Field study of a soft X-ray aerosol neutralizer combined with electrostatic classifiers for nanoparticle size distribution measurements

Most conventional aerosol neutralizers are based on radioactive sources, which are controlled by strict regulations restricting their handling, transport, and storage. The TSI 3087 soft X-ray (SXR) neutralizer circumvents these legal restrictions. The aim of the present work is to compare the performance of a standalone SXR aerosol neutralizer with that of conventional radioactive aerosol neutralizers based on ⁸⁵Kr (TSI 3077) and ²⁴¹Am (Grimm 5522) by performing field tests in a real environmental scenario. The results obtained when the SXR neutralizer was connected to a mobility particle sizer spectrometer (MPS), different from the device suggested by the manufacturer, were comparable with those obtained with the use of radioactive aerosol neutralizers. In changing the neutralizer, the particle number concentrations, measured with the MPS connected to the SXR neutralizer, almost remained within the 10% uncertainty bounds for the particle size interval 10–300 nm, when diffusion losses inside the SXR tube were considered. Based on our comparisons, the SXR neutralizer can be regarded as a standalone instrument that could solve the problems associated with legal restrictions on radioactive neutralizers and fulfil the need for a portable instrument for different field test purposes.     

Enhancement of filtration efficiency by electrical charges on nebulized particles

There have been few investigations of effects of electrical charge, carried by lab-generated particles, on filtration efficiency testing. Here, we measured the elementary charge on particles and the fraction of particles carrying that charge with a combined electrometer, differential mobility analyzer, and scanning mobility particle sizer. A typical solid NaCl aerosol and liquid diethylhexyl sebacate (DEHS) aerosol were generated with Collison and Laskin nebulizers, respectively. Our experimental results showed that NaCl aerosols carried more charge after aerosol generation. The average net elementary charge per particle was approximately 0.07. The NaCl aerosol was overall positively charged but contained a mixture of neutral and charged particles. Individual particles could carry at most four elementary charges. According to constant theorem, we speculated that original NaCl aerosol contained 17% neutral, 45% positive-, and 38% negative-charged particles in the diameter range from 30 to 300 nm. A Kr-85 neutralizer was used to decrease the charge on the NaCl particles. Our results indicated that the DEHS aerosol was electrically neutral. The effects of electric charge on particle collection by electret and electroneutral high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters were analyzed. Theoretical calculations suggested that charges on original NaCl aerosol particles enhanced the filtration efficiency of HEPA filters.     

Soft X-ray scattering using FEL radiation for probing near-solid density plasmas at few electron volt temperatures

We report on soft X-ray scattering experiments on cryogenic hydrogen and simple metal samples. As a source of intense, ultrashort soft X-ray pulses we have used free-electron laser radiation at 92 eV photon energy from FLASH at DESY, Hamburg. X-ray pulses with energies up to 150 μJ and durations 15–50 fs provide interaction with the sample leading simultaneously to plasma formation and scattering. Experiments exploiting both of these interactions have been carried out, using the same experimental setup. Firstly, recording of soft X-ray inelastic scattering from near-solid density hydrogen plasmas at few electron volt temperatures confirms the feasibility of this diagnostics technique. Secondly, the soft X-ray excitation of few electron volt solid-density plasmas in bulk metal samples could be studied by recording soft X-ray line and continuum emission integrated over emission times from fs to ns.     

Hopkinson拉杆的入射波波形整形实验研究

目前,分离式Hopkinson杆实验技术已经被广泛用于测试材料在10~2~10~4s~(-1)应变率范围内的动态力学特性。为了抑制入射波的高频振荡,实现恒定应变率加载,本文利用分离式Hopkinson拉杆(SHTB)实验装置,研究了加载金属短杆(2A12T4铝合金)及整形垫片(纸板、PVC软塑料及带磁性胶皮)对入射波波形的影响。实验结果表明,整形垫片降低了入射应力脉冲的高频振荡,获得了比较平滑的入射应力脉冲,延长了上升时间。同时,利用所得的波形整形结果,对2A12T4铝合金进行了拉伸应力波脉冲加载的拉伸和断裂实验测试。     

