This study investigates ultrasonic energy’s impact on enhancing the growth of Botryococcus braunii (B. braunii) microalgae. Microalgae, known for their advantages in greenhouse gas mitigation and biomass conversion, were subjected to various stressors, including ultrasonic waves, to optimize productivity. Ultrasonic waves induce acoustic cavitation, increasing membrane permeability and substrate conversion. The study examined the impact of energy and maximum pressure resulting from bubble collapse on the relative specific growth rate of B. braunii microalgae. It was observed that reproduction showed a promotive trend until the energy surpassed 30 kJ. However, when ultrasonic energy reached 18.2 kJ, reproduction was inhibited due to the maximum pressure generated during bubble bursting, which reached 5.7 µN/µm², leading to the suppression of reproduction upon encountering bubble collapse events. Under specific ultrasonic conditions (15.1 kJ energy, maximum pressure of 45.5 × 10⁵ Pa), a maximum specific growth rate of 0.329 ± 0.020 day⁻¹ in a two-day interval boosted B. braunii microalgae biomass productivity. These findings advance our understanding of ultrasonic wave effects on microalgae reproduction and underscore the potential for optimizing ultrasonic parameters to enhance biomass production.

The subject of the research was the Middle Miocene red algal limestone from the Włochy deposit, which is currently the only place of exploitation of the Pińczów Limestone representing a local type of the Leitha Limestone. The collected samples of this rock belong to the organodetric facies of diverse grain size and sorting of clastic material. Considering the proportions of characteristic skeleton remains, the composition of the coarse-grained organodetric facies is red algal-foraminiferalbryozoic, while of the fine-grained facies is foraminiferal-red algal. The cement of these rocks is predominantly sparite compared to micrite-clay matrix. A complement to petrographic studies was the chemical analysis and identification of mineral phases with X-ray diffraction. Moreover, physical and mechanical properties of samples were analyzed. Porosity of the rock was assessed in the polarizing and scanning microscope (SEM-EDS) observations, as well as with a porosimetric tests. The coarse-detrital limestone with a dominant binder in the form of intergranular cement is characterized by the apparent density sometimes exceeded 1.90 Mg/m3, while fine-grained limestone has the highest water absorbability (above 20%) and total porosity (about 40%). The above properties influenced high water absorption by capillarity, limiting the possibility of using limestone in places exposed to moisture. The observed relationship between the ultrasonic waves velocity and the uniaxial compressive strength gives the possibility of predicting the value of the latter parameter in the future. The limestones from Włochy deposit do not differ in quality from the previously used Pińczów Limestones, and their technical parameters predestine them for use as cladding material with insulating properties.

The paper presents results of a study on the effect of passage of time on magnesium content in iron alloys and the effect of magnesium content on the number of vermicular graphite precipitations per unit surface area and value of the longitudinal ultrasonic wave velocity for two different vermicularization methods. The study was carried out with the use of inspection bar castings. For specific production conditions, it has been found that in case of application of both the cored wire injection method and the method of pouring liquid metal over magnesium master alloy on ladle bottom, the satisfactory level of magnesium content in the bottom-pour ladle, for which it was still possible to obtain castings with vermicular graphite, was 0.018% Mg. In case of the cored wire injection method, the “time window” available to a pouring station at which castings of vermicular cast iron are expected to be obtained, was about 5 minutes. This corresponds to the longitudinal ultrasonic wave velocity values exceeding 5500 m/s and the number of graphite precipitations per unit surface area above 320 mm–2. In case of the master alloy method, the respective “time window” allowing to obtain castings of vermicular cast iron was only about 3 minutes long. This corresponds to the longitudinal ultrasonic wave velocity value above 5400 m/s and the number of graphite precipitations per unit surface area above 380 mm–2.

Early detection of damage is necessary for the safe and reliable use of civil engineering structures made of concrete. Recently, the identification of micro-cracks in concrete has become an area of growing interest, especially when it comes to using wave-based techniques. In this paper, a non-destructive testing approach for the characterization of the fracture process was presented. Experimental tests were performed on concrete beams subjected to mechanical degradation in a 3-point bending test. Ultrasonic waves were registered on a specimen surface by piezoelectric transducers located at several points. Then, the signals were processed taking advantage of wave scattering due to micro-crack disturbances. For early-stage damage detection, coda wave interferometry was used. The novelty of the work concerns the application of the complex decorrelation matrix and the moving reference trace approach for better distinguishment of sensors located in different parts of a crack zone. To enhance coda wave-based damage identification results, optical imaging of crack development was performed by means of digital image correlation measurement. The results obtained showed that the coda wave interferometry technique can be successfully used as a quantitative measure of changes in the structure of concrete. The results also indicated that the course of decorrelation coefficient curves enabled the identification of three stages during degradation, and it depended on the location of acquisition points versus the crack zone.