A 16-bit 18-MSPS flash-assisted SAR ADC with hybrid synchronous and asynchronous control logic

This paper presents a 16-bit,18-MSPS(million samples per second)flash-assisted successive-approximation-register(SAR)analog-to-digital converter(ADC)utilizing hybrid synchronous and asynchronous(HYSAS)timing control logic based on an on-chip delay-locked loop(DLL).The HYSAS scheme can provide a longer settling time for the capacitive digital-to-analog converter(CDAC)than the synchronous and asynchronous SAR ADC.Therefore,the issue of incomplete settling or ringing in the DAC voltage for cases of either on-chip or off-chip reference voltage can be solved to a large extent.In addition,the fore-ground calibration of the CDAC’s mismatch is performed with a finite-impulse-response bandpass filter(FIR-BPF)based least-mean-square(LMS)algorithm in an off-chip FPGA(field programmable gate array).Fabricated in 40-nm CMOS process,the proto-type ADC achieves 94.02-dB spurious-free dynamic range(SFDR),and 75.98-dB signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio(SNDR)for a 2.88-MHz input under 18-MSPS sampling rate.

Yundang Lake Gets Epic Facelift

The transformation of Yundang Lake from a stinky lake to an urban reception hall has made it a showcase of ecologival restoration in China.BEFORE settling down in the City of Xiamen,Scott Patrick and his wife spent long hours searching online for just the right part of the city.When they saw Yundang Lake in west Xiamen,the couple knew they had hit the jackpot.“The picture of the beautiful lake circled by lush vegetation caught our attention.We knew this was the place we were looking for,”said Patrick.Later,after setting foot in Xiamen,he told himself he had definitely made the right life decision.

Yundang Lake Gets Epic Facelift

Before settling down in the city of Xiamen,Scott Patrick and his wife spent long hours searching online for just the right part of the city.When they saw Yundang Lake in west Xiamen,the couple knew they had hit the jackpot.“The picture of the beautiful lake circled by lush vegetation caught our attention.We knew this was the place we were looking for,”said Patrick.Later,after setting foot in Xiamen,he told himself he had definitely made the right life decision.

Roaming Where He Wants To Becoming a digital nomad in Bangkok

What makes an ideal life?For many,it’s escaping crowded and expensive big cities and the accompanying long,exhausting commutes to settle in a beautiful,warm,and budget-friendly city,or hitting the road and going elsewhere anytime you want.No alarm clocks,no punching in for work,no pressure from bosses-do a little work and then enjoy your life.This is the life for many digital nomads.

BOOKS

Quilt Arts of South Africa Edited by MARSHA MACDOWELL Indiana University Press In the far south of the African continent,women have a long tradition of crafting bed coverings using textile techniques commonly used in quilting,a practice deeply embedded in the histories of the San and Khoi peoples.Between the late 1600s and the early 1800s,South Africa experienced an influx of Dutch,French,Indian,and British settlers,including military personnel,traders,miners,and missionaries.These groups introduced their own cultural traditions,including the art of quilt making.Today,quilting thrives as a vibrant art form in South Africa.

Coagulation enhanced electrokinetic settling of mature fine oil sands tailings

The mature fine oil sand tailings(MFT) remain as slurry in the tailings pond for long time. The dewatering and consolidation of MFT for sustainable management is an important task for the mining industry. The objective of this study is to accelerate electrokinetic settling of MFT solids in suspensions in presence of optimal coagulant. In the first phase, optimal coagulant and coagulant dosage for settling of suspension are identified, i.e., ferric chloride at 350 mg/L. It is found that the chemical treatment is not much effective; the final solid content of the sediment is only 6.48% from an initial of 5%. In the second phase,combined coagulation and electrokinetic treatment is carried out to enhance the settling effect. The direct electric current is applied in continuous and intermittent modes on MFT suspensions placed in electrokinetic cell. The results show the final solid content reaches 23.74% under the combined application of350 mg/L ferric chloride and 218.75 V/m applied voltage gradient in the continuous mode. The intermittent current mode with 40% save in power consumption produces a settled sediment having 20.84% final solid content.

Investigation on Settling Characteristics of Floes in the Changjiang Estuary, China

Settling characteristics of floes, including relative settling velocity, relative flocculation coefficient and flocculation exponent, are obtained by the suspended load equations for different size fractions. Data of the Changjiang Estuary suggest that level of flocculation changes from river section, river mouth (turbidity maximum) to offshore area in sequence of low, very high and high. The settling characteristics of floes reflected by in situ estimation performs a similar feature as that obtained from still water experiment.

