Longitudinal permeability determination of dual-scale fibrous materials

In this work, the longitudinal permeability of squarely packed dual-scale fiber preforms is studied theoretically. These fiber preforms are composed of aligned porous tows and the tows are tightly packed. The effective permeability is calculated as a parallel-like network of intra-tow permeability and inter-tow permeability, which are quantified by Darcy’s law and the inscribed radius between tows, respectively. The jump velocity at the interface between inter-tow fluids and porous tows is considered, as derived by substituting Beavers and Joseph’s correlation into Brinkman’s equation. We further examine the effects of intra-tow permeability on the effective permeability of the fibrous system with three interface conditions: (1) interface velocity = 0, (2) interface velocity = mean intra-tow velocity, and (3) interface velocity = jump velocity. The jump-velocity-based model is found to be closest to numerical data. The influence of the fiber volume fraction of tows on the effective permeability is also analyzed.     

Reduction of waste biosolids by RAS-ozonation: Model validation and sensitivity analysis for biosolids reduction and nitrification

Biosolids reduction model by return activated sludge ozonation was validated by simulating nitrification data compiled from our pilot-scale and the literature studies. Then, a global sensitivity analysis (GSA) was performed to identify influential and non-influential parameters for biosolids reduction efficiency, change in specific nitrification activity (SNA), and alteration to expected nitrification stability. In general, the model outputs were sensitive to operational and ozone reaction parameters, but not to biochemical parameters. For operational parameters, mainly temperature and initial solids retention time (SRT) influenced all model outputs. For biosolids reduction, increase in the degradability of the influent COD decreased the reduction efficiency. For SNA, the changes were highly dependent on the influent TKN/COD ratio. Our findings also imply that the stability of the nitrification process in ozonated systems should be enhanced at constant MLVSS for warm temperatures, but could be reduced at temperatures below 12 °C and aerated SRTs below 10 days.     

Experimental study on the heat transfer and flow characteristics of nanorefrigerants inside a corrugated tube

The heat transfer and flow characteristics of MWCNT-R141b nanorefrigerant with different mass fractions have been studied through experiments. Experimental results were compared with existing correlations. A two-step method was used to prepare the nanorefrigerants. Span-80 was used as surfactant with an average particle diameter of 20 nm. Transmittance method was used to evaluate the stability of nanorefrigerants. Results showed that the stability of MWCNT-R141b nanorefrigerant, which is the added dispersant, was good during the experiments. The 0.3 wt% MWCNT-R141b nanorefrigerants had optimal heat transfer enhancement effects compared with pure refrigerants. The maximum Nusselt number increased by 40%. The specific pressure drop of nanorefrigerant increased as the Reynolds number (Re) increased, and the specific pressure drop of the pure refrigerant was minimum, which is similar to R141b.     

Assessment of the different sources of uncertainty in a SWAT model of the River Senne (Belgium)

Although rainfall input uncertainties are widely identified as being a key factor in hydrological models, the rainfall uncertainty is typically not included in the parameter identification and model output uncertainty analysis of complex distributed models such as SWAT and in maritime climate zones. This paper presents a methodology to assess the uncertainty of semi-distributed hydrological models by including, in addition to a list of model parameters, additional unknown factors in the calibration algorithm to account for the rainfall uncertainty (using multiplication factors for each separately identified rainfall event) and for the heteroscedastic nature of the errors of the stream flow. We used the Differential Evolution Adaptive Metropolis algorithm (DREAM_(zs)) to infer the parameter posterior distributions and the output uncertainties of a SWAT model of the River Senne (Belgium). Explicitly considering heteroscedasticity and rainfall uncertainty leads to more realistic parameter values, better representation of water balance components and prediction uncertainty intervals.     

