Economic Evaluation of Power System Flexibility by Commercial Air Conditioner Control with Large Penetration of Photovoltaic Generation

High penetration of intermittent renewable energy such as photovoltaic (PV) and wind power could cause shortage of power system flexibility. Demand response is expected to help supply ancillary service instead of the conventional power plant. Commercial air conditioners are a promising responsive load for demand response because they account for a large proportion of power consumption in the power system. We calculate a system operation cost and hourly operation pattern of each power plant by using the optimal power generation model considering flexibility supply from controlling commercial air conditioner. We obtained the following results as an effect of commercial air conditioner control. (1) The power generation of oil fired power plants decreases at peak time and annual fuel cost of oil fired plant is reduced by approximately 30% at most in Kanto area. (2) The percentage of rated operation mode of LNG combined cycle plants increases. (3) Curtailed energy rate of PV decreases because a power storage amount by pumped hydropower generation increases. (4) Required battery capacity to reduce PV curtailed amount decreased by combining battery energy storage system in case of high penetration of PV.     

The control of paracetamol particle size and surface morphology through crystallisation in a spray dryer

The parameters governing the crystallisation of paracetamol using various conventional techniques has been extensively studied, however the factors influencing the drug crystallisation using spray drying is not as well understood. The aim of this work was to investigate the crystallisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient through evaporative crystallisation using a spray dryer to study the physicochemical properties of the drug and to use semi-empirical equations to gain insight into the morphology and particle size of the dried powder. Paracetamol solutions were spray dried at various inlet temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C and also from a series of inlet feed solvent compositions ranging from 50/50% v/v ethanol/water to 100% ethanol and solid-state characterisation was done. The size and morphology of the dried materials were altered with a change in spray drying parameters, with an increase in inlet temperature leading to an increase in particle Sauter mean diameter (from 3.0 to 4.4 µm) and a decrease in the particle size with an increase in ethanol concentration in the feed (from 4.6 to 4.4 µm) as a result of changes in particle density and atomised droplet size. The morphology of the dried particles consisted of agglomerates of individual crystallites bound together into larger semi-spherical agglomerates with a higher tendency for particles having crystalline ridges to form at higher ethanol concentrations of the feed.     

区域控制器的安全需求建模与自动验证

轨道交通区域控制器（ZC）是我国轨道交通信号系统选型的主流制式——基于通信的列车控制系统（CBTC）的核心子系统，其突出的安全性使得安全需求的形式化验证成为一个非常重要的问题.但是ZC自身的复杂性以及领域知识的繁杂难以掌握，使得形式化方法很难应用到安全需求的验证中去.针对这些问题，提出一种安全需求的自动验证方法，使用半形式化的问题框架方法（PF）来建模和分解安全需求，根据需求模型自动生成安全需求的验证模型和验证性质，在此基础上自动生成验证模型的Scade语言实现，并通过Design Verifier验证器对需求进行组合验证.最后，使用了某个实际案例ZC的一个子问题CAL_EOA进行了研究，实验结果证明了该方法的可行性与有效性，它能自动地将安全需求模型进行组合验证，改善了验证的效率.     

Inverse reinforcement learning-based time-dependent A* planner for human-aware robot navigation with local vision

In an environment where robots coexist with humans, mobile robots should be human-aware and comply with humans' behavioural norms so as to not disturb humans' personal space and activities. In this work, we propose an inverse reinforcement learning-based time-dependent A* planner for human-aware robot navigation with local vision. In this method, the planning process of time-dependent A* is regarded as a Markov decision process and the cost function of the time-dependent A* is learned using the inverse reinforcement learning via capturing humans' demonstration trajectories. With this method, a robot can plan a path that complies with humans' behaviour patterns and the robot's kinematics. When constructing feature vectors of the cost function, considering the local vision characteristics, we propose a visual coverage feature for enabling robots to learn from how humans move in a limited visual field. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been validated by experiments in real-world scenarios: using this approach robots can effectively mimic human motion patterns when avoiding pedestrians; furthermore, in a limited visual field, robots can learn to choose a path that enables them to have the larger visual coverage which shows a better navigation performance.     