A simple formula for predicting settling velocity of sediment particles

Based on the general relationship described by Cheng between the drag coefficient and the Reynolds number of a particle, a new relationship between the Reynolds number and a dimensionless particle parameter is proposed. Using a trial-and-error procedure to minimize errors, the coefficients were determined and a formula was developed for predicting the settling velocity of natural sediment particles. This formula has higher prediction accuracy than other published formulas and it is applicable to all Reynolds numbers less than 2× 10^5.

Settling,consolidation and shear strength behaviour of coal tailings slurry

The volume change and shear strength behaviour of tailings slurry with the changes in gravimetric moisture content is important to effectively utilise the storage volume and analysis of dam failure potential.Consolidation testing of tailings from a slurry-like to soil-like state is a critical task,and conventional consolidation apparatus does not have the capability of doing such testing,as the tailings slurries contain high water content.Settling tests conducted on slurries having a 25%solids concentration showed very low efficiency;final sediment was still slurry-like.An intrinsic point was identified based on pore water pressure dissipation during consolidation tests in a slurry consolidometer that can define two states of the tailings i.e.slurry-like and soil-like.In the slurry-like state,the volume change was greater for Slurry 2 than Slurry 1,while the inverse was observed in the soil-like state.The evolution of peak vane shear strength with the changes in moisture content was almost similar for both samples and obeyed the power function.Regression models have been developed and validated to predict the shear strength of materials at any gravimetric moisture content or void ratio.

Observations and analyses of floc size and floc settling velocity in coastal salt marsh of Luoyuan Bay, Fujian Province, China

In coastal environments, fine-grain sediments often aggregate into large and porous flocs. ElectroMagnetic Current Meters （EMCM） and Laser In Situ Scattering and Transmissometry （LISST-ST） have been deployed within a Spartina alterniflora marsh of the Luoyuan Bay in Fujian Province, China, to measure the current velocity, the floc size and the settling velocity between 15 and 22 January 2008. During the observations, the near-bed water was collected in order to obtain the suspended sediment concentration （SSC） and constituent grain size. Data show that： （1） the nearbed current velocities vary from 0.1 to 5.6 cm/s in the central Spartina alterniflora marsh and 0.1–12.5 cm/s at the edge; （2） the SSCs vary from 47 to 188 mg/dm 3 . The mean grain size of constituent grains varies from 7.0 to 9.6 μm, and the mean floc sizes （MFS） vary from 30.4 to 69.4 μm. The relationship between the mean floc size and settling velocity can be described as： w s =ad b , in which w s is the floc settling velocity （mm/s）, a and b are coefficients. The floc settling velocity varies from 0.17 to 0.32 mm/s, with a mean value of 0.26 mm/s, and the floc settling velocity during the flood tide is higher than that during the ebb tide. The current velocity and the SSC are the main factors controlling the flocculation processes and the floc settling velocity.

High molecular weight guar gum assisted settling of fine solids in diluted bitumen:Effect of solvents

As water-based extraction technologies for producing bitumen from oil sands have received increasing environmental concerns,developing non-aqueous extraction(NAE)technique is of both fundamental and practical importance.However,the relatively high concentration of fine solids trapped in the extracted bitumen presents an obstacle for pipeline transport as well as upgrading and refining downstream.This research attempts to provide a solution to fine solids removal without using synthetic additives or affecting bitumen recovery from NAE process.Herein,naturally hydrophilic additives(i.e.,water and high molecular weight guar gum(HGG)produced from Cyamopsiste tragonolobuosr L.Taup.)were introduced to promote the settling of fine solids suspended in bitumen-solvent solution,and the effects of solvents(i.e.,toluene,cyclohexane and their mixtures)were systematically investigated.Aggregate size distribution analyzed by the focused beam reflectance measurements confirmed that the addition of water and HGG could promote the agglomeration and settling of fine solids in all solvents studied.However,the size range and quantity of the agglomerates vary significantly with the solvent's aromatic character.Solvent mixtures demonstrate a superior performance on removing fine solids from bitumen over single solvent.Specifically,in a 3:2 toluene/cyclohexane mixture,the solid content was lowered from 0.66 wt%to 0.09 wt%.

Flocculated unclassified tailings settling efficiency improvement by particle collision optimization in the feedwell

Efficient thickening of tailings is a prerequisite for the metal mine tailings backfill and surface disposal operation.The effective collision of ultrafine tailings particles in suspension with flocculant molecules is essential for flocs aggregates formation and settling.Unreasonable feeding speed and flocculant adding method will lead to the failure of effective dispersion of flocculant and high particle content in thickener overflow.In this work,the effect of turbulence intensity and flocculant adding method on floc size,strength,and movement characteristics are analysed.Aiming to solve the turbidity increased,a pilot-scale continuous thickening test was carried out.Taking a single particle and multiple flocs of full tailings as the research object,the particle iterative settlement model of flocs was established.The influence of turbulence intensity on collision effect is studied by tracking and simulating particle trajectory.The results show that in the process of single particle settlement,chaos appears in the iterative process owing to particle adhesion which caused by micro action.When the turbulence intensity is 25.99%,the maximum particle size of tailings floc is 6.21 mm and the maximum sedimentation rate is 5.284 cm·s^(−1).The tailings floc presents a multi-scale structure of particle-force chain system when hindered settling,and the interweaving of strong and weak force chains constitutes the topological structure of particles.The results are applied to a thicker in plant,the flocculant addition mode and feed rate are optimized,and the flocs settling speed and overflow clarity are improved.

