Oxygen-enrichment of YBa2Cu3 YBa2Cu3O7-δ using the fluidization techniqueusing the fluidization technique

The oxygen-deficient phase of the highT _c superconductor, YBa₂Cu₃O₇, was oxygen-enriched using the fluidization technique to give good superconducting properties. The normal method of oxygen treatment at 900°C for 24 h and at 600°C for 24 h has been reduced to just one treatment at 600°C for 12 h by the fluidization technique to achieve almost the same strength of superconducting signal for the YBa₂Cu₃O₇ powder, which establishes the attractiveness of the latter route for the large-scale preparation of superconducting material. The particle sizes were in the range 0–90, 90–180 and 180–420 μm. The fluidized particles were crystalline with orthorhombic distortion.T _c ^onset , estimated using the a.c. magnetic susceptibility method, was 91·3 K. The volume fraction of superconducting material in the product was 83·7–85·3%, one of the highest values reported so far for YBa₂Cu₃O₇.     

Dehydration of tetrahydrofuran by pervaporation using crosslinked PVA/PEI blend membranes

Dense blend membranes were prepared by blending hydrophilic polymers poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI), which were then crosslinked by glutaraldehyde (GA) in a mixture of solvents under the catalysis of hydrochloric acid (HCl) for the dehydration of tetrahydrofuran (THF) by pervaporation. The effect of experimental parameters such as feed water concentration, permeate pressure, and membrane thicknesses on permeate parameters, i.e., flux and selectivity were determined with feed water concentration less than 40 wt %. The membranes were found to have good potential for breaking the azeotrope of 94 wt % THF with a flux of 1.072 and 0.376 kg/m² h for plane PVA/PEI and crosslinked PVA/PEI blend membrane, which exhibited high selectivity of 156 and 579 respectively. Selectivity was found to improve with decreasing feed water concentration and increasing membrane thickness, whereas flux decreased correspondingly. High permeate pressure causes a reduction in both flux and selectivity. These effects were clearly elucidated with the aid of the known relationship among plasticization effect, degree of swelling, permeate pressure, and feed water concentration. These blend membranes were also subjected to sorption studies to evaluate the extent of interaction and degree of swelling in pure as well as binary feed mixtures. Further ion exchange capacity studies were carried out for all the crosslinked and uncrosslinked membranes to determine the total number of interacting groups present in the membranes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 1152–1161, 2006     

Flow Regime Maps for Flow of Liquid Through Downcomer in a Turbulent Bed Contactor

The provision of a downcomer to classical turbulent bed Contactor (TBC) increases the gas treating capacity of the equipment. When the downcomer is provided, it is expected that all the liquid passes through the downcomer only without any liquid flow through the distributor. In the present study, the operational regime for the flow of liquid only through the downcomer is experimentally evaluated for various geometric parameters and particle characteristics. It is observed that the preferred operational regime without dumping and weeping increases with an increase in Archimedes number and downcomer diameter, and decreases with an increase in static bed height and downcomer weir height. Correlations are proposed to satisfactorily predict experimentally observed operational regime.     

Study on effect of diverse air inlet arrangement on thermal management of cylindrical lithium-ion cells

Lithium-ion cells are preferred in the electrical powertrain due to high-power density, compactness, and modularity. In real driving conditions, the cells undergo discharge rates as high as 4 C resulting in high heat generation affecting the performance. To obtain the maximum performance the pack construction and thermal management of cells are crucial parameters. In our work, air-cooled technique with diverse air inlet and staggered scheme with a two-channel partition approach for thermal management of the cylindrical lithium-ion cells are studied in computational fluid dynamics. The simulation model is validated with experimental results. The obtained results demonstrate that the cells in the dual-directional air inlet arrangement had low maximum temperature difference among and within the cells and required least fan work. This arrangement required least fan work to generate optimal air inlet velocity of 2 m/s for 1, 2, and 3 C and 4 m/s for 4 C discharge rates. There is a reduction of 50% and 33% fan work for 3 and 4 C discharge rates, which are the majority operating points. Also, it shows that the temperature uniformity within the cells has improved. The results of this study can used to optimize parameters for designing an enhanced thermal management system.     

