Coupling SOFCs to biomass gasification - The influence of phenol on cell degradation in simulated bio-syngas. Part I: Electrochemical analysis

Feeding solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) with gas from biomass gasification is promising with regard to highly efficient power generation. But it is also intricate since biogenic contaminants are harmful to state-of-the-art anode materials. In this work the influence of phenol as a biogenic model contaminant on the performance of single solid oxide fuel cells was studied under realistic conditions. For this purpose Ni/YSZ anode supported cells were operated with simulated bio-syngas, applying an electrical load of 0.34 A/cm². Over a duration of several hundreds of hours phenol was periodically added to the fuel gas. The tests showed that for the lowest concentration of phenol no accelerated degradation could be observed regarding cell potential and electrical impedance measurements, but disintegration of the Ni/YSZ support took place. Metal dusting of the anode support was found to be the most important mechanism of degradation.     

Mono‐ und biaxiale Spannungszustände in geokunststoffbewehrten Erdbauwerken und ihre Bemessungsrelevanz

Uni‐ and bi‐axial loading conditions in geosynthetic reinforced soil structures and their design relevance. Recent publications have focussed on the improved performance of certain geosynthetics under short‐ and long‐term biaxiale loading conditions. It was reported that the geosynthetic reinforcements act as a result of biaxial loading clearly stiffer as under uni‐axial loading. In the course of this publication the relevance of such material performance in the design of typical geosynthetic reinforced soil structures will be evaluated. Therefore the loading conditions of the reinforcements will be analysed. The evaluation will not only be based on the principles of geotechnical engineering but also on extensive numerical analyses as well as laboratory‐ and field‐tests. The analyses showed, that real biaxial loading conditions, as adapted for the laboratory tests, are to be observed only very limited and locally even assuming ideal boundary conditions. Therefore bi‐axial loading conditions do not have any design relevance.     

Electroluminescence from silicon nanoparticles fabricated from the gas phase

Electroluminescence from as-prepared silicon nanoparticles, fabricated by gas phase synthesis, is demonstrated. The particles are embedded between an n-doped GaAs substrate and a semitransparent indium tin oxide top electrode. The total electroluminescence intensity of the Si nanoparticles is more than a factor of three higher than the corresponding signal from the epitaxial III-V semiconductor. This, together with the low threshold voltage for electroluminescence, shows the good optical properties of these untreated particles and the efficient electrical injection into the device. Impact ionization by electrons emitted from the top electrode is identified as the origin of the electrically driven light emission.     

Indexing the Trajectories of Moving Objects in Networks*

The management of moving objects has been intensively studied in recent years. A wide and increasing range of database applications has to deal with spatial objects whose position changes continuously over time, called moving objects. The main interest of these applications is to efficiently store and query the positions of these continuously moving objects. To achieve this goal, index structures are required. The main proposals of index structures for moving objects deal with unconstrained 2-dimensional movement. Constrained movement is a special and a very important case of object movement. For example, cars move in roads and trains in railroads. In this paper we propose a new index structure for moving objects on networks, the MON-Tree. We describe two network models that can be indexed by the MON-Tree. The first model is edge oriented, i.e., the network consists of nodes and edges and there is a polyline associated to each edge. The second one is more suitable for transportation networks and is route oriented, i.e., the network consists of routes and junctions. In this model, a polyline also serves as a representation of the routes. We propose the index in terms of the basic algorithms for insertion and querying. We test our proposal in an extensive experimental evaluation with generated data sets using as underlying networks the roads of Germany. In our tests, the MON-Tree shows good scalabiliy and outperforms the competing index structures in updating (index creation) as well as in querying.*This work was partially supported by a grant Gu 293/8–l from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), project Datenbanken für bewegte Objekte (Databases for Moving Objects).     

Simulating Realistic Bridging and Crosstalk Faults in an Industrial Setting

Three different techniques for simulating realistic faults generated from IC layout are discussed. Two of them deal with bridging faults, and the third one handles crosstalk faults. The simulation is performed on top of a commercial simulator and thus is very well applicable in an industrial environment. No change of the design database and only minimal changes of the test shell are required. Experimental results are reported for a library cell and a block from a full-custom design.     

Fluid dynamics of pulsed sieve plate extraction columns

The presented contribution reports on comprehensive hydrodynamic investigations in two pulsed sieve-plate extraction columns (PSE) on a pilot scale. The experiments were conducted with three different sieve plate geometries employing test systems recommended by EFCE, under varying pulsation conditions and throughputs. The results of the investigation add to the existing knowledge of relationships between hydrodynamic parameters, drop size, hold-up, flooding throughput and mixing and operating parameters. They also provide useful information for scale up, selection of sieve-plate geometry, most favorable operating range, and constructive design of equipment. On the basis of measurements, analytical methods are recommended for prediction of PSE hydrodynamics.