Development and application of a procedure for evaluating the long-term integrity of membranes for the anaerobic fluidized membrane bioreactor (AFMBR)

2016 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chungheon Shin ◽  
Kihyun Kim ◽  
Perry L. McCarty ◽  
Jeonghwan Kim ◽  
Jaeho Bae

A bench-scale short-term test, developed to predict the long-term integrity of membranes with potential for use in anaerobic fluidized-bed membrane bioreactors, was used to evaluate several commercial hollow-fiber membranes. It was found that membrane performance varied widely, some membranes failing much more rapidly than others. Also found was that larger sizes of the fluidized media, in this case granular activated carbon (GAC), severely affected membrane structural integrity more than did smaller sizes, as did the method used for membrane attachment. Within the limits studied, the GAC packing ratio had only a minor impact. A decrease in membrane permeability that sometimes resulted during the testing and was caused by the deposition of fine GAC particles could be eliminated without membrane damage through simultaneous chemical cleaning and sonication. This new testing procedure should be useful for selecting membranes and reactor operating conditions to better ensure long-term operating performance of anaerobic fluidized-bed membrane bioreactors.

Author(s):  
T. L. Dickson ◽  
M. T. EricksonKirk

The current regulations, as set forth by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), to insure that light-water nuclear reactor pressure vessels (RPVs) maintain their structural integrity when subjected to planned startup (heat-up) and shutdown (cool-down) transients are specified in Appendix G to 10 CFR Part 50, which incorporates by reference Appendix G to Section XI of the ASME Code. The technical basis for these regulations contains many aspects that are now broadly recognized by the technical community as being unnecessarily conservative. During the past decade, the NRC conducted the interdisciplinary Pressurized Thermal Shock (PTS) Re-evaluation Project that established a technical basis to support a risk-informed revision to current PTS regulations (10CFR Part 50.61). Once the results of the PTS reevaluation are incorporated into a revision of the 10 CFR 50 guidance on PTS, it is anticipated that the regulatory requirements for the fracture toughness of the RPV required to withstand a PTS event (accidental loading) will in some cases be less restrictive than the current requirements of Appendix G to 10 CFR Part 50, which apply to normal operating conditions. This logical inconsistency occurs because the new PTS guidelines will be based on realistic models and inputs whereas existing Appendix G requirements contain known and substantial conservatisms. Consequently, a goal of current NRC research is to derive a technical basis for a risk-informed revision to the current requirements of Appendix G to 10 CFR Part 50 in a manner that is consistent with that used to develop the risk-informed revision to the PTS regulations. Scoping probabilistic fracture mechanics (PFM) analyses have been performed for several hundred parameterized cool-down transients to (1) obtain insights regarding the interaction of operating temperature and pressure parameters on the conditional probability of crack initiation and vessel failure and (2) determine the limits on the permissible combinations of operating temperature and pressure within which the reactor may be brought into or out of an operational condition that remains below the acceptance criteria adopted for PTS of 1 × 10−6 failed RPVs per reactor operating year. This paper discusses the modeling assumptions, results, and implications of these scoping analyses.


Author(s):  
Narendra K. Gupta

Drum type packages are routinely used to transport radioactive material (RAM) in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) complex. These packages are designed to meet the federal regulations described in 10 CFR 71. In recent years, there has been a greater need to use these packagings to store the excess fissile material, especially plutonium for long term storage. While the design requirements for safe transportation of these packagings are well defined, the requirements for safe long term storage are not well established. Since the RAM contents in the packagings produce decay heat, it is important that they are stored carefully to prevent overheating of the containment vessel (CV) seals to prevent any leakage and the impact limiter to maintain the package structural integrity. This paper analyzes different storage arrays for a typical 9977 packaging for thermal considerations and makes recommendations for their safe storage under normal operating conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (44) ◽  
pp. 19522-19530
Author(s):  
Mateus V. C. da Silva ◽  
Amanda B. S. Rangel ◽  
Leandro G. Aguiar ◽  
Heizir F. de Castro ◽  
Larissa de Freitas

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soomin Shim ◽  
Seunggun Won ◽  
Arif Reza ◽  
Seungsoo Kim ◽  
Naveed Ahmed ◽  
...  

Struvite crystallization using fluidized bed reactors (FBRs) is one of the most commonly used methods for nutrient recovery from different waste streams. However, struvite recovery from swine wastewater containing much higher solids using FBR has not been studied extensively. In this study, we therefore designed and optimized the key operating conditions parameters, i.e., pH (9.0, 9.5, and 10.0), circulation rate (CR) (1.5, 3.0, and 4.5 L/Lreactor·h), and hydraulic retention time (HRT) (1, 3, and 5 h) of FBR to ensure efficient nutrient removal and struvite crystallization from swine wastewater using response surface methodology (RSM) with central composite design (CCD) as experimental design. A magnesium/phosphorus (Mg/P) molar ratio of 1.3 was maintained with MgCl2 according to ortho-phosphate (O-P) concentration of influent and an air diffuser was set to supply air with 0.03 L air/Lreactor·min. The O-P recovery efficiency of over 91% was achieved through the entire runs. Among the operational parameters, pH did not show any significant effect on NH4-N recovery, particle size, and struvite production rate (SPR). The optimal CR over 2.94 L/Lreactor·h was found to be appropriate for efficient removal of nutrients and struvite crystallization. While optimizing the HRT, priority of the process operation such as the production of larger struvite particles or increased struvite productivity should be considered. Therefore, the optimal operational parameters of pH 9.0, CR > 2.94 L/Lreactor·h, and HRT of 1 or 5 h were chosen to obtain better responses through RSM analyses. The findings of this study would be useful in designing and operating either pilot- or full-scale FBR for struvite crystallization from swine wastewater.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin C. Hayes ◽  
Katherine L Alfred ◽  
Rachel Pizzie ◽  
Joshua S. Cetron ◽  
David J. M. Kraemer

