Numerical Simulation and Experiment on the Transport of Fine Particles in a Ventilated Room

ABSTRACT

The change in concentration distribution of particulate contaminants emitted in a room was studied experimentally and theoretically to investigate whether the transport of contaminants in a room with a source of particles can be predicted by numerical simulation. Tracer contaminants, monodisperse latex particles, were introduced into a 3.3 m ×2.7 m ×2 m room with clean air for a given time, and the change in the contaminant concentrations with time was measured at various positions in the room. Calculations of the spatial and temporal distributions in the gas velocity and contaminant concentration were performed to predict the concentration change, with the Navier-Stokes and convection-diffusion equations solved numerically. The experimental results showed that the concentration distribution depends on the position of introduction of the contaminants. It was also indicated that the contaminants introduced near the room floor diffuse more than predicted. However, the calculated concentrations agreed almost quantitatively with the measured results, except near the floor and walls. The change in the concentration with time and the dependence of the concentration distribution on the position of the particle source were well reproduced by the calculation.     

Super low-noise HEMTs with a T-shaped WSix gate

A T-shaped quarter-micron gate structure composed of WSi_x /Ti/Pt/Au has been developed for low-noise AlGaAs/GaAs HEMTs. The gate resistance R_g was reduced to 0.3 Ω for devices with 200 μm-wide gates despite using WSi_x, and the source resistance R_s reached 0.28 Ω mm by minimising the source-gate distance using a self-alignment technique. This HEMT exhibited the lowest reported noise figure of 0.54 dB with an associated gain of 12.1 dB at 12 GHz     

Isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry for determination of 126Sn content in spent nuclear fuel sample

The ¹²⁶Sn content in a spent nuclear fuel solution was determined by isotope dilution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ID-ICP-MS) for its inventory estimation in high-level radioactive waste. A well-characterized irradiated UO₂ fuel sample dissolved in a hot cell was used as a sample to evaluate the reliability of the methodology. Prior to the ICP-MS measurement, Sn was separated from Te (¹²⁶Te), which causes major isobaric interference in the determination of ¹²⁶Sn content, along with highly radioactive coexisting elements, such as Sr (⁹⁰Sr), Y (⁹⁰Y), Cs (¹³⁷Cs) and Ba (^137m Ba), using an anion-exchange column. The absence of counts attributed to Te at m/z = 125, 128, and 130 in the Sn-containing effluent (Sn fraction) indicates that Te was completely removed from the anion-exchange column. After washing, Sn retained on the column was readily eluted with 1 M HNO₃ accompanied with approximately 80% of the Cd and 0.03% of the U in the initial sample. Owing to the presences of Cd and U in Sn fraction, the measurements of ¹¹⁶Sn and ¹¹⁹Sn were affected by the isobaric ¹¹⁶Cd and the doubly charged ²³⁸U²⁺ion, resulting in the positive bias of the determined values. With the exception of the isotopic ratios including ¹¹⁶Sn and ¹¹⁹Sn, ¹¹⁷Sn/¹²⁶Sn, ¹¹⁸Sn/¹²⁶Sn, ¹²⁰Sn/¹²⁶Sn, ¹²²Sn/¹²⁶Sn and ¹²⁴Sn/¹²⁶Sn were successfully determined and showed good agreement with those obtained through ORIGEN2 calculations. The measured concentration of ¹²⁶Sn in the spent nuclear fuel sample solution was 0.74 ± 0.14 ng/g, which corresponds to 23.0 ± 4.5 ng per gram of the irradiated UO₂ fuel (excluding the presence of ¹²⁶Sn in the insoluble residue). The results reported in this paper are the first experimental values of ¹²⁶Sn content and isotope ratios in the spent nuclear fuel solution originating in spent nuclear fuel irradiated at a nuclear power plant in Japan.     

High-speed InGaAlAs/InAlAs multiple quantum well optical modulatorswith bandwidths in excess of 20 GHz at 1.55 μm

The modulator has a large on/off ratio, a low driving voltage (4 V), and operates in the 1.55-μm wavelength region. Small device capacitance (0.2 pF) has been obtained by using spin-coated polyimides under the bonding pads, and small stray capacitance (0.07 pF) and bonding wide inductance (0.3 nH) have been realized. The modulator requires the lowest power yet reported for a high-frequency-operation external modulator     

Modelling of Non-Darcy Flows through Porous Media Using Extended Incompressible Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

In this article, a novel numerical method is presented for the simulation of non-Darcy flows through porous media by the incompressible smooth particle hydrodynamics (ISPH) method with a predictor-corrector scheme. In the ISPH algorithm, a semi-implicit velocity-correction procedure is used and the pressure is obtained by solving the pressure Poisson equation. The key point for the application to non-Darcy flows is to include porosity and drag forces of the medium (the Darcy term and the Forcheimer term) in the ISPH method. Unsteady lid-driven flow, natural convection in non-Darcy porous cavities, and natural convection at a porous medium–fluid interface are examined separately by our extended ISPH method. The results are presented with flow configurations, isotherms, and average Nusselt numbers for different Darcy numbers from 10^?4 to 10^?2, porosity values from 0.4 to 0.9, and Reynolds/Rayleigh numbers. The flow pattern and rate of heat transfer inside the cavity are affected by these parameters. The results demonstrate the important effect of the Darcy number on both the heat transfer rate and the flow regime. The results from this investigation are well validated and compare favorably with previously published results.     

Prediction of acoustic absorption performance of a perforated plate with air jets

The present study focuses on the prediction of acoustic absorption performance of a perforated plate with air jets by theoretical calculations.In addition,we experimentally measured the flow rate,internal pressure,acoustic pressure,and transfer function using an acoustic impedance tube.The normal incidence absorption coefficient was calculated from the measured transfer function using transfer function methods.We investigated the influences of background air space,flow velocity,thickness,aperture rate,and aperture diameter of a perforated plate on the acoustic absorption characteristics.The frequency characteristics of the acoustic absorption coefficient showed a maximum value at a local frequency.As the background air space increased,the peak frequency of acoustic absorption characteristics decreased.As the flow velocity passing through the apertures increased,the peak level of the acoustic absorption coefficient also increased.The theoretical results agreed well with the experimental ones qualitatively.