UNSTEADY FREE CONVECTION IN A VERTICAL CHANNEL WITH A BUILT-IN HEATED SQUARE CYLINDER

The cause of high operating temperatures experienced by grate blocks in a waste-to-energy power plant is investigated. A three-dimensional numerical analysis is performed to assess convection from the grate to the underfire air supply and conduction within the grate. A number of geometric complexities, including variable solid thickness, extended surfaces, sharp curvatures, and narrow passages, are accounted for via a finite element approach. The grate temperature is found to be very sensitive to the flow characteristics beneath the grates. Analysis of a modified grate structure was performed, showing a 14% reduction in maximum grate temperature.     

Textural,nutritional and functional attributes in tomato genotypes for breeding better quality varieties

BACKGROUND: Screening of natural biodiversity for their better quality attributes is of prime importance for quality breeding programmes. A set of 53 tomato genotypes was measured for their textural [skin firmness, pericarp thickness, total soluble solids (TSS)], nutritional [phosphorus (P), potassium (K), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn) and titrable acidity (TA)] and functional (β‐carotene, lycopene and ascorbic acid) quality attributes. RESULT: Three sets of data (textural, nutritional and functional attributes) were obtained and analysed for their mutual relationships. Wide variations were observed in most of the measurements, e.g. skin firmness (coefficient of variability (CV) 269‐612 g), pericarp thickness (CV 1.4–4.9 mm), potassium (CV 229–371 mg 100 g^?1), iron (CV 611–1772 mg 100 g^?1), ascorbic acid (CV 12–86 mg 100 g^?1), suggesting that there are considerable levels of genetic diversity. Significant correlations (P < 0.05, 0.01) were also detected among different attributes of tomato genotypes, such as phosphorus and zinc with a correlation coefficient of 0.74, ascorbic acid and copper of 0.57, pericarp thickness and lycopene of ? 0.52. However, there were no correlations between textural and nutritional attributes. Five factors were computed by principal component analysis that explained 66% of the variation in the attributes, among which all micronutrients other than iron, TSS, firmness and β‐carotene were most important. Functional attributes except β‐carotene played a less important role in explaining total variation. CONCLUSION: This knowledge could aid in the efficient conservation of important parts of the agricultural biodiversity of India. These results are also potentially useful for tomato breeders working on the development of new varieties. Copyright © 2009 Society of Chemical Industry     

Characterization and calibration of a SSNTD for heavy-ion detection and strangelet search in cosmic rays

A commercially available grade of polymer was investigated for its suitability as a solid state nuclear track detector (SSNTD) to look for rare events in cosmic rays at very high mountain altitudes. It was identified to be polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and found to have a higher detection threshold compared to many other widely used SSNTDs. Hence it is particularly suited for rare event search in cosmic rays by eliminating the dominant low Z background. Systematic studies were carried out to determine the ideal etching condition. Also the charge response of PET was studied using various ion beams from accelerators. The results of such studies were combined to obtain the calibration curve for PET as SSNTD, by which one can identify and characterize charged particles.     

Mechanistic force modeling of single point cutting tool in terms of grinding angles

The cutting tool angles have conventionally been presented using projective geometry in terms of the projections of cutting edges on respective planes, which makes the visualization of geometry difficult, particularly for complex tools. Modeling a cutting tool using the actual grinding angles can simplify the geometric definition of the tools and provide a comprehensive and simple definition of tools for downstream applications. The paper presents the 3D definition of the faces of a single point cutting tool (SPCT) in terms of 3D rotational grinding angles and maps the new tool nomenclature with the ASA, ORS and NRS nomenclatures. A mechanistic model is subsequently proposed to predict the forces in terms of the grinding angles, chip thickness and velocity using second degree polynomial function, unlike the conventionally used logarithmic ones. The model has been calibrated for HSS tool and Mild Steel workpiece combination for end turning of a tubular workpiece based on the regression analysis of a central composite design of the experiments. The results have been discussed and the model has been validated for a new set of experimental data. The model shows a good correlation to the observed results.     

