The applications of graphene-based adsorbents were limited because of their complicated manufacturing technology and hi cost, thus it is very important to prepare new inexpensive and easily manufactured graphene-based adsorbents. Herein, novel GCP hydrogels with different graphene oxide (GO), chitosan (CS), and poly­(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) ratios were facilely prepared through a method of freeze–thaw physical cross-linking, which was green and low-cost, and the structural characterization and adsorptive property of the optimum GCP1:2:4 hydrogel toward Cd2+ and Ni2+ in wastewater was evaluated. It was found that the GCP1:2:4 hydrogel had good mechanical strength and a special 3D interconnection porous structure. The isotherms of adsorption used the Langmuir model, and the kinetics of adsorption following the pseudo-second-order model were confirmed. Moreover, the adsorption property with respect to Cd2+ and Ni2+ in wastewater has been largely effected by the pH and was less influenced by the ionic strength and humic acid, and the GCP1:2:4 hydrogel possessed excellent adsorptive and recyclable properties. These results demonstrated that the GCP1:2:4 hydrogel could serve as a desirable adsorbent to get rid of heavy metal ions in sewage.

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A computational fluid dynamics simulation method based on large eddy simulation is presented and applied to compute the sunroof buffeting of a sport utility vehicle. The simulation result, i.e. the buffeting level curve, coincides well with the road test. The simulation method is then employed to investigate the sunroof buffeting of a vehicle during the development process in the range of 30 km/h–90 km/h. The results show that the most severe sunroof buffeting occurs at 70 km/h, which corresponds to the resonant frequency of the cabin. Flow field visualizations reveal that strong pressure fluctuations are generated inside the cabin due to vortex shedding from the leading edge and impinging onto the trailing edge of the sunroof opening, which explains the mechanism of sunroof buffeting. A new deflector with a gap and a notched upper edge is designed to replace the original castle type deflector. The simulation results show that the newly designed deflector can reduce the buffeting level to 97.9 dB; that is, the sunroof buffeting is completely eliminated. Moreover, the phenomenon of sunroof buffeting reduction is explained by comparing and analyzing the flow field between the newly designed deflector and the original deflector.

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