Observation of hydrogen absorption/desorption reaction processes in Li–Mg–N–H system by in-situ X-ray diffractmetry

The in-situ XRD measurements on dehydrogenation/rehydrogenation of the Li–Mg–N–H system were performed in this work. The ballmilled mixture of 8LiH and 3Mg(NH₂)₂ as a hydrogenated phase gradually changed into Li₂NH as a dehydrogenated phase during heat-treatment at 200 °C in vacuum for 50 h. Neither Mg-related phases nor other intermediate phases were recognized in the dehydrogenated phase. With respect to the hydrogenation process, the dehydrogenated state gradually returned to the mixed phase of the LiH and Mg(NH₂)₂ without appearance of any intermediate phases during heat treatment at 200 °C under 5 MPa H₂ for 37 h and during slow cooling down to room temperature through 24 h. In the hydrogenation process at 200 °C under 1 MPa H₂, however, the growing up of the LiNH₂ and LiH phase was observed in the XRD profiles before the 3Mg(NH₂)₂ and 8LiH phases were formed as the final hydrogenated state. This indicates that the LiNH₂ and LiH phase essentially appears as an intermediate state in the Li–Mg–N–H system composed of 3Mg(NH₂)₂ and 8LiH.     

Evaluation of electric power procurement strategies by stochastic dynamic programming

In deregulated electricity markets, the role of a distribution company is to purchase electricity from the wholesale electricity market at randomly fluctuating prices and to provide it to its customers at a given fixed price. Therefore, the company has to take risk stemming from the uncertainties of electricity prices and/or demand fluctuation instead of the customers. The way to avoid the risk is to make a bilateral contract with generating companies or install its own power generation facility. This entails the necessity to develop a certain method to make an optimal strategy for electric power procurement. In such a circumstance, this research proposes a mathematical method based on stochastic dynamic programming and considers the characteristics of the start‐up cost of an electric power generation facility to evaluate strategies of combination of the bilateral contract and power auto‐generation with its own facility for procuring electric power in a deregulated electricity market. In the beginning we proposed two approaches to solve the stochastic dynamic programming, and they are a Monte Carlo simulation method and a finite difference method to derive the solution of a partial differential equation of the total procurement cost of electric power. Finally we discussed the influences of the prime uncertainty on optimal strategies of power procurement. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 160(2): 20–29, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20296     

A Study on Thermal Contact Resistance at the Interface of Two Solids

In this paper, numerical simulations and measurements of the thermal contact conductance (TCC) at the interface between the plane ends of two cylinders in contact are carried out. The random model of surface roughness is developed, and the non-dimensional basic equations are solved based on a grid system with equi-peripheral intervals in the azimuthal direction that can express reasonably the real contact spot distribution. The effects of the contact pressure, the thermal conductivity of the interstitial medium, and the mean absolute slope of the rough surface on the TCC were clarified by using a network method. In the experiments, four pairs of brass cylinders, each of which has similar surface topology, are used for the TCC measurements. The hysteretic nature of TCC versus contact pressure was observed in the first loading cycle. The present numerical results show that the TCC increases linearly with the mean absolute slope of the surfaces even at the same mean roughness. Such a tendency agrees well with the measurements.     

Application of the Three-Omega Method to Measurement of Thermal Conductivity and Thermal Diffusivity of Hydrogen Gas

Preliminary investigations have been conducted to discuss the possibility of measuring the thermal conductivity of hydrogen gas by the three-omega method. A one-dimensional analytical solution for the 3ω component is derived which includes the effect of the wire heat capacity. It is shown that it is very important to take into account the wire heat capacity in the calculation to measure the thermal conductivity of gas by the three-omega method. In contrast, the wire heat capacity is less important for the thermal conductivity of the liquid or solid phase. The importance of the wire heat capacity is found to increase with increasing frequency and decrease if the sample thermal conductivity is high. In order to measure the thermal conductivity of hydrogen gas at atmospheric pressure, a wire of diameter less than 1μm is necessary if the properties of the wire are to be neglected.     

