Search results for "Size distribution"
showing 10 items of 147 documents
Physics of agarose fluid gels: Rheological properties and microstructure
2021
Agarose, a strongly gelling polysaccharide, is a common ingredient used to optimize the viscoelastic properties of a multitude of food products. Through aggregation of double helices via hydrogen bonds while cooling under quiescent conditions it forms firm and brittle gels. However, this behavior can be altered by manipulating the processing conditions viz shear. For example, gelation under shear leads to microgel particles with large surface area, which in turn leads to completely different rheological properties and texture. Such fluid gels are shown to play an important role in texture modification of foods and beverages for dysphagia patients. In this study, different concentration of a…
Occurrence of coal and coal-derived particle-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in a river floodplain soil.
2006
A PAH contaminated river floodplain soil was separated according to grain size and density. Coal and coal-derived particles from coal mining, coal industry and coal transportation activities were identified by organic petrographic analysis in our samples. Distinct concentrations of PAHs were found in different grain size and density fractions, however, similar distribution patterns of PAHs indicated similar sources. In addition, although light fractions had the mass fraction by weight of less than 5%, they contributed almost 75% of the total PAHs in the soil. PAH concentrations of all sub fractions showed positive correlation with their TOC contents. Altogether, coal and coal-derived partic…
Measuring Rainfall Kinetic Power in Two Sicilian Experimental Areas by Drop-Size Distribution Data
2023
The rainfall kinetic energy, which affects soil erosion processes, can be calculated by the drop-size distribution (DSD) and falling velocity. This study presents the outcomes derived by the DSDs recorded with the same optical disdrometer in two experimental areas, located in Sicily (southern Italy). Specifically, the DSDs were recorded from March 2017 to December 2019 at Sparacia and from June 2006 to April 2014 at Palermo. The aims of this paper are both to compare the DSDs for the two sites and to evaluate the applicability of Gamma theoretical distribution. Moreover, the relations of rainfall kinetic power vs. rainfall intensity are assessed. Differences in DSDs, especially for rainfall…
Volume change response and fabric evolution of granular MX80 bentonite along different hydro-mechanical stress paths
2022
AbstractDespite the increasing understanding of bentonite behaviour, there is still missing evidence on how different hydro-mechanical loadings, including sequences of hydration and compression, affect the fabric and the volume change behaviour of the material. It is generally assumed that the interplay between the behaviour of clay assemblages and the overall fabric of the material is the reason of having final states that are dependent on the stress path followed. Here the results of an experimental campaign aiming to study these factors are reported and discussed. Free swelling and swelling pressure tests were performed, both followed by compression to a relatively high stress. The exper…
Testing the BEST procedure to estimate the soil water retention curve
2012
The BEST (Beerkan Estimation of Soil Transfer parameters) procedure is attractive for simple soil hydraulic characterization but there is the need to test the reliability of the predictions. In this investigation, the BEST procedure to predict water retention of 199 Sicilian soils was evaluated. The BEST water retention model performed well (relative error, Er≤0.05) for approximately 80% of the soil samples. Low errors were obtained in soils with a high clay, cl, content (≥44%), whereas both high and low Er values were obtained in soils with a lower cl content. The BEST particle size distribution (PSD) model was accurate for 50% of the samples and the fitting accuracy increased with cl, wit…
Calculations of the variability of ice cloud radiative properties at selected solar wavelengths
2010
This study shows that there is surprising little difference in values of reflectance, absorptance, and transmittance for many of the intermediate-size particle spectra. Parrticle size distributions with mode radii ranging from approximately 50 to 300 microAm, irrespective of particle shape and nearly independent of the choice of size distribution representation, give relatively similar flux values. The very small particle sizes, however, have significantly larger values of reflectance and transmittance with corresponding smaller values of absorptance than do the larger particle sizes. The very large particle modes produce very small values of reflectance and transmittance along with very la…
Simulación de un proceso industrial de cristalización de Cloruro de Sodio (NaCl) y aplicaciones
2014
RESUMEN: La cristalización a partir de disoluciones es importante industrialmente dada la gran variedad de sustancias que se comercializan cristalizadas. Para mejorar la enseñanza aprendizaje de esta Operación Básica, en este trabajo, realizado como Trabajo Fin de Carrera de Ingeniería Química, se ha implementado un programa de simulación de una cristalización, partiendo de los datos de una cristalización industrial de NaCl. El objetivo ha sido manejar herramientas de cálculo para simular y optimizar esta operación, lo que permite conocer más profundamente el proceso de la cristalización y la utilización de las herramientas de cálculo, es decir, utilizar simultáneamente los conocimientos ad…
Designing biochar properties through the blending of biomass feedstock with metals: Impact on oxyanions adsorption behavior
2018
Metal-blending of biomass prior to pyrolysis is investigated in this work as a tool to modify biochar physico-chemical properties and its behavior as adsorbent. Six different compounds were used for metal-blending: AlCl3, Cu(OH)2, FeSO4, KCl, MgCl2 and Mg(OH)2. Pyrolysis experiments were performed at 400 and 700 °C and the characterization of biochar properties included: elemental composition, thermal stability, surface area and pore size distribution, Zeta potential, redox potential, chemical structure (with nuclear magnetic resonance) and adsorption behavior of arsenate, phosphate and nitrate. Metalblending strongly affected biochars' surface charge and redox potential. Moreover, it incre…
Effect of chest physiotherapy on cystic fibrosis sputum nanostructure: an experimental and theoretical approach.
2022
AbstractCystic fibrosis (CF) is a disease characterized by the production of viscous mucoid secretions in multiple organs, particularly the airways. The pathological increase of proteins, mucin and biological polymers determines their arrangement into a three-dimensional polymeric network, affecting the whole mucus and impairing the muco-ciliary clearance which promotes inflammation and bacterial infection. Thus, to improve the efficacy of the drugs usually applied in CF therapy (e.g., mucolytics, anti-inflammatory and antibiotics), an in-depth understanding of the mucus nanostructure is of utmost importance. Drug diffusivity inside a gel-like system depends on the ratio between the diffusi…
Elucidating the Effect of Bimodal Grain Size Distribution on Plasticity and Fracture Behavior of Polycrystalline Materials
2020
The refinement of grains in a polycrystalline material leads to an increase in strength but as a counterpart to a decrease in elongation to fracture. Different routes are proposed in the literature to try to overpass this strength-ductility dilemma, based on the combination of grains with highly contrasted sizes. In the simplest concept, coarse grains are used to provide relaxation locations for the highly stressed fine grains. In this work, a model bimodal polycrystalline system with a single coarse grain embedded in a matrix of fine grains is considered. Numerical full-field micro-mechanical analyses are performed to characterize the impact of this coarse grain on the stress-strain const…