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Abstract We report all-polymer solar cells with new electron-accepting (n-type) polymer nanoparticles, poly(2,7-bis(4-hexylthiophen-2-yl)-9H-fluoren-9-one-co-benzothiadiazole) (BHTF-co-BT), which were in-situ generated during polymerization reaction. The size of the BHTF-co-BT nanoparticles was ca. 5–15 nm with a particular single X-ray diffraction peak (d-spacing=1.3 nm), indicative of a highly ordered crystalline state, while their glass transition temperature was ~140 °C. Their band gap energy and ionization potential were 1.8 eV and 5.7 eV, respectively. The possibility of the BHTF-co-BT nanoparticles as an electron acceptor for both normal-type and inverted-type all-polymer (polymer:polymer) solar cells was examined by employing poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) as an electron donor. The normal-type P3HT:BHTF-co-BT solar cells exhibited promising open circuit voltage ( V oc =0.67–0.73 V) and fill factor (FF=51.3%), while a three-fold improved short circuit current density and higher V oc (0.77 V) were achieved for their inverted-type solar cells.

Abstract In a passive nuclear plant, the main control room must provide self-support functions for 72 h after an accident occurs. In this isolation mode, the heat generated by indoor occupants and equipment should be removed by using concrete walls that are 610 mm thick, and the finned ceiling made of concrete should maintain thermal habitability. However, the finned ceiling design has not been studied in normal buildings, and the cooling storage effect of plate-shaped fins is usually ignored during the design phase. In this study, a novel parametric resistance–capacitance thermal network is proposed to simulate the thermal performance of different fin-plate layout forms in the case of an accident. An experiment was conducted on a 1200 mm × 1200 mm × 610 mm fin-concrete module for 72 h to validate the model under constant air temperature conditions. Based on the model, multi-objective optimization was conducted to obtain optimal solution sets by using a radial basis function approximation model. The results show that the optimal performance indicators can be classified into unsteady and quasi-steady states, in which the dominant factors for heat transfer include the heat transfer area and the thickness of the finned plate, respectively. Further, the optimal solution sets for different convection and heating conditions obtained through an optimization process are used to design a fin layout based on actual temperature control demands and cooling storage.

Abstract This paper highlights the load frequency control using dual mode Bat algorithm based scheduling of PI controllers for interconnected power systems. The bat inspired algorithm based on the echolocation of bats has been developed in 2010. In this study, the bat inspired algorithm based dual mode PI controller is applied to the multi-area interconnected thermal power system in order to tune the parameter PI controllers. The proposed controller is simple in structure and easy for implementation. The proposed controller was compared with those from conventional the PI controllers and Fuzzy gain scheduling of PI controllers. The simulation results show the point that the proposed bat inspired algorithm, based dual mode gain scheduling of PI controllers (BIDPI), provides better transient as well as steady state of response. It is also found that the proposed controller is less sensitive to the changes in system parameters.

Summary Past climatic fluctuations have played a major role in shaping the current plant biodiversity. Although harbouring an exceptional biota, oceanic islands have received little attention in studies on species demographic history and past vegetation patterns. We investigated the impact of past climatic changes on the effective population size of a tree (Coffea mauritiana) that is endemic to Reunion Island, located in the south‐western Indian Ocean (SWIO). Demographic changes were inferred using summary statistics calculated from genomic data. Using ecological niche modelling and the current distribution of genetic diversity, the paleodistribution of the species was also assessed. A reduction in the effective population size of C. mauritiana during the last glaciation maximum was inferred. The distribution of the species was reduced on the western side of the island, due to low rainfall. It appeared that a major reduction in rainfall and a slight temperature decrease prevailed in the SWIO. Our findings indicated that analyses on the current patterns of intraspecific genetic variations can efficiently contribute to past climatic changes characterisation in remote islands. Identifying area with higher resilience in oceanic islands could provide guidance in forest management and conservation faced to the global climate change.

