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The paper presents an experimental study on the formation process of burden surface texture on the blast furnace throat and its influence on the radial distribution of gas flow. The study was performed with the application of blast furnaces equipped with a bell-type charging device using radio-isotope means for the control of burden surface texture (profile) and burden surface level, i.e., gamma locators for burden surface texture. The study was carried out under the conditions of an operating blast furnace in an iron and steel plant using a unique GEOTAPS system for automated control of geometric and temperature parameters of burden material surface on the blast furnace throat. The influence of the surface texture on the gas flow distribution was also investigated. The possibility of a self-stabilization effect for burden surface texture and gas flow in an operating blast furnace under suitable conditions was experimentally proven. As a result of the experimental study performed, four ways of energy-saving technology implementation were determined for the control of blast furnace melting based on the data on the burden surface texture and previously unknown regularities of surface layer formation of burden material on the throat of an operating blast furnace with a bell-type charging device. The main idea of the paper is the development of automated control for the radial distribution of burden material and gas flow using actual or predicted surface texture parameters as important intermediate factors that both describe the process and have a significant simultaneous influence on it.

Most of the world’s mountain glaciers have been retreating for more than a century in response to climate change. Glacier retreat is evident on all continents, and the rate of retreat has accelerated during recent decades. Accurate, spatially explicit information on the position of glacier margins over time is useful for analyzing patterns of glacier retreat and measuring reductions in glacier surface area. This information is also essential for evaluating how mountain ecosystems are evolving due to climate warming and the attendant glacier retreat. Here, we present a non-comprehensive spatially explicit dataset showing multiple positions of glacier fronts since the Little Ice Age (LIA) maxima, including many data from the pre-satellite era. The dataset is based on multiple historical archival records including topographical maps; repeated photographs, paintings, and aerial or satellite images with a supplement of geochronology; and own field data. We provide ESRI shapefiles showing 728 past positions of 94 glacier fronts from all continents, except Antarctica, covering the period between the Little Ice Age maxima and the present. On average, the time series span the past 190 years. From 2 to 46 past positions per glacier are depicted (on average: 7.8).

AbstractEnhancing the efficiency of the electric vehicle’s powertrain becomes a crucial focus, wherein the control system for the traction motor plays a significant role. This paper presents a novel electric vehicle traction motor control system based on a robust predictive direct torque control approach, an improved version of the conventional DTC, where the traditional switching table and the hysteresis regulators are substituted with a predictive block based on an optimization algorithm. Additionally, a robust predictive speed loop regulator is employed instead of the proportional-integral regulator, which integrates a new cost function with a finite horizon, incorporating integral action into the control law based on a Taylor series expansion. This technique’s primary benefit is its independence from the necessity to measure and observe external disturbances, as well as uncertainties related to parameters. The effectiveness of the suggested system was confirmed through simulation and experimental results under the OPAL-RT platform. The findings indicate that the proposed approach outperforms the conventional method in terms of rejecting disturbances, exhibiting robustness to variations in parameters, and minimizing torque ripple.

The basic requirements for materials of modern fortifications are established and substantiated. It is established that concrete of such structures should have high strength under the influence of static loads and low modulus of deformations. To ensure the required deformability, you must use dampers. A quantitative characteristic of reinforcing steel at dynamic dynamic loads is the dynamic strengthening coefficient, which shows the growth of dynamic strength in comparison with static.