Evaluation of the Cumulative Formation of High-Speed Liquid Jets

This paper describes the generation of pulsed, high-speed liquid jets using the cumulation method. This work mainly includes (1) the design of the nozzle assembly, (2) the measurement of the jet velocity and (3) flow visualization of the injection sequences. The cumulation method can be briefly described as the liquid being accelerated first by the impact of a moving projectile and then further after it enters a converging section. The experimental results show that the cumulation method is useful in obtaining a liquid jet with high velocity. The flow visualization shows the roles of the Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in the breakup of the liquid depend on the jet diameter and the downstream distance. When the liquid jet front is far downstream from the nozzle exit, the jet is decelerated by air drag. Meanwhile, large coherent vortex structures are formed surrounding the jet. The liquid will break up totally by the action of these vortices. Experimental results showing the effect of the liquid volume on the jet velocity are also included in this paper. Finally, a method for measuring the jet velocity by cutting two carbon rods is examined.

Gamma-Ray Attenuation Technique For Measuring Void Fraction In Horizontal Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow

The measurement of void fraction is of importance to the oil industry and chemical industry. In this article, the principle and mathematical method of determining the void fraction of horizontal gas-liquid flow by using a single-energy gamma-ray system is described. The gamma-ray source is the radioactive isotope of Am-241 with gamma-ray energy of 59.5 keV. The time-averaged value of the void fraction in a 50.0-mm i.d. transparent horizontal pipeline is measured under various combinations of the liquid flow and gas flow. It is found that increasing the gas flow rate at a fixed liquid flow rate would increase the void fraction. Test data are compared with the predictions of the correlations and a good agreement is found. The result shows that the designed gamma-ray system can be used for measuring the void fraction in a horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow with high accuracy.

Ga1-xMnxSb grown on GaSb substrate by liquid phase epitaxy

The Gal(1-x)Mn(x)Sb epilayer was prepared on the n-type GaSb substrate by liquid phase epitaxy. The structure of the Gal(1-x)Mn(x)Sb epilayer was analyzed by double-crystal X-ray diffraction. From the difference of the lattice constant between the GaSb substrate and the Ga1-xMnxSb epilayer, the Mn content in the Ga1-xMnxSb epilayer were calculated as x = 0.016. The elemental composition of Ga1-xMnxSb epilayer was analyzed by energy dispersive spectrometer. The carrier concentration was obtained by Hall measurement. The hole concentration in the Ga1-xMnxSb epilayer is 4.06 x 10(19)cm(-3). It indicates that most of the Mn atoms in Ga1-xMnxSb take the site of Ga, and play a role of acceptors. The current-voltage curve of the Ga1-xMnxSb/GaSb heterostructure was measured, and the rectifying effect is obvious. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Experimental-study of free-surface oscillations of a liquid bridge by optical diagnostics

A non-contact optical method, consisting of a projecting grating technique for the relative measurement of a surface, and a technique of absolute measurement at a fixed point on the surface, are applied to measure the free surface vibration in a liquid bridge of half floating zone with small typical scale of a few of mm for emphasizing the thermocapillary effect in comparison with the effect of buoyancy. The radii variations in both longitudinal and azimuthal directions are obtained, and, then, the feature of surface wave could be analyzed in detail. The results show that there are values of principal oscillatory frequencies at different positions of free surface. The amplitudes of surface waves in longitudinal and azimuthal directions are several mum and several tenths of mum in order of magnitude. The phase of two-dimensional surface waves is different at different height for fixed cross section or at different azimuthal angle for fixed height. The wave features are discussed for the cases of typical parameter ranges.

The motion of solid particles in a liquid with vertical temperature-gradient

A ground-experiment study on the motions of solid particles in liquid media with vertical temperature gradient is performed in this paper. The movement of solid spheres toward the heating end of a close cell is observed. The behavior and features of the motions examined are quite similar to thermocapillary migration of bubbles and drops in a liquid. The motion velocities of particles measured are about 10(-3) to 10(-4) mm\s. The velocity is compared with the velocity of particles floated in two liquid media. The physical mechanism of motion is explored.

Possibility of lifetime measurement in a flowing medium with phase fluorometry

The possibility of lifetime measurement in a flowing medium with phase fluorometry is investigated theoretically. A 3-D time dependent partial differential equation of the number density of atoms (or molecules) in the upper level of the fluorescence transition is solved analytically, taking flow, diffusion, optical excitation, decay, Doppler shift, and thickness of the excitation light sheet into account. An analytical expression of the intensity of the fluorescence signal in the flowing medium is deduced. Conditions are given, in which the principle of lifetime measurement with phase fluorometry in the static sample cell can be used in a flowing medium.

