Photocatalytic degradation of methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE) in contaminated water by ZnO nanoparticles

BACKGROUND: Over the past several decades methyl tert‐butyl ether (MTBE) as additive to gasoline, intended to either boost ratings of fuel or to reduce air pollution, has been accepted worldwide. Since MTBE has high water solubility, the occurrence of fuel spills or leaks from underground storage tanks or transferring pipeline has led to the contamination of natural waters. In this study the degradation of aqueous MTBE at relatively high concentrations was investigated by a UV‐visible/ZnO/H₂O₂ photocatalytic process. The effects of important operational parameters such as pH, amount of H₂O₂, catalyst loading and irradiation time were also investigated. Concentration of MTBE and intermediates such as tert‐butyl formate and tert‐butyl alcohol were measured. RESULTS: Time required for complete degradation increased from 20 to 150 min when the initial concentration was increased from 10 to 500 mg L^?1. The first‐order rate constants for degradation of MTBE were estimated to be 0.183–0.022 min^?1 as the concentration increased from 10 to 500 mg L^?1. Study of the overall mineralization monitored by total organic carbon analysis showed that at an initial concentration of 100 mg L^?1 MTBE complete mineralization was obtained after 100 min under UV‐visible/ZnO/H₂O₂ photocatalysis. CONCLUSION: The data presented in this paper clearly indicated that UV‐visible/ZnO/O₂ as an advanced oxidation process provides an efficient treatment alternative for the remediation of MTBE‐contaminated waters. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

An Analytical Equation of State for Alkaline Earth Metals

In this work, an analytical equation of state based on statistical mechanical perturbation theory, which was initially developed for normal fluids and can be applied to predict the P–V–T data for saturated liquid alkaline earth metals, is presented. The equation of state is that of Ihm, Song, and Mason, and the temperature-dependent parameters of the equation of state are calculated from a corresponding-states correlation as functions of the reduced temperature. Two scaling constants are sufficient for this purpose, the surface tension and the liquid density at the melting point. The equation of state is used to predict the saturated liquid density of molten alkaline earth metals from the melting point up to 2000 K, for which experimental data exist, within an accuracy of 5%.     

Designing a secure designated server identity-based encryption with keyword search scheme: still unsolved

There exist only a few papers in the literature which target the problem of “proposing a secure designated server identity-based encryption with keyword search scheme.” In this paper, we prove that they all suffer from security issues, and therefore, this challenging problem still remains open.     

An Adaptable and Scalable Generator of Distributed Massive MIMO Baseband Processing Systems

Journal of Signal Processing Systems - This paper presents an algorithm-adaptable, scalable, and platform-portable generator for massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) baseband processing...     

Higher order tip enrichment of eXtended Finite Element Method in thermoelasticity

An eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is presented that can accurately predict the stress intensity factors (SIFs) for thermoelastic cracks. The method uses higher order terms of the thermoelastic asymptotic crack tip fields to enrich the approximation space of the temperature and displacement fields in the vicinity of crack tips—away from the crack tip the step function is used. It is shown that improved accuracy is obtained by using the higher order crack tip enrichments and that the benefit of including such terms is greater for thermoelastic problems than for either purely elastic or steady state heat transfer problems. The computation of SIFs directly from the XFEM degrees of freedom and using the interaction integral is studied. Directly computed SIFs are shown to be significantly less accurate than those computed using the interaction integral. Furthermore, the numerical examples suggest that the directly computed SIFs do not converge to the exact SIFs values, but converge roughly to values near the exact result. Numerical simulations of straight cracks show that with the higher order enrichment scheme, the energy norm converges monotonically with increasing number of asymptotic enrichment terms and with decreasing element size. For curved crack there is no further increase in accuracy when more than four asymptotic enrichment terms are used and the numerical simulations indicate that the SIFs obtained directly from the XFEM degrees of freedom are inaccurate, while those obtained using the interaction integral remain accurate for small integration domains. It is recommended in general that at least four higher order terms of the asymptotic solution be used to enrich the temperature and displacement fields near the crack tips and that the J- or interaction integral should always be used to compute the SIFs.     

