Effect of titanium diboride on the homogeneity of boron carbide ceramic by flash spark plasma sintering

A novel method, namely flash spark plasma sintering (FSPS), combining flash sintering and electric field assisted sintering, was utilized to densify boron carbide/titanium diboride (B₄C/TiB₂) composites. Further, sintering homogeneity of the composites with different contents of TiB₂ was systematically investigated and theoretical model was built. Results indicated that addition of 50?wt% TiB2 led to the densification of B₄C/TiB₂ composite by up to 97.7% with regional range 1.9% at 1872?°C under pressure of 4?MPa in 60?s. The preferential pathway of TiB₂ network proves to disperse the central current and distribute thermal flow throughout the specimen possibly via tunneling, electronic field emission effect at first stage and lower-resistance composite pathway latter, contributing to the increased homogeneity.     

Numerical study of flow distribution uniformity for the optimization of gradient porosity configuration of porous copper fiber sintered felt for hydrogen production through methanol steam reforming micro-reactor

A macroscopic numerical method is proposed to study the flow distribution uniformity of a novel porous copper fiber sintered felt (PCFSF), which has gradient porosities and was developed as the methanol steam reforming micro-reactor catalyst support for hydrogen production for fuel cell applications. The macroscopic porous media developed by the ANSYS/FLUENT software is used to represent the PCFSF. Our results indicate that the gradient porosity can reshape the flow distribution of PCFSFs greatly, thus producing significant influence on their performance. It is further revealed that, for a PCFSF with a determined gradient porosity configuration but different reactant feed directions, the velocity uniformity can be used as a quantitative criterion to evaluate the performance of hydrogen production. Furthermore, new gradient PCFSFs are produced according to the flow distribution of original gradient PCFSFs. The preliminary experimental results of the new gradient PCFSFs of 0.8-0.9-0.7 and 0.7-0.9-0.8 exhibit better methanol conversion and H₂ flow rate. This indicates that the numerical method can be used for the optimization of PCFSFs' gradient porosity configuration, which consists of the shape and position of the interfaces between different porosity portions, the number of interfaces and the porosity distribution in different portions.     

Robocast zirconia-toughened alumina scaffolds: Processing,structural characterisation and interaction with human primary osteoblasts

Zirconia-toughened alumina (ZTA) is the gold-standard ceramic in hip arthroplasty, but still lacks direct osseointegration and a metal shell, often coated with a bioactive layer, is currently required. The latter could potentially be replaced by a thinner, architectured ZTA layer, thereby allowing for larger acetabular components, with larger range of motion and lower dislocation risk. Robocasting may be an adequate technique to fabricate the architectured layer. Therefore, as a first step, this study aimed to produce ZTA scaffolds (3D-ZTA) by robocasting and assess their in vitro response. Shape retention was achieved by using a stable, well-dispersed, high solid loading ink injected in acid pH waterbath. 3D-ZTA exhibit regularly spaced microporous, rough struts and fully interconnected macroporosity. Human primary osteoblasts were homogenously distributed inside 3D-ZTA and showed increased osteogenic marker expression compared to 2D-ZTA control. Further work will focus on optimizing scaffold design to improve cell retention and extracellular matrix maturation.     

水下循迹航行器水动力学性能数值研究

为了研究低速水下循迹监测航行器的水动力学性能数值计算问题,采用FLUENT软件和SST剪切应力输运模型,通过雷诺时均N-S方程分析流速一定的情况下,取不同攻角、不同水平舵角作为来流条件,研究未安装推进器以及安装推进器且其安装位置不同时,航行器的升力系数、俯仰力矩系数、表面压力分布和流场速度的变化规律。结果表明:在未安装推进器以及推进器的安装位置不同时,随着攻角的变化,升力系数呈线性变化,俯仰力矩系数呈非线性变化;随着水平舵角的变化,升力系数和俯仰力矩系数呈线性变化。当推进器安装在航行器头部时,对航行器流场压力和流场速度变化影响最大;当安装在航行器尾部时,对二者影响最小。对于低速航行器,应尽量将推进器安装在中间靠后位置,以提高航行器的水动力性能。升力系数的试验结果与数值仿真结果之间最大相差7. 51%,阻力系数的试验结果与数值仿真结果最大相差5. 84%,均吻合较好。研究结果可以为低速水下循迹航行器的优化设计和发展提供理论参考。     

黔西南某中高硫煤脱硫过程中微量元素的分配特性研究

为探究黔西南某中高硫煤中微量元素的富集程度,以及在脱硫降灰提质利用过程中微量元素的分配特性,通过摇床对其脱硫降灰进行了试验研究,并在合适的分选工艺条件下,考察了原煤、精煤和尾煤产品中微量元素的分配特征。通过“一粗一精一扫”重选,可获得产率32.83%、硫分0.96%、灰分11.16%的合格精煤产品。分选产品微量元素分析结果表明,该分选工艺对Cu、Sb、As、Co、Mo、TI、Ni等有害元素具有较好的脱除效果,并能一定程度富集锂和稀土等有价微量元素。通过此工艺可分别回收28.73%和47.37%的锂至精煤和中煤产品,精煤煤灰中Li₂O理论含量达5 258 μg/g,具有综合回收利用价值。研究结果可为该类中高硫煤炭资源的清洁与综合利用提供参考。     

