Comparative Evaluation Of Surface Water Availability,Wastewater Reuse And Desalination In Saudi Arabia

ABSRTACT

There is a growing concern in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to exploit water resources of acceptable quality to meet demands in domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors. The agricultural water need, which constitutes approximately 84% of the total demand, was estimated to be 7430 million cubic meters in 1985. The annual domestic and other demands amounted to 1400 million cubic meters for 1985. Various alternative supplies to meet these demands are surface water, renewable groundwater resources, reclaimed wastewater, desalinated water, and non-renewable groundwater. Due to excessive withdrawal of water from deep aquifers, considerable drawdown has recently been noticed.

This paper reviews the existing and future trends in developing surface water resources, reclamation of waste-water from various towns and cities and its use, and the role of desalination plants in the coastal regions of the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea. These alternatives are evaluated and compared in economic terms. Cost-capacity relationships are developed for various alternatives which will be used in developing long-term plans for optimum allocation of available resources in different parts of the Kingdom.     

Fuzzy Systems Tuned By Swarm Based Optimization Algorithms for Predicting Stream flow

River flow prediction is an important phenomenon in water resources for which different methods and perspective have been used. Using fuzzy system with black box perspective is one of them. Fuzzy systems have some parameters and properties that have to be determined. This is an optimization problem that can be solved by swarm optimization techniques among several techniques. Swarm optimization are developed by inspiring from the behavior of the animals living as swarm. The study presents two achievements fuzzy system that tuned by swarm optimization algorithms can be used for prediction of monthly mean streamflow and which swarm optimization algorithm is better than the others for tuning fuzzy systems. Three swarm optimization algorithms, hunter search, firefly, artificial bee colony are used in this study. These algorithms are compared with mean performance values and convergence speed. Monthly streamflow data of three stream gauging stations in Susurluk Basin are used for the case study. The results show, swarm optimization algorithms can be used for prediction of monthly mean streamflow and ABC algorithm has better performance values than other optimization algorithms.     

Effect of front air attack angles on heat transfer coefficient of the cross‐flow of four flat tube

Heat transfer coefficients are studied experimentally for airflow over a four‐flat‐tube configuration with different inlet attack angles. The range of Re numbers was from 1668 to 3782. The heat fluxes are 13.2, 38.5, and 99.8 W/m². In this paper, 45 samples of a flat tube with inlet airflow angles (30°, 45°, and 90°) are set up to investigate its thermal performance. The design of experimental approach was used to conduct the heat transfer parametric study by designing 45 experiments, analyzing the empirical model, and optimizing heat transfer. The response was modeled using a general factorial design model based on experimental data. From analysis of variance (ANOVA), we obtained significant coefficients by performing the 5% test of level of significance. The results indicated that both the Nu and Re numbers increase for all heat flux cases and these decrease with increasing the air attack. Also shown are that the Colburn j‐factor decreases with increase of air velocity. It was found that the ANOVA results are appropriate to the collected experimental data, as the R² and R²‐adjusted statistics are found to be 92.61% and 90.97%, respectively, for Nu number. In a similar manner, for Colburn j‐factor, the R² and R²‐adjusted statistic are 96.97% and 96.29%, respectively.     

Bioavailable phosphorus in animal waste amended soils: using actual crop uptake and p mass balance approach

Animal manure amended soils often contain large amounts of bioavailable phosphorus (P) and constitute high risk for the deterioration of surface water quality through eutrophication. Current standards set for the safe disposal of animal manure through soil application are based on the assumption that phosphorus in all P sources would behave similarly. The primary objective of this study was to understand the influence of P from several manure and mineral fertilizer sources applied at 0, 50, and 150 mg P kg(-1) on two measures of bioavailable P to six soils of different initial soil test P levels using corn (Zea mays L.) P uptake and an iron oxide strip method for soil analysis (FeO-P). Total net bioavailable P (TNBP) was calculated by subtracting total P uptake by corn after seven consecutive harvests in control treatments that did not receive P from the P uptake from P-amended treatments. Net biovavailable P after the first harvest (NBP1) was calculated in a similar fashion but only using data from the first harvest. Significant differences in TNBP and NBP1 were found when comparing P sources. The hog (Sus scrofa) manure had the greatest P bioavailability while turkey (Meleagris gallopava) litter had the lowest among the animal P sources across all soils and levels of P application. Significant differences were also found between soils with the highest amounts of TNBP and NBP1 found in the Woodson soil and lowest detected in the Crete soil for most P sources. The FeO-P method was useful in predicting TNBP from most P sources.     

