An efficient scheme on wet/dry transitions for shallow water equations with friction

The present work concerns the derivation of a suitable discretization to approximate the friction source terms in the shallow-water model. Such additional source terms are known to be very stiff as soon as the water height is vanishing. The proposed numerical procedure comes from a relevant correction of a Godunov-type scheme that approximates the solutions of hyperbolic systems of conservation laws. The adopted correction gives a discretization of the source term which preserves the robustness and does not change the CFL condition. The scheme is shown to be particularly efficient for wet/dry transition simulations. In addition, this numerical procedure can be used together with any robust and well-balanced discretization of the topography source term. Second order extension is also investigated. Extensive numerical validations illustrate the interest of this new approach.     

A three-dimensional model of the wire-arc spray process and its experimental validation

A CFD study of the twin wire-arc spray process is presented in this paper. A three-dimensional model was used to compute the flow inside and outside the spray gun and gas-particles interactions were computed on the basis of one-way and two-way coupling methods, the latter allowing taking the loading effect into account. The considered particle size distributions were measured experimentally on particles collected at the spray distance, so that no atomizing model was required. In a second step, the model validation was performed on the basis of comparisons between predictions and particle velocity measurements.     

The combination of CRISPR-MVLST and PFGE provides increased discriminatory power for differentiating human clinical isolates of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) is a major cause of foodborne salmonellosis. Rapid, efficient and accurate methods for identification are required to track specific strains of S. Enteritidis during outbreaks of human salmonellosis. By exploiting the hypervariable nature of virulence genes and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPRs), we previously developed a powerful sequence-based subtyping approach, designated CRISPR-MVLST. To substantiate the applicability of CRISPR-MVLST, we analyzed a broad set of S. Enteritidis isolates collected over a six-year period. Among 141 isolates we defined 22 Enteritidis Sequence Types (ESTs), the majority of which were novel. Notably, strains exhibiting the common PFGE pattern, JEGX01.0004 (characteristic of ∼40% of S. Enteritidis isolates in the United States), were separated into twelve distinct sequence types. Conversely, isolates of EST4, the most predominant EST we observed, comprised eight different PFGE patterns. Importantly, we showed that some genotypes that were previously associated with the food supply chain at the farm level have now been identified in clinical samples.     

Study of the combustion efficiency of polymers using a pyrolysis–combustion flow calorimeter

The combustion efficiency of various polymeric materials was studied using a pyrolysis–combustion flow calorimeter (PCFC). Decreasing the combustion temperature in a PCFC leads to partial combustion and lower heat release rates. Combustion efficiency versus combustion temperature was modeled using a phenomenological equation and model parameters were related to the chemical structures of eight pure polymers. The flame inhibition effect was evaluated for two classical approaches in flame retardancy by plotting the combustion efficiency versus the combustion temperature. In the first one (the reactive approach), polystyrenes with different chemical groups substituted on the aromatic ring were studied. In the second one (the additive approach), three well-known flame retardants were incorporated into an ABS matrix: ammonium polyphosphate, tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBA), and a TBBA/antimony trioxide system. Results confirm the flame inhibition effect of halogenated compounds in both approaches. Finally, a correlation between peaks of heat release rate (pHRR) in a cone calorimeter and in a PCFC was attempted. Predicting pHRR in a cone calorimeter using a PCFC appears possible when no barrier effect is expected, if PCFC tests are carried out at a precise combustion temperature, for which the combustion efficiencies in both tests are the same.     

