A prediction model for the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids considering agglomeration and the radial distribution function of nanoparticles

Conventional heat transfer fluids usually have low thermal conductivity, limiting their efficiency in many applications. Many experiments have shown that adding nanosize solid particles to conventional fluids can greatly enhance their thermal conductivity. To explain this anomalous phenomenon, many theoretical investigations have been conducted in recent years. Some of this research has indicated that the particle agglomeration effect that commonly occurs in nanofluids should play an important role in such enhancement of the thermal conductivity, while some have shown that the enhancement of the effective thermal conductivity might be accounted for by the structure of nanofluids, which can be described using the radial distribution function of particles. However, theoretical predictions from these studies are not in very good agreement with experimental results. This paper proposes a prediction model for the effective thermal conductivity of nanofluids, considering both the agglomeration effect and the radial distribution function of nanoparticles. The resulting theoretical predictions for several sets of nanofluids are highly consistent with experimental data.

Optimum Simultaneous Allocation of Renewable Energy DG and Capacitor Banks in Radial Distribution Network

Nowadays the optimal allocation of distributed generation (DG) in the distribution network becomes the popular research area in restructuring of power system. The capacitor banks introduced in the distribution networks for reactive power compensation also have the capacity to minimize the real and reactive power losses occurred in the system. Hence, this research integrates the allocation of renewable energy DG and capacitor banks in the radial distribution network to minimize the real power loss occurred in the system. A two-stage methodology is used for simultaneous allocation of renewable DG and capacitor banks. The optimum location of renewable energy DG and capacitor banks is determined using the distributed generation sitting index (DGSI) ranking method and the optimum sizing of DG and capacitor banks is found out for simultaneous placement using weight improved particle swarm optimization algorithm (WIPSO) and self adaptive differential evolution algorithm (SADE). This two-stage methodology reduces the burden of SADE and WIPSO algorithm, by using the DGSI index in determining the optimal location. Hence the computational time gets reduced which makes them suitable for online applications. By using the above methodology, a comprehensive performance analysis is done on IEEE 33 bus and 69 bus RDNs and the results are discussed in detail.

Investigation of Connecting Wind Turbine to Radial Distribution System on Voltage Stability Using SI Index and λ - V Curves

The growth of wind energy penetration level in distribution system raises the concern about its impact on the operation of the power system, especially voltage stability and power loss. Among the major concerns, this paper studied the impact of connecting wind Turbine (WT) in radial distribution system with different penetration levels and different power factor (lead and lag) on power system voltage stability and power loss reduction. Load flow calculation was carried out using forward-backward sweep method. The analysis proceeds on 9- and 33-bus radial distribution systems. Results show that voltage stability enhancement and power loss reduction should be considered as WT installation objective.

Radial Distribution of SiC Particles in Mechanical Stirring of A356-SiC_p Liquid

The mechanical stirring of A356-2.5 vol.% SiCp liquid was conducted in a cylindrical crucible by a straight-blade stirrer. The radial distribution of SiC particles in A356 liquid was studied under the conditions of 25 deg. for gradient angle α of blade and 10 mm/s for speed of moving up and down of stirrer, The results show that there exists a nonlinear relationship between rotating speed of stirrer and radial relative deviation of SiCp content in A356 liquid between the center and the periphery of crucible. The greater the rotating speed of stirrer is, the bigger the radial relative deviation of SiCp content in A356 liquid becomes and the more nonhomogeneous the radial distribution of SiC particles in A356 liquid turns. In addition, when the rotating speed of stirrer is about 200 r/min, the vertical distribution of SiC particles in A356 liquid is relative uniform. It can be seen that the nonhomogeneous distribution of SiC particles in A356 liquid results from the nonhomogeneous radial distribution of SiC particles in A356 liquid in straight-blade mechanical stirring ultimately.

Determination of the Radial Distribution of Attenuation in Single-Mode Optical Fibers

A new method to determine the radial distribution of attenuation in single-mode optical fibers is proposed. As an example, radiation-induced losses in gamma-irradiated germanosilicate fibers are characterized at 633 nm.

