Non‐intrusive characterization of particle size changes in fluidized beds using recurrence plots

An on‐line method is developed for monitoring of mean particle size in fluidized beds using pressure fluctuations (PFs) and acoustic emissions (AE) signal by recurrence plot (RP) and recurrence quantification analysis (RQA). PFs and AE signals of a lab‐scale fluidized bed were measured simultaneously at various superficial gas velocities and mean particle sizes. Although the AE signals are often very complicated due to many different acoustic sources in the bed, applying RP analyses showed that small changes in mean particle size can be detected by visual comparison of AE‐RP structures, while this cannot be distinguished by graphical RP analysis of PFs. Moreover, the hydrodynamics of the bed was inspected through RQA analysis of both signals. For this purpose, recurrence rate, determinism, laminarity, average length of diagonal and vertical lines were extracted from RPs showing the effect of an increase in the mean particle size. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 62: 3547–3561, 2016     

Equivalent linear model for fully self‐centering earthquake‐resisting systems

Modern rocking and stepping cores have been known as the efficient self‐centering earthquake‐resisting systems (SC‐ERSs). The current article proposes an approximate equivalent linear (EL) model for rapid estimation of the SC‐ERS displacement. An equivalent damping ratio and effective stiffness are formulated for flag‐shaped hysteresis of a fully SC‐ERS. The approximate EL model is first established using secant stiffness and Jacobsen's damping model. Nonlinear response history analyses are carried out to compare exact and approximated peak displacements. Findings reveal that EL analysis of the SC‐ERS based on Jacobsen's damping leads to underestimation of the maximum inelastic displacement. Accordingly, a new optimal damping formula is proposed using a genetic algorithm and nonlinear regression analyses. The improved EL model is validated by practical examples, and the results show acceptable accuracy in design‐level displacement estimation.     

Effect of Temperature on Fluidization Regimes

The probability of fluidization regimes at high temperature was determined experimentally by frequency domain analysis of pressure fluctuations. Fluidization regime probabilities were calculated for various gas velocities and temperatures. By increasing the temperature, larger bubbles became more stable which resulted in postponing transition from bubbling to turbulent fluidization. Results showed that the transition velocity from bubbling to turbulent increases by raising the temperature. A probability model was proposed and compared with experimental data indicating good accordance.     

Comparison and evaluation of dust detection algorithms using MODIS Aqua/Terra Level 1B data and MODIS/OMI dust products in the Middle East

Dust storms have a major impact on air quality, economic loss, and human health over large regions of the Middle East. Because of the broad extent of dust storms and also political–security issues in this region, satellite data are an important source of dust detection and mapping. The aim of this study was to compare and evaluate the performance of five main dust detection algorithms, including Ackerman, Miller, normalized difference dust index (NDDI), Roskovensky and Liou, and thermal-infrared dust index (TDI), using MODIS Level 1B and also MODIS Deep Blue AOD and OMI AI products in two dust events originating from Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Overall, results showed that the performance of the algorithms varied from event to event and it was not possible to use the published dust/no-dust thresholds for the algorithms tested in the study area. The MODIS AOD and OMI AI products were very effective for initial dust detection and the AOD and AI images correlated highly with the dust images at provincial scale (p-value <0.001), but the application of these products was limited at local scale due to their poor spatial resolution. Results also indicated that algorithms based on MODIS thermal infrared (TIR) bands or a combination of TIR and reflectance bands were better indicators of dust than reflectance-based ones. Among the TIR- based algorithms, TDI performed the best over water surfaces and dust sources, and accounted for approximately 93% and 90% of variations in the AOD and OMI AI data.     

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF FLOW OVER TWO SIDE-BY-SIDE CIRCULAR CYLINDERS

In the present paper, the unsteady, viscous, incompressible and 2-D flow around two side-by-side circular cylinders was simulated using a Cartesian-staggered grid finite volume based method. A great-source term technique was employed to identify the solid bodies (cylinders) located in the flow field and boundary conditions were enforced by applying the ghost-cell technique. Finally, the characteristics of the flow around two side-by-side cylinders were comprehensively obtained through several computational simulations. The computational simulations were performed for different transverse gap ratios (1.5≤T/D≤4) in laminar (Re=100,200) and turbulent (Re=104) regimes, where T and D are the distance between the centers of cylinders and the diameter of cylinders, respectively. The Reynolds number is based on the diameter of cylinders,D. The pressure field and vorticity distributions along with the associated streamlines and the time histories of hydrodynamic forces were also calculated and analyzed for different gap ratios. Generally, different flow patterns were observed as the gap ratio and Reynolds number varied. Accordingly, the hydrodynamic forces showed irregular variations for small gaps while they took a regular pattern at higher spacing ratios.     

