Insulation characteristics of perfluorocarbon liquid/solid insulation for nonflammable large power transformer

A new type nonflammable large power transformer system is proposed in which the excellent cooling characteristics and insulation properties of nonflammable perfluorocarbon (PFC) liquid is utilized. In the system, transformer windings are put in an insulating cylinder filled with PFC liquid. The core includes cooling panel through the liquid. The space between the insulating cylinder and tank is filled with compressed SF⁶ gas. This paper describes the insulation characteristics of main insulation and inter-winding insulation models which simulate the transformer. It is found that (1) higher withstand voltage is expected by means of insulation barriers in the main insulation model; (2) partial discharge in inter-winding insulation model is beginning to behave in a constant electric field strength on the point of 0.1 mm liquid gap length.     

Optimum policy for warrants for and design of guardrails

An optimum policy for the warrants for and the design of guardrails based on benefit maximizing criteria is presented. It is shown that the strength, the number of classes of standards, and the location of guardrails should be determined simultaneously with due consideration for the nation-wide distribution of roadside dangers and the impact of colliding vehicles. Dynamic programming is used for optimization.     

Decidable problems on the strong connectivity of Petri net reachability sets

For a Petri net N and a marking M, let R_N(M) be the set of markings reachable from M and let C_N(M) be the set of markings M′ such that M′ ?R_N(M) and M?R_N(M′)C_N(M) is a strongly connected component of R_N(M) to which M belongs. If R_N(M) = C_N (M), then N is said to be M-reversible, and if N is M-reversible for every marking M, then N is said to be reversible. In this paper the following results are presented. (1) C_N(M) is semilinear and therefore it is decidable whether (i) M′ ?C_N(M), (ii) C_N(M) is a finite set, (iii) C_N(M) ? C_N′(M′), and (iv) given two markings M and M′ such that M ? M′, there is a nonnegative integer k such that M + k(M ? M′) ?R_N(M′). (2) It is decidable whether (i) N is M-reversible or not, and (ii) N is reversible or not. (3) Given a Petri net N and a marking M, we can construct an M-reversible Petri net N′ such that C_N(M) = R_N′(M). (4) The equality problem for the sets of all firing sequences of an M-reversible Petri net N and an M′-reversible Petri net N′ is decidable. And some related problems are discussed.     

Salient closed boundary extraction with ratio contour

We present ratio contour, a novel graph-based method for extracting salient closed boundaries from noisy images. This method operates on a set of boundary fragments that are produced by edge detection. Boundary extraction identifies a subset of these fragments and connects them sequentially to form a closed boundary with the largest saliency. We encode the Gestalt laws of proximity and continuity in a novel boundary-saliency measure based on the relative gap length and average curvature when connecting fragments to form a closed boundary. This new measure attempts to remove a possible bias toward short boundaries. We present a polynomial-time algorithm for finding the most-salient closed boundary. We also present supplementary preprocessing steps that facilitate the application of ratio contour to real images. We compare ratio contour to two closely related methods for extracting closed boundaries: Elder and Zucker's method based on the shortest-path algorithm and Williams and Thornber's method based on spectral analysis and a strongly-connected-components algorithm. This comparison involves both theoretic analysis and experimental evaluation on both synthesized data and real images.     

Phase relationship of rodlike polymer,poly(p-phenyleneterephthalamide), in sulfuric acid-water system

The phase equilibrium was quantitatively investigated by using a typical rodlike polymer, poly(p-phenyleneterephthalamide), in mixed solvent system. The experimental results may afford a basis on the formation of liquid crystal of the polymer.     

