Cyclodextrins in innovative engineering tools for risk-based environmental management

Experimental results, which may serve as basis for innovative applications of cyclodextrins (CDs) in environmental technologies, are presented here. Some newly developed CD-aided tools are used in sampling, measuring the concentration or testing the effect of contaminants in water and soil. The innovative methods such as the bacterial bioassays with CD-increased sensitivity or the CD-filled absorptive samplers for air and water sampling are utilised in environmental exposure, hazard and risk assessment. Technological developments aim the reduction of the risk of chemical substances in waters and soils. CD-aided environmental remediation is introduced through examples for the elimination of organic contaminants from water by CD-filters, and for the enhancement of the mobility and availability of soil contaminants in this way increasing the efficiency of soil remediation by water extraction, chemical oxidation, biodegradation, etc.     

Reduction of the squeal noise from an automotive water pump

Nonlinear Dynamics - This paper presents a method to reduce the squeal noise generated by an automotive water pump. The noise and vibration of the water pump were analyzed through experiments, from...     

Vibro-impact analysis of two adjacent cantilever beams

Nonlinear Dynamics - This study analyzes the vibro-impact behavior of two adjacent cantilever beams subjected to vibration generated by applying harmonic excitation to their rigid base. For the...     

Two-phase annular flow and evaporative heat transfer in a microchannel

A physical and mathematical model has been developed to predict the two-phase flow and heat transfer in a microchannel with evaporative heat transfer. Sample solutions to the model were obtained for both constant wall temperature and constant wall heat flux conditions. Results are provided for evaporation rate, liquid film thickness, liquid and vapor phase pressure and temperature distributions. In addition to the sample calculations that were used to illustrate the transport characteristics, computations based on the current model were performed to generate results for comparisons with the experimental results of Qu and Mudawar (2004) where two different mass flow rates of the working fluid were used in the experiment. The comparisons of total pressure drops with the experimental data of Qu and Mudawar (2004) cover the wall heat flux range of 142.71-240 W/cm² with a total channel mass flux of 400.1 kg/m² s and also the wall heat flu range of 99.54-204.39 W/cm² with total channel mass flux of 401.9 kg/m² s. The calculated results from the current model match closely with those of Qu and Mudawar (2004).     

SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A SOLUBLE LADDERLIKE POLYSILSESQUIOXANE CONTAINING REACTIVE ESTER GROUPS*

A novel soluble ladderlike polysilsesquioxane containing reactive ester groups (Ester-T) was synthesized for thefirst time by stepwise coupling polymerization including preammonolysis, controlled hydrolysis and polycondensation. Themonomer, 3-trichlorosilylpropoxy 4-acetoxybenzoate (M), was synthesized by hydrosilylation of allyloxy 4-acetoxybenzoatewith trichlorosilane in the presence of dicyclopentadienylplatinum (II) chloride (Cp_2PtCl_2) catalyst. Combination of FTIR,~1H-NMr, ~(13)C-NMR, ~(29)Si-NMR, XRD, DSC, TGA and VPO methods was used to demonstrate that the polymer obtained hasan ordered ladderlike structure. The synthesized Ester-T may have promising applications as a precursor of advanced functional polymers.     

Electro-osmotic pore pressures in soil due to an alternating electrical field

Pore pressure development in a soil specimen due to electro-osmosis under alternating current conditions is examined theoretically. Solutions to the governing equation are derived for one-dimensional flow with boundary conditions corresponding to an impervious (conventional no-flow boundary), a partially drained boundary, and a partially drained boundary with an intervening permeable zone between the boundary and the soil. These latter two boundary conditions can arise from details of pore pressure measuring systems at the specimen boundaries during laboratory experiments. An analysis of the solutions indicates that for a perfect no-flow boundary, excess pore pressures measured at an electrode consist of a steady state and rapidly-decaying transient response. The pore pressures exhibit a 45 degree phase shift relative to the applied electric current. The effect of the partially drained boundary is to reduce the peak to peak amplitude of the pore pressure and to increase the phase shift to as much as 90 degrees depending on the compressibility of the pore pressure measuring system. The effect of the impeded and partially drained boundary is to further reduce the amplitude of the pore pressures and to increase the phase shift to as much as 180 degrees depending on the relative permeability of the impeded boundary.     

A numerical method for rapid estimation of drawbead restraining force based on non-linear,anisotropic constitutive equations

Numerical procedures to predict drawbead restraining forces (DBRF) were developed based on the semi-analytical (non-finite-element) hybrid membrane/bending method. The section forces were derived by equating the work to pull sheet material through the drawbead to the work required to bend and unbend the sheet along with frictional forces on drawbead radii. As a semi-analytical method, the new approach was especially useful to analyze the effects of various constitutive parameters with less computational cost. The present model could accommodate general non-quadratic anisotropic yield function and non-linear anisotropic hardening under the plane strain condition. Several numerical sensitivity analyses for examining the effects of process parameters and material properties including the Bauschinger effect and the shape of yield surface on DBRF were presented. Finally, the DBRFs of SPCC steel sheet passing a single circular drawbead were predicted and compared with the measurements.     

A direct relationship between bending waves and transition conditions of floating plates

Ocean waves travel deep into ice fields in the polar regions, both affecting the formation of sea-ice and causing its break-up. Recently, it has been shown that a relatively simple linear water and bending wave theory can predict the decay rate of the wave energy travelling through fractured ice sheets and floes at the geophysically important wave periods of 6–15 s. That work used simple free-edge conditions. A possible improvement to the current model is to better represent the effective connection due to partially frozen cracks that occur in practice. The Wiener–Hopf technique gives explicit formulae for the velocity potential and surface deflection, expressed as series expansions over the modes of the elastic plate floating on water of finite depth, with the coefficients in the expansion given as functions of four constants. These constants are determined by a system of four linear equations, represented by a 4-by-4 matrix and a four-element vector. The elements of the matrix are given as explicit functions of relationship between edge conditions. General connections between ice sheets may be interpreted as a vertical and a rotational spring providing transition conditions for the shear force and the bending moment. The reflection and the transmission of waves can then be simply calculated as direct functions of the connection conditions. Conversely, reflected and transmitted waves allow complete characterization of the effective connection conditions at a material discontinuity.     

Bubble generation and transport in a microfluidic device with high aspect ratio

Bubble generation and transport in a micro-device composed of a micro-T-junction and a following serpentine micro-channel was experimentally investigated. It has a rectangular cross-sectional with an aspect ratio of 7.425. Air and water were used as gas and liquid, respectively. Mixtures of water–glycerol and water–Tween-20 were used to study the effects of liquid viscosity and surface tension. Compared with previous T-junction bubble generation, the liquid and gas inlets orientation was switched in this work. The continuous flow was driven from the perpendicular channel and the dispersion flow was from the main channel. It shows that the break-up process has three periodic steps under certain operating conditions. The dimensionless bubble length L/w in the micro-channel with high aspect ratio is much larger than that in square microchannels. A correlation is proposed to correlate L/w with liquid flow rate J_L, gas flow rate J_G, and liquid viscosity μ_L. Surface tension σ can change the bubble shape but almost does not affect the bubble length in this fast break-up process. Additionally, a long bubble may be broken up at the corners at the same time because the locations of gas and liquid are exchanged relative to the concave and convex portions of an elbow after a turn which may result in the change of fluid velocities and gas–liquid pressure drop.