Flow Manifold Research Articles

Automated fluorimetric sensor for the determination of zearalenone mycotoxin in maize and cereals feedstuff

Zearalenone (ZEA), a mycotoxin produced by several Fusarium molds, can be found in many cereals and related products. The toxicity of ZEA has been reported for both humans and animals. Therefore, many countries have adopted regulations in foods and feed materials to limit the exposure to this contaminant. In this paper, we propose a multicommutated flow-through optosensor to quantify ZEA in different cereal samples. ZEA was retained and pre-concentrated on C18 silica gel, and the use of the multicommutated flow manifold allowed the automated retention/desorption of ZEA on the solid microbeads by the use of appropriate carrier/eluting solutions, hence increasing the selectivity and sensitivity of the system. The native fluorescence of ZEA was recorded on the solid phase at λexc/λem of 265/465 nm/nm. A QuEChERS procedure was used to carry out the extraction of ZEA from different cereal samples (feedstuff materials). Recovery studies were performed to assess the accuracy of the method, obtaining recovery yields between 93% and 107% in all the analyzed samples. LC-MS was employed as reference method. The quantitation limit of the proposed method was low enough to fulfill the maximum residue levels established by the Commission of the European Communities, thus demonstrating its potential use for the analysis of ZEA in feedstuffs.

Reliable calibration by nonlinear standard addition method in the presence of additive interference effects

The possibility of adapting the Standard Addition Method (SAM) to calibration in very difficult analytical conditions, namely when there is a need to determine an analyte with the use of nonlinear calibration graph and in the presence of matrix components causing additive interference effect, is investigated. To this aim the SAM in the common version and the Chemical H-point Standard Addition Method (C-HPSAM) realized by the flow injection technique were applied. Specifically, a flow manifold was used for construction of a set of nonlinear calibration graphs in different chemical conditions. As the graphs were intersected indicating both the additive interference effect and the analytical result free of this effect, the analyte concentration in the sample was able to be obtained with improved accuracy. The applicability of this approach was verified on the example of spectrophotometric determination of paracetamol in pharmaceuticals and of total acidity in wines. The C-HPSAM method enabled complete compensation of the additive effect and obtaining analytical results at a relative error not exceeding 6.0%.Graphical abstract

Low pressure ion pair chromatography with amperometric detection for the determination of trigonelline in coffee samples

In this work, the use of ion pair chromatography strategy in low pressure chromatographic flow systems is explored for the first time. The straightforward flow manifold encompassed a peristaltic pump, an injection valve and a 1 cm-length C18 monolithic column. The amperometric detection system relied on a boron-doped diamond electrode, used as working electrode. The determination of trigonelline in coffee samples was the case-study selected. This alkaloid is an important quality marker for this commodity and is usually determined using HPLC-UV methodologies. The proposed methodology, based on ion-pair chromatography with amperometric detection, enabled the quantitative resolution of the studied analyte from the matrix compounds by adding to the mobile phase the ion pair reagent, 1-tetradecanosulfonate sodium. The present work, following the recent developments of the low pressure chromatography approach, demonstrates the potentialities of coupling monolithic columns to traditional flow analysis systems for separation and quantification of ionic or ionisable compounds.

Flow-through dynamic microextraction system for automatic in vitro assessment of chyme bioaccessibility in food commodities

