在未来勘探开发中研发的推动作用

在过去的20年里,尽管油价和经营环境不断发生着变化,但勘探开发的产量和经济效益持续增长着,科学研究和先进技术起了关键作用。未来的勘探开发将更加依赖于先进的技术和科学的研究开发。 随着变化的经营环境和关键的先进科学技术强有力的结合,出现了新的研发模式和发展趋势。在这里我们     

Demonstration of Sustainable Development of Groundwater through Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)

Water Resources Management - Sustained pumping of groundwater can lead to declining water levels in wellfields and concerns regarding the sustainability of groundwater resources. Aquifer Storage...     

A Y-channel design for improving zeta potential and surface conductivity measurements using the current monitoring method

This study presents a new Y-channel design for measuring the zeta potential and surface conductance of a solid-liquid pairing using the current monitoring technique. The new design improves the throughput and reliability of the testing apparatus since the displacement between two solutions can be repeated many times without interfering with the experiments. It also increases the accuracy of the measurement by producing sharper start and end transitions for the current–time plot of the solution displacement process. In this design, efforts have been made to minimize the effects of electrolysis, Joule heating and undesired pressure driven flow on the measurements. An improvement on the current–time slope analysis is also presented. The Y-channel design was validated by comparing zeta potential measurements to published results. The zeta potential of several biological buffers relevant to the microfluidic community in plasma treated PDMS/PDMS and PDMS/Glass microchannels are presented. Preliminary studies of surface conductivity measurements using the Y-channel design were also conducted and are briefly discussed.     

Comprehensive aircraft configuration design tool for Integrated Product and Process Development

This paper describes an efficient aircraft geometry design tool which is necessary for design and analysis applications through Integrated Product and Process Development (IPPD). The design process decomposes aircraft geometry into several components to represent it accurately and realistically with a reduced number of shape control parameters. For this purpose, several configuration representation algorithms are thoroughly investigated and discussed. The proposed configuration generation algorithm employs the super ellipse equation with simple analytic distribution functions, Class function/Shape function Transformation (CST) and can represent and manipulate complex shapes accurately with a small number of control parameters. A model of aircraft geometry, represented in this approach, can be applied to conceptual and preliminary stages of aircraft design and development with realistic and accurate configuration data. A Parameter-based Comprehensive Aircraft Design (PCAD) tool which implements a geometry generation process for aircraft design and optimization using customization of commercial computer-aided design software (CATIA V5) and the Product Data Management (Enovia Smarteam). The proposed configuration design tool could be especially efficient when automation, flexibility and rapid changes of geometry are required in a short time and with low computational resources.     

Quality practices in design organizations

Design organizations play a major role in the construction industry: they are the media that transfer the requirements of the client to the contractor and ensure that they are met. Thus they need to provide a high quality of service to ensure that their client's project achieves the best possible standards of cost, time and quality. Seventy quality practices (QP) were identified as having a bearing on the quality of service provided by the local design organizations. These quality practices were grouped into fifteen sections termed quality sections (QS). The prevalence of these practices among the local design organizations was surveyed and determined. The results indicate a significant need for improvement in the quality sections ‘working relationship’, ‘employee training and education’, and ‘performance quality audit’. The study reveals the need for the establishment of a design code, and evaluation standards for local design organizations.     

Miscibility enhancement of poly(vinyl chloride)/polystyrene blend: Application to membrane separation of benzene from benzene/cyclohexane mixture by pervaporation

In order to improve the miscibility of poly(vinyl chloride)/polystyrene (PVC/PS) system and to use the prepared material as a membrane to separate benzene from benzene/cyclohexane mixture by pervaporation technique, two poly(styrene-co-N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PSVP) copolymers containing 6.67 and 13.55 mol% of N-vinylpyrrolidone (N-VP) contents were synthesized through a radical polymerization. A comparative study of the miscibility of the PVC/PSVP blends with different compositions was carried out using differential scanning calorimetry, viscosimetry and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy methods in which the interaction parameters between the two components were widely investigated. To improve the pervaporative flux of PVC membrane to separate benzene from benzene/cyclohexane mixture, a preliminary test of swelling and sorption was performed on PVC/PSVP7 membranes using an azeotropic benzene/cyclohexane mixture. It was revealed that the PVC/PSVP7 membrane containing 10 wt% of PSVP7 showed the best performance and the diffusion behaviour of this mixture through PVC and PVC/PCVP7 membranes has a Fickian behaviour. The pervaporation parameters of this membrane support those of the swelling and selective sorption data and reveal that this membrane could enhance the total flux without significantly affecting its selectivity to benzene.     

CFD modeling of flow and heat transfer in a thermosyphon

In the present study a gas/liquid two-phase flow and the simultaneous evaporation and condensation phenomena in a thermosyphon was modeled. The volume of fluid (VOF) technique was used to model the interaction between these phases. Experiments in a thermosyphon were carried out at different operating conditions. The CFD predicted temperature profile in the thermosyphon was compared with experimental measurements and a good agreement was observed. It was concluded that CFD is a useful tool to model and explain the complex flow and heat transfer in a thermosyphon.     

GULFNET: The academic network of the arab gulf countries

This article provides an overview of GULFNET and its information services, with emphasis on KACST (King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia) services.