Synthesis and characterization of PVAm/SBA-15 as a novel organic–inorganic hybrid basic catalyst

Composite polyvinyl amine/SBA-15 (PVAm/SBA-15) in various amounts of SBA-15 were prepared and characterized. The physical and chemical properties of PVAm/SBA-15 were investigated using FT-IR, XRD, BET, SEM and TGA techniques. The catalytic performance of each material was determined for the Knoevenagel condensation reaction between carbonyl compounds and ethyl cyanoacetate in the presence of ethanol as solvent. The effects of reaction temperature, solvent and the amounts of catalyst as well as recyclability of the catalyst were investigated. The catalyst used for this synthetically useful transformation showed a considerable degree of reusability besides being very active.     

A multiple observers and dynamic weighting ensembles scheme for diagnosing new class faults in wind turbines

This paper presents an incremental way to design the decision module of a diagnostic system by resorting to dynamic weighting ensembles of classifiers. The method is applied for sensor fault detection and isolation in a doubly fed induction generator for wind turbine application. Three sets of observers are combined to generate residuals that are robust to operating point changes. These signals are progressively fed into a dynamic weighting ensembles algorithm, called Learn⁺⁺.NC, for fault classification. The algorithm incrementally learns the residuals–faults relationships and dynamically classifies the faults including multiple new classes. It resorts to a dynamically weighted consult and vote mechanism to combine the outputs of the base-classifiers.     

The effects of the micrometric and nanometric iron (Fe) additives on the mechanical and thermal dehydrogenation of lithium alanate (LiAlH4), its self-discharge at low temperatures and rehydrogenation

LiAlH₄ containing 5 wt.% of nanometric Fe (n-Fe) shows a profound mechanical dehydrogenation by continuously desorbing hydrogen (H₂) during high energy ball milling reaching ∼3.5 wt.% H₂ after 5 h of milling. In contrast, no H₂ desorption is observed during low energy milling of LiAlH₄ containing n-Fe. Similarly, no H₂ desorption occurs during high energy ball milling for LiAlH₄ containing micrometric Fe (μ-Fe) and, for comparison, both the micrometric and nanometric Ni (μ-Ni and n-Ni) additive. X-ray diffraction studies show that ball milling results in a varying degree of the lattice expansion of LiAlH₄ for both the Fe and Ni additives. A volumetric lattice expansion larger than 1% results in the profound destabilization of LiAlH₄ accompanied by continuous H₂ desorption during milling according to reaction: LiAlH₄ (solid) → 1/3Li₃AlH₆ + 2/3Al + H₂. It is hypothesized that the Fe ions are able to dissolve in the lattice of LiAlH₄ by the action of mechanical energy, replacing the Al ions and forming a substitutional solid solution. The quantity of dissolved metal ions depends primarily on the total energy of milling per unit mass of powder generated within a prescribed milling time, the type of additive ion e.g. Fe vs. Ni and on the particle size (micrometric vs. nanometric) of metal additive. For thermal dehydrogenation the average apparent activation energy of Stage I (LiAlH₄ (solid) → 1/3Li₃AlH₆ + 2/3Al + H₂) is reduced from the range 76 to 96 kJ/mol for the μ-Fe additive to about 60 kJ/mol for the n-Fe additive. For Stage II dehydrogenation (1/3Li₃AlH₆ → LiH+1/3Al + 0.5H₂) the average apparent activation energy is within the range 77–93 kJ/mol, regardless of the particle size of the Fe additive (μ-Fe vs. n-Fe). The n-Fe and n-Ni additives, the latter used for comparison, provide nearly identical enhancement of dehydrogenation rate during isothermal dehydrogenation at 100 °C. Ball milled (LiAlH₄ + 5 wt.% n-Fe) slowly self-discharges up to ∼5 wt.% H₂ during storage at room temperature (RT), 40 and 80 °C. Fully dehydrogenated (LiAlH₄ + 5 wt.% n-Fe) has been partially rehydrogenated up to 0.5 wt.% H₂ under 100 bar/160°C/24 h. However, the rehydrogenation parameters are not optimized yet.     

A fast-locking low-jitter digitally-enhanced DLL dynamically controlled for loop-gain and stability

Conventional structure of delay locked loops (DLLs) is modified to achieve better jitter and smaller lock time. In the proposed structure, analog charge pump is eliminated, to remove the problems of leakage current on output capacitance, and is replaced by combination of a digital accumulator (ACC) and a digital-to-analog converter. A programmable ACC is also proposed, to dynamically control the loop gain and lock time. When the loop enters to lock region at the first time, a lock detector block disables ACC and equivalent digital code is stored on a latch array. So, a fixed control voltage controls delay elements and the systematic jitter, due to periodic discharge of control voltage. RMS jitter of less than 33.5 and 1.6 ps are achieved at 20 and 625 MHz operating frequencies, respectively, when the supply is subject to 110 mV random noise and also 40 mV periodic noise, related to generated clock signals. Lock time is reduced from 38 to 2 µs at 20 MHz, and also from 900 to 45 ns at 600 MHz, when the proposed dynamic control mechanism is applied on the loop. Total power consumption for the main core of DLL is 7.85 mW at 1.8 V supply in 0.18 µm CMOS process.     

Additives to prevent the formation of surface defects during poly(vinyl chloride) calendering

Gas checks are visible fleck-shaped defects that occur on the surface of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) films during industrial calendering. Films containing these surface defects often do not meet minimum product specifications and therefore must be disposed of or recycled, resulting in increased cost and material waste. Currently, gas checks are controlled by keeping film gauge low and through trial-and-error modifications of processing parameters by calender operators. In this work, our group developed a series of chemical additives that can be blended with PVC to prevent the formation of gas check defects. We found that a series of poly(caprolactone) (PCL)-based compounds with diester linkers and alkyl chain cappers were all effective at preventing the formation of gas checks during calendering, with additive concentrations as low as 8 phr producing films with no gas checks. We found that the blends produced with our additives had higher melt viscosities than those produced with additives that do not remove gas checks, suggesting that viscosity plays an important role in preventing gas check defects.     

Feasibility of automating military''s environmental operations

This paper focuses on analyses of the feasibility of telerobotic and autonomous systems in hazardous environments. The hazardous environments are divided into three missions: area clearance, removal of unexploded ordnance, and hazardous waste removal. This paper identifies the factors impacting military's missions on various operating systems. Then, a decision support system based on fuzzy logic is developed for studying these factors to determine the feasibility of automating military's environmental restoration operations. The last part of the paper provides a set of recommendations for technology policy development.