Revisiting and revising Tatarskii’s formulation for the temperature structure parameter ( $$C_T^2$$ C T 2 ) in atmospheric flows

Environmental Fluid Mechanics - In this paper, we revisit a well-known formulation of temperature structure parameter ( $$C_T^2$$ ), originally proposed by V. I. Tatarskii. We point out its...     

Adsorption study for the removal of a basic dye: experimental and modeling

An effective adsorbent is developed from saw dust and its various adsorption characteristics are studied for removing a basic dye (crystal violet) from its aqueous solution. Equilibrium data are fitted to various adsorption isotherms. It is seen that about 341 mg of crystal violet can be removed using 1g of the adsorbent at 298 K. Kinetic study is also carried out to observe the effects of various process parameters viz. particle size of the adsorbent, initial concentration of the dye, temperature and adsorbent amount. A generalized two-resistance mass transfer model, which includes a film mass transfer coefficient (k(f)) and an internal effective diffusivity (Dp), is used to interpret the adsorption kinetic data. The model parameters (k(f) and Dp) are estimated by fitting the experimental data to the model. The evaluated parameters are used to predict the concentration profiles at various other operating conditions. The average deviation of the predicted values lies within 10% in all the cases. Sensitivity analysis is performed to observe the sensitivity of the model to the variations in the model parameters.     

Recycling of Malaysia’s electric arc furnace (EAF) slag waste into heavy-duty green ceramic tile

Recently, various solid wastes from industry such as glass waste, fly ash, sewage sludge and slag have been recycled into various value-added products such as ceramic tile. The conventional solutions of dumping the wastes in landfills or incineration, including in Malaysia are getting obsolete as the annual huge amount of the solid wastes would boost-up disposal cost and may cause permanent damage to the flora and fauna. This recent waste recycling approach is much better and greener as it can resolve problems associated with over-limit storage of industrial wastes and reduce exploration of natural resources for ceramic tile to continuously sustain the nature. Therefore, in this project, an attempt was made to recycle electric arc furnace (EAF) slag waste, obtained from Malaysia’s steel making industry, into ceramic tile via conventional powder compaction method. The research work was divided into two stages. The first stage was to evaluate the suitability of EAF slag in ceramic tile by varying weight percentage of EAF slag (40 wt.%, 50 wt.% and 60 wt.%) and ball clay (40 wt.%, 50 wt.% and 60 wt.%), with no addition of silica and potash feldspar. In the second stage, the weight percentage of EAF slag was fixed at 40 wt.% and the percentage of ball clay (30 wt.% and 40 wt.%), feldspar (10 wt.% and 20 wt.%) and silica (10 wt.% and 20 wt.%) added was varied accordingly. Results obtained show that as weight percentage of EAF slag increased up to 60 wt.%, the percentage of apparent porosity and water absorption also rose, with a reduction in tile flexural strength and increased porosity. On the other hand, limiting the weight percentage of EAF slag to 40 wt.% while increasing the weight percentage of ball clay led to a higher total percentage of anorthite and wollastonite minerals, resulting in higher flexural strength. It was found that introduction of silica and feldspar further improved the flexural strength due to optimization of densification process. The highest flexural strength, lowest apparent porosity and water absorption of EAF slag based tile was attained at the composition of 40 wt.% EAF slag – 30 wt.% ball clay – 10 wt.% feldspar – 20 wt.% silica. The properties of ceramic tile made with EAF slag waste (up to 40 wt.%), especially flexural strength are comparable to those of commercial ceramic tile and are, therefore, suitable as high flexural strength and heavy-duty green ceramic floor tile. Continuous development is currently underway to improve the properties of tile so that this recycling approach could be one of the potential effective, efficient and sustainable solutions in sustaining our nature.