Lifetime prediction of carboxyl-terminated polybutadiene (CTPB)

Carboxyl-terminated polybutadiene (CTPB) was subjected to temperature and humidity aging in order to estimate its useful lifetime as a solid propellant binder. CTPB samples were temperature aged from 1 week to 7 months at various temperatures ranging from 50 to 100°C. At various stages of temperature aging, viscosity of the samples were measured, end group analyses were performed, and the samples, after being crosslinked with MAPO, were mechanically tested. As far as mechanical properties are concerned, the ultimate tensile stress of the samples decreases with temperature aging and strain at break increases. End group analyses indicate that acid value of the samples decreases with aging and viscosity increases. The results of temperature aging were applied to an Arrhenius type time-temperature superposition relation and useful lifetime of CTPB as binder at 20°C was predicted to be around 10 years. The CTPB samples were also humidity-aged and the effects of humidity aging on mechanical properties were investigated. The results indicate that similar to temperature aging, ultimate tensile strength decreases and strain at break increases with aging. The effects of humidity aging, however, is much less pronounced in comparison to temperature aging.     

Treatment of Water Contaminated with Chlorinated Organic Herbicide 2,4-D by an Ozone/Gamma Process

Radiation-induced degradation of 50 ppm 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) was investigated in different ozonation times. Co-60 gamma-source was used as a gamma-source with a dose rate of 0.07 kGy/h. Ozonized samples were irradiated for the 0.2 kGy dose. It is observed that irradiation enhances the degradation of 2,4-D with ozone. The amount of passed ozone from samples is between 0.0695 g/L and 8.33 g/L with a flow rate of ozone at 0.078 L/min (10 g/h), from 10 s to 1200 s with the ozone generator. Aliphatic acids and chloride were determined with ion chromatography. Formaldehyde, dissolved oxygen, pH and total acidity were also measured. Both species and amounts of radiolytic intermediates were determined. 2,4-dichloro phenol (2,4-DCP) is one of the toxic intermediates of 2,4-D observed with GC/MS and it decomposes at further ozonation times. It is observed that combination of ozone/gamma irradiation is more effective for degradation of 2,4-D and its intermediate 2,4-DCP. Chloride ions are observed as completely released with combined processes at lower ozonation times although nearly 98% are released with 20 min' ozonation. Intermediate 2,4-DCP decomposes at earlier ozonation times than 2,4-D.     

Analysis of the rural dwellings at new residential areas in The Southeastern Anatolia, Turkey

The Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) is a human-centered regional development project targeting the full-fledged socio-economic development of Southeastern Anatolia. As a project adopting the principle of sustainable development, GAP covers investments in such areas as urban and rural infrastructure, transportation, industry, education, health, housing, tourism and other sectors in addition to dams, hydraulic power plants and irrigation schemes on the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. The project has the main challenge of substantially improving the quality of life of the people and closing the development of GAP existing between this particular region and the other regions of the country. Under this project, activities for the resettlement of the people affected by the dams who live like nomad communities are taking place. In addition, improving physical and socio-economic features of existing settlements are considered.

In these studies, the sufficiency of socio-cultural, structural and functional planning features of rural residential buildings which were constructed for whose villages were under Batman and Tigris (Dicle) dam reservoir and who live like nomad communities in resettlement areas were investigated and tried to solve their problems by the General Directorate of Rural Affairs.     

A new current model flux observer for wide speed range sensorless control of an induction machine

A new closed loop current model flux observer is designed to estimate the rotor flux, position and velocity of an induction machine. The current observer includes carefully designed sliding mode functions which are derivative of the fluxes along the /spl alpha/ and /spl beta/ axes. Therefore, when the estimated current converges to the measured one, the flux estimation is a mere integration of the sliding mode function. The rotor speed can then be derived from the sliding mode functions and the estimated flux. In the current and flux observers all of the terms that contain the rotor time constant and the rotor speed have been replaced by the sliding mode functions, thus making the proposed current and flux estimations completely insensitive to the rotor time constant variation and any error in the estimated speed. Simulations and experiments are performed under a variety of conditions to validate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.     

Estimation of Suspended Sediment Yield in Natural Rivers Using Machine-coded Linear Genetic Programming

Estimation of suspended sediment yield is subject to uncertainty and bias. Many methods have been developed for estimating sediment yield but they still lack accuracy and robustness. This paper investigates the use of a machine-coded linear genetic programming (LGP) in daily suspended sediment estimation. The accuracy of LGP is compared with those of the Gene-expression programming (GEP), which is another branch of GP, and artificial neural network (ANN) technique. Daily streamflow and suspended sediment data from two stations on the Tongue River in Montana, USA, are used as case studies. Root mean square error (RMSE) and determination coefficient (R²) statistics are used for evaluating the accuracy of the models. Based on the comparison of the results, it is found that the LGP performs better than the GEP and ANN techniques. The GEP was also found to be better than the ANN. For the upstream and downstream stations, it is found that the LGP models with RMSE = 175 ton/day, R² = 0.941 and RMSE = 254 ton/day, R² = 0.959 in test period is superior in estimating daily suspended sediments than the best accurate GEP model with RMSE = 231 ton/day, R² = 0.941 and RMSE = 331 ton/day, R² = 0.934, respectively.     

