Microstructure and Thickness Effects on Impact Behavior and Separation Formation in X70 Pipeline Steel.

In an effort to optimize the transportation of oil and gas, the pipeline industry is developing large-diameter, thick-walled pipelines that can withstand low temperatures and high pressures. In this study, three X70 steel plates of similar chemistry, ranging in thickness from 13.5 mm to 22 mm, were subjected to drop-weight tear and Charpy V-notch tests to determine the effects of plate thickness and microstructure on the formation of separations and impact behavior. Constraint induced by specimen thickness appears to dictate the location of separations, the three microstructures exhibited different separation behaviors, and microstructural banding was not found to promote separation formation. Separations were most frequent when the primary fracture plane was parallel to the rolling direction. This study also found that standardized empirical relationships between Charpy V-notch and drop-weight tear tests do not estimate to the advanced high-strength and -toughness steels investigated.

A Comparison Study-Oral Patient-Controlled Analgesia Versus Traditional Delivery of Pain Medication Following Orthopaedic Procedures.

BACKGROUND: Orthopedic surgical patients have reported significantly lower numeric pain scores using a Wi-Fi oral patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) device compared to patients receiving oral as-needed (PRN) medication by manual administration. More than 90% of nurses using the oral PCA device have agreed that the device saved them time. The manual administration of PRN pain medication is frequently delayed and consumes a significant amount of nursing time. Delays in PRN pain medication delivery have been classed as missed nursing care, called an error of omission. PURPOSE: The purpose of this timing study was to examine if the use of the oral PCA device would reduce the nursing time to accomplish the delivery of PRN oral pain medication compared to the manual administration by nursing staff. METHODS: Each total task for the manual and device administration of a single PRN delivery of an oral pain medication was divided into subtasks. Personal data assistant (PDA) devices were programmed to enable the collection of timing data for each subtask for both methods. RESULTS: The manual administration time was 12.7 minutes per single dose beginning with the patient medication request and ending with pain reassessment. The oral PCA device steps to program the device, deliver one of eight doses of medication, and discharge the patient from the device required 2.06 minutes of nursing time. Reloading an additional eight-dose tray required 40 seconds of nursing time per dose of medication administered. CONCLUSION: The oral PCA saved 84% of the nursing time to administer each dose of PRN medication manually. These data provide evidence that the oral PCA device would reduce the nursing time to deliver a single dose of PRN oral pain medication.