Study of uranium sorption using D2EHPA‐impregnated polymeric beads

The extractant‐impregnated polymeric beads (EIPBs), containing Di(2‐ethylhexyl) phosphonic acid (D2EHPA) as an extractant and polyethersulfone as base polymer, were prepared by phase‐inversion method. These beads were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis to gain insight into the composition and morphology of beads. The beads exhibited good acid stability as no significant structural deformation or leaching out of the extractant was observed in 6M HNO₃ solution, up to the studied equilibration time of 15 days. The synthesized EIPBs were evaluated, for their ability to absorb uranium from aqueous solution, at different concentration and pH values. The kinetics measurement showed that about 90 min of equilibration time was enough to remove saturation amount of uranium from the solution. Kinetic modeling analysis of the extraction results was carried out using pseudo‐first‐order, pseudo‐second‐order, and intraparticle diffusion equations and the corresponding rate constants were determined. The equilibrium data were fitted into different isotherm models and were found to be represented well by the Freundlich isotherm equation. Reusability of the beads was also established by multiple sorption–desorption experiments. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 3355–3364, 2013     

Evaluation of the Loading Characteristics of the EPA WINS PM2.5 Separator

The loading characteristics of the USEPA Well Impactor Ninety Six (WINS) PM_2.5 separator was an important design consideration during the separator's development. In recognition that all inertial separators eventually overload, the loading surface of the WINS was designed to be easily accessible, replaceable, and cleanable. Prior to promulgation of the method, the loading capacity of the WINS separator was evaluated by measuring its performance after repeated loading with laboratory-generated, high concentration, coarse-mode aerosol. For this purpose, a low flow rate loading wind tunnel was designed and constructed to artificially create coarse mode aerosols composed of Arizona Test Dust. This controlled test atmosphere was sampled by the PM_2.5 reference method sampling train, as specified in 40 CFR Part 50, Appendix L, at total aerosol mass concentrations averaging 332     

Cracking induced tribological behavior changes for the HVOF WC-12Co cermet coatings

HVOF sprayed WC based cermet coatings have been widely used in industries as barriers against wear and hydrodynamic cavitation due to their high hardness and relatively high toughness. However, cracking of the coatings can occur during coating production or in service, which can reduce operational performances. It can be difficult to assess the performance impact due to cracks within the coating and as to whether the cracked coatings should be resprayed or removed from service. In this work, artificial cracks of different widths were introduced to liquid fuel HVOF sprayed WC-12Co coating through uniaxial tension of the coated steel substrate to assess the implications of such cracking. Tribological performances of the cracked coatings were examined using rubber wheel dry abrasion, ‘ball on disc’ sliding wear, and ultrasonic cavitation erosion. The results show that the crack deteriorates the abrasive wear resistance of the coating at the initial stage due to preferable mass loss at the cracks. However, after 30?min of abrasion, all the cracked coatings showed the same wear rate as compared to the non-cracked coating, with the abrasive wear resistance acting independent to the crack characteristics. Because the cracks could store wear debris and thus minimize the debris induced abrasion to the coating surface during sliding wear test, both improvement in wear resistance and reduction in coefficient of friction (COF) were detected in the cracked coatings. During the cavitation test, it was found that the mass loss of the specimen increased significantly (up to 75%)with crack width and density suggesting that the crack presence greatly deteriorated the cavitation resistance of the cermet coatings.     

Thermoelectric properties of plasma sprayed of calcium cobaltite (Ca2Co2O5)

The thermoelectric properties of calcium cobaltite deposits produced by the plasma spray process are investigated from room-temperature to 873 K. Synthesis of Ca₃Co₂O₆ and Ca₂Co₂O₅ powders were prepared by the solid-state reaction from CaO and CoO_x starting powders. During their subsequent plasma spray Ca particles experience preferential evaporation within the plasma, resulting in a complex interplay among process conditions, stoichiometry, and resultant phases. The as-sprayed material predominantly contains amorphous and secondary phases. Upon annealing, the deposits show sensitivity to phase evolution and therefore thermoelectric properties. Through screening studies, optimal annealing conditions were identified which show a p-type Seebeck coefficient value of 180 μV K^?1, electrical conductivity of 1.09 × 10⁴ S m^?1, thermal conductivity of 1.16 W m^-1 K^-1 at 873 K. The resultant figure of merit value reached 0.266 for this combination of processing and thermal treatment and is in line with data reported from other techniques for this system.     

