The Influence of Medium on Low-Voltage Circuit Breaker Arcs

This paper mainly focuses on the influence of three kinds of media： air, air-10%PA （Nylon） and air-10% POM （polyoxymethylene） on low-voltage circuit breaker arcs. A threedimensional （3-D） model of arc motioa under the effect of external magnetic field is built based on magnetohydrodynamics （MHD） equations. By adopting the commercial computational fluid dynamics （CFD） package based on the control-volume method, the above MHD equations are solved. For the media of air-10%PA and air-10%POM, the distributions of stationary temperature and electrical potential and the transient motion processes are compared with those of air arc. The research shows that both air-10%PA and air -10% POM can cool the arc plasma and the former is more effective. Both of them can increase the stationary voltage as well. Moreover, the presence of the two mixtures can accelerate the arc motion toward the quenching area and ensures the arc quenched in time.     

A Customized Radiation Sensor for Ionization Collection

The measurement of absorbed doses is fundamental to radiation biology and oncology. A customized parallel plate radiation sensor was designed and fabricated as a precursor to investigating novel materials, such as carbon nanotubes, as a substitute for conventional metallic conducting plates or active volume medium. This sensor contains two thick and large-area electrodes that provide the sensor with a good signal-to-noise ratio. The 6 MV and 15 MV photon beams produced by a Varian Clinac 21 EX medical linear accelerator were used in the experiments. The linear accelerator was calibrated such that 1 monitor unit (MU) produces 1 cGy of dose in water with depth of 5 cm for a calibration geometry of source-to-axis distance equal to 100 cm and 10times10 cm² field size at the point of measurement. Ionization measurements were performed by varying the bias voltages, electrode separations, exposures, and angles of the incident beam to characterize the sensor. Signal saturation characteristics of the sensor with different electrode separations and exposures were investigated. This sensor displayed excellent linear response to exposure up to 600 MU. An analytical modeling using the pencil beam model and simulations based on device configuration were given to explain the results. In oblique incident beam experiments, the prototype sensor showed an accurate response compared to simulation results for a small field size of 1times1 cm². The sensor was tested to be suitable in the study of ionization collection efficiencies for different materials     

Upgrading of a reliable water supply system at the Kola nuclear power plant for service life extension

Measures taken to develop and put into operation three new exterior channels for emergency process water with two additional 60VTs pumping units, which remain operational even during an earthquake and were installed in the second block pumping station, are described. In addition, the three existing 12NDS horizontal pumping units were used as a basis to develop a third channel for the emergency process water. Above-ground water ducts with thermal insulation and heating systems to prevent freezing during the anticipation state, which is the constant state of the emergency system, were laid. As a result of upgrading with the development of three channels, the emergency process water feeding reached an adequately safe level of reliability. __________ Translated from Atomnaya énergiya, Vol. 100, No. 3, pp. 173–177, March, 2006.     

Secure vehicular communication systems: implementation, performance, and research challenges

Vehicular communication systems are on the verge of practical deployment. Nonetheless, their security and privacy protection is one of the problems that have been addressed only recently. In order to show the feasibility of secure VC, certain implementations are required. In [1] we discuss the design of a VC security system that has emerged as a result of the European SeVe- Com project. In this second article we discuss various issues related to the implementation and deployment aspects of secure VC systems. Moreover, we provide an outlook on open security research issues that will arise as VC systems develop from today?s simple prototypes to fullfledged systems.     

The Hacking Tradition

This issue's works in progress department features a novel technology that embeds a six-degrees-of-freedom force-torque sensor into a physical artifact to transform existing 3D passive artifacts into contact-sensitive interface devices. The department also presents an approach for rewriting binary to better correlate application usage with contextual information.     

