Systematic packaging design tools integrating functional and environmental consequences on product life cycle: Case studies on laundry detergent and milk

This study presents systematic packaging design tools integrating functional and environmental consequences on product life cycle. To design packaging for sustainability, the trade-offs between functional and environmental aspects of packaging throughout the product life cycle should be considered. However, it is difficult for packaging designers to understand the overall trade-offs because the extent of the design consequences on the entire life cycle of packaging and its contents is unclear. We developed two tools for packaging design: the Life Cycle Association Matrix (LCAM) and the Function Network Diagram (FND). The following three steps, based on literature reviews and interviews with industrial experts, were applied. Firstly, we listed the product functions and design variables related to the functions as the attributes allocated to the product life cycle. Secondly, the attributes were connected appropriately based on causal relationships. Lastly, we identified the factors to support decision making in the packaging design procedure. As a result, the LCAM depicts the design consequences on the life cycle, and the FND determines the stakeholders affected by the design consequences. Two case studies were demonstrated to analyze the trade-offs by using our tools. In the case studies, a liquid laundry detergent bottle and a milk carton were redesigned. The tools identified the design consequences and stakeholders affected by the redesign of the usability and protective function for the detergent and milk cases, respectively. The results showed the significance of understanding the design consequences on the product life cycle by integrating the functional and environmental aspects.     

Hardware system of the Earth Simulator

The Earth Simulator (ES), developed under the Japanese government’s initiative “Earth Simulator project”, is a highly parallel vector supercomputer system. In this paper, an overview of ES, its architectural features, hardware technology and the result of performance evaluation are described.

In May 2002, the ES was acknowledged to be the most powerful computer in the world: 35.86 teraflop/s for the LINPACK HPC benchmark and 26.58 teraflop/s for an atmospheric general circulation code (AFES). Such a remarkable performance may be attributed to the following three architectural features; vector processor, shared-memory and high-bandwidth non-blocking interconnection crossbar network.

The ES consists of 640 processor nodes (PN) and an interconnection network (IN), which are housed in 320 PN cabinets and 65 IN cabinets. The ES is installed in a specially designed building, 65 m long, 50 m wide and 17 m high. In order to accomplish this advanced system, many kinds of hardware technologies have been developed, such as a high-density and high-frequency LSI, a high-frequency signal transmission, a high-density packaging, and a high-efficiency cooling and power supply system with low noise so as to reduce whole volume of the ES and total power consumption.

For highly parallel processing, a special synchronization means connecting all nodes, Global Barrier Counter (GBC), has been introduced.     

Thermodynamic Regularities in Perovskite and K2NiF4 Compounds

It has been found that the enthalpy of formation of perovskite compounds, Δ_fH° (ABO₃, B = transition metais), from binary oxides can be well characterized in terms the tolerance factor, t≡(r_A+ r_o)√2 (r_B+ r_o), where r_A and r_B are the radii of A-site ions with 12-coordination and B-site ions with 6-coordination, respectively, and Δ_fH°=−168 + 270(1 − t) kJ·mol⁻¹ for A^IB^VO₃, Δ_fH°=−125 + 1000(1 − t) kJ·mol⁻¹ for A^IIB^IVO₃, and Δ_fH°=− 90 + 720(1 − t) kJ·mol⁻¹ for A^IIIB^IIIO₃. Although the thermodynamic data of K₂NiF₄ compounds are not extensive, a similar regularity can be found when use is made of the radii of A-site ions with 9-coordination for the K₂NiF₄ compounds. These correlations will be quite useful in predicting.     

Scalability of hybrid programming for a CFD code on the Earth Simulator

The Earth Simulator (ES) is an SMP cluster system. There are two types of parallel programming models available on the ES. One is a flat programming model, in which a parallel program is implemented by MPI interfaces only, both within an SMP node and among nodes. The other is a hybrid programming model, in which a parallel program is written by using thread programming within an SMP node and MPI programming among nodes simultaneously. It is generally known that it is difficult to obtain the same high level of performance using the hybrid programming model as can be achieved with the flat programming model.

In this paper, we have evaluated scalability of the code for direct numerical simulation of the Navier–Stokes equations on the ES. The hybrid programming model achieves the sustained performance of 346.9 Gflop/s, while the flat programming model achieves 296.4 Gflop/s with 16 PNs of the ES for a DNS problem size of 256³. For small scale problems, however, the hybrid programming model is not as efficient because of microtasking overhead. It is shown that there is an advantage for the hybrid programming model on the ES for the larger size problems.     

Anomalous oxide scale formation under exposure of sodium containing gases for solid oxide fuel cell alloy interconnects

Reactivity of oxide scale on Fe-Cr alloy with Na-containing gases was examined to estimate the stability against sodium (Na): vapors of NaCl and Na₂SO₄ exposures with air flow at 1073 K. The identified reaction phases were Cr-Mn spinel, Cr₂O₃, and alloy from the X-ray diffraction of surface with no Na-reaction products. However, the protective oxide scales (Mn-Cr spinel and Cr₂O₃ layers) on the Fe-Cr alloy were partially decomposed by reacting with Na to form Na-compounds inside the oxide scale/alloy interfaces. In some parts, anomalous oxide scales were found around the oxide scale/Fe-Cr alloy interfaces, with forming Na-rich compounds: the compounds were distributed inner parts of oxide scales around oxide scale/alloy interfaces. The stability of oxide scales and degradation were discussed based on the observed distribution of elements.     

