Micellar enhanced ultrafiltration of phenolic derivatives from their mixtures

Micellar enhanced ultrafiltration (MEUF) of different phenolic derivatives including meta-nitrophenol (MNP), catechol (CC), para-nitrophenol (PNP), and beta-napthol (BN) in their binary mixture has been studied. A 1:1 ratio of the mixture of (i) MNP with CC and (ii) PNP with BN is taken for the MEUF experiments using a cationic surfactant, namely, cetyl(hexadecyl)pyridinium chloride (CPC). An organic polyamide membrane with molecular weight cutoff of 1000 is used. Experiments are conducted using an unstirred batch cell and a continuous cross-flow cell. The effects of various operating conditions, e.g., concentrations of surfactant and solute in the feed, transmembrane pressure drop, and cross-flow rate (for cross-flow experiments) on the permeate flux and the observed retention of each solute have been studied in detail. The retention of solutes without using the surfactant varies from 3 to 15% only at a typical feed solute concentration of 0.09 kg/m3, whereas, under the same operating pressure (345 kPa), retention at the end of the experiment increases to about 66 to 99.8% depending on the nature of solute in the batch cell using surfactant micelles (10 kg/m3). Retention of solutes is less in the case of the two-component feed solution compared to the single-component feed solution. An increase in flux to the range of 9 to 16% is realized in cross-flow experiments compared to batch cell flux after one hour of operation.     

Gravity-free hydraulic jumps and metal femtoliter cups

Hydraulic jumps created by gravity are seen everyday in the kitchen sink. We show that at small scales a circular hydraulic jump can be created in the absence of gravity by surface tension. The theory is motivated by our experimental finding of a height discontinuity in spreading submicron molten metal droplets created by pulsed-laser ablation. By careful control of initial conditions, this leads to solid femtoliter cups of gold, silver, copper, niobium, and tin.     

Characterization of CO2 plasma treated polymeric membranes and quantification of flux enhancement

Low-temperature CO₂ plasma is used for the treatment of poly-ethersulfone (PES), polyamide (PA) and poly-phenylene ethersulfone (PPE) ultrafiltration membranes. This has led to significant enhancement of the wetting characteristics of the membrane surface as is shown by contact angle measurements and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrum analysis of the treated membranes. Changes in the physical characteristics of the surface, such as tensile property, surface roughness, etc. are quantified by tensile strength measurement and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. An increase in the measured values of the di-electric constants further highlights the hydrophilic modification of the surface. A series of ultrafiltration experiments using a BSA solution of known concentration under different operating conditions is performed and the deposition thicknesses over the membrane surface during ultrafiltration are measured directly using image analyzing microscopy. The results clearly demonstrate that a plasma treated PES membrane is more hydrophilic with smoother surface and resists fouling leading to significant enhancement of permeate flux.     

Efficient Approximation Algorithms for Tiling and Packing Problems with Rectangles

We provide improved approximation algorithms for several rectangle tiling and packing problems (RTILE, DRTILE, and d-RPACK) studied in the literature. Most of our algorithms are highly efficient since their running times are near-linear in the sparse input size rather than in the domain size. In addition, we improve the best known approximation ratios.     

Prediction of permeate flux during osmotic pressure-controlled electric field-enhanced cross-flow ultrafiltration

Electric field-enhanced cross-flow ultrafiltration has been carried out to separate protein, bovine serum albumin, from aqueous solution using a 30,000 molecular weight cutoff membrane. A theoretical model is developed to predict permeate flux under a laminar flow regime including the effects of external d.c. electric field and suction through the membrane for osmotic pressure-controlled ultrafiltration. The governing equations of the concentration profile in the developing mass transfer boundary layer in a rectangular channel are solved using a similarity solution method. The effect of d.c. electric field on the variation of membrane surface concentration and permeate flux along the length of the channel is quantified using this model. The expression of Sherwood number relation for estimation of mass transfer coefficient is derived. The analysis revealed that there is a significant effect of electric field on the mass transfer coefficient. A detailed parametric study has been carried out to observe the effect of feed concentration, electric field, cross-flow velocity, and pressure on the permeate flux. For 1 kg/m3 BSA solution, by applying a d.c. electric field of 1000 V/m, the permeate flux increases from 42 to 98 L/m2 h compared to that with zero electric field. The experimental results are successfully compared with the model predicted results.     

Wave induced sliding at the interface between a layered elastic medium and a half-space

The sliding interface between an unrestrained elastic half-space and a grounded layered half-space excited by an incident harmonic wave is investigated. The problem is formulated considering various possible boundary conditions and boundary inequalities at the sliding interface. The Coulomb friction model without distinction between the static and kinetic coefficients of friction is considered to govern the sliding condition. Three possible bands at the interface, namely slip, stick, and separation, are considered. The interface is assumed to be preloaded under normal and shear stresses. The solution is developed by modifying the problem of welded interface, which then is reduced to a set of algebraic equations. The effects of the incident angle, layer thickness, friction coefficient and externally applied stresses on the drift velocity of the unrestrained half-space are studied numerically for a pair of materials. It is shown that the sliding interface, and hence the drift velocity of unrestrained half-space is noticeably influenced by the layered medium. These results are expected to be useful for the development of a new kind of ultrasonic drive in future.     

Finite inflation of a hyperelastic toroidal membrane over a cylindrical rim

The present paper is devoted to the study of finite inflation of a hyperelastic toroidal membrane on a cylindrical rim under uniform internal pressure. Both compliant and rigid frictionless rims have been considered. The compliant cylindrical rim is modeled as a linear distributed stiffness. The initial cross-section of the torus is assumed to be circular, and the membrane material is assumed to be a homogeneous and isotropic Mooney–Rivlin solid. The problem is formulated as a two point boundary value problem and solved using a shooting method by employing the Nelder–Meads search technique. The optimization function is constructed on a two (three) dimensional search space for the compliant cylinder (rigid cylinder). The effect of the inflation pressure, material properties and elastic properties of the rim on the state of stretch and stress, and on the geometry of the inflated torus have been studied, and some interesting results have been obtained. The stability of the inflated configurations in terms of occurrence of the impending wrinkling state in the membrane has also been studied.     

Effect of dispersion on the diffusion zone in two-phase laminar flows in microchannels

Aim of the present work is to investigate the reaction–diffusion process of a two species system under laminar flow in a T-shaped microchannel. A zone formed at the interface between the aqueous solutions of these two species is affected by advection and diffusion. Through theoretical analyses and experimental results, the effect of dispersion has been shown to influence this diffusion zone. We have defined a parameter called effective diffusivity, to account for the dispersion effects and observed it to be a function of the channel Peclet number. In the limiting case of low Peclet number, this parameter is constant and turns out to be equal to the molecular diffusivity. We have also related effective diffusivity and the dispersion coefficient through scaling estimates.