A Complexing Agent to Enable a Wide-Temperature Range Bromine-Based Flow Battery for Stationary Energy Storage

Bromine-based flow batteries (Br-FBs) are considered one of the most promising energy storage systems due to their features of high energy density and low cost. However, they generally suffer from uncontrolled diffusion of corrosive bromine particularly at high temperatures. That is because the interaction between polybromide anions and the commonly used complexing agent (N–methyl–N–ethyl–pyrrolidinium bromide [MEP]) decreases with increasing temperatures, which causes serious self-discharge and capacity fade. Herein, a novel bromine complexing agent, 1–ethyl–2–methyl–pyridinium bromide (BCA), is introduced in Br-FBs to solve the above problems. It is proven that BCA can combine with polybromide anions very well even at a high temperature of 60 °C. Moreover, the BCA contributes to decreasing the electrochemical polarization of Br⁻/Br₂ couple, which in turn improves their power density. As a result, a zinc–bromine flow battery with BCA as the complexing agent can achieve a high energy efficiency of 84% at 40 mA cm⁻², even at high temperature of 60 °C and it can stably run for more than 400 cycles without obvious performance decay. This paper provides an effective complexing agent to enable a wide temperature range Br-FB.     

Comments on “Study and application of discharge calibration for submerged radial gates” by Guo X., Guo Y., Wang T., Fu H., Li J. Flow Meas. Instrum. 78 (2021) 101912, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2021.101912

This paper discusses the capability of Guo et al.'s (2021) equations to determine the discharge of radial gates under submerged flow conditions. It was concluded that Guo et al.'s (2021) equations are associated with error reduction compared to the Incomplete Self-Similarity (ISS) theory and the calibration method. However, it does not have a significant advantage over Energy-Momentum (E-M) approach. Employing E-M principles, new equations were proposed to determine the discharge of radial gates, which has some advantages compared to Guo et al. (2021), such as (1) error reduction under partially and fully submerged flow conditions, (2) least dependence on the empirical constants, (3) uniformity of form over the entire submerged condition, and (4) no need to classify the submerged flow. Field calibration showed that the proposed equations in the present study for a single gate predict the discharge of parallel radial gates with a mean absolute error of less than 4.5% subject to the submerged operation of all open gates.     

Nonlinear phase dynamics of ideal kink mode in the presence of shear flow

We investigate nonlinear phase dynamics of an ideal kink mode, induced by E × B flow. Here the phase is the cross phase(θ_c) between perturbed stream function of velocity■ and magnetic field ■, i.e. θ_c= θ_φ-θ_ψ. A dimensionless parameter, analogous to the Richardson number,■(γ_(kink): the normalized growth rate of the pure kink mode; ■: normalized E × B shearing rate) is defined to measure the competition between phase pinning by the current density and phase detuning by the flow shear. When R_i 1, θ_c is locked to a fixed value,corresponding to the conventional eigenmode solution. When R_i≤1, θ_c enters a phase slipping or oscillating state, corresponding to a nonmodal solution. The nonlinear phase dynamics method provides a more intuitive explanation of the complex dynamical behavior of the kink mode in the presence of E × B shear flow.     

Flow state monitoring of gas-water two-phase flow using multi-Gaussian mixture model based on canonical variate analysis

As a highly complex and time-varying process, gas-water two-phase flow is commonly encountered in industries. It has a variety of typical flow states and transition flow states. Accurate identification and monitoring of flow states is not only beneficial to further study of two-phase flow but also helpful for stable operation and economic efficiency of process industry. Combining canonical variate analysis (CVA) and Gaussian mixture model (GMM), a strategy called multi-CVA-GMM is proposed for flow state monitoring in gas-water two-phase flow. CVA is used to extract flow state features from the perspective of correlation between historical data and future data, which solves the cross correlation and temporal correlation of multi-sensor measurement data. GMM calculates the possibility that the current flow state belongs to each typical flow pattern and judges the current flow state by probability indicators. It is conducive to follow-up use of Bayesian inference probability and Mahalanobis distance-based (BID) indicator for flow state monitoring, which avoids repeated traversal of multiple CVA-GMM models and improves the efficiency of the monitoring process. The probability indicators can also be used to analyze transition flow states. The method combining the probabilistic idea of GMM with the deterministic idea of multimodal modeling can accurately identify the current flow state and effectively monitor the evolution of flow state. The multi-CVA-GMM method is validated by using the measured data of the horizontal flow loop of gas-water two-phase flow experimental facility, and its effectiveness is proved.     

