小口径气动元件流量特性测量及合成方法

针对ISO6358规格中小口径气动元件的流量特性的测量方法规定的欠缺,使用一种口径转换的基准接头连接小口径元件进行流量特性的测量试验。通过和卡钳式测量方法的结果比较,从试验上确认了基准接头对于小口径元件的流量特性的影响程度。提出了压缩性流体用元件的声速流导和临界压力比的新的合成方法。将电磁阀本体和接头的合成结果与试验结果进行比较,结果一致,验证了所提案的合成方法的适用性,并探讨了利用新的合成方法计算阀本体的流量特性的可行性。     

Measurement of concrete strength using the emission intensity ratio between Ca(II) 396.8 nm and Ca(I) 422.6 nm in a Nd:YAG laser-induced plasma

An experiment to investigate the potential of a laser-induced plasma method for determining concrete compressive strength was conducted by focusing a Nd:YAG laser on concrete samples with different degrees of compressive strength. This technique was developed in light of the role of the shock wave in the generation of a laser-induced plasma. It was found that the speed of the shock front depends on the hardness of the sample. It was also found that a positive relationship exists between the speed of the shock front and the ionization rate of the ablated atoms. Hence, the ratio of the intensity between the Ca(II) 396.8 nm and Ca(I) 422.6 nm emission lines detected from the laser-induced plasma can be used to examine the hardness of the material. In fact, it was observed that the ratio changes with respect to the change in the concrete compressive strength. The findings also show that the ratio increases with time after the cement is mixed with water.     

Estimation of heat generation rate in solid oxide fuel cell module from single cell performance and module performance based on impedance analysis

Heat generation rate in SOFC module was estimated under various thermal self-sustained conditions. SOFC module and system was designed to evaluate power generation property and temperature of module. Single cell was also evaluated the performance and electrode overpotential by impedance analysis under the similar condition to module power generation state. We estimated the heat generation rate with enthalpy calculation based on the actual module performance, and also with entropy calculation based on the impedance analysis of single cell. It was found that the heat generation rate calculated by enthalpy is approximately corresponded with that calculated by entropy. There still contains small error between heat generation rate calculated by enthalpy and that calculated by entropy. It was considered that these errors are originated from distribution in stack temperature and reforming gas temperature in the module. According to impedance analysis, it was found that the ohmic resistance is varied under operating condition and related with the current distribution which is calculated with the current path length in the cell. It was suggested that power generation state of module is affected by the current path length in the cell (in another word, distribution of power density) and distribution of overpotential; these phenomena is dominated by gas composition and thermal self-sustainable temperature.     

Quantitative analysis of deuterium in zircaloy using double-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS) and helium gas plasma without a sample chamber

A crucial safety measure to be strictly observed in the operation of heavy-water nuclear power plants is the mandatory regular inspection of the concentration of deuterium penetrated into the zircaloy fuel vessels. The existing standard method requires a tedious, destructive, and costly sample preparation process involving the removal of the remaining fuel in the vessel and melting away part of the zircaloy pipe. An alternative method of orthogonal dual-pulse laser-induced breakdown spectrometry (LIBS) is proposed by employing flowing atmospheric helium gas without the use of a sample chamber. The special setup of ps and ns laser systems, operated for the separate ablation of the sample target and the generation of helium gas plasma, respectively, with properly controlled relative timing, has succeeded in producing the desired sharp D I 656.10 nm emission line with effective suppression of the interfering H I 656.28 nm emission by operating the ps ablation laser at very low output energy of 26 mJ and 1 μs ahead of the helium plasma generation. Under this optimal experimental condition, a linear calibration line is attained with practically zero intercept and a 20 μg/g detection limit for D analysis of zircaloy sample while creating a crater only 10 μm in diameter. Therefore, this method promises its potential application for the practical, in situ, and virtually nondestructive quantitative microarea analysis of D, thereby supporting the more-efficient operation and maintenance of heavy-water nuclear power plants. Furthermore, it will also meet the anticipated needs of future nuclear fusion power plants, as well as other important fields of application in the foreseeable future.     

