Concurrent hetero-/homo-geneous electrocatalysts to bi-phasically mediate sulfur species for lithium-sulfur batteries

Expediting redox kinetics of sulfur species on conductive scaffolds with limited charge accessible surface is considered as an imperative approach to realize energy-dense and power-intensive lithium-sulfur(Li-S)batteries.In this work,the concept of concurrent hetero-/homo-geneous electrocatalysts is proposed to simultaneously mediate liquid-solid conversion of lithium polysulfides(LiPSs)and solid lithium disulfide/sulfide(Li_(2)S_(2)/Li_(2)S)propagation,the latter of which suffers from sluggish reduction kinetics due to buried conductive scaffold surface by extensive deposition of Li_(2)S_(2)/Li_(2)S.The selected model material to verify this concept is a two-in-one catalyst:carbon nanotube(CNT)scaffold supported iron-cobalt(Fe-Co)alloy nanoparticles and partially carbonized selenium(C-Se)component.The Fe-Co alloy serves as a heterogeneous electrocatalyst to seed Li_(2)S_(2)/Li_(2)S through sulphifilic active sites,while the C-Se sustainably releases soluble lithium polyselenides and functions as a homogeneous electrocatalyst to propagate Li_(2)S_(2)/Li_(2)S via solution pathways.Such bi-phasic mediation of the sulfur species benefits reduction kinetics of LiPS conversion,especially for the massive Li_(2)S_(2)/Li_(2)S growth scenario by affording an additional solution directed route in case of conductive surface being largely buried.This strategy endows the Li-S batteries with improved cycling stability(836 mA h g^(-1)after 180 cycles),rate capability(547 mA h g^(-1)at 4 C)and high sulfur loading superiority(2.96 mA h cm^(-2)at 2.4 mg cm^(-2)).This work hopes to enlighten the employment of bi-phasic electrocatalysts to dictate liquid-solid transformation of intermediates for conversion chemistry batteries.

Construction of Design Guidelines for Optimal Automotive Frame Shape Based on Statistical Approach and Mechanical Analysis

A body frame composed of thin sheet metal is a crucial structure that determines the safety performance of a vehicle.Designing a correct weight and high-performance automotive body is an emerging engineering problem.To improve the performance of the automotive frame,we attempt to reconstruct its design criteria based on statistical and mechanical approaches.At first,a fundamental study on the frame strength is conducted and a cross-sectional shape optimization problem is developed for designing the cross-sectional shape of an automobile frame having a very high mass efficiency for strength.Shape optimization is carried out using the nonlinear finite element method and a meta-modeling-based genetic algorithm.Data analysis of the obtained set of optimal results is performed to identify the dominant design variables by employing the smoothing spline analysis of variance,the principal component analysis,and the self-organizing map technique.The relationship between the cross-sectional shape and the objective function is also analyzed by hierarchical clustering.A design guideline is obtained from these statistical approach results.A comparison between the statistically obtained design guideline and the conventional one based on the designers’experience is performed based on mechanical interpretation of the optimal cross-sectional frame.Finally,a mechanically reasonable new general-purpose design guideline is proposed for the cross-sectional shape of the automotive frame.

A gas-kinetic theory based multidimensional high-order method for the compressible Navier–Stokes solutions

This paper presents a gas-kinetic theory based multidimensional high-order method for the compressible Naiver–Stokes solutions. In our previous study, a spatially and temporally dependent third-order flux scheme with the use of a third-order gas distribution function is employed.However, the third-order flux scheme is quite complicated and less robust than the second-order scheme. In order to reduce its complexity and improve its robustness, the secondorder flux scheme is adopted instead in this paper, while the temporal order of method is maintained by using a two stage temporal discretization. In addition, its CPU cost is relatively lower than the previous scheme. Several test cases in two and three dimensions, containing high Mach number compressible flows and low speed high Reynolds number laminar flows, are presented to demonstrate the method capacity.

Modeling and Experiment of a Morphing Wing Integrated with a Trailing Edge Control Actuation System

Morphing wing has attracted many research attention and effort in aircraft technology development because of its advantage in lift to draft ratio and flight performance.Morphing wing technology combines the lift and control surfaces into a seamless wing and integrates the primary structure together with the internal control system.It makes use of the wing aeroelastic deformation induced by the control surface to gain direct force control through desirable redistribution of aerodynamic forces.However some unknown mechanical parameters of the control system and complexity of the integrated structure become a main challenge for dynamic modeling of morphing wing.To solve the problem,a method of test data based modal sensitivity analysis is presented to improve the morphing wing FE model by evaluating the unknown parameters and identifying the modeling boundary conditions.An innovative seamless morphing wing with the structure integrated with a flexible trailing edge control system is presented for the investigation.An experimental model of actuation system driven by a servo motor for the morphing wing is designed and established.By performing a vibration test and the proposed modal sensitivity analysis,the unknown torsional stiffness of the servo motor and the boundary condition of the actuation mechanism model is identified and evaluated.Comparing with the test data,the average error of the first four modal frequency of the improved FE model is reduced significantly to less than 4%.To further investigate the morphing wing modeling,a wing box and then a whole morphing wing model including the skin and integrated with the trailing edge actuation system are established and tested.By using the proposed method,the FE model is improved by relaxing the constraint between the skin and actuation mechanism.The results show that the average error of the first three modal frequency of the improved FE model is reduced to less than 6%.The research results demonstrate that the presented seamless morphing wing integrated with a flexible trailing edge control surface can improve aerodynamic characteristics.By using the test data based modal sensitivity analysis method,the unknown parameter and boundary condition of the actuation model can be determined to improve the FE model.The problem in dynamic modeling of high accuracy for a morphing wing can be solved in an effective manner.

