Multi-criteria analysis for screening of reversible metal hydrides in hydrogen gas storage and high pressure delivery applications

Metals and alloys forming reversible hydrides with hydrogen gas are potential building blocks for compact, solid state hydrogen storage systems. Based on the materials’ thermodynamic characteristics, their use as temperature-swing gas compression and delivery systems in the hydrogen economy is also possible. Given the wide variety of materials developed and tested at laboratory and pilot scales, a harmonized method of selecting the feasible material(s) for a particular real-life application is required. This study proposes a system selection framework based on a normalized, multi-criteria metric. Using calculated values of multi-criteria metric, multi-criteria screening and ranking of potential materials has been demonstrated for a particular use case. It is found that the alloy TiMn_1.52 having value of additive metric between 0.25 and 0.35 represents the best material for a single stage system. The alloy pair CaNi₅–Ti_1.5CrMn represents the best alternative for a two-stage system with additive metric values between 0.63 and 0.82. Energy and economic characteristics of the metal hydride gas compression and delivery systems are evaluated and compared with an equivalent mechanical compression system producing the same final effect (i.e., delivery of a given quantity of gas at a defined pressure).     

Optimization of hydrogen enrichment via palladium membrane in vacuum environments using Taguchi method and normalized regression analysis

In this study, the separation of hydrogen from gas mixtures using a palladium membrane coupled with a vacuum environment on the permeate side was studied experimentally. The gas mixtures composed of H₂, N₂, and CO₂ were used as the feed. Hydrogen permeation fluxes were measured with membrane operating temperature in the range of 320–380 °C, pressures on the retentate side in the range of 2–5 atm, and vacuum pressures on the permeate side in the range of 15–51 kPa. The Taguchi method was used to design the operating conditions for the experiments based on an orthogonal array. Using the measured H₂ permeation fluxes from the Taguchi approach, the stepwise regression analysis was also employed for establishing the prediction models of H₂ permeation flux, followed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) to identify the significance and suitability of operating conditions. Based on both the Taguchi approach and ANOVA, the H₂ permeation flux was mostly affected by the gas mixture composition, followed by the retentate side pressure, the vacuum degree, and the membrane temperature. The predicted optimal operating conditions were the gas mixture with 75% H₂ and 25% N₂, the membrane temperature of 320 °C, the retentate side pressure of 5 atm, and the vacuum degree of 51 kPa. Under these conditions, the H₂ permeation flux was 0.185 mol s^?1 m^?2. A second-order normalized regression model with a relative error of less than 7% was obtained based on the measured H₂ permeation flux.     

A novel low power hybrid cache using GC-EDRAM cells

In a typical embedded CPU, large on-chip storage is critical to meet high performance requirements. However, the fast increasing size of the on-chip storage based on traditional SRAM cells makes the area cost and energy consumption unsustainable for future embedded applications. Replacing SRAM with DRAM on the CPU’s chip is generally considered not worthwhile because DRAM is not compatible with the common CMOS logic and requires additional processing steps beyond what is required for CMOS. However a special DRAM technology, Gain-Cell embedded-DRAM (GC-eDRAM)  [1], [2], [3] is logic compatible and retains some of the good properties of DRAM (small and low power). In this paper we evaluate the performance of a novel hybrid cache memory where the data array, generally populated with SRAM cells, is replaced with GC-eDRAM cells while the tag array continues to use SRAM cells. Our evaluation of this cache demonstrates that, compared to the conventional SRAM-based designs, our novel architecture exhibits comparable performance with less energy consumption and smaller silicon area, enabling the sustainable on-chip storage scaling for future embedded CPUs.     