An automatic flow-through dynamic extraction method is proposed for the first time for in vitro exploration, with high temporal resolution, of the transit of the chyme from the gastric to the duodenal compartment using the Versantvoort's fed-state physiologically relevant extraction test. The flow manifold was coupled on-line to an inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP OES) for real-time elucidation of the bioaccessible elemental fraction of micronutrients (viz., Cu, Fe and Mn) in food commodities across the gastrointestinal tract. The simulated intestinal and bile biofluid (added to the gastric phase) was successively pumped at 1.0 mL min−1 through a large-bore column (maintained at 37.0 ± 2.0 °C) initially loaded with a weighed amount of linseed (250 mg) using a PVDF filter membrane (5.0 μm pore size) for retaining of the solid sample and in-line filtration of the extracts. The lack of bias (trueness) of the on-line gastrointestinal extraction method coupled to ICP OES was confirmed using mass balance validation following microwave assisted digestion of the residual (non-bioaccessible) elemental fraction. Mass balance validation yielded absolute recoveries spanning from 79 to 121% for the overall analytes and samples. On-line dynamic extraction was critically appraised against batch counterparts for both gastric and gastrointestinal compartments. Due to the lack of consensus in the literature regarding the agitation method for batch oral bioaccessibility testing, several extraction approaches (viz., magnetic stirring, end-over-end rotation and orbital shaking) were evaluated. Improved gastric extractability of Fe along with bioaccessible data comparable to the dynamic counterpart based on the continuous displacement of the extraction equilibrium was obtained with batchwise magnetic stirring, which is deemed most appropriate for ascertaining worst-case/maximum bioaccessibility scenarios.

Modeling the effect of shunt current on the charge transfer efficiency of an all-vanadium redox flow battery

In an all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), a shunt current is inevitable owing to the electrically conductive electrolyte that fills the flow channels and manifolds connecting cells. The shunt current decreases the performance of a VRFB stack as well as the energy conversion efficiency of a VRFB system. To understand the shunt-current loss in a VRFB stack with various designs and operating conditions, a mathematical model is developed to investigate the effects of the shunt current on battery performance. The model is calibrated with experimental data under the same operating conditions. The effects of the battery design, including the number of cells, state of charge (SOC), operating current, and equivalent resistance of the electrolytes in the flow channels and manifolds, on the shunt current are analyzed and discussed. The charge-transfer efficiency is calculated to investigate the effects of the battery design parameters on the shunt current. When the cell number is increased from 5 to 40, the charge transfer efficiency is decreased from 0.99 to a range between 0.76 and 0.88, depending on operating current density. The charge transfer efficiency can be maintained at higher than 0.9 by limiting the cell number to less than 20.

Flow manifold for chemical H-point standard addition method implemented to electrochemical analysis based on the capacitance measurements

The paper presents a novel analytical method for electrochemical potassium determination using gold electrodes with self-assembled thiol monolayers (SATMs) deposited on its surface. The whole analytical procedure was carried out in a dedicated flow manifold using capacitance detection mode. The terminal functional groups on the surface of the dielectric monolayer interacts selectively with the analyte, changing the thickness of the layer depending on the amount of the analyte and the applied voltage, resulting in a change in the registered dielectric capacitance. New calibration approach based on the Chemical H-point Standard Addition Method (C-HPSAM), allowing both specific (proportional) and unspecific (constant) interference effects caused by sodium ions to be corrected, was applied. The calibration method is based on the registration of the calibration graphs by the standard addition method (SAM) three times in such different chemical conditions, which are able to differentiate the slope of each graph. The C-HPSAM was applied for the first time in electrochemical analysis. As a chemical parameter differentiating the sensitivity of the calibration graphs, the concentration of ionic strength stabilizer (ethylenediamine) was used. In order to improve the analytical procedure, to make it faster and automated, the dedicated flow system was applied. The constructed flow system was composed of several modules individually dedicated to the appropriate step of the whole analytical procedure: electrochemical cleaning of work electrode surface, adsorption of SATMs and analytical calibration. The calibration curves were obtained in the range of 0.1–0.9 mmol L−1 with good linearity (R2 = 0.996 ± 0.001) and the LOD and LOQ of 28.6 and 85.8 μmol L−1, respectively. The proposed method was employed for potassium determination in highly mineralized water, juice and pharmaceutical samples without any special pretreatment.

