Experimental investigation on the invert stability of operating railway tunnels with different drainage systems using 3D printing technology

In recent years, the invert anomalies of operating railway tunnels in water-rich areas occur frequently, which greatly affect the transportation capacity of the railway lines. Tunnel drainage system is a crucial factor to ensure the invert stability by regulating the external water pressure (EWP). By means of a three-dimensional (3D) printing model, this paper experimentally investigates the deformation behavior of the invert for the tunnels with the traditional drainage system (TDS) widely used in China and its optimized drainage system (ODS) with bottom drainage function. Six test groups with a total of 110 test conditions were designed to consider the design factors and environmental factors in engineering practice, including layout of the drainage system, blockage of the drainage system and groundwater level fluctuation. It was found that there are significant differences in the water discharge, EWP and invert stability for the tunnels with the two drainage systems. Even with a dense arrangement of the external blind tubes, TDS was still difficult to eliminate the excessive EWP below the invert, which is the main cause for the invert instability. Blockage of drainage system further increased the invert uplift and aggravated the track irregularity, especially when the blockage degree is more than 50%. However, ODS can prevent these invert anomalies by reasonably controlling the EWP at tunnel bottom. Even when the groundwater level reached 60 m and the blind tubes were fully blocked, the invert stability can still be maintained and the railway track experienced a settlement of only 1.8 mm. Meanwhile, the on-site monitoring under several rainstorms further showed that the average EWP of the invert was controlled within 84 kPa, while the maximum settlement of the track slab was only 0.92 mm, which also was in good agreement with the results of model test.     

Tuning of shear thickening behavior and elastic strength of polyvinylidene fluoride via doping of ZnO-graphene

ZnO rice like nonarchitects are grafted on the graphene carbon core via a rapid microwave synthesis route. The prepared grafted systems are characterized via XRD, SEM, RAMAN, and XPS to examined the structural and morphological parameters. Zinc oxide grafted graphene sheets (ZnO-G) are further doped in β-phase of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) to prepare the polymer nanocomposites (PNCs) via mixed solvent approach (THF/DMF). β-phase confirmation of PVDF PNCs is done by FTIR studies. It is observed that ZnO-G filler enhances the β-phase content in the PNCs. Non-doped PVDF and PNCs are further studied for rheological behavior under the shear rate of 1–100 s⁻¹. Doping of ZnO-G dopant to the PVDF matrix changes its discontinuous shear thickening (DST) behavior to continues shear thickening behavior (CST). Hydrocluster formation and their interaction with the dopant could be the reason for this striking DST to CST behavioral change. Strain amplitude sweep (10⁻³% -10%) oscillatory test reveals that the PNCs shows extended linear viscoelastic region with high elastic modulus and lower viscous modulus. Effective shear thickening behavior and strong elastic strength of these PNCs present their candidature for various fields including mechanical and soft body armor applications.     

乌兰矿采矿现状及技术应对方案

本文分析了乌兰矿投产前期采矿现状及存在的主要问题,针对该矿所处蒙古国经济落后、投资风险大的现实状况,为避免生产中断、规避投资风险,早日回收前期投资考虑,采取了双斜坡道开拓、全尾胶结充填、高端壁空场嗣后充填采矿、多中段组合式连续开采等系列技术应对方案。大大降低了一次性投资规模及投资风险,前期投资得以快速回笼的同时,矿山产能也充分释放,确保了矿山的持续稳定,取得了较好的经济和社会效益。为海外地下近地表矿体开采矿山规避投资风险提供了很好的技术方案借鉴。     

Influence of SiC microstructure on its corrosion behavior in molten FLiNaK salt

The influence of the microstructure on the corrosion rate of three monolithic SiC samples in FLiNaK salt at 900 °C for 250 h was studied. The SiC samples, labeled as SiC-1, SiC-2, and SiC-3, had corrosion rates of 0.137, 0.020, and 0.043 mg/cm²h, respectively. Compared with grain size and the presence of special grain boundaries (i.e., Σ3), the content of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) appeared to have the strongest influence on the corrosion rate of SiC in FLiNaK salt, since the corrosion rate increased six times as the concentration of high-angle grain boundaries increased from 19 to 32% for SiC-2 and SiC-1, respectively. These results stress the importance of controlling the content of HAGBs during the production process of SiC.     

基于蜻蜓翅脉结构的连续碳纤维增强树脂基复合材料仿生设计与增材制造

以具有轻质高强优异性能的蜻蜓翅脉结构为设计灵感，在分析翅脉网格结构抗冲击原理的基础上，设计了传统和仿生两类对比结构。采用熔融挤出3D打印机成功制备了具有不同结构的连续碳纤维增强聚乳酸复合材料试样，并对不同结构复合材料试样的拉伸性能和抗冲击性能进行了测试和对比分析。研究分析结果表明：由于拉伸力方向上的连续碳纤维含量相对较少，限制了仿生结构复合材料抗拉强度的提高，但仿生结构的平均抗拉强度为传统结构的1.18倍；当仿生结构复合材料试样受到冲击力时，其内部六边形结构的连接角度会发生变化，从而极大消耗冲击能量，同时具有六边形网格结构的连续碳纤维可以有效阻碍裂纹的扩展，因此仿生结构的平均冲击韧性可以达到传统结构的2.46倍；仿生蜻蜓翅脉结构可以显著提高增材制造复合材料的综合力学性能，且对于抗冲击性能的提高具体突出效果。连续碳纤维增强树脂基复合材料的有效可行的仿生蜻蜓翅脉结构设计和增材制造，可极大扩展其在高冲击载荷领域中的相应应用。     