Characteristics of tiger nut milk: effects of milling

A standard method for the extraction of tiger nut milk has been introduced. It has been shown that, although milling duration improves the yield of tiger nut milk solids and its nutrient composition, there is a quantifiable loss of nutrient in the pressing residue during milk extraction. Milling duration improved the colloidal stability of the milk against creaming during 16 h of storage. A higher milling intensity resulted in the aggregation of biological polymers which resulted in colloidal destabilisation. Milling improved the lightness and stability and reduced browning rate of the tiger nut milk during storage. This report is important for the production of tiger nut milk of consistent and comparable characteristics. Milling has been introduced as a processing method for the qualitative and quantitative modulation of the properties of tiger nut milk. It is recommended to develop further strategies to improve the colloidal stability of tiger nut milk as a beverage.     

Stress-deformable state of isotropic double curved shell with internal cracks and a circular hole

This work is devoted to the stress–strain state of isotropic double curved shell with defect system. The construction is weakened by two non-through thickness (internal) cracks of different length and by a circular hole located between cracks. In this study we use the line-spring model. Within the framework of this model cracks are modeled as mathematical cuts of shell’s middle surface. This leads to a two-dimensional problem. The problem is reduced to a system of eight boundary integral equations. To ensure the uniqueness of solution an additional equation is added. In the numerical solution of the problem special quadrature formulas for singular integrals of Cauchy type and the finite difference method are applied. The influence of defects on each other for double curved shell has been investigated. The given theoretical results can be used for the calculation of structural elements with holes, cracks on the strength and fracture toughness in various branches of engineering.     

Iterative equalization combining algorithm in intersymbol interference channel

To realize joint optimization of spatial diversity and equalization combining in the intersymbol interference (ISI) channel, an iterative equalization combining algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm uses the coefficients of Turbo equalization to calculate the combination weights without estimating the signal to noise ratio in each diversity branch. The equalized symbols from different diversity branches are combined, and the extrinsic information output from the decoder is fed back to the equalizers, so as to exchange soft information between the equalizers and the decoder. The performance of the proposed algorithm is analyzed using the extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart and verified by simulations. Results show that our approach fully exploits time domain information from the multipath channel and spatial domain information from multi receiving antennas, which efficiently improve the performance of the receiver in the severe ISI channel.     

Distributed wireless power transfer in sensor networks with multiple Mobile Chargers

We investigate the problem of efficient wireless power transfer in wireless sensor networks. In our approach, special mobile entities (called the Mobile Chargers) traverse the network and wirelessly replenish the energy of sensor nodes. In contrast to most current approaches, we envision methods that are distributed and use limited network information. We propose four new protocols for efficient charging, addressing key issues which we identify, most notably (i) what are good coordination procedures for the Mobile Chargers and (ii) what are good trajectories for the Mobile Chargers. Two of our protocols (DC, DCLK) perform distributed, limited network knowledge coordination and charging, while two others (CC, CCGK) perform centralized, global network knowledge coordination and charging. As detailed simulations demonstrate, one of our distributed protocols outperforms a known state of the art method, while its performance gets quite close to the performance of the powerful centralized global knowledge method.     

A bi-layer optimization approach for a hybrid flow shop scheduling problem involving controllable processing times in the steelmaking industry

A steelmaking-continuous casting (SCC) scheduling problem is an example of complex hybrid flow shop scheduling problem (HFSSP) with a strong industrial background. This paper investigates the SCC scheduling problem that involves controllable processing times (CPT) with multiple objectives concerning the total waiting time, earliness/tardiness and adjusting cost. The SCC scheduling problem with CPT is seldom discussed in the existing literature. This study is motivated by the practical situation of a large integrated steel company in which the just-in-time (JIT) and cost-cutting production strategy have become a significant concern. To address this complex HFSSP, the scheduling problem is decomposed into two subproblems: a parallel machine scheduling problem (PMSP) in the last stage and an HFSSP in the upstream stages. First, a hybrid differential evolution (HDE) algorithm combined with a variable neighborhood decomposition search (VNDS) is proposed for the former subproblem. Second, an iterative backward list scheduling (IBLS) algorithm is presented to solve the latter subproblem. The effectiveness of this bi-layer optimization approach is verified by computational experiments on well-designed and real-world scheduling instances. This study provides a new perspective on modeling and solving practical SCC scheduling problems.