Optimal coverage of an infrastructure network using sensors with distance-decaying sensing quality

Motivated by recent applications of wireless sensor networks in monitoring infrastructure networks, we address the problem of optimal coverage of infrastructure networks using sensors whose sensing performance decays with distance. We show that this problem can be formulated as a continuous p-median problem on networks. The literature has addressed the discrete p-median problem   on networks and in continuum domains, and the continuous p$p$-median problem in continuum domains extensively. However, in-depth analysis of the continuous p$p$-median problem on networks has been lacking. With the sensing performance model that decays with distance, each sensor covers a region equivalent to its Voronoi partition on the network in terms of the shortest path distance metric. Using Voronoi partitions, we define a directional partial derivative of the coverage metric with respect to a sensor’s location. We then propose a gradient descent algorithm to obtain a locally optimal solution with guaranteed convergence. The quality of an optimal solution depends on the choice of the initial configuration of sensors. We obtain an initial configuration using two approaches: by solving the discrete p$p$-median problem on a lumped   network and by random sampling. We consider two methods of random sampling: uniform sampling and D²$D^2$-sampling. The first approach with the initial solution of the discrete p$p$-median problem leads to the best coverage performance for large networks, but at the cost of high running time. We also observe that the gradient descent on the initial solution with the D²$D^2$-sampling method yields a solution that is within at most 7% of the previous solution and with much shorter running time.     

Adaptive searching and replication of images in mobile hierarchical peer-to-peer networks

Due to the limitation of resources in mobile handheld devices and bandwidth constraints in wireless networks, it is important to efficiently manage image content and traffic to improve network throughput and response time. The efficient distribution of images in wireless networks is based on many parameters like the quality of service requirement, available bandwidth, restricted memory and diverse user profiles. We consider digital images as data objects accessed in a hierarchical mobile ad-hoc peer-to-peer network, referred as M-P2P. Our objective is to optimize the number of replicas of images in such a network architecture based on the resource limitations of the requesting peers equipped with miniature mobile devices as well as of wireless constraints in mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET). While replicating images, fragments of different resolution and their residues are used to optimize the traffic in the network and to decrease the search turnaround time. We call this replication algorithm as Ada-Rep. Performance evaluation is done by simulating Ada-Rep, base replication and uniform replication methods to evaluate parameters such as response time, failure rate, memory usage, traffic etc. Our results prove the efficiency and better performance of Ada-Rep.     

Effect of clay exfoliation and organic modification on morphological,dynamic mechanical,and thermal behavior of melt‐compounded polyamide‐6 nanocomposites

Polyamide‐6/clay nanocomposites were prepared employing melt bending or compounding technique followed by injection molding using different organically modified clays. X‐ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy were used to determine the molecular dispersion of the modified clays within the matrix polymer. Mechanical tests revealed an increase in tensile and flexural properties of the matrix polymer with the increase in clay loading from 0 to 5%. C30B/polyamide‐6 nanocomposites exhibited optimum mechanical performance at 5% clay loading. Storage modulus of polyamide‐6 also increased in the nanocomposites, indicating an increase in the stiffness of the matrix polymer with the addition of nanoclays. Furthermore, water absorption studies confirmed comparatively lesser tendency of water uptake in these nanocomposites. HDT of the virgin matrix increased substantially with the addition of organically modified clays. DSC measurements revealed both γ and α transitions in the matrix polymer as well as in the nanocomposites. The crystallization temperature (T_c) exhibited an increase in case of C30B/polyamide‐6 nanocomposites. Thermal stability of virgin polyamide‐6 and the nanocomposites has been investigated employing thermogravimetric analysis. POLYM. COMPOS., 28:153–162, 2007. © 2007 Society of Plastics Engineers     

Structured adaptive supervisory control model and software development for a flexible manufacturing system

A three-step approach is proposed to substantially reduce the high cost of development of control software for an FMS on the shop floor. First, by introducing the concept of multiple computing processes into Automata Theory, a finite capacity machine (FCM) is presented as an extended finite machine. An FCM is used to model the control of a flexible manufacturing system, which avoids the state explosion problem. Secondly, a structured adaptive supervisory control (SASC) model meeting the desired control objectives for an FMS is derived from a composed FCM. The SASC model can be constructed systematically. Finally, generic software components for an SASC model are described, which allow the SASC model to be cost-effectively transferred into shop-floor applicable control software.     

Multilevel metal interconnection utilizing CVD tungsten and liftoff processing

Interconnections between semiconductor devices in integrated circuits continue to present difficult problems in the tradeoffs between RC time constants, production worthiness, reliability, structural complexity, and compactibility for any single technology. A process and structure has been demonstrated for integrated circuit interconnections which uses a conformai tungsten layer deposited by chemical vapor deposition to provide step coverage into via holes of variable height. The film is then patterned with a via interconnect pattern designed for liftoff processing, layers of chromium copper and chromium are then depositedinsitu on the wafers by way of evaporation. The undesired material is lifted off in a solvent process and the resulting metal pattern is used as the mask for the reactive ion etching of CVD tungsten. This combination of materials and process allows for high conductivity reliable interconnections with negligable step coverage problems. Processing and test information will be presented in the paper.