ENHANCING THERMAL COMFORT OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS THROUGH A DUAL FUNCTIONAL PASSIVE SYSTEM (SOLAR-WALL)

Thermal comfort has a great impact on occupants’productivity and general well-being.Since people spend 80–90%of their time indoors,developing the tools and methods that enhance the thermal comfort for building are worth investigating.Previous studies have proved that using passive systems like Trombe walls and solar chimneys significantly enhanced thermal comfort in inside spaces despite that each system has a specific purpose within a specific climate condition.Hence,the main purpose of this study is to design and configure a new,dual functional passive system,called a solar wall.The new system combines the Trombe wall and solar chimney,and it can cool or heat based on building needs.Simulation software,DesignBuilder,has been used to configure the Solar Wall,and study its impact on indoor operative temperature for the base case.Using the new system,the simulation results were compared with those obtained in the base case and analyzed to determine the most efficient system design parameters and implementation method.The case that gave the best results for solar wall configuration was triple glazed glass and 0.1 cm copper as an absorber(case 11).The results show that using four units(case D)achieves longer thermal comfort levels:15 to 24 thermal hours during winter(compared to five hours maximum)and 10 to 19 comfort hours in summer(compared to zero).

ENHANCING THERMAL COMFORT OF RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS THROUGH DUAL FUNCTIONAL PASSIVE SYSTEM(SOLAR-WALL)

Thermal comfort has a great effect on occupants’productivity and general well-being.Since people spend 80-90%of their time indoors,developing the tools and methods that help in enhancing the thermal comfort for buildings are worth investigating.Previous studies have proved that using passive systems like Trombe walls and solar chimneys significantly enhanced thermal comfort in inside spaces despite that each system has a specific purpose within a specific climate condition.Hence,the main purpose of this study is to design and configure a new dual functional passive system,called a solar wall.The new system combines the Trombe wall and solar chimney,and it can cool or heat based on building needs.Simulation software,DesignBuilder,has been used to configure the Solar Wall and study its impact on indoor operative temperature for the base case.Using the new system,the simulation results were compared with those obtained in the base case and analyzed to determine the most efficient system design parameters and implementation method.The case that gave the best results for solar wall configuration was triple glazed glass and 0.1 cm copper as an absorber(case 11).The results show that using four units(case D)achieves longer thermal comfort levels:15 to 24 thermal hours during winter(compared to five hours maximum)and 10 to 19 comfort hours in summer(compared to zero).

Evaluation of the Thermodynamic Performance of the Traditional Passive Systems

The energy consumption of buildings in urban areas is one of the greatest source of energy wasting and, consequently, ofincreasing of CO2 emission. Research is currently focused on the reduction of this consumption through the use of passive air-conditioning systems, that can be integrated with conventional systems and give rise to the so-called hybrid systems. Historically, these passive systems were developed in the Mediterranean and Middle East area. The research approach on this topic involves the application of design strategies and the development of computational tools and control systems. The development of the hybrid systems is the result of the synergy between current scientific knowledge, advanced manufacturing and information technology. In this study, a modular housing system has been investigated under different conditions. Simulations have been repeated, in order to identify the configuration that provides the highest indoor comfort. The analysis of the different conditions has been carried out using a CFD （computational fluid dynamic） software. The paper shows the results developed by the Dipartimento di Architettura of the Universit^t di Palermo in the analysis of the natural ventilation effect on the indoor comfort.

Analysis of SBLOCA on CPR1000 with a passive system

Since the Fukushima accident in 2011,more and more attention has been paid to nuclear reactor safety.A number of evolutionary passive systems have been developed to enhance the inherent safety of reactors.This paper presents a passive safety system applied on CPR1000,which is a traditional generation II+ reactor.The passive components selected are as follows:(1) the reactor makeup tanks(RMTs);(2) the advanced accumulators(A-ACCs);(3) the passive emergency feedwater system(PEFS);(4)the passive depressurization system(PDS);(5) the incontainment refueling water storage tank(IRWST).The model of the coolant system and the passive systems was established by utilizing a system code(RELAP5/MOD3.3).The SBLOCA(small-break loss of coolant) was analyzed to test the passive safety systems.When the SBLOCA occurred,the RMTs were initiated.The water in the RMTs was then injected into the pressure vessel.The RMTs' low water level triggered the PDS,which depressurized the coolant system drastically.As the pressure of the coolant system decreased,the A-ACCs and the IRWST were put to work to prevent the uncovering of the core.The results show that,after the small-break loss-of-coolant accident,the passive systems can prevent uncovering of the core and guarantee the safety of the plant.