Modality specific encoding habits account for a significant portion of individual differences reflected in functional activation during cognitive processing. Yet, little is known about how these habits of thought influence long-term structural changes in the brain. Traditionally, habits of thought have been assessed using self-report questionnaires such as the visualizer-verbalizer questionnaire. Here, rather than relying on subjective reports, we measured habits of thought using a novel behavioral task assessing attentional biases toward picture and word stimuli. Hypothesizing that verbal habits of thought are reflected in the structural integrity of white matter tracts and cortical regions of interest, we used diffusion tensor imaging and volumetric analyses to assess this prediction. Using a whole-brain approach, we show that word bias is associated with increased volume in several bilateral language regions, in both white and grey matter parcels. Additionally, connectivity within white matter tracts within an a priori speech production network increased as a function of word bias. These results demonstrate long-term structural and morphological differences associated with verbal habits of thought.


2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 1507-1512
Author(s):  
Baker M. Abod ◽  
Ramy Mohamed Jebir Al-Alawy ◽  
Firas Hashim Kamar ◽  
Gheorghe Nechifor

The aim of this study is to use the dry fibers of date palm as low-cost biosorbent for the removal of Cd(II), and Ni(II) ions from aqueous solution by fluidized bed column. The effects of many operating conditions such as superficial velocity, static bed height, and initial concentration on the removal efficiency of metal ions were investigated. FTIR analyses clarified that hydroxyl, amine and carboxyl groups could be very effective for bio-sorption of these heavy metal ions. SEM images showed that dry fibers of date palm have a high porosity and that metal ions can be trapped and sorbed into pores. The results show that a bed height of 6 cm, velocity of 1.1Umf and initial concentration for each heavy metal ions of 50 mg/L are most feasible and give high removal efficiency. The fluidized bed reactor was modeled using ideal plug flow and this model was solved numerically by utilizing the MATLAB software for fitting the measured breakthrough results. The breakthrough curves for metal ions gave the order of bio-sorption capacity as follow: Cd(II)]Ni(II).


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Peyghami ◽  
Tomislav Dragicevic ◽  
Frede Blaabjerg

AbstractThis paper proposes a long-term performance indicator for power electronic converters based on their reliability. The converter reliability is represented by the proposed constant lifetime curves, which have been developed using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) under different operating conditions. Unlike the state-of-the-art theoretical reliability modeling approaches, which employ detailed electro-thermal characteristics and lifetime models of converter components, the proposed method provides a nonparametric surrogate model of the converter based on limited non-linear data from theoretical reliability analysis. The proposed approach can quickly predict the converter lifetime under given operating conditions without a further need for extended, time-consuming electro-thermal analysis. Moreover, the proposed lifetime curves can present the long-term performance of converters facilitating optimal system-level design for reliability, reliable operation and maintenance planning in power electronic systems. Numerical case studies evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed reliability modeling approach.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4380
Author(s):  
Alirio Andres Bautista Villamil ◽  
Juan Pablo Casas Rodriguez ◽  
Alicia Porras Holguin ◽  
Maribel Silva Barrera

The T-90 Calima is a low-wing monoplane aircraft. Its structure is mainly composed of different components of composite materials, which are mainly bonded by using adhesive joints of different thicknesses. The T-90 Calima is a trainer aircraft; thus, adverse operating conditions such as hard landings, which cause impact loads, may affect the structural integrity of aircrafts. As a result, in this study, the mode I crack propagation rate of a typical adhesive joint of the aircraft is estimated under impact and constant amplitude fatigue loading. To this end, effects of adhesive thickness on the mechanical performance of the joint under quasistatic loading conditions, impact and constant amplitude fatigue in double cantilever beam (DCB) specimens are experimentally investigated. Cyclic impact is induced using a drop-weight impact testing machine to obtain the crack propagation rate (da/dN) as a function of the maximum strain energy release rate (GImax) diagram; likewise, this diagram is also obtained under constant amplitude fatigue, and both diagrams are compared to determine the effect of each type of loading on the structural integrity of the joint. Results reveal that the crack propagation rate under impact fatigue is three orders of magnitude greater than that under constant amplitude fatigue.


Processes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Alessandro Di Pretoro ◽  
Francesco D’Iglio ◽  
Flavio Manenti

Fouling is a substantial economic, energy, and safety issue for all the process industry applications, heat transfer units in particular. Although this phenomenon can be mitigated, it cannot be avoided and proper cleaning cycle scheduling is the best way to deal with it. After thorough literature research about the most reliable fouling model description, cleaning procedures have been optimized by minimizing the Time Average Losses (TAL) under nominal operating conditions according to the well-established procedure. For this purpose, different cleaning actions, namely chemical and mechanical, have been accounted for. However, this procedure is strictly related to nominal operating conditions therefore perturbations, when present, could considerably compromise the process profitability due to unexpected shutdown or extraordinary maintenance operations. After a preliminary sensitivity analysis, the uncertain variables and the corresponding disturbance likelihood were estimated. Hence, cleaning cycles were rescheduled on the basis of a stochastic flexibility index for different probability distributions to show how the uncertainty characterization affects the optimal time and economic losses. A decisional algorithm was finally conceived in order to assess the best number of chemical cleaning cycles included in a cleaning supercycle. In conclusion, this study highlights how optimal scheduling is affected by external perturbations and provides an important tool to the decision-maker in order to make a more conscious design choice based on a robust multi-criteria optimization.


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