Status and initial experiments of DRAGON-V facility for lithium-lead blanket technologies of hydrogen fusion reactors

A dual-coolant integrated experimental facility named DRAGON-V has been developed at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, Hefei Institute of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for the key technology research and performance evaluation of candidate liquid lithium-lead (PbLi) blanket of hydrogen fusion reactors. The loop is composed of a material test sub-loop and thermal-hydraulic test sub-loop, the design parameters are PbLi inventory 20 tons, PbLi temperature up to 550 °C, the maximum PbLi flow rate up to 40 kg/s. A novel cold trap system is designed to remove the suspended and crystalized impurities in PbLi fluid with three cooling zones and cross row arrangement of rod bundle filter elements. The paper describes the loop itself and its major components, initial loop testing, flow and measurement diagnostics and current experiments. The obtained test results of the loop and its components have demonstrated that the new facility is fully functioning and ready for experimental studies of material corrosion with/without a magnetic field, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effect, purification, heat and mass transfer phenomena in PbLi flows and can also be used in mock-up testing in conditions relevant to fusion applications.     

Dynamic analysis of tapping mode atomic force microscope (AFM) for critical dimension measurement

Transient dynamics of tapping mode atomic force microscope (AFM) for critical dimension measurement are analyzed. A simplified nonlinear model of AFM is presented to describe the forced vibration of the micro cantilever-tip system with consideration of both contact and non-contact transient behavior for critical dimension measurement. The governing motion equations of the AFM cantilever system are derived from the developed model. Based on the established dynamic model, motion state of the AFM cantilever system is calculated utilizing the method of averaging with the form of slow flow equations. Further analytical solutions are obtained to reveal the effects of critical parameters on the system dynamic performance. In addition, features of dynamic response of tapping mode AFM in critical dimension measurement are studied, where the effects of equivalent contact stiffness, quality factor and resonance frequency of cantilever on the system dynamic behavior are investigated. Contact behavior between the tip and sample is also analyzed and the frequency drift in contact phase is further explored. Influence of the interaction between the tip and sample on the subsequent non-contact phase is studied with regard to different parameters. The dependence of the minimum amplitude of tip displacement and maximum phase difference on the equivalent contact stiffness, quality factor and resonance frequency are investigated. This study brings further insights into the dynamic characteristics of tapping mode AFM for critical dimension measurement, and thus provides guidelines for the high fidelity tapping mode AFM scanning.     

齐大山铁矿南帮含水构造带探测研究

为解决采空区突发涌水给矿山安全生产带来的安全威胁,以齐大山铁矿为研究对象,以高密度电阻率法含水构造带理论模型的正演模拟研究为基础,运用高密度电阻率法对采场南帮含水构造带的异常范围进行了圈定;运用瞬变电磁法进行了二次探测,并对高密度电阻率法所圈定的异常范围进行了验证。研究表明:含水构造带显示为低阻异常特征,在高密度电阻率法探测成果图中显示的两处低阻异常与含水构造带理论模型的正演模拟结果一致;同时,在瞬变电磁法探测成果图中显示的低阻区域均在高密度电阻率法所圈定的低阻异常范围内,二者相互验证,这两处低阻异常均为含水构造带的地球物理异常特征的显示,表明采用高密度电阻率法和瞬变电磁法组合识别技术可实现对隐伏含水构造带的先导性探测。     

Giant photoresponsivity of transfer free grown fluorographene – MoS2 heterostructured ultra-stable transistors

Development of metal dichalcogenides based air and water stable opto-electronic devices is a bottleneck in their commercial implementation. Here we address this issue by the direct catalyst-free deposition of fluorographene (FG) protective layer over monolayer MoS₂ (MS), where such an atomic interface is found to be providing enormous photoresponse and chemical stability to the device. Electric field modulated (ionic liquid (IL) electrolyte based top-gated) photodetectors are developed with MS only and FG-MS heterostructure, where the MS photodetector has the responsivity of ~1.3 A/W (with V_GS = 0 V while unstable with IL gating) while that of FG-MS is ~2000 A/W (with V_GS = 0 V and ~8000 A/W with V_GS = 1.5 V, and the detectivity ~10¹³). This giant photoresponse of the FG-MS is validated with the help of ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy assisted charge carrier dynamics studies at different temperatures. The broad optical response (350–850 nm) of the FG-MS is found to be intact not only in IL based gating but also after exposing in water for a month or heat treated in air at 200 °C. Interfacing and capping with FG, developed via the direct growth method, are found to be ideal for realizing high shelf-life and good responsivity photodetectors and solar cells of several other monolayer TMDs too, while available for wafer-scale manufacture.     

Distributed Control Strategy with Smith's Predictor in a Pilot-Scale Diabatic Distillation Unit

Intrinsic characteristics of distillation such as dead time and high nonlinearities do not allow the complete elimination of transient times when any external disturbance or set-point change occurs. Thus, aiming at the use of easy-tuning systems, a distributed-action control in trays of a diabatic distillation unit with Smith's predictor was implemented in the Simulink environment to further reduce transient times and out-of-specification product. The distributed-action strategy with Smith's predictor led to a reduction of 33.3 min (33 %) in the transient time of the top temperature control loop and 66 % in out-of-specification product, when compared with the conventional strategy, and thus is shown to be an efficient approach to increasing the productivity of distillation plants.     