Low-energy-consumption temperature swing system for CO_(2) capture by combining passive radiative cooling and solar heating

Temperature-swing adsorption(TSA)is an effective technique for CO_(2) capture,but the temperature swing procedure is energy-intensive.Herein,we report a low-energy-consumption system by combining passive radiative cooling and solar heating for the uptake of CO_(2) on commercial activated carbons(CACs).During adsorption,the adsorbents are coated with a layer of hierarchically porous poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropene)[P(VdF-HFP)HP],which cools the adsorbents to a low temperature under sunlight through radiative cooling.For desorption,CACs with broad absorption of the solar spectrum are exposed to light irradiation for heating.The heating and cooling processes are completely driven by solar energy.Adsorption tests under mimicked sunlight using the CACs show that the performance of this system is comparable to that of the traditional ones.Furthermore,under real sunlight irradiation,the adsorption capacity of the CACs can be well maintained after multiple cycles.The present work may inspire the development of new temperature swing procedures with little energy consumption.

Trajectory Tracking for MmWave Communication Systems via Cooperative Passive Sensing

A cooperative passive sensing framework for millimeter wave(mmWave)communication systems is proposed and demonstrated in a scenario with one mobile signal blocker.Specifically,in the uplink communication with at least two transmitters,a cooperative detection method is proposed for the receiver to track the blocker’s trajectory,localize the transmitters and detect the potential link blockage jointly.To facilitate detection,the receiver collects the signal of each transmitter along a line-of-sight(LoS)path and a non-line-of-sight(NLoS)path separately via two narrow-beam phased arrays.The NLoS path involves scattering at the mobile blocker,allowing its identification through the Doppler frequency.By comparing the received signals of both paths,the Doppler frequency and angle-of-arrival(AoA)of the NLoS path can be estimated.To resolve the blocker’s trajectory and the transmitters’locations,the receiver should continuously track the mobile blocker to accumulate sufficient numbers of the Doppler frequency and AoA versus time observations.Finally,a gradient-descent-based algorithm is proposed for joint detection.With the reconstructed trajectory,the potential link blockage can be predicted.It is demonstrated that the system can achieve decimeterlevel localization and trajectory estimation,and predict the blockage time with an error of less than 0.1 s.

Bioinspired Passive Tactile Sensors Enabled by Reversible Polarization of Conjugated Polymers

Tactile perception plays a vital role for the human body and is also highly desired for smart prosthesis and advanced robots.Compared to active sensing devices,passive piezoelectric and triboelectric tactile sensors consume less power,but lack the capability to resolve static stimuli.Here,we address this issue by utilizing the unique polarization chemistry of conjugated polymers for the first time and propose a new type of bioinspired,passive,and bio-friendly tactile sensors for resolving both static and dynamic stimuli.Specifically,to emulate the polarization process of natural sensory cells,conjugated polymers(including poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophen e):poly(styrenesulfonate),polyaniline,or polypyrrole)are controllably polarized into two opposite states to create artificial potential differences.The controllable and reversible polarization process of the conjugated polymers is fully in situ characterized.Then,a micro-structured ionic electrolyte is employed to imitate the natural ion channels and to encode external touch stimulations into the variation in potential difference outputs.Compared with the currently existing tactile sensing devices,the developed tactile sensors feature distinct characteristics including fully organic composition,high sensitivity(up to 773 mV N^(−1)),ultralow power consumption(nW),as well as superior bio-friendliness.As demonstrations,both single point tactile perception(surface texture perception and material property perception)and two-dimensional tactile recognitions(shape or profile perception)with high accuracy are successfully realized using self-defined machine learning algorithms.This tactile sensing concept innovation based on the polarization chemistry of conjugated polymers opens up a new path to create robotic tactile sensors and prosthetic electronic skins.

