Measurement of the rheological properties of polymer melts with annular rheometer

An annular die has been designed having a very thin gap distance between two coaxial cylinders. The die was then used to measure wall normal stresses along the longitudinal direction of polymer melts flowing through the thin annulus. The materials investigated were high-density polyethylene, low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene. Also investigated were blends of polystyrene and polypropylene, and blends of polystyrene and high-density polyethylene The measurements of wall normal stresses were used to determine the rheological properties of the melts, namely, the melt viscosity from the slope of axial wall normal stress profiles and the melt elasticity from exit pressures. The interpretation of the experimental data was made possible by the fact that the narrow-gap annular die can be considered as a substitute for a thin slit die. It has been found that the results obtained in the present study are consistent with those reported earlier by the author, who at that time used both capillary and slit dies.     

Collaborative representation with reduced residual for face recognition

Collaboration representation-based classification (CRC) was proposed as an alternative approach to the sparse representation method with similar efficiency. The CRC is essentially a competition scheme for the training samples to compete with each other in representing the test sample, and the training class with the minimum representation residual from the test sample wins the competition in the classification. However, the representation error is usually calculated based on the Euclidean distance between a test sample and the weighted sum of all the same-class samples. This paper exploits alternative methods of calculating the representation error in the CRC methods to reduce the representation residual in a more optimal way, so that the sample classes compete with each other in a closer range to represent the test sample. A large number of face recognition experiments on three face image databases show that the CRC methods with optimized presentation residual achieve better performance than the original CRC, and the maximum improvement in classification accuracy is up to 12 %.     

Rheological properties of mixtures of molten polymer and fluorocarbon blowing agent. I. Mixtures of low-density polyethylene and fluorocarbon blowing agent

The viscosities of mixtures of low-density polyethylene and fluorocarbon blowing agent were determined from the measurement of wall normal stress along the longitudinal axis of a capillary die. For the study, three different grades of commercial high-pressure low-density polyethylene were used, together with the following fluorocarbon blowing agents, dichlorodifluoromethane (FC-12), dichlorotetrafluoroethane (FC-114), and blends of FC-12 and FC-114. In the experiment, blowing agent concentration and melt temperature were varied for each combination of polymer and blowing agent employed. Analysis of the experimental data has led to a correlation between the viscosity reduction factor (VRF) and the blowing agent concentration, in which VRF is defined as the ratio of the viscosity of polymer-blowing agent mixture to that of the polymer alone. It was found that the correlation obtained is independent of shear rate and temperature and dependent upon only the type of fluorocarbon blowing agent. The practical significance of the correlation is discussed. We have shown that the entrance pressure drop obtained in the absence of phase separation in the entrance region may be used as a measure of the elastic properties of mixtures of fluorocarbon blowing agent and low-density polyethylene resin.     

A group decision classifier with particle swarm optimization and decision tree for analyzing achievements in mathematics and science

Group decision making is a multi-criteria decision-making method applied in many fields. However, the use of group decision-making techniques in multi-class classification problems and rule generation is not explored widely. This investigation developed a group decision classifier with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and decision tree (GDCPSODT) for analyzing students’ mathematic and scientific achievements, which is a multi-class classification problem involving rule generation. The PSO technique is employed to determine weights of condition attributes; the decision tree is used to generate rules. To demonstrate the performance of the developed GDCPSODT model, other classifiers such as the Bayesian classifier, the k-nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier, the back propagation neural networks classifier with particle swarm optimization (BPNNPSO) and the radial basis function neural networks classifier with PSO (RBFNNPSO) are used to cope with the same data. Experimental results indicated the testing accuracy of GDCPSODT is higher than the other four classifiers. Furthermore, rules and some improvement directions of academic achievements are provided by the GDCPSODT model. Therefore, the GDCPSODT model is a feasible and promising alternative for analyzing student-related mathematic and scientific achievement data.     

生物质焦油裂解催化剂制备及其催化裂解性能

以萘为生物质焦油模型化合物 ,在以白云石为载体制备的 Ni基催化剂上进行了催化裂解实验研究 ,对催化剂的制备技术、活性、积炭失活性能和再生方式进行了实验分析。结果表明 :在 70 0℃的裂解温度、重量空速 0 .8L· h-1的反应条件下 ,萘的单程转化率可达 95 %,以饱和湿空气为再生气流 ,在程序升温的条件下烧碳 ,催化剂再生时间短 (<0 .5 h) ,与同温度的热裂解相比催化裂解更有利于萘的深度裂解 .     

Mechanical properties and thermal stability of double‐shell thermal‐energy‐storage microcapsules

Double‐shell‐structured microcapsules encapsulating phase‐change materials (micro‐PCMs) with an average diameter of 5–10 μm were successfully fabricated with a melamine–formaldehyde resin as the coating material. The mechanical properties of the obtained piled micro‐PCMs, tested under compression, were evaluated with a pressure sensor. Typical stress–strain curves showed that both the single‐shell‐ and double‐shell‐structured microcapsules had yield points and maximum point pressures. The morphological changes in the shell surface confirmed the existence of yield points by scanning electron microscopy. When the pressure was beyond the yield point, the microcapsules showed conventional plastic behavior, and the double‐shell structure was more mechanically stable than the single‐shell one. Differential scanning calorimetry analysis results revealed that the properties of the phase‐change materials experienced no variation after coating with a single‐shell‐ or double‐shell‐structured polymer. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the double‐shell‐structured micro‐PCMs experienced a weight loss of only about 5% from 86.3 to 232°C but did so more rapidly from 232 to 416°C. Thermoregulation was determined with periodical heating and cooling tests. The data showed that the micro‐PCMs changed temperature in a narrow range of 20–25°C with a time lag of 20 min to reach the maximum or minimum temperature in comparison with a reference temperature of 18–28°C. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 103: 1295–1302, 2007     

Effect of chromium aging on the structural and thermal properties of chromium polyacrylate

The effects of aging time of Cr(III) solutions on the structural, thermal, magnetic, and morphological properties of chromium polyacrylate complexes were studied. Chromium retention was found to increase with longer aging periods. IR spectra revealed the formation of polychelate structures with noticeable changes on aging. The interaction of multivalent, polynuclear Cr(III) species with the polymer backbone resulted in a decrease in thermal stability for the complexes prepared from olated chromium solutions. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 490–493, 2005     

从废旧聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料中回收苯乙烯

本文采用有机溶剂甲苯作为消泡剂，用热裂解法从废旧聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料中回收苯乙烯，苯乙烯收率可达８０％以上。     

Harnessing the Melting Peculiarities of Ultra‐High Molecular Weight Polyethylene Fibers for the Processing of Compacted Fiber Composites

Summary: Compacted fiber composites offer unique properties due to their lack of an extraneous matrix. The conditions of processing ultra‐high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) fibers were simulated in a heated pressure cell. In situ X‐ray diffraction measurements were used to follow the relevant transitions and the changes in the degree of crystallinity during melting and crystallization. The results strongly support the suggestion that the hexagonal crystal phase, in which the chain conformation is extremely mobile on the segmental level, constitutes the physical basis of compaction technologies for processing UHMWPE fibers into a single‐polymer composite. This report suggests that using a pseudo‐phase diagram outlining the occurrence of different phases during slow heating and the degree of crystallinity can provide valuable insight into the technological parameters relevant for optimal processing conditions.

Degree of crystallinity as a function of pressure and temperature in a region relevant to compaction processes.