Comparison of optimal capacitor placement methods in radial distribution system with load growth and ZIP load model

In this paper, a combined power loss sensitivity （PLS） index-based approach is proposed to determine the optimal location of the capacitors in the radial distribution system （RDS） based on the real and reactive combined loss sensitivity index, as capacitor placement not only reduces real power loss with voltage profile improvement but also reduces reactive power loss due to the reactive power compensation in the network. The results have been obtained with the existing methods of power loss index （PLI） and index vector （IV） method for comparison. Besides, the optimal placement has been obtained with the proposed method as well as existing methods and the total kVar support has been obtained. In addition, the results of net cost savings for the 10-, 34-, and 69-bus systems are obtained for comparison. Moreover, the results have been obtained for a large system of 85 buses to validate the results with combined sensitivity based approach. Further- more, the load growth factor has been considered in the study which is essential for the planning and expansion of the existing systems, whereas the impact of the realistic load model as ZIP load model has been considered for the study of all the systems.

Robust Switch Selection in Radial Distribution Systems Using Combinatorial Optimization

Selecting the best type of equipment among available switches with different prices and reliability levels is a significant challenge in distribution system planning.In this paper,the optimal type of switches in a radial distribution system is selected by considering the total cost and reliability criterion and using the weighted augmented epsilon constraint method and combinatorial optimization.A new index is calculated to assess the robustness of each Pareto solution.Moreover,for each failure,repair time is considered based on historical data.Monte Carlo simulations are used to consider the switch failure uncertainty and fault repair time uncertainty in the model.The proposed framework is applied to an RTBS Bus-2 test system.Furthermore,the model is also applied to an industrial system to verify the proposed method’s excellent performance in larger practical engineering problems.

Reversal of radial glow distribution in helicon plasma induced by reversed magnetic field

In this work, the reversal of radial glow distribution induced by reversed magnetic field is reported. Based on the Boswell antenna which is symmetric and insensitive to the magnetic field direction, it seems such a phenomenon in theory appears impossible. However, according to the diagnostic of the helicon waves by magnetic probe, it is found that the direction of magnetic field significantly affects the propagation characteristic of helicon waves, i.e., the interchange of the helicon waves at the upper and the lower half of tube was caused by reversing the direction of magnetic field. It is suggested that the variation of helicon wave against the direction of magnetic field causes the reversed radial glow distribution. The appearance of the traveling wave does not only improve the discharge strength, but also determines the transition of the discharge mode.

Molecular dynamics simulation of structure H clathrate-hydrates of binary guest molecules

Molecular dynamics （MD） simulations are performed to study the stability of structure H clathrate-hydrates of methane＋large-molecule guest substance （LMGS） at temperatures of 270, 273, 278 and 280 K under canonical （NVT-） ensemble condition in a 3×3×3 structure H unit cell replica with 918 TIP4P water molecules. The studied LMGS are 2-methylbutane （2-MB）, 2,3-dimethylbutane （2,3-DMB）, neohexane （NH）, methylcyclohexane （MCH）, adamantane and tert-butyl methyl ether （TBME）. In the process of MD simulation, achieving equilibrium of the studied system is recognized by stability in calculated pressure for NVT-ensemble. So, for the accuracy of MD simulations, the obtained pressures are compared with the experimental phase diagrams. Therefore, the obtained equilibrium pressures by MD simulations are presented for studying the structure H clathrate-hydrates. The results show that the calculated temperature and pressure conditions by MD simulations are consistent with the experimental phase diagrams. Also, the radial distribution functions （RDFs） of host-host, host-guest and guest-guest molecules are used to analysis the characteristic configurations of the structure H clathrate-hydrate.

