Effect of Si additions and heat treatment on the mechanical behaviour of an Al-5Mg casting alloy

Adding 1%Si to binary Al-5Mg alloy slightly increases the yield stress in comparison with the Si free alloy but dramatically reduces the ductility and tensile strength due to the formation of brittle eutectic Mg2Si and pi-Al8FeMg3Si6 particles. Adding 3%Si slightly reduces the yield stress, presumably due to some of the Mg being tied up in the Mg2Si, and further reduces the ductility due to the increased volume fraction of intermetallics. Solution heat treatment at 436degreesC decreases the yield stress of both Si containing alloys, and slightly increases the ductility in the alloy with 3%Si. Subsequent ageing at 180degreesC has no further effects on the strength or ductility. The loss in strength of the heat treated alloys seems to be due to overageing Of Mg2Si precipitates dispersed in the bulk of the alloy. (C) 2004 W. S. Maney Son Ltd.

Water characteristics in cooked beef as influenced by ageing and high-pressure treatment -an NMR micro imaging study

The water characteristics in cooked pressure-heat treated (45 degreesC for 45 min prior to pressurisation at 150 MPa for 30 min) and non-pressurised, cooked (control) samples of beef Longissimus aged for 1, 3, 8 or 16 days were studied by nuclear magnetic resonance microscopy. A multi-echo sequence was used to obtain T2 images, and independent of ageing period, the T2 values were found to be lower in pressure-heat treated meat revealing alterations in water characteristics of pressure-treated, cooked meat compared with cooked meat. With increasing ageing duration, the T2 values in both pressure-treated, cooked and cooked meat decreased indicating that the water became more tightly trapped in the protein network. In addition, independent of length of ageing period the relationship between cooking loss in the cooked meat and transverse relaxation differed between non-pressurised and pressure-treated meat. which reveals that the mechanisms changing the water properties in beef during ageing are different from those occuring during pressure-heat treatment of meat. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Heat-induced and other chemical changes in commercial UHT milks

The properties of commercial directly and indirectly heated UHT milks, both after heating and during storage at room temperature for 24 weeks, were studied. Thermally induced changes were examined by changes in lactulose, furosine and acid-soluble whey proteins. The results confirmed previous reports that directly heated UHT milks suffer less heat damage than indirectly heated milk. During storage, furosine increased and bovine serum albumin in directly heat-treated milks decreased significantly. The changes in lactulose, alpha-lactalbumin and beta-lactoglobulin were not statistically significant. The data suggest that heat treatment indicators should be measured as soon as possible after processing to avoid any misinterpretations of the intensity of the heat treatment.

Characterization of heat-treated porous carbons using argon adsorption

The microstructural variation of Norit RI Extra activated carbon, progressively heated at 1373 K, was explored in terms of pore size and pore wall thickness distributions, for various periods of heating time, determined by argon adsorption at 87 K, both using an infinite as well as and finite wall thickness model. The latter approach has recently been developed in our laboratory and has been applied to several virgin carbons. The current results show significant variations in small pore size regions (< 7 angstrom) in association with strong growth of thick walls having at least three carbon sheets, as a result of heat treatment. In particular, shrinkage of the smallest pores due to strong interaction between their opposite walls as well as smoothening of carbon wall surfaces due to an increase in graphitization degree under thermal treatment have been found. Further, the results of pore wall thickness distribution are well corroborated by X-ray diffraction. The results of pore size and pore wall thickness distributions are also shown to be consistent with transmission electron microscopy analyses. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thermostability profile of Newcastle disease virus (strain I-2) following serial passages without heat selection

I-2 is an avirulent strain of Newcastle disease virus. During establishment of the I-2 strain master vaccine seed, a series of selection procedures was carried out at 56 degrees C in order to enhance heat resistance. This master seed is used to produce a working seed, which is then employed to produce the vaccine. These two passages are done without further heat selection; however, it is not known how rapidly and to what extent thermostable variants would be lost during further passage. The study was therefore conducted to determine the effect of passage on thermostability of strain I-2. The virus was serially passaged and at various passage levels samples were subjected to heat treatment at 56 degrees C for 120 min. The inactivation rates for infectivity and haemagglutinin (HA) titres were assayed by use of chicken embryonated eggs and HA test, respectively. Thermostability of HA and infectivity of I-2 virus were reduced after 10 and 5 passages, respectively, without heat selection at 56 degrees C. These results suggest that 5 more passages could be carried out between the working seed and vaccine levels without excessive loss of thermostability. This would result in increased vaccine production from a single batch of a working seed.