Synergy of inside doped metals–Outside coated graphene to enhance hydrogen storage in magnesium-based alloys

Grain growth of magnesium(Mg)and its hydride is one of the main reasons for kinetic and capacity degradation during the hydrogen absorption and desorption cycles.To solve this problem,herein we propose a novel method involving synergistic effect of inside embedded metals and outside coated graphene to limit the growth of Mg and its hydride grains.The graphene coated Mg-Y-Al alloys were selected as a model system for demonstrating this positive effect where the Mg_(91)Y_(3)Al_(6)alloy was first prepared by rapidly solidified method and then high-pressure milled with 5 wt%graphene upon 5 MPa hydrogen gas for obtaining in-situ formed YAl_(2)and YH_(3)embedded in the MgH_(2)matrix with graphene shell(denoted as MgH_(2)-Y-Al@GR).In comparison to pure MgH_(2),the obtained MgH_(2)-Y-Al@GR composites deliver much better kinetics and more stable cyclic performance.For instance,the MgH_(2)-Y-Al@GR can release about 6.1 wt%H_(2)within 30 min at 300℃ but pure MgH_(2)only desorbs∼1.5 wt%H_(2).The activation energy for desorption of MgH_(2)-Y-Al@GR samples is calculated to be 75.3±9.1 kJ/mol that is much lower than approximately 160 kJ/mol for pure MgH_(2).Moreover,its capacity retention is promoted from∼57%of pure MgH_(2)to∼84%after 50th cycles without obvious particle agglomeration and grain growth.The synergistic effect of outside graphene coating with inside embedded metals which could provide a huge number of active sites for catalysis as well as inhibit the grain growth of Mg and its hydride is believed to be responsible for these.

Design,Manufacture and Maintenance of Pressure Equipment Based on Accidents Survey

Most of the important units of pressure equipment have been manufactured successfully in China related to the national key construction projects,such as 10 million tons/year oil refinery,million tons/year ethylene,large coal chemical,etc.However,some of them failed to operate shortly after their putting into service.Some suffered severe damage even during the previous period of manufacture and installation.In this paper,cases of accident survey and failure analysis are given for some typical pressure vessels.It is found that many accidents are related to insufficient consideration of the design and manufacture of the equipment.These accidents occur fundamentally because of the Chinese design standards codes for pressure equipment without risk or life concepts and the support from a database for potential risk existing in their dynamic service.Most designers and manufacturers are unable to make correct design,materials selection and manufacturing process all due to a lack of engineering experience.In order to avoid the repetition of the accidents and improve the safety,reliability and economy of pressure equipment,a platform is suggested for design,manufacture and maintenance of pressure equipment in China based on accidents survey.In other words,some effective precautionary measures are taken at the design and manufacture stage,and the design methodology has to be based on service life requirement and desirable risk level.At the service stage some reasonable inspection/monitoring approaches should be utilized to control risks and ensure the equipment operating safely until its desired lifespan.Finally,the basic scheme and some key technologies are briefly given for the platform construction.The concept of risk and life based design,manufacture and maintenance proposed herein has important significance for improving and perfecting the codes and standards for design,manufacture and maintenance of Chinese pressure-bearing equipment,enhancing the life and reliability of Chinese pressure-bearing equipment and promoting the development of in-service maintenance technology that combines safety and economy.

Evolution of magnetically rotating arc into large area arc plasma

An arc channel tends to shrink due to its conductivity increasing with the increase of temperature. In this study, to generate large area arc plasma, we construct a magnetically rotating arc plasma generator, which mainly consists of a lanthanide tungsten cathode （13 mm in diameter）, a concentric cylindrical graphite anode chamber （60 nun in diameter） and a solenoid coil for producing an axial magnet field. By controlling the cold gas flow, the magnetically rotating arc evolves from constricted mode to diffuse mode, which almost fills the whole arc chamber cross section. Results show that the diffuse arc plasma has better uniformity and stability. The formation mechanism of large area arc plasma is discussed in this paper.