Structure of MgSO_4 in Concentrated Aqueous Solutions by X-Ray Diffraction

Detailed time-and-space-averaged structure of MgSO4 in the concentrated aqueous solutions was investigated via X-ray diffraction with an X’pert Pro θ-θ diffractometer at 298 K, yielding structural function and radial distribution function（RDF）. The developed KURVLR program was employed for the theoretical investigation in consideration of the ionic hydration and ion association. Multi-peaks Gaussian fitting method was applied to deconvolving the overlapping bands of Differential radial distribution function（DRDF）. The calculation of the geometric model shows that octahedrally six-coordinated Mg（H2O）62＋, with an Mg2＋…OW bond length of 0.201 nm dominates in the solutions. There exists contact ion-pair（CIP） in the more concentrated solution（1：18, H2O/salt molar ratio） with a coordination number of 0.8 and a characteristic Mg…S distance of 0.340 nm. The result indicates the hydrated SO42– ion happens in the solution. The S…OW bond distance was determined to be 0.382 nm with a coordination number of 13. The fraction of CIP increases significantly with the increasing concentration. The symmetry of the hydration structure of sulfate ion is lowered by forming complex with magnesium ion.

Molecular dynamics studies of the inhibitory mechanism of copper(Ⅱ) on aggregation of amyloid β-peptide

The inhibitory mechanism of copper（Ⅱ） on the aggegation of amyloid β-peptide （Aβ） was investigated by molecular dynamics simulations. The binding mode ofcopper（Ⅱ） with Aβ is characterized by the imidazole nitrogen atom, Nπ, of the histidine residue H 13, acting as the anchoring site, and the backbone＇s deprotoned amide nitogen atoms as the main binding sites. Drove by the coordination bonds and their induced hydrogen bond net, the conformations of Aβ converted from β-sheet non-β-sheet conformations, which destabilized the aggregation of Aβ into fibrils.

Size effect in the melting and freezing behaviors of Al/Ti core-shell nanoparticles using molecular dynamics simulations

The thermal stability of Ti@A1 core/shell nanoparticles with different sizes and components during continuous heating and cooling processes is examined by a molecular dynamics simulation with embedded atom method. The thermodynamic properties and structure evolution during continuous heating and cooling processes are investigated through the character- ization of the potential energy, specific heat distribution, and radial distribution function （RDF）. Our study shows that, for fixed Ti core size, the melting temperature decreases with A1 shell thickness, while the crystallizing temperature and glass formation temperature increase with A1 shell thickness. Diverse melting mechanisms have been discovered for different Ti core sized with fixed A1 shell thickness nanoparticles. The melting temperature increases with the Ti core radius. The trend agrees well with the theoretical phase diagram of bimetallic nanoparticles. In addition, the glass phase formation of A1-Ti nanoparticles for the fast cooling rate of 12 K/ps, and the crystal phase formation for the low cooling rate of 0.15 K/ps. The icosahedron structure is formed in the frozen 4366 A1-Ti atoms for the low cooling rate.

Bridge density functional approximation for non-uniform hard core repulsive Yukawa fluid

In this work, a bridge density functional approximation （BDFA） （J. Chem. Phys. 112, 8079 （2000）） for a nonuniform hard-sphere fluid is extended to a non-uniform hard-core repulsive Yukawa （HCRY） fluid. It is found that the choice of a bulk bridge functional approximation is crucial for both a uniform HCRY fluid and a non-uniform HCRY fluid. A new bridge functional approximation is proposed, which can accurately predict the radial distribution function of the bulk HCRY fluid. With the new bridge functional approximation and its associated bulk second order direct correlation function as input, the BDFA can be used to well calculate the density profile of the HCRY fluid subjected to the influence of varying external fields, and the theoretical predictions are in good agreement with the corresponding simulation data. The calculated results indicate that the present BDFA captures quantitatively the phenomena such as the coexistence of solid-like high density phase and low density gas phase, and the adsorption properties of the HCRY fluid, which qualitatively differ from those of the fluids combining both hard-core repulsion and an attractive tail.

