A Pore Scale Characterisation of Plant Mucilage - Integrating Imaging, NMR, and Polymer Modelling  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siul Ruiz ◽  
Katherine Williams ◽  
Chiara Petroselli ◽  
Nancy Walker ◽  
Daniel McKay Fletcher ◽  
...  

<p>Plant roots secrete polymeric gels during root growth known as mucilage, which aid in root growth, nutrient acquisition, and water retention. Mucilage plays an important role in augmenting many soil physical and biogeochemical processes local to the root zone. However, most studies infer the effects of mucilage by reporting changes in the bulk soil. This investigation quantifies the isolated physical behaviour of plant mucilage in a highly simplified soil-analogous environment. We placed drops of hydrated mucilage between two flat surfaces to form liquid bridges and monitored their evolution under drying conditions considering different mucilage mass fractions. We used this information to develop a multi-phase model that characterises the mucilage-water interactions based on a polymeric description of the mucilage volume fraction. Unlike pure water liquid bridges that rupture, the hydrated mucilage liquid bridges collapsed under drying, but maintain connection between the surfaces. NMR imaging shows loss of water from the liquid bridge, particularly from the regions furthest from the surface contacts. Model of drying liquid bridges quantifies mucilage accumulation near the corners of the boundary where the adherence to surfaces is likely to occur. The modelled accumulation times overlapped with monitored bridge collapse for the different mass fractions. Consistency with the model and measurement results highlight the model’s ability to predict a transition when the hydrated mucilage mixture no longer behaves like a liquid. Results suggest that diffusion type models are not adequate for describing pore scale mucilage transport processes, indicating that mucilage’s zone of influence is local to the root, and the transition out of this zone is spatially sharp.</p>

2002 ◽  
Vol 458 ◽  
pp. 35-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
CH. NIENHÜSER ◽  
H. C. KUHLMANN

The thermocapillary flow in liquid bridges is investigated numerically. In the limit of large mean surface tension the free-surface shape is independent of the flow and temperature fields and depends only on the volume of liquid and the hydrostatic pressure difference. When gravity acts parallel to the axis of the liquid bridge the shape is axisymmetric. A differential heating of the bounding circular disks then causes a steady two-dimensional thermocapillary flow which is calculated by a finite-difference method on body-fitted coordinates. The linear-stability problem for the basic flow is solved using azimuthal normal modes computed with the same discretization method. The dependence of the critical Reynolds number on the volume fraction, gravity level, Prandtl number, and aspect ratio is explained by analysing the energy budgets of the neutral modes. For small Prandtl numbers (Pr = 0.02) the critical Reynolds number exhibits a smooth minimum near volume fractions which approximately correspond to the volume of a cylindrical bridge. When the Prandtl number is large (Pr = 4) the intersection of two neutral curves results in a sharp peak of the critical Reynolds number. Since the instabilities for low and high Prandtl numbers are markedly different, the influence of gravity leads to a distinctly different behaviour. While the hydrostatic shape of the bridge is the most important effect of gravity on the critical point for low-Prandtl-number flows, buoyancy is the dominating factor for the stability of the flow in a gravity field when the Prandtl number is high.


2018 ◽  
Vol 916 ◽  
pp. 221-225
Author(s):  
Ji Zu Lv ◽  
Liang Yu Li ◽  
Cheng Zhi Hu ◽  
Min Li Bai ◽  
Sheng Nan Chang ◽  
...  

Nanofluids is an innovative study of nanotechnology applied to the traditional field of thermal engineering. It refers to the metal or non-metallic nanopowder was dispersed into water, alcohol, oil and other traditional heat transfer medium, to prepared as a new heat transfer medium with high thermal conductivity. The role of nanofluids in strengthening heat transfer has been confirmed by a large number of experimental studies. Its heat transfer mechanism is mainly divided into two aspects. On the one hand, the addition of nanoparticles enhances the thermal conductivity. On the other hand, due to the interaction between the nanoparticles and base fluid causing the changes in the flow characteristics, which is also the main factor affecting the heat transfer of nanofluids. Therefore, a intensive study on the flow characteristics of nanofluids will make the study of heat transfer more meaningful. In this experiment, the flow characteristics of SiO2-water nanofluids in two-dimensional backward step flow are quantitatively studied by PIV. The results show that under the same Reynolds number, the turbulence of nanofluids is larger than that of pure water. With the increase of nanofluids volume fraction, the flow characteristics are constantly changing. The quantitative analysis proved that the nanofluids disturbance was enhanced compared with the base liquid, which resulting in the heat transfer enhancement.


