Cone-shaped hollow flexible reinforced concrete foundation (CHFRF) – Innovative for mountain wind turbines

This paper presents an innovative type of mountain wind turbine foundation, namely, the cone-shaped hollow flexible reinforced concrete foundation (CHFRF). It consists of a top plate, a base plate and a side wall that are made of reinforced concrete. The cavity of the CHFRF is filled with rubble and soil directly from the excavation for the CHFRF, which means that it can absorb the spoil. A rubber layer is placed beneath the CHFRF to increase the foundation flexibility to resist cyclic and dynamic loadings and to increase the bearing capacity. The great advantages of the CHFRF are the reduction in the usage of concrete and steel and the protection of the vegetation around the wind turbine, compared with conventional mountain wind turbine foundations that are solid structures. It is verified through model tests and a numerical simulation that the CHFRF can provide higher lateral bearing capacity in comparison to the regular circular gravity-based foundation under the same foundation diameter and height, and that the bearing capacity is increased by approximately 33.5% accordingly. It is also found that the rubber layer can effectively reduce the accumulated rotation of the CHFRF under cyclic loading. The accumulated rotation of the CHFRF with a rubber layer having a thickness of 4 mm is decreased by about 50% compared to that of the CHFRF with a rubber layer having a thickness of 2 mm. In addition, the volume of concrete used for the CHFRF is only one-fifth of that used for the circular gravity-based foundation. Therefore, the CHFRF outperforms regular mountain wind turbine foundations.     

Carbon nanotubes: properties,synthesis, purification,and medical applications

Current discoveries of different forms of carbon nanostructures have motivated research on their applications in various fields. They hold promise for applications in medicine, gene, and drug delivery areas. Many different production methods for carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been introduced; functionalization, filling, doping, and chemical modification have been achieved, and characterization, separation, and manipulation of individual CNTs are now possible. Parameters such as structure, surface area, surface charge, size distribution, surface chemistry, and agglomeration state as well as purity of the samples have considerable impact on the reactivity of carbon nanotubes. Otherwise, the strength and flexibility of carbon nanotubes make them of potential use in controlling other nanoscale structures, which suggests they will have a significant role in nanotechnology engineering.     

Intensified hydroformylation as an example for flexible intermediates production

One of the future challenges for chemical engineering is the design of flexible plants allowing an adaptation of production output to market development. Consequently, the target for the design of new processes must be the identification of equipment allowing such an expansion close to market development. To leverage the full benefit of this approach flexibility analysis has to be integrated into process design workflow. In this article the conventional technology for hydroformylation is compared to an intensified process design. This new design consists of a jet loop reactor followed by a membrane section to separate and recycle the homogenous catalyst. In the first part of the article it will be shown that process intensification leads to a net present value improvement of 30% compared to state of the art hydroformylation at a capacity of 100 kt/a. In the second part suitability of the intensified process for a stepwise plant expansion will be demonstrated. In an expansion scenario with two steps equivalent annual annuity is increased by 5% compared to a one step investment.     

Requirements and languages for the semantic representation of manufacturing systems

In the last years, attention has been devoted to the development of ontologies, which are ICT conceptual models allowing a formal and shared representation of a particular domain of discourse, and to the use of these representations in a variety of contexts, among which also the industrial engineering can be counted. Within the industrial engineering field, the manufacturing domain has not yet seen a wide application of ontologies. This paper firstly shows the use of ontologies for the semantic annotation of a Web Service-based architecture for the control of manufacturing systems; and then contributes to the research field of manufacturing domain ontologies by proposing a thorough literature review and analysis of the available languages supporting such objective. The paper collects the main requirements that semantic languages must meet to be used in the manufacturing domain with the outlined purpose. In fact, the available semantic languages are several and characterized by different features: the paper identifies the most proper ones for the manufacturing domain representation thanks to their analysis against the main requirements. Lastly, the paper shows how the discussed topics are deployed in a real industrial example.     

Timing-based business models for flexibility creation in the electric power sector

Energy policies in many countries push for an increase in the generation of wind and solar power. Along these developments, the balance between supply and demand becomes more challenging as the generation of wind and solar power is volatile, and flexibility of supply and demand becomes valuable. As a consequence, companies in the electric power sector develop new business models that create flexibility through activities of timing supply and demand. Based on an extensive qualitative analysis of interviews and industry research in the energy industry, the paper at hand explores the role of timing-based business models in the power sector and sheds light on the mechanisms of flexibility creation through timing. In particular we distill four ideal-type business models of flexibility creation with timing and reveal how they can be classified along two dimensions, namely costs of multiplicity and intervention costs. We put forward that these business models offer ‘coupled services’, combining resource-centered and service-centered perspectives. This complementary character has important implications for energy policy.     

