The influence factors of mean particle size and positive quality control of bacterial filtration efficiency system

Summary Background The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has swept the whole world with high mortality. Since aerosol transmission is the main route of transmission, wearing a mask serves as a crucial preventive measure. An important parameter to evaluate the performance of a mask is the bacteria filtration efficiency (BFE). Aerosol mean particle size (MPS) and positive quality control value are two key indexes of BFE system. Aim To study the major influence factors of the mean particle size of bacterial aerosols and positive quality control value of BFE system. Method and Results In this study, we investigated the influence of Anderson sampler, spray flow, medium thickness, and peristaltic pump flow on the MPS of bacterial aerosols and positive quality control value of BFE system, respectively. The results show that the machining accuracy of Anderson sampler has great influence on aerosol MPS and positive quality control value. With the increase of aerosol spray flow rate, the positive quality control value will increase gradually, but the effect on aerosol MPS is not a simple linear relationship. As the agar medium thickness increased, the positive quality control value and aerosol MPS increased gradually. With the increase of peristaltic pump flow, the positive quality control value increased gradually, while the aerosol MPS was basically in a downward trend. When the peristatic pump flow rate was 0.1mL/min, the spray flow rate was 7.2L/min, the agar plate thickness was 27mL, and the Anderson sampler of Beijing Mingjie was used for the experiment, the aerosol MPS and positive quality control value were both within the acceptable range and were the optimal parameters. Conclusions This study provides guidance for the manufacturers of the BFE system and improves the protective performance of masks, which is important for the human health, especially during the occurrence of viral pandemics such as "COVID-19".

A Hybrid Metaheuristic Based on Neurocomputing for Analysis of Unipolar Electrohydrodynamic Pump Flow

A unipolar electrohydrodynamic (UP-EHD) pump flow is studied with known electric potential at the emitter and zero electric potential at the collector. The model is designed for electric potential, charge density, and electric field. The dimensionless parameters, namely the electrical source number (Es), the electrical Reynolds number (ReE), and electrical slip number (Esl), are considered with wide ranges of variation to analyze the UP-EHD pump flow. To interpret the pump flow of the UP-EHD model, a hybrid metaheuristic solver is designed, consisting of the recently developed technique sine–cosine algorithm (SCA) and sequential quadratic programming (SQP) under the influence of an artificial neural network. The method is abbreviated as ANN-SCA-SQP. The superiority of the technique is shown by comparing the solution with reference solutions. For a large data set, the technique is executed for one hundred independent experiments. The performance is evaluated through performance operators and convergence plots.

Flow profile generation for a left ventricular assist device using iterative learning control

Nowadays, rotary blood pumps for the treatment of end-stage heart failure patients are usually fixed-speed controlled. Therefore, without sufficient heart activity, patients may reveal reduced blood flow pulsatility. However, there is evidence that pulsatile flow reduces adverse events. Furthermore, optimized pump flow profiles could be used to achieve certain control objectives. Therefore, a pump flow model is identified and subsequently used to design a control system with an iterative learning controller to generate desired pump flow patterns. Either a flow sensor is required for direct measurement or the flow can be estimated from pressure sensor readings using the proposed pump flow model. For comparison, a PID controller with disturbance feedforward control is also designed. Furthermore, the robustness against respiratory sinus arrhythmia is analyzed.

SIMULATION OF THE MIXING PROCESS OF DIESEL AND BIOFUELS

The viscosity of a fuel depends on its hydrocarbon composition. Vegetable oil is considered an alternative to diesel fuel. Its high viscosity makes it difficult to consider as a commercial diesel fuel. Vegetable oil is lipids, fatty acid esters. They have a high calorific value and contain straight hydrocarbon chains, resulting in their relatively high cetane number. Viscosity and density determine the evaporation and mixing process in an engine, as they affect the shape and type of the fuel flame, the size of the droplets formed, and how they enter the combustion chamber. Low density and viscosity provide better fuel injection; with an increase in the diameter of the droplet, its complete combustion decreases, therefore, the specific fuel consumption increases and the smoke of the exhaust gases increases. The viscosity of the fuel affects the pump flow and fuel leakage through the piston pair clearance. As the viscosity decreases, the amount of diesel fuel leaks between the plunger and bushing increases, resulting in a decrease in pump flow. Converting the engine to a fuel with a lower density and viscosity will result in burnout of the piston head, so the fuel equipment needs to be adjusted. Plunger wear is viscosity dependent. It fuel is in the range of 1.8-7.0 mm2/s, which practically does not affect the durability of modern high-speed diesel equipment. Consider using vegetable rapeseed oil as an alternative to diesel fuel. Its viscosity can be reduced by chemically converting esterification to ethyl esters. When the cheese rapeseed oil is heated to 80 °C, it will give a viscosity value similar to that of commercial diesel. The mixing system will have an operating power equivalent to that of a diesel engine when heated to 40-50 °C.

