Thermal properties of hierarchical YSZ and LZO ceramic microspheres with multi-scaled voids investigated by using theoretical,experimental and simulation methods

Heat transfer within ceramic feedstock powders is still unclear, which impedes optimization of the thermal and mechanical properties of the thermal sprayed coatings. The microspheres (yttria-stabilized zirconia YSZ and lanthanum zirconate LZO) were prepared via the electro-spraying assisted phase inversion method (ESP). The thermal properties of the two ESP microspheres and a commercial hollow spherical powder (HOSP) were investigated by using theoretical, experimental, and simulation methods. Thermal conductivity of the single microsphere was estimated via a novel nest model that was derived from the Maxwell-Eucken 1 and the EMT model. Thermal conductivity of a single YSZ/LZO-ESP microsphere prepared at 1100–1200 °C was within 0.36–0.75 W/m K, which was ～ 20 % lower than that of a single YSZ-HOSP microsphere with a similar porosity. Heat flux simulation showed that high tortuosity around the multi-scaled voids of the ESP microsphere led to a more efficient decrease in thermal conductivity compared with total porosity.     

Volatilization of fluorine in a CaO–SiO2–CaF2-based system with the substitution of Na2O with K2O

Cuspidine-based systems are used to control the crystallization in mold fluxes, which is enabled by CaF₂ additions. However, excess CaF₂ increases the corrosion of casting machines. Therefore, Na₂O and K₂O are added to the mold flux system to ensure an optimized crystallization and lubrication ability of the flux with the CaF₂ content. This study investigated the effect of substituting Na₂O with K₂O on the volatilization of fluorine in a CaO–SiO₂–CaF₂-based slag system at high temperatures. The substitution of Na₂O with K₂O was performed at 5 mol% intervals. The volatilization was observed by thermogravimetric analysis under several isothermal conditions. The mass loss was measured at a heating rate of 5, 10, and 20 K/min. As the temperature increased, the volatilization of the mixed samples increased. The activation energy was calculated using the Flynn–Wall–Ozawa and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose methods. A kinetic analysis of the volatilization of fluorine was conducted using the calculated parameters and several known kinetic models. Consequently, the volatilization of the Na-rich sample was controlled by chemical reactions and that of the K-rich sample was identified to be controlled by a phase-boundary-controlled reaction. These results suggest that the addition of mixed alkali oxide promote the volatilization during the early stages of the reaction. From the post-experimental composition analyses, the remaining Na and K in the samples suggested a different mechanism for the Na and K volatilization. The volatilization of Na increased with time, whereas K volatilized easily during the beginning of the reaction.     

油气管道缺陷漏磁检测有限元模拟

为了研究油气管道缺陷的漏磁信号特征，基于漏磁检测技术基本原理，采用有限元方法，应用ANSYS软件对含裂纹和气孔缺陷管道磁化后产生的漏磁场进行模拟仿真，得到了描述漏磁场特征的磁通密度径向和轴向分布曲线。通过改变裂纹和气孔的尺寸，得出这两种缺陷形式不同尺寸下的漏磁场分布规律。结果表明，随着裂纹深度增加，磁通密度径向、轴向分量的峰值强度均明显增大；在距管壁表面相同深度下，气孔缺陷磁通密度的峰值随孔径增加而显著增大；相同孔径时，气孔距表面越近，漏磁信号越强。为管道漏磁检测过程中的裂纹和气孔缺陷的特征识别提供了理论基础和实践依据。     

A novel method used to study growth of ash deposition and in situ measurement of effective thermal conductivity of ash deposit

Ash deposition always brings boilers some trouble due to fouling or slagging. In this paper, a completely controlled system was developed to study the growth of ash deposit. A novel sampling probe was designed to online measure the heat flux through ash deposit. Additionally, the thickness of ash deposit can be obtained by an online figure collecting system. The results of this research showed that as the thickness of ash deposit increased, the heat flux decreased. It was also found that at the initial stage of ash deposition when the thickness of ash deposit is approximately 1 mm, the heat flux through ash deposit had a sharp reduction. An effective method was attempted to situ measure the effective thermal conductivity of the ash deposit in the simulated combustion flue gas. It was found that temperature of the ash deposit layer had no obvious effect on its value. It was concluded that the structure of ash deposit had no obvious change in a short deposition time of 30 min with varied surface temperatures of the probe head between 400 °C and 600 °C.     

