Modulation of electrical transport in calcium cobaltite ceramics and thick films through microstructure control and doping

Ca₃Co₄O₉ is a promising p-type thermoelectric oxide material having intrinsically low thermal conductivity. With low cost and opportunities for automatic large scale production, thick film technologies offer considerable potential for a new generation of micro-sized thermoelectric coolers or generators. Here, based on the chemical composition optimized by traditional solid state reaction for bulk samples, we present a viable approach to modulating the electrical transport properties of screen-printed calcium cobaltite thick films through control of the microstructural evolution by optimized heat-treatment. XRD and TEM analysis confirmed the formation of high-quality calcium cobaltite grains. By creating 2.0 at% cobalt deficiency in Ca_2.7Bi_0.3Co₄O_9+δ, the pressureless sintered ceramics reached the highest power factor of 98.0 μWm^?1 K^-2 at 823 K, through enhancement of electrical conductivity by reduction of poorly conducting secondary phases. Subsequently, textured thick films of Ca_2.7Bi_0.3Co_3.92O_9+δ were efficiently tailored by controlling the sintering temperature and holding time. Optimized Ca_2.7Bi_0.3Co_3.92O_9+δ thick films sintered at 1203 K for 8 h exhibited the maximum power factor of 55.5 μWm^?1 K^-2 at 673 K through microstructure control.     

基于滚动摩擦作用下玉米颗粒在模拟筒仓卸料中的力链分析（网络首发、推荐阅读）

针对颗粒滚动摩擦作用对筒仓中玉米颗粒的力链空间分布进行研究，通过EDEM离散元软件建立筒仓模型与仿真玉米颗粒模型进行卸粮仿真模拟，并与筒仓卸料实验作流态对比，验证模型与仿真结果的准确性。通过对模拟仓进行切片观察和数据处理，对比分析了不同摩擦情况下力链的细观参数随时间演化规律。模拟结果表明：颗粒间摩擦系数越大，卸粮完成的最终时间越长；颗粒间滚动摩擦系数越小，颗粒由整体流转变为管状流的时间越早。对于有漏斗的筒仓来说，减小颗粒间摩擦会改变整体流和管状流之间的极限，从而增加产生管状流的面积。标准滚动摩擦系数下玉米颗粒在卸料过程中会出现起拱-塌陷效应；减小滚动摩擦，玉米颗粒卸料较稳定，未出现起拱的应力突增、以及拱塌陷的应力衰减；增大颗粒间滚动摩擦不但会增加拱效应，且出现成拱高度距离漏斗口更高。     

Analysis of operating limits and combustion state regulation for low-calorific value gases in industrial burners

The effective and efficient utilization of low-calorific value (LCV) gases has gained increasing attention in scientific research and industrial fields. In this study, the combustion characteristics of three LCV gases in practical devices are analyzed by using a nonadiabatic perfectly stirred reactor model. The complete steady-state solution in the temperature-residence time parameter space is obtained with arc-length continuation. The stable operation region is quantified by the eigenvalue analysis. The transition of solution curves is quantified with heat loss coefficient. Five key system parameters are systematically investigated on their effects on stability limits. With the combustion performance being quantified by a combustion state index, a combustion state regulation method is proposed to find the optimal regulation path of system parameters. Active subspace method is further applied to shorten the regulation step by identifying the active direction. The proposed method and findings are useful for optimal regulation of burning LCV gases in industrial burners.     

Description of the thermodynamic properties and fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of linear,branched, and cyclic amines

The SAFT-γ Mie group-contribution equation of state is used to represent the fluid-phase behavior of aqueous solutions of a variety of linear, branched, and cyclic amines. New group interactions are developed in order to model the mixtures of interest, including the like and unlike interactions between alkyl primary, secondary, and tertiary amine groups (NH₂, NH, N), cyclic secondary and tertiary amine groups (cNH, cN), and cyclic methine-amine groups (cCHNH, cCHN) with water (H₂O). The group-interaction parameters are estimated from appropriate experimental thermodynamic data for pure amines and selected mixtures. By taking advantage of the group-contribution nature of the method, one can describe the fluid-phase behavior of mixtures of molecules comprising those groups over broad ranges of temperature, pressure, and composition. A number of aqueous solutions of amines are studied including linear, branched aliphatic, and cyclic amines. Liquid–liquid equilibria (LLE) bounded by lower critical solution temperatures (LCSTs) have been reported experimentally and are reproduced here with the SAFT-γ Mie approach. The main feature of the approach is the ability not only to represent accurately the experimental data employed in the parameter estimation, but also to predict the vapor–liquid, liquid–liquid, and vapor–liquid–liquid equilibria, and LCSTs with the same set of parameters. Pure compound and binary phase diagrams of diverse types of amines and their aqueous solutions are assessed in order to demonstrate the main features of the thermodynamic and fluid-phase behavior.     

