Experimental determination of flow patterns and water holdup of low viscosity oil-water system in horizontal pipes

Fluids with different properties would exhibit different flow behaviour in any multiphase flow system at a given operating condition. Therefore, an in-depth knowledge of the operational and flow behaviour of any known fluid properties in a multiphase flow system of either liquid-liquid two-phase flow (oil and water) or gas-liquid-liquid three-phase flow (gas, oil and water) would be helpful in designing of pipelines and optimization of the production, separation, transportation and distribution systems, as may be found in oil and gas and allied petro-chemical industries. This paper presents the experimental observation of the flow patterns and water holdup for a two-phase low viscosity oil-water flow in horizontal pipes. The test fluids comprised of tap water and 2D-diesel which has a density of 832 kg/m3, viscosity of 3.24 mPa.s, surface tension of 0.030 N/m and flash point of 79°C. A total of 30 runs has been accomplished and the experimental results showed three different flow patterns identified as stratified flow (ST), stratified flow with mixing interface (ST&MI) and water-in-oil dispersed flow (), with superficial velocities of oil and water in the ranges of 0.32 - 0.87 m/s (Vos) and 0.20 - 0.90 m/s (Vws), respectively. However, analysis of water holdup in the commingled flows of the test fluids showed its dependency on the fluid flow patterns and superficial velocity of water

Thermal Analysis of Ventilated Disc Brake Rotor for UTeM Formula Varsity Race Car

A new design of disc brake using ventilated rotor was developed for the UTeM Formula Varsity racing car. Compacted graphite cast iron (CGI) was proposed as the material for the disc brake rotor. Thermal analysis was performed in this project to assess the component performance using ABAQUS/CAE v6.7-1 finite element analysis software both in transient condition. Results from the analysis show that the maximum temperature generated on the disc brake surface at the end of the braking procedure for transient condition was within the allowable service temperature of the ventilated rotor material. Thus, the new disc brake rotor is safe for operation and is expected to perform successfully as per design requirement

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees

Performance and emission characteristics of a spark ignition engine fuelled with butanol isomer-gasoline blends

The heavy reliance on petroleum-derived fuels such as gasoline in the transportation sector is one of the major causes of environmental pollution. For this reason, there is a critical need to develop cleaner alternative fuels. Butanol is an alcohol with four different isomers that can be blended with gasoline to produce cleaner alternative fuels because of their favourable physicochemical properties compared to ethanol. This study examined the effect of butanol isomer-gasoline blends on the performance and emission characteristics of a spark ignition engine. The butanol isomers; n-butanol, sec-butanol, tert-butanol and isobutanol are mixed with pure gasoline at a volume fraction of 20 vol%, and the physicochemical properties of these blends are measured. Tests are conducted on a SI engine at full throttle condition within an engine speed range of 1000–5000 rpm. The results show that there is a significant increase in the engine torque, brake power, brake specific fuel consumption and CO2 emissions with respect to those for pure gasoline. The butanol isomers-gasoline blends give slightly higher brake thermal efficiency and exhaust gas temperature than pure gasoline at higher engine speeds. The iBu20 blend (20 vol% of isobutanol in gasoline) gives the highest engine torque, brake power and brake thermal efficiency among all of the blends tested in this study. The isobutanol and n-butanol blend results in the lowest CO and HC emissions, respectively. In addition, all of the butanol isomer-gasoline blends yield lower NO emissions except for the isobutanol-gasoline blend

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium report, data summary of 50 countries for 2010-2015: Device-associated module

•We report INICC device-associated module data of 50 countries from 2010-2015.•We collected prospective data from 861,284 patients in 703 ICUs for 3,506,562 days.•DA-HAI rates and bacterial resistance were higher in the INICC ICUs than in CDC-NHSN's.•Device utilization ratio in the INICC ICUs was similar to CDC-NHSN's. Background: We report the results of International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2010-December 2015 in 703 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, Southeast Asia, and Western Pacific. Methods: During the 6-year study period, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Healthcare Safety Network (CDC-NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care-associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 861,284 patients hospitalized in INICC hospital ICUs for an aggregate of 3,506,562 days. Results: Although device use in INICC ICUs was similar to that reported from CDC-NHSN ICUs, DA-HAI rates were higher in the INICC ICUs: in the INICC medical-surgical ICUs, the pooled rate of central line-associated bloodstream infection, 4.1 per 1,000 central line-days, was nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.8 per 1,000 central line-days reported from comparable US ICUs, the overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher, 13.1 versus 0.9 per 1,000 ventilator-days, as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection, 5.07 versus 1.7 per 1,000 catheter-days. From blood cultures samples, frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (29.87% vs 10%) and to imipenem (44.3% vs 26.1%), and of Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (73.2% vs 28.8%) and to imipenem (43.27% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC ICUs compared with CDC-NHSN ICUs. Conclusions: Although DA-HAIs in INICC ICU patients continue to be higher than the rates reported in CDC-NSHN ICUs representing the developed world, we have observed a significant trend toward the reduction of DA-HAI rates in INICC ICUs as shown in each international report. It is INICC's main goal to continue facilitating education, training, and basic and cost-effective tools and resources, such as standardized forms and an online platform, to tackle this problem effectively and systematically