Numerical simulation of water and heat transport in the cathode channel of a PEM fuel cell

Cathode channel of a PEM fuel cell is the critical domain for the transport of water and heat. In this study, a mathematical model of water and heat transport in the cathode channel is established by considering two-phase flow of water and air as well as the phase change between water and vapor. The transport process of the species of air is governed by the convection-diffusion equation. The VOSET (coupled volume-of-fluid and level set method) method is used to track the interface between air and water, and the phase equilibrium method of water and vapor is employed to calculate the mass transfer rate on the two-phase interface. The present model is validated against the results in the literature, then applied to investigate the characteristics of two-phase flow and heat transfer in the cathode channel. The results indicate that in the inlet section, water droplets experience three evolution stages: the growing stage, the coalescence stage and the generation stage of dispersed water drops. However, in the middle and outlet sections of the channel, there are only two stages: the growth of water droplets, and the formation of a water film. The mass transfer rate of phase change in the inlet section of the channel varies over time, exhibiting an initial increase, a decrease followed, and a stabilization finally, with the maximum and stable values of 1.78 × 10^?4 kg/s and 1.52 × 10^?4 kg/s for Part 1, respectively. In the middle and outlet sections, the mass transfer rate increase firstly and then keeps stable gradually. Furthermore, regarding the distribution of the temperature and vapor mass fraction in the channel, near the upper surface of the channel, the temperature and vapor mass fraction first change slightly (x < 0.03 m) and then rapidly decrease with fluctuations (x > 0.03 m). In the middle of the channel, the temperature and vapor mass fraction slowly decrease with fluctuation.     

Cold and wet: Diatoms dominate the phytoplankton community during a year of anomalous weather in a Great Lakes estuary

As sentinels of climate change and other anthropogenic forces, freshwater lakes are experiencing ecosystem disruptions at every level of the food web, beginning with the phytoplankton, a highly responsive group of organisms. Most studies regarding the effects of climate change on phytoplankton focus on a potential scenario in which temperatures continuously increase and droughts intersperse heavy precipitation events. Like much of the conterminous United States in 2019, the Muskegon River watershed (Michigan, USA) experienced record-breaking rainfall accompanied by unusually cool temperatures, affording an opportunity to explore how an alternate potential climate scenario may affect phytoplankton. We conducted biweekly sampling of environmental variables and phytoplankton in Muskegon Lake, a Great Lakes Area of Concern that connects to Lake Michigan. We compared environmental variables in 2019 to the previous eight years using long-term data from the Muskegon Lake Observatory buoy, and annual monitoring excursions provided historical phytoplankton data. Under cold and wet conditions, diatoms were the single dominant division throughout the entire growth season – an unprecedented scenario in Muskegon Lake. In 10 of the 13 biweekly sampling days in 2019, diatoms comprised over 75% of the phytoplankton community in the lake by count, indicating that the spring diatom bloom persisted through the fall. Additionally, phytoplankton seasonal succession and abundance patterns typically seen in this lake were absent. In a world experiencing reduced predictability, increased variability, and regional climate anomalies, studying periods of extreme weather events may offer insight into how natural systems will be affected and respond under future climate scenarios.     

Influence of temperature on acoustic emission source location accuracy in underground structure

An acoustic emission (AE) experiment was carried out to explore the AE location accuracy influenced by temperature. A hollow hemispherical specimen was used to simulate common underground structures. In the process of heating with the flame, the pulse signal of constant frequency was stimulated as an AE source. Then AE signals received by each sensor were collected and used for comparing localization accuracy at different temperatures. Results show that location errors of AE keep the same phenomenon in the early and middle heating stages. In the later stage of heating, location errors of AE increase sharply due to the appearance of cracks. This provides some beneficial suggestions on decreasing location errors of structural cracks caused by temperature and improves the ability of underground structure disaster prevention and control.     

