Calcium carbonate and ammonium polyphosphate flame retardant additives formulated to protect ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer against fire: Hydrated or carbonated calcium?

In this study, the effect of the chemical nature of different calcium (Ca)-based minerals as flame retardant additives in combination with ammonium polyphosphate (APP), in 1:1 proportions, on the flame retardancy behavior and performance of ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer was discussed. Combining APP with partly and completely hydrated calcium oxide led to superior flame-retardant function detected in mass loss calorimeter measurements with respect to the corresponding system containing carbonated calcium. This privileged character was attributed to the higher reactivity of hydrated Ca-based fillers toward APP in comparison with Ca carbonate, which induced the formation of an intumescent residue. The difference between reactivity potential of hydrated and dry Ca was demonstrated by the newly formed thermally stable species, and further evidenced by thermogravimetric analysis performed on APP/fillers blends. Moreover, the presence of more crystalline domains in the Ca/phosphorus-based compounds was evidenced by XRD analysis of the mass loss calorimeter test residues. The results of this work highlight the role of blend additive systems on the performance of flame retardancy of polymer materials.     

Toward A Mechanistic Understanding of Re-Infiltration in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs with Surfactant-Aided Gravity Drainage Process

Surfactant-aided gravity drainage is an improved oil recovery technique for water-invaded zone in fractured carbonate reservoirs, which are mostly oil-wet or mixed-wet rocks. The re-infiltration mechanism in water-invaded zone has a considerable effect on oil vertical movement in gravity drainage processes. In this work, a mechanistic understanding of re-infiltration in surfactant-aided gravity drainage, in comparison to oil–water gravity drainage is presented using an experimentally and numerically validated model. A column model is constructed from three matrix blocks. These blocks are separated from each other by horizontal fractures. A storage tank is considered on top of the model to store depleted oil from matrix blocks. The stacked-blocks model for re-infiltration is validated and verified to simulate water and chemical flooding using a mesh independency study and experimental flooding data in a composite core experiment. Using this model, several analyses are performed to investigate effects of rock and fluid properties, rock saturation functions, wettability alteration, surfactant adsorption, and capillary continuity on re-infiltration.     

An Insight View on Synthetic Protocol,Surface Activity,and Biological Aspects of Novel Biocompatible Quaternary Ammonium Cationic Gemini Surfactants

In this study, we prepared a novel series of diester-functionalized cationic gemini surfactants (C_m-E2O2-C_m) containing ethylene oxide as a spacer with varying alkyl chain lengths and characterized by ¹H NMR, FT-IR, elemental analysis, and ESI-MS. The physicochemical properties of the geminis were explored by tensiometry, fluorescence, dye solubilization, and Krafft point. These geminis acquire superior surface activity than the conventional surfactants. Fluorescence spectroscopy analysis affirmed that the micropolarity and aggregation number of micelles diminished with increase in the alkyl chain length. These geminis represent a new group of amphiphiles of considerably high biodegradability, better cleavability, and low toxicity as assessed by BOD test, FT-IR analysis, and HC₅₀ analysis, respectively. They also showed significant level of antimicrobial activity toward some specified bacterial strains of Gram-positive and Gram-negative by using agar well diffusion method. Furthermore, the thermogravimetric analysis provided information regarding thermal stabilities of the newly synthesized gemini surfactants.     

Facile Hydrothermal Synthesis of Hierarchical Sodium P Zeolite as a Nonphosphate Detergent Builder

This study reports the preparation of hierarchical NaP zeolite with the aim of obtaining a non-phosphate detergent builder as an alternative for environmental remediation from eutrophication phenomenon. Hierarchically structured NaP zeolite was easily synthesized hydrothermally and under different syntheses conditions. Samples were characterized using several standard techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and N₂ adsorption–desorption analysis. Three powder detergents were prepared by mixing main components such as linear alkylbenzene sulfonate, sodium sulfate, sodium silicate, and sodium carbonate as well as different amounts of as-synthesized zeolite and sodium tripolyphosphate in the detergent formulation as potential detergency builders. Some different detergency tests as pH value, water insolubility, foam height, moisture content, alcohol insolubility, and surface tension measurement were carried out for all synthetic detergent samples and two commercial ones. The results demonstrated that the high cleaning performance of the powders was obtained as using eco-friendly zeolite builders in comparison with phosphate-based commercial and synthetic detergent samples.     

