Solar-powered interfacial evaporation is an energy-efficient solution for water scarcity.It requires solar absorbers to facilitate upward water transport and limit the heat to the surface for efficient evaporation.Fur...Solar-powered interfacial evaporation is an energy-efficient solution for water scarcity.It requires solar absorbers to facilitate upward water transport and limit the heat to the surface for efficient evaporation.Furthermore,downward salt ion transport is also desired to prevent salt accumulation.However,achieving simultaneously fast water uptake,downward salt transport,and heat localization is challenging due to highly coupled water,mass,and thermal transport.Here,we develop a structurally graded aerogel inspired by tree transport systems to collectively optimize water,salt,and thermal transport.The arched aerogel features root-like,fan-shaped microchannels for rapid water uptake and downward salt diffusion,and horizontally aligned pores near the surface for heat localization through maximizing solar absorption and minimizing conductive heat loss.These structural characteristics gave rise to consistent evaporation rates of 2.09 kg m^(-2) h^(-1) under one-sun illumination in a 3.5 wt%NaCl solution for 7 days without degradation.Even in a high-salinity solution of 20 wt%NaCl,the evaporation rates maintained stable at 1.94 kg m^(-2) h^(-1) for 8 h without salt crystal formation.This work offers a novel microstructural design to address the complex interplay of water,salt,and thermal transport.展开更多
With the completion of the Qinghai-Tibetan Railway,economic development of related areas has been greatly accelerated.This,in return,calls for building or upgrading more roadways,especially high-grade roadways.In cold...With the completion of the Qinghai-Tibetan Railway,economic development of related areas has been greatly accelerated.This,in return,calls for building or upgrading more roadways,especially high-grade roadways.In cold regions,the thawing of permafrost can induce settlement damage of and even failure to railway (or roadway) embankments.Thermosyphons (self-powered refrigera-tion devices that are used to help keep the permafrost cool) have proved effective in mitigating thaw settlement by maintaining the thermal stability of the embankments.However,for high-grade roadway embankments of great width,stabilizing or cooling ef-fects of traditional geotechnological measures may be limited.To enhance the cooling effect of thermosyphons,an L-shaped thermosyphon was designed.A laboratory test was carried out to study the combined cooling effect of the L-shaped thermosyphon and thermal insulation applying to roadbed construction.The angle between the evaporator and condenser sections of the L-shaped thermosyphon is 134 degrees,and the L-shaped thermosyphon was inserted into the soil at an angle of 5 degrees with the road surface.The tested results show that the L-shaped thermosyphon is effective in removing heat from a roadway in winter.When the ambient air temperature is lower than the soil temperature,the thermosyphon is active and extracts the heat in the soil around it.When the ambient air temperature is higher than the soil temperature,the thermosyphon is inactive,and no heat is in-jected into the soil through the L-shaped thermosyphon.Compared to embankments with straight thermosyphons,the inner parts of the embankments with L-shaped thermosyphons were significantly cooled.It is hoped that the present study would be useful to the application of L-shaped thermosyphons in the construction of high-grade roadways in cold regions.展开更多
The increase of insulation thickness(IT)results in the decrease of the heat demand and heat medium temperature.A mathematical model on the optimum environmental insulation thickness(OEIT)for minimizing the annual tota...The increase of insulation thickness(IT)results in the decrease of the heat demand and heat medium temperature.A mathematical model on the optimum environmental insulation thickness(OEIT)for minimizing the annual total environmental impact was established based on the amount of energy and energy grade reduction.Besides,a case study was conducted based on a residential community with a combined heat and power(CHP)-based district heating system(DHS)in Tianjin,China.Moreover,the effect of IT on heat demand,heat medium temperature,exhaust heat,extracted heat,coal consumption,carbon dioxide(CO_(2))emissions and sulfur dioxide(SO_(2))emissions as well as the effect of three types of insulation materials(i.e.,expanded polystyrene,rock wool and glass wool)on the OEIT and minimum annual total environmental impact were studied.The results reveal that the optimization model can be used to determine the OEIT.When the OEIT of expanded polystyrene,rock wool and glass wool is used,the annual total environmental impact can be reduced by 84.563%,83.211%,and 86.104%,respectively.It can be found that glass wool is more beneficial to the environment compared with expanded polystyrene and rock wool.展开更多
