Characteristics of lightning strikes on wind turbine blades. Experimental study of the effects of receptor configuration and other parameters

The characteristics of lightning strikes on wind turbine blades have been investigated by model experiments with real turbine blades. The effects of various types of receptors, the polarities of the applied voltages, and pollution on the blade surface are clarified. Based on these experimental results, lightning protection design of actual wind turbine blades by receptors is discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 176(3): 8–18, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library ( wileyonlinelibrary.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.21143     

Early construction and operation of the highly contaminated water treatment system in Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (II) – dynamic characteristics of KURION media for Cs removal in simulated contaminated water

The kinetic characteristics of the column were necessary property to be understood before actual operation. Hence, a functional small-scale zeolite column system was installed for conducting the experiments to understand decontamination behaviors. Each column has a 2 cm inner diameter and a 12 cm height, and 12 g of zeolite-type media was packed into the column. The column experiments were carried out with Kurion-zeolite, herschelite, at different feed rates of simulated water with different concentrations of Cs and sea salt. As expected from equilibrium ion-exchange isotherms obtained for KURION-herschelite, the adsorption of Cs is hampered by the existence of sea salt ratio. The difference in breakthrough behaviors can be ascribed to the difference in sea salt ratio. Above 1000 bed volumes, the adsorption rate of Cs was the same at a solution velocity of between 14 and 81 cm/min. Under the condition of a 3.4 wt% sea salt ratio, the performance of the media supplied by KURION was in the order surfactant modified zeolite < silver-impregnated engineered herschelite = herschelite (H). This result was suggested to evaluate the performance of KURION media on the actual columns.     

A QoS control scheme using dynamic window size control for wide area ubiquitous wireless network

This paper describes a quality‐of‐service (QoS) control scheme for a wide‐area ubiquitous wireless network which is designed to accommodate many wireless terminals (WTs), such as sensors and actuators, in a large cell area. The purpose of this paper is to establish a QoS control scheme in a medium access control (MAC) layer that can hold the transmission delay of high‐priority class traffic within a predefined value regardless of how much low‐priority class traffic there is. Several QoS control schemes for wireless communication use have been proposed. However, in the wide‐area ubiquitous wireless network, an access point (AP) accommodates many WTs and the AP traffic volume often drastically changes. Therefore, conventional schemes sometimes cannot control the QoS of high‐priority traffic. To solve this problem, we propose a QoS control scheme that calculates a suitable initial back‐off window size of random access for each QoS class by using equations derived from a Markov chain behavior model. The proposed scheme adjusts the window size so as to prevent increased transmission delay of high‐priority traffic. The scheme's performance is clarified by computer simulation. © 2014 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A comparative study of different solvothermal methods for the synthesis of Sn<Superscript>2+</Superscript>-doped BaTiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> powders and their dielectric properties

Ternary oxides containing Sn²⁺ are rare and difficult to prepare by the conventional solid state reactions due to the disproportionation of Sn²⁺ to Sn⁴⁺ and Sn at high temperatures. In this article, Sn²⁺-doped barium titanate, Ba_1−x Sn _x TiO₃ (x = 0.00, 0.02, 0.05, and 0.10) nanopowders were successfully synthesized at a moderate temperature by a microwave-assisted solvothermal reaction (MSR) and a solvothermal reaction with rolling (SRR). The powders obtained using the MSR and SRR consisted of nanoparticles of 20–50 nm and 100–120 nm in diameter, respectively. The dielectric constant of the sample increased by doping with a small amount of Sn²⁺ (x ≤ 0.05), but decreased by doping in excess amounts of it.     

An experimental investigation of the breakup characteristics of secondary atomization of emulsified fuel droplet

In this study, the breakup characteristics of secondary atomization of an emulsified fuel droplet were investigated with a single droplet experiment. In the single droplet experiment, the emulsified fuel droplet suspended from a fine wire was inserted into an electric furnace, and then secondary atomization behavior was observed using a high-speed video camera. Moreover, a mathematical model to calculate the generated water vapor at micro-explosion was proposed by using the mass and energy conservation equations under some assumptions. In the proposed model, that can be calculated by using the inner droplet temperature history at micro-explosion. As a result, puffing and micro-explosion occurred even when the fine ceramics fiber was used. The proposed model showed that about 50–70 wt% of water in the emulsified fuel changed to water vapor instantaneously at the occurrence of micro-explosion. The mass of water necessary for micro-explosion was shown. The breakup time was closely related to the superheat temperature just before the occurrence of micro-explosion.     

