Improving the efficiency of an exhaust thermoelectric generator based on changes in the baffle distribution of the heat exchanger

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - A significant amount of the heat is lost in the vehicle exhaust and simply transferred to the environment. Using a thermoelectric generator (TEG), it...     

Macroscopic description of steady and unsteady rarefaction effects in boundary value problems of gas dynamics

Four basic flow configurations are employed to investigate steady and unsteady rarefaction effects in monatomic ideal gas flows. Internal and external flows in planar geometry, namely, viscous slip (Kramer’s problem), thermal creep, oscillatory Couette, and pulsating Poiseuille flows are considered. A characteristic feature of the selected problems is the formation of the Knudsen boundary layers, where non-Newtonian stress and non-Fourier heat conduction exist. The linearized Navier–Stokes–Fourier and regularized 13-moment equations are utilized to analytically represent the rarefaction effects in these boundary-value problems. It is shown that the regularized 13-moment system correctly estimates the structure of Knudsen layers, compared to the linearized Boltzmann equation data.     

The performance assessment of nanofluid-based PVTs with and without transparent glass cover: outdoor experimental study with thermodynamics analysis

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The main objective of current work is to scrutinize the performance of unglazed photovoltaic thermal system (PVTs) and transparent glazed photovoltaic...     

Zr-Based MOFs with High Drug Loading for Adsorption Removal of Anti-Cancer Drugs: A Potential Drug Storage

A robust and highly water stable series of UiO-66-drived MOFs including UiO-66-NH₂, glycidyl methacrylate functionalized UiO-66-NH₂ (UiO-66-GMA) and ethylenediamine functionalized UiO-66-NH₂ (UiO-66-EDA) were synthesized solvothermally and studied their adsorption performances toward two anti-cancer drugs, methotrexate (MTX) and curcumin (CUR) in the case of overdose. It was found that functionalizing the surface of UiO-66-NH₂ nanoparticles with different functional groups remarkably changes the adsorption capacity and the ideal adsorption selectivity of MTX over CUR. Particularly, the UiO-66-EDA exhibited the highest adsorption capacities for both drugs, 540.78 and 423.85 mg/g for MTX and CUR, respectively, because of the strong interaction between drug molecules and adsorbent via hydrogen bonding due to the existence of different polar functional groups. The kinetics of drugs adsorption was investigated by three well-known kinetic models, which the output indicates that the adsorption of both drugs onto the synthesized MOFs follow the pseudo-second-order model. Moreover, it was found that the equilibrium adsorption results were well fitted with the Langmuir isotherm models, revealing that the adsorption of both drugs onto the synthesized MOFs is a monolayer adsorption process. Further investigation illustrated that the synthesized MOFs could be easily activated and reused after four successive adsorption–desorption cycles. The output of the present work is of main important for biomedical and environmental applications of MOFs as an outstanding adsorbent for adsorption removal of hazardous drugs from contaminated aqueous solutions.     

Synthesis of spirooxindole derivatives catalyzed by GN/SO3H nanocomposite as a heterogeneous solid acid

Research on Chemical Intermediates - In this study, we synthesized a GN/SO3H solid acid nanocomposite by immobilization of chlorosulfonic acid onto the surface of g-C3N4 . The nanocomposite was...     

An improved isogeometrical analysis approach to functionally graded plane elasticity problems

The isogeometric analysis method is extended for addressing the plane elasticity problems with functionally graded materials. The proposed method which employs an improved form of the isogeometric analysis approach allows gradation of material properties through the patches and is given the name Generalized Iso-Geometrical Analysis (GIGA). The gradations of materials, which are considered as imaginary surfaces over the computational domain, are defined in a fully isoparametric formulation by using the same NURBS basis functions employed for the construction of the geometry and the approximation of the solution. The basic concept of the developed approach is concisely explained and its relation to the standard isogeometric analysis method is pointed out. It is shown that the difficulties encountered in the finite element analysis of the functionally graded materials are alleviated to a large degree by employing the mentioned method. Different numerical examples are presented and compared with available analytical solutions as well as the conventional and graded finite element methods to demonstrate the performance and accuracy of the proposed approach. The presented procedure can also be employed for solving other partial differential equations with non-constant coefficients.     

