Nanoporous carbons as promising novel methane adsorbents for natural gas technology

Nanoporous carbons were synthesized using furfuryl alcohol and sucrose as precursors and MCM-41 and mordenite as nanoporous templates.The produced nanoporous carbons were used as adsorbent for methane storage.The average pore diameter of the samples varied from 3.9 nm to 5.9 nm and the BET surface area varied from 320m2/g to 824m2/g.The volumetric adsorption experiments revealed that MCM-41 and sucrose had better performance compared with mordenite and furfuryl alcohol,correspondingly.Also,the effect of precursor to template ratio on the structure of nanoporous carbons and their adsorption capacities was investigated.The nanoporous carbon produced from MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieve partially filled by sucrose shows the best methane adsorption capacity among the tested samples.     

Isothermal differential scanning calorimetry study of a glass/epoxy prepreg

Isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the curing behavior of epoxy prepreg Hexply®1454 system, based on diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DEGBA)/dicyandiamid (DICY) reinforced by glass fiber. Cure kinetics of an autocatalytic‐type reaction were analyzed by general form of conversion‐dependent function. The characteristic feature of conversion‐dependent function was determined using a reduced‐plot method where the temperature‐dependent reaction rate constant was analytically separated from the isothermal data. An autocatalytic kinetic model was used; it can predict the overall kinetic behavior in the whole studied cure temperature range (115–130°C). The activation energy and pre‐exponential factor were determined as: E = 94.8 kJ/mol and A = 1.75 × 10¹⁰ sec^?1 and reaction order as 2.11 (m + n = 0.65 + 1.46 = 2.11). A kinetic model based on these values was developed by which the prediction is in good agreement with experimental values. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A reduced domain strategy for local mesh movement application in unstructured grids

Automatic control of mesh movement is mandatory in many fluid flow and fluid-solid interaction problems. This paper presents a new strategy, called reduced domain strategy (RDS), which enhances the efficiency of node connectivity-based mesh movement methods and moves the unstructured grid locally and effectively. The strategy dramatically reduces the grid computations by dividing the unstructured grid into two active and inactive zones. After any local boundary movement, the grid movement is performed only within the active zone. To enhance the efficiency of our strategy, we also develop an automatic mesh partitioning scheme. This scheme benefits from a new quasi-structured mesh data ordering, which determines the boundary of active zone in the original unstructured grid very easily. Indeed, the new partitioning scheme eliminates the need for sequential reordering of the original unstructured grid data in different mesh movement applications. We choose the spring analogy method and apply our new strategy to perform local mesh movements in two boundary movement problems including a multi-element airfoil with moving slat or deforming main body section. We show that the RDS is robust and cost effective. It can be readily employed in different node connectivity-based mesh movement methods. Indeed, the RDS provides a flexible local grid deformation tool for moving grid applications.     

A decision support system for order acceptance/rejection in hybrid MTS/MTO production systems

In this paper, we present a novel decision support system for order acceptance/rejection in a hybrid Make-to-Stock/Make-to-Order production environment. The proposed decision support system is comprised of five steps. At the first step, the customers are prioritized based on a fuzzy TOPSIS method. Rough-cut capacity and rough-cut inventory are calculated in the second step and in case of unavailability in capacity and materials, some undesirable orders are rejected. Also, proper decisions are made about non-rejected orders. At the next step, prices and delivery dates of the non-rejected orders are determined by running a mixed-integer mathematical programming model. At the fourth step, a set of guidelines are proposed to help the organization negotiate over price and due date with the customers. In the next step, if the customer accepts the offered price and delivery date, the order is accepted and later considered in the production schedule of the shop floor, otherwise the order is rejected. Finally, numerical experiments are conducted to show the tractability of the applied mathematical programming model.     

Two class of synchronous matrix multisplitting schemes for solving linear complementarity problems

Many problems in the areas of scientific computing and engineering applications can lead to the solution of the linear complementarity problem LCP (M,q). It is well known that the matrix multisplitting methods have been found very useful for solving LCP (M,q). In this article, by applying the generalized accelerated overrelaxation (GAOR) and the symmetric successive overrelaxation (SSOR) techniques, we introduce two class of synchronous matrix multisplitting methods to solve LCP (M,q). Convergence results for these two methods are presented when M is an H-matrix (and also an M-matrix). Also the monotone convergence of the new methods is established. Finally, the numerical results show that the introduced methods are effective for solving the large and sparse linear complementary problems.     

