Free-flowing, transparent γ-alumina nanoparticles synthesized by a supersonic thermal plasma expansion process

Nanoparticles of crystalline, phase-pure γ-alumina is synthesized in a supersonically expanded thermal plasma jet assisted experimental chemical reactor, with good control over the average particle sizes independently with respect to plasma current, oxygen flow rate and the ambient pressure in the sample collection chamber. Most of the synthesized particle samples were seen to be transparent, which gets more transparent with decrease in the particle sizes. The lowest achievable pressure in the chamber had produced particles with average 10 nm sizes, which was best also in terms of narrow size distribution. Another important observation was the absence of serious inter-particle agglomeration, producing free-flowing particles. Optical emission spectroscopic technique was used to study the plasma chemistry of the reaction zone as well as the plasma jet.     

Digital particle holographic system for measurements of spray field characteristics

A digital particle holographic system for measurements of spray fields is presented. A double exposure hologram recording system with a synchronization system for time control is established, resulting in digital holograms that can be quickly recorded. To process recorded holograms, the correlation coefficient method is used for focal plane determination of particles. To remove noise and improve the quality of holograms and reconstructed images, a Wiener filter is adopted. The two-threshold and image segmentation methods are used for binary image transformation. For particle pairing, the match probability method is adopted. The proposed system is applied to a spray field, and three-dimensional velocities and sizes of spray droplets are measured. Measurement results from the digital holographic system are compared to those made by laser instruments, which prove the feasibility of the proposed in-line digital particle holographic system as a good measurement tool for spray droplets.     

循环流化床收集器内颗粒团聚流动特性的研究

基于气固两相流理论和气溶胶动力学原理,建立流化床收集器(CFBA)内气体细颗粒聚团气固两相双流体模型。对不同入口气体速度、初始颗粒尺寸分布和不同颗粒团聚形成机理下收集器内颗粒聚团流动的流体动力特性进行数值模拟。研究结果表明湍流运动和剪切作用对颗粒聚团的形成起主要作用,布朗运动对颗粒团聚形成的影响可忽略不计。吸收颗粒可有效提高捕获细颗粒和颗粒聚团形成的能力。     

Investigating particle and volatile evolution during pulverized coal combustion using high-speed digital in-line holography

Devolatilization is an important process in pulverized coal combustion because it affects the ignition, volatile combustion, and subsequent char burning and ash formation. In this study, high-speed digital in-line holography is employed to visualize and quantify the particle and volatile evolution during pulverized coal combustion. China Shanxi bituminous coal particles sieved in the range of 105–154 µm are entrained into a flat flame burner through a central tube for the study. Time-resolved observations show the volatile ejection, accumulation, and detachment in the early stage of coal combustion. Three-dimensional imaging and automatic particle extraction algorithm allow for the size and velocity statistics of the particle and stringy volatile tail. The results demonstrate the smaller particle generation and coal particle swelling in the devolatilization. It is found that the coal particles and volatiles accelerate due to the thermal buoyancy and the volatiles move faster than the coal particles. On average, smaller particles move faster than the larger ones while some can move much slower possibly because of the fragmentation.     

High-accuracy three-dimensional position measurement of tens of micrometers size transparent microspheres using digital in-line holographic microscopy

Digital in-line holographic microscopy has a strong potential in measuring various three-dimensional (3D) microscale flow phenomena. However, the axial elongation problem in reconstructing particles severely degrades the measurement accuracy along the light propagation direction. In this Letter, we utilize the lenslike characteristic of tens of micrometers size transparent spherical particles to extract their 3D position. A sharp intensity peak is observed in the reconstructed wave field, resulting from the light-focusing effect of the particle. As a result, the depth-of-focus constraint caused by the particle size is eliminated and the measurement accuracy is drastically improved up to submicrometer resolution.     

