Wear behaviour of forging steels with different microstructure during dry sliding

Sliding wear behaviour of two types medium carbon microalloyed steels containing various microstructures was investigated on a 320 mesh SiC paper at a sliding speed of 0.33 m/s with a load of 6 N and sliding duration of 4 min under dry sliding conditions (the sliding distance, 80 m). The experimental results showed that the different microstructures cause a great influence on the wear resistance performance of the steels. Water quenched samples with martensite structure have the highest hardness and wear resistance performance. That is because, water cooled samples contained higher amount of carbon in the solid solution. On the other hand, air or sand cooling from forging temperature results in a decrement of hardness and wear resistance in steel-1 and steel-2. However, air cooled samples showed slightly higher wear resistance than sand cooled samples due to finer grain sizes and the larger pearlite and/or precipitation contributions.     

Research on the generation of electricity from the geothermal resources in Simav region, Turkey

One of the greatest problems in using renewable energy sources is the great variability of energy level, both in the short and long term. Geothermal energy, by nature, has high availability because the source is not dependent on weather conditions, so it is among the most stable renewable energy sources. Geothermal energy has the potential to play an important role in the future energy supply of Turkey. Although Turkey has the second-highest geothermal energy potential in Europe, electricity generation from geothermal energy is rather low.This study examines the use of geothermal energy in electricity generation and investigates the applicability of the existent geothermal energy resources to electricity generation in the Kütahya–Simav region, Turkey. The binary cycle is used in the designed power plant for electricity generation from geothermal fluid in which the percentage of liquid is high and which is at lower temperature. In this power plant, R134a is chosen as the secondary fluid, whose boiling point temperature is lower than that of water, and is used instead of geothermal fluid in a second cycle. The thermal efficiency of the designed power plant is measured to be 12.93%.     

Removal of methylene blue from aqueous solutions by poly(2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid-co-itaconic acid) hydrogels

In this study, removal of methylene blue (MB) from aqueous solution by poly(AMPS-co-IA) hydrogels was examined by batch equilibration technique. The effects of monomer ratio, concentration of initiator and crosslinker, pH, adsorption time, initial dye concentration and adsorption temperature on the removal of MB were studied. The results show that the removal of MB was highly effected by preparation conditions of hydrogel. The maximum removal was observed at 10/90 IA/AMPS monomer ratio, 1.0% KPS, and 10.0% MBAAm concentrations. Removal of MB was strongly affected by pH. Pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intraparticle diffusion models were applied. It was concluded that adsorption of MB on hydrogel followed pseudo-second-order kinetics. It was found that the adsorption isotherm of the MB fit Langmuir-type isotherms. From the Langmuir equation, the adsorption capacity was found as 1,000 mg/g for MB dye. Thermodynamic parameters suggest that the adsorption is a typical physical process, spontaneous, and exothermic in nature. Ten adsorption—desorption cycles demonstrated that the hydrogels were suitable for repeated use without considerable change in adsorption capacity. The results revealed that this hydrogels have potential to be used as an adsorbent for the removal of MB from aqueous solution.     

Rapid evaluation and discrimination of γ‐irradiated carbohydrates using FT‐Raman spectroscopy and canonical discriminant analysis

Chemical changes induced by gamma irradiation of selected sugar systems—honey and fructose—were investigated through their molecular fingerprint using Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy (FT‐Raman). Generalized two‐dimensional (2‐D) correlation spectroscopy was applied to FT‐Raman spectra of the control and 17 kGy irradiated fructose to elucidate changes in the chemical structure upon irradiation. The irradiation induced changes in the ring (below 700 cm^?1) and conformational structure (800–1500 cm^?1) of fructose were identified by means of a 2‐D FT‐Raman correlation spectroscopy. The irradiation damage depicted from the C? H stretch region (2800–3000 cm^?1) of the FT‐Raman spectra of honey was used to develop a pattern recognition model for classifying honey based on the irradiation dose. A hybrid partial least squares (PLS)–canonical variate analysis (CVA) with the optimum number of factors from PLS was used for rapid discrimination of honeys irradiated at 1, 5, 10 or 17 kGy. The present study demonstrated that FT‐Raman spectroscopy, together with chemometrics, could be a rapid tool for classification of foodstuffs with high sugar content and provides a viable option to explore radiation‐induced modifications to sugar systems subjected to irradiation processing. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

Influence of Al concentration on structural and optical properties of Al-doped ZnO thin films

Undoped ZnO and Al-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) thin films with different Al concentrations were prepared onto Si (100) substrate by pulsed filtered cathodic vacuum arc deposition system at room temperature. The influence of doping on the structural and optical properties of thin films was investigated. The preferential (002) orientation was weakened by high aluminum doping in films. Raman measurement was performed for the doping effects in the ZnO. Atomic force microscopy images revealed that the surface of undoped ZnO film grown at RT was smoother than that of the Al-doped ZnO (ZnO:Al) films. The reflectance of all films was studied as a function of wavelength using UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer. Average total reflectance values of about 35 % in the wavelength range of 400–800 nm were obtained. Optical band gap of the films was determined using the reflectance spectra by means of Kubelka–Munk formula. From optical properties, the band gap energy was estimated for all films.     

