Effects of Operating Conditions on the Combined Convective-Microwave Drying of Agar Gels

2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (11) ◽  
pp. 1867-1873 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Bonafonte ◽  
O. Iglesias ◽  
J. L. Bueno
Author(s):  
Magesh Ganesh Pillai ◽  
Iyyasamy Regupathi ◽  
Lima Rose Miranda ◽  
Thanapalan Murugesan

The drying characteristics of plaster of paris (POP) under microwave conditions at different microwave power input, initial moisture content, sample thickness and drying time were studied. Further the experimental data on moisture ratio of POP for different operating conditions were obtained and calculations were made using nine basic drying model equations. The appropriate model with modified constants and coefficients to represent the drying kinetics of POP was found through the analysis of the statistical analysis. The effective moisture diffusivity of the drying process was also computed for different experimental conditions and a relationship between the drying rate constant and the effective moisture diffusivity was obtained. The energy consumption for microwave drying of plaster of paris at different experimental conditions were also computed.


2002 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. B. Bonafonte ◽  
O. Iglesias ◽  
J. L. Bueno

Author(s):  
Ana C. S. Mota ◽  
Jéssika M. Santos ◽  
Marina S. Pereira ◽  
Carlos H. Ataíde

The main objective of the present work was to study the influence of different operating conditions in the microwave drying of drill cuttings and an eventual degradation of the condensed liquid collected during this operation. For this, a Central Composite Design (CCD) was used, considering three independent variables at three levels: initial olefin content (7.5, 10, and 12.5% w/w), power (250, 500, and 750 W), and time (5, 10, and 15 min); the residual olefin content being the response analyzed in the conducted tests without monitoring or control of the cutting’s temperature. All three variables studied were statistically significant, presenting a positive or negative effect on residual olefin content. As expected, the initial olefin content had a negative effect on the response. On the other hand, when considering the applied power and the drying time, the effect on decontamination yield was positive. The results showed that cuttings can be decontaminated at lower levels than those required by environmental legislation (offshore drilling), reaching residual olefin mass contents of less than 1%. Finally, the organic phase of recovered liquids, after the condensation of vapors produced during drying, was analyzed by gas chromatography technique. It was observed greater olefin degradation in the longer and higher power tests, especially in samples of condensed liquid collected inside the microwave oven.


Author(s):  
Russell L. Steere ◽  
Eric F. Erbe

Thin sheets of acrylamide and agar gels of different concentrations were prepared and washed in distilled water, cut into pieces of appropriate size to fit into complementary freeze-etch specimen holders (1) and rapidly frozen. Freeze-etching was accomplished in a modified Denton DFE-2 freeze-etch unit on a DV-503 vacuum evaporator.* All samples were etched for 10 min. at -98°C then re-cooled to -150°C for deposition of Pt-C shadow- and C replica-films. Acrylamide gels were dissolved in Chlorox (5.251 sodium hypochlorite) containing 101 sodium hydroxide, whereas agar gels dissolved rapidly in the commonly used chromic acid cleaning solutions. Replicas were picked up on grids with thin Foimvar support films and stereo electron micrographs were obtained with a JEM-100 B electron microscope equipped with a 60° goniometer stage.Characteristic differences between gels of different concentrations (Figs. 1 and 2) were sufficiently pronounced to convince us that the structures observed are real and not the result of freezing artifacts.


Author(s):  
E.D. Boyes ◽  
P.L. Gai ◽  
D.B. Darby ◽  
C. Warwick

The extended crystallographic defects introduced into some oxide catalysts under operating conditions may be a consequence and accommodation of the changes produced by the catalytic activity, rather than always being the origin of the reactivity. Operation without such defects has been established for the commercially important tellurium molybdate system. in addition it is clear that the point defect density and the electronic structure can both have a significant influence on the chemical properties and hence on the effectiveness (activity and selectivity) of the material as a catalyst. SEM/probe techniques more commonly applied to semiconductor materials, have been investigated to supplement the information obtained from in-situ environmental cell HVEM, ultra-high resolution structure imaging and more conventional AEM and EPMA chemical microanalysis.


