Processing history in extrusion dies and its influence on the state of the polymer extrudate at the die exit

A method is proposed to describe the processing history in extrusion dies and its influence on the state of the polymer after processing. The approach differs from conventional processing analysis, which uses the shear viscosity function to calculate pressure drop vs flow rate relations. The approach also differs from heuristic analysis which tries to find empirical correlations between rheological observations and processing behavior. The method is applied to the flow in annular extrusion dies. An integral constitutive equation is chosen to calculate the flow and to describe the flow history at the die exit as memorized. In the analysis, the kinematics are locally approximated by isothermal steady shear flow. The velocity and the velocity gradient are used to determine the Finger strain tensor, the path lines, and the residence times of the deforming material elements. Measures of the state of the polymer at the die exit are chosen to be the stress ratio N₁/2τ₁₂ and the free recovery. The free recovery calculations presume that the extrudate is chopped into small volumes of homogeneous flow history. The results of the calculations show the polymer very sensitively reacts to small changes of the die geometry. Important applications of this analysis are film blowing and blow molding, where the extensional behavior during the blowing process outside the die depends greatly on the preceding shaping process inside the die.     

High-pressure polymerization of ethylene using methyl isobutyl ketone peroxide as initiator

An investigation was carried out into the suitability of methyl isobutyl ketone peroxide (MIKP) as initiator for the high pressure polymerization of ethylene. For this purpose, polymerization tests were carried out in a stirred autoclave at a pressure of 1000 to 2000 bar and a temperature of 195 to 310°C. The initiator concentration of the feed was varied between 6.5 and 42 mol ppm while the residence time was kept at a constant 30 s. Apart from the rate of polymerization, the conversion and the initiator consumption were also determined. The characteristic properties of polyethylene (PE) were determined by measuring the melt flow index, the density and, in some cases, the molecular weight distribution. Conversion levels of 5 to 27% were achieved with rates of polymerization between 1 and 5.5 kg PE l^?1 h^?1. The initiator consumption at 1700 bar was in the region of 1 to 2 g I kg^?1 PE^?1 over a temperature range of 220 to 315°C. In view of these results, MIKP can be considered as suitable to initiate ethylene high pressure polymerization at 220 to 310°C, particularly in the tubular reactor. The density of the polyethylene thus prepared is ranging between 0.910 and 0.927 g ml^?1. Without the addition of modifiers or cross-linking agents, the melt flow index varies considerably. The polydispersity of the polymers prepared at a pressure of 1700 to 2000 bar was between 6 and 8 and therefore within the range to be expected for stirred autoclaves. Reducing the pressure to 1000 bar resulted in surprisingly low polydispersity values of 2.4 to 3.7.     

Gestaltung der nächsten Inkarnation von Business Intelligence

The body of knowledge generated by Business Intelligence (BI) research is constantly extended by a stream of heterogeneous technological and organizational innovations. This paper shows how these can be bundled to a new vision for BI that is aligned with new requirements coming from socio-technical macro trends. The building blocks of the vision come from five research strings that have been extracted from an extensive literature review: BI and Business Process Management, BI across enterprise borders, new approaches of dealing with unstructured data, agile and user-driven BI, and new concepts for BI governance. The macro trend of the diffusion of cyber-physical systems is used to illustrate the argumentation. The realization of this vision comes with an array of open research questions and requires the coordination of research initiatives from a variety of disciplines. Due to the embedded nature of the addressed topics within general research areas of the Information Systems (IS) discipline and the linking pins that come with the underlying Dynamic Capabilities Approach such research provides a contribution to IS.     

Communal irrigation systems in South-Eastern Africa: findings on productivity and profitability

Abstract

Significant expansion of irrigated agriculture is planned in Africa, though existing smallholder schemes perform poorly. Research at six schemes in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe shows that a range of problems are exacerbated by poor management, with limited market linkages leading to underutilization and a lack of profit. Improving sustainability of these complex systems will require: multiple interventions at different scales; investing in people and institutions as much as hardware; clarity in governments’ objectives for their smallholder irrigation schemes; appropriate business models to enable farmers; and better market linkages.     

The Reciprocalizer: an Agile Design Tool for Reciprocal Structures

This paper presents the reciprocalizer, a grasshopper plugin developed to design reciprocal structures. The plugin can handle the full set of geometric parameters necessary to describe the geometry of reciprocally connected elements in real-time. This makes it an agile design tool for the exploration of the geometrical richness of reciprocal structures.     