Co2FeO4@rGO composite: Towards trifunctional water splitting in alkaline media

Development of efficient, low cost and multifunctional electrocatalysts for water splitting to harvest hydrogen fuels is a challenging task, but the combination of carbon materials with transition metal-based compounds is providing a unique and attractive strategy. Herein, composite systems based on cobalt ferrite oxide-reduced graphene oxide (Co₂FeO₄) @(rGO) using simultaneous hydrothermal and chemical reduction methods have been prepared. The proposed study eliminates one step associated with the conversion of GO into rGO as it uses direct GO during the synthesis of cobalt ferrite oxide, consequently rGO based hybrid system is achieved in-situ significantly, the optimized Co₂FeO₄@rGO composite has revealed an outstanding multifunctional applications related to both oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and hydrogen counterpart (HER). Various metal oxidation states and oxygen vacancies at the surface of Co₂FeO₄@rGO composites guided the multifunctional surface properties. The optimized Co₂FeO₄@rGO composite presents excellent multifunctional properties with onset potential of 0.60 V for ORR, an overpotential of 240 mV at a 20 mAcm^?2 for OER and 320 mV at a 10 mAcm^?2 for HER respectively. Results revealed that these multifunctional properties of the optimized Co₂FeO₄@ rGO composite are associated with high electrical conductivity, high density of active sites, crystal defects, oxygen vacancies, and favorable electronic structure arisinng from the substitution of Fe for Co atoms in binary spinel oxide phase. These surface features synergistically uplifted the electrocatalytic properties of Co₂FeO₄@rGO composites. The multifunctional properties of the Co₂FeO₄@ rGO composite could be of high interest for its use in a wide range of applications in sustainable and renewable energy fields.     

Formation of acrylamide in microwave-roasted sorghum and associated dietary risk

The effect of microwave roasting parameters (300, 450 and 600 W; 5, 10 and 15 min) on acrylamide content in sorghum grain was determined using High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)-photo diode array (PDA) detector coupled with C-18 column. Samples roasted at 300 and 450 W did not possess acrylamide, whereas 600 W (15 min) favoured formation of 2740.19 µg/kg of acrylamide, levels far exceeding the defined European Union (EU) limits. The chronic daily intake (CDI) for acrylamide through consumption of such grain flour was 3.25–9.5-fold higher to Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) defined high exposure limits. The margin of exposure (MOE) values ranged from 4.3 to 12.76 and from 11.07 to 32.27 for neoplastic and neurological effects, respectively, demonstrating high exposure and serious health concerns associated with dietary intake of this toxicant. This study assesses the risk for the Indian population and highlights the importance of optimising process parameters for food product to minimise such exposure risks.     

PID Control of Planar Nonlinear Uncertain Systems in the Presence of Actuator Saturation

This paper investigates PID control design for a class of planar nonlinear uncertain systems in the presence of actuator saturation. Based on the bounds on the growth rates of the nonlinear uncertain function in the system model, the system is placed in a linear differential inclusion. Each vertex system of the linear differential inclusion is a linear system subject to actuator saturation. By placing the saturated PID control into a convex hull formed by the PID controller and an auxiliary linear feedback law, we establish conditions under which an ellipsoid is contractively invariant and hence is an estimate of the domain of attraction of the equilibrium point of the closed-loop system. The equilibrium point corresponds to the desired set point for the system output. Thus, the location of the equilibrium point and the size of the domain of attraction determine, respectively, the set point that the output can achieve and the range of initial conditions from which this set point can be reached. Based on these conditions, the feasible set points can be determined and the design of the PID control law that stabilizes the nonlinear uncertain system at a feasible set point with a large domain of attraction can then be formulated and solved as a constrained optimization problem with constraints in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Application of the proposed design to a magnetic suspension system illustrates the design process and the performance of the resulting PID control law.      

