Characteristics of Air-Side Particulate Fouling Materials in Finned-Tube Heat Exchangers of Air Conditioners

Heat exchangers are used widely in residential, commercial, and industrial HVAC applications. Air-side particulate fouling in the heat exchangers of HVAC applications degrades the performance of cooling capacity, pressure drop across a heat exchanger, and indoor air quality. Indoor and outdoor air contaminants foul heat exchangers. The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of the air-side particulate fouling materials in finned-tube heat exchangers of air conditioners. Air conditioners being used in the field such as inns, restaurants, and offices are collected in chronological order of use. The fouling materials attached on the evaporator heat exchangers consist of particulates and fibers. The particulates mainly originate from indoor dusts and the fibers are separated from clothes, bedclothes, papers, fur of pets, and so on. Typical fouling materials on the heat exchangers include fibers and dusts ranging from 6.6 to 20.9 μm in aerodynamic mean diameter.     

Processing of Net‐shaped Nanocrystalline Fe‐Ni Material

Development of nanoparticulate materials technology is essential to processing of highly functional nanoparticulate materials and components with small and complex shape. This paper provides an overview on our recent investigations on the processing of net‐shaped nanocrystalline Fe‐Ni powder and related material property such as mechanical property. The key‐processing concept is the synthesis of nanopowders and subsequent consolidation with controlled microstructure by using powder injection molding (PIM) process. Especially, the pressureless sintering process is inevitable for consolidation of the PIMed nanopowder. The present review focuses on the densification process and related mechanical property of the PIMed Fe‐Ni nanopowder in association with microstructural evolution and diffusion process.     

Gold Nanocages: Engineering Their Structure for Biomedical Applications

The galvanic replacement reaction between a Ag template and HAuCl₄ in an aqueous solution transforms 30–200 nm Ag nanocubes into Au nanoboxes and nanocages (nanoboxes with porous walls). By controlling the molar ratio of Ag to HAuCl₄, the extinction peak of resultant structures can be continuously tuned from the blue (400 nm) to the near‐infrared (1200 nm) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These hollow Au nanostructures are characterized by extraordinarily large cross‐sections for both absorption and scattering. Optical coherence tomography measurements indicate that the 36 nm nanocage has a scattering cross‐section of ～ 0.8 × 10^–15 m² and an absorption cross‐section of ～ 7.3 × 10^–15 m². The absorption cross‐section is more than five orders of magnitude larger than those of conventional organic dyes. Exposure of Au nanocages to a camera flash resulted in the melting and conversion of Au nanocages into spherical particles due to photothermal heating. Discrete‐dipole‐approximation calculations suggest that the magnitudes of both scattering and absorption cross‐sections of Au nanocages can be tailored by controlling their dimensions, as well as the thickness and porosity of their walls. This novel class of hollow nanostructures is expected to find use as both a contrast agent for optical imaging in early stage tumor detection and as a therapeutic agent for photothermal cancer treatment.     

Effects of various environments on fatigue crack growth in Laser formed and IM Ti–6Al–4V alloys

The fatigue crack growth behaviors of Laser formed and ingot metallurgy (IM) Ti–6Al–4V alloys were studied in three environments: vacuum, air and 3.5% NaCl solution. Taking the Unified Fatigue Damage Approach, the fatigue crack growth data were analyzed with two intrinsic parameters, stress intensity amplitude ΔK and maximum stress intensity K_max, and their limiting values ΔK^* and . Fatigue crack growth rates da/dN were found increase with stress ratio R, highest in 3.5% NaCl solution, somewhat less in air and lowest in vacuum, and higher in IM alloy than in Laser formed one. In 3.5% NaCl solution, stress corrosion cracking (SCC) was superimposed on fatigue at R=0.9 for where K_max>K_ISCC, the threshold stress intensity for SCC. This and environment-assisted fatigue crack growth were evidenced by the deviation in fatigue crack growth trajectory (ΔK^* vs. curve) from the pure fatigue line where . Furthermore, the fractographic features, identified along the trajectory path, reflected the fatigue crack growth behaviors of both alloys in a given environment.     

Development of the critical film thickness correlation for an advanced annular film mechanistic dryout model applicable to MARS code

It is generally assumed in the mechanistic film dryout model that the critical heat flux (CHF) arises when liquid film calculated from evaporation, droplet entrainment and deposition gets dryout. The dryout of film is usually assumed when film thickness becomes zero. However, it was indicated that the complete dryout assumption can estimate CHF well for uniform heating case but cannot simulate accurately for non-uniform heating case. The critical film thickness concept may be an appropriate approach physically because there is a possibility of instantaneous disappearance of liquid film when it gets very thin. Therefore, a critical dryout film thickness correlation was developed to properly model dryout phenomenon together with MARS code based on experimental data. The modified version of MARS implementing a newly developed critical dryout film thickness correlation was assessed using various dryout data including those of non-uniform heating case and flow reduction transient test. The prediction results showed improved agreement with the experimental data.     

Linearization of discrete-time systems via restricted dynamic feedback

We extend the results from a previous paper of ours to multiple-input systems, and utilize these to obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for the linearization of discrete-time nonlinear systems via restricted dynamic feedback. We observe that for discrete-time nonlinear systems, the bound on the number of delays (or integrators) needed to synthesize the linearizing dynamic feedback differs from the continuous-time analogue.     

Optimal design of optical performance of reflective ferroelectric‐ and anti‐ferroelectric liquid‐crystal displays

Abstract— In an in‐plane optical geometry, such that the average optic axis lies on the plane parallel to both substrates, the optical properties of a reflective ferroelectric liquid‐crystal (FLC) or antiferroelectric liquid‐crystal (AFLC) cell were studied within the framework of the 2 × 2 Jones matrix formalism. To obtain good achromaticity and high brightness, the cell parameters such as the molecular rotation angle and the effective phase retardation of the AFLC layer were optimized. The device performances of the AFLC cell were experimentally demonstrated in this geometry.