Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) behavior of P110 tubing steel in simulated CO₂ injection well annulus environments was investigated through three-point bent tests, potentiodynamic polarization and EIS measurements. The results demonstrate that SCC of P110 tubing steel could occur in acidulous simulated environment, and the sensitivity of SCC increases with the decrease of pH, as well as increase of sulfide concentration and total environmental pressure. Both anodic dissolution and hydrogen embrittlement make contributions to the SCC. Adequate concentration of corrosion inhibitor can inhibit the occurrence of SCC on account of the inhibition of localized anodic dissolution and cathodic hydrogen evolution.

Hot granule medium pressure forming (HGMF) process is a new process in which granule medium replaces the medium in existing flexible-die hot forming process, such as liquids, gases or viscous medium. Hot forming of light alloy sheet parts can be realized based on the properties of granule medium, such as withstanding high temperature and pressure, filling well, sealing and loading easily. In this work, the forming of AA7075 cylindrical parts by HGMF process is taken as an example to establish the constitutive relation and forming limit diagram (FLD) of AA7075 sheet which is related to temperature by hot uniaxial tensile test of sheet metal. Based on the assumption that granule medium is applied to extended Drucker-Prager linear material model, the finite element model of HGMF process is established and the effect of technological parameters, such as forming temperature, blank-holder gap and drawing ratio, on the sheet metal formability, is studied. The limit drawing ratio curve of AA7075 cylindrical parts at forming temperature of 175−300 °C is obtained by HGMF process test, and the limit drawing ratio reaches the maximum value of 1.71 at 250 °C. The results of numerical simulation are consistent with the results of process test, and the forming force, distribution of wall thichness and form of instability are predicted correctly, which provides reference for the application of HGMF process.

Nickel is a heavy metal which has the potential threaten to human’s health and attracts public concern recently. The carbonized leaf powder is expected as suitable adsorbent for Ni(II) removal became of the composition of some beneficial groups. In this work, carbonized leaf powder was evaluated for its adsorption performance towards Ni(II). According to the results, adsorbent component, dosage, initial solute concentration, solution pH, temperature and contact time can significantly affect the efficiency of Ni(II) removal. Sips model fits the test results best, and the adsorption capacity towards Ni(II) is determined around 37.62 mg/g. The thermodynamic behaviors reveal the endothermic and spontaneous nature of the adsorption. The free adsorption energy (fluctuate around 8 kJ/mol) predicted by D-R model indicates that the adsorption capacity originated from both physical and chemical adsorption. Room temperature (15−25 °C) is suitable for Ni(II) removal as well as low energy consumption for temperature enhancement. Further conclusions about the mechanism of chemical adsorption are obtained through analysis of the FT-IR test and XRD spectra, which indicates that the adsorption process occurs predominantly between amine, carbonate, phosphate and nickel ions.

Nanocomposites of zinc/bentonite clay were synthesized for use as an antibacterial material by a quick and simple alkaline ion exchange method. The synthesis of zinc doped bentonite nanocomposite was accomplished by placing bentonite in a melting bath of ZnSO4 for 10, 20, 40, 60 and 90 min. The complexes were characterized by XRD, SEM and DRS. XRD analyses and SEM observations confirmed the diffusion of zinc to the clay surfaces. Antibacterial activity tests against Escherichia coli showed that bentonite did not present any antibacterial properties, but after alkaline ion exchange treatment, inhibition was noted. The highest antibacterial activity was observed with ZnO/bentonite composite alkaline ion exchange for 60 and 90 min. Interestingly, the leaching test indicated that ZnO/bentonite did not present any risk for drinking water treatment.

