5 research outputs found
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Kinetic behavior of subbituminous coal drying; effects of confining pressure
A model is developed which explains the drying behavior of a subbituminous coal. This model, a variation of the moving-boundary approach, has the vapor-liquid interface in the macropores receding from the exterior surface of the coal as drying progresses. On the liquid side of the interface, liquid water exists in all three pore systems - macropores, transitional pores, and micropores. On the vapor side of the interface, in the transitional and micropore systems branching off the macropores, the moisture essentially is in equilibrium with the water vapor in the macropore system. Water diffuses from the liquid interface in the macropores through these pores to the exterior surface of the coal. Experiments with a Washington State subbituminous coal are described which test this model. The predictions of the model match the behavior of experimental drying curves. The effective diffusivities obtained were within the range expected for the constricted pore systems which coal possesses. Higher initial stresses apparently decrease the total porosity and increase the severity of pore constrictions. Disparities between model prediction and experimental behavior, which occurred at a late drying time, result from the assumed water adsorption isotherm
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Numerical simulation of two-dimensional single- and multiple-material flow fields
Over the last several years, Sandia National Laboratories has had an interest in developing capabilities to predict the flow fields around vehicles entering or exiting the water at a wide range of speeds. Such prediction schemes have numerous engineering applications in the design of weapon systems. For example, such a scheme could be used to predict the forces and moments experienced by an air-launched anti-submarine weapon on water-entry. Furthermore, a water-exit prediction capability could be used to model the complicated surface closure jet resulting from a missile being shot out of the water. The CCICE (Cell-Centered Implicit Continuous-fluid Eulerian) code developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) was chosen to provide the fluid dynamics solver for high speed water-entry and water-exit problems. This implicit time-marching, two-dimensional, conservative, finite-volume code solves the multi-material, compressible, inviscid fluid dynamics equations. The incompressible version of the CCICE code, CCMAC (cell-Centered Marker and Cell), was chosen for low speed water- entry and water-exit problems in order to reduce the computational expense. These codes were chosen to take advantage of certain advances in numerical methods for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) that have taken place at LANL. Notable among these advances is the ability to perform implicit, multi-material, compressible flow simulations, with a fully cell-centered data structure. This means that a single set of control volumes are used, on which a discrete form of the conservation laws is satisfied. This is in control to the more classical staggered mesh methods, in which separate control volumes are defined for mass and momentum. 12 refs
Immunocompromised patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome : Secondary analysis of the LUNG SAFE database
The aim of this study was to describe data on epidemiology, ventilatory management, and outcome of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in immunocompromised patients. Methods: We performed a post hoc analysis on the cohort of immunocompromised patients enrolled in the Large Observational Study to Understand the Global Impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Failure (LUNG SAFE) study. The LUNG SAFE study was an international, prospective study including hypoxemic patients in 459 ICUs from 50 countries across 5 continents. Results: Of 2813 patients with ARDS, 584 (20.8%) were immunocompromised, 38.9% of whom had an unspecified cause. Pneumonia, nonpulmonary sepsis, and noncardiogenic shock were their most common risk factors for ARDS. Hospital mortality was higher in immunocompromised than in immunocompetent patients (52.4% vs 36.2%; p < 0.0001), despite similar severity of ARDS. Decisions regarding limiting life-sustaining measures were significantly more frequent in immunocompromised patients (27.1% vs 18.6%; p < 0.0001). Use of noninvasive ventilation (NIV) as first-line treatment was higher in immunocompromised patients (20.9% vs 15.9%; p = 0.0048), and immunodeficiency remained independently associated with the use of NIV after adjustment for confounders. Forty-eight percent of the patients treated with NIV were intubated, and their mortality was not different from that of the patients invasively ventilated ab initio. Conclusions: Immunosuppression is frequent in patients with ARDS, and infections are the main risk factors for ARDS in these immunocompromised patients. Their management differs from that of immunocompetent patients, particularly the greater use of NIV as first-line ventilation strategy. Compared with immunocompetent subjects, they have higher mortality regardless of ARDS severity as well as a higher frequency of limitation of life-sustaining measures. Nonetheless, nearly half of these patients survive to hospital discharge. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02010073. Registered on 12 December 2013