Structural silicone sealants after exposure to laboratory test for durability assessment

During the service life of structural sealant glazing (SSG) facades, the load-bearing capacity of the silicone bonds needs to be guaranteed. Laboratory tests can assess the durability of SSG-systems based on mechanical characteristics of the bond after simultaneous exposure to both climatic and mechanical loads. This article studies how the material characteristics of two common structural sealants are affected by laboratory and field exposure. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) confirms a reduction in the dynamic modulus of exposed silicone samples. Results from thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and small-angle X-ray scattering/wide-angle X-ray scattering show differences between the two sealants and indicate no/minor changes in the composition and morphology of the laboratory and field exposed sealants. Mechanical characterization methods, such as DMA, and tensile and shear testing of the structural bond, are shown to be sensitive toward the combined climatic and mechanical loadings, and are hence suitable for studying degradation mechanisms of structural sealants.     

Structural analysis and optimization of a tethered swept wing for airborne wind energy generation

In this paper, we present an aero‐structural model of a tethered swept wing for airborne wind energy generation. The carbon composite wing has neither fuselage nor actuated aerodynamic control surfaces and is controlled entirely from the ground using three separate tethers. The computational model is efficient enough to be used for weight optimisation at the initial design stage. The main load‐bearing wing component is a nontypical “D”‐shaped wing‐box, which is represented as a slender carbon composite shell and further idealised as a stack of two‐dimensional cross section models arranged along an anisotropic one‐dimensional beam model. This reduced 2+1D finite element model is then combined with a nonlinear vortex step method that determines the aerodynamic load. A bridle model is utilised to calculate the individual forces as a function of the aerodynamic load in the bridle lines that connect the main tether to the wing. The entire computational model is used to explore the influence of the bride on the D‐box structure. Considering a reference D‐box design along with a reference aerodynamic load case, the structural response is analysed for typical bridle configurations. Subsequently, an optimisation of the internal geometry and laminate fibre orientations is carried out using the structural computation models, for a fixed aerodynamic and bridle configuration. Aiming at a minimal weight of the wing structure, we find that for the typical load case of the system, an overall weight savings of approximately 20% can be achieved compared with the initial reference design.     

社交网络中基于网络结构支撑模型的谣言传播研究

结合结构支撑理论，探究节点网络结构支持力的一些性质，提出了社交网络结构中的全网支持力和被支持力的总量一致性，并进一步提出计算节点支持力的方法。谣言作为特殊信息，在支持力不同节点之间的传播特性有所不同，借鉴随机游走模型中的PageRank计算方法，对不同节点支持力的谣言传播以及传播后的辟谣状况进行了仿真模拟，结果表明支持力不同的节点对于谣言传播和辟谣影响明显。     

RESERVOIR PROPERTIES OF BARREMIAN – APTIAN URGONIAN LIMESTONES,SE FRANCE,PART 1: INFLUENCE OF STRUCTURAL HISTORY ON POROSITY-PERMEABILITY VARIATIONS

Upper Barremian – Lower Aptian inner platform “Urgonian” limestones in the Mont de Vaucluse region, SE France, consist of alternating metre-scale microporous and tight intervals. This paper focuses on the influence of structural deformation on the reservoir properties of the Urgonian limestone succession in a study area near the town of Rustrel. Petrographic, petrophysical and structural data were recovered from five fully-cored boreholes, from the walls of a 100 m long underground tunnel, and from a 50 m long transect at a nearby outcrop. The data allowed reservoir property variations in the Urgonian limestones to be studied from core to reservoir scale. Eleven Reservoir Rock Types (RRTs) were identified based on petrographic features (texture, grain size), reservoir properties (porosity, permeability), and the frequency of structural discontinuities such as fractures, faults and stylolites. Tight and microporous reservoir rock types were distinguished. Tight reservoir rock types were characterised by early cementation of intergranular pore spaces and by the presence of frequent structural discontinuities. By contrast microporous reservoir rock types contained preserved intragranular microporosity and matrix permeability, but had very few structural discontinuities. Observed vertical alternations of microporous and tight rock types are interpreted to have been controlled by the early diagenesis of the Urgonian carbonates. Deformation associated with regional-scale tectonic phases, including Albian – Cenomanian “Durancian” uplift (∼105 to 96 Ma) and Pyrenean compression (∼55 to 25 Ma), resulted in the modification of the initial petrophysical properties of the Urgonian limestones. An early diagenetic imprint conditioned both the intensity of structural deformations and the associated circulations of diagenetic and meteoric fluids. Evolution of the Reservoir Rock Types is therefore linked both to the depositional conditions and to subsequent phases of structural deformation.     

