Optimal energy consuming planning for a home‑based microgrid with mobility constraint of electric vehicles and tractors

This research deals with the energy management problem to minimize the cost of non-renewable energy for a small-scale microgrid with electric vehicles (EV) and electric tractors (ET). The EVs and ETs function as batteries in the power system, while they often have to leave it for their mobility and agricultural work. Each State of Charge (SoC), which is the charge rate of the battery from 0 to 1, and the operating time of ETs are optimized under the assumption that the required electrical energy, the arrival and departure time of EVs, and the working time of ETs are given by users, but they include uncertainties. In this paper, we deal with these uncertainties by constraints for robust energy planning and expected optimization based on scenarios, and show that the scheduling of the SoC assuming the worst case and the optimal home-based power consumption planning that considers the cost of each scenario corresponding to each variation can be obtained. Our proposed method is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP), and numerical simulations show that the optimal cooperative operation among multiple houses can be obtained and its global optimal or sub-optimal solution can be quickly obtained by using CPLEX.     

Active matrix QD‐LED with top emission structure by UV lithography for RGB patterning

We have developed full colour top emitting quantum dot light‐emitting diode (QD‐LED) display driven by a 176‐ppi active matrix of metal oxide thin‐film transistors. Red, green and blue (RGB) QD‐LED subpixel emission layers are patterned by our original UV photolithography process and materials. We also demonstrate the potential to achieve high resolution such as 528 ppi using this process.     

Electrification of polymer surface caused by sliding ultrapurewater

It has been thought that the conductivity of pure water is high enough to neglect the streaming electrification. However, with the recent advancement of semiconductor industries, ultrapure water appeared to cause electrification problems at the washing and the rinsing processes of semiconductor wafers. The investigation on the electrification phenomenon of polymer (PTFE) surface with ultrapure water is described in this article. Water droplets are always charged positively after sliding on the PTFE surface, and the surface potential on PTFE is mostly negative and varies along the droplet path becoming positive downstream. As the conductivity of water becomes closer to that of ideal water, the amount of droplet charge increases drastically. This electrification phenomenon is also enhanced by decreasing the thickness of the PTFE plate. It suggests that the Coulombic force between the charge on the PTFE surface and the mirror image charge is an important factor. We have proposed a model which is based on the electric double layer similar to conventional streaming electrification for insulating liquid, assuming that the charged droplet leaves the excess positive charge on the polymer surface     

Phototransparency and water vapor sorption properties of ABA‐type triblock copolymers derived from 6FDA‐TeMPD and poly(2‐methyl‐2‐adamantylmethacrylate)

The phototransparency and water vapor sorption properties of ABA‐type triblock copolymer membranes derived from 4,4‐(hexafluoroisopropylidene) diphthalic anhydride‐2,3,5,6‐tetramethyl‐1,4‐phenylenediamine (PI) and poly(2‐methyl‐2‐adamantylmethacrylate) (PMAdMA) were investigated, with focus on the effect of the adamantane component. The phototransparency of PMAdMA‐block‐PI‐block‐PMAdMA [Block(PI/PMAdMA)] was about 10–20% higher than that of poly(methyl methacrylate)‐block‐PI‐block‐Poly(methylmethacrylate) [Block(PI/PMMA)] because the high symmetric structure of adamantane inhibited photoabsorbance. The water vapor solubility of Block(PI/PMAdMA) decreased with increased PMAdMA because the PMAdMA had a hydrophobic property. Interestingly, in all relative‐pressure regions, Block(PI/PMAdMA) with the least PMAdMA content showed a higher solubility coefficient than PI because the high mobility of PMAdMA in Block(PI/PMAdMA) resulted in additional sorption sites in the PI segment. A comparison of Block(PI/PMAdMA) with Block(PI/PMMA) in terms of relative pressure at the beginning of clustering further revealed that cluster formation in Block(PI/PMAdMA) was inhibited compared with Block(PI/PMMA) because bulky structure of adamantane restricted the mobility of the polymer main chain. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016 , 133, 43795.     

Dynamic visualization of eutectic reaction between boron carbide and stainless steel

To investigate the eutectic reaction process of control-rod materials in a boiling water reactor (BWR), fundamental tests using boron carbide (B₄C) powder inserted between stainless steel (SS) plates were performed and dynamically visualized. The eutectic reaction process near the contact area of the two materials and the behavior of molten material and B₄C powder were visualized in real time. The temperature, reaction area, and maximum reaction-layer thickness were obtained. The average temperature range of the test was 1455–1481 K. Through dynamic visualization, some important and previously undiscovered phenomena were observed. The solid part of the SS plate and the strong surface tension of the melt retained the melt inside the specimen, preventing it from flowing out from the surface; the melt then invaded the B₄C powder region during the reaction. Diffusion of the B₄C powder and migration of the nonreacted B₄C powder from the B₄C powder region through the retained melt to the SS region were observed. This migration accelerated the local reaction growth rate. The time-resolved observation of these dynamic phenomena offers significant insights to the improvement of numerical calculation codes for severe accident analyses of BWRs, including the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors.     

Cathode having high rate performance for a secondary Li-ion cell surface-modified by aluminum oxide nanoparticles

In order to enhance the electrochemical properties, the spinel LiMn₂O₄ electrode surface was modified with amorphous Al₂O₃ nanoparticle as heterogeneous phase. LiMn₂O₄ was in preparation based on a conventional solid-state reaction. The LiMn₂O₄ procedure was soaked in aluminum tri 2-propoxide solution. The LiMn₂O₄ whose surface was modified by aluminum oxide was obtained through the heat treatment at 400 °C for 4 h. The Al₂O₃-modified LiMn₂O₄ electrode exhibits a capacity higher than that of the unmodified LiMn₂O₄ electrode. On the other hand, no variation was shown with open circuit potential and apparent chemical diffusion coefficient of Li ion for LiMn₂O₄ before and after the surface modification. The charge-transfer resistance of Al₂O₃-modified LiMn₂O₄ decreased significantly in comparison with the unmodified LiMn₂O₄. The improved charge-transfer kinetics was largely attributed to Al₂O₃ which plays an important role of increasing the chemical potential at the electrode/electrolyte interface.     

Dynamic motion of a conductive particle in viscous fluid under DCelectric field

When plastic waste is liquefied for recycling, the impurities present could influence the quality of the reprocessed products. In order to explore the possible method for removing solid impurities using electrostatic forces, the motion of spherical conductive particles under a uniform electric field has been carefully investigated. In this paper, a solid impurity and liquefied plastics are simulated by a conductive spherical particle and viscous insulating liquid, silicone oil, respectively. Experimental results indicate that the particle undergoes repeated motion between the parallel electrodes. The motion of the particle can be divided into four modes: settling on the lower electrode, moving upward, settling on the upper electrode, and moving downward. The higher the applied voltage, the faster the average particle velocity and the shorter the resting time of the particle. The particle accelerates after leaving the electrode and decelerates before reaching the other electrode. This deceleration could be explained by the viscous effect of the liquid layer between the particle and the electrode. The settling mode could be explained by the fact that there is a liquid flow induced by the particle motion and it pushes the particle against the electrode until the flow decreases. It is, therefore, suggested that the hydrodynamic effect is dominant in our case, as well as the electrostatic force     

Optimal energy consuming planning for a home-based microgrid with mobility constraint of electric vehicles and tractors

This research deals with the energy management problem to minimize the cost of non-renewable energy for a small-scale microgrid with electric vehicles(EV)and el...