Understanding silica-supported metal catalysts: Pd/silica as a case study

Supported metal catalysts, particularly noble metals supported on SiO₂, have attracted considerable attention due to the importance of the silica–metal interface in heterogeneous catalysis and in electronic device fabrication. Several important issues, e.g., the stability of the metal–oxide interface at working temperatures and pressures, are not well-understood. In this review, the present status of our understanding of the metal–silica interface is reviewed. Recent results of model studies in our laboratories on Pd/SiO₂/Mo(1 1 2) using LEED, AES and STM are reported. In this work, epitaxial, ultrathin, well-ordered SiO₂ films were grown on a Mo(1 1 2) substrate to circumvent complications that frequently arise from the silica–silicon interface present in silica thin films grown on silicon.     

A method of identifying latent human errors in work systems

Work system improvements are implemented in various manufacturing processes to prevent problems caused by human errors. However, they are almost always applied to problems which have already occurred. This paper examines a method of identifying latent human errors existing within the work systems beforehand. A procedure for applying failure mode and effect analysis to this identification problem was defined based on over 1000 empirical errors: a work system decomposition criterion and fundamental error modes for listing latent human errors, and then applied to three practical manufacturing processes in order to evaluate its effectiveness.     

Modeling of Diffusion in Capillary Porous Materials During the Drying Process

This paper presents a model of heterogenous diffusion in capillary porous materials during the process of drying. The governing heat and mass transfer equations have been established using the liquid as well as vapor flow. Two models have been presented. Model 1 does not consider the heat conduction while the model 2 has been established by considering the conduction. The developed models and the numerical solutions of the resulting differential equations can take into account the moisture and temperature dependent thermophysical properties of the product. All equations have been established in spherical coordinates but the programme written for the purpose of calculations can be used for other geometries also. Numerical calculations have been performed for gas concrete and tiles using model 1, while model 2 has been used for gas concrete only because of the lack of data for thermophysical properties of the tile. For gas concrete it was seen that conduction has only marginal effect on the drying process and the numerical predictions of the drying process were reasonably accurate.     

A new monitoring system for piping systems in fossil fired power plants

A CEC-funded project has been performed to tackle the problem of producing an advanced Life Monitoring System (LMS) which would calculate the creep and fatigue damage experienced by high temperature pipework components. Four areas were identified where existing Life Monitoring System technology could be improved:

1. 1. the inclusion of creep relaxation

2. 2. the inclusion of external loads on components

3. 3. a more accurate method of calculating thermal stresses due to temperature transients

4. 4. the inclusion of high cycle fatigue terms.

The creep relaxation problem was solved using stress reduction factors in an analytical in-elastic stress calculation. The stress reduction factors were produced for a number of common geometries and materials by means of non-linear finite element analysis. External loads were catered for by producing influence coefficients from in-elastic analysis of the particular piping system and using them to calculate bending moments at critical positions on the pipework from load and displacement measurements made at the convenient points at the pipework. The thermal stress problem was solved by producing a completely new solution based on Green's Function and Fast Fourier transforms. This allowed the thermal stress in a complex component to be calculated from simple non-intrusive thermocouple measurements made on the outside of the component. The high-cycle fatigue problem was dealt with precalculating the fatigue damage associated with standard transients and adding this damage to cumulative total when a transient occurred.

The site testing provided good practical experience and showed up problems which would not otherwise have been detected.     

Time and cost securing in complex large-scale projects

Meeting time and cost objectives in complex projects involves specific problems and risks. An attempt is made to analyse the components of total cost increase of a project caused by time delay. An outline is given as to how these considerations can be used to estimate cost increases in investors' decision situations as well as to ascertain fair contractual penalties and claims for compensation and for the evaluation of justified project acceleration costs.     

An experiment for showing some kind of artificial understanding

In this paper we design an experiment which can be depicted as a simple scenario, a very limited 'world'. In this world, there are an actor that can pursue a project and an observer that is keeping its eyes on the actor. We try to show in the experiment that the observer can to some degree understand the actor based on its knowledge and some metaphors, i.e. understand what the actor is doing and why. As the conclusion of this experiment, we try to show some features of 'understanding'. These are (1) that 'understanding' has to be based on some preliminary knowledge; (2) that 'understanding' is a process of incremental learning; (3) that, as for symbolic systems, some metaphors are necessary for mapping real entities into concepts in mind.     

ETR Ⅱ-30调速器液压控制系统

ETRⅠ-30调速器是瑞士爱舍维斯工厂生产的具有PID调节规律的电液调速器。本文对其液压控制系统作了较详细的介绍,供有关人员参考。     

Bite and unconfirmed failures

Electronic BITE is poor at identifying hardware failure and in present design approaches tends to create the reviled ‘unconfirmed failure’. A different approach to BITE and unconfirmed failure could improve both operational performance and the cost of maintenance.     

Reliability and performance analysis of time – space – time switching networks with multiple separated space switches

Since electronic switching systems usually require very strict reliability requirements as well as good performance objectives, we need to jointly analyse the performance and reliability of switching systems. In this paper, we compare conventional time–space–time switches with single space switches with those with multiple separated space switches, from the viewpoints of reliability and performance. We consider time–space–time switching networks which consist of N incoming time switches, i.e. one NxN space switch, two (N/2)x(N/2) space switches, and four (N/4)x(N/4) space switches. We introduce a Markov reliability model to study the effect of failures and analyse the reliability and performance of three different types of switching networks in terms of average blocking probability and the mean time to unreliable operation, as we vary the offered traffic. As a result, T–S–T switching networks with multiple separated space switches exhibit better performance and reliability than those with single space switches.