The Change of Body Temperature During Convective Drying of Cube-Shaped Apple Pieces

When using the convective drying method, the mass transfer between drying air and moisture diffusion of the material is very important. The moisture moves inside the material because of the volume change caused by the increased temperature. This movement is additionally affected by the texture of the material. According to the research dealing with colloid capillary porous texture of vegetables and fruit, the humidity migration inside the material occurs in both fluid and steam condition at the same time. This migration is stimulated by the heating and decreasing humidity along with the flow. In this research, winter varieties of apples (Jonathan, Golden Delicious, and Idared) were studied by heating of a 20 × 20 × 20 piece of apple with a thermocouple in it. On the basis of the measurements it can be stated that for the fruits with a high percentage of moisture (75-90%), when making the drying condition, the moisture gradient is influenced by the fractured cells of the cut area. It was found that the variety of apple is very important in relation to the heating and water loss gradient. According to the results, the wet volume change due to the heating highly influences the water loss. The models that describe the temperature of the material have a connection with the water loss.     

Magnetic separations in biotechnology—a review

Magnetic separation technology has a broad range of potential applications in both small and large scale biotechnology. This review considers a selection of magnetic techniques and their possible uses.     

Application of SiC-Si functionally gradient material to thermoelectric energy conversion device

Because of its high–temperature chemical stability, SiC ceramic is a promising material for high-temperature device applications such as thermoelectric energy converters. However, the electrical conductivity of SiC ceramic is too low for it to be used as a thermoelectric energy converter at the cold junction. Therefore, we propose a SiC-Si functionally gradient material (FGM) in order to improve the electrical conductivity of the SiC ceramic at the cold junction. An SiC rod was fired in a temperature gradient furnace. One end of the SiC rod was maintained at 2473 K and the other end was maintained at 1973 K for 30 min. After firing, the porous SiC edge fired at 1973 K was dipped into molten Si in order to infiltrate molten Si into the porous SiC. The microstructure of the FGM is classified into three regions: the SiC-Si composite material; the porous SiC ceramic; and the densified SiC ceramic. The electrical conductivity, the Seebeck coefficient and the thermal conductivity for each region of SiC-Si FGM was measured at 300 K; a figure of merit was calculated. The figure of merit of the SiC-Si FGM at the cold junction, at room temperature, was 10⁸ times higher than that of a nongradient SiC ceramic.     

A New Variable Diffusion Drying Model for the Second Falling Rate Period of Paddy Dried in a Rapid Bin Dryer

The objectives of this article is to propose a new drying model for the second falling rate period known as the variable diffusion controlled period that follows after the first falling rate period and to propose a new method to determine the second critical moisture content that separates these two periods. Experimental work on paddy drying at minimum fluidization velocity was carried out in a rapid bin dryer. The effects of operating temperatures (60-120°C) and bed depths (2-6 cm) on the paddy drying characteristics were investigated. It was found that the normalized drying rate of paddy was proportional to the normalized moisture content in the first falling rate period but in the second falling rate period, the normalized drying rate of the material varies exponentially with the normalized moisture content. The different relationship between the normalized drying rate and the normalized moisture content in the first and second falling rate periods indicate that two different mechanism of moisture transport are at work. The new exponential model of the second falling rate period and the linear model of the first falling rate period were found to fit the experimental data very well. Derivation from variable diffusion equation shows that the linear model is the result of constant diffusion coefficient whereas the new exponential model is the result of linear diffusion coefficient. This also implies that the first falling rate period is a constant diffusion controlled period and the second falling rate period is a variable diffusion controlled period. In addition, drying kinetics data of a drying process that fits the exponential model over a very slow drying period will show that the drying process is under the effect of a linear diffusion coefficient. It was also found that the proposed new method to determine the second critical moisture content that distinguishes between the first and second falling rate periods by using a sudden change in the value of the drying rate gradient to a much lower value at that point is more rigorous and yet simpler than the method of determining the specific location of the receding drying boundary since it is based on the behavior of the actual drying kinetic data.     

Solving regularized least squares with qualitatively controlled adaptive cross‐approximated matrices

The adaptive cross‐approximation (ACA) technique is applied to accelerating an inverse‐problem solver that estimates charge distribution on a dielectric spacer. The ACA generates an approximated system‐matrix that enables us to carry out high‐speed inverse calculation. We designed an approximation procedure based on ACA with some additional concepts, that is, (a) partitioning of matrix based on algebraic information, (b) approximation quality control based on matrix norms, and so on. The tested solver (LSQR for regularized least squares) with ACA demonstrates about 10 times faster performance than that without ACA. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 159(3): 10–18, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20326     

Influencing factors on elastic-plastic deformation of multi-layered surfaces under sliding contact

Stress distribution in the gradient multi-layered surface under a sliding contact was investigated using finite element method(FEM). The main structure parameters of layered surface discussed are total layer thickness,layer number and elastic modulus ratio of layer to the substrate. A model of multi-layered surface contact with rough slider was studied. The effect of the surface structure parameters on the elastic-plastic deformation was analyzed.     

A parallel preconditioned conjugate gradient solution method for finite element problems with coarse–fine mesh formulation

The object of this paper is a parallel preconditioned conjugate gradient iterative solver for finite element problems with coarse-mesh/fine-mesh formulation. An efficient preconditioner is easily derived from the multigrid stiffness matrix. The method has been implemented, for the sake of comparison, both on a IBM-RISC590 and on a Quadrics-QH1, a massive parallel SIMD machine with 128 processors. Examples of solutions of simple linear elastic problems on rectangular grids are presented and convergence and parallel performance are discussed.     

Starting solutions for some unsteady unidirectional flows of a second grade fluid

Exact solutions corresponding to the motions of a second grade fluid, due to the cosine and sine oscillations of an infinite flat plate as well as those induced by an oscillating pressure gradient are determined by means of the Fourier sine transforms. These solutions, presented as sum of the steady-state and transient solutions, satisfy both the governing equations and all associate initial and boundary conditions. In the special case when α₁ → 0, they reduce to those for a Navier-Stokes fluid.     

基于ABAQUS软件的微米级金属材料性能研究

为工程实践中迫切需要解决微米和亚微米量级的设计与制造问题,文章中运用MSG塑性理论利用Abaqus软件对铝合金的强度及均匀延伸率进行了比较系统的研究;运用有限单元法分析了MSG应变梯度本构方程和经典的弹塑性本构方程对不同晶粒尺寸的铝合金的应力应变关系;模拟不同晶粒尺寸的铝合金的强度及均匀延伸率。结果表明随着晶粒尺寸的减小,屈服强度、应变硬化明显增加,延伸率却往往越小。对于该问题的研究探索,将是解决材料强度与均匀伸长率这对矛盾体的问题关键,同时,为科研工作者提供了新方法和新途径。     

梯度功能材料热弹性应力的分析方法

本文介绍了近年来国外有关梯度功能材料热弹性应力问题的最新研究方法，并对其方法特点进行了评述．