Resource and Energy Efficient Method of Dried Fish Production

The authors of the article propose a method of convective dehydration of fish products, which has an intermittent nature of implementation. The dehydration process consists of the continuous initial phase and following combined periods consisting of phases of drying and relaxation of dehydrated surface layer of the raw material. The necessity of applying relaxation is due to the fact that during the drying process the surface layers that have lost some of the moisture are significantly densified. The size of the capillaries for moisture passing through the surface layers is reduced. Near the surface a layer is formed, which lacks the significant mass of moisture and has low diffusion properties. As a result, the dehydration process of the entire sample slows down. The rational use of relaxation leads to restoring the moisture-conducting properties of the surface layer of fish. The supply of electrical energy to the heating elements is stopped during the relaxation. The minimum circulation rate of the drying agent is maintained in the drying installation. Fresh air with a lower temperature and higher relative humidity than the drying agent is supplied to the drying agent. The conditions in the drying installation restrain external mass transfer and facilitate to the relaxation of the dehydrated surface layer, that is, to the redistribution of moisture in the thickness of the fish. The proposed method of dehydration of fish raw material reduces the cost of electric energy in the production of dried products and provides more rational coolant usage. The final fish products have more attractive appearance due to reduction of tissue deformation as a result of applying the relaxation of dehydrated surface layer

The study of initial permeability temperature dependences for LiTiZn ferrite ceramics

Results of obtaining and analyzing the temperature dependences of initial permeability of ferrite ceramics are presented in the paper. It was shown that the level of the defective state of ferrite ceramics can be obtained from the value of two parameters [alpha] and [beta] of the phenomenological expression describing the experimental dependences. The results showed that the main criterion of the defect state is the parameter [beta]/[alpha], which is related to the elastic stresses in the material. An indicator of the structure perfection is also the value of the maximum of the initial permeability near the Curie temperature

Mixing instabilities during shearing of metals

Severe plastic deformation of solids is relevant to many materials processing techniques as well as tribological events such as wear. It results in microstructural refinement, redistribution of phases, and ultimately even mixing. However, mostly due to inability to experimentally capture the dynamics of deformation, the underlying physical mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we introduce a strategy that reveals details of morphological evolution upon shearing up to ultrahigh strains. Our experiments on metallic multilayers find that mechanically stronger layers either fold in a quasi-regular manner and subsequently evolve into periodic vortices, or delaminate into finer layers before mixing takes place. Numerical simulations performed by treating the phases as nonlinear viscous fluids reproduce the experimental findings and reveal the origin for emergence of a wealth of morphologies in deforming solids. They show that the same instability that causes kilometer-thick rock layers to fold on geological timescales is acting here at micrometer level

Effects of Size Polydispersity on the Extinction Spectra of Colloidal Nanoparticle Aggregates

We investigate the effect of particle polydispersity on the optical extinction spectra of colloidal aggregates of spherical metallic (silver) nanoparticles, taking into account the realistic interparticle gaps caused by layers of stabilizing polymer adsorbed on the metal surface (adlayers). The spectra of computer-generated aggregates are computed using two different methods. The coupled-multipole method is used in the quasistatic approximation and the coupled-dipole method beyond the quasistatics. The latter approach is applicable if the interparticle gaps are sufficiently wide relative to the particle radii. Simulations are performed for two different particle size distribution functions (bimodal and Gaussian), varying the number of particles per aggregate, and different distribution functions of the interparticle gap width. The strong influence of the latter factor on the spectra is demonstrated and investigated in detail

Development of an Array of Compound Refractive Lenses for Sub-Pixel Resolution, Large Field of View, and Time-Saving in Scanning Hard X-ray Microscopy

A two-dimensional array of compound refractive lenses (2D array of CRLs) designed for hard X-ray imaging with a 3.5 mm$^{2}$ large field of view is presented. The array of CRLs consists of 2D polymer biconcave parabolic 34 × 34 multi-lenses fabricated via deep X-ray lithography. The developed refractive multi-lens array was applied for sub-pixel resolution scanning transmission X–ray microscopy; a raster scan with only 55 × 55 steps provides a 3.5 megapixel image. The optical element was experimentally characterized at the Diamond Light Source at 34 keV. An array of point foci with a 55 µm period and an average size of ca. 2.1 µm × 3.6 µm was achieved. In comparison with the conventional scanning transmission microscopy using one CRL, sub-pixel resolution scanning transmission hard X-ray microscopy enables a large field of view and short scanning time while keeping the high spatial resolution