Combustion of multi-component liquid fuel drops

Combustion of Bunker C fuel drops has been studied by high-speed cinematography using both suspended and falling drop techniques. Suspended drops burned disruptively, the liquid phase shattering and the gas phase displaying ‘explosive’ behaviour. Falling drops of pre-heated fuel burned smoothly, whereas non-preheated fuel drops burned in stages, with frequent extinction and re-ignition, accompanied by fluctuating combustion in the gas phase, suggesting rapid and irregular evolution of volatiles.     

Elastic analysis of pin joints in plates under some combined pin and plate loads

Joints are primary sources of weakness in structures. Pin joints are very common and are used where periodic disassembly of components is needed. A circular pin in a circular hole in an infinitely large plate is an abstraction of such a pin joint. A two-dimensional plane-stress analysis of such a configuration is carried out, here, subjected to pin-bearing and/or biaxial-plate loading. The pin is assumed to be rigid compared to the plate material. For pin load the reactive stresses at the edges of the infinite plate tend to zero though their integral over the external boundary equals to the pin load. The pin-hole interface is unbonded and so beyond some load levels the plate separates from the pin and the extent of separation is a non-linear function of load level. The problem is solved by inverse technique where the extent of contact is specified and the causative loads are evaluated directly. In the situations where combined load is acting the separation-contact zone specification generally needs two parameters (angles) to be specified. The present report deals with analysing such a situation in metallic (or isotropic) plates. Numerical results are provided for parametric representation and the methodology is demonstrated.     

Cucurbiturils as Reaction Containers for Photocycloaddition of Olefins

The [2+2] photocycloaddition (PCA [2+2]) of alkenes is one of the most synthetically useful photoreactions. It is a convenient one-step reaction that is useful for generating substituted cyclobutanes, polymers, and biologically relevant molecules. However, the reaction efficiency is limited by its bimolecular nature requiring encounter between two reactants within the narrow window of excited state lifetime of the photoactive alkene, and competition from the unimolecular photoisomerization. Our groups have utilized macrocyclic cavitands, especially cucurbiturils(CB), to confine two alkene molecules within their cavities and steer them towards a single dimer regio- and stereoselectively. Although, primarily the review focuses on photocycloaddition within CBs, such reactions in closely related cavitands such as cyclodextrins (CD) and calixarenes (CA) are also briefly mentioned to provide a comparison with CBs. Studies on photocycloaddition of olefins within CB by other research groups are also briefly highlighted. A mechanistic model, with ability to predict the nature of the dimer product formed within the above reaction containers is included.     

Containment wells to form hydraulic barriers along site boundaries

In the field, aquifer remediation methods include pump and treat procedures based on hydraulic control systems. They are used to reduce the level of residual contamination present in the soil and soil pores of aquifers. Often, physical barriers are erected along the boundaries of the target (aquifer) site to reduce the leakage of the released soil contaminant to the surrounding regions. Physical barriers are expensive to build and dismantle. Alternatively, based on simple hydraulic principles, containment wells or image wells injecting clear water can be designed and built to provide hydraulic barriers along the contaminated site boundaries. For brevity, only one pattern of containment well system that is very effective is presented in detail. The study briefly reports about the method of erecting a hydraulic barrier around a contaminated region based on the simple hydraulic principle of images. During the clean-up period, hydraulic barriers can considerably reduce the leakage of the released contaminant from the target site to surrounding pristine regions. Containment wells facilitate the formation of hydraulic barriers. Hence, they control the movement of contaminants away from the site that is being remedied. However, these wells come into play, only when the pumping operation for cleaning up the site is active. After operation, they can be filled with soil to permit the natural ground water movement. They can also be used as monitoring wells.     

Preparation and characterization of biocompatible carbon electrodes

Electron transfer in microbial fuel cell and biosensors could be facilitated through high conductive materials with enhanced active surface area and appropriate redox potential suited to microbial metabolism. In the first strategy based on bulk doping, graphite/epoxy composite electrode (GECE) bulk was modified with six types of metal ion which were prepared through a wet impregnation procedure. In the second strategy, immobilization of redox dye on carbon cloth and graphite sheet was carried out using N,N′-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide for surface modification. Crystallinity, morphology, surface chemistry and electrochemical properties of all modified electrodes were investigated. Influence of redox behavior of electrodes suited to microbial metabolism and conducive to biofilm formation have been examined. It was observed that the Fe³⁺ doped GECE surfaces exhibited significantly high biofilm formation of 1.10(±0.18) × 10⁷ CFU/cm² as compared to other dopants. The microbial growth on the carbon cloth electrode and carbon fiber reinforced plate were found to be less (2.6(±0.97) × 10⁴, 4.8(±1.8) × 10³ CFU/cm² respectively) compared to GECEs.     

