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Abstract Catalyst layer structural changes in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells have significant impact on the cell performance and durability. In this study, ex-situ experiments are designed to investigate the effect of humidity and/or thermal cycles on the structural changes of catalyst layers. The relative humidity and temperature are controlled by an environmental chamber and the catalyst layer structure is characterized by scanning electron microscopy and optical microscopy. The experimental results indicate that crack growth and development, catalyst agglomerate detachment, and surface bulges are the main structural changes of the catalyst layers. Applying relative humidity and thermal cycling simultaneously causes the most significant crack growth, while applying thermal cycling alone causes no appreciable changes. This indicates that the absolute humidity is the key parameter for the crack growth. Through cyclic voltammetry analysis, it is shown that the electrochemical active surface area decreases from 64.1 m2 g−1 to 49.1 m2 g−1 after 500 combined relative humidity and thermal cycles. Analyses of electrochemical impedance spectroscopy show that the charge transfer resistance and ohmic resistance increase significantly after 500 combined relative humidity and thermal cycles, causing the cell performance degradation.

CFD predictions of laminar mixed convection of Al2O3–water nanofluids by single-phase and three different two-phase models (volume of fluid, mixture, Eulerian) are compared. The elliptical, coupled, steady-state, three-dimensional governing partial differential equations for laminar mixed convection in a horizontal tube with uniform heat flux are solved numerically using the finite volume approach. It is found that single-phase and two-phase models predict almost identical hydrodynamic fields but very different thermal ones. The predictions by the three two-phase models are essentially the same. For the problem under consideration the two-phase models give closer predictions of the convective heat transfer coefficient to the experimental data than the single-phase model; nevertheless, the two-phase models over-predict the enhancement of the convective heat transfer coefficient resulting from the increase of the alumina volume fraction. The results are calculated for two Reynolds numbers (1050 and 1600) and three nanoparticle volume concentrations (<2%). Although single-phase and two-phase models have been used before to analyze mixed convection of nanofluids, this is the first systematic comparison of their predictions for a laminar mixed convection flow which includes the hydrodynamic characteristics and the effect of temperature dependent properties.

The inhalation toxicity of an ethanol-gasoline mixture was investigated in rats. Groups of 15 male and 15 female rats were exposed by inhalation to 6130 ppm ethanol, 500 ppm gasoline or a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline (by volume, 6130 ppm ethanol and 500 ppm gasoline), 6 h a day, 5 days per week for 4 weeks. Control rats of both genders received HEPA/charcoal-filtered room air. Ten males and ten females from each group were killed after 4 weeks of treatment and the remaining rats were exposed to filtered room air for an additional 4 weeks to determine the reversibility of toxic injuries. Female rats treated with the mixture showed growth suppression, which was reversed after 4 weeks of recovery. Increased kidney weight and elevated liver microsomal ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) activity, urinary ascorbic acid, hippuric acid and blood lymphocytes were observed and most of the effects were associated with gasoline exposure. Combined exposure to ethanol and gasoline appeared to exert an additive effect on growth suppression. Inflammation of the upper respiratory tract was observed only in the ethanol-gasoline mixture groups, and exposure to either ethanol and gasoline had no effect on the organ, suggesting that an irritating effect was produced when the two liquids were mixed. Morphology in the adrenal gland was characterized by vacuolation of the cortical area. Although histological changes were generally mild in male and female rats and were reversed after 4 weeks, the changes tended to be more severe in male rats. Brain biogenic amine levels were altered in ethanol- and gasoline-treated groups; their levels varied with respect to gender and brain region. Although no general interactions were observed in the brain neurotransmitters, gasoline appeared to suppress dopamine concentrations in the nucleus accumbens region co-exposed to ethanol. It was concluded that treatment with ethanol and gasoline, at the levels studied, produced mild, reversible biochemical hematological and histological effects, with some indications of interactions when they were co-administered.

