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.     

Two-axis flexure hinges with axially-collocated and symmetric notches

The paper introduces a new class of two-axis flexure hinges with axially-collocated and symmetric notches as an alternative to the existing flexure designs with serially-disposed notches. A generic formulation is developed in terms of the geometric curves defining the two notches which includes assessing the capacity of rotation, precision of rotation, sensitivity to parasitic effects, stress values, motion efficiency and shearing effects by means of compliance factors. Closed-form compliance equations are derived for a two-axis flexure hinge that is defined by two non-identical parabolic profiles. The analytical model predictions are confirmed by finite element data. A numerical comparison is made of the parabolic flexure with a constant rectangular cross-section flexure hinge in terms of several performance criteria.     

JuNoLo - Jülich nonlocal code for parallel post-processing evaluation of vdW-DF correlation energy

Nowadays the state of the art Density Functional Theory (DFT) codes are based on local (LDA) or semilocal (GGA) energy functionals. Recently the theory of a truly nonlocal energy functional has been developed. It has been used mostly as a post-DFT calculation approach, i.e. by applying the functional to the charge density calculated using any standard DFT code, thus obtaining a new improved value for the total energy of the system. Nonlocal calculation is computationally quite expensive and scales as N² where N is the number of points in which the density is defined, and a massively parallel calculation is welcome for a wider applicability of the new approach. In this article we present a code which accomplishes this goal.

Program summary

Program title: JuNoLoCatalogue identifier: AEFM_v1_0Program summary URL:http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/summaries/AEFM_v1_0.htmlProgram obtainable from: CPC Program Library, Queen's University, Belfast, N. IrelandLicensing provisions: Standard CPC licence, http://cpc.cs.qub.ac.uk/licence/licence.htmlNo. of lines in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 176 980No. of bytes in distributed program, including test data, etc.: 2 126 072Distribution format: tar.gzProgramming language: Fortran 90Computer: any architecture with a Fortran 90 compilerOperating system: Linux, AIXHas the code been vectorised or parallelized?: Yes, from 1 to 65536 processors may be used.RAM: depends strongly on the problem's size.Classification: 7.3External routines:• FFTW (http://www.tw.org/)• MPI (http://www.mcs.anl.gov/research/projects/mpich2/ or http://www.lam-mpi.org/)Nature of problem: Obtaining the value of the nonlocal vdW-DF energy based on the charge density distribution obtained from some Density Functional Theory code.Solution method: Numerical calculation of the double sum is implemented in a parallel F90 code. Calculation of this sum yields the required nonlocal vdW-DF energy.Unusual features: Binds to virtually any DFT program.Additional comments: Excellent parallelization features.Running time: Depends strongly on the size of the problem and the number of CPUs used.     

Effect of Hybridization on Stiffness Properties of Woven Textile Composites

The present study focuses on stiffness properties of woven textile reinforced polymeric composites with respect to hybridization, and geometry of reinforcement. The analyzed composites represent combinations of different fibre materials (E-glass, Kevlar 49, carbon HM) in a predetermined fabric geometry (a plane weave embedded in thermosetting polymeric resin) serving controlled properties and required performance. The effects of hybridization on the stiffness properties of woven textile composites have been studied with respect to the fibres materials, the unbalancing degree of fabrics, and the variation of compactness and undulation of yarns. Some undesirable effects in fabric geometry can be overcome by the combined effects of hybridization and compactness.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

A mixed formulation for the direct approximation of the control of minimal $$L^2$$-norm for linear type wave equations

This paper deals with the numerical computation of null controls for the wave equation with a potential. The goal is to compute approximations of controls that drive the solution from a prescribed initial state to zero at a large enough controllability time. In [Cîndea, Fernández-Cara & Münch, Numerical controllability of the wave equation through primal methods and Carleman estimates, 2013], a so called primal method is described leading to a strongly convergent approximation of boundary controls: the controls minimize quadratic weighted functionals involving both the control and the state and are obtained by solving the corresponding optimality condition. In this work, we adapt the method to approximate the control of minimal square-integrable norm. The optimality conditions of the problem are reformulated as a mixed formulation involving both the state and its adjoint. We prove the well-posedeness of the mixed formulation (in particular the inf-sup condition) then discuss several numerical experiments. The approach covers both the boundary and the inner controllability. For simplicity, we present the approach in the one dimensional case.     

Synthesis and characterization of nanocrystalline Zn ferrites substituted with Ni

Nanocrystalline powders of nickel substituted zinc ferrite with general formula Ni_xZn_1−xFe₂O₄ (x = 0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1) have been synthesized via sol-gel auto-combustion method using tartaric acid as combustion-complexing agent. Samples were sintered at 773 K and 973 K in static air atmosphere. The absence of the organic phase and the spinel formation were monitored by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The structure and crystallite size were analyzed from X-ray diffraction data revealing spinel mono-phase formation in the range of nanometric crystallite size confirmed also through scanning electron microscopy. Mean size of crystallites lay in the range 20-40 nm. The influence of nickel content on the microstructure was investigated considering the crystallite size, distance between adjacent crystal planes, lattice parameter and porosity. The variation of magnetic properties of the samples was studied by using vibrating samples magnetometer and discussed considering the proposed cation distribution, relative bond angles and canting angles. The highest maximum value of the magnetization (63 emu/g) was found for Ni_0.8Zn_0.2Fe₂O₄.     

Plasticized poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) with improved melt processing and balanced properties

The widespread application of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) in the food packaging and biomedical fields has been hindered by its high brittleness, slow crystallization, poor thermal stability, and narrow processing window. To overcome these limitations, a mixture of biodegradable and biocompatible plasticizers was used to modify PHB. Epoxidized soybean oil (ESO), acetyl tributyl citrate, poly(ethylene glycol) 4000 (PEG4000), and poly(ethylene glycol) 6000 (PEG6000) were tested to improve PHB melt processing and to achieve balanced thermal and mechanical properties. These plasticizers increased the flexibility and decreased the melt viscosity, improving the processability. The tensile strength was maintained within the limit of experimental error for ESO and decreased slightly (6–7%) for the other plasticizers. PEG6000 and ESO delayed the decomposition process of PHB. The plasticizers did not hinder the crystallization, and poly(ethylene glycol)s increased the crystallinity. The change in the interplanar distance and crystallite size, correlated with lamellar stack dimensions, gave more information on the plasticizers' effects in PHB. The blend with 5 wt % ESO was considered suitable for the fabrication of marketable PHB films. This study showed that it is possible to tailor the rheological, thermal, and mechanical behavior of a commercial PHB through the addition of a second plasticizer. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2017 , 134, 44810.