The response of enzyme and non-enzymatic antioxidants of Mn hyperaccumuator, Polygonum hydropiper (P. hydropiper), to Mn stress was studied using hydroponics culture experiments to explore the mechanism of Mn tolerance in this species. Results showed that both chlorophyll and carotenoid contents significantly (p<0.05) decreased with increasing Mn treatment levels (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8 mg/L) in hydroponics. The concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) in the root and shoot of P. hydropiper were accumulated under Mn stress. Meanwhile, the anti-oxidative functions of several important enzymes, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and peroxidase (POD) in plants were stimulated by Mn spike in leaves and roots, especially at low Mn stress; while sulfhydryl group (—SH) and glutathion (GSH) were likely involved in Mn detoxification of P. hydropiper under high Mn stress.

Determining the hydrometallurgical cut-off grades specifies the destination of low grade materials and this is subjected to more benefits in mining. Copper production rate is considered as one of the fundamental issues in hydrometallurgical cut-off grades determination. Slags are remarked as one of the main sources of copper. It is not only regarded as a waste but also identified as another resource extracting base metals. Slags are characterized by copper high grade. Thus, slag copper recovery can be led to different cut-off grades and net present value (NPV). The current research scrutinizes the effect of slag recovery by both flotation and hydrometallurgical methods on the hydrometallurgical cut-off grades. For this purpose, the optimum cut-off grade algorithms of hydrometallurgical methods are developed by considering associated environmental parameters, incomes and also the costs. Then, their optimum amounts are calculated with NPV maximization as an objective function. The results indicate that considering slag copper recovery in the hydrometallurgical cut-off grade algorithms reduces the environmental costs caused by slag dumping and leads to more NPV by 9%.

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) work in a complex marine environment. Its system reliability and autonomous fault diagnosis are particularly important and can provide the basis for underwater vehicles to take corresponding security policy in a failure. Aiming at the characteristics of the underwater vehicle which has uncertain system and modeling difficulty, an improved Elman neural network is introduced which is applied to the underwater vehicle motion modeling. Through designing self-feedback connection with fixed gain in the unit connection as well as increasing the feedback of the output layer node, improved Elman network has faster convergence speed and generalization ability. This method for high-order nonlinear system has stronger identification ability. Firstly, the residual is calculated by comparing the output of the underwater vehicle model (estimation in the motion state) with the actual measured values. Secondly, characteristics of the residual are analyzed on the basis of fault judging criteria. Finally, actuator fault diagnosis of the autonomous underwater vehicle is carried out. The results of the simulation experiment show that the method is effective.

Three differential equations based on different definitions of current density are compared. Formulation I is based on an incomplete equation for total current density (TCD). Formulations II and III are based on incomplete and complete equations for source current density (SCD), respectively. Using the weak form of finite element method (FEM), three formulations were applied in a spiral coil electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) example to solve magnetic vector potential (MVP). The input impedances calculated by Formulation III are in excellent agreement with the experimental measurements. Results show that the errors for Formulations I & II vary with coil diameter, coil spacing, lift-off distance and external excitation frequency, for the existence of eddy-current and skin & proximity effects. And the current distribution across the coil conductor also follows the same trend. It is better to choose Formulation I instead of Formulation III to solve MVP when the coil diameter is less than twice the skin depth for Formulation I is a low cost and high efficiency calculation method.

As an alternative power source for hybrid electrical vehicle(HEV), electric generating system(EGS) driven by sphere cam engine(SCE) is said to own higher power density and integration. In this work, the structure and working principle of EGS were introduced, based on which the advantages of EGS were displayed. The profile of sphere cam was achieved after the desired motion of piston was given. After establishing the dynamic model of power transmission mechanism, the characteristics of cam-roller mechanism were studied. The results show that the optimal cam profile of SCE is a sinusoid curve which has two peaks and two valleys and a mean pressure angle of 47.19°. Because of the special cam shape, the trace of end surface center of piston is an eight-shape curve on a specific sphere surface. SCE running at speed of 3000 r/min can generate the power of 33.81 kW, which could satisfy the need of HEVs. However, the force between cylinder and piston skirt caused by Coriolis acceleration can reach up to 1182 N, which leads to serious wear between cylinder liner and piston skirt and may shorten the lifespan of SCE.