Patterns in environmental priorities revealed through government open data portals

The ways in which environmental priorities are framed are varied and influenced by political forces. One technological advance--the proliferation of government open data portals (ODPs)--has the potential to improve governance through facilitating access to data. Yet it is also known that the data hosted on ODPs may simply reflect the goals and interests of multiple levels of political power. In this article, I use traditional statistical correlation and regression techniques along with newer natural language processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze the corpus of datasets hosted on government ODPs (total: 49,066) to extract patterns that relate scales of governance and political liberalism/conservatism to the priorities and meaning attached to environmental issues. I find that state-level and municipal-level ODPs host different categories of environmental datasets, with municipal-level ODPs generally hosting more datasets pertaining to services and amenities and state-level ODPs hosting more datasets pertaining to resource protection and extraction. Stronger trends were observed for the influences of political conservatism/liberalism among state-level ODPs than for municipal-level ODPs.     

An active balancer with rapid bidirectional charge shuttling and adaptive equalization current control for lithium-ion battery strings

This article proposes an active balancer, which features bidirectional charge shuttling and adaptive equalization current control, to fast counterbalance the state of charge (SOC) of cells in a lithium-ion battery (LIB) string. The power circuit consists of certain bidirectional buck-boost converters to transfer energy among the different cells back and forth. Owing to the characterization of the open-circuit voltage (OCV) vs SOC in LIB being relatively smooth near the SOC middle range, the SOC-inspected balance strategy can achieve more precise and efficient equilibrium than the voltage-based control. Accordingly, a compensated OCV-based SOC estimation is put forward to take into account the discrepancy of SOC estimation. Besides, the varied-duty-cycle (VDC) and curve-fitting modulation (CFM) methods are devised herein to tackle the problems of slow equalization rate and low balance efficacy, which arise from the diminution in balancing current as the SOC difference between the cells decreases in the later duration of equalization especially. The proposed strategies have taken the battery nonlinear characteristic and circuit parameter nonideality into account and can adaptively modulate the duty cycle with the SOC difference to keep balancing current constant throughout the balancing cycle. Simulated and experimental results are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the same prototype constructed. Compared with the fixed duty cycle and the VDC methods, the proposed CFM has the best balancing efficiency of 81.4%, and the balance time is shortened by 27.1% and 18.6%, respectively.     

基于双时间点检测的毫米波雷达人流量监测方法

针对现有基于视频监控的人流量统计方案成本高、算法复杂且不利于个人隐私保护的局限性，利用毫米波雷达体积小、成本低、分辨率高的特点，提出了一种基于双时间点检测的人流量监测方法。该方法先获取人体目标散射点位置和多普勒频移信息来构成点云数据，然后根据多普勒频移正负来判断人体的运动方向，并筛选具有高多普勒频移值的点云数据以降低干扰点对聚类结果的影响；在双时间点对特定区域内人员数量进行统计，并根据双时间点之间所获取的点云数据聚类结果对所统计人员数据进行修正。实验结果表明，该方法能够用匿名的方式以较高的正确率统计人员进出。     

不同工质回路热管负载功率变化下的质量流量特性

为了进一步提高回路热管仿真精度并丰富回路热管实验研究方法，本文对回路热管瞬态传质进行实验研究。使用高精度质量流量计分别对以丙酮、乙醇、丙烯为工质的回路热管进行不同负载功率下的质量流量测量研究。结果表明：启动阶段，热负载10W时，丙烯回路比丙酮回路热管启动快，且两者的温度稳定均滞后于质量流量；稳定阶段，随着热负载功率增大，不同工质的回路热管的平均质量流量均线性增长，而瞬态质量流量则持续波动，其质量流量波动幅度均呈现先减小后增大的趋势。质量流量波动幅度会受到气体工质的可压缩性与作用在毛细芯内部上的热量的共同影响。通过频谱分析发现，液相质量流量波动还会受到冷凝器两相区的影响。高热负载下，作用在毛细芯内部上的热量占主导地位，质量流量波动加剧，同时出现周期性大幅波动，且其波动频率随着热负载增大而增大。     

河南渑池地区铝土矿工艺矿物学及锂的赋存状态研究

通过河南省渑池地区含锂铝土矿(岩)层工艺矿物学分析,查明铝土矿的物质组成、嵌布特征、伴生锂分布特征和赋存状态,为矿产综合利用提供理论依据。结果显示:该铝土矿Al2O3含量为54.8%,铝硅比值(A/S)为2.6,铝土矿层和粘土岩层中Li2O含量均高于伴生锂边界品位,粘土岩中锂更为富集；矿物组成除一水硬铝石之外,主要是以集合体形态产出的粘土矿物。采用稀酸解析、选矿测试和电子探针分析锂的赋存状态,查明矿石中锂主要是以类质同象置换形式赋存在伊利石和高岭石等粘土矿物中；选矿富锂尾矿中Li2O可富集到0.57%左右,是锂综合回收利用的重点研究对象。