Activating solution gas drive as an extra oil production mechanism after carbonated water injection

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are mostly based on different phenomena taking place at the interfaces between fluid–fluid and rock–fluid phases. Over the last decade, carbonated water injection (CWI) has been considered as one of the multi-objective EOR techniques to store CO₂ in the hydrocarbon bearing formations as well as improving oil recovery efficiency. During CWI process, as the reservoir pressure declines, the dissolved CO₂ in the oil phase evolves and gas nucleation phenomenon would occur. As a result, it can lead to oil saturation restoration and subsequently, oil displacement due to the hysteresis effect. At this condition, CO₂ would act as in-situ dissolved gas into the oil phase, and play the role of an artificial solution gas drive (SGD).In this study, the effect of SGD as an extra oil recovery mechanism after secondary and tertiary CWI (SCWI-TCWI) modes has been experimentally investigated in carbonate rocks using coreflood tests. The depressurization tests resulted in more than 25% and 18% of original oil in place (OOIP) because of the SGD after SCWI and TCWI tests, respectively. From the ultimate enhanced oil recovery point of view, the efficiency of SGD was observed to be more than one-third of that of CWI itself. Furthermore, the pressure drop data revealed that the system pressure depends more on the oil production pattern than water production.     

Investigation of factors affecting dynamic modulus and phase angle of various asphalt concrete mixtures

This study investigated the dynamic response of various asphalt concrete (AC) mixtures subjected to sinusoidal loading. Eight AC mixtures (four wearing and four base course) were selected including (but not limited to): superpave, asphalt institute manual series, and dense bituminous macadam. The uniaxial dynamic modulus (|E*|) test at various temperatures (4.4–54.4 °C) and frequencies (0.1–25 Hz) was conducted using asphalt mixture performance tester. Statistical analysis of two-level factorial was employed to regulate the factors affecting the AC mixtures. The results revealed that an increase in temperature (from 21.1 to 37.8 °C), translated into 45 and 43 % drop in |E*| values on average while 80 and 67 % decrease in |E*| values was attributed to the sweep of frequency (from 25 to 0.1 Hz) for wearing and base course mixes, respectively. Non-linear regression model was developed to express the dynamic modulus as a function of test temperature, loading frequency and mixture volumetric parameter. Furthermore, Witczak model of dynamic modulus prediction was evaluated and the results indicated a close fit with an average under prediction error of 0.20. The study characterized and ranked the representative AC mixtures that could help in selecting the material/gradation for mechanistic-empirical pavement design approach.     

An RL-based scheduling algorithm for video traffic in high-rate wireless personal area networks

The emerging high-rate wireless personal area network (WPAN) technology is capable of supporting high-speed and high-quality real-time multimedia applications. In particular, video streams are deemed to be a dominant traffic type, and require quality of service (QoS) support. However, in the current IEEE 802.15.3 standard for MAC (media access control) of high-rate WPANs, the implementation details of some key issues such as scheduling and QoS provisioning have not been addressed. In this paper, we first propose a Markov decision process (MDP) model for optimal scheduling for video flows in high-rate WPANs. Using this model, we also propose a scheduler that incorporates compact state space representation, function approximation, and reinforcement learning (RL). Simulation results show that our proposed RL scheduler achieves nearly optimal performance and performs better than F-SRPT, EDD + SRPT, and PAP scheduling algorithms in terms of a lower decoding failure rate.     

Task space control of a welding robot using a fuzzy coordinator

This paper introduces a fuzzy coordinator as a novel application of fuzzy controller. A control transformation from the task space to the joint space is required to control a robot manipulator in the task space. Because the actuators operate in the joint space while the manipulator is controlled in the task space. A conflict between two spaces is produced due to using an imprecise transformation. Fuzzy coordinator coordinates two spaces by modifying the control transformation affected by uncertainties. The fuzzy coordinator is designed simply and operates as a robust controller. The role of fuzzy coordinator is analyzed and illustrated in the robust control of a welding robot in the task space. A circular trajectory is planned for a welding task performed by a SCARA robot. The fuzzy coordinator is then used to improve the performance of control system affected by imprecise transformations including the imprecise path transformation and the approximated feedback linearization.     

Relativistic modelling of a superdense star containing a charged perfect fluid

The paper presents a variety of classes of interior solutions of the Einstein-Maxwell field equations for a static, spherically symmetric distribution of a charged fluid of well-behaved nature. They describe perfect fluid balls with positive finite central pressure and density; their ratio is less than one (c = 1), and the causality condition is obeyed at the center. The outmarch of pressure, density, pressuredensity ratio and the adiabatic speed of sound is a monotonic decrease, in a physically appealing manner. A certain class of these well-behaved solutions is studied extensively. For this class, the mass of the configuration is maximized. In particular, for a surface density ?? _b = 2×10¹⁴ g/cm³ we obtain a star with a maximummass of 3.47M _??, a radius of 15.21 km and the central redshift 1.014385.     

Contact-Sorption Drying of Penicillium bilaii in a Fluidized Bed Dryer

A fluidized bed dryer and drying system have been designed, constructed and operated to produce a powdered formulation of the fungus Penicillium bilaii. The dryer includes an air-shear atomizer and rotatable air vibrator to produce particles which are evenly coated with P. bilaii. The drying system included a humidifier, oven, vacuum pump and instrumentation to ensure precise control of operating conditions. Instant skim milk powder was found to be the best particle source for fixing the spores due to its solubility in water, its highly porous nature and because its moisture isotherms were similar to those of the spores. The dryer was operated at 35°C to maximize the drying rate while still preventing thermal death of the spores. The fluidizing air was best provided at an RH of 30%, thereby producing skim milk/spore particles with just the right amount of moisture to ensure long term storage viability. Storage under refrigeration conditions showed little long term decline in spore viability after 3 months of tests. Room temperature storage demonstrated a small decline rate in spore viability with little significant change if held at room temperature for a few days. © 1997 SCI.     

Effect of melamine polyphosphate on thermal degradation of polyamides: a combined X-ray diffraction and solid-state NMR study

The effect of melamine polyphosphate (MpolyP) on the thermal degradation of both polyamide 66 (PA66) and polyamide 6 (PA6) was studied using a combination of solid-state techniques. The mixtures of MpolyP with polyamides were heated for different times at 350 and 450 °C. The residues were then analyzed by X-ray diffraction and both solid-state ¹³C NMR and ³¹P NMR. The chemical structures formed in these oven experiments were used to study the chemical changes that take place during a standard flammability test. The mixtures of MpolyP with polyamides were also characterized by frequency-dependent rheological experiments. It was shown that MpolyP could induce significant cross-linking in PA66 and leads to dramatic depolymerization of PA6. These results were used to explain the performance of MpolyP as a flame retardant in these polyamides.