Successive laser-induced breakdowns in atmospheric pressure air and premixed ethane–air mixtures

Two successive focused laser pulses are employed to experimentally simulate laser-induced breakdown plasmas at high repetition rates. We find that energy absorption of the second laser pulse by the plasma produced by the first laser pulse is enhanced slightly when the time interval between the pulses is shorter than several tens of nanoseconds but falls to almost zero when the time interval is between a few hundreds of nanoseconds and several tens of microseconds. This behavior is attributed to gas heating by the first breakdown event. In premixed ethane–air mixtures, we identify another strong reduction in the second laser pulse absorption when this pulse coincides with the heat released by combustion, typically milliseconds after the first laser pulse. The fuel–air equivalence ratio (?) and base flow speed are also varied in this study. The results show that the window of reduced absorption coinciding with heat release due to combustion is narrowed when the base flow speed is increased, and also under fuel lean and fuel rich conditions. These results suggest that the use of pulsed high frequency laser breakdowns for premixed combustion stabilization is optimized when laser pulse repetition rates below a certain frequency (e.g., 500 Hz at the conditions that ? is 1 and the base flow speed is 4.9 m/s) to maximize laser energy coupling and for improved anchoring of the flame base.     

Active fault tolerant control of piecewise affine systems with reference tracking and input constraints

An active fault tolerant control (AFTC) method is proposed for discrete‐time piecewise affine (PWA) systems. Only actuator faults are considered. The AFTC framework contains a supervisory scheme, which selects a suitable controller in a set of controllers such that the stability and an acceptable performance of the faulty system are held. The design of the supervisory scheme is not considered here. The set of controllers is composed of a normal controller for the fault‐free case, an active fault detection and isolation controller for isolation and identification of the faults, and a set of passive fault tolerant controllers (PFTCs) modules designed to be robust against a set of actuator faults. In this research, the piecewise nonlinear model is approximated by a PWA system. The PFTCs are state feedback laws. Each one is robust against a fixed set of actuator faults and is able to track the reference signal while the control inputs are bounded. The PFTC problem is transformed into a feasibility problem of a set of LMIs. The method is applied on a large‐scale live‐stock ventilation model. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of an Aza Chiral Crown Ether Grafted to Nanofibrous Silica Support and Application in Asymmetric Michael Addition

We report on the synthesis of a new, supported phase transfer catalyst and its asymmetric induction. An inorganic-polymer-supported chiral crown ether was prepared by the reaction between an optically active macrocycle deriving from methyl-α-d-glucopyranoside and silica nanofibres. The inorganic carrier of the catalyst has high specific surface area due to its nanofibrous structure, which is favourable for heterogeneous catalytic reactions. SiO₂ fibres were electrospun from silica sol which was prepared via sol–gel reactions from tetraethylorthosilicate. The asymmetric Michael reaction of diethyl acetamidomalonate and β-nitrostyrene was selected for the comparison of the performance of various glucopyranoside-based macrocycles. The asymmetric inductions of macrocycles provided 20–99 % enantiomeric excess. A triethoxysilyl derivative was prepared from the highly enantioselective macrocycle in order to immobilize it on the surface of the silica nanofibres. The supported glucose based monoaza-15-crown-5 type macrocycle was characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and compared with non-supported native crown ethers in the asymmetric Michael addition. The immobilized phase-transfer catalyst generated high enantiomeric excess (82 %) in spite of the fact that it was used in a three-phase reaction.     

Color change of white spot lesions after resin infiltration

This study evaluates color change of the enamel lesion before and after resin infiltration and after thermocycling (TC) in order to assess clinical usefulness of resin infiltrant in restoring esthetics of incipient enamel caries lesions. Twenty‐five healthy premolars were prepared and crown portions were vertically cut. Specimens were emerged in acryl blocks with relatively flat proximal surface facing outside. Specimens were put in decalcification solution (50 mM acetic acid solution, 3 mM CaCl₂·H₂O, 3 mM KH₂PO₄, 6 µM methylhydroxydiphosphonate, pH 4.95, 37°C), and were kept for 160 h, in order to make white spot lesions on the exposed enamel. Degree of decalcification was observed with microscope and nine specimens were excluded because of inadequate decalcification (n = 41). L^*, a^*, and b^* were measured with colorimeter at the baseline (T₁), after production of white spot lesions (T₂), after infiltration of resin infiltrants (ICON^®, DMG, Hamburg, Germany) (T₃), after 3000 (T₄), 6000 (T₅), and 10,000 cycles (T₆) of TC. L^* was highest at T₂, but significantly decreased until T₆ which was the closest value to T₁ (P < 0.05). a^* was highest at T₂ and decreased gradually until T₆, whereas b^* was lowest at T₂ and was highest at T₃ and decreased gradually until T₆. Δ less than 3.7 showed between T₁ and T₄, between T₁ and T₅, and between T₁ and T₆, which suggested that it was hard to differentiate one from the other clinically. Resin infiltrated lesions showed recovery of CIE value close to that of healthy enamel over time. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 39, 506–510, 2014     

Aerodynamic optimization of wind turbine rotors using a blade element momentum method with corrections for wake rotation and expansion

