Viscous dissipation effects on thermal transport characteristics of combined pressure and electroosmotically driven flow in microchannels

This study investigates the influence of viscous dissipation on thermal transport characteristics of the fully developed combined pressure and electroosmotically driven flow in parallel plate microchannels subject to uniform wall heat flux. Closed form expressions are obtained for the transverse distributions of electrical potential, velocity and temperature and also for Nusselt number. From the results it is realized that the Brinkman number has a significant effect on Nusselt number. Generally speaking, to increase Brinkman number is to decrease Nusselt number. Although the magnitude of Joule heating can affect Brinkman number dependency of Nusselt number, however the general trend remains unchanged. Depending on the value of flow parameters, a singularity may occur in Nusselt number values even in the absence of viscous heating, especially at great values of dimensionless Joule heating term. For a given value of Brinkman number, as dimensionless Debye–Huckel parameter increases, the effect of viscous heating increases. In this condition, as dimensionless Debye–Huckel parameter goes to infinity, the Nusselt number approaches zero, regardless of the magnitude of Joule heating. Furthermore, it is realized that the effect of Brinkman number on Nusselt number for pressure opposed flow is more notable than purely electroosmotic flow, while the opposite is true for pressure assisted flow.     

Multiferroic behavior of the functionalized surface of a flexible substrate by deposition of Bi2O3 and Fe2O3

Thin films of bismuth and iron oxides were obtained by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on the surface of a flexible substrate poly(4,4′-oxydiphenylene-pyromellitimide) (Kapton) at a temperature of 250°C. The layer thickness was 50 nm. The samples were examined by secondary-ion mass spectrometry, and uniform distribution of elements in the film layer was observed. Surface morphology, electrical polarization, and mechanical properties were investigated by atomic force microscope, piezoelectric force microscopy, and force modulation microscopy. The values of current in the near-surface layer varied in the range of ±80 pA when a potential of 5 V was applied. Chemical analysis was performed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, where the formation of Bi₂O₃ and Fe₂O₃ phases, as well as intermediate phases in the Bi–Fe–O system, was observed. Magnetic measurements were carried out by a vibrating sample magnetometer that showed a ferromagnetic response. The low-temperature method of functionalization of the Kapton surface with bismuth and iron oxides will make it possible to adapt the Bi–Fe–O system to flexible electronics.     

Natural ink production and printability studies for smart food packaging

Versatile smart packages provide information on the freshness of the content and help protect the content from microorganisms. In this sense, in this study both natural antimicrobial properties and pH sensitive natural dyes were obtained from red beet. Inks were prepared and printed using this dye and their suitability for smart packaging was investigated. For this purpose, red beet was cut into small sizes and mixed separately in ethanol and water (1:2) at 200 rpm. The betaine dye was taken up in solvent. These solvents were removed with evaporator and precipitated with centrifugation and dried in a vacuum oven. The chemical structure of the obtained dye was illuminated by Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). The color character was determined by UV spectroscopy. Pink colored natural ink was produced by using ink varnish with carboxymethyl cellulose polymer and solid dye. Screen printing was made with this ink and the color, gloss, and lightfastness characters of prints were examined. Antimicrobial effects of the obtained prints were measured against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Mordanting studies were performed with (KAl[SO₄]₂.12H₂O) and change in color character was measured. The prints produced using the red beet extract have a yellow-orange color in the basic state; in acid cases it was determined to have a pink-purple color. In addition, it has been found that the ink prints obtained from red beet have antimicrobial properties against bacteria. Results prove that produced samples have good antimicrobial, pH indicator, and printability properties. This colorant can be used in smart food packaging.     

MHD natural convection inside an inclined trapezoidal porous enclosure with internal heat generation or absorption subjected to isoflux heating

A steady laminar two‐dimensional magneto‐hydrodynamic natural convection flow in an inclined trapezoidal enclosure filled with a fluid‐saturated porous medium is investigated numerically using a finite difference method. The left and right vertical sidewalls of the trapezoidal enclosure are maintained at a cold temperature. The horizontal top wall is considered adiabatic while the bottom wall is subjected to isoflux heating. A volumetric internal heat generation or absorption is embedded inside the trapezoidal enclosure while an external magnetic field is applied on the left sidewall of the enclosure. In the current work, the following parametric ranges of the non‐dimensional groups are used: Hartmann number is varied as , Darcy number is taken as , 10^?4, and 8 × 10^?5, Rayleigh number is varied as , Prandtl number is considered constant at Pr = 0.7, the dimensionless internal heat generation or absorption parameter is varied as Δ = ?0.2, 0, 1, and 2.0, while the trapezoidal enclosure inclination angle is varied as . The results indicated a strong flow circulation occurs when the Darcy and the Rayleigh numbers are high. In addition, it is found that the Hartmann number, internal heat generation or absorption parameter and inclination angle have an important role on the flow and thermal characteristics. It is also found that when the enclosure inclination angle and Hartmann number increase the average Nusselt number along the hot bottom wall decreases. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21013     

