Mesoscopic particulate system assembled from three-dimensional irregular particles

Particles around us are generally in the form of irregular characteristics in shape and size. Establishing rational mesoscale models that are suitable for different types of particles is of great significance to comprehensively evaluate the mechanical properties of particulate systems assembled from irregular particles. The preponderances of previous works are mainly focused on particle simulations using regular-shaped geometries or simple polyhedrons, and little is known about quantitative characterization for the particles with complex shape characteristics. In this paper, a series of novel and efficient algorithms are presented to generate three-dimensional particulate systems assembled from particles with irregular characteristics in shape and size. According to the developed particle generation algorithm and vector-growth algorithm, the convex- and concave particles with different shape- and size configurations are obtained. Parametric analysis of corresponding algorithm parameters on the shape- and size configurations of particles are quantitatively investigated in terms of different indexes, such as sphericity, angularity and size, which provides an important guidance for the shape- and size control of irregular particles. Based on the generated irregular particles, a series of algorithms are proposed to generate the particulate systems with random spatial characteristics as well. Employing the developed compaction algorithm, mesoscopic particulate systems with different particle gradations and compactness are generated precisely. To sum up, the present particle model provides insights into capturing and studying the meso-structure characteristics and macroscopic mechanical properties of particulate systems.     

Particle size distribution and homogenisation efficiency in high-pressure homogenisation of wheat germ oil-water system

Wheat germ oil (WGO) is well-known as a good source of vegetable oil due to its nutrients and health benefits. Emulsification is a process that improves the incorporation of oil into food. High-pressure homogenisation (HPH) is a nonthermal and soft technique with enormous potential in oil-in-water emulsification. This paper focussed on the application of HPH for emulsification of WGO-in-water system. Influences of homogenisation pressure (100–300 bar), oil fraction (10–20% v/v) and lecithin adding (0–0.2% w/v of content) on the homogenisation were evaluated based on distribution of particles diameter and homogenisation efficiency. The increase in operating pressure and lecithin ratio decreased the particle size and increased the emulsion stability, and vice versa for oil fraction. The findings imply that the investigated factors significantly influenced particle size and emulsion system stability. The regression model between mean particle diameter and technical conditions of emulsion was established. With HPH treatment conditions of 300 bar operating pressure, 10% (v/v) oil fraction and 0.2% (w/v) lecithin created an emulsion system with a mean particle size of 3.32 µm, more than 50% of the volume of particles smaller than 1.5 µm of diameter and the homogenisation efficiency of 98.61%. HPH exhibits high efficiency and potential in WGO-in-water emulsification application.     

Deriving high-resolution urban air pollution maps using mobile sensor nodes

Up-to-date information on urban air pollution is of great importance for environmental protection agencies to assess air quality and provide advice to the general public in a timely manner. In particular, ultrafine particles (UFPs) are widely spread in urban environments and may have a severe impact on human health. However, the lack of knowledge about the spatio-temporal distribution of UFPs hampers profound evaluation of these effects. In this paper, we analyze one of the largest spatially resolved UFP data set publicly available today containing over 50 million measurements. We collected the measurements throughout more than two years using mobile sensor nodes installed on top of public transport vehicles in the city of Zurich, Switzerland. Based on these data, we develop land-use regression models to create pollution maps with a high spatial resolution of 100 m × 100 m. We compare the accuracy of the derived models across various time scales and observe a rapid drop in accuracy for maps with sub-weekly temporal resolution. To address this problem, we propose a novel modeling approach that incorporates past measurements annotated with metadata into the modeling process. In this way, we achieve a 26% reduction in the root-mean-square error–a standard metric to evaluate the accuracy of air quality models–of pollution maps with semi-daily temporal resolution. We believe that our findings can help epidemiologists to better understand the adverse health effects related to UFPs and serve as a stepping stone towards detailed real-time pollution assessment.     

Mathematical Modeling the Drying of Poplar Wood Particles in a Closed-Loop Triple Pass Rotary Dryer

Closed-loop drying systems are an attractive alternative to conventional drying systems because they provide a wide range of potential advantages. Consequently, type of drying process is attracting increased interest. Rotary drying of wood particles can be assumed as an incorporated process involving fluid–solid interactions and simultaneous heat and mass transfer within and between the particles. Understanding these mechanisms during rotary drying processes may result in determination of the optimum drying parameters and improved dryer design. In this study, due to the complexity and nonlinearity of the momentum, heat, and mass transfer equations, a computerized mathematical model of a closed-loop triple-pass concurrent rotary dryer was developed to simulate the drying behavior of poplar wood particles within the dryer drums. Wood particle moisture content and temperature, drying air temperature, and drying air humidity ratio along the drums lengths can be simulated using this model. The model presented in this work has been shown to successfully predict the steady-state behavior of a concurrent rotary dryer and can be used to analyze the effects of various drying process parameters on the performance of the closed-loop triple-pass rotary dryer to determine the optimum drying parameters. The model was also used to simulate the performance of industrial closed-loop rotary dryers under various operating conditions.     