BIBECHANA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 63-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajaya Bhattarai ◽  
Sujit Kumar Shah ◽  
Ashok Kumar Yadav ◽  
Janak Adhikari

The precise measurement of the specific conductivity of sodium deoxycholate in pure water and ethanolwater mixed solvent media containing 0.10 and 0.20 volume fraction of ethanol at 303.15 K are reported. The concentration were varied from ~ 0.01 mol L-1 to ~ 0.0002 mol L-1.The conductivity of sodium deoxycholate decreases with the increase in the volume fraction of ethanol. The critical micelle concentration of sodium deoxycholate increases with the increase in the volume fraction of ethanol. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/bibechana.v9i0.7176 BIBECHANA 9 (2013) 63-68


2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Iván Caviedes Rubio ◽  
Gerson Andrés Rodríguez Rodríguez ◽  
Daniel Ricardo Delgado

The equilibrium solubilities of the anti-inflammatory drug naproxen (NPX) in 2-propanol + water mixtures were determined at several temperatures from 298.15 to 313.15 K. The Gibbs energy, enthalpy, and entropy of solution and of mixing were obtained from these solubility data. The solubility was maximal in φ1 = 0.90 and very low in pure water at all the temperatures studied. A non-linear plot of ∆solnH° vs. ∆solnG° with negative slope from pure water up to 0.20 in volume fraction of 2-propanol and positive beyond this composition up pure 2-propanol was obtained at the mean temperature, 305.55 K. Accordingly, the driving mechanism for NPX solubility in the water-rich mixtures was the entropy, probably due to water-structure loss around non-polar moieties of the drug and for the 2-propanol-rich mixtures it was the enthalpy, probably due to its better solvation of the drug.


2007 ◽  
Vol 86 (4) ◽  
pp. 378-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.H.K. Xu ◽  
M.D. Weir ◽  
L. Sun ◽  
S. Takagi ◽  
L.C. Chow

Nano-particles of dicalcium phosphate anhydrous (DCPA) were synthesized for the first time. The objectives of this study were to incorporate DCPA nano-particles into resin for Ca-PO4 release to combat dental caries, and to investigate the filler level effects. Nano-DCPA and nano-silica-fused silicon nitride whiskers at a 1:1 ratio were used at filler mass fractions of 0–75%. The flexural strengths in MPa (mean ± SD; n = 6) of DCPA-whisker composites ranged from (106 ± 39) at 0% fillers to (114 ± 23) at 75% fillers, similar to (112 ± 22) of a non-releasing composite (TPH) (p > 0.1). The composite with 75% fillers in a NaCl solution (133 mmol/L, pH = 7.4, 37°C) yielded a Ca concentration of (0.65 ± 0.02) mmol/L and PO4 of (2.29 ± 0.07) mmol/L. Relationships were established between ion-release and DCPA volume fraction VDCPA: Ca = 4.46 VDCPA1.6, and = 66.9 VDCPA2.6. Nano-DCPA-whisker PO4 composites had high strength and released high levels of Ca-PO4 requisite for remineralization. These new nano-composites could provide the needed combination of stress-bearing and caries-inhibiting capabilities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 518-537
Author(s):  
R. Nasrin ◽  
S. A. Sweety ◽  
I. Zahan

Temperature dissipation in a proficient mode has turned into a crucial challenge in industrial sectors because of worldwide energy crisis. In heat transfer analysis, shell and tube thermal exchangers is one of the mostly used strategies to control competent heat transfer in industrial progression applications. In this research, a numerical analysis of turbulent flow has been conceded in a shell and tube thermal exchanger using Kays-Crawford model to investigate the thermal performance of pure water and different concentrated water-MWCNT nanofluid. By means of finite element method the Reynold-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and heat transport equations along with suitable edge conditions have been worked out numerically. The implications of velocity, solid concentration, and temperature of water-MWCNT nanofluid on the fluid flow formation and heat transfer scheme have been inspected thoroughly. The numerical results indicate that the variation of nanoparticles solid volume fraction, inflow fluid velocity and inlet temperature mannerism considerably revolutionize in the flow and thermal completions. It is perceived that using 3% concentrated water-MWCNT nanofluid, higher rate of heat transfer 12.24% is achieved compared that of water and therefore to enhance the efficiency of this heat exchanger. Furthermore, a new correlation has been developed among obtained values of thermal diffusion rate, Reynolds number and volume concentration of nanoparticle and found very good correlation coefficient among the values.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 6665
Author(s):  
Laura Frouté ◽  
Yuhang Wang ◽  
Jesse McKinzie ◽  
Saman Aryana ◽  
Anthony Kovscek

