Surface treatment of titanium dioxide nanopowder using rotary electrode dielectric barrier discharge reactor

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanopowder (P-25;Degussa AG) was treated using dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in a rotary electrode DBD (RE-DBD) reactor.Its electrical and optical characteristics were investigated during RE-DBD generation.The treated TiO2 nanopowder properties and structures were analyzed using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).After RE-DBD treatment,XRD measurements indicated that the anatase peak theta positions shifted from 25.3° to 25.1°,which can be attributed to the substitution of new functional groups in the TiO2 lattice.The FTIR results show that hydroxyl groups (OH) at 3400 cm-1 increased considerably.The mechanism used to modify the TiO2 nanopowder surface by air DBD treatment was confirmed from optical emission spectrum measurements.Reactive species,such as OH radical,ozone and atomic oxygen can play key roles in hydroxyl formation on the TiO2 nanopowder surface.     

Synergistic Effects of Polybenzimidazole and Aramide on Enhancing Flame-Retardancy and Solubility

Aromatic and functional polymers with processibility derived from biobased starting materials are prerequisite considering sustainable society. Poly(2,5-benzimidazole)s are rigid-rod polymers to show ultrahigh thermal stability such as flame retardance, while usually suffer from poor solubility. Here, poly(benzimidazole-co-amide)s are synthesized from two biobased monomers, 3,4-diaminobenzoic acid and a semirigid comonomer, 4-aminohydrocinnamic acid. The copolymers with an amide composition of 80 mol% and higher are soluble in widely used polar solvents to fabricate the films keeping high flame retardance, which is comparable with popular high-performance polymers such as aromatic polyimides, polyetheretherketone, polyphenylene sulfide, etc.     

Evaluation of inelastic constitutive models under plasticity-creep interaction for steel at 600°C

Uniaxial tests to identify plasticity-creep interaction in steel at 600°C were carried out as the Benchmark Project by the Subcommittee on Inelastic Analysis and Life Prediction, JSMS. The purpose of this paper is to present recent experimental data and predictions of constitutive models obtained in the project. Ten types of constitutive models were utilized to compare analytical predictions to sixteen benchmark experiments which are grouped into four categories: (I) tensile and creep tests under monotonic loading, (II) mixed mode tests under plastic and creep loading, (III) ratcheting deformation tests under program loads, and (IV) cyclic deformation tests under the combination of different strain rates. The benchmark tests in Group IV are used to estimate the creep-fatigue life of steel; the results will be published in a separate paper.     

An automatic torque ripple compensation system for direct drive motors

A serious problem in motion control is the occurrence of torque ripple. Since a direct drive (DD) motor with a magnet rotor uses a rare-earth magnet, the torque ripple is more serious than that of conventional servomotors. This paper presents an auto-compensation of torque ripple using a software-implemented torque observer. The frequency and amplitude of torque ripple can be obtained in the controller by using the estimated torque from an observer, and the autonomous generation of a compensating current component for a torque ripple is possible. The proposed algorithm has been verified by experiments.     

Construction of a control system for disturbance rejection using a dual observer

A well‐known control system which can reduce the adverse effects of disturbances is a disturbance observer. However, in many cases of mechanical systems, system disturbances which do not satisfy the matching condition may be imposed. Therefore, it may be difficult to reduce the adverse effects of the disturbances by the traditional disturbance observer. In this paper, a method of control system synthesis for disturbance rejection using a dual observer is proposed. This method is based on the zeroing induced by the disturbance localization problem. This problem may be solved by dividing the state space into observable subspace and unobservable subspace. As compared with an H_∞ controller based on perfect observation, the usefulness of the proposed control system for disturbance rejection is demonstrated by numerical simulations for a two‐mass spring system. © 2002 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 138(4): 50–60, 2002; DOI 10.1002/eej.1138     

Distributed architecture for energy management D-structure

Electric power systems are expanding in size and complexity, and the requirement for the energy management system (EMS) is becoming more important. In this computer control system, a single control computer is used mainly as the primary computer and its software is very complicated because of its hugh number of small, quick tasks to obtain high response speed. Therefore, much effort is needed to develop and modify the programs, and the responsiveness of this centralized architecture varies greatly when many faults occur in the power system. This paper describes a new distributed architecture for the EMS. Distributed processors execute the functions cooperatively with periodic access to the common bulletin board database in which information about the power system exist. This architecture facilitates the software development and maintenance, and it also enhances the performance by the parallel processing of the distributed functions.     