Effects of supplementary cementing materials on the properties of cement and concrete

The effect of bentonite, colemanite ore waste (CW), coal fly ash (FA) and coal bottom ash (BA) on the properties of cement and concrete has been investigated through a number of tests. The properties examined include setting time, bending strength, volume expansion, compressive strength and water consistency of the mortar. The result showed that setting time of the cements was generally accelerated when bentonite replaced a part of the cement. Bentonite exhibited a significant retarding effect when used in combination with CW in Portland cement at lower replacement level and showed an accelerating effect at higher replacement level. Although the inclusion of bentonite at replacement levels of 5-10% resulted in an increase in compressive strength at early ages, it decreased the compressive strength when used in combination with other materials. The results obtained were compared with Turkish standards and, in general, were found to be acceptable.     

Swelling and diffusion studies of poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide/itaconic acid) copolymeric hydrogels in water and aqueous solutions of drugs

N‐Isopropylacrylamide/itaconic acid hydrogels (NIPAAm/IA) containing different amounts of itaconic acid prepared by irradiating with γ‐radiation were used in experiments on swelling and diffusion of the model drugs methylene blue, lidocaine, and sildenafil citrate (VIAGRA). The NIPAAm/IA hydrogels containing 0–3 mol % itaconic acid irradiated at 48 kGy has been used for swelling and diffusion studies in water and aqueous solutions containing the above‐mentioned model drugs. For these hydrogels, swelling studies indicated that swelling increased with the following order: water > lidocaine > methylene blue > VIAGRA. Diffusions of water and the drugs within hydrogels were found to be non‐Fickian in character. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 911–915, 2004     

Preparation,characterization, and drug‐release properties of poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) microspheres having poly(itaconic acid) graft chains

An inverse suspension polymerization method for the preparation of thermoresponsive hydrogel microspheres based on N‐isopropylacrylamide was described in this article. The polymerization reaction was carried out at 200 rpm stirring rate and the microspheres obtained were in the size range of 71–500 μm in the swollen states. The particles were sieved by using ASTM sieves. The selected fraction (180–250 μm) of poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) microspheres was used for radiation‐induced modification with itaconic acid (IA) to obtain PNIPAAm/poly(itaconic acid) graft copolymer. Viagra and lidocaine were used as model drugs for the investigation of controlled‐release behavior of the microspheres. Incorporation of IA graft chains onto microspheres enhanced significantly the uptake of both drugs and further controlled release at specific pH values. The release studies showed that some of the basic parameters affecting the drug‐loading and ‐release behavior of the microspheres were pH, temperature, particle size, and chemical nature of drug. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 97: 1115–1124, 2005     

Use of amidoximated acrylonitrile/N‐vinyl 2‐pyrrolidone interpenetrating polymer networks for uranyl ion adsorption from aqueous systems

Poly(N‐vinyl 2‐pyrrolidone) (PVP)/acrylonitrile (AN) interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) were synthesized and amidoximated for the purpose of uranyl ion adsorption. The adsorption of amidoximated IPNs was studied from different uranyl ion solutions (850, 1000, 1200, 1400, and 1600 ppm). The result of all our adsorption studies showed that the bonding between UO‐amidoxime groups complied with the Langmuir‐type isotherm. The adsorption capacity was found as 0.75 g UO/g dry amidoximated IPN. In order to increase the UO ion adsorption capacity the amidoximated IPN was treated with alkali, but no significant increase could be observed. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 81: 2324–2329, 2001     

Ni/Al2O3 catalysts and their activity in dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane for hydrogen production

Previous results on different catalysts revealed that methylcyclohexane underwent selective dehydrogenation to form toluene and hydrogen. This reaction system is a useful prototype model for similar systems in the chemical process and petroleum refining industries, such as hydrotreating for aromatics reduction, desulfurization, denitrogenation, reforming for aromatics reduction, dehydrocyclization, and fuel processing of liquid hydrocarbons in the generation of hydrogen feed for fuel cells. Dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane to toluene is a method for hydrogen storage in the form of liquid organic hydrides. The efficiency of the dehydrogenation reactions and the quantity of products depend on the catalyst used. In the case of the dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane to toluene, a metallic function, usually platinum is required as the catalyst. Although, there were some different catalysts used by former researchers, there was almost no investigation about the use of the nickel catalysts for this reaction. From the economical point of view, more efficient catalysts and reaction engineering methods should be developed for these reactions.In this work dehydrogenation of methylcyclohexane was performed in a fixed-bed catalytic reactor in the temperature range of 653–713 K on prepared Ni/Al₂O₃ catalysts having 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% Ni content. The inlet flowrates of methylcyclohexane and hydrogen to the reactor were changed by keeping one of them constant in order to investigate their effects on this reaction.