Effects of structural parameters on water film properties of transpiring wall reactor

Corrosion and salt deposition problems severely restrict the industrialization of supercritical water oxidation. Transpiring wall reactor can effectively weaken these two problems by a protective water film. In this work, methanol was selected as organic matter, and the influences of vital structural parameters on water film properties and organic matter removal were studied via numerical simulation. The results indicate that higher than 99% of methanol conversion could be obtained and hardly affected by transpiration water layer, transpiring wall porosity and inner diameter. Increasing layer and porosity reduced reactor center temperature, but inner diameter's influence was lower relatively. Water film temperature reduced but coverage rate raised as layer, porosity, and inner diameter increased. Notably, the whole reactor was in supercritical state and coverage rate was only approximately 85% in the case of one layer. Increasing reactor length affected slightly the volume of the upper supercritical zone but enlarged the subcritical zone.     

Evolution of Local Structural Ordering and Chemical Distribution upon Delithiation of a Rock Salt–Structured Li1.3Ta0.3Mn0.4O2 Cathode

Lithium‐rich disordered rock‐salt oxides have attracted great interest owing to their promising performance as Li‐ion battery cathodes. While experimental and theoretical efforts are critical in advancing this class of materials, a fundamental understanding of key property changes upon Li extraction is largely missing. In the present study, single‐crystal synthesis of a new disordered rock‐salt cathode material, Li_1.3Ta_0.3Mn_0.4O₂ (LTMO), and its use as a model compound to investigate Li concentration–driven evolution of local cationic ordering, charge compensation, and chemical distribution are reported. Through the combined use of 2D and 3D X‐ray nanotomography, it is shown that Li removal accompanied by oxygen oxidation is correlated with the development of morphological defects such as particle cracking. Chemical heterogeneity, quantified by subparticle level distribution of Mn valence state, is minimal during Mn redox, which drastically increases upon the formation of cracks during oxygen redox. Density functional theory and bond valence sum mismatch calculations reveal the presence of local short‐range ordering in the pristine oxide, which gradually disappears along with the extraction of Li. The study suggests that with cycling the transformation into true cation–disordered state can be expected, which likely impacts the voltage profile and obtainable energy density of the oxide cathodes.     

An interpretative structural modeling based network reconfiguration strategy for power systems

The network reconfiguration is an important stage of restoring a power system after a complete blackout or a local outage. Reasonable planning of the network reconfiguration procedure is essential for rapidly restoring the power system concerned. An approach for evaluating the importance of a line is first proposed based on the line contraction concept. Then, the interpretative structural modeling (ISM) is employed to analyze the relationship among the factors having impacts on the network reconfiguration. The security and speediness of restoring generating units are considered with priority, and a method is next proposed to select the generating unit to be restored by maximizing the restoration benefit with both the generation capacity of the restored generating unit and the importance of the line in the restoration path considered. Both the start-up sequence of generating units and the related restoration paths are optimized together in the proposed method, and in this way the shortcomings of separately solving these two issues in the existing methods are avoided. Finally, the New England 10-unit 39-bus power system and the Guangdong power system in South China are employed to demonstrate the basic features of the proposed method.     

CYLINDRICAL AND CONICAL FOLD GEOMETRIES IN THE CANTARELL STRUCTURE, SOUTHERN GULF OF MEXICO: IMPLICATIONS FOR HYDROCARBON EXPLORATION

The NW‐SE trending Cantarell structure in the Gulf of Campeche hosts the largest oilfield in Mexico. The oil occurs predominantly in latest Cretaceous – earliest Tertiary breccias with subsidiary reserves in Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian and Kimmeridgian) and Lower Cretaceous oolitic and partially dolomitized limestones, dolomites and shaly limestones. Cantarell has been interpreted both as a fold‐and‐thrust zone and as a dextral transpressional structure. Analysis of structure contours at 100m intervals, on the tops of the Tertiary breccia and the Kimmeridgian (Upper Jurassic) dolomite, indicates that the structure is an upright cylindrical fold with gently plunging conical terminations; there is also a conical portion in the central part of the structure. The axes of the central, NW and SE cones are subvertical. This geometry indicates that the two fold terminations and the central cone are aprons rather than points, with the NW and central cone axes intersecting the cylindrical fold axis at the point where the geometry switches from conical to cylindrical. The apical angle (i.e. the angle between the fold and cone axes) varies as follows: (i) in the NW cone, it is ～70° in the breccia and ～76° in the Kimmeridgian dolomite; (ii) in the central cone, it is ～77° in the breccia and ～73° in the Kimmeridgian dolomite; and (iii) in the SE cone, it is ～64° in the breccia and ～57° in the Kimmeridgian dolomite. This indicates that whereas the fold opens with depth in the NW cone, it tightens with depth in the central and SE cones. Assuming a parallel fold geometry, these apical angles indicate an increase in volume in the NW cone (i.e. larger hydrocarbon reservoirs), compared to the central and SE cones. Theoretical considerations indicate that the curvature increases dramatically towards the point of the cone. In the case of the Cantarell structure, the apices of the cones are located at the conical‐cylindrical fold junctions, where the highest curvature may have resulted in a higher degree of fracturing. The coincidence of maximum curvature and the intersection of the conical and cylindrical fold axes in the fold culminations with porous and permeable reservoir rocks may have made these locations favourable for the accumulation of hydrocarbons.