超亲水毛细芯环路热管启动及热性能分析

为解决电子设备高热通量下的散热问题，采用H₂O₂氧化法对烧结毛细芯进行了超亲水改性，研究了毛细芯表面润湿性对吸液性能的影响。并将改性后的超亲水毛细芯应用到环路热管内，研究了倾斜角度及加热功率对超亲水毛细芯环路热管的换热特性的影响。实验结果表明：超亲水毛细芯的吸液速度增加，吸液时间较亲水毛细芯减小了3.52ms；与普通亲水毛细芯环路热管相比，在加热功率Q=200W时，超亲水毛细芯环路热管蒸发器中心温度降低了约6.0℃，在Q=20W时启动时间与温度分别降低了33s与2.5℃。同时发现超亲水毛细芯环路热管在正重力状态时的运行温度更低，热阻较小，最低热阻仅为0.084℃/W。     

湖南省似大地水准面2017模型及精度分析

利用近7万个湖南及邻近省份重力观测数据、502个GNSS/水准控制点及数字高程模型，以EIGEN-6C4全球重力场模型作参考重力场，采用顾及地球曲率影响的各类地形质量位及引力的第二类Helmert凝集法严密算法，利用高分辨率地形数据恢复甚短波扰动重力场，确定空间分辨率2′×2′的高精度湖南省似大地水准面模型（HNGG2017）。经外部检核，模型整体精度均优于±0.022 m。与历史模型相比，新模型在湖南北部常德汉寿、西南部永州江永等地区精度得到显著改善。     

适应不同重力环境的仿壁虎机器人运动仿真

针对不同重力环境下仿壁虎机器人的运动稳定性、运动高效协调性等问题,基于四足机器人的步态规划现状和仿壁虎机器人自身特定的机械结构,设计了仿壁虎机器人在g、0、-g 3种环境下的足端轨迹和运动步态。在ADAMS仿真软件中研究了机器人的运动学和动力学特性,得到了仿壁虎机器人稳定爬行与脚掌黏附力、足端轨迹和运动步态的关系。探讨了仿真结果的合理性和局限性,为仿壁虎机器人在实际环境中的稳定运动奠定了理论基础。     

Impact assessment of reservoir desiltation measures for downstream riverbed migration in climate change: A case study in northern Taiwan

Typhoon Aere in 2004 induced severe sedimentation and loss of storage capacity of the Shihmen Reservoir in northern Taiwan. The resulting dramatic increase in the turbidity of the water seriously affected the water supply. To effectively maintain the stability of the water supply and maintain the reservoir’s storage capacity, the government of Taiwan began to plan and construct a series of improvement measures, such as a sediment flushing tunnel, the JhongJhuang Bank-Side Reservoir, and the Amuping Desilting Tunnel. However, previous studies only focused on the impact of the sediment flushing tunnel and the Amuping Desilting Tunnel on the downstream riverbed, and did not consider the possibility of increasing sediment discharge after the completion of the JhongJhuang Bank-Side Reservoir. In addition, climate change will cause the intensity of extreme rainfall to increase enormously in the future. That rainfall and extra sediment flushing will challenge the existing flood prevention facilities. Therefore, this study considered that the JhongJhuang Bank-Side Reservoir will increase sediment discharge of the Shihmen Reservoir, and used dynamical downscaling extreme typhoon data of climate change under the RCP 8.5 scenario to explore the flood prevention and riverbed migration of the main channels of the Dahan and Tamsui Rivers in the future. We used the rainfall–runoff model of Hydrologic Modeling System to simulate rainfall and runoff, and used the hydraulic and sediment transport model of CCHE1D to holistically simulate flood events and consequent river scouring and deposition behaviors. Our results showed that the projected peak discharge during the late 21st century (2075 to 2099) will be at least 50% higher than that during the baseline (1979 to 2003) period. In terms of flood prevention, the potential of overbank flooding will increase in the downstream area, and the trend of long-term change in the riverbed will be dominated by degradation (-0.489 ± 0.743 m) in the future. The improvement measures will have a limited impact on riverbed migration (0.011 ± 0.094 m) in the Dahan and Tamsui Rivers. After the operation of the JhongJhuang Bank-Side Reservoir, the Shihmen Reservoir is expected to increase the sediment discharge ratio by 70% during floods, and it will not cause excessive water turbidity that may affect downstream water supply.     

