The EU fusion programme and roadmap

To meet ITER and fusion energy challenges, a gradual transition of the EU fusion programme priorities from today's fusion research to a strongly goal-oriented programme with clear milestones is required. This transition and the programme priorities should be driven by an ambitious, yet realistic roadmap to be agreed by EU fusion stakeholders. The programme must primarily focus on: ensuring the success of ITER; and research and development of reactor-relevant technologies. Industry must be involved early in the implementation and international collaboration should be conducted as part of a strategic approach. Joint programming should be a cornerstone of the EU fusion programme in Horizon 2020. Options for the new structure and current actions required to implement the roadmap during Horizon 2020 will be presented.     

Introduction of two polyvinyl alcohol resins for efficient solid support Cu-catalyzed N-arylation of α-aminoacids with aryl halides in aqueous media

In this article, two polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based resins were prepared by crosslinking of epoxidized PVA-chains using of 4-(4-aminobenzyl)benzenamine as a crosslinker and polymerization of acrylated PVA chains in the another approach. The prepared PVA resins showed well hydrophilic and swelling properties in various organic solvents, which are used in solid-phase organic synthesis (SPOS). Swelling properties of these resins were examined in dimethylformamide, tetrahydrofuran, water, ethanol, methanol, dichloromethane, and dioxane. Furthermore, the both resins were characterized by FTIR and ¹H-NMR and their properties such as epoxy equivalent weight (EEW) of epoxidized PVA and density of the resins were determined by analytical methods. Then, α-amino acids such as L-aspartic acid, L-leucine, L-alanine, L-serine, L-valine, L-threonine, and L-tyrosine were immobilized on both resins through esterification reaction between these α-amino acids with the present hydroxyl groups on PVA resines, to carry out their solid-phase N-arylation reaction in the presence of CuI as a catalyst in milder and greener conditions than free resin protocols. Hydrolysis of the correponding N-arylated α-amino acids immobilized on the resins gave the N-arylated α-amino acids in high to excellent yields. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47597.     

Stiffness of bi-modulus hexagonal and diamond honeycombs

Cellular materials are widely used in various applications because of their low density and high strength. The mechanical behavior of cellular materials under various loading conditions has been investigated. Nevertheless, many of these previous studies assume that the Young’s modulus of constituting struts is the same in tension and compression. The present work first derives analytical expressions for the effective Young’s moduli of hexagonal and diamond lattices composed of struts with different tension and compression moduli under the assumption of small strain deformation. It also uses the finite element method to further investigate the mechanical responses of these lattices. The macroscopic Young’s moduli under both compressive and tensile loads are reported as a function of the ratio of compression and tension moduli of constituting struts. The numerical finite element models are implemented by a user defined material subroutine in ABAQUS. Results reveal that the effective Young’s moduli of periodic hexagonal and diamond lattices significantly decrease with decreasing ratio of compression and tension moduli of the struts. Furthermore, the mechanical behavior of hexagonal lattices composed of struts with different tension-compression moduli is dependent on the loading direction and whether they are compressed or stretched. The unique mechanical properties of bi-modulus cellular materials could find important applications in the automotive and construction industries.

     

Schweißen ermüdungsbeanspruchter Altstahlkonstruktionen – Untersuchungen zum Sprödbruchverhalten geschweißter Verbindungen aus Flussstahl

Welding of existing steel structures – brittle fracture behaviour of welded mild steel. Welding processes cause notch effects and residual stresses. Therefore the risk of brittle fracture grows. In comparison with modern steels, old mild steels have a lower ductility. So it is necessary to evaluate brittle fracture behaviour of mild steel after welding. This evaluation is done by means of fracture mechanics parameters. The results show that for plate thicknesses of mild steel up to 11 mm there is no risk of brittle fracture. For higher plate thicknesses a procedure to evaluate brittle fracture behaviour is described taking the actual state of stress and actual material properties into consideration.     

Experimental study on heat transfer and pressure drop of in-house synthesized graphene oxide nanofluids

Abstract

In this article, first, graphene oxide nanosheets were synthesized in-house according to the modified Hummers method, and these nanosheets were used to prepare graphene oxide nanofluids at two concentrations. Then the thermophysical properties of nanofluids were characterized using X-ray diffraction analysis, a scanning electron microscope, and UV–Vis spectrophotometry. The particle size distribution was investigated using dynamic light scattering. Then, a fundamental study was conducted on the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of graphene oxide nanofluids flowing through a straight copper tube. An experimental setup was developed to find the heat transfer characteristics and pressure drop of nanofluids in the test section consisting of a copper tube with constant heat flux. The flow regimes and associated pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics at varying flow rate were investigated at three different heat flux conditions of 7.4, 9.1, and 12.6?kW/m². Due to the increase in viscosity, flowrate and Reynolds number decreased from 0.01 to 0.1?wt% of graphene oxide nanofluids at constant pump frequency. Experimental data obtained for water were validated with the findings from the literature, and the correlations were formulated for the Nusselt number and Reynolds number by considering the multiple regression analysis. The convective heat transfer coefficient for graphene oxide at 0.01?wt% was higher when compared to graphene oxide at 0.1?wt% and water. The variation of Nusselt number with the heat flux and velocity was insignificant.