The article describes the results of combustion of a mixture of PCOME (purified cooking oil esters) and bioethanol in the compression ignition Perkins 1104C-44 engine. The engine was prepared for use with the classic type of fuel – diesel oil, not biofuels. That is why bioethanol was added to ester in tests so that the basic physicochemical properties of the obtained mixture were as close as possible to diesel fuel. Thanks to this, the use of such fuel in the future would not require reworking or adjusting the settings of selected elements of the engine power supply system. During this case study, the engine performance and heat release rate were analyzed. For comparison, tests were carried out while powering the engine with ester fuel, 10 and 20 per cent mixtures of bioethanol and PCOME. The speed and load characteristics for each fuel were determined. This article presents selected characteristics where the biggest differences were noticed.

Due to the importance of uranium and uranium alloys to national defence and nuclear industrial applications, it is necessary to understand dendrite formation in their solidification structures and to control their microstructures. In this study, a modified cellular automaton model was developed to predict 2-D and 3-D equiaxed dendrite growth in U-Nb alloys. The model takes into account solute diffusion, preferential growth orientation, interface curvature, etc., and the solid fraction increment is calculated using the local level rule method. Using this model, 2-D large-scale and 3-D equiaxed dendrite growth with various crystallographic orientations in the U-5.5Nb alloy were simulated, and the Nb micro-segregation behaviour during solidification was analysed. The simulated results showed reasonable agreement with the as-cast microstructure observed experimentally.