Comparison of Experiment and Simulation of the triple GEM-Based Fast Neutron Detector

A detector for fast neutrons based on a 10 × 10 cm^2 triple gas electron multiplier （GEM） device is developed and tested. A neutron converter, which is a high density polyethylene （HDPE） layer, is combined with the triple GEM detector cathode and placed inside the detector, in the path of the incident neutrons. The detector is tested by obtaining the energy deposition spectrum with an Am Be neutron source in the Institute of Modern Physics （IMP） at Lanzhou. In the present work we report the results of the tests and compare them with those of simulations. The transport of fast neutrons and their interactions with the different materials in the detector are simulated with the GEANT4 code, to understand the experimental results. The detector displays a clear response to the incident fast neutrons. However, an unexpected disagreement in the energy dependence of the response between the simulated and measured spectra is observed. The neutron sources used in our simulation include deuterium-tritium （DT, 14 MeV）, deuterium-deuterium （DD, 2.45 MeV）, and Am Be sources. The simulation results also show that among the secondary particles generated by the incident neutron, the main contributions to the total energy deposition are from recoil protons induced in hydrogen-rich HDPE or Kapton （GEM material）, and activation photons induced by neutron interaction with Ar atoms. Their contributions account for 90% of the total energy deposition. In addition, the dependence of neutron deposited energy spectrum on the composition of the gas mixture is presented.

THE EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS OF 2-D FREE SHEAR TURBULENT FLOWS AND THE COMPARISON WITH THE THEORETICAL COMPUTATION

An extensive set of measurements in 2-D turbulent mixing layer, wake and jet flow by the hot-wire technique and data sampling are presented. The measured quantities, i. e. the mean velocity, the turbulence intensity, the Reynolds stress and higher-order correlations of the fluctuating velocity in the self-preserving region of the above free shear flows are compared with the computational results based on Zhou's theory for the shear turbulence of in- compressible fluid. The experimental and computational results are in good agreement.

Solid Desiccant Heat Pump Fresh Air Unit using Composite Silica Gel

The introduction of fresh air into the indoor space leads to a significant increase in cooling or heating loads.Solid desiccant heat pump fresh air unit which can handle the latent and sensible load of fresh air efficiently have been proposed recently.To improve the performance of the solid desiccant heat pump fresh air unit in the fresh air handling process,in this paper,the application of composite silica gel in a heat pump fresh air unit was investigated.The comparison between silica gel coating(SGC)and composite silica gel coating(CSGC)shows that the adsorption rate and water uptake capacity of CSGC are more than two times higher than those of SGC.An experimental setup for the solid desiccant heat pump fresh air unit was established.The performance of SGC and CSGC was tested in the setup successively.Results show that under summer conditions,compared with the solid desiccant heat pump fresh air unit using silica gel(SGFU),the average moisture removal and COP of the one using composite silica gel(CSGFU)increased by 15%and 30%,respectively.Under winter conditions,compared with SGFU,the average humidification and COP of CSGFU increased by 42%and 17%.With optimal operation conditions of 3 min switchover time and 40 r/s compressor frequency,the COP of CSGFU under summer conditions can reach 7.6.Results also show that the CSGFU and SGFU have higher COP and dehumidification rate under higher outdoor temperature and humidity ratio.

An Extended Dielectric Crack Model for Fracture Analysis of a Thermopiezoelectric Strip

An extended dielectric crack model is proposed to capture the effects of the physical properties of crack interior on crack-tip thermoelectroelastic fields.The typical crack-face boundary conditions can be retrieved by considering the limiting cases of electrical permeability and thermal conductivity inside a crack.Making use of the Fourier transform technique,the problem of a thermopiezoelectric strip weakened by a Griffith crack is investigated and transformed to solve the system of the second kind Fredholm integral equations with Cauchy kernel.The Lobatto-Chebyshev collocation method is used to form a nonlinear system of algebraic equations,which is solved by elaborating on an algorithm.The crack-tip thermoelectroelastic fields are determined by using the approximate solutions.Numerical simulations are carried out to show the variations of the fracture parameters of concern under applied thermoelectromechanical loads,the physical properties of the dielectric medium inside the crack and the geometry of the cracked thermopiezoelectric strip.Some comparisons with the experimental results are reported to reveal the effectiveness of the extended dielectric crack model.