Production of silver‐doped analcime by isomorphous substitution technique

BACKGROUND: Metal‐exchanged zeolites have been reported to have significant limitations on cayalytic activity, such as counterbalancing the negative framework charges and limitation of active space. Alternative methods of incorporating silver ions into the framework of zeolites are therefore necessary. This paper reports on a technique for producing silver doped analcime by isomorphous substitution of silver ion into the framework of analcime. The amount of aluminium in the gel composition was reduced by a factor of 5%, 10% and 20% and an equivalent amount of silver was added to the gel and treated in a conventional manner for zeolite crystallisation. Some of the aluminium in the reaction gel was replaced with the silver. The silver‐doped analcime samples where characterised by X‐ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X‐rays (EDX), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma‐atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP‐AES) analysis. RESULTS: The amount of silver ions loaded for each reduction of aluminium as determined by EDX were found to be (w/w) 0.29%, 1.41% and 2.10%, respectively. XRD pattern SEM images of the silver‐doped analcime showed the presence of zeolite P in addition to analcime. CONCLUSION: Silver‐doped analcime was successfully produced with different silver loadings and may exhibit higher anti‐microbial activities than silver‐exchanged counterparts. Copyright © 2008 Society of Chemical Industry     

Frames of Reference in Mobile Augmented Reality Displays.

In 3 experiments, the authors investigated spatial updating in augmented reality environments. Participants learned locations of virtual objects on the physical floor. They were turned to appropriate facing directions while blindfolded before making pointing judgments (e.g., "Imagine you are facing X. Point to Y"). Experiments manipulated the angular difference between the learning heading and the imagined heading and between the actual heading and the imagined heading. The effect of actual-imagined on pointing latency was observed for naive users but not for users with brief training or instructions concerning the fact that objects can move with body movements. The results indicated that naive users used an environment-stabilized reference frame to access information arrays, but with experience and instruction the nature of the representation changed from an environment stabilized to a body stabilized reference frame. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of mineral matter on coal self-heating rate

Adiabatic self-heating tests have been conducted on subbituminous coal cores from the same seam profile, which cover a mineral matter content range of 11.2-71.1%. In all cases the heat release rate does not conform to an Arrhenius kinetic model, but can best be described by a third order polynomial. Assessment of the theoretical heat sink effect of the mineral matter in each of the tests reveals that the coal is less reactive than predicted using a simple energy conservation equation. There is an additional effect of the mineral matter in these cases that cannot be explained by heat sink alone. The disseminated mineral matter in the coal is therefore inhibiting the oxidation reaction due to physicochemical effects.     

Speciation of the semivolatile hydrocarbon engine emissions from sunflower biodiesel

Biodiesel fuel is a very attractive alternative to conventional fuel and its effects in the engine performance and regulated emissions have been widely studied. However, the impact on unregulated individual compounds or chemical characteristics of exhaust emissions is not fully characterized. In this paper, the semivolatile fractions of the exhaust emissions of biodiesel blends and conventional fuel have been speciated. The results show great differences between the compounds emitted, especially regarding oxygenated and aromatic species. Likewise, there is a clear relationship between speciated hydrocarbons and other important emissions such as total hydrocarbons (HC), particulate matter (PM), volatile organic fraction (VOF) and mean particle diameter (Dm) of PM.     

An understanding of the behaviour of a number of element phases impacting on a commercial-scale Sasol-Lurgi FBDB gasifier

Chemical properties of coal which impact on gasification performance relate to those processes which do effect a change in chemical constitution, these in turn may lead to changes in physical properties such as particle size distribution and surface area of the coal. Turn-out samples obtained from a commercial-scale Sasol-Lurgi fixed-bed dry bottom (FBDB) gasifier were characterized to understand and interpret the internal chemical property behaviour and are discussed in relation to the residual C, H, N, S and O distribution profiles obtained. Thermodynamic equilibrium simulation of the organic and inorganic speciation behaviour occurring within a fixed-bed gasifier was modelled using the Fact-Sage simulation package, and used to support the measured ultimate analysis profile data obtained.The measured gasifier ultimate analysis profiles provided good insight into understanding the development of aromaticity of the char, expressed by the carbon:hydrogen ratio calculated on a mass basis. Equilibrium compositional profiles calculated for C, H, N, S and O provided discernment regarding the speciation and partitioning behaviour occurring within the fixed-bed-reactor. Fact-Sage thermodynamic equilibrium modeling of the gasifier related to the ultimate analysis results, was found to be useful in identifying an oxygen scavenging effect created by the mineral transformation behaviour occurring during reduction. It was found that oxygen-containing species such as Mg₂Al₄Si₅O₁₈ (corderite) and Fe₂Al₄Si₅O₁₈ (ferro-corderite) form within the reduction zone. It would appear that mineral composition is a more fundamental property than merely ash content in the gasification process, when viewed on an oxygen consumption basis.