Design and optimization of radioisotope sources for betavoltaic batteries

A Monte Carlo source model using PENELOPE was developed to investigate different tritiated metals in order to design a better radioisotope source for betavoltaic batteries. The source model takes into account the self‐absorption of beta particles in the source which is a major factor for an efficient source design. The average beta energy, beta flux, source power output, and source efficiency were estimated for various source thicknesses. The simulated results for titanium tritide with 0° and 90° angular distributions of beta particles were validated with experimental results. The importance of the backscattering effect due to isotropic particle emission was analyzed. The results showed that the normalized average beta energy increases with the source thickness, and it reaches peak energy depending on the density and the specific activity of the source. The beta flux and power output also increase with increasing source thickness. However, the incremental increase in beta flux and power output becomes minimal for higher thicknesses, as the source efficiency decreases significantly at higher thicknesses due to the self‐absorption effect. Thus, a saturation threshold is reached. A low‐density source material such as beryllium tritide provided a higher power output with higher efficiency. A maximum power output of approximately 4 mW/cm³ was obtained for beryllium tritide with SiC. A form factor approach was used to estimate the optimum source thickness. The optimum source thickness was found near the thickness where the peak beta particle average energy occurs.     

基于变压器最优漏磁信息的绕组变形分类方法

为了判别电力变压器绕组变形状况,提出一种基于最优漏磁信息及多层聚类编码和最优权重译码的ECOC分类器对变压器绕组变形分类的方法,首先利用多层聚类算法构建最优ECOC编码矩阵,然后通过最优权重译码算法对分类器输出进行译码得出变压器绕组具体变形类别,建立变压器绕组二维漏磁场有限元模型,计算得出绕组可能出现的变形形式和绕组区域变形前后的磁感应强度值数据,从而得出磁感应强度测量点;最后利用所建立模型得出的绕组变形数据进行仿真判别。结果表明,所建立的分类器在绕组变形判别时具有较高的准确性,可用于变压器绕组变形类型的检测。     

Impact of gas formation on the transfer of Ti and O from TiO2-bearing basic-fluoride fluxes to submerged arc welded metals: A thermodynamic approach

Gas-slag-metal equilibrium calculations are performed to investigate the transfer of Ti and O to submerged arc welded metals with increasing TiO₂ addition in basic-fluoride fluxes. The results indicate that activities of TiO₂ and Ti₂O₃ considering slag-metal reactions alone do not account for Ti transfer behaviors since TiF₃ gas tends to form and reduce Ti-oxide activities. Thermodynamic simulation indicates that consideration of gases is essential to improve the prediction accuracy of Ti and O concentrations.     

Design and performance analysis of an iterative flux sliding-mode observer for the sensorless control of PMSM drives

To improve the performance of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives, a sensorless control scheme based on a novel iterative flux sliding-mode observer (IFSMO) is proposed in this paper. Two major drawbacks of the conventional sliding-mode observer (SMO), namely, chattering phenomena and high-order harmonics, are discussed. These drawbacks affect the estimation accuracy of the SMO and reduce the control reliability of the system. To eliminate high-order harmonics, a flux SMO is designed by expanding the PMSM state equations with the PM flux. The flux SMO estimates the rotor speed and position using the flux linkage instead of back-EMF information. Moreover, to reduce the chattering in the estimation results, the proposed flux SMO is iteratively used in one current sampling period to adaptively adjust the observer gain. An overall PMSM sensorless control system based on the proposed IFSMO is designed, and an experimental platform using the TMS320F28335 digital signal processor (DSP) controller is built. The superior chattering reduction and harmonic suppression characteristics of the proposed IFSMO are experimentally validated, and the experimental results verify the feasibility of using the proposed IFSMO-based PMSM sensorless scheme in practical applications.     

Effect of Li2O on the crystallization behavior of CaO-Al2O3-SiO2-Li2O-Ce2O3 mold slags

The effect of Li₂O on the crystallization properties of CaO-Al₂O₃-SiO₂-Li₂O-Ce₂O₃ slags was investigated. With increasing the Li₂O content, LiAlO₂ and CaCeAlO₄ were the main crystalline phases. LiAlO₂ formed for the charge compensating of Li⁺ ions to [AlO₄^5?]-tetrahedrons, and CaCeAlO₄ formed as a result of the charge balance of Ce³⁺ ions, Ca²⁺ ions, and [AlO₆^9?]-octahedrons. Increasing the content of Li₂O to 10%, the crystallization temperature was the highest, and the incubation time was the shortest. The crystallization ability was strong due to the three factors of strengthening the interaction between ions and ion groups, decreasing the polymerization degree, and increasing the melting temperature. Further increasing the content of Li₂O, the crystallization performance was obviously suppressed, because the melting temperature and the force between the cations and the anion groups decreased.