Experimental study and simulation of the residual activity induced by high-energy argon ions in copper

The paper presents new experimental results and FLUKA-simulations of residual activation induced by high-energy argon ions in copper. It follows the previous residual activation studies performed at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt with uranium ions as a preparatory work for constructing the FAIR facility. Copper samples were irradiated by 1 GeV/u and 500 MeV/u ⁴⁰Ar ions and investigated by gamma-ray spectroscopy. The samples were irradiated in the stacked-foil geometry. The isotopes with dominating contribution to the total residual activity were identified and their partial activities were quantified. Depth-profiling of the partial residual activities of all identified isotopes was performed by measurements of individual target foils. The experimental results were compared with simulations by the FLUKA-code. A satisfactory agreement between the experiment and the simulations was observed.     

Thin film getter coatings for the GSI heavy-ion synchrotron upgrade

For the future project the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) at GSI, an accelerator system with a base pressure of 10⁻¹⁰ Pa is required. The low pressure is needed to reduce the charge exchange rate between the accelerated ions and the residual gas molecules and therefore to increase the ion beam lifetime. Among the different measures undertaken to upgrade the existing UHV system, the installation of non-evaporable getter (NEG)-coated dipole and quadrupole chambers is foreseen. For this purpose a licence agreement for the non-evaporable thin film getters was signed between GSI and CERN in the end of June 2005.A new dedicated magnetron sputtering facility was designed and commissioned at GSI to perform the Ti-Zr-V coating on the dipole chambers of the heavy-ion synchrotron (SIS 18).Those pipes, made from stainless steel, have an elliptical cross section, are 3 m long, and are characterised by a wall thickness of 0.3 mm and a 15° bending angle.The characterisation of the thin films produced has been carried out by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and elastic recoil detection analysis (ERDA) for the chemical composition, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the morphology, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for the activation behaviour.The coating facility, its operating mode, and the first results obtained on the NEG characterisation by means of the different techniques will be described.     

AERODYNAMIC OPTIMIZATION FOR TURBINE BLADE BASED ON HIERARCHICAL FAIR COMPETITION GENETIC ALGORITHMS WITH DYNAMIC NICHE

A global optimization approach to turbine blade design based on hierarchical fair competition genetic algorithms with dynamic niche (HFCDN-GAs) coupled with Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation is presented. In order to meet the search theory of GAs and the aerodynamic performances of turbine, Bezier curve is adopted to parameterize the turbine blade profile, and a fitness function pertaining to optimization is designed. The design variables are the control points' ordinates of characteristic polygon of Bezier curve representing the turbine blade profile. The object function is the maximum lift-drag ratio of the turbine blade. The constraint conditions take into account the leading and trailing edge metal angle, and the strength and aerodynamic performances of turbine blade. And the treatment method of the constraint conditions is the flexible penalty function. The convergence history of test function indicates that HFCDN-GAs can locate the global optimum within a few search steps and have high robustness. The lift-drag ratio of the optimized blade is 8.3% higher than that of the original one. The results show that the proposed global optimization approach is effective for turbine blade.     

Digitale Zwillinge in der Bioprozesstechnik – Chancen und Möglichkeiten

The digitalization of processes is one of the currently dominating topics and missions in both industrial production and scientific research. In biotechnology, these efforts have enormous potential to optimize existing bioprocesses or to develop new bioprocesses for upcoming challenges. In this review, the state-of-art of digitalization in bioprocess engineering is considered, the terms digital twin and digital shadow are characterized, and an outlook on future Lab 4.0 concepts is given.