Adsorption of aromatic amines and o-substituted derivatives of phenol from organic solutions by activated carbons-effect of surface acidity

In order to study the effect of surface acidity of activated carbons on their adsorption characteristics, three kinds of aromatic amines and four kinds of o-substituted phenols were adsorbed from organic solutions by twelve kinds of activated carbons of different acidity and of known pore-structure. It was demonstrated that the surface acidity had a marked effect on the adsorption characteristics and that the effect was linked with the polarity of the solvents.     

The Effect of the Oxygen Exchange at Electrodes on the High-Voltage Electrocoloration of Fe-Doped SrTiO3 Single Crystals: A Combined SIMS and Microelectrode Impedance Study

The effect of the electrode material on the high voltage stoichiometry-polarization (electrocoloration) of Fe-doped SrTiO₃ single crystals has been studied. For different electrode materials (150-nm Ag/15-nm Cr and 150-nm Au/15-nm Cr) secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was used to measure the depth profile of the ¹⁸O-isotope after high-field stress. The results were compared with spatially resolved impedance measurements on electrocolored Fe-doped SrTiO₃ single crystals. For Au/Cr as well as Ag/Cr electrodes a large dc voltage leads to moving color fronts which are usually correlated with a pronounced stoichiometry polarization of the samples due to electrodes blocking the ionic current. However, the local impedance measurements demonstrate that the conductivity profiles near the cathode depend on the electrode material. This finding is in accordance with the SIMS measurements which indicate that the Ag/Cr-electrodes are, in contrast to Au/Cr-electrodes not completely inactive for the oxygen incorporation into the Fe-doped SrTiO₃. The results are discussed in terms of defect chemical models.     

Chemical Potential Diagrams for Rare Earth-Transition Metal-Oxygen Systems: I, Ln-V-O and Ln-Mn-O System

The thermodynamic properties of double oxides in rare earth-transition metal (V and Mn)-oxygen ternary systems have been collected and evaluated to examine their stability using chemical potential diagrams plotted as log (α_A/α_B) vs log ( P (O₂)). The thermodynamic regularities of perovskites, pyrochlores, and other compounds have been discussed in terms of the effective ionic radii across a series of rare earths. The obtained regularities have been used to estimate tentatively the thermodynamic properties of some rare-earth vanadium and manganese oxides.     

Fundamental mechanisms limiting solid oxide fuel cell durability

The fundamental issues associated with solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) durability have been reviewed with an emphasis on general features in SOFCs and respective anode and cathode related phenomena. As general features, physicochemical properties and cell performance degradation/failure are correlated and bridged by the electrode reaction mechanisms. Particular emphasis is placed on the elemental behaviour of gaseous impurities and the possible role of liquids formed from gaseous substances. The lifetime of a state-of-the-art Ni cermet anodes is limited by a variety of microstructural changes, which mainly result from material transport-, deactivation- and thermomechanical mechanisms. Anode degradation can mainly be influenced by processing, conceptual and operating parameters. Designing a redox stable anode is currently one of the biggest challenges for small scale SOFC systems. Degradation mechanisms of different cathode materials are reviewed with a focus on the intrinsic degradation of doped lanthanum manganites (e.g. LSM) and doped lanthanum ferro-cobaltites (LSCF). Manganese-based perovskites can be regarded to be sufficiently stable, while for the better performing LSCF cathodes some intrinsic degradation was detected. New materials that are supposed to combine a better stability and high performance are also shortly mentioned.     

Phase relations associated with the aluminum blast furnace: Aluminum oxycarbide melts and Al-C-X (X=Fe,Si) liquid alloys

The thermodynamic properties and the phase relations were evaluated and estimated for the Al-O-C, Al-Si-C, and Al-Fe-C systems which are important to understand the chemical behavior in an aluminum blast furnace. The mixing properties of binary liquid alloys, including metal-carbon systems, were represented by the Redlich-Kister equation. The properties of liquid Al−C and Si−C alloys were estimated so as to be consistent with their phase diagrams. The coefficients of Al−Fe and Fe−C liquids were evaluated from reported values for activity and enthalpy. The extrapolation to the higher order systems was made by Maggianu's method. The aluminum oxycarbide melt was represented by a subregular solution model. In the Al-O-C system, liquid alloy/oxycarbide melt equilibria were calculated and compared with earlier experimental results and estimates. Attempts were made to clarify the volatilization of aluminum oxycarbide melts, and also the carbidation of liquid aluminum alloys. An empirical correlation between the first terms of the Redlich-Kister equation for the enthalpies and the excess entropies was discussed.