Assessment of the availability of agricultural and forest residues for bioenergy production in Romania

This paper provides a resource-based assessment of availability of biomass resources for energy production in Romania, at NUTS-3 level. The estimation of available biomass includes the residues generated from crop production, pruning of vineyards and orchards, forestry operations and wood processing. The estimation of crop residue availability considers several site-specific factors such as crop yields, multi-annual yield variation, environmental constraints and competitive uses. The evaluation of agricultural residues was based on specific residue to product ratios, depending on crop type and crop yield. An estimate of pruning residues is proposed, based on current orchard and vineyard areas and specific ratios of residues. Woody biomass considers forest and forestry residues (including firewood) and wood processing by-products, taking into account the type and share of the unused part of the tree biomass and technical and economic aspects, including availability and competitive use. The amount of agricultural and forest residues available for bioenergy in Romania was estimated at 228.1 PJ on average, of which 137.1 PJ was from annual crop residues, 17.3 PJ residues from permanent crops and 73.7 PJ/year from forestry residues, firewood and wood processing by-products. The biomass availability shows large annual and spatial variations, between 135.6 and 320.0 PJ, due to the variation in crop production and forestry operations. This variation, which is even larger at the NUTS-3 level, if not properly considered may result in shortages in biomass supply in some years, when biomass is available in a lower amount than the average.     

Revival by automation of induction generator for distributed power systems, in Romanian academic research

The paper approaches the half-century history and the main research results of the academic staff and researchers from “Politehnica” University of Timisoara (Universitatea “Politehnica” Timisoara—UPT) and their collaboration with the academic, research and production environment concerning the use of induction machine as power supply in microhydro plants and windmills in particular; from among these collaborators we mention: The Romanian Academy—Timisoara Branch, The Institute for Automation IPA—Timisoara Branch, The Research and Modernization Institute for Energetics ICEMENERG Bucharest, The National Institute for Heat Engines INMT Bucharest, The Machine Construction Works UCMR—Resita, “Electroputere” Works—Craiova and “Electromotor” Works—Timisoara.The paper aims at presenting the original research results at UPT against the background of general research from all over the world focused on revival the induction generator by automation.     

Optical emission studies of the gas phase during the silicon suboxide deposition by reactive r.f. magnetron-sputtering

Silicon oxide (a-SiO) is one of the most used silicon-based materials in optoelectronic and microelectronic technology. It is well-known that the electronic properties are linked to the material structure, which depends on the deposition technique and on the details of the deposition. Silicon suboxide (a-SiO_x 0 < x < 2) layers were prepared by r.f. magnetron-sputtering from a polycrystalline silicon target in a well defined oxidation environment.Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) was employed to study the plasma used in SiO_x depositions. Theoretical calculations performed in the frame of electron impact excitation mechanism for argon and atomic oxygen corroborated with electron impact dissociation of the molecular oxygen have shown the strong influence of the electron temperature on the rate coefficients of photons' production.Correlation functions between the OES signals assigned to silicon and oxygen atoms from plasma (gas phase) and the SiO_x layer composition (infrared and energy dispersive X-ray investigated) have been found. Based on these functions, the OES plasma monitoring is proposed as a tool to control in-situ and in direct time the SiO_x layer composition.     

Influence of octyl substituted octakis(dimethylsiloxy)octasilsesquioxane on the morphology and thermal and mechanical properties of low density polyethylene

Low density polyethylene (LDPE) was melt blended with octyl substituted octakis(dimethylsiloxy)octasilsesquioxane (AS8) prepared in high yield by hydrosilylation of octene with octakis(hydrodimethylsiloxy)octasilsesquioxane. Two procedures were used to incorporate AS8 into LDPE at nanolevel and their efficiency was investigated by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetry and mechanical characterization. A slight increase of crystallite mean dimensions was observed by XRD in both types of LDPE‐AS8 composites compared with neat LDPE. Better AS8 dispersion was observed by AFM in the composite prepared by the first procedure and the increase of both tensile strength and elongation at break in this composite confirmed the nanolevel dispersion and interface improvement in this case. AS8 influence in the final stages of polyethylene fracture was illustrated by AFM of elongated tensile specimens and a new mechanism of AS8 action was suggested. An interesting behavior consisting of simultaneous improvement of elastic modulus, strength and ductility was detected in the low range of polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane concentration in LDPE (0.5 wt%). © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry     

