AIR VELOCITY PROFILES IN AIR BLAST FREEZERS FILLED WITH BOXES OF FRUIT PULP MODELS

The changes in the air velocities caused by the resistance for the air flow due to fruit pulp model packaged (100 grams) and conditioned in multi layers boxes during freezing process were evaluated and air flow rate were estimated using a method of treatment of the experimental data. The air velocities were measured before the air pass through the pillage of multi layer boxes in the air stream. For the measurements processing was used a non linear regression routine. Air flow rate measured by the present method resulted of the numerical integration of air velocities adjusted profile. Results presented a relative difference 10 % higher than the standard average procedure, which consists in averaging the air velocity measurements performed at each point of the section. In the same fan operation conditions, the results shown for the 7 layers arrays of product in the boxes which the air velocity was 62% lower than the 3 layers arrays and 50.9 % lower than the 5 layers arrays of product. These results were proportional to the bulk area for the air flow

CHARACTERIZATION OF EQUILIBRIUM CONDITIONS OF ADSORBED SILICAGEL/WATER BED ACCORDING TO DUBININASTAKHOV AND FREUNDLICH

Systems of adsorption have been studied as an alternative for the cooling systems for saving electrical energy. The main advantage is the heat as the driving sources, for example, hot water or waste heat, widely used in the industries, and solar energy. The pair adsorbent/ adsorbate determines the behavior of these systems. Therefore, the knowledge of the equilibrium conditions between the adsorbent and the adsorbate is very important. The pair silica gel/water has the advantage of exploiting low-temperature heat sources. In this paper, the equilibrium conditions of the pair silica gel/water were investigated and the data were used to identify the coefficients of Dubinin-Astakhov equation and Freundlich equation. The experiments consisted of measuring temperature and pressure for different adsorbed mass of water in the adsorbent (silica gel). The amount of adsorbed mass (kg) per adsorbent mass (kg) used were: 0.007, 0.013, 0.024, 0.047, 0.092, 0.162 and 0.209. Both equations showed good agreement with experimental data, the coefficients of regression (R2) were 0.991 on the Dubinin-Astakhov equation and 0.993 for the Freundlich equation

THEORETIC-EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF A CASCADE REFRIGERATION SYSTEM FOR LOW TEMPERATURE APPLICATIONS USING THE PAIR R22/R404A

This paper presents a thermodynamic analysis of a cascade refrigeration system using the refrigerant R22 as the working fluid in the high temperature circuit (HT) and the refrigerant R404a as the working fluid in the low temperature circuit (LT). The present analysis aimed to obtain the condensing temperature of the LT that provides an optimal value for the coefficient of performance (COP) of the cycle. Parameters involved in the analysis included the evaporation temperature, the condensing temperature and the difference between the condensing temperature of the LT (TC_LT) and evaporation temperature of the HT (TE_HT) – ΔTCAS. Simulations were performed using the software EES (Engineering Equation Solver). In addition to the analysis, experimental data obtained from a prototype was compared with the simulated results which showed good agreement. The COP varies with the increase in the intermediate temperature; however this variation does not exceed 1%

A PENDULUM-BASED MODEL FOR FLUID STRUCTURE INTERACTION ANALYSES

In the present contribution a pendulum-based model is used to represent fluid-structure interactions. For this purpose, a theoretical and experimentalanalysis of the dynamic behavior of a viscously damped spherical non rotational single-degree-of-freedom pendulum was performed. The dampingprocess is characterized according to two different regimes: in the first, it can be seen as a viscous low Reynolds’ number flow and, in the second, it can be considered as a viscously damped system. The pendulum was tested experimentally in a large reservoir containing a Newtonian fluid for validation purposes and good agreement was found between numerical and experimental results

Forced convection to laminar flow of liquid egg yolk in circular and annular ducts

