Proper Orthogonal Decomposition for Time-Dependent Lid-Driven Cavity Flows

Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is employed to study a time-dependent lid-driven cavity flow. Ensembles of data are compiled from transient solutions computed with different grids and Reynolds numbers. The POD bases are used to reconstruct the constituents of the ensemble. Error measures are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the method. The geometric locations of major errors and their dependency on Reynolds number are also investigated. The POD technique proves capable of capturing more than 99.7% of the kinetic energy, using the first three eigenmodes. The errors were found to be uniformly bounded, which validates the theory derived.     

Machinability and manufacturing cost in low-lead brass

Today, commercially used brasses commonly contain 2 to 4 wt% lead. As the availability of low-lead and lead-free brass increases, there are environmental incentives for investigating the consequences of replacing the lead-containing brasses with lead-free equivalents. Generally, lead-free brass is expected to have a lower machinability than its lead-alloyed counterpart, implying a higher manufacturing cost. Thus, the aim of this study has been to quantify the added manufacturing cost by replacing a standard brass alloy with a low-lead alternative. This was done through a case study performed at a Swedish SME which replaced CuZn39Pb3 (3.3 wt% Pb) with low-lead CuZn21Si3P (<?0.09 wt% lead) for a select part. Since CuZn21Si3P is almost twice as expensive as CuZn39Pb3, the material cost was found to have a substantial influence on the manufacturing cost. Additionally, the lower machinability implied a longer cycle time and higher losses while machining CuZn21Si3P, resulting in a 77% overall increase in manufacturing cost when using the low-lead material. Arguably, the difference in material cost, and thus manufacturing cost, may decrease over time making production of low-lead and lead-free brass products a viable option, especially when considering the environmental incentive for decreasing the amount of lead in circulation.     

Work functions shaping the ability to innovate: insights from the case of the safety engineer

Cognition, Technology & Work - To perform as intended, firms are divided into work functions that contribute to the behaviour-shaping constraints under which individuals build their skills,...     

Sex Pheromone of the Pine Sawfly, Gilpinia pallida: Chemical Identification, Synthesis, and Biological Activity

We present the identification of the sex pheromone in the pine sawfly, Gilpinia pallida, including analysis of the female pheromone content, male antennal response and attraction in the field, and synthesis of the most active pheromone component. Several 3,7-dimethyl-2-alkanols were identified from female whole-body extracts, including some compounds with a 2R configuration. This is the first observation of such compounds in a pine sawfly species. Antennae of male G. pallida responded strongly in electroantennograph (EAG) recordings to the (2S,3R,7R)-isomers of the propionates of 3,7-dimethyl-2-tridecanol, 3,7-dimethyl-2-tetradecanol, and 3,7-dimethyl-2-pentadecanol, as well as to the acetates of the tri- and pentadecanols (the acetate of the tetradecanol was not tested). The propionate of (2S,3R,7R)-3,7-dimethyl-2-tetradecanol caught more males in the field than the corresponding isomer of tri- or pentadecanol. We suggest that the (2S,3R,7R)-isomer of 3,7-dimethyl-2-tetradecanol is likely the main sex pheromone precursor in G. pallida, with a subsidiary role for the (2S,3R,7R)-isomer of the tridecanol. Preparation of highly pure (2R,3R,7R)- and (2S,3R,7R)-stereoisomers of 3,7-dimethyl-2-tetradecanol, including the biological active esters, was performed via chemoenzymatic methods and is described in detail.     

Dynamic modelling of catalytic liquid-phase reactions in fixed beds—Kinetics and catalyst deactivation in the recovery of anthraquinones

Dynamic modelling of catalytic fixed-bed reactors with liquid-phase feed is of crucial importance, since catalyst deactivation often plays a central role in reaction engineering. General dynamic modelling of liquid-phase fixed beds was considered, including complex reaction kinetics and catalyst deactivation. The modelling concept was applied on a catalytic liquid-phase conversion reaction. The model was tested with pilot-plant data and showed a good predictivibility. The model can be used to optimize the production life cycles of fixed beds with catalyst deactivation.     

