Thin film thickness measurements in two phase annular flows using ultrasonic pulse echo techniques

The electric power generation and oil/gas production industries have a strong interest in the physical characterization of conducting and non-conducting liquid films that are formed during the flow of liquids in pipes. Conducting and non-conducting liquid films do not lend themselves to the same characterization techniques due to the different requirements originating from their electrical properties. Techniques based on the use of ultrasound are extremely attractive for that purpose as they do not depend on the electrical properties of the liquid and are also non-invasive. This paper presents the application of ultrasonic techniques for measuring the thickness of wavy thin liquid films (<6 mm) in vertical pipes. Initial benchtop experiments were performed, and different signal processing methods were implemented in order to identify the most suitable depending on the film thickness. For a film thickness >0.5 mm a time of flight method was utilized whereas for a film thicknesses <0.5 mm a frequency method and time domain method were utilized. These methods were validated using a theoretical volume measurement on a static system. The studied methods were then tested on downward and upward vertical flow experimental rigs with pipe diameters of 127 mm and 34.5 mm respectively. The results of the experiments using ultrasonic methods showed good agreement with the measurements obtained using a multi pin film sensor and a concentric conductance probe, highlighting the potential that ultrasound offers in thin film measurements.     

Controlled growth of nanocrystalline aluminum nitride films for full color range

Color films are widely used for visual effect as well as for their functional properties. To date, however, synthesizing thin films with desired color remains challenging. In this work, AlN color films are deposited on Si wafers by precise control of the deposition time for different thickness during reactive magnetron sputtering from an Al target in Ar/N₂ atmosphere. The thickness, morphology, structure, composition and color index are carefully examined by field emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, grazing incidence X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectrometry and colorimeter, respectively. As the film thickness changes from 57 nm to 165 nm, the film exhibits purple, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red in color. These colors repeat in the same order when the thickness goes over 165 nm. Once the thickness exceeds 467 nm, overlapping of colors takes place. The mechanisms are elucidated.     

农村综合能源系统多层协同优化运行方法

农村综合能源系统通过多种能源的协同互补,在满足农村用户多元化用能需求的同时,能有效提升能源利用效率和用能经济性。首先,在考虑适应农村典型场景的基础上,提出了一种三层协同自律的农村综合能源分层协同运行优化框架。然后,基于农村综合能源系统典型设备,建立了三层农村综合能源系统源-储-荷联合优化调度模型以及相应的优化调度流程。调度模型中冬季通过对沼气发电机组的余热回收与空气源热泵协同对用户供热;夏季对沼气发电机组余热进行回收,并通过溴化锂制冷机与空气源热泵联合对农村用户供冷。最后,对农村综合能源系统多层协同优化方法进行了算例分析,结果表明该优化方法提高了农村居民用能的经济性,验证了所提方法的有效性。     

基于集员未知输入观测器的风力机桨距执行器故障诊断

风力机一般放置在恶劣的环境中,其桨距执行器极易出现故障。文中针对一类含有未知但有界干扰和噪声的风力机系统的桨距执行器故障问题,设计了集员未知输入观测器对桨距的执行器故障进行检测并分离。采用气动机理和现代辨识原理建立风力机系统模型,通过优化未知输入观测器设计对系统中的干扰解耦,基于中心对称多胞体估计不考虑故障时残差的区间包络,并将其作为残差估计的上下动态阈值,实现状态估计。在上述基础上提出了利用一组集员未知输入观测器进行故障诊断的策略。仿真结果表明,在实验过程中,文中所设计的集员未知输入观测器准确地诊断出了风力机桨距执行器的3阶和5阶线性系统在发生突变故障和缓慢时变故障的时间和位置,证明了所提故障诊断策略的有效性。     

Molecular dynamics studies of lubricant depletion under moving laser heating: Effects of laser power and film thickness

Molecular dynamics simulation is employed to study the depletion behaviors of perfluoro-lubricants under scanning laser heating for heat-assisted magnetic recording hard disk drives. A partial lubricant near the substrate is irradiated by the laser beam to mimic nano-scale heat transfer from disk to lubricant. The lubricant surface morphology and thickness profiles are examined to reveal the dynamic depletion behaviors. The localized temperature evolution is also evaluated to illustrate the direction-dependent ridge formation around the depletion zone. In addition, the effects of laser power and film thickness on lubricant depletion are explored. Although evaporation is enhanced significantly at high laser powers or for lubricant with thickness around one monolayer, thermodiffusion is the primary mode of lubricant depletion under scanning laser heating.     