Short-range structural change in indium melt by Gaussian peaks decomposing of RDF

Liquid indium's structure was studied at 280, 390, 550, 650, and 750 deg Crespectively by using an elevated temperature X-ray diffractometer, and its radial distributionfunction (RDF) at different temperatures was decomposed into 4 Gaussian peaks in the range of0.2-0.6nm. Positions of the decomposed Gaussian peaks were compared with the nearest and the secondnearest neighbor atomic distances, respectively. It is shown that the position of the firstdecomposed Gaussian peak is similar to the nearest neighbor atomic distance in liquid In at thecorresponding temperature, and that of the third decomposed Gaussian peak is similar to the secondnearest neighbor atomic distance. Moreover, the first and the third Gaussian peaks correspond to thefirst and the second atom shells of liquid In at the corresponding temperatures, respectively.Therefore, the position and the area of Gaussian peaks can represent the position and atom number ofcorresponding shells. Based on this result, short-range structural changes in liquid In wasstudied. It was found that the first and the second shells are close to the referred atom, and theatom number at the shells decreases with the increasing temperature from 280 to 750 deg C. Indifferent ranges of temperature, structural changes in the first and the second shells showdifferent features.

Transformation of the Angular Power Spectrum of the Cosmic Microwave Background(CMB)Radiation into Reciprocal Spaces and Consequences of This Approach

A formalism of solid state physics has been applied to provide an additional tool for the research of cosmological problems. It is demonstrated how this new approach could be useful in the analysis of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) data. After a transformation of the anisotropy spectrum of relict radiation into a special two-fold reciprocal space it was possible to propose a simple and general description of the interaction of relict photons with the matter by a “relict radiation factor”. This factor enabled us to process the transformed CMB anisotropy spectrum by a Fourier transform and thus arrive to a radial electron density distribution function (RDF) in a reciprocal space. As a consequence it was possible to estimate distances between Objects of the order of ~102 [m] and the density of the ordinary matter ~10-22 [kg.m-3]. Another analysis based on a direct calculation of the CMB radiation spectrum after its transformation into a simple reciprocal space and combined with appropriate structure modelling confirmed the cluster structure. The internal structure of Objects may be formed by Clusters distant ~10 [cm], whereas the internal structure of a Cluster consisted of particles distant ~0.3 [nm]. The work points in favour of clustering processes and to a cluster-like structure of the matter and thus contributes to the understanding of the structure of density fluctuations. As a consequence it may shed more light on the structure of the universe in the moment when the universe became transparent for photons. On the basis of our quantitative considerations it was possible to derive the number of particles (protons, helium nuclei, electrons and other particles) in Objects and Clusters and the number of Clusters in an Object.

Multivariable temperature measurement and control system of large-scaled vertical quench furnace based on temperature field

A temperature control system of 31m vertical forced air-circulation quench furnace is proposed, which is a kind of equipment critical for thermal treatment of aluminum alloy components that are widely used in aerospace industry. For the effective operation of the furnace, it is essential to analyze the radial temperature distribution of the furnace. A set of thermodynamic balance equations modeling is established firsdy. By utilizing the numerical analysis result to modify the temperature measurements, the control accuracy and precision of the temperature are truly guaranteed. Furthermore, the multivariable decoupling self-learning PID control algorithm based on the characteristics of strong coupling between the multi-zones in the large-scaled furnace is implemented to ensure the true homogeneity of the axial temperature distribution. Finally, the redundant structure composed of industrial control computers and touch panels leads to great improvement of system reliability.

