A new design of closely intermeshing co-rotating twin-screw compounding extruder, developed at Brunel University, has been utilized in the development of quantitative techniques for characterization of dispersive and distributive mixing in thermoplastics materials prepared by extrusion compounding. Image analysis procedures were used to quantify mixing of polypropylene composites containing calcium carbonate filler using reflected light microscopy on polished surfaces, and transmitted light microscopy of microtomed pigmented sections. Stereological statistics have been applied to raw sample data; results are discussed in relation to mechanistic phenomena influencing particle agglomeration, dispersion and distribution of fillers in thermoplastics. Dispersive or intensive mixing determined from calcium carbonate filled polypropylene specimens showed that processing parameters had no significant influence except when filler was added midway along the machine although the melting zone was highlighted as having a marked effect on the rate of filler dispersion. Premixing of filler and polymer introduced additional agglomeration into the filler. A series of model experiments were undertaken to assess the influence of specific parameters. In this context moisture content emerged as having the single most important effect on filler compaction. Distributive or extensive mixing of carbon black pigmented specimens was very significantly affected by the presence of segmented disc elements at the end of the screws. These elements produced more than a six-fold increase in distributive mixing in the extrudate.

Abstract Interactions between the components of papermaking suspensions (e.g. fibres, fillers, fines and polymers) have a remarkable effect on various unit processes in papermaking. The filterability of fibre suspensions, which is a crucial property for example in paper sheet forming and solid recovery, is also known to be depended on particle interactions. However, due to the complex nature of the interactions, the role of these phenomena in fibre suspension filtration is still not fully understood. The focus of this thesis was to find out how phenomena associated to fibre flocculation, fibre deflocculation and filler particle deposition affect the filterability of fibre suspensions in terms of their dewaterability and retention. It was shown that the influence of fibre flocculation on dewatering is closely related to the structure of fibre flocs. More importantly, the internal density of flocs and factors that impacted the packing structure of filter cakes, such as floc size, played a crucial role in fibre suspension dewaterability. Dense flocs with a low internal porosity particularly induces fast water flow by a mechanism termed as the “easiest path mechanism” through the large voids around the flocs. The effect of fibre suspension dispersing on dewaterability and particularly fines retention was found to be associated to the mechanism of action of the deflocculation agent. Carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), the deflocculant used in this study, had detrimental effects on the dewatering of a pulp suspension both when being adsorbed on fibre surfaces and when remained in the liquid phase. However, adsorbed CMC causes more plugging of the filter cake because it disperses the fines more profoundly. Thus the adsorbed CMC also reduces fines retention considerably more than CMC did in the liquid phase. Filler deposition and retention was found to be significantly higher on pulp fines fractions of mechanical and chemical pulp than on fibre fractions due to the higher external surface area of fines. The surface charge densities of pulp fractions also affected their ability to adsorb fillers. Cationic charges of filler particles was in turn observed to induce deposition of fillers on fibre surfaces which increased retention but also the dewaterability of a fibre suspension due to a decrease in total surface area of a suspension.

Abstract The thesis clearly demonstrates that photon migration measurements allow characterization of pulp and paper properties, especially the fines and filler content of pulp, and the basis weight, thickness and porosity of paper. Pulp and paper are materials with a worldwide significance. Their properties strongly depend on the manufacturing process used. For efficient process control, the employed monitoring and measuring has to be fast. Therefore it is worthwhile to try to develop new approaches and techniques for such measurements. Recent advancements in optics offer new possibilities for such development. If two samples have different optical properties their photon migration distributions are different. The measurement of a photon migration distribution allows some features between two optically slightly dissimilar samples to be distinguished. Some simple measurements, which only yielded the photons' average time of flight, were made with an oscilloscope and a time-of-flight lidar. More precise measurements yielding photon pathway distribution or some selected characteristics like light pulse rise time, broadening, or fall time were measured with a streak camera. Two methods to assess photon path length distribution were introduced: particle determination with simulation, and streak camera with deconvolution. The basic properties for pulp are consistency and fines content and for paper the basic properties are thickness, basis weight and porosity. The influence on photon migration caused by changes in these basic properties was determined. As pulp and paper are rarely very basic, an additional property was demonstrated for both materials. For pulp it was the content of filler talc, and for paper it was the use of beaten pulp as a raw material. These additional properties were also distinguishable.

