Measure Guideline: Three High Performance Mineral Fiber Insulation Board Retrofit Solutions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neuhauser, K. [Building Science Corporation, Westford, MA (United States)

2015-01-01

This Measure Guideline describes a high performance enclosure retrofit package that uses mineral fiber insulation board, and is intended to serve contractors and designers seeking guidance for non-foam exterior insulation retrofit processes. The guideline describes retrofit assembly and details for wood frame roof and walls and for cast concrete foundations.

Measure Guideline: Three High Performance Mineral Fiber Insulation Board Retrofit Solutions

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Neuhauser, Ken [Building Science Corporation, Westford, MA (United States)

2015-01-01

This Measure Guideline describes a high performance enclosure retrofit package that uses mineral fiber insulation board. The Measure Guideline describes retrofit assembly and details for wood frame roof and walls and for cast concrete foundations. This Measure Guideline is intended to serve contractors and designers seeking guidance for non-foam exterior insulation retrofit.

Flexural toughness of steel fiber reinforced high performance concrete containing nano-SiO2 and fly ash.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Peng; Zhao, Ya-Nan; Li, Qing-Fu; Wang, Peng; Zhang, Tian-Hang

2014-01-01

This paper aims to clarify the effect of steel fiber on the flexural toughness of the high performance concrete containing fly ash and nano-SiO2. The flexural toughness was evaluated by two methods, which are based on ASTM C1018 and DBV-1998, respectively. By means of three-point bending method, the flexural toughness indices, variation coefficients of bearing capacity, deformation energy, and equivalent flexural strength of the specimen were measured, respectively, and the relational curves between the vertical load and the midspan deflection (P(V)-δ) were obtained. The results indicate that steel fiber has great effect on the flexural toughness parameters and relational curves (P(V)-δ) of the three-point bending beam specimen. When the content of steel fiber increases from 0.5% to 2%, the flexural toughness parameters increase gradually and the curves are becoming plumper and plumper with the increase of steel fiber content, respectively. However these flexural toughness parameters begin to decrease and the curves become thinner and thinner after the steel fiber content exceeds 2%. It seems that the contribution of steel fiber to the improvement of flexural toughness of the high performance concrete containing fly ash and nano-SiO2 is well performed only when the steel fiber content is less than 2%.

Research on mechanical and sensoric set-up for high strain rate testing of high performance fibers

Science.gov (United States)

Unger, R.; Schegner, P.; Nocke, A.; Cherif, C.

2017-10-01

Within this research project, the tensile behavior of high performance fibers, such as carbon fibers, is investigated under high velocity loads. This contribution (paper) focuses on the clamp set-up of two testing machines. Based on a kinematic model, weight optimized clamps are designed and evaluated. By analyzing the complex dynamic behavior of conventional high velocity testing machines, it has been shown that the impact typically exhibits an elastic characteristic. This leads to barely predictable breaking speeds and will not work at higher speeds when acceleration force exceeds material specifications. Therefore, a plastic impact behavior has to be achieved, even at lower testing speeds. This type of impact behavior at lower speeds can be realized by means of some minor test set-up adaptions.

A new approach for high performance fiber manufacturing via simultaneous fiber spinning and UV initiated polymerization

Science.gov (United States)

Ellison, Chris

Synthetic fibers have been manufactured for decades using solvents or heat to reduce the viscosity of pre-formed polymers and promote drawing. However, nature has engineered spiders and silkworms with benign ways of making silk fibers with high strength and toughness. Conceptually, their approach of chemically linking small functional units (i.e., proteins) into long chain molecules and solid fibrillar structures ``on-demand'' is fundamentally different from current synthetic fiber manufacturing methods. Drawing inspiration from nature, a method will be described that uses light to trigger a thiol-ene photopolymerization to rapidly transform reactive liquid mixtures into solid thread-like structures as they are forced out of a capillary at high speeds. Besides being manufactured without using solvents/volatile components or heat, these fibers are mechanically robust and have excellent chemical and thermal stability due to their crosslinked nature. During processing, the balance between curing kinetics, fiber flight time, and monomer mixture viscoelasticity is essential for the formation of defect free fibers. This work focuses on developing a universal operating diagram to show how the intricate interplay of gel time, flight time, and fluid relaxation time leads to the formation of uniform fibers and other undesirable fiber morphologies such as beads-on-string, fused fibers, non-uniform fibers, and droplets. This predictive capability enables adaptation of this spinning concept to all existing fiber spinning platforms, and customization of monomer formulations to target desired properties.

Effect of Chopped Basalt Fibers on the Mechanical Properties and Microstructure of High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tehmina Ayub

2014-01-01

Full Text Available This paper presents the mechanical properties and the microstructure of the high performance fiber reinforced concrete (HPFRC containing up to 3% volume fraction of chopped Basalt fibers. Three types of the concrete were prepared, out of which, the first type was prepared by utilizing 100% cement content. The other two types of the concrete were prepared by replacing 10% cement content with silica fume and the locally produced metakaolin. Using each concrete type, four mixes were prepared in which Basalt fibers were added in the range of 0–3%; that is, total twelve mixes of the HPFRC concrete were prepared. From each of the twelve concrete mixes, total twelve specimens were cast to determine the mechanical properties of the HPFRC including compressive strength (cube and cylinder, splitting tensile strength, and the flexural strength. In this way, a total of 108 specimens were cast and tested in this study. Test results showed that the addition of the Basalt fibers significantly increased the tensile splitting strength and the flexural strength of the HPFRC, while there was slight improvement in the compressive strength with the addition of Basalt fibers. The microstructure of HPFRC was examined to determine the interfacial transition zone (ITZ between the aggregates and the paste by using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM, which showed the improvement of the ITZ due to the addition of the Basalt fibers.

