Effect of steel microfibers on corrosion of steel reinforcing bars

Steel microfiber reinforcement was previously found to be successful in mitigating alkali silica reaction in concrete, an expansive phenomenon. The use of steel microfibers to mitigate rebar corrosion, another expansive reaction, was investigated. Mortar specimens with and without steel microfiber reinforcement were exposed to a corrosive environment. All specimens were prepared with water/cement ratios of both 0.40 and 0.55, cured for 28 days, and then submerged in aerated 3.5% NaCl solution. The corrosion behavior of the specimens was monitored via electrochemical measurements. Three types of electrochemical tests were performed: corrosion potential measurements, potentiodynamic polarization, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Chloride concentration measurements and microscopic analysis were performed as well. The polarization curves, Tafel, and polarization resistance measurements indicate that the steel rebar in the microfiber-reinforced mortars are more resistant to corrosion than the rebar in the control mortars, despite higher chloride concentrations. Furthermore, the steel microfiber-reinforced cement based materials have a lower electrolytic resistance. This is not indicative of a higher corrosion rate, which would be the case if it had been observed in standard mortar specimens.     

Finite-time consensus of multiple second-order dynamic agents without velocity measurements

This article considers the finite-time consensus of multiple second-order dynamic agents without velocity measurements. A feasible protocol under which each agent can only obtain the measurements of its position relative to its neighbours is proposed. By applying the graph theory, Lyapunov theory and the homogeneous domination method, some sufficient conditions for finite-time consensus of second-order multi-agent systems are established under the different kinds of communication topologies. Some examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.     

Characterisation of three different impellers using the LDV-technique

A characterisation of three commonly used impellers was made in this study by measuring local mean velocities and the fluctuations of these velocities with the LDV technique. The data was used to estimate volumetric flow, velocity fluctuations and turbulent intensity in the impeller region of the tank. The impellers investigated were a high flow impeller, a pitched blade turbine and a Rushton turbine. The cylindrical vessel used was made of Perspex, had a dished bottom (DIN 28013), was equipped with four baffles and had an inner diameter of 0.45 m. It was found that the bulk velocities could be scaled with the tip-speed of the impeller (ND). The flow rate at constant impeller speed increased in the order high flow impeller — Rushton turbine — pitched blade turbine. The corresponding order for the turbulence fluctuation is: high flow impeller — pitched blade turbine — Rushton turbine. The velocity profile of the flow out from the high flow impeller was furthermore, not as smooth as could be expected.     

Straightforward modeling of dynamic I–V characteristics for microwave FETs

This work presents a straightforward approach aimed at modeling the dynamic I–V characteristics of microwave active solid‐state devices. The drain‐source current generator represents the most significant source of nonlinearity in a transistor and, therefore, its correct modeling is fundamental to predict accurately the current and voltage waveforms under large‐signal operation. The proposed approach relies on using a small set of low‐frequency time‐domain waveform measurements combined with numerical optimization‐based estimation of the nonlinear model parameters. The procedure is applied to a gallium nitride HEMT and silicon FinFET. The effectiveness of the modeling procedure in terms of prediction accuracy and generalization capability is demonstrated by validation of the extracted models under operating conditions different than the ones used for the parameters estimation. Good agreement between measurements and model simulations is achieved for both technologies and in both low‐ and high‐frequency range. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:109–116, 2014.     

Limits of compensation in a failed antenna array

In large antenna arrays, the possibility of occurrence of faults in some of the radiating elements cannot be precluded at all times. In such situations, the radiation pattern of the array gets distorted, mostly with an increase in sidelobe level and decrease in gain. Although it is not possible to restore the pattern fully by rearranging the excitations of the functioning elements, compensation methods have been reported in the literature for restoring one performance parameter of the array and making a trade‐off on some other parameter. In this article, we have made a study on the tolerance level of this compensation process. One part of the study deals with the thinning in the failed array, that is, to find a limit on the minimum number of functioning elements of the array that can restore the digital beamforming of the failed array. The second part of study deals with finding the maximum number of element failures that can be compensated. The study was carried out by optimizing the amplitude excitations of the failed array. Instead of classical optimization techniques, particle swarm optimization was used for the compensation process. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 24:635–645, 2014.     

Development of soft sensor by incorporating the delayed infrequent and irregular measurements

Originated from challenging industrial applications, this paper addresses a soft sensor development problem for linear systems with two types of measurements. One is fast, regular and delay-free measurements. The other is infrequent, irregular measurements with time-varying delays. The approach to be taken is based on the Kalman filter and data fusion technique, avoiding running the full augmented state Kalman filter, and leading to a considerably lower implementation cost. Although it is suboptimal, the loss in performance is minor compared to the optimal filter. Two simulation examples demonstrate the advantages of the proposed approach. An industrial soft sensor application example is also used to demonstrate its practicality.     

Velocity measurements and flow field characteristic analyses in a turbo air classifier

Turbo air classifier is one of the most widely used powder classification equipment. The rotor cage as a rotary component can create a forced centrifugal field, so it is a key part for turbo air classifier. In order to investigate the effect of structural variations of the rotor cage on flow field characteristics, three dimensional velocity measurements of the annular region in a turbo air classifier equipped with two different rotor cage bottom plates (A and B type) are performed by laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV). It is found that the different bottom plates have different axial and tangential velocity distributions in the annular region. However, the structural variations of the rotor cage have hardly any effect on the radial velocity. Based on the classification principle, the relation between the classification performance and the flow field characteristics is investigated in great detail.The results of the flow field measurements were tested by the classification experiments carried out with cement raw meal and ground calcium carbonate. The results demonstrate that B type bottom plate can realize the production of narrow particle size distributions, so it is more favorable for classification than A type bottom plate. Classification experiment results are in good agreement with the results of the flow field measurements.     

Zinc-rich powder coatings corrosion in sea water: influence of conductive pigments

The effect of addition of conductive pigments like carbon blacks on the corrosion behavior of zinc-rich powder paints coated steel in artificial sea water was investigated. Open circuit potential measurements were used to characterize the cathodic protection ability and duration. Micro-Raman spectroscopy analysis was performed in order to identify the corrosion products and to follow the penetration of the solution inside the coatings.

Two different effects were pointed out: an increase of the porosity induced by carbon addition and a galvanic action between zinc and carbon pigments. The performance of the powder coatings, strongly improved if the carbon amount is sufficient, was compared to the one reported for solvent-based zinc-rich paints.     

TD-SCDMA系统下行波束赋形技术研究

TD-SCDMA系统最重要的技术特征是智能天线技术,智能天线技术的核心是下行波束赋形。综合考虑了干扰和噪声对移动台的影响,模拟了在不同信道环境下的基于最小均方误差准则的理想波束赋形算法及其实现方法,并对算法进行了性能仿真,分析结论并说明系统性能的改善。     

小脑模型神经网络控制器在天线跟踪指向控制中的应用

分析了天线跟踪指向控制系统的特点和影响系统跟踪性能的主要因素,建立了系统数学模型。根据系统特点,给出了小脑模型神经网络控制器(CMAC)和PID相结合的复合自适应控制方法的设计过程,并分析了该算法适用于天线跟踪指向控制系统的优势。该方法利用传统的PID控制,结合CMAC神经网络算法的快速自学习、精确逼近的优点,既满足了天线跟踪指向控制系统快速实时跟踪的要求,又提高了跟踪精度和跟踪平稳性。仿真结果表明,该方法对摩擦力矩有很好的抑制作用,跟踪精度较单独采用PID控制提高一个数量级,且输出稳定,具有较强的鲁棒性。