Uncertainty-based life-cycle analysis of near-zero energy buildings for performance improvements

Near-zero energy buildings( nZEBs) are considered as an effective solution to mitigating CO_2 emissions and reducing the energy usage in the building sector. A proper sizing of the nZEB systems( e. g. HVAC systems,energy supply systems,energy storage systems, etc.) is essential for achieving the desired annual energy balance,thermal comfort,and grid independence. Two significant factors affecting the sizing of nZEB systems are the uncertainties confronted by the building usage condition and weather condition,and the degradation effects in nZEB system components. The former factor has been studied by many researchers; however,the impact of degradation is still neglected in most studies. Degradation is prevalent in energy components of nZEB and inevitably leads to the deterioration of nZEB life-cycle performance. As a result,neglecting the degradation effects may lead to a system design which can only achieve the desired performance at the beginning several years. This paper,therefore,proposes a life-cycle performance analysis( LCPA) method for investigating the impact of degradation on the longitudinal performance of the nZEBs. The method not only integrates the uncertainties in predicting building thermal load and weather condition,but also considers the degradation in the nZEB systems. Based on the proposed LCPA method,a two-stage method is proposed to improve the sizing of the nZEB systems.The study can improve the designers "understanding of the components"degradation impacts and the proposed method is effective in the life-cycle performance analysis and improvements of nZEBs. It is the first time that the impacts of degradation and uncertainties on nZEB LCP are analysed. Case studies showthat an nZEB might not fulfil its definition at all after some years due to component degradation,while the proposed two-stage design method can effectively alleviate this problem.

Codebook selected beamforming algorithm for multiuser MIMO systems

For reducing the inter-user interference in multi-user multiple-input multiple-output（MU-MIMO） wireless communication systems,e.g.,MIMO-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing（MIMO-OFDM） systems,it is often desirable to the complex preprocessing at the transmitter.This paper proposes a multi-user beamforming algorithm with sub-codebook selection.Based on the minimal leakage criterion,the codebook selection,limited feed-forward and minimum mean square error（MMSE） detection are combined in the proposed algorithm.This avoids the complex channel matrix decomposition and inversion.Consequently,the computational complexity at the transmitter is significantly reduced.Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than existing beamforming algorithms.

Synthesis and evaluation of cationic flocculant P(DAC-PAPTAC-AM) for flocculation of coal chemical wastewater

In this study,a high-efficiency cationic flocculant,P(DAC-MAPTAC-AM),was successfully prepared using UV-induced polymerization technology.The monomer Acrylamide(AM):Acryloxyethyl Trimethyl ammonium chloride(DAC):methacrylamido propyl trimethyl ammonium chloride(MAPTAC)ratio,monomer concentration,photoinitiator concentration,urea content,and cationic monomer DAC:MAPTAC ratio,light time,and power of highpressure mercury lamp were studied.The characteristic groups,characteristic diffraction peaks,and characteristic proton peaks of P(DAC-MAPTAC-AM)were confirmed by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR),X-Ray diffraction(XRD),1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer(1H NMR),and scanning electron microscopy(SEM).The effects of dosage,pH value,and velocity gradient(G)value on the removal efficiencies of turbidity,COD,ammonia nitrogen,and total phenol by poly aluminum ferric chloride(PAFC),P(DACMAPTAC-AM),and PAFC/P(DAC-MAPTAC-AM)in the flocculation treatment of coal chemical wastewater were investigated.Results showed that the optimal conditions for the flocculation of coal chemical wastewater using P(DAC-MAPTAC-AM)alone are as follows:dosage of 8-12 mg/L,G value of 100-250 s^-1,and pH value of 4-8.The optimal dosage of PAFC is 90-150 mg/L with a pH of 2-12.The optimal dosage for PAFC/P(DAC-MAPTAC-AM)is as follows:PAFC dosage of 90-150 mg/L,P(DAC-MAPTAC-AM)dosage of 8-12 mg/L,and pH range of 2-6.When P(DAC-MAPTAC-AM)was used alone,the optimal removal efficiencies of turbidity,COD,ammonia nitrogen,and total phenol were 81.0%,35.0%,75.0%,and 80.3%,respectively.PAFC has good tolerance to wastewater pH and good pH buffering.Thus,the flocculation treatment of coal chemical wastewater using the PAFC/P(DAC-MAPTAC-AM)compound also exhibits excellent resistance and buffering capacity.

Heavy metal removal from aqueous solutions by chitosan-based magnetic composite flocculants

In this study,three magnetic flocculants with different chelating groups,namely,carboxymethyl chitosan-modified Fe_(3)O_(4)flocculant(MC),acrylamide-grafted magnetic carboxymethyl chitosan flocculant(MCM),and 2-acrylamide-2-methylpropanesulfonic acid copolyacrylamide-grafted magnetic carboxymethyl chitosan flocculant(MCAA)were prepared,synthesized,and characterized by photopolymerization technology.They were applied to the flocculation removal of Cr(Ⅲ),Co(Ⅱ),and Pb(Ⅱ).The effect of flocculation condition on the removal performance of Cr(Ⅲ),Co(Ⅱ),and Pb(Ⅱ)was studied.Characterization results show that the three magnetic carboxymethyl chitosan-based flocculants have been successfully prepared with good magnetic induction properties.Flocculation results show that the removal rates of MC,MCM,and MCAA on Cr(Ⅲ)are 51.79%,82.33%,and 91.42%,respectively,under the conditions of 80 mg/L flocculant,pH value of 6,reaction time of 1.5 hr,G value of 200 s^(-1),and precipitation magnetic field strength of 120 mT.The removal rates of Co(Ⅱ)by MC,MCM,and MCAA are 54.33%,84.99%,and 90.49%,respectively.The removal rates of Pb(Ⅱ)by MC,MCM,and MCAA are 61.54%,91.32%,and 95.74%,respectively.MCAA shows good flocculation performance in composite heavy metal-simulated wastewater.The magnetic carboxymethyl chitosan-based flocculant shows excellent flocculation performance in removing soluble heavy metals.This research provides guidance and ideas for the development of efficient and low-cost flocculation technology to remove heavy metals in wastewater.

