Siming You

Mathematical models for the van der Waals force and capillary force between a rough particle and surface.

The capability of predicting the adhesion forces between a rough particle and surface including the van der Waals force and capillary force is important for modeling various processes involving particle surface retention and resuspension. On the basis of the fractal theory describing the behavior of multiple roughness scales and the Gaussian roughness distribution, a set of mathematical models for the van der Waals force and capillary force is proposed. The proposed models provide the adhesion force predictions in good agreement with the existing experimental data and converge to the previous classical solutions of the adhesion forces between a smooth particle and surface as the roughness goes to zero. The influences of roughness for the combination of particle and surface, relative humidity (RH), contact angle, and Hurst exponent toward the adhesion forces are examined using the proposed models. The decline mode of the adhesion force with surface roughness and contact angle, as well as the increase mode with RH and the Hurst exponent are reasonably predicted by the proposed models. The comparison between the proposed models and those from the existing studies is also performed, which shows the similarities and differences between the proposed models and the existing models.

A critical review on sustainable biochar system through gasification: Energy and environmental applications

This review lays great emphasis on production and characteristics of biochar through gasification. Specifically, the physicochemical properties and yield of biochar through the diverse gasification conditions associated with various types of biomass were extensively evaluated. In addition, potential application scenarios of biochar through gasification were explored and their environmental implications were discussed. To qualitatively evaluate biochar sustainability through the gasification process, all gasification products (i.e., syngas and biochar) were evaluated via life cycle assessment (LCA). A concept of balancing syngas and biochar production for an economically and environmentally feasible gasification system was proposed and relevant challenges and solutions were suggested in this review.

Comparison of the co-gasification of sewage sludge and food wastes and cost-benefit analysis of gasification- and incineration-based waste treatment schemes.

The compositions of food wastes and their co-gasification producer gas were compared with the existing data of sewage sludge. Results showed that food wastes are more favorable than sewage sludge for co-gasification based on residue generation and energy output. Two decentralized gasification-based schemes were proposed to dispose of the sewage sludge and food wastes in Singapore. Monte Carlo simulation-based cost-benefit analysis was conducted to compare the proposed schemes with the existing incineration-based scheme. It was found that the gasification-based schemes are financially superior to the incineration-based scheme based on the data of net present value (NPV), benefit-cost ratio (BCR), and internal rate of return (IRR). Sensitivity analysis was conducted to suggest effective measures to improve the economics of the schemes.

A comparison of PM exposure related to emission hotspots in a hot and humid urban environment: Concentrations, compositions, respiratory deposition, and potential health risks

Particle number concentration, particle size distribution, and size-dependent chemical compositions were measured at a bus stop, alongside a high way, and at an industrial site in a tropical city. It was found that the industry case had 4.93×107-7.23×107 and 3.44×104-3.69×104#/m3 higher concentration of particles than the bus stop and highway cases in the range of 0.25-0.65μm and 2.5-32μm, respectively, while the highway case had 6.01×105 and 1.86×103#/m3 higher concentration of particles than the bus stop case in the range of 0.5-1.0μm and 5.0-32μm, respectively. Al, Fe, Na, and Zn were the most abundant particulate inorganic elements for the traffic-related cases, while Zn, Mn, Fe, and Pb were abundant for the industry case. Existing respiratory deposition models were employed to analyze particle and element deposition distributions in the human respiratory system with respect to some potential exposure scenarios related to bus stop, highway, and industry, respectively. It was shown that particles of 0-0.25μm and 2.5-10.0μm accounted for around 74%, 74%, and 70% of the particles penetrating into the lung region, respectively. The respiratory deposition rates of Cr and Ni were 170 and 220 ng/day, and 55 and 140ng/day for the highway and industry scenarios, respectively. Health risk assessment was conducted following the US EPA supplemented guidance to estimate the risk of inhalation exposure to the selected elements (i.e. Cr, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, and Zn) for the three scenarios. It was suggested that Cr poses a potential carcinogenic risk with the excess lifetime cancer risk (ELCR) of 2.1-98×10-5 for the scenarios. Mn poses a potential non-carcinogenic risk in the industry scenario with the hazard quotient (HQ) of 0.98. Both Ni and Mn may pose potential non-carcinogenic risk for people who are involved with all the three exposure scenarios.

Modeling and Experiments of the Adhesion Force Distribution between Particles and a Surface

Due to the existence of surface roughness in real surfaces, the adhesion force between particles and the surface where the particles are deposited exhibits certain statistical distributions. Despite the importance of adhesion force distribution in a variety of applications, the current understanding of modeling adhesion force distribution is still limited. In this work, an adhesion force distribution model based on integrating the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness distribution (i.e., the variation of RMS roughness on the surface in terms of location) into recently proposed mean adhesion force models was proposed. The integration was accomplished by statistical analysis and Monte Carlo simulation. A series of centrifuge experiments were conducted to measure the adhesion force distributions between polystyrene particles (146.1 ± 1.99 μm) and various substrates (stainless steel, aluminum and plastic, respectively). The proposed model was validated against the measured adhesion force distributions from this work and another previous study. Based on the proposed model, the effect of RMS roughness distribution on the adhesion force distribution of particles on a rough surface was explored, showing that both the median and standard deviation of adhesion force distribution could be affected by the RMS roughness distribution. The proposed model could predict both van der Waals force and capillary force distributions and consider the multiscale roughness feature, greatly extending the current capability of adhesion force distribution prediction.

