A numerical method for subcritical and supercritical open channel flow calculation

A marching finite volume method is presented for the calculation of two-dimensional, subcritical and supercritical, steady open channel flow including the usually neglected terms of slope and bottom friction. The channel flow will be assumed to be homogeneous, incompressible, two-dimensional and viscous with wind and Coriolis forces neglected. A hydrostatic pressure distribution is assumed throughout the flow field. The numerical technique used is a combination of the finite element and finite difference methods. A transformation is introduced through which quadrilaterals in the physical domain are mapped into squares in the computational domain. The governing system of PDEs is thus transformed into an equivalent system applied over a square grid network. Comparisons with other numerical solutions as well as with measurements for various open channel configurations show that the proposed approach is a comparatively accurate, reliable and fast technique.     

Invariant solutions in a channel flow using a minimal restricted nonlinear model

Simulations using a Restricted Nonlinear (RNL) system, where mean flow distortion resulting from Reynolds stress feedback regenerates rolls, is applied in a channel flow under subcritical conditions. This quasi-linear restriction of the dynamics is used to study invariant solutions located in the bulk of the flow found recently by Rawat et al. (2016) [14]. It is shown that the RNL system truncated to a single streamwise mode for the perturbation supports invariant solutions that are found to bifurcate from a relative periodic orbit into a travelling wave solution when the spanwise size is increasing. In particular, the travelling wave solution exhibits a spanwise localized structure that remains unchanged for large values of the spanwise extent as the invariant solution lying on the lower branch found by Rawat et al. (2016) [14]. In addition, travelling wave solutions provided by this minimal RNL system are self-similar with respect to the Reynolds number based on the centreline velocity, and the half-channel height varying from 2000 to 5000.     

Chemical recycling of networked polystyrene derivatives using subcritical water in the presence of an aminoalcohol

Subcritical water is a benign and effective media for polymer degradation. On subcritical water treatment in the presence of an aminoalcohol, unsaturated polyesters crosslinked with styrene were decrosslinked, and a linear polystyrene derivative bearing hydroxy-terminated side-chains was recovered. After modification of the hydroxy groups with maleic anhydride, the polystyrene derivative was re-crosslinked with styrene to form a networked structure again. The resulting solid was degradable by subcritical water treatment in the presence of the aminoalcohol to give another polystyrene derivative bearing hydroxy groups. These processes could be repeated successfully, demonstrating the applicability as a novel recycling system of thermosetting resins. The polystyrene derivative was also re-crosslinked again on heating with an alternative copolymer of styrene and maleic anhydride due to the formation of linkage between the hydroxy groups and carboxylic anhydride moieties.     

Industrial application of green chromatography--I. Separation and analysis of niacinamide in skincare creams using pure water as the mobile phase

In this work, chromatographic separation of niacin and niacinamide using pure water as the sole component in the mobile phase has been investigated. The separation and analysis of niacinamide have been optimized using three columns at different temperatures and various flow rates. Our results clearly demonstrate that separation and analysis of niacinamide from skincare products can be achieved using pure water as the eluent at 60 °C on a Waters XTerra MS C18 column, a Waters XBridge C18 column, or at 80 °C on a Hamilton PRP-1 column. The separation efficiency, quantification quality, and analysis time of this new method are at least comparable with those of the traditional HPLC methods. Compared with traditional HPLC, the major advantage of this newly developed green chromatography technique is the elimination of organic solvents required in the HPLC mobile phase. In addition, the pure water chromatography separations described in this work can be directly applied in industrial plant settings without further modification of the existing HPLC equipment.     

Extracting and trapping biogenic volatile organic compounds stored in plant species