Sensitivity of an anadically oxidized aluminium film on a surface acoustic wave sensor to humidity

The sensitivity, transient response and sensitivity mechanism of a surface acoustic wave humidity sensor using porous anodically oxidized aluminium (alumina) films as mechanical interfaces have been studied theoretically and experimentally. It is found that the sensitivity of alumina films of 1.0 μm thickness is -0.034 m/(s %RH) and is the same order as that of polyimide films. The transient response of alumina films to humidity is about one order faster than that of polyimide films. For the sensitivity mechanism, the phase-velocity change is attributed to the mechanical perturbation caused by the absorption of water molecules. The equivalent density change of alumina films between 0 and 100%RH is about 0.7%. In addition, the actual stiffness constants of alumina films are two orders less than those of bulk alumina.     

Removal of nonionic surfactant by systems based on chloromethylated polystyrene–poly(ethylene glycol)

For the purpose of obtaining compounds which can remove nonionic surfactants in water, chloromethylated polystyrene (CMPS) was allowed to react with triethylene glycol monomethyl ether (3EGMME), tetraethylene glycol (4EG), poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) 200, 400, 600, 1000, and 1500. The amount of PEG groups combined with CMPS decreased with an increase in the molecular weight of PEG. The ability of the product to remove polyethylene glycol mono-p-nonyl phenyl ether (NP, n = 10), a nonionic surfactant, solutes in water was greater in the product with PEG of greater MW than that with PEG of smaller MW, and in the product with more PEG groups (mol/g prod.) than in that with less PEG groups. The removal behavior of the products conformed to Freundlich's adsorption formula. Constants of the formula, the effect of temperature on the constants, the effect of combined PEG groups on the removed amount, and the removal manner were studied.     

Face relighting using discriminative 2D spherical spaces for face recognition

As part of the face recognition task in a robust security system, we propose a novel approach for the illumination recovery of faces with cast shadows and specularities. Given a single 2D face image, we relight the face object by extracting the nine spherical harmonic bases and the face spherical illumination coefficients by using the face spherical spaces properties. First, an illumination training database is generated by computing the properties of the spherical spaces out of face albedo and normal values estimated from 2D training images. The training database is then discriminately divided into two directions in terms of the illumination quality and light direction of each image. Based on the generated multi-level illumination discriminative training space, we analyze the target face pixels and compare them with the appropriate training subspace using pre-generated tiles. When designing the framework, practical real-time processing speed and small image size were considered. In contrast to other approaches, our technique requires neither 3D face models nor restricted illumination conditions for the training process. Furthermore, the proposed approach uses one single face image to estimate the face albedo and face spherical spaces. In this work, we also provide the results of a series of experiments performed on publicly available databases to show the significant improvements in the face recognition rates.     

Quick Activation of Optimized Zeolites with Microwave Heating and Utilization of Zeolites for Reusable Desiccant

Effectiveness of microwave heating in an activation treatment of zeolites was studied and utilization of zeolites for reusable desiccant was examined. X zeolite was chosen as a target material for its large adsorption capacity. Na-X zeolite easily caused a thermal runaway by microwave radiation of 500 W but Ca contained X zeolite merely reached ca. 573 K under the same conditions. Mixtures of Na-X and Ca-X with suitably mixed ratios did not cause the thermal runaway and their heating temperatures were controlled (>573 K) at will. Under the most suitable conditions, the mixture reached a dehydration degree of 92%. A degradation degree of adsorptive capacity of the mixture for water was examined after three treatments. The average degradation degree was 1.5% per treatment. The heating method is promising as a quick and easy technique to activate zeolite. By applying the method, the zeolites with suitable mixing ratios are usable as a reusable desiccant for home use.