Directional characteristics of radiation reflection on rough metal surfaces with description of heat transfer parameters

In this paper we clarify directional characteristics of thermal radiation reflection on rough metal surfaces and establish a technique for determining the parameters for heat transfer computation of radiation energy exchange among surfaces. Directional distribution of bidirectional reflectance ρ of surfaces of root‐mean‐square roughness Σ = 0.1 to 1 µm to the irradiation of a visible laser of wavelength λ = 0.6328 µm and to that of an infrared laser of λ = 3.39 µm is investigated experimentally. The optical roughness (Σ/λ) ranges from 0.028 to 1.27. A measure of the magnitude of specular reflection is presented. A model for describing the ρ distribution is presented, and the experimental results of the ρ distribution are analyzed quantitatively and systematically to determine the values of the specular reflection component R_s and the perfect‐diffuse reflection component R_d of the hemispherical reflectance R_H, which are input parameters for radiation heat transfer computation. © 2002 Scripta Technica, Heat Trans Asian Res, 31(2): 76–88, 2002; DOI 10.1002/htj.10008     

Modeling and identification of an electrostatic motor

The present study describes modeling and parameter identification for a high-power electrostatic motor. The motor is a synchronous motor with six phases that is modeled by a six-terminal capacitance network. A method to measure the capacitance coefficient matrix of a network using an LCR tester is proposed and demonstrated. The thrust force of the motor is shown analytically using the proposed model, which shows good agreement with empirical measurements of the motor behavior. Based on the proposed model, the effect of electrode skew is analyzed for force ripple reduction. Using the analysis, a skew motor is fabricated and tested, with the results demonstrating that a skewing electrode with a skew factor π can considerably reduce thrust force ripple.     

Dependence of zero-shear viscosity and steady-state compliance on molecular weight between entanglements for ethylene-cycloolefin copolymers

Dynamic viscoelastic properties of a series of cyclic olefin copolymers have been investigated. The specimens differ in total molecular weight as well as molecular weight between entanglements. The angular frequency (ω) dependence curves of dynamic storage and loss moduli (G′ and G″, respectively) of the specimens have shown that G′ ∝ ω² and G″ ∝ ω in the terminal region, and a plateau region at high ω. On the basis of the experimental results, the dependence of total molecular weight as well as molecular weight between entanglements has been examined for zero-shear viscosity (η₀) and steady-state compliance (J_e). It is shown that for the melts of the copolymers in the entangled regime, M_w being the weight-average molecular weight and M_e the molecular weight between entanglements. The steady-state compliance J_e for the melts scales with M_e and M_w as .     

Growth behavior of microstructurally short cracks in the 6061 aluminum alloy with and without 22 Vol Pct SiC whiskers

Short crack growth behavior of the 6061 Al alloy with and without SiC whiskers was investigated. Fluctuations in the growth rate of short cracks converge with growth of the cracks and become substantially constant between 25 and 40 μm in the metal matrix composite (MMC) and 110 and 183 μm in the unreinforced alloy. This is attributed to the release of the short cracks from the microstructural effects,i.e., the interaction with reinforcement structure in the MMC and grain boundaries in the unreinforced alloy. Furthermore, there exists slowing down of short crack advance in the MMC, and this was explained from rapid development of crack closure obtained in this study.     

Evaluation of static and dynamic fracture toughness in ductile cast iron

Crack extension behavior and fracture toughness of ductile cast iron were examined by three-point bend tests, where various detection methods of crack initiation under static and dynamic loading conditions were adopted. Loading on the specimens was interrupted at various displacement points, and the final fracture surfaces of the specimen were observed via scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Crack-tip opening displacement (CTOD) obtained under the dynamic loading condition was smaller than that under the static loading condition in ferritic ductile cast iron, and CTOD additionally decreased with increasing pearlite content in the matrix. The relationship between J (ΔC) obtained by the compliance changing rate method and J(R) established by the intersection of the crack extension resistance curve and the theoretical blunting line varied with pearlite content. The average value of .J(ΔC) and J(R), that is J (mid), was proposed to define the fracture toughness of ductile cast iron; J (mid) was considered to be a reasonable measure for the fracture toughness of ductile cast iron, irrespective of loading condition and the pearlite content in the matrix.