Energy analysis of a Kori-tofu plant

Consumption of energy was analysed on a Kori-tofu plant which processed 6 tons of soybeans per day, involving 13 operations such as wetmilling, extraction-denaturation of soy protein, coagulation, compression, freezing, thawing, drying and waste-water treatment. Total energy consumption per 1 kg of the dry Kori-tofu was 27·1 MJ of fuel energy (27·9 MJ of exergy) plus 8·3 MJ of electrical energy. Energy-intensive operations were the extraction-denaturation of soy protein and the drying for thermal energy, and the refrigeration and the waste-water treatment for electrical energy. The extraction-denaturation of soy protein consumed twice as much thermal energy as the drying. The waste-water treatment consumed more electrical energy than the whole manufacturing process. Points for energy conservation are discussed.     

High-speed melt spinning of bicomponent fibers: Mechanism of fiber structure development in poly(ethylene terephthalate)/polypropylene system

High-speed bicomponent spinning of poly(ethylene terephthalate)(PET)(core) and poly-propylene (PP) (sheath) was carried out and the structure development in the individual components, PET and PP, was investigated. The orientation and crystallinity development in the PET component was enhanced as compared to that of the single-component spinning while the PP component remained in a low orientation state and had a pseudohexagonal crystal structure even at high take-up speeds. To clarify the mutual interaction between the two components in bicomponent spinning, a semiquantitative numerical simulation was performed. The simulation results obtained using the Newtonian fluid model showed that the solidification stress in the PET component was enhanced while that of the PP component was decreased in comparison with the corresponding single-component spinning. This is due to the difference in the temperature dependence of their elongational viscosity. Simulation with an upper-convected Maxwell model as the constitutive equation suggested that significant stress relaxation of the PP component can occur in the spinline if the PET component solidifies earlier than does PP. Based on the structural characterization results, and the simulation results, it was concluded that the difference in the activation energy of the elongational viscosity and solidification temperature between the two polymers are the main factors influencing the mutual interaction in the bicomponent spinning process. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Progress in ECRF antenna development for JT-60SA

Structural, mechanical and optical design work on antennas/launchers for the electron cyclotron range of frequency heating and current drive system in JT-60 Super Advanced (JT-60SA) have been advanced based on a linear motion antenna concept. A CAD model of the launcher was built with realistic component sizes. A mock-up of the steering structure consisting of two different bellows sections for poloidal and toroidal beam scanning was fabricated to test movement of the bellows. The poloidal (?40° to +20°) and toroidal (?15° to +15°) injection angle ranges required in JT-60SA were shown to be realized by this steering structure and mirrors.     

Conductimetric titration of polyelectrolytes having sulfate and carboxyl groups

Summary Conductimetric titration of polyelectrolyte solutions was carried out to determine the contents of sulfate and carboxyl groups. In the mixtures of poly(acrylic acid) and poly(vinyl sulfate), and of alginic acid and dextran sulfate, the contents of sulfate and carboxyl groups observed by the conductimetric titration were in agreement with those derived from the concentration of the original homopolymers. This method was applied to a viscous polysaccharide from red algae, funoran, which contains both the sulfate and carboxyl groups. These results suggested that this method is applicable to either the samples consisting of the mixture of homopolymers or those of copolymers containing both ionic species.     

High ductility in poly(methyl methacrylate) induced by absorption and desorption of an acetonitrile aqueous solution

Tension tests were conducted in air at room temperature on PMMA sheet specimens which had been previously soaked in a 40 vol % acetonitrile aqueous solution at 20 °C for 24 h and then dried in air at room temperature for 480 h. In contrast with an untreated specimen which fractured at a stress of 84 MPa and a strain of 9 %, shear yielding clearly took place at 42 MPa and the elongational fracture strain increased to about 148 %. No crazes were observed on the specimen surface and as a result the transparency of the PMMA was thoroughly maintained until fracture. Thus this soaking treatment may change PMMA to a completely ductile polymer without a crazing mechanism. The results of the dynamic viscoelastic measurements at 1 Hz show that the glass transition temperature was lowered to about 80 °C (as compared to about 110 °C), and the relaxation became much sharper with a higher peak value of 20 °C (as compared to a broad curve with a peak at 50 °C). This clear relaxation at room temperature may contribute to shear yielding and large plastic elongation of the treated PMMA.     

Copolymerization of aromatic polyamide macromonomers with methyl methacrylate

Summary Graft copolymers of end methacrylate-functionalized[MacroAM] or styrene-functionalized[MacroAS] polyamide macromonomers with methyl methacrylate(MMA) were prepared by radical copolymerization, and their thermal, dynamic properties, and miscibility with matrix PMMA have been investigated. The glass transition temperature(Tg)s of the copolymers were significantly elevated with the increase of the macromonomer content in the copolymer. Storage modulus E of the graft copolymers began to decrease at around 85°C, which is close to Tg of PMMA, irrespective of the macromonomer content in the copolymers. As the macromonomer content and its degree of polymerization became higher, the drop in E became significant.     

A definition for I-fuzzy partitions

In this paper, we define I-fuzzy partitions (or intuitionistic fuzzy partitions as called by Atanassov or interval-valued fuzzy partitions). As our ultimate goal is to compare the results of standard fuzzy clustering algorithms (e.g. fuzzy c-means), we define a method to construct them from a set of fuzzy clusters obtained from several executions of fuzzy c-means. From a practical point of view, the approach presented here tries to solve the difficulty of comparing the results of fuzzy clustering methods and, in particular, the difficulty of finding the global optimal.