A closer look at BLEVE overpressure

The overpressure produced by the boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion (BLEVE) is still not well understood. Various methods have been published on the overpressure modeling in the far field. They mostly differ by the modeling of the expansion energy, used to scale the distance to the source where the overpressure needs to be calculated. But these methods usually include a experimentally fitted reduction factor, and are mostly overestimating the overpressures. Today there is a growing interest in modeling the BLEVE overpressure in the near field, for studying the blast effect on critical infrastructure such as bridges and buildings. This requires a much better understanding of the BLEVE blast. This paper goes deeper in the understanding of the physical phenomenon leading to the BLEVE blast wave generation and propagation. First, mid-scale BLEVE experiments in addition to new experimental data for near field blast from a small scale supercritical BLEVE are analyzed. And second, an analysis method of the shocks observed in the experiments is presented based on fundamental gas dynamics, and allows the elaboration of a new modeling approach for BLEVE overpressure, based on the calculation of the initial overpressure and radius of the blast.     

中国产品生命周期影响评价方法研究

讨论了确定中国产品生命周期影响评价所需的标准化基准和权重的确定方法和程序，包括产品系统环境影响潜值计算，数据标准化，加权评估 以及计算环境影响负荷和资源耗竭系数4个步骤。标准化基准采用1990年中国人均环境影响总潜值来表达，而权重采用1990年的基准与2000年中国政府的削减目标所估算的基准之间的比值计算。     

A mathematical model of crevice corrosion for buried pipeline with disbonded coatings under cathodic protection

Crevice corrosion occurs in a holiday and disbonded region between coating and pipeline steel. Cathodic protection (CP) is generally recognized as the most effective method for corrosion prevention of pipeline, but its effectiveness may be reduced at defects in a disbonded coating. It is difficult to measure and probe corrosion parameters accurately based on experimental work. Therefore, a mathematical model is necessary to identify the phenomena and mechanisms that contribute to the crevice corrosion process. In this work, a mathematical model was developed to determine the evolution of chemical and electrochemical transient processes of crevice corrosion in NaCl dilute solution, and the effect of cathodic protection and crevice width on corrosion of 20# steel pipeline with disbonded coatings. Results have demonstrated that the extent of crevice corrosion depends on the crevice geometry and could be influenced by the increase of crevice depth and decrease of its width. The oxygen concentrations drop significantly inside a crevice whether CP is applied or not and whether crevice width decreased or not. The pH values and conductivity of crevice solution increase with the time. The research provides a theoretical foundation for cathodic protection of pipelines and establishes an effective corrosion model which can identify the phenomena and mechanisms of the crevice corrosion process. This work could be used to help mitigate the corrosion failure of pipelines to prevent catastrophic accidents in oil, gas and chemical process industries.     

Molasses-based growth and lipid production by Chlorella pyrenoidosa: A potential feedstock for biodiesel

Biodiesel provides a feasible solution to the twin crisis of energy security and environmental concerns prevalent today, and it can be extracted from conventional oil crops as well as microalgae. However, lipid productivity in case of microalgae is much higher and has several advantages as compared with crop plants, so it is a better feedstock for biodiesel. In case of Chlorella pyrenoidosa, the heterotrophic cultured cells were found to be better in terms of lipid production, and ultimately biodiesel production, but the bottleneck is that in this mode glucose is used to feed the cells, which amounts to almost 80% of the total cost of biodiesel production. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and highlight the feasibility of using the industrially cheap cane molasses as a carbon source in place of glucose for a large-scale, low-cost lipid production of Chlorella pyrenoidosa. When treated molasses was used as a carbon source instead of glucose, the biomass sharply increases from 0.89 to 1.22 g L^–1. On the other hand, the total lipid content increases from 0.27 to 0.66 g g^–1. The specific growth rate and yield was higher in treated molasses as compared with that in glucose-supplemented. A mathematical model was also developed based on logistic, Luedeking–Piret, and Luedeking-Piret-like equations. Model predictions were in satisfactory agreement with the measured data, and the mode of lipid production was growth-associated.     

