Prediction of the disc wear in a model IsaMill and its effect on the flow of grinding media

Mill wear is a critical issue in mineral industries. It affects mill performance and the cost of replacing worn parts is high. Understanding wear and its effect would provide a useful insight for process optimisation. This paper combines the discrete element method (DEM) with a commonly used wear model to predict the wear pattern of stirring discs in a model IsaMill. The results show that wear is more severe at the outer face of discs and the lifting side of holes. The simulated wear pattern has been compared with those observed in practice. The effect of disc wear on the flow of grinding media is also examined, showing that with the increasing wear, impact energy increases while power draw shows a mix of slight increase and decrease. The findings would be useful to the improvement in the design and control of IsaMills.     

Fluorescence of leachates from three contrasting landfills

Landfill leachates are composed of a complex mixture of degradation products including dissolved organic matter, which includes a wide range of potentially fluorescent organic molecules and compounds. Here we investigate the excitation-emission matrix fluorescence of landfill leachates from three contrasting landfill sites. Landfill fluorescence properties are all characterized by intense fluorescence at lambda(ex) =220-230nm, and lambda(em) =340-370nm which we suggest derives from fluorescent components of the Xenobiotic Organic Matter fraction such as naphthalene, as well as at lambda(ex) =320-360nm, and lambda(em) =400-470nm from a higher molecular weight fulvic-like fraction. Landfill leachates are characterized by intense fluorescence, with approximately 10(2) intensity units of fluorescence at lambda(ex)=220-230nm, and lambda(em)=340-370nmmg(-1) of total organic carbon, demonstrating leachate detection limits of <0.1mgl(-1) total organic carbon. We demonstrate that for all landfill sites, leachate fluorescence intensity has a strong correlation with ground water quality determinants ammonia, total organic carbon and biochemical oxygen demand. We investigate both within-site and between-site leachate fluorescence properties, and demonstrate that although there is significant within-site variability, leachates from all 3 sites can be statistically discriminated using just fluorescence properties (65% success rate) or with a combination of fluorescence and basic geochemical parameters (85%). Our findings suggest that fluorescence can be used as a rapid and sensitive tracer of leachate contamination of ground water, as well as help discriminate, together with geochemical determinants, leachates from different landfill sources.     

从设计到建造——清华大学建造设计实验

建造是建筑设计的原点、创意源泉和重要内容。欧美和我国建筑院校的建造设计是将设计拉回到我们的双手、双眼对材料、连接、表现的基本体验和把握中,强调从建造到设计、从做到学的工匠式的感悟和创造。清华大学建筑学院的建造设计教学正是基于这一理念的实验探索。     

Gibraltar: A Reed‐Solomon coding library for storage applications on programmable graphics processors

Reed–Solomon coding is a method for generating arbitrary amounts of erasure correction information from original data via matrix–vector multiplication in finite fields. Previous work has shown that modern CPUs are not well‐matched to this type of computation, requiring applications that depend on Reed–Solomon coding at high speeds (such as high‐performance storage arrays) to use hardware implementations. This work demonstrates that high performance is possible with current cost‐effective graphics processing units across a wide range of operating conditions and describes how performance will likely evolve in similar architectures. It describes the characteristics of the graphics processing unit architecture that enable high‐speed Reed–Solomon coding. A high‐performance practical library, Gibraltar, has been prototyped that performs Reed–Solomon coding on graphics processors in a manner suitable for storage arrays, along with applications with similar data resiliency needs. This library enables variably resilient erasure correcting codes to be used in a broad range of applications. Its performance is compared with that of a widely available CPU implementation, and a rationale for its API is presented. Its practicality is demonstrated through a usage example. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rescheduling parallel machines with stepwise increasing tardiness and machine assignment stability objectives

Nervousness in machine assignments during rescheduling can cause problems for the implementation of a scheduling system. This paper examines rescheduling due to the arrival of new jobs to the system. Parallel machine scheduling problems with stepwise increasing tardiness cost objectives, non-zero machine ready times, constraints that limit machine reassignments, and machine reassignment costs are considered. Simulation experiments and individual scheduling problems indicate that nervousness can be controlled at a low cost in some parallel machine scheduling environments. The rescheduling problems in the simulation are solved with a branch-and-price algorithm. Significant gains in schedule stability can be achieved by selecting the alternative optimal solution with the fewest machine reassignments.     

