Search results for "Mechanical engineering"
showing 10 items of 4245 documents
Experimental results on adsorption beds for air dehumidification
2016
Desiccant rotors are commonly used in large scale solar cooling open cycle applications. As is well known, adsorption heat sensibly reduces the dehumidification capacity of the desiccant material and results in lower system performance. The aim of this work is to describe an innovative solution that permits simultaneous mass and heat transfer. In particular, two components working with silica gel fixed beds were studied and compared. The first component is a simple packed bed containing silica gel grains. The second component is a fin and tube heat exchanger commonly used in several air conditioning applications wherein the spaces between the fins are filled with silica gel grains. In this …
Influence of design mistakes and material degradation on the collapse of a long-span RC roof in South Italy
2020
Abstract In 2004, during ordinary maintenance work, consisting in the waterproofing of a building located in the South of Italy, the long-span (14.50 m) in situ cast reinforced concrete (RC) roof partially collapsed. The building, constructed in 1950, was in service as a cinema up to 1967 and utilized as a school up to 1985. Finally, it was a hotel up to 2000. In 2004, when the building was not in service and underwent maintenance work, it partially collapsed under the dead load. After the collapse, which involved a large portion of the roof, several beams and two columns, the Court nominated a first Official Technical Consultant in order to investigate on the causes of failure and related …
Trace analysis of plutonium in environmental samples by resonance ionization mass spectroscopy (RIMS)
1998
Resonance ionization mass spectroscopy (RIMS) is well suited for trace analysis of long-lived radioisotopes in environmental, biological and technical samples. By multiple resonant laser excitation and ionization of the elemental atoms under investigation, an extremely high element selectivity can be achieved. In addition, isotope selectivity is obtained by subsequent mass analysis. The excellent sensitivity results from the large atomic cross-sections in the excitation–ionization process and the good detection efficiency for ions. The element selectivity of RIMS allows a simplified procedure for the chemical preparation of the samples compared to the requirements of thin sources for α-spec…
Zinc removal in anaerobic sulphate-reducing liquid substrate process
2002
Abstract Zinc and sulphate removal from synthetic wastewater was investigated by using four laboratory parallel upflow-mode reactors (referred as R1 to R4; R1 contained carriers to retain biomass, whereas R2–R4 were operated as suspended reactors). All reactors were inoculated with anaerobically digested cow manure. R1 and R2 were first fed with glucose- and sulphate-containing feed for 48 days after which all four reactors were fed with wastewater containing 50 mg l−1 of zinc in R1–R3 and 200 mg l−1 in R4 and operated for 96 days. In all reactors, hydraulic retention time, organic loading rate, and sulphate load were 5–6 d, 0.2–0.4 kg COD m−3 d−1 and 3.3–3.8 g SO4 l−1 d−1, respectively, wh…
Combined proton NMR wideline and NMR relaxometry to study SOM-water interactions of cation-treated soils
2013
Abstract Focusing on the idea that multivalent cations affect SOM matrix and surface, we treated peat and soil samples by solutions of NaCl, CaCl2 or AlCl3. Water binding was characterized with low field 1H-NMR-relaxometry (20 MHz) and 1H wideline NMR spectroscopy (400 MHz) and compared to contact angles. From 1H wideline, we distinguished mobile water and water involved in water molecule bridges (WaMB). Large part of cation bridges (CaB) between SOM functional groups are associated with WaMB. Unexpectedly, 1H NMRrelaxometry relaxation rates suggest that cross-linking in the Al-containing peat is not stronger than that by Ca. The relation between percentage of mobile water and WaMB water in…
A hierarchy of simplified constitutive models within isotropic strain gradient elasticity
2017
Abstract Simplified isotropic models of strain gradient elasticity are presented, based on the mutual relationship between the inherent (dual) gradient directions (i.e. the gradient direction of any strain gradient source and the lever arm direction of the promoted double stress). A class of gradient-symmetric materials featured by gradient directions obeying a reciprocity relation and by 4 independent h.o. (higher order) coefficients is envisioned, along with the sub-classes of hemi-collinear materials (3 h.o. coefficients, gradient directions in part coincident), collinear materials (2 h.o. coefficients, equal gradient directions) and micro-affine materials (1 h.o. coefficient, behavioral…
Stochastic dynamics of nonlinear systems with a fractional power-law nonlinear term: The fractional calculus approach
2011
Fractional power-law nonlinear drift arises in many applications of engineering interest, as in structures with nonlinear fluid viscous–elastic dampers. The probabilistic characterization of such structures under external Gaussian white noise excitation is still an open problem. This paper addresses the solution of such a nonlinear system providing the equation governing the evolution of the characteristic function, which involves the Riesz fractional operator. An efficient numerical procedure to handle the problem is also proposed.
Gaussian and non-Gaussian stochastic sensitivity analysis of discrete structural systems
2000
Abstract The derivatives of the response of a structural system with respect to the system parameters are termed sensitivities. They play an important role in assessing the effect of uncertainties in the mathematical model of the system and in predicting changes of the response due to changes of the design parameters. In this paper, a time domain approach for evaluating the sensitivity of discrete structural systems to deterministic, as well as to Gaussian or non-Gaussian stochastic input is presented. In particular, in the latter case, the stochastic input has been assumed to be a delta-correlated process and, by using Kronecker algebra extensively, cumulant sensitivities of order higher t…
Pseudo-force method for a stochastic analysis of nonlinear systems
1996
Nonlinear systems, driven by external white noise input processes and handled by means of pseudo-force theory, are transformed through simple coordinate transformation to quasi-linear systems. By means of Itô stochastic differential calculus for parametric processes, a finite hierarchy for the moment equations of these systems can be exactly obtained. Applications of this procedure to the first-order differential equation with cubic nonlinearity and to the Duffing oscillator show the versatility of the proposed method. The accuracy of the proposed procedure improves by making use of the classical equivalent linearization technique.
Growth of nanometric CuGaxOystructures on copper substrates
2005
This paper presents an alternative method based on the metal–organic chemical vapour deposition technique to obtain new nanowire structures. Here, the metal–organic precursor acts as a catalyst and interacts with a metallic substrate to produce 3D structures such as nanowires. In the present case, trimethyl gallium interacts with a copper metallic substrate to build a single-crystalline CuGaxOy wire structure. Electronic microscopy techniques on image or diffraction modes have provided the structural and chemical characterization of the obtained nanowires.