Transient shrinkage behavior of wustite-centered binary/ternary/quaternary/quinary-component oxide packed beds in a reducing atmosphere up to 1773 K

Wustite (FeO)-centered multicomponent oxides play an important role in the ironmaking process, and a complete understanding of their high temperature behaviors is of great importance for process optimization to achieve high efficiency and low emissions during industrial production. In this work, the transient shrinkages of FeO-centered multicomponent oxide packed beds are quantitatively determined in a reducing atmosphere up to 1773 K, and the effects of the interactions between the oxides on the shrinkage rate (SR) are qualitatively evaluated. The results show that although mixing CaO with FeO increases the SR to 0.42%/K below 1173 K, further mixing with SiO₂ or Al₂O₃ significantly limits this enhancement effect due to the formation of an olivine or spinel phase. However, in the subsequent stage, the SR increases to as high as 0.44%/K after CO is injected. The interaction between FeO and MgO leads to an SR of greater than 0.20%/K at lower temperatures, but it causes a decrease in the SR from 0.33%/K to 0.16%/K between 1173 K and 1273 K. Meanwhile, adding SiO₂ slows the reduction reaction, and the SR correspondingly decreases further to 0.04%/K. On the other hand, the interaction between CaO and Al₂O₃ takes precedence over the interaction between SiO₂ and MgO and dominates the shrinkage process in the quinary-component case, and the preferentially formed CaAl₂O₄ spinel phase hinders the formation of the Mg₂SiO₄ olivine phase.     

Improved synergetic excitation control for transient stability enhancement and voltage regulation of power systems

This paper proposes decentralized improved synergetic excitation controllers (ISEC) for synchronous generators to enhance transient stability and obtain satisfactory voltage regulation performance of power systems. Each generator is considered as a subsystem, for which an ISEC is designed. According to the control objectives, a manifold, which is a linear combination of the deviation of generator terminal voltage, rotor speed and active power, is chosen for the design of ISEC. Compared with the conventional synergetic excitation controller (CSEC), a parameter adaptation scheme is proposed for updating the controller parameter online in order to improve the transient stability and voltage regulation performance simultaneously under various operating conditions. Case studies are undertaken on a single-machine infinite-bus power system and a two-area four-machine power system, respectively. Simulation results show the ISEC can provide better damping and voltage regulation performance, compared with the CSEC without parameter adaptation scheme and the conventional power system stabilizer.     

Transient safety evaluation of the heat pipe microreactor – Potential energy source for hydrogen production

Recently, microreactor designs have been receiving significant attention in the nuclear industry due to their potential advantages in certain applications. These nuclear reactor designs have been considered to provide reliable and sustainable power for on-site installation and operation. Microreactors may be utilized to provide heat and power to hydrogen production, remote communities, and industrial facilities such as military installations, disaster relief zones, and are being considered for underwater and deep space operation as well. However, these designs and concepts remain largely untested and unproven in the commercial industry. Further research and development are still required to prove microreactor designs are safe and reliable for commercial use. Different cooling technologies have been taken into consideration for microreactor concepts since the 1960s, mainly for federal space reactor projects such as LEGOLRCS, HOMER, and KRUSTY. This work provides thermal hydraulics and analysis for the Idaho National Laboratory's MAGNET (Micro-reactor Agile Non-nuclear Experimental Testbed) facility. The MAGNET facility is currently being developed to duplicate a microreactor design using heat pipe cooling technology. Our main goal is to examine the response of the test facility under steady-state and transient operation conditions. We constructed our own estimated model of the MAGNET geometry using a software coupling method made up of MOOSE/SAM software systems. The steady state results of this work have been published in a former article. The new results mainly focus on the transient states. By communicating with the Idaho National Laboratories, we upgraded the geometry of MAGNET heat pipes. This not only verifies the design of the facility under such conditions but also benchmarks the modeling capability of the MOOSE/SAM code system that can be potentially used to model other microreactor concepts in the future.     

Multiple models decentralized coordinated control of doubly fed induction generator

In this paper, a multiple model optimal tracking control (MOTC) design method for the double fed induction generator (DFIG) using correlative measured technique is proposed. The DFIG is represented by a third-order model, where electro-magnetic transients of stator are neglected. By using the correlative measured technique, the correlative measured matrix (CMM) of wind power system is obtained firstly. Then, a nonstandard state space equation of DFIG is obtained with the correlative measured vectors (CMVs), which reflect interactions between the DFIGs and grid. In order to cope with nonlinearities and continuous variation in the operating points, a multiple model design method is proposed in the discrete domain. The obtained control law, synthesized by using Bayesian probability, only depends on the local measured parameters. Hence, the MOTC can be regarded as a decentralized coordinated control, which can simplify the control structure and improve the transient stability of DFIG. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed MOTC strategy, simulations on a hybrid wind thermal power (HWTP) system are performed. The results show that the proposed MOTC strategy can provide acceptable performance throughout the whole operating region. Comparing to the conventional PID control, transient stability, damping, and fault ride-through capability of DFIG with the proposed MOTC design method have been improved effectively.