Experimental investigation and modelling of human-walking-induced particle resuspension

Long-term exposure to airborne particulate matter (PM) indoors can cause adverse health effects to the occupants. Such exposure can be influenced by human-walking-induced particle resuspension (HWIPR). Several factors affecting HWIPR were investigated experimentally. The resuspension rates during walking were calculated based on the mass balance model, and the power law was applied to fit the resuspension rate data. The resuspension rate was further normalized for investigating the effects of various factors on HWIPR. It was found that the normalized resuspension rate of PM10 was about 2.5 times that of PM2.5 for both carpet and wood polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The normalized resuspension rate from carpet was about twice as much as the rates from wood PVC and four times that from vinyl. For both carpet and vinyl, the resuspension rates under the low relative humidity (RH) (41%) were three times that under the medium RH (63%) and 3.5 times that under the high RH (82%). The experimental results suggest that the addition of the mechanical mechanism is critical for HWIPR. Based on the power law relationship, an airborne particle concentration model was developed for HWIPR. The modelled concentration profiles were consistent with the experimentally determined particle concentrations associated with HWIPR. The proposed airborne particle concentration model provides a new way of predicting human exposure to airborne particles due to HWIPR.

Particle concentration dynamics in the ventilation duct after an artificial release: For countering potential bioterrorist attack

Ventilation duct serves as a potential target for bioterrorist attack. Understanding the dynamics of aerosolized harmful agents in the ventilation ducts provides the fundamentals for effective control and management, e.g., risk assessment. In this work, new models for predicting the concentration dynamics in the ventilation duct after a particle resuspension (representing the case that harmful agents are dosed when the ventilation is off and subsequently being turned on) or puff injection (representing the case that harmful agents are dosed when the ventilation is running) event were derived based on the mass balance model. The models were validated by a series of wind tunnel experiments. Indoor airborne particle concentration models were derived by incorporating the proposed ventilation duct models for resuspension and injection cases. The effects of resuspension and injection in the duct on indoor airborne particle concentration were examined by two hypothetical cases of Bacillus anthracis dosage using the derived models. For the same amount of BW agent dosage in the ventilation duct, the resuspension type release prolongs the exposure of harmful agents whereas the injection type release produces a higher peak concentration.

Toward Understanding Drug Release From Biodegradable Polymer Microspheres of Different Erosion Kinetics Modes

Two generalized modes of erosion kinetics, that is, the power law mode and root type mode, respectively, were found to be able to better describe the reported weight loss data compared to the existing linear mode, for commonly used surface-eroding polymer microspheres. Based on the newly identified modes, a set of drug release models were developed by extending the existing model. Model validation was achieved by comparing the model predictions to the reported experimental data for surface-eroding polymer microspheres (poly(ortho esters) and polyanhydrides), and good consistency was found. Parameter investigation was conducted to reveal the effects of various important parameters (the dimensionless ratio between diffusion and erosion rates (Er), the dimensionless ratio between erosion and dissolution rates (p), the dimensionless drug loading concentration (q), and the fitting parameter of erosion kinetics (a)) on drug release behavior, which has rarely been examined previously. In general, the effects of these parameters were more significant for an earlier stage, and p, q, and a could effectively vary the drug release percentage. Design-of-experiments-based sensitivity analysis was further carried out and it was found that the most sensitive parameters were p (2.97%) and q (2.97%) for the cases of the power law mode, while it was a (-7.07%) for the cases of the root type mode. The information from the parameter investigation and sensitivity analysis could serve as a straightforward data bank for the practical designing of drug delivery processes. The proposed models are potential mathematical frameworks for the designing of drugs that are based on surface-eroding polymer microspheres in the future.

A New Turbulent-Burst-Based Model for Particle Resuspension from Rough Surfaces in Turbulent Flow

Particle resuspension could affect human exposure to particulate matter (PM) and serves as a potential route for infection transmission in indoor environments. A new resuspension model incorporating the effects of turbulent bursts, depletion of resuspendable particles, adhesion force distribution, and environmental relative humidity (RH) is proposed. In the proposed model, Monte Carlo simulation is used to model the occurrence of turbulent bursts and the depletion of resuspendable particles on surfaces. The adhesion force distribution and RH effects were included by employing the recently proposed adhesion force distribution model. Model validation is conducted by comparing model predictions against reported experimental data found in the literature. The effects of RH and particle size on resuspension are investigated using the proposed model. The threshold free stream velocity increases by two and three times when the RH increases from 36% to 61% and 67%, respectively. The threshold friction velocity decreases by five times when the particle size increases from 30.1 μm to 111 μm. The proposed model provides a physically reasonable framework for describing particle resuspension under turbulent flow. The capability of predicting the effect of RH greatly enhances the practical application of current resuspension models. Copyright 2014 American Association for Aerosol Research

Techno-economic analysis of geopolymer production from the coal fly ash with high iron oxide and calcium oxide contents

In this work, we firstly examined the technical feasibility of geopolymer synthesis from the coal fly ash with high iron oxide (48.84 wt.%) and calcium oxide (22.15 wt.%) contents. The heat resistance of geopolymer was represented by the dry weight loss which ranged from 2.5 to 4.9% and was better than that (11.7%) of OPC. However, the high iron oxide content made the acid resistance (13-14%) of geopolymer inferior to OPC. The economics of geopolymer production changes significantly upon the variation in the arrangement of material use and geopolymer price. The costs of Na2SiO3 and NaOH and the benefit of geopolymer selling were the major factors affecting the economic feasibility of geopolymer production. When the Na2SiO3 price was around 400 USD/ton, the geopolymer production will be profitable even if the geopolymer price was as low as 50 USD/ton. It is possible to improve the economics of geopolymer production by varying the arrangement of material use while not impairing the performance of geopolymer.