Suppression of asymmetric flow behavior downstream of two side-by-side circular cylinders with a splitter plate in shallow water

The flow downstream of a pair of circular cylinder in a side-by-side arrangement normal to the free stream is known to exhibit intermittently bistable structure for the range of G/D = 1.2–2.2 where G is the center-to-center distance between the cylinders and D is the diameter of the cylinder. Eventually, the wake downstream of one of the two cylinders can be wider or narrower than the one downstream of the other cylinder depending on the direction of gap-flow deflection. In the present study, such an asymmetric flow behavior downstream of two side-by-side cylinders, which were vertically located in shallow water, was passively controlled with a splitter plate with a length of L   (1?L/D?5$1?L/D?5$). The center of splitter plate was just coincided with the mid-height of the gap between centers of the cylinders. The investigations were carried out in a water channel using dye visualization and particle image velocimetry, PIV for qualitative and quantitative measurements, respectively. The diameter of the cylinder, D was 40 mm while the depth of water was 20 mm so that the shallow flow condition was provided through the experiments. The Reynolds number, Re based on D was 5000 and the cylinder’s center to center spacing to the cylinder diameter ratio (G/D  ) was equal to 1.25. The results demonstrated that the deflection of the wake and thereby the bistability of the wake was considerably prevented with the presence of the splitter plate for L/D?3$L/D?3$ which resulted in two well symmetric, stable wakes having approximately the same order of magnitudes of vortex shedding frequencies around the cylinders.     

Productivity and costs in the course of timber transportation with the Koller K300 cable system in Turkey

This study was carried out on very steep and difficult terrain. Whole trees were logged uphill to the forest road by a Koller K300 cable crane. Investigations were carried out by time studies for which the repetition time measurement method was selected. Through time studies, the productivity and cost of the Koller cable system were evaluated.     

Migration behavior of landfill leachate contaminants through alternative composite liners

Four identical pilot-scale landfill reactors with different alternative composite liners were simultaneously operated for a period of about 540 days to investigate and to simulate the migration behaviors of phenolic compounds (phenol, 2-CP, 2-MP, 3-MP, 4-MP, 2-NP, 4-NP, 2,4-DNP, 2,4-DCP, 2,6-DCP, 2,4,5-TCP, 2,4,6-TCP, 2,3,4,6-TeCP, PCP) and heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Zn, Cr, Cd, Ni) from landfill leachate to the groundwater. Alternative landfill liners of four reactors consist of R1: Compacted clay liner (10 cm + 10 cm, k = 10⁻⁸ m/sn), R2: Geomembrane (2 mm HDPE) + compacted clay liner (10 cm + 10 cm, k = 10⁻⁸ m/sn), R3: Geomembrane (2 mm HDPE) + compacted clay liner (10 cm, k = 10⁻⁸ m/sn) + bentonite liner (2 cm) + compacted clay liner (10 cm, k = 10⁻⁸ m/sn), and R4: Geomembrane (2 mm HDPE) + compacted clay liner (10 cm, k = 10⁻⁸ m/sn) + zeolite liner (2 cm) + compacted clay liner (10 cm, k = 10⁻⁸ m/sn). Wastes representing Istanbul municipal solid wastes were disposed in the reactors. To represent bioreactor landfills, reactors were operated by leachate recirculation. To monitor and control anaerobic degradation in the reactors, variations of conventional parameters (pH, alkalinity, chloride, conductivity, COD, TOC, TKN, ammonia and alcaly metals) were also investigated in landfill leachate samples. The results of this study showed that about 35-50% of migration of organic contaminants (phenolic compounds) and 55-100% of migration of inorganic contaminants (heavy metals) to the model groundwater could be effectively reduced with the use of bentonite and zeolite materials in landfill liner systems. Although leachate contaminants can reach to the groundwater in trace concentrations, findings of this study concluded that the release of these compounds from landfill leachate to the groundwater may potentially be of an important environmental concern based on the experimental findings.     

