Damage microstructure evolution of helium ion irradiated SiC under fusion relevant temperatures

In-situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with ion irradiation has been used to study the damage microstructure evolution of He ion irradiated 4-H SiC at nuclear fusion relevant temperatures. The SiC samples were irradiated with 20?keV He ions at 25, 400, 800 and 1200?°C to a dose of 5.0 displacements per atom (DPA). At 25?°C, the material fully amorphises at 1.5 DPA and no He bubble nucleation occurs up to the doses studied. At 400 and 800?°C, He bubble nucleation occurs and the material remains crystalline. Bubble nucleation occurs at 2.0?DPA at 400?°C but occurs at only 0.5?DPA at 1200?°C. This is attributed the He atoms de-trapping from vacancies and migrating interstitially to larger He-vacancy clusters at higher temperatures, leading to faster nucleation of observable He bubbles. Helium platelets form at an irradiation temperature of 1200?°C at 0.5?DPA showing a preference for nucleation between the {0001} basal planes.     

Structural health monitoring system based on multi-agent coordination and fusion for large structure

In practical applications of structural health monitoring technology, a large number of distributed sensors are usually adopted to monitor the big dimension structures and different kinds of damage. The monitored structures are usually divided into different sub-structures and monitored by different sensor sets. Under this situation, how to manage the distributed sensor set and fuse different methods to obtain a fast and accurate evaluation result is an important problem to be addressed deeply. In the paper, a multi-agent fusion and coordination system is presented to deal with the damage identification for the strain distribution and joint failure in the large structure. Firstly, the monitoring system is adopted to distributedly monitor two kinds of damages, and it self-judges whether the static load happens in the monitored sub-region, and focuses on the static load on the sub-region boundary to obtain the sensor network information with blackboard model. Then, the improved contract net protocol is used to dynamically distribute the damage evaluation module for monitoring two kinds of damage uninterruptedly. Lastly, a reliable assessment for the whole structure is given by combing various heterogeneous classifiers strengths with voting-based fusion. The proposed multi-agent system is illustrated through a large aerospace aluminum plate structure experiment. The result shows that the method can significantly improve the monitoring performance for the large-scale structure.     

Laser induced fast ignition made realistic by relativistic velocities-dream or reality?

Due to the recent developments in high power lasers it is suggested to accelerate a micro-foil by the laser pressure to relativistic velocities. The time dependent velocity of this micro-foil is calculated analytically for pulsed constant laser intensity. The accelerated foil collides with a target creating a shock wave on impact. The shock wave parameters are calculated within the context of relativistic fluid dynamics.It is suggested to use the energy of the relativistic micro-foil to ignite a pre-compressed target with a density relevant for fusion ignition. The equations are written and solved for the collision between the micro-foil and the very dense target. The criteria for shock wave ignition and heat wave ignition are used to show that one needs significantly less laser energy for heat wave ignition.The present scheme shows that nuclear fast ignition by micro-foil impact could be attained in the near future with lasers that are currently under construction.     

Investigation on concentration characteristics of ozone micro-bubbles fixed in ice and ozone gas released from ice

Ice formed from water in which ozone gas is dissolved is promising for the cold storage of foods because of the ozone's sterilization and deodorization capabilities. However, effective dissolution of ozone gas in water and taking ozone gas into ice are not easy. Furthermore, the decomposition rate of the ozone itself is usually very fast, regardless of its phase. Thus, to effectively take ozone gas into ice, the authors have developed ice containing ozone micro-bubbles. In this paper, ice containing ozone micro-bubbles formed by adding surfactant was kept for a desired time at a desired constant temperature without melting of the ice. The concentration of ozone micro-bubbles fixed in ice and the ozone gas concentration released from ice by melting were measured to investigate the ozone decomposition rate due to fixation in ice and the characteristics of the released concentration. Furthermore, the influences of surfactant on both concentrations were examined.     

Evolution of the microstructure during the early stages of sintering barium hexaferrite nanoplatelets

Nanoparticles usually exhibit a specific structure and composition, which can influence the development of the microstructure during their sintering. Barium hexaferrite nanoplatelets have a specific, iron-rich structure defined by the termination at the surfaces with the S blocks of their SRS^*R^* hexaferrite structure (S and R represent a cubic (Fe₆O₈)²⁺ and a hexagonal (BaFe₆O₁₁)²⁻ structural block, respectively). The unsubstituted and Sc-substituted hexaferrite nanoplatelets were hydrothermally synthesized and fired at different temperatures. A combination of morpho-structural analyses (XRD, SEM, TEM, and aberration-corrected STEM) and magnetic measurements was used to reveal the evolution of the microstructure during sintering. During the initial stages of sintering the nanoplatelets thicken predominantly by the fusion of individual original nanoplatelets. Due to the Fe-rich surfaces of the nanoplatelets, the fusion growth results in an inhomogeneity that leads to the formation of planar defects in the grains and the precipitation of Fe₂O₃ as the secondary phase. In the Sc-substituted hexaferrite grains, superstructural compositional ordering was detected for the first time. The Sc substitution caused exaggerated grain growth in barium hexaferrite ceramics sintered at 1300 °C.     

