Impact of the intumescent formulation of styrene acrylic-based coatings on the fire performance of thin painted red lauan (Parashorea spp.) plywood

Intumescent material with commercial resin, such as styrene acrylic copolymer resin, has been demonstrated to be extremely effective in improving the fire performance of wooden materials used for indoor furnishing. The formulation of the coating is a key to its ability to improve flame retardance. This study investigates the enhancement for painted thin red lauan (Parashorea spp.) plywood. The ability of the material to retard flame arises due to the interactions between the four major components of intumescent formulation: (1) a binder resin (BR), styrene acrylic emulsion resin, (2) a carbonizing substance (CS), pentaerythritol (3) a foam producing substance (FPS), melamine and (4) a dehydrating agent (DA), ammonium polyphosphate. This paper compares the fire performance of the plywood when coated with resin of differing BR/CS ratios (designated as the FRS series) and FPS/DA ratios (designated as the FRD series), by means of a cone calorimeter. These intumescent formulations significantly enhanced the fire retardancy of painted plywood, exhibiting lower peak heat release rates, higher expansion of the intumescent layer and longer time to peak heat release rates (PHRR), when compared to plywood panels coated with sole binder resin. However, worse performance was presented when compared with the data for uncoated plywood panels if the intumescent was produced by equal ratio of the four components. Therefore, the formulation of the intumescent is important. Additionally, lower BR contents in the FRS series and lower FPS contents in the FRD series further enhanced flame retardancy. Advanced investigation by IR and ³¹P NMR demonstrated that lower BR and FPS content extends the survival duration of the phosphor-carbonaceous structure of chars. The findings in this study enhance the state-of-the-art understanding of the effect of the intumescent.     

Distributed product and facility prototyping in extended manufacturing enterprises

In order to reduce the cost at the early product development stages, the planners need methodologies and tools that would allow them to judge upon the implications of the product design on the required manufacturing processes and facilities for their production. This paper reports on a new theoretical platform and a pilot implementation of a decision-making environment for distributed product and facility prototyping in an extended enterprise. The approach is based on an exchange of requests and information between collaborative autonomous agents that support the design, manufacturing planning and facility formation activities. The decision-making is formalized as iterative matching of design, process and facility attributes using multilevel resource capability representation within the extended enterprise. The system is implemented as an XML/CORBA-based environment for conveying design and manufacture messages across traditional technology boundaries. The reported research aims to provide the designers with a rapid manufacturing feasibility assessment tool to be used at different design and planning stages in extended manufacturing enterprises.     

A hybrid two-phase encoding particle swarm optimization for total weighted completion time minimization in proportionate flexible flow shop scheduling

A proportionate flow shop (PFS) is a special case of the m machine flow shop problem. In a PFS, a fixed sequence of machines is arranged in s stages (s?>?1) with only a single machine at each stage, and the processing time for each job is the same on all machines. Notably, PFS problems have garnered considerable attention recently. A proportionate flexible flow shop (PFFS) scheduling problem combines the properties of PFS problems and parallel-identical-machine scheduling problems. However, few studies have investigated the PFFS problem. This study presents a hybrid two-phase encoding particle swarm optimization (TPEPSO) algorithm to the PFFS problem with a total weighted completion time objective. In the first phase, a sequence position value representation is designed based on the smallest position value rule to convert continuous position values into job sequences in the discrete PFFS problem. During the second phase, an absolute position value representation combined with a tabu search (TS) is applied starting from the current position of particles that can markedly improve swarm diversity and avoid premature convergence. The hybrid TPEPSO algorithm combines the cooperative and competitive characteristics of TPEPSO and TS. Furthermore, a candidate list strategy is designed for the TS to examine the neighborhood and concentrate on promising moves during each iteration. Experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the proposed hybrid TPEPSO algorithm in terms of solution quality. Moreover, the proposed hybrid TPEPSO algorithm is considerably faster than existing approaches for the same benchmark problems in literature.     

Effects of oligosaccharides on phase transition temperatures and rheological characteristics of waxy rice starch dispersion

BACKGROUND: The creation of starch‐based foods incorporated with functional ingredients such as probiotics is of great current interest in the food industry. This study aimed to investigate the effects of prebiotic oligosaccharides on the phase transition temperatures and rheological characteristics of waxy rice starch dispersions. Four oligosaccharides were applied to the rice starch dispersions: chitooligosaccharides, fructooligosaccharides, isomaltooligosaccharides and xylooligosaccharides. RESULTS: The addition of 125 g kg^?1 oligosaccharides elevated the onset and peak temperatures for gelatinisation of 200–400 g kg^?1 waxy rice starch dispersions. The temperature of the storage modulus (G′) for gelatinisation increased markedly on adding fructooligosaccharides to 200–300 g kg^?1 waxy rice starch. For gelatinisation of 300 g kg^?1 rice starch dispersion the effectiveness of the oligosaccharides in changing the above parameters was as follows: chitooligosaccharides > fructooligosaccharides > isomaltooligosaccharides > xylooligosaccharides. Moreover, their effectiveness was dependent on the amylose content, as illustrated by comparing waxy and non‐waxy rice starches (amylose contents 9–256 g kg^?1). Importantly, the logarithmic G′₉₅ change was linearly and negatively correlated with amylose content. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that oligosaccharide‐containing rice starch dispersions may potentially be used for the formulation of oligosaccharide‐containing starchy functional foods owing to the rheological changes of these starch dispersions. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry     

Undrained Stability of Footings on Slopes

Solutions for the ultimate bearing capacity of footings on purely cohesive slopes are obtained by applying finite element upper and lower bound methods. In a footing-on-slope system, the ultimate bearing capacity of the footing may be governed by either foundation failure or global slope failure. The combination of these two factors makes the problem difficult to solve using traditional methods. The importance of a dimensionless strength ratio in determining the footing capacity is broadly discussed, and design charts are presented for a wide range of parameters. In addition, the effect of footing roughness and surface surcharge are briefly quantified.     

Change of Hygienic Quality and Freshness in Tuna Treated with Electrolyzed Water and Carbon Monoxide Gas during Refrigerated and Frozen Storage

ABSTRACT:  Among different fish slices used for sashimi preparation, tuna is the most popular and preferable fish type for Taiwanese people. To improve the hygienic quality of fish slices, electrolyzed (EO) water containing 10, 50, and 100 mg/L chlorine, was used in combination with CO gas treatment. Effect of different treatment on aerobic plate count (APC), volatile basic nitrogen (VBN), K value, and Hunter L*, a*, b* values of yellow-fin tuna steak during storage (4 °C and −20 °C) were evaluated. It was found that APC, VBN, and K values increased with storage time for all treatment. Except for K value, APC and VBN of tuna steak treated with the combination of more than 50 mg/L chlorine EO water and CO gas had the lowest value after 8 d of refrigerated storage. Hunter a* value of tuna steak treated with only CO gas was the highest, followed by those treated with EO water and CO gas. These results demonstrated that EO water containing 50 mg/L chlorine combined with CO gas treatment in tuna fish steak would be an effective method for enhancing the hygienic quality and freshness for tuna meat and extending refrigerated storage time. Tuna treated with EO water containing 100 mg/L chlorine and CO gas combination had the lowest APC immediately after treatment and reduced further to below detection limit after 1 mo frozen storage at −20 °C.