Constructal design of multiscale elliptic tubes in crossflow

The optimal configuration of two‐scale elliptic tubes in crossflow is found on the basis of the constructal design. The larger tubes are installed inside a domain of fixed length and height. In the same domain, smaller tubes are inserted between the larger tubes in the entrance region at the mid leading edge to leading edge distance of the larger tubes. The spacing between the larger tubes, the semiminor axis of the larger tubes, the major axis of the smaller tubes, and the semiminor axis of the smaller tubes are varied inside the domain freely to find the optimal configuration. There are two optimal configurations: one without the smaller tubes and the other with the presence of the smaller tubes. Both the larger and the smaller tubes are heated at a constant surface temperature. The flow is induced by a fixed pressure difference. The equations for steady, laminar, two‐dimensional, and incompressible flow are solved by finite volume method. In the absence of the smaller tubes, the range of Bejan number (dimensionless pressure drop) is ${10}^3<\mathit{Be}<{10}^5$, and in the presence of the smaller tubes, Bejan number is Be = 10⁵. The range of the dimensionless larger tubes semiminor axis is 0.1 ≤ B ≤ 0.4. Air is used to cool the row of the tubes with Prandtl number equal to 0.7. The results show that for different semiminor axes of the larger tubes, the heat transfer rate is enhanced when the smaller tubes are placed between the larger tubes.     

Possible use of volcanic ash as a filler in polyphenylene sulfide composites: Thermal,mechanical, and erosive wear properties

It is a common practice to use particle materials as fillers to improve engineering properties of polymer composites and to lower the cost of final products. There is an obvious cost advantage of compounding volcanic ash (VA) in polymers, either to replace traditional fillers. This study is concerned with thermal, mechanical, and erosive properties of VA‐filled polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) composites. Composite samples containing VA particles at various concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt%) were manufactured by twin screw extruder and injection molding machine. Thermal properties were investigated by thermogravimetric and dynamic mechanical analysis methods. Erosive wear properties were investigated by performing solid particle erosion tests at 30º and 90º impingement angles. The mechanical properties such as flexural strength and modulus of uneroded samples and residual flexural strength and modulus of eroded composite samples were determined by three‐point bending tests. Results show that thermal, mechanical, and residual mechanical properties of the PPS composite were significantly improved by adding VA, although erosion resistance was decreased markedly. It was concluded that VA can be used as a reinforcement in PPS composites to improve thermal and mechanical properties and to reduce the cost of the PPS composites. POLYM. COMPOS., 35:1826–1833, 2014. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Low-Cost Dielectric Reflective Surface for Low-Level Backscattered Diffuse Reflections

This article presents the design of non-subwavelength, non-resonant, and non-absorptive dielectric surface that creates a low-level backward diffuse reflections under illumination of a far-field plane wave at millimeter wave regime. Thus, radar cross section reduction of a solid metallic object can be achieved. The dielectric surface is consist of unit cells of only two different electric permittivity (ε _r1?=?6.14 and ε _r2?=?3.49) distributed across the surface aperture to achieve low-level backscattered diffuse reflections. The unit cells used are having non-subwavelength size (0.53λ_80GHz) which ensures an easier fabrication of the presented surface using low cost simple PCB technology, in particular at high frequencies. RCS reduction of more than 10 dBsm is achieved from 70 to 87 GHz (BW?≈?21.65 %) using the presented dielectric surface of optimized permittivity distribution. The RCS reduction capabilities of the presented surface are studied theoretically under both normal and oblique incidences and then fabricated and verified experimentally by reflectivity measurements.     

The behaviour of some derivatives of 1,2,4-triazine toward organomagnesium halides

6-Phenyl-3,5-dioxo-2,3,4,5-tetrahydro-1,2,4-triazine 1 , 3-oxo-5,6-diphenyl-2,3-dihydro-1,2,4-triazine 3 , 3,5,6-triphenyl-1,2,4-triazine 4 , and 3-chloro-5,6-diphenyl-1,2,4-triazine 8 , react with phenylmagnesium bromide. The reactions involved are represented by scheme A. Compound 3 reacts with o- and/or p-methoxyphenylmagnesium bromide to give compounds believed to have structures like 10 and 11 respectively. Compound 1 reacts with methylmagnesium bromide and with benzylmagnesium chloride to give products believed to have structures like 12 a , b .