Investigation of the influence of humidity on the ultrasonic agglomeration of submicron particles in diesel exhausts

Removing very fine particles in the 0.01-1 micro m range generated in diesel combustion is important for air pollution abatement because of the impact such particles have on the environment. By forming larger particles, acoustic agglomeration of submicron particles is presented as a promising process for enhancing the efficiency of the current filtration systems for particle removal. Nevertheless, some authors have pointed out that acoustic agglomeration is much more efficient for larger particles than for smaller particles. This paper studies the effect of humidity on the acoustic agglomeration of diesel exhausts particles in the nanometer size range at 21 kHz. For the agglomeration tests, the experimental facility basically consists of a pilot scale plant with a diesel engine, an ultrasonic agglomeration chamber a dilution system, a nozzle atomizer, and an aerosol sampling and measuring station. The effect of the ultrasonic treatment, generated by a linear array of four high-power stepped-plate transducers on fumes at flow rates of 900 Nm(3)/h, was a small reduction in the number concentration of particles at the outlet of the chamber. However, the presence of humidity raised the agglomeration rate by decreasing the number particle concentration by up to 56%. A numerical study of the agglomeration process as a linear combination of the orthokinetic and hydrodynamic agglomeration coefficients resulting from mutual radiation pressure also found that acoustic agglomeration was enhanced by humidity. Both results confirm the benefit of using high-power ultrasound together with humidity to enhance the agglomeration of particles much smaller than 1 micro m.     

Fabrication and characterization of drug particles produced by electrospraying into reduced pressure

In the present study, electrospraying was used in drug particle-production. The objective of the research was to establish whether electrospraying can be carried out in reduced pressure in order to improve the drying process of the droplets. By this method, it is possible to produce drug particles relatively uniform in size, crystallinity and porosity. Drying the droplets in a reduced pressure is a more sensitive way to remove the solvent from the particles than, for example, the addition of heat. The efficiency of this drying method and particle morphology were studied using SEM, DSC, and XRD. Another objective was to workout whether the size of the produced particles can be estimated by a simple method. The maximum particle size was defined theoretically and compared to experimental results with good agreement.     

Numerical study on the desorption processes of oil droplets inside oil-contaminated sand under cavitation micro-jets

The removal of the adsorbed oil droplet is critical to deoiling treatment of oil-bearing solid waste. Ultrasonic cavitation is regarded as an extremely useful method to assist the oil droplets desorption in the deoiling treatment. In this paper, the effects of cavitation micro-jets on the oil droplets desorption were studied. The adsorbed states of oil droplets in the oil-contaminated sand were investigated using a microscope. Three representative absorbed states of the oil droplets can be summarized as: (1) the individual oil droplet adsorbed on the particle surface (2) the clustered oil droplets adsorbed on the particle surface; (3) the oil droplet adsorbed in a gap between particles. The micro-jet generation during the bubble collapse near a rigid wall under different acoustic pressure amplitudes at an ultrasonic frequency of 20 kHz was investigated numerically. The desorption processes of the oil droplets at the three representative absorbed states under micro-jets were also simulated subsequently. The results showed that the acoustic pressure has a great influence on the velocity of micro-jet, and the initial diameter of cavitation bubbles is significant for the cross-sectional area of micro-jets. The wall jet caused by a micro-jet impacting on the solid wall is the most important factor for the removal of the absorbed oil droplets. The oil droplet is broken by the jet impinging, and then it breaks away from the solid wall due to the shear force generated by the wall jet. In addition to a higher sound pressure, the cavitation bubble at a larger initial diameter is more important for the desorption of the clustered oil droplets. Conversely, the micro-jet generated by the cavitation bubble at a smaller initial diameter (0.1 mm) is more appropriate for the desorption of the oil droplet in a narrow or sharp-angled gap.     

Multi-nozzle electrospray system for gas cleaning processes

A multi-nozzle electrospray system was developed as a charged droplet source for cleaning a gas contaminated with fine particles. The efficiency of removal of fine particles from the gas can be significantly increased, as compared to uncharged sprays, when the droplets are electrically charged. In the presented experiments, the spray of the droplets of size lower than 100 μm was charged either positively or negatively. Cigarette smoke was used as a source of submicrometer particles. The suppression of the particle concentration was determined after different time intervals of spraying of water. Further improvement in gas cleaning was obtained after charging the smoke particles using a specially designed corona charger. The efficiency of the cleaning process was similar to that obtained for droplets generated by mechanical atomisers with induction charging, but the electrospraying allowed decreasing the water consumption up to about three times.     

