Characterization of the Residence Time Distribution in Spray Dryers

In this work it is presented a study on the residence time distribution (RTD) of particles in a co-current pilot-plant spray dryer operated with a rotary atomization system. A nuclear technique is applied to investigate the RTD responses of spray dryers. The methodology is based on the injection of a radioisotope tracer in the feed stream followed by the monitoring of its concentration at the outlet stream. The experiments were performed during the drying of aqueous suspensions of gadolinium oxide. The RTD responses obtained experimentally presented good reproducibility, indicating that the technique applied is well suited to investigating fluid-dynamics of spray dryers. In addition to the experimental investigation, a mathematical model was used to describe the RTD experimental curves.     

Formation and growth mechanism of TiC crystal in TiC_p/Ti composites

1　ＩＮＴＲＯＤＵＣＴＩＯＮＰａｒｔｉｃｌｅｓｒｅｉｎｆｏｒｃｅｄｔｉｔａｎｉｕｍａｌｌｏｙｍａｔｒｉｘｃｏｍｐｏｓｉｔｅｓ(ＴＭＣｐ)ｈａｖｅｗｉｄｅａｐｐｌｉｃａｔｉｏｎｆｉｅｌｄｓｆｏｒｔｈｅｉｒａｔｔｒａｃｔｉｖｅｈｉｇｈｓｐｅｃｉｆｉｃｓｔｒｅｎｇ     

聚合物-金属界面相形貌的研究

环氧树脂在 Al 合金表面生成纤维状的界面相结构,其形成、发展和特征与树脂的体系、交联反应条件以及 Al 合金的表面状态有关。环氧树脂的基础相为颗粒状的超结构组织。聚合物界面相的力学破坏表现为纤维体的拉伸、变形和断裂,而基础相在纯剪切受力时出现在45°方向的裂纹,并发展导致连接层的破坏。     

火焰图像特征在火灾数字图像识别中的运用

火焰尖角数目和圆形度是早期火灾火焰的主要特征,本文主要论述了如何在数学形态学基础上,利用火灾火焰的两个特点判断和识别早期火情。实验中,对火焰的二值图像进行开运算,即先腐蚀,再膨胀,目的是为了对火焰图像进行形态学滤波,去噪。从实验结果可以看出,该算法可以很好的识别火焰和干扰源。     

Use of recycled copper slag for blended cements

Copper slag is a by‐product generated during smelting to extract copper metal from the ore. The copper slag obtained may exhibit pozzolanic activity and may therefore be used in the manufacture of addition‐containing cements. In this paper the effect of the incorporation of the copper slag in cement is measured. Blends of copper slag with Portland cement generally possess properties equivalent to Portland cement containing fly ash, but very different to the silica fume incorporation. Copper slag and fly ash reduce the heat of hydration more effectively than silica fume in mortars. The replacement of 30% cement by copper slag reduces the flexural and compressive strength in a similar way to fly ash; however, after 28 days, the reduction is less than the percentage of substitution. Hydrated calcium aluminate phases were analysed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X‐ray diffraction (XRD) techniques. The pozzolanic activity of copper slag is similar to that of fly ash and higher than silica fume. In the presence of low water/cement ratios, certain pozzolanic materials produce a very compact cement paste that limits the space available for hydration products, a determining factor in the formation of hydrated calcium aluminates. SEM was found to be a useful analytical technique when aluminates are formed and can be clearly detected by XRD. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Off-Site Exposure to Respirable Aerosols Produced during the Disk-Incorporation of Class B Biosolids

Field experiments were conducted at a Class B biosolids land application site in central Arizona to measure, model, and source-track the off-site transport of aerosols emitted when biosolids were disk-incorporated into soils. Real-time PM10 monitoring provided time-resolved aerosol information sufficient for verifying both off-site concentration and off-site exposure time model results. Under the conditions considered and at a distance of 165?m from the aerosol source, biosolids disk-incorporation resulted in an intermittent exposure to biosolids-derived aerosol concentration between 15 and 40?μg/m3 and an inhalable biosolids dose between 2 and 8?μg. Transport modeling predicted that these doses will decrease with increasing wind speed. In addition, three DNA sequence-based biosolids source tracking methods were applied to aerosol samples and confirmed the presence of biosolids in aerosols at 5, 65, and 165?m from the aerosol source. Field measurements and modeling indicate that the nature of biosolids-derived aerosol exposure is a series of intermittent high concentration puffs, rather than a continuous low concentration.     

The complexity of economic equilibria for house allocation markets

We prove NP-completeness of deciding the existence of an economic equilibrium in so-called house allocation markets. House allocation markets are markets with indivisible goods in which every agent holds exactly one copy of some good.     

Morphology and structure of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) crystallized from dilute organic solution

The high-temperature crystallization of poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) (PPTA) from dilute organic solutions was achieved through the introduction of a non-solvent, or precipitating agent, at the desired crystallization temperature. The morphology and crystal structure were examined for crystals produced from PPTA polymer with two different molecular weights (M_w = 46000 and 3430 g mol⁻¹), using transmission electron microscopy. For the high-molecular-weight polymer, ribbon-like crystals were produced, while the low-molecular-weight polymer yielded small needles or platelets. In both cases, electron diffraction showed that the Northolt allomorph was obtained. For the high-molecular-weight polymer, the molecular axes were parallel to the ribbon axes in a chain-extended type structure. A hypothesis for the orientation of the low-molecular-weight PPTA in the small platelets, is also given.     

The As-prepared surfaces of C-axis-oriented Nd1Ba2Cu3Oy thin films characterized using scanning probe microscopes

Recently, superconducting Nd₁Ba₂Cu₃O_y (Ndl23) thin films with high superconducting transition temperature (T _c) have been successfully fabricated at our institute employing the standard laser ablation method. In this paper, we report the results of surface characterization of the Nd123 thin films using an ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope/spectroscopy (UHV-STM/STS) and an atomic force microscope (AFM) system operated in air. Clear spiral pattern is observed on the surfaces of Nd123 thin films by STM and AFM, suggesting that films are formed by two-dimensional island growth mode. Contour plots of the spirals show that the step heights of the spirals are not always the integer or half-integer number of thec-axis parameter of the structure. This implies that the surface natural termination layer of the films may not be unique. This result is supported byI-V STS measurements. The surface morphology of the Nd123 thin films is compared with that of thec-axis-oriented Y₁Ba₂Cu₃S_y thin films. Surface atomic images of the as-prepared Nd123 thin films are obtained employing both STM and AFM. STS measurements show that most of the surfaces are semiconductive. The results of STS measurements together with the fact that we are able to see the surface atomic images using scanning probe microscopes suggest that exposure to air does not cause serious degradation to the as-prepared surfaces of Nd123 thin films.