetics of silicon-containing steel at high temperature

This study investigated the oxidation kinetics of silicon-containing steel at 1150–1300 °C using a Simultaneous Thermal Analyzer under atmospheric conditions similar to that of an industry reheating furnace. There is a critical time point for the oxidation kinetics at an oxygen concentration of 4·0 vol.-%., following which the oxidation rate constant increases with the increasing oxidation temperature. The model coefficient A in the kinetic oxidation equation was found to be constant. However, before the critical time point, the oxidation rate constant remained unchanged; the model coefficient A decreased with the increasing temperature. Therefore, the kinetic model of silicon-containing steel for isothermal oxidation was observed to be a modified one on the basis of the experimental data. In addition, the critical time point was prolonged with the increasing isothermal oxidation temperature. Moreover, the oxidation activation energy of the tested silicon-containing steel was 366·16 kJ mol^?1.     

Unsteady natural convection magnetohydrodynamic stagnation point flow with assisting and opposing characteristics: Buongiorno model

In this investigation, the flow of an unsteady mixed convection boundary layer viscous nanofluid on a stretchable sheet is considered. The flow examination is affected by a magnetic field. The reason for the examination exhibited is to create models for nanomaterials that incorporate the Brownian movement and thermophoresis phenomena. The created nonlinear standard differential condition is illuminated numerically utilizing the Runge-Kutta-Gill technique and the start program. The different factors of speed, temperature, and concentration are reported and discussed. The examination shows that the speed, temperature, and concentration are lower in contrast with the consistent stream on account of an assisting flow, whereas the opposite situation is noticed in the opposing flow case. The effects of Brownian movement and thermophoresis in the concentration case are totally different.     

Design of delayed reconfigurable manufacturing system based on part family grouping and machine selection

To improve the convertibility of reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS), the concept of delayed reconfigurable manufacturing system (D-RMS) was proposed. RMS and D-RMS are both constructed around part family. However, D-RMS may suffer from ultra-long system problem with unacceptable idle machines using generic RMS part families. Besides, considering the complex basic system structure of D-RMS, machine selection of D-RMS should be addressed, including dedicated machine, flexible machine, and reconfigurable machine. Therefore, a system design method for D-RMS based on part family grouping and machine selection is proposed. Firstly, a part family grouping method is proposed for D-RMS that groups the parts with more former common operations into the same part family. The concept of longest relative position common operation subsequence (LPCS) is proposed. The similarity coefficient among the parts is calculated based on LPCS. The reciprocal value of the operation position of LPCS is adopted as the characteristic value. The average linkage clustering (ALC) algorithm is used to cluster the parts. Secondly, a machine selection method is proposed to complete the system design of D-RMS, including machine selection rules and the dividing point decision model. Finally, a case study is given to implement and verify the proposed system design method for D-RMS. The results show that the proposed system design method is effective, which can group parts with more former common operations into the same part family and select appropriate machine types.     

GaN中质子辐照损伤的分子动力学模拟研究

本文利用分子动力学方法研究了GaN在质子辐照下的损伤。对不同能量（1~10 keV）初级离位原子（PKA）引起的级联碰撞进行了研究，分析了点缺陷与PKA能量的关系、点缺陷随时间的演化规律、点缺陷的空间分布及点缺陷团簇的尺寸特征。研究结果表明，点缺陷的产生与PKA能量呈线性关系，不同类型的点缺陷随时间演化规律相似，点缺陷多产生在PKA径迹旁，点缺陷团簇多为孤立的点缺陷和小团簇。     

Field‐based robotic phenotyping of sorghum plant architecture using stereo vision

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is known as a major feedstock for biofuel production. To improve its biomass yield through genetic research, manually measuring yield component traits (e.g. plant height, stem diameter, leaf angle, leaf area, leaf number, and panicle size) in the field is the current best practice. However, such laborious and time‐consuming tasks have become a bottleneck limiting experiment scale and data acquisition frequency. This paper presents a high‐throughput field‐based robotic phenotyping system which performed side‐view stereo imaging for dense sorghum plants with a wide range of plant heights throughout the growing season. Our study demonstrated the suitability of stereo vision for field‐based three‐dimensional plant phenotyping when recent advances in stereo matching algorithms were incorporated. A robust data processing pipeline was developed to quantify the variations or morphological traits in plant architecture, which included plot‐based plant height, plot‐based plant width, convex hull volume, plant surface area, and stem diameter (semiautomated). These image‐derived measurements were highly repeatable and showed high correlations with the in‐field manual measurements. Meanwhile, manually collecting the same traits required a large amount of manpower and time compared to the robotic system. The results demonstrated that the proposed system could be a promising tool for large‐scale field‐based high‐throughput plant phenotyping of bioenergy crops.     

喷气燃料冰点试验出现悬浮物的探讨

某公司加氢裂化装置生产的喷气燃料在冰点试验时发现了悬浮物，并且悬浮物在回温过程中消失。虽然通过调整原料中催化裂化柴油（简称催化柴油）、外购原料、常三线柴油的掺炼情况，减少原料中芳烃及正构烷烃的含量，但是在冰点试验时依然发现了悬浮物；其次，通过调整反应深度和分馏塔分离效果（喷气燃料馏程），以及对影响喷气燃料质量的其他因素进行排查，仍然未找到出现悬浮物的原因；最后通过化验分析方法排查发现，在干燥环境（没有湿空气的影响）下进行喷气燃料冰点试验时，可以避免产生絮状物，说明空气中的水是喷气燃料冰点试验中产生絮状物的直接原因。因此，在进行喷气燃料冰点试验时要采取措施隔绝水分。     

Co-C共晶点研制及评价

根据国际温度咨询委员会辐射测温工作组(CCT-WG5)对世界各国计量机构开展Co-C共晶点研制工作的相关要求,设计并搭建了Co-C共晶点灌注系统,采用直接共晶法成功灌注了满足复现实验要求的Co-C共晶点坩埚。针对直接共晶灌注法效率低、坩埚破裂风险大的缺陷,提出了对灌注方法的改进方案,并依据该方案成功灌注了2个Co-C共晶点坩埚。对灌注的Co-C-2#共晶点进行了复现试验,结果显示:拐点温度的不确定度为5.3 mK,满足小于10 mK的CCT要求;短期重复性为9.6 mK,满足小于20 mK的CCT要求。