Penetration Depth in Nanoparticles Incorporated Radiofrequency Hyperthermia into the Tissue: Comprehensive Study with Histology and Pathology Observations

In present study, the effective penetration of radiofrequency (RF) induced gold decorated iron oxide nanoparticles (GS@IONPs) hyperthermia was investigated. The effective penetration depth of RF also the damage potency of hyperthermia was evaluated during histopathology observations which were done on the chicken breast tissue and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) models. The thermal damages are well‐ documented in our previous cellular study which was engaged with potency of RF hyperthermia in Epithelial adenocarcinoma (MCF‐7) and fibroblast (L‐929) cells deaths [1]. In recent work, PEGylated iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) were used as base platform for gold magnetic nanoparticles (GS@IONPs) formation. The 144.00015 MHz, 180W RF generator was applied for stimulating the nanoparticles. The chicken breast tissue and the hepatocellular tumor model was considered in the experimental section. In histology studies, the structural changes also the effective penetration depth of RF induced nanoparticles was observed through microscopic monitoring of the tissue slices in histology observations (Gazi medical school). The highest damage level was seen in 8.0 µm tissue slices where lower damages were seen in depth of 1.0 cm and more inside tissue. The histology observations clarified the effective penetration depth of RF waves and irreversible damages in the 2.0 cm inside the tissue.Inspec keywords: nanomedicine, tumours, biomedical materials, cellular biophysics, nanoparticles, gold, cancer, hyperthermia, magnetic particles, iron compounds, radiation therapyOther keywords: Au‐Fe₃ O₄ , depth 1.0 cm, depth 8.0 mum, power 180.0 W, size 2.0 cm, frequency 144.00015 MHz, microscopic monitoring, structural changes, hepatocellular tumour model, standing wave ratio, propylene glycol, thermal damages, hepatocellular carcinoma models, radiofrequency hyperthermia, nanoparticle dispersion, tissue alterations, modified tissues, gold shell magnetic nanoparticles, chicken breast tissue, gold‐coated iron oxide nanoparticles, pathology observations, effective penetration depth, histology observations, tissue slices     

A two-phase linear programming methodology for fuzzy multi-objective mixed-model assembly line problem

We develop a fuzzy multi-objective linear programming (FMOLP) model for solving multi-objective mixed-model assembly line problem. In practice, vagueness and imprecision of the goals in this problem make the fuzzy decision-making complicated. The proposed model considers minimizing total utility work, total production rate variation, and total setup cost, using a two-phase linear programming approach. In the first phase, the problem is solved using a max–min approach. The max–min solution not being efficient, in general, we propose a new model in the second phase to maximize a composite satisfaction degree at least as good as the degrees obtained by phase one. To show the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a numerical example is solved and the results are compared with the ones obtained by the fuzzy mixed integer goal programming and weighted additive methods. The computational results show that the proposed FMOLP model achieves lower objective functions as well as higher satisfaction degrees.     

Hydrodynamic characteristics of gas–solid fluidization at high temperature

Effect of temperature on the hydrodynamics of bubbling gas–solid fluidized beds was investigated in this work. Experiments were carried out at different temperatures ranged of 25–600°C and different superficial gas velocities in the range of 0.17–0.78 m/s with sand particles. The time‐position trajectory of particles was obtained by the radioactive particle tracking technique at elevated temperature. These data were used for determination of some hydrodynamic parameters (mean velocity of upward and downward‐moving particles, jump frequency, cycle frequency, and axial/radial diffusivities) which are representative to solids mixing through the bed. It was shown that solids mixing and diffusivity of particles increases by increasing temperature up to around 300°C. However, these parameters decrease by further increasing the temperature to higher than 300°C. This could be attributed to the properties of bubble and emulsion phases. Results of this study indicated that the bubbles grow up to a maximum diameter by increasing the temperature up to 300°C, after which the bubbles become smaller. The results showed that due to the wall effect, there is no significant change in the mean velocity of downward‐moving clusters. In order to explain these trends, surface tension of emulsion between the rising bubble and the emulsion phase was introduced and evaluated in the bubbling fluidized bed. The results showed that surface tension between bubble and emulsion is increased by increasing temperature up to 300°C, however, after that it acts in oppositely.     

Experimental flame speed in multi-layered nano-energetic materials

This paper deals with the reaction of dense Metastable Intermolecular Composite (MIC) materials, which have a higher density than conventional energetic materials. The reaction of a multilayer thin film of aluminum and copper oxide has been studied by varying the substrate material and thicknesses. The in-plane speed of propagation of the reaction was experimentally determined using a time of- flight technique. The experiment shows that the reaction is completely quenched for a silicon substrate having an intervening silica layer of less than 200 nm. The speed of reaction seems to be constant at 40 m/s for silica layers with a thickness greater than 1 μm. Different substrate materials such as glass and photoresist were also used.