Search

Organic coatings are widely used for the corrosion protection of metals. Despite a wide range of work on the degradation of organic coatings, few studies have contributed to understand the influence of the fluid flow on the degradation of organic coatings. In this study, an epoxy coating is exposed to a vertical impingement flow of a 3.5 wt% NaCl solution with a variety of flow rates. The coating degradation is monitored by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Equivalent circuit models are employed to interpret the EIS spectra. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was employed to study the influence of fluid flow on the surface topology of the coating samples. We found that the coating’s barrier property deteriorates more drastically when exposed to higher flow rates for impingement flow. Coating thickness and surface roughness are significantly affected by the fluid shear and the flow rate. It is concluded that the impingement flow substantially impacts the barrier properties of epoxy coatings owing to its influence on the electrochemical properties of the coating layers and the fluid shear it creates on the coating surface.

Besides their wide existence in various industrial processes, nanoscale particle suspensions are also the important media for some emerging technologies such as photocatalytic hydrogen production. The circulating flow properties of the nanoparticles in the fluid are of great concern for their practical use. In our study, a modified experimental system was set up based on Malvern laser particle analyzer that can estimate the nanoparticle concentration and size distribution in a laminar nanoparticle circulating flow. We found that the particle concentration and size distribution were periodical oscillation with time in such flow. Understanding the oscillation mechanism is capable of promote the energy efficiency of photocatalytic hydrogen production. A simulation based on Discrete Element Method (DEM) was conducted to understand this particular oscillation mechanism by studying the single particle movement and trajectory properties in the solid-liquid suspension. The simulation results agree well with the tendency obtained by the experimental results and are capable of better understanding the oscillation characteristics. The simulation results also reveal that the nanoparticles tend to gather in the middle region (the higher velocity region) of the tube after several cycles. Moreover the gravity is of great significance in the circulating flow of solid-liquid suspension because the particle swarms tend to distribute a little below the axial center line of the straight tube. These obtained results are credible for understanding the nanoscale particle transport phenomenon in many natural or industrial processes. In particular, our results are helpful for the understanding and effective control of the movement and distribution of photocatalyst particles in the tubular photocatalytic reactor, which is believed to significantly affect the incident radiation distribution and finally the energy conversion efficiency of the photocatalytic process.

Yarrowia lipolytica has emerged as an important non-model host for terpene production. However, three main challenges remain in industrial production using this yeast. First, considerable knowledge gaps exist in metabolic flux across multiple compartments, cofactor generation, and catabolism of non-sugar carbon sources. Second, many enzymatic steps in the complex-terpene synthesis pathway can pose rate-limitations, causing accumulation of toxic intermediates and increased metabolic burdens. Third, metabolic shifts, morphological changes, and genetic mutations are poorly characterized under industrial fermentation conditions. To overcome these challenges, systems metabolic analysis, protein engineering, novel pathway engineering, model-guided strain design, and fermentation optimization have been attempted with some successes. Further developments that address these challenges are needed to advance the Yarrowia lipolytica platform for industrial-scale production of high-value terpenes, including those with highly complex structures such as anticancer molecules withanolides and insecticidal limonoids.

Transport properties in a nanoparticle-laden flow are of great importance for their practical use, such as in tubular reactor-based photocatalytic technologies. In our study, an experimental setup based on photocatalytic application was employed to investigate the nanoparticle transport characteristics in a flow reactor. An interesting periodical attenuated oscillation of the particle volume fraction and mean particle size with time was found in the nanoparticle-laden flow. We further analyzed the period of the attenuated oscillation curve by conducting a linear fitting, which shows that the period can be expressed as T = f(Q,L) in which the period is proportional to the length of the test section and inversely proportional to the flow rate. We found that the time 5T is a very important criterion for determining whether the particle suspension has reached the quasi-steady state and whether the nanoparticle has been well suspended. Our work is believed to be valuable, efficient, and effective in the study of transportation of nanoparticles in laminar flow with low energy consumption.