An extension of L₁ adaptive control is proposed for the unmatched uncertain nonlinear system with the nonlinear reference system that defines the performance specifications. The control law adapts fast and tracks the reference system with the guaranteed robustness and transient performance in the presence of unmatched uncertainties. The interval analysis is used to build the quasi-linear parameter-varying model of unmatched nonlinear system, and the robust stability of the proposed controller is addressed by sum of squares programming. The transient performance analysis shows that within the limit of hardware a large adaption gain can improve the asymptotic tracking performance. Simulation results are provided to demonstrate the theoretical findings of the proposed controller.

The vector control algorithm based on vector space decomposition (VSD) transformation method has a more flexible control freedom, which can control the fundamental and harmonic subspace separately. To this end, a current vector decoupling control algorithm for six-phase permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) is designed. Using the proposed synchronous rotating coordinate transformation matrix, the fundamental and harmonic components in d−q subspace are changed into direct current (DC) component, only using the traditional proportional integral (PI) controller can meet the non-static difference adjustment, and the controller parameter design method is given by employing internal model principle. In addition, in order to remove the 5th and 7th harmonic components of stator current, the current PI controller parallel with resonant controller is employed in x−y subspace to realize the specific harmonic component compensation. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of current decoupling vector controller.

As a new sort of mobile ad hoc network (MANET), aeronautical ad hoc network (AANET) has fleet-moving airborne nodes (ANs) and suffers from frequent network partitioning due to the rapid-changing topology. In this work, the additional relay nodes (RNs) is employed to repair the network and maintain connectivity in AANET. As ANs move, RNs need to move as well in order to re-establish the topology as quickly as possible. The network model and problem definition are firstly given, and then an online approach for RNs’ movement control is presented to make ANs achieve certain connectivity requirement during run time. By defining the minimum cost feasible moving matrix (MCFM), a fast algorithm is proposed for RNs’ movement control problem. Simulations demonstrate that the proposed algorithm outperforms other control approaches in the highly-dynamic environment and is of great potential to be applied in AANET.

For improving the performance of differential geometric guidance command (DGGC), a new formation of this guidance law is proposed, which can guarantee the finite time convergence (FTC) of the line of sight (LOS) rate to zero or its neighborhood against maneuvering targets in three-dimensional (3D) space. The extended state observer (ESO) is employed to estimate the target acceleration, which makes the new DGGC more applicable to practical interception scenarios. Finally, the effectiveness of this newly proposed guidance command is demonstrated by the numerical simulation results.

A numerical study of the crushing of thin-walled circular aluminum tubes has been carried out to investigate the crashworthiness behaviors under axial impact loading. These kinds of tubes are usually used in automobile and train structures to absorb the impact energy. Previous researches show that thin-walled circular tube has the highest energy absorption under axial impact amongst different structures. In this work, the crushing between two rigid flat plates and the tube rupture by 4 and 6 blades cutting tools is modeled with the help of ductile failure criterion using the numerical method. The tube material is aluminum EN AW-7108 T6 and its length and diameter are 300 mm and 50 mm, respectively. Using the artificial neural network (ANN), the most important surfaces of energy absorption parameters, including the maximum displacement of the striker, the maximum axial force, the specific energy absorption and the crushing force efficiency in terms of impact velocity and tube thickness are obtained and compared to each other. The analyses show that the tube rupture by the 6 blades cutting tool has more energy absorption in comparison with others. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that tube cutting with the help of multi-blades cutting tools is more stable, controllable and predictable than tube folding.

Among all segmentation techniques, Otsu thresholding method is widely used. Line intercept histogram based Otsu thresholding method (LIH Otsu method) can be more resistant to Gaussian noise, highly efficient in computing time, and can be easily extended to multilevel thresholding. But when images contain salt-and-pepper noise, LIH Otsu method performs poorly. An improved LIH Otsu method (ILIH Otsu method) is presented, which can be more resistant to Gaussian noise and salt-and-pepper noise. Moreover, it can be easily extended to multilevel thresholding. In order to improve the efficiency, the optimization algorithm based on the kinetic-molecular theory (KMTOA) is used to determine the optimal thresholds. The experimental results show that ILIH Otsu method has stronger anti-noise ability than two-dimensional Otsu thresholding method (2-D Otsu method), LIH Otsu method, K-means clustering algorithm and fuzzy clustering algorithm.