Generalized Marshall Olkin Inverse Lindley Distribution with Applications

In this article, a new generalization of the inverse Lindley distribution is introduced based on Marshall-Olkin family of distributions. We call the new distribution, the generalized Marshall-Olkin inverse Lindley distribution which offers more flexibility for modeling lifetime data. The new distribution includes the inverse Lindley and the Marshall-Olkin inverse Lindley as special distributions. Essential properties of the generalized Marshall-Olkin inverse Lindley distribution are discussed and investigated including, quantile function, ordinary moments, incomplete moments, moments of residual and stochastic ordering. Maximum likelihood method of estimation is considered under complete, Type-I censoring and Type-II censoring. Maximum likelihood estimators as well as approximate confidence intervals of the population parameters are discussed. A comprehensive simulation study is done to assess the performance of estimates based on their biases and mean square errors. The notability of the generalized Marshall-Olkin inverse Lindley model is clarified by means of two real data sets. The results showed the fact that the generalized Marshall-Olkin inverse Lindley model can produce better fits than power Lindley, extended Lindley, alpha power transmuted Lindley, alpha power extended exponential and Lindley distributions.     

Statistics of ceramic strength: Use ordinary Weibull distribution function or Weibull statistical fracture theory?

“Weibull statistics” for strength distribution analysis refers to either the ordinary Weibull distribution function or the Weibull statistical fracture theory. The ordinary Weibull distribution function is an empirical distribution function on an equal footing with other type of classical empirical distributions such as normal and log-normal distributions for fitting the statistical data of various random variables nonexclusive to materials strength. It has no explicit physical meaning and cannot be used for size scaling and prediction of strength. The Weibull statistical fracture theory is a weakest-link statistical fracture model for a solid with the strength distribution of an elemental volume being described by the ordinary Weibull distribution function. It has the capability of size scaling and prediction of strength for specimens with different geometries and different loading modes. The three-parameter Weibull statistical fracture theory in uniaxial flexure of prismatic beams is reformulated and validated by both numerical and real strength experiments of different ceramics.     

Direct-Contact Heat Transfer during n-Pentane Vaporization in a Two-Dimensional Water Column

Direct-contact vaporization heat transfer is investigated by analyzing the heat transfer coefficient with the area of liquid-liquid direct-contact interface. The interface areas of liquid-liquid heat transfer are determined by stroboscopic images. At higher temperature, the heat transfer area per unit volume decreases. The water temperature has no significant influence on the heat transfer coefficient. The effects on droplet size distributions of operating variables including inlet water temperature, n-pentane flow rate, and test position with packing and without packing are compared.     

双渠道多级分销网络的预防性库存分拨机制与方法研究

企业通过增加库存量来应对不可延期交货带来的缺货损失的传统运作方式在电子商务催生了线上线下双渠道分销模式后变得捉襟见肘。在双渠道多级分销模式下，传统囤货式的运作模式因多层级、多渠道而产生高额库存成本，这恰恰削弱了双渠道销售的高利润优势。因此，拥有双渠道多级分销网络的企业如何平衡库存成本与缺货损失就成为了本文的研究重点。本文考虑了拥有线上线下双渠道销售的一个由中心仓、区域仓和门店节点构成的三级供应链库存系统，借鉴库存共享思想提出了“预防性库存分拨机制”，即节点内线上线下库存、同层级一对多双向预防性调拨、上下级间一对一单向预防性补货的运作机制，并利用目标级联法(analysis target cascading, ATC)依据预测时间窗内的需求预测结果构建预防性分拨模型。最后以国内某大型进口红酒贸易企业为基础对模型进行仿真和分析，结果表明所提出的预防性库存分拨机制能够有效降低库存成本，为双渠道供应链系统低成本高效率的运作提供了实现的手段。     

Structural health monitoring system based on multi-agent coordination and fusion for large structure

In practical applications of structural health monitoring technology, a large number of distributed sensors are usually adopted to monitor the big dimension structures and different kinds of damage. The monitored structures are usually divided into different sub-structures and monitored by different sensor sets. Under this situation, how to manage the distributed sensor set and fuse different methods to obtain a fast and accurate evaluation result is an important problem to be addressed deeply. In the paper, a multi-agent fusion and coordination system is presented to deal with the damage identification for the strain distribution and joint failure in the large structure. Firstly, the monitoring system is adopted to distributedly monitor two kinds of damages, and it self-judges whether the static load happens in the monitored sub-region, and focuses on the static load on the sub-region boundary to obtain the sensor network information with blackboard model. Then, the improved contract net protocol is used to dynamically distribute the damage evaluation module for monitoring two kinds of damage uninterruptedly. Lastly, a reliable assessment for the whole structure is given by combing various heterogeneous classifiers strengths with voting-based fusion. The proposed multi-agent system is illustrated through a large aerospace aluminum plate structure experiment. The result shows that the method can significantly improve the monitoring performance for the large-scale structure.