Development of a high performance carbon fiber fabrics. Koseino tanso sen'i orimono no kaihatsu

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Nishimura, A.; Honma, K.; Matsui, J. (Toray Industries Inc., Tokyo (Japan). Composite Materials Research Lab.)

1993-01-15

On setting a position as an intermediate material for the advanced composite materials (ACM), carbon fiber fabrics is required to improve its optimization of the fiber orientation and structure of the fabrics under consideration on anisotropy of the composite materials in order to establish their higher performance. And, it also becomes important to establish energy conservation in higher order of processing containing their molding in order to make great strides the application range of the ACM. The ACM is generally a laminate comprising of some sheet-like, thin substrates arranged the reinforced fibers in one- or two-dimensional direction. As it has some high performance, mechanical properties because of the fiber orientation in a plane direction, its mechanical properties among the layers are determined by adhesion and its strength between the fibers and the resin and weak without any fiber reinforcement in its layer direction. As a method of its improvement, development of a fabrics or twisted yarns having the fibers oriented in three-dimensional direction is proceeding, but they have some limits in their fiber orientation yet and inferior productivity. A technical development of stitched preform is now executed as a low cost molding process. 9 refs., 7 figs.

Highly-wrinkled reduced graphene oxide-conductive polymer fibers for flexible fiber-shaped and interdigital-designed supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Bo; Cheng, Jianli; Wang, Zhuanpei; Li, Yinchuan; Ni, Wei; Wang, Bin

2018-02-01

Flexible supercapacitors have attracted great interest due to outstanding flexibility and light weight. Poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) fibers have the great potential in using as electrodes for flexible supercapacitors due to the good flexibility. However, the reported conductivity and specific capacitance of these PEDOT: PSS fibers are not very high, which limit their electrochemical performances. In this work, composite fibers of reduced graphene oxide(rGO)-PEDOT: PSS with a highly-wrinkled structure on the surface and pores inside are prepared by wet spinning. The fibers with different ratios of graphene to PEDOT:PSS show a distinctly enhanced conductivity up to ca. 590 S·cm-1 and high strength up to ca. 18.4 MPa. Meanwhile, the composite fibers show an improved electrochemical performances, including a high specific areal capacitance of 131 mF cm-2 and high specific areal energy density of 4.55 μWh·cm-2. The flexible supercapacitors including fiber-shaped supercapacitors and interdigital designed supercapacitors not only could work in different bending states without obvious capacitance decay, but also have small leakage current. The interdigital design can further improve the performances of composite fibers with high capacitance and high utilization compared with traditional parallel connected structure.

Electrical and Self-Sensing Properties of Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete with Carbon Nanotubes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ilhwan You

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This study examined the electrical and self-sensing capacities of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC with and without carbon nanotubes (CNTs. For this, the effects of steel fiber content, orientation, and pore water content on the electrical and piezoresistive properties of UHPFRC without CNTs were first evaluated. Then, the effect of CNT content on the self-sensing capacities of UHPFRC under compression and flexure was investigated. Test results indicated that higher steel fiber content, better fiber orientation, and higher amount of pore water led to higher electrical conductivity of UHPFRC. The effects of fiber orientation and drying condition on the electrical conductivity became minor as sufficiently high amount of steel fibers, 3% by volume, was added. Including only steel fibers did not impart UHPFRC with piezoresistive properties. Addition of CNTs substantially improved the electrical conductivity of UHPFRC. Under compression, UHPFRC with a CNT content of 0.3% or greater had a self-sensing ability that was activated by the formation of cracks, and better sensing capacity was achieved by including greater amount of CNTs. Furthermore, the pre-peak flexural behavior of UHPFRC was precisely simulated with a fractional change in resistivity when 0.3% CNTs were incorporated. The pre-cracking self-sensing capacity of UHPFRC with CNTs was more effective under tensile stress state than under compressive stress state.

Electrical and Self-Sensing Properties of Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete with Carbon Nanotubes.

Science.gov (United States)

You, Ilhwan; Yoo, Doo-Yeol; Kim, Sooho; Kim, Min-Jae; Zi, Goangseup

2017-10-29

This study examined the electrical and self-sensing capacities of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) with and without carbon nanotubes (CNTs). For this, the effects of steel fiber content, orientation, and pore water content on the electrical and piezoresistive properties of UHPFRC without CNTs were first evaluated. Then, the effect of CNT content on the self-sensing capacities of UHPFRC under compression and flexure was investigated. Test results indicated that higher steel fiber content, better fiber orientation, and higher amount of pore water led to higher electrical conductivity of UHPFRC. The effects of fiber orientation and drying condition on the electrical conductivity became minor as sufficiently high amount of steel fibers, 3% by volume, was added. Including only steel fibers did not impart UHPFRC with piezoresistive properties. Addition of CNTs substantially improved the electrical conductivity of UHPFRC. Under compression, UHPFRC with a CNT content of 0.3% or greater had a self-sensing ability that was activated by the formation of cracks, and better sensing capacity was achieved by including greater amount of CNTs. Furthermore, the pre-peak flexural behavior of UHPFRC was precisely simulated with a fractional change in resistivity when 0.3% CNTs were incorporated. The pre-cracking self-sensing capacity of UHPFRC with CNTs was more effective under tensile stress state than under compressive stress state.