The Effect of Boundary Conditions on Gas-phase Synthesised Silver Nanoparticles

We have prepared spherical non-agglomerated silver nanoparticles by an evaporation–condensation–dilution/cooling technique. Silver was evaporated from a crucible in a tubular flow reactor. A porous tube diluter was used to quench the carrier gas at the outlet of the reactor to enhance the formation of small particles and to suppress agglomeration and other particle growth mechanisms. The number size distribution of the prepared particles was measured with a differential mobility analyser–condensation nucleus counter combination and the size and the shape of the particles were analysed with transmission electron microscope. The system was modelled using a sectional aerosol dynamics computer code to estimate the importance of different aerosol processes. In all conditions the particles obtained were non-agglomerated and spherical. The mean particle diameter varied from 4 to 10-nm depending on boundary conditions. From the modelling studies it can be concluded that the nucleation rate is the most important parameter controlling the final particle size.     

Modelling of the behavior of hollow ZrO2 particles in plasma jet with regard to their thermal expansion

The effect of the expansion of hollow micro-spherical droplets due to their heating at their motion in a plasma jet is considered by the example of ZrO₂. A fairly simple model is proposed, which accounts for the variation of the droplets size and shell thickness because of the thermal expansion of the gas cavity as well as their possible evaporation. The conducted computations have enabled the assessment of the scale of the variation of diameter (10–20 %) and shell thickness (up to 50 %) of ZrO₂ particles under the conditions typical of the plasma treatment of powder materials and producing the coatings. The influence of the given effect on the dynamics of particles heating and acceleration is investigated, and a comparative analysis of the behavior of hollow and dense particles in plasma jet is done.     

Effect of particles on the flow structure and dispersion of solid impurities in a two-phase axisymmetric jet

The Euler approach is used for studying the structure of a flow and the propagation of a disperse impurity in a submerged two-phase jet for small values of the mass concentration of particles (M _L1 = 0 to 0.5) upon a variation of the size and material of particles in a wide range. The effect of particles on the propagation of a two-phase jet, gas turbulence, and solid phase dispersion is analyzed. The addition of particles decreases the jet opening angle, increases the jet range, suppresses turbulence, and deteriorates turbulent mixing with the surrounding submerged space. It is shown that at the first stage, particle accumulation effects (pinching) in the axial region of the jet appear upon an increase in the particle size and the density of the particle material. Then, upon an increase in the inertia of particles, pinching changes to intense scattering of the disperse phase in the initial cross sections of the jet. The results are compared with the results of measurements for mono- and polydisperse two-phase jet flows.     

Electrostatic precipitation of fine particles with a bipolar pre-charger

A laboratory electrostatic precipitator (ESP) together with a bipolar pre-charger has been designed for studying charge-induced agglomeration and fine particle collection. In terms of particle numbers, the ESP collection efficiency drops to its minimum of near 90% for particles with diameters of near 0.2 μm and 3 μm. For other particles, its value is around 94%–95%. By using the bipolar pre-charger, the grade efficiency can be significantly increased for all particle sizes due to the charge-induced particle agglomeration. The grade collection efficiency rises to about 95%–98% for all size particles.     

Computer simulations of the condensation of nanoparticles from the gas phase

The crystallization of Ni nanoclusters from the gas phase is investigated with the help of molecular dynamics simulations using empirical tight-binding potentials. In these simulations, the condensation of hot liquid droplets from the gas phase is observed which later crystallize and agglomerate. It is shown that agglomeration of crystallized particles is the dominating growth mode and that the shapes of the final particles are similar to the shapes of experimentally grown Ni nanoparticles. In the second part, the evolution of the structure and the morphology of an agglomerated particle during sintering at 600 and 900K is studied. While in both cases the original disordered interface between the agglomerated particles vanishes, the shapes of the resulting particles differ considerably due to the different surface diffusion rates.     

