Thermo-mechanical vibration of orthotropic cantilever and propped cantilever nanoplate using generalized differential quadrature method

In this article, the vibration frequency of an orthotropic nanoplate under the effect of temperature change is investigated. Using nonlocal elasticity theory, governing equations are derived. Based on the generalized differential quadrature method for cantilever and propped cantilever boundary conditions, the frequencies of orthotropic nanoplates are considered and the obtained results are compared with valid reported results in the literature. The effects of temperature variation, small scale, different boundary conditions, aspect ratio, and length on natural nondimensional frequencies are studied. The present analysis is applicable for the design of rotating and nonrotating nano-devices that make use of thermo-mechanical vibration characteristics of nanoplates.     

Solids behaviour in a gas-solid two-phase mixture flowing through a packed particle bed

This paper reports the solids behaviour in a dilute gas-solid two-phase mixture flowing through a packed bed. The positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) technique was used in the work, which allowed investigation of three-dimensional solids motion at the single suspended particle level. Processing of the data gave solids velocity, the residence time of suspended particles, bed tortuosity in terms of solids motion, as well as solids occupancy in the cross-section of the packed bed. The results suggest that the wall effect on the motion of suspended particles is limited to approximately one packed particle diameter under the conditions of this work. Both the average axial and radial velocities of suspended particles, normalised by the superficial gas velocity, change periodically with radial position, but the periodicity does not correspond exactly to the packed particle diameter. The peak and trough values of the average axial velocity of the suspended particles in the bulk region are, respectively, ∼25% and ∼15% of the superficial gas velocity under the conditions of this work and the superficial gas velocity shows little effect. The peak and trough values of the average radial velocity of the suspended particles in the bulk region are, respectively, +5% (positive) and -5% (negative) of the superficial gas velocity. The results of the residence time and tortuosity of the suspended particles show an approximately Gaussian distribution with the peak residence time and tortuosity increasing with decreasing superficial gas velocity. The occupancy data suggest that particles spend more time in an annular region close to the wall, indicating a non-uniform particle distribution across the packed bed cross-section.     

Solids behaviour in a dilute gas-solid two-phase mixture flowing through monolith channels

This paper reports, for the first time, the solids behaviour in a dilute gas-solid two-phase mixture flowing through monolith channels. The non-intrusive positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) technique was used in the work, which allowed investigation of three-dimensional solids motion at the single suspended particle level. Processing of the PEPT data gave solids velocity and occupancy in the monolith channels. The results showed a non-uniform radial distribution of both the solids velocity and concentration. The highest axial solids velocity occurred in monolith channels located in the central part of the column, whereas the highest solids concentration took place at a position approximately 0.7 times the column radius. The axial distribution of the axial solids velocity showed an entrance region with a length of approximately 33 times the hydrodynamic diameter of a monolith channel under the conditions of this work. Analysis of the PEPT data also gave distributions of particle residence time and tortuosity in terms of solids motion. The distributions were approximately Gaussian-type with the tortuosity distribution more skewed toward the right hand side. The peak residence time and tortuosity decreased with increasing superficial gas velocity and the distributions were broadened at lower superficial gas velocities. The results of this work also provided a possible explanation to our previously observed early laminar-to-turbulent flow transition in monolith channels.     

Experimental investigation of precision turning of Monel K-500 under dry conditions

In this paper, final surface accuracy in turning the super alloy Monel K-500 is studied. The experiments were conducted on the basis of the design of experiment methodology considering four inputs of tool nose radius, feed rate, depth of cut, and cutting speed, and three outputs of surface roughness, dimensional deviation, and tool wear. The aim of this work is to identify these three phenomena to achieve a desirable machined surface with acceptable finishing and the least deviation from nominal dimensions under different parametric conditions. It was observed that the quality of the machined surface in the direction of the machining length is not constant and, in some trials, the values of Ra increase considerably at the end of the machining length. The results show that cutting speed can improve surface accuracy, in a way that the more the cutting speed, the less the dimensional deviation. Less depth of cut and tool radius affect dimensional deviation as well. Although it has a small effect on dimensional deviation, feed rate plays the most important role in controlling tool wear. Finally, on the basis of Grey relational analysis, a simultaneous optimization is carried out on surface roughness, dimensional deviation, and tool wear values. In order to minimize these responses, optimal parametric conditions are presented. A satisfying correspondence was observed between the predicted results and the confirmation observations.     