Modeling and Experimental Analysis of Roughness Effect on Ultrasonic Nondestructive Evaluation of Micro-crack

A high-precision evaluation of ultrasonic detection sensitivity for a micro-crack can be restricted by a corroded rough surface when the surface microtopography is of the same order of magnitude as the crack depth.In this study,a back-surface micro-crack is considered as a research target.A roughness-modified ultrasonic testing model for micro-cracks is established based on a multi-Gaussian beam model and the principle of phase-screen approximation.The echo signals of micro-cracks and noises corresponding to different rough front surfaces and rough back surfaces are obtained based on a reference reflector signal acquired from a two-dimensional simulation model.Further compari-son between the analytical and numerical models shows that the responses of micro-cracks under the effects of dif-ferent corroded rough surfaces can be accurately predicted.The numerical and analytical results show that the echo signal amplitude of the micro-crack decreases significantly with an increase in roughness,whereas the noise ampli-tude slightly increases.Moreover,the effect of the rough front surface on the echo signal of the micro-crack is greater than that of the rough back surface.When the root-mean-square(RMS)height of the surface microtopography is less than 15μm,the two rough surfaces have less influence on the echo signals detected by a focused transducer with a frequency of 5 MHz and diameter of 6 mm.A method for predicting and evaluating the detection accuracy of micro-cracks under different rough surfaces is proposed by combining the theoretical model and a finite element simulation.Then,a series of rough surface samples containing different micro-cracks are fabricated to experimentally validate the evaluation method.

Insight from Japan’s Hydrogen Strategy and Activities

Hydrogen is globally expected to play a key role in the sustainable development of humanity,as it can be produced from renewable energy,which is more evenly distributed than fossil fuels,and can be converted into electricity and heat without the emission of greenhouse gases.The importance of hydrogen energy has become increasingly obvious,especially in the context of large-scale energy storage and transport for the widespread use of renewable energy.Japan is a world leader in advanced hydrogen energy technologies,based upon its continuous engagement in the development of hydrogen-related materials.

Growth Mechanism and Characterization of Single-crystalline Ga-doped SnO2 Nanowires and Self-organized SnO2/Ga2O3 Heterogeneous Microcomb Structures

Single-crystalline Ga-doped SnO2 nanowires and SnO2：Ga2O3 heterogeneous microcombs were synthesized by a simple one-step thermal evaporation and condensation method. They were characterized by means of X-ray powder diffraction （XRD）, field-emission scanning electron microscopy （FE-SEM）, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy （EDS）, transmission electron microscopy （TEM） and selected-area electron diffraction （SAED）. FE-SEM images showed that the products consisted of nanowires and mierocombs that represent a novel morphology. XRD, SAED and EDS indicated that they were single-crystalline tetragonal SnO2. The influence of experimental conditions on the morphologies of the products is discussed. The morphology of the product showed a ribbon-like stem and nanoribbon array aligned evenly along one or both side of the nanoribbon. It was found that many Ga2O3 nanoparticles deposited on the surface of the microcombs. The major core nanoribbon grew mainly along the [110] direction and the self-organized branching nanoribbons grew epitaxially along [110] or [110] orientation from the （110） plane of the stem. A growth process was proposed for interpreting the growth of these remarkable SnO2：Ga2O3 heterogeneous microcombs. Due to the heavy doping of Ga, the emission peak in photoluminescence spectra has red-shifted as well as broadened significantly.

Fiber-based mode converter for generating optical vortex beams

In this work, an all-fiber-based mode converter for generating orbital angular momentum （OAM） beams is proposed and numerically investigated. Its structure is constructed by cascading a mode selective coupler （MSC） and an inner elliptical cladding fiber （IECF）. OAM modes refer to a combination of two orthogonal LPlm modes with a phase difference of ±π/2. By adjusting the parameters and controlling the splicing angle of MSC and IECF appropriately, higher-order OAM modes with topological charges of l = ±1, ±2, ±3 can be obtained with the injection of the fundamental mode LP01, resulting in a mode-conversion efficiency of almost 100%. This achievement may pave the way towards the realization of a compact, all-fiber, and high-efficiency device for increasing the transmission capacity and spectral efficiency in optical communication systems with OAM mode multiplexing.

Numerical Investigations on Supercritical Heat Transfer Characteristics of Environmental Friendly Refrigerants