Simultaneous determination of total dissolved nitrogen and total dissolved phosphorus in natural waters with an on-line UV and thermal digestion

A flow injection method combined with an on-line UV and thermal digestion for simultaneous determination of total dissolved nitrogen (TDN) and total dissolved phosphorus (TDP) in natural waters was established in this study. A novel flow manifold made the proposed system compact and automatic. The conversion rates of various nitrogen and phosphorus compounds to their nitrate and phosphate forms with different digestion models and different concentrations were well investigated using the flow injection technique. The reagent concentrations for colorimetric analysis were optimized based on a univariate experimental design. The detection limits were 0.8 μmol L−1 and 0.2 μmol L−1, and linear analytical ranges were up to 300 μmol L−1 and 25 μmol L−1 for TDN and TDP, respectively. The sample throughput was ~ 5 h−1. The recovery of spiked natural water samples varied from 86.8% to 102.6% for TDN and 88.0% to 102.0% for TDP. The present approach was successfully applied for the determination of TDN and TDP in natural water samples and was found to have good agreement with reference methods. The outcomes of present study indicated that the proposed method is suitable for routine analysis as well as for potential on-line monitoring.

A Lagrangian perspective towards studying entrainment

This study presents a method for characterizing entrainment using Lagrangian data. Specifically, the method exploits the temporal evolution of enstrophy along pathlines to determine if pathlines undergo entrainment. The method only recently became feasible with the development of four-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry [4D-PTV; see Schanz et al. (Exp Fluids 57(5):7, 2016)], which produces pathlines of temporal length and spatial density that was previously unattainable. The proposed entrainment method was tested on experimentally acquired 4D-PTV data of a turbulent starting vortex forming behind a linearly accelerating circular plate. The method is shown to be insensitive to its control parameters. The first control parameter is an enstrophy threshold used to identify pathlines that always exhibit low enstrophy. The second control parameter is the size of an “enstrophy-source region”, which is placed within the measurement domain to identify pathlines that gain enstrophy through interactions with an enstrophy source. In the case of the starting vortex, the method reveals topological features significant to the entrainment process, such as the roll-up of irrotational fluid between the shear layer and vortex core, and pockets of entrainment that exist within undulations on the shear layer’s outboard side. Whereas the method proposed here measures the entrainment ratio directly, the use of Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs) to quantify entrainment is shown to be infeasible for turbulent flows due to the presence of complex material manifolds for such flows. Furthermore, unlike results from Rosi and Rival (J Fluid Mech 811:3750, 2017), which analyzed the spreading of enstrophy isocontours to characterize entrainment into a starting vortex, the proposed method produces an entrainment rate that is insensitive to the enstrophy threshold, and clearly reveals mechanisms of entrainment. Using the starting vortex data, the proposed technique measured an entrainment ratio range similar to that for laminar vortex rings. The result suggests that, for this particular class of flows, turbulence does not play a significant role with respect to entrainment. The proposed method is seen as an effective tool, given its ability to quantify the entrainment, reveal its salient topological features, and potentially be easily adapted to other classes of flows.

A numerical investigation of vapor flow in large air-cooled condensers

A numerical simulation method – using a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), numerical and analytical methods – for investigating the nature of the vapor flow distribution in the primary condensers of a large ACC is presented. A definite trend in inlet loss coefficient distribution through the heat exchanger bundles is identified. The vapor flow distribution is found to be influenced by the inlet loss coefficients to such an extent that the flow distribution appears to not conform to the expected pattern typical of parallel or reverse flow manifolds. This non-uniform axial distribution of vapor amongst the primary condenser tubes places an additional demand on the dephlegmator that cannot be overlooked. This verified simulation method can be applied during the design phase of an ACC to improve the steam-side performance of these systems.