Change detection in synthetic aperture radar images based on unsupervised artificial immune systems

In this paper, we propose a novel change detection method for synthetic aperture radar images based on unsupervised artificial immune systems. After generating the difference image from the multitemporal images, we take each pixel as an antigen and build an immune model to deal with the antigens. By continuously stimulating the immune model, the antigens are classified into two groups, changed and unchanged. Firstly, the proposed method incorporates the local information in order to restrain the impact of speckle noise. Secondly, the proposed method simulates the immune response process in a fuzzy way to get an accurate result by retaining more image details. We introduce a fuzzy membership of the antigen and then update the antibodies and memory cells according to the membership. Compared with the clustering algorithms we have proposed in our previous works, the new method inherits immunological properties from immune systems and is robust to speckle noise due to the use of local information as well as fuzzy strategy. Experiments on real synthetic aperture radar images show that the proposed method performs well on several kinds of difference images and engenders more robust result than the other compared methods.     

Effect of an abrupt change in pulling rate on microstructures of directionally solidified Al2O3-Er3Al5O12 eutectic and off-eutectic composite ceramics

Directionally solidified microstructures of Al₂O₃-Er₃Al₅O₁₂ eutectic and off-eutectic in situ composite ceramics were explored under abrupt-change pulling rate conditions. Corresponding temperature distributions and interface locations were studied. In eutectic composition, fluctuation of eutectic spacing occurred when the pulling rate increased abruptly. A gradually increase or abrupt increase in eutectic spacing was observed when the pulling rate decreased abruptly. In hypoeutectic and hypereutectic compositions, formation of the primary phases were suppressed when the pulling rate increased abruptly from 10?µm/s to 100?µm/s, while primary phases precipitated when the pulling rate decreased abruptly from 100?µm/s to 10?µm/s. The interface altitude decreased after the pulling rate increased abruptly, but increased after the pulling rate decreased abruptly. The liquid composition restriction (around the eutectic composition) at the eutectic interface plays an important role in the suppression of the primary dendrite and coupled eutectic oxides can be obtained in off-eutectic compositions even under higher solidification rate conditions.     

1970-2016年青藏高原岗扎日冰川变化与物质平衡遥感监测研究

可可西里处于青藏高原腹地,是青藏高原自然环境的交接与过渡地带。近年来该区域冰川物质平衡可能有从西向东由正转负的趋势,但是其过渡地带岗扎日地区冰川状态未知。本研究利用地形图、SRTM、ASTER和Landsat等资料分析了岗扎日地区冰川面积变化和物质平衡变化,并对可可西里地区冰川变化空间规律进行了探讨,结果表明：①1970-2016年岗扎日冰川总面积年均缩小率为0.08±0.02%。2006年后冰川退缩趋势减缓。②1970-2012年岗扎日冰川平均减薄-8.64±0.30 m,体积减少1.45±0.06 km³,平均物质平衡为-0.21±0.01 m w.e. a^-1。冰川物质平衡趋势由负转正（1970-1999年：-0.34±0.01 m w.e. a^-1;1999-2012：0.16±0.02 w.e. a^-1）。③东南、南、西南朝向作为迎风坡,1970年以来其冰川物质亏损较小,1999-2012年呈现强烈的正平衡。冰川面积变化滞后于物质平衡变化,东朝向和东南朝向冰川面积缩小率最大,主要是因为冰川冰舌较长,末端所处的海拔较低。④气温升高是岗扎日冰川1970-1999年呈现负物质平衡状态的主因,降水增多是1999-2012年正平衡状态的主因。⑤可可西里地区冰川1970s以来面积年均缩小率从西向东不断增大、物质平衡下降,与西风环流和季风环流相关,但局地气候也影响冰川变化和物质平衡。