Effect of Natural Zeolite on Performance of Sulfoaluminate Cement-based Planting Cementitious Material

This paper aimed to improve the water-retention performance and basic physical properties of sulfoaluminate cement（SAC）-based planting cementitious material. The effect of natural zeolite on the performance of SAC-based planting material was investigated. The water-retention performance, porosity, compressive strength, and alkalinity had been tested and TG-DSC analysis had been adopted in this paper. Experimental results showed that zeolite was effective to improve the water-retention capacity and 10%, 20% and 30% natural zeolite increased the pore volume of the hardened pastes by 10.6%, 26.0%, and 38.6%, especially pore size below 0.1 μm was increased by 9.7%, 26.2% and 17.5%. And 10% zeolite was beneficial to the compressive strengths of cementitious material and 1, 3, and 28 d compressive strength reached up to 35.9, 55.0, 80.3 MPa. Furthermore zeolite decreased the alkalinity of pore fluid of hardened cementitious material, while the addition of zeolite reached up to 30%, the alkalinity of pore fluid of hardened cementitious material decreased by 8.9%. Therefore zeolite was suitable for improving the performance of SAC-based planting cementitious material.

Real-time performance of periodic data transmission in EPA industrial Ethernet

To evaluate and improve the real-time performance of Ethernet for plant automation（EPA） industrial Ethernet,the real-time performance of EPA periodic data transmission was theoretically and experimentally studied.By analyzing information transmission regularity and EPA deterministic scheduling mechanism,periodic messages were categorized as different modes according to their entering-queue time.The scheduling characteristics and delivery time of each mode and their interacting relations were studied,during which the models of real-time performance of periodic information transmission in EPA system were established.On this basis,an experimental platform is developed to test the delivery time of periodic messages transmission in EPA system.According to the analysis and the experiment,the main factors that limit the real-time performance of EPA periodic data transmission and the improvement methods were proposed.

Subsurface aeration alters the fungal composition of rhizosphere soil and tomato plant performance in Northwest China

Rhizosphere hypoxia constrains plant growth,and numerous studies have shown that root zone aeration accelerates plant photosynthesis and growth and increases crop yields.Nevertheless,the mechanism by which soil microorganisms are involved in this process is not clear.The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of aeration and irrigation depth on the composition and structure of rhizosphere soil fungal communities and tomato plant performance.The amount of aeration assayed was equal to 0(CK),0.5(V1),1(V2),and 1.5(V3)times the porosity of the soil.The two depths of subsurface drip irrigation used were 15(D15)and 40 cm(D40).The results demonstrated that soil aeration not only increased tomato plant performance but also influenced fungal diversity and composition.Compared to the no-aeration treatment,the V3 soil aeration treatment increased the total dry weight and fruit yield by 39.9%and 65.6%,respectively.The results also showed that the abundance of the phylum Ascomycota and the family Lasiosphaeriaceae increased with increasing soil aeration,whereas those of members of the phylum Zygomycota and the order Capnodiales decreased with increasing soil aeration.Moreover,the variation in subsurface irrigation depth altered the rhizosphere soil fungal community.In general,the results of this study demonstrate that root zone aeration can ameliorate hypoxic conditions in Lou soils and is beneficial to soil fungal communities and tomato plant performance.

The ultimate goal of modeling—Simulation of system and plant performance

Modern production processes in chemical, pharmaceutical and biological industries are characterized by complex process structures, which consist of different apparatuses and process steps. Modeling the entire process requires simulating all units altogether, while taking into account interconnections between them, Nevertheless, in the area of solids processing, there is nowadays an unfilled gap from the side of computer support of process modeling in allowing effective optimization and prediction of the behavior of the whole plant, This paper presents a tool for flowsheet simulation which allows the simulation of the stationary behavior of complex processes dealing with solids and its extension towards dynamic modeling, Also, a new simulation concept is proposed on the basis of the multiscale approach. On the macroscale, fiowsheet simulation is performed with the help of the SolidSim system. Parameters for the macromodels in Solid-Sim are predicted by microscale simulation. The models for the two scales are then coupled by inter-scale communication laws. Application of the proposed modeling concept is shown by an example of fluidized bed granulation.

