Pure and mixed gas permeation study of silica incorporated polyurethane-urea membrane modified by MOCA chain extender

Polyurethane-urea (PUU) nanocomposite membranes have been prepared using various loadings of silica (SiO₂) nanoparticles. A Novel PU was fabricated by a two-step bulk polymerization technique based on polycaprolactone (PCL), hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), and diamine chain extender, 4,4-methylenebis(2-chloroaniline) (MOCA). The FTIR spectra indicated that the extent of phase separation reduces with increasing SiO₂ content. The presence of crystal regions in the soft and hard segments was confirmed by DSC and XRD analyses. The obtained results illustrated a decrement in the gases' permeation in the presence of SiO₂ particles. By increasing the filler content up to 15 wt% and pressure of 8 bar, the gas permeation value of the CO₂, O₂, and N₂ decreased 36%, 54%, and 59%, respectively. However, the permselectivity of the CO₂/N₂ and O₂/N₂ increased considerably, 55% and 13% respectively. On the contrary, by raising the temperature, a dramatic augmentation in the permeability of all gases with a simultaneous reduction in the selectivity values of both gas pairs was revealed. Increasing the pressure led to a decrease in the permeability values of all membranes for O₂ and N₂, whereas the permeability for CO₂ increased with the pressure. Nevertheless, the selectivity values for the pair of gases increased (at a pressure of 10 bar, 1.66 and 1.17 times the neat PU for CO₂/N₂ and O₂/N₂, respectively). Furthermore, the permeability of the CO₂, O₂, and N₂ for the mixed gases was smaller than for pure ones at the same gas upstream pressure. Nonetheless, like the pure gas, the selectivity of both pair gases increased.     

Reducing of heat loss of rubber compound using natural zeolite filler: effect of partially substitution of fillers on compound properties

The main objective of this work was reducing the heat loss of styrene butadiene rubber by partial substitution of carbon black with natural zeolite as a filler. Reducing the usage of carbon black in the rubber industry is a good strategy to decrease fossil fuel usage and global warming. There are different mineral fillers like silica and clay to be used instead of carbon black. Effect of application of natural zeolite on reducing the heat loss of rubber compound based on SBR was investigated by melt mixing of natural zeolite in rubber matrix in an internal mixer. Natural zeolite was selected as 5, 10, 15, and 20 phr. Carbon black was partially substituted with zeolite and the effect of natural zeolite content and structure on different aspects of the compound including heat buildup, hardness, elongation, and modulus were evaluated. It was shown that although cross-link density and mechanical properties of the compounds decreased a little, but a significant improvement was observed in the fatigue resistance of the compounds beside a favorable decrease in the heat buildup and abrasion loss with an increase in the natural zeolite loading. The rate of improvement in properties was slowed down at zeolite contents higher than 5 phr.     

Nonlinear analysis of size-dependent frequencies in porous FG curved nanotubes based on nonlocal strain gradient theory

A nonlocal strain gradient model is developed in this research to analyse the nonlinear frequencies of functionally graded porous curved nanotubes. It is assumed that the curved nanotube is in contact with a two-parameter nonlinear elastic foundation and is also subjected to the uniform temperature rise. The non-classical theory presented for curved nanotubes contains a nonlocal parameter and a material length scale parameter which can capture the size effect. A power law distribution function is used to describe the graded properties through the thickness direction of curved nanotubes. The even dispersion pattern is used to model the porosities distribution. The high-order shear deformation theory and the von Kármán type of geometric non-linearity are utilized to obtain the nonlinear governing equations of the structure. The size-dependent equations of motion for the large amplitude vibrations of curved nanotubes are obtained by employing Hamilton’s principle. The analytical solutions are extracted for the curved nanotube with immovable hinged-hinged boundary conditions. Size-dependent frequencies of the curved nanotube exposed to thermal field are obtained using the two-step perturbation technique and Galerkin procedure. The effects of important parameters such as nonlocal and length scale parameters, temperature field, elastic foundation, porosity, power law index and geometrical parameters are studied in detail.

     

Combining continuous catalytic regenerative naphtha reformer with thermally coupled concept for improving the process yield

Advancements in the catalytic naphtha reforming process, as one of the main processes in petrochemical industry, contributed to development of continuous catalytic regenerative naphtha reformer units. Increasing the yield of aromatic and hydrogen as well as saving the energy in this process through the application of thermal coupling technique is a potentially interesting idea. This novel idea has been assessed in this paper. In the proposed configuration, continuous catalyst regeneration naphtha reforming process is coupled with hydrogenation of nitrobenzene in a two co-axial reactor separated by a solid wall, where the generated heat in nitrobenzene hydrogenation reaction transfers to naphtha reforming reaction medium through the surface of the tube. A steady-state, homogeneous, two-dimensional model is used to describe the performance of this configuration and a kinetic model including 32 pseudo-components with 84 reactions is considered for naphtha reforming reaction. After validating the model with the commercial data of a domestic plant, the obtained results of coupled reactor are compared by the conventional one. The obtained results show the superiority of CCR coupled reactor against the conventional one.     

