Recent activities in the field of Nuclear Operational Management and Nuclear Safety Engineering

Recent activities in the field of Nuclear Operational Management and Nuclear Safety Engineering, the studies related to risk analysis methodology, design, and operational management, physical phenomena, and emergency preparedness and nuclear security, have been progressed. Especially, ‘risk analysis methodology’ and ‘design and operational management’ are the main categories of the field, in which more than half of published articles on Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology are related to these categories.     

Flame characteristics of premixed H2-air mixtures explosion venting in a spherical container through a duct

The explosion venting duct can effectively reduce the hazard degree of a gas explosion and conduct the venting energy to the safe area. To investigate the flame quantitative propagation law of explosion venting with a duct, the effects of hydrogen fraction and explosion venting duct length on jet flame propagation characteristics of premixed H₂-air mixtures were analyzed through experiment and simulation. The experiment results under initial conditions of room temperature and 1 atm show that when hydrogen fraction was high enough, part of the unburned hydrogen was mixed with air again to reach an ignitable concentration, resulting in the secondary combustion was easier produced and the duration of the secondary flame increased. With the increase of venting duct length, the flame front distance and propagation velocity increased. Meanwhile, the spatial distribution of pressure field and temperature field, and the propagation process and mechanism of the flame venting with a duct were analyzed using FLUENT software. The variation of the pressure wave and the pressure reflection oscillation law in the explosion venting duct was captured. Therefore, in the industrial explosion venting design with a duct, the hazard caused by the coupling of venting pressure and venting flame under different fractions should be considered comprehensively.     

Design and synthesis of side-chain optimized poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)-g-poly(styrene sulfonic acid) as proton exchange membrane for fuel cell applications: Balancing the water-resistance and the sulfonation degree

Side-chain optimized poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide)-g-poly (styrene sulfonic acid) (PPO-g-PSSA) is designed with balanced water-resistance and sulfonation degree. The PPO-g-PSSA is synthesized by controlled atom-transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) from brominated poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO-xBr) and ethyl styrene-4-sulfonate and followed by hydrolysis. A series of PPO-g-PSSA are prepared possessing different bromination degree (x) of PPO-xBr and polymerization degree (m) of the side-chains and the water-resistances of the fabricated membranes are investigated. The results show that a PPO-g-PSSA at relatively low x (x < 0.2) and high m (m > 4) exhibits good balance between the water-resistance and the sulfonation degree. Namely, it displays suitable proton conductivity with compromised water-resistance. Moreover, a maximum ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 3.24 mmol g^?1 is reached without the sacrifice of water-resistance. In addition, PPO-g-0.08PSSA-13 and PPO-g-0.14PSSA-4 are chosen characterized by thermogravimetric analysis, proton conductivities and mechanical properties. At 90% RH, the optimized PPO-g-0.08PPSA-13 possesses a proton conductivity of 37.9 mS cm^?1 at 40 °C and 45.5 mS cm^?1 at 95 °C, respectively.     

平面并联机构工作空间的三维螺旋扫描CAD求解

针对平面并联机构无奇异位置工作空间求解困难、过程繁琐、计算量大等问题，提出了基于CAD求解平面并联机构工作空间的三维螺旋扫描方法。将[n]自由度平面并联机构分解成[n]条支链进行独立分析，得到每条支链下末端执行器的可达区域，再将所有支链可达区域取交集即为平面并联机构工作空间。应用SolidWorks软件建立平面并联机构模型，进行几何特征处理，通过自动求解器求解，将求解过程图形化，快速得到同轴布局5R机构和平面3-RPR并联机构的无奇异位置工作空间。通过同轴布局5R机构的运动学实验，验证了该求解方法的可行性。     

Biologically Inspired Design of Context-Aware Smart Products

The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and cyber–physical systems (CPSs) has paved the way for the increasing popularity of smart products. Context-awareness is an important facet of product smartness. Unlike artifacts, various bio-systems are naturally characterized by their extraordinary context-awareness. Biologically inspired design (BID) is one of the most commonly employed design strategies. However, few studies have examined the BID of context-aware smart products to date. This paper presents a structured design framework to support the BID of context-aware smart products. The meaning of context-awareness is defined from the perspective of product design. The framework is developed based on the theoretical foundations of the situated function–behavior–structure ontology. A structured design process is prescribed to leverage various biological inspirations in order to support different conceptual design activities, such as problem formulation, structure reformulation, behavior reformulation, and function reformulation. Some existing design methods and emerging design tools are incorporated into the framework. A case study is presented to showcase how this framework can be followed to redesign a robot vacuum cleaner and make it more context-aware.     

