Unraveling the size distributions of surface properties for purple soil and yellow soil

Soils contain diverse colloidal particles whose properties are pertinent to ecological and human health, whereas few investigations systematically analyze the surface properties of these particles. The objective of this study was to elucidate the surface properties of particles within targeted size ranges（i.e. 〉 10, 1-10, 0.5-1, 0.2-0.5 and 〈 0.2 μm） for a purple soil（Entisol） and a yellow soil（Ultisol） using the combined determination method. The mineralogy of corresponding particle-size fractions was determined by X-ray diffraction.We found that up to 80% of the specific surface area and 85% of the surface charge of the entire soil came from colloidal-sized particles（〈 1 μm）, and almost half of the specific surface area and surface charge came from the smallest particles（〈 0.2 μm）. Vermiculite,illite, montmorillonite and mica dominated in the colloidal-sized particles, of which the smallest particles had the highest proportion of vermiculite and montmorillonite. For a given size fraction, the purple soil had a larger specific surface area, stronger electrostatic field, and higher surface charge than the yellow soil due to differences in mineralogy.Likewise, the differences in surface properties among the various particle-size fractions can also be ascribed to mineralogy. Our results indicated that soil surface properties were essentially determined by the colloidal-sized particles, and the 〈 0.2 μm nanoparticles made the largest contribution to soil properties. The composition of clay minerals within the diverse particle-size fractions could fully explain the size distributions of surface properties.

Simulation of particle flow in a bell-less type charging system of a blast furnace using the discrete element method

A three-dimensional model was established by the discrete element method （DEM） to analyze the flow and segregation of particles in a charging process in detail. The simulation results of the burden falling trajectory obtained by the model were compared with the industrial charging measurements to validate the applicability of the model. The flow behavior of particles from the weighing hopper to the top layer of a blast furnace and the heaping behavior were analyzed using this model. A radial segregation index （RSI） was used to evaluate the extent of the size segregation in the charging process. In addition, the influence of the chute inclination angle on the size segregation and burden profile during the charging process was investigated.

Design and optimization of BCCD in CMOS technology

This paper optimizes the buried channel charge-coupled device(BCCD) structure fabricated by complementary metal oxide semiconductor(CMOS) technology. The optimized BCCD has advantages of low noise, high integration and high image quality. The charge transfer process shows that interface traps, weak fringing fields and potential well between adjacent gates all cause the decrease of charge transfer efficiency(CTE). CTE and well capacity are simulated with different operating voltages and gap sizes. CTE can achieve 99.999% and the well capacity reaches up to 25 000 electrons for the gap size of 130 nm and the maximum operating voltage of 3 V.