In the heterogeneous photocatalytic reaction systems, the evolution of bubbles on the catalyst surface is a complex process that depends on multiple factors, such as the solid–liquid interface structure, solution properties of the reaction system, and multiphysics interactions, and directly affects energy and mass transport processes. This study investigated the multiphysics distribution around a bubble and the bubble detachment characteristics on the surface of a TiO2 photoelectrode during photoelectrocatalytic water splitting. The bubble diameter had an effect on the distribution of the light field in the system, affecting the temperature and flow distributions of the electrolyte around the bubble. Marangoni convection was induced by the inhomogeneous temperature distribution along the bubble interface, which enhanced the heat and mass transfer near the reaction site. It was also demonstrated that an increase in laser power increased Marangoni convection on the bubble surface, thus delaying bubble detachment. A force model for predicting the bubble detachment diameter that considered the coupling effect between the light, temperature, and flow fields was developed. The predicted bubble detachment diameters agreed well with the experimental results within an error of ±10%.

Centipeda minima (CM), the dried whole plant of Centipeda minima (L.) A. Braun and Aschers, has been used as a traditional Chinese medicinal herb for thousands of years for the treatments of rhinitis, sinusitis, cough and asthmatic diseases. This review aimed to evaluate the therapeutic potential of CM by summarizing its phytochemistry, pharmacology, clinical application and safety.This review summarizes the published studies on CM in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia and literature databases including PubMed, Web of Science, Baidu Scholar, Wiley and China Knowledge Resource Integrated Database (CNKI), as well as the research articles on the phytochemistry, pharmacology, clinical application and safety of CM.A total of 191 compounds have been isolated and identified from CM, including terpenes, flavonoids, sterols, phenols, organic acids and volatile oils. In addition, the pharmacological effects of CM, such as anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial activities, have also been evaluated by both in vitro and in vivo studies. The signaling pathways and mechanisms of action underlying the anti-cancer effects of CM have been revealed. Clinical applications of CM mainly include rhinitis and sinusitis, gynecological inflammation, cough, as well as asthma.CM is a medicinal herb that possesses many therapeutic effects. Cutting-edge technology and system biology could provide us a more comprehensive understanding of the therapeutic effects, constituting components and toxicity of CM, which are the prerequisites for its translation into therapeutics for various disease treatments.

Flash spray cooling has been considered as one of the most promising technologies of heat dissipation for high power electronic devices because of its high cooling capacity at low surface temperature. In this study, experiments were conducted to study the heat transfer enhancement due to surface modification in the close-loop R410A flash spray cooling system. The test surfaces including the macro-structured surfaces with pyramid and square fins with two orders of roughness, and the nano-porous surfaces with different pore diameters were examined. The experimental results indicated that the surface with macro fins could tremendously enhance the heat transfer due to the increase of wetted area. However the pyramid fins with less increase in wetted area showed a better heat transfer performance than square fins, indicating fin structure played a more important role than the increase in wetted area. Higher roughness could further improve the cooling performance of macro-structured surface. The maximum CHF of 330 W/cm2 and heat transfer coefficient of 300 kW/(m2 K) were achieved by the surface with rough pyramid fins, corresponding to 60% enhancement and 5 times respectively over smooth flat surface, while the wall temperature was maintained below 10 °C. The nano-porous surface could also lead to better heat transfer performance by increasing the number of nucleation sites and improving the wettability to working fluid. The result of pore size effect showed that the CHF value at first declined and then increased with the increasing pore size. It was postulated that this phenomenon was related to the transition of dominating heat transfer mechanism from “evaporation-limited region” to “viscosity-limited regime”. These findings helped to guide further investigations of enhanced surface aiming at enhancing heat transfer performance in flash evaporation spray cooling.

Meroterpenoid furanasperterpene A (T2-3) with a novel 6/6/6/6/5 pentacyclic skeleton was isolated from the Aspergillus terreus GZU-31-1. Previously, we showed that T2-3 possessed significant lipid-lowering effects in 3T3-L1 adipocytes at 5 μM concentration. However, its therapeutic effect in metabolic disease and the underlying mechanisms of action remain unclear.High fat diet-induced obesity (DIO) mouse model and 3T3-L1 cell model were used to assess the anti-obesity effects of T2-3. Lipids in the adipocytes were examined by Oil Red O staining. β-catenin expression was examined by immunofluorescence and Western blotting, its activity was assessed by TOPflash/FOPflash assay.T2-3 possessed potent anti-obesity effects in DIO mice, it significantly reduced body weight and subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) mass. Mechanistic studies showed that T2-3 significantly inhibited 3T3-L1 preadipocyte differentiation as indicated by the reduced number of mature adipocytes. The treatments also reduced the expressions of critical adipogenic transcription factors CEBP-α and PPAR-γ in both 3T3-L1 adipocytes and SAT in DIO mice. Interestingly, T2-3 increased the cytoplasmic and nuclear expressions of β-catenin and the transcriptional activity of β-catenin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes; the elevated β-catenin expression was also observed in SAT of the T2-3-treated DIO mice. Indeed, upregulation of β-catenin activity suppressed adipogenesis, while β-catenin inhibitor JW67 reversed the anti-adipogenic effect of T2-3. Taken together, our data suggest that T2-3 inhibits adipogenesis by upregulating β-catenin activity.Our study is the first report demonstrating meroterpenoid furanasperterpene A as a novel 6/6/6/6/5 pentacyclic skeleton (T2-3) that possesses potent anti-adipogenic effect by targeting β-catenin signaling pathway. Our findings drive new anti-obesity drug discovery and provide drug leads for chemists and pharmacologists.

Offshore wind turbines are considered as a reliable source of electricity generation. However, due to the large cost of the construction and installation of offshore wind turbines, most wind turbines are designed to operate for more than 20 years. One of the biggest issues which causes a severe damage to the construction of wind turbines is the existence of a very corrosive environment including large mechanical loads applied to the construction by the waves and the high concentration of salt and other chemicals in the sea water. The construction of offshore wind turbine can be divided into four main regions based on the types of exposure to the water and the corrosive environment, including submerged zone, tidal zone, splash zone, and atmospheric zone. In this study, experiments were conducted to compare the impact of impingement flow of 3.5 w.t.% NaCl solution on the epoxy coating samples to the exposure of the same type of samples to a stationary 3.5 w.t.% NaCl solution. Those two exposure conditions correspond to the environments at the top and the bottom part of the submerged zone of offshore wind turbines respectively. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) method was used to monitor the degradation of organic coatings. The surface roughness was measured by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The roughness of the coated surfaces before and after the exposure was compared. For the two different flow conditions, i.e. impingement flow and stationary immersion, significant differences have been discovered from the EIS results and AFM results. We observed a more severe degradation in the epoxy coatings in impingement flow, and a rougher surface is formed for coating samples subjected to impingement flow.

This study employs biomass growth analyses and 13C-isotope tracing to investigate lipid feedstock utilization by Yarrowia lipolytica. Compared to glucose, oil-feedstock in the minimal medium increases the yeast's biomass yields and cell sizes, but decreases its protein content (, Highlights • 13C tracing was used to track Y. lipolytica metabolism of lipid-based feedstock. • Y. lipolytica has a segregated flux network for lipid and sugar co-utilizations. • Lipid feedstock and nitrogen sources affect cell morphology and optical density. • Lipid feedstock benefits both Y. lipolytica growth and carotenoid biosynthesis.

Microfluidic delivery systems have been employed to facilitate cell seeding procedures in drug development for personalized medicine for cancer patients. Despite of the high-throughput nature and potential impact on clinical outcomes of these systems, the efficiency in cell trapping remains a challenge in the operation. Droplet-based microfluidics became one of the solutions due to the large size of the cell-enclosing droplets and their interfacial properties. This study is focused on the motion of the cell-enclosing droplet in a constricted return bends that help to restrict the release of the cells while maintaining the high-throughput nature of the device. In this preliminary study, a three-dimensional boundary element method is used to predict droplet shape, deformation and migration velocity under the influence of various fluid properties and operational conditions. A variety of channel geometries have been explored as well. The resulting computational framework will be used to guide the design of a droplet-based microfluidic delivery system for cell seeding in 3D tumor spheroid arrays.

Return bends are frequently encountered in microfluidic systems. In this study, a three-dimensional spectral boundary element method for interfacial dynamics in Stokes flow has been adopted to investigate the dynamics of viscous droplets in rectangular return bends. The droplet trajectory, deformation, and migration velocity are investigated under the influence of various fluid properties and operational conditions, which are depicted by the Capillary number, viscosity ratio, and droplet size, as well as the dimensions of the return bend. While the computational results provide information for the design of return bends in microfluidic systems in general, the computational framework shows potential to guide the design and operation of a droplet-based microfluidic delivery system for cell seeding.

Bubble evolution from photo(electro)catalytic water splitting plays a vital role in the interfacial mass transport on photocatalyst surface. However, little success has been achieved to optimize this process, restricted by the poor understanding. Herein, taking photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting over a titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanorod-array electrode as a model system, experiments were performed to study single oxygen bubble dynamics by combining electrochemical measurement and high-speed microscopic imaging. The experimental results indicate that the departure of bubble from photoelectrode is retarded by light irradiation, but the traditional bubble departure criterions fail to predict the bubble departure diameters especially in high light intensity. Additional analysis reveals that the light irradiation causes the Marangoni force acting on the evolving bubble, because it induces temperature rise and generates dissolved gas. A modified force balance model for bubble departure from photoelectrode was developed by adding Marangoni force. This modified model that takes account of the light-induced temperature rise and the dissolved gas, agrees well with the experimental data and can be extended to other photo(electro)catalytic reactions.

In this study, we experimentally investigate the large-scale vortex pair formed by droplets in the spanwise direction of the flow field of a hollow cone spray injected transversely into a gaseous crossflow. Experiments are conducted in a square channel for a wide range of spray and crossflow conditions. The spatial and velocity distributions of the spray droplets for different cross-sections of the flow field in terms of different flow conditions are measured through flow visualization. Three parameters, namely, vortex vorticity, depth of vortex core, and distance between both vortex cores, are used to characterize the counter-rotating vortex pair (CVP) formed by droplets. The crossflow Reynolds number, (initial atomized) droplet Reynolds number, and number of droplets injected per unit time are all found to significantly influence the features of droplets CVP. We newly define the spray-to-crossflow momentum flux ratio (J∗) based on the injected momentum flux of initial atomized droplets. Accordingly, we develop a set of correlations for predicting the features of droplets CVP based on experimental measurements and the Buckingham π theorem. The results show that these correlations well predict all measured conditions. The results of this study should provide insights into the dynamics of spray droplets in a crossflow and an understanding of the large-scale mixing between a hollow cone spray and a crossflow.

Bacterial cellulose (BC) was used as a raw material to produce freestanding carbon aerogels (CAs). The CAs were further decorated with Ni and MnO2/Ni(OH)2 hybrid via electrodeposition and redox reaction to produce carbon nanofiber networks decorated with electrochemically active metal and metal compounds. The properties of this novel material as supercapacitor electrodes were investigated. The electrochemical performance of the electrodes was examined in 1 M Na2SO4 electrolyte using cyclic voltammetry (CV), cyclic charge–discharge (CCD), and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests. The results showed that a specific capacitance of 109 F g−1 was achieved at the current density of 1 A g−1. The electrodes could deliver an energy density of 9.4 Wh kg−1 and a power density of 4 KW kg−1 and demonstrated a high cyclability. These results showed great potential of this new material for supercapacitor electrodes. A flexible solid-state supercapacitor prototype was prepared using this material to demonstrate its function as a power source for a LED light. This study provided a new way to use BC as a biobased low-cost material for the fabrication of energy storage devices.

Hollow carbon spheres (HCSs) with controllable morphology and structure have received considerable attention in the field of energy conversion and storage. Herein, monodispersed HCSs with cavity sizes tuned from 100 nm to 800 nm and shell thickness from 450 nm to 50 nm were successfully synthesized through a unique template-free thermal-etching method. It was evidenced that the dynamically controllable synthesis of HCSs was attributed to the “inside-out” oriented thermal oxidation etching of carbon spheres (CSs) induced by the differentiated “core-shell” chemical structures. Comparing to CSs, the obtained HCSs exhibited much increased efficiency for solar-driven interfacial steam generation (SISG), reaching as high as 88.9%, which outperforms most of the previously reported carbon-based materials. It was then demonstrated that the rational heat management for both photothermal and thermal-evaporation conversion is essential to achieve satisfying SISG efficiency. Depending on the increasing cavity sizes, HCSs presented gradual increases in both photothermal conversion and thermal-evaporation performances, mainly attributed to the improved light absorption and the delicate heat management, respectively. However, the further increase in cavity size resulted in excessive heat loss and presented decreased thermal-evaporation performance. This work provides an alternative and promising approach to the reasonable design of hollow nanostructures with delicate heat management for efficient SISG as well as other solar energy conversion applications.

Numerical simulation of free surface multi-fluid flow is a challenging problem owning to the interaction between deformed interface and free surface. In this paper, a multiphase particle solver (free surface multiphase moving particle semi-implicit method, FS-MMPS) is developed to predict the early spreading flow of spilled oil where exist the oil–water interface and air–oil/air–water free surface. First, a multiphase virtual particle model is proposed to substitute the inaccurate free surface boundary condition for multiphase flow in conventional MPS methods. Specifically, virtual particles of different liquid phases are compensated outside free surface so that the pressure of free surface particles can be solved from pressure Poisson equation, thereby improving the accuracy of multi-fluid interaction at free surface. Meanwhile, a pressure gradient model based on the coupling of Taylor series expansion and dynamic specification of particle stabilizing term (PST) is proposed to simultaneously enhance accuracy and depress instability caused by multiphase virtual particles. Experiments of early spreading of thick oil slicks and continuous oil spill from a damaged tank are conducted for validation and demonstration of the accuracy and stability enhancements in 2D. Finally, the effects of traveling wave and continuous spilling on oil spreading are investigated to show the capability of the proposed method. The spreading of thick oil slicks is accelerated when wave height increases or wave length decreases, and the largest increase of spreading rate accelerated by traveling wave is 14%.

A plethora of studies have investigated the motion of a liquid droplet in the vicinity of a smooth surface, incurred by shear flow, parabolic flow or gravity. However, there are few studies that consider the roughness of the surface that could affect the droplet motion. In this study, we employ a 3D spectral boundary element method for interfacial dynamics to examine the droplet translation, migration, and deformation in the vicinity of a rough surface due to shear flow. The roughness feature of the surface is comparable to the size of the droplet and is simulated with sinusoidal functions. Topologies of epoxy coating surfaces are also considered in the computations. The roughness and profile of the coating surface is obtained by atomic force microscopy. The computational results show that the surface roughness affects significantly the behavior of a deformable droplet near the surface, including its deformation and migration speed. In return, the dynamics of the droplet also influences the stress distribution on the rough surface. The results of this study could provide theoretical foundation in the prediction of particle induced erosion corrosion of organic coatings.

This paper investigated the bonding performances of epoxy coatings reinforced by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as additives on mild steel substrates. Pure epoxy and CNT-reinforced epoxy coatings on four different surface roughness of steel substrate were tested using single lap shear (SLS) tests. The SLS experimental results indicated that, on rougher substrates, the addition of a small percentage of CNTs (0.75% by weight) could significantly improve the bonding performance and change the failure mode from adhesion fracture to partly cohesive failure by improving the toughness of coatings and the interfacial adhesion between the coatings and substrates. In addition, the contact angle tests and the surface characterizations using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis before and after fracture indicated that the wettability of coatings on steel substrates improved significantly with the increase of surface roughness and mechanical interlocking was the main reinforcing mechanism on rougher substrates.

Direct contact condensation of jets in fluid has been widely applied in many industrial applications owing to the low requirement of driving potential and high efficiency of heat and mass transfer. Here, experiments are carried out to investigate the velocity field characteristics of the turbulent jet induced by direct contact condensation of steam jet in crossflow of water in a vertical pipe. Visual equipment is specially invented to investigate the velocity field characteristics by using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement technique. The high intensity laser light reflected by the pure steam region just outside the nozzle-exit brings out severe damage to the CCD camera. To solve this technical problem, a black plate is adopted to shield the pure steam region. According to the contours of the velocity fields and streamlines, the influences of jet momentum ratio, jet Reynolds number and water temperature on the jet flow field are explored. The jet centerline trajectory equations in exponential form are established based on the local maximum mean velocity. By introducing the jet Reynolds number and jet momentum ratio, the correlation for prediction of jet centerline trajectory equations is proposed, and the predicted results are within 30% of the experimental data. The reciprocal of the local maximum mean velocity and the half-width of the jet are proportional to the downstream coordinate along the jet velocity centerline trajectory. The scaled velocity field complies with the self-similarity principle.

Although turbulent flow is generally needed for good suspension of photocatalysts, lower flow rates are preferred from an economic viewpoint for energy-efficient operation. However, no experimental work has been conducted to reveal how photocatalyst particles move and distribute in a tubular photocatalytic reactor under mild operating conditions, which is critical for reactor design and configuration of the light concentration. In our study, the photocatalyst itself was employed as a tracer particle for Particle Image Velocity (PIV) measurement. PIV combined with a new laser sheet image analysis (LSIA) technology was employed to investigate both the particle velocity and number distribution in the tubular reactor. It was found that, in the inlet, a higher velocity distribution of fluid generally occurred in the lower part of the tube. However, in the middle and outlet regions of the tube, a higher velocity distribution existed in the upper part of the tube. LSIA investigation showed that the transport capacity of the fluid and the initial particle size distribution are two essential factors influencing particle number distribution in the suspension. Regardless of the particle size, the middle part of the reactor holds the maximum number of particles while the outlet has the minimum number of particles. In the inlet, both small and large particles show similar number distribution trends against the flow rate. However, in the middle part of the tube, the number of small particles decreases with the flow rate while the number of the large particles shows the opposite trend. The difference in velocity distribution along the radial direction also significantly affects the particle distribution. One interesting finding is that, regardless of the particle size, the number of particles in the upper part of the tube is always higher than that in centre. Stokes’ drag law and the Saffman lift force were employed to explain this experimental finding. In the last section, the correlation between particle distribution and optical properties was numerically investigated by a modified differential approximation (MDA) method.

Bubbles evolving from electrode surface are the results of the multi-processes, interfacial mass transfer, chemical reaction, micro fluid flow, etc. In this paper, the investigations on the bubble growth mechanism during photoelectrochemical and electrochemical conversions are carried out. The experimental results show two different growth laws during photoelectrochemical and electrochemical conversions, which are chemical reaction and diffusion controlled respectively, caused by the difference in the effective surface area of the electrode. And mathematical models for bubble growth describing the two effects are established.

In this article we report a facile method to create a polyaniline (PANI) nanorod/carbon nanoparticle (CNP) composite structure that is suitable for supercapacitor use. A network of CNPs was conveniently produced on the surface of a nickel foam by collecting candle soot above a burning candle. The PANI nanorods were then electrochemically deposited on the CNP network, forming a star-like interconnected 3D structure. As a comparison, MnO2 particles were also deposited on the CNP network to produce a broccoli-like structure. The electrochemical properties of these two composites were examined using cyclic voltammetry, cyclic charge-discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The two electrodes exhibited different electrochemical behaviors: high capacitance at low current densities and marked deterioration at high ones for CNPs/PANI and relatively low but stable capacitance for CNPs/MnO2. The reasons for this distinction were discussed based on the structures and material properties of the electrodes.

The crude oil is in most cases accompanied with water and natural gas. For this reason, it is important to understand the rheology of the oil emulsion. There are already many works relating...