Investigation of Corrosion Behaviors of Al–B4C-reinforced Composite Materials in Different Antifreeze Solutions

Protection of Metals and Physical Chemistry of Surfaces - In this study, the corrosion behaviors of composite materials produced by adding different amounts of B4C in two different antifreeze (50...     

Influence of fly ash and silica fume on the consistency retention and compressive strength of concrete subjected to prolonged agitating

Good workability at construction site is essential for high quality concrete since concretes of bad workability are prone to yield low strength and poor durability properties since placement and consolidation procedures cannot be performed properly. Nevertheless, this is what usually encountered in practice because slump loss is indispensable particularly when long delivery times are the case. This would be more pronounced when mineral additives are incorporated into the concretes. In this study, concretes of C25/30 class with fly ash and silica fume were produced and slumps were measured with time elapsed. At the end of each agitating period, the slumps of the mixtures were restored to the initial slumps using a superplasticizer and specimens were thereafter prepared for strength measurement. The effectiveness of using fly ash and silica fume in concrete in relation with slump loss was sought by determining the amount of superplasticizer used. Regardless of the mixture recipe, it can be concluded that as the total amount of cementitious materials increases in the concrete mix of the same initial slump, the slump loss with the elapsed time decreases.     

Improvement of heavy crude oil via catalytic cracking process for refining into valuable blending stocks

In this study, it was aimed to obtain the conversion of the heavy crude oil with 12.2° API gravity into the liquid fuel-like condensate fractions having different boiling points of gasoline (initial boiling point–180), kerosene (180–240°C), light diesel or distillate (240–290°C), and gas oil (290–360°C). A series of catalytic cracking runs were carried out on the pre-upgraded oil with using the molasses soil catalyst in different ratios of 0.0–10.0wt.%. The catalytic condensate and coke yields were found as 94.81wt.% and 2.42 wt.%, respectively, for the optimal catalyst ratio of 2.5wt.%. The optimal cracking condensate and its fractions were characterized via spectroscopic and analytical test methods. The results revealed that the catalytic condensate was more rich in view of n-paraffinic hydrocarbons with lower carbon number of C₁₀–C₁₂ found in diesel fuel.     

Hydrogen sensing properties of ZnO nanorods: Effects of annealing,temperature and electrode structure

In this study, the hydrogen (H₂) sensing properties of vertically aligned zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were investigated depending on annealing, Pd coating, temperature and electrode structure. ZnO nanorods were fabricated by using hydrothermal method on a glass substrate and an indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass substrate. In order to determine the effects of annealing on the H₂ sensor performance, the nanorods were heated at 500 °C in dry air. H₂ sensing measurements were done in the temperature range of 25–200 °C. It was found that, the sensor response of Pd coated ZnO nanorods were much higher than the un-coated nanorods due to the catalytic effect of Pd thin film. Moreover, the un-annealed samples showed better sensor response than the annealed samples due to the number of oxygen deficiency. In addition, the lateral electrode structure showed higher sensor response than the sandwich electrode structure.     

Preparation of N‐doped graphene‐based electrode via electrochemical method and its application in vanadium redox flow battery

An N‐doped graphene electrode has been prepared by cyclic voltammetric method in 5.0 M of HNO₃ solution on a graphite‐based electrode at room temperature. The modification of the electrode surface with different types of N‐containing groups, such as nitro groups, pyrrolic N, and pyridinic N, has been controlled by changing the scanned potential ranges. The formation of an N‐doped graphene electrode has been confirmed by scanning electron microscopic, atomic force microscopic, X‐ray photoelectron, and Raman spectroscopic methods. The prepared N‐doped graphene‐modified electrodes have been used in positive electrolyte of a vanadium‐based redox flow battery. As positive electrodes, the electrochemically modified electrodes prepared in 5.0 M of HNO₃ solution ?1.0 to (+1.9) and ?0.7 to (+1.9) V had more than 140 and 120 mA/cm² anodic and cathodic peak currents, respectively, in vanadium redox battery. This fast, low‐cost, and environmentally friendly method can be used in many application areas, such as optical devices, (bio)sensors, energy storage materials, and electronic devices.     

Aggregate load-frequency control of a wind-hydro autonomous microgrid

This paper presents an aggregate load-frequency controller for an autonomous microgrid (MG) with wind and hydro renewable energy sources. A micro-hydro power plant with a synchronous generator (SG) and a wind power plant with an induction generator (IG) supply the MG. Both generators directly feed power into the grid without the use of additional power electronics interfaces, thus the solution becoming robust, reliable and cost-effective. An original electronic load controller (ELC) regulates the MG frequency by a centralized load-frequency control method, which is based on a combination of smart load (SL) and battery energy storage system (BESS). SL and BESS provides the active power balance for various events that such systems encounter in real situations, both in cases of energy excess production and energy shortage. Moreover, the proposed ELC includes an ancillary function to compensate the power unbalance produced by the uneven distribution of the single-phase loads on the MG phases, without the use of extra hardware components. A laboratory-scale prototype is used for experimentally assessment of the proposed solutions. The experimental results emphasize the effectiveness of the ELC while also showing its limitations.