Electrical and Self-Sensing Properties of Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete with Carbon Nanotubes

OpenAIRE

You, Ilhwan; Yoo, Doo-Yeol; Kim, Soonho; Kim, Min-Jae; Zi, Goangseup

2017-01-01

This study examined the electrical and self-sensing capacities of ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) with and without carbon nanotubes (CNTs). For this, the effects of steel fiber content, orientation, and pore water content on the electrical and piezoresistive properties of UHPFRC without CNTs were first evaluated. Then, the effect of CNT content on the self-sensing capacities of UHPFRC under compression and flexure was investigated. Test results indicated that higher ...

Stretchable Fiber Supercapacitors with High Volumetric Performance Based on Buckled MnO2 /Oxidized Carbon Nanotube Fiber Electrodes.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Mingyang; Zu, Mei; Yu, Jinshan; Cheng, Haifeng; Li, Qingwen

2017-03-01

A stretchable fiber supercapacitor (SC) based on buckled MnO 2 /oxidized carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber electrode is fabricated by a simple prestraining-then-buckling method. The prepared stretchable fiber SC has a specific volumetric capacitance up to 409.4 F cm -3 , which is 33 times that of the pristine CNT fiber based SC, and shows the outstanding stability and repeatability in performance as a stretchable SC. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

The use of synthetic blended fibers to reduce cracking risk in high performance concrete.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-09-01

The aim of this project was to investigate a relatively new technique to control early-age cracking; the : use of blended size polypropylene fibers in high performance concrete mixtures. The key findings : from this work were that the use of drying s...

Testing of Performance of Optical Fibers Under Irradiation in Intense Radiation Fields, When Subjected to High Temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Blue, Thomas; Windl, Wolfgang; Dickerson, Bryan

2013-01-01

The primary objective of this project is to measure and model the performance of optical fibers in intense radiation fields when subjected to very high temperatures. This research will pave the way for fiber optic and optically based sensors under conditions expected in future high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. Sensor life and signal-to-noise ratios are susceptible to attenuation of the light signal due to scattering and absorbance in the fibers. This project will provide an experimental and theoretical study of the darkening of optical fibers in high-radiation and high-temperature environments. Although optical fibers have been studied for moderate radiation fluence and flux levels, the results of irradiation at very high temperatures have not been published for extended in-core exposures. Several previous multi-scale modeling efforts have studied irradiation effects on the mechanical properties of materials. However, model-based prediction of irradiation-induced changes in silica'@@s optical transport properties has only recently started to receive attention due to possible applications as optical transmission components in fusion reactors. Nearly all damage-modeling studies have been performed in the molecular-dynamics domain, limited to very short times and small systems. Extended-time modeling, however, is crucial to predicting the long-term effects of irradiation at high temperatures, since the experimental testing may not encompass the displacement rate that the fibers will encounter if they are deployed in the VHTR. The project team will pursue such extended-time modeling, including the effects of the ambient and recrystallization. The process will be based on kinetic MC modeling using the concept of amorphous material consisting of building blocks of defect-pairs or clusters, which has been successfully applied to kinetic modeling in amorphized and recrystallized silicon. Using this procedure, the team will model compensation for rate effects, and

Magneto-carbonization method for production of carbon fiber, and high performance carbon fibers made thereby

Science.gov (United States)

Naskar, Amit K.; Ozcan, Soydan; Eberle, Claude C.; Abdallah, Mohamed Gabr; Mackiewicz, Ludtka Gail; Ludtka, Gerard Michael; Paulauskas, Felix Leonard; Rivard, John Daniel Kennedy

2017-08-08

Method for the preparation of carbon fiber from fiber precursor, wherein the fiber precursor is subjected to a magnetic field of at least 3 Tesla during a carbonization process. The carbonization process is generally conducted at a temperature of at least 400.degree. C. and less than 2200.degree. C., wherein, in particular embodiments, the carbonization process includes a low temperature carbonization step conducted at a temperature of at least or above 400.degree. C. or 500.degree. C. and less than or up to 1000.degree. C., 1100.degree. C., or 1200.degree. C., followed by a high temperature carbonization step conducted at a temperature of at least or above 1200.degree. C. In particular embodiments, particularly in the case of a polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fiber precursor, the resulting carbon fiber may possess a minimum tensile strength of at least 600 ksi, a tensile modulus of at least 30 Msi, and an ultimate elongation of at least 1.5%.

High-Performance Stretchable Conductive Composite Fibers from Surface-Modified Silver Nanowires and Thermoplastic Polyurethane by Wet Spinning.

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Ying; Jiang, Jianwei; Yoon, Sungho; Kim, Kyung-Shik; Kim, Jae-Hyun; Park, Sanghyuk; Kim, Sang-Ho; Piao, Longhai

2018-01-17

Highly stretchable and conductive fibers have attracted great interest as a fundamental building block for the next generation of textile-based electronics. Because of its high conductivity and high aspect ratio, the Ag nanowire (AgNW) has been considered one of the most promising conducting materials for the percolation network-based conductive films and composites. However, the poor dispersibility of AgNWs in hydrophobic polymers has hindered their application to stretchable conductive composite fibers. In this paper, we present a highly stretchable and conductive composite fiber from the co-spinning of surface-modified AgNWs and thermoplastic polyurethane (PU). The surface modification of AgNWs with a polyethylene glycol derivative improved the compatibility of PU and AgNWs, which allowed the NWs to disperse homogeneously in the elastomeric matrix, forming effective percolation networks and causing the composite fiber to show enhanced electrical and mechanical performance. The maximum AgNW mass fraction in the composite fiber was 75.9 wt %, and its initial electrical conductivity was as high as 14 205 S/cm. The composite fibers also exhibited superior stretchability: the maximum rupture strain of the composite fiber with 14.6 wt % AgNW was 786%, and the composite fiber was also conductive even when it was stretched up to 200%. In addition, 2-dimensional (2-D) Ag nanoplates were added to the AgNW/PU composite fibers to increase the stability of the conductive network under repeated stretching and releasing. The Ag nanoplates acted as a bridge to effectively prevent the AgNWs from slippage and greatly improved the stability of the conductive network.

