EBSD Investigation of Friction Stir Welded Duplex Stainless Steel

Electron back-scattered diffraction was used to follow the evolution of microstructure from the base metal to the stir zone (SZ) in a duplex stainless steel subjected to friction stir welding. In the stir zone (SZ), a continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) was evidenced for ferrite, while it was suggested that a static recrystallization together with CDRX may occur for austenite. It was found that ferrite and austenite grains in the SZ take a typical shear texture of bcc and fcc materials respectively.

Effect of Surface Pretreatments on Nanocrystalline Diamond Deposited On Silicon Nitride Substrates

The deposition of diamond films on a Si3N4 substrate is an attractive technique for industrial applications because of the excellent properties of diamond. Pretreatment of substrate is very important prior to diamond deposition to promote nucleation and adhesion between coating and substrate. Deposition of nanocrystalline diamonds films on silicon nitride substrate have been carried out by HF-CVD technique using mixture of methane and hydrogen gases. Different pretreatment of substrate including chemical etching consists of hot acid etching and basic etching and mechanical etching were used to study the quality of diamond formed on the substrate. The structure and morphology of diamond coating have been studied using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) while diamond film quality has been characterized using Raman spectroscopy. AFM was used to investigate the effect of chemical etching and mechanical pretreatment on the surface roughness of the substrates and the resultant morphology of nanocrystalline diamond. It was found that diamond film deposited on as-received, basic etched and grinded substrate shows the morphology of cauliflower while blasted and acidic etched substrates produce smooth, continuous diamond film. However, the Raman investigation did not show any deviation in quality of diamond film for any pretreatment.

Synthesis and Characterization of Gallosilicate Sodalite Containing NO2- Ions

Pure phase gallosilicate nitrite sodalite has been synthesized in a single step by low temperature (373 oK) hydrothermal technique. The product obtained was characterized using a combination of techniques including X-ray powder diffraction, IR, Raman spectroscopy, SEM, MAS NMR spectroscopy as well as thermogravimetry. Sodalite with an ideal composition was obtained after synthesis at 3730K and seven days duration using alkaline medium. The structural features of the Na8[GaSiO4]6(NO2)2 sodalite were investigated by IR, MAS NMR spectroscopy of 29Si and 23Na nuclei and by Reitveld refinement of X-ray powder diffraction data. The crystal structure of this sodalite has been refined in the space group P 4 3n; with a cell parameter 8.98386Å, V= 726.9 Å, (Rwp= 0.077 and Rp=0.0537) and Si-O-Ga angle is found to be 132.920 . MAS NMR study confirms complete ordering of Si and Ga in the gallosilicate framework. The surface area of single entity with stoichiometry Na8[GaSiO4]6(NO2)2 was found to be 8.083 x10-15 cm2/g.

Slugging Frequency Correlation for Inclined Gas-liquid Flow

In this work, new experimental data for slugging frequency in inclined gas-liquid flow are reported, and a new correlation is proposed. Scale experiments were carried out using a mixture of air and water in a 6 m long pipe. Two different pipe diameters were used, namely, 38 and 67 mm. The data were taken with capacitance type sensors at a data acquisition frequency of 200 Hz over an interval of 60 seconds. For the range of flow conditions studied, the liquid superficial velocity is observed to influence the frequency strongly. A comparison of the present data with correlations available in the literature reveals a lack of agreement. A new correlation for slug frequency has been proposed for the inclined flow, which represents the main contribution of this work.

Isobaric Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium Data for Binary Mixtures of n-Butylamine and Triethylamine with Cumene at 97.3 kPa

Isobaric vapor-liquid equilibrium measurements are reported for the binary mixtures of n-Butylamine and Triethylamine with Cumene at 97.3 kPa. The measurements have been performed using a vapor recirculating type (modified Othmer's) equilibrium still. The binary mixture of n-Butylamine + Cumene shows positive deviation from ideality. Triethylamine + Cumene mixture shows negligible deviation from ideality. None of the systems form an azeotrope. The activity coefficients have been calculated taking into consideration the vapor phase nonideality. The data satisfy the thermodynamic consistency test of Herington. The activity coefficients have been satisfactorily correlated by means of the Margules, NRTL, and Black equations. The activity coefficient values obtained by the UNIFAC model are also reported.

