Study of hot air generator with quasi-uniform temperature using concentrated solar radiation: Influence of the shape parameters

The non-uniformity of the air temperatures and the slow flow rate at the plane collector exit constitute the main cause of the limitations of the solar drying systems. In order to obtain an uniform and a variable flow rate for different uses, a hot air generator using concentrated solar radiation is proposed. To improve the thermal efficiency of the generator, a study of the influence of different shape parameters is realized. The generator is simulated in the laboratory while investigating the flow induced by a circular disc heated uniformly by Joule effect at constant temperature. This disc is placed at the entrance of an open ended vertical cylinder of a larger diameter. Thermal radiation emitted by the hot disc heats the cylinder wall. The heating of the fluid at the cylinder-inlet generates a thermosiphon flow around the one created by the hot disc. The comparison of the velocity and the temperature profiles of the resulting flow permits to determine the influence of the cylinder height, the vertical source-cylinder spacing and the radius ratio, on the resulting flow at the system exit. Thus, a judicious choice of the shape parameters entails an improvement of the flow rate as well as the thermal flux absorbed by the air and a good homogenization of the air temperature at the generator exit.     

Knowledge Diffusion of the Internet of Things (IoT): A Main Path Analysis

Wireless Personal Communications - The Internet of Things (IoT) is a concept that has attracted significant attention since the emergence of wireless technology. The knowledge diffusion of IoT...     

Fault and attack management in all-optical networks

Network management for optical networks faces additional security challenges that arise by using transparent optical network components in communication systems. While some available management mechanisms are applicable to different types of network architectures, many of these are not adequate for all-optical networks. These have unique features and requirements in terms of security and quality of service, thus requiring a much more targeted approach in terms of network management. In this article we consider management issues with particular emphasis on complications that arise due to the unique characteristics and peculiar behaviors of transparent network components. In particular, signal quality monitoring is still a major complication in all-optical networks. Despite new methods for detection and localization of attacks having been proposed, no robust standards or techniques exist to date for guaranteeing the quality of service in these networks. Therefore, sophisticated mechanisms that assist in managing and assessing the proper function of transparent network components are highly desirable. Accordingly, we present an algorithm for multiple attack localization and identification that can participate in some tasks for fault management of all-optical networks     

Production of hot air with quasi uniform temperature using concentrated solar radiation

The design of a hot air solar generator for different uses has been simulated while investigating the flow induced by a hot disc placed at the entrance of the open ended vertical cylinder. Ambient air (Pr = 0.7) enters the bottom of the cylinder with constant velocity and temperature, and flows up through the cylinder as a result of natural convection. The cylindrical wall is heated by thermal radiation emitted by the disc. The pressure drop due to acceleration of the flow to the cylinder-inlet causes the appearance of thermosyphon effect around the thermal plume. At the top part of the cylinder, the flow exploration shows the full development of the turbulence and the uniformity of thermal and hydrodynamic fields. The study of the thermal spectral density indicates that the turbulent structures seem to be sufficiently small not to be sensitive to viscosity, but large enough to be sensitive to Archimedes effects.     

Multi-allergen screening immunoassay for the detection of protein markers of peanut and four tree nuts in chocolate

A multiresidue enzyme immunoassay was developed to check for the presence of markers of peanut, hazelnut, almond, cashew and Brazil nuts in a single run. The assay was designed under the competitive indirect format and adapted for screening purposes applied to chocolate samples. The limit of detection for this assay was below 1 µg g^-1 protein for each allergenic food. In most cases, the high specificity of the antibodies used allowed the identification of each particular allergenic food with no possible confusion. This assay was proven to be useful as part of an analytical procedure involving the identification of the unknown allergenic food among peanut and other tree nuts in recalled samples before the application of a quantitative technique to determine the level of cross-contamination.     

Positively equicontinuous flows

Let G be a positively equicontinuous flow of homeomorphisms of a locally compact metric space E. We show how the dynamics of such a flow are rich. We study when regularly almost periodic elements in G are periodic and we describe orbits and their limit sets. In particular, we show that the limit set L(G?) of G is a closed subset on which G is equicontinuous and that if G moreover has closed orbits, then any w-limit set is a periodic orbit.     

Radiation induced carbon complexes in gallium arsenide

Gallium arsenide grown by the metallorganic chemical vapour deposition method and n-doped to various silicon concentrations was irradiated with reactor neutrons (1 MeV equivalent damage in silicon) in the fluence range 0 to 3 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻². Native defects, including carbon which is a residual impurity of the growth method, and those introduced by irradiation, were characterized by photoluminescence (PL) and deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS). In some samples with fixed doping value, the PL intensity of all the transitions, including that to the carbon impurity increases at low fluence levels before decreasing at high fluence. At higher fluences, the transition to the carbon impurity goes through other maxima. The carbon PL intensity versus fluence curve depends on initial doping. DLTS results reveal the removal of a trap EL12 at low fluences, but the introduction of other traps at higher fluences. The defect introduction rates depend on fluence. We attribute the variation in the carbon PL intensity to an interaction between the defects introduced by the irradiation and the carbon impurity.     

CFD analysis of smoke backlayering dispersion in tunnel fires with longitudinal ventilation

In a longitudinally ventilated tunnel fire, the backlayering flow propagated in the opposite direction to the air current is the most fatal contaminations to users which are blocked upstream of the fire. In the present paper, numerical simulations were conducted using Fire Dynamic Simulator, which is based on large eddy simulations to estimate the backlayering arrival time in a longitudinally ventilated tunnel fire. The effect of a vehicle obstruction on the backlayering arrival time will be also investigated. For this, a vehicle model occupying about 31% of the tunnel cross section is simulated upstream of the fire source with its location relative to the tunnel floor is varied. The numerical investigation shows that the inertia and the buoyancy forces produced by ventilation and fire, respectively, affect the backlayering spread. The backlayering arrival time increases with the longitudinal ventilation velocity while it decreases with the fire heat release rate. When a vehicle obstruction existed within the tunnel, the numerical results show an increase of backlayering arrival time. This increase is significantly more important with the fire distance when the vehicle obstruction approaches the tunnel floor. Two correlations are developed, with and without obstruction in the tunnel, to predict the backlayering arrival time against the distance to fire. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical study of the THM effects on the near-field safety of a hypothetical nuclear waste repository—BMT1 of the DECOVALEX III project. Part 2: Effects of THM coupling in continuous and homogeneous rocks

An evaluation of the importance of the thermo-hydro-mechanical couplings (THM) on the performance assessment of a deep underground radioactive waste repository has been made as a part of the international DECOVALEX III project. It is a numerical study that simulates a generic repository configuration in the near field in a continuous and homogeneous hard rock. A periodic repository configuration comprises a single vertical borehole, containing a canister surrounded by an over-pack and a bentonite layer, and the backfilled upper portion of the gallery. The thermo-hydro-mechanical evolution of the whole configuration is simulated over a period of 100 years. The importance of the rock mass's intrinsic permeability has been investigated through scoping calculations with three values: 10⁻¹⁷, 10⁻¹⁸ and 10⁻¹⁹ m². Comparison of the results predicted by fully coupled THM analysis as well as partially coupled TH, TM and HM analyses, in terms of several predefined indicators of importance for performance assessment, enables us to identify the effects of the different combinations of couplings, which play a crucial role with respect to safety issues. The results demonstrate that temperature is hardly affected by the couplings. In contrast, the influence of the couplings on the mechanical stresses is considerable.