Effect of geotextile ageing and geomembrane surface roughness on the geomembrane-geotextile interfaces for heap leaching applications

A series of large scale direct shear experiments is used to investigate the effect of the geomembrane (GMB) surface roughness, geotextile (GTX) properties, and GTX ageing, on the GMB-GTX interface shear behaviour. Interfaces involving smooth, coextruded textured, and structured surface GMBs underlying four different nonwoven needle-punched staple fibres (GTXs) with mass per unit areas between 200 and 2400 g/m², and a geocomposite drain (GCD) are examined at normal stresses between 250 and 1000 kPa. The results showed that the interlocking between the GMB and GTX increased with increasing the GMB asperity height and/or decreasing the mass per unit area of the GTX. For the interfaces that involved GTXs preaged prior to the shear box experiments for up to 2 years at 85 °C, it was found that the 2400 g/m² heat bonded two-layered GTX exhibited internal shear failure at low shear displacements. However, all the highly aged single layered GTXs showed an increase in the peak interface friction angles with the increase in their ageing. For these single layered GTX, the results suggest that assessing the interface friction angles using unaged GTXs for the stability analysis is conservative as long as the GTX remains intact in the field.     

Advanced Friction–Wear Behavior of Organic Brake Pads Using a Newly Developed System

The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of an advanced performance system on the tribological behavior of brake pad material using a specially designed brake pad tester system following standard SAE J-661. The tribological behavior and friction and wear characteristics of the organic brake pad samples were evaluated. During braking tests, the samples, in contact with a cast iron disk, were studied at different disc speeds, temperatures, and braking cycles under a constant pressure. In order to understand the friction and wear behavior, the unworn surfaces, worn surfaces, and wear debris were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX). Furthermore, the surface characteristics and differences in the wear modes of the brake pad samples were examined. Wear debris was permitted to deform the brake pad surfaces, leading to friction layers and enabling the estimation of the friction behavior of the brake pads. The results showed that the best friction–wear behavior was obtained with lower braking cycles at low speeds and temperature. Thus, the newly developed brake pad tester system proved very effective in evaluating the performance of the brake pad samples.     

蛋类礼盒包装结构的缓冲性能研究

目的研究蛋类礼盒包装结构的缓冲性能。方法以蛋类尺寸为基础,建立可发性聚乙烯(expandable polyethylene. EPE)缓冲单元结构和组合结构,进行静态仿真分析和实验验证,比较结构在形状、叠合层数、组合形式等参数变化时的载荷与位移。结果结构层数变化相同时,单元结构的极限载荷从143N增加到236 N,组合结构的极限载荷从224 N增加到476 N,均呈近线性增长。结论蛋类礼盒包装中,组合结构的承载能力优于单元结构,通过单元结构的组合,可满足不同蛋类的包装要求。     

Material removal efficiency improvement by orientation control of CMP pad surface asperities

This paper presents a novel method of improving material removal efficiency in the chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process by optimizing the surface asperity orientation with respect to polishing motion. Feret's diameter plays a key role in increasing the number of working abrasives. Based on Feret's diameter model, an optimization method is proposed for the conditioning motion of a diamond dresser against a CMP pad. The radial velocity component of the dresser on the CMP pad is maximized by considering its direction of motion based on kinematic motion simulation. In addition, the pad cut rate profile is optimized to be uniform. Analytical and experimental investigations show that the ratio of radial and tangential velocity components is improved, yielding a larger Feret's diameter and 15% increase in the material removal rate.     

Polishing pad for reducing edge roll-off while maintaining good global flatness of silicon wafer

In the double-sided polishing process of silicon wafers, there is a strong demand to reduce amount of edge roll-off (ERO) while improving global flatness of a wafer. In the present study, we clarified the negative effects of uneven wear of the polishing pads on the global flatness of a wafer can be suppressed when the deformation of the polishing pads is large. As for the ERO, we found small deformation of the polishing pad near the top surface was effective in reducing the amount of ERO. In addition, we revealed small distance from the surface of the polishing pad at the area under the wafer to that at the area around the wafer was also effective in reducing the amount of ERO. On the basis of the findings, we developed a three-layered polishing pad which was expected to reduce the amount of ERO while achieving the good global flatness.     