Modeling of Plasticity of Clays Submitted to Compression Test

In the forming of ceramic materials the plasticity concept is commonly used. This term is related to a particular mechanical behavior when clay is mixed with water. A plastic ceramic material shows a permanent strain without rupture when a compressive load produces a shear stress that exceeds the material-s yield strength. For a plastic ceramic body it observes a measurable elastic behavior before the yield strength and when the applied load is removed. In this work, a mathematical model was developed from applied concepts of the plasticity theory by using the stress/strain diagram under compression.

The Kinetic of Biogas Production Rate from Cattle Manure in Batch Mode

In this study, the kinetic of biogas production was studied by performing a series laboratory experiment using rumen fluid of animal ruminant as inoculums. Cattle manure as substrate was inoculated by rumen fluid to the anaerobic biodigester. Laboratory experiments using 400 ml biodigester were performed in batch operation mode. Given 100 grams of fresh cattle manure was fed to each biodigester and mixed with rumen fluid by manure : rumen weight ratio of 1:1 (MR11). The operating temperatures were varied at room temperature and 38.5 oC. The cumulative volume of biogas produced was used to measure the biodigester performance. The research showed that the rumen fluid inoculated to biodigester gave significant effect to biogas production (P

Optimization of Growth of Rhodobacter Sphaeroides Using Mixed Volatile Fatty Acidsby Response Surface Methodology

A combination of photosynthetic bacteria along with anaerobic acidogenic bacteria is an ideal option for efficient hydrogen production. In the present study, the optimum concentration of substrates for the growth of Rhodobacter sphaeroides was found by response surface methodology. The optimum combination of three individual fatty acids was determined by Box Behnken design. Increase of volatile fatty acid concentration decreased the growth. Combination of sodium acetate and sodium propionate was most significant for the growth of the organism. The results showed that a maximum biomass concentration of 0.916 g/l was obtained when the concentrations of acetate, propionate and butyrate were 0.73g/l,0.99g/l and 0.799g/l, respectively. The growth was studied under an optimum concentration of volatile fatty acids and at a light intensity of 3000 lux, initial pH of 7 and a temperature of 35°C.The maximum biomass concentration of 0.92g/l was obtained which verified the practicability of this optimization.

Process Parameter Optimization for the Production of Gentamicin using Micromonouspora Echiniospora

The process parameters, temperature, pH and substrate concentration, were optimized for the production of gentamicin using Micromonouspora echinospora. Experiments were carried out according to central composite design in response surface method. The optimum conditions for the maximum production of gentamicin were found to be: temperature – 31.7oC, pH – 6.8 and substrate concentration – 3%. At these optimized conditions the production of gentamicin was found to be – 1040 mg/L. The R2 value of 0.9465 indicates a good fitness of the model.

Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation(SSF) of Sugarcane Bagasse - Kinetics and Modeling

Simultaneous Saccharification and Fermentation (SSF) of sugarcane bagasse by cellulase and Pachysolen tannophilus MTCC *1077 were investigated in the present study. Important process variables for ethanol production form pretreated bagasse were optimized using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) experiments. A 23 five level CCD experiments with central and axial points was used to develop a statistical model for the optimization of process variables such as incubation temperature (25–45°) X1, pH (5.0–7.0) X2 and fermentation time (24–120 h) X3. Data obtained from RSM on ethanol production were subjected to the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analyzed using a second order polynomial equation and contour plots were used to study the interactions among three relevant variables of the fermentation process. The fermentation experiments were carried out using an online monitored modular fermenter 2L capacity. The processing parameters setup for reaching a maximum response for ethanol production was obtained when applying the optimum values for temperature (32°C), pH (5.6) and fermentation time (110 h). Maximum ethanol concentration (3.36 g/l) was obtained from 50 g/l pretreated sugarcane bagasse at the optimized process conditions in aerobic batch fermentation. Kinetic models such as Monod, Modified Logistic model, Modified Logistic incorporated Leudeking – Piret model and Modified Logistic incorporated Modified Leudeking – Piret model have been evaluated and the constants were predicted.

