Investigation of the kinetics of breakup of gas bubbles in liquid metals with digital simulation method

The method of digital system simulation can be effectively used to quantify the complex multiphase interactions within a gas injection process. Process simulation results yield a better understanding and a better aimed engineering of gas dispersion techniques in metallurgical processes. In this paper the breakup phenomenon of gas bubbles in stagnant liquids is simulated and the dependencies between breakup of bubbles and various parameters of a gas dispersion process such as operative parameters, system parameters and mass transfer rates are investigated. The bubble diameter after breakup is almost independent of the nozzle diameter and gas flow rate. The frequency of bubble breakup and critical bubble size depend on the rate of mass transfer into the bubble. An almost constant rising velocity is achieved only in those cases investigated where mass transfer and bubble breakup are considered. In all other cases no stationary rising velocity is obtained. The interplay between bubble size, rising velocity and the inertia of the surrounding liquid and the influence of mass transfer and breakup are investigated. Simulation results reveal that the behaviour of an ascending bubble is strongly influenced by the mass transfer rate, i. e. by the composition of the melt. Verification of the simulation results with empirical equations from literature shows a very good agreement in all dispersion systems investigated.     

Object removal and loss concealment using neighbor embedding methods

Exemplar-based inpainting methods involve three critical steps: finding the patch processing order, searching for best matching patches, and estimating the unknown pixels from the best matching patches. The paper addresses each step and first introduces a new patch priority term taking into account the presence of edges in the patch to be filled-in. The paper then presents a method using linear regression based local learning of subspace mapping functions to enhance the search for the nearest neighbors (K-NN) to the input patch in the particular case of inpainting. Several neighbor embedding (NE) methods are then considered for estimating the unknown pixels. The performances of the resulting inpainting algorithms are assessed in two application contexts: object removal and loss concealment. In the loss concealment application, the ground truth is known, hence objective measures (e.g., PSNR) can be used to assess the performances of the different methods. The inpainting results are compared against those obtained with various state-of-the-art solutions for both application contexts.     

Die von dispergierten Gasblasen induzierte Leistung und Flüssigkeitsbewegung in einer Stahlschmelze

In dieser Arbeit wird das früher entwickelte, digitale Simulationsmodell so erweitert, daß neben den bereits früher berücksichtigten Parametern nun die Arbeit und Leistung quantitativ erfaßt werden können, die ein in eine Flüssigkeit dispergiertes Gas vollbringt. Außerdem werden mit aktuellen Energiebilanzen zwischen der dispergierten Phase und dem Dispersionsmittel bei gleicher Berücksichtigung der Stofftransportgänge induzierte Flüssigkeitsgeschwindigkeiten, Volumenströme in den unterschiedlichen Zonen des Bades, Zirkulationszeiten und die Mischzeiten in Abhängigkeit vom Volumenstrom des eingeblasenen Rührgases und/oder seiner Rührleistung ermittelt. Die Ergebnisse des Simulationsmodells wurden mit Schrifttumsdaten verglichen, die Übereinstimmung ist erstaunlich gut. Die von den im Bad dispergierten Blasen induzierte Leistung steigt mit dem Gesamt-Gasdurchsatz und der Badhöhe. Sie ist in einer spezifisch schwereren Flüssigkeit höher. Bei Stoffaustausch wird im Bad eine höhere Leistung produziert, diese Leistungssteigerung wird größer, wenn der auf die einzelne Düse entfallende Teilstrom vom gesamten Rührgasstrom sinkt. Daher sollte bei gleichbleibendem Gesamtgasdurchsatz der Durchsatz pro Düse kleiner werden; dies geschieht, indem man die Zahl der Düsen erhöht. Im gewählten Beispiel für die Untersuchung der Stofftransport-Wirkung ergibt sich, daß man bei ablaufendem Stoffaustausch mit nur rund 1/10 des Inertgasdurchsatzes die gleiche Leistung im Bad induzieren kann wie ohne Stoffaustausch. Die Flüssigkeitsgeschwindigkeiten im Blasenkegel steigen mit dem Gasvolumenstrom und sind in einer spezifisch schwereren Flüssigkeit höher. Sobald ein Stoffaustausch möglich ist, weil beispielsweise zusätzlich Gase im Bad entstehen können, ist mit höheren Geschwindigkeiten im Blasenkegel zu rechnen. Für die gewählte Stahlzusammensetzung sind etwa dreifach höhere Geschwindigkeiten erzielbar, wenn die Mitwirkung der flüchtigen Badkomponenten berücksichtigt und Injektionsgas sehr feinverteilt (kleiner Gasdurchsatz pro Düse) eingeblasen wird. Die Mischzeiten werden kleiner, wenn der Gesamt-Gasdurchsatz steigt. Sie werden mit steigender Badhöhe deutlich kleiner, weil die größere Badhöhe mehr ?Rührleistungsgewinn? erlaubt, solange es im Bad zu keinen Mäanderbewegungen kommt. Die Mischzeiten fallen bei wachsender Leistung. Die massebezogenen Leistungen steigen und die Mischzeiten fallen dementsprechend, wenn die flüssige Phase schwerer wird, wenn der Gasdurchsatz pro Düse und/oder die Düsenzahl steigen (dann wächst der Gesamtgasdurchsatz), wenn die Badhöhe wächst und der Baddurchmesser kleiner wird und wenn Stoffaustausch stattfindet.     

