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Experimental investigation into the effects of different pilot amounts of dimethyl ether (DME) on the performance and emission of a single-cylinder directinjection DME engine is conducted. The results show that a DME engine can operate at a wider range of speeds and loads at quasi-homogenous charge compression ignition (QHCCI) mode. The brake thermal efficiency increases while the exhaust temperature decreases. NOx emission decreases by about 30%–50% although there is a slight increase in HC and CO emissions. NOx, HC and CO emissions increase with an increase in the amount of DME pilot. QHCCI is a good way to increase thermal efficiency and decrease NOx emission.

Abstract Predicting and optimizing radiative thermal properties have been acknowledged as an efficient way to improve thermal insulation performance of fibrous materials with high porosity. Based on experimental investigation of infrared spectral of ultrafine fibrous insulations with diameters of 520–650 nm, a method of calculating radiative thermal properties was presented by combining Rosseland equation, Mie scattering theory, Beer’s law and Subtractive Kramers–Kronig (SKK) relation. To ensure the calculation correct the uniqueness analysis was performed for Poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) fibers, which indicated the valid fiber diameter was less than 1.06 μm. The calculated thermal radiative conductivities by using the method agreed well with the measured data. The effect of fiber diameter on the thermal properties of the fibrous insulations was also investigated to minimize the radiative thermal conductivity. The results indicated that the minimized radiative thermal conductivities by regulating fiber diameters could be approximately 25% smaller than those for experimental fiber diameters. The method of predicting and minimizing radiative thermal conductivities of fibrous insulations demonstrated in this paper could be of great advantage to thermal engineering applications aiming to reducing heat loss and saving energy.

Reactive power consumption of the modern power system is a very important problem that to solve well. Due to the line commutated current source converter-based (LCC) HVDC system is a multivariable and strong coupling nonlinear system, it is difficult to model reactive power consumption of receiving end of LCC-HVDC by traditional analysis method. This paper proposes the reactive power consumption model of receiving end of LCC-HVDC on account of the radial basis function (RBF) neural network. The model with the turn-off angle for input, with reactive power loss on the inverter side of LCC-HVDC for output, using 500kV, 1000MW LCC-HVDC system PSCAD simulation test data training RBF neural network and testing network generalization ability. The results indicate that the reactive power loss model on account of the RBF neural network has much faster convergence speed and higher convergence precision.

AbstractMembrane Technology and Research, Inc. has proposed a hybrid system combining amine scrubbing with membrane technology to reduce energy cost. Previous studies of CO2 absorption mainly focused on coal-fired flue gas with 12% CO2. However, in the hybrid process, the CO2 in the flue gas can be enriched to 20%. Natural gas turbines will have flue gas with as little as 3% CO2。 Based on the arrangement, the hybrid amine/membrane system provides a gas to the system that has double the CO2 concentration of normal flue gas, reduces the volume of gas sent to the capture unit, or reduces the removal requirements for the capture unit.The objective of this work is to minimize the total energy use of stripping concentrated piperazine (PZ) at rich loading when treating flue gas from 3 to 20% inlet CO2. The base-case stripping configuration is the advanced flash stripper with warm rich bypass and cold rich exchanger bypass. . This configuration includes two split cross-exchangers in series, a convective steam heater, a smaller stripper column, a low residence time flash tank, and stripping at high temperature to produce CO2 at 5 to 17bar. Rich loading in 5 and 8m PZ was varied from 0.37 to 0.43mol CO2/mol N. For each rich loading, lean loading was optimized to minimize the total equivalent work. The “Independence” model for PZ in Aspen Plus® was used to simulate the stripping performance.Because 5m PZ has a lower viscosity than 8m PZ, it can achieve a reduced approach temperature in the cross exchanger. The total energy performance for 5m PZ is practically the same as 8m PZ, even though the capacity of 5m PZ is lower. Significantly more energy is required to regenerate solvents with lower rich loading. As CO2 rich loading increases, the equivalent work requirement decreases for the same loading difference between rich and lean.Stripping data for 24 cases, including heat duty, equivalent work, CO2 output pressure, and optimal cold and warm rich bypass were used to build a correlation with CO2 rich and lean loading. The Second Law efficiency based on the ratio of stripping minimum work and total ideal work was introduced to make the most of stripping work. The Second Law efficiency has a maximum value at a specific CO2 loading.