The heat transfer of supercritical fluids is a vastly growing field, specifically to find suitable alternatives to replace conventional R134a, which can be beneficial for climate change. Most of the experimental and numerical investigations have been conducted to explore supercritical water, carbon dioxide and R134a as heat transfer working fluids. Hydrofluoroolefin (HFO) and refrigerants blends have been considered the most environment-friendly refrigerants to replace Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), Hydrochlorofluoro-carbons (HCFCs) and Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Their main advantage of zero Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP) and comparatively lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) have attracted growing amount of attention to mitigate environmental issues. This work adopts the computational method and takes the environmentally friendly refrigerants to investigate the heat transfer characteristics under widely used shear-stress transport (SST) model. A comprehensive comparison was performed at reduced pressure of 1.10 for supercritical fluids R515A, R1234ze(E) and R134a. The peaks of heat transfer coefficient occurred in the vicinity of pseudo critical temperature for all of these considered fluids;however, R134a resulted in higher heat transfer coefficient, Reynolds number and Prandtl number in comparison with R515A and R1234ze(E). The higher heat transfer coefficient of supercritical fluid R134a is owing to its thermophysical properties and the specific heat plays crucial role in the heat transfer of supercritical fluids. Owing to environmental issues, R515A can be a considerable replacement of R134a. R1234ze(E) is also promising alternative to R134a;however, safety issues should thoroughly concern its mild flammable characteristics.

Experimental study on landscape of CFRP cutting by abrasive water jet

To investigate the influence of operation parameters of abrasive water jet on surface roughness of carbon fiber reinforced plastic(CFRP),experimental studies were conducted.The three-dimensional landscape of cutting front was reconstructed according to the measured data byμscan laser confocal microscopy.Fourier spectral analysis was also adopted to study surface structure in detail.It is found that the morphology of cutting front is similar to that of other materials.In the smooth cutting zone,the fluctuation of amplitudes of surface profile is gentler,compared with that in the rough cutting zone.The lower part of the rough cutting zone was characterized by the periodical appearance of peaks and valleys.The roughness of surface increases with the increase of depth.While in the smooth cutting zone and part of rough cutting zone,roughness increases with the increase of traverse speed.For the thickness of samples,in the smooth cutting zone,the roughness increases with the increase of depth.The dominant harmonic component in the surface profile is concentrated in a narrow range from 0 to 10 Hz,and the relatively higher density of frequency from 10 to 50 Hz is shown in the rough cutting zone,which is caused by the interaction between perpendicular abrasive water jet and reflect jet.

Analysis of flow response to fluctuation of rotational speed in a radial impeller

By discretizing the convection terms with AUSM+-up scheme in the rotating coordinate system,a finite volume analysis code based on multi-block structured grids was developed independently so as to realize the numerical solving of internal flow fields of turbomachineries.Taking an unshrouded radial impeller with the working fluid of water vapour as the research object,the flow response to the fluctuation of rotational speed was calculated.By comparing the surface pressure profiles and velocity contours calculated by the code and commercial software respectively,the accuracy of flow solver was verified.The analysis of flow response data indicates that,as the working condition shifts closer towards the surge boundary,the response of flow parameters such as mass flow and aerodynamic torque will be more nonsynchronous with the fluctuation of rotational speed,and also the influence of density variation on mass flow variation will be smaller.Moreover,the transient variation region of working condition performance will deviate farther away from the steady performance curve as the working condition approaches the surge boundary.Compared to the working conditions with small mass flows,the distribution characteristics of pressure difference load on the blade surface vary little under large mass flow conditions.The reduction of fluctuation amplitude of rotational speed exerts no influence on abating the hysteresis of flow response.

Measurement and Characterisation of a Diffuse Acoustic Field Using a Phased Array

A diffuse acoustic field has been increasingly used to infer temporal changes in the structures,such as early dislo-cations and microcracking.This study explores three different techniques to characterise acoustic field by using a single ultrasonic phased array.The first two techniques are proposed to measure spatial uniformity of wave field by examining differences in the integral of energy and the maximum energy respectively at multiple inspection loca-tions.The third one is developed to evaluate the degree of phase coherence between propagating waves transmitted sequentially by two neighbouring array elements.The efficacy of these techniques are investigated by examining their metrics on simulations and well-known samples.The results suggest that two selected metrics can be used to quantitatively estimate the diffuse field start time as well as the field size by comparing their value with the idealised diffuse state(15%for the energy integral metric,ηarea and 1 for the phase coherence metric,ηphase)and identifying the convergence start point.

Study on Spray Characteristics of Dimethyl Carbonate Blended Fuel in IC Engines

The spray characteristics of the blended fuel composed of biodiesel and dimethyl carbonate were compared with those of biodiesel and diesel.The macroscopic spray characteristic parameters including spray tip penetration,maximum spray width,average spray cone angle,and peak tip velocity were used to evaluate the spray characteristics of the blended fuel.The results showed that the spray tip penetration of blended fuel was lower than that of biodiesel,while the spray cone angle and maximum spray width of blended fuel were both larger than that of biodiesel.On the basis of the Hiroyasu and Arai mathematical model combined with the actual working conditions of this experiment,including physical parameters such as the viscosity and density of the fuel,a correct model of spray penetration was established,and the experimental results were compared.

