Value creation in production: Reconsideration from interdisciplinary approaches

This paper presents reconsideration of value creation in production from various aspects of value viewpoints in several disciplines such as production engineering, social sciences, and human sciences. The focal point of investigations is value co-creation by the provision of products and services in and for society. In the past, some methods of social sciences and others proved to be useful in making production more efficient. At present, such methods must help to realise value creation. In fact, production must become more effective in response to human needs in social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Along with the theoretical apparatus, this paper presents some case studies indicating the importance of value creation in production, followed by future perspectives of value co-creation in production.     

Application of InGaP space solar cells for a radiation dosimetry at high dose rates environment of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant

ABSTRACT

Decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant (1F) after the accident caused by a tsunami in 2011 requires characterization of the fuel debris by dose distribution measurement. This paper describes the experimental and theoretical behavior of a radiation detector applied with InGaP solar cells is investigated and allow the localization and characterization of the fuel debris. In the irradiation test, it was observed that the radiation-induced current output of the InGaP solar cells increases linearly with increasing dose rates of ⁶⁰Co γ-rays. For measurements at low dose rates, it becomes clear that the minimum detectable dose rate and resolution can be determined by analyzing the noise characterization. The maximum detectable level of radiation dosimetry for the InGaP solar cell was found to be higher than the highest γ-ray dose rate observable at the reactor core for 1F plants. Additionally, as an analysis of the radiation-induced current, it is attempted to express a relational expression between the absorbed dose rate and the creation of radiation-induced current pairs in the solar cells. The experimental and simulation results suggest that solar cells can be powerful tools for radiation dosimetry in high dose rate environments near the debris of the 1F plant.     

A design study on MOX-fueled small fast reactors for standardization of a small fast nuclear reactor system

A way of development to standardize a small fast nuclear reactor system, which is considered one of the suitable concepts at next generation for satisfying such needs as generality, small dependence on natural resources, safety and non-proliferation, is proposed. This process consists of three steps : the first is to demonstrate the basic system within a short period based on current techniques, the second is to achieve greatly higher economy, and the final is to standardize the commercial system that can economically compete with or overcome current light water reactors. A technical investigation is conducted on the performance of a mixed-oxide (MOX)-fueled small fast reactor with a reflector-driven reactivity control system to satisfy the needs at the first step, considering plenty of accomplishments on the MOX fuel and its advantage for limiting the duration of development to the level required at the stage. The results obtained from a series of neutronic and thermal-hydraulic calculations show the feasibility of a small fast reactor that produces the electric power of about 50MW, achieves about two-year consecutive operation with high safety performance and is greatly flexible for updating the system. A mixed-nitride-fueled core is found to be promising past the first stage.     

Degradation prediction of a γ-ray radiation dosimeter using InGaP solar cells in a primary containment vessel of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station

ABSTRACT

Indium gallium phosphide (InGaP) solar cell with a superior high-radiation resistance is expected to be a powerful candidate for a dosimeter under a high-radiation dose rate environment. In this study, in order to predict the lifetime as the dosimeter using the InGaP solar cell, we clarify the effect of minority-carrier diffusion length (L) on a radiation-induced current as a dose signal in the InGaP solar cell by irradiation tests and empirical calculations. In the irradiation tests, the short-circuit current density (J_sc) as a function of the γ-ray dose rate is measured to estimate the L for the InGaP solar cell by irradiation tests. The operational lifetime as a detector using the InGaP solar cell under various dose rates is estimated by using the empirical calculations based on the relation between the L and absorbed dose. The results suggest that the dosimeter using InGaP solar cell is able to be used during more than 10 h in the primary containment vessel of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant and it has a high potential of being a radiation-resistant dosimeter that would contribute to the decommissioning.     