Compression-impact testing of aluminum at elevated temperatures

This paper presents and experimental technique for determining compressive stress-strain curves well into the plastic range of relatively soft metals at strain rates from 300 to 2000 sec^?1 at six temperatures from 30 to 550° C. More than 100 curves were obtained on annealed 1100° F aluminum. The strain-rate dependence in these tests could be fitted quite well either by a power function (log-log plot) or by a semilogarithmic plot, but the power function gave a better correlation of the present data with that obtained at lower strain rates by Alder and Phillips.¹     

Neutralizer with a gas ejector

A neutralizer model with a gas ejector is studied, whose main element (a sonic nozzle) is a gap between two conical surfaces. Static pressure distributions were measured along the axis of the neutralizer at different gas pressures in the receiver. Stagnation pressure, total flow, gas target thickness, flow separation factor, Knudsen number, and gas-dynamic performance of the neutralizer were calculated from the gas pressure values on the axis of the neutralizer at the point with the coordinate z/d = 3, and static pressure distributions in the characteristic cross sections of the neutralizer were obtained.     

A self-consistent solution for nonlinear theory of the positive column in a magnetic field

Only the electron and ion gases were taken into account in all previous theories of the positive column of intermediately-low-pressure arc discharge with or without the longitudinal magnetic field, while the motion of neutral gas was neglected. In 1982, the authors^[1] presented a nonlinear theory of a positive column which indicated that the rotating velocities of neutral gas and ion gas were nearly equal, and the motion of neutral gas could not be ignored. They further discussed the problem of validity of Bohm's criterion. However, some of the parameters with which the computation was worked out in Ref. [1] were not correlated to the initial discharge parameters. In the present paper, two integral relations are supplemented, so that a complete mathematical formation of the problem is given. A convergent numerical solution is obtained by iteration and the solution of Ref. [1] turns out to be the first iteration approximation. It is shown that both functions and parameters obtained by self-consistent solution differ significantly from those obtained in the first iteration approximation. According to this paper the computation can be conducted when the initial discharge parameters are given, so this method could have certain practical applications.     

Advection of axisymmetric interfaces by the volume-of-fluid method

A criterion is proposed for the advection of axisymmetric interfaces. The location of an interface is followed by a volume-tracking technique wherein a volume fraction parameter is assigned to each of the cells in a Eulerian grid system. The interface is discretized into a set of line segments fitted at the boundary of every pair of neighbouring computational cells. The orientation of a line segment is obtained by inspecting the volume fractions of two neighbouring cells. The volume fractions are then advected using the velocity components at the boundary of the two cells. The following advection criterion is proposed: for advection in the axial direction the axial velocity u is assumed constant in the vicinity of each cell face; for advection in the radial direction the radial velocity v times the radial distance r is assumed constant in the vicinity of each cell face, i.e. r^βv = const., where β = 0 for Cartesian and β = 1 for axisymmetric systems. The above criterion is used to develop an algorithm for the advection of axisymmetric interfaces which is referred to as the ‘axisymmetric flux line segment model for advection and interface reconstruction’ or A-FLAIR.     

A rigorous assessment of the benefits of miniaturization in the Kolsky bar system

A rigorous experimental and numerical assessment is made of the benefits and limits of miniaturization in the Kolsky bar system. The primary issues that arise in very high strain rate testing (stress equilibration, inertial effects, wave dispersion, friction, and controllability of deformations) are addressed through experiments coupled with explicit finite element analyses. A miniaturized Kolsky bar system that includes the input bar is developed, together with the use of the laser occlusive radius detector to obtain local measurements of specimen strain during the very high rate deformations. It is demonstrated that this miniaturized Kolsky bar system can be used to provide fully validated results, including the explicit determination of equilibration, over a very wide range of strain rates (1×10³ to 5×10⁴ s⁻¹). The desired high strain rate can be achieved even at low accumulated strains, and the total strain developed can be controlled very effectively. Specific conditions are developed for determining the range of utility of the technique for a given material. The technique is applied to the characterization of 6061-T651 aluminum, and the results are compared with the results obtained using a conventional Kolsky bar.     