Low-cost plastic plasmonic substrates for operation in aqueous environments

We report a novel design of a multilayer stack to attain surface-plasmon-coupled emission (SPCE) enhancements in liquid medium. Variation in thickness of the multilayer affects the position and depth of resonance plasmon dips. Numerical investigation resulted in an optimal stack configuration that supports long-range surface plasmons. SPCE substrates were prepared on plain BK7 glass and Teflon-AF coated polycarbonate (PC-T) substrates by modifying their surface functionalities using plasma etching. The changes in refractive indices due to the presence of the fluoropolymer layer help reduce the SPCE exit angle from α = 75° (plain BK7) to α = 60° (PC-T) in water without requiring specialized optics.     

Study on the performance deterioration of mixed flow impeller due to change in tip clearance

Performance of mixed flow compressor with un-shrouded impeller strongly depends upon unsteady, asymmetrical flow fields in the axial directions. The flow through the mixed flow impeller is complex due to three-dimensional nature of geometry. In mixed flow impeller, there are clearances between the rotating impeller blades and the casing as the high pressure ratio compressors are usually open shrouded impellers. As a result, certain amount of reduction in the performance is unavoidable due to clearance flows. In the present investigations, numerical analysis is performed using a commercial code to investigate tip clearance effects on through flow. The perform- ance of mixed flow impeller with four different clearances between impeller and stationary shroud are evaluated and compared with experimental results. The impeller performance map was obtained for different operating speeds and mass flow rates with different tip clearances. The result shows that the tip leakage flow strongly inter- acts with mainstream and contributes to total pressure loss and performance reduction. The pressure and per- formance decrement are approximately linearly proportional to the gap between impeller and stationary shroud. The analysis showed scope for improvement in design of the compressor for better performance in terms of effi- ciency and operating range.     

Evaluation of Antioxidant, Radical Scavenging Activity and Polyphenolics Profile in Solanum torvum L. Fruits

Solanum torvum fruit widely used in traditional medicine of India and also in food preparation. Three different extracts such as water (WE), methanol (ME), and ethanol (EE) were used to evaluate their antioxidant and radical scavenging activity by different methods. All the assays results were compared with well-known standard antioxidants. The IC(50) values of assays were determined. The total phenolic and flavonoids content were found to be maximum in water and ethanol extracts, respectively. The electron quenching ability of fruit extract was assayed by DPPH and reducing power assays succeeding order were ME > EE > WE, respectively. Inhibition of membrane damage, was assayed interns of oxidative hemolysis and lipid peroxidation assays, among all WE extract shows 58.00% and 68.55 5% percentage of inhibition with 0.9 and 0.8 correlations (r(2) ), respectively. Antioxidant and radical quenching efficiency were assayed by β-carotene bleaching and hydroxyl radical scavenging method and results were compared with vitamin C and catechin. The in vitro free radical quenching and antioxidant results were well correlated with in vitro DNA protection assay. As analyzed by HPTLC gallic acid content is high in WE (1394 ± 25.0) and ME (598 ± 54.0) whereas ferulic acid is high in EE (32 ± 5.94) μg/g, respectively. This study indicate that S. torvum fruit is an excellent source of natural antioxidant and could be an effective nutritional food supplement, which interns will have therapeutic applications. Practical Application: In siddha medicine on the traditional systems of India the, ripened fruits are used in the preparation of tonic named as a "sundaivattaral choornam" is used to improve the health and prevent several diseases. This study has given an experimental evidence that S. torvum fruit is an excellent source of natural antioxidants.     

Characteristics of Flow around Open Channel 90° Bends with Vanes

Sharp open-channel bends are commonly encountered in hydraulic engineering design. Disturbances such as secondary flows and flow separation caused by the bend may persist for considerable distances in the downstream channel. A simple way of reducing these disturbances is through the insertion of vertical vanes in the bend section. A laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) unit was used to measure the three-dimensional mean and turbulent velocity components of flow in an experimental rectangular open-channel bend. Flow characteristics of the bend with no vanes are compared with those of bends having one or three vertical vanes. The size of the flow separation zone at the inner wall of the bend was determined from dye visualization data and confirmed with mean streamwise velocity data. Results show that the vertical vanes are effective in considerably reducing flow separation, intensity of secondary flows, and turbulence energy in the downstream channel. Furthermore, energy loss for bends with vanes is slightly less than for the no-vane case.