A novel coated-particle design and fluidized-bed chemical vapor deposition preparation method for fuel-element identification in a nuclear reactor

Particle coating is an important method that can be used to expand particle-technology applications. Coated-particle design and preparation for nuclear fuel-element trajectory tracing were focused on in this paper. Particles that contain elemental cobalt were selected because of the characteristic gamma ray spectra of 60Co. A novel particle-structure design was proposed by coating particles that contain elemental cobalt with a high-density silicon-carbide （SiC） layer. During the coating process with the high-density SiC layer, cobalt metal was formed and diffused towards the coating, so an inner SiC–CoxSi layer was designed and obtained by fluidized-bed chemical vapor deposition coupled with in-situ chemical reaction. The coating layers were studied by X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy techniques. The chemical composition was also determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The novel particle design can reduce the formation of metallic cobalt and prevent cobalt diffusion in the coating process, which can maintain safety in a nuclear reactor for an extended period. The experimental results also validated that coated particles maintain their structural integrity at extremely high temperatures （～1950 °C）, which meets the requirements of next-generation nuclear reactors.

PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION BASED ON PYRAMID MODEL FOR SATELLITE MODULE LAYOUT

To improve the global search ability of particle swarm optimization （PSO）, a multi-population PSO based on pyramid model （PPSO） is presented. Then, it is applied to solve the layout optimization problems against the background of an international commercial communication satellite （INTELSAT-Ⅲ） module. Three improvements are developed, including multi-population search based on pyramid model, adaptive collision avoidance among particles, and mutation of degraded particles. In the numerical examples of the layout design of this simplified satellite module, the performance of PPSO is compared to global version PSO and local version PSO （ring and Neumann PSO）. The results show that PPSO has higher computational accuracy, efficiency and success ratio.

Element doping induced microstructural engineering enhancing the lithium storage performance of high-nickel layered cathodes

The high-nickel layered cathodes Li[Ni_(x)Co_(y)Mn_(1-x-y)]O_(2)(x≥0.8)with high specific capacity and long cycle life are considered as prospective cathodes for lithium-ion batteries.However,the microcrack formation and poor structural stability give rise to inferior rate performance and undesirable cycling life.Herein,we propose a dual modification strategy combining primary particle structure design and element doping to modify Li[Ni_(0.95)Co_(0.025)Mn_(0.025)]O_(2) cathode by tungsten and fluorine co-doped(W-F-NCM95).The doping of W can convert the microstructure of primary particles to the unique rod-like shape,which is beneficial to enhance the reversibility of phase transition and alleviate the generation of microcracks.F doping is conducive to alleviating the surface side reactions.Thus,due to the synergistic effect of W,F codoping,the obtained W-F-NCM95 cathodes deliver a high initial capacity of 236.1 mA h g^(-1) at 0.1 C and superior capacity retention of 88.7%over 100 cycles at 0.5 C.Moreover,the capacity still maintains73.8%after 500 cycles at 0.5 C and the texture of primary particle is intact.This work provides an available strategy by W and F co-doping to enhance the electrochemistry performance of high-nickel cathodes for practical application.

Determination of blast-induced ground vibration equations for rocks using mechanical and geological properties

In the recent decades, effects of blast loads on natural and man-made structures have gained considerable attention due to increase in threat from various man-made activities. Site-specific empirical relationships for calculation of blast-induced vibration parameters like peak particle velocity （PPV） and peak particle displacement （PPD） are commonly used for estimation of blast loads in design. However, these relation- ships are not able to consider the variation in rock parameters and uncertainty of in situ conditions. In this paper, a total of 1089 published blast data of various researchers in different rock sites have been collected and used to propose generalized empirical model for PPV by considering the effects of rock parameters like unit weight, rock quality designation （ROD）, geological strength index （GSI）, and uniaxial compressive strength （UCS）. The proposed PPV model has a good correlation coefficient and hence it can be directly used in prediction of blast-induced vibrations in rocks. Standard errors and coefficient of correlations of the predicted blast-induced vibration parameters are obtained with respect to the observed field data. The proposed empirical model for PPV has also been compared with the empirical models available for blast vibrations predictions given by other researchers and found to be in good agreement with specific cases.

Robust design of NLF airfoils

A robust optimization design approach of natural laminar airfoils is developed in this paper. First, the non-uniform rational B-splines （NURBS） free form deformation method based on NURBS basis function is introduced to the airfoil parameterization. Second, aerodynamic characteristics are evaluated by solving Navier-Stokes equations, and theγ-Reθt transition model coupling with shear-stress transport （SST） turbulent model is introduced to simulate boundary layer transition. A numerical simulation of transition flow around NLF0416 airfoil is conducted to test the code. The comparison between numerical simulation results and wind tunnel test data approves the validity and applicability of the present transition model. Third, the optimization system is set up, which uses the separated particle swarm optimization （SPSO） as search algorithm and combines the Kriging models as surrogate model during optimization. The system is applied to carry out robust design about the uncertainty of lift coefficient and Mach number for NASA NLF-0115 airfoil. The data of optimized airfoil aerodynamic characteristics indicates that the optimized airfoil can maintain laminar flow stably in an uncertain range and has a wider range of low drag.

A novel target detection approach based on adaptive radar waveform design

To resolve problems of complicated clutter, fast-varying scenes, and low signal-clutterratio （SCR） in application of target detection on sea for space-based radar （SBR）, a target detection approach based on adaptive waveform design is proposed in this paper. Firstly, complicated sea clutter is modeled as compound Gaussian process, and a target is modeled as some scatterers with Gaussian reflectivity. Secondly, every dwell duration of radar is divided into several sub-dwells. Regular linear frequency modulated pulses are transmitted at Sub-dwell 1, and the received signal at this sub-dwell is used to estimate clutter covariance matrices and pre-detection. Estimated matrices are updated at every following sub-dwell by multiple particle filtering to cope with fast-varying clutter scenes of SBR. Furthermore, waveform of every following sub-dwell is designed adaptively according to mean square optimization technique. Finally, principal component analysis and generalized likelihood ratio test is used for mitigation of colored interference and property of constant false alarm rate, respectively. Simulation results show that, considering configuration of SBR and condition of complicated clutter, 9 dB is reduced for SCR which reliable detection requires by this target detection approach. Therefore, the work in this paper can markedly improve radar detection performance for weak targets.