A design of experiments investigation into dry separation using a Knelson Concentrator

Enhanced gravity, or centrifugal, separators have revolutionised gold processing over the past decades, significantly increasing the recovery of fine (−100 μm) free gold. One of the main drawbacks of centrifugal gravity concentrators is the large volume of water required (even if it is all recycled). With water becoming an ever increasingly important “commodity”, reducing this is of importance both from an environmental and a monetary point of view. This work investigated operating a laboratory scale Knelson Concentrator with a dry feed and using air as the fluidising medium. The feed used was a synthetic mixture of tungsten and quartz, used to mimic a gold ore. The response surface method and central composite design techniques were used to design the experiments and to model the results, with the experimental variables being the bowl speed (G-Level), air fluidising pressure and the feed rate. The models corresponded well to the experimental results, indicating that for this experimental setup, the optimal conditions were a bowl G-Level of 40 G, a feed rate of 220 g/min and an air fluidising pressure of 8 psi.     

Producing fully-lamellar microstructure for wrought beta-gamma TiAl alloys without single α-phase field

Fine-grained fully-lamellar (FL) microstructure is desired for TiAl components to serve as compressor/turbine blades and turbocharger turbine wheels. This study deals with the process and phase transformation to produce FL microstructure for Mo stabilized beta-gamma TiAl alloys without single α-phase field. Unlike the α + γ two-phased TiAl or beta-gamma TiAl with single α-phase field, the wrought multi-phase TiAl–4/6Nb–2Mo–B/Y alloys exhibit special annealing process to obtain FL microstructure. Short-term annealing at temperatures slightly above β-transus is recommended to produce the desired FL microstructure. The related mechanism is to guarantee the sufficient diffusion homogenization of β stabilizers during single β-phase annealing, and further avoid α decomposition by α → γ + β when cooling through α + β + γ phase field. The colony boundary β phase contributes to fine-grained nearly FL microstructure, by retarding the coarsening of the α phase grains.     

Optimization of Pathogen Capture in Flowing Fluids with Magnetic Nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles have been employed to capture pathogens for many biological applications; however, optimal particle sizes have been determined empirically in specific capturing protocols. Here, a theoretical model that simulates capture of bacteria is described and used to calculate bacterial collision frequencies and magnetophoretic properties for a range of particle sizes. The model predicts that particles with a diameter of 460 nm should produce optimal separation of bacteria in buffer flowing at 1 L h⁻¹. Validating the predictive power of the model, Staphylococcus aureus is separated from buffer and blood flowing through magnetic capture devices using six different sizes of magnetic particles. Experimental magnetic separation in buffer conditions confirms that particles with a diameter closest to the predicted optimal particle size provide the most effective capture. Modeling the capturing process in plasma and blood by introducing empirical constants (c_e), which integrate the interfering effects of biological components on the binding kinetics of magnetic beads to bacteria, smaller beads with 50 nm diameters are predicted that exhibit maximum magnetic separation of bacteria from blood and experimentally validated this trend. The predictive power of the model suggests its utility for the future design of magnetic separation for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.     

Binary Ti–Fe system. Part I: Experimental investigation at high pressure

The present work illustrates the effect of quasi-hydrostatic pressure on the positions and widths of the homogeneity ranges of the intermetallic phases TiFe and TiFe₂ at high temperatures. The experiments were performed with Ti–Fe diffusion couples that were heat treated in a multi-anvil press at 2.5 GPa. The solubility limits of the phases were derived from the concentration profiles that were measured using electron probe microanalysis. It was found that the homogeneity ranges of TiFe and TiFe₂ extend to higher titanium concentrations, if the pressure is applied. The positions of the phase boundaries of the intermetallics on the iron-rich side are not affected by the pressure. The accuracy of the experimental data including the homogeneity ranges and temperatures was verified by comparing the homogeneity ranges of β-Ti(Fe), α/δ-Fe(Ti) and γ-Fe measured in this study with the homogeneity ranges taken from literature. The pressure was calibrated using the pressure-induced phase transitions of bismuth.     

Optimised phase compositions and improved microwave dielectric properties based on calcium tin silicates

The Ca_(1+2y)Sn_(1-x)Si_(1+y)O_(5-2x+4y) low-permittivity microwave dielectric ceramics were prepared through solid-state reaction at 1350–1450 °C for 5 h. The relations between microwave dielectric properties and phase compositions for non-stoichiometric Ca_(1+2y)Sn_(1-x)Si_(1+y)O_(5-2x+4y) ceramics have been investigated. A single CaSnSiO₅ phase with abnormally positive temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (τ_f = + 62.5 ppm/°C) was synthesised at 1450 °C. This composition was an effective τ_f compensator of CaSiO₃ and Ca₃SnSi₂O₉ phases with typically negative τ_f value. The CaSiO₃ second phase was related to the Sn deficiency in the CaSn_(1-x)SiO_(5-2x) (0 < x < 1.0) composition, whereas the Ca₃SnSi₂O₉ second phase was obtained by controlling the Ca:Sn:Si ratios on the basis of the Ca_(1+2y)SnSi_(1+y)O_(5+4y) (0 < y < 1.0) composition. A promising low-permittivity millimetre-wave ceramic with most excellent microwave dielectric properties (ε_r = 10.2, Q×f = 81,000 GHz and τ_f = −4.8 ppm/°C) was produced from the Ca_(1+2y)SnSi_(1+y)O_(5+4y) (y = 0.4) ceramic.     