Electro-optical performances of nanostructured SrTiOx films: The effect of plasma power,Ar/O2 ratio and annealing

The present work evaluates the effects of plasma power and oxygen mixing ratios (OMRs) on structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of strontium titanate SrTiO_x (STO) thin films. STO thin films were grown by magnetron sputtering, and later thermal annealing at 700°C for 1 h was applied to improve film properties. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that as-deposited films have amorphous microstructure independent of deposition conditions. The films deposited at higher OMR values and later annealed also showed amorphous structure while the films deposited at lower OMR value and annealed have nanocrystallinity. In addition, all as-deposited films were highly transparent (~80%–85%) in the visible spectrum and exhibited well-defined main absorption edge, while the annealing improved transparency (90%) within the same spectrum. The calculated direct and indirect optical band gaps for films were in the range of 3.60-4.30 eV as a function of deposition conditions. The refractive index of the films increased with OMRs and the postdeposition annealing. The frequency dependent capacitance measurements at 100 kHz were performed to obtain film dielectric constant values. High dielectric constant values reaching up to 100 were obtained. All STO samples exhibited more than 2.5 μC/cm² charge storage capacity and low dielectric loss (less than 0.07 at 100 kHz). The leakage current density was relatively low (3 × 10⁻⁸Acm⁻² at +0.8 V) indicating that STO films are promising for future dynamic random access memory applications.     

Equilibrium,Kinetics, and Thermodynamics of Bovine Serum Albumin Adsorption on Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

We investigated the equilibrium, kinetics, and thermodynamics of bovine serum albumin (BSA) adsorption on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) from aqueous solutions with different pH and temperatures. We analyzed the experimental adsorption equilibrium and kinetic data to evaluate the adsorption characteristics of SWNTs for BSA. The results show that the effects of pH and temperature were important. Moreover, the adsorption isotherm data of BSA on SWNTs are consistent with the Langmuir and Freundlich models, while the kinetics can be expressed by the pseudo-first-order and the intraparticle diffusion rate models. The maximum protein adsorption capacity of SWNTs, which have a surface area of 191.2 m²/g, was found to be 609.8 mg g^?1 at pH 4 and 40°C, and this was the highest value obtained among our previous studies examined with various metal oxides. In addition, the zeta potential measurements were examined to understand the effects of charge density of the surface and the protein on the adsorption process. Thermodynamic analysis results indicate that the nature of adsorption changes with pH. SWNTs were found to be effective for BSA adsorption.     

Effect of Nozzle Base Material on the Rate of Clogging during the Continuous Casting of Aluminum‐Killed Steels

One approach to solving the problem of nozzle clogging during the continuous casting of aluminum‐killed steels is through careful selection of nozzle materials. In this study, the rate of clogging was measured while casting steel through simulated nozzles produced from alumina, zirconia, magnesia, zirconia‐graphite, and alumina‐graphite ‐ three common base materials and two common carbon‐containing nozzle materials. Spent nozzles were characterized using optical and cathodoluminescence microscopy. Interactions between the nozzles and steel were not observed in the alumina, zirconia, and zirconia‐graphite nozzles. Slight interactions were observed in the magnesia nozzles as alumina inclusions within the steel interacted with the nozzle to produce alumina‐magnesia spinel. Greater amounts of interaction were observed with alumina‐graphite nozzles. No statistical differences in the mean rate of clogging were observed between all of the pure oxide nozzles and zirconia‐graphite nozzles. However, the alumina‐graphite nozzles clogged at a much higher rate than the other nozzles. The higher rate of clogging is thought to be due to refractory‐steel interactions.     

Benzotriazole and benzothiadiazole containing conjugated copolymers for organic solar cell applications

2-Dodecyl benzotriazole (BTz) and benzothiadiazole (BTd) containing copolymers poly(4-(2-dodecyl-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazol-4-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (P1), poly(4-(5-(2-dodecyl-7-(thiophen-2yl)-2H-benzo[d][1,2,3]triazol-4-yl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[c][1,2,5] thiadiazole (P2) and poly(4-(5-(2-dodecyl-7-(4-hexylthiophen-2-yl)-2H-benzo[d] [1,2,3]triazol-4-yl)-3-hexylthiophen-2-yl) benzo[c][1,2,5] thiadiazole (P3) were synthesized via Suzuki polycondensation. We report the application of conjugated copolymers in bulk heterojunction photovoltaic devices. When the copolymers were blended with [6,6]phenyl-C₆₁-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM), P2 showed the best performance with an open circuit voltage (V_oc), a short-circuit current density (J_sc) and a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 0.45 V, 3.48 mA cm^?2 and 0.45%, respectively, under AM 1.5G illumination conditions (100 mW cm^?2). The hole mobilities of the devices were calculated from J–V curves using Space Charge Limited Current (SCLC) method and the maximum mobility value was found to be 3.15 × 10^?5 cm² V^?1 s^?1 for the P2:PCBM blend.