CFD Simulation and Modeling of Membrane‐Assisted Separation of Organic Compounds from Wastewater

The extraction of volatile organic compounds (VOC) from water in porous hollow fibers was simulated with toluene, a hazardous material. The system to be simulated included a VOC stream and air as stripping gas, which were contacted using a porous hollow‐fiber membrane contactor. To model the process, the contactor was considered as three compartments, including shell side, porous membrane, and tube side. The model equations were derived and solved using computational fluid dynamics of momentum and mass transfer in all zones of the contactor. The profiles of concentration and pressure were obtained for the VOC in the hollow fibers.     

Insights into the estimation of hydroxyl radical rate constant of water contaminants in AOP using new smart QSPR models

Investigations on the advanced oxidation processes (AOP) express that one of the effective oxidation agents in the degradation of organic pollutants is the aqueous hydroxyl radical. Therefore, the main aim of this work is the determination of the hydroxyl radical rate constant. To this end, three artificial intelligence methods were used to predict this constant for 457 various water pollutants from 27 molecular structures. The modelling results showed that the proposed decision tree model can determine the mentioned parameter with R‐squared values of 0.9264 and mean relative error of 1.479 for the overall data set. In addition, a comprehensive analysis of input parameters showed that Burden eigenvalue has the most impact on the hydroxyl radical rate constant. Finally, different comparisons were carried out between the suggested algorithms and other published approaches in the literature, which showed a high degree of precision for our models.     

Numerical simulation studies on heat and mass transfer using vacuum membrane distillation

A general 2D mathematical model was developed to simulate the purification of water from volatile organic compounds (VOCs) via vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process in hollow fiber membrane contactors. The model was developed for hydrophobic membrane material conditions, taking into consideration axial and radial diffusion in the tube, membrane and compartments of the contactor and was simplified to the two‐dimensional structure with a single porous membrane wall. The simulation has studied the mass and heat transfer of VMD system in the porous media, in which aqueous volatile organic solution was considered as an incompressible and steady fluid. Effect of the downstream pressure on the removal of 1, 1, 1‐trichloroethane (TCA) was studied to validation of simulation results with experimental data that it was obtained from literature. The temperature, Reynolds number, and total mass flux (convective and diffusive) distribution of TCA are determined in the membrane module. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 54:2553–2559, 2014. © 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Simulation of Membrane Distillation for Purifying Water Containing 1,1,1‐Trichloroethane

Vacuum membrane distillation is modeled for the purification of water containing organic matter. The separation medium is a hollow‐fiber membrane contactor that is simplified to a two‐dimensional structure with a single porous membrane wall. The model considers the transport phenomena of a vacuum membrane distillation system in porous media, in which the aqueous volatile organic solution was considered as an incompressible and steady fluid. The numerical simulation of the two‐dimensional model of vacuum membrane distillation for an aqueous solution of 1,1,1‐trichloroethane was established under steady state. The effects of the bulk feed temperature and the feed flow rate on the percentage of 1,1,1‐trichloroethane removal from an aqueous solution are discussed.     

Size-dependent effects on critical flow velocity of a SWCNT conveying viscous fluid based on nonlocal strain gradient cylindrical shell model

This article investigates vibration and instability analysis of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) conveying viscous fluid flow. For this purpose, the first-order shear deformation shell model is developed in the framework of nonlocal strain gradient theory (NSGT) for the first time. The proposed model is a conveying viscous fluid in which the external force of fluid flow is applied by the modified Navier–Stokes relation and considering slip boundary condition and Knudsen number. The NSGT can be reduced to the nonlocal elasticity theory, strain gradient theory or the classical elasticity theory by inserting their specific nonlocal parameters and material length scale parameters into the governing equations. Comparison of above-mentioned theories suggests that the NSGT predicts the greatest critical fluid flow velocity and stability region. The governing equations of motion and corresponding boundary conditions are discretized using the generalized differential quadrature method. Furthermore, the effects of the material length scale, nonlocal parameter, Winkler elastic foundation and Pasternak elastic foundation on vibration behavior and instability of a SWCNT conveying viscous fluid flow with simply supported and clamped–clamped boundary conditions are investigated.     

Toll-Like Receptor Signaling Pathways: Novel Therapeutic Targets for Cerebrovascular Disorders

Toll-like receptors (TLRs), a class of pattern recognition proteins, play an integral role in the modulation of systemic inflammatory responses. Cerebrovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of pathological conditions that temporarily or permanently affect the brain tissue mostly via the decrease of oxygen and glucose supply. TLRs have a critical role in the activation of inflammatory cascades following hypoxic-ischemic events and subsequently contribute to neuroprotective or detrimental effects of CVD-induced neuroinflammation. The TLR signaling pathway and downstream cascades trigger immune responses via the production and release of various inflammatory mediators. The present review describes the modulatory role of the TLR signaling pathway in the inflammatory responses developed following various CVDs and discusses the potential benefits of the modulation of different TLRs in the improvement of functional outcomes after brain ischemia.