The Effects of Electromagnetic Brake on Liquid Steel Flow in Thin Slab Caster

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with magneto hydro dynamics (MHD) is developed for a thin slab caster to investigate the effects of electromagnetic brake (EMBr) on liquid steel flow in continuous casting mold and to determine the EMBr practices which lead to optimal flow structure. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) tests in water model and meniscus flow measurements in real caster are performed to validate the predictions obtained with CFD models. The performance of different submerged entry nozzle designs, SEN 1 and SEN 2, are evaluated. The effects of nozzle submergence in relation to the applied magnetic field on mold flow structure are quantified. There are significant differences between flow structures obtained with SEN 1 and SEN 2, even though both designs have fundamental similarities and contain four ports. EMBr mainly reduces the meniscus velocities for SEN 2 as opposed to the foremost influence of EMBr for SEN 1 that is to significantly slow down the downward jet coming from the bottom ports. In addition, reducing the EMBr strength for shallow nozzle submergence and increasing the EMBr strength for deep nozzle submergence help to maintain similar meniscus activity for all conditions.     

A new high-performance CMOS fully differential second-generation current conveyor with application example of biquad filter realisation

In this article, a new complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) high-performance fully differential second-generation current conveyor (FDCCII) implementation is proposed. The presented FDCCII provides high-output impedance at terminals Z+ and Z?, good linearity and excellent output–input current gain accuracy. Also, the proposed FDCCII circuit operates at a supply voltage of ±1.3 V. The applications of the FDCCII to realise voltage-mode multifunction filters are given. Simulations are performed using TSMC CMOS 0.35-μm technology to verify theoretical results.     

Neural Network Based Receiver for Multiuser Detection in MC-CDMA Systems

In this paper, we present a multiuser detection technique based on artificial neural network (NN) for synchronous multicarrier code division multiple access systems over Rayleigh fading channels. To test the robustness of the proposed receiver, also the effect of power control problem is studied with a comparative manner. Bit error rate (BER) performance of the NN based receiver is compared with the single user bound and conventional receivers. Although the BER performance of the conventional receiver degrades as the number of the users and power level differences among the users increase, as a decision structure, neural network based receiver gives closer BER performance to the single user bound.     

Structural, electrochemical and optical comparisons of tungsten oxide coatings derived from tungsten powder-based sols

Tungsten trioxide (WO₃) electrochromic coatings have been formed on indium tin oxide-coated glass substrates by aqueous routes. Coating sols are obtained by dissolving tungsten powder in acetylated (APTA) or plain peroxotungstic acid (PTA) solutions. The structural evolution and electrochromic performance of the coatings as a function of calcination temperature (250 °C and 400 °C) have been reported. Differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction have shown that amorphous WO₃ films are formed after calcination at 250 °C for both processing routes; however, the coatings that calcined at 400 °C were crystalline in both cases. The calcination temperature-dependent crystallinity of the coatings results in differences in optical properties of the coatings. Higher coloration efficiencies can be achieved with amorphous coatings than could be seen in the crystalline coatings. The transmittance values (at 800 nm) in the colored state are 35% and 56% for 250 °C and 400 °C-calcined coatings, respectively. The electrochemical properties are more significantly influenced by the method of sol preparation. The ion storage capacities designating the electrochemical properties are found in the range of 1.62–2.74 × 10^− 3 (mC cm^− 2) for APTA coatings; and 0.35–1.62 × 10^− 3 (mC cm^− 2) for PTA coatings. As a result, a correlation between the microstructure and the electrochromic performance has been established.     

Selective removal of Cr(VI) ions from aqueous solutions including Cr(VI), Cu(II) and Cd(II) ions by 4-vinly pyridine/2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate monomer mixture grafted poly(ethylene terephthalate) fiber

In this study, a new reactively fibrous adsorbent was prepared by grafting 4-vinly pyridine (4-VP) and 2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate (HEMA) monomer mixture onto poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) fibers for removal of Cr(VI), Cu(II) and Cd(II) metal ions from aqueous solution by using batch adsorption method. The influence of various parameters such as graft yield (GY), pH, adsorption time, initial ion concentration and adsorption temperature was investigated. The selectivity of the reactive fiber was also examined. The results show that the adsorbed amount of metal ions followed as given in the order Cr(VI) > Cd(II) > Cu(II). At pH 3, Cr(VI) was removed by 99% while the initial concentration of ions was at 5 mg L⁻¹ and by 94% at 400 mg L⁻¹. It was found that the grafted fiber is more selective for Cr(VI) ions in the mixed solution of Cr(VI)–Cu(II), Cr(VI)–Cd(II) and Cr(VI)–Cu(II)–Cd(II) at pH 3 and it was observed that the grafted fibers are stable and regenerable by acid and base without losing their activity.     

Molecular dynamics simulation of compressible hot/cold moving lid-driven microcavity flow

Hard-sphere molecular dynamics simulations of lid-driven microcavity gas flow with various subsonic speeds and lid temperatures are conducted. Simulations with faster and colder lids show streamlines of stronger primary vortices. Variations of mass and energy centers with respect to lid speed and temperature are examined. Center of energy is less sensitive to employed lid conditions than center of gravity is. Although moving lid imparts energy into fluid, due to change of impingement rates on the walls of fixed temperature, average energy within the cavity seems quite insensitive to the subsonic lid speed. Behavior of compressibility at both top corners is observed even at low Mach numbers widely considered within incompressible flow region. While high Knudsen number causes considerable property slips near the lid, two-dimensional pressure, density, and temperature plots of excellent quality are generated. Results are promising in use of molecular dynamics simulations for compressible vortex flow analyses while providing insights for understanding microfluidics and nanofluidics in context of molecular mass, momentum and heat transfer in microscale and nanoscale systems.     

The oxidative and lipolytic stability of Yayık butter produced from different species of mammals milk (cow,sheep, goat) yoghurt

Yay?k butter, made from yoghurt, is one of the traditional dairy products in Anatolia In this study, some properties of Yay?k butter produced from cow, sheep, and goat yoghurts have been observed during 30 days of storage at 4–5 °C. In this purpose yoghurts were produced from different species milks then these yoghurts were used as a raw material for production of Yay?k butters samples. On the first day of the storage, differences in pH of serum among the butter produced from different mammals were statistically significant. The highest value of lactic acid was measured in the sample of sheep butter (SB). The level of lactic acid in Yay?k butters was significantly different. Goat butter (GB) had weaker oxidative stability and significantly higher peroxide value than those of other samples. The highest accumulation of the free fatty acids has been detected in sample GB. All samples of Yay?k butter received almost the same score on the first day of the storage, but on day 30 some flavour defects in sample GB were noted by the panelists.     

Thermal analysis of isothermal crystallization kinetics in blends of cocoa butter with milk fat or milk fat fractions

The kinetics of isothermal crystallization of binary mixtures of cocoa butter with milk fat and milk fat fractions were evaluated by applying the Avrami equation. Application of the Avrami equation to isothermal crystallization of the fats and the binary fat blends revealed different nucleation and growth mechanisms for the fats, based on the Avrami exponent. The suggested mechanism for cocoa butter crystallization was heterogeneous nucleation and spherulitic growth from sporadic nuclei. For milk fat, the mechanism was instantaneous heterogeneous nucleation followed by spherulitic growth. For milk fat fractions, the mechanism was high nucleation rate at the beginning of crystallization, which decreased with time, and plate-like growth. Addition of milk fat fractions did not cause a significant change in the suggested nucleation and growth mechanism of cocoa butter.