A regular boundary element method for fluid flow

The Boundary Element Method is now well established as a valid numerical technique for the solution of field problems, equal to the Finite Element Method in generality and surpassing it in computational efficiency in some cases.¹ In this paper is presented a 'Regular Boundary Element Method' as applied to inviscid laminar fluid flow problems. It involves the formation of a system of regular integral equations obtained by moving the singularity outside the domain of the given problem. It is also shown that non-conforming elements may be used whereby freedoms are not defined at the geometric nodes under the boundary element discretization. A linear element is developed here; higher order variants could easily be defined. Satisfactory numerical results have been obtained using the proposed regular method with both conventional (continuous across the boundary) and non-conforming boundary elements for two-dimensional inviscid laminar fluid flow problems having regular and singular solutions.     

High-temperature synthesis of SAPO-34 molecular sieve using a dry gel method

SAPO-34 is one of the main catalysts used in the petrochemical industry. Various effective methods have been developed to synthesize SAPO-34 with optimal size and characteristics for such application. In the present study, SAPO-34 was synthesized using a dry gel method at high temperatures. Morpholine was used as an organic template. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and gas sorption analysis. The results showed that application of the dry gel method at high temperatures successfully afforded a pure catalyst with high crystallinity. Small particles of less than 500 nm could be obtained within a short reaction time of 30 min.     

Surfactant Concentration and End Effects on Foam Flow in Porous Media

Foaming injected gas is a useful and promising technique for achieving mobility control in porous media. Typically, such foams are aqueous. In the presence of foam, gas and liquid flow behavior is determined by bubble size or foam texture. The thin-liquid films that separate foam into bubbles must be relatively stable for a foam to be finely textured and thereby be effective as a displacing or blocking agent. Film stability is a strong function of surfactant concentration and type. This work studies foam flow behavior at a variety of surfactant concentrations using experiments and a numerical model. Thus, the foam behavior examined spans from strong to weak.Specifically, a suite of foam displacements over a range of surfactant concentrations in a roughly 7m², one-dimensional sandpack are monitored using X-ray computed tomography (CT). Sequential pressure taps are employed to measure flow resistance. Nitrogen is the gas and an alpha olefin sulfonate (AOS 1416) in brine is the foamer. Surfactant concentrations studied vary from 0.005 to 1wt%. Because foam mobility depends strongly upon its texture, a bubble population balance model is both useful and necessary to describe the experimental results thoroughly and self consistently. Excellent agreement is found between experiment and theory.     

Large-Eddy Simulation of the Flow Over a Circular Cylinder at Reynolds Number 2 × 104

The flow over a circular cylinder at Reynolds number 2 × 10⁴ was predicted numerically using the technique of large-eddy simulation (LES). Both incompressible and compressible flow formulations were used. The present results obtained at a low-Mach number (M?=?0.2) revealed significant inaccuracies like spurious oscillations of the compressible flow solution. A detailed investigation of such phenomena was carried out. It was found that application of blended central-difference or linear-upwind schemes could damp artificial waves significantly. However, this type of schemes has a too dissipative nature compared to pure central-differences. The incompressible flow results were found to be consistent with the existing numerical studies as well as with the experimental data. Basic flow features and flow mechanics were found to be in good agreement with existing experimental data and consistent with previously obtained LES. Special emphasis was put on the spectral analysis. Here, the classical Fourier transform as well as the continuous wavelet transform were applied. Based on the latter, the separated shear-layer instability was precisely clarified. It was found that the Reynolds number dependency between vortex shedding and shear-layer instabilities had a power law relation with n?=?0.5.     

