A numerical study of dynamic behaviors of a unitized regenerative fuel cell during gas purging

The gas purging states affect electricity output and energy storage capacity of unitized regenerative fuel cells. In this study, a model of unitized regenerative fuel cell is established. Cell voltages and operating temperatures influences on the dynamic distribution of thermal fluid during purging process and the discharge of residual liquid water in electrolytic cell mode are investigated. The motivation of the present study is better understanding the gas purging characteristics and its effect on reaction behaviors of unitized regenerative fuel cells. Simulation results reveal a significant influence of purging gas temperature on the water flooding and a great effect of operating voltage on the water diffusion. The operating temperature of electrolytic cell model almost has little effect on purging results at different cell temperature and the same purging gas temperature. When the purging gas temperature is changed, higher temperatures of cell and purging gas facilitate liquid water discharging out from the cell regions. In cell water flooding situation, when having large liquid content, the purging gas has little effects on the water expelling process.     

In-fibre LP11–LP21 mode conversion using force-induced long-period fibre gratings with polarization controllers

ABSTRACT

Mode conversion between higher-order modes is attained in a step-index four mode fibre using an in-line polarization controller followed by a force-induced long period fibre grating. By adjusting the field orientation of the LP₁₁ mode to the antisymmetric fibre grating, the LP₁₁ mode is converted to the LP₂₁ mode with a spatially periodic force of 50 N along the fibre length of 50?mm. The mode conversion is evaluated by observing the far-field and near-field patterns of the fibre output and by comparing the transmitted optical power with and without the additional two-mode fibre. The phase-matching grating period is required of the accuracy of roughly ±5?μm and the radiation loss during the mode conversion is as low as 0.01?dB.     

Common Mode Voltage Reduction Using 3D-SVPWM for 3-level CI-NPC Inverter with Hybrid Energy System

This paper elucidates Common Mode Voltage (CMV) reduction in transformerless 3-phase 3-level Coupled Inductor Neutral Point (CI-NPC) Clamped Inverter with Hybrid Energy System. The three dimensional Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (3D-SVPWM) with Nearest State Vector (NSV) is implemented to reduce the CMV by proper selection of medium, large and small vectors in 3D cubic space region. This NSV scheme in addition to CMV reduction, reduces the capacitor voltage balancing issues and minimizes switching losses. The proposed control provides full utilization of dc link voltage with reduced harmonics. This 3-level CI-NPC inverter is energized by hybrid energy source which includes photovoltaic system and wind energy system. The results obtained for the proposed scheme through simulation and experimental setup is compared with the conventional 2D-SVPWM and 3D-SVPWM scheme. From the compared results it is evident that the proposed scheme reduces CMV to a larger extent than 2D and 3D-SVPWM control. The simulation and experimental results are verified using matlab-simulink and FPGA-Spartan-6 controller respectively.     

Clean hydrogen production in a full biological microbial electrolysis cell

The recent interest in microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) technology has led the research platform to develop full biological MECs (bioanode-biocathode, FB-MEC). This study focused on biohydrogen production from a biologically catalyzed MEC. A bioanode and a biocathode were initially enriched in a half biological MFC (bioanode-abiocathode, HB-MFC) and a half biological MEC (abioanode-biocathode, HB-MEC), respectively. The FB-MEC was established by transferring the biocathode of the HB-MEC and the bioanode of the HB-MFC to a two-chamber MEC. The FB-MEC was operated under batch (FB-MEC-B) and recirculation batch (FB-MEC-RB) modes of operation in the anodic chamber. The FB-MEC-B reached a maximum current density of 1.5 A/m² and the FB-MEC-RB reached a maximum current density of 2.5 A/m² at a similar applied voltage while the abiotic control system showed the maximum of 0.2 A/m². Hydrogen production rate decreased in the FB-MEC compared to that of the HB-MEC. However, the cathodic hydrogen recovery increased from 42% obtained in the HB-MEC to 56% in the FB-MEC-B and 65% in the FB-MEC-RB, suggesting the efficient oxidation and reduction rates in the FB-MEC compared to the HB-MEC. The onset potential for hydrogen evolution reaction detected by linear sweep voltammetry analysis were −0.780 and −0.860 V vs Ag/AgCl for the FB-MEC-RB and the FB-MEC-B (−1.26 for the abiotic control MEC), respectively. Moreover, the results suggested that the FB-MEC worked more efficiently when the biocathode and the bioanode were enriched initially in half biological systems before transferring to the FB-MEC compared to that of the simultaneously enriched in one system.     