Electrospun fibers for high performance anodes in microbial fuel cells. Optimizing materials and architecture

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chen, Shuiliang

2010-04-15

the results of above, the porosity and the pore size in the fiber mat are utmost important for the performance of anode in MFCs. With concept of curve or helix in fibers can lead to higher porosity in the fiber mat, a novel 3D porous architecture, nanospring, was designed for high performance anode structure in future MFC. Polymeric nanospring was prepared by bicomponent electrospinning. The reasons for the formation of polymeric nanosprings were investigated by coaxial electrospinning of bicomponent rigid i.e. Nomex {sup registered} or polysulfonamide (PSA) (rigid) and flexible polymers i.e. thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) (flexible). The results indicated that the nanospring formation is attributed to longitudinal compressive forces which are resulted from the different shrinkages of the rigid and flexible two polymer components and a good electrical conductivity of one of the polymer solutions in coaxial electrospinning system. The modified electrospinning i.e. off-centered electrospinning and side-by-side electrospinning are much more effective than the coaxial electrospinning for generating polymer spring or helical structures, because of the higher longitudinal compressive forces which derived from the lopsided elastic forces. The aligned nanofiber mat with high percent of nanospring shows higher elongation and higher storage modulus below transition glass temperature (T{sub g}) compared to that with straight fibers. The nanospring or helical shape preserves much void-space in the mat. It would be a potential architecture for highly efficient anode in future MFCs. (orig.)

Effects of CO 2 on a High Performance Hollow-Fiber Membrane for Natural Gas Purification

KAUST Repository

Omole, Imona C.

2010-05-19

A 6FDA-based, cross-linkable polyimide was characterized in the form of a defect-free asymmetric hollow-fiber membrane. The novel membrane was cross-linked at various temperatures and tested for natural gas purification in the presence of high CO2 partial pressures. The cross-linked membrane material shows high intrinsic separation performance for CO2 and CH4 (selectivity ∼49, CO2 permeability ∼161 barrer, with a feed at 65 psia, 35 °C, and 10% CO2). Cross-linked asymmetric hollow-fiber membranes made from the material show good resistance to CO2-induced plasticization. Carbon dioxide partial pressures as high as ∼400 psia were employed, and the membrane was shown to be promisingly stable under these aggressive conditions. The performance of the membrane was also analyzed using the dual-mode sorption/transport model. © 2010 American Chemical Society.

High-Performance BiCMOS Transimpedance Amplifiers for Fiber-Optic Receivers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

F. Touati

2007-12-01

Full Text Available High gain, wide bandwidth, low noise, and low-power transimpedance amplifiers based on new BiCMOS common- base topologies have been designed for fiber-optic receivers. In particular a design approach, hereafter called "A more- FET approach", added a new dimension to effectively optimize performance tradeoffs inherent in such circuits. Using conventional silicon 0.8 μm process parameters, simulated performance features of a total-FET transimpedance amplifier operating at 7.2 GHz, which is close to the technology fT of 12 GHz, are presented. The results are superior to those of similar recent designs and comparable to IC designs using GaAs technology. A detailed analysis of the design architecture, including a discussion on the effects of moving toward more FET-based designs is presented.

Scintillating fiber detector performance, detector geometries, trigger, and electronics issues for scintillating fiber tracking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Baumbaugh, A.E.

1994-06-01

Scintillating Fiber tracking technology has made great advances and has demonstrated great potential for high speed charged particle tracking and triggering. The small detector sizes and fast scintillation fluors available make them very promising for use at high luminosity experiments at today's and tomorrow's colliding and fixed target experiments where high rate capability is essential. This talk will discuss the current state of Scintillating fiber performance and current Visual Light Photon Counter (VLPC) characteristics. The primary topic will be some of the system design and integration issues which should be considered by anyone attempting to design a scintillating fiber tracking system which includes a high speed tracking trigger. Design. constraints placed upon the detector system by the electronics and mechanical sub-systems will be discussed. Seemingly simple and unrelated decisions can have far reaching effects on overall system performance. SDC and DO example system designs will be discussed

Wedge Splitting Test on Fracture Behaviour of Fiber Reinforced and Regular High Performance Concretes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hodicky, Kamil; Hulin, Thomas; Schmidt, Jacob Wittrup

2013-01-01

The fracture behaviour of three fiber reinforced and regular High Performance Concretes (HPC) is presented in this paper. Two mixes are based on optimization of HPC whereas the third mix was a commercial mix developed by CONTEC ApS (Denmark). The wedge splitting test setup with 48 cubical specimens...

Compression Behavior of High Performance Polymeric Fibers

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Kumar, Satish

2003-01-01

Hydrogen bonding has proven to be effective in improving the compressive strength of rigid-rod polymeric fibers without resulting in a decrease in tensile strength while covalent crosslinking results in brittle fibers...