Deflection of a floating sea ice sheet induced by a moving load

A large number of time-deflection curves was obtained from a field experiment carried out on the sea ice sheet at Lake Saroma, Hokkaido, Japan, using a Skidoo snowmobile as a moving load with the test speed changed from 0 to 14.2 m/s. The thickness of the ice sheet was 0.17–0.18 m, the ice temperature was ?2.5 to ?4°C at the surface, and the water depth was 6.8 m beneath the ice sheet. The experimental results indicated the existence of a critical speed u_c and its value was estimated to be 5.8 m/s. At speed above it two ice waves were generated, one ahead of and the other behind the vehicle. A variation of wavelength with vehicle speed was expressed by a modified dispersion relation for the flexural ice wave in a floating ice sheet. The ice deflection pattern was classified into five stages. At u_c the depression around the vehicle was maximal in depth and minimal in width. The center of the depression began to lag behind the vehicle even at fairly low speeds below u_c.     

Structure of acid-stable carmine

Acid-stable carmine has recently been distributed in the U.S. market because of its good acid stability, but it is not permitted in Japan. We analyzed and determined the structure of the major pigment in acid-stable carmine, in order to establish an analytical method for it. Carminic acid was transformed into a different type of pigment, named acid-stable carmine, through amination when heated in ammonia solution. The features of the structure were clarified using a model compound, purpurin, in which the orientation of hydroxyl groups on the A ring of the anthraquinone skeleton is the same as that of carminic acid. By spectroscopic means and the synthesis of acid-stable carmine and purpurin derivatives, the structure of the major pigment in acid-stable carmine was established as 4-aminocarminic acid, a novel compound.     

A novel immunostimulating aspect of Lactobacillus gasseri: induction of "Gasserokine" as chemoattractants for macrophages

The chemotactic activity of the culture supernatants from 14 strains of Lactobacillus acidophilus and L. gasseri was examined for murine macrophages. Significant macrophage chemotactic activity was observed in three strains of L. acidophilus and all strains of L. gasseri. The highest activity was observed in the supernatant (1131-sup) from 24-h cultures of L. gasseri JCM1131T. The chemotactic factor from 1131-sup, designated as "Gasserokine", was purified by the C18 reverse phase and ion-exchange chromatography. The purity of Gasserokine was checked by HPLC with the reverse-phase mode. The chemotactic activity of Gasserokine was also observed for human monocytes. The macrophage chemotaxis induced by L. gasseri JCM1131T culture supernatants was discovered to be a new biological function exerted by probiotic lactic acid bacteria. Therefore, the activity is expected to be used for one of the functional parameters in the immunomodulating properties of probiotic lactic acid bacteria.     

Synthesis and properties of poly(aryl ether ketone) copolymers containing 1,5-naphthalene moieties

Poly(aryl ether ketone) copolymers possessing various compositions of 1,5-naphthalene and 1,4-phenylene moieties were prepared by the reaction of 4,4′-difluorobenzophenone with hydroquinone (HQ) and 1,5-dihydroxynaphthalene (DHN) in the presence of sodium carbonate and potassium carbonate in diphenyl sulfone. The synthesized copolymers were characterized by FT-IR spectra, differential scanning calorimetry, and thermogravimetric analysis. Thermal analyses of the copolymers showed that the glass transition temperature increased, while the melting temperature and 2.5% weight loss temperature decreased with increasing content of 1,5-naphthalene moieties. For the copolymers synthesized with the molar fraction of DHN in the dihydroxy monomers (DHN, HQ) being over 0.4, no cold crystallization temperature and melting temperature were detected, indicating that these copolymers are almost amorphous. The crystal structure of the copolymers with the molar fraction of DHN being not higher than 0.2 is rhombic, equal to poly(ether ether ketone).