Characteristics of plasma induced by interaction of a free-oscillated laser pulse with a coal target in air and combustible gas

Plasma in the air is successfully induced by a free-oscillated Nd:YAG laser pulse with a peak power of 10(2-3) W. The initial free electrons for the cascade breakdown process are from the ablated particles from the surface of a heated coal target, likewise induced by the focused laser beam. The laser field compensates the energy loss of the plasma when the corresponding temperature and the images are investigated by fitting the experimental spectra of B-2 Sigma(+) -> X-2 Sigma(+) band of CN radicals in the plasma with the simulated spectra and a 4-frame CCD camera. The electron density is estimated using a simplified Kramer formula. As this interaction occurs in a gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, the formation and development of the plasma are weakened or restrained due to the chaining branch reaction in which the OH radicals are accumulated and the laser energy is consumed. Moreover, this laser ignition will initiate the combustion or explosion process of combustible gas and the minimum ignition energy is measured at different initial pressures. The differences in the experimental results compared to those induced by a nanosecond Q-switched laser pulse with a peak power of 10(6-8) W are also discussed. (C) 2009 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Extinction of lean near-limit methane/air flames at elevated pressures under normal- and reduced-gravity

perimentally at evaluated pressures and under normal- and micro-gravity conditions utilizing the 3.5 s drop tower of the National Microgravity Laboratory of China. The results showed that under micro-gravity conditions the natural convection is minimized and the flames become more planar and symmetric compared to normal gravity. In both normal- and micro-gravity experiments and for a given strain rate and fuel concentration, the flame luminosity was found to enhance as the pressure increases. On the other hand, at a given pressure, the flame luminosity was determined to weaken as the strain rate decreases. At a given strain rate, the fuel concentration at extinction was found to vary non-monotonically with pressure, namely it first increases and subsequently decreases with pressure. The limit fuel concentration peaks around 3 and 4 atm under normal- and micro-gravity, respectively. The extinction limits measured at micro-gravity were in good agreement with predictions obtained through detailed numerical simulations but they are notably lower compared to the data obtained under normal gravity. The simulations confirmed the non-monotonic variation of flammability limits with pressure, in agreement with previous studies. Sensitivity analysis showed that for pressures between one and 5 atm, the near-limit flame response is dominated by the competition between the main branching, H + O2 ? OH + O, and the pressure sensitive termination, H+O2+M? HO2 + M, reaction. However, for pressures greater than 5 atm it was determined that the HO2 kinetics result in further chain branching in a way that is analogous to the third explosion limit of H2/O2 mixtures. 2010 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Coupling of thermocapillary convection and evaporation effect in a liquid layer when the evaporating interface is open to air

The coupling mechanism of thermocapillary convection and evaporation effect in evaporating liquids was studied experimentally. The experiments were carried out to study a thin evaporating liquid layer in a rectangular test cell when the upper surface was open to air. By altering the imposed horizontal temperature differences and heights of liquid layers, the average evaporating rate and interfacial temperature profiles were measured. The flow fields were also visualized by PIV method. For comparison, the experiments were repeated by use of another two non-evaporating liquids to study the influence of evaporation effect. The results reveal evidently the role that evaporation effect plays in the coupling with thermocapillary convection.

The air pollution caused by the burning of fireworks during the lantern festival in Beijing

IEECAS SKLLQG

Measurement of Be-10 in air filters using BeF- ions from BaBeF4

IEECAS SKLLQG

Study of an electroosmotic pump for liquid delivery and its application in capillary column liquid chromatography

A packed-bed electroosmotic pump (EOP) was constructed and evaluated. The EOP consisted of three capillary columns packed in parallel, a gas-releasing device, Pt electrodes and a high-voltage power supply. The EOP could generate output pressure above 5.0 MPa and constant flow rate in the range of nl/min to a few mul/min for pure water, pure methanol, 2 mM potassium dihydrogenphosphate buffer, the buffer-methanol mixture and the pure water-methanol mixture at applied potentials less than 20 W The composition of solvent before/after pumping was quantitatively determined by using a gas chromatograph equipped with both flame ionization detector and thermal conductivity detector. It was found that there were no apparent changes in composition and relative concentrations after pumping process for a methanol-ethanol-acetonitrile mixture and a methanol-water mixture. Theoretical aspect of the EOP was discussed in detail. An capillary HPLC system consisting of the EOP, an injection valve, a 15 cm x 320 mum i.d., 5 mum Spherigel C(18) stainless steel analytical column, and an on-column UV detector was connected to evaluate the performance of the EOP. A comparative study was also carried out with a mechanical capillary HPLC pump on the same system. The results demonstrated that the reproducibility of flow rate and the pulsation-free flow property of the EOP are superior to that of mechanical pump in capillary HPLC application. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

An electroosmotic pump for packed capillary liquid chromatography

An electroosmotic pump (EOP) capable of generating pressure above 3 MPa and mul/min flow rate with reverse phase mobile phases of HPLC was constructed and evaluated. The pump consisted of three parallel connected fused silica capillary columns (25 cm x 320 mum I.D.) packed with 2 mum silica materials, hollow electrodes, a high voltage DC power supply, and. a liquid pressure transducer. The EOP was applied in a capillary liquid chromatographic system for mobile phase delivery instead of a mechanical pump. Standard samples containing thiourea, naphthalene, anthracene, phenanthrene and acetonitrile were separated on a 15 cm x 320 mum I.D. 5 mum Chromasil C-18 packed capillary column with acetonitrile/water as mobile phase. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.