Thermal and strength performance of reinforced self-compacting concrete slabs mixed with basalt and PVA fibers in high intensity fire

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohd Jani Noraniza

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Fibers addition to concrete and the innovation of self-compacting concrete technology lead to the development of high-performance concrete. However, high intensity fire may adversely affect the performance of this type of concrete. A series of fire resistance test experiments to evaluate the performance of fiber reinforced self-compacting concrete (FR-SCC slabs consisting of various mix of basalt and PVA fibers were carried out by subjecting the concrete slabs as an element of construction to high intensity Hydrocarbon fire heating condition. The fire testing condition was in accordance with the standard time-temperature fire curve for 120 minutes up to 1100°C heating temperature. The temperatures on the surface and within the concrete slabs were recorded and the performance of each type of FRSCC slabs were evaluated. The performance of Basalt FR-SCC was found to be more resistant to fire in comparison to PVA FRSCC. There residual compressive strength of core samples were tested and SEM analysis were carried out to determine the effect of high intensity fire on the basalt and PVA FR-SCC slabs.

High-density multicore fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Takenaga, K.; Matsuo, S.; Saitoh, K.

2016-01-01

High-density single-mode multicore fibers were designed and fabricated. A heterogeneous 30-core fiber realized a low crosstalk of −55 dB. A quasi-single-mode homogeneous 31-core fiber attained the highest core count as a single-mode multicore fiber.......High-density single-mode multicore fibers were designed and fabricated. A heterogeneous 30-core fiber realized a low crosstalk of −55 dB. A quasi-single-mode homogeneous 31-core fiber attained the highest core count as a single-mode multicore fiber....

Testing of Performance of Optical Fibers Under Irradiation in Intense Radiation Fields, When Subjected to Very High Temperatures

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Blue, Thomas [The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States); Windl, Wolfgang [The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States); Dickerson, Bryan [Luna Innovations, Inc. (United States)

2013-01-03

The primary objective of this project is to measure and model the performance of optical fibers in intense radiation fields when subjected to very high temperatures. This research will pave the way for fiber optic and optically based sensors under conditions expected in future high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. Sensor life and signal-to-noise ratios are susceptible to attenuation of the light signal due to scattering and absorbance in the fibers. This project will provide an experimental and theoretical study of the darkening of optical fibers in high-radiation and high-temperature environments. Although optical fibers have been studied for moderate radiation fluence and flux levels, the results of irradiation at very high temperatures have not been published for extended in-core exposures. Several previous multi-scale modeling efforts have studied irradiation effects on the mechanical properties of materials. However, model-based prediction of irradiation-induced changes in silica's optical transport properties has only recently started to receive attention due to possible applications as optical transmission components in fusion reactors. Nearly all damage-modeling studies have been performed in the molecular-dynamics domain, limited to very short times and small systems. Extended-time modeling, however, is crucial to predicting the long-term effects of irradiation at high temperatures, since the experimental testing may not encompass the displacement rate that the fibers will encounter if they are deployed in the VHTR. The project team will pursue such extended-time modeling, including the effects of the ambient and recrystallization. The process will be based on kinetic MC modeling using the concept of amorphous material consisting of building blocks of defect-pairs or clusters, which has been successfully applied to kinetic modeling in amorphized and recrystallized silicon. Using this procedure, the team will model compensation for rate effects, and

Unusual Formation of Precursors for Crystallization of Ultra-High Performance Polypropylene and Poly(ethylene terephthalate) Fibers by Utilization of Ecologically Friendly Horizontal Isothermal Bath

Science.gov (United States)

Avci, Huseyin

The concept of production of new families of high performance polymers and engineering fibers has been reported many times in the technical literature. Such fibers have various end uses in industrial applications and exhibit the enhanced potential in the challenging areas such as ballistic, automotive, aerospace, bullet-proof vests, energy, and electronics. Since the first commercial synthesis of high polymers by Carothers and Hill, filament manufacturers have looked for ways to increase strength and fibers dimensional stability, thermal degradation resistance, etc., even at extreme conditions. Therefore, studies on the fine structure development and its relation with production conditions during the wet, dry, and melt spinning processes have received much attention by researchers to describe in detail the fundamental aspects of the fiber formation. The production of ultra-high performance fibers at relatively high throughputs by a simple method using fiber-forming polymers via developing an ecologically friendly isothermal bath (ECOB) is the first aim of this study. In this case, polypropylene (PP) was chosen as a semicrystalline thermoplastic polymer which is extensively used in industry and our daily lives. A unique, highly oriented precursor (fa = 0.60), and yet noncrystallized, undrawn fibers were obtained with superior mechanical properties. Fibrillated break, high crystalline and amorphous orientation factors of 0.95 and 0.87, respectively, demonstrate an unusual structural development after only 1.34 draw ratio for the treated fibers. The second melting peak increased 9 °C for the treated fibers, which implies a higher level of molecular ordering and thermodynamically more stable phase. After hot drawing and 1.49 draw ratio, the fibers tenacity was close to 12 g/d, the initial modulus was higher than 150 g/d, and the ultimate elongation was at a break of about 20 %. In the next phase of the research, the effects of horizontal isothermal bath (hIB)11 on the

Application of Ultra High Performance Fiber Reinforced Concrete – The Malaysia Perspective

OpenAIRE

Voo - Yen Lei; Behzad Nematollahi; Abu Bakar Mohamed Said; Balamurugan A Gopal; Tet Shun Yee

2012-01-01

One of the most significant breakthroughs in concrete technology at the end of the 20th century was the development of ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) with compressive strength and flexure strength beyond 160 MPa and 30 MPa, respectively; remarkable improvement in workability; durability resembled to natural rocks; ductility and toughness comparable to steel. While over the last two decades a tremendous amount of research works have been undertaken by academics and e...

