Influence of operation number on arc erosion behavior of Ag/Ni electrical contact materials

Arc erosion behavior of Ag/Ni materials with different operation numbers was investigated by OM, 3DOP and SEM. The results indicated that the arc erosion of Ag/10Ni electrical contact material fabricated by sintering? extrusion technology was more and more serious with the operation numbers increasing from 1000 to 40000. With the same operation numbers, the arc erosion on anode was more serious than that on cathode. Besides, the pores preferred to emerge around the arc effect spot during the first 10000 operations. And the morphology of the molten silver on cathode and anode was different due to the action of gravity and arc erosion. Furthermore, the relationships among arc energy, arc time, welding force, electric resistivity, temperature and mass change on contacts were discussed, which indicated that the mass loss on cathode was mainly caused by the fracture of molten bridge.     

融合大数据技术和工艺经验的高炉参数优化

 为了更精准地评判高炉运行情况，量化高炉指导方针。根据高炉生产过程的特点，应用大数据技术对高炉生产参数与铁水产量和高炉能耗等指标进行数据驱动分析，提出了一种优化高炉生产参数的新方法。首先，对某钢铁厂高炉各工序历史数据进行了采集、清洗、过滤和整合，建立了高炉数据仓库。然后，将多种聚类算法相结合，完成了对高炉炉况变化的详细划分。运用工艺经验与递归特征消除算法相结合，全面筛选得到能够反映炉况波动的强相关变量。应用统计学方法分析得出Class_a炉况对应的核心参数的最优范围，这对指导现场生产、保持高炉长期稳定顺行具有重要意义。     

Semiconductor‐ionic materials could play an important role in advanced fuel‐to‐electricity conversion

Functional semiconductor‐ionic materials can be used to realize a single component or so‐called “three‐in‐one” fuel cell design. Such materials integrate the functionalities of fuel cell's anode, electrolyte, and cathode into one component. The underlying principle of a single‐component fuel cell design combines material band structures with ionic species/transport. The performance values of such devices could exceed that of traditional fuel cells. This could represent a major progress in fuel cell science and technology and lies grounds for a new direction of fuel cell R&D and commercialization.     

Estimation of Antenna Correlation Coefficient of N-Port Lossy MIMO Array

This paper proposes a simple yet accurate method for estimating the antenna correlation coefficient (ACC) of a high-order multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna. The conventional method employed to obtain the ACC from three-dimensional radiation patterns is costly and difficult to measure. An alternate method is to use the S-parameters, which can be easily measured using a network analyzer. However, this method assumes that the antennas are highly efficient, and it is therefore not suitable for lossy MIMO antenna arrays. To overcome this limitation, we define and utilize the non-coupled radiation efficiency in the S-parameter-based ACC formula. The accuracy of the proposed method is verified by the simulation results of a 4-port highly coupled lossy MIMO array. Further, the proposed method can be applied to N-port arrays by expanding the calculation matrix.     

Optimization of C/TiCx duplex diffusion barrier coatings for SiCf/Ti composites based on interfacial structure evolution exploration

Introducing a carbon single coating is a popular method used to protect SiC_f/Ti composites from severe interface reactions. However, carbon coatings lose their protective effect on SiC fibres at high temperature, even after a short period time. As such, given the strong demand for high temperature applications in aeronautics and astronautics a more coating which is more effective at high temperatures is desirable. In order to improve the high temperature interfacial stability of SiC_f/Ti composites, a C/TiC_x duplex coating system with different C contents in TiC_x was introduced to explore the protection of fibres at 1200?°C for 1?h. The results show that the C/quasi-stoichiometric TiC coating system protects the SiC fibres most effectively. Based on insights from the evolution of the interface structure, TiC_x has been identified as an interfacial reaction product from the C single coating, exhibiting a gradient in C content and grain size, which is different from a deposited TiC layer with a well-distributed composition and structure. The different coating structure gives rise to different ability to resist C diffusion at high temperatures, in which poor resistance ability appears in TiC_x interfacial reaction layer coming from C single coating due to short-circuit diffusion in C-rich fine-grained TiC layer and fast intracrystalline diffusion trigged by amounts of vacancies in sub-stoichiometric coarse-grained TiC layer. Therefore, C/quasi-stoichiometric TiC duplex coatings with a thick, coarse-grained quasi-stoichiometric TiC layer could effectively inhibit C diffusion by comparison to C single coatings, and is more effective than C/rich-carbon TiC duplex coatings due to the existence of short-circuit diffusion in the latter. As such, C/quasi-stoichiometric TiC duplex coatings appear to be an optimal diffusion barrier for SiC_f/Ti composites at high temperature.     

Hydrodistillation condition adjustment for different material particle sizes: a method to increase batch‐to‐batch quality consistency

Varying material particle sizes represent a common contributing factor to the batch‐to‐batch variation of extraction yields. To increase the batch‐to‐batch quality consistency of extracts, a method was proposed to adjust the extraction conditions for different material particle sizes, taking the hydrodistillation extraction process of Radix Curcumae and Fructus Gardeniae as a case study. Statistical models were built for five sesquiterpenes including curcumenone, curcumenol, curdione, curzerenone and furanodienone, to quantitatively describe the effects of particle size and process parameters on their extraction yields. An increase in sodium chloride concentration remarkably increased the yields of curcumenone and curcumenol, and a larger solvent‐to‐solid ratio increased the yields of five sesquiterpenes. Under the adjusted process parameters for two different particle sizes, the yield for each compound was controlled to fall in the 90–110% target range. The proposed method can be applied to various extraction processes of foods and herbal medicines.     

Cutting parameter optimization for one-step shaft excavation technique based on parallel cutting method

The outcome of the cutting blasting in a one-step shaft excavation is heavily related to the cutting parameters used for parallel cutting method. In this study, the relationships between the cutting parameters (such as the hole spacing L and the empty hole diameter D) and damage zones were investigated by numerical simulation. A damage state index γ was introduced and used to characterize the crushing and crack damage zones through a user-defined subroutine. Two indices, i.e., η₁ and η₂ that can reflect the cutting performance, were also introduced. The simulation results indicate that an optimal value of L can be obtained so that the η₁ and η₂ can reach their optimal states for the best cutting performance. A larger D results in better cutting performance when the L value maintains its best. In addition, the influences of the loading rate and the in-situ stress on the cutting performance were investigated. It is found that an explosive with a high loading rate is suit for cutting blasting. The propagation direction and the length of the tensile cracks are affected by the direction and the magnitude of the maximum principal stress.