Multiscale Evaluation of Mechanical Properties for Metal-Coated Lattice Structures

With the combination of 3D printing and electroplating technique,metal-coated resin lattice is a viable way to achieve lightweight design with desirable responses.However,due to high structural complexity,mechanical analysis of the macroscopic lattice structure demands high experimental or numerical costs.To efficiently investigate the mechanical behaviors of such structure,in this paper a multiscale numerical method is proposed to study the effective properties of the metal-coated Body-Centered-Cubic(BCC)lattices.Unlike studies of a similar kind in which the effective parameters can be predicted from a single unit cell model,it is noticed that the size effect of representative volume element(RVE)is severe and an insensitive prediction can be only obtained from models containing multiple-unit-cells.To this end,the paper determines the minimum number of unit cells in single RVE.Based on the proposed method that is validated through the experimental comparison,parametric studies are conducted to estimate the impact of strut diameter and coating film thickness on structural responses.It is shown that the increase of volume fraction may improve the elastic modulus and specific modulus remarkably.In contrast,the increase of thickness of coating film only leads to monotonously increased elastic modulus.For this reason,there should be an optimal coating film thickness for the specific modulus of the lattice structure.This work provides an effective method for evaluating structural mechanical properties via the mesoscopic model.

Wear Characteristics of the Nuclear Control Rod Drive Mechanism(CRDM)Movable Latch Serviced in High Temperature Water

The current research of nuclear control rod drive mechanism(CRDM)movable latch only makes a simple measurement of wear mass.The wear volume and difference in various claw surfaces are ignored and the degradation mechanism of each claw surface is not clear.In this paper,a detailed degradation analysis was carried out on each claw surface of movable latch combined with wear result and worn morphology.Results indicate that the boundary of carbide is preferred for corrosion because carbide presents a nobler Volta potential compared to the metal matrix or boundary region.Due to the oscillation of drive shaft between the claw surfaces of movable latch,the dominant wear mechanism on the upper surface of claw(USC)and lower surface of claw(LSC)is plastic deformation caused by impact wear.Mechanical impact wear will cause the fragmentation of carbides because of the high hardness and low ductility of carbides.Corrosion promotes the broken carbides to fall off from the metal matrix.The generated fine carbides(abrasive particles)cause extra abrasive wear on USC when the movable brings the drive shaft upward or downward.As a result,USC has a higher wear volume than LSC.This research proposes a method to evaluate the wear on the whole movable latches using a 3D full-size scanner.

Catalytic fast pyrolysis of Kraft lignin with HZSM-5 zeolite for producing aromatic hydrocarbons

Catalytic fast pyrolysis （CFP） of Kraft lignins with HZSM-5 zeolite for producing aromatics was investigated using analytical pyrolysis methods. Two Kraft lignins were fast pyrolyzed in the absence and presence of HZSM-5 in a Curie-point pyrolyzer. Without the catalyst, fast pyrolysis of lignin predominantly produced phenols and guaiacols that were derived from the subunits of lignin. However, the presence of HZSM-5 changed the product distribution dramatically. As the SiO2/ A1203 ratio of HZSM-5 decreased from 200 to 25 and the catalyst-to-lignin ratio increased from 1 to 20, the lignin- derived oxygenates progressively decreased to trace and the aromatics increased substantially. The aromatic yield increased considerably as the pyrolysis temperature increased from 500~C to 650~C, but then decreased with yet further increase of pyrolysis temperature. Under optimal reaction conditions, the aromatic yields were 2.0 wt.% and 5.2 wt.% for the two lignins that had effective hydrogen indexes of 0.08 and 0.35.

Effect of seawater salinity on the synthesis of zeolite from coal fly ash

A novel method for the synthesis of zeolite was developed in this paper. The synthesis was carried out by hydrothermal activation after alkali fusion and coal fly ash （CFA） was used as raw material with seawater of different salinities. Seawater salinity was varied from 32 to 88 for zeolite crystallization during the hydrothermal process. The results show that seawater salinity plays an important role in zeolite synthesis with CFA during hydrothermal treatment. The products were a mixture of NaX zeolite and hydroxysodalite; seawater salinity more strongly affected the crystallization than the type and chemical composition of the zeolites. The yield of CFA transformed into zeolite gradually rose with the increase in salinity, reaching a transformation rate of 48%--62% as the salinity increased from 32 to 88, respectively. The proposed method allows for the efficient disposal of by-products; therefore, the application of seawater in zeolite synthesis presents promising economic and ecological benefits.