Fouling Mitigation in a Heat Exchanger: High Cycles of Concentration for a Cooling-Tower Application

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of a physical water treatment (PWT) technology on fouling mitigation in a simulated cooling tower operating at high cycles of concentration. Hard water was produced by evaporating pure water in a circulating open cooling tower, where dissolved calcium carbonate ions became concentrated with time. Heat transfer tests were conducted in a rectangular channel by varying the cycle of concentration (COC) from 5 to 10, and fouling resistances were measured over 270 hrs for each case with and without the PWT treatment. Another test was conducted with no blowdown case with and without the PWT treatment. The fouling resistance at 5 cycles with the PWT treatment was about 70% less than that in the case without the PWT treatment at the end of 270-hr tests. Even at 10 cycles, the PWT treatment reduced the fouling resistance by 60% from the value for the no treatment case. Thus, one can conclude that the PWT technology can help circulating cooling-tower water at relatively high COC for significant freshwater conservation, while keeping fouling resistances below industry standards.     

A multi-stage financial hedging approach for the procurement of manufacturing materials

This paper addresses the problem of mitigating procurement risk that arises from volatile commodity prices by proposing a hedging strategy within a multi-stage time frame. The proposed multi-stage hedging strategy requires a commodity futures position to be correctly initialised and rebalanced with adequate volumes of short/long positions, so as to reduce the volatility in the total procurement cost that would otherwise be generated by varying commodity spot prices. The novelty in the approach is the introduction of the rebalancing of commodity futures position at defined intermediate stages. To obtain an efficient or near optimal multi-stage hedging strategy, a discrete-time stochastic control model (DSCM) is developed. Numerical experiments and Monte Carlo simulation are used to show that the proposed multi-stage hedging strategy compares favourably with the minimal-variance hedge and the one-stage hedge. A close-form optimal solution is also presented for the case when procurement volume and price are independent.     

Exogenous Sodium Nitroprusside Mitigates Salt Stress in Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) by Affecting the Growth,Yield, and Biochemical Properties

Soil salinity disrupts the physiological and biochemical processes of crop plants and ultimately leads to compromising future food security. Sodium nitroprusside (SNP), a contributor to nitric oxide (NO), holds the potential to alleviate abiotic stress effects and boost tolerance in plants, whereas less information is available on its role in salt-stressed lentils. We examined the effect of exogenously applied SNP on salt-stressed lentil plants by monitoring plant growth and yield-related attributes, biochemistry of enzymes (superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD)) amassing of leaf malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Salinity stress was induced by NaCl application at concentrations of 50 mM (moderate salinity) and 100 mM (severe salinity), while it was alleviated by SNP application at concentrations of 50 µM and 100 µM. Salinity stress severely inhibited the length of roots and shoots, the relative water content, and the chlorophyll content of the leaves, the number of branches, pods, seeds, seed yield, and biomass per plant. In addition, MDA, H₂O₂ as well as SOD, CAT, and POD activities were increased with increasing salinity levels. Plants supplemented with SNP (100 µM) showed a significant improvement in the growth- and yield-contributing parameters, especially in plants grown under moderate salinity (50 mM NaCl). Essentially, the application of 100 µM SNP remained effective to rescue lentil plants under moderate salinity by regulating plant growth and biochemical pathways. Thus, the exogenous application of SNP could be developed as a useful strategy for improving the performance of lentil plants in salinity-prone environments.     

抑制损伤发展的CO_2激光修复技术及机理研究

熔石英表面激光损伤发展问题一直制约着激光器的运行通量。采用CO2激光在线熔融修复损伤点,修复后形成一个光滑的高斯坑,去除了损伤点中的裂纹,平滑了凹凸不平的表面,并且在紫外脉冲激光作用下,修复斑再次产生损伤的阈值高于熔石英元件的损伤生长阈值。因此CO2熔融修复技术能有效地抑制损伤发展。通过分析CO2激光作用下熔石英表面的温度分布,讨论修复坑的形成过程,确定激光参数对修复效果的影响,为寻找最佳修复参数提供理论基础。同时利用原子力显微镜(AFM)、轮廓仪细致分析损伤点和修复斑的微细结构,采用有限差分时域方法计算损伤点和修复斑周围的光强分布,探索消除裂纹和平滑表面对抑制损伤生长的作用。     

