Kenneth M. Armijo, Van P. Carey^*

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 1-6, 2010, DOI:10.5098/hmt.v1.2.3003

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of Marangoni phenomena for low concentrations of 2-propanol/water and methanol/water mixtures. In real systems the addition of small levels of surface-active contaminants can affect the surface tension of the liquid-vapor interface and thermodynamic conditions in this region. Analysis was performed for three widely accepted binary mixture correlations to predict heat flux and superheat values for subatmospheric experimental data using bulk fluid and film thermodynamic properties. Due to the non-ideal nature of these alcohol/water mixtures, this study also employs an average pseudo single-component (PSC) coefficient in place of an ideal heat transfer coefficient (HTC) to improve… More >

Hongze Gang^1,2, Qiqi Zhang¹, Wei Wang¹, Bangxin Cai¹, Jinfeng Liu^1,2, Shizhong Yang^1,2, Bozhong Mu^1,2,*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.8, No.4, pp. 417-429, 2020, DOI:10.32604/jrm.2020.09201

Abstract Waste cooking oils and non-edible vegetable oils are abundant and renewable resources for bio-based materials which have showed great potential applications in many industries. In this study, five fatty acids commonly found in non-edible vegetable oils, including palmitic acid, stearic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, ricinoleic acid, and their mixtures, were used to produce bio-based zwitterionic surfactants through a facile and high-yield chemical modification. These surfactants demonstrated excellent surface/interfacial properties with the minimum surface tensions ranging from 28.4 mN/m to 32.8 mN/m in aqueous solutions. The interfacial tensions between crude oil and surfactant solutions were remarkably reduced to lower values… More >

Shanshan Huo, Chad A. Ulven^*

Journal of Renewable Materials, Vol.5, Suppl.1, pp. 106-116, 2017, DOI:10.7569/JRM.2017.634136

Abstract The development of flax fiber reinforced polymer composites with improved properties has been increasingly studied by many researchers because of their sustainability. However, the effects of thermal residual stresses on the interfacial properties of flax composites have not been evaluated or very well understood. In this study, the thermal properties of flax, vinyl ester matrices and their composites were accessed by different techniques, including thermomechanical analyzer, dynamic mechanical analyzer, and X-ray diffraction combined with aluminum particles. The effects of thermal properties of flax fibers and vinyl ester resin systems on the mechanical properties of their biocomposites were studied. The theory… More >