Stiffness and strength characteristics of demolition waste,glass and plastics in railway capping layers

The increased generation of demolition waste has led to the successful implementation of its utilization in civil engineering projects. The combination of recycled aggregates and supplementary materials can potentially improve the quality of geomaterials when constructing alternative railway capping layers. In this research, two types of demolition waste, namely, Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) and Crushed Brick (CB), were studied in comparison to two Conventional Capping Materials (CCMs), which are currently used for railway track construction. Recycled Glass (RG) and Mixed Recovered Plastic (MRP) were also blended with RCA to assess their performance. All the materials and mixtures were evaluated in terms of both stiffness and strength. A new Repeated Load Triaxial (RLT) testing protocol was introduced based on the stress induced in the capping layers to determine the stiffness of the materials. A comparison was made among the current resilient modulus prediction models to find a model that would better fit the results for the demolition waste and mixtures. Multistage triaxial tests were also conducted to determine the strength, friction, stiffness and energy absorption capacity of the materials. It was found from this research study that RCA, CB and mixtures of RCA with RG and MRP have equivalent or higher levels of stiffness and strength than CCMs and are suitable alternatives for sustainable railway capping layer construction.     

基于蛾眼阵列的全向宽光谱减反层优化设计

为降低太阳电池封装材料PET薄膜的反射率,采用严格耦合波分析(RCWA)方法对基于蛾眼阵列的减反层进行了优化设计。对比研究了圆锥形、抛物线形和正弦形蛾眼结构的减反性能,结果表明圆锥形蛾眼结构具有最佳全向宽光谱减反性能。分析了圆锥体几何参数对太阳光透过率的影响,为参数选取提供依据。在此基础上,提出基于柱形与锥形复合结构的蛾眼阵列,通过参数优化,进一步提高了太阳光在大角度入射条件下的透过率。优化后复合结构的蛾眼阵列的PET薄膜对波长范围在0.3~1.1μm、入射角度为0°~90°的入射太阳光角度归一化透过率达到0.966 4,相比于未采取减反措施的PET薄膜透过率提高12.77%。     

相场法模拟GaAs衬底上InGaAs异质结表面形貌

本工作采用相场法模拟GaAs衬底上生长的In_(0.3)Ga_(0.7)As多层异质结构薄膜表面。通过引入多序参量,使用半隐性傅里叶谱方法求解Cahn-Hilliard方程可以求得带缓冲层结构的薄膜表面形貌。计算结果模拟了薄膜生长过程,研究显示,使用In0.15-Ga0.85As缓冲层,厚度从1nm增加到4nm,薄膜表面临界波长从34nm提升到80nm。随着缓冲层的厚度从1nm增加到10nm,使用正弦波表面的模拟结果显示,薄膜表面粗糙度从2.87nm下降到0.43nm,随机叠加波表面的模拟结果也类似,表面粗糙度从1.21nm下降到0.18nm。热力学分析和应变分布分析可以解释缓冲层对薄膜表面形貌演化的作用。该模拟计算方式对设计缓冲层结构有很大的帮助,模拟计算的结果可以与实验相比对。     

煤层软硬分层吸附瓦斯性能差异性及其对瓦斯赋存的影响

为研究煤层软、硬分层吸附瓦斯性能差异性及其对瓦斯赋存的影响,分析了煤层内软分层的形成机理及结构特征,采集了我国多个煤与瓦斯突出矿井的煤样作为试验对象,应用高压容量法开展了软、硬分层煤样吸附瓦斯性能参数的对比试验,探讨了软煤、硬煤吸附性能的差异性。在此基础上,对煤层软、硬分层吸附瓦斯性能差异性与瓦斯赋存特征之间的关联进行了研究,结果表明:试验煤样软分层的极限吸附量均大于硬分层;随着瓦斯压力的增加,试验煤样软、硬分层瓦斯含量的差值逐渐增大,其曲线的变化特征与Langmuir方程类似,并且软、硬分层瓦斯含量数值的差异主要由吸附量差值构成;煤层软、硬分层吸附瓦斯性能的差异不仅对煤层原始瓦斯赋存特征有着显著的影响,同时还将影响煤巷掘进、瓦斯抽采过程中煤体内瓦斯流场的分布规律,需要根据煤层软、硬分层的组合特点,制订切实有效的瓦斯抽采技术方案。     