Considering the transverse inertia effect of pile, the vertical dynamic response of a large diameter pipe pile in viscoelastic soil layer is studied. The wave propagations in the outer and inner soil are simulated by three-dimensional elastodynamic theory and those in the pile are simulated by Rayleigh-Love rod theory. The vertical and radial displacements of the outer and inner soil are obtained by utilizing Laplace transform technique and differentiation on the governing equations of soils. Then, based on the continuous conditions between the pile and soils, the displacements of the pile are derived. The frequency domain velocity admittance and time domain velocity response of the pile top are also presented. The solution is compared to a classical rod model solution to verify the validity. The influences of the radii and Poisson ratio of pile on the transverse inertia effect of pile are analyzed. The parametric study shows that Poisson ratio and outer radius of pile have significant influence on the transverse inertia effect of large diameter pipe piles, while the inner radius has little effect.

Second lining stability, which is the last protection in tunnel engineering, is critically important. The rheological properties of the surrounding rock heavily affect second lining stability. In this work, we used laboratory triaxial compressive rheological limestone tests to study nonlinear creep damage characteristics of surrounding rock mass in construction projects. We established a nonlinear creep damage constitutive model for the rock mass, as well as a constitutive model numerical implementation made by programming. Second, we introduced a new foam concrete with higher compression performance and good ductility and studied its mechanical properties through uniaxial and triaxial tests. This concrete was used as the filling material for the reserved deformation layer between the primary support and second lining. Finally, we proposed a high efficiency and accuracy staged optimization method. The minimum reserved deformation layer thickness was established as the optimization goal, and the presence of plastic strain in the second lining after 100 years of surrounding rock creep was used as an evaluation index. Reserved deformation layer thickness optimization analysis reveals no plastic strain in the second lining when the reserved deformation minimum thickness layer is 28.50 cm. The results show that the new foam concrete used as a reserved deformation layer filling material can absorb creep deformation of surrounding rock mass, reduce second lining deformation that leads to plastic strain, and ensure long-term second lining stability.

A numerical case study on the seismic behavior of embankment was carried out based on a prototype of earth embankment in Yun−Gui Railway (from Kunming City to Nanning City) in southwest of China. A full-scale model of earth embankment was established by means of numerical simulation with FLAC^3D code. The numerical results were verified by shaking table test. The seismic behaviors of earth embankment were studied, including the horizontal acceleration response, the vertical acceleration response, the dynamic displacement response, and the block state of earth embankment. Results show that the acceleration magnification near the embankment slope is larger than that in internal earth embankment body. With the increase of input peak acceleration, the horizontal acceleration magnification presents a decreasing trend. The horizontal acceleration response at the top of embankment is more sensitive to the intensity of ground motion than that at the bottom of embankment. The embankment presents an obvious nonlinear-plastic characteristic when the input horizontal peak acceleration is larger than 0.3 g. The maximum residual deformation occurs in the middle of embankment slope surface instead of at the top of embankment. The upper part of embankment experiences tension failure without shear failure, and area at the bottom of embankment around the symmetry-axis of embankment mainly presents shear failure under the earthquake loading. The tension failure and shear failure repeatedly occur along the slope surface of earth embankment.

Functionalized graphene nano-sheets (FGN) of 0.01%−0.05% (mass fraction) were added to produce FGN-cement composites in the form of mortars. Flow properties, mechanical properties and microstructure of the cementitious material were then investigated. The results indicate that the addition of FGN decreases the fluidity slightly and improves mechanical properties of cement-based composites significantly. The highest strength is obtained with FGN content of 0.02% where the flexural strength and compressive strength at 28 days are 12.917 MPa and 52.42 MPa, respectively. Besides, scanning electron micrographs show that FGN can regulate formation of massive compact cross-linking structures and thermo gravimetric analysis indicates that FGN can accelerate the hydration reaction to increase the function of the composite effectively.

