Review of the phase change material (PCM) usage for solar domestic water heating systems (SDWHS)

The shortage in energy resources combined with the climb in greenhouse emissions is the main incentive beyond the deployment of solar energy resource in various applications. One of the most successful applications is the utilization of solar energy in the domestic water heating systems (DWHS) because 70% of the consumed energy in the residential segment is utilized for space heating and appliances in cold climates 1 . However, the full deployment of solar energy in domestic water heating is only possible when an energy storage system with acceptable price is available. Recently a new tendency for deploying phase change materials (PCMs) as an energy storage system is introduced in several solar DWHS. These systems are known as integrated PCM in solar DWHS and offer several advantages including high storage capacity, low storage volume, and isothermal operation during the charging and discharging phases. The present study reviews various techniques utilized for integrating the PCM in solar water heating systems and the utilized methods for enhancing the heat transfer characteristics of the PCM through the usage of extended surfaces and high conductive additives. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于复合相变材料的梯级组合蓄热特性研究

针对潜热蓄热装置内部相变材料（PCM）导热系数偏小，蓄热速率过低的问题，对基于复合相变材料的两级串联式梯级蓄热装置的相变过程进行了数值研究。通过对不同热物性PCM工况的对比与分析，得到了装置在不同工况下的蓄热特性。结果表明，存在最佳的热扩散系数，使固定熔点的PCM实现“均匀等速相变”。同时，增大PCM的热扩散系数可以有效降低加热面温度，但随着热扩散系数的增大，加热面温度降低幅度减小。通过分析Stefan数，得到了装置最佳的参数，使工况蓄热效果最佳。最后，通过Stefan数为2.88时的实验工况验证了相关规律的正确性。     

纳米级超声造影剂的理论研究进展

为了克服超声造影剂中微米级气泡尺寸较大的局限性,大量研究人员对超声应用的替代造影剂(纳米级造影剂)进行了研究。随着生物纳米技术的飞速发展,纳米级超声造影剂在诊断与治疗领域有着广阔的发展前景。与超声造影剂中的微米级气泡相比,纳米级造影剂粒径较小,渗透能力极强,可以通过血管内皮间隙,进而可以实现血管外病变部位的显影。文中详细论述了超声造影剂在超声作用下的行为以及2种主要的纳米级造影剂:纳米气泡和纳米液滴造影剂,对其理论研究进展进行了总结,并提出了目前仍存在的一些问题及其未来的研究方向。     

Cold and wet: Diatoms dominate the phytoplankton community during a year of anomalous weather in a Great Lakes estuary

As sentinels of climate change and other anthropogenic forces, freshwater lakes are experiencing ecosystem disruptions at every level of the food web, beginning with the phytoplankton, a highly responsive group of organisms. Most studies regarding the effects of climate change on phytoplankton focus on a potential scenario in which temperatures continuously increase and droughts intersperse heavy precipitation events. Like much of the conterminous United States in 2019, the Muskegon River watershed (Michigan, USA) experienced record-breaking rainfall accompanied by unusually cool temperatures, affording an opportunity to explore how an alternate potential climate scenario may affect phytoplankton. We conducted biweekly sampling of environmental variables and phytoplankton in Muskegon Lake, a Great Lakes Area of Concern that connects to Lake Michigan. We compared environmental variables in 2019 to the previous eight years using long-term data from the Muskegon Lake Observatory buoy, and annual monitoring excursions provided historical phytoplankton data. Under cold and wet conditions, diatoms were the single dominant division throughout the entire growth season – an unprecedented scenario in Muskegon Lake. In 10 of the 13 biweekly sampling days in 2019, diatoms comprised over 75% of the phytoplankton community in the lake by count, indicating that the spring diatom bloom persisted through the fall. Additionally, phytoplankton seasonal succession and abundance patterns typically seen in this lake were absent. In a world experiencing reduced predictability, increased variability, and regional climate anomalies, studying periods of extreme weather events may offer insight into how natural systems will be affected and respond under future climate scenarios.     

Heat transfer enhancement of concentrated solar absorber using hollow cylindrical fins filled with phase change material

A concentrated solar absorber with finned phase change materials was experimentally studied using a Scheffler type parabolic dish concentrator. The absorber's inner surface was fixed with hollow cylindrical containers filled with phase change material (PCM) for heat transfer augmentation. The absorber's selected PCM was acetanilide (Melting point of 116 °C)—the cylindrical capsules protruding into the fluid side to create turbulence and mixing and acting as fins. The absorber surface temperature was observed to be about 130–150 °C during the outdoor tests while passing fluid through the absorber. The fluid flow rate varied from 60 to 100 kg/h during the outdoor experiments. The peak energy and exergy efficiency of parabolic dish collector (PDC) at the fluid flow rate of 80 kg/h with PCM integrated solar absorber was found to be about 67.88% and 6.96%, respectively. The integration of cylindrical PCM containers resulted in more heat transfer augmentation in the solar absorbers. The optimized solar absorber could be suitable for various applications like steam generation, biomass gasification, space heating, and hydrogen generation.     