Equilibrium shape of a molten silicon drop in an electromagnetic levitator in microgravity environment

For the electromagnetic levitation of a molten silicon drop in a microgravity environment, the effect of the electric current ratio of the heating coils to the levitation coils on the equilibrium drop shape was numerically investigated, using the mathematical model based on the hybrid finite element and boundary element methods. As a result, it was found that the drop shape becomes more prolate as the current ratio increases, and the calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental ones obtained in a microgravity environment using a drop tower.     

Realization of instantaneous torque control of an induction motor considering secondary flux as a parameter

Recently, many researches aiming at the realization of high‐performance and high‐precision control of induction motors have been reported, and instantaneous torque control of an induction motor can be regarded as one of the most important topics in this field. In previous works, the authors developed a new method to realize instantaneous torque control of an induction motor with a voltage‐source inverter, and demonstrated both its numerical simulations and experimental results. Unfortunately, the mathematically complicated derivation of the control method made it difficult to understand intuitively, and hindered us from analyzing the detailed characteristics of motor speed changes. In this paper, the authors propose a new method to realize instantaneous torque control of an induction motor, which differs from the concept of vector control. The proposed method is a two‐degree‐of‐freedom control which considers the instantaneous torque command and secondary flux command as parameters. The analytical solution reported here is a particular solution of the differential state equation of an induction motor, and can be expressed as a simple explicit function of the instantaneous torque command, secondary flux command, and motor speed. The authors show the validity of the proposed method through numerical simulations and experimental results. This paper aims the realization of high‐performance control of an induction motor. The authors propose a new method to realize instantaneous torque control without transient torque with a voltage‐source inverter. © 2001 Scripta Technica, Electr Eng Jpn, 137(1): 48–56, 2001     

Analysis of parameter variations in L-Q equations for river runoff processes from the viewpoint of spatial and temporal conditions.

This study aims to find out variation characteristics of the parameters of 'a' and 'b' in L = a x Q(b), an empirical equation for run-off loading (L) and flow rate (Q), by evaluating the effects of flow conditions and regional properties of the watersheds on the values. We selected the Kamo River basin (155 km2) as a study field, and conducted various kinds of investigations, such as 80 day high frequency observations, continuous monitoring for more than 2 years, storm event surveys, and simultaneous surveys of 39 stations. Then, we obtained 7-170 data in each of 39 sampling stations. The main results obtained are as follows: (1) L-Q equation with a range of 'a' can express L-Q relation in most of the WQIs (water quality indices); (2) 'a' receives temporal (flow condition) effects more in SS, VSS and Al, while it receives regional effect more in inorganic carbon, TN, Ca and Fe; (3) both of flow change in storm events, and base flow levels affect the L-Q relation, and their effects can classify the WQIs into several groups; (4) the effects of regional properties were obviously observed in 'a', and quantitatively evaluated, especially for density of population.     

Smooth section crossing of controlled-repulsive PM LSM vehicle by DTC method based on new concept of fictitious section

This paper presents propulsion control for the permanent-magnet linear synchronous motor vehicle Marine-Express 03 (ME03) to pass through the two sections in the mass-reduced mode by a new direct torque control (DTC) method. A fictitious section is introduced for pass-through-section control. It has been done by introducing a fictitious section defined by "one section including section boundary." The lift and thrust forces for the pass-through section are obtained by the DTC method based on voltage equations per one fictitious section. The vehicle ME03 has been controlled successfully to pass through the two sections in the mass-reduced mode by experiment.     

Branched-chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase kinase content in rat skeletal muscle is decreased by endurance training

The activity state of branched-chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase complex in skeletal muscle was elevated by running exercise in trained and untrained rats, but level of this elevation was significantly greater in the former than in the latter. To elucidate the mechanism of the training effect on the exercise-induced activation of the complex, a protein amount of branched-chain alpha-keto acid dehydrogenase kinase, which is responsible for inactivation of the complex by phosphorylation, in the muscle was measured by the Western blot analysis. Endurance training decreased the content of the kinase protein in the muscle by approximately 30%, suggesting that this decrease is involved in the mechanisms for greater activation of the complex by exercise in trained rats.