Numerical Simulation of Free Surface Water Wave for the Flow around NACA 0012 Hydrofoil and Wigley Hull Using VOF Method

Steady three-dimensional and two free surface waves generated by moving bodies are presented, the flow problem to be simulated is rich in complexity and poses many modeling challenges because of the existence of breaking waves around the ship hull, and because of the interaction of the two-phase flow with the turbulent boundary layer. The results of several simulations are reported. The first study was performed for NACA0012 of hydrofoil with different meshes, this section is analyzed at h/c= 1, 0345 for 2D. In the second simulation a mathematically defined Wigley hull form is used to investigate the application of a commercial CFD code in prediction of the total resistance and its components from tangential and normal forces on the hull wetted surface. The computed resistance and wave profiles are used to estimate the coefficient of the total resistance for Wigley hull advancing in calm water under steady conditions. The commercial CFD software FLUENT version 12 is used for the computations in the present study. The calculated grid is established using the code computer GAMBIT 2.3.26. The shear stress k-ωSST model is used for turbulence modeling and the volume of fluid technique is employed to simulate the free-surface motion. The second order upwind scheme is used for discretizing the convection terms in the momentum transport equations, the Modified HRIC scheme for VOF discretization. The results obtained compare well with the experimental data.

Study of Ether Species Effects on Physicochemical Properties of Palm Oil Ether Monoesters as Novel Biodiesels

Five palm oil ether monoesters utilized as novel biodiesels were synthesized and structurally identified in the paper. The investigation was made on the effect of ether species on physicochemical properties of the palm oil ether monoesters. The results showed that density, kinematic viscosity, smoke point, and solidifying point increase linearly with their –CH2 group number in certain relationships. Cetane number is enhanced whereas heat value decreases linearly with –CH2 group number. In addition, the influencing regularities of the volumetric content of the palm oil ether monoesters on the fuel properties were also studied when the ether monoesters are used as diesel fuel additives.

The Determination of the Potassium Nitrate, Sodium Hydroxide and Boric Acid Molar Ratio in the Synthesis of Potassium Borates via Hydrothermal Method

Potassium borates, which are widely used in welding and metal refining industry, as a lubricating oil additive, cement additive, fiberglass additive and insulation compound, are one of the important groups of borate minerals. In this study the production of a potassium borate mineral via hydrothermal method is aimed. The potassium source of potassium nitrate (KNO3) was used along with a sodium source of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and boron source of boric acid (H3BO3). The constant parameters of reaction temperature and reaction time were determined as 80°C and 1 h, respectively. The molar ratios of 1:1:3 (as KNO3:NaOH:H3BO3), 1:1:4, 1:1:5, 1:1:6 and 1:1:7 were used. Following the synthesis the identifications of the produced products were conducted by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman Spectroscopy. The results of the experiments and analysis showed in the ratio of 1:1:6, the Santite mineral with powder diffraction file number (pdf no.) of 01-072-1688, which is known as potassium pentaborate (KB5O8·4H2O) was synthesized as best.

Logic Programming and Artificial Neural Networks in Pharmacological Screening of Schinus Essential Oils

Some plants of genus Schinus have been used in the folk medicine as topical antiseptic, digestive, purgative, diuretic, analgesic or antidepressant, and also for respiratory and urinary infections. Chemical composition of essential oils of S. molle and S. terebinthifolius had been evaluated and presented high variability according with the part of the plant studied and with the geographic and climatic regions. The pharmacological properties, namely antimicrobial, anti-tumoural and anti-inflammatory activities are conditioned by chemical composition of essential oils. Taking into account the difficulty to infer the pharmacological properties of Schinus essential oils without hard experimental approach, this work will focus on the development of a decision support system, in terms of its knowledge representation and reasoning procedures, under a formal framework based on Logic Programming, complemented with an approach to computing centered on Artificial Neural Networks and the respective Degree-of-Confidence that one has on such an occurrence.

A Comprehensive CFD Model for Sugar-Cane Bagasse Heterogeneous Combustion in a Grate Boiler System

The comprehensive CFD models have been used to represent and study the heterogeneous combustion of biomass. In the present work, the operation of a global flue gas circuit in the sugarcane bagasse combustion, from wind boxes below primary air grate supply, passing by bagasse insertion in swirl burners and boiler furnace, to boiler bank outlet is simulated. It uses five different meshes representing each part of this system located in sequence: wind boxes and grate, boiler furnace, swirl burners, superheaters and boiler bank. The model considers turbulence using standard k-ε, combustion using EDM, radiation heat transfer using DTM with 16 ray directions and bagasse particle tracking represented by Schiller- Naumann model. The results showed good agreement with expected behavior found in literature and equipment design. The more detailed results view in separated parts of flue gas system allows observing some flow behaviors that cannot be represented by usual simplifications like bagasse supply under homogeneous axial and rotational vectors and others that can be represented using new considerations like the representation of 26 thousand grate orifices by 144 rectangular inlets.