3D printed device including disk-based solid-phase extraction for the automated speciation of iron using the multisyringe flow injection analysis technique

The development of advanced manufacturing techniques is crucial for the design of novel analytical tools with unprecedented features. Advanced manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, has been explored for the first time to fabricate modular devices with integrated features for disk-based automated solid-phase extraction (SPE). A modular device integrating analyte oxidation, disk-based SPE and analyte complexation has been fabricated using stereolithographic 3D printing. The 3D printed device is directly connected to flow-based analytical instrumentation, replacing typical flow networks based on discrete elements. As proof of concept, the 3D printed device was implemented in a multisyringe flow injection analysis (MSFIA) system, and applied to the fully automated speciation, SPE and spectrophotometric quantification of Fe in water samples. The obtained limit of detection for total Fe determination was 7ng, with a dynamic linear range from 22ng to 2400ng Fe (3mL sample). An intra-day RSD of 4% (n = 12) and an inter-day RSD of 4.3% (n = 5, 3mL sample, different day with a different disk), were obtained. Incorporation of integrated 3D printed devices with automated flow-based techniques showed improved sensitivity (85% increase on the measured peak height for the determination of total Fe) in comparison with analogous flow manifolds built from conventional tubing and connectors. Our work represents a step forward towards the improved reproducibility in the fabrication of manifolds for flow-based automated methods of analysis, which is especially relevant in the implementation of interlaboratory analysis.

QSPR studies on the photoinduced-fluorescence behaviour of pharmaceuticals and pesticides

Fluorimetric analysis is still a growing line of research in the determination of a wide range of organic compounds, including pharmaceuticals and pesticides, which makes necessary the development of new strategies aimed at improving the performance of fluorescence determinations as well as the sensitivity and, especially, the selectivity of the newly developed analytical methods. In this paper are presented applications of a useful and growing tool suitable for fostering and improving research in the analytical field. Experimental screening, molecular connectivity and discriminant analysis are applied to organic compounds to predict their fluorescent behaviour after their photodegradation by UV irradiation in a continuous flow manifold (multicommutation flow assembly). The screening was based on online fluorimetric measurement and comprised pre-selected compounds with different molecular structures (pharmaceuticals and some pesticides with known ‘native’ fluorescent behaviour) to study their changes in fluorescent behaviour after UV irradiation. Theoretical predictions agree with the results from the experimental screening and could be used to develop selective analytical methods, as well as helping to reduce the need for expensive, time-consuming and trial-and-error screening procedures.

Study of the Possibility of Achieving the Same Per-Port Outflow in a Dividing Manifold

There have been several attempts to optimise fluid flow manifolds; these, however, have shown are limited and further investigation into the efficiency of these systems is needed. This work focuses on improving the distribution manifolds efficacy in outflow division, i.e. attaining the same flow rate per each exit port of the manifold. Water has been selected to be the working fluid. A numerical investigation utilising CFD (by ANSYS Fluent R16.2) analysis into two-dimensional, incompressible, and turbulent flow has been carried out to resolve the flow manifold problem using two turbulence modelling, Standard k-ε and RNG k-ε, approaches. Four values of flow rate have been considered, which are specified by the Reynolds numbers 101×103, 202×103, 303×103, and 404×103. These values correspond to the fluid inlet velocities 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 m/s, respectively. The manifold configuration is defined by the given area ratio (total cross-sectional area for laterals /header cross-sectional area). Three values of area ratio are considered; these are 0.703125, 0.84375, and 0.984375. The results indicate that the flow uniformity has a reverse proportional relationship with the fluid flow rate and area ratio for all manifold arrangements. However, there is no significant effect of the flow rate increase on flow mal-distribution. Also, the use of RNG k-ε model has shown higher values of the non-uniformity coefficient than those obtained by the Standard k-ε model. The outcomes of this analysis have been compared with experimental data and a good agreement among them has been found.

Thermal Effect Analysis of Hot flow Manifold Made for Industrial Automated Washing Machine

Thermal Effect Analysis of Hot flow Manifold Made for Industrial Automated Washing Machine

A simple and new reverse liquid-liquid microextraction for the automated spectrometric determination of doxycycline in chicken fat

This work presents a new, simple and inexpensive reverse liquid-liquid microextraction of doxycycline (DOC) from chicken fat. In this just 13min extraction methodology, acidulated water, as extraction solvent (400µL), was used. A monochannel flow injection system was designed for the spectrometric determination of the analyte (ʎ=344nm). The extracted solution containing DOC was loaded into the injection valve of the continuous flow manifold. A lineal range between 100 and 700µgDOCkg−1 sample was obtained. The LOD and LOQ were 33µgkg−1 and 100µgkg−1 respectively. The relative standard deviation was 4.87% and the sample throughput for the entire process was 4.5h−1. As recovery values when the method was applied to real samples showed variability, the expanded uncertainties were calculated. Their values indicated that the new method is independent of the concentration of the analyte and the origin of the sample.

