Disinfection of dairy wastewater effluent through solar photocatalysis processes

Due to the strict regulations and reuse policies that govern wastewater's use as an irrigation water resource for agricultural purposes, especially in dry climates, optimization of the disinfection process is of the utmost importance. The effects of solar radiation along with Titanium dioxide(TiO_2) nanoparticles applied to optimization of the photolysis and photocatalysis processes for inactivating heterotrophic bacteria were investigated. Temperature, p H, and dissolved oxygen fluctuations in the dairy wastewater effluent treated by activated sludge were examined. In addition,different dosages of TiO_2 were tested in the solar photocatalysis(ph-C S) and concentrated solar photocatalysis(ph-C CS) processes. The results show that the disinfection efficiencies of the solar photolysis(ph-L S) and concentrated solar photolysis(ph-L CS) processes after 30 min were about 10.5% and 68.9%, respectively, and that the ph-C S and ph-C CS processes inactivated 41% and 97% of the heterotrophic bacteria after 30 min, respectively. The p H variation in these processes was negligible. Using the ph-L CS and ph-C CS processes, the synergistic effect between the optical and thermal inactivation caused complete disinfection after three hours. However, disinfection was faster in the ph-C CS process than in the ph-L CS process. Significant correlations were found between the disinfection efficiency and the variation of the dissolved oxygen concentration in the ph-C S and ph-C CS processes, while the correlations between the disinfection efficiency and temperature variation were not significant in the ph-L S and ph-C S processes. Moreover, the oxygen consumption rate was greatest(3.2 mg··L~(-1)) in the ph-C CS process. Hence,it could be concluded that the ph-C CS process is an efficient photocatalysis process for disinfection of dairy wastewater effluent.     

Mathematical modelling of wustite pellet reduction: grain model in comparison with USCM

A mathematical time-dependent and non-isothermal model has been carried out on the basis of the grain model to study the behaviour of a wustite pellet undergoing chemical reactions with reducing gases. The behaviour of wustite pellet reduction analysed by the grain model has been compared with unreacted shrinking core model (USCM). The results show, unlike the grain model, USCM cannot properly predict the impact of gas mixture parameters and pellet characteristics on the local reduction degree. The results also display that when the grain diameter, temperature and tortuosity increase, the diffusivity resistance in the pellet increases which causes more heterogeneous reduction. However, an increment in porosity causes gases to easily diffuse in the pellet and as a result a less heterogeneous reduction will occur.     

Hot fluid induced temperature-dependent vibration and instability of embedded FG-CNTRC Reddy pipes

In this paper, nonlinear vibration and instability of embedded nano-composite temperature-dependent polymeric pipes conveying hot viscous fluid are investigated. The pipe is reinforced by Single-Walled Carbon NanoTubes (SWCNTs) with Uniform Distribution (UD) and three types of Functionally Graded (FG) distribution patterns. The FG-carbon nanotube reinforced composite (FG-CNTRC) pipe is located in an orthotropic temperature-dependent visco-elastomeric medium. Reddy higher-order shear deformation theory is employed to establish the governing equations. The frequency and critical fluid velocity of the structure are calculated using Differential Quadrature Method (DQM). The effects of different parameters on the nonlinear vibration and instability of the pipe are investigated.     

The impacts of standard wall function and drag model on the turbulent modelling of gas–particle flow in a circulating fluidised bed riser

A transient turbulence model was applied to simulate the gas–particle system in a circulating fluidised bed riser. The k–epsilon turbulent equations coupled with the fluctuating energy equation were used to simulate the gas–particle system in a riser. The simulation results were validated by the experimental data of a CFB system. A grid study was implemented to examine the impact of grid discretisation. A comparison between the conventional drag models and the EMMS model was also conducted. Other factors, like the restitution coefficient particle to particle, was also found to have a significant impact on the turbulence model. © 2013 Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering     

Impact of loop-back interference and channel estimation errors on full-duplex relay networks

This paper investigates the rate performance of full-duplex (FD) relay systems under the effect of channel estimation error and residual loop-back interference. The study considers both one-way and two-way amplify and forward (AF) relaying schemes. Power allocation techniques, applied at the sources and the relay, are proposed and shown to be effective that leads to near optimal solution. Comparison between the half-duplex (HD) and FD systems using optimum power allocation are made. Also, the impact of channel estimation error and loop-back interference on the rate of FD transmission are compared. It is shown that the destructive effect of loop-back interference dominates the effect of channel estimation error. Finally, assuming a bidirectional network, the performance of two-way analog network coding (ANC) scheme is compared to the plan of using two one-way AF relaying connections. The results show that it is better to use FD ANC for low transmission power and HD one for high power than using two one-way relaying schemes.     