Doxorubicin-loaded zein in situ gel for interstitial chemotherapy of colorectal cancer

The aim of this research was to evaluate doxorubicin(DOX)-loaded zein in situ gels,a new drug delivery system in which a liquid state drug can be transformed into semi-solid after intratumoral injection.In vitro release of DOX-loaded zein was investigated and the pharmacokinetics,biodistribution and therapeutic efficacy of these DOX-loaded zein formulations were investigated using BAI B/c nude tumor-bearing mice.In vitro release of DOX from the gels extended up to 7 days.Efficient accumulation of DOX in the tumor with lower drug concentration in blood and normal organs was obtained resulting in effective inhibition of tumor growth and fewer off-target side effects.In conclusion,a DOX-loaded in situ gel was developed with sustained release,enhanced anti-cancer efficacy for colorectal cancer in vivo,and especially with reduced off-target side effects.

Mechanical design and analysis of a novel variable stiffness actuator with symmetrical pivot adjustment

The safety of human-robot interaction is an essential requirement for designing collaborative robotics.Thus,this paper aims to design a novel variable stiffiiess actuator(VSA)that can provide safer physical human-robot interaction for collaborative robotics.VS A follows the idea of modular design,mainly including a variable stiffiiess module and a drive module.The variable stiffiiess module transmits the motion from the drive module in a roundabout maimer,making the modularization of VS A possible.As the key component of the variable stiffiiess module,a stiffness adjustment mechanism with a symmetrical structure is applied to change the positions of a pair of pivots in two levers linearly and simultaneously,which can eliminate the additional bending moment caused by the asymmetric structure.The design of the doubledeck grooves in the lever allows the pivot to move freely in the groove,avoiding the geometric constraint between the parts.Consequently,the VSA stiffiiess can change from zero to infinity as the pivot moves from one end of the groove to the other.To facilitate building a manipulator in the future,an expandable electrical system with a distributed structure is also proposed.Stiffiiess calibration and control experiments are performed to evaluate the physical performance of the designed VSA.Experiment results show that the VSA stiffiiess is close to the theoretical design stiffness.Furthermore,the VSA with a proportional-derivative feedback plus feedforward controller exhibits a fast response for stiffiiess regulation and a good performance for position tracking.

A novel coordinated control for NZEB clusters to minimize their connected grid overvoltage risks

The increasing applications of net-zero energy buildings (NZEBs) will lead to more frequent and larger energy interactions with the connected power grid, thereby being able to result in severe grid overvoltage risks. Control optimization has been proven effective to reduce such risks. Existing controls have oversimplified the overvoltage quantification by simply using the aggregated power exchanges to represent the connected grid overvoltages. Ignoring the complex voltage influences among the grid nodes, such oversimplification can easily result in low-accuracy impact evaluations of the NZEB-grid energy interactions, thereby causing non-optimal/unsatisfying overvoltage mitigations. Therefore, this study proposes a novel coordinated control method in which a power-distribution-network model has been adopted for more accurate overvoltage quantification. Meanwhile, the battery operations of individual NZEBs are iteratively coordinated using a sequential optimization approach for achieving the global optimum with substantially reduced computation complexity. For verifications, the proposed coordinated control has been systematically compared with an uncoordinated control and a conventional coordinated control in grid overvoltage minimization. The study results show that the overvoltage improvements can reach 23.5% and 12.3% compared with the uncoordinated control and the conventional coordinated control, respectively. The reasons behind the improvements have also been analyzed in detail. The proposed coordinated control can be used in practice to improve NZEB-clusters’ grid friendliness.

Generic load regulation strategy for enhancing energy efficiency of chiller plants

In many chiller plants,high coefficient of performance(COP)is only achieved at a few favorable part load ratios(PLRs),while the COP is low at many other non-favorable PLRs.To address this issue,this study proposes a generic load regulation strategy that aims to maintain chiller plants operating at high COP,particularly under non-favorable PLRs.This is achieved by incorporating thermal energy storage(TES)units and timely optimizing the charging and discharging power of the integrated TES units.The optimal charging and discharging power is determined by solving a dynamic optimization problem,taking into account the performance constraints of the TES units and the chiller plants.To provide an overview of the energy-saving potential of the proposed strategy,a comprehensive analysis was conducted,considering factors such as building load profiles,COP/PLR curves of chillers,and attributes of the TES units.The analysis revealed that the proposed load regulation strategy has the potential to achieve energy savings ranging from 5.7%to 10.8%for chiller plants with poor COPs under unfavorable PLRs,particularly in buildings with significant load variations.