Dynamics of fluid circulation in coupled free and heterogeneous porous domains

Fluid flow in coupled free and porous domain, particularly when the porous medium is heterogeneous, is encountered in many hydro-environmental conditions, e.g., leakage from underground pipe, combined groundwater lake-subsurface interactions. One of the most difficult problems in the study of coupled flow behaviour has been the development of a universally applicable modelling scheme for combining the flow regimes. This is because the free/porous interfacial properties (e.g., shear-stress; velocity slip) that govern the coupled flow behaviour are difficult to determine experimentally under hydro-environmental conditions. On the other hand, the implications of various forms of heterogeneity in the porous media properties can be very different on the fluid-flow behaviour. Difficulties may also arise in direct coupling of the model equations that govern the fluid flow in the individual regions (e.g., Navier-Stokes for free-flow region and the Darcy's equation for the porous flow region). Consequently, models of coupled free and porous flow for hydro-environmental conditions are not very well developed at the moment. While there are some indications that fluids in coupled free and porous domains may circulate (i.e., development of flow cells), there is a lack of appropriate 3D analysis on how heterogeneities in porous media may affect such flow patterns. In this paper, we aim to analyse how porous media heterogeneity affects the dynamics of flow circulation in the porous side of a coupled free and porous domain. For this purpose, we analyse flow patterns in several model domains made up of two porous layers with differing permeabilities. The governing model equations are discretised and solved using the standard finite volume method on a staggered cell-centred mesh. The temporal discretisation is done using the explicit method. An in-house graphical user interface (GUI) has been created specifically to aid in the visualisation of otherwise complex flow patterns. The GUI contains many post-processing options and provides a comprehensive tool for the analysis of hydrodynamics and contaminant motion (not discussed in this paper) in coupled free and porous flow domains. This GUI is described in this paper briefly. The effects of altering the aspect ratio (i.e., multi-scale) of the domain on the coupled flow pattern have also been discussed.     

Characterization of microporous-mesoporous MCM-41 silicates prepared in the presence of octyltrimethylammonium bromide

MCM-41 silicates prepared in the presence of octyltrimethylammonium bromide either by a conventional method or by post-synthesis hydrothermal treatment were characterized by nitrogen adsorption in a wide range of relative pressure from 10^-6 to 1. Hydrothermally restructured samples were found to have lower BET surface areas, lower external surface areas and thicker silica walls than the non-treated sample. More importantly, in addition to their characteristic mesopores (ca. 3 nm), they were shown to have considerable amounts of micropores. The relative amount of micropores and mesopores was shown to be dependent on the treatment conditions. Thus, it is demonstrated that the postsynthesis hydrothermal restructuring is a convenient synthesis route to MCM-41 silicates with bimodal pore size distribution involving controllable amounts of microporosity. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Diffusion of lignin macromolecules within the fibre walls of kraft pulp. Part I: Determination of the diffusion coefficient under alkaline conditions

The intrinsic rate of diffusion of soluble lignin from fibre walls to bulk liquor has never been determined previously because of experimental difficulties; for example, the diffusion rate determined in a stirred cell is affected by the mechanical action of stirring. In our work, the intrinsic rate of diffusion of lignin macromolecules from the fibre walls of a softwood kraft pulp was determined under alkaline conditions using a displacement cell which eliminated external heat and mass transfer resistances and pulp fibre disturbances. The effects of such experimental conditions as pulp bed height and liquid flow rate were studied. The diffusion rate can be described by a diffusion model for a hollow cylinder with a very wide range of diffusion coefficients. The diffusion rate increased with increasing pH. Our results provide a new understanding of the lignin diffusion process in fibre walls, which is affected by the size of lignin molecules and the pores, and by the electrostatic interactions between intrafibre pore walls and lignin.     

乳胶涂料中填料粒径测定与分散剂的选择

介绍了重力沉降法和容量沉降法两种测定乳胶涂料中填料粒径的方法。通过比较粉体粒径结果显示：沉降法比激光法更形象直观，更能代表体系粒径真实情况。以滑石粉、重钙、轻钙粉体为基准，采用不同用量、不同类型的分散剂的容量沉降法进行比较得出：用容量沉降法能定量地对分散剂性能做出评价。     

求解声波动方程的隐格式有限体积法

为研究声传播问题,提出一种声波动方程的隐格式有限体积法,该方法将格点型有限体积法与Newmark格式相结合.模拟平面波的传播过程,对比分析隐格式有限体积法和文献中显格式有限体积法的精度、稳定性及计算消耗等方面的性能.数值结果表明:当λ/Δx≥10时,两种算法均能得到满足精度要求的解;采用无条件稳定的隐格式算法,当满足ω0Δt≤0.3时,预测声压的相对峰值误差1%;当采用相同时间、空间步长时,隐格式算法精度高于显格式算法;隐格式算法对吸收边界的处理精度高于显格式算法,但对全反射边界的处理精度低于显格式算法;两种算法内存消耗比较接近,显格式算法的CPU耗时较少.     

Aperture-Adjustable and Repairable Metal-Based MOFs Catalysis Membrane for Water Purification

Precise adjustment of the pore size, damage repair, and efficient cleaning is all challenges for the wider application of inorganic membranes. This study reports a simple strategy of combining dry-wet spinning and electrosynthesis to fabricate stainless-steel metal–organic framework composite membranes characterized by customizable pore sizes, targeted reparability, and high catalytic activity for membrane cleaning. The membrane pore size can be precisely customized in the range of 14–212 nm at nanoscale, and damaged membranes can be repaired by targeted treatment in 120 s. In addition, advanced oxidation processes can be used to quickly clean the membrane and achieve 98% flux recovery. The synergistic actions of the membrane matrix and the selective layer increase the adsorption energy of active sites to oxidant, shorten the electron transfer cycle, and enhance the overall catalytic performance. This study can provide a new direction for the development of advanced membranes for water purification and high-efficiency membrane cleaning methods.     

Excess volumes and excess viscosities of binary mixtures of some cyclic ethers + bromocyclohexane at 298.15 and 313.15 K

Excess Volumes,V ^E, and excess viscosities, ^E, at 293.15 and 313.15 K are reported for binary mixtures of some cyclic ethers (tetrahydrofuran, tetrahydropyran, 2-methyltetrahydrofuran and 2,5-dimethyltetrahydrofuran) + bromocyclohexane. These properties were obtained from density and viscosity measurements. ^E and ^E show negatives values for all the mixtures.     

Video analysis based on volumetric event detection

During the past decade, feature extraction and knowledge acquisition based on video analysis have been extensively researched and tested on many applications such as closed-circuit television(CCTV)data analysis, large-scale public event control, and other daily security monitoring and surveillance operations with various degrees of success. However, since the actual video process is a multi-phased one and encompasses extensive theories and techniques ranging from fundamental image processing, computational geometry and graphics, and machine vision, to advanced artificial intelligence, pattern analysis, and even cognitive science, there are still many important problems to resolve before it can be widely applied. Among them, video event identification and detection are two prominent ones. Comparing with the most popular frame-to-frame processing mode of most of today's approaches and systems, this project reorganizes video data as a 3D volume structure that provides the hybrid spatial and temporal information in a unified space. This paper reports an innovative technique to transform original video frames to 3D volume structures denoted by spatial and temporal features. It then highlights the volume array structure in a so-called "pre-suspicion" mechanism for a later process. The focus of this report is the development of an effective and efficient voxel-based segmentation technique suitable to the volumetric nature of video events and ready for deployment in 3D clustering operations. The paper is concluded with a performance evaluation of the devised technique and discussion on the future work for accelerating the pre-processing of the original video data.