Synthesis and analysis of injection‐molded nanocomposites of recycled high‐density polyethylene incorporated with graphene nanoflakes

Recycled high‐density polyethylene (HDPE) was incorporated with graphene nanoflakes in a solvent at different concentrations (0, 1, 2, 4, and 8 wt%), and then the mechanical, thermal, electrical, and surface hydrophobic properties of the resultant nanocomposites were determined using universal tensile testing, thermal comparative, capacitance bridge, and goniometer techniques, respectively. The test results revealed that the mechanical, thermal, and dielectric properties of the polymer matrix nanocomposites were increased as a function of graphene concentrations, whereas the surface hydrophobic values were slightly increased at lower concentrations and then reduced at higher concentrations. These improvements occur mainly because of the excellent properties of graphene nanoflakes, such as tensile strength (150 GPa), Young's modulus (1.0 TPa), thermal conductivity (4,840–5,300 W/m K), electrical conductivity (1.3 × 10⁶ S/cm), electrical current density (10¹³ A/cm²), surface hydrophobicity (>120°), and surface smoothness/roughness (<1 nm). The worldwide consumption of polymeric products has been drastically growing, and consequently polymeric waste materials have been rising up, as well. Although the plastic recycling and reprocessing rates are considerably high, physical properties and economical values of the recycled plastics are significantly low, limiting the reuse of recycled plastics in many industrial applications. As a result, this study provides a detailed explanation of how to improve recycled plastics into highly valued new products for applications in various industries, such as transportation, energy, electronic, construction, and so forth. POLYM. COMPOS., 36:1565–1573, 2015. © 2014 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Failure analysis of woven kevlar fiber reinforced epoxy composites pinned joints

An investigation was performed to determine the failure mode and the failure load of mechanically fastened joints in woven kevlar epoxy composite plates. Two-dimensional finite element code is developed to predict damage initiation, progression and strength of joints. Hashin, Hoffman and Maximum Stress criteria were used in this failure analysis. Experiments were performed to find the failure load and to predict the failure mode. Parametric studies were also carried out to evaluate the effect of joint geometry on this analysis. The obtained results were compared each other and comparison showed good agreement between numerical and experimental methods.     

HiSQL: A Front-end Query System for Historical Relational Databases

The paper describes a prototype system called HiSQL (Historical SQL) which extends the functionality of SQL in manipulating historical data, by providing functions for spatial and temporal processing. Conceptually the paper is divided into three parts: the first part deals with the design and architecture of the system; the second part introduces a case study (the defters); and the third part describes specific functions for spatial and temporal processing of serial documents. The paper concludes with a comparison between HiSQL and SQL and suggestions for further work. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A New Ultrasonic Thermostatic-Assisted Cloud Point Extraction/Spectrophotometric Method for the Preconcentration and Determination of Bisphenol A in Food,Milk, and Water Samples in Contact with Plastic Products

Bisphenol A (BPA) contamination in foods and beverages usually occurs as a result of migration from the packages that contain it. In this context, a simple, easy-to-use, and efficient method was developed for the spectrophotometric determination of BPA in food, milk, and water samples in contact with plastic products after preconcentration by ultrasonic-thermostatic-assisted cloud point extraction (UTA-CPE). The method is based on the charge transfer-sensitive complexation of BPA with 3-methylamino-7-dimethylaminophenothiazin-5-ium chloride (AzB) in the presence of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) at pH 8.5 and then extraction of the formed complex into the micellar phase of polyethylene glycol dodecyl ether (Brij 35). The effects of the analytical variables affecting complex formation and extraction efficiency were systematically studied and optimized. Under optimized conditions, a good linear relationship was obtained in the range of 1.2–160 μg L^?1 with a detection limit of 0.35 μg L^?1. After preconcentration of a sample of 20 mL, a sensitivity enhancement factor was found to be 180. The accuracy and reliability of the method were evaluated by recovery studies from the spiked quality control samples and intraday and interday precision studies. From the studies conducted, the extraction efficiency (E%) was in the range of 94–103% with a relative standard deviation lower than 5.2% (as RSD%, n = 5). The method was successfully applied to the preconcentration and determination of BPA from the selected sample matrices.

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Graphical Abstract Migration of bisphenol A into the foodstuffs

     

Effects of physical growth conditions on the structural and optical properties of sputtered grown thin HfO2 films

HfO₂ thin films were prepared by reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique on (100) p-Si substrate. The effects of O₂/Ar ratio, substrate temperature, sputtering power on the structural properties of HfO₂ grown films were studied by Spectroscopic Ellipsometer (SE), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth profiling techniques. The results show that the formation of a SiO_x suboxide layer at the HfO₂/Si interface is unavoidable. The HfO₂ thickness and suboxide formation are highly affected by the growth parameters such as sputtering power, O₂/Ar gas ratio during sputtering, and substrate temperature. XRD spectra show that the deposited films have (111) monoclinic phase of HfO₂, which is also supported by FTIR spectra. XPS depth profiling spectra shows that highly reactive sputtered Hf atoms consume some of the oxygen atoms from the underlying SiO₂ to form HfO₂, leaving Si-Si bonds behind.