Transmutation-incineration potential of transuraniums discharged from PWR-UO2 spent fuel in modified PROMETHEUS fusion reactor

This study presents the potential of the burning and/or transmutation (B/T) of transuraniums (TRUs), discharged from the pressured water reactor PWR-UO₂ spent fuel, in the modified PROMETHEUS-H fusion reactor. Two different design shapes (Models A and B) were considered. The transmutation zone (TZ), which contains the mixture of TRU nuclides (10%), was located in the modified blankets. The volume fraction of Pu in the mixture is raised from 0 to 40% stepped by 10% to determine its effect on the B/T. The fuel spheres were cladded with SiC (5%) and cooled with high-pressured helium gas (85%) for nuclear heat transfer. The calculations were performed for an operation period (OP) of up to 10 years by 75% plant factor (η) under a neutron wall load (P) of 4.7 MW/m². The results bring out that: (1) the Model B transmutes the TRUs more rapidly than the Model A; (2) the effective half-lives decrease about 20 and 40% with the increase of Pu fraction in the cases of Models A and B, respectively; (3) the M values are quite high with respect to the M value of the original PROMETHEUS fusion reactor; (4) the blankets can produce substantial electricity in situ.     

Mechanical and microstructural single-crystal Bauschinger effects: Observation of reversible plasticity in copper during bending

We study the Bauschinger effect on a bent and straightened micro-sized single-crystal copper beam (width: 8.64 μm; thickness: 7.05 μm) over three consecutive cycles. The reverse yield strengths (straightening step) are much smaller than those in forward loading (bending step). An upper bound estimate shows a load drop of 73% (1st cycle), 76% (2nd cycle) and 83% (3rd cycle) relative to the forward yield stress. Electron backscatter diffraction reveals a dramatic reduction in the bending-induced misorientation gradients upon load reversal (straightening), documenting an unexpected form of microstructure reversibility. The observed Bauschinger softening is interpreted in terms of two effects. The first consists of internal backstresses that support load reversal. They are created by polarized dislocation arrays that are accumulated during forward bending. The second effect is the reduced requirement to activate dislocation sources during reverse loading as the dislocations that were stored during bending did not participate much in cross-hardening and, hence, serve as mobile dislocations upon reverse loading. After straightening the misorientation gradients are largely removed but the non-polarized dislocations remain. We therefore introduce a revised terminology, namely the “mechanical Bauschinger effect” and the “microstructural Bauschinger effect”. The former term describes a yield stress drop and the latter one the degree of microstructure reversibility upon load path changes.     

Morphology-tailored synthesis of tungsten trioxide (hydrate) thin films and their photocatalytic properties

Tungsten trioxide hydrate (3WO(3)·H(2)O) films with different morphologies were directly grown on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) substrate via a facile crystal-seed-assisted hydrothermal method. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis showed that 3WO(3)·H(2)O thin films composed of platelike, wedgelike, and sheetlike nanostructures could be selectively synthesized by adding Na(2)SO(4), (NH(4))(2)SO(4), and CH(3)COONH(4) as capping agents, respectively. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies indicated that these films were of orthorhombic structure. The as-prepared thin films after dehydration showed obvious photocatalytic activities. The best film grown using CH(3)COONH(4) as a capping agent generated anodic photocurrents of 1.16 mA/cm(2) for oxidization of methanol and 0.5 mA/cm(2) for water splitting with the highest photoconversion efficiency of about 0.3% under simulated solar illumination.     

Investigation of breakage behavior of different mineralogical and morphological characteristic pumices

The objective of this study is to analyze dry grinding behavior of four different pumices in terms of Bond grindability value, selection and breakage parameters values. For this purpose, firstly, Bond grindability test were made for four pumices. Then, eight different mono-size fractions for each of pumices were carried out between 1.7 and 0.106 mm formed by a \({\surd 2}\) sieve series, and ground batch wise in a laboratory ball mill for determination of breakage parameters. Finally, S _i and B _i,j equations were determined from the size distributions at different grinding times, and the model parameters (S _i , a _T , α, γ, β and \({\phi_{j}}\)) were compared for four different pumice samples.     

Tailoring insoluble nanobelts into soluble anti-UV nanopotpourris

Soluble, transparent and anti-UV nanopotpourris have been prepared by tailoring long nanobelts. The strains and layered structures facilitate the breaking of the as-synthesized nanobelts under an applied mechanical action. The developed tailoring process of nanobelts is a general top-down secondary processing of layered nanostructures at the nanoscale level, which can be expended to the modifications of layered nanowires, nanotubes and hierarchical nanostructures. By tailoring, the size, morphology and solubility are modified, which may open up an area of advanced processing of nanomaterials and hint at some potential applications. Because of the excellent solubility of the tailored nanopotpourris, they are easily dispersed in cosmetics or polymer films, which are quite useful for some anti-UV protection applications, such as anti-UV sunscreen creams and anti-UV window films for vehicles and buildings.