真空元件流阻对射流式真空发生器流量特性的影响研究

射流式真空发生器抽吸侧通常安装有真空检测元件和控制元件等,以实现自动吸着、实时检测等功能。但是,真空检测元件和控制元件等气动真空元件的流阻会导致其流量特性发生改变,并伴随延长吸着响应时间。为了定量地描述气动真空元件的流阻对真空发生器流量特性的影响,该课题先采用等温容器对真空发生器静态流量特性进行了测量,并结合小孔流量特性的表达式,推导出存在流阻时真空输出端压力与流量关系的数学表达式;再根据真空回路中流量与压力的物理关系,提出了判断流阻对抽吸流量影响程度的无量纲数Gr^*;接着,测试真空输出端压力响应特性,并将根据真空输出端压力与流量关系的数学表达式和容腔放气模型得到的压力响应仿真曲线进行比较,得出测试曲线与仿真曲线相吻合;最后,对压力响应曲线进行无量纲化处理,指出无量纲数Gr^*的大小既能反映出流阻对流量特性的影响程度,又能帮助判断吸着响应时间的长短,在设计真空发生器回路时,可以参考Gr^*选择合适的气动真空元件,简便有效。     

Measurement of Liquid Film Thickness by a Fringe Method

A technique was developed and tested to measure the local thickness of a droplet or a liquid film on a surface of an opaque or thick single transparent plate by an interference fringe pattern that was easily formed by reflecting laser lights. Monochromatic epi-illumination through an objective lens of a conventional microscope was provided by a 5 mW or 300 mW laser and a filter to remove the noise caused by laser speckle. The incremental height difference of the liquid layer between neighboring maxima or minima of fringes was evaluated from the wavelength of the laser light and the refractive index of the liquid. Estimation error of a local inclination angle was discussed using ray tracing under parallel illumination approximation. Droplet profiles evaluated from the interferogram that were obtained by the present fringe method agreed well with those by Laser Focus Displacement Meter. Measurement was made to ensure the usefulness of the present technique. It was made clear that the contact angle of a liquid droplet could be obtained precisely and swiftly, even in small size or small contact angle, and that instantaneous three-dimensional profile of a liquid film on a bubble moving in a microchannel could be measured. The fringe method had sufficient potential to obtain more detailed information about three-dimensional characteristics of liquid film in flows such as the generation, breakdown, and growth of waves and the liquid film on a bubble at the beginning of movement.     

Study of hydrogen and deuterium emission characteristics in laser-induced low-pressure helium plasma for the suppression of surface water contamination

An experimental study was conducted in search of the experimental condition required for the much needed suppression of spectral interference caused by surface water in hydrogen analysis using laser-induced low-pressure helium plasma spectroscopy. The problem arising from the difficulty in distinguishing hydrogen emission from hydrogen impurity inside the sample and that coming from the water molecules was overcome by taking advantage of similar emission characteristics shared by hydrogen and deuterium demonstrated in this experiment by the distinct time-dependent and pressure-dependent variations of the D and H emission intensities from the D-doped zircaloy-4 samples. This similarity allows the study of H impurity emission in terms of D emission from the D-doped samples and thereby separating it from the H emission originating from the water molecules. Employing this strategy has allowed us to achieve the large suppression of water induced spectral interference from the previous minimum of 400 microg/g to the current value of 30 microg/g when a laser beam of 34 mJ under tight focusing condition was employed. Along with this favorable result, this experimental condition has also provided a much better (about 6-fold higher) spatial resolution, although these results were achieved at the expense of reducing the linear calibration range from the previous 4 300 microg/g to the present 200 microg/g.     

Estimates of embodied global energy and air-emission intensities of Japanese products for building a Japanese input-output life cycle assessment database with a global system boundary

To build a life cycle assessment (LCA) database of Japanese products embracing their global supply chains in a manner requiring lower time and labor burdens, this study estimates the intensity of embodied global environmental burden for commodities produced in Japan. The intensity of embodied global environmental burden is a measure of the environmental burden generated globally by unit production of the commodity and can be used as life cycle inventory data in LCA. The calculation employs an input-output LCA method with a global link input-output model that defines a global system boundary grounded in a simplified multiregional input-output framework. As results, the intensities of embodied global environmental burden for 406 Japanese commodities are determined in terms of energy consumption, greenhouse-gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and their summation), and air-pollutant emissions (nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide). The uncertainties in the intensities of embodied global environmental burden attributable to the simplified structure of the global link input-output model are quantified using Monte Carlo simulation. In addition, by analyzing the structure of the embodied global greenhouse-gas intensities we characterize Japanese commodities in the context of LCA embracing global supply chains.     

Inverse halftoning using super‐resolution image processing

This paper focuses on the inverse halftoning problem, that is, the problem of reconstructing continuous‐tone images from halftone images of white and black pixels. In general, the problem does not have a unique solution, since halftoning is a many‐to‐one map from continuous‐tone images to binary ones. To this problem, we provide a simple and useful inverse halftoning method, composed of two steps. The first step is to generate several grayscale images from the original halftone image and low‐pass filters. The next step is to reconstruct a continuous‐tone image from the multiple grayscale images by using super‐resolution image processing. This method allows us to obtain good continuous‐tone images which are comparable to the results of the existing methods. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by several experiments. © 2011 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.