Sliding wear and solid particle erosion response of aluminium reinforced with tungsten carbide nanoparticles and aluminide particles

In the present effort, aluminium matrix composites (AMCs) were produced by the addition of submicron‐sized WC particles of low (up to 2.5 vol%) content into a melt of Al1050. Casting was assisted by the use of K₂TiF₆ as a wetting agent and mechanical stirring in order to limit particle clustering. Particle distribution was reasonably uniform comprising both clusters and isolated particles. Various different reinforcing particles' phases were identified, both in situ (Al‐W, Al‐Ti, and Al‐W‐Ti intermetallic phases) and ex situ (WC particles) of various morphologies shapes and sizes. Increase of the reinforcing particle content led to an increase of the tendency for clustering. The wear properties of the composite were examined by dry sliding wear. The worn surfaces and the produced debris were examined by SEM‐EDX, and an effort to correlate the wear response of the produced materials with the matrix and the reinforcing phase characteristics was attempted. In general, the increase of the reinforcing phase content led to an improvement of the sliding wear response. Solid particle erosion experiments were carried out for impact angles of 30°, 60°, and 90°. Τhe eroded surfaces were examined with SEM‐EDX, and possible erosion mechanisms were proposed based on morphological and other material characteristics. Intensive particle clustering seemed to deteriorate the erosion resistance of the systems. Medium concentrations of the reinforcing particles (1.0‐1.5 vol% WC) are proposed as a recipe for optimum sliding wear and solid particle erosion resistance behavior.     

A methodology for speeding up edge and line detection algorithms focusing on memory architecture utilization

In this paper, a new methodology for speeding up edge and line detection algorithms is presented, achieving improved performance over the state of the art software library OpenCV (speedup from 1.35 up to 2.22) and other conventional implementations, in both general and embedded processors, by reducing the number of load/store and arithmetic instructions, the number of data cache accesses and data cache misses in memory hierarchy and the algorithm memory size. This is achieved by fully exploiting the combination of the software and hardware parameters which are considered simultaneously as one problem and not separately. Furthermore, the edge and line detection algorithms have been simplified for a computer vision application in a Virtex-5 Xilinx FPGA using Microblaze soft processor (detection and measurement of flow fronts in a microfluid device); it achieves speedup up to 660 times in comparison with conventional software implementations.     

High-speed multiresolution scanning probe microscopy based on Lissajous scan trajectories

A novel scan trajectory for high-speed scanning probe microscopy is presented in which the probe follows a two-dimensional Lissajous pattern. The Lissajous pattern is generated by actuating the scanner with two single-tone harmonic waveforms of constant frequency and amplitude. Owing to the extremely narrow frequency spectrum, high imaging speeds can be achieved without exciting the unwanted resonant modes of the scanner and without increasing the sensitivity of the feedback loop to the measurement noise. The trajectory also enables rapid multiresolution imaging, providing a preview of the scanned area in a fraction of the overall scan time. We present a procedure for tuning the spatial and the temporal resolution of Lissajous trajectories and show experimental results obtained on a custom-built atomic force microscope (AFM). Real-time AFM imaging with a frame rate of 1 frame s?1 is demonstrated.     

Impulsive control for fast nanopositioning

In this paper we present a non-linear control scheme for high-speed nanopositioning based on impulsive control. Unlike in the case of a linear feedback controller, the controller states are altered in a discontinuous manner at specific instances in time. Using this technique, it is possible to simultaneously achieve good tracking performance, disturbance rejection and tolerance to measurement noise. Impulsive control is demonstrated experimentally on an atomic force microscope. A significant improvement in tracking performance is demonstrated.     

Teachers’ Perceptions οn the Use of Botanic Gardens as a Means of Environmental Education in Schools and the Enhancement of School Student Benefits from Botanic Garden Visits

The potential of Botanic Gardens (BGs) to contribute to environmental education is well documented. To what degree this potential is met concerning school students’ environmental education is to be considered. In Greece, Environmental Education Centres (EECs) develop Environmental Education Programmes (EEPs) for schools to implement. A questionnaire survey addressing teachers employed at the EECs in Greece investigated the use of BGs as a means of environmental education and identified their most important features in supporting school EEPs. Findings indicated that the majority of EEC teachers (90.6%) have not developed EEPs involving the use of BGs, although BGs were ranked as most suitable amongst other green spaces for conducting such programmes, particularly for primary school students. Teachers identified the need for BGs to be designed accordingly and provide the necessary infrastructure to be educationally effective that included facilitating teaching (e.g. open spaces, areas to congregate, easy access paths and indoor facilities) and plant-orientated elements as well as plant management displays. A strategy by BGs to promote their role in environmental education and a multidisciplinary design approach would maximise student benefit.     

Sustainable hydrogen production via reforming of ethylene glycol using a novel spouted bed reactor

Hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources is of great interest as an alternative to fossil fuels and as a means for clean power generation via fuel cells. The aqueous fraction of bio-oil can be effectively reformed to hydrogen rich streams in the presence of active catalytic materials. In this paper we present the experimental work carried out in a novel spouted bed reactor for the reforming of bio-oil. The use of a specially designed injection nozzle in combination with the particular hydrodynamic characteristics of the spouted bed resulted in efficient processing of the organic feed. The known problem of coking was notably avoided regardless of the loading material of the reactor. The effect of reaction temperature and steam to carbon ratio in the feed was investigated in the presence of various catalytic and non-catalytic particles. Runs were conducted with ethylene glycol as a representative model compound of the aqueous phase of bio-oil. Olivine, when associated with nickel, proved to be a very suitable catalytic material for the process combining high activity in reforming, anti-coking characteristics combined with exceptional mechanical strength.     

Growth and renewable energy in Europe: A random effect model with evidence for neutrality hypothesis

This is an empirical study on the causal relationship between economic growth and renewable energy for 27 European countries in a multivariate panel framework over the period 1997-2007 using a random effect model and including final energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and employment as additional independent variables in the model. Empirical results do not confirm causality between renewable energy consumption and GDP, although panel causality tests unfold short-run relationships between renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions and employment. The estimated cointegration factor refrains from unity, indicating only a weak, if any, relationship between economic growth and renewable energy consumption in Europe, suggesting evidence of the neutrality hypothesis, which can partly be explained by the uneven and insufficient exploitation of renewable energy sources across Europe.     

Modified Lanthanum Catalysts for Oxidative Chlorination of Methane

Mixtures of LaOCl and LaCl₃ are promising catalysts for oxidative chlorination of methane to methyl chloride. The influence of metal dopants such as Co, Ni and Ce, which form stable chlorides under anticipated reaction conditions, on physicochemical and catalytic properties was explored. The presence of markedly redox-active dopants such as cobalt and cerium lead to a higher rate of methane conversion. However, the formed methyl chloride is strongly adsorbed and directly oxidized to CO leading to low methyl chloride selectivity. Doping with nickel weakens, in contrast, the interaction with methyl chloride leading to high methyl chloride selectivity. Angeliki A. Lemonidou is on leave from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Aristotle University Thessaloniki.     

Personalized and content adaptive cultural heritage path recommendation: an application to the Gournia and Çatalhöyük archaeological sites

User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction - Although abundant research work has been published in the area of path recommendation and its applications on travel and routing topics, scarce work has...