Future changes in wind energy resource over the Northwest Passage based on the CMIP6 climate projections

The preferential use of renewable energy sources such as wind power has been proposed as one of the most effective strategies in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector. However, wind energy resources are vulnerable to climate change, which might have a huge impact on the area under consideration. In this research, we used the wind speed data obtained from the seven coupled global climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) to quantitatively analyze the differences in wind energy resource (WER) between the future and the historical period, geared toward understanding the impact of climate change on wind energy sources. Relevant results show that the future WER would decreases below 20% in the region south of the Northwest Passage, while would significantly increase in the north region of 72°N (specifically in the Beaufort Sea). Further, reports predict that by the end of the 21st century, if no interventions are made to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, the northern region's WER would increase even more with some grid points exceeding 30% and have a significant growth trend, but at the same time the intra‐annual variability in these region would also increase significantly with some grid points exceeding 140% of that in the historical period. Moreover, the maximum wind speed values would encounter a noteworthy increase of up to 20%, which will bring great challenge to the development of wind energy in these region. Although the current models still have great uncertainties in the future climate prediction, our work still has certain guiding significance for the future development of wind energy over the Northwest Passage.     

Global modeling of hydrogen using GFDL-AM4.1: Sensitivity of soil removal and radiative forcing

Hydrogen (H₂) has been proposed as an alternative energy carrier to reduce the carbon footprint and associated radiative forcing of the current energy system. Here, we describe the representation of H₂ in the GFDL-AM4.1 model including updated emission inventories and improved representation of H₂ soil removal, the dominant sink of H₂. The model best captures the overall distribution of surface H₂, including regional contrasts between climate zones, when v_d(H₂) is modulated by soil moisture, temperature, and soil carbon content. We estimate that the soil removal of H₂ increases with warming (2–4% per K), with large uncertainties stemming from different regional response of soil moisture and soil carbon. We estimate that H₂ causes an indirect radiative forcing of 0.84 mW m^?2/(Tg(H₂)yr^?1) or 0.13 mW m^?2 ppbv^?1, primarily due to increasing CH₄ lifetime and stratospheric water vapor production.     

Understanding social viewing through discussion network and emotion: A focus on South Korean presidential debates

With the development of social media, television viewing is perceived no longer as an isolated activity. This study explores the underlying mechanism of the effects of social viewing discussion networks (i.e., bridging and bonding social viewing networks) on emotions (i.e., anger, fear, and enthusiasm), and moreover on opinion consolidation as well as opinion weakening in the context of the 2017 South Korean presidential debates. Overall, the main results are: a) Social viewing discussion networks influenced emotional states of social viewers, b) Emotions influenced attitude formation during social viewing, and c) Enthusiasm served as a catalyst that links bonding and bridging social viewing, and opinion consolidation. Implications and theoretical contributions are discussed.     

俄罗斯天然气在东北地区的利用发展分析

中俄东线天然气即将引入中国,将对东北地区的天然气利用项目产生有力的推动作用,同时也将面临各种问题。为建立长期可持续发展资源供应体系,结合能源供需实际,讨论了俄气到来后,东北地区天然气未来的发展方向,并分析了存在的主要问题:①天然气自产不足,域外依存度高;②地域特点决定替代能源可有多种选择;③调峰困难且富余天然气难以处理;④天然气替代经济性差,价高难以承受。并针对矛盾点进行了总结,指出来源多元化和资源多样化才能可持续发展。明确东北地区宜以天然气作为过渡能源,并提出了适宜地区经济发展的天然气利用建议。     

The phase change thermoelastic analysis of biological tissue with variable thermal properties during cryosurgery

Abstract

In this work, the coupling phase change heat transfer process and thermal stress behavior of biological tissue during cryosurgery are studied in the context of a generalized thermoelastic theory. The nonlinear governing equations are constructed while considering the variable thermal properties and solved by a time-domain finite element method based on the effective heat capacity formulation. A 2-D tumor and normal tissue model is adopted for simulating the freezing process in cryosurgery. The effects of temperature-dependent thermal properties and relaxation time on the responses of biological tissue are discussed and illustrated graphically.