Single-channel blind estimation of arterial input function and tissue impulse response in DCE-MRI

Multipass dynamic MRI and pharmacokinetic modeling are used to estimate perfusion parameters of leaky capillaries. Curve fitting and nonblind deconvolution are the established methods to derive the perfusion estimates from the observed arterial input function (AIF) and tissue tracer concentration function. These nonblind methods are sensitive to errors in the AIF, measured in some nearby artery or estimated by multichannel blind deconvolution. Here, a single-channel blind deconvolution algorithm is presented, which only uses a single tissue tracer concentration function to estimate the corresponding AIF and tissue impulse response function. That way, many errors affecting these functions are reduced. The validity of the algorithm is supported by simulations and tests on real data from mouse. The corresponding nonblind and multichannel methods are also presented.     

Experimental and molecular mechanics and ab initio investigation of activated adsorption and desorption of trichloroethylene in mineral micropores

This research investigated activated adsorption of a hydrophobic organic contaminant(HOC) in mineral micropores using experimental and molecular modeling techniques. Adsorption of trichloroethylene (TCE) on a silica gel adsorbent was measured using a frontal analysis chromatography technique at atmospheric and elevated fluid pressures. Increasing the fluid pressure yielded increased TCE uptake that was not released upon lowering the pressure back to atmospheric conditions. This showed that the increase in pressure was able to rapidly induce the formation of a desorption-resistant fraction that previous investigations have shown requires months to develop at atmospheric pressure. Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) modeling was then used to elucidate the nature of water and TCE behavior within silica micropores. The GCMC modeling showed that molecular scale packing restrictions resulted in pore fluid densities that ranged from 0.28 to 0.78 of those in the bulk solution. The modeling also showed that TCE was able to displace water from hydrophilic mineral pores due to molecular scale packing restrictions. Exothermic isosteric heats for TCE adsorption up to -27 kJ/mol were observed and were greatest in pores of 7 and 8 A. This indicated that TCE adsorption was energetically most favorable in pores that were minimally large enough to accommodate a TCE molecule. The pressure-induced uptake appeared to result primarily from an increase in the packing density in the smallest pores. Ab initio calculations showed that small distortions of a TCE molecule from its low energy conformation require high activation energies. Results from this study indicate that activated adsorption requiring bond angle distortions in the adsorbate may be responsible forthe slow attainment of adsorptive equilibrium of HOCs on microporous solids. Likewise, activated desorption from molecular-sized adsorption sites may contribute to the slow release of HOCs from aquifer sediments.     

Electroluminescence of organolanthanide based organic light emitting diodes

Recent advances in organolanthanide based organic light emitting diodes have lead to the demonstration of infra-red emitting devices. A silicon based organic light emitting diode exhibiting 1.53 μm electroluminescence at room temperature has also recently been reported. Furthermore, recent work has led to a clearer understanding of the quenching mechanisms in these organolanthanide based devices and suggests that the efficiencies obtained to date can be greatly improved.     

Facile Fabrication of PbS Nanocrystal:C60 Fullerite Broadband Photodetectors with High Detectivity

Hybrid PbS nanocrystal/C₆₀ fullerite photodetectors are fabricated using a simple one‐step drop casting procedure onto pre‐patterned interdigitated electrodes. The devices exhibit a broad spectral response from the near UV through to the near infrared yielding a detectivity, D*, of above 10¹⁰ Jones from 400 nm to ≈1050 nm. The ability to further extend the spectral response to wavelengths ≈1350 nm in the near infrared via tuning of the PbS nanocrystal diameter is also demonstrated. The dynamic responses of the devices are presented, exhibiting a fast photocurrent rise time (<40 ns) followed by a long bi‐exponential decay with characteristic lifetimes of τ₁ = 5.3 μs ± 0.1 μs and τ₂ = 37.8 μs ± 0.7 μs. These devices, which have a detectivity approaching that of commercial detectors, a broader spectral response, and a fast rise time, offer an attractive low‐cost solution for large‐area broadband photodetectors.