Browsing by Author "Chen, G"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Application of SAXS to the study of particle-size-dependent thermal conductivity in silica nanofluids.
    (Springer, 2008-10) Chen, G; Yu, WH; Singh, D; Cookson, DJ; Routbort, J
    Knowledge of the size and distribution of nanoparticles in solution is critical to understanding the observed enhancements in thermal conductivity and heat transfer of nanofluids. We have applied smallangle X-ray scattering (SAXS) to the characterization of SiO2 nanoparticles (10-30 nm) uniformly dispersed in a water-based fluid using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. Size distributions for the suspended nanoparticles were derived by fitting experimental data to an established model. Thermal conductivity of the SiO2 nanofluids was also measured, and the relation between the average particle size and the thermal conductivity enhancement was established. The experimental data contradict models based on fluid interfacial layers or Brownian motion but support the concept of thermal resistance at the liquid-particle interface. © 2008, Springer.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Evaluate transport processes in MERRA driven chemical transport models using updated 222Rn emission inventories and global observations
    (AGU, 2015-12-14) Zhang, B; Liu, HY; Crawford, J; Fairlie, TD; Chen, G; Chambers, SD; Kang, CH; Williams, AG; Zhang, K; Considine, DB; Sulprizio, MP; Yantosca, RM
    Convective and synoptic processes play a major role in determining the transport and distribution of trace gases and aerosols in the troposphere. The representation of these processes in global models (at ~100-1000 km horizontal resolution) is challenging, because convection is a sub-grid process and needs to be parameterized, while synoptic processes are close to the grid scale. Depending on the parameterization schemes used in climate models, the role of convection in transporting trace gases and aerosols may vary from model to model. 222Rn is a chemically inert and radioactive gas constantly emitted from soil and has a half-life (3.8 days) comparable to synoptic timescale, which makes it an effective tracer for convective and synoptic transport. In this study, we evaluate the convective and synoptic transport in two chemical transport models (GMI and GEOS-Chem), both driven by the NASA’s MERRA reanalysis. Considering the uncertainties in 222Rn emissions, we incorporate two more recent scenarios with regionally varying 222Rn emissions into GEOS-Chem/MERRA and compare the simulation results with those using the relatively uniform 222Rn emissions in the standard model. We evaluate the global distribution and seasonality of 222Rn concentrations simulated by the two models against an extended collection of 222Rn observations from 1970s to 2010s. The intercomparison will improve our understanding of the spatial variability in global 222Rn emissions, including the suspected excessive 222Rn emissions in East Asia, and provide useful feedbacks on 222Rn emission models. We will assess 222Rn vertical distributions at different latitudes in the models using observations at surface sites and in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Results will be compared with previous models driven by other meteorological fields (e.g., fvGCM and GEOS4). Since the decay of 222Rn is the source of 210Pb, a useful radionuclide tracer attached to submicron aerosols, improved understanding of emissions and transport of 222Rn will provide insights into the transport, distribution, and wet deposition of 210Pb aerosols.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    In situ observation and neutron diffraction of NiTi powder sintering
    (Elsevier, 2014-04-01) Chen, G; Liss, KD; Cao, P
    This study investigated NiTi powder sintering behaviour from elemental powder mixtures of Ni/Ti and Ni/TiH2 using in situ neutron diffraction and in situ scanning electron microscopy. The sintered porous alloys have open porosities ranging from 2.7% to 36.0%. In comparison to the Ni/Ti compact, dehydrogenation occurring in the Ni/TiH2 compact leads to less densification yet higher chemical homogenization only after high-temperature sintering. For the first time, direct evidence of the eutectoid phase transformation of NiTi at 620 °C is reported by in situ neutron diffraction. A comparative study of cyclic stress–strain behaviours of the porous NiTi alloys made from Ni/Ti and Ni/TiH2 compacts indicate that the samples sintered from the Ni/TiH2 compact exhibited a much higher porosity, larger pore size, lower fracture strength, lower close-to-overall porosity ratio and lower Young’s modulus. Instead of enhanced densification by the use of TiH2 as reported in the literature, this study shows an adverse effect of TiH2 on powder densification in NiTi.© 2013 Acta Materialia Inc.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    An in situ study of NiTi powder sintering using neutron diffraction
    (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 2015-04-03) Chen, G; Liss, KD; Cao, P