Two-Phase Flow In Anode Flow Field Of A Small Direct Methanol Fuel Cell In Different Gravities

An in-situ visualization of two-phase flow inside anode flow bed of a small liquid fed direct methanol fuel cells in normal and reduced gravity has been conducted in a drop tower. The anode flow bed consists of 11 parallel straight channels. The length, width and depth of single channel, which had rectangular cross section, are 48.0, 2.5 and 2.0 mm, respectively. The rib width was 2.0 mm. The experimental results indicated that when the fuel cell orientation is vertical, two-phase flow pattern in anode channels can evolve from bubbly flow in normal gravity into slug flow in microgravity. The size of bubbles in the reduced gravity is also bigger. In microgravity, the bubbles rising speed in vertical channels is obviously slower than that in normal gravity. When the fuel cell orientation is horizontal, the slug flow in the reduced gravity has almost the same characteristic with that in normal gravity. It implies that the effect of gravity on two-phase flow is small and the bubbles removal is governed by viscous drag. When the gas slugs or gas columns occupy channels, the performance of liquid fed direct methanol fuel cells is failing rapidly. It infers that in long-term microgravity, flow bed and operating condition should be optimized to avoid concentration polarization of fuel cells.

MEASUREMENT OF SOLID SLURRY FLOW VIA CORRELATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC FLOW METER, ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE TOMOGRAPHY AND MECHANISTIC MODELLING

The study presented here was carried out to obtain the actual solids flow rate by the combination of electrical resistance tomography and electromagnetic flow meter. A new in-situ measurement method based on measurements of the Electromagnetic Flow Meters (EFM) and Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) to study the flow rates of individual phases in a vertical flow was proposed. The study was based on laboratory experiments that were carried out with a 50 mm vertical flow rig for a number of sand concentrations and different mixture velocities. A range of sand slurries with median particle size from 212 mu m to 355 mu m was tested. The solid concentration by volume covered was 5% and 15%, and the corresponding density of 5% was 1078 kg/m(3) and of 15% was 1238 kg/m(3). The flow velocity was between 1.5 m/s and 3.0 m/s. A total of 6 experimental tests were conducted. The equivalent liquid model was adopted to validate in-situ volumetric solids fraction and calculate the slip velocity. The results show that the ERT technique can be used in conjunction with an electromagnetic flow meter as a way of measurement of slurry flow rate in a vertical pipe flow. However it should be emphasized that the EFM results must be treated with reservation when the flow pattern at the EFM mounting position is a non-homogenous flow. The flow rate obtained by the EFM should be corrected considering the slip velocity and the flow pattern.

A high throughput Nile red method for quantitative measurement of neutral lipids in microalgae

Isolation of high neutral lipid-containing microalgae is key to the commercial success of microalgae-based biofuel production. The Nile red fluorescence method has been successfully applied to the determination of lipids in certain microalgae, but has been unsuccessful in many others, particularly those with thick, rigid cell walls that prevent the penetration of the fluorescence dye. The conventional "one sample at a time" method was also time-consuming. In this study, the solvent dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was introduced to microalgal samples as the stain carrier at an elevated temperature. The cellular neutral lipids were determined and quantified using a 96-well plate on a fluorescence spectrophotometer with an excitation wavelength of 530 nm and an emission wavelength of 575 run. An optimized procedure yielded a high correlation coefficient (R-2 = 0.998) with the lipid standard triolein and repeated measurements of replicates. Application of the improved method to several green algal strains gave very reproducible results with relative standard errors of 8.5%, 3.9% and 8.6%, 4.5% for repeatability and reproducibility at two concentration levels (2.0 mu g/mL and 20 mu g/mL), respectively. Moreover, the detection and quantification limits of the improved Nile red staining method were 0.8 mu g/mL and 2.0 mu g/mL for the neutral lipid standard triolein, respectively. The modified method and a conventional gravimetric determination method provided similar results on replicate samples. The 96-well plate-based Nile red method can be used as a high throughput technique for rapid screening of a broader spectrum of naturally-occurring and genetically-modified algal strains and mutants for high neutral lipid/oil production. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Cytotoxicity evaluation of three pairs of hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD) enantiomers on Hep G2 cell

Hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs) are additive brominated flame retardants mainly used in plastics and textiles. At the present time, these compounds are found in almost all environmental and human samples. In order to evaluate the environmental safety and health risk of HBCDs, the enantiomerically pure alpha-, beta-, and gamma-HBCD were prepared using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on a PM-P-CD column and the cytotoxicities of their enantiomers were evaluated in Hep G2 cells. Results from the 3-(4,5-dimethylthioazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT), resazurin reduction and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release assays showed a good agreement that the order of cytotoxicity was gamma-HBCD >= beta-HBCD > alpha-HBCD, and that significantly lower cell viability and higher LDH release were observed in all (+)-enantiomers ((+) alpha-, (+) beta- and (+) gamma-HBCD) than the corresponding (-)-forms ((-) alpha-, (-) beta- and (-) gamma-HBCD). Additionally, the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by these HBCD enantiomers were detected. The positive correlation between the LDH release and ROS formation demonstrated that the toxic mechanism might be mediated by oxidative damage. These results suggest that environmental and human health risks of HBCDs must be evaluated at the level of individual enantiomers. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