人工环境与自然的融合——以克拉玛依市城南经济适用房为例

近年来,随着社会经济的发展,中低收入居民住房建设及生态保护成为城市建设的重点内容。而人工环境与自然的协调统一、相互融合,也一直被作为世界范围内社区环境营造所遵循的热点及难点。如何在保障中低收入居民住房条件基础上,将自然与人工社区环境相融合是该文研究的重点。该文试从生态环保、尊重自然、与自然环境相融合的角度出发,以克拉玛依市城南经济适用房项目为例,试探讨该理念在经济适用房建设中低成本、经济适用等方面的合理应用。     

基于DenseNet的复杂交通场景语义分割方法

针对交通场景语义分割方法存在参数量较大、计算效率较低、精度不足等问题,文中提出基于全卷积化DenseNet的多尺度端到端语义分割模型.首先,构建一种含混合空洞卷积的密集连接模块,同时沿通道维度级联各模块,用于提取图像特征.然后,采集多尺度视觉信息并以此作为监督信号回传至原通道中.最后,通过双线性插值法获得预测输出.在CityScapes数据集上的测试实验表明,文中方法对复杂交通场景的解析能力较强,预测精度和分割效率较高.     

Transverse heat transfer coefficient in the dual channel ITER TF CICCs. Part III: Direct method of assessment

The data resulting from the thermal-hydraulic test of the ITER TF CICC are used to determine the flow partition and the overall effective heat transfer coefficient (h_BC) between bundle and central channel in a direct way, i.e. by analysis of the heat transfer between both flow channels, based on the mass and energy balance equations and the readings of thermometers located inside the cable. In cases without a local heat source in the considered cable segment the obtained h_BC values were consistent with those obtained in earlier studies by analysis of experimental data using indirect methods. It was also observed that the transverse heat transfer was strongly enhanced in a cable segment heated from outside. This phenomenon results from the mass transfer from the bundle region to the central channel. The experimental h_BC data obtained for the case without a heat source in the considered segment were also compared with those calculated using various heat transfer correlations.     

Deuterium enrichment using vanadium membranes

Hydrogen isotope selectivity of palladium membranes has long been known and studied, but the emergence of vanadium-based membranes as a low-cost alternative naturally inspires curiosity as to whether these membranes exhibit similar properties. Accordingly, experiments to calculate the permeability of hydrogen and deuterium through a palladium-coated vanadium membrane at 300 °C were undertaken, and they revealed that hydrogen permeates at a rate 1.5 × faster than deuterium. With hydrogen absorption experiments at the same temperature showing very little difference in the amount of each isotope absorbed over a wide pressure range, it can be concluded that atomic hydrogen diffuses through vanadium 1.5 × faster than atomic deuterium.In practice, this gives rise to a significant separation factor, with deuterium being depleted in the permeate stream, but enriched in the retentate stream. Creating a cascading series of membranes, with successive retentate streams combined, will allow the deuterium concentration to be enriched far beyond the natural value of 0.015%. This work suggests that further work is warranted to explore whether this separation factor can be enhanced (e.g., through alloying), and to demonstrate a cascading membrane system to deliver high purity deuterium from a natural hydrogen source.     

FRESCO,a simplified code for cost analysis of fusion power plants

FRESCO (Fusion REactor Simplified COsts) is a code based on simplified models of physics, engineering and economical aspects of a TOKAMAK-like pulsed or steady-state fusion power plant. The experience coming from various aspects of ITER design, including selection of materials and operating scenarios, is exploited as much as possible.Energy production and plant power balance, including the recirculation requirements, are derived from two models of the PPCS European study, the helium cooled lithium/lead blanket model reactor (model AB) and the helium cooled ceramic one (model B). A detailed study of the availability of the power plant due, among others, to the replacement of plasma facing components, is also included in the code.The economics of the fusion power plant is evaluated through the levelized cost approach. Costs of the basic components are scaled from the corresponding values of the ITER project, the ARIES studies and SCAN model. The costs of plant auxiliaries, including those of the magnetic and electric systems, tritium plants, instrumentation, buildings and thermal energy storage if any, are recovered from ITER values and from those of other power plants.Finally, the PPCS models AB and B are simulated and the main results are reported in this paper.