The Effect of Lime Stabilization on E. coli Destruction and Heavy Metal Bioavailability in Sewage Sludge for Agricultural Utilization

The addition of lime as Ca(OH)2 to sewage sludge to destroy pathogens (Escherichia coli), was evaluated also in relation to heavy metal bioavailability. The obtained results show that the use of calcium hydroxide at the dose of 3% effectively destroyed pathogens ensuring the stability at high pH values over long period and the duration of the sewage sludge stabilization. In general, lime addition decreased the total extractability of heavy metals indicating a reduced bioavailability of these elements. This is particularly important for a safe utilization in agricultural soils to reduce the possible transfer of heavy metals to the food chain.

Laboratory Evaluation of the Flotation Response of a Copper Cobalt Oxide Ore to Gasoil-Rinkalore Mixtures

Froth flotation remains to date as one of the most used metallurgical processes for concentrating metal-bearing minerals in ores. Oxide ores are relatively less amenable to froth flotation and require a judicious choice of reagents for the recovery of metals to be optimised. Laboratory batch flotation tests were conducted to determine the effect of two types of gasoil-rinkalore mixtures on the flotation response of a copper cobalt oxide ore sample. The head assay conducted on the initial ore sample showed that it contained about 2.90% of Cu, 0.12% of Co. Upon the flotation test work, the results obtained indicated that the concentrate obtained with use of the mixture gazoil-rinkalore RX yielded 8.24% Cu and 0.22% Co concentrate grades with recoveries of 76.0% Cu and 78.0% Co respectively. But, the concentrate obtained by use of the mixture gazoil-rinkalore RX3 yielded relatively bad results with 5.92% Cu and 0.18% Cu concentrate grades with recoveries of 70.3% Cu and 65.3% Co respectively.

Effect of Chromium Behavior on Mechanical and Electrical Properties of P/M Copper-Chromium Alloy Dispersed with VGCF

Microstructural and electrical properties of Cu-chromium alloy (Cu-Cr) dispersed with vapor-grown carbon fiber (VGCF) prepared by powder metallurgy (P/M) process have been investigated. Cu-0.7 mass% Cr pre-alloyed powder (Cu-Cr) made by water atomization process was used as raw materials, which contained solid solute Cr elements in Cu matrix. The alloy powder coated with un-bundled VGCF by using oil coating process was consolidated at 1223 K in vacuum by spark plasma sintering, and then extruded at 1073 K. The extruded Cu-Cr alloy (monolithic alloy) had 209.3 MPa YS and 80.4 IACS% conductivity. The extruded Cu-Cr with 0.1 mass% VGCF composites revealed a small decrease of YS compared to the monolithic Cu-Cr alloy. On the other hand, the composite had a higher electrical conductivity than that of the monolithic alloy. For example, Cu-Cr with 0.1 mass% VGCF composite sintered for 5 h showed 182.7 MPa YS and 89.7 IACS% conductivity. In the case of Cu-Cr with VGCFs composites, the Cr concentration was observed around VGCF by SEM-EDS analysis, where Cr23C6 compounds were detected by TEM observation. The amount of Cr solid solution in the matrix of the Cu-Cr composites alloy was about 50% compared to the monolithic Cu-Cr sintered alloy, and resulted in the remarkable increment of the electrical conductivity.

Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Angiography in Rats with Gadobenate Dimeglumine at 3T

This study aimed to investigate the magnetic resonance (MR) signal enhancement ratio (ER) of contrast-enhanced MR angiography (CE-MRA) in normal rats with gadobenate dimeglumine (Gd-BOPTA) using a clinical 3T scanner and an extremity coil. The relaxivities of Gd-BOPTA with saline only and with 4.5% human serum albumin (HSA) were also measured. Compared with Gadolinium diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (Gd-DTPA), Gd-BOPTA had higher relaxivities. The maximum ER of aorta (ERa), kidney, liver and muscle with Gd-BOPTA were higher than those with Gd-DTPA. The maximum ERa appeared at 1.2 min and decayed to half at 10 min after Gd-BOPTA injection. This information is helpful for the design of CE-MRA study of rats.