Heritability of early growth traits and their plasticity in 14 woody species of Chinese subtropical forest

Aims Genetic variation in plant traits represents the raw material for future adaptive evolution.Its extent can be estimated as heritability based on the performance of experimental plants of known relatedness,such as maternal half-sib seed families.While there is considerable heritability information for herbaceous plants and commercially important trees,little is known for woody species of natural subtropical forest.Moreover,it is open whether heritability is higher for species with r-or K-strategies,for more common species with larger distribution ranges than for rarer ones,or for populations closer to the centres of distributional ranges.Methods For 14 woody species in Chinese subtropical forest,we collected 13-38 maternal seed families,assessed seed size,grew replicates of each seed family in one more and one less benign nursery environment and measured stem diameter and plant height after 7 months.Important findings For the different species,plants grew 1.8-8.1 times taller in the more benign environment.For all 14 species,variation between seed families(and thus heritability)was significant(with very few exceptions at the P<0.001 level)for seed size and for stem diameter and plant height in both nurseries.Moreover,significant seed family by nursery interactions for stem diameter and plant height for all species(P<0.001)indicated significant heritability for plasticity in these traits.Multiple regression analysis suggests that heritabilities were higher for species with higher age at reproduction and higher wood density(traits indicating a K strategy)but also for species with higher specific leaf area(a trait rather indicating an r strategy).Furthermore,heritabilities were higher for species with larger range sizes,while there was no significant relationship between heritabilities and the distance of the study area to the range margins of our study species.In conclusion,the detected large heritability estimates suggest considerable potential for the evolution of plant performance and its plasticity for trees of subtropical forest.Moreover,our study shows that the simple method of comparing plants of different maternal seed families is valuable to address evolutionary ecological questions for so far understudied species.

Viability of a concentrated solar power system in a low sun belt prefecture

Concentrating solar power(CSP)is considered as a comparatively economical,more efficient,and large capacity type of renewable energy technology.However,CSP generation is found restricted only to high solar radiation belt and installed where high direct normal irradiance is available.This paper examines the viability of the adoption of the CSP system in a low sun belt region with a lower direct normal irradiance(DNI).Various critical analyses and plant economics have been evaluated with a lesser DNI state.The obtained results out of the designed system,subjected to low DNI are not found below par,but comparable to some extent with the performance results of such CSP plants at a higher DNI.The analysis indicates that incorporation of the thermal energy storage reduces the levelized cost of energy(LCOE)and augments the plant capacity factor.The capacity factor,the plant efficiency,and the LCOE are found to be 32.50%,17.56%,and 0.1952$/kWh,respectively.

Increasing power plant efficiency with clustering methods and Variable Importance Index assessment

Power plant performance can decrease along with its life span,and move away from the design and commissioning targets.Maintenance issues,operational practices,market restrictions,and financial objectives may lead to that behavior,and the knowledge of appropriate actions could support the system to retake its original operational performance.This paper applies unsupervised machine learning techniques to identify operating patterns based on the power plant’s historical data which leads to the identification of appropriate steam generator efficiency conditions.The selected operational variables are evaluated in respect to their impact on the system performance,quantified by the Variable Importance Index.That metric is proposed to identify the variables among a much wide set of monitored data whose variation impacts the overall power plant operation,and should be controlled with more attention.Principal Component Analysis(PCA)and k-means++clustering techniques are used to identify suitable operational conditions from a one-year-long data set with 27 recorded variables from a steam generator of a 360MW thermal power plant.The adequate number of clusters is identified by the average Silhouette coefficient and the Variable Importance Index sorts nine variables as the most relevant ones,to finally group recommended settings to achieve the target conditions.Results show performance gains in respect to the average historical values of 73.5%and the lowest efficiency condition records of 68%,to the target steam generator efficiency of 76%.