Passive activity enhances residual control ability in patients with complete spinal cord injury

Patients with complete spinal cord injury retain the potential for volitional muscle activity in muscles located below the spinal injury level.However,because of prolonged inactivity,initial attempts to activate these muscles may not effectively engage any of the remaining neurons in the descending pathway.A previous study unexpectedly found that a brief clinical round of passive activity significantly increased volitional muscle activation,as measured by surface electromyography.In this study,we further explored the effect of passive activity on surface electromyographic signals during volitional control tasks among individuals with complete spinal cord injury.Eleven patients with chronic complete thoracic spinal cord injury were recruited.Surface electromyography data from eight major leg muscles were acquired and compared before and after the passive activity protocol.The results indicated that the passive activity led to an increased number of activated volitional muscles and an increased frequency of activation.Although the cumulative root mean square of surface electromyography amplitude for volitional control of movement showed a slight increase after passive activity,the difference was not statistically significant.These findings suggest that brief passive activity may enhance the ability to initiate volitional muscle activity during surface electromyography tasks and underscore the potential of passive activity for improving residual motor control among patients with motor complete spinal cord injury.

Observability of Airborne Passive Location System with Phase Difference Measurements

With a pair of antennas spaced apart, an airborne passive location system measures phase differences of emitting signals. Regarded as cyclic ambiguities, the moduli of the measurements traditionally are resolved by adding more antenna elements. This paper models the cyclic ambiguity as a component of the system state, of which the observability is analyzed and compared to that of the bear- ings-only passive location system. It is shown that the necessary and sufficient observability condition for the bearings-only passive location system is only the necessary observability condition for the passive location system with phase difference measurements, and that when the system state is observable, the cyclic ambiguities can be estimated by accumulating the phase difference measurements, thereby making the observer able to locate the emitter with high-precision.

Application of unscented Kalman filter to novel terrain passive integrated navigation system

To improve the navigation accuracy of an autonomous underwater vehicle （AUV）, a novel terrain passive integrated navigation system （TPINS） is presented. According to the characteristics of the underwater environment and AUV navigation requirements of low cost and high accuracy, a novel TPINS is designed with a configuration of the strapdown inertial navigation system （SINS）, the terrain reference navigation system （TRNS）, the Doppler velocity sonar （DVS）, the magnetic compass and the navigation computer utilizing the unscented Kalman filter （UKF） to fuse the navigation information from various navigation sensors. Linear filter equations for the extended Kalman filter （EKF）, nonlinear filter equations for the UKF and measurement equations of navigation sensors are addressed. It is indicated from the comparable simulation experiments of the EKF and the UKF that AUV navigation precision is improved substantially with the proposed sensors and the UKF when compared to the EKF. The TPINS designed with the proposed sensors and the UKF is effective in reducing AUV navigation position errors and improving the stability and precision of the AUV underwater integrated navigation.

Novel gravity passive navigation system

According to the characteristics of gravity passive navigation, this paper presents a novel gravity passive navigation system （GPNS）, which consists of the rate azimuth platform （RAP）, gravity sensor, digitally stored gravity maps, depth sensor and relative log. The algorithm of rate azimuth platform inertial navigation system, error state-space equations, measurement equations and GPNS optimal filter are described. In view of the measurements made by an onboard gravity sensor the Eotvos effect is introduced in the gravity measurement equation of a GPNS optimal filter. A GPNS is studied with the Matlab/Simulink tools; simulation results demonstrate that a GPNS has small errors in platform attitude and position. Because the inertial navigation platform is the rate azimuth platform in the GPNS and gravity sensor is mounted on the rate azimuth platform, the cost of the GPNS is lower than existing GPNS＇s and according to the above results the GPNS meets the need to maintain accuracy navigation for underwater vehicles over long intervals.

