Frequency response analysis of cylindrical shells conveying fluid using finite element method

A finite element vibration analysis of thin-watled cylindrical shells conveying fluid with uniform velocity is presented The dynamic behavior of thin-walled shell is based on the Sanders’ theory and the fluid in cyhndrical shell is considered as inviscid and incompressible so that it satisfies the Laplace’s equation A beam-like shell element is used to reduce the number of degrees-of-freedom by restricting to the circumferential modes of cylindrical shell An estimation of frequency response function of the pipe considering of the coupled effects of the internal fluid is presented A dynamic coupling condition of the interface between the fluid and the structure is used The effective thickness of fluid according to circumferential modes is also discussed The influence of fluid velocity on the frequency response function is illustrated and discussed The results by this method are compared with published lesults and those by commercial tools     

Response time and mechanism of Pd modified TiO2 gas sensor

In this work, gas response properties of Pd modified TiO₂ sensing films are discussed when exposed to H₂ and O₂. TiO₂ films are surface modified in PdCl₂-containing solution by the dipping method and treated for different treatment times to get different surface states. X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Kröger–Vink defect theory are used to characterize the sensing films. The gas response properties indicate that the sensor response time which related to the rate of change of sensor resistance is affected by the activation energy (E). In particular, the sensor treated at 900 °C for 2 h exhibits a response time of about 20–240 ms when exposed to H₂ and 40–130 ms when exposed to O₂ at 500–800 °C.     

Estimation of the Parameters of the Gamma Distribution by Sample Quantiles

This paper deals with large sample estimation of the location parameter (α₁ and the scale parameter α₂ in the gamma distribution with known shape parameter. Best linear unbiased estimates based on k sample quantiles are used. For a given k, the optimum spacings of the sample quantiles can be replaced by simpler “nearly optimum” spacings at virtually no loss of asymptotic efficiency. The theory behind the nearly optimum spacings is briefly reviewed. The major part of the paper concerns estimation of α₂ when α₂ is known. Nearly optimum spacings together with the coefficients to be used in computing the estimates are presented in a number of tables for k = 1(1) 10, and various values of the shape parameter. The paper also contains brief discussions of estimation of α₁, when α₂ is known, and simultaneous estimation of α₁ and α₂.     

Preliminary study of parameter uncertainty influence on Pressurized Water Reactor core design

Sub-channel analysis can improve the accuracy of reactor core thermal design. However, the important initial parameters contain various uncertainties during reactor operation. In this work, the Sub-channel Analysis Code of Supercritical reactor (SACOS) code, which is also applicable for Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR), was used to study the coolant flow characteristic and fuel rod heat transfer characteristic of 1/8 assembly which has the maximum linear power density in 300 MWe PWR core firstly. Then the Wilks' method and Response Surface Method (RSM) were utilized to determine the influence of sub-channel input parameters uncertainties on the highest temperature of reactor core fuel rod and Minimum Departure from Nucleate Boiling Ratio (MDNBR). The results show that in the most conservative conditions, the maximum temperature of the fuel rod and MDNBR were 2167.4 °C and 1.08, respectively. Considering the uncertainties of assembly inlet flow rate, inlet coolant temperature and system pressure, the 95% probability values (with 95% confidence) of fuel rod maximum and MDNBR calculated using response surface methodology were 2144.0 °C and 1.6, while they were 2137 °C and 1.74 calculated by Wilks' approach. Results show that the uncertainty analysis methods can provide larger reactor design criteria margin to improve the economy of reactor. Furthermore, the code was developed to have the capacity to perform the uncertainty study of sub-channel calculation.     

Modeling and Optimization of Reactive Extraction of Gallic Acid Using RSM

Reactive extraction was experimentally investigated for recovery of gallic acid (GA) from the aqueous solution using tri-n-octylamine (TOA) as extractant in hexanol. All experiments were carried out according to statistical design in order to develop a regression model used to optimize the extraction of GA. Two independent variables were selected as: initial concentration of GA (C_GA0) in aqueous phase and concentration of TOA (C_TOA) in organic phase. The statistical analysis showed that both the independent variables had significant effect on response value, followed by the quadratic and interactive effect on response. A five-level central composite rotatable design (CCRD) was employed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a high coefficient of determination (R²?=?99.0%). The optimal extraction conditions of GA were determined as: C_GA0?=?2.01?g/L, C_TOA?=?6.8% v/v. At the optimum conditions, the experimental yield of GA was 91.9%, which was in close agreement with the predicted value of 93.2%.     