Kinetics Studies on Biological Treatment of Tannery Wastewater Using Mixed Culture

In this study, aerobic digestion of tannery industry wastewater was carried out using mixed culture obtained from common effluent treatment plant treating tannery wastewater. The effect of pH, temperature, inoculum concentration, agitation speed and initial substrate concentration on the reduction of organic matters were found. The optimum conditions for COD reduction was found to be pH - 7 (60%), temperature - 30ÔùªC (61%), inoculum concentration - 2% (61%), agitation speed - 150rpm (65%) and initial substrate concentration - 1560 mg COD/L (74%). Kinetics studies were carried by using Monod model, First order, Diffusional model and Singh model. From the results it was found that the Monod model suits well for the degradation of tannery wastewater using mixed microbial consortium.

Optimization of the Process of Osmo – Convective Drying of Edible Button Mushrooms using Response Surface Methodology (RSM)

Simultaneous effects of temperature, immersion time, salt concentration, sucrose concentration, pressure and convective dryer temperature on the combined osmotic dehydration - convective drying of edible button mushrooms were investigated. Experiments were designed according to Central Composite Design with six factors each at five different levels. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to determine the optimum processing conditions that yield maximum water loss and rehydration ratio and minimum solid gain and shrinkage in osmotic-convective drying of edible button mushrooms. Applying surfaces profiler and contour plots optimum operation conditions were found to be temperature of 39 °C, immersion time of 164 min, salt concentration of 14%, sucrose concentration of 53%, pressure of 600 mbar and drying temperature of 40 °C. At these optimum conditions, water loss, solid gain, rehydration ratio and shrinkage were found to be 63.38 (g/100 g initial sample), 3.17 (g/100 g initial sample), 2.26 and 7.15%, respectively.

Finite Element Modeling of Rotating Mixing of Toothpaste

The objective of this research is to examine the shear thinning behaviour of mixing flow of non-Newtonian fluid like toothpaste in the dissolution container with rotating stirrer. The problem under investigation is related to the chemical industry. Mixing of fluid is performed in a cylindrical container with rotating stirrer, where stirrer is eccentrically placed on the lid of the container. For the simulation purpose the associated motion of the fluid is considered as revolving of the container, with stick stirrer. For numerical prediction, a time-stepping finite element algorithm in a cylindrical polar coordinate system is adopted based on semi-implicit Taylor-Galerkin/pressure-correction scheme. Numerical solutions are obtained for non-Newtonian fluids employing power law model. Variations with power law index have been analysed, with respect to the flow structure and pressure drop.

The Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena in Vacuum Membrane Distillation for Desalination

Vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process can be used for water purification or the desalination of salt water. The process simply consists of a flat sheet hydrophobic micro porous PTFE membrane and diaphragm vacuum pump without a condenser for the water recovery or trap. The feed was used aqueous NaCl solution. The VMD experiments were performed to evaluate the heat and mass transfer coefficient of the boundary layer in a membrane module. The only operating parameters are feed inlet temperature, and feed flow rate were investigated. The permeate flux was strongly affected by the feed inlet temperature, feed flow rate, and boundary layer heat transfer coefficient. Since lowering the temperature polarization coefficient is essential enhance the process performance considerable and maximizing the heat transfer coefficient for maximizes the mass flux of distillate water. In this paper, the results of VMD experiments are used to measure the boundary layer heat transfer coefficient, and the experimental results are used to reevaluate the empirical constants in the Dittus- Boelter equation.

Decolourization of Melanoidin Containing Wastewater Using South African Coal Fly Ash

Batch adsorption of recalcitrant melanoidin using the abundantly available coal fly ash was carried out. It had low specific surface area (SBET) of 1.7287 m2/g and pore volume of 0.002245 cm3/g while qualitative evaluation of the predominant phases in it was done by XRD analysis. Colour removal efficiency was found to be dependent on various factors studied. Maximum colour removal was achieved around pH 6, whereas increasing sorbent mass from 10g/L to 200 g/L enhanced colour reduction from 25% to 86% at 298 K. Spontaneity of the process was suggested by negative Gibbs free energy while positive values for enthalpy change showed endothermic nature of the process. Non-linear optimization of error functions resulted in Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson isotherms describing sorption equilibrium data best. The coal fly ash had maximum sorption capacity of 53 mg/g and could thus be used as a low cost adsorbent in melanoidin removal.