Digital rock physics is an often-mentioned approach to better understand and model transport processes occurring in tight nanoporous media including the organic and inorganic matrix of shale. Workflows integrating nanometer-scale image data and pore-scale simulations are relatively undeveloped, however. In this paper, a workflow is demonstrated progressing from sample acquisition and preparation, to image acquisition by Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM) tomography, to volumetric reconstruction to pore-space discretization to numerical simulation of pore-scale transport. Key aspects of the workflow include (i) STEM tomography in high angle annular dark field (HAADF) mode to image three-dimensional pore networks in µm-sized samples with nanometer resolution and (ii) lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) simulations to describe gas flow in slip, transitional, and Knudsen diffusion regimes. It is shown that STEM tomography with nanoscale resolution yields excellent representation of the size and connectivity of organic nanopore networks. In turn, pore-scale simulation on such networks contributes to understanding of transport and storage properties of nanoporous shale. Interestingly, flow occurs primarily along pore networks with pore dimensions on the order of tens of nanometers. Smaller pores do not form percolating pathways in the sample volume imaged. Apparent gas permeability in the range of 10−19 to 10−16 m2 is computed.


Soil Research ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 575
Author(s):  
Erika Shiota ◽  
Toshifumi Mukunoki ◽  
Laurent Oxarango ◽  
Anne-Julie Tinet ◽  
Fabrice Golfier

Water retention in granular soils is a key mechanism for understanding transport processes in the vadose zone for various applications from agronomy to hydrological and environmental sciences. The macroscopic pattern of water entrapment is mainly driven by the pore-scale morphology and capillary and gravity forces. In the present study, the drainage water retention curve (WRC) was measured for three different granular materials using a miniaturised hanging column apparatus. The samples were scanned using X-ray micro-computed tomography during the experiment. A segmentation procedure was applied to identify air, water and solid phases in 3D at the pore-scale. A representative elementary volume analysis based on volume and surface properties validated the experimental setup size. A morphological approach, the voxel percolation method (VPM) was used to model the drainage experiment under the assumption of capillary-dominated quasi-static flow. At the macro-scale, the VPM showed a good capability to predict the WRC when compared with direct experimental measurements. An in-depth comparison with image data also revealed a satisfactory agreement concerning both the average volumetric distributions and the pore-scale local topology. Image voxelisation and the quasi-static assumption of VPM are likely to explain minor discrepancies observed at low suctions and for coarser materials.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajaya Bhattarai ◽  
Sujit Kumar Shah ◽  
Ashok Kumar Yadav

The accurate measurement of the specific conductivity of cetylpyridinium chloride in pure water and ethanol-water mixed solvent media containing 0.10, 0.20, 0.30 and 0.40 volume fraction of ethanol at room temperature are reported. The concentrations were varied from ~ 0.005 mol l-1 to ~ 0.0002 mol l-1.The conductivity of cetylpyridinium chloride decreases with the increase in the volume fraction of ethanol. The critical micelle concentration of cetylpyridinium chloride increases with the increase in the volume fraction of ethanol. Nepal Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 13, No. 1 (2012) 89-93 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/njst.v13i1.7446


Weed Science ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 258-260
Author(s):  
D. C. Milbocker

Fall-applied 2-chloro-4,6-bis(ethylamino)-s-triazine (simazine) and α,α,α-trifluoro-2,6-dinitro-N,N-dipropyl-p-toluidine (trifluralin) satisfactorily controlled annual and biennial weeds in tall bearded iris (Iris germanica L.). Increased application rates improved control of semitolerant weeds. Trifluralin controlled grass weeds better than simazine. Simazine caused leaf tip and root necrosis, and trifluralin prevented root growth of iris plants when incorporated in the root zone at high rates of application.


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