Dual-wavelength chaos generation and synchronization in erbium-doped fiber lasers

Dual-wavelength chaos is generated in one erbium-doped fiber laser. Tunable optical filters (TOF) are used to select the wavelengths. The generation of chaos is achieved by either modulating the pump laser diode near the relaxation oscillation frequency of the fiber laser or by introducing the modulation through an electrooptic modulator built into each wavelength branch. The receiver is fabricated with identical parameters as the transmitter except for an open loop structure. By tuning the TOF in the receiver, synchronization of chaos is observed in either of the two wavelengths. Thus, it can pave the way for wavelength-division-multiplexing chaos communications.     

Turbulence and mixing across gravitationally unstable interface by tank-overturn experiment

Turbulence and mixing across gravitationally unstable interface were studied in the laboratory by overturning a tank of two-layer fluids initially of stable stratification. As the dense fluid fell under gravity to mix with the lighter fluid from below, highly unsteady exchange of fluids across the unstable interface was produced by the buoyancy force. The exchange was captured in the experiment by a video camera using dye in the dense fluid as tracer. Absorption of light by the dye determined the excess mass at every pixel of the digitized images. The position of the excess-mass center and the speed of the center were computed from the excess-mass profiles as parameters to characterize the mixing across the unstable interface. With positive feedback by the buoyancy force, mixing across the interface rapidly intensified. It increased linearly from zero to a maximum in an acceleration regime and then asymptotically toward a terminal state, as the total buoyancy in the layer stayed constant. In the terminal state, the excess-mass center advanced at a terminal speed in proportion to the square root of the layer's total buoyancy.     

Condensation enhancement on a vertical plate (1st report,heat transfer characteristic on a dispersed finned surface)

In this study, a condensation heat transfer experiment on vertical continuous and dispersed finned surfaces using FC5312 was carried out. Experimental parameters were the pitch and height of the fin, and the dispersed fin length. In the results, the phenomena of condensate retention were observed in the bottom of each row of the dispersed fin. The condensate flow from the upper row was concentrated into the valley of the fin and then flowed down into the valley of the next fin. Moreover, it was found from the experiment that the heat transfer coefficient on the dispersed finned surface was lower than the one on the continuous finned surface as the fin pitch was smaller, but was larger than that of the continued finned surface for a larger fin pitch. Furthermore, the heat transfer enhancing effect became more significant for the higher fin with the larger fin pitch, and the heat transfer reducing effect became more significant for the lower fin with the smaller fin pitch. These special characteristics of condensation mentioned above were caused by the phenomena of condensate retention in each row of the fin and the flow pattern of the condensate between two adjacent fins on the dispersed finned surface based on experimental observations. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20221     

Catalytic Incineration of C2H5SH and Its Mixture with CH3SH over a Pt/Al2O3 Catalyst

Catalytic incineration is one of the cost-effective technologies to solve troublesome volatile organic compounds. However, some sulfur containing volatile organic compounds, such as ethyl mercaptan, may deactivate the Pt catalyst that is commonly used in the catalytic incineration process. This paper provides information on the poisoning effect of ethyl mercaptan. The catalytic incineration of ethyl mercaptan, typically emitted from the petrochemical industry, over a Pt/Al2O3 fixed-bed catalytic reactor was studied. The effects of operating parameters including inlet temperature, space velocity, C2H5SH concentration, O2 concentration, and catalyst size were characterized. Catalytic incineration on a mixture of C2H5SH with CH3SH was also tested. The results show that the conversions of C2H5SH increase as the inlet temperature increases and the space velocity decreases. For the temperature from 200–260°C, the higher the C2H5SH concentration is, the lower its conversion. The O2 concentration has a positive effect on the conversion of C2H5SH. C2H5SH has a poisoning effect on the Pt/Al2O3 catalyst, especially at lower temperature. The existence of CH3SH has no effects on the conversion of C2H5SH.     

Numerical study on micro-reformer performance and local transport phenomena of the plate methanol steam micro-reformer

The objective of this work is to investigate the transport phenomena and performance of a plate steam methanol micro-reformer. Micro channels of various height and width ratios are numerically analyzed to understand their effects on the reactant gas transport characteristics and micro-reformer performance. In addition, influences of Reynolds number and geometric size of micro channel on methanol conversion of micro-reformer and gas transport phenomena are also explored. The predicted results demonstrated that better performance is noted for a micro channel reformer with lower aspect-ratio micro channel. This is due to the larger the chemical reaction surface area for a lower aspect-ratio channel reformer. It is also found that the methanol conversion decreases with increasing Reynolds number Re. The results also indicate that the smaller micro channel size experiences a better methanol conversion. This is due to the fact that a smaller micro channel has a much more uniform temperature distribution, which in turn, fuel utilization efficiency is improved for a smaller micro channel reformer.     

Analysis of dielectric-loaded waveguide

The calculation of eigenvalues including propagation constants and cutoff wavelengths of longitudinal section electric and magnetic modes of different orders (LSE_nm and LSM_nm modes) in homogeneous and inhomogeneous lossless dielectric-slab-loaded rectangular waveguides using a modified variation-iteration method is presented. The initial eigenvalues used in the iteration are selected on the basis of a physical consideration. As shown in numerical examples, this method is very efficient for finding all the eigenvalues of LSE_nm and LSM_nm modes by a given free-space propagation constant calculation and a given lower bound of the cutoff wavelength for the cutoff wavelength calculation. In addition, the importance of the adaptive update factor in preventing the possibility of missing existing eigenvalues is also discussed     

A generalized probabilistic cost of service allocation approach forgeneration and transmission facilities

The authors present an integrated approach for cost of service allocation of generation and transmission facilities which utilizes a probabilistic technique similar to that used by many utilities for system planning. The procedure for composite system cost of service allocation is presented. The use of the loss of energy expectation index is extended from generation capacity studies to composite generation and transmission system cost of service allocation. The technique is demonstrated by application to the IEEE Reliability Test System (IEEE-RTS). The results obtained by applying selected methods to the IEEE-RTS are illustrated and compared