Natural-based polymers for antibacterial treatment of absorbent materials

In this study, polypropylene (PP) nonwoven fabric which can be used as topsheet layer of an absorbent hygienic product was modified by natural based antibacterial agents. Antibacterial herbal agents (cinnamaldehyde, geraniol, phenylethyl alcohol) were sprayed by ethanol or applied by means of polylactic acid (PLA) and polycyclohexene oxide (PCHO) based polymers prepared by three different chemical methods. Characterization of synthesized materials was conducted via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential thermal analysis (DTA), and scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive X–ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). Besides characterization, antibacterial and pH buffering performances of antibacterial polymers alone and on PP fabric were tested by antibacterial and pH tests. Effects of antibacterial treatments on air permeability and absorption period of nonwoven fabrics were also analyzed. According to the results, biopolymers changed the thermal stability of PP nonwoven fabric. Antibacterial performances can be ranked as cinnamaldehyde, geraniol, and phenylethyl alcohol from the best. Besides a slight decrease about liquid absorption performance, all of the treated topsheet fabrics are sufficient for an absorbent hygienic product. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2020 , 137, 48302.     

Shale gas pad development planning under price uncertainty

In this article, we study shale gas pad development under natural gas price uncertainty. We optimize the sequence of operations, gas curtailment, and storage on a single pad to maximize the net present value. The optimization problem is formulated as an mixed-integer linear programming model, which is similar to the one proposed by Ondeck et al. We investigate how natural gas price uncertainty affects the operation strategy in the pad development. Both two-stage and multistage stochastic programming are used as the mathematical framework to hedge against uncertainty. Our case study shows that there is value of using stochastic programming when the price variance is high. However, when the variance of the price is low, solving the stochastic programming problems does not create additional value compared with solving the deterministic problem.     

Design and fabrication of novel interconnectors for solid oxide fuel cells via rubber pad forming

Rubber pad forming is studied numerically and experimentally to fabricate interconnectors for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) from thin Crofer sheets instead of classical thick ones with machined flow channels. In the theoretical program, the effects of the rib angle, rib width and channel depth on the formability are numerically investigated and optimized as 120°, 0.5 mm and 0.5 mm, respectively. In addition, flow simulations are performed to analyze the flow uniformity in the flow-field for the final geometry and homogenous reactant distributions are observed. In the experimental program, the interconnector with numerically optimized geometry is successfully manufactured by rubber pad forming, trimming, piercing and spot welding processes. This interconnector is used to build a two-cell stack. A similar stack is also constructed with a conventional interconnector for comparison. The performances of these stacks are measured at different operating temperatures. According to the simulation and experimental results, rubber pad forming is found to be a highly effective manufacturing route to fabricate SOFC interconnectors from thin Crofer sheets, providing higher specific and volumetric power density values for SOFC stacks compared to those of conventional stacks with interconnectors having machined flow channels.     

Mechanical properties,corrosion resistance,and rubber pad forming of cold differential speed-rolled pure titanium for bipolar plates of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells

Due to problems such as pores on surface-treated coatings, the corrosion resistance of pure titanium bipolar plates for proton-exchange membrane fuel cells can be further improved by increasing the corrosion resistance of pure titanium by using differential speed-rolling (DSR); however, these materials have not yet reached the standard requirements of bipolar plates (corrosion current density i_corr＜10³ nA·cm^?2). In this work, the corrosion resistance of pure titanium was improved by optimizing the DSR process while the strength was maintained. The best corrosion resistance of the DSR pure titanium was achieved when the roller speed ratio was 2, while i_corr was 429 nA·cm^?2 in a solution of 0.5 M H₂SO₄ and 2 mg/L HF at room temperature. The formability of the DSR pure titanium for bipolar plates was verified. The optimal holding pressure range was 6.8–7.0 kN.     

Robust model for optimization of forming process for metallic bipolar plates of cleaner energy production system

Energy production systems such as proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has a promising future in the cleaner energy market due to zero emissions. Rubber pad forming (RPF) process of metallic bipolar plates of PEMFCs is gaining attention among the researchers. Studies based on design of experiments have been conducted to find the crucial parameters of the forming process. These methods are based on the assumptions of the model structure, correlated residuals, etc., which can cause uncertainty in estimation ability of the model on unseen data. Therefore, the present study focuses on the design of robust models of these parameters for PEMFCs using an optimization approach of genetic programming (GP). The inputs from the experiments considered in GP are radius, the friction coefficient, the filling factor and the minimum thickness. Experiments on PEMFCs validates the performance of the GP models. Further, the relationships between the two inputs and the three outputs for PEMFCs are generated as well as the contributions of each input to each of the output. Optimization of the models generated by GP can further determine the forming quality of metallic bipolar plates of PEMFCs by an appropriate setting of the two inputs.