Oily Sludge Bioremediation Pilot Plant Project, Nigeria

Brass terminal, one of the several crude oil and petroleum products storage/handling facilities in the Niger Delta was built in the 1980s. Activities at this site, over the years, released crude oil into this 3 m-deep, 1500 m-long canal lying adjacent to the terminal with oil floating on it and its sediment heavily polluted. To ensure effective clean-up, three major activities were planned: site characterization, bioremediation pilot plant construction and testing and full-scale bioremediation of contaminated sediment / bank soil by land farming. The canal was delineated into 12 lots and each characterized, with reference to the floating oily phase, contaminated sediment and canal bank soil. As a result of site characterization, a pilot plant for on-site bioremediation was designed and a treatment basin constructed for carrying out pilot bioremediation test. Following a designed sampling protocol, samples from this pilot plant were collected for analysis at two laboratories as a quality assurance / quality control check. Results showed that Brass Canal upstream is contaminated with dark, thick and viscous oily film with characteristic hydrocarbon smell while downstream, thin oily film interspersed with water was observed. Sediments were observed to be dark with mixture of brownish sandy soil with TPH ranging from 17,800 mg/kg in Lot 1 to 88,500 mg/kg in Lot 12 samples. Brass Canal bank soil was observed to be sandy from ground surface to 3m, below ground surface (bgs) it was silty-sandy and brownish while subsurface soil (4-10m bgs) was sandy-clayey and whitish/grayish with typical hydrocarbon smell. Preliminary results obtained so far have been very promising but were proprietary. This project is considered, to the best of technical literature knowledge, the first large-scale on-site bioremediation project in the Niger Delta region, Nigeria.

Spatio-temporal Variations in Heavy Metal Concentrations in Sediment of Qua Iboe River Estuary, Nigeria

The concentrations of heavy metals in sediments of Qua Iboe River Estuary (QIRE) were monitored at four different sampling locations in wet and dry seasons. A preliminary survey to determine the four sampling stations along the river continuum showed that the area spanned between

Time/Temperature-Dependent Finite Element Model of Laminated Glass Beams

The polymer foil used for manufacturing of laminated glass members behaves in a viscoelastic manner with temperature dependance. This contribution aims at incorporating the time/temperature-dependent behavior of interlayer to our earlier elastic finite element model for laminated glass beams. The model is based on a refined beam theory: each layer behaves according to the finite-strain shear deformable formulation by Reissner and the adjacent layers are connected via the Lagrange multipliers ensuring the inter-layer compatibility of a laminated unit. The time/temperature-dependent behavior of the interlayer is accounted for by the generalized Maxwell model and by the time-temperature superposition principle due to the Williams, Landel, and Ferry. The resulting system is solved by the Newton method with consistent linearization and the viscoelastic response is determined incrementally by the exponential algorithm. By comparing the model predictions against available experimental data, we demonstrate that the proposed formulation is reliable and accurately reproduces the behavior of the laminated glass units.

Correlation of Structure and Antiviral Activity of Alkaloids of Polygonum L. Plants Growing in Kazakhstan

The article represents the results of isolation and component chromatographic analysis of essential oils of Polygonym L. plants growing in Kazakhstan in commercial reserves at the territory of Kazakhstan. The results of research of antiviral activity of isolated substances to flu virus have been represented in this article. The main pharmacophore groups in the structure of alkaloids have been identified.

Potential of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) for Phytoremedation of Soils Contaminated with Heavy Metals

A field study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of safflower plant for phytoremediation of contaminated soils. The experiment was performed on an agricultural fields contaminated by the Non-Ferrous-Metal Works near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. Field experiments with randomized complete block design with five treatments (control, compost amendments added at 20 and 40 t/daa, and vermicompost amendments added at 20 and 40 t/daa) were carried out. The quality of safflower seeds and oil (heavy metals and fatty acid composition) were determined. Tested organic amendments significantly influenced the chemical composition of safflower seeds and oil. The compost and vermicompost treatments significantly reduced heavy metals concentration in safflower seeds and oils, but the effect differed among them. Addition of vermicompost and compost leads to an increase in the content of palmitic acid and linoleic acid, and a decrease in the stearic and oleic acids compared with the control. A significant increase in the quantity of saturated acids was observed in the variants with 20 t/daa of compost and 20 t/daa of vermicompost (9.1 and 8.9% relative to the control). Safflower is a plant which is tolerant to heavy metals and can be successfully used in the phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils. The processing of seeds to oil and using the obtained oil for nutritional purposes will greatly reduce the cost of phytoremediation.