QtUCP-A program for determining unit-cell parameters in electron diffraction experiments using double-tilt and rotation-tilt holders

A computer program, QtUCP, has been developed based on several well-established algorithms using GCC 4.0 and Qt (R) 4.0 (Open Source Edition) under Debian GNU/Linux 4.0r0. it can determine the unit-cell parameters from an electron diffraction tilt series obtained from both double-tilt and rotation-tilt holders. In this approach, two or more primitive cells of the reciprocal lattice are determined from experimental data, in the meantime, the measurement errors of the tilt angles are checked and minimized. Subsequently, the derived primitive cells are converted into the reduced form and then transformed into the reduced direct primitive cell. Finally all the patterns are indexed and the least-squares refinement is employed to obtain the optimized results of the lattice parameters. Finally, two examples are given to show the application of the program, one is based on the experiment, the other is from the simulation. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Enhanced Proton Conduction in Polymer Electrolyte Membranes as Synthesized by Polymerization of Protic Ionic Liquid-Based Microemulsions

Proton-conducting membranes were prepared by polymerization of microemulsions consisting of surfactant-stabilized protic ionic liquid (PIL) nanodomains dispersed in a polymerizable oil, a mixture of styrene and acrylonitrile. The obtained PIL-based polymer composite membranes are transparent and flexible even though the resulting vinyl polymers are immiscible with PIL cores. This type of composite membranes have quite a good thermal stability, chemical stability, tunability, and good mechanical properties. Under nonhumidifying conditions, PIL-based membranes show a conductivity up to the order of 1 x 10(-1) S/cm at 160 degrees C, due to the well-connected PIL nanochannels preserved in the membrane. This type of polymer conducting membranes have potential application in high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.

Ga1-xMnxSb grown on GaSb substrate by liquid phase epitaxy

The Gal(1-x)Mn(x)Sb epilayer was prepared on the n-type GaSb substrate by liquid phase epitaxy. The structure of the Gal(1-x)Mn(x)Sb epilayer was analyzed by double-crystal X-ray diffraction. From the difference of the lattice constant between the GaSb substrate and the Ga1-xMnxSb epilayer, the Mn content in the Ga1-xMnxSb epilayer were calculated as x = 0.016. The elemental composition of Ga1-xMnxSb epilayer was analyzed by energy dispersive spectrometer. The carrier concentration was obtained by Hall measurement. The hole concentration in the Ga1-xMnxSb epilayer is 4.06 x 10(19)cm(-3). It indicates that most of the Mn atoms in Ga1-xMnxSb take the site of Ga, and play a role of acceptors. The current-voltage curve of the Ga1-xMnxSb/GaSb heterostructure was measured, and the rectifying effect is obvious. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Growth of GaSb and GaInAsSb layers for thermophotovolatic cells by liquid phase epitaxy - art. no. 68411E

GaSb based cells as receivers in thermophotovoltaic system have attracted great interest and been extensively studied in the recent 15 years. Although nowadays the manufacturing technologies have made a great progress, there are still some details need to make a further study. In this paper, undoped and doped GaSb layers were grown on n-GaSb (100) substrates from both Ga-rich and Sb-rich solutions using liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) technique. The nominal segregation coefficients k of intentional doped Zn were 1.4 and 8.8 determined from the two kinds of GaSb epitaxial layers. Additionally, compared with growing from Ga-rich solutions, the growing processes from Sb-rich solutions were much easier to control and the surface morphologies of epitaxial layers were smoother. Further-more, in order to broaden the absorbing edge, Ga1-xInxAsySb1-y quaternary alloys were grown on both GaSb and InAs substrates from In-rich solutions, under different temperature respectively.

Experimental Investigation of Performance of a Miniature Direct Methanol Fuel Cell in Short-Term Microgravity

Experimental study of a liquid fed direct methanol fuel cell has been conducted in different gravity environments. A small single cell with 5 cm x 5 cm active area has single serpentine channel on the graphite cathode polar plate and 11 parallel straight channels on the graphite anode flow bed. Cell voltage and current have been measured and two-phase flow in anode channels has been in situ visually observed. The experimental results indicate that the effect of gravity on power performance of the direct methanol fuel cell is large when the concentration polarization governs fuel cells operation. Gravitational effect becomes larger at higher current density. Increasing methanol feeding molarity is conducive to weaken the influence of gravity on performance of liquid fed direct methanol fuel cells. Increasing feeding flow rate of methanol solution from 6 to 15 ml/min could reduce the size of carbon dioxide bubbles, while the influence of gravity still exist. Transport phenomena inside direct methanol fuel cells in microgravity is also analyzed and discussed.