Glass Transition Behavior and Dynamic Fragility of PMMA-SAN Miscible Blend-Clay Nanocomposites

An investigation of the segmental dynamics and glass transition behavior of a miscible polymer blend composed of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and poly(styrene-ran-acrylonitrile) (SAN) and its melt intercalated nanocomposite by dynamic mechanical analysis is presented. The principle goal was to address the effect of intercalation on local molecular structure and dynamics. The results showed that the intercalation of polymer chains in the galleries of organoclay (Cloisite 30B) led to a lower temperature dependence of the relaxation time (fragility) and activation energy of α-relaxation. Moreover, calculation of the distribution of the segmental dispersion showed a narrower dispersion in the glass transition region so that the Kohlrausch-Williams-Watts (KWW) distribution parameter (β_KWW) increased from 0.21 for neat PMMA to 0.34 for the 50/50 PMMA/SAN blend nanocomposite containing 3 wt% organoclay. Furthermore, the relaxation behavior of the blends showed a negative deviation from mixture law predictions based on the responses of the neat PMMA and SAN. These behaviors were attributed to the lack of specific interactions between the blend components (PMMA, SAN, and nanoclay layers) and the less cooperative behavior, i.e., less constraint for segmental relaxation, of the intercalated chains.     

Preparation,Characterization and Optimization of Egg Albumin Nanoparticles as Low Molecular‐Weight Drug Delivery Vehicle

Protein nanoparticles have been recognized as carriers to deliver low molecular‐weight drugs, anticancer drug, DNA, vaccines, oligonucleotides, peptides and etc. The purpose of this research was preparation of Egg Albumin (EA) nanoparticle with suitable size/size distribution and good surface properties for drug delivery application based on simple coacervation method along with optimization of the nanoparticles by employing Taguchi method. Several synthesis parameters were examined to characterize their impacts on nanoparticle size and topography. These variables were including temperature, EA concentration, desolvating agent volume, pH value and agitation speed. In addition, size and morphology of prepared nanoparticles were analyzed by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) as well as atomic force microscopy (AFM). As result of Taguchi analysis in this research, desolvating agent volume and pH were most influencing factors on particle size. The minimum size of nanoparticles (～51 nm) were obtained at Temperature 55 °C, 30 mg/ml EA concentration, desolvating agent volume 50 ml, agitation speed of 500 rpm and pH 4. The mechanistic of optimum conditions for preparing protein nanoparticles from Egg Albumin for the first time and their characterization as delivering nano system are discussed.     

Micro-macro investigations about the fatigue behavior of pre-hardened 304L steel

In this work, the effect of cyclic pre-hardening (CPH) and monotonic pre-hardening (MPH), on the Cyclic Stress-Strain Curve (CSSC) and fatigue are considered. New tension-compression tests on two types of 304L alloys used in nuclear power plants are carried out under the following conditions: (i) strain or stress control near endurance limit; (ii) zero or positive mean stress; (iii) virgin, CPH or MPH specimens. Macroscopic results show a detrimental effect of pre-hardening in strain control and a beneficial one in stress control. Some macroscopic considerations are given to explain this result and the effects of an applied mean stress which differ under stress and strain control. Relations between macroscopic results and microstructures at failure are investigated using SEM and TEM. SEM is used for analysis of fatigue striation space.TEM analyses suggest that cyclic pre-hardening mainly promotes wavy slip during subsequent fatigue testing, while monotonous pre-loading favors planar slip. For CPH case it seems that primary cells which are preserved and refined for the most part during fatigue testing, constitute the hard stable structure. After MPH and subsequent fatigue testing, a hard structure is constituted by embedding of three kinds of microstructures, small twins, small cells, crossing twin systems. The formation of a hard structure creates an important internal stress. Observation shows that in pre-hardened specimens, softening arrays as veins and PSBs are frequent under strain control and rather scarce under stress control. It can be so deduced that the increase of fatigue life by pre-hardening in stress control is related to reduced mean free path of mobile dislocations due to internal stress.The obtained results may help to understand some aspects about linear versus non linear fatigue damage accumulation.