废脱硫剂在铁矿烧结中的应用

钢厂煤气脱硫工序排放的废脱硫剂是一种难以利用的有害固体废弃物，含一定量的铁及较高的钙和硫等元素。对废脱硫剂配入铁矿粉中进行了烧结杯的试验研究，结果表明，当废脱硫剂配比超过01%后，随着废脱硫剂配比的升高，烧结矿转鼓强度下降，利用系数下降，烧结烟气中SO2与NOx浓度增加，烧结矿的还原度有所下降，但烧结矿的低温还原粉化性能有所改善。烧结矿的矿相研究发现，废脱硫剂配比偏大时，磁铁矿体积分数增大，铁酸钙体积分数减少，并由针状结构向柱状、板状演变，烧结矿的气孔率上升。主要原因在于其粒度偏粗，含硫高，不利于成矿。当废脱硫剂粒度为-63mm及其配比控制在01%时，烧结矿的产量和质量有所改善，烟气中SO2、NOx较基准试验变化不大。工业试验表明，在烧结混匀矿中配入废脱硫剂配比小于012%时，烧结矿产量和质量没有明显变化，烧结烟气脱硫脱硝效果也没有受到影响。废脱硫剂掺入铁矿中进行烧结是一种资源化利用的有效方法，不仅解决了有害固体废弃物对环境的影响，而且使二次资源得到综合利用。     

高强度大桥缆索用盘条生产现状分析

最近5年，大桥缆索用镀锌钢丝抗拉强度有了大幅提高，从1 770 MPa级、1 860 MPa级、1 960 MPa级到目前的2 000 MPa及以上级别，扭转指标有了颠覆性的改变，从之前的几转到目前的十几转、二十几转。论述了国内外钢铁企业生产大桥缆索镀锌钢丝用盘条的不同现状。从成分设计、生产工艺流程、盘条韧化处理方式和组织特点等方面进行阐述，讨论了国内外不同生产工艺特点及发展趋势，为中国大桥缆索镀锌钢丝用盘条的生产提供理论支持。     

粒子群属性聚类的位置隐私保护

针对基于位置服务中连续查询情况下，用户自身属性信息很容易被攻击者获取，并通过关联获得用户位置隐私的情况，提出了一种利用粒子群聚类加速相似属性用户寻找，并由相似属性匿名实现用户位置泛化的隐私保护方法。该方法利用位置隐私保护中常用的可信中心服务器，通过对发送到中心服务器中的查询信息进行粒子群属性聚类，在聚类的过程中加速相似属性用户的寻找过程，由相似属性用户完成位置泛化，以此实现位置隐私保护。实验结果证明，这种基于粒子群属性聚类的隐私保护方法具有高于同类算法的隐私保护能力，以及更快的计算处理速度。     

Mechanical and thermal properties and microstructural evolution of Ta-doped Nb4AlC3

(Nb_1-xTa_x)₄AlC₃ (x = 0–0.5) ceramics were prepared by the hot press sintering method. The XRD results show that the second phase (Nb_1-xTa_x)C is formed when the Ta content increases to 25 mol%. The SEM micrographs show that (Nb_1-xTa_x)C has a core/rim structure, whose formation mechanism was also investigated. Substituting some Ta for Nb can significantly improve the mechanical properties of Nb₄AlC₃. (Nb_0.75Ta_0.25)₄AlC₃ exhibits an excellent fracture toughness of 8.3 ± 0.3 MPa m^1/2 at room temperature (RT). The highest Young's modulus (349 ± 16 GPa) and Vickers hardness (4.5 ± 0.3 GPa) at RT are exhibited by the (Nb_0.5Ta_0.5)₄AlC₃ sample, which correlate to increases of 18% and 80%, respectively, compared with those of Nb₄AlC₃. The flexural strengths of (Nb_0.5Ta_0.5)₄AlC₃ are 439 ± 18 MPa at RT and 344 ± 22 MPa at 1100 °C, which correlate to increases of 27% and 45%, respectively, compared with those of Nb₄AlC₃. The solid solution of Ta and the formation of (Nb_1-xTa_x)C are beneficial to the strengthening of Nb₄AlC₃. The coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) increases slightly from 7.08 × 10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ for Nb₄AlC₃ to 7.24 × 10⁻⁶ K⁻¹ for (Nb_0.75Ta_0.25)₄AlC₃ at 25–1400 °C. The thermal conductivity of (Nb_0.75Ta_0.25)₄AlC₃ (28.4–29.8 W/m·K) is higher than that of Nb₄AlC₃ (18.1–21.2 W/m·K) over the whole test range (25–1000 °C). Owing to their excellent mechanical and thermal properties, Ta-doped Nb₄AlC₃ ceramics have good potential as structural materials.