Study of nonlinear control schemes for an automotive traction PEM fuel cell system

To be practical in automotive traction applications, fuel cell systems must provide power output levels of performance that rival that of typical internal combustion engines. In so doing, transient behavior is one of the keys for success of fuel cell systems in vehicles. The focus of this paper is on the air/fuel supply subsystem in tracking an optimum variable pressurization and air flow for maximum system efficiency during load transients. The control-oriented model developed for this study considers electrochemistry, thermodynamics, and fluid flow principles for a 13-state, nonlinear model of a pressurized fuel cell system. For control purposes, a model reduction is performed, and several multi-variable control designs are examined. The first technique uses an observer-based linear optimum control which combines a feed-forward approach based on the steady-state plant inverse response, coupled to a multi-variable LQR feedback control. An extension of that approach, for control in the full nonlinear range of operation, leads to the second technique, nonlinear gain-scheduled control. Some enhancements were applied to overcome the fast variations in the scheduling variable. Finally, a rule-based, output feedback control, implemented with fuzzy logic, is coupled with a nonlinear feed-forward approach, and is examined under the same conditions applied to the first two techniques. The control designs developed are compared in simulation studies to investigate robustness to disturbance, time delay, and actuator limitations.     

Steam reforming and oxidative steam reforming for hydrogen production from bioethanol over Mg2AlNiXHZOY nano-oxyhydride catalysts

Mg₂AlNi_XH_ZO_Y nano-oxyhydrides formation is evidenced during pre-treatment in H₂ at 450 °C of Mg₂AlNi_XO_Y nano-compounds leading to highly performant catalysts in ethanol conversion and H₂ formation, particularly at low temperature, through catalytic steam reforming (SRE) and oxidative steam reforming (OSRE). Total conversion of ethanol is obtained in SRE and OSRE with high stability. A higher production of H₂ (60 L h^?1 g_cat^?1) can be achieved at a reaction temperature of 300 °C in OSRE conditions compared to SRE (10 L h^?1 g_cat^?1) mainly because of a beneficial use of a high concentration of ethanol (14 mol%) in presence of O₂. Moreover, carbon formation is decreased and a much lower input of energy of 50 °C is used to get a temperature of 300 °C when O₂ is added. Different physico-chemical characterizations and in particular in H₂ (TPR, H₂-XRD, INS) and after tests allow to conclude that the presence of Ni²⁺ cations in strong interaction with other cations, anionic vacancies and hydride species on and inside the solid play an important role in the catalytic performance (conversion and selectivity) and stability.     

Mo6 cluster-based compounds for energy conversion applications: comparative study of photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence

Abstract

We report the photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL) properties of face-capped [Mo₆Xⁱ₈L^a₆]^2? (X = Cl, Br, I; L = organic or inorganic ligands) cluster units. We show that the emission of Mo₆ metal atom clusters depends not only on the nature of X and L ligands bound to the cluster and counter-cations, but also on the excitation source. Seven members of the A_xMo₆Xⁱ₈L^a₆ series (A = Cs⁺, (n-C₄H₉)₄N⁺, NH₄⁺) were selected to evaluate the influence of counter-cations and ligands on de-excitation mechanisms responsible for multicomponent emission of cluster units. This study evaluates the ageing of each member of the series, which is crucial for further energy conversion applications (photovoltaic, lighting, water splitting, etc.).     

Patch reprojections for Non-Local methods

Since their introduction in image denoising, the family of non-local methods, whose Non-Local Means (NL-Means) is the most famous member, has proved its ability to challenge other powerful methods such as wavelet based approaches or variational techniques. Though simple to implement and efficient in practice, the classical NL-Means algorithm suffers from several limitations: noise artifacts are created around edges and regions with few repetitions in the image are not treated at all. In this paper, we present an easy to implement and time efficient modification of the NL-Means based on a better reprojection from the patches space to the original pixel space, specially designed to reduce the artifacts due to the rare patch effect. We compare the performance of several reprojection schemes on a toy example and on some classical natural images.     