Synchrotron X-Ray Based Investigation of As and Fe Bonding Environment in Collard Green Tissue Samples at Different Growth Stages

The arsenic and iron environments in different growth stages have been studied with EXAFS and XANES using Brookhaven Synchrotron Light Source. Collard Greens plants were grown and tissue samples were harvested. The project studied the EXAFS and XANES of tissue samples using As and Fe K-edges. The Fe absorption and the Fourier transform bond length information were used as a control comparison. The Fourier transform of the XAFS data revealed the coexistence of As (III) and As (V) in the As bonding environment inside the studied plant tissue samples, although the soil only had As (III). The data suggests that Collard Greens has a novel pathway to handle arsenic absorption in soil.

The Role of Vibro-Stone Column for Enhancing the Soft Soil Properties

This study investigated the behavior of improved soft soils through the vibro replacement technique by considering their settlements and consolidation rates and the applicability of this technique in various types of soils and settlement and bearing capacity calculations.

Antiinflammatory and Wound Healing Activity of Sedum Essential Oils Growing in Kazakhstan

The article represents the results of clinical researches of composite herbal medicinal product based on essential oils of Sedum plants growing in Kazakhstan in commercial reserves at the territory of Kazakhstan. The results of comparative analysis are represented in obstetric-gynecologic practice during combined therapy for postnatal complications, inflammatory infiltrates in the area of surgical wounds including wounds after caesarean section.

Delineation of Oil – Polluted Sites in Ibeno LGA, Nigeria, Using Geophysical Techniques

Ibeno, Nigeria hosts the operational base of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU), a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and the current highest oil & condensate producer in Nigeria. Besides MPNU, other oil companies operate onshore, on the continental shelf and deep offshore of the Atlantic Ocean in Ibeno, Nigeria. This study was designed to delineate oil polluted sites in Ibeno, Nigeria using geophysical methods of electrical resistivity (ER) and ground penetrating radar (GPR). Results obtained revealed that there have been hydrocarbon contaminations of this environment by past crude oil spills as observed from high resistivity values and GPR profiles which clearly show the distribution, thickness and lateral extent of hydrocarbon contamination as represented on the radargram reflector tones. Contaminations were of varying degrees, ranging from slight to high, indicating levels of substantial attenuation of crude oil contamination over time. Moreover, the display of relatively lower resistivities of locations outside the impacted areas compared to resistivity values within the impacted areas and the 3-D Cartesian images of oil contaminant plume depicted by red, light brown and magenta for high, low and very low oil impacted areas, respectively confirmed significant recent pollution of the study area with crude oil.

Potential of Lavender (Lavandula vera L.) for Phytoremediation of Soils Contaminated with Heavy Metals

A field study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of lavender for phytoremediation of contaminated soils. The experiment was performed on an agricultural fields contaminated by the Non-Ferrous-Metal Works near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The concentrations of Pb, Zn and Cd in lavender (roots, stems, leaves and inflorescences) and in the essential oils of lavender were determined. Lavender is a plant which is tolerant to heavy metals and can be grown on contaminated soils, and which can be referred to the hyperaccumulators of lead and the accumulators of cadmium and zinc, and can be successfully used in the phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils. Favorable is also the fact that heavy metals do not influence the development of the lavender, as well as on the quality and quantity of the essential oil. The possibility of further industrial processing will make lavender economically interesting crops for farmers of phytoextraction technology.

Stabilization of Fly Ash Slope Using Plastic Recycled Polymer and Finite Element Analysis Using Plaxis 3D

The model tests were conducted in the laboratory without and with Plastic recycled polymer in fly ash steep slopes overlaying soft foundation soils like fly ash and powai soil in order to check the stability of steep slope. In this experiment, fly ash is used as a filling material and Plastic Recycled Polymers of diameter = 3mm and length = 4mm were made from waste plastic product (lower grade plastic product). The properties of fly ash and Plastic recycled polymers are determined. From the experiments, load and settlement have measured. From these data, load –settlement curves have reported. It has been observed from test results that load carrying capacity of mixture fly ash with Plastic Recycled Polymers slope is more than that of fly ash slope. The deformation of Plastic Recycled Polymers slope is slightly more than that of fly ash slope. A Finite Element Method (F.E.M.) was also evaluated using PLAXIS 3D version. The failure pattern, deformations and factor of safety are reported based on analytical programme. The results from experimental data and analytical programme are compared and reported.