The steady-state heat transfer in laminar flow of liquid egg yolk - an important pseudoplastic fluid food - in circular and concentric annular ducts was experimentally investigated. The average convection heat transfer coefficients, determined by measuring temperatures before and after heating sections with constant temperatures at the tube wall, were used to obtain simple new empirical expressions to estimate the Nusselt numbers for fully established flows at the thermal entrance of the considered geometries. The comparisons with existing correlations for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids resulted in excellent agreement. The main contribution of this work is to supply practical and easily applicable correlations, which are, especially for the case of annulus, rather scarce and extensively required in the design of heat transfer operations dealing with similar shear-thinning products. In addition, the experimental results may support existing theoretical analyses.(CNPq) National Council for Scientific and Technological Development(FAPESP) São Paulo Research Foundatio

UPPER AIRWAY EVALUATIONS OF THOROUGHBRED RACEHORSES IN A PRIVATE CLINIC IN CURITIBA, BRAZIL – RESTING ENDOSCOPIC FINDINGS IN 587 HORSES

Obstructive upper airway diseases are an important cause of poor performance in athletic horses. The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of common URT abnormalities (pharyngeal lymphoid hyperplasia - PLH, dorsal displacement of the soft palate - DDSP and recurrent laryngeal neuropathy - RLN) in a population of Thoroughbred racehorses in training submitted to resting endoscopy in a private clinic in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil. 587 URT resting endoscopies, 385 2-year-old and 202 3-year-old-plus horses, were performed during the period of the study and the clinical records of all the examinations were reviewed and analysed. 340 (57.9 %) horses were evaluated for routine athletic follow up, 15 (2.6%) were pre-purchase examinations, 83 (14.1%) were examined as an investigation for cough, 58 (9.9%) horses had poor performance, 48 (8.2%) had abnormal respiratory noise, 35 (6.0%) had epistaxis and 8 (1.4%) had nasal discharge. Pharyngitis (Grades III, IV PLH) was diagnosed in 198 (33.7%) horses and was more prevalent in the 2-year-old group than in the older horses (40.5% vs. 20.8%, P<0.05). DDSP was identified in 185 (31.5%) horses, Grade III RLN in 13 (2.2%) and Grade IV was seen in 21 (3.6%) horses. The present study gives a prevalence of upper airway abnormalities in resting endoscopic evaluation in a racehorse population in Brazil

Vacuum Stability, Perturbativity, and Scalar Singlet Dark Matter

We analyze the one-loop vacuum stability and perturbativity bounds on a singlet extension of the Standard Model (SM) scalar sector containing a scalar dark matter candidate. We show that the presence of the singlet-doublet quartic interaction relaxes the vacuum stability lower bound on the SM Higgs mass as a function of the cutoff and lowers the corresponding upper bound based on perturbativity considerations. We also find that vacuum stability requirements may place a lower bound on the singlet dark matter mass for given singlet quartic self coupling, leading to restrictions on the parameter space consistent with the observed relic density. We argue that discovery of a light singlet scalar dark matter particle could provide indirect information on the singlet quartic self-coupling.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures; v2 - fixed minor typos; v3 - added to text discussions of other references, changed coloring of figures for easier black and white viewin

Root Decomposition of Elephant Grass Pastures Grazed at Different Management Intensities

Grazing management may alter chemical composition of plant components affecting nutrient cycling. Among pasture management tools, adjustment of stocking rate (SR) and N fertilization have potential to affect nutrient cycling in the grassland ecosystem (Dubeux et al. 2007). Excreta from grazing animal and litter are the two major pathways of nutrient return on grazed pastures (Thomas 1992). Fertilization and SR may alter these pathways by different forms. Increasing fertilization generally increases pasture net primary productivity. Stocking rate affects different pasture and animal responses. Regarding nutrient cycling, increasing SR will likely increase proportion of nutrient returned through excreta as opposed to litter, increasing as a result nutrient losses (Dubeux et al. 2006). Root system may also be affected by management intensity. Frequent defoliation and low plant nutrition level may reduce root biomass (Richards 1993) and affect its decomposition. This study evaluated the effect of different SR´s and N fertilization levels on the decomposition of elephant grass roots