Mechanism of titanium sponge formation in the kroll reduction reactor

The Kroll process of magnesium reduction of titanium tetrachloride is used the world over the production of titanium metal in the form of sponge. Although the process has been in practice for the last five decades, there is no clear understanding of the reaction mechanism and sponge formation. The present study involved reduction experiments in a 2000 kg titanium sponge-capacity prototype reactor to develop a better understanding of TiCl₄ reduction of magnesium with respect to the process parameters. Experiments were also conducted in two smaller experimental reactors to study the temperature evolution during the process as a function of the TiCl₄ feed rate. Based on the results of all these experiments, a model has been proposed for the mechanism of sponge formation in the Kroll process.     

Graph structure in the Web

The study of the Web as a graph is not only fascinating in its own right, but also yields valuable insight into Web algorithms for crawling, searching and community discovery, and the sociological phenomena which characterize its evolution. We report on experiments on local and global properties of the Web graph using two AltaVista crawls each with over 200 million pages and 1.5 billion links. Our study indicates that the macroscopic structure of the Web is considerably more intricate than suggested by earlier experiments on a smaller scale.     

A non-linear regression form for vegetation index-crop yield relation incorporating acquisition date normalization

A non-linear form relating vegetation indices (VI) to crop grain yields which normalizes for differences in acquisition date is suggested. It is based on the assumption that deviations in VI near the peak VI follow a quadratic behaviour. This form gave a higher R2 value than a simple VI-yield linear model on a multi-year, multi-location data set of IRS (Indian Remote Sensing Satellite-1A) LISS-I(Linear Imaging Self Scanner-I) derived near-infrared (NIR)/red radiance ratios and wheat grain yields in a study site in Madhya Pradesh (India). As the suggested model includes time of peak as a variable, it allows integration of results from other sources, such as, weather-based crop phenology model or high repetivity spectral data into the VI-yield relation.     

Topology design and bridge-capacity assignment for interconnecting token ring LANs: A simulated annealing approach

We address the problem of determining the topology and bridge-capacity assignments for a network connecting a number of token rings via source-routing bridges. The objective is to minimize the cost of bridge installations while meeting the network users' performance requirements. The problem is modeled as a mixed 0–1 integer program. A comparison is given between two solution algorithms: a simulated annealing algorithm using the flow-deviation algorithm for each routing subproblem, and a drop algorithm using the simplex method for the same subproblems to provide benchmark solutions. In the former algorithm, the routing subproblem is formulated as a nonlinear program with penalty functions to model node and link capacity constraints, and in the latter as a multicommodity flow model with the same capacity constraints. Computational results show that the simulated-annealing/flow-deviation algorithm produced substantially better solutions than the LP-based drop algorithm.     

Experimental measurement of gain in erbium-doped fluoride fiber amplifier in the 850-nm signal band

In this letter, we report an efficient single-mode Er/sup 3+/ doped fluoride fiber amplifier (EDFFA) in the 850 mn signal band. The Ti-sapphire laser was used to pump the EDFFA at 792 mm with an estimated absorbed pump power of 35 mW. The EDFFA used a 4.2 meter long NA=0.39, /spl lambda//sub c/=850 nm fluoride fiber as the active medium. A peak gain of 25 dB was observed at 852 mm. The gain was measured for a 10 nm region between 847.5 mn and 857.5 nm. The 3 dB gain bandwidth is less than 3 nm. However, the gain exceeded 20 dB over wavelength region of at least 7.5 nm. The gain and the gain bandwidth can be further increased by optimizing the length of the active fiber.     

Fabrication of zinc‐loaded hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) for hydrogen storage

The greatest challenge for a feasible hydrogen economy lies on the production of pure hydrogen and the materials for its storage with controlled release at ambient conditions. Hydrogen with its great abundance, high energy density and clean exhaust is a promising candidate to meet the current global challenges of fossil fuel depletion and green house gases emissions. Extensive research on hollow glass microspheres (HGMs) for hydrogen storage is being carried out world‐wide, but the right material for hydrogen storage is yet underway. But many other characteristics, such as the poor thermal conductivity etc. of the HGMs, restrict the hydrogen storage capacity. In this work, we have attempted to increase the thermal conductivity of HGMs by ZnO doping. The HGMs with Zn weight percentage from 0 to 10 were prepared by flame spheroidization of amber‐colored glass powder impregnated with the required amount of zinc acetate. The prepared HGMs samples were characterized using field emission‐scanning electron microscope (FE‐SEM), environmental SEM (ESEM), high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The deposition of ZnO on the microsphere walls was observed using FE‐SEM, ESEM and HRTEM which was further confirmed using the XRD and ultraviolet–visible absorption data. The hydrogen storage studies done on these samples at 200 °C and 10‐bar pressure for 5 h showed that the hydrogen storage increased when the Zn percentage in the sample increased from 0 to 2%. The percentage of zinc beyond 2, in the microspheres, showed a decline in the hydrogen storage capacity. The closure of the nanopores due to the ZnO nanocrystal deposition on the microsphere surface reduced the hydrogen storage capacity. The hydrogen storage capacity of HAZn2 was found 3.26 wt% for 10‐bar pressure at 200 °C. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Comparison of satellite and cellular architectures for downlink broadcast data transmission

Traditional voice and video‐oriented networks such as the cellular and satellite networks are being increasingly used to carry data traffic. We endeavour to compare the downlink broadcast performance of the two architectures against each other on the basis of energy consumption, end‐to‐end delay and maximum stable throughput. The architectures are modelled as systems of Geo/G/1 queues. Queuing theory arguments and then sample‐path based comparisons are used to show that the satellite architecture while being more energy‐efficient has a higher delay and a lower maximum throughput. The variation of energy and delay with the total number of receiver nodes is also studied. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Impact of Mobility on Cellular Network Configuration

This paper proposes a model for configuring cellular networks to study the dynamics of mobility between a single cell and its adjacent cells. It differs from most models considered in the literature by explicitly incorporating the dependency between the handoff rate and the system state. Besides, the handoff rate is also a function of cell size and subscriber mobility. Extensive computational experiments were done to study the impact of various input parameters on specific performance measures. Several observations are made regarding the system performance and as to how they are affected by the complex interaction between subscriber mobility, cell size, number of channels and the mean call initiation rate. The results of these experiments show that the proposed model, where handoff rates are state-dependent, captures additional traffic due to mobility when compared to the traditional method of modeling handoffs using information about the average behavior. Finally, the economic impact of mobility on system configuration decisions is analyzed. Though an approximation, the above work provides interesting insights about the impact of mobility in configuring cellular networks.     

Waveguide Cross Section and Background Magnetic Field Tapers for Broadbanding a Gyro-TWT

The gyro-TWT in a cylindrical waveguide of linearly-tapered cross section was analyzed for the gain-frequency response, using the Pierce-type gain equation. The taper in the waveguide cross section was adjusted for wide device bandwidths, either by changing the taper angle, while keeping the interaction length to be constant, or by changing the interaction length, while keeping the initial and final radii of the waveguide constant. Tapering led to the prediction of wide bandwidths, though at the cost of gain, as compared to a non-tapered device. The range of the DC background magnetic flux density relative to its grazing-point value was identified as a crucial parameter for large gains, with appreciable bandwidths, and minimum mode mixing in a tapered device, the latter in general facing more mode competition than a non-tapered device.