Effect of near-critical swirl on the Burke-Schumann reaction sheet

The influence of swirl on the shape of the Burke-Schumann reaction sheet in a straight cylindrical pipe is investigated by asymptotic and numerical means. Attention is confined to swirl levels that are near the critical value at which vortex breakdown occurs. A high-Reynolds-number, laminar, isothermal, low-Mach-number reacting flow is considered. An asymptotic analysis is developed to study the nonlinear interaction between near-critical swirl and mixture fraction distribution within the flow. It is first shown that leading-order perturbation of the velocity field from the columnar state, generated by the interaction of near-critical swirl and low viscosity, can be described by a nonlinear reduced-order model. This flow perturbation is computed, and then employed to determine the correction to the classical Burke-Schumann solution. Under lean conditions of reaction the reaction sheet becomes shorter and more compact as swirl is increased. For rich conditions of reaction, increasing swirl first causes the reaction-sheet length to decrease, and then increase after vortex breakdown has appeared. Numerical simulations of the flow and reaction-zone shape are substantiated by, and supplement, the asymptotic results.     

Testing digital safety system software with a testability measure based on a software fault tree

Using predeveloped software, a digital safety system is designed that meets the quality standards of a safety system. To demonstrate the quality, the design process and operating history of the product are reviewed along with configuration management practices. The application software of the safety system is developed in accordance with the planned life cycle. Testing, which is a major phase that takes a significant time in the overall life cycle, can be optimized if the testability of the software can be evaluated. The proposed testability measure of the software is based on the entropy of the importance of basic statements and the failure probability from a software fault tree. To calculate testability, a fault tree is used in the analysis of a source code. With a quantitative measure of testability, testing can be optimized. The proposed testability can also be used to demonstrate whether the test cases based on uniform partitions, such as branch coverage criteria, result in homogeneous partitions that is known to be more effective than random testing. In this paper, the testability measure is calculated for the modules of a nuclear power plant's safety software. The module testing with branch coverage criteria required fewer test cases if the module has higher testability. The result shows that the testability measure can be used to evaluate whether partitions have homogeneous characteristics.     

A 231-MHz, 2.18-mW 32-bit Logarithmic Arithmetic Unit for Fixed-Point 3-D Graphics System

A 32-bit fixed-point logarithmic arithmetic unit is proposed for the possible application to mobile three-dimensional (3-D) graphics system. The proposed logarithmic arithmetic unit performs division, reciprocal, square-root, reciprocal-square-root and square operations in two clock cycles and powering operation in four clock cycles. It can program its number range for accurate computation flexibility of 3-D graphics pipeline and eight -region piecewise linear approximation model for logarithmic and antilogarithmic conversion to reduce the operation error under 0.2%. Its test chip is implemented by 1-poly 6-metal 0.18-mum CMOS technology with 9-k gates. It operates at the maximum frequency of 231 MHz and consumes 2.18 mW at 1.8-V supply     

The reduction of iron oxides by volatiles in a rotary hearth furnace process: Part I. The role and kinetics of volatile reduction

With iron ore reduction processes using coal-ore pellets or mixtures, it is possible that volatiles can contribute to reduction. By simulating the constituents of the individual reducing species in the volatiles, the rates for H₂ and CO were investigated in the temperature and reduction range of interest; hydrogen is the major reductant and was studied in detail. The kinetics of the reduction by H₂ has been found to be a complex mechanism with, initially, nucleation and growth controlling the rate. There is a catalytic effect by the existing iron nuclei, followed by a mixed control of chemical kinetics and pore diffusion. This results in a topochemical reduction of these iron oxide particles. Up to 1173 K, reduction by H₂ is considerably faster than by carbon in the pellet/mixture or by CO. It was also found that H₂S, which is involved with the volatiles, does not affect the rate at the reduction range of interest.     

Numerical investigation on the heat transfer characteristics of a liquid-metal pool subjected to a partial solidification process

The main purpose of this paper is to investigate numerically the effects of solidification on the heat transfer characteristics of the liquid metal layer, for use in accident analyses. The situation is very similar to an overlying liquid melt pool that could be fooned in the reactor lower head during the late phase of a severe nuclear accident. Based on a computational model, MPCOOL, the numerical predictions were then assessed through a comparison with the experimental data that was obtained with various boundary temperature conditions and geometrical aspect ratios, especially for the Ra-Nu relationship. For the cases with solidification, the results of the comparison show that(a) the computational model does show a good agreement with heat transter rates inferred from the experimental data, with a few exceptions at the Ra numbers which suggest a turbulent transport; and also (b) the computational model underpredicts the heat transfer rates by about 6% than that inferred from the experimental data when it is integrally evaluated with the Ra-Nu correlation. The foregoing results are mainly due to the currently limited applicability of the computational model up to the laminar-to-turbulence transition flows and its application to the turbulence flows because it is always subjected to a model uncertainty between the laminar and turbulence. Next, an additional comparison for the cases with and without solidification was made to examine the effects of the solidification on the energy partition within the liquid metal layer and its effects on the directional heat transfer rates. The results of the comparison show that the computational model for the case without solidification predicts higher heat transfer rates by about 15% than when solidification is included, but there isn't any experimental data that directly supports this trend.     

