Study of fluid transients in closed conduits annual report no. 1

Atmospheric density effect on computation of earth satellite orbit

Study of fluid transients in closed conduits interim report no. 65-2

Effects of two-phase fluids on flow characteristics in fluid conduit

An Investigation of the Sensing Capabilities of Magnetotactic Bacteria

We investigate the sensing capabilities of magnetotactic bacteria (Magnetospirillum gryphiswaldense strain MSR1) to MCF-7 breast cancer cells. Cancer cells are allowed to grow inside a capillary tube with depth of 200 μ m and motion of magnetotactic bacteria is investigated under the influence of oxygen gradient and geomagnetic field. The influence of cancer cells is modeled to predict the oxygen gradient within the capillary tube in three-dimensional space. Our experimental motion analysis and count of motile magnetotactic bacteria indicate that they migrate towards less-oxygenated regions within the vicinity of cancer cells. Bands of magnetotactic bacteria with average concentration of 18.8±2.0% are observed in close proximity to MCF-7 cells (h = 20~ μ m), whereas the concentration at proximity of 190~ μ m is 5.0 ± 6.8%

Production of reduced iron from mill scale waste using tilting rotary furnace

The production of steel in steel mills generates undesired scales of oxidized iron on the surface of the hot steel. Although several attempts have been made to transform mill scale into valuable products, the low porosity of the oxides and the presence of oil contamination have been the main limitations in pelletizing the scales. In our recent research, we were able to produce reduced iron in the form of spheres with a 93% metallization degree using only mill scale as a source of iron without the need for any agglomeration or cleaning steps. The main equipment used in the production process was a tilting rotary furnace. We also examined the relationship between fuel consumption and the metallization degree of the reduced iron, as well as the effect of furnace RPM on the cross-sectional diameter of the produced spheres. By adjusting the process parameters, we were able to produce spheroidal iron with a cross-sectional diameter ranging from 10 mm to 400 mm. This high-quality reduced iron can be directly used as a replacement for DRI or scrap in traditional steel production methods

Magnetic polycaprolactone microspheres: drug encapsulation and control

Targeted drug delivery (TDD) systems have several advantages, especially with drugs having toxic side effects such as lornoxicam (LX) which shows high hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity, especially with long-term use. This work represents an attempt to control magnetic microspheres encapsulating LX and magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) for potential targeted drug delivery of LX. Superparamagnetic nanoparticles were fabricated via the co-precipitation method and together with LX were encapsulated into polycaprolactone (PCL) microspheres through an oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion solvent evaporation method. The effects of changing the amount of drug, MNPs, and volume of the aqueous phase were investigated by preparing several microsphere formulations. Increasing the amount of encapsulated MNPs increased the magnetization of the microspheres without affecting the morphology. Doubling the volume of the aqueous phase resulted in a higher encapsulation efficiency and drug loading; 83.9% and 10.7%, respectively, while increasing the amount of drug had a negative effect on both drug loading and encapsulation efficiency. Drug release from the microspheres was successfully achieved and showed a biphasic nature. A system of four planar coils was then used to magnetically control the movement of a cluster of capsules in a glycerin medium, as a simulation for the targeting process. The microspheres were successfully controlled to move in a U-turn path with sharp corners demonstrating their potential for TDD applications