A design of experiments investigation into dry separation using a Knelson Concentrator

Enhanced gravity, or centrifugal, separators have revolutionised gold processing over the past decades, significantly increasing the recovery of fine (−100 μm) free gold. One of the main drawbacks of centrifugal gravity concentrators is the large volume of water required (even if it is all recycled). With water becoming an ever increasingly important “commodity”, reducing this is of importance both from an environmental and a monetary point of view. This work investigated operating a laboratory scale Knelson Concentrator with a dry feed and using air as the fluidising medium. The feed used was a synthetic mixture of tungsten and quartz, used to mimic a gold ore. The response surface method and central composite design techniques were used to design the experiments and to model the results, with the experimental variables being the bowl speed (G-Level), air fluidising pressure and the feed rate. The models corresponded well to the experimental results, indicating that for this experimental setup, the optimal conditions were a bowl G-Level of 40 G, a feed rate of 220 g/min and an air fluidising pressure of 8 psi.     

A scalable architecture for geometric correction of multi-projector display systems

Multi-projector displays allow the realization of large and immersive projection environments by allowing the tiling of projections from multiple projectors. Such tiled displays require real time geometrical warping of the content that is being projected from each projector. This geometrical warping is a computationally intensive operation and is typically applied using high-end graphics processing units (GPUs) that are able to process a defined number of projector channels. Furthermore, this limits the applicability of such multi-projector display systems only to the content that is being generated using desktop based systems. In this paper we propose a platform independent FPGA based scalable hardware architecture for geometric correction of projected content that allows addition of each projector channel at a fractional increase in logic area. The proposed scheme provides real time correction of HD quality video streams and thus enables the use of this technology for embedded and standalone devices.     

Producing fully-lamellar microstructure for wrought beta-gamma TiAl alloys without single α-phase field

Fine-grained fully-lamellar (FL) microstructure is desired for TiAl components to serve as compressor/turbine blades and turbocharger turbine wheels. This study deals with the process and phase transformation to produce FL microstructure for Mo stabilized beta-gamma TiAl alloys without single α-phase field. Unlike the α + γ two-phased TiAl or beta-gamma TiAl with single α-phase field, the wrought multi-phase TiAl–4/6Nb–2Mo–B/Y alloys exhibit special annealing process to obtain FL microstructure. Short-term annealing at temperatures slightly above β-transus is recommended to produce the desired FL microstructure. The related mechanism is to guarantee the sufficient diffusion homogenization of β stabilizers during single β-phase annealing, and further avoid α decomposition by α → γ + β when cooling through α + β + γ phase field. The colony boundary β phase contributes to fine-grained nearly FL microstructure, by retarding the coarsening of the α phase grains.     

Synthesis and characterization of a novel Ca-alginate-biochar composite as efficient zinc (Zn2+) adsorbent: Thermodynamics,process design,mass transfer and isotherm modeling

In this present work, Ca-alginate-biochar adsorbent has been synthesized, characterized and tested its effectiveness in the removal of aqueous phase Zn²⁺ metal. The removal efficiency was studied under various physicochemical process parameters. External mass transfer model, intraparticle diffusion model and pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order models were used to fit the experimental Zn²⁺ adoption kinetic results and to identify the mechanism of adsorption. The desorption studies indicate the possibilities of ion-exchange and physical–chemical adsorption of Zn^2+. The adsorption was best described by Langmuir isotherm model. Thermodynamic parameters suggested that the adsorption process becomes spontaneous, endothermic and irreversible in nature.     

Polymer derived ceramic materials from Si,B and MoSiB filler-loaded perhydropolysilazane precursor for oxidation protection

Silica-based coating systems were developed using polymer derived ceramics (PDCs) technology. Ceramic composites on the base of a SiO₂ and SiNO matrix and homogeneously distributed Mo₅SiB₂, SiB₆, Si and B fillers were manufactured. The coating systems have low porosity and provide a high oxidation resistance up to 100 h at 800 °C and 1100 °C in air. The influence of temperature and atmosphere of pyrolysis on the polymer precursor, the volume fraction of filler materials on the chemical composition of compacts as well as their high-temperature oxidation protection was investigated.     

Distributed learning consensus control based on neural networks for heterogeneous nonlinear multiagent systems

This paper considers a novel distributed iterative learning consensus control algorithm based on neural networks for the control of heterogeneous nonlinear multiagent systems. The system's unknown nonlinear function is approximated by suitable neural networks; the approximation error is countered by a robust term in the control. Two types of control algorithms, both of which utilize distributed learning laws, are provided to achieve consensus. In the provided control algorithms, the desired reference is considered to be an unknown factor and then estimated using the associated learning laws. The consensus convergence is proven by the composite energy function method. A numerical simulation is ultimately presented to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed control schemes.     

多元合金化大断面球墨铸铁组织和性能的分析

为了提升大断面球墨铸铁综合力学性能，通过复合添加微量合金元素铜、锑、锡、钼对大断面球墨铸铁进行微合金化处理，借助金相显微镜(OM)、扫描电子显微镜(SEM)及力学性能测试等手段，研究了Cu Sb Sn Mo复合微合金化大断面球墨铸铁微观组织和力学性能。结果表明，试验球墨铸铁具有良好的综合力学性能。大断面球墨铸铁中添加铜、锑、锡、钼后优化了材料的组织结构，基体组织为珠光体＋少量牛眼状铁素体；试样石墨组织细小、圆整，分布均匀。同时，合金元素的复合加入使得其抗拉强度达到800 MPa以上，硬度约为280HB，伸长率达到5%以上。拉伸断口分析表明，微合金化大断面球墨铸铁断裂模式以解理断裂为主，伴有少量的塑性变形。     

Survey on Passivity Based Control of Induction Machine

Induction machines (IM) constitute a theoretically interesting and practically important class of nonlinear systems. They are frequently used as wind generators for their power/cost ratio. They are described by a fifth‐order nonlinear differential equation with two inputs and only three state variables available for measurement. The control task is further complicated by the fact that IM are subject to unknown (load) disturbances and the parameters can be of great uncertainty. One is then faced with the challenging problem of controlling a highly nonlinear system, with unknown time‐varying parameters, where the regulated output, besides being unmeasurable, is perturbed by an unknown additive signal. Passivity‐based control (PBC) is a well‐established structure‐preserving design methodology which has shown to be very powerful to design robust controllers for physical systems described by Euler‐Lagrange equations of motion. PBCs provide a natural procedure to "shape" the potential energy yielding controllers with a clear physical interpretation in terms of interconnection of the system with its environment and are robust vis á vis to unmodeled dissipative effects. One recent approach of PBC is the Interconnection and Damping Assignment Passivity‐Based Control (IDA‐PBC) which is a very useful technique to control nonlinear systems assigning a desired (Port‐Controlled Hamiltonian) structure to the closed‐loop. The aim of this paper is to give a survey on different PBC of IM. The originality of this work is that the author proves that the well known field oriented control of IM is a particular case of the IDA‐PBC with disturbance.