An apparent kinetic model for the carbonation of calcium oxide by carbon dioxide

For the apparent kinetics of the carbonation reaction of calcium oxide by carbon dioxide, as a kind of noncatalytic gas–solid reaction, a model equation has been proposed as follows: X=kbt/(b+t), where X is the conversion of CaO; k, a kinetic rate constant (time⁻¹); b, a constant (time) equivalent to the time taken to attain half the ultimate conversion of CaO, and t, the time. As a result of analyses for some literature-reported data of CaO-carbonation conversion, it has been found that the rate of the carbonation can be well represented by dX/dt=k(1−X/X_u)², where X_u is the ultimate conversion of CaO, which is given by the product of two parametric constants, k and b. The constants k and b in the two rate control regimes of CaO-carbonation, chemical reaction control and diffusion control, have been determined as functions of temperature, respectively. The activation energy in the carbonation of surface CaO with CO₂ is estimated to about 72 kJ/mol regardless of the sources of CaO, however, that in the diffusion control regime appears differently as 102.5 (mesoporous CaO) or 189.3 kJ/mol (commercial-available CaO), possibly due to the morphological differences of the two CaO samples. From a practical point of view, the simple model equation proposed in this study deserves attention in that the CaO-carbonation behavior at working temperatures higher than 700 °C could be closely predicted.     

Surface reconstruction techniques: a review

Surface reconstruction means that retrieve the data by scanning an object using a device such as laser scanner and construct it using the computer to gain back the soft copy of data on that particular object. It is a reverse process and is very useful especially when that particular object original data is missing without doing any backup. Hence, by doing so, the data can be recollected and can be stored for future purposes. The type of data can be in the form of structure or unstructured points. The accuracy of the reconstructed result should be concerned because if the result is incorrect, hence it will not exactly same like the original shape of the object. Therefore, suitable methods should be chosen based on the data used. Soft computing methods also have been used in the reconstruction field. This papers highlights the previous researches and methods that has been used in the surface reconstruction field.     

Object Bank: An Object-Level Image Representation for High-Level Visual Recognition

It is a remarkable fact that images are related to objects constituting them. In this paper, we propose to represent images by using objects appearing in them. We introduce the novel concept of object bank (OB), a high-level image representation encoding object appearance and spatial location information in images. OB represents an image based on its response to a large number of pre-trained object detectors, or ‘object filters’, blind to the testing dataset and visual recognition task. Our OB representation demonstrates promising potential in high level image recognition tasks. It significantly outperforms traditional low level image representations in image classification on various benchmark image datasets by using simple, off-the-shelf classification algorithms such as linear SVM and logistic regression. In this paper, we analyze OB in detail, explaining our design choice of OB for achieving its best potential on different types of datasets. We demonstrate that object bank is a high level representation, from which we can easily discover semantic information of unknown images. We provide guidelines for effectively applying OB to high level image recognition tasks where it could be easily compressed for efficient computation in practice and is very robust to various classifiers.     

A memetic algorithm for the capacitated m-ring-star problem

The Capacitated m-Ring-Star Problem (CmRSP) models a network topology design problem in the telecommunications industry. In this paper, we propose to solve this problem using a memetic algorithm that includes a crossover operation, a mutation operation, a local search involving three neighborhood operators, and a population selection strategy that maintains population diversity. Our approach generates the best known solutions for 131 out of 138 benchmark instances, improving on the previous best solutions for 24 of them, and exhibits more advantages on large benchmark instances when compared with the best existing approach. Additionally, all existing algorithms for this problem in literature assume that the underlying graph of the problem instance satisfies the triangle inequality rule; our approach does not require this assumption. We also generated a new set of 36 larger test instances based on a digital data service network price structure to serve as a new benchmark data set for future researchers.     

Domain ontology graph model and its application in Chinese text classification

This paper proposes an ontology learning method which is used to generate a graphical ontology structure called ontology graph. The ontology graph defines the ontology and knowledge conceptualization model, and the ontology learning process defines the method of semiautomatic learning and generates ontology graphs from Chinese texts of different domains, the so-called domain ontology graph (DOG). Meanwhile, we also define two other ontological operations—document ontology graph generation and ontology graph-based text classification, which can be carried out with the generated DOG. This research focuses on Chinese text data, and furthermore, we conduct two experiments: the DOG generation and ontology graph-based text classification, with Chinese texts as the experimental data. The first experiment generates ten DOGs as the ontology graph instances to represent ten different domains of knowledge. The generated DOGs are then further used for the second experiment to provide performance evaluation. The ontology graph-based approach is able to achieve high text classification accuracy (with 92.3 % in f-measure) over other text classification approaches (such as 86.8 % in f-measure for tf–idf approach). The better performance in the comparative experiments reveals that the proposed ontology graph knowledge model, the ontology learning and generation process, and the ontological operations are feasible and effective.     