    This study investigates phase transformation and mechanical properties of porous NiTi alloys using two different powder compacts (i.e., Ni/Ti and Ni/TiH2) by a conventional press-and-sinter means. The compacted powder mixtures were sintered in vacuum at a final temperature of 1373 K. The phase evolution was performed by in situ neutron diffraction upon sintering and cooling. The predominant phase identified in all the produced porous NiTi alloys after being sintered at 1373 K is B2 NiTi phase with the presence of other minor phases. It is found that dehydrogenation of TiH2 significantly affects the sintering behavior and resultant microstructure. In comparison to the Ni/Ti compact, dehydrogenation occurring in the Ni/TiH2 compact leads to less densification, yet higher chemical homogenization, after high temperature sintering but not in the case of low temperature sintering. Moreover, there is a direct evidence of the eutectoid decomposition of NiTi at ca. 847 and 823 K for Ni/Ti and Ni/TiH2, respectively, during furnace cooling. The static and cyclic stress-strain behaviors of the porous NiTi alloys made from the Ni/Ti and Ni/TiH2 compacts were also investigated. As compared with the Ni/Ti sintered samples, the samplessintered from the Ni/TiH2 compact exhibited a much higher porosity, a higher close-to-total porosity, a larger pore size and lower tensile and compressive fracture strength. © 1996-2020 MDPI
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    An in situ study of sintering behavior and phase transformation Kinetics in NiTi using neutron diffraction
    (Springer, 2015-09-15) Chen, G; Liss, KD; Cao, P
    The powder sintering behavior of NiTi from an elemental powder mixture of Ni/Ti has been investigated, using an in situ neutron diffraction technique. In the sintered alloys, the overall porosity ranges from 9.2 to 15.6 pct, while the open-to-overall porosity ratio is between 8.3 and 63.7 pct and largely depends on the sintering temperature. In comparison to powder compacts sintered at 1223 K and 1373 K (950 °C and 1100 °C), the powder compact sintered at 1153 K (880 °C) shows a much smaller pore size, a higher open-to-overall porosity ratio but smaller shrinkage and a lower density. Direct evidence of eutectoid transformation in the binary Ni-Ti system during furnace cooling to ca. 890 K (617 °C) is provided by in situ neutron diffraction. The intensities of the B2-NiTi reflections decrease during the holding stage at 1373 K (1100 °C), which has been elaborated as an extinction effect according to the dynamical theory of neutron diffraction, when distorted crystallites gradually recover to perfect crystals. The analysis on the first five reflections clarifies the non-existence of any order–disorder transition in the NiTi phase from B2-to-BCC structure.Copyright © 2015, Springer Nature
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Simulation of radon-222 with the GEOS-Chem global model: emissions, seasonality, and convective transport
    (Copernicus Publications, 2021-02-10) Zhang, B; Liu, HY; Crawford, JH; Chen, G; Fairlie, TD; Chambers, SD; Kang, CH; Williams, AG; Zhang, K; Considine, DB; Sulprizio, MP; Yantosca, RM
    Radon-222 (222Rn) is a short-lived radioactive gas naturally emitted from land surfaces and has long been used to assess convective transport in atmospheric models. In this study, we simulate 222Rn using the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to improve our understanding of 222Rn emissions and surface concentration seasonality and characterize convective transport associated with two Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) meteorological products, the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) and GEOS Forward Processing (GEOS-FP). We evaluate four global 222Rn emission scenarios by comparing model results with observations at 51 surface sites. The default emission scenario in GEOS-Chem yields a moderate agreement with surface observations globally (68.9 % of data within a factor of 2) and a large underestimate of winter surface 222Rn concentrations at Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes and high latitudes due to an oversimplified formulation of 222Rn emission fluxes (1 atom cm−2 s−1 over land with a reduction by a factor of 3 under freezing conditions). We compose a new global 222Rn emission scenario based on Zhang et al. (2011) and demonstrate its potential to improve simulated surface 222Rn concentrations and seasonality. The regional components of this scenario include spatially and temporally varying emission fluxes derived from previous measurements of soil radium content and soil exhalation models, which are key factors in determining 222Rn emission flux rates. However, large model underestimates of surface 222Rn concentrations still exist in Asia, suggesting unusually high regional 222Rn emissions. We therefore propose a conservative upscaling factor of 1.2 for 222Rn emission fluxes in China, which was also constrained by observed deposition fluxes of 210Pb (a progeny of 222Rn). With this modification, the model shows better agreement with observations in Europe and North America (> 80 % of data within a factor of 2) and reasonable agreement in Asia (close to 70 %). Further constraints on 222Rn emissions would require additional concentration and emission flux observations in the central United States, Canada, Africa, and Asia. We also compare and assess convective transport in model simulations driven by MERRA and GEOS-FP using observed 222Rn vertical profiles in northern midlatitude summer and from three short-term airborne campaigns. While simulations with both GEOS products are able to capture the observed vertical gradient of 222Rn concentrations in the lower troposphere (0–4 km), neither correctly represents the level of convective detrainment, resulting in biases in the middle and upper troposphere. Compared with GEOS-FP, MERRA leads to stronger convective transport of 222Rn, which is partially compensated for by its weaker large-scale vertical advection, resulting in similar global vertical distributions of 222Rn concentrations between the two simulations. This has important implications for using chemical transport models to interpret the transport of other trace species when these GEOS products are used as driving meteorology. © Author(s) 2021.