Critical Point

With the depletion of conventional crude oil reserves in the world, heavy oil and bitumen resources have great potential to meet the future demand for petroleum products. However, oil recovery from heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs is much more difficult than that from conventional oil reservoirs. This is mainly because heavy oil or bitumen is partially or completely immobile under reservoir conditions due to its extremely high viscosity, which creates special production challenges. In order to overcome these challenges significant efforts were devoted by Applied Research Center (ARC) at Florida International University and The Center for Energy Economics (CEE) at the University of Texas. A simplified model was developed to assess the density of the upgraded crude depending on the ratio of solvent mass to crude oil mass, temperature, pressure and the properties of the crude oil. The simplified model incorporated the interaction dynamics into a homogeneous, porous heavy oil reservoir ...

Using small angle x-ray scattering, we find that the correlation length of bulk liquid water shows a steep increase as temperature decreases at subzero temperatures (supercooling) and that it can, similar to the thermodynamic response functions, be fitted to a power law. This indicates that the anomalous properties of water are attributable to fluctuations between low- and high-density regions with rapidly growing average size upon supercooling. The substitution of H2O with D2O, as well as the addition of NaCl salt, leads to substantial changes of the power law behavior of the correlation length. Our results are consistent with the proposed existence of a liquid-liquid critical point in the deeply supercooled region but do not exclude a singularity-free model.

Several techniques have been developed to extract and integrate data from web sources. However, web data are inherently imprecise and uncertain. This paper addresses the issue of characterizing the uncertainty of data extracted from a number of inaccurate sources. We develop a probabilistic model to compute a probability distribution for the extracted values, and the accuracy of the sources. Our model considers the presence of sources that copy their contents from other sources, and manages the misleading consensus produced by copiers. We extend the models previously proposed in the literature by working on several attributes at a time to better leverage all the available evidence. We also report the results of several experiments on both synthetic and real-life data to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The main objective of this paper is to examine in some detail the dynamics and fluctuations in the critical situation for a simple model exhibiting bistable macroscopic behavior. The model under consideration is a dynamic model of a collection of anharmonic oscillators in a two-well potential together with an attractive mean-field interaction. The system is studied in the limit as the number of oscillators goes to infinity. The limit is described by a nonlinear partial differential equation and the existence of a phase transition for this limiting system is established. The main result deals with the fluctuations at the critical point in the limit as the number of oscillators goes to infinity. It is established that these fluctuations are non-Gaussian and occur at a time scale slower than the noncritical fluctuations. The method used is based on the perturbation theory for Markov processes developed by Papanicolaou, Stroock, and Varadhan adapted to the context of probability-measure-valued processes.

A computer algorithm has been developed to determine the cloud and shadow point curves of polydisperse polymer/solvent systems using continuous thermodynamics to represent the polymer. The algorithm is based upon the work of Michelsen [M.L. Michelsen, Fluid Phase Equilibria, 4 (1980), pp. 1–10] and Koak [N. Koak, Polymer Solution Phase Behaviour, PhD Thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, 1997] where a Newton–Raphson procedure is used to solve the equations defining phase equilibrium for fixed phase segment fractions between 0 and 1. The equations have been developed with the Sanchez–Lacombe equation of state which allows the continuous system to be defined by a set of five equations in five unknowns. Numerical integration is used to determine the values of the indefinite integrals involved. The cloud and shadow curves for a polydisperse polyethylene/n-hexane system were found at 6 bar using both a log-normal distribution and a Schulz–Flory distribution to represent the polyethylene. Compositions of the cloud point curve covered the entire composition range showing the model's behavior in high temperature regions, a hypothetical liquid–vapour critical point and a three-phase point when the log-normal distribution was used. The cloud and shadow point curves of a polyethylene/ethylene system were also found and indicated a high pressure critical point.

For risk analyses not only knowledge about the impact of different types of hazards, but also information about the elements and values at risk is necessary. This article introduces a methodology for a countrywide estimation of asset values for commercial and industrial properties using Germany as an example. It consists of a financial appraisal of asset values on the municipal level and a further disaggregation by means of land use data. Novelties are the distinction of 60 economic activities, the consideration of production site sizes and the application of a dasymetric mapping technique for a sector-specific estimation and disaggregation of asset values. A validation with empirical data confirms the feasibility of the calculation. The resulting maps can be used for loss estimations e.g. in the framework of cost–benefit analyses that aim to evaluate hazard mitigation measures or for portfolio analyses by banks and insurance companies. The approach can be used for other countries if the necessary data is available (mainly in industrialized countries). In any case, it reveals the critical points when estimating commercial and industrial asset values.

This paper presents a brief introduction about ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, a general vision on the involved aspects in the choice and use, and mainly the main critical points that must be analyzed for the effective reach of the strategical objectives of the company. ERP is the result of a modern attitude of the organizations, front as its systems

The aim of this paper is to use the so-called Cayley transform to compute the LS category of Lie groups and homogeneous spaces by giving explicit categorical open coverings. When applied to U(n), $U(2n)/Sp(n)$ and $U(n)/O(n)$ this method is simpler than those formerly known. We also show that the Cayley transform is related to height functions in Lie groups, allowing to give a local linear model of the set of critical points. As an application we give an explicit covering of $Sp(2)$ by categorical open sets. The obstacles to generalize these results to $Sp(n)$ are discussed.

We present experimental data on mass removal during 1064-nm pulsed laser ablation of graphite, niobium and YBa2Cu3O7-δ superconductor. Evidence for the transition from normal vaporization to phase explosion has been obtained for these materials, showing a dramatic increase in the ablation rate at the threshold fluences of 22, 15 and 17.5 J/cm2, respectively. A numerical model is used to evaluate the ablation rate and temperature distribution within the targets under near-threshold ablation conditions. The results are analyzed from the viewpoint of the vaporized matter approaching the critical point with increasing laser fluence. A possible means of the estimating the thermodynamic critical temperature from the data for nanosecond laser ablation is discussed. It is suggested that the critical temperature of refractory metals is higher than that estimated with the traditional methods due to plasma effects. An analogy with the boiling crisis (the transition from nucleate to film boiling) is drawn to explain the formation of ablation craters with spallated edges.