Implementation and solution of the diffusion–reaction equation using high-order methods

The orthogonal collocation, Galerkin, tau and least-squares methods are applied to solve a diffusion–reaction problem. In general, the least-squares method suffers from lower accuracy than the other weighted residual methods. The least-squares method holds the most complex linear algebra theory and is thus associated with the most complex implementation. On the other hand, an advantage of the least-squares method is that it always produces a symmetric and positive definite system matrix which can be solved with an efficient iterative technique such as the conjugate gradient method or its preconditioned version. For the present problem, neither the Galerkin, tau and orthogonal collocation techniques produce symmetric and positive definite system matrices, hence the conjugate gradient method is not applicable for these numerical techniques.     

Shear Plugging and Frictional Behaviour of Composites and Fabrics Under Quasi‐static Loading

Experimental studies are presented on the shear plugging and frictional behaviour of composites and fabrics under quasi‐static loading. The primary focus is on the effect of specimen thickness on quasi‐static shear plugging behaviour. In the present study, quasi‐static shear plugging and through‐the‐thickness frictional tests are carried out on three types of materials. The materials investigated are 2D plain weave E‐glass/epoxy, 2D plain weave T300 carbon/epoxy and 2D plain weave E‐glass fabric. Typical results on shear plugging strength and frictional behaviour are presented. Effect of specimen thickness on quasi‐static shear plugging behaviour is also investigated.     

Analysis and Evaluation of Power Formulations for Wood and Hardboard Using Radio Frequency and Microwave Energy

This article analyzes the influence of frequency, temperature, moisture content, and structural orientation on the applicability of the Beer-Lambert law for various wood species using radio frequency and microwave radiation. To achieve this objective, the study compares the power dissipation computed from Maxwell's equation and Lambert's power law. The wood species considered are white oak (Quercus alba), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), white birch (Betula paperyfera), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), and four commercial hardboards. The dielectric constant and dielectric loss factor are examined as a function of moisture conditions, temperature, frequencies, and the three principal structural orientations. The study involved 3,000 complex dielectric constants. It was found that the radial critical thickness is somewhat smaller than the tangential critical thickness (0.95 times smaller) and the longitudinal critical thickness is significantly smaller than the radial (0.52 times). It was demonstrated that the critical thickness L _crit above which the Beer-Lambert law is valid for all of the wood species studied under various conditions obeys the following conditions: log₁₀(L _crt) = 0.999 log₁₀(β^?1) + 0.4122, where β^?1 is the penetration depth (cm). In the case of microwave radiation, the critical thickness can be estimated from L _crt = 2.615 β^?1 ? 0.0626. Finally, a model is proposed to take into consideration the effect of moisture content with frequency (or with attenuation constant).     

Examining the Suitability of the Reaction Engineering Approach (REA) to Modeling Local Evaporation/Condensation Rates of Materials with Various Thicknesses

The reaction engineering approach (REA) is examined here to investigate its suitability as the local evaporation rate to be used in multiphase drying. For this purpose, REA is first implemented to model the convective drying of materials with various thicknesses. The relative activation energy, as the fingerprint of REA, generated from one size of a material is used to model the convective drying of the same material with different thicknesses. Because the results indicate that REA parameters can model the drying of materials with various thicknesses, REA can be scaled down to describe the local evaporation rate (at the microscale as affected by local composition and temperature). The relative activation energy is used to describe the global drying rate in modeling the local evaporation rate. REA is combined with a system of equations of conservation of heat and mass transfer in order to yield the spatial reaction engineering approach (S-REA) as a nonequilibrium multiphase drying model. By using S-REA, the spatial profiles of moisture content, concentration of water vapor, temperature, and local evaporation rate can be generated, which can assist in comprehending the transport phenomena.