Unconventional Equipment Research Articles

Forming technological traits of dry milk

Dry milk is used in a wide variety of products due to its high energy value and long shelf life. Its use is especially valuable in the dairy industry, since it smooths the seasonality of raw milk production. Moreover, dry milk makes it possible to generate socially essential products in the regions of Russia where dairy farming is not developed or where it is impossible to produce raw milk. There are different methods to form dry milk's traits and the required functional features like cheesability, heat stability and solubility. Among these methods we emphasize on technological ones, based on prevention measures of impact on raw milk during its processing. As a result, methods for the increase of dry milk's heat stability are among the most essential, since its low values make it impossible to generate products of high quality or to use this milk in any processing at all. A number of foreign and national works are dedicated to the improvement of dry milk's heat stability. These studies offer various methods like an effective refining of raw milk, its preliminary heat treatment, the use of specific food supplements and raw milk components, the correction of physicochemical values, the variation of temperature regimes, the use of unconventional equipment for desiccation and condensation. Integrated methods of heat stability increase do not require core changes in the current technological requirements of dry milk production and can be integrated into the existing production conditions, thus they arose a lot interest and have prospects. This overview allows to broaden knowledge and to find new methods to form technological traits of not only dry milk, but canned milk as well.

Unconventional techniques of fundus imaging: A review.

The methods of fundus examination include direct and indirect ophthalmoscopy and imaging with a fundus camera are an essential part of ophthalmic practice. The usage of unconventional equipment such as a hand-held video camera, smartphone, and a nasal endoscope allows one to image the fundus with advantages and some disadvantages. The advantages of these instruments are the cost-effectiveness, ultra portability and ability to obtain images in a remote setting and share the same electronically. These instruments, however, are unlikely to replace the fundus camera but then would always be an additional arsenal in an ophthalmologist's armamentarium.

Suitability of some commonly available software for unconventional condenser analysis

Computer aided design of heat transfer equipment, i.e., thermal-hydraulic design of process and power apparatuses for heat exchange, is an essential part of industrial practice. There are several world-renowned software tools of which the most-used ones are those developed by Heat Transfer Research, Inc. (HTRI® Xchanger Suite®), Aspen Technology, Inc. (Aspen Exchanger Design & Rating), and Chemstations, Inc. (CHEMCAD™). Advantages of these sophisticated software systems are unquestionable particularly in the field of conventional heat exchanger solutions. This paper, however, aims to compare and discuss features of the above-mentioned packages in case of unconventional equipment via a specific industrial problem in which components having common geometries could not be used.For this purpose, thermal-hydraulic analyses of an unconventional steam condenser is performed using educational versions of the three packages with operating parameters at the inlet of the apparatus, thermo-physical properties of streams, and geometry of the apparatus being taken from the operator of the condenser. Based on comparison of the obtained results and condenser operating data it can be seen that although some of the available software tools offer relatively large sets of functionalities, there still is opportunity for development of flexible tools – especially those capable of evaluating non-standard geometries.

Solar hydrogen production by the Hybrid Sulfur process

A conceptual design and economic analysis are presented for a hydrogen production plant based on the use of thermochemical water splitting combined with a solar central receiver. The reference design consists of a Hybrid Sulfur thermochemical process coupled to a solar plant, based on the particle receiver concept, for a yearly average hydrogen production rate of 100 tons per day. The Hybrid Sulfur plant has been designed on the basis of results obtained from a new flowsheet ASPEN Plus ® simulation, carrying out specific evaluations for the Sulfur dioxide Depolarized Electrolyzer, being developed and constructed at Savannah River National Laboratory, and for the sulfuric acid decomposition bayonet-based reactor, investigated at Sandia National Laboratory. Solar hydrogen production costs have been estimated considering two different scenarios in the medium to long term period, assuming the financing and economic guidelines from DOE’s H2A model and performing ad hoc detailed evaluations for unconventional equipment. A minimum hydrogen production specific cost of 3.19 $/kg (2005 US $) has been assessed for the long term period. The costs, so obtained, are strongly affected by some quantities, parameters and assumptions, influence of which has also been investigated and discussed.

Investigating the potential of human echolocation in virtual sonic trigonometry

Describing a mathematical problem often involves visual diagrams. For blind students this accentuates the challenges they face. Projects such as LAMBDA have used linear speech and Braille to convey algebraic equations. However, spatial features, for example in trigonometry, are difficult to map to a linear‐based system. Traditional tactile methods (e.g. German film) convey simple shapes but need Braille support and speech‐tactile interfaces (e.g. NOMAD) require unconventional equipment. Cognitive issues regarding tactile interpretation of 3D shapes also persist. Blind students interact regularly with speech technology and audio games. This exposure means that the auditory system is potentially becoming accustomed to sonic interpretation of computer‐based information. Some of our research has looked at expanding the sonic environment to include spatial information aimed at trigonometry. The next stage is to provide interactive user control. Our system is based on a user interface model in order to consider the cognitive issues involved. We use Microsoft's XNA/XACT environment to create our auditory scene. In this paper we discuss how to implement sonic‐based user interaction while further simplifying our auditory scene. In order to achieve this, we examine the potential of human echolocation to orient within the virtual walls and corners of a triangle.

Alternatives for blocking direct current in AC system neutrals at the Radisson/LG2 complex

The authors document the development of alternative approaches to the design and application of blocking devices placed between transformer neutrals and the substation ground. System constraints on the impedance and overvoltage limitation of the neutral blocking device (NBD) are covered. Three alternative NBD schemes are developed and optimized. System performance of the NBD is discussed, as are the practical implementation considerations for this unconventional equipment application. Although the focus is on the NBD requirements of Hydro-Quebec's Radisson/LG2 complex, the fundamental information is applicable to any situation where DC must be blocked from a power transformer neutral in a system designed for effectively grounded operation. >