An integrated system to remote monitor and control anaerobic wastewater treatment plants through the internet.

The TELEMAC project brings new methodologies from the Information and Science Technologies field to the world of water treatment. TELEMAC offers an advanced remote management system which adapts to most of the anaerobic wastewater treatment plants that do not benefit from a local expert in wastewater treatment. The TELEMAC system takes advantage of new sensors to better monitor the process dynamics and to run automatic controllers that stabilise the treatment plant, meet the depollution requirements and provide a biogas quality suitable for cogeneration. If the automatic system detects a failure which cannot be solved automatically or locally by a technician, then an expert from the TELEMAC Control Centre is contacted via the internet and manages the problem.     

The effect of plastic deformation on Al2CuLi (T 1) precipitation

The enhancement ofT ₁ precipitation in Al-Li-Cu alloys by plastic deformation prior to aging (that is, cold work) and the subsequent increase in alloy strength is investigated. The increased understanding of the role of matrix dislocations in the nucleation and growth ofT ₁ plates, discussed in the previous paper,^[1] permits a detailed study of the phenomenon. In this paper, the effect of different levels of plastic strain on theT ₁ particle distributions as a function of aging time at 190 °C is quantified, and the subsequent influence on tensile properties is thereby described. The effect of plastic deformation is shown to decrease theT ₁ plate length and thickness, increase the number density by almost two orders of magnitude, increase the yield strength by 100 MPa, while simultaneously reaching peak strength in 20 pct of the time required without plastic deformation. Formerly Graduate Student, Department of Materials Science, University of Virginia,     

Solution of Helmholtz equation by Trefftz method

The application of the Trefftz method for calculating wave forces on offshore structures is presented. Indirect and direct formulations using complete and non-singular systems of Trefftz functions for the Helmholtz equation are posed in this paper. An effective technique using different interpolation functions for the velocity potential and wave force are suggested to improve the computational accuracy of the wave force. The numerical examples show that the present method is highly efficient and accurate.     

Electrochemical Faceting of polycrystalline platinum in HF solutions

The electrochemical faceting of polycrystalline (pc) platinum yielding a (100)-preferred oriented electrode surface was accomplished in HF solutions by applying to the pc platinum electrode a square wave potential perturbation at 1 kHz in the 0.2 to 1.3 V range (vs rhe). SEM patterns of the resulting surfaces were also obtained. For HF concentrations up to 2 M no appreciable influence of the electrolyte concentration on the electrochemical faceting was noticed. Otherwise, the voltammetric response of the (100)-type preferred oriented platinum surface in the H-adatom potential range when compared to previously reported data resulted remarkably sensitive to the electrolyte composition. The discussion of results was based on the non-equilibrium adsorption conditions for anions under the periodic perturbation.     

Potential of vibro-milling technique for preparation of electroceramic nanopowders

The potential of the vibro-milling technique as a simple method to obtain usable quantities of single-phase electroceramic powders with nanosized particles was examined. A detailed study considering the role of both milling time and firing condition on phase formation and particle size of the final product was performed. The calcination temperature for the formation of the desired phase was lower when longer milling times have been applied. More importantly, by employing an appropriate choice of the milling time and calcination condition, high purity electroceramic nanopowders have been successfully prepared with a simple solid-state reaction method.     

Effects of compressive and tensile stress on the growth mode of epitaxial oxide films

Oxide films were deposited on different substrates by laser molecular beam epitaxy. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction was performed to in situ investigate the change of growth mode and the lattice relaxation during the growth. An asymmetrical phenomenon was found in the two kinds of strain states, compressive stress and tensile stress of heterostructures with different lattice mismatch. In the case of BaTiO₃/SrTiO₃ (2.2%), 2D layer-by-layer growth mode without lattice relaxation can be maintained for a longer period for BTO films on STO with compressive stress, comparing to STO films on BTO with tensile stress. When MgO films were deposited on SrTiO₃ with a large mismatch of 7.8%, compressive stress leads to rapid lattice relaxation with a very thin wet layer, and 3D strained island were observed. As a comparison, SrTiO₃ films on MgO with tensile stress were configured. No RHEED patterns can be observed duo to a large tensile stress.     

Epoxy paint failure in B-52 fuel tanks: Part II. Influence of DIEGME concentration in the fuel on the failure process

A model has been proposed to explain the failure of the original BMS10-39 epoxy paint on upper vertical surfaces in B-52 fuel tanks. The model involves interaction of the paint with DIEGME, a fuel system ice inhibitor (FSII) in jet fuel, that is distilled from the liquid fuel. In this communication, distillation experiments used to support the model are refined to better match the mass transfer of vapor from fuel in a B-52 fuel tank at close to room temperature. The interaction of these lower temperature distillates with the paint affirms the earlier model. On the basis of these experiments it is proposed that paint failure may be controlled or eliminated by reducing the level of DIEGME in the fuel. Proposed changes in military jet fuel composition are detailed.     

Integration of prior knowledge of measurement noise in kernel density classification

Samples can be measured with different precisions and reliabilities in different experiments, or even within the same experiment. These varying levels of measurement noise may deteriorate the performance of a pattern recognition system, if not treated with care. Here we seek to investigate the benefit of incorporating prior knowledge about measurement noise into system construction. We propose a kernel density classifier which integrates such prior knowledge. Instead of using an identical kernel for each sample, we transform the prior knowledge into a distinct kernel for each sample. The integration procedure is straightforward and easy to interpret. In addition, we show how to estimate the diverse measurement noise levels in a real world dataset. Compared to the basic methods, the new kernel density classifier can give a significantly better classification performance. As expected, this improvement is more obvious for small sample size datasets and large number of features.     

ADI-FDTD Method With Fourth Order Accuracy in Time

This letter presents an unconditionally stable alternating direction implicit finite-difference time-domain (ADI-FDTD) method with fourth order accuracy in time. Analytical proof of unconditional stability and detailed analysis of numerical dispersion are presented. Compared to second order ADI-FDTD and six-steps SS-FDTD, the fourth order ADI-FDTD generally achieves lower phase velocity error for sufficiently fine mesh. Using finer mesh gridding also reduces the phase velocity error floor, which dictates the accuracy limit due to spatial discretization errors when the time step size is reduced further.