Theoretical modeling of piezoelectric energy harvesting in the system using technical textile as a support

An approach to harvesting electrical energy from a mechanically excited piezoelectric element has been described. The topic of this paper studies the most important properties of piezoelectric polymer polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) in energy harvesting. We have chosen to develop a recovery application within the clothes. By the use of a piezoelectric energy harvester capable to convert the mechanical energy produced by the knee during walking to an electrical energy. This will be achieved by replacing the traditional textile of the kneepad with the one that is made of the technical textile based on acrylic knitted and PVDF as a patch stuck on the textile. Furthermore, PVDF has many unique features, such as excellent mechanical behavior, large strain without structure fatigue, which enables it to act strongly as the load bearing member, and corrosion resistance. The technical textile, functioning as multifunctional wearable human interfaces, is considered today as a useful tool in several energy fields. In this paper, a smart structure based on piezoelectric polymer (PVDF) has been presented, which a power analytical model, based on the frequency, the geometrical parameters and other factors were investigated. Furthermore, the set of numerical results illustrating the harvested power for a given size of the device has been performed and discussed and how this harvested power may be used as a source for a wearable device. Finally, the theory presented in this study can be used for the realization of other optimal designs, for a wearable sensor with low consumption and so on. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Optimal control of the dynamic response of an anisotropic plate with various boundary conditions

The problem of minimising the dynamic response of an anisotropic rectangular plate with minimum possible expenditure of force is presented for various cases of boundary conditions. The plate has a principal direction of anisotropy rotated at an arbitrary angle relative to the coordinate axes. This orientation angle has been taken as an optimisation design parameter. The control problem is formulated as an optimisation problem by using a performance index, which comprises a weight sum of the control objective and penalty function of the control force. The explicit solutions for the closed-loop distributed control function is obtained by means of Liapunov-Bellman theory. To assess the present solution, numerical results are presented to illustrate the effect of anisotropy ratio, orientation angle, aspect ratio and boundary conditions on the control process.     

A Hybrid Adaptive Wireless Channel Access Protocol for Multimedia Personal Communication Systems

This paper proposes a new medium access protocol (MAC) protocol for futurewireless multimedia personal communication systems, denoted hybrid andadaptive multiple access control (HAMAC) protocol. The HAMAC protocolintegrates fixed assignment TDMA protocol, reservation-based protocols, andcontention-based protocols into a single wireless network so as tosimultaneously and efficiently support various classes of traffic such asconstant-bit-rate (CBR), variable-bit-rate (VBR), and available-bit-rate (ABR)traffic. In particular, the HAMAC protocol uses a novel preservationslot technique to overcome the packet contention overhead in packetreservation multiple access (PRMA) like protocols, while keeping mostisochronous service features of TDMA protocols to serve voice and CBR trafficstreams. A preservation slot is a very short slot which is used torepresent a CBR connection when the traffic in the CBR connection is in asilent period in which there is no meaningful data to transmit. Due to thevery short length of the preservation slot, it only takes minimalportion of the bandwidth pre-allocated to the CBR connection, so that theremaining bandwidth can be freed for other connections to use. When the CBRsource becomes active again, the preservation slot is replaced bynormal data slots without any reservation operation, extra delay, orsignificant bandwidth loss. Consequently, the guaranteed service andsimplified signaling features of TDMA protocols, together with the adaptivebandwidth allocation features of PRMA-like protocols, are both realized in theHAMAC protocol. We have analyzed the performance of the HAMAC protocol usingextensive simulations. The results show that the HAMAC protocol can achievevery low loss rates for various multimedia traffic with stringent quality ofservice (QoS) requirements and outperforms state-of-the-art PRMA-likeprotocols. As a result, the HAMAC protocol appears to be a good candidate forfuture generation multimedia personal communication systems.     

Relationship Between the Number Density and the Phase Shift in Microwave Interferometry for Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas

Diagnosing atmospheric pressure discharges requires more sophisticated techniques than for low pressure plasmas. The plasma number density is a crucial parameter in several applications. Langmuir probe as a number density measuring technique is not applicable at high pressures because the electron mean free path is shorter than the Debye distance. Microwave interferometry appears to be an effective diagnostic technique in this case. However, because of the high collisionality of atmospheric pressure plasmas, the relationship between the phase shift, as measured by a microwave interferometer, and the plasma number density is not straightforward, as is the case in collisionless plasmas. For the special case of a uniform discharge, the plasma number density is found to depend on the square root of the phase shift.     