Molecular dynamics of the glass relaxation process of the soft phase in block copolymers: effect of molecular architecture

To determine the impact of molecular architecture on the molecular dynamics of the glass relaxation processes of soft blocks in different types of block copolymers, model block copolymers with a variation in both molecular architecture and chemical composition were studied. Four block copolymer models, namely, two styrene–butadiene–styrene (S-B-S) block copolymers and two styrene–styrene butadiene–styrene (S-SB-S) were chosen. In each pair of block copolymers, one is linear triblock and the other is star asymmetric. For the sake of comparison, two polybutadiene (PB) homopolymer samples, having similar chain lengths of the PB blocks present in the S-B-S block copolymers, have been investigated. Dynamic mechanical measurements have been carried out for the real and imaginary parts of the complex shear modulus (G′, G”) in the temperature and frequency ranges from −110 to 30 °C and from 10⁻² to 15.9 Hz, respectively. Complete master curves have been constructed for all samples investigated. Moreover, broadband dielectric spectroscopy has been carried out to cover wide temperature and frequency windows, −120 to 0 °C and 10⁻¹ to 10⁷ Hz, respectively. The results showed that the molecular dynamics of the glass relaxation process of the PB or statistical PSB soft phases in the block copolymers is dramatically changed when compared to the PB homopolymer. In addition, the molecular architecture is found to be an important factor in determining the molecular mobility of the soft blocks. The results are discussed in terms of the applied confinement of the counter PS hard phase, block lengths, domain thicknesses and the type of end-to-end junctions between the different polymeric blocks. Paper presented 3rd Annual European Rheology Conference (AERC 2006) April 27–29, 2006, Crete, Greece.     

Simulation of particle flow in a bell-less type charging system of a blast furnace using the discrete element method

A three-dimensional model was established by the discrete element method （DEM） to analyze the flow and segregation of particles in a charging process in detail. The simulation results of the burden falling trajectory obtained by the model were compared with the industrial charging measurements to validate the applicability of the model. The flow behavior of particles from the weighing hopper to the top layer of a blast furnace and the heaping behavior were analyzed using this model. A radial segregation index （RSI） was used to evaluate the extent of the size segregation in the charging process. In addition, the influence of the chute inclination angle on the size segregation and burden profile during the charging process was investigated.     

Development of Solute-solvent Separation Soft Lithography Grating for Measuring High-temperature In situ Deformation Using Scanning Electron Microscope Moiré Method

In this study, a technique is developed for fabricating high-temperature solute-solvent separation soft lithography (HSS-SL) grating for metallic materials. Using this technique, a 150 lines/mm crossing-type grating is directly fabricated on the surface of a miniaturized single edge notch tension (SENT) specimen. Further, the microstructure of the grating is analyzed using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atom force microscope. The grating is found to be highly suited for forming high-contrast SEM moiré fringes. In addition, the chemical composition of the grating is characterized using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscope (EDS), whose results indicate that the grating exhibits good resistance to high-temperature oxidation owing to the high heat endurance of its constituent materials, SiO and SiO₂. With respect to high-temperature applications, the HSS-SL grating is employed successfully for measuring the linear thermal expansion coefficient of GH2036 alloy at temperatures of 25-600 °C. Moreover, the high-temperature displacement and strain fields around the semicircular notch of the SENT specimen are determined based on the SEM moiré. These results confirm that thus-fabricated HSS-SL gratings show high potential for use in high-temperature in situ deformation measurements using the SEM moiré method.

     

Understanding the anomalous dispersion of doubly ionized carbon plasmas near 47 nm

Over the last several years we have predicted and observed plasmas with an index of refraction greater than 1 in the soft X-ray regime. These plasmas are usually a few times ionized and have ranged from low-Z carbon plasmas to mid-Z tin plasmas. Our main calculational tool has been the average-atom code. We have recently observed C²⁺ plasmas with an index of refraction greater than 1 at a wavelength of 46.9 nm (26.44 eV). In this paper we compare the average-atom method, AVATOMKG, against two more detailed methods, OPAL and CAK, for calculating the index of refraction for the carbon plasmas and discuss the different approximations used. We present experimental measurements of carbon plasmas that display this anomalous dispersion phenomenon. It is shown that the average-atom calculation is a good approximation when the strongest lines dominate the dispersion. However, when weaker lines make a significant contribution, the more detailed calculations such as OPAL and CAK are essential. During the next decade X-ray free electron lasers and other X-ray sources will be available to probe a wider variety of plasmas at higher densities and shorter wavelengths so understanding the index of refraction in plasmas will be even more essential. With the advent of tunable X-ray lasers the frequency-dependent interferometer measurements of the index of refraction may enable us to determine the absorption coefficients and lineshapes and make detailed comparisons against our atomic physics codes.     