Settling velocity of equiaxed dendrites in a tube

The settling velocity of equiaxed dendrites can cause macrosegregation and influence the structure of the equiaxed zone during the casting solidification process. So an understanding of the settling characteristics is needed to predict the structure and segregation in castings. The settling velocity of NH4Cl equiaxed dendrites of non-spherical geometry was studied experimentally in an NH4Cl-70wt.%H2O solution. A calculation formula was proposed to calculate the settling velocity of sediment equiaxed dendrites in a tube filled with saturated solution at a moderate Reynolds number region. The retardation effects of the wall and morphology of the equiaxed dendrite on the settling velocity were taken into account in the development of the calculation formula, and the correction function B of the drag coefficient with consideration of the retardation effects of the wall and morphology of the equiaxed dendrite on the settling velocity of the equiaxed dendrite was calibrated according to the experimental results. A comparison showed that the formula has a good accordance with the experimental results.

A novel predictive model of drag coefficient and settling velocity of drill cuttings in non-Newtonian drilling fluids

In oil and gas well drilling operations,it is of great significance to accurately predict the drag coefficient and settling velocity of drill cuttings in non-Newtonian drilling fluids.In this paper,the free-falling of 172 groups of spheres and 522 groups of irregular-shaped sand particles in Newtonian/non-Newtonian fluids were investigated experimentally.It was found that the drag coefficient calculated based on Newtonian correlations can result in a significant error when the particle settles in the non-Newtonian fluid.Therefore,predictive models of drag coefficient were established respectively for different types of fluids.The validity of the proposed drag coefficient model of spheres was verified by comparing it with the previous works.On this basis,the drag coefficient model of irregular-shaped sand particles was established by introducing a shape factor.The models do not use the shape factor that requires detailed threedimensional shape and size information.Instead,two-dimensional geometric information(circularity)is obtained via image analysis techniques.The present new models predict the settling velocity of sand particles in the power-law fluid and Herschel-Bulkley fluid accurately with a mean relative error of5.03%and 6.74%,respectively,which verifies the accuracy of the model.

Group Settling Velocity of Non-Cohesive Sediment Mixtures

Settling velocity is a fundamental parameter in sediment transport dynamics. For uniform particles, there are abundant formulas for calculation of their settling velocities. But in natural fields, sediment consists of non-uniform particles. The interaction among particles is complex and should not be neglected. In this paper, based on the analysis of settling mechanism of non-cohesive and non-uniform particles, a theoretical model to describe settling mechanism is proposed. Besides suspension concentration and upward turbulent flow caused by other particles, collision among particles is another main factor influencing settling velocity. By introducing the collision theory, equations of fall velocity before collision, collision probability, and fall velocity after collision are established. Finally, a formula used to calculate the settling velocity of non-cohesive particles with wide grain gradation is presented, which agrees well with the experimental data.

Settling behavior of spherical particles in eccentric annulus filled with viscous inelastic fluid

Hole cleaning is a complex process as there are many variables affecting cuttings removal(e.g.drilling fluid type,density,flow rate and rheological properties,cuttings size,drill pipe rotation speed).With the increasing number of drilling small diameter wells(e.g.coiled tubing drilling applications,ultra-deep wells drilled for exploitations of unconventional oil and gas resources),the wall resistance of the micro annulus also emerges as one of the most critical factors affecting the cuttings accumulation in wellbore.The eccentricity of drill pipes commonly observed during the drilling process of ultra-deep well and coiled tubing well makes the wall resistance effect on the cuttings transport even more prominent.Understanding the wall resistance effect on the particle settling behavior in eccentric annuli is,therefore,crucial for hydraulic design of efficient cuttings transport operations in these wells.In this study,a total of 196 sets of particle settling experiments were carried out to investigate the particle settling behavior in eccentric annuli filled with power-law fluids.The test matrix included the eccentricity ranges of 0-0.80,the dimensionless diameter ranges of 0.13-0.75 and the particle Reynolds number ranges of 0.09-32.34.A high-speed camera was used to record the particle settling process and determine the influences of the eccentricity,the dimensionless diameter,the fluid rheological properties,and the solid particle characteristics on the wall factor and the particle settling velocity.The functional relationship among the dimensionless diameter,the particle Reynolds number,and the wall factor was determined by using the method of controlling variables.An eccentric annulus wall factor model with average relative error of 5.16%was established.Moreover,by introducing Archimedes number,an explicit model of particle settling velocity in the eccentric annulus with average relative error of 10.17%was established.A sample calculation of particle settling velocity was provided to show the application of the explicit model.Results of this study can be used as a guideline by field engineers to improve hydraulic design of cuttings transport operations in concentric and eccentric annuli.