The Effect of Mixture Velocity and Droplet Diameter on Oil-water Separator using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)

The characteristics of fluid flow and phase separation in an oil-water separator were numerically analysed as part of the work presented herein. Simulations were performed for different velocities and droplet diameters, and the way this parameters can influence the separator geometry was studied. The simulations were carried out using the software package Fluent 6.2, which is designed for numerical simulation of fluid flow and mass transfer. The model consisted of a cylindrical horizontal separator. A tetrahedral mesh was employed in the computational domain. The condition of two-phase flow was simulated with the two-fluid model, taking into consideration turbulence effects using the k-ε model. The results showed that there is a strong dependency of phase separation on mixture velocity and droplet diameter. An increase in mixture velocity will bring about a slow down in phase separation and as a consequence will require a weir of greater height. An increase in droplet diameter will produce a better phase separation. The simulations are in agreement with results reported in literature and show that CFD can be a useful tool in studying a horizontal oilwater separator.

An investigation on the Effect of Continuous Phase Height on the First and Second Critical Rotor Speeds in a Rotary Disc Contactor

A Rotary Disc Contactor with inner diameter of 9.1cm and maximum operating height of 40cm has been used to investigate break up phenomenon. Water-Toluene, Water as continuous phase and Toluene as dispersed phase, was selected as chemical system in the experiments. The mentioned chemical system has high interfacial tension so it was possible to form big drops which permit accurate investigation on break up phenomenon as well as the first and second critical rotor speeds. In this study, Break up phenomenon has been studied as a function of mother drop size, rotor speed and continuous phase height. Further more; the effects of mother drop size and continuous phase height on the first and second critical rotor speeds were investigated. Finally, two modified correlations were proposed to estimate the first and second critical speeds.

Solid Concentration in Circulating Fluidized Bed Reactor for the MTO Process

Methanol-to-olefins (MTO) coupled with transformation of coal or natural gas to methanol gives an interesting and promising way to produce ethylene and propylene. To investigate solid concentration in gas-solid fluidized bed for methanol-to-olefins process catalyzed by SAPO-34, a cold model experiment system is established in this paper. The system comprises a gas distributor in a 300mm internal diameter and 5000mm height acrylic column, the fiber optic probe system and series of cyclones. The experiments are carried out at ambient conditions and under different superficial gas velocity ranging from 0.3930m/s to 0.7860m/s and different initial bed height ranging from 600mm to 1200mm. The effects of radial distance, axial distance, superficial gas velocity, initial bed height on solid concentration in the bed are discussed. The effects of distributor shape and porosity on solid concentration are also discussed. The time-averaged solid concentration profiles under different conditions are obtained.

CFD Simulation of Dense Gas Extraction through Polymeric Membranes

In this study is presented a general methodology to predict the performance of a continuous near-critical fluid extraction process to remove compounds from aqueous solutions using hollow fiber membrane contactors. A comprehensive 2D mathematical model was developed to study Porocritical extraction process. The system studied in this work is a membrane based extractor of ethanol and acetone from aqueous solutions using near-critical CO2. Predictions of extraction percentages obtained by simulations have been compared to the experimental values reported by Bothun et al. [5]. Simulations of extraction percentage of ethanol and acetone show an average difference of 9.3% and 6.5% with the experimental data, respectively. More accurate predictions of the extraction of acetone could be explained by a better estimation of the transport properties in the aqueous phase that controls the extraction of this solute.

Microstructural and In-Vitro Characterization of Glass-Reinforced Hydroxyapatite Composites

Commercial hydroxyapatite (HA) was reinforced by adding 2, 5, and 10 wt % of 28.5%CaO-28.5%P2O5-38%Na2 O- 5%CaF2 based glass and then sintered. Although HA shows good biocompatibility with the human body, its applications are limited to non load-bearing areas and coatings due to its poor mechanical properties. These mechanical properties can be improved substantially with addition of glass ceramics by sintering. In this study, the effects of sintering hydroxyapatite with above specified phosphate glass additions are quantified. Each composition was sintered over a range of temperatures. Scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction were used to characterize the microstructure and phases of the composites. The density, microhardness, and compressive strength were measured using Archimedes Principle, Vickers Microhardness Tester (at 0.98 N), and Instron Universal Testing Machine (cross speed of 0.5 mm/min) respectively. These results were used to indicate which composition provided suitable material for use in hard tissue replacement. Composites containing 10 wt % glass additions formed dense HA/TCP (tricalcium phosphate) composite materials possessing good compressive strength and hardness than HA. In-vitro bioactivity was assessed by evaluating changes in pH and Ca2+ ion concentration of SBF-simulated body fluid on immersion of these composites in it for two weeks.