Investigation on Fracture Behavior of Cementitious Composites Reinforced with Aligned Hooked-End Steel Fibers

Aligning steel fibers is an effective way to improve the mechanical properties of steel fiber cementitious composites (SFRC). In this study, the magnetic field method was used to prepare the aligned hooked-end steel fiber cementitious composites (ASFRC) and the fracture behavior was investigated. In order to achieve the alignment of steel fibers, the key parameters including the rheology of the mixture and magnetic induction of electromagnetic field were theoretically analyzed. The results showed that, compared with SFRC, the cracking load and the ultimate load of ASFRC were increased about 24–55% and 51–86%, respectively, depending on the fiber addition content. In addition, the flexural tensile strength and residual flexural strength of ASFRC were found to increase up to 105% and 100%, respectively. The orientation of steel fibers also has a significant effect on energy consumption. The fracture energy of ASFRC was 56–70% greater than SFRC and the reinforcement effect of hooked-end steel fiber was higher than straight steel fiber. The fibers in the fracture surface showed that not only was the number of fibers of ASFRC higher than that of SFRC, but also the orientation efficiency factor of ASFRC was superior to SFRC, which explains the improvement of fracture behavior of ASFRC.

Modeling of optical properties of hybrid metal-organic nanostructures

To model spectral characteristics of hybrid metal-organic nanostructures, the extended Mie theory was used, which makes it possible to calculate the extinction efficiency factor (Qext) and the scattering efficiency factor in the near zone (QNF) of two-layer spherical particles placed in an absorbing matrix. Two-layer plasmon nanospheres consisting of a metallic core (Ag, Cu) coated with dielectric shells and located into the copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) matrix were considered. The influence of dielectric shell thickness and refractive index on the characteristics of the surface plasmon resonance of absorption (SPRA) was studied. The possibility of the SPRA band tuning by changing the optical and geometrical parameters of dielectric shells was shown. It was established that dielectric shells allow to shift the surface plasmon resonance band of plasmonic nanoparticles absorption both to short- and long-wavelength spectral range depending on the relation between shell and matrix refractive indexes.

Prospects for reducing energy consumption in zinc oxide technology

The heat-technological scheme for the production of zinc oxide from metallic zinc is considered. It is shown that the thermal efficiency factor of the existing industrial process is very low and is equal to 5%. The technological process thermodynamics analysis showed that the zinc vapor combustion exothermic reaction heat is sufficient to provide heat for all endothermic technology stages. The conditions and design of the installation, which make it possible to use this heat for all stages of the technological process, are considered. This provides an increase efficiency factor up to 44%.

Analisis Faktor – Faktor yang Memengaruhi Kinerja Keuangan pada Pusat Pendapatan Pemerintah Daerah Kabupaten Tulang Bawang

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that affect the financial performance of government revenue centers. Research Methodology: Qualitative descriptive method is the method used in this research. The factors that influence the financial performance of the Regional Agency of Tulang Bawang Regency increasing the realization of Regional Revenue are described in this study, in order to identify the causes of the unrealized local revenue. Results: Judging from the efficiency factor, it shows that financial performance is classified as very efficient and after analyzing various factors, a strategy is sought that can be used by the Regional Revenue Service of Tulang Bawang Regency to provide an increase in the level of regional basic income which is the purpose of this study. Limitations: The implementation of the research will definitely be faced with its limitations, both in the results of the research discussion and the questionnaire questions in the research. This research cannot explain further about Regional Levies because in this case, the Regional Revenue Agency is only the coordinator of Regional Original Revenue. Contribution: In the future, this research is also expected to be a reference for the Regional Revenue Agency of Tulang Bawang Regency in order to increase the realization of the initial income of Tulang Bawang Regency.

The relationship of casting conditions with the structure and properties of sacrificial materials

The application of cast protectors in systems of cathodic protection of metal structures and structures from electrochemical corrosion is well known. Alloys based on aluminum, magnesium and zinc are widely used as sacrificial materials for the manufacture of sacrificials. The choice of designs and standard sizes of protectors is carried out taking into account the provision of the required service life of the protector protection systems in various operating conditions. The structure of cast protectors plays an important role in stabilizing the electrochemical characteristics of sacrificial materials. The paper describes the characteristics of sacrificial alloys and cast sacrificials, and also shows the influence of casting conditions on increasing the values of the efficiency factor (KPI) of sacrificial materials.

