An Approach to Reaeration Coefficient Modeling in Local Surface Water Quality Monitoring

Reaeration coefficient (k ₂) for River Atuwara, Ogun State, Nigeria was calculated from dissolved oxygen and biochemical oxygen demand data collected over period of 3 months covering the two prevailing climatic seasons in the country. Both the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria were used in the selection and analysis of ten models to identify the most suitable reaeration coefficient (k ₂) model for Atuwara River. Models that passed the confidence limit were subjected to model evaluation using measures of agreement between observed and predicted data such as percent bias, Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency, and root mean square observation standard deviation ratio. The used approach yield better results than empirical models developed for local conditions while it is also useful in conserving scarce resources.     

Atmospheric influences on water quality: a simulation of nutrient loading for the Pearl River Basin, USA

Knowledge of water quality conditions is essential in assessing the health of riverine ecosystems. The goal of this study is to determine the degree to which water quality variables are related to precipitation and air temperature conditions for a segment of the Pearl River Basin near Bogalusa, LA, USA. The AQUATOX ecological fate simulation model is used to estimate daily total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and dissolved oxygen concentrations over a 2-year period. Daily modeled output for each variable was calibrated against reliably measured data to assess the accuracy. Observed data were plotted against simulated data for controlled and perturbed models for validation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis was used to quantify the relationships between the water quality and meteorological variables. Results suggest that daily dissolved oxygen is significantly negatively correlated to concurrent daily mean air temperature with a total explained variance of 0.679 (p?<?0.01), and monthly dissolved oxygen is significantly negatively correlated to monthly mean air temperature with a total explained variance of 0.567 (p?<?0.01). Total mean monthly phosphorus concentration is significantly positively related to the previous month's precipitation with a total explained variance of 0.302 (p?<?0.01). These relationships suggest that atmospheric conditions have a strong influence on water quality in the Pearl Basin. Therefore, environmental planners should expect that future climatic changes are likely to alter water quality.     

生物滴滤塔净化挥发性有机废气动力学模型研究

通过对生物滴滤塔净化VOCs废气过程的分析,建立了动力学模型,简化处理后得出了基于生物降解为一级反应动力学和零级反应动力学的污染物浓度沿填料层高度变化的方程,并通过实验数据对方程进行了验证,结果表明基于生物降解一级反应动力学的方程能较好地与实验数据吻合,但常数ξα/Q却随入口浓度Cgi的增大而升高。最后,采用实验数据回归出了ξα/Q随Cg变化的曲线。     

Modelling spills of water-reactive chemicals

This paper describes part of a programme of work undertaken at the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL) to investigate the behaviour of selected water-reactive chemicals. Following an accidental release, such substances react exothermically with any water present, generating acidic vapours. The STAWaRS (Source Term Assessment of Water Reactive Substances) software was developed for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) by ESR Technology to model this complex process. The aims of the study described here were to provide experimental validation of the heats of hydrolysis used within STAWaRS, and to perform sensitivity studies on selected STAWaRS input parameters.The heat of hydrolysis of acetyl chloride was measured and showed good correlation with the value used within STAWaRS. Some of the variables that influence the severity of acetyl chloride spills are examined, with reference to predictions made by the STAWaRS model. The heats of hydrolysis of titanium tetrachloride previously measured at HSL are also discussed, and the effect of adopting these experimentally derived values for modelling spills is shown for a hypothetical land use planning case. This study demonstrates the importance of using experimentally validated values for STAWaRS input parameters.     

Effects of significant damage of flame gap surfaces in flameproof electrical apparatus on flame gap efficiency

Electrical apparatus for use in the presence of explosive gas atmospheres has to be specially designed to prevent the apparatus from igniting the gas. Flameproof design is one of several options, and one requirement is then that any holes and slits in the enclosure wall be designed to prevent a possible gas explosion inside the enclosure from being transmitted to an explosive gas cloud outside it. Current standards (IEC) require that joint surfaces have a surface roughness of <6.3 μm. Any damaged joint surface has be restored to this quality. The present investigation has demonstrated that flame gap surfaces in flameproof electrical apparatuses can suffer considerable mechanical and corrosive damage before the flame gaps no longer function satisfactorily. In some cases very significant mechanical surface damage in fact improves the gap performance. This indicates that current high costs of repairing and replacing flameproof electrical apparatus in process plants offshore and onshore can be reduced considerably without any increase of the explosion risk.     