An integrated sequential injection analysis system for ammonium determination in recycled hygiene and potable water samples for future use in manned space missions

A fully automated method for on-line ammonium determination in recycled water produced on board the International Space Station was developed and optimized. A trade off methodology is presented to evaluate and select the most appropriate analytical system, adaptable to space flight requirements. A sequential injection system meets the specifications for on-line monitoring in space conditions as it is an integrated flow manifold with small dimensions operating in a totally closed loop preventing any contact or release of the fluids/gases inside the space environment. The method is based on the reaction between ammonia and o-phthaldialdehyde in the presence of sulfite in alkaline media (pH ca. 11). The fluorescent product (isoindol-1-sulfonate) is then quantified at 425nm. The influence of chemical and flow variables as well as space adaptation characteristics which affect the performance of the system if placed on board the International Space Station have been studied, providing the appropriate conditions for the analysis of real samples. For a total analysis time of 174s, a detection limit (3s) of 0.018mgL−1 for NH4+ was obtained along with a sampling frequency of 20h−1. The working range was at values between 0.06 and 4.00mgL−1 NH4+. The “intra-day precision” was 2.30% (at 0.50mgL−1), while the “inter-day precision” was 2.40% (at 0.50mgL−1). The accuracy of the proposed method was evaluated by analyzing standard reference materials as well as using the certified method (indophenol blue) for ammonium determination. The method was successfully applied for ammonium determination in water samples obtained by the Water Treatment Unit Breadboard (WTUB) located in Antarctica Concordia Research Station.

Tracking attracting manifolds in flows

This paper presents a collaborative control strategy designed to enable a team of robots to track attracting Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS) and unstable manifolds in two-dimensional flows. Tracking LCS in flows is important for many applications such as planning energy optimal paths in the ocean and for predicting the evolution of various physical and biological processes in the ocean. The proposed strategy which tracks attracting LCS and unstable manifolds in real-time through direct computation of the local finite time Lyapunov exponent field, does not require global information about the dynamics of the surrounding flow, and is based on local sensing, prediction, and correction. The collaborative control strategy is implemented on a team of robots and theoretical guarantees for the tracking and formation keeping strategies are presented. We demonstrate the performance of the tracking strategy in simulation using actual ocean flow data and experimental flow data generated in a tank. The strategy is validated experimentally using a team of micro autonomous surface vehicles in an actual fluid environment.

Quotient manifolds of flows

This paper investigates which smooth manifolds arise as quotients (orbit spaces) of flows of vector fields. Such quotient maps were already known to be surjective on fundamental groups, but this paper shows that every epimorphism of countably presented groups is induced by the quotient map of some flow, and that higher homology can also be controlled. Manifolds of fixed dimension arising as quotients of flows on Euclidean space realize all even (and some odd) intersection pairings, and all homotopy spheres of dimension at least two arise in this manner. Most Euclidean spaces of dimensions five and higher have families of topologically equivalent but smoothly inequivalent flows with quotient homeomorphic to a manifold with flexibly chosen homology. For [Formula: see text], there is a topological flow on (ℝ2r+1 − 8 points) × ℝm that is unsmoothable, although smoothable near each orbit, with quotient an unsmoothable topological manifold.