A Note on Moments of Gamma Order Statistics

Previously quadrature approximations were developed to determine the moments of a distribution of the response of a multivariable function when each of the variables is a random variable from a normal distribution. The error was shown to be of the order of the sixth power of the standard deviations of the random variables, but a more useful bound is desired in applied work. Only limited success has been achieved in this direction. It is shown that the best approximating distribution is a Beta distribution of the first kind with β₂ equal to 3 and mean, variance, and β₁ obtained by quadrature, where β₁ and β₂ are standard measures of skewness and kurtosis, respectively. A parametric study of the function X = C_o (a _o, ± y ₁ ± y ₂ ± … ±y_n ) ^m + b _o where the y_i all have the same standard deviation, σ, is conducted both analytically and by quadrature. The mean and variance obtained by quadrature are essentially exact in the range of interest. It is shown that for a large range of σ the above distribution is both a good approximation and a much better approximation than either a normal approximation with the same mean and variance or a linear approximation. The example also shows that the β₂ obtained by quadrature is a poor indicator of the precision of the quadrature approximation.     

Effect of CoFe2O4 mole percentage on multiferroic and magnetoelectric properties of Na0.5Bi0.5TiO3/CoFe2O4 particulate composites

Na_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃ (NBT), CoFe₂O₄ (CFO) as well as particulate composites containing different mole percentages of NBT and CFO were synthesized by the solid-state sintering route and characterized for their ferroelectric and ferrimagnetic hysteresis loops, magnetostriction and magnetoelectric (ME) output. The mole% of CFO was found to influence the ferroelectric and ferrimagnetic hysteresis loops as well as magnetostriction and piezomagnetic coefficients which in turn had a significant effect on the magnetoelectric voltage coefficient. The highest magnetoelectric voltage coefficient (α) of 0.5 mV/cm/Oe was recorded in (65) NBT–(35) CFO composite.     

A Mathematical Study for Laminar Boundary‐Layer Flow,Heat, and Mass Transfer of a Jeffrey Non‐Newtonian Fluid Past a Vertical Porous Plate

In this article, we investigate the nonlinear steady‐state boundary‐layer flow, heat and mass transfer of an incompressible Jeffrey non‐Newtonian fluid past a vertical porous plate. The transformed conservation equations are solved numerically subject to physically appropriate boundary conditions using a versatile, implicit finite‐difference technique. The numerical code is validated with previous studies. The influence of a number of emerging non‐dimensional parameters, namely, Deborah number (De), Prandtl number (Pr), ratio of relaxation to retardation times (λ), Schmidt number (Sc), and dimensionless tangential coordinate (ξ) on velocity, temperature, and concentration evolution in the boundary layer regime are examined in detail. Furthermore, the effects of these parameters on surface heat transfer rate, mass transfer rate, and local skin friction are also investigated. It is found that the velocity is reduced with increasing Deborah number whereas temperature and concentration are enhanced. Increasing λ enhances the velocity but reduces the temperature and concentration. The heat transfer rate and mass transfer rates are found to be depressed with increasing Deborah number, De, and enhanced with increasing λ. Local skin friction is found to be decreased with a rise in Deborah number whereas it is elevated with increasing λ. And an increasing Schmidt number decreases the velocity and concentration but increases temperature. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21111     

A stable subgridding algorithm and its application to eigenvalueproblems

In this paper, a new and stable subgridding algorithm is proposed for three-dimensional problems which provides subgridding in both space and time. The concept of an equivalent-circuit representation and a novel leapfrog time integration scheme is used to ensure that the algorithm is stable and efficient. Practical applications of this algorithm in the characterization of arbitrarily filled dielectric resonators are reported     

Design of an Ideal Grain-Refiner Alloy for Al-7Si Alloy Using Artificial Neural Networks

An ideal grain refiner has been designed for Al-7Si alloy by performing sensitivity analysis of trained artificial neural network (ANN) model. An ANNs model has been developed for solving these complex grain refinement phenomena in Al-7Si alloy. The model predictions and the analysis are well in agreement with the experimental results and existing metallurgical facts. Uncertainty in predictions helped in finding a new phenomenon at lower addition levels of grain refiner.     

Pressure drop,solids concentration and mean holding time in multistage fluidisation

Correlations for the pressure drop, solids concentration and mean holding time of the solids in multistage fluidisation have been presented based on the experimental data of the present study and that available in literature covering a wide range in process variables.