High-Performance Lithium-Air Battery with a Coaxial-Fiber Architecture.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Ye; Wang, Lie; Guo, Ziyang; Xu, Yifan; Wang, Yonggang; Peng, Huisheng

2016-03-24

The lithium-air battery has been proposed as the next-generation energy-storage device with a much higher energy density compared with the conventional lithium-ion battery. However, lithium-air batteries currently suffer enormous problems including parasitic reactions, low recyclability in air, degradation, and leakage of liquid electrolyte. Besides, they are designed into a rigid bulk structure that cannot meet the flexible requirement in the modern electronics. Herein, for the first time, a new family of fiber-shaped lithium-air batteries with high electrochemical performances and flexibility has been developed. The battery exhibited a discharge capacity of 12,470 mAh g(-1) and could stably work for 100 cycles in air; its electrochemical performances were well maintained under bending and after bending. It was also wearable and formed flexible power textiles for various electronic devices. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

CuO Nanoflowers growing on Carbon Fiber Fabric for Flexible High-Performance Supercapacitors

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xu, Weina; Dai, Shuge; Liu, Guanlin; Xi, Yi; Hu, Chenguo; Wang, Xue

2016-01-01

Graphical abstract: One of the best electrochemical performances for CuOelectrodes based supercapacitorisachieved by the CuOhierarchical structure growing on the carbon fiber fabric (CuO/CFF) in aqueous electrolyte. Meanwhile, a flexible solid-state supercapacitoris also fabricated as a promising candidate in energy storage for flexible, wearable and lightweight electronics. - Highlights: • The electrodes are fabricated by cupric oxide growing on carbon fiber fabric (CuO/CFF). • The capacitor performance is optimized by the mass loading. • One of the best electrochemical performances is achieved for CuO/CFF supercapacitor. • A highly flexible solid-state supercapacitor can power 3 light-emitting diodes for about 5 min. - Abstract: A hierarchical CuO nano-structure is prepared by directly growing CuO nanoflowers on carbon fiber fabric (CuO/CFF) via a hydrothermal method. The CuO/CFF is used as the electrode material of a supercapacitor for electrochemical energy storage. The supercapacitor displays superior electrochemical performance in aqueous electrolyte with the specific capacitance of 839.9 F/g at the scan rate of 1 mV/s, energy density of 10.05 Wh/kg and power density of 1798.5 W/kg, which are the highest values for the CuO/CFF electrodes. Moreover, a flexible symmetric solid-state symmetric supercapacitor is also fabricated by using the CuO/CFF as electrodes. The solid-state supercapacitor exhibits a specific capacitance of 131.34 F/g at the scan rate of 1 mV/s with a power density of 145.12 W/kg, and 95.8% capacitance retention after 2000 charge-discharge cycles.

High-fiber foods

Science.gov (United States)

... page: //medlineplus.gov/ency/patientinstructions/000193.htm High-fiber foods To use the sharing features on this page, ... Read food labels carefully to see how much fiber they have. Choose foods that have higher amounts of fiber, such as ...

Activated Carbon Fibers with Hierarchical Nanostructure Derived from Waste Cotton Gloves as High-Performance Electrodes for Supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Chao; Yu, Jianlin; Yang, Xiaoqing; Zhang, Guoqing

2017-06-01

One of the most challenging issues that restrict the biomass/waste-based nanocarbons in supercapacitor application is the poor structural inheritability during the activating process. Herein, we prepare a class of activated carbon fibers by carefully selecting waste cotton glove (CG) as the precursor, which mainly consists of cellulose fibers that can be transformed to carbon along with good inheritability of their fiber morphology upon activation. As prepared, the CG-based activated carbon fiber (CGACF) demonstrates a surface area of 1435 m2 g-1 contributed by micropores of 1.3 nm and small mesopores of 2.7 nm, while the fiber morphology can be well inherited from the CG with 3D interconnected frameworks created on the fiber surface. This hierarchically porous structure and well-retained fiber-like skeleton can simultaneously minimize the diffusion/transfer resistance of the electrolyte and electron, respectively, and maximize the surface area utilization for charge accumulation. Consequently, CGACF presents a higher specific capacitance of 218 F g-1 and an excellent high-rate performance as compared to commercial activated carbon.

Activated Carbon Fibers with Hierarchical Nanostructure Derived from Waste Cotton Gloves as High-Performance Electrodes for Supercapacitors.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Chao; Yu, Jianlin; Yang, Xiaoqing; Zhang, Guoqing

2017-12-01

One of the most challenging issues that restrict the biomass/waste-based nanocarbons in supercapacitor application is the poor structural inheritability during the activating process. Herein, we prepare a class of activated carbon fibers by carefully selecting waste cotton glove (CG) as the precursor, which mainly consists of cellulose fibers that can be transformed to carbon along with good inheritability of their fiber morphology upon activation. As prepared, the CG-based activated carbon fiber (CGACF) demonstrates a surface area of 1435 m 2  g -1 contributed by micropores of 1.3 nm and small mesopores of 2.7 nm, while the fiber morphology can be well inherited from the CG with 3D interconnected frameworks created on the fiber surface. This hierarchically porous structure and well-retained fiber-like skeleton can simultaneously minimize the diffusion/transfer resistance of the electrolyte and electron, respectively, and maximize the surface area utilization for charge accumulation. Consequently, CGACF presents a higher specific capacitance of 218 F g -1 and an excellent high-rate performance as compared to commercial activated carbon.