Research on different venting performance between flat and curved bursting panels

There is a noticeable discrepancy in the ability to control reduced explosion overpressure between flat bursting panels and curved bursting panels with the same static activation overpressure. Flat bursting plates were observed to leak at approximately 80% of the static activation overpressure lower than curved bursting plates. A new experimental technique is proposed in our paper. Three different vent areas of flat and curved bursting panels were tested, there was significant difference in structural stiffness between flat bursting panels and curved bursting panels, which is the reason the discrepancy in the ability to control reduced explosion overpressure. The structural stiffness of the flat bursting panels is poorer than that of the other, and a greater deformation of the flat bursting panels occurs under the same load. The membrane stress caused by the explosion overpressure therefore produces a larger value in the flat bursting panels which causes it to open prematurely. Moreover, the smaller the vent area that is, the more significant discrepancy in controlling the reduced explosion overpressure between both bursting panels is. This experimental and theoretical result in our paper provides some useful experience for the method of explosion venting.     

Experimental investigation,intelligent modeling and multi-characteristics optimization of dry WEDM process of Al–SiC metal matrix composite

Dry wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) is an environmentally friendly modification of the oil WEDM process in which liquid dielectric is replaced by a gaseous medium. In the present work, parametric analysis has been fulfilled while dry WEDM of Al–SiC metal matrix composite. Experiments were designed and conducted based on L₂₇ Taguchi's orthogonal array to study the effect of pulse on time, pulse off time, gap voltage, discharge current, wire tension and wire feed on cutting velocity (CV) and surface roughness (SR). Firstly, a series of exploratory experiments has been conducted to identify appropriate gas and wire material based on the values of cutting velocity. After selection of best gas and best wire, they were used for later stage of experiments. Analysis of variances (ANOVA) has been performed to identify significant factors. In order to correlate relationship between process inputs and responses, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) has been employed to predict the process characteristics based on experimental observation. At the end, an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm has been associated with ANFIS models to maximize CV and minimize SR, simultaneously. Then the optimal solutions that obtained through ANFIS-ABC technique have been compared with numbers of confirmatory experiments. Results indicated that oxygen gas and brass wire guarantee superior cutting velocity. Also, according to ANOVA, pulse on time and discharge current were found to have significant effect on CV and SR. In modeling of CV and SR by ANFIS, it was resulted that the proposed method has superiority in prediction of them in the ranges of factors beyond the training condition. Also, association of ANFIS with ABC can find the optimal combination of process parameters accurately according to the confirmatory experiments.     

基于GIS的云南省生态系统评价模型关键技术研究

以建立云南省生态系统评价计算机软件系统为背景,通过指标体系模型、数据组织模型和功能模块数据流模型等关键技术的分析,并基于GIS理论设计了生态系统评价软件模型的总体框架,为计算机软件系统的编程实现提供了方法和依据。     

