A study on piezoelectric energy harvester using kinetic energy of ocean

Electricity generation through fossil fuels has caused environmental pollution. Accordingly, research on new renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal heat, etc.) to replace fossil fuels and solve this problem is in progress. These devices can consistently generate power. However, they have several drawbacks, such as high installation costs and limitations in possible set-up environments. Therefore, the piezoelectric harvesting technology, which is able to overcome the limitations of existing energy technologies, is actively being studied. The piezoelectric harvesting technology uses the piezoelectric effect, which occurs in crystals that generate voltage when stress is applied. Its advantages include a wider installation base and a lower technological cost. This study investigated a piezoelectric energy-harvesting device based on constant wave motion. This device can harvest power in a constant turbulent flow in the middle of the sea. The components of the device are circuitry, percussion bar, triple layer piezoelectric bender, bearing and rudder. A multiphysical analysis coupled with the structure and piezoelectric elements was also conducted to estimate the device performance. The analysis accuracy was improved by applying the impact energy to the bender calculated based on the shape of the wave in the East Sea. The proposed device’s performance was finally confirmed by experiments.     

UNI-Copter: A portable single-rotor-powered spherical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with an easy-to-assemble and flexible structure

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - This paper presents the design and modeling of the UNI-Copter, a portable spherical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that is powered by a single rotor....     

Advanced Chamfering Technology for Edge Strengthening

Damage‐free chamfering method for strengthening a glass edge was introduced and its effect on the edge property was discussed in detail. The chamfered surface was evaluated using an optical microscope, a confocal LSM, and a birefringence measurement system. The mechanical properties were characterized by measuring hardness, Young's modulus, and bending strength. The results revealed that the cut edge of 0.55t thin glass sheet containing median cracks and chips was exfoliated uniformly to a thickness of 200 μm, and a smooth edge surface was created (Ra = 0.03 μm). We also reported that the chamfered surface had a compressive stress enabling hardness and Young's modulus increase, and the edge strength improved from 117 to 199 MPa.     

A physical strategy for the preparation of isotactic polypropylene spheres with microsphere and bead–string spherulite morphologies

This study mainly focuses on the formation of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) blend morphologies with microspheres and distinct bead–string spherulites. iPP microspheres have been prepared by a simple and convenient strategy through either an isothermal or a nonisothermal crystallization process based on the macrophase‐separated structure in molten state of iPP/olefin block copolymer (OBC) blend. The dimension of the iPP spheres can be adjusted easily from about 1 µm to >10 µm by controlling the compatibility and annealing conditions. It was found that any of the following three parameters, the molecular structure of OBC (particularly the octene content), molecular weight of iPP, and annealing condition can be rescaled with others in controlling the dimension of the iPP microspheres. The mechanism of the formation of iPP microspheres was studied in detail. Surprisingly, the typical spinodal decomposition morphology with interconnected or thin sheet structure is the precursor of these microspheres. During the subsequent annealing process, it breaks up and further coarsens into spherical structure. In addition, distinct spherulites with a bead–string substructure have been obtained during the isothermal crystallization. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2014 , 131, 40863.     

Copper‐Catalyzed Aerobic Formation of Unstable Sulfinyl Radicals for the Synthesis of Sulfinates and Thiosulfonates

Copper‐catalyzed aerobic coupling of thiols and alcohols affords sulfinates and thiosulfonates. These products are assumed to form via sulfinyl radicals which are not commonly found in oxidative coupling reactions of thiols. A reaction mechanism involving sulfinyl radicals is proposed, and mass and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experimental results are provided.

     

Copper(I) Bromide‐Dimethyl Sulfide‐Catalyzed Direct Sulfanylation of 4‐Hydroxycoumarins and 4‐Hydroxyquinolinones with Arylsulfonylhydrazides and Selective Fluorescence Switch‐ On Sensing of Cadmium(II) Ion in Water

An efficient protocol for the direct sulfanylation of various 4‐hydroxycoumarins and 4‐hydroxyquinolinones in good yield with arylsulfonylhydrazides as sulfanylating agents was developed via copper(I) bromide⋅dimethyl sulfide‐catalyzed S–O, S–N bond cleavage and C–S cross‐coupling reactions. A highly selective fluorescence turning‐on sensing of cadmium(II) ions in water using the synthesized 3‐sulfanyl‐4‐hydroxycoumarin derivative was also investigated.

     

Formation of self-organized Zircaloy-4 oxide nanotubes in organic viscous electrolyte via anodization

This work reports the formation of self-organized Zircaloy-4 (Zr-4) oxide nanotubes in viscous organic ethylene glycol (EG) electrolyte containing a small amount of fluoride salt and deionized (DI) water via an electrochemical anodization. The structure, morphology, and composition of the Zr-4 oxide nanotubes were studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), EDX, and XPS. SEM results showed that the length of the nanotubes is approximately 13 μm, and TEM results showed that the inner diameter of the Zr-4 oxide nanotubes is approximately 20 nm with average wall thickness of approximately 7 nm. XRD and selected area electron diffraction pattern (SAED) results confirmed that the as-anodized Zr-4 oxide nanotubes have cubic crystalline structure. Both cubic and monoclinic phases were found after annealing of Zr-4 oxide nanotubes. The tubular structure morphology of Zr-4 oxide nanotubes did not remain intact after annealing which is attributed to the elimination of F species from the annealed nanotubes.     

Preface

Evolutionary Algorithms(EAs)mimicking the principles of natural evolution can be used as powerful search and optimization methods.These Evolutionary Optimization methods are superior to traditional optimization methods especially in situations where gradient information is not readily available.EAs are generic and robust optimization methods since they do not make any assumption about the underlying search space.This is clearly evident by the success of EAs in a diverse range of real-world applications.T...