Optimization of Cellulase Production from Isolated Cellulolytic Bacterium: Comparison between Genetic Algorithms,Simulated Annealing,and Response Surface Methodology

The present study discusses optimization of cellulase production from isolated cellulolytic bacterium. A simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is proposed for optimization of these processes to achieve the desired production goal. The approach was compared to the use of evolutionary algorithms, i.e., genetic algorithms (GAs) and response surface methodology (RSM). Ochrobactrum haematophilum was identified as the isolated bacteria. Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) concentration, yeast extract, pH, and incubation temperature were the significant factors screened by Plackett–Burman design and further optimized using a central composite design. The optimum values obtained were CMC concentration = 4.76% (w/v), yeast extract = 2.03% (w/v), pH = 6.3, and temperature = 44.2°C. Carboxy methyl cellulase (CMCase) activity at these values was experimentally determined to be 3.55 ± 0.16 U/ml, which was 2.8 times than the unoptimized system (1.23 U/ml). The growth-associated and non-growth-associated Leudeking–Piret constants, α and β, were respectively determined to be 0.3943 and 0.0105. The Michaelis–Menten constants, V_max and K_m, were determined to be 0.67 µmol/min and 2.42 mg CMC/ml, respectively. The variable-sized SA seems to be the best alternative, outperforming the GAs, showing a fast convergence and low variability among the several runs for optimized production cellulose recovery. The SA models are found to be capable of better predictions of cellulase production. The results of the SA-based RSM model indicate that it is much more robust and accurate in estimating the values of dependent variables when compared with the GA-based RSM models and only RSM models.     

Response surface optimization of supercritical CO2 extraction of α-tocopherol from gel and skin of Aloe vera and almond leaves

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) was studied as an alternative technology in the pharmaceutical industry for the separation of α-tocopherol from gel and skin of Aloe vera and almond leaves. The influence of operating conditions was investigated on the recovery of supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) extraction of α-tocopherol from three-year old Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) leaf gel. The obtained results were compared with the conventional Soxhlet extraction. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize effective variables on the extracted recovery of α-tocopherol. The maximum α-tocopherol recovery of 53.41% from Aloe vera gel was obtained with employing RSM predicted optimal operating conditions of 32 MPa, 45.91 °C, 0.84 ml SC-CO₂/min and 140 min for extraction. The α-tocopherol extraction yield for gel and skin of Aloe vera and almond leaves at these optimal operating conditions were obtained 1.53, 16.29 and 2.61 mg/100 g dry sample, respectively.     

Ultraviolet photoresponse of ZnO nanostructured AlGaN/GaN HEMTs

We present the first active visible blind ultraviolet (UV) photodetector based on zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The ZnO nanorods (NRs) are selectively grown on the gate area by using hydrothermal method. It is shown that ZnO nanorod (NR)-gated UV detectors exhibit much superior performance in terms of response speed and recovery time to those of seed-layer-gated detectors. It is also found that the best response speed (~10 and~190 ms) and responsivity (~1.1×10⁵ A/W) were observed from detectors of the shortest gate length of 2 µm among our NR-gated devices of three different gate dimensions, and this responsivity is about one order higher than the best performance of ZnO NR-based UV detectors reported to date.     

Optimization of sugar release from banana peel powder waste (BPPW) using box-behnken design (BBD): BPPW to biohydrogen conversion

Optimization of pre-treatment conditions has been achieved for total sugar release from banana peel powder waste (BPPW) feedstock modelled through a three-level Box-Behnken design (BBD) of the response surface methodology (RSM). A series of various runs were executed at varied acid (H₂SO₄) concentrations (0.05%–0.15% v/v), incubation periods (1 h–3 h) in water bath at 95 °C and alkali (NaOH) concentrations (0.05%–0.15% v/v) according to the Box-Behnken design (BBD). From RSM the significant values of incubation period, acid concentration and alkali concentration were obtained as 3 h, 0.095% v/v, and 0.05% v/v respectively. The maximum total sugar release was reported as 5243.62 μg/ml which was highly close to the predicted value (5010.07 μg/ml). The model P- value (0.001), R-sq (98.26%), (adj) R-sq (95.14%) and (pred) R-sq (79.56%) obtained through ANOVA justified the results. The mutual impact of alkali and incubation period had the highest effect on total sugar release from dried banana peel powder, followed by mutual impact of acid and incubation period based on ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) results.Under optimized conditions of pre-treatment six different substrate concentrations (1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 9% w/v) of BPPW was hydrolyzed and used to obtain volumetric bio-hydrogen evolution. The highest cumulative volumetric bio hydrogen gas 43 ml H₂/30 ml media was achieved at 5% w/v of pretreated BPPW. The substrate concentration above 5% w/v resulted in lowered fermentation process owing to product and substrate inhibition.     

Dynamic structure response excited by technical seismicity effects

The subject of the solution consists in the design and evaluation of vibro-isolation of the multifunctional reinforced concrete frame structure of a building over the tunnel metro structure, based on analysing its 3D calculation model. Measured vibrations in accelerations from passing metro trains were used as non-periodic excitation of the object on the level of its foundation slab. Results of the dynamic calculation are used to document the nature of the building structure response, and of the reduction/amplification of the vibrations at selected points of individual storeys during the pass of metro trains, including the frequency characteristics of the response. The comparison of the building response without and with vibro-isolation is used to demonstrate the efficiency of using a rubber layer in the footing bottom for reducing the transfer of vibrations from the metro to the building. Measurement of the vibrations when the construction had been finished allowed to compare the vibration prognosis to vibrations actually measured in the finished structure.