1. An apparatus for preventing cracking of a liquid system, comprising:
at least one heat exchanger;
at least one inlet port extending through a first opening for conveying a fluid to a plurality of channels and passages;
at least one outlet port extending through a second opening for discharging the fluid from the plurality of channels and passages; and
one or more compressible objects coupled to the inlet and outlet ports in an unpressured condition such that the compressible objects reduce a volume of the inlet port and the outlet port and further wherein pressure exerted on the compressible object increases a volume of the inlet port and the outlet port;
wherein, the heat exchanger is configured so that the fluid in the inlet port and the outlet port freezes later than the fluid elsewhere in the heat exchanger, and for freezing to advance towards the one or more compressible objects.
2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the compressible objects accommodate a predetermined level of fluid expansion.
3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the predetermined level of fluid expansion is between 5 to 25 percent.
4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the compressible objects being capable of contracting and expanding between a minimum volume and a maximum volume.
5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the compressible objects being secured within the inlet port and the outlet port.
6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the compressible objects are confined within the inlet port and the outlet port.
7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the compressible objects are made of one of the following: sponge, foam, air-filled bubbles, or balloons.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the sponge or foam is hydrophobic.
9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the compressible object is encapsulated in a gas or liquid impermeable package.
10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the package is formed of metallic barrier material or metallized plastic sheet material.
11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the package has a hydrophilic surface or coating.
12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the package is formed of plastic material.
13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the plastic material is selected from the group teflon, mylar, PET, PEN, and PVC.
14. An apparatus for preventing cracking of a liquid system, comprising:
an enclosure; and
one or more compressible objects immersed in the enclosure;
wherein, the enclosure is configured to cause a fluid to begin to freeze at one or more locations in the enclosure, and for freezing to advance towards the one or more compressible objects.
15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the objects accommodate a predetermined level of fluid expansion.
16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the predetermined level of fluid expansion is between 5 to 25 percent.
17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the objects having a size and volume proportion to an amount of fluid in the enclosure.
18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the objects are a hydrophobic foam.
19. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the object are a hydrophobic sponge.
20. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the objects are made of one of the following: sponge, foam, air-filled bubbles, or balloons.
21. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the objects are encapsulated in a gas or liquid impermeable package.
22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the package is formed of metallic barrier material or metallized plastic sheet material.
23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the package is formed of plastic material.
24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the plastic material is selected from the group teflon, mylar, PET, PEN, and PVC.
25. A method of preventing cracking of a liquid system, the system including one or more pumps and one or more heat exchangers, the method comprising the steps of:
providing an enclosure;
configuring the enclosure to cause a fluid to begin to freeze at one or more locations in the enclosure, and for freezing to advance towards other locations in the enclosure; and
immersing one or more compressible objects in the enclosure at the other locations.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein the objects accommodate a predetermined level of fluid expansion.
27. The method of claim 26, wherein the predetermined level of fluid expansion is between 5 to 25 percent.
28. The method of claim 25, wherein the objects having a size and volume proportion to an amount of fluid in the enclosure.
29. The method of claim 25, wherein the objects are a hydrophobic foam.
30. The method of claim 25, wherein the objects are a hydrophobic sponge.
31. The method of claim 25, wherein the objects are made of one of the following: sponge, foam, air-filled bubbles, or balloons.
32. The method of claim 25, wherein the objects are encapsulated in a gas or liquid impermeable package.
33. The method of claim 32, wherein the package is formed of metallic barrier material or metallized plastic sheet material.
34. The method of claim 32, wherein the package is formed of plastic material.
35. The method of claim 34, wherein the plastic material is selected from the group teflon, mylar, PET, PEN, and PVC.
36. An apparatus for preventing cracking of a liquid system, the system including one or more pumps and one or more heat exchangers, comprising an enclosure, wherein the enclosure being capable of contracting and expanding between a minimum volume condition and a maximum volume condition with fluid expansion during freezing, and further wherein the enclosure is configured to cause a fluid to begin to freeze at one or more locations in the enclosure, and for freezing to advance towards other locations in the enclosure.