Component-based analysis of embedded control applications

The widespread use of embedded systems requires the creation of industrial software technology that will make it possible to engineer systems being correct by construction. That can be achieved through the use of validated (trusted) components, verification of design models, and automatic configuration of applications from validated design models and trusted components. This design philosophy has been instrumental for developing COMDES—a component-based framework for distributed embedded control systems. A COMDES application is conceived as a network of embedded actors that are configured from instances of reusable, executable components—function blocks (FBs). System actors operate in accordance with a timed multitasking model of computation, whereby I/O signals are exchanged with the controlled plant at precisely specified time instants, resulting in the elimination of I/O jitter. The paper presents an analysis technique that can be used to validate COMDES design models in SIMULINK. It is based on a transformation of the COMDES design model into a SIMULINK analysis model, which preserves the functional and timing behaviour of the application. This technique has been employed to develop a feasible (light-weight) analysis method based on runtime observers. The latter are conceived as special-purpose actors running in parallel with the application actors, while checking system properties specified in Linear Temporal Logic. Observers are configured from reusable FBs that can be exported to SIMULINK in the same way as application components, making it possible to analyze system properties via simulation. The discussion is illustrated with an industrial case study—a Medical Ventilator Control System, which has been used to validate the developed design and analysis methods.     

Optimal Design of 1 Phase Linear Oscillatory PM Motor Series for Small Compressor Like Drives: With FEM and Self-Starting Transients Validation

Refrigerator compressors are currently driven mostly by rotary line start or variable-speed (inverter-fed) motors with mechanical transmission. Direct driving of pistons by linear oscillatory resonant PM 1 phase motors has just been introduced to low power (less than 100 W) such applications. The present paper introduces a 3 pole PM mover 1 phase PM linear oscillatory motors, in terms of optimal nonlinear analytical design methodology, with FEM and dynamics validation. Both 50 and 250 Hz (inverter fed) operation for 2000 and 100 W is exemplified for minimum active materials costs and, respectively, minimum global costs (losses capitalized cost is added). For the line start case study (at 2000 W, 50 Hz) a circuit model for transients is introduced and the motor self-starting transients with full power delivery at above 91% efficiency is available. The 50 Hz motors are heavier around (5.7 kg/kW at 2000 W and 7.5 kg/kW at 100 W, respectively) than the 250 Hz motors around (1.2 kg/kW, 3 kg/kW) but the latter require inverter control.     

Impact evaluation of the polarization diversity over the LTE transmission mode one

The article focuses on the design, measurement, and simulation of a new Long Term Evolution (LTE) downlink mode in which the polarization diversity replaces the spatial diversity at the user equipment (UE). The proposed system enables the analysis of the circularly polarized (CP) antenna over the multipath SISO channel. The purpose of the article is to design a compact LTE SISO system capable of providing comparable performance to the one with spatial diversity (SIMO 1 × 2). In this respect, the entire process is described from antenna designing and measurements to the final stage of integration and simulation. The results indicate the necessity of taking into account the effect of the polarization diversity to keep up the data rate for the small LTE devices when spatial diversity is not an option. The new system proves valuable to evolve toward new downlink modes suitable especially for tiny devices yet capable of achieving high data rates. The article envisages some new processing stages at the UEs as well as at the base station (eNodeB) for CP usage. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 26:547–558, 2016.     

Compliance-based matrix method for modeling the quasi-static response of planar serial flexure-hinge mechanisms

A matrix method is proposed to model the direct and inverse quasi-static response of constrained/over-constrained planar serial mechanisms with flexure hinges under bending, axial, and shear planar (three-dimensional) loading and small-deformations. The method uses a basic three-point compliance matrix corresponding to one rigid link and one adjacent flexure hinge that are subjected to one point load. This matrix connects the displacements at a point on the rigid link with the load that is applied at another point on it, and the deformations of the flexure hinge at its distal point. The quasi-static model of planar serial flexure-based mechanisms with multiple links under single/multiple point loading results from linearly superimposing all relevant hinge-link-load triads defined by their three-point matrices. A displacement-amplification planar device with right circularly corner-fileted flexure hinges is studied using several refinement stages of the matrix method to generate a model whose predictions are confirmed by finite element simulation.     

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide at ruthenium dioxide deposited on boron-doped diamond

Study of carbon dioxide reduction at RuO₂-coated diamond electrodes showed that conductive metallic oxides are promising electrocatalysts for this process and allow higher reduction products to be obtained. The main reduction products obtained in acidic and neutral media were formic acid and methanol, with product efficiencies as high as 40 and 7.7%, respectively. It was observed that conductive diamond is a very well suited material for studying the electrocatalytic properties of conductive metallic oxides, because its use resulted in a negligible substrate effect. This feature will greatly enhance the ability to understand the relationships between the intrinsic electrochemical behavior and the electrocatalytic behavior, in view of developing new effective electrocatalysts. The use of conductive diamond could also allow better utilization of the electrocatalyst by avoiding the need for thick films.     

Basic Operating Characteristics of a High-Frequency Inverter with Capacitive Voltage Multiplier

The integrodifferential equations of the equivalent circuit are solved, and the operating characteristics are derived for a currentfed thyristor inverter. This inverter can be especially useful as a highfrequency power source for induction heating.