SWAT Model Prediction of Phosphorus Loading in a South Carolina Karst Watershed with a Downstream Embayment

The SWAT model was used to predict total phosphorus (TP) loadings for a 1555-ha karst watershed—Chapel Branch Creek (CBC)—which drains to a lake via a reservoir-like embayment (R-E). The model was first tested for monthly streamflow predictions from tributaries draining three potential source areas as well as the downstream R-E, followed by TP loadings using data collected March 2007-October 2009. Source areas included 1) a golf course that received applied wastewater, 2) urban areas, highway, and some agricultural lands, and 3) a cave spring draining a second golf course along with agricultural and forested areas, including a substantial contribution of subsurface water via karst connectivity. SWAT predictions of mean monthly TP loadings at the first two source outlets were deemed reasonable. However, the predictions at the cave spring outlet were somewhat poorer, likely due to diffuse variable groundwater flow from an unknown drainage area larger than the actual surface watershed, for which monthly subsurface flow was represented as a point source during simulations. Further testing of the SWAT model to predict monthly TP loadings at the R-E, modeled as a completely mixed system, resulted in their over-predictions most of the months, except when high lake water levels occurred. The mean monthly and annual flows were calibrated to acceptable limits with the exception of flow over-prediction when lake levels were low and surface water from tributaries disappeared into karst connections. The discrepancy in TP load predictions was attributed primarily to the use of limited monthly TP data collected during baseflow in the embayment. However, for the 22-month period, over-prediction of mean monthly TP load (34.6 kg/mo) by 13% compared to measured load (30.6 kg/mo) in the embayment was deemed acceptable. Simulated results showed a 42% reduction in TP load due to settling in the embayment.

Brownout for 20%Down? Settle Year-End Accounts Now

Five years ago,Chinese government vowed to bring its energy consumption down by 20%against unit gross domestic product(GDP) during 2006 - 2010,an ambitious but realistic target laid down in a clear-cut term in its 11th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development.It’s time to finish the goal, but how?

Non-symmetric distributions of solids deposition for solid-water stratified flow in deviated tubing strings

Dynamic performance on solids flow with water in deviated tubing is essential for the reliability of pump and normal operation of horizontal and directional wells.Compared with coal-water flow in vertical tubing and sand-oil flow with high production in deviated tubing,solids deposition with water shows obvious non-symmetric distributions in deviated tubing from simulations and experiments.The mathematical model of two phase flow was developed under coupling conditions of deviated tubing,low flow rate and viscosity based on the kinetic theory of granular flow and first-order discrete scheme.The results show that solid-water stratified flow in deviated tubing can be divided into two zones of suspension bed and the moving bed throughout the flow field.The solid flowing velocity with water is negative and particles slide down at the bottom of moving bed zone.The process of solids flow with water in deviated tubing will produce pressure loss and consume the kinetic energy.The thickness of deposited layer and the flowing velocity of solids flow downward with water at the moving bed zone enhance with the decreased inlet flow rate and the increased particle size,tubing inside diameter(ID)and inclination angle.Solids are easier into suspension from the upper part of moving bed zone to suspension bed zone and more solid particles flow with water towards the tubing outlet with the increase of inlet flowing velocity.The decision is made to reduce the screen width,tubing ID and inclination angle to maintain to be greater than critical deposition velocity in order to prevent solids settling.And it provides the theoretical basis and technical reserves for solid control and offers an effective approach to enhance tubing cleaning in deviated strings.

On the Effect of Mist Flow on the Heat Transfer Performances of a Three-Copper- Sphere Configuration

The cooling of a(pebble bed)spent fuel in a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor(HTGR)is adversely affected by an increase in the temperature of the used gas(air).To investigate this problem,a configuration consisting of three copper spheres arranged in tandem subjected to a forced mistflow inside a cylindrical channel is considered.The heat transfer coefficients and related variations as a function of Reynolds number are investigated accord-ingly.The experimental results show that when compared to those with only airflow,the heat transfer coefficient of the spherical elements with mistflow(j=112 kg/m2 hr,Re=55000)increases by 180%,75%,and 20%,respec-tively for thefirst,second,and third spherical element(the corresponding heat transfer enhancement ratio being 2.3,1.4,and 1.1).Additional numerical simulations reveal that the presence of stagnant zones with intense vortex formation around each spherical element contributes significantly to determine the heat transfer behavior.