Microstructure,Thermal and Mechanical Behavior of 3D Printed Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one of the most popular additive manufacturing techniques for polymers. Despite the numerous works on the printability of various types of polymers, there is a lack in understanding the role of the microstructure on the mechanical performance of printed parts. This work aims at addressing this particular point for the case of a polymer that did not receive much attention, namely acrylonitrile styrene acrylate or ASA. This study emphasizes on the effect of the printing temperature on thermal and mechanical performance of printed ASA using differential scanning calorimetry, infra‐red measurements, mechanical testing, X‐ray micro‐tomography, and finite element computation. The experimental results demonstrate a narrow window of printability of ASA based on the thermal response of this polymer during the laying down process. In addition, both experimental and numerical results show an evident loss in the performance that represents one third of the performance of the raw material. Despite this loss, the limited amount of generated porosity and the level of tensile strength of ASA make it a good choice as a feedstock material for FDM compared to other polymers such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene.     

New Computational Model Based on Finite Element Method to Quantify Damage Evolution Due to External Sulfate Attack on Self‐Compacting Concretes

Abstract: This work combines experimental and numerical investigations to study the mechanical degradation of self‐compacting concrete under accelerated aging conditions. Four different experimental treatments are tested among them constant immersion and immersion‐drying protocols allow an efficient external sulfate attack of the material. Significant damage is observed due to interfacial ettringite. A predictive analysis is then adopted to quantify the relationship between ettringite growth and mechanical damage evolution during aging. Typical 3D microstructures representing the cement paste‐aggregate structures are generated using Monte Carlo scheme. These images are converted into a finite element model to predict the mechanical performance under different criteria of damage kinetics. The effect of ettringite is then associated to the development of an interphase of lower mechanical properties. Our results show that the observed time evolution of Young's modulus is best described by a linear increase of the interphase content. Our model results indicate also that the interphase regions grow at maximum stress regions rather than exclusively at interfaces. Finally, constant immersion predicts a rate of damage growth five times lower than that of immersion‐drying protocol.     

Technical note: Advantages and limitations of authenticating Palmera goat dairy products by pyrosequencing the melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene

Inferring the breed of origin of dairy products can be achieved through molecular analysis of genetic markers with a population-specific pattern of segregation. The goal of the current work was to generate such markers in goats by resequencing several pigmentation genes [melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R), v-kit Hardy-Zuckerman 4 feline sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KIT), tyrosinase (TYR), and tyrosinase-related protein 2 (TYRP2)]. This experiment revealed 10 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), including 5 missense mutations and 1 nonsense mutation. These markers were genotyped in 560 goats from 18 breeds originally from Italy, the Iberian Peninsula, the Canary Islands, and North Africa. Although the majority of SNP segregated at moderate frequencies in all populations (including 2 additional markers that were used as a source of information), we identified a c.764G>A SNP in MC1R that displayed highly divergent allelic frequencies in the Palmera breed compared with the Majorera and Tinerfeña breeds from the Canary Islands. Thus, we optimized a pyrosequencing-based technique that allowed us to estimate, very accurately, the allele frequencies of this marker in complex DNA mixtures from different individuals. Once validated, we applied this method to generating breed-specific DNA profiles that made it possible to detect fraudulent cheeses in which Palmero cheese was manufactured with milk from Majorera goats. One limitation of this approach, however, is that it cannot be used to detect illegal manufacturing where Palmero dairy products are produced by mixing milk from Palmera and Majorera goats, because the c.764G>A SNP segregates in both breeds.     

An efficient design of CORDIC in Quantum-dot cellular automata technology

Power dissipation of future-integrated systems, consisting of a numberless of devices, is a challenge that cannot be easily solved by classical technologies. Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is a Field-Coupled Nanotechnology (FCN) and a potential alternative to traditional CMOS technologies. It offers various features like extremely low-power dissipation, very high operating frequency and nanoscale feature size. This study presents a novel design of CORDIC circuit based on QCA technology. The proposed circuit is based on several proposed QCA sub-modules as adder and Flip-Flop. To design and verify the proposed architecture, QCADesigner tool is employed and power consumption is estimated using QCAPro software. The proposed QCA CORDIC achieves about 69% reduction in power and area compared to previous existing designs. The outcome of this work can open up a new window of opportunity for the design of the CORDIC module and can be used in low-power signal and image processing systems.     

Practical Methodology for Distillation Design using a Miniplant

Development of a model for a complex multi‐component distillation process is presented. Vapor‐liquid equilibria and distillation column models are developed individually, and further compiled together to yield a holistic distillation model tailored for an industrial example. Miniplant‐scale distillation hardware is applied to both develop and test the model. The experimental work and test runs required for model development are described in detail and the resulting model is verified against experimental data.     

The effect of cohesive forces on the fluidization of aeratable powders

The effects of cohesive forces of van der Waals type in the fluidization/defluidization of aeratable type A powders in the Geldart classification are numerically investigated. The effects of friction and particle‐size distribution (PSD) on some design‐significant parameters, such as minimum fluidization and bubbling velocities, are also investigated. For these types of particles, cohesive forces are observed as necessary to fully exhibit the role friction plays in commonly observed phenomena, such as pressure overshoot and hysteresis around minimum fluidization. This study also shows that a full‐experimental PSD consisting of a dozen particle sizes may be sufficiently represented by a few particle diameters. Reducing the number of particle types may benefit the continuum approach, which is based on the kinetic theory of granular flow, by reducing computational expense, while still maintaining the accuracy of the predictions. Published 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J 60: 473–484, 2014     

Extension of Hill-Koch-Ladd drag correlation over all ranges of Reynolds number and solids volume fraction

Hill et al. [R. J. Hill, D.L. Koch, J.C. Ladd, J. Fluid Mech. (2001), 448, pp. 213-241 and 243-278] proposed a set of drag correlations, based on data from Lattice-Boltzmann simulations. These correlations, while very accurate within the range of void fractions and Reynolds numbers used in the Lattice-Boltzmann simulations, do not cover the full range of void fractions and Reynolds numbers encountered in fluidized bed simulations. In this paper a drag correlation applicable to the full range of void fractions and Reynolds numbers is developed by blending the Hill-Koch-Ladd (HKL) drag correlation with known limiting forms of the gas-solids drag function such that the blended function is continuous with respect to Reynolds number and void fraction. This study also corrects a misinterpretation of the HKL drag correlation that was published in the literature, which makes the drag function discontinuous with respect to the Reynolds number.Two examples of gas/solids flows in a bubbling fluidized bed and a one-dimensional channel flow are used to illustrate differences between the proposed extension of HKL drag correlation and another form published in the literature.     

Synthesis and characterization of Ag nanoparticles–polyaniline composite powder material

The chemical deposition of silver particles in polyaniline (PANI) powder has been carried out via the reduction of Ag⁺ ions by PANI in various concentrations of AgNO₃ aqueous solutions. It is found that the rate of Ag(I) reduction and the size of the metal particles incorporated were strongly dependent on the reaction medium, the PANI redox form and the stirring method used. Homogeneous distribution of silver nanoparticles into PANI matrix was obtained at low Ag(I) concentration, PANI in emeraldine base form and short reaction time under ultrasonic stirring. The presence of silver particles dispersed into porous polyaniline structures was confirmed using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and cavity microelectrode (CME) technique in acidic aqueous electrolyte. The electrochemical study of Ag-PANI composite by CME showed that the redox system of silver depends on the size and the distribution of metal particles incorporated into PANI.