Effects of the radial blade loading distribution and B parameter on the type of flow instability in a low-speed axial compressor

Previous studies showed that an axisymmetric hub-initiated disturbance defined as partial surge may initiate the stall of a transonic compressor; to reveal the instability evolution under full-span incompressible flow for different levels of hub loading and B parameter, an experimental investigation is conducted on a single-stage low-speed compressor. Experimental results show that under a uniform inflow condition without inlet flow distortion, a modal-type stall inception dominates in this low-speed compressor. When an inlet screen introducing hub distortion is used to increase the hub loading, a compressor stall is initiated by a modal wave, but large disturbances are present in the hub region before the compressor stall, which become stronger as the hub loading increases. Under high hub loading and large B parameter（implemented by adding hub distortion through an inlet screen and enlarging the outlet plenum volume, respectively）, a compressor stall is triggered by an axisymmetric hub-initiated disturbance, which is much different from the modal-like disturbances. The beginning of this axisymmetric disturbance may be captured over 800 rotor revolutions prior to the onset of stall, and the amplitude grows with time. The disturbance is hub-initiated because the disturbance signal at the hub is detected much earlier than that at the tip; meanwhile, the frequency of this axisymmetric disturbance changes with the length of the inlet duct. The characteristics of instability evolution in the low-speed compressor are also compared with those in a transonic compressor.

Distributed Collaborative Response Surface Method for Mechanical Dynamic Assembly Reliability Design

Because of the randomness of many impact factors influencing the dynamic assembly relationship of complex machinery, the reliability analysis of dynamic assembly relationship needs to be accomplished considering the randomness from a probabilistic perspective. To improve the accuracy and efficiency of dynamic assembly relationship reliability analysis, the mechanical dynamic assembly reliability（MDAR） theory and a distributed collaborative response surface method（DCRSM） are proposed. The mathematic model of DCRSM is established based on the quadratic response surface function, and verified by the assembly relationship reliability analysis of aeroengine high pressure turbine（HPT） blade-tip radial running clearance（BTRRC）. Through the comparison of the DCRSM, traditional response surface method（RSM） and Monte Carlo Method（MCM）, the results show that the DCRSM is not able to accomplish the computational task which is impossible for the other methods when the number of simulation is more than 100 000 times, but also the computational precision for the DCRSM is basically consistent with the MCM and improved by 0.40-4.63% to the RSM, furthermore, the computational efficiency of DCRSM is up to about 188 times of the MCM and 55 times of the RSM under 10000 times simulations. The DCRSM is demonstrated to be a feasible and effective approach for markedly improving the computational efficiency and accuracy of MDAR analysis. Thus, the proposed research provides the promising theory and method for the MDAR design and optimization, and opens a novel research direction of probabilistic analysis for developing the high-performance and high-reliability of aeroengine.

Smart inverter operation in distribution networks with high penetration of photovoltaic systems

With the growing number and capacity of photovoltaic(PV)installations connected to distribution networks,power quality issues related to voltage regulation are becoming relevant problems for power distribution companies and for PV owners.In many countries,like Italy,this has required the revision of the standards concerning the connection to the public distribution network of distributed renewable generation.The new standards require a flexible operation of generation plants that have to be capable to change the active and reactive power dynamically in function of the network parameters(i.e.frequency and network local voltage)in local control or following external commands.Therefore,this paper investigates the use of smart inverter in a critical PV installation,where relevant voltage fluctuations exist.A case study,with real network parameters monitoring data and measurements,is discussed in the paper with the aim of showing how‘smart’features of new inverters can be implemented to increase PV plant integration in low voltage distribution networks.

Minimising the spread of residence-time distribution for flat and heaped powders in a wedge-shaped planar hopper

A wedge-shaped planar mass-flow hopper system was modelled using stress-field theory as found in the literature, The authors present governing equations for stress and velocity fields under a radial- flow assumption in a converging hopper. The velocity in the silo above the hopper is modelled as plug flow, Two set-ups are modelled, one where powder layers in the hopper are assumed to be flat, and the second in which the layers are heaped at some characteristic angle, The ejection times and residence-time distributions are calculated and presented for a range of heap angles. For realistic heap angles, the spread of the residence-time distribution decreases with increasing heap angle; in one case, the spread is halved to a well-defined limit. At this limit （the critical heap angle） the geometry of the hopper can be optimised to minimise the spread of the residence-time distribution, and hence to minimise predicted mixing in the system. We present examples of curves for a variety of parameters that minimise the predicted mixing in the hopper-silo system.