To study the difference in seismic vulnerability of multiple typical structures in multiple intensity zones, the seismic damage of 7099 buildings of Dujiangyan masonry structure (MS), reinforced concrete structure (RC) and bottom frame seismic wall masonry (BFM) in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake in China is summarized and analysed. First, a statistical analysis of the data is carried out, the empirical seismic vulnerability matrix and model curves are established by considering the number of storeys, the age and the fortification factors.The vulnerability curves of the cumulative exceeding probability of the empirical seismic damage and the grade of the seismic damage in multiple intensity zones are shown. The mean damage index vulnerability matrix model is proposed and verified using the empirical seismic damage matrix of typical structures.

A new concept of an electrostatic spray column for liquid-liquid extraction was investigated. An important problem for separation processes is the presence of azeotropic or close-boiling mixtures in their production, for example heptane with ethanol, since the separation is impossible by ordinary distillation. The use of ionic liquids (IL) as a dispersed solvent specially engineered for any specific organic mixture in terms of selectivity is a key factor to successful separation. As IL present particularly attractive combination of favorable characteristics for the separation of heptane and ethanol, in this work we use 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methyl sulfate [BMIM][MeSO4]. Because of high viscosity and relatively high cost of IL a new technique was introduced, consisting in the electrostatically spray generation to enhance the mass transport between the phases. In order to optimally design the geometry of the contactor a series of numerical simulation was performed. Especially multi-nozzle variants for better exploitation of contactor volume were investigated. Experiments showed excellent possibility of control of the dispersion characteristics by applied voltage and thus control of the rate of extraction. The preliminary simulations based on our mathematical model for a three nozzle variant exhibited visual agreement with the theory of electrostatics.