Displaced orbits generated by solar sails for the hyperbolic and degenerated cases

Displaced non-Keplerian orbits above planetary bodies can be achieved by orientating the solar sail normal to the sun line. The dynamical systems techniques are employed to analyze the nonlinear dynamics of a displaced orbit and different topologies of equilibria are yielded from the basic configurations of Hill＇s region, which have a saddlenode bifurcation point at the degenerated case. The solar sail near hyperbolic or degenerated equilibrium is quite unstable. Therefore, a controller preserving Hamiltonian structure is presented to stabilize the solar sail near hyperbolic or degenerated equilibrium, and to generate the stable Lissajous orbits that stay stable inside the stabilizing region of the controller. The main contribution of this paper is that the controller preserving Hamiltonian structure not only changes the instability of the equilibrium, but also makes the modified elliptic equilibrium become unique for the controlled system. The allocation law of the controller on the sail＇s attitude and lightness number is obtained, which verifies that the controller is realizable.

An Assessment and Identification of Avalanche Hazard Sites in Uri Sector and its Surroundings on Himalayan Mountain

Avalanches are one of the most natural hazard in the mountain areas and therefore, identification of avalanche hazard is necessary for planning future development activities. The study area falls under the international boundary region which generally covered by the snow(38%) on high altitude regions of the western part of Himalayas. Avalanches are triggered in study area during snowfall resulting in loss of human life, property and moreover the transportation and communication affected by the debris which ultimately delays the relief measures. Therefore in this study three major causative parameters i.e terrain, ground cover and meteorological have been incorporated for the identification of avalanche hazard zones(AHZ) by integrating Analytical Hierarchical Process(AHP) method in Geographical Information System(GIS). In the first part of study, avalanche sites have been identified by the criteria related to terrain(slope, aspect and curvature) and ground cover. Weights and ratings to these causative factors and their cumulative effects have been assigned on the basis of experience and knowledge of field. In the second part of the study, single point interpolation and Inverse Distance Weighted(IDW) method has been employed as only one weather station falls in study area. Accordingly, it has been performed to generate the meteorological parameter maps(viz. air temperature and relative humidity) from the field observatories and Automatic Weather Stations(AWS) located at Baaj OP in Uri sector. Finally, the meteorological parameter maps were superimposed on the terrain-based avalanche hazard thematic layers to identify the dynamic avalanche hazard sites. Conventional weighted approach and Analytical Hierarchical Process(AHP) method have been implemented for the identification of AHZ that shows approximately 55% area under maximum hazard zone. Further, the results were validated by overlapping the existing registered avalanche sites. The sites were identified through field survey and avalanche data card followed by its delineation from the toposheet(1:50,000 scale). Interestingly study found that 28% area under moderate and maximum AHZ correlated well with registered avalanche sites when they were overlapped. The accuracy for such works can be increased by field survey under favorable weather condition and by adding data from more number of AWS for predicting avalanche hazards in mountainous regions.

Estimations of cosmological parameters from the observational variation of the fine structure constant

We present constraints on the quintessence scalar field model from observational data of the variation of the fine structure constant obtained from the Keck telescope and VLT. Within the theoretical frame proposed by Bekenstein, the constraints on the parameters of the quintessence scalar field model are obtained. Considering the prior of Ωm0 as WMAP 7 suggests, we obtain various results from different sam- ples. Based on these results, we also calculate the probability density function of the coupling constant ζ. The best-fit values show a consistent relationship between ζ and the different experimental results. In our work, we test two different potential models, namely, the inverse power law potential and the exponential potential. The results show that both the large value of the parameters in the potential and the strong coupling can cause a variation in the fine structure constant.

The Influence of Glucose on Numerical Simulation of a Vascular Solid Tumor Growth

Glucose is the mainly nutrient substances in tumor growth,which played an important role in tumor cells' growth,proliferation and immigration.Numerical simulation will help a good understanding for the influence of glucose which affected on a vascular solid tumor growth.We present a hybrid on-Lattice Model to simulate the influence of glucose on a-vascular tumor growth.The hybrid model we developed focuses on five key variables implicated in the invasion process:tumor cells,extracellular matrix,matrix-degradative enzymes,oxygen and glucose.And about the discrete model,we consider cell evolution dynamics on cell level.Results indicate that the number of proliferation and quiescent cells is decreasing by decreasing the initial glucose concentration,consequently increase necrotic area relatively.Thus there is inhabitation effect on tumor growth by decreasing initial glucose concentration.

Observer-based control for the platform of a tethered space robot

This paper addresses the attitude control problem of a space tethered robot platform in the presence of unknown external disturbance caused by a connecting elastic tether. The tethergenerated unknown disturbance leads to tremendous challenges for attitude control of the platform.In this work, the perturbed attitude dynamics of the platform are derived with a consideration of the libration of the elastic tether, and then with the purpose of compensating the unknown disturbance, major attention is dedicated to develop a nonlinear disturbance observer based on gyros measurements, after which, an adaptive attitude scheme is proposed by combining the disturbance observer with a sliding mode controller. Finally, benefits from the observer based on an adaptive controller are validated by series of numerical simulations.