Abstract AP1000® Generation III+ reactor bases its safety concept on passive systems, differently from the previous Generation II reactors. This fact has led the approximations and methodologies previously used for modeling active safety systems to be reviewed and adapted to simulate the physics of passive systems. Diverse studies about the AP1000 containment have demonstrated the difficulty to correctly model the occurring phenomenology. In this paper, an integral AP1000 3D containment GOTHIC model is presented, including the Passive Containment Cooling System (PCCS). The model includes the compartments inside and outside the metallic containment liner that influence the thermal–hydraulic behavior. The model is tested against a Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) to assess its thermal–hydraulic performance, assuming a PCS tank malfunction, what is a conservative hypothesis. The pressure and temperature evolution predicted by the 3D containment model is analyzed and compared with a single node Lumped Parameters model, allowing to evaluate some preliminary benefits of 3D modeling for containment safety analysis. The 3D containment model allows to predict the thermal evolution in each containment compartment capturing the heterogeneity of this phenomenon, with higher resolution than the lumped parameters models traditionally used in this kind of analyses. It allows to observe the thermohydraulic conditions locally at any time during the transient.

A mathematical model of the LiAl/LiCl, KCl/FeS cell has been used to study the behavior of the system during relaxation and charging. The effects of state of charge, cell temperature, and current density are presented, and the influence of a period of relaxation on the subsequent charging operation is investigated. In addition, factors that can have a significant impact on the charging characteristics are identified.

Short-term generation scheduling is an important function in daily operational planning of power systems. It is defined as optimal scheduling of power generators over a scheduling period while respecting various generator constraints and system constraints. Objective of the problem includes costs associated with energy production, start-up cost and shut-down cost along with profits. The resulting problem is a large scale nonlinear mixed-integer optimization problem for which there is no exact solution technique available. The solution to the problem can be obtained only by complete enumeration, often at the cost of a prohibitively computation time requirement for realistic power systems. This paper presents a hybrid algorithm which combines Lagrangian Relaxation (LR) together with Evolutionary Algorithm (EA) to solve the problem in cooperative and competitive energy environments. Simulation studies were carried out on different systems containing various numbers of units. The outcomes from different algorithms are compared with that from the proposed hybrid algorithm and the advantages of the proposed algorithm are briefly discussed.

Inert gas is often used in the deoxygenation of microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) to maintain growth and viability of anaerobes. However, the effects of the gas atmosphere on hydrogen production and microbial community of MECs are often neglected. Here, the performances and biofilm microbiomes of MECs pre-sparged with different gases were compared. MECs pre-sparged with argon gas (Ar) yielded more hydrogen (3.73 ± 0.13 mol-H2/mol-acetate) and a higher hydrogen production rate (2.99 ± 0.17 L-H2/L-reactor-day) than MECs pre-sparged with N2 (3.41 ± 0.13 mol-H2/mol-acetate and 2.27 ± 0.28 L-H2/L-reactor-day, respectively). Microbiome analysis indicated that the relative abundance of Geobacter increased from 59.25% to 77.79% when the gas atmosphere in MECs shifted from N2 to Ar. Hydrogen production may have been catalyzed by nitrogenase from Geobacter and photosynthetic bacteria in MECs pre-sparged with Ar. These findings suggested that the gas atmosphere substantially influences the microbiome of anode biofilms and Ar sparging is most effective for enhancing hydrogen production in MECs.

In order to exploit renewable energies from tidal stream, tandem propellers of a unique counter-rotating type horizontal-axis tidal turbine was firstly designed based on the blade element momentum (BEM) theory. And then a multi-objective numerical optimization method coupled the response surface method (RSM) with the genetic algorithm (GA) was employed to obtain desirable blade profiles. The front blade pitch angle distribution was taken as optimization variable in this paper, as it plays an important role in affecting the inlet conditions of the rear blade. The numerical results show that both optimization objectives of power coefficient and thrust coefficient can be significantly improved. It was verified that the performance of the power unit with the optimized blades increases obviously by optimizing the pitch angle.