On the development of a new hybrid risk assessment process using occupational accidents’ data: Application on the Greek Public Electric Power Provider

The occupational accidents have a major impact upon human integrity and also bring about high costs for the social health and insurance system of a country. In addition, risk analysis is an essential process for the safety policy of a company, having as main aim the effacement of any potential of damage in a productive procedure, while the quantified risk evaluation is the most crucial part of the whole procedure of assessing hazards in the work. The main goal of this study is double: a) the development and presentation of a new hybrid risk assessment process (HRAP) and b) the application of HRAP in the Greek Public Power Corporation (PPC) (the unique electric power provider and the largest industry in Greece), by using occupational accidents that have been recorded, during the 12-year period of 1993-2004. The new process consists of four distinct phases a) the hazard sources’ identification phase, b) the risk consideration phase, c) the risk-evaluation phase, and d) the phase of the risk assessment and safety-related decision making. The results show that in some cases the risk value has been calculated in PPC to be higher than 500 (in the risk rating of 0-1000), which imposes the taking of suppressive measures for abolishing the danger source, while the fatal accident frequency rate (per 10⁸ man-hrs) is FAFR ≅ 2.4.     

Person–organization and person–supervisor fits: Employee commitments in a Chinese context

The present study simultaneously examined people's perceptions of person–organization (PO) and person–supervisor (PS) fit and related these perceptions to employees' commitments. Three‐hundred‐and‐sixty employee–supervisor dyads from Taiwanese organizations reported about their PO fit and PS fit perceptions. In addition, supervisors reported about their perceptions of fit and guanxi with each of their employees. Results indicated that PO and PS fit perceptions both had an independent and additive relationship with organizational commitment. The link between employee PS fit perceptions and organizational commitment was mediated by commitment to the supervisor. Both employee and supervisor fit perceptions contributed to commitment to the supervisor through their influence on the quality of the leader‐member exchange (LMX). Guanxi could not explain additional variance in LMX and supervisor commitment. Implications for theory and practices regarding person–environment fit, commitment, and LMX are discussed. The study findings offered suggestions for a new Theory of Multiple Fits. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prediction of the confidence interval for stability analysis of chain pillars in coal mines

The conventional deterministic approach based (DAB) methods are simple and widely used to determine an adequate chain pillar size in coal mines where geological settings, coal characterizations and mining methods have been explored. It is evident that such deterministic methods have some intrinsic limitations in handling uncertainties in material properties, non-regular geometries and different mining operations. In the deterministic stability analysis of a chain pillar, the safety factors as well as all input parameters are deterministic. Although, these parameters generally exhibit uncertainty and should lead to a probabilistic expression for the safety factor. The probabilistic analysis provides a confidence interval to express the reliability of chain pillars stability.In this paper, safety factor is defined as a probabilistic function and the failure probability of designed chain pillar of Tabas coal mine is then evaluated using the First Order Second Moment (FOSM) and the Advanced Second Moment (ASM) methods. The results of the probabilistic stability analysis show that the confidence interval for designed pillars with both mentioned methods applied are similar and their values vary from 84% to 88%. The results of such analyses can be used as a basis for decision-making about the size of chain pillars and reduce the risk of pillars stability as well as the uncertainties. However, a trade-off between cost is essential for making the final decision.     

Flammability of hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide mixtures

The effect of carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration on the ignition behaviour of hydrocarbon and CO₂ gas mixtures is examined in both jets and confined explosions. Results from explosion tests are presented using a 20 l explosion sphere and an 8 m long section of 1.04 m diameter pipeline. Experiments to assess the flame stability and ignition probability in free-jets are reported for a range of different release velocities. An empirically-based flammability factor model for free-jets is also presented and results are compared to ignition probability measurements previously reported in the literature and those resulting from the present tests.The results help to understand how CO₂ changes the severity of fires and explosions resulting from hydrocarbon releases. They also demonstrate that it is possible to ignite gas mixtures when the mean concentration is outside the flammable range. This information may be useful for risk assessments of offshore platforms involved in carbon sequestration or enhanced oil recovery, or in assessing the hazards posed by poorly-inerted hydrocarbon processing plant.