Prediction of mode I fracture toughness of rock using linear multiple regression and gene expression programming

Prediction of mode I fracture toughness (K_IC) of rock is of significant importance in rock engineering analyses. In this study, linear multiple regression (LMR) and gene expression programming (GEP) methods were used to provide a reliable relationship to determine mode I fracture toughness of rock. The presented model was developed based on 60 datasets taken from the previous literature. To predict fracture parameters, three mechanical parameters of rock mass including uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), Brazilian tensile strength (BTS), and elastic modulus (E) have been selected as the input parameters. A cluster of data was collected and divided into two random groups of training and testing datasets. Then, different statistical linear and artificial intelligence based nonlinear analyses were conducted on the training data to provide a reliable prediction model of K_IC. These two predictive methods were then evaluated based on the testing data. To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed models for predicting the mode I fracture toughness of rock, various statistical indices including coefficient of determination (R²), root mean square error (RMSE), and mean absolute error (MAE) were utilized herein. In the case of testing datasets, the values of R², RMSE, and MAE for the GEP model were 0.87, 0.188, and 0.156, respectively, while they were 0.74, 0.473, and 0.223, respectively, for the LMR model. The results indicated that the selected GEP model delivered superior performance with a higher R² value and lower errors.     

Air torque position damper hysteresis

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of the air torque position (ATP) damper hysteresis on the accuracy of air velocity measurements and the adequacy of the ATP damper mathematical model tested in the present study. A total of three dampers with non-cascading blades were examined: a damper with a single flat blade, a damper with two opposed flat blades, and a damper with two flat blades - one of which is a measuring blade and the other is fixed in the horizontal direction. Furthermore, a total of two damper installation locations in a duct system were examined as well: at the duct exit with a straight duct section preceding the damper and within the duct itself with straight duct sections both preceding and following the damper. The ATP damper hysteresis was found to exert a significant effect on the accuracy of air velocity measurements and the adequacy of the ATP damper mathematical model tested if the ATP damper is more open, i.e. with lower blade angles of attack. Moreover, the ATP damper installed at the duct exit was found to be more susceptible to hysteresis effects than the damper located within the duct.     

An energy-saving nonlinear position control strategy for electro-hydraulic servo systems

The electro-hydraulic servo system (EHSS) demonstrates numerous advantages in size and performance compared to other actuation methods. Oftentimes, its utilization in industrial and machinery settings is limited by its inferior efficiency. In this paper, a nonlinear backstepping control algorithm with an energy-saving approach is proposed for position control in the EHSS. To achieve improved efficiency, two control valves including a proportional directional valve (PDV) and a proportional relief valve (PRV) are used to achieve the control objectives. To design the control algorithm, the state space model equations of the system are transformed to their normal form and the control law through the PDV is designed using a backstepping approach for position tracking. Then, another nonlinear set of laws is derived to achieve energy-saving through the PRV input. This control design method, based on the normal form representation, imposes internal dynamics on the closed-loop system. The stability of the internal dynamics is analyzed in special cases of operation. Experimental results verify that both tracking and energy-saving objectives are satisfied for the closed-loop system.     

Control-faced dynamics with deformation compatibility for a 5-DOF active over-constrained spatial parallel manipulator 6PUS–UPU

Taking into account the effect of structural compliance, inverse dynamics of the active over-constrained parallel manipulator 6PUS–UPU with five degrees of freedom is solved in this article. Firstly, the relationship between driving forces and actuated force screws of each limb is derived. Then the coordination of elastic deformation between limbs which consider the effect of gravity and inertia is acquired. Finally the unique solution of driving forces for the active over-constrained parallel manipulator is derived by incorporating the force equilibrium equation of the moving platform. To validate the theoretical derivation, dynamics simulation model of manipulator based on rigid–flexible mixed structure is shown and numerical examples are given. Comparison with the traditional method of dynamics based on pseudo-inverse is also made. Finally, a feasible experimental method, as an effective test to the theoretical calculation, is proposed and applied on the prototype.     

Method for Detecting Multi-modal Vibration Characteristics of Landmines

The acoustic vibration characteristics of landmines are investigated by means of modal analysis. According to the mechanical structure of landmines, a certain number of points are marked on the landmine shell to analyze its multi-modal vibration characteristics, based on laser self-mixing interferometer and taking 69 plastic landmine as an example, the vibration detection experiment system is built to show the results of analytical method of multi-modal testing. The first and second order natural frequencies of the bricks are 38 HZ and 106 HZ, 112HZ and 232HZ for plastic landmines, and 74HZ and 290HZ for metal landmines. The first and second order natural frequencies of the bricks are far smaller than those of plastic landmines and metal landmines. This indicates that landmines show multi-modal vibration characteristics under external excitation, which are significantly different from those of bricks. The findings can be used for further research on acoustic landmines detection technology.     

某含砷高硫难处理金矿固砷固硫提金试验

对某地含砷高硫难处理金矿 ,进行了固化焙烧——氰化浸出工艺流程的试验研究 ,获得了硫的固化率达 95 .5 5 % ,砷的固化率为 95 .4 9% ,金的浸出率为 93.18%的较好技术指标。为含砷高硫类型金矿资源的开发利用提供了较新的途径