Intensification of inter-phase mass transfer: the combined effect of oscillatory motion and turbulence promoters

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the combined effect of using oscillatory motion and turbulence promoters on the intensification of transfer rate at solid liquid interface. The mass transfer coefficient at oscillating vertical surfaces equipped with rectangular transverse strips was measured for a wide range of oscillatory conditions and promoters configurations using the limiting current technique. It was found that using oscillatory motion it is possible to achieve significant transfer augmentation with relatively small height and low density promoters that could be as low as 1 mm, and 0.04 mm⁻¹, respectively, making it possible to mitigate the adverse effect of the high frictional resistance and power consumption associated with using turbulence promoters for transfer enhancement under non-oscillatory conditions. The results obtained for the average mass transfer coefficient at oscillatory surfaces with turbulent promoters were well correlated in terms of the oscillatory Reynolds number, the Strouhal number, and the ratio of the promoters spacing to its height.     

How rotational speed of planetary ball mill and polymer load influence the performance and water vapor sorption in solid dispersions composed of tadalafil and soluplus

The presence of residual water may deteriorate the performance of amorphous solid dispersions prepared by ball milling, affecting molecular mobility, crystallinity, particle size and finally, the drug dissolution rate. As the stability of these metastable systems depend on both formulation and process variables, the aim of this study was to assess for the first time, the impact that the polymer load and the rotational speed applied upon high energy ball milling could have on the performance of binary co-milled solid dispersions composed of tadalafil (a hydrophobic crystalline drug) and Soluplus (an amphiphilic, hygroscopic amorphous polymer). Each of these variables was tested at three levels. Scanning electron microscopy, laser diffraction and X-ray powder diffraction were used to analyze morphology, particle size distribution and crystallinity of ball milled formulations respectively. Dissolution studies were also carried out. Advanced tools of applied physics, namely solid state ¹H NMR and relaxometry were used to assess the structure and water mobility upon gaseous phase hydration on storage. It was shown that both tested variables determined the particle size of the formulation. When the rotational speed of 400 rpm was used, all solid dispersion were XRD-amorphous, but to ensure the immediate release of tadalafil its micellar solubilization in Soluplus was necessary. While the formulation was exposed to water vapor, the hydration level increased with an increasing polymer load as well. Hence, the rotational speed governed the space available for the adsorption of water molecules and their organization in a monolayer or multilayers. Such behavior may have impact on the kinetics of the amorphous drug recrystallization, and finally deteriorate its dissolution.     

Estimating void fraction in a hydraulic jump by measurements of pixel intensity

A hydraulic jump is a sudden transition from supercritical to subcritical flow. It is characterized by a highly turbulent roller region with a bubbly two-phase flow structure. The present study aims to estimate the void fraction in a hydraulic jump using a flow visualization technique. The assumption that the void fraction in a hydraulic jump could be estimated based on images’ pixel intensity was first proposed by Mossa and Tolve (J Fluids Eng 120:160–165, 1998). While Mossa and Tolve (J Fluids Eng 120:160–165, 1998) obtained vertically averaged air concentration values along the hydraulic jump, herein we propose a new visualization technique that provides air concentration values in a vertical 2-D matrix covering the whole area of the jump roller. The results obtained are found to be consistent with new measurements using a dual-tip conductivity probe and show that the image processing procedure (IPP) can be a powerful tool to complement intrusive probe measurements. Advantages of the new IPP include the ability to determine instantaneous and average void fractions simultaneously at different locations along the hydraulic jump without perturbing the flow, although it is acknowledged that the results are likely to be more representative in the vicinity of sidewall than at the center of the flume.