Flame Retardance and Smoke Suppression of Poly(vinyl chloride) Using Multicomponent Systems

Metal-based organic complexes (MBO) are a class of FRSS additives that comprise a transition metal and an organic ligand that cleaves at an elevated temperature thereby releasing the metal in a reactive state. They help in the formation of char and thus act as an effective smoke suppressant. Use of MBO complexes as flame retardant smoke suppressants, phosphate ester as a flame retardant and active filler as endothermic material is reported here as multicomponent FRSS systems. MBOs used in the present study are the chelates of pentanediono. They were used alone as well as in combination with aluminum trihydrate (ATH) as filler were used to impart flame retardancy and smoke suppression to poly vinylchloride. Their performance was measured in terms of flammability, smoke generation, char formation and evolution of combustion gases. MBOs of molybdenum and chromium were found to be very efficient flame retardant smoke suppressants.     

Phenomena of reverse momentum pulse and fluid leak after poison injection in the shut down system of PHWR

The primary function of the shut down system in a nuclear reactor is to terminate any reactivity transient occurring in the core during its entire design life. Normally there is more than one system, which are independent and diverse in its mode of operation. They consist of quick acting mechanisms like dropping of safety rods by gravity, poison injection, etc. Typically in liquid poison injection system wherein high flow velocities are involved, there is significant fluid structure interaction associated with cyclic shock transients in the system. One such phenomenon has been captured and analyzed to understand the dynamics involved in the loop. The trends of loop pressure and vibration indicated presence of more than two pressure transients after complete injection of poison. The first transient arrived after 1.44 s and the second after 0.75 s. The reverse pressure pulses that manifested in the loop as a result of fast injection of fluid has been mathematically characterized by solving basic fluid balance equations. Possibility of ball lifting due to momentum pulse is also discussed.     

Rapid Quantification of Low-Viscosity Acetyl-Triacylglycerols Using Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry

Acetyl‐triacylglycerols (acetyl‐TAG) possess an sn‐3 acetate group, which confers useful chemical and physical properties to these unusual triacylglycerols (TAG). Current methods for quantification of acetyl‐TAG are time consuming and do not provide any information on the molecular species profile. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI–MS)‐based methods can overcome these drawbacks. However, the ESI–MS signal intensity for TAG depends on the aliphatic chain length and unsaturation index of the molecule. Therefore response factors for different molecular species need to be determined before any quantification. The effects of the chain length and the number of double‐bonds of the sn‐1/2 acyl groups on the signal intensity for the neutral loss of short chain length sn‐3 groups were quantified using a series of synthesized sn‐3 specific structured TAG. The signal intensity for the neutral loss of the sn‐3 acyl group was found to negatively correlated with the aliphatic chain length and unsaturation index of the sn‐1/2 acyl groups. The signal intensity of the neutral loss of the sn‐3 acyl group was also negatively correlated with the size of that chain. Further, the position of the group undergoing neutral loss was also important, with the signal from an sn‐2 acyl group much lower than that from one located at sn‐3. Response factors obtained from these analyses were used to develop a method for the absolute quantification of acetyl‐TAG. The increased sensitivity of this ESI–MS‐based approach allowed successful quantification of acetyl‐TAG in various biological settings, including the products of in vitro enzyme activity assays.     

Antimicrobial and SEM Studies of Sophorolipids Synthesized Using Lauryl Alcohol

In recent years, researchers have developed biosurfactants for industrial, pharmaceutical and medical applications revealing the promising biological activities of these biomolecules. One of the best studied microbial surfactants are glycolipids, especially sophorolipids (SLs) produced by selected non-pathogenic yeast species of Candida. They are biodegradable, non-toxic and are environmentally friendly. Sophorolipid production was carried out using glucose as the hydrophilic source and lauryl alcohol C_12–14, as the hydrophobic source using Candida bombicola ATCC 22214. Primary characterization of the SL obtained using lauryl alcohol (SLLA) was done by FTIR which depicted the presence of alkyl sophorosides/SLs. Antimicrobial activity testing revealed that SLLA showed complete inhibition against gram negative bacteria, Escherichia coli (ATCC 8739) Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027) at 30 and 1 μg/ml at a contact time of 2 and 4 h respectively. Whereas for gram positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6358), Bacillus subtilis (ATCC 6633), complete inhibition was observed at 6 and 1 μg/ml respectively at a contact time of 4 h. The formed SLLA showed noteworthy inhibition against the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans (ATCC 2091) at 50 μg/ml with a contact time of 4 h. These values are remarkably low compared to reported values of oleic acid SLs and linolenic acid SLs which were studied for antimicrobial properties. Scanning electron microscopy analysis of the treated cells revealed the changes in morphology and topography of the microorganisms.     

Morphology controlled synthesis of polyaniline nanostructures using swollen liquid crystal templates

Preparation of zero‐dimensional and one‐dimensional nanostructures of polyaniline (PANI) were achieved by using swollen liquid crystals (SLCs) as ‘soft' templates. The monomer (aniline) was first entrapped in SLCs by replacing the oil phase (cyclohexane) with a mixture of aniline and cyclohexane. Zero‐dimensional nanostructures of PANI were obtained by thorough mixing of APS with the mesophases. One‐dimensional nanostructures were prepared by allowing slow diffusion of APS through the mesophase. PANI nanostructures were extracted from the mesophase and were characterized by UV‐visible spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, powder X‐ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and conductivity measurements. A plausible mechanism for the formation of the nanostructures has been proposed. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40800.     

Relations and functions in multiset context

A multiset is a collection of objects in which repetition of elements is significant. In this paper an attempt is made to generalize the concepts of relation, function, composition and equivalence in the multiset context. As a pre-requisite a brief survey of the axiomatic approach to the multiset theory is also presented.     

Dynamic Loads in the Fan Containment Structure of a Turbofan Engine

In accordance with the FAA certification requirements, all modern commercial turbofan engines must successfully demonstrate its ability to withstand a fan blade-out (FBO) event through actual test. Possibility of losing a rotating fan blade from a running engine is a flight safety consideration, which must be addressed during the design phase of the engine. A typical fan blade-out event involves very complex nonlinear transient dynamics with large deflection of the release blade and rigid body rotation of the trailing blade as well as progressive failure and fragmentation of various components. Due to the nature of the impact type loading, the solution to the problem should also address dependence of the material behavior such as yield strength as a function of strain rates. In short, the transient dynamic analysis of a fan blade-out event highlights the complexity of the numerical technique, which includes all the nonlinearities of structural dynamics: plastic behavior of the materials, large displacements, and contact interaction between structural elements. In this paper, we present the results of a LS-DYNA simulation of a FBO event on a full-engine analytical model, which covers both the primary as well as secondary damages.