37. An apparatus for preventing cracking of a liquid system, comprising:
at least one heat exchanger including a plurality of microchannels;
at least one inlet port extending through a first opening for conveying a fluid to the plurality of microchannels;
at least one outlet port extending through a second opening for discharging the fluid from the plurality of microchannels; and
one or more compressible objects each coupled to at least one of the inlet port and outlet port in an unpressured condition such that the compressible objects reduce a volume of the inlet port and the outlet port and further wherein pressure exerted on the compressible object increases a volume of the inlet port and the outlet port;
wherein, the heat exchanger is configured so that fluid within the plurality of microchannels freezes before fluid within the outlet port and the inlet port.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An infrared circular dichroism measuring apparatus comprising:
an IR light source radiating IR light beams;
an interferometer for allowing the IR light beams to interfere to generate an interference light beam;
a polarized light beam generator for making the interference light beam into a linearly polarized light beam;
a circularly polarized light beam generator for converting the linearly polarized light beam into clockwise and counter clockwise circularly polarized light beams at a predetermined modulation frequency and irradiating the circularly polarized light beams on a sample;
a detector for detecting the circularly polarized light beams that have passed through the sample and generating a detection signal;
a DC signal extractor for extracting from the detected signal an interferogram by the IR absorption of the sample;
an AC signal extractor for extracting from the detected signal an interferogram by each of the clockwise and counterclockwise circularly polarized light beams;
a calculator for conducting a Fourier transformation and calculating the circular dichroism and IR absorption, based on each of the interferograms extracted by the extractors; and
a selective transmitter for narrowing down the wavelength region to be measured, based on a wavelength region in an IR absorption band corresponding to a vibration mode of a structure to be measured in the sample molecule.
2. The infrared circular dichroism measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the circularly polarized light beam generator is a photoelastic modulator.
3. The infrared circular dichroism measuring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the photoelastic modulator sets its central wavelength based on a measurement wavelength region selected by the selective transmitter.
4. The infrared circular dichroism measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the AC signal extractor comprises a lock in amplifier.
5. The infrared circular dichroism measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a wavelength region in which the detector has a high sensitivity is defined based on a wavelength region to be measured selected by the selective transmitter.
6. The infrared circular dichroism measuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selective transmitter is an optical filter for selectively irradiating on the sample a light beam of a wavelength region in an IR absorption band corresponding to a vibration mode of a specific structure in the sample molecule among IR light beams from the IR light source, andor an electric filter for selectively transmitting a signal component of a specific region defined based on a vibration mode of a structure to be measured among interference signals by light beams at each wavelength, that are the components of a signal modulated by the interferometer.
7. The infrared circular dichroism measuring apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the relation between the structure to be measured and the wavelength region selected by the selective transmitter is expressed by at least one of the following {circle around (1)} to {circle around (7)}:
{circle around (1)} for the structure NH, the wavelength region to be selected for measurement is 3,700\u20133,100 cm\u22121;
{circle around (2)} for the structure CH stretching vibration, the wavelength region to be selected for measurement is 3,000\u20132,800 cm\u22121;
{circle around (3)} for the structure C=O, the wavelength region to be selected for measurement is 1,700 cm\u22121; {circle around (4)} for the structure amide I (protein), the wavelength region to be selected for measurement is 1,640 cm\u22121;
{circle around (5)} for the structure amide II (protein), the wavelength region to be selected for measurement is 1,550 cm\u22121;
{circle around (6)} for the structure CH bending vibration, the wavelength region to be selected for measurement is 1,500\u20131,300 cm\u22121; and
{circle around (7)} for the structure C-O-C (sugar), the wavelength region to be selected for measurement is 1,100\u2013900 cm\u22121.
8. An infrared circular dichroism measuring method comprising the steps of:
generating an interference light beam by allowing IR light beams radiated from anIR light source to interfere by use of an interferometer;
after making the interference light beam into a linearly polarized light beam, converting the linearly polarized light beam into a clockwise and a counterclockwise circularly polarized light beams at a predetermined modulation frequency and irradiating the converted light beams on a sample;
detecting the circularly polarized light beams which have passed through the sample and generating a detection signal;
extracting from the detected signal an interfero gram by each of the clockwise and the counterclockwise circularly polarized light beams;
conducting a Fourier transformation and calculating a circular dichroism, based on the interferograms; and
narrowing down the wavelength region to be measured, based on an IR absorption wavelength region corresponding to a vibration mode of the structure to be measured of a sample molecule.
9. The infrared circular dichroism measuring method according to claim 8, wherein the circularly polarized light beam is generated by a photoelastic modulator.
10. The infrared circular dichroism measuring method according to claim 9, wherein the central wavelength of the photoelastic modulator is set based on the selected wavelength region to be measured.
11. The infrared circular dichroism measuring method according to claim 8, wherein a lock in amplifier is used for the extracting.
12. The infrared circular dichroism measuring method according to claim 8, wherein a detector is used for detecting the circularly polarized light beams which have passed through the sample and generating a detection signal and wherein a wavelength region in which the detector has a high sensitivity is defined based on the selected wavelength region to be measured.
13. The infrared circular dichroism measuring method according to claim 8, wherein the wavelength region to be measured is narrowed down by selectively irradiating a light beam in an IR absorption wavelength region corresponding to the vibration mode of a specific structure in a sample molecule among the IR light beams from the IR light source, on a sample, using an optical filter, andor by selectively transmitting a signal component of a specific region defined based on a vibration mode of the structure to be measured among interference signals by light beams at each wavelength, that are components of a signal modulated by the interferometer, using an electric filter.