Co-simulation of heterogeneous systems allows for in-depth analysis of various aspects of power systems’ operation while staying within the environments of the simulation tools that are best fit to represent their respective domains. Equipped with a proprietary co-simulation platform, the paper focuses on the issue of power-conjugate coupling between parts of power grids modeled in transient stability and electromagnetic transient simulation tools. The problems of co-simulation stability and precision in presence of delays are tackled by means of designing a proper coupling interface. It is shown that two established interface methods – the V-I method and the Transmission Line Interface – are special cases of a generalized interface framework proposed in the paper. Moreover, a new interface algorithm is described by parametrizing the generalized framework. Analytical tools are also formulated to aid in the analysis of interface stability and precision via the concepts of passivity and transparency. Simulation results of benchmark systems of various complexity demonstrate the application of the developed power coupling interface.

Abstract In this paper, energy and exergy analyses of the geothermal-based hydrogen production via thermochemical water decomposition using a new, four-step copper–chlorine (Cu–Cl) cycle are conducted, and the respective cycle energy and exergy efficiencies are examined. Also, a parametric study is performed to investigate how each step of the cycle and its overall cycle performance are affected by reference environment temperatures, reaction temperatures, as well as energy efficiency of the geothermal power plant itself. As a result, overall energy and exergy efficiencies of the cycle are found to be 21.67% and 19.35%, respectively, for a reference case.

Abstract Hydrogen fuel cells are received increasingly wide attention in order to develop green ships and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the field of waterway transportation. Metal hydrides (MHs) can be used to store hydrogen for green ships due to their high volumetric storage capacity and safety. Various measures should be considered in the design and manufacture process of the MH reactor to strengthen its performance of heat and mass transfer and obtain an acceptable hydrogen storage capacity. In this work, LaNi5 hydride is used as the hydrogen storage material and packed in the reactor. A basic axisymmetric numerical model for the hydrogen storage system without a heat exchanger has been developed and proved to be effective through the comparison between its simulation results and the published data during dehydriding. A hybrid heat exchanger, which is consisted of a phase change material (PCM) jacket and a coiled-tube, has been applied into the hydrogen storage system to relieve the thermal effect of MH in the dehydriding process on system performance. Effects of the heat transfer coefficient between the circulating heating water in the coil-tube and the MH bed, the temperature of circulating heating water and the pressure at the outlet on the dehydriding performance have been investigated. Based on parametric study, the relationships among the average dehydriding rate, the heat transfer coefficient, the heating water temperature and the outlet pressure have been found and fitted as simple equations. These fitted equations can be considered as a reference, which provides an important method to effectively control the dehydriding rate in order to satisfy the fuel requirement of the power unit and ensure the safe navigation of green ships in the future.

The nonlinear modulation of water wave groups is investigated and the interaction equations with induced flows are obtained. The analysis is performed up to the third order of the wave steepness aκ∼e by treating it as a small parameter in the singular perturbation technique by means of the Krylov-Bogoliubov-Mitropolski method. The equation which governs the development of the wave envelope is found by a modification of the ordinary nonlinear Schroedinger equation for the case of uniform depth. The equations governing the behavior of the induced mean flow are examined by deriving the second order flow when the form of the modulated wave train is prescribed. The present theory can describe the mean flow caused by the radiation stress. Some applications containing the monochromatic wave instability are given to confirm the theoretical results.

This paper reports volt-time characteristics of air and air mixture with 1% SF6 additive for a 1.25 5.2 cm coaxial-cylinder gap. The surge voltages used included waveshapes of 0. 260 Ps, 1.25660 ps impulse voltages as well as 1511200 ps, 275/2500 , us switching surge voltages. The experimental pressure ranged from 100 to 500 kPa (absolute) Additional tests were conducted using rod-shpere gaps in dry air and nitrogen. For steep-fronted impulses the breakdown values decreased with increasing the rate of rise of voltage. The effect depended upon the polarity of the voltage, the pressure, and the nature of the gas.