Author(s):  
David A. Ansley

The coherence of the electron flux of a transmission electron microscope (TEM) limits the direct application of deconvolution techniques which have been used successfully on unmanned spacecraft programs. The theory assumes noncoherent illumination. Deconvolution of a TEM micrograph will, therefore, in general produce spurious detail rather than improved resolution.A primary goal of our research is to study the performance of several types of linear spatial filters as a function of specimen contrast, phase, and coherence. We have, therefore, developed a one-dimensional analysis and plotting program to simulate a wide 'range of operating conditions of the TEM, including adjustment of the:(1) Specimen amplitude, phase, and separation(2) Illumination wavelength, half-angle, and tilt(3) Objective lens focal length and aperture width(4) Spherical aberration, defocus, and chromatic aberration focus shift(5) Detector gamma, additive, and multiplicative noise constants(6) Type of spatial filter: linear cosine, linear sine, or deterministic


Author(s):  
M. Pan

It has been known for many years that materials such as zeolites, polymers, and biological specimens have crystalline structures that are vulnerable to electron beam irradiation. This radiation damage severely restrains the use of high resolution electron microscopy (HREM). As a result, structural characterization of these materials using HREM techniques becomes difficult and challenging. The emergence of slow-scan CCD cameras in recent years has made it possible to record high resolution (∽2Å) structural images with low beam intensity before any apparent structural damage occurs. Among the many ideal properties of slow-scan CCD cameras, the low readout noise and digital recording allow for low-dose HREM to be carried out in an efficient and quantitative way. For example, the image quality (or resolution) can be readily evaluated on-line at the microscope and this information can then be used to optimize the operating conditions, thus ensuring that high quality images are recorded. Since slow-scan CCD cameras output (undistorted) digital data within the large dynamic range (103-104), they are ideal for quantitative electron diffraction and microscopy.


Author(s):  
D. Goyal ◽  
A. H. King

TEM images of cracks have been found to give rise to a moiré fringe type of contrast. It is apparent that the moire fringe contrast is observed because of the presence of a fault in a perfect crystal, and is characteristic of the fault geometry and the diffracting conditions in the TEM. Various studies have reported that the moire fringe contrast observed due to the presence of a crack in an otherwise perfect crystal is distinctive of the mode of crack. This paper describes a technique to study the geometry and mode of the cracks by comparing the images they produce in the TEM because of the effect that their displacement fields have on the diffraction of electrons by the crystal (containing a crack) with the corresponding theoretical images. In order to formulate a means of matching experimental images with theoretical ones, displacement fields of dislocations present (if any) in the vicinity of the crack are not considered, only the effect of the displacement field of the crack is considered.The theoretical images are obtained using a computer program based on the two beam approximation of the dynamical theory of diffraction contrast for an imperfect crystal. The procedures for the determination of the various parameters involved in these computations have been well documented. There are three basic modes of crack. Preliminary studies were carried out considering the simplest form of crack geometries, i. e., mode I, II, III and the mixed modes, with orthogonal crack geometries. It was found that the contrast obtained from each mode is very distinct. The effect of variation of operating conditions such as diffracting vector (), the deviation parameter (ω), the electron beam direction () and the displacement vector were studied. It has been found that any small change in the above parameters can result in a drastic change in the contrast. The most important parameter for the matching of the theoretical and the experimental images was found to be the determination of the geometry of the crack under consideration. In order to be able to simulate the crack image shown in Figure 1, the crack geometry was modified from a orthogonal geometry to one with a crack tip inclined to the original crack front. The variation in the crack tip direction resulted in the variation of the displacement vector also. Figure 1 is a cross-sectional micrograph of a silicon wafer with a chromium film on top, showing a crack in the silicon.


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