Plasma mitigation of shock wave: experiments and theory

Two types of plasma spikes, generated by on-board 60 Hz periodic and pulsed dc electric discharges in front of two slightly different wind tunnel models, were used to demonstrate the non-thermal plasma techniques for shock wave mitigation. The experiments were conducted in a Mach 2.5 wind tunnel. (1) In the periodic discharge case, the results show a transformation of the shock from a well-defined attached shock into a highly curved shock structure, which has increased shock angle and also appears in diffused form. As shown in a sequence with increasing discharge intensity, the shock in front of the model moves upstream to become detached with increasing standoff distance from the model and is eliminated near the peak of the discharge. The power measurements exclude the heating effect as a possible cause of the observed shock wave modification. A theory using a cone model as the shock wave generator is presented to explain the observed plasma effect on shock wave. The analysis shows that the plasma generated in front of the model can effectively deflect the incoming flow; such a flow deflection modifies the structure of the shock wave generated by the cone model, as shown by the numerical results, from a conic shape to a curved one. The shock front moves upstream with a larger shock angle, matching well with that observed in the experiment. (2) In the pulsed dc discharge case, hollow cone-shaped plasma that envelops the physical spike of a truncated cone model is produced in the discharge; consequently, the original bow shock is modified to a conical shock, equivalent to reinstating the model into a perfect cone and to increase the body aspect ratio by 70%. A significant wave drag reduction in each discharge is inferred from the pressure measurements; at the discharge maximum, the pressure on the frontal surface of the body decreases by more than 30%, the pressure on the cone surface increases by about 5%, whereas the pressure on the cylinder surface remains unchanged. The energy saving from drag reduction is estimated to make up two-thirds of the energy consumed in the electric discharge for the plasma generation. The measurements also show that the plasma effect on the shock structure lasts much longer than the discharge period.

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在封闭结构中水对爆炸冲击波的削波、减压作用

采用数值方法计算了封闭矩形空间中布置在炸药周围的水对爆炸冲击波的削波作用以及对于气室压力的削减作用。计算结果显示 ,在各种不同的载荷密度和水 /药质量比参数条件下 ,冲击波峰值压力和气室压力均得到明显的削减。还计算了一个具有开口的模型隧道中水的削波作用 ,并将计算结果与实验测量数据进行了比较。     

滚石灾害防治方法浅析

随着人类活动的广度和力度不断加大,多山地带的滚石问题越来越突出,致使有关滚石灾害及其防治方法的研究也逐步得到重视。总体而言,滚石灾害的防治方法可分为主动防护和被动防护两大类,可应用于不同的滚石灾害环境。对各类滚石灾害防治方法进行简单介绍之后,作者分析了各方法的应用范围和适用条件。     

次临界能源包层严重事故缓解系统

针对中国工程物理研究院混合堆次临界能源包层,提出了一种新型的严重事故缓解系统——工程通道注水系统,采用通道注水的方法直接导出燃料区衰变热,同时与非能动安全壳冷却系统结合,实现燃料区非能动长期冷却的建立,阻止燃料区熔化进程发展,保证次临界能源包层的完整性。在保守假设条件下,当燃料区温度达到1220℃时,工程通道注水系统投入运行即可完成严重事故缓解功能。     

The green synthesis of exceptional braided,helical carbon nanotubes and nanospiral platelets made directly from CO2

Helical carbon nanotubes currently cost ~15,000–19,000 USD/kg commercially and are ~10–15 times the price of straight carbon nanotubes of similar dimensions. They have not previously been made from the greenhouse gas CO₂ nor had new variants of the helical morphology been demonstrated. In this study, a novel, inexpensive electrosynthesis of these helical nanocarbon materials from CO₂ is presented. This material may be produced by molten carbon growth conditions that (1) maximize torsional stresses, such as those that may occur during rapid, nucleated carbon reduction, (2) enhance defects that cause formation of heptagonal, rather than the conventional hexagonal building blocks of graphene cylindrical walls, and (3) uniformly control those enhanced defects to repeatedly induce a uniform spiral conformation. These conditions are achieved with at least two of the following experimental conditions: (i) high electrolysis current density, (ii) sp³ defect-inducing agents, such as added oxide, and (iii) controlled concentration of iron added to the electrolyte or cathode. Here, it is shown with SEM, TEM, EDX, XRF, and Raman spectroscopy that a molten controlled electrolyte carbonate synthesis to induce defect formation, and a high rate of electrolysis (0.6 A/cm²) leads to a high yield of helical nanotubes, helical nanofibers, or helical nanoplatelet carbon morphologies.     

高速铁路连续箱型梁桥的动力响应与减振分析

根据列车具体的轴距和轴重,建立了和谐号动车组CRH380AL型列车简化模型;对高速铁路两跨连续梁桥采用多自由度欧拉伯努利梁单元进行主梁的模拟,并将液体黏滞阻尼器模拟为有限元阻尼单元;采用Newmark直接积分方法求解了高速列车作用下的连续梁桥运动方程,数值分析了列车车速以及液体黏滞阻尼器的阻尼系数对于高速铁路连续梁桥振动响应的影响。结果表明:黏滞阻尼器对于桥梁具有明显的减振效果,阻尼力不仅与阻尼系数有关还与列车时速有关;同一黏滞阻尼器条件下,桥梁的最大加速度并不随列车速度的增加而单调增加,而是在某些特定列车车速下桥梁的最大加速度出现了峰值,且随着黏滞阻尼器的阻尼系数增大,桥梁振动响应峰值处的最大加速度减幅不同;同一列车时速的条件下,桥梁的减振效果并不是随着阻尼系数的递增呈正比递增,而是随着阻尼系数的增大,阻尼器的减振效果增幅在减小。