Thermal stability of embedded metal nanoparticles elongated by swift heavy ion irradiation: Zn nanoparticles in a molten state but preserving elongated shapes

Solid Zn and V nanoparticles (NPs) embedded in silica were elongated by swift heavy ion (SHI) irradiation with 200 MeV Xe(14+) ions to a fluence of 5.0 × 10(13) ions cm(-2). Isochronal annealing was carried out in a vacuum from 200 to 1000 °C in steps of 100 °C for 10 min each. The degree of shape elongation was evaluated at room temperature (RT) by two different optical methods: linear dichroism spectroscopy and birefringence spectroscopy. In the as-irradiated state, the samples showed an absorption band at 5 eV due to radiation-induced defects in the silica in addition to the anisotropic absorption due to the elongated metal NPs. After annealing at 400 °C the defect band had completely disappeared, while the degree of shape elongation was almost unchanged or rather slightly increased in both the Zn and V NPs. The elongation of the Zn NPs slightly decreased but maintained a certain value after annealing at 500 °C, which is much higher than the melting point (MP) of Zn NPs (~420 °C). This observation indicates that shape elongation is mostly maintained even if the Zn NPs are in the molten state to some extent during annealing. The elongation of the Zn NPs was almost eliminated after annealing at 600 °C. In the case of the V NPs, elongation was maintained up to 800 °C but mostly eliminated at 900 °C. Since the recovery temperature of 900 °C from the elongated to the spherical shape is much lower than the MP of bulk V (1890 °C), we consider that the elongation is eliminated without melting of V NPs, i.e. via solid state mass transportation. The melting of NPs is not the key factor for the recovery to the spherical shape.     

Fate of minor free amino acids and phospholipids in crude tallow during steam splitting

Minor free amino acids and phospholipids contained in crude tallow were monitored during steam splitting of crude tallow. The bulk of the phospholipids was found in the glycerol sidestream after splitting. Phosphatidic acid and phosphatidylcholine were present in both crude tallow and the glycerol fraction. Phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine present in crude tallow were hydrolized with the glycerides. Because of this hydrolysis, high amounts of serine and ethanolamine are found in the fatty acid and glycerol fractions. In addition to constituent amino acids of proteins present in crude tallow, other biological amino acids such as taurine and ornithine were also present.     

A Knowledge-Based Mesh Generation System for Forging Simulation

We developed a knowledge-based system GENMAI (Artificial Intelligence Mesh GENerator) to auto-generate two-dimensional structured meshes. GENMAI is easily applicable to various kinds of application domains. Mesh generation is one of the major tasks confronted in computational simulation. The quality of generated meshes affects computational accuracy and computing time. Since various kinds of domain knowledge are needed to generate high quality structured meshes, the knowledge-based approach has been found effective and successful. Before designing GENMAI, we analyzed mesh generation jobs in plastic deformation analysis and computational fluid dynamics. Then, we formulate GENMAI so that it searches feasible plural divided patterns combinatorially and selects the best pattern. The characteristics of GENMAI are as follows: the meta-inference mechanism and its knowledge representation are widely applicable to various kinds of application domains; and plural patterns can be efficiently obtained at the same time by a search technique based on global dependency and local dependency. We applied GENMAI to forging simulation and developed AI-FESTE, which integrated a rigid-plastic deformation analysis program and GENMAI. Forging designers can easily decide shapes of a forging product and dies and also plan the forming sequence using AI-FESTE. AI-FESTE automates a series of forging analysis operations and shortens the execution time from 1 or 2 day(s) to a few hours. As a result, not only can AI-FESTE shorten the turn-around time, but it can improve the quality of product and die design.     

High field-effect mobility normally-off AlGaN/GaN hybrid MOS-HFET on Si substrate by selective area growth technique

The paper reports a normally-off n-channel AlGaN/GaN hybrid metal-oxide-semiconductor heterojunction field-effect transistor (MOS-HFET) on Si substrate with high field-effect mobility. To decrease the channel resistance and to improve the field-effect mobility, of the MOS-HFET, a selective area growth (SAG) technique is applied at the channel region. The fabricated MOS-HFET exhibits a good normally-off operation with the threshold voltage of 3.7 V, the specific ON-state resistance of 7.6 mΩ cm², and the breakdown voltage of over 800 V.