Long term stability of electrocaloric response in barium zirconate titanate

The stability of the electrocaloric effect under electric field cycling is an important consideration in the development of solid-state cooling devices. Here we report measurements carried out on Ba(Zr_0.2Ti_0.8)O₃ ceramics which reveal that the adiabatic temperature change, polarization-electric field hysteresis loops and dielectric permittivity/loss show stable behavior up to 10⁵ cycles. We further demonstrate that the loss in electrocaloric response observed after 10⁵ cycles is associated with the migration of oxygen vacancies. As a result, the electrical properties of the material are changed leading to an increase in leakage current and Joule heating. Reversing the polarity of the electric field after every 10⁵ cycles changes the migration direction of oxygen vacancies, thereby preventing charge accumulation at grain boundaries and electrodes. By doing so, the electrocaloric stability is improved and the adiabatic temperature remains constant even after 10⁶ cycles, much higher than achieved in commercially available barium titanate ceramics.     

Influence of processing on stability,microstructure and thermoelectric properties of Ca3Co4 − xO9 + δ

Due to high figure of merit, Ca₃Co_4 ? xO_9 + δ (CCO) has potential as p-type material for high-temperature thermoelectrics. Here, the influence of processing including solid state sintering, spark plasma sintering and post-calcination on stability, microstructure and thermoelectric properties is reported. By a new post-calcination approach, single-phase materials were obtained from precursors to final dense ceramics in one step. The highest zT of 0.11 was recorded at 800 °C for CCO with 98 and 72% relative densities. In situ high-temperature X-ray diffraction in air and oxygen revealed a higher stability of CCO in oxygen (～970 °C) than in air (～930 °C), with formation of Ca₃Co₂O₆ which also showed high stability in oxygen, even at 1125 °C. Since achievement of phase pure high density CCO by post-calcination method in air is challenging, the phase stability of CCO in oxygen is important for understanding and further improvement of the method.     

Sizing of Packed Deaeration Columns

Removal of oxygen from feedwater is of paramount importance for safe boiler operation. Insufficient extraction of oxygen in deaeration vessels will lead to limited efficiency of oxygen scavengers and unsafe plant operation. The presented sizing procedure for packed deaeration columns is based on the similarity theory between heat and mass transfer and existing procedures. The goal of the proposed technique is not to achieve optimization of column dimensions, but to ensure that there is no undersizing of the packing height. This approach is justified considering the relatively low capital costs of deaeration columns in boiler plants. The proposed equations are based on an experimental setup involving several hundred operating regimes which have been verified and confirmed to have a high degree of accuracy.     

Encapsulation of Synthesized Plant Growth Regulator Based on Copper(II) Complex in Chitosan/Alginate Microcapsules

A new copper complex, trans-diaqua-trans-bis [1-hydroxy-1,2-di (methoxycarbonyl) ethenato] copper (abbreviation Cu(II) complex), was synthesized and its plant growth regulation properties were investigated. The results show a sharp dependence of growth regulation activity of the Cu(II) complex on the type of culture and its concentration. New plant growth regulator accelerated the development of the corn root system (the increase in both length and weight) but showed a smaller effect on the development of the wheat and barley root systems. Stimulation of corn growth decreased with increasing Cu(II) complex concentration from 0.0001% to 0.01% (inhibition at high concentrations—0.01%). The development of corn stems was also accelerated but to a lesser extent. Chitosan-coated calcium alginate microcapsules suitable for delivery of Cu(II) complex to plants were prepared and characterized. Analysis of the FTIR spectrum showed that complex molecular interactions between functional groups of microcapsule constituents include mainly electrostatic interactions and hydrogen bonds. Microcapsules surface exhibits a soft granular surface structure with substructures consisting of abundant smaller particles with reduced surface roughness. Release profile analysis showed Fickian diffusion is the rate-controlling mechanism of Cu(II) complex releasing. The obtained results give new insights into the complexity of the interaction between the Cu(II) complex and microcapsule formulation constituents, which can be of great help in accelerating product development for the application in agriculture     

Management of bridges with shallow foundations exposed to local scour

Abstract

The Serbian road network includes a large portion of bridges with shallow foundations vulnerable to local scour as tragically demonstrated during the extreme flooding in May 2014. Currently, the bridge management procedures in Serbia and worldwide do not comprehensively account for a risk of bridge failure due to flooding and fail to provide sufficient information for the decision-making. Thus, a novel methodology for quantitative vulnerability assessment is suggested as a tool to identify the most vulnerable bridges in a network. Herein, the essential task is evaluation of the conditional probability of a bridge failure due to local scour in a flooding event of a certain magnitude. To apply this approach on a network level, there is a dire need to establish precise practice-ready guidelines on an optimal set of information to be used and/or collected in situ, which is discussed on an example of the Serbian bridge database. The vulnerability of a bridge to local scour may be used as a comprehensive indicator of a bridge performance in a flooding event. For a network level, the vulnerability maps with respect to flooding of different magnitudes will give road operators crucial information to apply adequate quality control plans to vulnerable bridges.     

Medical image enhancement algorithm based on NSCT and the improved fuzzy contrast

In order to solve the problem of noise amplification, low contrast and image distortion in the process of medical image enhancement, a new algorithm is proposed which combines NSCT (nonsubsampled contourlet transform) and improved fuzzy contrast. The image is decomposed by NSCT. Firstly, linear enhancement method is used in low frequency coefficients; secondly the improved adaptive threshold function is used to deal with the high frequency coefficients. Finally, the improved fuzzy contrast is used to enhance the global contrast and the Laplace operator is used to enhance the details of the medical images. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can improve the image visual effects, remove the noise and enhance the details of medical images. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 25, 7–14, 2015     

Novel design approach for the creation of 3D geometrical model of personalized bone scaffold

Bone scaffolds provide a structural support for tissue development. Existing bone scaffolds are mainly characterized by complex porous designs whose shortcomings are a low level of permeability for growing tissue, and a difficult design customization. Scaffolds with nucleuses (rods or lattices) as basic elements should improve bone regeneration and enable higher design flexibility. In this paper, we present two new methods for building 3D geometrical models of personalized scaffolds, which are based on method of anatomical features. Methods are demonstrated in the case of scaffold for the mandible bone. This approach greatly reduces the designer effort and time, while enabling easy personalization of scaffolds’ shape and geometry.     

Solving partner selection problem in cyber-physical production networks using the HUMANT algorithm

The idea of non-hierarchical production networks consisting of autonomous enterprises has been present in scientific community for more than 20 years. Although some global corporations are using their own production networks across continents, they are not similar to the original idea of non-hierarchical production networks in many aspects. It seems that this idea waited for production systems to acquire proper information and communications technology (ICT) or new industrial platforms, like Industry 4.0. The result is a new type of production network called Cyber-Physical Production Network (CPPN). The CPPN is, from ICT point of view, ready to act as non-hierarchical production networks consisting of autonomous production systems with many automated processes. One of the most important processes of the CPPN is a selection of optimal partners (enterprises) to be part of a new virtual enterprise, created inside production network. An optimisation problem emerges in this process, and it is called Partner Selection Problem (PSP). It is non-polynomial-hard combinatorial problem. Since metaheuristic algorithms are well-proven in solving that kind of problem, a specially designed metaheuristic algorithm derived from ant colony optimisation and named the HUMANT (HUManoid ANT) algorithm is used in this paper. It is multi-objective optimisation algorithm that successfully solves different instances of PSP with two, three, four or more objectives.