Combining Drift and Catastrophic Failure Modes

A failure model with degradation and catastrophic modes is briefly discussed and some general equations are shown.     

On a Two-Unit Standby-Redundant System with Imperfect Switchover

A standby-redundant repairable system having only two units and an imperfect switchover is considered. The Lapace-Stieltjes transform of the distribution of the time to first system faflure (TFSF) and the mean TFSF are derived. Numerical comparisons of the mean TFSF with both perfect and imperfect switching are made. All time distributions, except repair of the main units, are exponential.     

Reconstruction of cartilage tissue using scaffold-free organoid culture technique

We applied the scaffold-free culture method to chondrocytes and attempted to reconstitute articular cartilage grafts. Primary rat costal chondrocytes were immobilized into hollow fibers by centrifugation at a density of 3 x 10(8) cells/cm(3) to induce the formation of cylindrical-shaped multicellular aggregates (organoids) and cultured for one month. The organoids were evaluated by histological and gene expression analyses. Chondrocytes formed cylindrical organoids in hollow fibers (HFs). Histochemical analysis revealed the accumulation of a cartilage extracellular matrix (collagen and proteoglycan) around cells in the lumen of HFs with culture time, forming a low-cellular-density tissue similar to native cartilage by day 28. Furthermore, in contrast to that in traditional monolayer culture, the organoid maintained the gene expression of the cartilage extracellular matrix (type II collagen, aggrecan) for one month of culture. In conclusion, our organoid formation method was effective in producing a cartilage-like tissue. This result suggests that the technique may be applicable to the development of an articular cartilage graft.     

Verification of Iron Loss Calculation Method Using a High‐Precision Iron Loss Analyzer

Because of the improved performance of power devices, the volume of the ac filter inductors used in high‐frequency PWM inverters has been reduced. However, the temperature rise in the filter inductor due to this miniaturization has become more pronounced. Therefore, we have proposed an iron loss calculation method for the ac filter inductor. However, the accuracy of the value calculated via the loss map method cannot be verified, because the iron loss arising during each switching period cannot be measured with conventional power measuring instruments. In order to resolve this problem, we developed an inductor loss analyzer (ILA), which allows precise measurement of the iron loss in the inductor during each switching period. The accuracy of the calculation of iron loss in the filter inductor by the loss map method was verified with the ILA. We found that the value calculated by the loss map method differed slightly from the value measured with the ILA. However, these differences can be reduced if we take into account the accurate flux density calculation and the effect of the duty ratio of PWM pulses on the loss. Finally, we verified that the loss map method can provide accurate iron loss calculations.     

Iron Loss Calculation of AC Filter Inductor for Three‐Phase PWM Inverters

In recent years, remarkable advancement of new power semiconductor devices, such as SiC and GaN, enables the increase of switching frequency of power converters, and hence the volume of passive components, such as ac filters and transformers, can be reduced. However, temperature rise caused by the inductor loss is increasing, and hence iron loss evaluation of the inductor is one of the most important issues to realize high power density converters. Conventionally, an improved generalized Steinmetz equation (iGSE) has proposed in order to calculate the iron loss under a pulse voltage magnetizing condition. However, accurate iron loss calculation of the ac filter inductor used in a PWM inverter cannot be realized. The authors have proposed two methods of iron loss evaluation of ac filter inductors. The first one is a loss map method which can calculate the iron loss without using a real PWM inverter. Another one is an ILA (Inductor Loss Analyzer) which can measure the iron loss in every switching period in a real PWM inverter. In this paper, comparisons of the iron loss between the ILA and the loss map method on both the single‐phase and three‐phase inverters are studied. It is found that iron loss of the ac filter inductor in the three‐phase PWM inverter which is calculated by the loss map method cause a large error on a specific condition. In order to prevent the calculation error, the authors proposed a revised loss map method and proved the effectiveness of the method.     

Oxidation behavior of ytterbium silicide

Si-rich ytterbium silicide was fabricated by through an arc-melting technique for applying use as a bond coat material in an environmental barrier coating system. Evaluation of its potential was accomplished through oxidation tests in dry air and an inert atmosphere. The experimental results showed that the changes in weight and morphologies of ytterbium silicide observed after the tests depended on the oxygen partial pressure. Extensive oxidation and weight gain occurred after oxidation in air. In order to apply this material for hot structures, improvement of the oxidation resistance is needed.     

A small three-way valve using particle excitation with piezoelectric transducers for hydraulic actuators

Abstract

Robots composed of hydraulic actuators have been utilized in various fields and at disaster sites. However, the hydraulic control system for multiple-degree-of-freedom mechanisms is large because such systems require many control components. The purpose of this research was to develop a small hydraulic flow control valve. This paper describes the fabrication and evaluation of a small three-way valve by particle excitation using a piezoelectric transducer. This valve consists of two transducers and can switch the inlet and outlet ports by applying an AC voltage of different driving frequencies to each transducer because each transducer has different resonant frequencies. The flow rate was controlled by applying a voltage to the piezoelectric transducer. We evaluated the vibration characteristics of the fabricated three-way valve. The vibration velocity exhibited peaks at 120 and 155 kHz for the inlet and outlet port, respectively, and that of each transducer increased with the applied voltage. Therefore, this three-way valve can switch the opening port by changing the driving frequencies and continuously controlling the flow rate. As a result, we have succeeded in driving the novel small three-way valve.     

Intermediate hydrocarbon species for the CO2-CH4 reaction on supported Ni catalysts

By using pulse surface reaction rate analysis (PSRA), the detailed structure of the intermediate hydrocarbon species was revealed by measuring the dynamic behavior of both CO and H₂ produced from the CO₂-CH₄ reaction on supported Ni catalysts. It was found that the number of hydrogen atoms involved in the intermediate was different from one catalyst support to another: 2.7 for MgO, 2.5 for ZnO, 2.4 for Al₂O₃,1.9 for TiO₂, and 1.0 for SiO₂.     

Pt-Al2O3 Cryogel with High Thermal Stability for Catalytic Combustion

The cryogel catalyst of platinum on alumina was prepared from aluminum sec-butoxide and H₂PtCl₆ through the sol-gel technique and subsequent freeze drying. The cryogel catalyst showed higher thermal stability of platinum than the corresponding xerogel or impregnation catalysts, which was ascribed to the more intimately developed platinum-alumina interaction accompanied by the encapsulation of the metal into the alumina cryogel. It was also shown that platinum accessibility was higher on the cryogel than on the xerogel despite the higher thermal stability of the metal on the formed than on the latter. For the VOC combustion, the cryogel exhibited higher activity than the xerogel and impregnation catalysts. Also for the methane combustion the cryogel showed higher activity, although it showed lower activity than the impregnation catalysts above 600 °C. By the addition of ceria as an additive to the cryogel catalyst, the CH₄ combustion activity was improved especially in the temperature region above 600 °C.