Breakdown characteristics of oil and paper insulation for a very fast transient voltage

This paper describes the dielectric breakdown characteristics of oil and oil‐impregnated paper for very fast transient (VFT) voltages. Blumlein circuits generate VFT voltages of 60 and 300 ns in a pulse width that simulates disconnecting switching surges in gas‐insulated switch gears. We measured the breakdown voltages of needle‐to‐plane, plane‐to‐plane oil gaps and several pieces of paper between plane electrodes for VFT and lightning impulse voltages. The measured data were formulated in V‐t characteristics and Weibull probability distributions. The inclination n of V‐t characteristics of insulating paper is 150, which is less than n = 13.7 of the plane‐to‐plane oil gap in the VFT time range. The shape parameters of Weibull distribution obtained in this study show that the scattering of breakdown voltages of paper is much less than that of oil. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 141(4): 16–24, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10043     

Gas absorption accompanied by an instantaneous irreversible reaction in laminar falling films of pseudoplastic liquids

Gas absorption accompanied by an instantaneous irreversible chemical reaction into laminar falling films of power-law liquids was studied theoretically. The convective-diffusion equations for a solute gas and a liquid-phase reactant were solved numerically and the numerical solution for the reaction factor was obtained as a function of the Graetz number, the concentration ratio, the diffusivity ratio and the power-law index of the liquid.     

Supramolecular Nanofibers from Collagen-Mimetic Peptides Bearing Various Aromatic Groups at N-Termini via Hierarchical Self-Assembly

Self-assembly of artificial peptides has been widely studied for constructing nanostructured materials, with numerous potential applications in the nanobiotechnology field. Herein, we report the synthesis and hierarchical self-assembly of collagen-mimetic peptides (CMPs) bearing various aromatic groups at the N-termini, including 2-naphthyl, 1-naphtyl, anthracenyl, and pyrenyl groups, into nanofibers. The CMPs (R-(GPO)_n: n > 4) formed a triple helix structure in water at 4 °C, as confirmed via CD analyses, and their conformations were more stable with increasing hydrophobicity of the terminal aromatic group and peptide chain length. The resulting pre-organized triple helical CMPs showed diverse self-assembly into highly ordered nanofibers, reflecting their slight differences in hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance and configuration of aromatic templates. TEM analysis demonstrated that 2Np-CMP_n (n = 6 and 7) and Py-CMP₆ provided well-developed natural collagen-like nanofibers and An-CMP_n (n = 5–7) self-assembled into rod-like micelle fibers. On the other hand, 2Np-CMP₅ and 1Np-CMP₆ were unable to form nanofibers under the same conditions. Furthermore, the Py-CMP₆ nanofiber was found to encapsulate a guest hydrophobic molecule, Nile red, and exhibited unique emission behavior based on the specific nanostructure. In addition to the ability of CMPs to bind small molecules, their controlled self-assembly enables their versatile utilization in drug delivery and wavelength-conversion nanomaterials.     

Gas absorption in laminar falling films of pseudoplastic liquids

Gas absorption into laminar falling films of power-law liquids was studied theoretically and experimentally. The convective-diffusion equation was solved by the method of separation of variables and the analytical solution for the average Sherwood number was obtained as a function of the Graetz number and the power-law index of the liquid. Experiments were carried out on the absorption of pure carbon dioxide, hydrogen and helium into aqueous kaolin slurries by using a long wetted-wall column and the average absorption rates were measured as a function of the mass flow rate of the liquid. The experimental results were in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

SEPARATION AND ENRICHMENT OF WEAK ORGANIC ACIDS OR BASES BY IMMOBILIZED LIQUID MEMBRANES

A new and effective liquid membrane process to achieve both separation and enrichment simultaneously of weak organic acids or bases was developed. The process utilizes effectively the difference in the apparent partition coefficient of the constituent species between the aqueous and organic phases, and uses the change of the apparent partition coefficients with the hydrogen ion concentration of the aqueous phase. For such a fundamental model apparatus as a diaphragm diffusion cell being operated batch wise, the effects of pK value of solutes, permeability of solutes through the membrane, volume ratio of liquids in two aqueous phases, and pH value of aqueous phase on enrichment factor and selectivity for the solute to be concentrated were discussed analytically. Separation and enrichment were demonstrated using aqueous mixed solutions of fumaric acid and L-malic acid. The results were in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