Dietary composition in Greenland 2000, plasma fatty acids and persistent organic pollutants

Human exposure to pollution in the Arctic presents a potential future health risk for the local populations. Epidemiological studies in Greenland have shown that human blood levels of several organic contaminants are very high, especially in the North where people depend on local food. In East Greenland (Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresbysund)) the population shows the highest blood levels of several persistent organic pollutants found in Arctic countries, especially PCB, the levels of which exceed Canadian guideline levels. As in other Arctic countries, the direct source of these contaminants is the diet, and it is, therefore important to monitor the composition of the diet along with other factors which may influence the metabolism and thereby the accumulation of toxic substances. This project is part of the human health program of the ongoing circumpolar 'Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme'. Dietary survey results (Semiquantitative Food Frequency questionnaire from 192 men and women from East Greenland and 48 men from Uummannaq West Greenland) were analysed along with other factors (lifestyle and anthropometric factors), blood lipids, fatty acid profiles, and concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). The dietary survey showed that the contributions of traditional food provided 25-30% of the total energy intake. However, the relative monthly meal intake of seal, whale, polar bear, fish and game, and the composition of imported food, varied between districts. The blood fatty acids (FA), e.g. the n-3/n-6 ratio (Uummannaq 0.70, Ittoqqortoormiit 0.37 Tassiilaq 0.45) showed moderate associations with the overall reported food composition. The n-3 fatty acids were associated with the well-known lowering effect on serum-triglyceride levels. The strongest associations between diet and plasma fatty acids were found for docosapentaenoic acid, C: 22.5.3 which strongly correlated with reported seal, and polar bear intake (P=0.01** and 0.04*, respectively), consistent with the fact that seal and polar bear blubber contain much higher concentrations of C: 22.5.3 than other sea mammals and fish. Seal and polar bear intake, and in particular all the plasma n-3 fatty acids, were significantly correlated with organic contaminant concentrations, (betaHCH, chlordanes, DDTs, Hexachlorobenzene, Mirex, PCBs, and toxaphenes) P<0.01**. CONCLUSIONS: The strongest correlations between POPs and fatty acids were found with C: 22.5.3, strongly indicating seal and polar bear blubber as the main contributors of POPs to the local population.     

Polyvinyl alcohol-collagen-hydroxyapatite biocomposite nanofibrous scaffold: Mimicking the key features of natural bone at the nanoscale level

Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibers, PVA/Type I Collagen (Col) and their composites with hydroxyapatite nanoparticles (nano-HAp) were prepared by electrospinning techniques. The composite nanofibrous membranes were subjected to detailed analysis. Morphological investigations show that the generated nanofibers (NFs) have uniform morphology with an average diameter of ∼160 nm for pure PVA, ∼176 nm for PVA/n-HAp, ∼245 nm for PVA/Col and ∼320 nm for PVA/Col/n-HAp. It is of interest to observe that large numbers of HAp nanorods are preferentially oriented parallel to the longitudinal direction of the electrospun PVA and/or PVA/Col NFs. FTIR and thermal analysis demonstrated that there was strong intermolecular hydrogen bonding between the molecules of PVA/Col/n-HAp. Furthermore, the obtained PVA/Col/nHAp NFs scaffold (7 cm × 11 cm) has a porous structure with adjustable pore size and shape. The pore size is in the range of 650 μm with a porosity of 49.5%. On the other hand, mechanical characterizations revealed that the incorporating of 5 wt% n-HAp into the matrix of PVA/Col nanofibers could significantly improve the rigidity of the resultant biocomposite nanofibrous scaffold. These results strongly suggest a huge potential of the prepared scaffold for bone tissue engineering.     

The Floating Face: Garbo,Photography and Death Masks

A number of writers have noted the influence of Ernst Benkard’s 1927 book of death masks, Das Ewige Antlitz, on Modernist artists and writers of the inter-war period. This article links it specifically to the emergence in the late 1920s of a very particular way of photographing people, termed here “the floating face”, which is epitomised in publicity portraits of Greta Garbo. It is suggested that this photographic convention is linked to changing attitudes associated with war, to the techniques of cinema, and to surrealism, but also to the influence of Benkard’s book. The resemblance between the death mask image and movie star portrait is significant for an understanding of the origins and affective impact of a certain photographic style. This essay also suggests that the death mask as a figure in film and photography theory emerges out of this particular style of photography, and this specific social and cultural context, but then becomes applied to “the photograph” in general. It is argued that the idea of photographs as like death masks is overdetermined by the social and cultural context of 1920s Europe.