Photophoretic Levitation of Macroscopic Nanocardboard Plates

Scaling down miniature rotorcraft and flapping-wing flyers to sub-centimeter dimensions is challenging due to complex electronics requirements, manufacturing limitations, and the increase in viscous damping at low Reynolds numbers. Photophoresis, or light-driven fluid flow, was previously used to levitate solid particles without any moving parts, but only with sizes of 1–20 µm. Here, architected metamaterial plates with 50 nm thickness are leveraged to realize photophoretic levitation at the millimeter to centimeter scales. Instead of creating lift through conventional rotors or wings, the nanocardboard plates levitate due to light-induced thermal transpiration through microchannels within the plates, enabled by their extremely low mass and thermal conductivity. At atmospheric pressure, the plates hover above a solid substrate at heights of ≈0.5 mm by creating an air cushion beneath the plate. Moreover, at reduced pressures (10–200 Pa), the increased speed of thermal transpiration through the plate's channels creates an air jet that enables mid-air levitation and allows the plates to carry small payloads heavier than the plates themselves. The macroscopic metamaterial structures demonstrate the potential of this new mechanism of flight to realize nanotechnology-enabled flying vehicles without any moving parts in the Earth's upper atmosphere and at the surface of other planets.     

Effect of Reynolds number and boundary layer thickness on the performance of V-cone flowmeter using CFD

The effect of Reynolds number and boundary layer thickness on the performance of V-cone flowmeter has been evaluated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The shear stress transport k-ω (SST k-ω) turbulence model has been adopted for closure. The performance of two V-cone flowmeters with different beta ratios (β) viz., 0.6 and 0.7 for a fixed vertex angle (ϕ) of 60° has been analysed as a function of Reynolds number (Re). The results show that the coefficient of discharge (C_d) increases with Reynolds number in the laminar and transition flow regimes whereas it is nearly constant in turbulent flow regime. From the results, it can be concluded that C_d is independent of Re for values equal to 4000 and beyond. Further, it is also seen that the performance of the V-cone flowmeter is not affected by the upstream boundary layer thickness if the velocity profiles having different boundary layer thickness are extracted from an axial distance of 10D and more are fed at 5D upstream of the meter. However, the meter is sensitive to the extracted velocity profile from an axial distance of 5D and uniform velocity profile being fed at 5D upstream. The value of C_d may be sensitive as a result of the pressure variation due to the obstruction.     

Nonlinear convection in an elasticoviscous fluid‐saturated anisotropic porous layer using a local thermal nonequilibrium model

By adopting a perturbation method and a local thermal nonequilibrium model, nonlinear thermal convection in an anisotropic porous layer saturated by an elasticoviscous fluid is investigated. An elasticoviscous fluid is modeled by a modified Darcy‐Oldroyd‐B model, and the fluid and solid phase temperatures are represented using a two‐field model for the heat transport equation. Anisotropy in permeability and fluid and solid thermal conductivities are considered. A cubic Landau equation is derived separately to study the stability of bifurcating solution of both stationary and oscillatory convection, and the results of linear instability theory are delineated. The boundary between stationary and oscillatory convection is demarcated by identifying codimension‐two points in the viscoelastic parameters plane. It is found that the subcritical instability is not possible, and the linear instability analysis itself completely captures the behavior of the onset of convection. Heat transfer is obtained in terms of Nusselt number, and the effect of governing parameters on the same is discussed. The results of the Maxwell fluid are obtained as a particular case from the present study.     

A triple (e−/O2−/H+) conducting perovskite BaCo0.4Fe0.4Zr0.1Y0.1O3-δ for low temperature solid oxide fuel cell

Low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (LT-SOFCs) have recently gained enormous attention worldwide with a new research trend focusing on single layer fuel cells (SLFC), which have better cell performance than traditional SOFCs at low operating temperatures. In this study, a triple (e^?/O^2?/H⁺) conducting perovskite BaCo_0.4Fe_0.4Zr_0.1Y_0.1O_3-δ (BCFZY) is used as the intermediate layer material for SLFC. A high current density of 994 mA/cm² at 0.6 V and a peak power density of 610 mW/cm² with an OCV of 1.01 V has been achieved with a cell operating temperature of 550 °C, confirming the application feasibility of BCFZY in SLFCs. Furthermore, a typical proton conductor BaZr_0.8Y_0.2O_3-δ (BZY) is introduced into BCFZY to enhance the cell performance. By adjusting the mass ratio of the BCFZY-BZY layer, an optimal power density is obtained, achieving 703 mW/cm² with an OCV of 1.03 V at 550 °C with an 8BCFZY:2BZY (wt%) ratio. These findings prove that the proposed BCFZY-BZY holds great promise for developing SLFCs to realize low-temperature operation.