Electrophoretic deposition of hydroxyapatite nanostructured coatings with controlled porosity

Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings with controlled porosity were prepared by electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method. Carbon black (CB) particles were used as the sacrificial template (porogen agent). Two component suspensions containing different concentrations of HA and CB particles were prepared in isopropanol. It was found that the finer and positively charged HA nanoparticles are heterocoagulated on the coarser and negatively charged CB particles to form CB–HA composite particles with net positive charge. The deposition rate from the suspensions with WR (C_CB/C_HA ratio) of 0.25 was faster than that of those with WR: 0.5 at initial times of EPD. However the situation was reversed at longer EPD times. It was also found that the amount of porosity in the coatings increases as the CB concentration in the suspension increases (15%, 24%, 31%, 43% for the coatings deposited from the suspensions with 20 g/L HA nanoparticles and 0, 5, 10 and 20 g/L CB particles, respectively).     

Artificial enzyme with magnetic properties and peroxidase activity on indoleamine metabolite tumor marker

Stable and easily-handled synthetic materials mimicking natural enzymes activity would find important biotechnological applications. This article describes the synthesis and characterization of magnetic molecularly imprinted catalytic polymers that exhibit peroxidase-like activity towards 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (5-HIAA) oxidation. This multifunctional material is obtained from highly crystalline magnetite nuclei coated with a silica layer to protect the iron nucleus from oxidation and to provide anchoring for hydroxyl surface groups. After acrylic functionalization via sol–gel process, a molecularly imprinted polymer with hemin as catalytic center and 5-HIAA as template has been successfully attached to the structure. The resulting hybrid composite is magnetically separable and possesses excellent catalytic ability for the selective oxidation of the indoleamine metabolite tumor marker, showing Michaelis–Menten kinetics with this molecule but not towards other structural analogs. Therefore, it can be considered an artificial peroxidase enzyme.     

切流式三旋单管内固相颗粒运动规律的数值研究

采用商用软件Fluent 6.3,利用随机轨道模型对切流式三旋单管内固相颗粒运动轨迹进行了数值模拟,结果表明颗粒运动轨迹随机性较大,对气流的跟随性较好,受湍流脉动的影响较大。颗粒在单管内的逃逸与捕集运动规律的统计结果表明:不大于5μm的颗粒主要在排气管底部和分离筒体发生逃逸,随着粒径的增加,颗粒的分离效率增加,在排气管底部和分离筒体上部逃逸比重增加,而在分离筒体中底部颗粒的逃逸比重减少。总结来说,排气管短路流、分离筒体内旋流夹带逃逸是影响切流式三旋分离性能的主要原因,可以从这些方面进行三旋分离性能的优化与改进。     

Inorganic microencapsulated core/shell structure of Al–Si alloy micro-particles with silane coupling agent

Al–Si eutectic alloy is a kind of ideal high temperature phase change materials (PCMs) because of its high latent heat and good heat transfer performance. However, it is difficult for Al–Si alloy to be safely applied because of its causticity and incompatibility. In this paper, an inorganic Al–Si/Al₂O₃ micro-particles core/shell structure was prepared by the sol–gel process with the modification of silane coupling agent. The direct evidence for the forming of the dense and stable α-Al₂O₃ shell layer, whose thickness is about 3–5 μm, is presented by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). In terms of the analyses of Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and thermogravimetry (TG), it is apparent that the silane coupling agent is successfully grafted on the surface of Al–Si alloy micro-particles, which promotes the condensation between boehmite sols and silanol groups. The latent heat of the encapsulated Al–Si alloy was 307.21 kJ/kg and decreased during the process of microencapsulation. The reasons for the reduction of the latent heat are the excess alumina sols and the depletion of Al–Si alloy.     

Spark plasma sintering of oxides and carbide dispersed zirconia inert matrix fuels

Zirconia-based inert matrix fuels reinforced by ZrC were synthesized via spark plasma sintering (SPS). Composites with full density were obtained. In order to prevent the oxidation introduced by dispersed ZrC in the bulk composite, SiC and ZrB₂ were later added into the composite and their capability to improve oxidation resistance was examined. SiC was found to form an oxidation layer which could enhance the oxidation resistance. In addition, micro hardness was improved attributing to effective sintering facilitated by silica flow and distribution of ZrC. With an optimum sintering condition and the addition of SiC, thermal conductivity was improved at higher temperature with the help of unoxidized ZrC reinforcement in the bulk composite.     

铂微粒修饰电极伏安法测定亚硫酸根

采用电化学沉积法制备了铂微粒修饰玻碳电极(Pt/GCE)。通过伏安法研究了亚硫酸根在该电极上的电化学行为,并优化了实验参数,在此基础上建立了一种用微分脉冲伏安法直接测定亚硫酸根的方法。在pH为3的磷酸盐缓冲溶液(PBS)中,亚硫酸根的氧化峰电流与其浓度在1.0×10-5~1.0×10-3 mol/L的范围内呈良好的线性关系(r=0.9919),检测限为5.0×10-6 mol/L。