Rail vs truck transport of biomass

This study analyzes the economics of transshipping biomass from truck to train in a North American setting. Transshipment will only be economic when the cost per unit distance of a second transportation mode is less than the original mode. There is an optimum number of transshipment terminals which is related to biomass yield. Transshipment incurs incremental fixed costs, and hence there is a minimum shipping distance for rail transport above which lower costs/km offset the incremental fixed costs. For transport by dedicated unit train with an optimum number of terminals, the minimum economic rail shipping distance for straw is 170 km, and for boreal forest harvest residue wood chips is 145 km. The minimum economic shipping distance for straw exceeds the biomass draw distance for economically sized centrally located power plants, and hence the prospects for rail transport are limited to cases in which traffic congestion from truck transport would otherwise preclude project development. Ideally, wood chip transport costs would be lowered by rail transshipment for an economically sized centrally located power plant, but in a specific case in Alberta, Canada, the layout of existing rail lines precludes a centrally located plant supplied by rail, whereas a more versatile road system enables it by truck. Hence for wood chips as well as straw the economic incentive for rail transport to centrally located processing plants is limited. Rail transshipment may still be preferred in cases in which road congestion precludes truck delivery, for example as result of community objections.     

The effects of flow split ratio and flow rate in manifolds

This paper reports a combined experimental and numerical investigation of three-dimensional steady turbulent flows in inlet manifolds of square cross-section. Predictions and measurements of the flows were carried out using computational fluid dynamics and laser Doppler anemometry techniques respectively. The flow structure was characterized in detail and the effects of flow split ratio and inlet flow rate were studied. These were found to cause significant variations in the size and shape of recirculation regions in the branches, and in the turbulence levels. It was then found that there is a significant difference between the flow rates through different branches. The performance of the code was assessed through a comparison between predictions and measurements. The comparison demonstrates that all important features of the flow are well represented by the predictions.     

Development of a multicriteria assessment model for ranking biomass feedstock collection and transportation systems

This study details multicriteria assessment methodology that integrates economic, social, environmental, and technical factors in order to rank alternatives for biomass collection and transportation systems. Ranking of biomass collection systems is based on cost of delivered biomass, quality of biomass supplied, emissions during collection, energy input to the chain operations, and maturity of supply system technologies. The assessment methodology is used to evaluate alternatives for collecting 1.8×10⁶ dry t/yr based on assumptions made on performance of various assemblies of biomass collection systems is based on cost of delivered biomass, quality of biomass supplied, emissions during collection, energy input to the chain operations, and maturity of supply system technologies. The assessment methodology is used to evaluate alternatives for collecting 1.8×10⁶ dry t/yr based on assumptions made on performance of various assemblies of biomass collection systems. A proposed collection option using loafer/stacker was shown to be the best option followed by ensiling and baling. Ranking of biomass transport systems is based on cost of biomass transport, emissions during transport, traffic congestion, and maturity of different technologies. At a capacity of 4×10⁶ dry t/yr, rail transport was shown to be the best option, followed by truck transport and pipeline transport, respectively. These rankings depend highly on assumed maturity of technologies and scale of utilization. These may change if technologies such as loafing or ensiling (wet storage) methods are proved to be infeasible for large-scale collection systems.     

颗粒毛细效应影响因素的离散元分析

颗粒毛细效应是指将一根细管插入填充有颗粒物质的容器中并对管施加竖直振动时颗粒在管内上升并最终达到一个稳定的高度的现象,该现象为颗粒物料的逆重力输运提供了一种潜在的技术途径.为探究颗粒毛细效应的影响因素,采用离散元方法,模拟再现了颗粒毛细效应过程,展示了不同管径下颗粒竖直方向速度演变特性,考察了不同容器宽度和振动条件下颗粒最终毛细上升高度随管径的演变规律.结果表明,在容器宽度与粒径比为40、管振幅与粒径比为14.33、管振动频率为12 Hz情况下,管径与粒径比D/d=3.33时,管内颗粒堵塞严重,使得颗粒上升缓慢,并造成颗粒柱中断; D/d=8.33时,起初毛细上升高度增加迅速,随后毛细上升高度的增大逐渐减缓,管内颗粒在管径方向几乎不存在速度梯度; D/d=15时,随着颗粒毛细上升高度的增大,管内颗粒柱分离为速度截然不同的两层,上层颗粒在管径方向几乎不存在速度梯度,而下层颗粒存在明显的速度梯度.研究还发现,在毛细效应能够发生的管径范围内,存在一个对应于颗粒最终毛细上升高度最大值的临界管径,当管径小于临界管径时,颗粒最终毛细上升高度随管径的增大而增大,当管径大于临界管径时,颗粒最终毛细上升...     

