Performance and emission characteristics of the thermal barrier coated SI engine by adding argon inert gas to intake mixture

Dilution of the intake air of the SI engine with the inert gases is one of the emission control techniques like exhaust gas recirculation, water injection into combustion chamber and cyclic variability, without scarifying power output and/or thermal efficiency (TE). This paper investigates the effects of using argon (Ar) gas to mitigate the spark ignition engine intake air to enhance the performance and cut down the emissions mainly nitrogen oxides. The input variables of this study include the compression ratio, stroke length, and engine speed and argon concentration. Output parameters like TE, volumetric efficiency, heat release rates, brake power, exhaust gas temperature and emissions of NOx, CO2 and CO were studied in a thermal barrier coated SI engine, under variable argon concentrations. Results of this study showed that the inclusion of Argon to the input air of the thermal barrier coated SI engine has significantly improved the emission characteristics and engine’s performance within the range studied

A STUDY OF TAGUCHI METHOD BASED OPTIMIZATION OF DRILLING PARAMETER IN DRY DRILLING OF AL 2014 ALLOY AT LOW SPEEDS

Drilling operation is widely used in the aerospace, aircraft and automotive industries, although modern metal cutting methods have improved in the manufacturing industries, but conventional drilling still remains one of the most common machining. In this study, focuses on the optimization of drilling parameters using the Taguchi technique to obtain minimum surface roughness (Ra) and hole diameter. A number of drilling experiments were conducted using the L18 orthogonal array on conventional drilling machine. The experiments were performed on AI 2014 alloy block using HSS twist drills under dry cutting conditions. The measured results were collected and analyzed with the help of the commercial software package MINITAB16. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employed to determine the most significant control factors affecting the surface roughness and hole diameter. The cutting tool, spindle speed and feed rate were selected as control factors. The main and interaction effect of the input variables on the predicted responses are investigated. The predicted values and measured values are fairly close

Effective reduction of in-cylinder peak pressures in Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Engine – A computational study

HCCI mode of combustion is known for simultaneous reduction of NOx and PM emissions besides yielding low specific fuel consumption. The nature of volumetric combustion of HCCI engine leads to the development of high peak pressures inside the combustion chamber. This high peak pressures may damage the engine, limiting the HCCI engine life period and thus demands sturdy designs. In this study an attempt is made to analyze computationally the effect of induction swirl in reducing the peak pressures of a HCCI engine under various operating parameters. For the study, specifications of a single cylinder 1.6 L, reentrant piston bowl diesel engine are chosen. For the computational analysis ECFM-3Z model of STARCD is considered. This model is suitable to analyze the combustion processes in SI and CI engines. As HCCI engine is a hybrid version of SI and CI engines, ECFM-3Z model with necessary modifications is used to analyze the peak pressures inside the combustion chamber. The ECFM-3Z model for HCCI mode of combustion is validated with the existing literature to make sure that the results obtaining are accurate. Numerical experiments are performed to study the effect of compression ratio, equivalence ratio, exhaust gas recirculation and boost pressure under different swirl ratios in reducing the in-cylinder peak pressures. The results showed that swirl ratio has a considerable impact in limiting the peak pressures of HCCI engine. The analysis resulted in achieving about 21% reduction in peak pressures are achieved when a swirl ratio of 4 with 30% EGR is adopted when compared to a swirl ratio of 1 with 0% EGR. The study revealed that out of the four operating parameters selected, lower compression ratios, higher EGR concentrations, lower equivalence ratios, lower boost pressures and higher swirl ratios are favorable in reducing the peak pressures

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

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN