This work uses high-speed video imaging to study the formation of filaments, during impact and rebounding of drops with polymer additives. We use PEO of different concentrations from 10 to 1000 ppm and study how drops rebound from various different surfaces: superhydrophilic, hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and superhydrophobic. Bouncing occurs for all surfaces at low impact velocities. We specifically focus on the phenomenon of the generation of polymer filaments, which are pulled out of the free surface of the drop during its rebounding from micro-pillared or rough substrates. We map the parameter regime, in terms of polymer concentration and impact Weber number, where the filaments are generated in the most repeatable manner. This occurs for regularly pillared surfaces and drops of 100 ppm PEO concentrations, where numerous separated filaments are observed. In contrast, for superhydrophobic coatings with random roughness the filaments tend to merge forming a branching structure. Impacts on inclined surfaces are used to deposit the filaments on top of the pillars for detailed study.

Gravity driven trickle flow of a liquid over a fixed bed in the presence of a gaseous phase is widely encountered throughout the process industry. It is one of the most common ways of contacting multi-phase fluids for reaction or mass transfer purposes. The presence of three phases greatly complicates the mathematical modelling of trickle-bed reactors and makes a description from first principles difficult. Trickle flow performance is usually characterized in terms of hydrodynamic parameters. One such parameter is the liquid holdup. The value and morphology (shape or texture) of the holdup influences the catalyst contacting, wetting, mass transfer characteristics and ultimately the performance of the trickle flow unit. This study is limited to the air-water-glass spheres system with no gas flow. It is partitioned into three sections. An investigation into the nature of the residual liquid holdup in beds of spherical particles revealed that the general assumption that all residual liquid is held in the form of pendular rings at particle contact points proves to be untrue. Instead, indication is that 48 % of the residual holdup is present in the form of agglomerated liquid globules in interstices of low local porosity. Theoretical residual liquid holdup models and residual liquid holdup-based mass transfer models should include this phenomenon. In a subsequent section, the influence of the prewetting procedure on the operating holdup is investigated. Three distinct limiting cases are identified: Kan-wetted, Levec-wetted and non-wetted. A volumetric utilization coefficient that describes the extent to which the bed is irrigated is developed. It indicates that large fractions of the bed remain non-irrigated in the Levec- and non-wetted modes. A momentum balance-based model is adopted to predict the Kan-wetted mode holdup. This model was successfully extended to predicting the holdup in the Levec- and non-wetted modes by simple incorporation of the volumetric utilization coefficient. The predictive capability of this model is highly satisfactory, especially in light of it using only the classical Ergun constants and no fitted parameters (AARE = 9.6 %). The differences in the hysteresis behaviour of holdup and pressure drop in the different modes are attributed to differences in the morphology of the operating holdup. The existence of the three limiting prewetted modes is confirmed by residence time distribution (RTD) analysis of the stimulus-response behaviour of the system. This behaviour was quantified using a NaCl tracer and conductivity measurements at both the inlet and outlet of a bench scale bed. The analyses show that: · There are large fractions of the holdup that is inaccessible to the tracer in the Levec-wetted and non-wetted modes. · The mixedness in the three prewetted modes differ appreciably, with the Kan-wetted mode clearly less mixed than the Levec-wetted mode. The RTD analyses also confirm the existence of the three prewetting modes in a porous system (spherical a-alumina), with a large fraction of the holdup being inaccessible to the tracer in the Levec-wetted mode. This study emphasizes the role of the morphology of the various types of liquid holdup on the hydrodynamic performance of a trickle flow unit. It is apparent that aspects of the morphology depend strongly on phenomena like globule formation, hysteresis and flow and prewetting history that have not been adequately recognized to date. The visualization of the various modes of trickle flow is an intellectual platform from which future studies may be directed. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2004. / Chemical Engineering / Unrestricted

In this thesis we report the results of investigations on the rheological response of emulsions to the application of the electric field. A front-tracking finite difference scheme is used in conjunction with Taylor-Melcher leaky dielectric theory to study the problem. The numerical results in different regions of the deformation-circulation map show that the structure formation in regions I and III can be hindered by the hydrodynamic effect. This is opposite to what is observed in the perfect dielectric cases and region II of the map. For perfect dielectric systems, where the electrohydrodynamics effects are absent, droplets form chain-like structures spanning the distance between the electrodes after the application of the electric field. Subsequently, the chains interact with each other to form columns comprising two or more chains. Point-dipole approximation is used to analyze the structure formation and it is shown that it is also applicable to region II where the hydrodynamic effect is weak and the behavior of the system is mainly governed by the dielectrophoretic forces. It is shown that the chain formation is not possible in regions I and III due to the competition between the dipolar force and torque on one side and hydrodynamic effect on the other side. In region I, the hydrodynamic torque prevents the chain formation by competing with the dipolar torque, which tends to align the drops with the electric field. On the other hand, in region III, the repulsive nature of the hydrodynamic effect opposes the attractive dipolar force and does not allow the particles to form stable chains.