Passive control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor chaotic systems

Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor model can exhibit a variety of chaotic phenomena under some choices of system parameters and external input. Based on the property of passive system, the essential conditions were studied, by which Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor chaotic system could be equivalent to passive system. Using Lyapunov stability theory, the convergence condition deciding the system's characters was discussed. In the convergence condition area, the equivalent passive system could be globally asymptotically stabilized by smooth state feedback.

Passive control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor chaotic system based on state observer

Passive system theory was applied to propose a new passive control method with nonlinear observer of the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor chaotic system. Through constructing a Lyapunov function, the subsystem of the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor chaotic system could be proved to be globally stable at the equilibrium point. Then a controller with smooth state feedback is designed so that the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor chaotic system can be equivalent to a passive system. To get the state variables of the controller, the nonlinear observer is also studied. It is found that the outputs of the nonlinear observer can approximate the state variables of the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor chaotic system if the system’s nonlinear function is a globally Lipschitz function. Simulation results showed that the equivalent passive system of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor chaotic system could be globally asymptotically stabilized by smooth state feedback in the observed parameter convergence condition area.

Passive expansion of sub-maximally dilated transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts and assessment of clinical outcomes

AIM To assess for passive expansion of sub-maximally dilated transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts(TIPS) and compare outcomes with maximally dilated TIPS.METHODS Polytetrafluoroethylene covered TIPS(Viatorr) from July 2002 to December 2013 were retrospectively reviewed at two hospitals in a single institution. Two hundred and thirty patients had TIPS maximally dilated to 10 mm(m TIPS), while 43 patients who were at increased risk for hepatic encephalopathy(HE), based on clinical evaluation or low pre-TIPS portosystemic gradient(PSG), had 10 mm TIPS sub-maximally dilated to 8 mm(sm TIPS). Group characteristics(age, gender, Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score, post-TIPS PSG and clinical outcomes were compared between groups, including clinical success(ascites or varices), primary patency,primary assisted patency, and severe post-TIPS HE. A subset of fourteen patients with sm TIPS underwent follow-up computed tomography imaging after TIPS creation, and were grouped based on time of imaging(< 6 mo and > 6 mo). Change in diameter and crosssectional area were measured with 3D imaging software to evaluate for passive expansion.RESULTS Patient characteristics were similar between the sm TIPS and m TIPS groups, except for pre-TIPS portosystemic gradient, which was lower in the sm TIPS group(19.4 mm Hg ± 6.8 vs 22.4 mm Hg ± 7.1, P = 0.01). Primary patency and primary assisted patency between sm TIPS and m TIPS was not significantly different(P = 0.64 and 0.55, respectively). Four of the 55 patients(7%) with sm TIPS required TIPS reduction for severe refractory HE, while this occurred in 6 of the 218 patients(3%) with m TIPS(P = 0.12). For the 14 patients with follow-up computed tomography(CT) imaging, the median imaging follow-up was 373 d. There was an increase in median TIPS diameter, median percent diameter change, median area, and median percent area change in patients with CT follow-up greater than 6 mo after TIPS placement compared to follow-up within 6 mo(8.45 mm, 5.58%, 56.04 mm^2, and 11.48%, respectively, P = 0.01).CONCLUSION Passive expansion of sm TIPS does occur but clinical outcomes of sm TIPS and m TIPS were similar. Sub-maximal dilation can prevent complications related to overshunting in select patients.

Numerical investigation of natural convection characteristics of a heat pipe-cooled passive residual heat removal system for molten salt reactors

The limited availability of studies on the natural convection heat transfer characteristics of fluoride salt has hindered progress in the design of passive residual heat removal systems(PRHRS)for molten salt reactors.This paper presents results from a numerical investigation of natural convection heat transfer characteristics of fluoride salt and heat pipes in the drain tank of a PRHRS.Simulation results are compared with experimental data,demonstrating the accuracy of the calculation methodology.Temperature distribution of fluoride salt and heat transfer characteristics are obtained and analyzed.The radial temperature of liquid fluoride salt in the drain tank shows a uniform distribution,while temperatures increase with increase in axial height from the bottom to the top of the drain tank.In addition,natural convection intensity increases with increase in height of the heat pipes in the tank.Spacing between heat pipes has no obvious effect on the natural convection heat transfer coefficient.This study will contribute to the design of passive heat removal systems for advanced nuclear reactors.