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), released by practically all plants, have important atmospheric and ecological consequences. Because BVOC-emission measurements are especially tedious, complex and extremely variable between species, two approaches have been used in scientific studies to try to estimate BVOC-emission types and rates from plant species. The first, which has known little success, involves grouping species according to plant-taxonomy criteria (typically, genus and family). The second involves studying the correlation between BVOC content and emission (i.e. how leaf content could be used to estimate emissions). The latter strategy has provided controversial results, partly because BVOCs are amazingly chemically diverse, and, as a result, techniques used to study plant BVOC content, which we review, cannot be equally adequate for all analytes.In order to choose an adequate technique, two patterns must be distinguished. Specifically stored compounds - mainly monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes that dominate the essential oil obtained from a plant - are permanently and massively present in specific storage structures (e.g., secretory cavities, trichomes) of the order of μg/g-mg/g and usually allow emissions to occur during stress periods when terpenes are weakly synthesized. These BVOCs can be studied directly through traditional extraction techniques (e.g., hydrodistillation) and novel techniques (e.g., application of microwaves and ultrasound), and indirectly by trapping techniques involving the collection, within adsorbent material, of BVOCs present in the headspace of a plant.Non-specifically stored compounds (e.g., isoprene, 2-methyl-3-buten-2-ol, and, in species without storage structures, monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes) can only be temporarily accumulated in leaf aqueous and lipid phases in small concentrations of the order of ng/g. As a result, studying their concentration in leaves requires the use of trapping techniques, more sensitive to trace amounts. Unlike for specifically stored BVOCs, knowledge of the concentration of non-specifically stored BVOCs cannot provide any information regarding the emission potential of a species but, instead, provides crucial information to understand why BVOC emissions may be uncoupled from the physiological processes that drive their synthesis.We describe both extracting and trapping techniques and discuss them in terms of the technical choices that may cause losses of thermolabile constituents, chemical transformations, different volatile recoveries and suitability to represent plant content of BVOCs faithfully. The second part of this review addresses technical shortcomings and biological and environmental factors that may alter the correlations between BVOC content and emission from plants.     

Retention characteristics of porous graphitic carbon in subcritical fluid chromatography with carbon dioxide-methanol mobile phases

Numerous relationships usually used in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for describing the retention on porous graphitic carbon (PGC) have been applied in subcritical fluid chromatography, with CO2-methanol mobile phases. As reported in HPLC, octanol-water partition coefficient failed to fit the retention, whereas satisfactory results were obtained with the sum of partial negative charges. A better fit was reached by using the solvation parameter model, allowing a better understanding of the interactions developed between the solute, the stationary and the mobile phases. Results show that the dominant contribution to retention was given by the polarizability (E) and the volume (V), while the hydrogen-bond basicity (B) was not selected in the retention model, whatever the methanol content. The increase in methanol percentage favours the retention decrease, mainly through the volume for hydrophobic compounds, and through the hydrogen-bond acidity for polar compounds.     

亚临界流体挤出法复合诱导EPDM废胶粉脱硫化及动态交联热塑性弹性体制备

在三元乙丙废胶粉(W-EPDM)与未硫化的三元乙丙橡胶(EPDM)熔融挤出过程中,采用注入亚临界流体和提高双螺杆挤出机螺杆转速的方法,研究了亚临界流体品种(水,乙醇/水混合物,丙醇)、螺杆转速、脱硫促进剂品种(烷基酚多硫化物450、二烯丙基二硫醚)对脱硫共混物(DGTR/EPDM)凝胶含量、门尼粘度、溶胶红外吸收光谱及脱硫共混物共混PP动态交联热塑性弹性体((DEPDM/EPDM)/PP)力学性能的影响,对动态交联热塑性弹性体材料的试样断面形貌也进行了SEM观察。实验结果表明:亚临界乙醇/水混合物(7/3)或亚临界丙醇条件对脱硫反应中S—S键的断裂具有较好的选择性,可引起废胶粉交联网络中S—S交联键断裂反应增加,而主链断裂反应下降,所得脱硫产物制备的动态交联热塑性弹性体材料中未熔融的凝胶颗粒尺寸较小,材料的力学性能明显增大;脱硫促进剂烷基酚多硫化物450具明显的促进脱硫反应的作用。在亚临界正丙醇的最佳挤出反应条件下(220℃,600rpm,促进剂450),所得脱硫共混物(DEPDM/EPDM)制备的动态交联热塑性弹性体材料(DEPDM/EPDM)/PP的拉伸强度和断裂伸长率分别达到17.1MPa和443%,其力学性能和断面形貌结构明显优于以传统罐式脱硫法所得的相应材料。     

Synthesis of nanoscale reaction pits network on zerovalent iron powder surface

A neat and efficient method for controllable and reproducible synthesis of coral-shaped matrix containing abundant nanoscale reaction pits on micrometer-size zerovalent iron powder is described with the study of etching capability of dilute hydrochloric, sulfuric, and nitric acids with concentration ranges from 1 N to 6 N. Characterizations of surface morphology show that the specific surface area of this matrix increases up to 170 times that of the untreated iron powder, and that the reduction efficiency of a PCB congener in subcritical water is enhanced fivefold from 18% for the untreated iron to 92% for that with 170 times its surface area. The nanoscale pits may be a basis for enhancement of reaction cross-section via restriction of molecule mobility in the pits.