Ethanol-induced gastrointestinal damage. Influence of endogenous antioxidant components and gender

This study compared the effects of undiluted and 8% ethanol administered orally on gastrointestinal antioxidant components of male and female rats. Eight percent ethanol increased the activities of duodenal glutathione peroxide (29% in males, 14% in females) and superoxide dismutase in female gastric (24%) and male duodenal (15%) mucosa. This dose of ethanol also increased the glutathione content of gastric mucosa (12% in males, 13% in females). Undiluted ethanol decreased glutathione levels in gastric mucosa (22% in males, 11% in females) and increased glutathione peroxide activity in gastric mucosa (14% in males, 9% in females). Undiluted alcohol also produced decreases in the activity of glutathione reductase in stomach (14% in males, 9% in females) and duodenum (16% in males, 12% in females). Undiluted ethanol caused mucosal damage in the body of the stomach in both genders, accompanied by an increase in luminal pH and fluid accumulation in the stomach; these changes were absent in rats given 8% ethanol. The increase in gastrointestinal antioxidant capacity associated with the administration of 8% ethanol may be a factor in the reported cytoprotective effect of lower doses of ethanol.     

Behavior of unirradiated Zr based uranium metal fuel under reactivity initiated accident conditions

Reactivity initiated accident (RIA) tests with 4 unirradiated Zr based uranium metal fuel rods were performed to establish a criterion which should be observed under RIA conditions. Of the four tests, fuel failures were observed in the two tests that experienced the maximum energy depositions of 188 and 212 cal/g, respectively. However, the fuel failures were not observed at the place of a maximum energy deposition but at the position where the thermocouples were installed; one failed at the position whose local energy deposition was 150 cal/g, and the other one at the place with energy deposition of 170 cal/g. The fuel failures seem to have occurred because excessive pressure, which was caused by the partial melting of the fuel meat, was applied to the cladding with a reduced thickness. However, other parts of the fuel rods including the place of a maximum energy deposition maintained their integrity and a big change in the temperature and pressure in the internal capsule, which would be an indication of the fragmentation and dispersion of the fuel meat into the internal capsule, was not observed. Visual inspection also showed that, except for the thermocouple positions, there was no trace of clad failure such as the formation of brittle cracks in the cladding or melting of the cladding. Therefore, for the Zr based uranium metal fuel rods, it can be concluded that the threshold energy deposition above which fragmentation and dispersion of fuel meat into the primary coolant system is expected to occur could be higher than 212 cal/g.     

一种基于Ag-Sn等温凝固的圆片键合技术

研究了用Ag-Sn作为键合中间层的圆片健合。相对于成熟的Au-Sn键合系统(典型键合温度是280℃),该系统可以提供更低成本、更高键合后分离(De-Bonding)温度的圆片级键合方案。使用直径为100mm硅片,盖板硅片上溅射多层金属Ti/Ni/Sn/Au,利用Lift-off工艺来形成图形。基板硅片上溅射Ti/Ni/Au/Ag。硅片制备好后,将盖板和基板叠放在一起送入键合机进行键合。键合过程在N2气氛中进行,键合过程中不需要使用助焊剂。研究了不同键合参数,如键合压力、温度等对键合结果的影响。剪切强度测试表明样品的剪切强度平均在55.17MPa。TMA测试表明键合后分离温度可以控制在500℃左右。He泄漏测试证明封接的气密性极好。     

Cooperative Decode‐and‐Forward Relaying for Secure Multicasting

In this paper, secure multicasting with the help of cooperative decode‐and‐forward relays is considered for the case in which a source securely sends a common message to multiple destinations in the presence of a single eavesdropper. We show that the secrecy rate maximization problem in the secure multicasting scenario under an overall power constraint can be solved using semidefinite programing with semidefinite relaxation and a bisection technique. Further, a suboptimal approach using zero‐forcing beamforming and linear programming based power allocation is also proposed. Numerical results illustrate the secrecy rates achieved by the proposed schemes under secure multicasting scenarios.     

DEA based multi-period evaluation system for research in academia

Various types of incentive systems are widely used by many companies and organizations for better performances. However, despite the demand for the fair incentive systems, those systems in academia have not been well established and fairly operated. Using an example of a professor evaluation system, we examine two main problems of the existing incentive systems in academia – ignoring the input aspect and focusing only on the short-term performance. By applying the super-efficiency DEA and considering multi-period output, we show that the input factors and the time trend of outcomes need to be incorporated for the fair evaluation of professors and their research performance.