Direct contact PCM–water cold storage

Comfort cooling demand continues to increase throughout the world. Conventional cooling production results in high demand for electrical power during peak hours, leading to high emissions for producing cooling, and potential power shortages in electric grids. With a cold storage, the peak power demand is effectively managed and enables free-cooling. This paper examines one concept using phase change materials (PCM) for storing of cold, where the cold carrier (water) is in direct contact with the PCM. This is in order to enable high power for charging and discharging while providing a high storage capacity. A theoretical model highlights important design parameters for reaching large storage and power capacity. The capacity increases with the Packing Factor and temperature difference across the storage. For high power, the flow rate, temperature difference, and drop size is important parameters which is also verified in an experimental evaluation. The obtainable power is between 30 and 80 kW/m³ storage. Practical limitations of this concept are shown to be PCM–water bed expansion and non-uniform channeling due to asymmetric and unstable PCM shells.     

An Inverse Heat Conduction Problem and Improving Shielded Thermocouple Accuracy

A shielded thermocouple is a measurement device used for monitoring the temperature in chemically, or mechanically, hostile environments. The sensitive parts of the thermocouple are protected by a shielding layer. In order to improve the accuracy of the measurement device, we study an inverse heat conduction problem where the temperature on the surface of the shielding layer is sought, given measured temperatures in the interior of the thermocouple. The procedure is well suited for real-time applications where newly collected data is continuously used to compute current estimates of the surface temperature. Mathematically we can formulate the problem as a Cauchy problem for the heat equation, in cylindrical coordinates, where data is given along the line r = r ₁ and the solution is sought at r ₁ < r ≤ r ₂. The problem is ill-posed, in the sense that the solution (if it exists) does not depend continuously on the data. Thus, regularization techniques are needed. The ill–posedness of the problem is analyzed and a numerical method is proposed. Numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed method works well.     

Equilibrium sampling of persistent and bioaccumulative compounds in soil and sediment: comparison of two approaches to determine equilibrium partitioning concentrations in lipids

The equilibrium sampling in silicone is increasingly applied to measure freely dissolved concentrations and chemical activities within bioaccumulation research of hydrophobic organic chemicals. Two equilibrium methods were applied to PCB-contaminated soil and sediment, and directly calibrated with respect to equilibrium partitioning concentrations in lipids (C(lipid,partitioning)): (i) Solid phase microextraction in the headspace above the sample (HS-SPME) required optimization for its application to PCBs, and it was calibrated above external partitioning standards in olive oil. (ii) Equilibrium sampling with internally coated glass jars with varying thicknesses of silicone (PDMS) resulted in proportionality between coating and analyte mass, which confirmed several validity criteria. C(lipid,partitioning) was here determined as product of PDMS concentration and PDMS to lipid partition ratio. The results of the two methods were in good agreement and thus validated each other. Finally, the coated glass jar method was applied to field sediment containing invertebrates, which lead to C(lipid,partitioning) that were about two times higher than measured lipid-normalized concentrations in the organisms. Temperature differences and animal lipid structure were discussed as possible reasons for this discrepancy. Both methods combine high analytical performance, reduced equilibration times and new calibration possibilities, which makes them suited for bioaccumulation research and environmental monitoring.     

The impact of different levels of detail in manufacturing systems simulation models

Modelling and simulating manufacturing systems often involves several different organisational units. This can make data collection difficult and it can be hard to obtain data that allows for the model to be built with a consistent level of detail. To investigate the impact of a varying level of detail, a manufacturing system was modelled using different levels of detail. The first model was modelled at a high level of detail containing all elements in the system. The second model was an aggregation of some of the processes in the system and the third model consisted only of the main processes. The experiments performed with the models, aimed at finding differences between models’ outputs that originated from the choice of the level of detail. The results show that there are significant differences between the models. The simulation models used for this paper are made in collaboration with a company in the mobile communications industry and deals with supply chain problems.