Modeling of Diffusion in Capillary Porous Materials During the Drying Process

This paper presents a model of heterogenous diffusion in capillary porous materials during the process of drying. The governing heat and mass transfer equations have been established using the liquid as well as vapor flow. Two models have been presented. Model 1 does not consider the heat conduction while the model 2 has been established by considering the conduction. The developed models and the numerical solutions of the resulting differential equations can take into account the moisture and temperature dependent thermophysical properties of the product. All equations have been established in spherical coordinates but the programme written for the purpose of calculations can be used for other geometries also. Numerical calculations have been performed for gas concrete and tiles using model 1, while model 2 has been used for gas concrete only because of the lack of data for thermophysical properties of the tile. For gas concrete it was seen that conduction has only marginal effect on the drying process and the numerical predictions of the drying process were reasonably accurate.     

Measurement and prediction of pressure drop in two-phase flow

Experimental data for air–water two-phase co-current flow in two different pipe diameters were used to test the prediction of pressure drop by a number of existing theories and correlations. Several models are shown to be useful for prediction, particularly with the stratified regimes which have proved difficult to handle in the past. The model suggested by Olujic proved to be of particular value.     

面流消能近底紊动流速特性的研究(面流消能试验研究之一)

本文主要论述了面流消能五种典型流态近底紊动流速特性,总结出了近底时均流速和紊动强度沿程变化规律,提出了近底紊动流速可能出现的最大瞬时值及相应位置的计算公式。面流消能工程的下游防冲设计中考虑的主要水力参数之一是,消能段近底流速紊动可能出现的最大瞬时值及其相应的部位,但目前国内外研究成果较少。笔者通过水工模型试验重点研究了面流消能各典型流态近底流速及其紊动纵向分量沿程的变化规律,并提出了计算公式,为优化面流设计提供科学依据。     

Velocity Profile in Fixed Beds: A Study on the Representativeness of the Experimental Measurement of Downstream Flow Characteristics

Although considerable progress has been made in the development of experimental techniques for investigating velocity distribution inside a fixed bed, these techniques were limited to special cases. Consequently, the velocity distribution is normally measured at downstream of the fixed bed and then this measurement is considered to be representative for the flow inside the bed. To evaluate the representativeness of this technique, this work presents a study of the change in the flow characteristics, starting from the boundary of the fixed bed within the pipe to a downstream position where the experimental measurement is taken, by using simulations based on computational fluid dynamics methods.     

A unified proposal for characteristic testing methods and figure of merit of 8‐kV/3.5‐kVA class light‐triggered thyristors

Power devices with high capability have been developed. 8‐kV/3.5‐kA‐class light‐triggered thyristors have the highest capability among power devices. These devices are used in the Kii Channel HVDC transmission system in Japan. In this paper, we report the extracted problems of conventional testing methods of 8‐kV/3.5‐kA‐class light‐triggered thyristors among manufacturers, and the proposed unified testing methods on the basis of element characteristics and operating conditions in the Kii Channel HVDC system. Furthermore, we propose a figure of merit for power devices for the practical use, and try to extract elements used at the Kii Channel HVDC system with small margins and low withstand capabilities. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 140(3): 61–70, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10024     

Effect of Channel Changes in the St. Clair River During the Present Century

Periodic man-made changes in the outlet of Lake Huron through the St. Clair River date back to the middle of the last century. These artificial channel changes have been well documented during the present century. They consist of dredging for commercial gravel removal in the upper river during 1908–25 and uncompensated navigation improvements for the 7.6-m (25-ft) and 8.2-m (27-ft) projects completed in 1933 and 1962, respectively. The total effect of these changes on the levels of Lakes Michigan and Huron (hydraulically one lake) and on the upper St. Clair River profile was determined with dynamic flow models. The ultimate effect of the above dredging was a permanent lowering of the Lake Michigan-Huron levels 0.27 m (0.89 ft), which represents a tremendous loss of freshwater resource [32 km³ (7.7 mi³)].     

Yeast exo-β-glucanases can be used as efficient and readily detectable reporter genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Yeast exo-1,3-β-glucanases are secretable proteins whose function is basically trophic and may also be involved in cell wall glucan hydrolytic processes. Since fluorescein di(β-D -glucopyranoside) is a fluorogenic substrate detectable and quantifiable by flow cytometry, it was used for testing the ability of the EXG1 gene product of Saccharomyces cerevisiae and its homologous gene in Candida albicans to function as reporter genes. These open reading frames were coupled to different promoters in multicopy plasmids, and exoglucanase activity quantified at flow cytometry. Exoglucanases were found to be useful tools for the study of promoter regions in S. cerevisiae. This technique has the advantage over other reporter gene systems—such as β-galactosidase fusions—that it does not require permeabilization of yeast cells and therefore it allows the recovery of viable cells—by sorting—after flow cytometry analysis.     

Characterization of the flow behaviour of sausage emulsions with a simple tube viscometer

A specially designed tube viscometer was used to measure apparent viscosity during flow of Bologna type sausage emulsions moving through a pipe. Emulsions varied in fat content (from 21.8 to 44.3%) and in moisture/protein ratio (from 3.7 to 5.6), and the effects of added sodium chloride, sodium diphosphate, starch and blood plasma were investigated in a 36% fat, 3.7 moisture/protein emulsion.
The shear stresses determined as a function of shear rate were fitted by a power law. Yield stress of the emulsions was negligible relative to the applied stress. However, inspection of the flow profiles indicated that considerable slip of the sausage emulsion occurred at the pipe wall. Both emulsion flow and slip contribute to overall flow behaviour, so a kind of effective viscosity is determined. Intrinsic rheological properties and wall slip will both be affected by the composition of the sausage emulsion.     

Discrete Modeling and Suggested Measurement of Heat Transfer in Gas-Solids Flows

This article presents a two-dimensional transient model for gas-solids flow and heat transfer through pipes using the coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics and Discrete Element Method approach. Numerical simulations have been conducted to examine the modification of fluid thermal structure due to the presence of particles in a pneumatic transport pipeline. Modeled results have demonstrated the key role of transversal motion of rebounding particles in the pipe cross section in altering fluid temperature. Further implementation of this modeling technique in air-drying processes is discussed and possible experimental methods for the measurement of in situ particle and fluid motion and temperature profile are cited.     

PROGRESS IN THE MODELLING OF AIR FLOW PATTERNS IN TIMBER KILNS

Progress in modelling air flow patterns in timber kilns using Computational Fluid Dynamics is reviewed in this work. These simulations are intended to predict the distribution of the flow in the fillet spaces between boards in a hydraulic model of a timber kiln. Here, the flow regime between the boards is transitional between laminar and turbulent flow, with Reynolds numbers of the order of 5000. Running the simulation as a transient calculation has shown few problems with convergence issues, reaching a mass residual of 0.2% of the total inflow after 40-100 iterations per time step for time steps of 0.01 s. Grid sensitivity studies have shown that non-uniform grids are necessary because of the sudden changes in flow cross section, and the flow simulations are insensitive to grid refinement for non-uniform grids with more than 300,000 cells. The best agreement between the experimentally-measured flow distributions between fillet spaces and those predicted by the simulation have been achieved for (effective) bulk viscosities between the laminar viscosity for water and ten times that value. This change in viscosity is not very large (less than an order of magnitude), given that effective turbulent viscosities are typically several orders of magnitude greater than laminar ones. This result is consistent with the transitional flows here.