The learning demands placed on young children by current language organization techniques used to organize language concepts in AAC systems, are high. This influences the ease of learning and the accuracy with which AAC users use their AAC systems. It is therefore important to investigate the way in which children relate to different language organization techniques to better understand the learning demands placed on them in using these techniques. The aim of this study was to investigate the difference between two groups of 4-year old children’s accuracy levels when locating vocabulary in AAC technologies. The study is a replication of a part of the study conducted by Light, Drager, McCarthy, Mellot, Millar, Parrish, Parsons, Roads, Ward and Welliver (2004). Each group of subjects was assigned a specific language organization technique, i.e. schematic and taxonomic grid organization. The children had to locate vocabulary on a dynamic display system, i.e. the Dynamo. This study considered the language organization technique that best reflects the child’s developmental level. Sixteen subjects, 8 in each group, participated in 4 learning and testing sessions and 1 generalization session. The results revealed that there was no difference in the performance of the children in the two groups. This was in accordance with Light et al.’s (2004) results who also observed no difference in the 4-year-old’s performance with the schematic and taxonomic organization techniques. These results were in contrast with the literature on young children’s semantic organization, which illustrates that preschool children tend to use schematic organizations and begin to use taxonomic organizations once they reach school-age. Recommendations for future research are provided. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC) / unrestricted

MESHWR / Department of Hydrology and Water Resources / Water borne diseases due to inadequate and unsafe drinking water is a global challenge that has led to a significant number of deaths and illnesses reported annually. These diseases are prevalent in less-developed countries, especially in rural areas where there is shortage of basic infrastructure and inadequate funds for piped water systems in individual households. Community members are forced to resort to collecting water from communal water points and later storing the water in containers for daily use. Recontamination of microbiologically safe drinking water during and after collection from the water source has been recognised as a problem; hence treating water at household level is one way to provide potable water for affected communities. The microbiological quality of household water may be improved by using point-of-use treatment technologies such as chemical disinfection, solar disinfection and ceramic water filters. Some of these technologies are expensive, less effective and difficult to implement in rural communities. This research thus focused on ceramic water filters and finding an appropriate method for silver application so as to produce filters that are effective in both the provision of clean drinking water and the release of silver levels that are safe for human consumption. An assessment of the efficiency of ceramic water filters made with silver nitrate as point-of -use water treatment device in Dertig Village, North West Province, South Africa was carried out. During production of filters made with silver nitrate, the filters undergo firing in an electric kiln and ionic silver is reduced to metallic nanopatches dispersed throughout the porous ceramic media. Both filters made with silver nitrate and conventional silver nanoparticles impregnated ceramic water filters were manufactured at the PureMadi Dertig Ceramic Filter Facility, South Africa. Resulting filters were evaluated and quantified for total coliform and E. coli removal as well as silver concentration in the effluent. Ceramic water filters made with silver nitrate had a high removal efficiency for total coliforms (94.7%) and E. coli (99.3%). A comparison of the performance of filters made with silver nitrate and silver nanoparticles in the provision of potable water was carried out and results showed that the different filters had similar levels of total coliform and E. coli removal, although the silver nitrate filters produced the highest average removal of 97.23% while silver nanoparticles filters produced the lowest average removal of 85.43%. Reasonable silver levels were obtained in effluent from all filters. Average effluent silver levels were 0.07±0.04mg/L, 0.6±1.10 mg/L and 0.8±1.0mg/L for 1 g, 2 g and silver nanoparticle filters, respectively (below the EPA and WHO standard of 100 mg/L). Because silver nitrate filters resulted in the lowest effluent silver concentrations, this could potentially increase the effective life span of the filter. A cost analysis of the process proved that it was cheaper to produce ceramic water filters using silver nitrate as the chemical can be purchased locally and also eliminates labour related costs. Thus, filters made using silver nitrate could potentially improve performance, reduce production costs, and increase safety of production for workers. The results obtained from this study will be applied to improve the ceramic filtration technology as point-of-use water treatment device in an effort to reduce health problems associated with microbial contamination of water stored at household level. / NRF