A viscoelastic micromechanical model is presented to predict the dynamic modulus of asphalt concrete (AC) and investigate the effect of imperfect interface between asphalt mastic and aggregates on the overall viscoelastic characteristics of AC. The linear spring layer model is introduced to simulate the interface imperfection. Based on the effective medium theory, the viscoelastic micromechanical model is developed by two equivalence processes. The present prediction is compared with available experimental data to verify the developed framework. It is found that the proposed model has the capability to predict the dynamic modulus of AC. Interface effect on the dynamic modulus of AC is discussed using the developed model. It is shown that the interfacial bonding strength has a significant influence on the global mechanical performance of AC, and that continued improvement in surface functionalization is necessary to realize the full potential of aggregates reinforcement.

An analytical solution is derived from the generalized governing equations of equal-strain consolidation with vertical drains under multi-ramp surcharge preloading. The hydraulic boundary conditions at both top and bottom of the consolidating soil are modelled as impeded drainage. The impeded drainage is described by using the third type boundary condition with a characteristic factor of drainage efficiency. Fully drained and undrained boundary conditions can also be modelled by applying an infinite and a zero characteristic factor, respectively. Simultaneous radial and vertical flow conditions are considered, together with the effects of drain resistance and smear. An increase in total stress due to multi-ramp loading is reasonably modelled as a function of both time and depth. A solution to calculate excess pore-water pressure at any arbitrary point in soil is derived, and the overall average degree of consolidation is obtained. It shows that the proposed solution can be used to analyze not only vertical-drain consolidation but also one-dimensional consolidation under either one-way or two-way vertical drainage conditions. The characteristic factors of drainage efficiency of top and bottom boundaries have a potentially important influence on consolidation. The boundary may be considered fully drained when the characteristic factor is greater than 100 and fully undrained when the characteristic factor is less than 0.1. The stress distribution along depth induced by the surcharge loading has a limited effect on the overall average degree of consolidation. However, it has a significant effect on the dissipation of excess pore-water pressure.

The overturning stability is vital for the retaining wall design of foundation pits, where the surrounding soils are usually unsaturated due to water draining. Moreover, the intermediate principal stress does affect the unsaturated soil strength; meanwhile, the relationship between the unsaturated soil strength and matric suction is nonlinear. This work is to present closed-form equations of critical embedment depth for a rigid retaining wall against overturning by means of moment equilibrium. Matric suction is considered to be distributed uniformly and linearly with depth. The unified shear strength formulation for unsaturated soils under the plane strain condition is adopted to characterize the intermediate principal stress effect, and strength nonlinearity is described by a hyperbolic model of suction angle. The result obtained is orderly series solutions rather than one specific answer; thus, it has wide theoretical significance and good applicability. The validity of this present work is demonstrated by comparing it with a lower bound solution. The traditional overturning designs for rigid retaining walls, in which the saturated soil mechanics neglecting matric suction or the unsaturated soil mechanics based on the Mohr-Coulomb criterion are employed, are special cases of the proposed result. Parametric studies about the intermediate principal stress, matric suction and its distributions along with two strength nonlinearity methods on a new defined critical buried coefficient are discussed.

The aim of this work is to evaluate how the building distribution influences the cooling effect of water bodies. Different turbulence models, including the S-A, SKE, RNG, Realizable, Low-KE and RSM model, were evaluated, and the CFD results were compared with wind tunnel experiment. The effects of the water body were detected by analyzing the water vapor distribution around it. It is found that the RNG model is the most effective model in terms of accuracy and computational economy. Next, the RNG model was used to simulate four waterfront planning cases to predict the wind, thermal and moisture environment in urban areas around urban water bodies. The results indicate that the building distribution, especially the height of the frontal building, has a larger effect on the water vapor dispersion, and indicate that the column-type distribution has a better performance than the enclosed-type distribution.