ZnIn2S4/In(OH)3 hollow microspheres fabricated by one-step l-cysteine-mediated hydrothermal growth for enhanced hydrogen production and MB degradation

An intervening barrier for photocatalytic water decomposition and pollutant degradation is the frustratingly quick recombination of e⁻ - h⁺ pairs. Delicate design of heterojunction photocatalysts by coupling the semiconductors at nanoscale with well-matched geometrical and electronic alignments is an effective strategy to ameliorate the charge separation. Here a facile and environment-friendly l-cysteine-assisted hydrothermal process under weakly alkaline conditions is demonstrated for the first time to fabricate ZnIn₂S₄/In(OH)₃ hollow microspheres with intimate contact, which are verified by XRD, SEM, (HR)TEM, XPS, N₂ adsorption-desorption, UV–Vis DRS and photoluminescence spectra. ZnIn₂S₄/In(OH)₃ heterostructure (L-cys/Zn²⁺ = 4, molar ratio) with a band-gap of 2.50 eV, demonstrates the best photocatalytic performance for water reduction and MB degradation under visible light, outperforming its counterparts (In(OH)₃ and ZnIn₂S₄). The excellent activity of ZnIn₂S₄/In(OH)₃ heterostructure arises from the intercrossed band-edge positions as well as the unique hollow structure with large surface area and wide pore-size distribution, which are beneficial for the efficient charge migration from bulk to surface as well as at the interface between ZnIn₂S₄ and In(OH)₃. This work provides an efficient and eco-friendly strategy for one-pot synthesis of heterostructured composites with intimate contact for photocatalytic application.     

垦71井区三维VSP资料波场分离方法应用研究

三维VSP资料是多偏移距VSP资料，资料中多种类型的波叠合在一起形成复杂波场。从复杂波场中分离出单一的保幅反射波波场是三维VSP波场分离的重要工作。常规二维VSP波场处理方法单一，难以适用于复杂的三维波场处理。针对三维VSP资料的波场特点，以分离上行反射P波为例，将单一波场分离方法加以适当组合，对垦71井区三维VSP实际资料进行了应用研究。结果表明，波场分离处理中叠加消去法和中值滤波相结合以及F—K滤波和中值滤波相结合的方法克服了单一方法的缺陷，波场处理后获得了波组特征明显、波场清晰单一的上行反射P波保幅波场，取得了较好的波场分离效果。     

天然气水合物和天然气脱水新工艺探讨

探讨了天然气水合物的发展过程、形成条件以及对天然气输送管道的腐蚀堵塞作用,对我国天然气脱水创新技术———膜法脱水、汽提脱水的原理与工艺过程进行了全面论述。考察了气体处理量及操作压力等对我国1.2×105m3/d天然气膜法脱水的工业试验装置的脱水过程的影响。     

Reconfigurable hardware implementation of a phase-correlation stereoalgorithm

This paper describes the implementation of a stereo-vision system using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). Reconfigurable hardware, including FPGAs, is an attractive platform for implementing vision algorithms due to its ability to exploit parallelism often found in these algorithms, and due to the speed with which applications can be developed as compared to hardware. The system outputs 8-bit, subpixel disparity estimates for 256× 360 pixel images at 30,fps. A local-weighted phase correlation algorithm for stereo disparity [Fleet, D. J.: {Int. Conf. Syst. Man Cybernetics 1:48–54 (1994)] is implemented. Despite the complexity of performing correlations on multiscale, multiorientation phase data, the system runs as much as 300 times faster in hardware than its software implementation. This paper describes the hardware platform used, the algorithm, and the issues encountered during its hardware implementation. Of particular interest is the implementation of multiscale, steerable filters, which are widely used in computer vision algorithms. Several trade-offs (reducing the number of filter orientations from three to two, using fixed-point computation, changing the location of one localized low-pass filter, and using L1 instead of L2 norms) were required to both fit the design into the available hardware and to achieve video-rate processing. Finally, results from the system are given both for synthetic data sets as well as several standard stereo-pair test images.     

水力旋流器用于酸性油分离的研究

采用自行研制的水力旋流器进行了降低酸性油酸值的工业实验。实验表明,水力旋流器可将酸值为13．3 mgKOH/g的酸性油酸值降至12 mgKOH/g左右,从而能满足工业生产要求,沉降时间大为缩短。