Analysis and proposition of limiting current density measurement protocol

Limiting current density at different temperatures, backpressures, and balance gases can be used to separate molecular diffusion resistance, Knudsen diffusion resistance and local transport resistance of membrane electrode assembly (MEA). However, the measurement of limiting current density has no unified protocol. The diverse choices in the literature, either in the control of current or voltage or in the atmosphere like relative humidity and O₂ concentrations, make it difficult to compare the results and identify the true bottleneck hindering the mass transport. In this work, the current-voltage curves obtained by current scanning/stepping and voltage scanning/stepping methods under dilute O₂ of different concentrations and a wide range of relative humidity were measured and analyzed systematically. It is found that the voltage stepping method is superior to the other three ways of control for the reliable determination of the limiting current density. Aided with simultaneous electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement, the limiting current density can be determined with pinpoint accuracy. When the limiting current density is just used to qualitatively evaluate different MEA, the voltage scanning method can be used instead for its high time efficiency. The selection of the atmosphere also plays an important role in suppressing the distortion from excessive water and reducing the spurious contribution from proton conduction resistance. It is found that O₂ concentrations at 0.5 vol% and relative humidity at 90% can give the best estimation of O₂ transport resistance in membrane electrode assembly.     

Manufacturing catalyst-coated membranes by ultrasonic spray deposition for PEMFC: Identification of key parameters and their impact on PEMFC performance

This study deals with the manufacturing of catalyst-coated membranes (CCMs) for newcomers in the field of coating. Although there are many studies on electrode ink composition for improving the performance of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), there are few papers dealing with electrode coating itself. Usually, it is a know-how that often remains secret and constitutes the added value of scientific teams or the business of industrialists. In this paper, we identify and clarify the role of key parameters to improve coating quality and also to correlate coating quality with fuel cell performance via polarization curves and electrochemical active surface area measurements. We found that the coating configurations can affect the performance of lab-made CCMs in PEMFCs. After the repeatability of the performance obtained by our coating method has been proved, we show that: (i) edge effects, due to mask shadowing - cannot be neglected when the active surface area is low, (ii) a heterogeneous thickness electrode produces performance lower than a homogeneous thickness electrode, and (iii) the origin and storage of platinum on carbon powders are a very important source of variability in the obtained results.     

Ultrasonic tomographic velocimeter for visualization of axial flow fields in pipes

An ultrasonic tomographic velocimeter to provide quantitative images of axial flow fields in pipes is developed and presented in this work. To detect the flow in various directions and positions, a novel transducer configuration strategy is proposed. All-in-one transducers are mounted in two sectional planes of the pipe. In each plane, N transducers are equally spaced along the circumference. Overlapped propagation paths are introduced by the configuration strategy, and the influence of the vortex flow can be eliminated theoretically by averaging the line velocities of the overlapped paths. To achieve a fast detection speed, the projection data is collected via an electrical scan in a fan-beam mode. After rearrangement and interpolation of the projection data, the parallel beam filtered back projection (FBP) algorithm is implemented to reconstruct the axial flow field. Numerical simulations with the theoretical velocity profiles were performed. The compensation method for the vortex flow is proved to be effective and necessary, and the number of transducers required for reconstruction of common flow profiles was estimated. Accordingly, an ultrasonic tomographic velocimeter consisting of 2×12 transducers was fabricated. Experiments were conducted in the straight pipe and downstream of a single bend pipe and compared with the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results. As demonstrated, the ultrasonic tomographic velocimeter was capable of visualizing both symmetric and asymmetric axial flow fields with high reliability.     

An experimental study of adaptive control for evolutionary algorithms

In this paper, we investigate how adaptive operator selection techniques are able to efficiently manage the balance between exploration and exploitation in an evolutionary algorithm, when solving combinatorial optimization problems. We introduce new high level reactive search strategies based on a generic algorithm's controller that is able to schedule the basic variation operators of the evolutionary algorithm, according to the observed state of the search. Our experiments on SAT instances show that reactive search strategies improve the performance of the solving algorithm.     

A novel fast distance relay for series compensated transmission lines

This paper presents a fast distance relay for series compensated transmission lines based on the R–L differential-equation algorithm using the theory of equal transfer process of transmission lines. The measuring distances based on the proposed algorithm can fast approach the actual value of fault distance when a fault occurs in front of the series capacitor. When a fault occurs behind of the series capacitor, the fault loop, including the series capacitor, does not match the R–L transmission line model, so the measuring distances fluctuate severely. Based on this, the relative position of the fault with respect to the series capacitor can be judged effectively according to the fluctuation range of the measuring distances, and the accurate fault location can be obtained fast. A variety of PSCAD/EMTDC simulation tests show that the new relay has fast operating speed and high accuracy when applied to the long series compensated transmission lines.     

