High-temperature bending strength,internal friction and stiffness of ZrB2–20 vol% SiC ceramics

Dense ZrB₂–20 vol% SiC ceramics (ZS) were fabricated by hot pressing using self-synthesized high purity ZrB₂ and commercial SiC powders as raw materials. The high temperature flexural strength of ZS and its degradation mechanisms up to 1600 °C in high purity argon were investigated. According to the fracture mode, crack origin and internal friction curve of ZS ceramics, its strength degradation above 1000 °C is considered to result from a combination of phenomena such as grain boundary softening, grain sliding and the formation of cavitations and cracks around the SiC grains on the tensile side of the specimens. The ZS material at 1600 °C remains 84% of its strength at room temperature, which is obviously higher than the values reported in literature. The benefit is mainly derived from the high purity of the ZrB₂ powders.     

Investigation of energy transportation capability of a phase change slurry through a cold storage‐cooling coil system

Microencapsulated phase change materials slurries (MEPCM slurries) have the advantage that they can be used as heat transport and storage medium, and therefore provide improved continuity of energy transport. Energy transportation capability of a MEPCM slurry based on Rubitherm RT6 through a cold storage‐air handling system was investigated for various concentrations and pump powers. The transport properties of the MEPCM have been identified. The optimum concentration for maximum energy transportation capability and energy transportation effectiveness of the system has been found. This investigation is intended for determination of the optimum concentration of MEPCM slurry for an air conditioning system that uses MEPCM slurry as a secondary cooling medium directly into air handling units and stored for load shifting. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimation and evaluation of sub-bands on LF and HF base-bands in HRV for Ventricular Tachyarrhythmia patients

Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an efficient tool for assessment of Sympathovagal Balance (SB) and classification of cardiac disturbances. However, its index may be not enough for classification and evaluation of some disease. This study presents 32 new sub-bands over LF and HF base-bands that are accepted in the literature. Moreover, it determines dominant sub-bands over both base-bands in VTA database. These sub-bands are obtained using Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) and evaluated using Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks (MLPNN). Results are compared with obtained results from normal datasets. The domination effects of these sub-bands are assessed according to comparison of each other related to MLPNN training and test accuracy percentages by selecting different width of windows. As a result, obtained results showed that the LF zone including LF₁, LF₂ and LF₃ sub-bands on 0.0390625–0.0859375 Hz frequency range is the most dominant over the LF base-band and, the HF zone including HF1, HF2 and HF3 on 0.1953125–0.28125 Hz frequency range is the most dominant over the HF base-band. In normal datasets, distinctive domination effect has not been determined.     

What Makes a Problem GP-Hard? Analysis of a Tunably Difficult Problem in Genetic Programming

This paper addresses the issue of what makes a problem genetic programming (GP)-hard by considering the binomial-3 problem. In the process, we discuss the efficacy of the metaphor of an adaptive fitness landscape to explain what is GP-hard. We indicate that, at least for this problem, the metaphor is misleading.     

Novel approach with polyfluorene/polydisulfide copolymer binder for high-capacity silicon anode in lithium-ion batteries

In this study, as a novel design with the collaboration of a fluorene and sulfide-based copolymer for Li-ion battery application is presented. Polyfluorene-co-polydisulfide is prepared with desired functional groups to yield a conductivity and good adhesion. These critical and important features are performed by preparing polymers with proper functional groups. The preparation process is accomplished via Suzuki coupling process under Pd catalyst by combining separately synthesized 4,4′-dibromodiphenyl disulfide in combination with 9,9-dioctylfluorene-2,7-bis(trimethylborate). The fully obtained capacity of the silicon particles, that is, at C/10 with the capacity of 1250 mAh g⁻¹ after the 500th cycle, approves the good performance by preserving capacity stability till 600th cycles. The designed and synthesized polymer binder with different functionalities and carbon nanotube additive show better characteristics such as conductivity, high polarity, and binding adhesion. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 48303.     

Multi-objective optimization of transporting blood products by routing UAVs: the case of Istanbul

Since the blood is necessary for surgical operations, disease treatments, chronic disorders, and traumatic accidents, it is staminal to manage the flow in the supply chain of blood products from donors to patients that can save lives. Therefore, this paper focuses on transporting blood products from distribution centers to hospitals in cities by routing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The problem includes two objective functions as minimizing the used number of UAVs and their total travel distances, simultaneously by considering range, payload weight, and payload volume of UAVs. The problem also covers the blood product demands of hospitals and the supply capacities of distribution centers. A multi-objective integer programming (MOIP) model and three multi-objective metaheuristics are designed to solve the defined problem. To test the effectiveness of the proposed methods, real-life blood product demands of hospitals in Istanbul for the year 2019 are obtained from the Turkish Red Crescent and several scenarios are created as the case study. In scenarios, two types of vertical take-off and landing UAVs are considered, the MOIP is developed by using ILOG, solved via CPLEX, and the metaheuristics are coded in MATLAB. The results reveal that the proposed methods can find good solutions for the problem in acceptable CPU times.     

Effects of meteorological variables on exergetic efficiency of wind turbine power plants

This present paper deals with exergy efficiency results of the Wind Turbine Power Plants (WTPPs). Effects of meteorological variables such as air density, pressure difference between state points, humidity, and ambient temperature on exergy efficiency are discussed in a satisfactory way. Some key parameters are given monthly for the three turbines. Exergy efficiency differs from 0.23 to 0.27 while temperature is changing from 268.15 K to 308.15 K with air density 1.368–1.146 (kg/m³). While pressure difference (ΔP) between inlet and outlet of the turbine differs from 100 to 1100 (Pa), exergy efficiency decreases fairly for different wind speeds. While specific humidity is changing from 0.001 to 0.015 (kg_water/kg_{dry air}), exergy efficiency decreases gently. Generally these meteorological variables are neglected while planning WTPPs, but this neglect can cause important errors in calculations and energy plans. Obtained results indicate that while planning WTPPs meteorological variables must be taken into account.