Influence of the morphology on the fire behavior of a polycarbonate/poly(butylene terephthalate) blend

Polycarbonate/Poly(butylene terephthalate) (PC/PBT) blends are used in various industrial sectors, particularly in the cable industry. In this work, the fire behavior of PC/PBT blends was studied for the entire range of blend composition to investigate the relation between fire properties and blend morphology. The morphology of the binary blends used presents a phase inversion point for 25–30 wt % PBT. Various tests have been performed to characterize the fire behavior [limiting oxygen index (LOI), epiradiator test, cone calorimeter, and pyrolysis combustion flow calorimeter (PCFC)]. A change in fire behavior has been observed when the PBT content increases from 20 to 30 wt %, corresponding to the phase inversion, from a continuous rich-PC phase to a continuous rich-PBT phase. Consequently, it can be suggested that the control of the morphology of binary polymer blends is crucial to improve their fire properties. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012     

Reactive compatibilization of polymer blends by γ‐irradiation: Influence of the order of processing steps

Results concerning γ‐irradiation of polymer blends such as HDPE/ground tire rubber (GTR) and PP/HDPE are reported in this article with a special emphasis on the order of processing steps. Irradiation dose varied in the range 0–100 kGy. The two first polymers (HDPE and rubber) are preferentially crosslinked under γ irradiation while PP undergoes chain scission. Mechanical tests and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis show that the efficiency of the reactive compatibilization by γ irradiation depends greatly on the chronology of γ‐irradiation and injection‐molding steps. Electron spin resonance (ESR) results reveal that numerous radicals remain trapped in the materials after γ‐irradiation even after a long time. Then the effect of irradiation on material properties is different if polymers are melted after irradiation or not. Crosslinking and chain scission are not affected in an equivalent way by the order of processing steps. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010     

Self‐Defensive Coating for Antibiotics Degradation—Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition of Functional and Conformal Coatings for the Immobilization of Enzymes

Conformal epoxy‐rich coatings are synthesized by plasma initiated chain‐growth polymerization of glycidyl methacrylate via a newly developed Plasma initiated chemical vapor deposition method at atmospheric pressure to provide a functional platform for the immobilization of enzymes degrading antibiotics (laccase and β‐lactamase). In addition to enhance the enzymes activity duration and intensity, surface immobilization is also leading to enzyme structure rigidification, allowing them to endure mechanical stresses generated by a laminar water flow of 30 km h⁻¹, and this with no reduction of their enzymatic activity. Self‐defensive surface properties against microorganism's adhesion, preventing the enzyme alteration and improving the degradation performances, are obtained via surface saturation with Tween 20. The developed method is scaled up to high specific surface high‐density polyethy­lene biochips commonly used in water treatment, and shows self‐defensive abilities and particularly long lasting efficient degradation properties.     

Multicarrier CDMA techniques for future wideband wireless networks

In this paper, multicarrier techniques are considered in the context of the future wideband wireless networks. An overview of the different access schemes based on a combination of code division and multicarrier techniques, such as Multi-Carrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA), Multi-Carrier Direct Sequence CDMA (MC-DS-CDMA) and Multi-Tone CDMA (MT-CDMA) is presented first. Afterwards, MC-CDMA systems are considered for the downlink of high rate cellular networks. The performance of different mono-user detection techniques are first analytically estimated and then compared with the help of Monte Carlo simulations for a Rayleigh channel. Simulation results on the performance of mono-user and multi-user detection techniques are also provided for Bad Urban (BU) Hilly Terrain (HT) and Vehicular UMTS channels. With regard to the channel coding, convolutional codes and turbo-codes are considered. Among others, a new linear detection technique named Global Minimum Mean Square Error Algorithm (GMMSE) is compared to multi-user Parallel Interference Cancellation detection technique. It is shown that GMMSE offers good performance especially for non-full load systems. Thus, the efficiency of MC-CDMA as a very promising multiple access and robust modulation scheme is successfully demonstrated for the downlink of the future wideband mobile networks.     

Affinity thermal machines and metallic salt-ammonia-ammoniates systems

The advantages and drawbacks of using monovariant metallic salt-ammonia-ammoniates systems in affinity thermal machines are discussed. These systems might be processed in machines of simple technology especially for solar cooling, heating and energy storage, on a household or industrial scale.