Effects of diameter ratio of adiabatic circular cylinder and tilt angle on natural convection from a square open tilted cavity

A numerical analysis is carried out to study the performance of natural convection inside a square open tilted cavity filled with air. An adiabatic circular solid cylinder is placed at the center of the cavity and the sidewall in front of the breathing space is heated by a constant heat flux. The top and bottom walls are kept at the ambient constant temperature. Two‐dimensional forms of Navier–Stokes equations along with the energy equations are solved using the Galerkin finite element method. Results are obtained for a range of Grashof numbers from 10³ to 10⁶ at Pr = 0.71 while the tilt angle varies from 0 to 45° and the diameter ratio of the cylinder is considered to be 0.2, 0.3, and 0.4 with constant physical properties. The parametric studies for a wide range of cylinder diameter ratios and cavity tilt angles show significant features of the present problem in terms of stream functions and temperature profiles. The computational results indicate that the heat transfer coefficient is strongly influenced by the above governing parameters. It is also found that the average Nusselt number decreases when the diameter ratio increases. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj ). DOI 10.1002/htj.21001     

Convergence of fuzzy-pyramid algorithms

Pyramid linking is an important technique for segmenting images and has many applications in image processing and computer vision. The algorithm is closely related to the ISODATA clustering algorithm and shares some of its properties. This paper investigates this relationship and presents a proof of convergence for the pyramid linking algorithm. The convergence of the hard-pyramid linking algorithm has been shown in the past; however, there has been no proof of the convergence of fuzzy-pyramid linking algorithms. The proof of convergence is based on Zangwill's theorem, which describes the convergence of an iterative algorithm in terms of a descent function of the algorithm. We show the existence of such a descent function of the pyramid algorithm and, further, show that all the conditions of Zangwill's theorem are met; hence the algorithm converges.This research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office under contract DAAL 03-91-G0050.     

Preparation and electrochemical studies of metal–carbon composite catalysts for small-scale electrosynthesis of H2O2

Numerous transition metal–carbon composite catalysts (M = V, Zn, Ni, Sn, Ce, Ba, Fe, Cu) have been synthesized and tested for electroreduction of O₂ to H₂O₂, The activity and selectivity of all synthesized catalysts for electrosynthesis of H₂O₂ were determined by the rotating ring-disk electrode method in acidic and neutral electrolytes. The Co-based catalysts in general showed the highest activity towards H₂O₂ formation. Experiments with different loading contents of Co showed that the activation overpotential losses of oxygen reduction to H₂O₂ reduces as loading increases to about 4 wt% Co. Addition of Co beyond this level did not seem to impact the overpotential losses. The cobalt-based catalysts, were spray-coated onto 120 μm thick Toray^® graphite substrates, and were studied in bulk electrolysis cells for up to 100 h at potentiostatic conditions (0.25 V vs. RHE) in pH 0, 3, and 7 electrolytes. At (25 °C and 1 bar) with a catalysts loading of about and using dissolved O₂ in 0.5 M H₂SO₄, typical H₂O₂ electrosynthesis rates of about were reached with current efficiencies of about 85 ± 5% at 0.25 V (vs. RHE).     

Image processing on encoded video sequences

This paper presents a novel approach to processing encoded video sequences prior to complete decoding. Scene changes are easily detected using DCT coefficients in JPEG and MPEG encoded video sequences. In addition, by analyzing the DCT coefficients, regions of interest may be isolated prior to decompression, increasing the efficiency of any subsequent image processing steps, such as edge detection. The results are currently used in a video browser and are part of an ongoing research project in creating large video databases. The procedure is detailed with several examples presented and studied in depth.     

Impact of technology scaling on thermal behavior of leakage current in sub-quarter micron MOSFETs: perspective of low temperature current testing

The increase in the off-state current for sub-quarter micron CMOS technologies is making conventional I_DDQ testing ineffective. Since natural process variation together with low-V_TH devices can significantly increase the absolute leakage value and the variation, choosing a single threshold for I_DDQ testing is impractical. One of the potential solutions is the cooling of the chip during current testing. In this paper we analyze the impact of CMOS technology scaling on the thermal behavior of different leakage current mechanisms in n-MOSFETs and estimate the effectiveness of low temperature I_DDQ testing. We found that the conventional single threshold low temperature I_DDQ testing is not effective for sub-quarter micron CMOS technologies and propose the low temperature ΔI_DDQ test method. The difference between pass and fail current limits was estimated more than 200× for 0.13-μm CMOS technology.