The blade element momentum (BEM) method is widely used for calculating the quasi‐steady aerodynamics of horizontal axis wind turbines. Recently, the BEM method has been expanded to include corrections for wake expansion and the pressure due to wake rotation (), and more accurate solutions can now be obtained in the blade root and tip sections. It is expected that this will lead to small changes in optimum blade designs. In this work, has been implemented, and the spanwise load distribution has been optimized to find the highest possible power production. For comparison, optimizations have been carried out using BEM as well. Validation of shows good agreement with the flow calculated using an advanced actuator disk method. The maximum power was found at a tip speed ratio of 7 using , and this is lower than the optimum tip speed ratio of 8 found for BEM. The difference is primarily caused by the positive effect of wake rotation, which locally causes the efficiency to exceed the Betz limit. Wake expansion has a negative effect, which is most important at high tip speed ratios. It was further found that by using , it is possible to obtain a 5% reduction in flap bending moment when compared with BEM. In short, allows fast aerodynamic calculations and optimizations with a much higher degree of accuracy than the traditional BEM model. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Overvoltage Protection of Large Power Transformers—A Real-Life Study Case

This paper demonstrates the results from a detailed study of the overvoltage protection of a particular 400/150-kV 400-MVA power transformer. The work presented here is based on a real-life power system substation design and data and initiated by Danish TSO Energinet.dk as a consequence of serious transformer overvoltage damage. A simulation model for the entire system consisting of overhead line, transformer, surge arrester, and earth grid has been created in PSCAD/EMTDC. The main focus has been put on the earth grid, which has been submodeled in detail in MATLAB using an electromagnetic transient approach based on the thin-wire program made by J. H. Richmond for NASA in 1974. The earth grid model is verified with excellent agreement compared to already published results. The overvoltage performance of the particular case is analyzed, and it shows that the transformers LIWL have probably been exceeded. It is clearly illustrated that the transient performance of the earth grid plays an important role in the overall overvoltage protection system design.     

N-terminal 4-imidazolidinone prodrugs of Leu-enkephalin: synthesis, chemical and enzymatic stability studies

Four N-terminal 4-imidazolidinone prodrugs of Leu-enkephalin are prepared and characterized. Their enzymatic and chemical stability are assessed using high-performance liquid chromatography. The prodrug derivatives are shown to degrade stoichiometrically to Leu-enkephalin in phosphate buffer [t1/2 (0.05 M phosphate buffer without KCl): acetone prodrug (II) 930 min; cyclopentanone prodrug (III): 216 min; cyclohexanone prodrug (IV): 432 min; 4-methylcyclohexanone prodrug (V): 792 min]. Furthermore, the prodrugs are shown to afford global stabilization of the Leu-enkephalin molecule towards the enzymes, aminopeptidase N and angiotensin converting enzyme, primarily responsible for degradation of Leu-enkephalin at the blood-brain barrier and in plasma. Therefore, the 4-imidazolidinones, being metabolic stable and bioreversible, may be suitable prodrug candidates for delivery of Leu-enkephalin to important target areas such as the brain, if given intravenously.     

Modeling of gas absorption cross sections by use of principal-component-analysis model parameters

Monitoring the amount of gaseous species in the atmosphere and exhaust gases by remote infrared spectroscopic methods calls for the use of a compilation of spectral data, which can be used to match spectra measured in a practical application. Model spectra are based on time-consuming line-by-line calculations of absorption cross sections in databases by use of temperature as input combined with path length and partial and total pressure. It is demonstrated that principal component analysis (PCA) can be used to compress the spectrum of absorption cross sections, which depend strongly on temperature, into a reduced representation of score values and loading vectors. The temperature range from 300 to 1000 K is studied. This range is divided into two subranges (300-650 K and 650-1000K), and separate PCA models are constructed for each. The relationship between the scores and the temperature values is highly nonlinear. It is shown, however, that because the score-temperature relationships are smooth and continuous, they can be modeled by polynomials of varying degrees. The accuracy of the data compression method is validated with line-by-line-calculated absorption data of carbon monoxide and water vapor. Relative deviations between the absorption cross sections reconstructed from the PCA model parameters and the line-by-line-calculated values are found to be smaller than 0.15% for cross sections exceeding 1.27 x 10(-21) cm(-1) atm(-1) (CO) and 0.20% for cross sections exceeding 4.03 x 10(-21) cm(-1) atm(-1) (H2O). The computing time is reduced by a factor of 10(4).     

Observations and hypothesis of double stall

The double-stall phenomenon of aerofoil flows is characterized by at least two distinct stall levels for identical inflow conditions. In the present work a likely explanation of double stall is presented. Observations on full-scale rotors, in wind tunnel experiments and in CFD calculations could show at least two different distinct lift levels for identical inflow conditions, with sudden shifts between them. CFD calculations revealed the generation of a small, laminar separation bubble at the leading edge of the aerofoil for incidences near maximum lift. The bursting of this bubble could explain the sudden shift in lift levels. This investigation indicated that bursting will occur if the position of the free transition is only a small distance upstream from the position where forced transition would first cause leading-edge stall. Thus the investigation indicated that double stall is closely related to the actual geometry of the leading edge of the aerofoil and that it probably can be avoided in the design of new aerofoils. The investigation indicated further that double stall can be predicted from CFD calculations. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.