Abstract Transient thermal behaviors of ultra-supercritical steam turbine control valves during the cold start warm-up process of steam turbine systems were comprehensively studied using conjugate heat transfer (CHT) simulation. The geometrical configurations and boundary conditions used in simulation were identical to the field setup in a thermal power plant. The simulated temperature variations were first validated using measurements by the flush-mounted thermocouples inside the solid valve bodies. The CHT simulation implementing the shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model demonstrated good agreement with the field data, and the overall numerical errors were below 10%; however, the numerical errors of the simulation, which used empirical heat transfer coefficients at the fluid–solid interfaces, reached 40%. The determined temperature differences between the cold valve bodies with the hot steam flow decreased significantly. Specifically, the temperature differences along the inner wall surfaces of the valve bodies decreased to less than 50 °C. Further investigation of the transient heat flux distributions and Nusselt number distributions confirmed that the unsteady flow behaviors, such as the alternating oscillations of the annular wall-attached jet, the central reverse flow and the intermediate shear layer instabilities, enhanced the fluid–solid heat convection process and thus contributed to the warming up of the solid valve bodies.

Each of 4 male alcoholic subjects received 0.7 mg/kg calcium carbimide (CC) orally 12 hr before ingestion of 0.25 gm/kg ethanol on 3 separate occasions. The CC-ethanol interaction consisted of increased blood acetaldehyde level and elevated heart rate. For each individual there was small variability in the area under the curve (AUC) values of the blood ethanol level--time course profiles for the 3 experiments, indicating a consistent extent of ethanol absorption. For subjects 1, 2, and 3 there was appreciable intraindividual variability in the AUC and the peak blood acetaldehyde levels of the blood acetaldehyde level--time course curves; the variation in these parameters was small for subjects 4. The intraindividual variability in the peak heart rate response was small for subjects 1 and 2 and appreciable for subjects 3 and 4. Regression analysis of the blood acetaldehyde level--heart rate data for each of the 3 experiments conducted on the 4 subjects revealed that there were positive, linear correlations. There was appreciable intraindividual variability in the slope values for the 3 experiments. The results of this study, conducted on 4 male alcoholics, suggest that for other alcoholic subjects there could be appreciable intraindividual variability in the intensity of the CC-ethanol interaction.