Combining a distributed flow manifold and 3D woven metallic lattices to enhance fluidic and thermal properties for heat transfer applications

The fluidic and heat transfer capabilities of 3D woven lattice materials were reported recently under axial and bifurcated flow patterns, but three critical performance indices – pressure drop, average surface temperature and temperature uniformity – could not be optimized simultaneously using these flow patterns. Here we combine the 3D weaves with manifolds to create a novel 3D flow pattern that enhances temperature uniformity, while also maintaining low pressure drops and surface temperatures. These three properties were characterized at room temperature for a range of flow rates using water as the working fluid. Three different weaves thicknesses were investigated: 12.7mm, 6.4mm, and 3.2mm, with manifold thicknesses of 12.7mm, 19.0mm, and 22.2mm, respectively, to provide a constant, combined weave-manifold thickness of 25.4mm. The properties of this new weave/manifold system are compared to those obtained using just the manifold (with no weave) and just the weave (with no manifold). Comparisons show that the addition of the weave lowers the average substrate temperature and temperature variations significantly, although pressure drop is increased. They also show that the addition of the manifold improves temperature uniformity significantly, and also lowers the average substrate temperature and the pressure drop. No specific ratio of weave to manifold thickness was found to be superior in all of the performance indices. The thermal performances are then evaluated at different pumping powers: the weave/manifold system and its distributed array flow pattern prevail. Finite element simulations were performed on a reduced and simplified model to explain the observed experimental trends, and manifold opening patterns were manipulated to demonstrate further potential property enhancements. The multiple benefits of this manifold system can be extended to common heat exchanger media beyond weaves.

A multiphysics fully coupled modeling tool for the design and operation analysis of planar solid oxide fuel cell stacks

A planar SOFC stack is an integral but basic power generation unit with physical conditions completely different from that of a laboratory button cell. The ability to reliably predict the operating behaviors of SOFC stacks is crucial for the technology advancement. The existing stack models either rely on simplified geometries, or handle a few selected fields that are relatively easy to couple. This paper reports the first successful development of a high geometry resolution, multiphysics fully coupled numerical model for production scale planar SOFC stacks. The computational model is developed through in-house developed multiphysics modules combined with commercial software FLUENT®. All stack components such as flow channels, manifolds, cathode-electrolyte-anode assemblies, interconnects, seals and frames are resolved in the numerical grids. The mathematical model includes the fully coupled equations of momentum, mass, species, heat and charge transports, electrochemical reaction, and methane steam reforming and shift reactions. An accurate relationship between the O2 transport and electrochemistry within the cathode-rib structure is established and used to enhance the numerical efficiency of the stack model. The stack model is validated with the experimental data. The numerical stability and modeling capability of this multiphysics stack model are illustrated by simulating a 30-cell stack of 27 million grid points. Detailed information about the distributions of flows, temperature, current and chemical species, etc, is revealed. Comparative studies show that the results obtained by simplifications of stack geometries or reductions of multiphysics couplings are unreliable, illustrating the necessity of employing a true multiphysics computational tool.

Hydraulic Loss of Finite Length Dividing Junctions

A general hydraulic loss coefficient correlation for perpendicular, cylindrical, finite length dividing pipe junctions is developed and implemented in a discrete dividing-flow manifold model. Dividing-flow manifolds are used in several technical appliances, e.g., in water and wastewater treatment, swimming pool technology, air engineering, and polymer processing. Ensuring uniform flow distribution is a major goal of a flow manifold system design, whose accuracy is usually determined by the accuracies of applied flow coefficients. Coefficient of turning losses is calculated by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based approach applying a nonlinear fit. In the case of a single-phase flow, the loss coefficient depends on four dimensionless parameters: the Reynolds number, the ratio of port and header flow velocities, the diameter ratio, and the ratio of the port length and the diameter of the pipe. Instead of experimentally covering this four-dimensional parameter space, more than 1000 judiciously chosen three-dimensional simulations were run to determine the loss coefficient for the parameter range most used in engineering practice. Validated results of our novel resistance formula show that the velocity and port length to header diameter ratios have a significant effect on the turning loss coefficient, while the diameter ratio and Reynolds number dependency are weaker in the investigated parameter ranges.