高熔体流动速率薄壁注塑聚丙烯专用料的结构与性能分析

采用多种分析测试方法，对3类高熔体流动速率薄壁注塑聚丙烯（PP）专用料的熔融结晶性能、光学性能、分子量分布、力学性能、毛细管流变性能、热收缩性能进行了分析研究。结果表明，K1860与2种市售主流PP1、PP2各项性能相当，其中K1860分子量分布相对PP1、PP2较窄，弯曲性能、拉伸性能更优，可满足大型薄壁注塑制品的生产要求。     

Flow regime recognition in a long pipeline-riser system based on signals at the top of the riser

To identify conveniently multiphase flow regimes in subsea pipeline-risers, we study in this paper experimentally two-phase flows in a 1657 m long pipeline with an S-shaped riser to simulate field experiment, within a wide range of gas and liquid velocities. Three flow regimes, namely severe slugging, transitional flows, and stable flows, are analyzed based on three differential pressure and one pressure signals at the top of the riser; comparatively speaking, the positions of these signals in the experimental system are similar to those of the sea level signals in industrial fields, which are easy and less expensive to obtain. The obtained signals are decomposed into six scales via a multi-scale wavelet analysis, and further four statistical parameters on each scale are extracted, including mean values, standard deviations, ranges, and mean values of absolute. We compared the effects of six SVM classifiers with different kernel functions on the recognition rate of flow regimes, and it is found the recognition rates of SVM classifier with quadratic and cubic kernel functions are the highest. Further, the principal component analysis is employed to reduce the dimension of statistical parameters and it indicates that the recognition rate tends to increase with the rising number of principal components from 1 to 6, and it remains constant if the principal component number is further increased. Moreover, The results suggest that the recognition rate obtained from the pressure difference between the top of the riser and the separator peaks, and then it comes that from the pressure signal at the top of the riser, and that for the pressure difference signal at the top of the riser is the least satisfying one. As for the optimal differential pressure signals between the top of the riser and the separator, the results show that the recognition rate increases rapidly from 70.2% to 90.4% when the sample duration rising from 2.3 s to 18.6 s, and when the sample duration exceeds 74.4 s, the recognition rate exceeds 92.9% and remains unchanged.     

环形通道内液态铅铋合金流动换热特性实验研究

通过对环形通道内液态铅铋合金的流动换热特性进行实验研究，得到了气泡泵注气对液态金属流动的影响，并拟合出环形通道内液态铅铋合金的摩擦系数关系式和换热特性关系式。结果表明：采用气泡泵注气能有效提升铅铋合金的质量流速；相同Reynolds数下环形通道内液态铅铋合金的摩擦系数大于由布拉休斯公式计算得到的摩擦系数；液态铅铋合金对流换热过程中，导热项占主导地位，并且Nusselt数随Peclet数的增大而增大。     

Computational modelling of water flow inside laboratory Knelson concentrator bowl

Enhanced gravity concentrators such as Knelson concentrator (KC) are extensively used in the mineral processing industry. The complexities of KC bowl geometry and variation of feed characteristics have forced process engineers to design empirically new units using laboratory and pilot-scale Knelson concentrators. However, numerical modelling methods such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and discrete element method (DEM) provide a better insight of flow behaviour of fluid and particulate solid phases inside these processing units. This article reports findings of CFD simulations for single-phase water flow inside the laboratory KC. An available standard 7.5-cm laboratory KC bowl was numerically simulated using realisable k-ε turbulence model to resolve the turbulence dispersion of existing transitional flow regime. The effects of relative centrifugal force (RCF) intensity and bed fluidisation water flow rate on the water velocity and pressure distributions were studied. Simulations confirmed the swirling flow pattern governing inside the bowl. The results revealed that the impact of RCF intensity on the water field values is greater than that of bed fluidisation water flow rate. Both velocity and pressure variations inside the bowl rings followed a linear trend.     

气瓶内部淬火过程的流动换热特性

 大直径厚壁气瓶内部淬火时的流动换热过程极其复杂，受到多种因素的影响，而研究气瓶内部压强和温度的变化规律对改善流动换热效果、提高产品组织性能具有重要的理论指导意义。以914 mm厚壁气瓶和瓶内流体为研究对象，建立了二维等效流 固耦合模型；采用多喷嘴系统对气瓶内外进行喷水淬火，研究了气瓶总长、喷水流速及淬火时间对瓶内压强及内壁温度的影响，通过间歇淬火试验验证了数学模型的正确性。结果发现，气瓶长度对瓶内压强和瓶壁温度的影响显著，喷水流速次之，当喷水流速大于8 m/s后，水量对瓶壁的冷却效果大大降低；气瓶内壁长度方向的温度梯度分别随气瓶总长的增加和淬火时间的延长而减小，但基本不受喷水量的影响。