Copolymerizations of macromonomer prepared by addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization of methyl acrylate trimer

Summary An oligomer of the methyl acrylate unsaturated trimer bearing 2-carbomethoxy-2-propenyl ω-end group (M _n = 1300, M _w/M _n = 1.7, and functionality > 0.7) was copolymerized as a macromonomer (0.02 mol/L) with styrene (1.0 mol/L) in benzene at 60 °C. The amounts of monomer and macromonomer in the feed simultaneously decreased with increasing time to indicate copolymer formation, and the macromonomer was found to be as reactive as styrene toward poly(styrene) radicals. The M _ns of the copolymers were 13900–22000 depending on conversion. No resonance due to the unsaturated <ω-end group bound to the poly(styrene) chain was detected by ¹H-NMR spectroscopy, indicating that no fragmentation of adduct radical of the end group to expel the poly(methyl acrylate trimer) radical. Polymerization of ethyl methacrylate (1.0 mol/L) in the presence of the macromonomer (0.02 mol/L) resulted in a mixture of the unreacted macromonomer and homopolymer of ethyl methacrylate. No end group bound to the poly(ethyl methacrylate) was detected by ¹H-NMR spectroscopy, excluding the possibility of addition fragmentation chain transfer to the macromonomer to expel an oligomer radical of the methyl acrylate trimer. Addition of the poly(methacrylate) radical to the macromonomer is extremely slow under the present conditions of copolymerization. Received: 27 March 2003/Revised version: 30 April 2003/ Accepted: 30 April 2003 Correspondence to Bunichiro Yamada     

Absorption of chlorine into aqueous sodium carbonate solutions and desorption of carbon dioxide

The absorption of pure chlorine into aqueous sodium carbonate solutions accompanied by the desorption of carbon dioxide was studied both theoretically and experimentally. The absorption rates of chlorine and the desorption rates of carbon dioxide were measured at 25°C using a baffled agitated vessel operated batchwise. The experimental results were analyzed with the chemical absorption theory based on the Lévěque model. The measured absorption and desorption rates were in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

Formation of phase structure and crystallization behavior in blends containing polystyrene–polyethylene block copolymers

The microphase separation structure in the molten state and the structure formation in crystallization from such ordered melt were investigated for the blends of polystyrene–polyethylene block copolymers (SE) with polystyrene homopolymer (PS) and polyethylene homopolymer (PE) and for the blends consisting of two kinds of SE with different copolymer compositions from each other, using synchrotron small-angle X-ray scattering techniques (SAXS). The copolymer compositions of SE block copolymers employed were 0.34, 0.58 and 0.73 wt. fraction of PE, and their melt morphologies were cylindrical, lamellar and lamellar, respectively. Macrophase separation or the morphology change in the melt occurred depending on the molecular weight and the blend composition, as reported so far. In crystallization from such macrophase-separated and microphase-separated melts, the melt morphology was completely kept for all the blends. Crystallization behavior was also investigated for the blends. The crystallization within the spherical and cylindrical domains surrounded by glassy PS was not observed for SE/PS blends. In the crystallization from the macrophase-separated melt, two exothermal peaks were observed in the DSC measurements, while a single peak was observed for other blends. For the blends with PS, the degree of crystallinity was depressed and the apparent activation energy of crystallization was high, compared to those for the corresponding neat SE. For SE/PE and SE/SE blends, those were changed depending on the blend composition.     

Implicit Formulation for SPH‐based Viscous Fluids

We propose a stable and efficient particle‐based method for simulating highly viscous fluids that can generate coiling and buckling phenomena and handle variable viscosity. In contrast to previous methods that use explicit integration, our method uses an implicit formulation to improve the robustness of viscosity integration, therefore enabling use of larger time steps and higher viscosities. We use Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics to solve the full form of viscosity, constructing a sparse linear system with a symmetric positive definite matrix, while exploiting the variational principle that automatically enforces the boundary condition on free surfaces. We also propose a new method for extracting coefficients of the matrix contributed by second‐ring neighbor particles to efficiently solve the linear system using a conjugate gradient solver. Several examples demonstrate the robustness and efficiency of our implicit formulation over previous methods and illustrate the versatility of our method.