Assesment risk of fracture in thin-walled fiber reinforced and regular High Performance Concretes sandwich elements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hodicky, Kamil; Hulin, Thomas; Schmidt, Jacob Wittrup

2013-01-01

load. Due to structural restraints, autogenous shrinkage may lead to high self-induced stresses. Therefore autogenous shrinkage plays important role in design of HPCSE. The present paper assesses risk of fracture due to autogenous shrinkage-induced stresses in three fiber reinforced and regular High....... Finally the paper describes the modeling work with HPCSE predicting structural cracking provoked by autogenous shrinkage. It was observed that risk of cracking due to autogenous shrinkage rapidly rises after 3 days in case of regular HPC and after 7 days in case of fiber reinforced HPC.......High Performance Concrete Sandwich Elements (HPCSE) are an interesting option for future low or plus energy building construction. Recent research and development work, however, indicate that such elements are prone to structural cracking due to the combined effect of shrinkage and high temperature...

High alkali-resistant basalt fiber for reinforcing concrete

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lipatov, Ya.V.; Gutnikov, S.I.; Manylov, M.S.; Zhukovskaya, E.S.; Lazoryak, B.I.

2015-01-01

Highlights: • Doping of basalt fiber with ZrSiO 4 increased its alkali resistance. • Alkali treatment results in formation of protective surface layer on fibers. • Morphology and chemical composition of surface layer were investigated. • Mechanical properties of fibers were analyzed by a Weibull distribution. • Zirconia doped basalt fibers demonstrate high performance in concrete. - Abstract: Basalt glasses and fibers with zirconia content in the range from 0 to 7 wt% were obtained using ZrSiO 4 as a zirconium source. Weight loss and tensile strength loss of fibers after refluxing in alkali solution were determined. Basalt fiber with 5.7 wt% ZrO 2 had the best alkali resistance properties. Alkali treatment results in formation of protective surface layer on fibers. Morphology and chemical composition of surface layer were investigated. It was shown that alkali resistance of zirconia doped basalt fibers is caused by insoluble compounds of Zr 4+ , Fe 3+ and Mg 2+ in corrosion layer. Mechanical properties of initial and leached fibers were evaluated by a Weibull distribution. The properties of basalt fibers with ZrSiO 4 were compared with AR-glass fibers. The performance of concrete with obtained fibers was investigated

Mesoporous coaxial titanium nitride-vanadium nitride fibers of core-shell structures for high-performance supercapacitors.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Xinhong; Shang, Chaoqun; Gu, Lin; Dong, Shanmu; Chen, Xiao; Han, Pengxian; Li, Lanfeng; Yao, Jianhua; Liu, Zhihong; Xu, Hongxia; Zhu, Yuwei; Cui, Guanglei

2011-08-01

In this study, titanium nitride-vanadium nitride fibers of core-shell structures were prepared by the coaxial electrospinning, and subsequently annealed in the ammonia for supercapacitor applications. These core-shell (TiN-VN) fibers incorporated mesoporous structure into high electronic conducting transition nitride hybrids, which combined higher specific capacitance of VN and better rate capability of TiN. These hybrids exhibited higher specific capacitance (2 mV s(-1), 247.5 F g(-1)) and better rate capability (50 mV s(-1), 160.8 F g(-1)), which promise a good candidate for high-performance supercapacitors. It was also revealed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) characterization that the minor capacitance fade originated from the surface oxidation of VN and TiN.

Quality and performance of laser cutting with a high power SM fiber laser

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Kristiansen, Morten; Selchau, Jacob; Olsen, F. O.

2013-01-01

The introduction of high power single mode fiber lasers allows for a beam of high power and a good beam quality factor (M2 ” 1.2), compared to the multimode fiber lasers often utilised in macro laser metal cutting. This paper describes fundamental studies of macro laser metal cutting with a singl...

Mechanical behavior of high strength ceramic fibers at high temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Tressler, R. E.; Pysher, D. J.

1991-01-01

The mechanical behavior of commercially available and developmental ceramic fibers, both oxide and nonoxide, has been experimentally studied at expected use temperatures. In addition, these properties have been compared to results from the literature. Tensile strengths were measured for three SiC-based and three oxide ceramic fibers for temperatures from 25 C to 1400 C. The SiC-based fibers were stronger but less stiff than the oxide fibers at room temperature and retained more of both strength and stiffness to high temperatures. Extensive creep and creep-rupture experiments have been performed on those fibers from this group which had the best strengths above 1200 C in both single filament tests and tests of fiber bundles. The creep rates for the oxides are on the order of two orders of magnitude faster than the polymer derived nonoxide fibers. The most creep resistant filaments available are single crystal c-axis sapphire filaments. Large diameter CVD fabricated SiC fibers are the most creep and rupture resistant nonoxide polycrystalline fibers tested to date.

A lattice-particle approach for the simulation of fracture processes in fiber-reinforced high-performance concrete

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Montero-Chacón, F.; Schlangen, H.E.J.G.; Medina, F.

2013-01-01

The use of fiber-reinforced high-performance concrete (FRHPC) is becoming more extended; therefore it is necessary to develop tools to simulate and better understand its behavior. In this work, a discrete model for the analysis of fracture mechanics in FRHPC is presented. The plain concrete matrix,

Internal Fiber Structure of a High-Performing, Additively Manufactured Injection Molding Insert

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hofstätter, Thomas; Baier, Sina; Trinderup, Camilla H.