Posttraumatic Inflammation as a Key to Neuroregeneration after Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

Pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines might have a large impact on the secondary phase and on the neurological outcome of patients with acute spinal cord injury (SCI). We measured the serum levels of different cytokines (Interferon-γ, Tumor Necrosis Factor-α, Interleukin-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor) over a 12-week period in 40 acute traumatic SCI patients: at admission on average one hour after initial trauma; at four, nine, 12, and 24 h; Three, and seven days after admission; and two, four, eight, and twelve weeks after admission. This was done using a Luminex Performance Human High Sensitivity Cytokine Panel. SCI was classified using the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale (AIS) at time of admission and after 12 weeks. TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and IL-10 concentrations were significantly higher in patients without neurological remission and in patients with an initial AIS A (p < 0.05). This study shows significant differences in cytokine concentrations shown in traumatic SCI patients with different neurological impairments and within a 12-week period. IL-8 and IL-10 are potential peripheral markers for neurological remission and rehabilitation after traumatic SCI. Furthermore our cytokine expression pattern of the acute, subacute, and intermediate phase of SCI establishes a possible basis for future studies to develop standardized monitoring, prognostic, and tracking techniques.     

A filter-independent model identification technique for turbulent combustion modeling

In this paper, we address a method to reduce the number of species equations that must be solved via application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). This technique provides a robust methodology to reduce the number of species equations by identifying correlations in state-space and defining new variables that are linear combinations of the original variables. We show that applying this technique in the context of Large Eddy Simulation allows for a mapping between the reduced variables and the full set of variables that is insensitive to the size of filter used. This is notable since it provides a model to map state variables to progress variables that is a closed model.As a linear transformation, PCA allows us to derive transport equations for the principal components, which have source terms. These source terms must be parameterized by the reduced set of principal components themselves. We present results from a priori studies to show the strengths and weaknesses of such a modeling approach. Results suggest that the PCA-based model can identify manifolds that exist in state space which are insensitive to filtering, suggesting that the model is directly applicable for use in Large Eddy Simulation. However, the resulting source terms are not parameterized with an accuracy as high as the state variables.     

Estimation of instantaneous air temperature using remote sensing data

In arid areas, the variation of air temperature can be considerable, so instantaneous air temperature (T_ai) estimation is needed in different environmental researches. In this research, two different remote sensing data are used for estimating T_ai for clear sky days in 2009 in Fars Province, Iran, including atmospheric temperature profile and land surface temperature (LST) data from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. The T_ai from a number of surface weather sites is used to judge the best T_ai estimation. Stations’ elevation, latitude, and land cover type are considered to show their effect on T_ai estimation. The estimated T_ai evaluation focuses on daily and seasonal timescales in the daytime and night time separately. Both LST and vertical temperature profile data produced relatively high coefficient of determination values and small root mean square error value for T_ai estimation, especially during the night time. Land cover and elevation vary the error values in T_ai estimation more, when LST data is used. In comparison atmospheric temperature profile indicates a smaller error in T_ai estimation in spring and summer and in urban land cover type, while using LST data presents a better result in fall and winter especially at night time.     

Taguchi sensitivity analysis of damage parameters for predicting the damage Mechanism of 9Cr steel under low‐cycle fatigue test

Numerical investigations of low‐cycle fatigue damage parameters of a 9Cr steel have been studied and compared with the previous results in order to understand the effect of the damage parameters on predicting the damage development of the material. Using the nonlinear kinematic softening criterion, the Chaboche constitutive equation is combined with the hysteresis total stress–strain energy concept to implement damage initiation and evolution; the remaining life of the specimen can be predicted. In this paper, the cyclic softening model in conjunction with the progressive damage evolution model successfully predicted the failure times of the experimental tests. By using a novel sensitivity analysis of the damage parameters c₁, c₂, c₃ and c₄ based on the Taguchi method, the highest parameter effect has been determined.