On the Room-Temperature Mechanical Properties of an Ion-Irradiated TiZrNbHfTa Refractory High Entropy Alloy

JOM - Refractory high-entropy alloys (RHEAs) are potential candidate materials for use in next-generation nuclear reactors due to their excellent mechanical performance at high temperatures. Here,...     

Multiscale, Multiphysics Numerical Modeling of Fusion Welding with Experimental Characterization and Validation

Various physical interfacial phenomena occur during the process of welding and influence the final properties of welded structures. As the features of such interfaces depend on physics that resolve at different spatial scales, a multiscale and multiphysics numerical modeling approach is necessary. In a collaborative research project Modeling of Interface Evolution in Advanced Welding, a novel strategy of model linking is employed in a multiscale, multiphysics computational framework for fusion welding. We only directly link numerical models that are on neighboring spatial scales instead of trying to link all submodels directly together through all available spatial scales. This strategy ensures that the numerical models assist one another via smooth data transfer, avoiding the huge difficulty raised by forcing models to attempt communication over many spatial scales. Experimental activities contribute to the modeling work by providing valuable input parameters and validation data. Representative examples of the results of modeling, linking and characterization are presented.     

Magnetically Controlled Carbonate Nanocomposite with Ciprofloxacin for Biofilm Eradication

Biofilms are the reason for a vast majority of chronic inflammation cases and most acute inflammation. The treatment of biofilms still is a complicated task due to the low efficiency of drug delivery and high resistivity of the involved bacteria to harmful factors. Here we describe a magnetically controlled nanocomposite with a stimuli-responsive release profile based on calcium carbonate and magnetite with an encapsulated antibiotic (ciprofloxacin) that can be used to solve this problem. The material magnetic properties allowed targeted delivery, accumulation, and penetration of the composite in the biofilm, as well as the rapid triggered release of the entrapped antibiotic. Under the influence of an RF magnetic field with a frequency of 210 kHz, the composite underwent a phase transition from vaterite into calcite and promoted the release of ciprofloxacin. The effectiveness of the composite was tested against formed biofilms of E. coli and S. aureus and showed a 71% reduction in E. coli biofilm biomass and an 85% reduction in S. aureus biofilms. The efficiency of the composite with entrapped ciprofloxacin was higher than for the free antibiotic in the same concentration, up to 72%. The developed composite is a promising material for the treatment of biofilm-associated inflammations.     

Effect of Mn doping on hydrolysis of low-temperature synthesized metastable alpha-tricalcium phosphate

In the present work, effect of Mn doping on hydrolysis rate of low-temperature synthesized metastable α-tricalcium phosphate (α-TCP) was investigated. α-TCP powders containing different amount of Mn²⁺ ions (0, 0.5 and 1 mol%) were synthesized by wet co-precipitation process, followed by annealing and crystallization of as-precipitated amorphous calcium phosphate at 700 °C. It was demonstrated that the presence of Mn²⁺ ions significantly retards hydrolysis rate of α-TCP. While pristine α-TCP fully hydrolyzed with a conversion to calcium-deficient hydroxyapatite in 10 h, complete hydrolysis of α-TCP doped with 0.5 and 1 mol% of Mn occurred only after 20 and 35 h, respectively. Initial and final products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Chemical composition of starting and fully hydrolyzed α-TCP powders was determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES).     

Characterisation of flour, starch and fibre obtained from sweet potato (kumara) tubers, and their utilisation in biscuit production

Sweet potato (kumara) tubers of differing colours (orange, red and white) were used to produce tuber flour, a purified starch fraction and an isolated fibre extract. The fractions from each tuber colour were added into a biscuit mixture, and the effects of tuber source and fraction composition were observed in relation to the physico-chemical characteristics of biscuits. Addition of sweet potato flour and fibre fractions to white wheat flour significantly reduced the pasting properties (peak and final viscosity) of the resulting gels by up to seven-fold compared with the control wheat flour gel (as determined by the Rapid Visco Analyser). The addition of sweet potato starch affected the pasting properties of wheat flour–sweet potato starch mixes to a lesser extent. Biscuit texture (force required to cause a biscuit to fracture) was significantly reduced with the incorporation of sweet potato fibre into the biscuit dough preparation, this was linked to a reduction in biscuit thickness and spread ratio. However, the addition of sweet potato flour and starch resulted in biscuits of similar firmness as the control biscuits.     