Effective Treatment of Humic Acid Foulants in SAGD Produced Water

Humic acids, one major type of organic foulants in steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) produced water, can precipitate on surface and downhole equipment in SAGD facilities, resulting in high cleaning costs, potential equipment damage and decrease of injectivity of disposal wells. In this paper, a cost-effective chemical solution is presented where an alcohol ethoxylate surfactant/chelating agent package can efficiently disperse the organic fouling molecules in SAGD produced water; therefore, the approach is expected to significantly mitigate the humic acid related fouling issues in the SAGD system. In this study, a variety of commercially available surfactant products were evaluated for their aids in well injectivity on humic acid molecules in the freshly obtained SAGD produced water. The lab testing filtration apparatus was specially designed to simulate the sandstone formation geology of SAGD disposal wells. An "efficiency factor" was defined to grade the dispersing performance of the surfactant and/or surfactant/chelating agent package in the lab filtration tests. The efficiency factor provides a reasonable estimation regarding how well the chemical can reduce the plugging risk in a disposal well as compared to the untreated produced water. Among all the surfactant products tested, an alcohol ethoxylate surfactant with the appropriate molecular structure shows distinguished dispersing performance on humic acids in SAGD produced water. However, the surfactant alone was found inconsistent in the dispersing performance when different batches of the produced water were involved. Inclusion of the specific metal chelating agents to the above surfactant formulation improved the dispersing performance consistency. The chelator molecules presumably help destroy the intermolecular bridges among humic acid molecules in the SAGD produced water; thereby, increasing the dispersing effectiveness of the alcohol ethyoxylate surfactants. Tests show that the efficiency factor of the surfactant/chelating agent package is higher than 8, which implies that the formulation could lead to eight times extension of the interval between workovers on SAGD disposal wells, a significant reduction for the operational downtime and costs. This study presented a cost-effective chemical solution to help disperse the humic acid molecules in SAGD produced water, which can help significantly reduce the fouling risk caused by organic foulants, improve injectivity and extend the intervals between workovers of SAGD disposal wells.

Integrated Brownfield Opportunity Identification Using the Efficiency Factor Approach

The long-term prosperity of oil and gas companies requires a constant influx of new volumes of producible oil and gas that can be developed to replace existing production. Without such activity it is inevitable that production will eventually fall as the resource base is gradually consumed The attractiveness of achieving more barrels from existing discovered fields has always been strong as it has long been recognized that such opportunities can be economically attractive and rapidly brought to fruition. It is also recognized however that such opportunities may be more complex relying both upon excellent subsurface understanding and successful brownfield project execution. It is therefore not surprising that in many cases actual recovery factors (produced volume/initial in-place volume) in oil and gas fields can be significantly less than what should be technically achievable. Identification of economically robust brownfield opportunities remains an industry challenge. In this paper we address this challenge by reporting a new workflow for brownfield opportunity identification leading to recovery factor improvement. Shell's Recovery Factor Improvement (RFI) Workflow was developed to address these issues and builds upon the existing best practice workflows to better explore and define the activities that would be required to achieve top quartile recovery factor performance. The workflow combines elements of various existing published approaches: (1) Shell's TQ-EUR Tool is an internal database that allows current and forecast recovery factor to be compared with that of analogue reservoirs using a reservoir complexity factor and key reservoir performance parameters as comparison criteria across the Shell portfolio. (2) An efficiency factor-based analysis of recovery factor; (3) a structured workshop to elicit new recovery factor improvement activities by addressing each individual efficiency factor in turn; (4) Consistent reporting of results. The combination of these approaches creates a powerful workflow to improve brownfield field opportunity identification and maturation. The RFI Workflow is intended to provide asset teams with a practicable and repeatable process that can be completed without specialist technical support or software to enable the identification of robust new opportunities. Experience with using the new workflow has demonstrated that it is able to bring new understanding to asset teams, consistently identify new opportunities and highlight common portfolio-wide opportunity types that would benefit from further central technology development funding.