Effect of elevated temperatures on concrete incorporating ferronickel slag as fine aggregate

This study evaluates the effect of elevated temperature exposure on concrete incorporating ferronickel slag (FNS) as a replacement of natural sand. Concrete cylinders were exposed up to 800°C, and the changes in compressive strength, mass, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and microstructure were investigated. The concretes containing up to 100% FNS aggregate showed no spalling and similar cracking to that of the concrete using 100% natural sand. For exposures up to 600°C, the residual strengths of concretes containing 50% FNS were 7% to 10% smaller than the concrete with 100% sand. Use of 30% fly ash as cement replacement improved residual strength by pozzolanic reaction for exposures up to 600°C. An equation has been found from the correlation between residual strength and UPV. Therefore, UPV can be used as a nondestructive test to estimate the extent of postfire damage and residual strength of concrete incorporating FNS aggregate and fly ash.     

Nutrient removal potential of emergent ( Scirpus articulatus ) and floating ( Lemna major ) macrophytes

Nutrient removal capacity of Lemna major (floating macrophyte) was compared with Scirpus articulatus (emergent macrophyte) in hypertrophic mesocosms held in situ . While Lemna removed orthophosphate mainly from waterphase, Scirpus on the other hand, took up their phosphorus exclusively from the sediment. Plant recovery of both nitrogen and phosphorus was high in emergent macrophyte than in floating macrophyte. Introduction of macrophyte resulted in decline of denitrifying bacteria, but increase in heterotrophic bacterial populations. Counts of heterotrophic bacterial population were significantly higher in case of Lemna than in Scirpus . Decline of phytoplankton number was more pronounced in case of Lemna due to its shading effect compared to Scirpus . It'is concluded that reclamation ability of floating Lemna was short lived because of nutrient removal mainly from water phase whereas, the nutrient removal mechanism in emergent Scirpus was primarily through the root system from the sediment. Differential rates of nutrient storage was responsible for short term nutrient uptake by Lemna , whereas, it was reverse in case of Scirpus .     

Performance Analysis of Heat Sinks With Phase-Change Materials Subjected to Transient and Cyclic Heating

Phase-change cooling technique is a suitable method for thermal management of electronic equipment subjected to transient or cyclic heat loads. The thermal performance of a phase-change based heat sink under cyclic heat load depends on several design parameters, namely, applied heat flux, cooling heat transfer coefficient, thermophysical properties of phase-change materials (PCMs), and physical dimensions of phase-change storage system during melting and freezing processes. A one-dimensional conduction heat transfer model is formulated to evaluate the effectiveness of preliminary design of practical PCM-based energy storage units. In this model, the phase-change process of the PCM is divided into melting and solidification subprocesses, for which separate equations are written. The equations are solved sequentially and an explicit closed-form solution is obtained. The efficacy of analytical model is estimated by comparing with a finite-volume-based numerical solution for both transient and cyclic heat loads.     

A vendor-managed inventory scheme as a supply chain coordination mechanism

In this paper, we have considered a vendor-managed inventory (VMI) arrangement in a supply chain (SC), where the buyer imposes a penalty for shipments exceeding an upper limit. We have shown as how the industry practice of VMI under penalty can be used as a SC coordination mechanism. The vendor can influence the buyer to increase the batch size without making the buyer worse off. We also discuss how such a penalty scheme may be derived. Further, we have established the equivalence of VMI under deterministic demand with that of quantity discount models, thus highlighting the need to incorporate both cooperation and coordination perspectives while analysing SC collaboration mechanisms.     

Role of Melt Convection on Optimization of PCM-Based Heat Sink Under Cyclic Heat Load

In this article, we study the thermal performance of phase-change material (PCM)-based heat sinks under cyclic heat load and subjected to melt convection. Plate fin type heat sinks made of aluminum and filled with PCM are considered in this study. The heat sink is heated from the bottom. For a prescribed value of heat flux, design of such a heat sink can be optimized with respect to its geometry, with the objective of minimizing the temperature rise during heating and ensuring complete solidification of PCM at the end of the cooling period for a given cycle. For given length and base plate thickness of a heat sink, a genetic algorithm (GA)-based optimization is carried out with respect to geometrical variables such as fin thickness, fin height, and the number of fins. The thermal performance of the heat sink for a given set of parameters is evaluated using an enthalpy-based heat transfer model, which provides the necessary data for the optimization algorithm. The effect of melt convection is studied by taking two cases, one without melt convection (conduction regime) and the other with convection. The results show that melt convection alters the results of geometrical optimization.