The synchronization of a fractional order hyperchaotic system based on passive control

This paper investigates the synchronization of a fractional order hyperchaotic system using passive control. A passive controller is designed, based on the properties of a passive system. Then the synchronization between two fractional order hyperchaotic systems under different initial conditions is realized, on the basis of the stability theorem for fractional order systems. Numerical simulations and circuitry simulations are presented to verify the analytical results.

Passive control of chaotic system with multiple strange attractors

In this paper we present a new simple controller for a chaotic system, that is, the Newton-Leipnik equation with two strange attractors： the upper attractor （UA） and the lower attractor （LA）. The controller design is based on the passive technique. The final structure of this controller for original stabilization has a simple nonlinear feedback form. Using a passive method, we prove the stability of a closed-loop system. Based on the controller derived from the passive principle, we investigate three different kinds of chaotic control of the system, separately： the original control forcing the chaotic motion to settle down to the origin from an arbitrary position of the phase space; the chaotic intra-attractor control for stabilizing the equilibrium points only belonging to the upper chaotic attractor or the lower chaotic one, and the inter-attractor control for compelling the chaotic oscillation from one basin to another one. Both theoretical analysis and simulation results verify the validity of the suggested method.

Exponential passive filtering for a class of nonlinear jump systems

The exponential passive filtering problem for a class of nonlinear Markov jump systems with uncertainties and time-delays is studied. The uncertain parameters are assumed unknown but norm bounded, and the nonlinearities satisfy the quadratic condition. Based on the passive filtering theory, the sufficient condition for the existence of the mode-dependent passive filter is given by analyzing the reconstructed observer system. By using the appropriate Lyapnnov-Krasovskii function and applying linear matrix inequalities, the design scheme of the passive filter is derived and described as an optimization one. The presented exponential passive filter makes the error dynamic systems exponentially stochastically stable for all the admissible uncertainties, time-delays and nonlinearities, has the better abilities of state tracking and satisfies the given passive norm index. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach.

Synchronization of hyperchaotic Lorenz system based on passive control

Synchronization of a hyperchaotic Lorenz system is discussed using passive control. Based on the properties of a passive system, a passive controller is designed and the synchronization between two hyperchaotic Lorenz systems under different initial conditions is realized. Simulation results show the proposed synchronization method to be effective.

Passive Localization of Multiple Sources Using Joint RSS and AOA Measurements in Spectrum Sharing System

In spectrum sharing systems,locating mul-tiple radiation sources can efficiently find out the in-truders,which protects the shared spectrum from ma-licious jamming or other unauthorized usage.Com-pared to single-source localization,simultaneously lo-cating multiple sources is more challenging in prac-tice since the association between measurement pa-rameters and source nodes are not known.More-over,the number of possible measurements-source as-sociations increases exponentially with the number of sensor nodes.It is crucial to discriminate which measurements correspond to the same source before localization.In this work,we propose a central-ized localization scheme to estimate the positions of multiple sources.Firstly,we develop two computa-tionally light methods to handle the unknown RSS-AOA measurements-source association problem.One method utilizes linear coordinate conversion to com-pute the minimum spatial Euclidean distance sum-mation of measurements.Another method exploits the long-short-term memory(LSTM)network to clas-sify the measurement sequences.Then,we propose a weighted least squares(WLS)approach to obtain the closed-form estimation of the positions by linearizing the non-convex localization problem.Numerical re-sults demonstrate that the proposed scheme could gain sufficient localization accuracy under adversarial sce-narios where the sources are in close proximity and the measurement noise is strong.