Hen reproductive function under the influence of technological stressor

Modern industrial poultry enterprises use cage equipment for keeping laying hens, which is located in 12 and even 15 tiers, forming 4–5 floors. This makes it possible to increase the birds concentration in the poultry house by 4–5 times as compared to 3-tier cage batteries, and by 8–10 times as compared to the outdoor method of keeping. When using a 4–5 floors arrangement of cage batteries, the number of hens in one poultry house can reach 590 thousand birds. However, there are no data on the effect of such keeping on the physiological state of hens. Therefore, it is relevant to study the effect of the height of the cage battery on the reproductive function of laying hens of an industrial herd, which forms the efficiency of production of edible eggs. For this, in the conditions of a modern complex for the production of edible eggs, 4 groups of hens were formed, each of which was kept on a separate floor-analogue in area and cage equipment, located in one poultry house. Each floor was equipped with 3-tier cage batteries: tiers 1–3 were part of the 1st floor, tiers 4–6 — on the 2nd, 7–9 tiers — on the 3rd, and tiers 10–12 — 4th floors of cage equipment. The reproductive function of hens was assessed by the egg production for the initial and middle hens, its intensity and the weight of eggs. The research results showed that the content of layers in the cages of the batteries of the second floor was accompanied by a slight decrease in the safety of livestock — by 0.2–0.5%, egg production per initial layer — by 1.9–2.2%, which led to a decrease in the gross production of eggs by 0.6–0.7 million eggs, egg mass — by 48.9–67.0 tons and a decrease in the European efficiency factor by 0.7–0.9 units.Whereas when keeping laying hens in the cages of batteries on the first floor, there was a decrease in preservation by 10.3–10.8%, egg production per initial hen — by 6.4– 8.4% and body weight — by 7.5–8.1%, which led to a decrease in the gross production of eggs by 1.9–2.6 million pieces, egg mass — by 143.8–210.8 tons and a decrease in the level of the European coefficient of efficiency of egg production by 1.7–2.6 units. Thus, an increase in the layering of the cage equipment does not have a negative effect on hens reproductive function and the keeping of laying hens in the cages of the batteries of the first floor leads to the development of a stress state in them, which manifests itself in a decrease in the safety and deterioration of hens reproductive function, which leads to decrease in the efficiency of egg production.

Examination of the influence of conjugated linoleic acid in broiler nutrition on the economic efficiency of fattening

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of the use of CLA (2%), from days 1, 11 or 22 of fattening, on selected production results (broiler weight after each fattening phase including at the end of fattening, viability, average daily gain and feed conversion) on the efficiency of fattening during the whole fattening period (42 days). The obtained production results were used to calculate the European production efficiency factor (EPEF) and the European broiler index (EBI) values for each fattening phase as well as for the whole fattening. The results obtained indicate that, in the later stages of fattening, the use of CLA during the whole fattening period is economically more justified than the non-CLA diets used for control broilers. With the use of CLA throughout the whole fattening, the EPEF and EBI values are consistent with these values calculated for the Cobb 500 standard. In addition to economic justification, the use of CLA also has human nutritional significance, since the broiler meat is enriched with CLA and has a more favourable n-6/n-3 fatty acid ratio.

Assessment of Lighting Uniformity as a Factor of Energy Efficiency in Greenhouse Horticulture

Introduction. Greenhouse lighting systems are an integral part of the system for growing plants in cultivation facilities with an artificial microclimate. The uniformity of light distribution over the growing area is important to increase energy efficiency and improve plant quality, among other requirements. The aim of the work is to consider the mathematical apparatus for describing the distribution of light over the surface and to justify the choice of ways to characterize the degree of lighting uniformity. Materials and Methods. The basic concepts of the subject area such as lighting, lighting body, horizontal lighting curve, luminous intensity curve are considered in terms of theoretical photometry. To assess the energy and ecological friendliness of the greenhouse horticulture, the lighting efficiency factor was used. Various methods for determining the average lighting value are presented. The formulas for the uniformity coefficients are presented. Experimental verification was carried out on a horizontal plane simulating a surface for growing plants. A luminary with a round-symmetric light distribution was used. Results. It has been found that the lighting values calculated by the proposed method at various points of the illuminated surface correspond to the experimentally obtained values. It has been shown that the coefficient taking into account the pattern of lighting distribution over all points of the surface carries a lot of information about the uniformity. A frequency graph for the lighting distribution value has been constructed and its practical applicability has been substantiated. The relationship between the lighting efficiency and uniformity of the generated lighting has been revealed. With reduced suspension height of the luminary, it is possible to increase significantly the lighting efficiency factor, however, the lighting uniformity deteriorates sharply. Discussion and Conclusion. There is proposed a method for assessing the energy efficiency by the lighting efficiency factor, which determines the proportion of the useful lighting falling on the surface in the total lighting generated by light sources. It is suggested that this indicator can characterize the ecological quality of photoculture, since it has been established its relationship with the uniformity of the created lighting, the impact of which on photoculture is described in the literature.