Steady-state corona charging behavior of a corotron over a movingdielectric substrate

Charging up a dielectric surface through corona discharge from a thin wire has been a common practice in electrophotographic processes. One of the widely used corona charging devices is called a corotron, which consists of a coronating wire enclosed in a rectangular shield with one constituent side being the surface to be charged. Uniform surface charge can be deposited on a dielectric substrate, such as a photoreceptor in the absence of light, by moving the substrate at a constant velocity through a stationary corotron that consistently emits corona current. To design an efficient corotron for charging dielectric substrates, a fundamental understanding of the electrostatic nature of the device is desired. In this paper, the steady-state behavior of corona charging with a corotron over a moving dielectric substrate is analyzed by computationally solving the nonlinearly coupled equation system with Galerkin finite-element method and Newton iterations. The predictions based on a first-principle model are shown to agree well with experimental measurements     

Heterodyne Mixing of Terahertz Quantum Cascade Lasers Using a Planar Schottky Diode

Terahertz quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) have been used together with a monolithic planar Schottky diode receiver to study the heterodyne mixing between dual internal modes of a QCL and between a single mode of a QCL and a known molecular line from a molecular gas laser. Dual-mode mixing shows that the intrinsic linewidth of a free-running QCL is les30 kHz . Mixing against a molecular laser line gives a high precision measurement of a QCL's absolute frequency and can show transient turn-on behavior in a pulsed QCL.     

Negotiating expert status: who gets taken seriously

A lay person may listen puzzled as a specialist in a public hearing discusses a technical point. Similarly, a challenging question from a technically knowledgeable member of the audience may be difficult to fathom. Failure to understand what a speaker discusses-despite one's interest in a topic-can cause frustration, anger and despair. It makes a listener wonder why they are there trying to engage, and why technical specialists persist in such a style of presentation. Breakdowns in communication between technical and nontechnical people are linked to the concept of “expert”. This link involves the process of the “negotiation of expert status”; this refers to the social construction of the role of the “expert” by the participants in a conversation. The term “negotiation” refers to the sometimes subtle and sometimes overtly contentious nature of a debate about who deserves to be listened to as a voice of authority on a particular topic     

Methods for controlling a linear asynchronous motor

This article describes the case of one of possible method of controlling a linear asynchronous motor (LAM) with a controlled normal component of the force of interaction between an inductor and a reactive bus. It is shown that the normal force in a unilateral linear asynchronous motor can affect significantly the operation of devices and systems on which a motor is installed. This normal force can attract an inductor to a reactive bus or repel it from a reactive bus. For the model of a motor, which is represented by four zones, namely, an inductor, an air gap, a conductive bus, and a steel core of a reactive bus, the analytical expressions for the calculation of the components of a magnetic field in an air gap were obtained. The effect of the longitudinal and transverse edge effects in the considered plane model of a motor is not considered. The expressions for the determination of the specific tangential and normal forces per area unit were found. It is shown that, under a change in the slide from negative to positive values, the tangential force changes similarly to the electromagnetic torque of a conventional asynchronous motor with a rotating rotor. Under a change in the slide, the normal force can attract an inductor to a reactive bus or repel it from a reactive bus. The force of attraction reaches the highest values under a zero slide. The slide under which the normal force is equal to zero is determined only by the pole pitch and the conductivity of material of a reactive bus and provides the operation of a motor at the highest power factor. It is proposed to use the measured normal force value as a parameter for the construction of a traction linear asynchronous motor-control system.     

Smooth approximation and forecasting of load duration curves

The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology for forecasting a load duration curve. The approach adopted in the development is to estimate a load duration curve as a combined linear-exponential function and relate the coefficients of this function to a set of economic and weather related variables. This relationship allows one to forecast the coefficients which are in turn used to provide a forecast of the coefficients of interest.The model presented, for a specific set of data, forecasts well and presents a substantial improvement over existing approaches to obtaining future load duration curves.     

A study of electric stress enhancement. Part 1. Implication in power cable design

The increase in electric stress due to a surface protrusion at the interface between a semiconductive shield and a polymer insulation layer in power cables can lead to localized electron injection into the polymer insulation and result in undesired material degradation. This paper reports the analyses of electric stress enhancement of surface protrusions in several commonly encountered medium- and high-voltage power cable configurations. First, a brief review of the electric stress enhancement theories is presented. Then evaluations using these theories for various power cable configurations are made, and it is shown that theories considering a hyperboloidal protrusion will exhibit more realistic stress enhancement results than the cases based on a spheroidal protrusion. Further examination reveals that, besides the sharpness of a protrusion, thickness of the insulation medium also plays a governing role in the stress enhancement at the interfaces between different dielectric media. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, it is a surprise to observe that a thicker insulation can actually cause higher stress enhancement at a protrusion tip, under a given applied voltage. Because of this, a flatter surface protrusion at a higher voltage setting, which usually has thicker insulation, can result in earlier degradation than a sharper protrusion at a lower voltage, even though sharper extrusions are expected to have higher stress enhancement. As a result, thicker insulation may not always be advantageous in the power cable design for higher voltage applications.     

新型制冷剂研究及应用冰箱压缩机的设计

为了解决R12的主流替代工质R134a作为冰箱制冷剂时存在的问题,提出给R134a系统加入R600a组成混合工质R134a/R600a的方案,提供物性和热力性能比较结果,证明R134a/R600a作为冰箱制冷剂比R134a和R600a更具有优势,并提出了采用新型制冷剂的冰箱压缩机的改进方案.R134a/R600a的性能试验结果证明其与矿物油的互溶性良好,成功的解决了R134a系统由于更换润滑油而产生的一系列问题.     

Monitoring Around a Vehicle by a Spherical Image Sensor

This paper describes a prototype of a full-view spherical image sensor, gives a method for sensor calibration, and discusses display modalities of the captured full-view image for monitoring around a vehicle. To monitor the whole surrounding situation of a dynamic environment by a single camera, a spherical field of view (FOV) is divided into two hemispherical views. Each hemispherical FOV is imaged by a fisheye lens. Both of the hemispherical views are fused by a mirror to acquire them on a single image plane. To calibrate the full-view spherical image sensor, a three-dimensional (3-D) calibration pattern is used to compute the internal parameters of each fisheye lens and their relative orientation based upon a spherical camera model. Finally, several display modalities are discussed to show drivers the relevant spherical image information on planar displays for monitoring around a vehicle     

Numerical Investigation of a Molecular Switch Based on Conformational Change, with the Inclusion of Contacts

We discuss the possibility of implementing a switch based on a conformational change, consisting in a relative rotation of a molecule containing two benzene rings, functionalized with proper substituents. Contacts are simulated with three-atom gold clusters, which are connected to the rest of the molecule via a thiol group. Relative rotation of the two rings, induced by a transverse electric field, determines a variation of the height of the potential barrier separating them, due to the change in the amount of conjugation of the π orbitals. The action of such a barrier is evaluated by computing the shift of the electron density as a function of a longitudinal electric field.