Local leakage current behaviours of BiFeO_3 films

The leakage current behaviours of polycrystalline BiFeO3 thin films are investigated by using both conductive atomic force microscopy and current-voltage characteristic measurements. The local charge transport pathways are found to be located mainly at the grain boundaries of the films. The leakage current density can be tuned by changing the post-annealing temperature, the annealing time, the bias voltage and the light illumination, which can be used to improve the performances of the ferroelectric devices based on the BiFeOa films. A possible leakage mechanism is proposed to interpret the charge transports in the polycrystalline BiFeO3 films.

Automatic Visual Leakage Detection and Localization from Pipelines in Chemical Process Plants Using Machine Vision Techniques

Liquid leakage from pipelines is a critical issue in large-scale process plants.Damage in pipelines affects the normal operation of the plant and increases maintenance costs.Furthermore,it causes unsafe and hazardous situations for operators.Therefore,the detection and localization of leakages is a crucial task for maintenance and condition monitoring.Recently,the use of infrared(IR)cameras was found to be a promising approach for leakage detection in large-scale plants.IR cameras can capture leaking liquid if it has a higher(or lower)temperature than its surroundings.In this paper,a method based on IR video data and machine vision techniques is proposed to detect and localize liquid leakages in a chemical process plant.Since the proposed method is a vision-based method and does not consider the physical properties of the leaking liquid,it is applicable for any type of liquid leakage(i.e.,water,oil,etc.).In this method,subsequent frames are subtracted and divided into blocks.Then,principle component analysis is performed in each block to extract features from the blocks.All subtracted frames within the blocks are individually transferred to feature vectors,which are used as a basis for classifying the blocks.The k-nearest neighbor algorithm is used to classify the blocks as normal(without leakage)or anomalous(with leakage).Finally,the positions of the leakages are determined in each anomalous block.In order to evaluate the approach,two datasets with two different formats,consisting of video footage of a laboratory demonstrator plant captured by an IR camera,are considered.The results show that the proposed method is a promising approach to detect and localize leakages from pipelines using IR videos.The proposed method has high accuracy and a reasonable detection time for leakage detection.The possibility of extending the proposed method to a real industrial plant and the limitations of this method are discussed at the end.

Cohesive zone model-based analyses of localized leakage of segmentally lined tunnels

This paper presents a novel approach for simulating the localized leakage behavior of segmentally lined tunnels based on a cohesive zone model.The proposed approach not only simulates localized leakage at the lining segment,but also captures the hydromechanically coupled seepage behavior at the segmental joints.It is first verified via a tunnel drainage experiment,which reveals its merits over the existing local hydraulic conductivity method.Subsequently,a parametric study is conducted to investigate the effects of the aperture size,stratum permeability,and spatial distribution of drainage holes on the leakage behavior,stratum seepage field,and leakage-induced mechanical response of the tunnel lining.The proposed approach yields more accurate results than the classical local hydraulic conductivity method.Moreover,it is both computationally efficient and stable.Localized leakage leads to reduced local ground pressure,which further induces outward deformation near the leakage point and slight inward deformation at its diametrically opposite side.A localized stress arch spanning across the leakage point is observed,which manifests as the rotation of the principal stresses in the adjacent area.The seepage field depends on both the number and location of the leakage zones.Pseudostatic seepage zones,in which the seepage rate is significantly lower than that of the adjacent area,appear when multiple seepage zones are considered.Finally,the importance of employing the hydromechanical coupled mechanism at the segment joints is highlighted by cases of shallowly buried tunnels subjected to surface loading and pressure tunnels while considering internal water pressure.