Experimental Investigation on Macro Spray Characteristics of Octanol-Biodiesel-Diesel Ternary Fuel Blend

This study investigates the spray characteristics of ternary blends composed of octanol, biodiesel, and diesel fuel.Experiments are conducted using six materials to examine the variation in spray characteristic and to verify and compare a previously established spray tip penetration model with a modified model. The results show that the addition of OB100(30%of octanol, 70% of biodiesel) improves the spray characteristics of the fuel. Specifically, the addition of 10% or 20% of OB100 leads to a slight increase in the spray tip penetration, average spray cone angle, maximum spray width, and the spray area of the fuel blend;however, further addition of OB100 causes a corresponding decrease in these parameters. Based on previous research, this study uses kinematic viscosity instead of dynamic viscosity and density to modify the prediction model of spray tip penetration. The modified model exhibits a better fit quality and agreement with the experimental data,making it more suitable for predicting the spray tip penetration of fuel blends compared to the Hiroyasu-Arai model.

Thermophysical Properties and Supercritical Heat Transfer Characteristics of R515A

The heat transfer of supercritical fluids is a vastly growing field, specifically to find suitable alternative to replace conventional R134a, which can be beneficial for climate change. A considerable suggestion is R515A which possesses considerably lower global warming potential. The present simulations are designed to study supercritical fluid R515A under cooling conditions in horizontal position. The effect of pressure, mass flux, heat flux and tube diameter were considered for horizontal tube in the vicinity of pseudo critical temperature. Numerical investigations on heat transfer characteristics of supercritical fluid R515A were performed using widely used shear-stress transport (SST) model. Moreover, heat transfer correlations were developed and suggested to accurately predict Nusselt number within 10% accuracy. The simulation results showed about 3.98% average absolute deviation.

In situ generated layered NiFe-LDH/MOF heterostructure nanosheet arrays with abundant defects for efficient alkaline and seawater oxidation

As the main limiting step of overall water splitting,oxygen evolution reaction(OER)is urgent to be enhanced by developing efficient catalysts to promote the process of electrolytic water.Based on theoretical analysis,the Ni-metal-organic framework(Ni-MOF)and NiFe-layered double hydroxide(NiFe-LDH)(NiFe-LDH/MOF)heterostructure can optimize the energy barrier of the OER process and decrease the adsorption energy of oxygen-containing intermediates,effectively accelerating the OER kinetics.Accordingly,layered NiFe-LDH/MOF heterostructures are in situ constructed through a facile two-step reaction process,with substantial oxygen defects and lattice defects that further improve the catalytic performance.As a result,only 208 and 275 mV OER overpotentials are needed for NiFe-LDH/MOF to drive the current densities of 20 and 100 mA·cm^(-2)in 1 M KOH solutions,and even maintain catalytic stability of 100 h at 20 mA·cm^(-2).When applied to seawater oxidation,only 235 and 307 mV OER overpotentials are required to achieve the current densities of 20 and 100 mA·cm^(-2),respectively,with almost no attenuation for 100 h stability test at 20 mA·cm^(-2),all better than commercial RuO_(2).This work provides the theoretical and experimental basis and a new idea for efficiently driving fresh water and seawater cracking by heterostructure and defect coupling design toward catalysts.

FATIGUE LIFE PREDICTION OF SUS 630(H900) STEEL UNDER HIGH CYCLE LOADING

The fatigue life prediction of high strength steel SUS 630 （H900） under high cycle loading is conducted with consideration of a characteristic fatigue length of material. Based on the WShler curve of smooth materials, a modified method for fatigue life prediction is approached. The characteristic fatigue length of material under cyclic loading is associated with the polycrystalline material. Rather than the stress at a point, the average stress within the characteristic fatigue length is implemented for the fatigue life prediction. The method can be applied to both the smooth and the defected material. The fatigue life prediction is also verified experimentally by specimens with various small circular holes. Through the comparison, it is found that the method can be adopted to predict the fatigue lives with different size effects.