The predictive validity of safety climate

PROBLEM: Safety professionals have increasingly turned their attention to social science for insight into the causation of industrial accidents. One social construct, safety climate, has been examined by several researchers [Cooper, M. D., & Phillips, R. A. (2004). Exploratory analysis of the safety climate and safety behavior relationship. Journal of Safety Research, 35(5), 497-512; Gillen, M., Baltz, D., Gassel, M., Kirsch, L., & Vacarro, D. (2002). Perceived safety climate, job Demands, and coworker support among union and nonunion injured construction workers. Journal of Safety Research, 33(1), 33-51; Neal, A., & Griffin, M. A. (2002). Safety climate and safety behaviour. Australian Journal of Management, 27, 66-76; Zohar, D. (2000). A group-level model of safety climate: Testing the effect of group climate on microaccidents in manufacturing jobs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85(4), 587-596; Zohar, D., & Luria, G. (2005). A multilevel model of safety climate: Cross-level relationships between organization and group-level climates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 616-628] who have documented its importance as a factor explaining the variation of safety-related outcomes (e.g., behavior, accidents). Researchers have developed instruments for measuring safety climate and have established some degree of psychometric reliability and validity. The problem, however, is that predictive validity has not been firmly established, which reduces the credibility of safety climate as a meaningful social construct. The research described in this article addresses this problem and provides additional support for safety climate as a viable construct and as a predictive indicator of safety-related outcomes. METHODS: This study used 292 employees at three locations of a heavy manufacturing organization to complete the 16 item Zohar Safety Climate Questionnaire (ZSCQ) [Zohar, D., & Luria, G. (2005). A multilevel model of safety climate: Cross-level relationships between organization and group-level climates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(4), 616-628]. In addition, safety behavior and accident experience data were collected for 5 months following the survey and were statistically analyzed (structural equation modeling, confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis, etc.) to identify correlations, associations, internal consistency, and factorial structures. RESULTS: Results revealed that the ZSCQ: (a) was psychometrically reliable and valid, (b) served as an effective predictor of safety-related outcomes (behavior and accident experience), and (c) could be trimmed to an 11 item survey with little loss of explanatory power. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: Practitioners and researchers can use the ZSCQ with reasonable certainty of the questionnaire's reliability and validity. This provides a solid foundation for the development of meaningful organizational interventions and/or continued research into social factors affecting industrial accident experience.     

Modeling of air quality with a modified two-dimensional Eulerian model： A case study in the Pearl River Delta （PRD） region of China

A modified two-dimensional Eulerian air quality model was used to simulate both the gaseous and particulate pollutant concentrations during October 21-24, 2004 in the Pearl River Delta （PRD） region, China. The most significant improvement to the model is the added capability to predict the secondary organic aerosols （SOA） concentrations because of the inclusion of the SOA formation chemistry. The meteorological input data were prepared using the CALMET meteorological model. The concentrations of aerosol-bound species such as NO3^-, NH4^＋, SO4^2-, and SOA were calculated in the fine particle size range （〈2.5 μm）. The results of the two-dimensional model were compared to the measurements at the ground level during the PRD Intensive Monitoring Campaign （IMC）. Overall, there were good agreements between the measured and modeled concentrations of inorganic aerosol components and O3. Both the measured and the modeled results indicated that the maximum hourly O3 concentrations exceeded the China National Air Quality Standard. The predicted 24-h average SOA concentrations were in reasonable agreement with those predicted by the method of minimum OC/EC ratio.     

Assessing the potential for greenhouse gas mitigation in intensively managed annual cropping systems at the regional scale

We predicted changes in yields and direct net soil greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes from converting conventional to alternative management practices across one of the world's most productive agricultural regions, the Central Valley of California, using the DAYCENT model. Alternative practices included conservation tillage, winter cover cropping, manure application, a 25% reduction in N fertilizer input and combinations of these. Alternative practices were evaluated for all unique combinations of crop rotation, climate, and soil types for the period 1997-2006. The crops included were alfalfa, corn, cotton, melon, safflower, sunflower, tomato, and wheat. Our predictions indicate that, adopting alternative management practices would decrease yields up to 5%. Changes in modeled SOC and net soil GHG fluxes corresponded to values reported in the literature. Average potential reductions of net soil GHG fluxes with alternative practices ranged from −0.7 to −3.3 Mg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ in the Sacramento Valley and −0.5 to −2.5 Mg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹ for the San Joaquin Valley. While adopting a single alternative practice led to modest net soil GHG flux reductions (on average −1 Mg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹), combining two or more of these practices led to greater decreases in net soil GHG fluxes of up to −3 Mg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ yr⁻¹. At the regional scale, the combination of winter cover cropping with manure application was particularly efficient in reducing GHG emissions. However, GHG mitigation potentials were mostly non-permanent because 60-80% of the decreases in net soil GHG fluxes were attributed to increases in SOC, except for the reduced fertilizer input practice, where reductions were mainly attributed to decreased N₂O emissions. In conclusion, there are long-term GHG mitigation potentials within agriculture, but spatial and temporal aggregation will be necessary to reduce uncertainties around GHG emission reductions and the delivery risk of the associated C credits.