Dans des scénarios réalistes, la performance dynamique d'un cluster de micro-réseaux est largement affectée par la puissance intermittente des sources d'énergie renouvelables et les changements de charge fréquents. Pour résoudre ce problème, un contrôleur secondaire à double couche basé sur le temps fixe distribué est conçu pour améliorer les performances dynamiques inter-microgrid et intra-microgrid dans un temps de stabilisation fixe. Le contrôleur proposé est indépendant des valeurs de fonctionnement initiales par opposition à la loi de contrôle à temps fini. Chaque agent global dans un micro-réseau fonctionne pour atténuer le décalage de charge entre les autres agents globaux, tandis que chaque agent local dans un micro-réseau fonctionne pour réaliser un partage de courant de charge proportionnel et une régulation de tension moyenne entre eux dans un temps fixe. Cependant, comme l'atténuation de la non-concordance de chargement dans des conditions de charge légère affecte l'efficacité du système en raison de pertes de ligne importantes, le fonctionnement du cluster passe à une approche de minimisation des pertes distribuées, qui fonctionne en utilisant des mesures en ligne des micro-réseaux voisins. Pour caractériser le mode de fonctionnement dans la cyber-couche globale, un seuil de point de chargement critique pour le cluster est ainsi déterminé. La performance du cluster utilisant la stratégie proposée est simulée dans l'environnement MATLAB/SIMULINK pour divers scénarios afin de démontrer sa fiabilité et son efficacité. En escenarios realistas, el rendimiento dinámico de un grupo de microrredes se ve afectado en gran medida por la potencia intermitente de las fuentes de energía renovables y los frecuentes cambios de carga. Para abordar este problema, un controlador secundario de doble capa basado en tiempo fijo distribuido está diseñado para mejorar el rendimiento dinámico entre microrredes y entre microrredes dentro de un tiempo de asentamiento fijo. El controlador propuesto es independiente de los valores operativos iniciales en oposición a la ley de control de tiempo finito. Cada agente global en una microrred opera para mitigar el desajuste de carga entre otros agentes globales, mientras que cada agente local en una microrred opera para lograr un reparto de corriente de carga proporcional y una regulación de voltaje promedio entre ellos en un tiempo fijo. Sin embargo, como la mitigación de la falta de coincidencia de carga durante condiciones de carga ligera afecta la eficiencia del sistema debido a pérdidas de línea significativas, la operación del clúster cambia a un enfoque de minimización de pérdidas distribuidas, que opera utilizando mediciones en línea de las microrredes vecinas. Para caracterizar el modo de operación en la capa cibernética global, se determina así un punto crítico de umbral de carga para el clúster. El rendimiento del clúster que emplea la estrategia propuesta se simula en el entorno MATLAB/SIMULINK para varios escenarios para demostrar su confiabilidad y eficiencia. In realistic scenarios, the dynamic performance of a microgrid cluster is largely affected by the intermittent power of renewable energy sources and frequent load changes. To address this issue, a distributed fixed-time based dual layer secondary controller is designed to improve inter-microgrid and intra-microgrid dynamic performance within a fixed settling time. The proposed controller is independent of initial operating values as opposed to the finite time control law. Each global agent in a microgrid operates to mitigate loading mismatch between other global agents, whereas each local agent in a microgrid operates to achieve proportionate load current sharing and average voltage regulation between them in fixed time. However, as loading mismatch mitigation during light load conditions affects the system efficiency due to significant line losses, the cluster operation switches to a distributed loss minimization approach, which operates using online measurements from the neighboring microgrids. To characterize the mode of operation in the global cyber layer, a critical point of loading threshold for the cluster is thus determined. The performance of the cluster employing the proposed strategy is simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment for various scenarios to demonstrate its reliability and efficiency. في السيناريوهات الواقعية، يتأثر الأداء الديناميكي لمجموعة الشبكات الصغيرة إلى حد كبير بالطاقة المتقطعة لمصادر الطاقة المتجددة والتغيرات المتكررة في الحمل. لمعالجة هذه المشكلة، تم تصميم وحدة تحكم ثانوية ثنائية الطبقة موزعة على أساس الوقت الثابت لتحسين الأداء الديناميكي بين الشبكات الدقيقة وداخلها في غضون وقت استقرار ثابت. وحدة التحكم المقترحة مستقلة عن قيم التشغيل الأولية بدلاً من قانون التحكم في الوقت المحدود. يعمل كل عامل عالمي في شبكة صغرى على التخفيف من عدم تطابق التحميل بين العوامل العالمية الأخرى، في حين يعمل كل عامل محلي في شبكة صغرى على تحقيق مشاركة تيار الحمل المتناسب ومتوسط تنظيم الجهد بينهما في وقت محدد. ومع ذلك، نظرًا لأن تخفيف عدم تطابق التحميل أثناء ظروف الحمل الخفيف يؤثر على كفاءة النظام بسبب الخسائر الكبيرة في الخطوط، تتحول عملية المجموعة إلى نهج تقليل الخسارة الموزعة، والذي يعمل باستخدام القياسات عبر الإنترنت من الشبكات الصغيرة المجاورة. لتوصيف طريقة التشغيل في الطبقة السيبرانية العالمية، يتم تحديد نقطة حرجة لعتبة التحميل للمجموعة. تتم محاكاة أداء المجموعة التي تستخدم الاستراتيجية المقترحة في بيئة ماتلاب/سيمولينك لسيناريوهات مختلفة لإثبات موثوقيتها وكفاءتها.

Abstract This study sought to quantify and characterize cassava waste as fuel. The wastes from three cultivars were collected to study and were divided into three distinct parts of the cassava plant: seed stem, thick stalks, and thin stalks. Physical and chemical analyzes were carried out to determine the elemental composition of the waste: volatile matter; fixed carbon; ash; moisture; lignin; cellulose; hemicellulose; ash composition and higher heating value were determined. We conducted a thermogravimetric analysis in oxidizing and inert atmospheres to study the behavior of the waste as fuel. The root productivity obtained ranged from 7.7 to 13.0 t ha−1 yr−1 on a dry basis (db), and the ratio between waste and roots varied from 0.36 to 0.91. The physical and chemical properties of cassava waste are analogous to those of woody biomass regarding the elemental composition, the higher heating value, and thermogravimetric analysis. Ash content varied from 2.5% to 3.5%, reaching around 6.0% in samples unwashed. Approximately 60% of the ashes are alkali oxides, especially P2O5, K2O, and CaO, which have low melting points. The alkali index calculated suggests that there is a strong tendency that the combustion process leads to ash fouling and the formation of ash deposits.

Flexible butyl interconnection segments are synthetically incorporated into an electronically conductive poly(pyrene methacrylate) homopolymer and its copolymer. The insertion of butyl segment makes the pyrene polymer more flexible, and can better accommodate deformation. This new class of flexible and conductive polymers can be used as a polymer binder and adhesive to facilitate the electrochemical performance of a silicon/graphene composite anode material for lithium ion battery application. They act like a “spring” to maintain the electrode mechanical and electrical integrity. High mass loading and high areal capacity, which are critical design requirements of high energy batteries, have been achieved in the electrodes composed of the novel binders and silicon/graphene composite material. A remarkable area capacity of over 5 mAh/cm2 and volumetric capacity of over 1700 Ah/L have been reached at a high current rate of 333 mA/g.