A CFD simulation was carried out to investigate the mixing process in a Y-shape micromixer with the software Fluent 6.3. The definition of the “diffusion angle” is proposed to describe the molecular diffusion process associated with the flow at low Reynolds number. The linear relationship between the diffusion angle and the Peclet number (Pe) is determined by both theoretical analysis and numerical simulation. Moreover, the simulation results reveal that the diffusion angle is only related to the Peclet number whilst it is irrelevant to the changes of Re (Reynolds number) and Sc (Schmidt number). The range of Peclet number and Reynolds number for experimental measurement are also suggested as Pe≤10000 and Re≤10.

In order to reveal combustion characteristics of H₂/air mixture in a micro-combustor with and without bluff body, the effects of inlet velocities, equivalence ratios and bluff body’s blockage ratios on the temperature field, pressure of the combustor wall, combustion efficiency and blow-off limit were investigated. The numerical results indicate that the sudden expansion plate micro combustor with bluff body could enhance the turbulent disturbance of the mixed gas in the combustion chamber and the combustion condition is improved. Moreover, a low-speed and high temperature recirculation region was formed between the sudden expansion step and the bluff body so that the high and uniform wall temperature (>1000 K) could be gotten. As a result, it could strengthen the mixing process, prolong the residence time of gas, control the flame position effectively and widen the operation range by the synergistic effect of the bluff body and steps. When the blockage ratio ranged from 0.3 to 0.6, it could be found that the bluff body could play a stabilizing effect and expand combustion blow burning limit, and combustion efficiency firstly was increased with the inlet velocity and equivalence ratio, and then was decreased.

Kerosene−alumina nanofluid flow and heat transfer in the presence of magnetic field are studied. The basic partial differential equations are reduced to ordinary differential equations which are solved semi analytically using differential transformation method. Velocity and temperature profiles as well as the skin friction coefficient and the Nusselt number are determined analytically. The influence of pertinent parameters such as magnetic parameter, nanofluid volume fraction, viscosity parameter and Eckert number on the flow and heat transfer characteristics is discussed. Results indicate that skin friction coefficient decreases with increase of magnetic parameter, nanofluid volume fraction and viscosity parameter. Nusselt number increases with increase of magnetic parameter and nanofluid volume fraction while it decreases with increase of Eckert number and viscosity parameter.

This study examines theoretically and computationally the non-Newtonian boundary layer flow and heat transfer for a viscoelastic fluid over a stretching continuous sheet embedded in a porous medium with variable fluid properties, slip velocity, and internal heat generation/absorption. The flow in boundary layer is considered to be generated solely by the stretching of the sheet adjacent to porous medium with boundary wall slip condition. Highly nonlinear momentum and thermal boundary layer equations governing the flow and heat transfer are reduced to set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations by appropriate transformation. The resulting ODEs are successfully solved numerically with the help of shooting method. Graphical results are shown for non-dimensional velocities and temperature. The effects of heat generation/absorption parameter, the porous parameter, the viscoelastic parameter, velocity slip parameter, variable thermal conductivity and the Prandtl number on the flow and temperature profiles are presented. Moreover, the local skin-friction coefficient and Nusselt number are presented. Comparison of numerical results is made with the earlier published results under limiting cases.

The behavior of single bubble rising in quiescent shear-thinning fluids was investigated numerically by level set method. A number of bubbles in a large range of Reynolds number and Eotvos number were investigated including spherical, oblate and spherical. The bubble shape and drag coefficient were compared with experimental results. It is observed that the simulated results show good conformity to experimental results over a wide range of Reynolds number. In addition, the detailed flow field based on the reference coordinate system moving with the bubble is obtained, and the relationship among flow field, bubble shape and velocity is discussed.