Exploring fuel isomeric effects on laminar flame propagation of butylbenzenes at various pressures

This work reports an experimental and kinetic modeling investigation on the laminar flame propagation of three butylbenzene isomers (n-butylbenzene, iso-butylbenzene and tert-butylbenzene)/air mixtures. The experiments were performed in a high-pressure constant-volume cylindrical combustion vessel at the initial temperature of 423 K, initial pressures of 1–10 atm, and equivalence ratios (?) of 0.7–1.5. The laminar burning velocities of butylbenzene/O₂/He mixtures were also measured at 423 K, 10 atm and ? = 1.5 to provide additional experimental data under conditions that the butylbenzene/air experiments are susceptible of cellular instability. Comparison among the laminar burning velocities of butylbenzenes including both the three isomers investigated in this work and sec-butylbenzene investigated in our recent work [Combust. Flame 211 (2020) 18–31] shows remarkable fuel isomeric effects, that is, iso-butylbenzene has the slowest laminar burning velocities, followed by n-butylbenzene and tert-butylbenzene, while sec-butylbenzene has the fastest laminar burning velocities. A kinetic model for butylbenzene combustion was developed to simulate the laminar flame propagation of butylbenzenes. Sensitivity analysis was performed to reveal important reactions in laminar flame propagation of butylbenzenes, including both small species reactions and fuel-specific reactions. Kinetic effects are concluded to result in the different laminar burning velocities of four butylbenzene isomers. Small species reactions control the laminar flame propagation under lean conditions, which results in small differences of laminar burning velocities. Chain termination reactions, especially fuel-specific reactions, have important contributions to inhibit the laminar flame propagation under rich conditions. The structural features of butylbenzene isomers can significantly affect the formation of some crucial radicals such as methyl, cyclopentadienyl and benzyl radicals under rich conditions, which leads to remarkable fuel isomeric effects on their laminar burning velocities, especially at high pressures.     

Au@SiO_2中空微球的制备及催化性能

以天然高分子阿拉伯树胶(AG)为还原剂和稳定剂制备了金纳米粒子;将含有金纳米粒子(Au NPs)、阿拉伯树胶和氨水的溶液滴加到乙醇中形成AG-Au NPs复合胶团;利用正硅酸乙酯水解,在AG-Au NPs表面包覆二氧化硅壳层;通过简单水洗的方法得到了金纳米粒子@二氧化硅(Au@SiO_2)中空微球.采用透射电子显微镜(TEM)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)和氮气吸附实验等对Au@SiO_2中空微球进行表征.通过设计对比实验,证实阿拉伯树胶在中空结构形成过程中起到模板剂的作用.催化性能测试结果表明,所制备的Au@SiO_2中空微球在硼氢化钠还原亚甲基蓝的反应中表现出良好的催化活性和重复使用性.     

Pre-activation and Defects Introduced via Citric Acid to Mitigate Capacity and Voltage Fading in Li-rich Cathode

The application of Li-rich and Mn-based layered cathode materials is impeded by the discharge voltage decay and capacity fading upon cycling, despite their high specific capacity. Here, we combine pre-activation and nanoscale defects modification of lithium rich and manganese based layered materials to mitigate the above two serious problems through improved anionic redox activity and Li⁺ conductivity. The optimum constructed nanoscale defects rich cathode material delivers a reduced voltage fading rate of 1.27 mV per cycle compared to 3.7 mV per cycle for the pristine material after 200 cycles at 1 C rate. Moreover, the nanoscale defects rich material delivers a high specific discharge capacity of 173.1 mAh · g^–1 with a high capacity retention of 99.5 % after 200 cycles at 1 C rate superior than the pristine material (89.3 mAh · g^–1 and 53.4 %, respectively). This study highlights the reversibility of oxygen redox in electrochemical stability and effectiveness of nanoscale defects in stabilize voltage.     

Yttria-stabilized-zirconia hollow spheres prepared by atmospheric plasma spray

Yttria-stabilized-zirconia （YSZ） hollow spheres are widely utilized for their novel physical and chemical properties. However, developing a simple and low-cost method for preparing such hollow spheres still remains a great challenge. In this paper, an atmospheric plasma spray （APS） method is introduced, and the formation mechanism of hollow 7YSZ （ZrO2-7wt%Y2O3） spheres is presented. The hollow sphere morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy （SEM） when agglomerated and sintered 7YSZ powders were used. Additionally, additive composition changes, phase transformations, and the thermal behavior of 7YSZ powders were analyzed by energy dispersive spectroscopy （EDS）, X-ray diffractometry （XRD）, thermogravimetric analysis （TG） and differential scanning calorimeter analysis （DSC）. Furthermore, the phase transformations of agglomerated and sintered 7YSZ powders, 7YSZ hollow spheres that annealed at various temperatures for different times are analyzed.     