Optimization Design of Centrifugal Pump Flow Control System Based on Adaptive Control

In this paper, in order to improve the control characteristics of the centrifugal pump flow control system, a mathematical model of the centrifugal pump flow control system was established based on an analysis of the basic structures, such as the frequency converter, motor, and centrifugal pump. Based on the adaptive control theory, the recursive least squares algorithm with a forgetting factor was used to estimate the real-time parameters of the centrifugal pump control system, and the self-tuning PID control method was used to optimize the mathematical model of the centrifugal pump flow control system. The simulation results showed that the adjustment time of the optimized system was shortened by 16.58%, and the maximum overshoot was reduced by 83.90%, which improved the rapidity and stability of the transient response of the system. This showed that adaptive control had a significant effect on improving the robustness and anti-interference ability of the centrifugal pump control system. In order to further verify the accuracy of the self-tuning PID control method, a flow adaptive control system test platform was built. The test results showed that under the conditions of constant frequency and variable frequency, the actual flow rate of the centrifugal pump was always kept near the set flow rate, the error was small, and it had better real-time followability. The research results showed that adaptive control could revise the parameters in real-time according to changes to the centrifugal pump control system, which improved the stability and robustness of the system. Therefore, adaptive PID control could effectively improve the adaptability of centrifugal pumps to various complex working conditions and improve the working efficiency of centrifugal pumps.

Microcirculatory Response to Changes in Venoarterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Pump Flow: A Prospective Observational Study

Background: Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) pump flow is crucial for maintaining organ perfusion in patients with cardiogenic shock, but VA-ECMO pump flow optimization remains as a clinical challenge. This study aimed to investigate the response of sublingual microcirculation to changes in VA-ECMO pump flow.Methods: Sublingual microcirculation was measured before and after changing VA-ECMO pump flow according to the treatment plan of ECMO team within 24 h and at 24-48 h after VA-ECMO placement. In clinical events of increasing VA-ECMO pump flow, those events with increased perfused vessel density (PVD) were grouped into group A, and the others were grouped into group B. In clinical events of decreasing VA-ECMO pump flow, those events with increased PVD were grouped into group C, and the others were grouped into group D.Results: Increased PVD was observed in 60% (95% CI, 38.5–81.5%) of the events with increasing VA-ECMO pump flow. The probability of increasing PVD after increasing VA-ECMO pump flow were higher in the events with a PVD < 15 mm/mm2 at baseline than those with a PVD ≥ 15 mm/mm2 [100% (95% CI, 54.1–100%) vs. 42.9% (95% CI, 17.7–71.1%), P = 0.042]. Other microcirculatory and hemodynamic parameters at baseline did not differ significantly between group A and B or between group C and D.Conclusion: This study revealed contradictory and non-contradictory responses of sublingual microcirculation to changes in VA-ECMO pump flow. Tandem measurements of microcirculation before and after changing VA-ECMO pump flow may help to ensure a good microcirculation.

Optimal Design of Photovoltaic Irrigation System with Different Nozzle Numbers

HighlightsWhen the photovoltaic irrigation system is loaded with different numbers of nozzles, the working pressure of the nozzle will change. This is because the pipeline characteristics have changed with the variation of nozzle number. So the pump operating point changes and its head will also change, which leads to the change of working pressure of nozzle. To solve this problem, by theory analysis based on the test results, it is feasible to make the pump flow rate/head curve flatter. In this case, when the system pipeline characteristics change, the pump head changes little.This article presents a new optimization method to improve the performance of photovoltaic irrigation systems under variable load. The method just needs to optimize the four pump impeller structure parameters, which can make the pump flow rate/head curve flatter. So the pump head changes a little when the system is loaded with different numbers of nozzles, which can make the working pressure of the nozzle stable and improve the system performance.Taking the slope of flow-head curve as the optimization objective, and the impeller blade outlet angle ß2, blade outlet width b2, blade number Z, and rear cover diameter D2min as the optimization variables, the performance of the photovoltaic irrigation system is optimized by orthogonal test design optimization scheme. After optimization, when the system is loaded with a different number of nozzles, it can provide relatively similar pressure under different ranges of light intensity.Abstract. The performance of the photovoltaic irrigation system under variable load were obtained and analyzed through test measurement. The adaptability of the system under variable load could be improved by optimizing the pump impeller structure, and then the irrigation uniformity of the photovoltaic irrigation system under different loads could be improved. Taking the slope of flow-head curve as the optimization objective, and the impeller blade outlet angle ß2, blade outlet width b2, blade number Z, and rear cover diameter D2min as the optimization variables, the performance of the photovoltaic irrigation system is optimized by orthogonal test design optimization scheme and the test verification was carried out. The range method was applied to analyze the simulation results. It can be found that when the geometric parameters of the impeller are D2 = 86 mm, ß2 = 41°, b2 = 4.0 mm, and Z = 9, the slope of the pump flow-head curve is the highest. The system performance after optimization was measured and compared with the original scheme. By comparison, it was drawn that when the system is loaded with different numbers of nozzles, the nozzle pressure can be maintained near the optimal pressure of the nozzle within a wider light intensity. After optimization, when the system is loaded with a different number of nozzles, it can provide relatively similar pressure under different ranges of light intensity. Keywords: Nozzle, Orthogonal test, Optimal design, Photovoltaic irrigation, Pump.

System for preventing the water cone formation in gas deposits with low gas thickness

The article describes the problem of water cone formation in gas deposits of small gas-saturated thickness. The process of pulling the water cone into the production well is analyzed. The most popular and effective methods of solving this problem are presented. A method of using an electric screw pump to prevent water accumulation in the bottomhole zone is proposed. The method of calculating the optimal pump flow rate, which allows operating the well without its overheating, is considered.