Effects of poly(acrylic acid) and poly(ethylene oxide) adsorption on the stability of alumina suspension

The effect of adsorbed polymer on the stability of alumina suspension was investigated. Poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and similar kinds of polymer salts were used as a dispersant. The amount of polymer adsorbed on alumina surface and the suspension stability was measured. The pH, molecular weight, and concentration were considered as experimental parameters. PEO shows low affinity on the alumina surface while PAA has high affinity. In the case of PAA adsorption, the surface charge change by polymer adsorption influences suspension stability strongly, but not in the case of PEO adsorption. In simultaneous adsorption of PEO and PAA, the PAA concentration was fixed and PEO concentration was varied. The stability of suspension increased with increasing PEO concentration, and this is partly due to the steric stabilization by adsorption of PAA-PEO complex or adsorption of PEO through pre-adsorbed PAA and the depletion effect of non-adsorbed polymer. Suspension adsorbing sodium salts of PAA and poly(methacrylic acid) (PMA) each showed similar stability. But, when the PEO and these kinds of salts were added together to the suspension, the one with PAA sodium salt could keep a higher stability even with lower molecular weights of PEO compared with suspension with PMA sodium salt.     

Modeling of rotational molding process: Multi‐layer slip‐flow model,phase‐change,and warpage

A new multilayer slip‐flow model has been developed to simplify and to overcome current numerical difficulties of two‐dimensional model in predicting the internal air temperature inside a mold during a rotational molding process. The proposed methodology considers a macroscopic “layer‐by‐layer” deposition of a heating polymer bed onto the inner mold surface. A semi‐implicit approach is introduced and applied to compute the complex thermal interactions between the internal air and its surroundings. In the model, the lumped‐parameter system and the coincident node technique are incorporated with the Galerkin finite element model to address the internal air and the deposition of molten polymer beds, respectively. The simple phase‐change algorithm has been proposed to improve the computational cost, numerical nonlinearity, and predicted results. The thermal aspects of the inherent warpage are explored to study its correlation to the weak apparent crystallization‐induced plateau in the temperature profile of the internal air, as in practice. The overall predicted results are in favor with the available experimental data for rotomolded parts of cross‐sectional thicknesses up to 12 mm. POLYM. ENG. SCI. 46:960–969, 2006. © 2006 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Feasibility of Sludge Ozonation for Stabilization and Conditioning

A pilot-scale sludge treatment plant was built to investigate the feasibility of ozonation processes for waste activated sludge treatment. Ozonation of wastewater sludge resulted in mass reduction by mineralization as well as by supernatant and filtrate recycle. Another advantage of sludge ozonation is a significant improvement of settleability and dewaterability. Experimental results showed that mass reduction of 70% and volume reduction of 85% compared with the control sludge was achieved through the sludge ozonation at a dose of 0.5?gO₃/gDS. It is also interesting to note that the filterability deteriorates up to ozone dose of 0.2?gO₃/gDS and then improves considerably at a higher ozone dose. The filterability could be improved by chemical conditioning even at a low ozone dose. The economic feasibility by cost analysis reveals that ozonation processes can be more economical than other alternative processes for sludge treatment and disposal at small-sized wastewater treatment plants.     

Polymerization of styrene in a continuous filled tubular reactor

Free radical solution polymerization of styrene has been studied using a binary mixture of symmetrical bifunctional initiators in a filled tubular reactor packed with static mixers. Owing to intensive radial mixing induced by the static mixers, a near plug flow pattern was obtained in the reactor with some axial dispersion effect. The axial mass dispersion coefficient was determined from the residence time distribution experiment and a dynamic axial dispersion model has been developed and solved to investigate steady state and transient behavior of the filled tubular reactor. With a solvent volume fraction of 0.3, the monomer conversion up to 70% was obtained without fouling problems in the temperature range 90 to 120°C. The experimental filled tubular reactor was operated under various reaction conditions and a reasonably good agreement between the model and the experimental data was obtained without using any adjustable parameters.     

Low‐temperature photoinitiation solution polymerization behavior of N‐vinylcarbazole in tetrahydrofuran

N‐Vinylcarbazole (VCZ) was solution‐polymerized in tetrahydrofuran (THF) at ?20, 0, and 20°C using the photoinitiation method; the effects of the amount of solvent, polymerization temperature, and photoinitiator concentration were investigated. On the whole, the experimental results corresponded to predicted ones. Low polymerization temperature using photoinitiation proved to be successful in obtaining poly(N‐vinylcarbazole) (PVCZ) of a high molecular weight with a smaller temperature rise during polymerization; nevertheless of free radical polymerization by 2,2′‐azobis(2,4‐dimethylvaleronitrile) (ADMVN). The photo‐solution polymerization rate of VCZ in THF was proportional to the 0.47 power of ADMVN concentration. The molecular weight was higher and the molecular weight distribution was narrower with PVCZ polymerized at lower temperatures. For PVCZ prepared in THF at ?20°C using a photoinitiator concentration of 0.00005 mol/mol of VCZ, a weight‐average molecular weight of 510,000 was obtained, with a polydispersity index of 1.73, and a degree of lightness converged to about 99%. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 3667–3672, 2002