Long-Term Changes in a Heat Exchanger Steel

The steel ASTM A213 P22 is used for superheater outlet header in power plants. During duty cycles lasting over tens of years the temperature is of the order of 545°C and the pressure 125 atm. The microscopic changes in these steels are hard to analyze under working conditions, but they are believed to be responsible for the appearance of creeps in such devices. Investigation of the microscopic modifications will help to predict future failures due to creeps, increasing the reliability and saving a lot of money.We report the investigation of such changes in ASTM A213 P22 steel in use for 30 years as a Superheater header at Haifa power station. The analysis has been carried out using Mössbauer Spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy. As a result it seems that the morphology and phase change of the carbide phases M₃C/M₇C₃ and M₂₃C₆ are the most prominent changes leading to the material failures.     

Preface

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry -     

Positive value of information in games

We exhibit a general class of interactive decision situations in which all the agents benefit from more information. This class includes as a special case the classical comparison of statistical experiments à la Blackwell. AMS 2000 Subject Classification:Primary 91A35.The work of Bruno Bassan and Marco Scarsini was partially supported by MIUR-COFIN. The authors express their thanks to Sylvain Sorin for enlightening comments.     

Graft copolymerization. I. Grafting of hydroxyalkyl methacrylates on poly(vinyl alcohol)

New graft copolymers were synthesized by grafting hydroxyethyl methacrylate and hydroxpropyl methacrylate on poly(vinyl alcohol) in aqueous solution with Ce⁺⁴ions as initiator. The dependence of the percentage of grafting and monomer conversion on the concentration of the monomer, on the concentration of the initiator, on the total concentration of the reactants, and on temperature and duration of the reaction were investigated. Some basic properties of the graft copolymers and some preliminary permeation measurements of water vapors through films, made from these copolymers, are also reported.     

Boolean logic functions of a synthetic peptide network

Living cells can process rapidly and simultaneously multiple extracellular input signals through the complex networks of evolutionary selected biomolecular interactions and chemical transformations. Recent approaches to molecular computation have increasingly sought to mimic or exploit various aspects of biology. A number of studies have adapted nucleic acids and proteins to the design of molecular logic gates and computational systems, while other works have affected computation in living cells via biochemical pathway engineering. Here we report that de novo designed synthetic peptide networks can also mimic some of the basic logic functions of the more complex biological networks. We show that segments of a small network whose graph structure is composed of five nodes and 15 directed edges can express OR, NOR, and NOTIF logic.     

Adsorption of fast green and erythrosin-B to montmorillonite modified with crystal violet

Adsorption of erythrosin-B (EB) and fast green (FG) to a non-charged organosmectite based on crystal violet adsorbed up to 100% of the cation exchange capacity (CEC) was tested. Adsorption isotherms of EB and FG were prepared at 3, 24 and 50°C. All isotherms are of H-type reaching loads of approximately up to 20% of the original CEC of the crude montmorillonite (up to 0.15 and 0.10 mol dye kg^–1 clay for EB and FG, respectively). Adsorption decreases with temperature, indicating an exothermic process. Enthalpy was evaluated using van’t Hoff equation, yielding approximately –20 kJ mol^–1 for both dyes.     

A new algorithm for generation of permutations

A new algorithm for generating permutations is presented, that generates the next permutation by reversing a certain suffix of its predecessor. The average size of this suffix is less thane 2.8. It is shown how to find the position of a given permutation and how to construct the permutation of a given position, where the position refers to the order in which the permutations are generated, and is also new.On leave from the Department of Computer Science, Technion, Haifa, Israel. This work was supported by NSF grant MCS-8302391.     

Micropeptins from Microcystis sp. collected in Kabul Reservoir,Israel

Three new micropeptins, micropeptin KR1030, KR1002 and KR998 and the known microcyclamide GL546A were isolated from the extract of Microcystis sp. bloom material collected in Kabul Reservoir, Israel. The planar structures of the compounds were determined by homonuclear and inverse-heteronuclear 2D-NMR techniques as well as high-resolution mass spectrometry. The absolute configuration of the asymmetric centres of the amino acids was studied using Marfey's method for HPLC. The inhibitory activity of the compounds was determined for the serine proteases: trypsin, chymotrypsin and elastase.