A strategy to predict the global warming gas from stock farming —Potential scaling law of the released methane from livestock—

This work examines a scaling approach to predict the amount of methane released from the daily activity of livestock on farms. The subject animals are ruminants, i.e. having rumen or a ruminant stomach, that generates methane through digestion processes via several microbial fermentation steps. The produced methane is mixed into their breathing and released into the atmosphere. Existing data on methane released from various kinds of ruminant livestock were correlated as a power function of an animal’s weight, with an exponent near 0.92. This value is larger than a value of 0.75 which was related to the general metabolism rates for various animals. These differences may be explained by structure differences of the digestive organs or, more precisely, the difference in the relative length of the small intestine against animal size. Smaller animals have relatively longer small intestines, suggesting that the digestive activity in their stomachs is relatively less-active with less methane production as compared to larger animals. Validity of these structurally-dependent hypothesis was examined and a scaling law is proposed. The derived scaling law can then be used to estimate the release of global warming gas from various kinds of livestock and help to consider reduction strategies to decrease this emitted methane

Scale model test to estimate thermal damage by fire in aircraft cargo

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires fire detectors to alarm within one minute of the start of a fire in cargo compartments of airplanes. To determine whether such alarm timing works, investigations of the thermal damage to ceilings and other structures during the early stage of a fire were accomplished to demonstrate compliance with these FAA regulations. The objective was to test the feasibility of predicting convective heat transfer in early stage of a cargo compartment fire by conducting reduced scale (lab scale) experiments. First, the scaling laws was derived and validated. Then, full-scale and half-scale experiments were performed with attention to the heat fluxes from the fires. Similarity between the scaled tests were verified by matching dimensionless fire power profiles. Comparisons between the two-scale results showed good agreement in dimensionless heat fluxes to the ceiling and the rear bulkhead, thereby pointing to the capability of scale modeling as an effective tool for the present purpose

Fingering behavior of flame spread over solid combustibles

In this study, the fingering pattern formation and the following flamelet spreading over three different kinds of thick combustibles, i.e., Poly methacrylate (PMMA), Poly ethylene (PE) and Poly carbonate (PC) were observed and the effective Lewis number correlation was validated. Experiments were performed with a narrow channel apparatus. In addition to the kinds of solid fuel materials, the channel height and the oxidizer velocity were varied as experimental parameters. An image analysis method was developed to quantify the number, diameter and spread rate of the flamelets. Replacing the fuel thickness into the thermal thickness, the effective Lewis number which is proposed for the smoldering combustion of thin fuel is remedied to include heat transfer perpendicular to the fuel surface. The result validates that the appearance condition of the fingering instability for thick combustibles is determined by the effective Lewis number. Hence, it is concluded that the observed phenomenon is inherently similar to that of smoldering. Further, it is shown that the non-dimensional flame diameter becomes nearly constant when the fingering instability occurs. It is believed that the correlation is useful when one wants to reproduce this phenomenon in a larger scale experiment

Modified Regression Rate Formula of PMMA Combustion by a Single Plane Impinging Jet

A modified regression rate formula for the uppermost stage of CAMUI-type hybrid rocket motor is proposed in this study. Assuming a quasi-steady, one-dimensional, an energy balance against a control volume near the fuel surface is considered. Accordingly, the regression rate formula which can calculate the local regression rate by the quenching distance between the flame and the regression surface is derived. An experimental setup which simulates the combustion phenomenon involved in the uppermost stage of a CAMUI-type hybrid rocket motor was constructed and the burning tests with various flow velocities and impinging distances were performed. A PMMA slab of 20 mm height, 60 mm width, and 20 mm thickness was chosen as a sample specimen and pure oxygen and O2/N2 mixture (50/50 vol.%) were employed as the oxidizers. The time-averaged regression rate along the fuel surface was measured by a laser displacement sensor. The quenching distance during the combustion event was also identified from the observation. The comparison between the purely experimental and calculated values showed good agreement, although a large systematic error was expected due to the difficulty in accurately identifying the quenching distance

Modified Regression Rate Formula of PMMA Combustion by a Single Plane Impinging Jet

A modified regression rate formula for the uppermost stage of CAMUI-type hybrid rocket motor is proposed in this study. Assuming a quasi-steady, one-dimensional, an energy balance against a control volume near the fuel surface is considered. Accordingly, the regression rate formula which can calculate the local regression rate by the quenching distance between the flame and the regression surface is derived. An experimental setup which simulates the combustion phenomenon involved in the uppermost stage of a CAMUI-type hybrid rocket motor was constructed and the burning tests with various flow velocities and impinging distances were performed. A PMMA slab of 20 mm height, 60 mm width, and 20 mm thickness was chosen as a sample specimen and pure oxygen and O 2 /N 2 mixture (50/50 vol.%) were employed as the oxidizers. The time-averaged regression rate along the fuel surface was measured by a laser displacement sensor. The quenching distance during the combustion event was also identified from the observation. The comparison between the purely experimental and calculated values showed good agreement, although a large systematic error was expected due to the difficulty in accurately identifying the quenching distance

A Cluster of Paragonimiasis with Delayed Diagnosis Due to Difficulty Distinguishing Symptoms from Post-COVID-19 Respiratory Symptoms: A Report of Five Cases

Paragonimiasis caused by trematodes belonging to the genus Paragonimus is often accompanied by chronic respiratory symptoms such as cough, the accumulation of sputum, hemoptysis, and chest pain. Prolonged symptoms, including respiratory symptoms, after coronavirus disease 2019 infection (COVID-19) are collectively called post-COVID-19 conditions. Paragonimiasis and COVID-19 may cause similar respiratory symptoms. We encountered five cases of paragonimiasis in patients in Japan for whom diagnoses were delayed due to the initial characterization of the respiratory symptoms as a post-COVID-19 condition. The patients had consumed homemade drunken freshwater crabs together. One to three weeks after consuming the crabs, four of the five patients were diagnosed with probable COVID-19. The major symptoms reported included cough, dyspnea, and chest pain. The major imaging findings were pleural effusion, pneumothorax, and nodular lesions of the lung. All the patients were diagnosed with paragonimiasis based on a serum antibody test and peripheral blood eosinophilia (560–15,610 cells/μL) and were treated successfully with 75 mg/kg/day praziquantel for 3 days. Before diagnosing a post-COVID-19 condition, it is necessary to consider whether other diseases, including paragonimiasis, may explain the symptoms. Further, chest radiographic or blood tests should be performed in patients with persistent respiratory symptoms after being infected with COVID-19 to avoid overlooking the possibility of infection