成品油管道顺序输送二维模型优化求解

将一种简化的自适应网格应用于顺序输送二维混油模型的计算中,网格的疏密程度由速度和浓度梯度控制且用动网格取代传统的固定网格。混油模型中采用混掺长度理论计算速度场和扩散系数,并考虑了油品黏度变化对混油的影响。提高传统数值解法的精度,减少计算量,使之适应于长输管线顺序输送的混油数值计算。通过在计算机上的数值模拟实验,证明了该方法的有效性,分析了雷诺数、输送顺序对混油的影响并得到混油随输送距离的变化规律。     

Construction and application of photoresponsive smart nanochannels

In living organisms, many biological processes are inextricably linked with light, such as the photosynthesis systems and rhodopsin. Hence, construction of light-sensitive biomimetic-nanochannels, which can realize the functions of cells and other membrane structures with high degree of spatial and temporal control, is particularly attractive and challenging. As a cornerstone of light-sensitive nanochannels, the photoresponsive materials are a big family and at their mature stage after several decades of development, which can provide different strategies to construct biomimetic photoresponsive nanochannels. In this review, we mainly summarize the construction and applications of photoresponsive nanochannels on the basis of various photoresponsive materials. The construction of photoresponsive nanochannels can be classified into four categories: photoresponsive inorganic nanochannels based on inorganic-compound-based photonic sensitive materials; photoresponsive organic nanochannels based on organic-compound-based photonic sensitive materials; photoresponsive polymers nanochannel based on photoresponsive polymers materials and potential photoresponsive nanochannels based on other photoresponsive materials. After introducing the construction of photoresponsive nanochannels, the review highlights some of the most recent applications of photoresponsive nanochannels in separation, energy conversion and storage, drug delivery and so on.     

Corresponding Angle Feedback in an innovative weighted transportation system

The optimal information feedback has a significant effect on many socioeconomic systems like stock market and traffic systems aiming to make full use of resources. In this Letter, we study dynamics of traffic flow with real-time information. The influence of a feedback strategy named Corresponding Angle Feedback Strategy (CAFS) is introduced, based on a two-route scenario in which dynamic information can be generated and displayed on the board to guide road users to make a choice. Our model incorporates the effects of adaptability into the cellular automaton models of traffic flow and simulation results adopting this optimal information feedback strategy have demonstrated high efficiency in controlling spatial distribution of traffic patterns compared with the other three information feedback strategies, i.e., vehicle number and flux.     

A superhydrophobic magnetic elastomer actuator for droplet motion control

For the fast droplet transportation on an open surface, a new magnetic elastomer with a superhydrophobic surface has been developed. Because the surface is superhydrophobic, the water droplet can easily roll off on the surface. The movement of the droplet was controlled by a deliberate local deformation of the surface of the elastomer induced by magnetic actuation. The direction and speed of the droplet motion was easily controlled by changing the surface topography using magnetic force. We also demonstrate the applicability of the devices as a new type of open‐surface digital microfluidics using a simple chemical reaction. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transportation of a microdroplet on an oriented liquid crystal surface

Wetting phenomena play important roles in several technological applications and in many physical and biological thin‐film phenomena, such as wetting, adhesion and friction. One of key issues of these studies is to control the surface energy (or wettability) dynamically for liquid transportation. We have developed a liquid crystal (LC) surface for use as a transport substrate since we expected that the surface energy of an LC surface can be controlled rapidly using an electric field. The rapid control of the polarisability (or wettability) of a liquid crystalline surface by an electric field has been demonstrated, together with the transportation of a liquid microdroplet.     

HMD-Net: A Vehicle Hazmat Marker Detection Benchmark

Vehicles carrying hazardous material (hazmat) are severe threats to the safety of highway transportation, and a model that can automatically recognize hazmat markers installed or attached on vehicles is essential for intelligent management systems. However, there is still no public dataset for benchmarking the task of hazmat marker detection. To this end, this paper releases a large-scale vehicle hazmat marker dataset named VisInt-VHM, which includes 10,000 images with a total of 20,023 hazmat markers captured under different environmental conditions from a real-world highway. Meanwhile, we provide an compact hazmat marker detection network named HMD-Net, which utilizes a revised lightweight backbone and is further compressed by channel pruning. As a consequence, the trained-model can be efficiently deployed on a resource-restricted edge device. Experimental results demonstrate that compared with some established methods such as YOLOv3, YOLOv4, their lightweight versions and popular lightweight models, HMD-Net can achieve a better trade-off between the detection accuracy and the inference speed.