基于环境激励下的柔度灵敏度损伤识别方法

随着社会的快速发展以及科学技术的不断进步，现代结构特别是基础建设方面的结构逐渐趋向于大型化、复杂化的方向发展。同样，在结构的使用阶段所经受的环境影响也越来越复杂，遇到的冲击也越来越强烈，如地震、强风及暴雨等等各种突发性的灾害，严重后果影响着结构的整体强度，也影响着结构的使用寿命，因此对于正在使用中的结构的损伤检测就显得尤为重要和紧迫。本文将讨论以环境激励下的利用柔度灵敏度的方法识别结构的损伤。     

Self-assembly of particles—The regulatory role of particle flexibility

Aspects of the self-assembly of particles, which uses nanometer or micrometer sized building blocks to bridge the gap between microscopic and macroscopic scales, are reviewed. Particle self-assembly has been the focus of considerable research in recent years because it can lead to superstructures with a complexity inaccessible by molecular self-assembly, and functionalities entirely different from or superior to those of the primary particles. Examples in molecular self-assembly suggests that anisotropic interactions could be useful in promoting particle self-assembly, with the exception of colloidal crystallization, which requires particles of uniform size and shape. Anisotropic particles prepared by surface modification of precursor particles are often rigid and submicron or micron sized, and thus relatively strong isotropic van der Waals interactions tend to resist self-assembly into regular superstructures. In addition, the relatively large contact area between particles needed for a sufficient binding enthalpy to stabilize a superstructure is difficult for rigid spherical particles. In contrast, flexible anisotropic polymeric particles dispersed in solvents have been shown to self-assemble into various superstructures. The flexibility of primary anisotropic particles enables them to fuse and stabilize into a superstructure. Some flexible and multi-component particles that are isotropic in common solvents can undergo deformation and sufficient material redistribution to anisotropically self-assemble into regular superstructures in selective solvents. The self-assembly is also driven by anisotropic interactions, which is induced during self-assembly rather than in the particles as synthesized. This review focuses on recent achievements in soft particle self-assembly and describes briefly the advancements in rigid particle self-assembly. The presentation is divided into discussion of self-assembly by the colloidal crystallization of isotropic rigid particles, anisotropic rigid particles, anisotropic soft particles and isotropic soft particles, in that order.     

剪力和弯矩共同作用下钢筋混凝土结构的框架单元模型分析

模拟剪力和弯矩共同作用下钢筋混凝土结构的响应,包括发生在开裂后和极限荷载范围时的各项性能。目前的2维(平面应力和平面应变)和3维非线性有限元方程模拟上述结构响应的成本很高,而且不适用于日常工程实践。提出1种新型框架单元模型,结合高效的带梁-柱单元的平面内全耦合剪切-正常节段模型,适用于已得到试验结果验证的结构分析。标准剪切下的应力和应变假定为由一系列多项式形函数组成;每一个应力分布受内部材料状况影响。框架结构的非线性分析采用的是广义矩阵法,利用文献资料验证该模型,通过试验验证剪切应变对结构响应的影响程度。试验结果和模型分析结果吻合较好。该模型得到的混凝土和钢筋的位移、应变和应力及不同的破坏类型,比之前模型的分析结果更精确。     

Flexible asymmetric spinning

Metal spinning is used to form shell components, but is constrained by two features: it can only produce axisymmetric shapes; it requires a dedicated mandrel for each product. Examination of pressures between product and mandrel revealed that contact is limited to three well defined areas. This suggested that the full mandrel could be replaced by three rollers. Furthermore, if these rollers could be controlled, they could represent any symmetric or asymmetric mandrel. A seven-axis machine has been designed, manufactured, and used to spin trial parts. The machine design is described, and preliminary results give an indicator of process capability.     

生态学视角下健康城市规划理论框架的构建

伴随着快速城镇化和城市现代化,环境污染、气候变化等问题引发了新公共卫生问题,重构城市规划与公共卫生之间的合作关系对解决这些问题具有重要意义。在国际范围内,健康城市运动的发展为健康城市规划提供了行动框架和原则,但健康城市规划缺乏扎实的理论依据。城市系统的复杂性是构建健康城市规划理论框架的主要挑战,在复杂性科学背景下,研究基于生态学视角,将弹性概念和社会生态学理论引入健康城市规划理论框架的构建中,以期为健康城市规划的制定与实施提供一定的理论基础。