Estimation of Length Limits for Integral Bridges Built on Clay

In this paper, the maximum length limits for integral bridges built on clay are determined as a function of the ability of steel H-piles supporting the abutments to sustain thermal-induced cyclic displacements and the flexural capacity of the abutment. First, H-pile sections that can accommodate large plastic deformations are determined considering their local buckling instability. Then, a low-cycle fatigue damage model is used to determine the maximum cyclic deformations that such piles can sustain. Next, nonlinear static pushover analyses of two typical integral bridges are conducted to study the effect of various geometric, structural, and geotechnical parameters on the performance of integral bridges subjected to uniform temperature variations. Using the pushover analyses results, design guidelines are developed to enhance and determine the maximum length limits for integral bridges built on clay. It is recommended that the maximum length of concrete integral bridges be limited to 210 m (689 ft) in cold climates and 260 m (853 ft) in moderate climates and that of steel integral bridges be limited to 120 m (394 ft) in cold climates and 180 m (590 ft) in moderate climates.     

Recent developments in catalyst synthesis using DBD plasma for reforming applications

The catalyst has a significant role in gas processing applications such as reforming technologies for H₂ and syngas production. The stable catalyst is requisite for any industrial catalysis application to make it commercially viable. Several methods are employed to synthesize the catalysts. However, there is still a challenge to achieve a controlled morphology and pure catalyst which majorly influences the catalytic activity in reforming applications. The conventional methods are expansive, and the removal of the impurities are major challenges. Nevertheless, it is not straightforward to achieve the desired structure and stability. Therefore, significant interest has been developed on the advanced techniques to take control of the physicochemical properties of the catalyst through non-thermal plasma (NTP) techniques. In this review, the systematic evolution of the catalyst synthesis using NTP technique is elucidated. The emerging DBD plasma to synthesized and effective surface treatment is reviewed. DBD plasma synthesized catalyst performance in reforming application for H₂ and syngas production is summarised. Furthermore, the status of DBD plasma for catalyst synthesis and proposed future avenues to design environmentally suitable and cost-effective synthesis techniques are discussed.     

Effect of Bicarbonate Salts and Sequential Using of Frying Oil on Acrylamide and 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural Contents in Coated Fried Chicken Meat

In this research, the effect of different bicarbonate salts (sodium and ammonium) and their doses (0, 1, 2, and 3 g/100 g raw material) in the coating batter formula use and the sequential use of frying oil (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th) on 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and acrylamide contents in coated fried chicken meat. The addition of sodium bicarbonate was efficient for reducing acrylamide content, but it increased browning and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural content compared to the control. When increasing the doses of sodium and ammonium bicarbonate from 1 to 3 g/100 g of raw material, the acrylamide content of samples did not change significantly, although adding sodium bicarbonate significantly reduced the acrylamide content as a control. These research results showed that using about 1 g/100 g raw material sodium bicarbonate rather than ammonium bicarbonate and as little frying oil as possible use during the production of coated and fried meat results in lower contents of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural and acrylamide.     

The use of basalt powder as a natural heterogeneous catalyst in the Fenton and Photo-Fenton oxidation of cationic dyes

The use of naturally present heterogeneous catalysts has recently been an essential issue in the Fenton and photo-Fenton processes. In this study, the uses of basalt as a catalyst for the Fenton and photo-Fenton reactions for methylene Blue (MB) and Basic Red 18 (BR18) degradations were investigated. Basalt was selected because of the presence of the iron (III) oxide in the structure. Basalt was characterized by X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis to obtain the chemical composition and the crystalline phase. The surface charge and the surface area were obtained by zeta potential and Brunauer Emmett-Teller (BET) analysis. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) were utilized to explore the functional group and the surface morphology. Fenton and photo-Fenton processes were applied to explore the best degradation method. Adsorption was also tested and the adsorption process had minimum removal efficiency (12% for MB and 17% for BR18). The removal efficiencies for MB and BR18 by the Fenton process were 87% and 28%, respectively. The photo-Fenton process had maximum removal efficiency with 100% for MB and 70% for BR18. The optimum conditions were 70 mg/L dye concentration, 5 mM H₂O₂, 1.0 g/L basalt loading and pH 2. Basalt has shown reuse capability as a catalyst for three consecutive cycles.     

ASRSM: A Sequential Experimental Design for Response Surface Optimization

Most preset response surface methodology (RSM) designs offer ease of implementation and good performance over a wide range of process and design optimization applications. These designs often lack the ability to adapt the design on the basis of the characteristics of application and experimental space so as to reduce the number of experiments necessary. Hence, they are not cost‐effective for applications where the cost of experimentation is high or when the experimentation resources are limited. In this paper, we present an adaptive sequential response surface methodology (ASRSM) for industrial experiments with high experimentation cost, limited experimental resources, and high design optimization performance requirement. The proposed approach is a sequential adaptive experimentation approach that combines concepts from nonlinear optimization, design of experiments, and response surface optimization. The ASRSM uses the information gained from the previous experiments to design the subsequent experiment by simultaneously reducing the region of interest and identifying factor combinations for new experiments. Its major advantage is the experimentation efficiency such that for a given response target, it identifies the input factor combination (or containing region) in less number of experiments than the classical single‐shot RSM designs. Through extensive simulated experiments and real‐world case studies, we show that the proposed ASRSM method outperforms the popular central composite design method and compares favorably with optimal designs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.