Comparative electrochemical study of new self-assembled monolayers of 2-{[(Z)-1-(3-furyl)methylidene]amino}-1-benzenethiol and 2-{[(2-sulfanylphenyl)imino]methyl}phenol for determination of dopamine in the presence of high concentration of ascorbic acid and uric acid

The comparative electrochemical behavior of self-assembled monolayers of two Schiff's bases, 2-{[(Z)-1-(3-furyl)methylidene]amino}-1-benzenethiol (FMAB) and 2-{[(2-sulfanylphenyl)imino]methyl}phenol (SIMP) on a bare gold electrode (Au FMAB SAM-modified electrode and Au SIMP SAM-modified electrode, respectively), was investigated by means of cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in a 0.1 mol L(-1) KCl solution that contains 5.0 × 10(-3) mol L(-1) [Fe(CN)(6)](3-/4-). The results revealed that the modified electrodes showed an electrocatalytic activity toward the anodic oxidation of dopamine by a marked enhancement in the current response and lower overpotential (60 and 90 mV for the Au FMAB and Au SIMP SAM-modified electrodes, respectively) in phosphate buffer solution at pH 6.0. The Au SIMP SAM-modified electrode was applied successfully to the determination of dopamine in the presence of a high concentration of ascorbic acid. Selective detection was realized in total elimination of ascorbic acid response-a method different from the ones based on the potential separations. The detection limit of dopamine was 5.0 × 10(-8) mol L(-1) in a linear range from 1.0 × 10(-6) to 1.2 × 10(-4) mol L(-1) in the presence of 1.0 × 10(-3) mol L(-1) ascorbic acid. The interference studies also showed that the Au SIMP SAM-modified electrode exhibited good selectivity in the presence of a large excess of uric acid and could be employed for the determination of dopamine in pharmaceutical formulations, plasma samples and human urine with adequate selectivity and precision.     

Analytical evaluation of three wild growing Omani medicinal plants

Three wild Omani plants, Moringa peregrina, Acacia nilotica and Rhazya stricta, were selected for the present study. Na, K and Ca contents were determined using flame photometric analysis. M. peregrina seeds (22.5 mg/g) and pods (27.7 mg/g) had higher Na contents than A. nilotica (0.33 mg/g) and R. stricta (0.30 mg/g), whereas the K and Ca contents of R. stricta were significantly higher than those of the other two plants. The protein content was lowest in R. stricta (9.8%) and highest in M peregrina seeds (21.0%). The highest total phenolic contents (TPC) were found in M. peregrina seeds (350.3 mg/g) and the lowest in A. nilotica (66.1 mg/g). The major component of M. peregrina seed oil was oleic acid (74.7%). Gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric analysis (GC-MS) revealed that octadecanal (30.9%) was the major compound in A. nilotica. The presence of various phenolics and flavonoids in M. peregrina, A. nilotica and R. stricta were confirmed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).     

Rock Porous Structure Characterization: A Critical Assessment of Various State-of-the-Art Techniques

Transport in Porous Media - The porous structure of geomaterials is of utmost importance for various industrial and natural processes. In this study, various conventional porous structure...     

Using fully implicit conservative statements to close open boundaries passing through recirculations

The numerical solution of the fluid flow governing equations requires the implementation of certain boundary conditions at suitable places to make the problem well‐posed. Most of numerical strategies exhibit weak performance and obtain inaccurate solutions if the solution domain boundaries are not placed at adequate locations. Unfortunately, many practical fluid flow problems pose difficulty at their boundaries because the required information for solving the PDE's is not available there. On the other hand, large solution domains with known boundary conditions normally need a higher number of mesh nodes, which can increase the computational cost. Such difficulties have motivated the CFD workers to confine the solution domain and solve it using artificial boundaries with unknown flow conditions prevailing there. In this work, we develop a general strategy, which enables the control‐volume‐based methods to close the outflow boundary at arbitrary locations where the flow conditions are not known prior to the solution. In this regard, we extend suitable conservative statements at the outflow boundary. The derived statements gradually detect the correct boundary conditions at arbitrary boundaries via an implicit procedure using a finite element volume method. The extended statements are validated by solving the truncated benchmark backward‐facing step problem. The investigation shows that the downstream boundary can pass through a recirculation zone without deteriorating the accuracy of the solution either in the domain or at its boundaries. The results indicate that the extended formulation is robust enough to be employed in solution domains with unknown boundary conditions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.