A Method for Increasing the Sensitivity of Phase Doppler Interferometry to seed particles in liquid spray flows

A method has been developed to increase the sensitivity of phase Doppler interferometry-based particle sizing systems to small particles in the presence of a spray containing large and small droplets; an important consideration when using seed particles to track the gas-phase velocity in multi-phase flows. The method, applicable to PDPA systems configured to operate in first and higher order refraction mode, involves doping the sprayed liquid with a dye that is strongly absorbing at the incident laser wavelengths. This results in greatly diminished scattered intensity from larger droplets, thus allowing the photomultiplier gain to be set to a level sufficient to easily detect small particles without saturation. Tests conducted indicate that, at a collection angle of 30° and droplet absorptivity of γ = 0.014/μm, the PDPA can accurately size absorbing droplets up to approximately 200 μm. This upper limit can be extended by changing selection angle. Tests performed with an actual spray demonstrated that the method allowed detection of 1 μm to 235 μm droplets; more than four times the instrument's usual range of 50: 1. A data correction scheme to determine the effective probe volume radius for each particle size class has been developed for absorbing particles, as standard correction schemes derived for non-absorbing droplets excessively weigh distributions toward smaller particles.     

Particle Image Velocimetry Applied to a Spray Jet

Experiments are described in which particle image velocimetry (PIV) is applied to the measurement of liquid droplets in a spray jet. The two velocity components in planes formed by the light sheet originating from a double-pulsed ruby laser are determined. The PIV records are evaluated with the method of Young's fringes. It is shown that this procedure allows the simultaneous measurement of the droplet size within a certain size range.     

Development of Agglomerate Size and Structure during spherical agglomeration in suspension

During the spherical agglomeration process, a suspended solid is agglomerated by adding a binding liquid. First, mircoagglomerates or flocs are produced, which are compacted in the course of the process. Agglomerate size was evaluated by laser diffraction spectrometry, image analysis was used to determine the size and some adequately defined shape parameters calculated by Fourier analysis of the particle contour. The shape analysis confirms the visual observations; the compaction of the flocs is expressed by the corresponding change of the shape parameters. The influence of several process parameters on changes in agglomerate shape can be described quantitatively and help to gain an insight into agglomeration mechanisms. The particle size distributions determined by image analysis and laser diffraction spectrometry hardly differ for fairly spherical flocs or agglomerates. Concerning the size distribution of the irregular flocs, laser diffraction spectrometry measures larger particles than image analysis.     

Investigations on the Behaviour of an Aerodynamic Particle Sizer and its applicability to calibrate an optical particle counter

The calibration of an optical particle counter (OPC) by means of the Aerodynamic Particle Sizer APS (TSI, Model 3310) was investigated. The pulse-height distribution and the aerodynamic size distribution were measured by parallel use of an OPC and the APS. A calibration curve was obtained by comparison of the two different cumulative distribution curves. First calibration results are presented for spherical particles (water droplets and glycerine droplets): A comparison of these results with Mie calculations and aerodynamic calibrations by means of sampling cyclones shows good agreement. Furthermore, measurements were carried out with non-spherical particles. Quartz dust was used for these measurements. In order to calibrate the OPC by means of the APS, the behaviour of both devices was investigated.     

Calculating the soot particle size distribution function in turbulent diffusion flames using a sectional method

Soot formation in a turbulent jet diffusion flame is modeled using an unsteady flamelet approach in post-process. In the present work, we apply a detailed kinetic soot model with a sectional method, and study the evolution of the particle size distribution. Detailed information on the evolution of the soot particle size distribution function is acquired. It is found that the particle size distribution function is bimodal throughout the flame. The transition from the small to large particle size distributions is strongly influenced by surface growth and oxidation reactions. We find that large particles are most likely to be emitted from the flame.