NNI-1型C_5/C_6烷烃异构化催化剂长周期运行分析及建议

中国石化海南炼油化工有限公司0.2 Mt/a C5/C6烷烃异构化装置以连续重整装置的拔头油为原料,使用NNI-1催化剂,采用一次通过流程,不设脱异戊烷塔和稳定塔,经设在连续重整装置内的脱丁烷塔稳定处理后作为汽油调合组分。该装置于2006年9月开工投产,截至2015年3月已连续运行3个周期。长周期运行分析结果表明:前两个周期中NNI-1催化剂具有较高的异构化活性及选择性,C5异构化率为60%左右,C6异构化率为80%左右,C6选择性为15%左右,产品辛烷值基本达到技术指标要求(RON≥78);而在第三周期运行中,催化剂积炭增加等原因导致其异构化活性及选择性降低,异构化产品辛烷值提升能力呈现逐步衰减的趋势,提高反应苛刻度已不能弥补催化剂活性下降造成的产品辛烷值降低。为保证装置长周期运行,建议择机停工对催化剂进行再生,或是直接换用与装置原料性质匹配的异构化催化剂。     

A mineralogical approach to evaluating laboratory scale acid rock drainage characterisation tests

Effective management of the risks associated with acid rock drainage (ARD) requires the ability to identify material with a potential to generate ARD reliably. With the increasing prevalence of quantitative mineralogy (Quantitative XRD, auto-SEM), opportunity exists to use mineralogy at all stages in ARD characterisation and prediction. This study uses a mineralogical approach across the head grade samples and the residues obtained under leach conditions of several common ARD characterisation tests (Acid Neutralising Capacity, Net Acid Generation), as well as the University of Cape Town (UCT) biokinetic test to evaluate the extent to which acid-neutralising minerals react. The results show the contribution of the carbonates to the acid neutralising capacity, as well as the partial dissolution of intermediate weathering silicate minerals such as chlorite and mica.     

Decomposition of first-order hybrid Petri nets for hierarchical control of manufacturing systems

Although hybrid Petri net (HPN) is a popular formalism in modelling hybrid production systems, the HPN model of large scale systems gets substantially complicated for analysis and control due to large dimensionality of such systems. To overcome this problem, a typical approach is to decompose the net into subnets and then control the plant through hierarchical or decentralized structures. Although this concept has been widely discussed in the literature for discrete PNs, there is a lack of research for HPNs. In this paper, a new method of decomposition of first-order hybrid Petri nets (FOHPNs) is proposed first and then the hierarchical control of the subnets through a coordinator is introduced. The advantage of using the proposed approach is validated by an existing example. A sugar milling case study is analysed by using a decomposed FOHPN model and the optimization results are compared against the results of the approaches presented in other papers. Simulation results show not only an improvement in production rate, but also show the ability to control the plant online. In addition, by using the hierarchical control structure for an FOHPN model, it is possible to reduce the cost of communication links, improve the reliability of the system, maintain the plant locally, and partially redesign the system.     

Adaptive robust boundary control of shaft vibrations under perturbations with unknown upper bounds

This paper presents robust and adaptive boundary control designs to stabilize the two‐dimensional vibration of hybrid shaft model. The hybrid shaft is mathematically represented by a set of partial differential equations, governing the shaft vibrations, coupled to ordinary differential equations, describing rigid body spinning and dynamic boundary conditions. The control objective is to stabilize the transverse vibrations of the perturbed shaft while regulating the spinning rate. To achieve this, the paper first establishes robust boundary control laws that fulfil the control objective in the presence of modeling uncertainties and external disturbances operating over the shaft domain and boundary. Lyapunov‐based analyses show that the proposed robust control exponentially stabilizes the shaft with vanishing distributive perturbations, while assuring ultimately bounded vibrations in the case of nonvanishing perturbations. Then, adaptive control philosophy is utilized to achieve redesigned robust controllers that only use online adaptation of control gains without acquiring the knowledge of bounds on perturbations, as well as dynamic parameters. An advantage of this design is avoiding an overconservative robust control law, which may induce poor stability and chattering in tackling system perturbations with unknown upper bounds. Simulations through finite element method illustrate the results. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Engineering grain boundary anisotropy to elucidate grain growth behavior in alumina

Current grain growth models have evolved to account for the relationship between grain boundary energy/mobility anisotropy and the five degrees of grain boundary character. However, the role of grain boundary networks on overall growth kinetics remains poorly understood. To experimentally investigate this problem, a highly textured Al₂O₃ was fabricated by colloidal casting in a strong magnetic field to engineer a unique spatial distribution of grain boundary character. Microstructural evolution was quantified and compared to an untextured sample. From this comparison, a prevalence of (0001)/(0001) terminated grain boundaries with anisotropic networks were identified in the textured sample. These boundaries and their networks were found to be driving grain growth at a faster rate than predicted by models. These findings will allow better modelling of grain growth in real systems by experimentally exploring the impact thereon of grain boundary plane anisotropy and relative energy/mobility differences between neighboring boundaries.