Building waste and disposable packaging are a major component in today's landfills. Most of these are structural or thermally insulative polymer foams that do not degrade over a long period of time. Currently, there is a push to replace these foams with thermoplastic or biodegradable foams that can either be recycled or composted. We propose the use of compostable soy-based polyurethane foams (PU) with kenaf core modifiers that will offer the desired properties with the ability to choose responsible end-of-life decisions. The effect of fillers is a critical parameter in investigating the thermal and mechanical properties along with its effect on biodegradability. In this work, foams with 5%, 10%, and 15% kenaf core content were created. Two manufacturing approaches were used: the free foaming used by spray techniques and the constrained expansion complementary to a mold cavity. Structure-property relations were examined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), thermal conductivity, compression values, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), x-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT), and automated multiunit composting system (AMCS). The results show that mechanical properties are reduced with the introduction of kenaf core reinforcement while thermal conductivity and biodegradability display a noticeable improvement. This shows that in application properties can be improved while establishing a responsible end-of-life choice.

Master‘s thesis “Substitution of silica filler in the repair mortars by artifical compact material“ could by generally divided into two parts theoretical and experimental. The theoretical part is mainly focused on summarizing knowledge about repair mortars. The repair mortars are used for reprofilation of disrupted concrete layers, and therefore some of the most common defects of these layers, from which we can determine requirements for repair mortars are listed in the thesis. In the theoretical part, there is also mentioned a general formula of how to prepare a repair mortar, also there are described manufacture and characteristics of the most important ingredients of mortars such as cement, filler (aggregate), water and chemical modificators. Above all the theoretical part is focused on the effects that individual ingredients have on the resulting properties of repair mortars. The experimental part could be further divided into two parts. In the first part there are listed properties of the individual investigated materials and also there is introduced theoretical basis for particular tests of properties of repair mortars, such as analysis of grading distribution of a filler (aggragate), tests of flexular and compression strengths and frost resistance. In the first part there are also proposed formulae of mortar mixtures, where part of the original filler was substituted by an abrasive material TRYMAT, artificial compact aggregate made from blast furnace slag UHK d/D, or their combination. The properties of these mortar mixtures were compared to referential mortar mixture PANBEX R1. In the second part of experimental section is dedicated to summarization and discussion of the obtained results for individual mortar mixtures.

No description available.

Concrete in Sweden has traditionally been manufactured with natural aggregate from glaciofluvial eskers. There is a need to preserve the remaining eskers because of their cultural value and importance for water filtration, thus natural aggregate has to be replaced. The most realistic alternative is to use crushed rocks. The major problem with crushed rocks in concrete production is the workability. This is because crushed rocks have less favorable properties. The fragments are flakier and have a rougher surface than natural aggregates that have been rounded in water. Without any amelioration of the crushed rock, to reach a certain workability and strength, the amount of cement in the mix has to be increased. Cement production requires large amounts of energy and the decarbonation of limestone releases large amounts of CO2. Combined, the release of CO2, due to burning and decarbonation of limestone, accounts for about 5% of the global CO2 emissions. An increase in cement consumptions is less desirable. Thus to replace natural aggregates, the use of crushed rocks has to be optimized as regard cement consumption. Several crushed aggregates, most from granitic rocks, from all over Sweden were analysed in this study. These crushed rocks were characterized according to their grading, specific surface, shape and petrography and compared to natural sand. Rheological tests that reveals the workability in detail was performed on mortars. The tests showed that as regard workability the 0-2 mm fraction is the most important factor. Further, the maximum aggregate size was gradually increased up to 16 mm, to have a more realistic approach to the concrete produced by the building industry. The results showed that with grading optimization and superplasticizer, some crushed rocks can be used for concrete production without increasing, and even decreasing, the cement consumption. This research also contemplated the use of filler. As a mineral admixture it can improve the compressive strength. It can also be used to replace cement; a replacement up to 20 kg/m3 of cement by filler can be done without significant effect on compressive strength.

No description available.