Numerical and Experimental Study on Fluid Dynamic Features of Combined Gas and Electromagnetic Stirring in Ladle Furnace

Basic fluid dynamic features of combined electromagnetic stirring, EMS, and gas stirring (EMGAS) have been studied in the present work. A transient and turbulent multiphase numerical flow model was built. Simulations of a real size ladle furnace were conducted for 7 cases, operating with and without combined stirring and varying the argon gas inlet plug position. The results of these simulations are compared considering melt velocity, melt turbulence, melt/slag‐interface turbulence and dispersion of gas bubbles. An experimental water model was also built to simulate the effects of combined stirring. The water model was numerically simulated and visual comparison of the gas plume shape and flow pattern in the numerical and in the experimental model was also done for 3 flow situations. The results show that EMGAS has a strong flexibility regarding the flow velocity, gas plume, stirring energy, mixing time, slag layer, etc.     

Leistungsfähigkeit von Betonen mit Flugasche

Performance Capacity of Concrete containing Fly Ash The conception to take into account the addition of fly ash to structural concrete presented in the German Standard DIN 1045‐2 should guarantee a high resistance of concrete structures against corrosive attack. In this context, criteria such as compressive and flexural strength of concrete, modulus of elasticity, bond strength, shrinkage and creep as well as the pore structure are focused in this paper. The obtained results on concretes containing a maximum of fly ash according to DIN 1045‐2 compared with concretes produced only with ordinary Portland cement show similar strength values at the age of 28 days while the strength development is somewhat lower for the fly ash concretes. However, at the age of one year the strength of fly ash concretes in particular also the flexural strength is considerably higher. Shrinkage and creep of the fly ash concrete is lower resulting in an overall reduced risk of shrinkage and thermal cracking.     

Assessing the Thiamine Diphosphate Dependent Pyruvate Dehydrogenase E1 Subunit for Carboligation Reactions with Aliphatic Ketoacids

The synthetic properties of the Thiamine diphosphate (ThDP)-dependent pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 subunit from Escherichia coli (EcPDH E1) was assessed for carboligation reactions with aliphatic ketoacids. Due to its role in metabolism, EcPDH E1 was previously characterised with respect to its biochemical properties, but it was never applied for synthetic purposes. Here, we show that EcPDH E1 is a promising biocatalyst for the production of chiral α-hydroxyketones. WT EcPDH E1 shows a 180–250-fold higher catalytic efficiency towards 2-oxobutyrate or pyruvate, respectively, in comparison to engineered transketolase variants from Geobacillus stearothermophilus (TK_GST). Its broad active site cleft allows for the efficient conversion of both (R)- and (S)-configured α-hydroxyaldehydes, next to linear and branched aliphatic aldehydes as acceptor substrates under kinetically controlled conditions. The alternate, thermodynamically controlled self-reaction of aliphatic aldehydes was shown to be limited to low levels of conversion, which we propose to be due to their large hydration constants. Additionally, the thermodynamically controlled approach was demonstrated to suffer from a loss of stereoselectivity, which makes it unfeasible for aliphatic substrates.     

Durability of galvanised fasteners in timber construction

This article describes the possible corrosion conditions for fasteners in timber outdoor constructions. In the case of fasteners (e.g., timber screws), a distinction must be made between corrosion outside the timber and in contact with the timber. In case of contact with timber, the influence of timber constituents (acetic acid and timber protection agents), which are effective when the moisture content of the timber is high, must be taken into account. In the weathered area, the corrosion exposure and the corrosion of zinc coatings in contact with timber can, therefore, be higher than in pure atmospheric corrosion. In nonweathered areas, it may be reversed due to possible concentration of pollutants outside the timber and insufficient timber moisture. Recent research results are explained using timber screws as an example. Furthermore, the requirements for zinc coatings for fasteners in timber construction are presented on the basis of the current standardisation.     

Influence of device structure and growth conditions on the tunneling characteristics of Si/Si1−xGex double barrier structures

We have investigated different Si/Si_1−xGe_x hole resonant tunneling structures. We demonstrate the advantages of grading the Ge concentration in the spacer layers, which allows for a smoother potential profile in the spacer layers and a higher Ge concentration in the well, and hence higher bandoffsets. This leads to an improvement of the resonances seen in the I–V characteristics of these devices. Structures grown at different temperatures emphasize the importance of obtaining abrupt Si/Si_1−xGe_x double barrier heterointerfaces in order to obtain good I–V characteristics. Short-term post annealing at ⋟500°C, well below temperatures where strain relaxation or dopant diffusion into the barrier layers occur, is shown to destroy the resonances. We believe this is due to monolayer interdiffusion at the barriers, destroying the abruptness of the interfaces.     

Vocabulary in interviews as related to respondent characteristics

Responses in personalinterviews about education and career with 415Swedish men and women (age 34) forms the basisof a speech corpus with 1.8 million words. Thevocabulary is described by means of two sets ofvariables. One is based on the number of tokensand types, word length and sectioning of therunning text. The other set divides the corpusinto grammatical categories. Both sets ofvariables are related to a number of backgroundvariables such as gender, socioeconomicbackground, education, and indicators of verbalproficiency at age 13 and 32. This possibilityto study the relationship between vocabularyand a broad set of respondent characteristicsis a unique feature of this corpus.     

Chemical vapour deposition of boron carbides in the temperature range 1300–1500 K and at a reduced pressure

An experimental chemical vapour deposition (CVD) phase diagram was determined for the CVD of boron carbides in the temperature range 1300–1500 K at a total pressure of 50 Torr. Boron trichloride, methane and hydrogen were used as the reaction gases. The reactor was of the cold-wall type.The phase diagram contains four crystalline and two amorphous phases. In addition to the previously known phases, a new phase (orthorhombic), which is closely related to the tetragonal boron carbides, was found. The initial growth rates of the carbides and the factors influencing their growth rates were investigated. Finally characteristic morphologies of the carbides are illustrated.     

Piecemeal Learning of an Unknown Environment

We introduce a new learning problem: learning a graph bypiecemeal search, in which the learner must return every so often to its starting point (for refueling, say). We present two linear-time piecemeal-search algorithms for learningcity-block graphs: grid graphs with rectangular obstacles.     

A 3D-QSAR Study of Analogs of (Z)-5-Decenyl Acetate, A Pheromone Component of the Turnip Moth, Agrotis segetum

The methodology of three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationships (3D-QSAR) has been employed to develop a quantitative model for the relationship between single-cell activities for a large set of analogs of (Z)-5-decenyl acetate, a pheromone component of the turnip moth, Agrotis segetum, and the structural characteristics of the analogs. The method of partial least squares (PLS) projections to latent structures has been used to delineate the relationships between measured activities and chemical structures. The training set includes 42 compounds, and a test set of seven molecules has been employed to assess the predictivity of the model. The model derived is able to calculate the activities of the seven test compounds with an average unsigned error of 0.3, close to the experimental error. Contour maps of regression-like coefficients from transformed PLS components display electronic and nonbonded features of high importance for the observed variation in the activities of compounds in the training set. The contours for the nonbonded (van der Waals) field support previous conclusions that the interaction between the pheromone component and its receptor is characterized by a high steric complementarity.