Combustion properties of H2/N2/O2/steam mixtures

The present work reports new experimental and numerical results of the combustion properties of hydrogen based mixtures diluted by nitrogen and steam. Spherical expanding flames have been studied in a spherical bomb over a large domain of equivalence ratios, initial temperatures and dilutions at an initial pressure of 100 kPa (T_ini = 296, 363, 413 K; N₂/O₂ = 3.76, 5.67, 9; %Steam = 0, 20, 30). From these experiments, the laminar flame speed $S_L^0$, the Markstein length L’, the activation energy Ea and the Zel'dovich β number have been determined. These parameters were also simulated using COSILAB^® in order to verify the validity of the Mével et al. [1] detailed kinetic mechanism. Other parameters as the laminar flame thickness δ and the effective Lewis number Le_eff were also simulated. These new results aim at providing an extended database that will be very useful in the hydrogen combustion hazard assessment for nuclear reactor power plant new design.     

Teaching the Chemistry of Platinum

Following colonisation of South America by the Spanish, many new naturally occurring substances were sent to Europe. One of these was the silvery, unreactive metal, platinum, discovered in New Grenada in the mid-eighteenth century. It was often found in granular form, associated with gold, and the challenge to chemists was to refine it, produce it as wire or sheet, and determine its chemical properties. This interested the professor of chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, Joseph Black, who was able to obtain samples from London-based Spanish contacts, particularly Ignacio Luzuriaga. This paper examines how Black transmitted his knowledge of the metal to large numbers of students attending his annual course.     

Formation of low-temperature deformation-induced segregations of nickel in Fe–Ni-based austenitic alloys

ABSTRACT

The authors present the results of an investigation in Fe–Ni-Cr austenitic alloys of the low-temperature deformation-induced segregations of nickel that form in the micro regions being (i) located close to grain- and subgrain boundaries and (ii) characteristic of the concentration and magnetic inhomogeneities indicated by the appearance of a dark diffraction contrast at the electron diffraction patterns taken from these regions typical (at the same time) of an enhanced value of Curie temperature. The observed effects were connected with the micro distortions caused by the local change of lattice parameter because of an increase in nickel concentration, as well as in the result of a magnetostriction dilatation. Using methods of the X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (XEDS) and atomic-probe body-section radiography (tomography – APT) has made it possible to determine the borders of those regions of austenite that were characteristic of an enhanced concentration of nickel in the fields of the localisation of a deformation-induced segregation of nickel in the vicinity of grain (subgrain) boundaries of austenitic alloys of the types Fe–13Cr–30Ni and Fe–37Ni–3Ti.     

Molecular dynamics study of cluster structure and rotational wave properties in solid-state nanostructures

Molecular dynamics simulation was performed to study the formation of cluster structure, interfaces, and surfaces with different curvature radii in a perfect nanocrystal passed through by a nonlinear wave. It is shown that this process is a type of nanostructure self-organization in response to an external energy flux with subsequent development of a strong rotational field.