基于Elman神经网络的252Cf源核系统随机中子脉冲信号识别方法

 针对²⁵²Cf自发裂变中子源构成的核信息系统,以实际所测随机中子脉冲数据的自相关函数为研究对象,借助仿真实验, 利用Elman神经网络对不同质量核材料进行识别。在实测数据的基础上,通过叠加随机抖动,模拟产生了不同质量核材料的相关函数样本,并将其用于神经网络的训练与测试,实验结果表明,训练过的Elman神经网络能够较好地识别相关函数的特征,分辨不同质量的核材料,平均识别率达到85%,综合平均误差为0.04,且具有较高的鲁棒性。     

Droplet-based interfacial capacitive sensing

This paper presented a novel droplet-based pressure sensor using elastic and capacitive electrode-electrolyte interfaces to achieve ultrahigh mechanical-to-electrical sensitivity (1.58 μF kPa(-1)) and resolution (1.8 Pa) with a simple device architecture. The miniature transparent droplet sensors, fabricated by one-step laser micromachining, consisted of two flexible polymer membranes with conductive coating and a separation layer hosting a sensing chamber for an electrolyte droplet. The sensing principle primarily relied on high elasticity of the sensing droplet and large capacitance presented at the electrode-electrolyte interface. A simple surface modification scheme was introduced to the conductive coating, which reduced hysteresis of the droplet deformation without substantially compromising the interfacial capacitance. Moreover, the major concern of liquid evaporation was addressed by a mixture of glycerol and electrolyte with long-term stability in a laboratory environment. Theoretical analyses and experimental investigations on several design parameters (i.e., the dimensions of the sensing chamber and the droplet size) were thoroughly conducted to characterize and optimize the overall sensitivity of the device. Moreover, the environmental influences (e.g., temperature and humidity) on the capacitive measurement were further investigated. Finally, the simply constructed and mechanically flexible droplet sensor was successfully applied to detect minute blood pressure variations on the skin surface (with the maximum value less than 100 Pa) throughout cardiovascular cycles.     

幂函数形式连续变截面梁振动的弯曲固有频率分析*

本文使用微分方程解析法求解变截面梁固有频率。首先,建立变截面梁模型,其中截面面积和惯性矩均按幂次函数变化。得到变截面梁自由振动时挠度的解析表达式,并获得不同边界条件下梁弯曲振动的固有频率方程。其中惯性矩所对应幂指数与截面面积的幂指数的差值为4时,可得自振频率方程的精确形式;而幂指数差值不等于4时,给出近似解法。其次,对4种具体的变截面梁求解不同边界下的自振频率,并与瑞利-里兹法所得的自振频率解比较。验证精确解法结果的正确性,并发现近似解法结果的相对偏差在5%以内。该解析方法较瑞利-里兹法具有能快速求解的特点,且易于分析截面参数对梁固有频率的影响。由算例可得,边界和其他参数不变时,梁的同阶次无量纲自振频率随着幂次指数的增加而增加。几何参数中仅截面形状参数改变时,随着形状参数的增加,梁的同阶次无量纲自振频率随之减小,但固定-自由梁的第一阶自振频率除外。     

Feasibility of using Nakagami distribution in evaluating the formation of ultrasound-induced thermal lesions

The acoustic posterior shadowing effects of bubbles influence the accuracy for defining the location and range of ablated thermal lesions during focused ultrasound surgery when using ultrasonic monitoring imaging. This paper explored the feasibility of using Nakagami distribution to evaluate the ablated region induced by focused ultrasound exposures at different acoustic power levels in transparent tissue-mimicking phantoms. The mean value of the Nakagami parameter m was about 0.5 in the cavitation region and increased to around 1 in the ablated region. Nakagami images were not subject to significant shadowing effects of bubbles. Ultrasound-induced thermal lesions observed in the photos and Nakagami images were overshadowed by bubbles in the B-mode images. The lesion size predicted in the Nakagami images was smaller than that predicted in the photos due to the sub resolvable effect of Nakagami imaging at the interface. This preliminary study on tissue-mimicking phantom suggested that the Nakagami parameter m may have the potential use in evaluating the formation of ultrasound-induced thermal lesion when the shadowing effect of bubbles is strong while the thermal lesion was small. Further studies in vivo and in vitro will be needed to evaluate the potential application.     

Standing wave brass-PZT square tubular ultrasonic motor

This paper reports a standing wave brass-PZT tubular ultrasonic motor. The motor is composed of a brass square tube with two teeth on each tube end. Four PZT plates are attached to the outside walls of the brass tube. The motor requires only one driving signal to excite vibration in a single bending mode to generate reciprocating diagonal trajectories of teeth on the brass tube ends, which drive the motor to rotate. Bi-directional rotation is achieved by exciting different pairs of PZT plates to switch the bending vibration direction. Through using the brass-PZT tube structure, the motor can take high magnitude vibration to achieve a high output power in comparison to PZT tube based ultrasonic motors. Prototypes are fabricated and tested. The dimension of the brass-PZT tube is 3.975 mm × 3.975 mm × 16 mm. Measured performance is a no-load speed of >1000 RPM, a stall torque of 370 μNm and a maximum output power of 16 mW when a sinusoidal driving voltage of 50 V is applied. The working frequencies of the motor are 46,050 Hz (clockwise) and 46,200 Hz (counter-clockwise).     

Influence of reflector temperature gradients on bit-error rate in periscope laser communication systems in the presence of detector noise and platform vibrations

We consider the influence of thermal deformations of elliptic reflectors in periscope laser communication terminals on the bit-error rate (BER) taking into account the satellite-platform vibrations and the detector noise. We study the relationship between the average BER and temperature gradients of elliptic reflectors in inter-satellite laser communication systems at different values of the light beam wavelength and truncation rate, and different vibration amplitudes. The average BER increases with increase in the vibration amplitude, and it is noteworthy that the average BER increases with increase in the beam truncation rate, which contradicts the result obtained in [1] without taking noise into account. We find that for some temperature gradients there is an optimum communication wavelength that provides the minimum average BER. We use the back-fixing method for fixing the elliptic reflectors, which has proved to be much less sensitive to temperature gradients compared to the traditional around-fixing method by a press board.