Simulation of hydrogen and coal gas fueled flat-tubular solid oxide fuel cell (FT-SOFC)

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are considered an important technology in terms of high efficiency and clean energy generation. Flat-tubular solid oxide fuel cell (FT-SOFC) which is a combination of tubular and planar cell geometries stands out with its performance values and low costs. In this study, the performance of an FT-SOFC is analyzed numerically by using finite element method-based design as a result of changing parameters by using different fuels which are pure hydrogen and coal gas with various proportions of CO. In addition, cell performance values for different temperatures were analyzed and interpreted. Analyzes have been performed by using COMSOL Multiphysics software. The rates of CO composition used are 10%, 20%, and 40%, respectively. In addition, the air was used as the oxidizer in all cases. The cell voltage and average cell power of the FT-SOFC were examined under the 800 °C operating condition. The maximum power value and current density value were obtained as 710 W/m² and 1420 A/m² for the flat-tubular cell, respectively. As a result of the study, it was observed that the maximum cell power densities increased with increasing temperature. Analysis results showed that FT-SOFCs have suitable properties for different fuel usage and different operating temperatures. High-performance values and design features in different operating conditions are expected to make FT-SOFC the focus of many studies in the future.     

基于滚动摩擦作用下玉米颗粒在模拟筒仓卸料中的力链分析（网络首发、推荐阅读）

针对颗粒滚动摩擦作用对筒仓中玉米颗粒的力链空间分布进行研究，通过EDEM离散元软件建立筒仓模型与仿真玉米颗粒模型进行卸粮仿真模拟，并与筒仓卸料实验作流态对比，验证模型与仿真结果的准确性。通过对模拟仓进行切片观察和数据处理，对比分析了不同摩擦情况下力链的细观参数随时间演化规律。模拟结果表明：颗粒间摩擦系数越大，卸粮完成的最终时间越长；颗粒间滚动摩擦系数越小，颗粒由整体流转变为管状流的时间越早。对于有漏斗的筒仓来说，减小颗粒间摩擦会改变整体流和管状流之间的极限，从而增加产生管状流的面积。标准滚动摩擦系数下玉米颗粒在卸料过程中会出现起拱-塌陷效应；减小滚动摩擦，玉米颗粒卸料较稳定，未出现起拱的应力突增、以及拱塌陷的应力衰减；增大颗粒间滚动摩擦不但会增加拱效应，且出现成拱高度距离漏斗口更高。     

基于机器视觉的轮胎表面缺陷检测系统的研究与应用

在传统的轮胎表面缺陷依靠人工检测,存在劳动强度高、受人的主观影响大以及效率低下的问题。针对这一现象,研究了一种基于机器视觉的轮胎表面缺陷3D检测系统。该系统依靠机器视觉系统获取检测轮胎的表面图像,然后创建3D模型、判定缺陷类型,最终实现实时自动预警,为轮胎生产商提供一种自动化检测方案。系统集成了先进的技术、软件和工具,配套的信息管控系统可以对轮胎型号和生产数据进行采集、存储、分析,以便在生产过程中实现更高效、更可靠的质量控制,具有较高的实际应用推广价值。     

Feature selection methods for root-cause analysis among top-level product attributes

Manufacturing companies not only strive to deliver flawless products but also monitor product failures in the field to identify potential quality issues. When product failures occur, quality engineers must identify the root cause to improve any affected product and process. This root-cause analysis can be supported by feature selection methods that identify relevant product attributes, such as manufacturing dates with an increased number of product failures. In this paper, we present different methods for feature selection and evaluate their ability to identify relevant product attributes in a root-cause analysis. First, we compile a list of feature selection methods. Then, we summarize the properties of product attributes in warranty case data and discuss these properties regarding the challenges they pose for machine learning algorithms. Next, we simulate datasets of warranty cases, which emulate these product properties. Finally, we compare the feature selection methods based on these simulated datasets. In the end, the univariate filter information gain is determined to be a suitable method for a wide range of applications. The comparison based on simulated data provides a more general result than other publications, which only focus on a single use case. Due to the generic nature of the simulated datasets, the results can be applied to various root-cause analysis processes in different quality management applications and provide a guideline for readers who wish to explore machine learning methods for their analysis of quality data.