Synthesis of Benzophenones and in vitro Evaluation of Their Anticancer Potential in Breast and Prostate Cancer Cells

Breast and prostate cancers are frequently treated with chemotherapy. Several novel chemicals are being reported for this purpose, particularly synthetic and natural benzophenones. This work reports the synthesis of substituted 2-hydroxybenzophenones through 1,4-conjugate addition/intramolecular cycloaddition/dehydration of nitromethane on key intermediate chromones. Structures were extensively studied by means of 2D NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal XRD. Their cytotoxicity was evaluated in vitro in two breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231 and T47-D) and one prostate cancer cell line (PC3). The most potent compound exhibited good cytotoxic effects against the three cancer cell lines (IC₅₀ values ranging from 12.09 to 26.49 μm ) and induced cell-cycle retardation only on prostate cancer cells, which suggested that it might exert cell-type-specific effects.     

高碘酸盐的活化及降解水体有机污染物研究进展

根据高碘酸盐活化方式、活化机理和相关自由基种类等方面,叙述了国内外高碘酸盐高级氧化体系降解水体有机污染物方面的工作。基于氧化剂为高碘酸盐的高级氧化技术氧化能力强,能在较宽的pH范围内高效降解包括抗氧化能力极强的全氟辛酸(PFOA)在内的多种有机污染物,在水处理领域具有较好的应用潜力。依据目前的研究现状,结合实际需求,认为进行废水处理的小试或者中试、优化活化理论研究,以及明确各活性物质对有机物选择性降解的机理,是将来需要关注的问题以及研究方向。     

Hydrogen production from thermal decomposition of ammonia-contaminated acid gas using a detailed reaction mechanism

The increase in the production of acid gas consisting of H₂S, CO₂, and associated impurities such as ammonia and hydrocarbons from oil and gas plants and gasification facilities has stimulated the interest in the development of alternative means of acid gas utilization to produce hydrogen and sulfur, simultaneously. The present literature lacks a detailed reaction mechanism that can reliably predict the thermal destruction of NH₃ and its blend with H₂S and CO₂ to facilitate process optimization and commercialization. In this paper, a detailed mechanism of NH₃ pyrolysis is developed and is merged with the reactions of NH₃ oxidation and H₂S/CO₂ thermal decomposition from our previous works. The mechanism is validated successfully using different sets of experimental data on the pyrolysis and oxidation of NH₃, H₂S, and CO₂. The proposed mechanism predicts the experimental data on NH₃ pyrolysis remarkably better than the existing mechanisms in the literature. The mechanism is used to investigate the effects of NH₃ concentration (0–20%) and reactor temperature (1000–1800 K) on the thermal decomposition of H₂S and CO₂. A synergistic effect is observed in the simultaneous decomposition of NH₃ and CO₂, i.e., NH₃ conversion is improved in the presence of CO₂ and the decomposition CO₂ to CO is enhanced in the presence of NH₃. The presence of H₂S suppressed NH₃ conversion, while the conversion of H₂S remained unchanged with increasing NH₃ concentration at temperature below 1400 K due to the low conversion of NH₃ (up to 18%). At temperature above 1400 K, NH₃ conversion increased rapidly and it triggered a decrease in H₂S conversion as well as the yields of H₂ and S₂. The major reactions involved in the decomposition of H₂S, CO₂, and NH₃ and the production of major products such as H₂, S₂, and CO are identified. The detailed reaction mechanism can facilitate the design and optimization of acid gas thermal decomposition to produce hydrogen and sulfur, simultaneously.     

A web-based software tool for participatory optimization of conservation practices in watersheds

WRESTORE (Watershed Restoration Using Spatio-Temporal Optimization of Resources) is a web-based, participatory planning tool that can be used to engage with watershed stakeholder communities, and involve them in using science-based, human-guided, interactive simulation–optimization methods for designing potential conservation practices on their landscape. The underlying optimization algorithms, process simulation models, and interfaces allow users to not only spatially optimize the locations and types of new conservation practices based on quantifiable goals estimated by the dynamic simulation models, but also to include their personal subjective and/or unquantifiable criteria in the location and design of these practices. In this paper, we describe the software, interfaces, and architecture of WRESTORE, provide scenarios for implementing the WRESTORE tool in a watershed community's planning process, and discuss considerations for future developments.     

Design of disturbance observer based on adaptive-neural control for large-scale time-delay systems in the presence of actuator fault and unknown dead zone

This article presents an adaptive neural compensation scheme for a class of large-scale time delay nonlinear systems in the presence of unknown dead zone, external disturbances, and actuator faults. In this article, the quadratic Lyapunov–Krasovskii functionals are introduced to tackle the system delays. The unknown functions of the system are estimated by using radial basis function neural networks. Furthermore, a disturbance observer is developed to approximate the external disturbances. The proposed adaptive neural compensation control method is constructed by utilizing a backstepping technique. The boundedness of all the closed-loop signals is guaranteed via Lyapunov analysis and the tracking errors are proved to converge to a small neighborhood of the origin. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.