Anisotropy in Mechanical Properties and Corrosion of X-52 Pipeline Steel at Different Pipe Angles

Protection of Metals and Physical Chemistry of Surfaces - Non-uniform corrosion and cracking could occur at different pipe angles (different clocks) on oil and gas transmission pipelines. While...     

The effect of microencapsulation with nitrocellulose on thermal properties of sodium azide particles

Based on the coacervation principle a solvent/non-solvent method has been used for microencapsulation of sodium azide (NaN₃) with fibrous nitrocellulose (NC). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed to examine the coating morphology. The thermal behavior of solid samples has been studied by means of thermogravimetry (TG) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results of TG–DTA analysis revealed that the main thermal degradation for the pure NC and NaN₃ occurs in the temperature ranges of 192–220 and 415–420 °C, respectively. The effects of some parameters, such as NC to NaN₃ weight ratio and volume and addition time of non-solvent, on coating quality and thermal properties have been investigated by SEM and thermal methods. The results of these experiments showed that the decomposition temperature of most stabilized coated sodium azide is about 50 °C higher than that of the pure sample. The DSC experiments were conducted to study the influence of the heating rate (5, 10, 15 and 20 °C/min) on the thermal decomposition processes of the pure NC, coated and pure NaN₃ samples. The results revealed that, as the heating rate was increased, decomposition temperature of the compounds was increased. Also, the kinetic parameters such as activation energy and frequency factor of the decomposition processes were obtained from the DSC data by non-isothermal methods proposed by ASTM E696 and Ozawa. Our finding showed that coated NaN₃ has lower decomposition rate with respect to the pure one.     

BOUNDARY ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF GREEN AND LINDSAY THEORY UNDER THERMAL AND MECHANICAL SHOCK IN A FINITE DOMAIN

A boundary element formulation based on the Laplace transform method is developed for transient coupled thermoelasticity problems with relaxation times in a two-dimensional finite domain. The dynamic thermoelastic model of Green and Lindsay is selected for the present study. The Laplace transform method is applied to the time domain, and the resulting equations in the transformed field are discretized using the boundary element method. The nodal dimensionless temperature and displacements in the transformed domain are inverted to obtain the actual physical quantities using the numerical inversion of the Laplace transform method. This work considers the Green and Lindsay theory of thermoelasticity with the thermal and mechanical loading in a finite domain. The creation and propagation of elastic and thermoelastic waves in a finite domain and their effects on each other are investigated. Different relaxation times are chosen to briefly illustrate the events that take place in GL theory. Details of the formulation and numerical implementation are also presented.     

CYCLIC LOADING OF THERMAL STRESSES

The isotropic and kinematic hardening theories of plasticity are used to evaluate the cyclic loading behavior of structures under thermal stresses. The material of the structures used in this article is assumed to follow nonlinear strain hardening property. The material's strain hardening curve in tension and compression is assumed to be both identical for isotropic material and different for anisotropic material. The method of successive approximation is used to calculate the stresses and plastic strains in the structure due to cyclic loadings. The results of the analysis are checked with the known experimental test. The thermal stresses are categorized into load- and deformation-controlled stresses. It is concluded that the isotropic hardening theory, excluding creep, will always result in structural shakedown. The kinematic hardening theory under deformation-controlled conditions, excluding creep, will result in reversed plasticity. The load-controlled cyclic loading under kinematic hardening theory with isotropy assumption results in reversed plasticity. Under the anisotropy assumption of tension/compression curve, the load-controlled stress based on kinematic hardening theory predicts ratcheting behavior. When creep deformation is considered, the load-controlled thermal stresses results in ratcheting, and the deformation-controlled thermal stresses result in shakedown behavior, regardless of the material's isotropic and anisotropic properties or the hardening theories.     

Multi-criteria Decision-making Approach for Environmental Impact Assessment to Reduce the Adverse Effects Of Dams

Water Resources Management - Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) of development projects are necessary to minimize negative impacts and maximize benefits. The objective of this paper is to...