Measurement of enzymatic activity and specificity of human and avian influenza neuraminidases from whole virus by glycoarray and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry

Influenza neuraminidases hydrolyze the ketosidic linkage between N-acetylneuraminic acid and its adjacent galactose residue in sialosides. This enzyme is a tetrameric protein that plays a critical role in the release of progeny virions. Several methods have been described for the determination of neuraminidase activity, usually based on colorimetric, fluorescent, or chemiluminescent detection. However, only a few of these tests allow discrimination of the sialyl-linkage specificity (i.e., α2-3- versus α2-6-linked sialyllactosides) of the neuraminidase. Herein we report a glycoarray-based assay and a MALDI-TOF study for assessing the activity and specificity of two influenza neuraminidases on whole viruses. The human A(H3N2) and avian A(H5N2) neuraminidase activities were investigated. The results from both approaches demonstrated that α2-3 sialyllactoside was a better substrate than α2-6 sialyllactoside for both viruses and that H5N2 virus had a lower hydrolytic activity than H3N2.     

Gas sensors based on thick films of semi-conducting single walled carbon nanotubes

A comparative study was made of sorted semi-conducting single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) films and unsorted SWCNT films for gas sensing applications. The transmission line method is used to monitor separately the SWCNTs film resistance and the contact resistance between electrodes and the SWCNTs, thus revealing that the sensing mechanism mainly relies on a modification of the tube conductivity during gas exposure. The fabricated sensors demonstrate a detection limit of 20 ppb NO₂ and 600 ppb NH₃ mainly attributed to experimental setup limitations. Moreover, semi-conducting nanotubes happened to be 2.5 times more sensitive to NH₃ than unsorted ones, thus proving that selectivity can be improved by sorting the SWCNTs. The temperature dependence of the sensor sensitivity was studied, and a good agreement was found between experimental results and the Langmuir adsorption model.     

An investigation on thermal, metallurgical and mechanical states in weld cracking of Inconel 738LC superalloy

The influence of various conditions of Inconel 738 superalloy welding or deposition welding has been studied in order to shed light on the coupling between thermal, metallurgical and mechanical states in the heat affected zone (HAZ) in which cracking may occur particularly during welding and post-weld heat treatment. Predominant crack controlling factors have been highlighted thanks to different pre-weld and post-weld heat treatments, in addition to various welding rates and pre-heating prior to welding. These factors are mainly the material ductility related to the morphology and volume fraction of intermetallic precipitates and thermally induced residual stress. It has appeared that reducing thermally induced residual stress could be more effective for preventing cracking than controlling the material ductility in the related zones thanks to adjustment of pre-weld and post-weld heat treatments. With the objective of cracking remediation, welding on preheated parts leads to lower weld power, to reduce significantly thermal gradients, decreases thermally induced stress and impedes cracks formation despite some localized and temporary decrease in alloy ductility.     

Label-Free Study of the Global Cell Behavior during Exposure to Environmental Radiofrequency Fields in the Presence or Absence of Pro-Apoptotic or Pro-Autophagic Treatments

It remains controversial whether exposure to environmental radiofrequency signals (RF) impacts cell status or response to cellular stress such as apoptosis or autophagy. We used two label-free techniques, cellular impedancemetry and Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM), to assess the overall cellular response during RF exposure alone, or during co-exposure to RF and chemical treatments known to induce either apoptosis or autophagy. Two human cell lines (SH-SY5Y and HCT116) and two cultures of primary rat cortex cells (astrocytes and co-culture of neurons and glial cells) were exposed to RF using an 1800 MHz carrier wave modulated with various environmental signals (GSM: Global System for Mobile Communications, 2G signal), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, 3G signal), LTE (Long-Term Evolution, 4G signal, and Wi-Fi) or unmodulated RF (continuous wave, CW). The specific absorption rates (S.A.R.) used were 1.5 and 6 W/kg during DHM experiments and ranged from 5 to 24 W/kg during the recording of cellular impedance. Cells were continuously exposed for three to five consecutive days while the temporal phenotypic signature of cells behavior was recorded at constant temperature. Statistical analysis of the results does not indicate that RF-EMF exposure impacted the global behavior of healthy, apoptotic, or autophagic cells, even at S.A.R. levels higher than the guidelines, provided that the temperature was kept constant.