A new numerical algorithm to check the observability and bad-data processing ability of the metering scheme

This paper provides a unified approach for the optimization of measurements placements employed for power system online monitoring through state estimation. The proposed methodology, which can be suitable for the mixed measure system, preserves state estimation observability and bad-data processing capability by employing numerical algorithms for observability checking, critical measurements and critical couple identification. First, node injection radix measurements and measurement categories are defined. According to the above definitions, the coefficient matrix can be solved. The analysis on the column vectors of the coefficient matrix can determine each measurement classification. Furthermore, the numbers of each measurement class contains can determine bad-data processing capability. The observability can be checked by the type number of measurements. The proposed method is illustrated with the IEEE39-bus system and the IEEE118-bus system. Results from the case studies are presented to demonstrate that the approach adequately fulfills the desired properties related to observability, bad-data processing, cost, and robustness.     

A review on ultrasonic spot welding of copper alloys

As a solid state joining process, ultrasonic spot welding has been proven to be a promising technique for joining copper alloys. However, challenges still remain in employing ultrasonic spot welding to join copper alloys. This article comprehensively reviews the current state of ultrasonic spot welding of copper alloys with a number of critical issues including materials flow, plastic deformation, temperature distribution, vibration, relative motion, vertical displacement, interface friction coefficient, online monitoring technique, coupled with the macrostructure and microstructure, the mechanical properties and electrical conductivity. In addition, the future trends in this field are provided.     

Models for solar radiation prediction based on different measurement sites

The modeling of solar radiation for forecasting its availability is a key tool for managing photovoltaic (PV) plants and, hence, is of primary importance for energy production in a smart grid scenario. However, the variability of the weather phenomena is an unavoidable obstacle in the prediction of the energy produced by the solar radiation conversion. The use of the data collected in the past can be useful to capture the daily and seasonal variability, while measurement of the recent past can be exploited to provide a short term prediction. It is well known that a good measurement of the solar radiation requires not only a high class radiometer, but also a correct management of the instrument. In order to reduce the cost related to the management of the monitoring apparatus, a solution could be to evaluate the PV plant performance using data collected by public weather station installed near the plant. In this paper, two experiments are conducted. In the first, the plausibility of the short term prediction of the solar radiation, based on data collected in the near past on the same site is investigated. In the second experiment, the same prediction is operated using data collected by a public weather station located at ten kilometers from the solar plant. Several prediction techniques belonging from both computational intelligence and statistical fields have been challenged in this task. In particular, Support Vector Machine for Regression, Extreme Learning Machine and Autoregressive models have been used and compared with the persistence and the k-NN predictors. The prediction accuracy achieved in the two experimental conditions are then compared and the results are discussed.     

Time-series clustering – A decade review

Clustering is a solution for classifying enormous data when there is not any early knowledge about classes. With emerging new concepts like cloud computing and big data and their vast applications in recent years, research works have been increased on unsupervised solutions like clustering algorithms to extract knowledge from this avalanche of data. Clustering time-series data has been used in diverse scientific areas to discover patterns which empower data analysts to extract valuable information from complex and massive datasets. In case of huge datasets, using supervised classification solutions is almost impossible, while clustering can solve this problem using un-supervised approaches. In this research work, the focus is on time-series data, which is one of the popular data types in clustering problems and is broadly used from gene expression data in biology to stock market analysis in finance. This review will expose four main components of time-series clustering and is aimed to represent an updated investigation on the trend of improvements in efficiency, quality and complexity of clustering time-series approaches during the last decade and enlighten new paths for future works.     

Process and joint quality of ultrasonic vibration enhanced friction stir lap welding

In order to improve the process effectiveness and joint quality, ultrasonic vibrations were integrated with friction stir lap welding. Effect of ultrasonic exertion on the process and joint quality of AA 6061-T6 were investigated. Upon ultrasonic exertion, joints owned larger effective lap width, shorter hooks and improved strength. Weld fracture mode changed from a ductile–brittle mixed mode to a more ductile mode while the fracture path shifted from lap interface to beyond the stir zone. Material flow and interface defects were characterised using lap welded dissimilar aluminium alloy joints. Ultrasonic vibration improved the material flow and reduced the interfacial defects. Variations in failure load of joints were found in accordance with the variations in material flow and interfacial defects.