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The objective of this study was to compare the microstructural response of various DP 600 products subjected to low velocity, dynamic impact tests, typically encountered in a car crash. Since the response of steel is sensitive to its microstructure as controlled by the alloying elements, phase content, and processing; various DP 600 products may respond differently to crashes. The microstructure before and after dynamic impact deformation at 5 and 10 mph was characterized with regards to grain size, morphology, and phase content among vendors A, B, and C to evaluate efficiency in absorbing energy mechanisms during a crash simulated by dynamic impact testing in a drop tower.

Vi har med denna studie undersökt vilka vägledningsmodeller och metoder som vägledare använder i drop in- samtalet, samt deras inställning till detta. Den metod vi använder oss av i studien är semikvalitativa intervjuer tillsammans med en intervjuguide som bas med frågor uppdelade i teman. Dessa teman är modeller, metoder och inställningar. De vägledningsmodeller som vägledarna i studien använder sig mest av och som ligger som en grund för deras arbete är Gerard Egans modell ”The Skilled Helper”. Vissa vägledare han även blivit påverkade av andra modeller som Vance Peavys konstruktivistisk vägledning samt av Norman Amundsons aktiva perspektiv på vägledning. Vägledarna har sedan tagit det bästa för dem ur dessa vägledningsmodeller och satt samman till egna modeller som de arbetar efter. Dessa modeller används både i det traditionella vägledningssamtalet samt i det tidsbegränsade drop in- samtalet. De metoder som vägledarna använder i drop in- samtalet är visualisering, samtalsmetodik och redskap som papper och penna, datorer, utbildningskataloger och vissa tester. Syftet med att använda dessa metoder är att de sökande ska lära sig att klara sig själva. Alltså hjälp till självhjälp, så de sökande vet hur de ska bete sig nästa gång de hamnar i en liknande situation. Det som även framkommer är att vägledarna upplever drop in- samtal som något positivt och de anser att det är nödvändigt att erbjuda drop in- samtal i sina respektive verksamheter.En slutsats är att drop in- samtal är en nödvändig insats i en vägledningsprocess för att tillfredställa vägledningssökandes olika önskemål.

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Emulsions constitute a wide range of natural as well as processed products. Pharmaceutical applications of emulsions include oral administration, parenteral delivery, ophthalmic medicine, topical and transdermal creams, and fluorocarbon-in-water emulsions for blood oxygenation. In the foods area many of the products like mayonnaise, margarine, ice-creams are emulsions by nature and some products can also be used for delivery of active ingredients (e.g. nutraceuticals) with potential health benefits. Emulsions are also encountered at many stages of petroleum recovery, transportation, and processing. Typically, emulsions are manufactured in a two-step process. First a coarse emulsion called a premix is made which is passed through a high-pressure homogenizer. Intense energy supplied in the high pressure homogenizer causes breakage of the coarse emulsion to a fine one with a tighter distribution. Population balance equation (PBE) models are useful for emulsions since they allow prediction of the evolution of the drop size distribution on specification of the two rate processes i.e., breakage of drops due to the flow field and coalescence of colliding drops. In our work, we developed a PBE model to describe emulsion breakage in a high pressure homogenizer. The focus of the work was breakage and conditions to keep coalescence to minimum were implemented. Two breakage rates representing two mechanisms i.e., turbulent inertial and turbulent viscous breakage were necessary for reproducing the bimodal nature of the distributions. We used mechanistic functions in the PBE model to develop a predictive model which could be extended to changes in formulation variables as well as process variables. Starting with the assumption of binary breakage, the model was refined to include multiple drop breakage. The developed model was found to be extensible to reasonable changes in oil concentration, surfactant concentration, continuous phase viscosity and constant ratio of oil to surfactant. Anomalies in pressure prediction encountered earlier were also corrected for by including some additional features like heating, maximum stable diameter, and number of daughter drops. A preliminary attempt was also made to use the developed model for designing experiments for making target emulsions with pre-specified properties.

The theory which relates the natural frequency of oscillation of a drop and its surface tension was investigated. Based on this, a new experimental technique of measuring surface tension was developed. The surface tension of pure iron and pure nickel were measured over the temperature ranges, 1550-1650°C and 1475-1625°C, respectively. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)