A review of machine learning applications in IoT-integrated modern power systems

This paper aims to provide a systematic and comprehensive survey of state-of-the-art machine learning techniques and their potential applications in IoT-integrated power systems.     

Machine-Learning based methods in short-term load forecasting

Short-term load forecasting is of great significance to the secure and efficient operation of power systems. However, loads can be affected by a variety of external impact factors and thus involve high levels of uncertainties. So it is a challenging task to achieve an accurate load forecast. This paper discusses three commonly-used machine-learning methods used for load forecasting, i.e., the support vector machine method, the random forest regression method, and the long short-term memory neural network method. The features and applications of these methods are analyzed and compared. By integrating the advantages of these methods, a fusion forecasting approach and a data preprocessing technique are proposed for improving the forecasting accuracy. A comparative study based on real load data is performed to verify that the proposed approach is capable of achieving a relatively higher forecasting accuracy.     

Analytical Modeling of Short-Channel Fully-Depleted Triple Work Function Metal Gate (TWFMG) SOI MESFET

Silicon - In this paper, a new structure: triple work function metal gate SOI MESFET, intended for integration into the deep-submicron CMOS technology, is proposed. The gate of the device consists...     

Eco-friendly Geopolymer Composite Based on Non-heat-treated Phosphate Sludge Reinforced With Polypropylene Fibers

Silicon - Geopolymers produced with metakaolin (MK) and thermally untreated phosphate sludge (PS) are beneficial and environmentally advantageous materials, but their fragility limits its...     

Experimental determination of gas holdup and volumetric mass transfer coefficient in a jet bubbling reactor

The hydrodynamics and mass transfer characteristics of a lab-scale jet bubbling reactor(JBR) including the gas holdup, volumetric mass transfer coefficient and specific interfacial area were assessed experimentally investigating the influence of temperature, p H and superficial gas velocity. The reactor diameter and height were 11 and 30 cm,respectively. It was equipped with a single sparger, operating at atmospheric pressure, 20 and 40℃, and two p H values of 3 and 6. The height of the liquid was 23 cm, while the superficial gas velocity changed within 0.010–0.040 m·s~(-1) range. Experiments were conducted with pure oxygen as the gas phase and saturated lime solution as the liquid phase. The liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient was determined under unsteady-state oxygen absorption in a saturated lime solution. The gas holdup was calculated based on the liquid height change, while the specific interfacial area was obtained by a physical method based on the bubble size distribution(BSD) in different superficial gas velocities. The results indicated that at the same temperature but different p H, the gas holdup variation was negligible, while the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient at the p H value of 6 was higher than that at the p H = 3. At a constant p H but different temperatures, the gas holdup and the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficients at 40℃ were higher than that of the same at 20℃. A reasonable and appropriate estimation of the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficient(kla) in a pilot-scale JBR was provided which can be applied to the design and scale-up of JBRs.     

Perpetual effect of laser surface texturing on tribological properties of Ti3SiC2/GNP composite—A fretting wear study

Tribological properties of Ti₃SiC₂ ceramic and Ti₃SiC₂/GNP composite were investigated using fretting sliding against Si₃N₄ ball counter body at a load of 50 N for a sliding distance of 900 m, under non-textured lubricated (NTL), textured lubricated (TL) condition, and textured lubricated high temperature (TLHT). This paper presents the influence of laser surface texturing (LST) on Ti₃SiC₂ and its graphene nanoplatelets (GNP) reinforced composite established through spark plasma sintering (SPS), tested under fretting wear conditions. The coefficient of friction and wear rate of Ti₃SiC₂ and its graphene nanoplatelets reinforced composites were incontrovertibly enhanced with laser surface texturing as compared to non-textured Ti₃SiC₂ and its GNP composite. The TL surface of Ti₃SiC₂ composite reinforced with 15% GNP showed the lowest COF and wear rate. Almost negligible changes were observed for TLHT tests. The LST proved to an efficient technique for enhancing the friction and wear properties of Ti₃SiC₂ and Ti₃SiC₂/GNP composite.