DMT／PTA工艺的技术改进

改进的DMT/PTA工艺技术是由苏尔寿化工有限公司和H&G Hegmanns公司联合开发的。该技术对Witten-Katzschmann工艺进行了大量改进,并结合了苏尔寿公司的环境友好熔融结晶技术。改进的工艺包括:氧化反应部分(有效回收了副产品和能量);粗酯和副产品蒸馏;采用熔融结晶技术精制DMT。     

Sensitivity study of alanate hydride storage system

A successful metal hydride application is closely related to an optimized design of the storage hydrogen system. In previous studies, Hardy and Anton developed scoping and numerical models describing phenomena occurring during the loading process in an alanate storage system having the configuration of a cylindrical shell, tube and fin heat exchanger. In this paper, the numerical tool is used to evaluate the influence of varying the fin thickness and the number of heat exchanger tubes on both the loading and discharging processes. The objective is to evaluate the influence of the geometric parameters of these heat exchangers on the management of heat to be removed/supplied during the sorption process and thus optimize the loading/discharging times; while having the maximum possible volume for containing the hydride and the lightest weight of the storage system. Results showed that equipping the storage system with fins fitted to the heat exchanger tubes is the best design for efficient use of the hydride bed. In the absence of fins, a number of optimal tubes is determined, however, the hydrogen uptake rate is still lower than one obtained for the finned case and there is a reduction of volumetric and gravimetric storage capacities by comparison to the finned system.     

Swiss Rainfall Mass Curves and their Influence on Extreme Flood Simulation

Extreme flood estimates for dam safety are routinely obtained from hydrologic simulations driven by selected design storms. The temporal structure of such design storms can be obtained from Rainfall Mass Curves (RMCs), which are adimensionalized curves of the cumulative precipitation depth as a function of event duration. This paper assesses for the first time the spatialand temporal variability of observed RMCs for Switzerland, an Alpine region with complex topography. The relevance of the detected RMC variability for extreme flood estimation is illustrated based on an application to a high elevation catchment, the Mattmark dam catchment in the Swiss Alps. The obtained results underline that quantile RCMs represent a simple yet powerful tool to construct design storms for dam safety verification and that regional, seasonal and event-duration effects on RMCs are small enough to justify the use of a unique set of Swiss-wide quantile RMCs. The presented analysis could be refined in the future by explicitly accounting for orographic, convective or frontal precipitation events.     

Characterisation of normal corn starch using asymmetrical flow field‐flow fractionation

The apparent average molar masses (M_w,app), apparent average radii of gyration (R_g,app), diffusion co‐efficients (D_T), and hydrodynamic radii (R_h) of normal corn (maize) starch and fractions were determined using asymmetrical flow field‐flow fractionation coupled with multi‐angle light scattering and refractive index detectors (AF4/MALS/RI). AM‐type (Fraction A) and AP‐type (Fraction B) were chemically separated from normal corn starch. Normal corn starch and Fractions (A–B) were dissolved in 1 M KSCN using a high pressure microwave vessel. The effect of varying cross flow rates at a fixed channel flow rate upon the M_w,app and R_g,app distributions of normal corn starch and Fractions (A–B) were investigated. The average M_w,app of normal corn starch, Fractions (A) and Fraction (B) were 41 × 10⁶, 1.4 × 10⁶ and 39 × 10⁶ g/mol, respectively, with R_g,app values of 129, 60 and 129 nm, respectively.