Air-stable magnesium nickel hydride with autocatalytic and self-protective effect for reversible hydrogen storage

Among the factors which restrict the large-scale utilization of magnesium-based hydride as a hydrogen storage medium,the high operating temperature,slow kinetics,and air stability in particular are key obstacles.In this work,a novel method,namely hydriding combustion synthesis plus short-term mechanical milling followed by air exposure,was proposed to synthesize air stable and autocatalytic magnesium nickel hydride(Mg2NiH4),which shows excellent hydrogen absorption/desorption kinetics,capacity retention and oxidation resistance.The short-term-milled Mg2NiH4 can desorb 2.97 wt.%hydrogen within 500 s at 230℃.Even after exposure under air atmosphere for 67 days,it can still desorb 2.88 wt.%hydrogen within 500 s at 230℃.The experimental and theoretical results both indicated that the surface of as-milled Mg2NiH4 was easy to be oxidized under air atmosphere.However,the in-situ formed Ni during air exposure of Mg2NiH4 improved the hydrogen desorption kinetics,and the formed surface passivation layer maintained the hydrogen storage capacity and avoided further poisoning,which we called autocatalytic and self-protective effect.Such a novel dual effect modified the reaction activity and oxidation resistance of the air-exposed Mg2NiH4.Our findings provide useful insights into the design and preparation of air stable metal-based hydride for large-scale utilization and long-term storage.

Creep-fatigue lives prediction and sensitivity study of 316H at 550 ℃

In Volume 2/3 of R5 ＂An assessment procedure for the high temperature response of structures＂, the strain based ductility exhaustion method is suggested to calculate the creep damage of stress concentration region, which involves description of creep dwell initial stress, stress drop and creep ductility. Considering lots of uncertainty existed in these assessment, some sensitivity analysis is required in R5 procedure to ensure the conservatism of assessment results. In this paper, laboratory creep-fatigue test data of 316H at 550 ℃ with different loading conditions are selected as a special case to investigate whether the basic R5 approach is conservative, and the different material data combinations of cyclic stress-strain, creep deformation and creep ductility are used to identify those significant parameters affecting the assessment results. The analytical results indicate that the creep deformation model and creep ductility data are more significant to the results comparing with cyclic stress-strain data. If the upper bound of creep deformation law and lower bound of creep ductility data are used to predict their creep-fatigue lives, the degree of conservatism can be as large as a factor of -300, but if the modified creep deformation model and cast specific ductility data are used, very well prediction results can be gained within a factor of ±2.0 although there is slight non-conservatism.

The pitch-catch nonlinear ultrasonic imaging techniques for structural health monitoring

Nonlinear ultrasonic imaging techniques in pulse-echo configuration have recently shown their potential to allow the effective separation of nonlinear and linear features in a nonlinear image.In this study,two ultrasonic phased arrays are implemented to produce an image of elastic nonlinearity through the parallel-sequential subtraction of the coherently scattered components in the through-transmission acoustic field at the transmission or subharmonic frequency.In parallel mode,a physical focus at each pixel is achieved by firing the transmitters with a predefined delay law.In sequential mode,each transmitter is fired in sequence and all the receivers are employed to capture the data simultaneously.This full matrix captured data can be post-processed and focused synthetically at the target area.The images of parallel focusing and sequential focusing are expected to be linearly identical and hence any differences remained on the subtracted image can be related to the nonlinearities arising from the defects.Therefore,the imaging metric here is defined as the difference between parallel and sequentially focused amplitudes obtained from forward coherently scattered fields at each target point.Additionally,the negative influences due to the instrumentation nonlinearities are investigated by studying the remaining relative phase and amplitude at undamaged pixels.A compensation method is implemented to suppress these noises,significantly enhancing the selectivity of nonlinear scattering features.The proposed techniques are then implemented to monitor fatigue crack growth in order to explore the capability of these methods as measures of elastic nonlinearity induced by different sizes of small closed cracks.The promising results suggest that nonlinear imaging can be used to monitor crack growth and improve the detectability at early stages.

Experimental and numerical studies of impact on filament-wound composite cylinder

This study focused on the impact behavior of carbon-fiber-wrapped composite cylinders subjected to impact from flat-ended, hemispherical-nosed and conical-nosed impactors. Damage morphologies of the cylinders and mechanisms of the damage were analyzed. Change laws of the maximum impact forces, durations of impact processes and energies absorbed by the cylinders after impact with different impactors and impact energies were obtained. A finite element model was developed and the simulation results were in reason- able agreement with the tests. Finally, taking the flat-ended impactor as an example, stress distributions of the cylinders under pressurization and impact were discussed.