Preparation and characterization of polyurethane microcapsules containing n‐octadecane with styrene‐maleic anhydride as a surfactant by interfacial polycondensation

A series of polyurethane microcapsules containing a phase change material (PCM) of n‐octadecane was successfully synthesized by an interfacial polymerization in aqueous styrene‐maleic anhydride (SMA) dispersion with diethylene triamine (DETA) as a chain extender reacting with toluene‐2,4‐diisocyanate (TDI). The average diameter of microPCMs is in the range of 5–10 μm under the stirring speed of 3000–4000 rpm. Optical and SEM morphologies of microPCMs had ensured that the shell was regularly fabricated with the influence of SMA. FTIR results confirmed that the shell material was polyurethane and the SMA chains associated on core material reacted with TDI forming a part of shell material. The shell thickness was decreasing in the range of 0.31–0.55 μm with the molar ratio of DETA/TDI from 0.84 to 1.35 and the weight of core material increasing from 40 to 80% (wt %). By controlling the weight ratio of PCM as 40, 50, 60, 70, and 80% in microPCMs, it was found using DSC that the T_m and T_c of microPCMs were in the range of 29.8–31.0^oC and 21.1–22.0°C and an obvious phase change had been achieved nearly the same temperature range of that of PCM. The results from release curves of microPCM samples prepared by 1.4, 1.7, and 2.0 g of SMA indicated the release properties were affected by the amount of the dispersant, which attributed to the emulsion effect and shell polymerization structure. The above results suggest that the shell structure of microPCMs can be controlled and the properties of microPCMs determined by shell will perform proper practical usage. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 102: 4996–5006, 2006     

Automation model of sewerage rehabilitation planning.

The major steps of sewerage rehabilitation include inspection of sewerage, assessment of structural conditions, computation of structural condition grades, and determination of rehabilitation methods and materials. Conventionally, sewerage rehabilitation planning relies on experts with professional background that is tedious and time-consuming. This paper proposes an automation model of planning optimal sewerage rehabilitation strategies for the sewer system by integrating image process, clustering technology, optimization, and visualization display. Firstly, image processing techniques, such as wavelet transformation and co-occurrence features extraction, were employed to extract various characteristics of structural failures from CCTV inspection images. Secondly, a classification neural network was established to automatically interpret the structural conditions by comparing the extracted features with the typical failures in a databank. Then, to achieve optimal rehabilitation efficiency, a genetic algorithm was used to determine appropriate rehabilitation methods and substitution materials for the pipe sections with a risk of mal-function and even collapse. Finally, the result from the automation model can be visualized in a geographic information system in which essential information of the sewer system and sewerage rehabilitation plans are graphically displayed. For demonstration, the automation model of optimal sewerage rehabilitation planning was applied to a sewer system in east Taichung, Chinese Taiwan.     

A highly efficient polarized superfluorescent fiber source for fiber-optic gyroscope applications

We demonstrate a novel polarized superfluorescent fiber source (SFS) that increases the output power in the desired polarization by a factor of 1.96 over that of an unpolarized SFS at the same pump. This is achieved by inserting a polarizer at the optimal point in the bidirectionally pumped erbium-doped fiber of an unpolarized SFS. Stable pump-power-dependent mean wavelength operation and less sensitivity to the insertion loss, important for fiber-optic gyroscope applications, are obtained in this configuration.     

Nitride-based flip-chip ITO LEDs

Nitride-based flip-chip indium-tin-oxide (ITO) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were successfully fabricated. It was found that the forward voltage and the 20 mA output power of the flip-chip ITO LED were 3.32 V and 14.5 mW, respectively. Although the operation voltage of such a flip-chip ITO LED was slightly larger, it was found that its output power was much larger than those of conventional nonflip-chip LEDs. It was also found that flip-chip ITO LEDs were more reliable.     

Traffic grooming on WDM rings using optical burst transport

A sublambda traffic-grooming scheme on wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) rings, which is called optical burst transport (OBT), is proposed. The network protocol and architecture allow increased flexibility to tailor the transport network behavior for efficient delivery of bursty data traffic. Using different network parameters, its performance is analyzed via simulation, and the implementation issues including the media-access-control (MAC) protocol, tunable-filter controller, and burst-mode receiver are addressed. Finally, the feasibility of the OBT with an experimental testbed built by the authors is demonstrated and a streaming-video application is used to present its overall functionality.     

短半径水平井铰链式井下动力钻具组合力学模型的建立与分析

铰链式井下动力钻具组合是当前短半径水平钻井中最先进的一种新型工具。本文首先建立了铰接式井下动力钻具组合在二维井身条件下的力学模型并介绍了该模型的求解方法和过程,详细分析了若干结构学数、井身几何参数和钻井工艺参数对钻头侧向力的定量影响,为铰接式井下动力钻具组合的结构设计和短半径水平井轨道控制提供了力学分析基础。     

疏水缔合型聚丙烯酰胺的合成与性能评价

为了提高高相对分子质量的聚丙烯酰胺的抗温抗盐性能,利用自制的两亲表面活性单体与丙烯酰胺共聚合成了疏水缔合型聚丙烯酰胺并进行室内评价。结果表明,在高温、高盐、高钙条件下,合成的疏水缔合型聚丙烯酰胺具有良好的增粘性和较强的热稳定性;克服了疏水缔合型聚合物在盐水中溶解性差的问题,可用各种矿化度的盐水和油田产出污水配制;具有良好的无机盐增粘性能和抗温性能。