基金financially supported by the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong SAR(16200720)Environment and Conservation Fund of Hong Kong SAR(Project No.21/2022)+2 种基金Young Scientists Fund of National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.52303106)Research Institute for Advanced Manufucturing(Project No.CD8R)the startup fund for new recruits of PolyU(Project Nos.P0038855 and P0038858)。
文摘Solar-powered interfacial evaporation is an energy-efficient solution for water scarcity.It requires solar absorbers to facilitate upward water transport and limit the heat to the surface for efficient evaporation.Furthermore,downward salt ion transport is also desired to prevent salt accumulation.However,achieving simultaneously fast water uptake,downward salt transport,and heat localization is challenging due to highly coupled water,mass,and thermal transport.Here,we develop a structurally graded aerogel inspired by tree transport systems to collectively optimize water,salt,and thermal transport.The arched aerogel features root-like,fan-shaped microchannels for rapid water uptake and downward salt diffusion,and horizontally aligned pores near the surface for heat localization through maximizing solar absorption and minimizing conductive heat loss.These structural characteristics gave rise to consistent evaporation rates of 2.09 kg m^(-2) h^(-1) under one-sun illumination in a 3.5 wt%NaCl solution for 7 days without degradation.Even in a high-salinity solution of 20 wt%NaCl,the evaporation rates maintained stable at 1.94 kg m^(-2) h^(-1) for 8 h without salt crystal formation.This work offers a novel microstructural design to address the complex interplay of water,salt,and thermal transport.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.40730736 and No.40601023)the National Hi-Tech Research and Development Plan (2008AA11Z103)the Western Project Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No.KZCX2-XB2-10)
文摘With the completion of the Qinghai-Tibetan Railway,economic development of related areas has been greatly accelerated.This,in return,calls for building or upgrading more roadways,especially high-grade roadways.In cold regions,the thawing of permafrost can induce settlement damage of and even failure to railway (or roadway) embankments.Thermosyphons (self-powered refrigera-tion devices that are used to help keep the permafrost cool) have proved effective in mitigating thaw settlement by maintaining the thermal stability of the embankments.However,for high-grade roadway embankments of great width,stabilizing or cooling ef-fects of traditional geotechnological measures may be limited.To enhance the cooling effect of thermosyphons,an L-shaped thermosyphon was designed.A laboratory test was carried out to study the combined cooling effect of the L-shaped thermosyphon and thermal insulation applying to roadbed construction.The angle between the evaporator and condenser sections of the L-shaped thermosyphon is 134 degrees,and the L-shaped thermosyphon was inserted into the soil at an angle of 5 degrees with the road surface.The tested results show that the L-shaped thermosyphon is effective in removing heat from a roadway in winter.When the ambient air temperature is lower than the soil temperature,the thermosyphon is active and extracts the heat in the soil around it.When the ambient air temperature is higher than the soil temperature,the thermosyphon is inactive,and no heat is in-jected into the soil through the L-shaped thermosyphon.Compared to embankments with straight thermosyphons,the inner parts of the embankments with L-shaped thermosyphons were significantly cooled.It is hoped that the present study would be useful to the application of L-shaped thermosyphons in the construction of high-grade roadways in cold regions.
基金supported by the Scientific Research Project of Beijing Municipal Education Commission,China(KM201810017004)National Key R&D Program Project of China(No.2018YFC0704800)the“Engineering and Technology R&D Center of Clean Air Conditioning in Colleges of Shandong(Shandong Huayu University of Technology).”。
文摘The increase of insulation thickness(IT)results in the decrease of the heat demand and heat medium temperature.A mathematical model on the optimum environmental insulation thickness(OEIT)for minimizing the annual total environmental impact was established based on the amount of energy and energy grade reduction.Besides,a case study was conducted based on a residential community with a combined heat and power(CHP)-based district heating system(DHS)in Tianjin,China.Moreover,the effect of IT on heat demand,heat medium temperature,exhaust heat,extracted heat,coal consumption,carbon dioxide(CO_(2))emissions and sulfur dioxide(SO_(2))emissions as well as the effect of three types of insulation materials(i.e.,expanded polystyrene,rock wool and glass wool)on the OEIT and minimum annual total environmental impact were studied.The results reveal that the optimization model can be used to determine the OEIT.When the OEIT of expanded polystyrene,rock wool and glass wool is used,the annual total environmental impact can be reduced by 84.563%,83.211%,and 86.104%,respectively.It can be found that glass wool is more beneficial to the environment compared with expanded polystyrene and rock wool.
