Steady streaming around a spherical drop displaced from the velocity antinode in an acoustic levitation field

The steady (acoustic) streaming associated with a sphericaldrop displaced from the velocity antinode of a standing waveis studied. The ratio of the particle size to the acoustic wavelengthis treated as small but non-zero, and the solution is developedin the form of a two-term expansion in terms of the correspondingsmallness parameter. The drop viscosity is assumed to be muchhigher than that of the surrounding fluid, which is the casefor a drop in a gas medium. There are essentially three distinctregions where the steady streaming flow is analysed: insidethe drop (internal circulation), in the Stokes shear-wave layerat the surface on the gas side, and the gas outside the Stokeslayer (the outer streaming region). Solutions for the internalcirculation and the outer streaming are obtained in the limitof small Reynolds number. Despite the gas-to-liquid viscosity ratio being small, the outerstreaming may be dramatically affected by the fact that thesphere is liquid as opposed to solid. The parameter that measuresthe effect of liquidity is essentially the viscosity ratio dividedby the relative (to the particle size) thickness of the Stokeslayer. The case of a solid sphere is recovered by letting thisparameter go to zero.     

Peristaltically induced transport of a MHD biviscosity fluid in a non-uniform tube

We have analyzed an incompressible flow of electrically conducting biviscosity fluid through an axisymmetric non-uniform tube with a sinusoidal wave under the considerations of long wavelength and low Reynolds number. In our analysis we are taking into account the induced magnetic field. The analytic solution has been obtained from which the axial velocity, the axial induced magnetic field and the axial pressure gradient have been derived. The results for the pressure rise ΔP_λ(t), frictional force per wavelength F_λ(t) and the axial induced magnetic field h_z have been computed numerically and the results were studied for various values of the physical parameters of interest, such as the magnetic Prandtl number p_m, the magnetic field parameter M, the Reynolds number Re, the upper limit apparent viscosity coefficient β, and the time averaged mean flow rate θ.     

Photodegradation of Naproxen Using Ag/AgCl–PANI Composite under Solar Light: Transformation Product and Reaction Kinetics

Kinetics and Catalysis - The photocatalytic degradation of organic micropollutant naproxen (NPX) was evaluated under solar light using Ag/AgCl–polyaniline (Ag/AgCl–PANI) photocatalyst....     

Cluster-solid interactions: A molecular dynamics investigation

Abstract

The interaction of small energetic clusters of metal atoms with surfaces has been investigated by molecular dynamics computer simulations. A wide variety of cluster-solid combinations have been studied so that the effects of the energy, size, and angle of incidence of the cluster, and the relative elastic properties of the cluster and substrate could be elucidated. ‘Soft landings’ were also investigated. From these studies, a mechanism map for cluster-solid interactions is developed. The results have particular importance for cluster beam deposition of thin films. The simulations are fully dynamical and 3-dimensional; they employ embedded-atom method potentials, which have been modified for interactions at close separations. A scheme for reducing the CPU time that is required for these and other simulations of radiation effects is described.     

Large-scale computational fluid dynamics by the finite element method

Solution methods are presented for the large systems of linear equations resulting from the implicit, coupled solution of the Navier-Stokes equations in three dimensions. Two classes of methods for such solution have been studied: direct and iterative methods. For direct methods, sparse matrix algorithms have been investigated and a Gauss elimination, optimized for vector-parallel processing, has been developed. Sparse matrix results indicate that reordering algorithms deteriorate for rectangular, i.e. M × M × N, grids in three dimensions as N gets larger than M. A new local nested dissection reordering scheme that does not suffer from these difficulties, at least in two dimensions, is presented. The vector-parallel Gauss elimination is very efficient for processing on today's supercomputers, achieving execution rates exceeding 2.3 Gflops the Cray YMP-8 and 9.2 Gflops on the NEC on SX3. For iterative methods, two approaches are developed. First, conjugate-gradient-like methods are studied and good results are achieved with a preconditioned conjugate gradient squared algorithm. Convergence of such a method being sensitive to the preconditioning, a hybrid viscosity method is adopted whereby the preconditioner has an artificial viscosity that is gradually lowered, but frozen at a level higher than the dissipation introduced in the physical equations. The second approach is a domain decomposition one in which overlapping domain and side-by-side methods are tested. For the latter, a Lagrange multiplier technique achieves reasonable rates of convergence.     

Inactivation of Botrytis cinerea during thermophilic composting of greenhouse tomato plant residues

The effectiveness of in-vessel thermophilic composting on the inactivation of Botrytis cinerea was evaluated. The bioreactor operated on an infected mixture of tomato plant residues, wood shavings, and municipal solid compost (1∶1.5∶0.28). Tap water and urea were added to adjust the moisture content and C∶N ratio to 60% and 30∶1, respectively. Used cooking oil was added as a bioavailable carbon source to compensate for heat losses from the system and extend the thermophilic compositing stage. The controlled thermophilic composting process was successful in inactivating B. cinerea. During all experiments, the average reactor temperature increased gradually, reaching its peak after 31 h of operation. Temperatures in the range of 62.6–63.9°C were maintained during the thermophilic stage by the intermittent addition of used cooking oil. The results of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test indicated that the initial concentration of B. cinerea in the compost samples (14.6 μg of dried mycelium/g of compost) was reduced to 12.9, 8.8, and 2.4 μg/g after 24, 48, and 72 h of thermophilic composting, respectively. Plating assay indicated that the mold was completely inactivated in samples after 48 h of thermophilic composting. No significant reduction in B. cinerea was observed during the transient phase (first 30 h of rising temperature) because the temperature reached the lethal level of 55°C after 23 h, thus allowing only 7 h of exposure to temperatures higher than 55°C during this phase. The relatively short time required for complete inactivation of B. cinerea was achieved by maintaining a constant high temperature and a uniform distribution of temperature and extending the duration of the thermophilic stage by the addition of the proper amount of bioavailable carbon (used cooking oil).     

Dehydrogenase activity measurement in yeast fermentation

The dehydrogenase activity was used as a measure of active biomass in preference to other biochemical parameters because of the simple, but accurate nature of the dehydrogenase test. After a consierable amount of experimental work on the dehydrogenase activity measurement technique and the consideration of utilization of the technique as a measure of the active biomass in yeast fermentation systems, an analytical procedure was developed. The developed procedure was first tested on two yeast cultures (Kluyveromyces fragilis andCandida pseudotropicalis) and then used for the determination of active yeast cells in single-cell protein reactors operating on cheese whey. The dehydrogenase enzymes appeared to be sensitive to the pH, the optimum being 7±0.2. Because the optimum pH for the propagation of these yeasts is about 4.5±0.2 and a pH variation of 3 U impairs enzyme activity, the pH of the medium must be adjusted. The incubation time is also a critical factor in determining the accuracy of the TTC test, especially at low-biomass concentrations. An incubation period of 80 min was found to be reasonable.     

Radiation effects on a certain MHD free-convection flow

Free-convection heat and mass transfer due to the simultaneous action of buoyancy, radiation and transverse magnetic field is investigated near an isothermal sheet. The sheet is linearly stretched in the presence of a uniform free stream of constant velocity, temperature and concentration. A parametric study is performed to illustrate the influence of the radiation parameter, magnetic parameter, Prandtl number, Grashof number and Schmidt number on the profiles of the velocity components, temperature and concentration. Numerical results show that the radiation have significant influences on the velocity and temperature profiles, Nusselt number and local shear stress. The results indicate that the velocity, fluid's temperature and local shear stress decrease as the radiation parameter increases. The Nusslet number increases as the radiation parameter increases.