Effect of the Wet Outlet Geometry on the Shockwave Position in Supersonic Separators

Supersonic separators (3Ss) are applied in gas separation processes. Two-dimensional simulation is employed to investigate the effect of operational and thermophysical parameters on the shockwave position. In addition, the impact of the cyclonic part and wet outlet geometry is evaluated by proposing four cases. Increasing the length of the cyclonic part exerts positive and negative influences on the performance of the 3S and the pressure recovery coefficient, respectively. The optimum length is determined between 10 and 15 cm. To demonstrate negative effects of wasted air from the wet outlet, its flow has been increased from 3.6 to 8.1 % of the inlet flow. Improved performance of the 3S is obtained by reducing the flow disturbances around the wet outlet and moving the shockwave towards the outlet.     

Application of artificial neural networks for prediction of coercivity of highly ordered cobalt nanowires synthesized by pulse electrodeposition

This study aims to predict the coercivity of cobalt nanowires fabricated by Alternating Current (AC) pulse. Coercivity is one of the most important properties of magnetic materials and its value shows the needed magnetic field in a way that magnetization of system is decreased to zero. There are many parameters such as pH of solution, oxidative and reductive times, oxidative and reductive voltages, interval between pulses (off-time), and concentration of deposition solution that have direct effect on materials magnetic properties of. Change of initial conditions to obtain the best results is very time consuming, therefore employing a method which can save both the time and cost is necessary. Hence, it this study Artificial Neural Network (ANN), which has numerous applications and has attracted many attentions in various fields, was applied. Through this study, an ANN was designed to present a template that is capable for predicting output data (coercivity) according to input data (pH, oxidative and reductive times, oxidative and reductive voltages, and off-time). Besides, in this research, the results for pH = 4 and 6 were investigated and the effect of off-time as well as the deposition time on coercivity were studied.     

Experimental investigation of liquid–liquid flow in an inclined pipe using dimensionless numbers

Two-phase flow is a common phenomenon in the energy industry, where flow patterns significantly affect heat transfer and pressure drop in different systems. However, there is no unique or comparable flow map because of its dependency on dimensional parameters. Therefore, an analysis using dimensionless numbers makes the results comprehensive. To do so, a series of liquid–liquid flow experiments (1296 experiments) were conducted in a transparent pipe at the different velocities of the phases. The flow patterns were captured using a high-speed camera. The experiments were performed at eight different inclinations within the range of −20 to +20 degrees. Six flow patterns are observed at different inclinations; stratified flow with mixing at the interface (STMI), dispersion of water in oil (Dw/o), dispersion of oil in water (Do/w), dual continuous (DC), slug, and wavy stratified (WST), where the first five flow patterns are presented in the upward flow and the two last flow patterns disappear in some of the downward flow. The pattern of boundaries for each flow pattern in the upward flow shows dependency on inclination, while in the downward flow condition, a rather general format can be applied to most of the patterns. The analysis illustrates that gravity and buoyancy forces are the dominating forces in the system compared to other forces, such as viscous, inertia, and interfacial tension, which are due to the inclination of the pipe.     

Numerical investigation of grooves effects on the thermal performance of helically grooved shell and coil tube heat exchanger

Heat exchangers are integral parts of important industrial units such as petrochemicals, medicine and power plants. Due to the importance of systems energy consumption, different modifications have been applied on heat exchangers in terms of size and structure. In this study, a novel heat exchanger with helically grooved annulus shell and helically coiled tube was investigated by numerical simulation. Helically grooves with the same pitch of the helical coil tube and different depth are created on the inner and outer wall of annulus shell to improve the thermal performance of heat exchanger. In the first section, thermal performance of the shell and coil heat exchanger with the helical grooves on its outer shell wall was compared with same but without helical grooves. At the second section, helically grooves created on both outer and inner wall of the annulus shell with different groove depths. The results showed that the heat exchanger with grooves on both inner and outer shell wall has better thermal performance up to 20% compared to the heat exchanger with grooves on only outer shell wall. The highest thermal performance achieves at lower flow rates and higher groove depths whereas the pressure drop did not increase significantly.     

Microfluidic study of surfactant flooding of heavy oil in layered porous media containing fractures

Surfactant injection is a promising method for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) due to its effective micro-displacement mechanisms. However, understanding the interaction of a surfactant solution with heavy oil in porous media is neither straightforward nor well understood, particularly in heterogeneous systems. By enabling in-situ real-time monitoring of flow transport, microfluidic studies have provided novel insights into the underlying multiphase physics of flow at the pore scale. This paper examines the two-phase displacement efficiency of a new surfactant in layered–fractured porous microfluidic patterns, a topic seldom discussed in the literature. To evaluate the performance of the proposed surfactant, we considered several heterogeneous media with varying layer and fracture geometrical characteristics, quantifying displacement efficiency for each case. Based on the analysis of pore-scale snapshots, it was inferred that the primary mechanisms responsible for EOR during surfactant flooding into heavy oil include pore wall transportation, emulsifications, the deformation of residual oil, inter-pore or intra-pore bridging, and wettability alteration. Macroscopic displacement experiments revealed that the width of the swept area from surfactant injection significantly exceeded that of water injection, resulting in a substantially higher oil recovery. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the direction of fluid flow in relation to fracture orientation plays a critical role in the dynamics of surfactant solution movement and, consequently, the ultimate oil production.