3D vs. turbostratic: controlling metal–organic framework dimensionality via N-heterocyclic carbene chemistry

Using azolium-based ligands for the construction of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is a viable strategy to immobilize catalytically active N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) or NHC-derived species inside MOF pores. Thus, in the present work, a novel copper MOF referred to as Cu-Sp5-BF₄, is constructed using an imidazolinium ligand, H₂Sp5-BF₄, 1,3-bis(4-carboxyphenyl)-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazole-3-ium tetrafluoroborate. The resulting framework, which offers large pore apertures, enables the post-synthetic modification of the C² carbon on the ligand backbone with methoxide units. A combination of X-ray diffraction (XRD), solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) and electron microscopy (EM), are used to show that the post-synthetic methoxide modification alters the dimensionality of the material, forming a turbostratic phase, an event that further improves the accessibility of the NHC sites promoting a second modification step that is carried out via grafting iridium to the NHC. A combination of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) methods are used to shed light on the iridium speciation, and the catalytic activity of the Ir–NHC containing MOF is demonstrated using a model reaction, stilbene hydrogenation.

A new MOF with a saturated N-heterocyclic carbene ligand undergoes a series of structural transformations to produce a turbostratic material, which serves as a better support for an iridium hydrogenation catalyst, when compared to the parent material.     

On the multidimensional zeta functions associated with theta functions,and the multidimensional Appell polynomials

We define and study the multidimensional Appell polynomials associated with theta functions. For the trivial theta functions, we obtain the various well-known Appell polynomials. Many other interesting examples are given. To push our study, by Mellin transform, we introduce and investigate the multidimensional zeta functions associated with thetas functions and prove that the multidimensional Appell polynomials are special values at the nonpositive integers of these zeta functions. Using zeta functions techniques, among others, we prove an induction formula for multidimensional Appell polynomials. The last part of this paper is devoted to spectral zeta functions and its generalization associated with Laplacians on compact Riemannian manifolds. From this generalization, we construct new Appell polynomials associated with Riemannan manifolds of finite dimensions.     

LEAST SQUARES TYPE ESTIMATION FOR DISCRETELY OBSERVED NON-ERGODIC GAUSSIAN ORNSTEIN-UHLENBECK PROCESSES

In this article, we consider the drift parameter estimation problem for the nonergodic Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process defined as d X_t= θX_tdt + dG_t, t ≥ 0 with an unknown parameter θ 0, where G is a Gaussian process. We assume that the process {X_t, t ≥ 0} is observed at discrete time instants t_1 = ?_n, ···, t_n= n?_n, and we construct two least squares type estimators ■ and ■ for θ on the basis of the discrete observations {X_(t_i), i = 1, ···, n}as n →∞. Then, we provide sufficient conditions, based on properties of G, which ensure that ■ and ■ are strongly consistent and the sequences n?n~(1/2)(■-θ) and n?n~(1/2)(■-θ)are tight. Our approach offers an elementary proof of [11], which studied the case when G is a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst parameter H ∈(1/2, 1). As such, our results extend the recent findings by [11] to the case of general Hurst parameter H ∈(0, 1). We also apply our approach to study subfractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck and bifractional Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes.     

Chemical and environmental implications of visible and near-infrared spectral features of salt crusts formed from different brines

This work describes a laboratory experiment intended to study the formation and spectral reflectance properties of stratified salt crusts that cause severe environmental degradations to soil and water resources in arid regions. Salt crusts were prepared by evaporating three types of saline solutions consisting of i) NaCl - Na2SO4, ii) Na2SO4 - MgSO4, and iii) NaCl - MgSO4 at an initial concentrations of 50 mmol L(-1). They were examined for evaporite mineralogy using X-ray diffraction, optical and reflected microscopes, and for spectral reflectance with a high-resolution spectroradiometer (GER 3700) in the visible and near-infrared regions (400-2500 nm). The study documented chemical and environmental implications of the spectral properties of salt formed from the studied saline-systems. The reported results can be used to understand remotely sensed signatures of salt crusts and their implications.