A standard mold is equipped with additively manufactured inserts in a rectangular shape produced with vat photo polymerization. While the lifetime compared to conventional materials such as brass, steel, and aluminum is reduced, the prototyping and design phase can be shortened significantly...... by using flexible and cost-effective additive manufacturing technologies. Higher production volumes still exceed the capability of additively manufactured inserts, which are overruled by the stronger performance of less-flexible but mechanically advanced materials. In this contribution, the internal...... structure of a high-performing, fiber-reinforced injection molding insert has been analyzed. The insert reached a statistically proven and reproducible lifetime of 4,500 shots, which significantly outperforms any other previously published additively manufactured inserts. Computer tomography, tensile tests...

High-birefringent photonic crystal fiber

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Libori, Stig E. Barkou; Broeng, Jes; Knudsen, Erik

2001-01-01

A highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber design is analysed. Birefringence up to 10-3 is found. Random fluctuations in the cladding design are analysed, and the fiber is found to be a feasible polarization maintaining fiber.......A highly birefringent photonic crystal fiber design is analysed. Birefringence up to 10-3 is found. Random fluctuations in the cladding design are analysed, and the fiber is found to be a feasible polarization maintaining fiber....

The performance of integrated active fiber composites in carbon fiber laminates

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melnykowycz, M; Brunner, A J

2011-01-01

Piezoelectric elements integrated into fiber-reinforced polymer-matrix laminates can provide various functions in the resulting adaptive or smart composite. Active fiber composites (AFC) composed of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) fibers can be used as a component in a smart material system, and can be easily integrated into woven composites. However, the impact of integration on the device and its functionality has not been fully investigated. The current work focuses on the integration and performance of AFC integrated into carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminates, focusing on the strain sensor performance of the AFC–CFRP laminate under tensile loading conditions. AFC were integrated into cross-ply CFRP laminates using simple insertion and interlacing of the CFRP plies, with the AFC always placed in the 90° ply cutout area. Test specimens were strained to different strain levels and then cycled with a 0.01% strain amplitude, and the resulting signal from the AFC was monitored. Acoustic emission monitoring was performed during tensile testing to provide insight to the failure characteristics of the PZT fibers. The results were compared to those from past studies on AFC integration; the strain signal of AFC integrated into CFRP was much lower than that for AFC integrated into woven glass fiber laminates. However, the profiles of the degradations of the AFC signal resulting from the strain were nearly identical, showing that the PZT fibers fragmented in a similar manner for a given global strain. The sensor performance recovered upon unloading, which is attributed to the closure of cracks between PZT fiber fragments

Ultrafine MnO2 Nanowire Arrays Grown on Carbon Fibers for High-Performance Supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Jiyu; Qian, Feng; Song, Guosheng; Li, Wenyao; Wang, Linlin

2016-10-01

Large-area ultrafine MnO2 nanowire arrays (NWA) directly grew on a carbon fiber (CF, used as a substrate) by a simple electrochemical method, forming three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical heterostructures of a CF@MnO2 NWA composite. As an electrode for supercapacitors, the CF@MnO2 NWA composite exhibits excellent electrochemical performances including high specific capacitance (321.3 F g-1 at 1000 mA g-1) and good rate capability. Further, the overall capacitance retention is 99.7 % capacitance after 3000 cycles. These outstanding electrochemical performances attribute to a large number of transport channels for the penetration of electrolyte and the transportation of ions and electrons of electrodes. The as-prepared CF@MnO2 NWA composite may be a promising electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors.

Hysteretic evaluation of seismic performance of normal and fiber reinforced concrete shear walls

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choun, Young Sun; Hahm, Dae Gi

2012-01-01

The use of fibers in concrete or cement composites can enhance the performance of structural elements. Fibers have been used for a cement mixture to increase the toughness and tensile strength, and to improve the cracking and deformation characteristics. The addition of fibers into concrete can improve the ductility and increase the seismic resistance of concrete structures. The application of fibers to earthquake-resistant concrete structures has a major research topic. A recent study shows that an excellent seismic performance can be obtained in shear critical members constructed with high performance fiber reinforced cement composites. To increase the seismic performance of safety related concrete structures in nuclear power plants, fibers can be used. This study investigated the effect of fibers on the hysteretic behavior of a reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall by cyclic tests

Hysteretic evaluation of seismic performance of normal and fiber reinforced concrete shear walls

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choun, Young Sun; Hahm, Dae Gi [KAERI, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2012-10-15

The use of fibers in concrete or cement composites can enhance the performance of structural elements. Fibers have been used for a cement mixture to increase the toughness and tensile strength, and to improve the cracking and deformation characteristics. The addition of fibers into concrete can improve the ductility and increase the seismic resistance of concrete structures. The application of fibers to earthquake-resistant concrete structures has a major research topic. A recent study shows that an excellent seismic performance can be obtained in shear critical members constructed with high performance fiber reinforced cement composites. To increase the seismic performance of safety related concrete structures in nuclear power plants, fibers can be used. This study investigated the effect of fibers on the hysteretic behavior of a reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall by cyclic tests.

High-power fiber-coupled pump lasers for fiber lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Kasai, Yohei; Aizawa, Takuya; Tanaka, Daiichiro

2018-02-01

We present high-power fiber-coupled pump modules utilized effectively for ultra-high power single-mode (SM) fiber lasers. Maximum output power of 392 W was achieved at 23 A for 915 nm pump, and 394 W for 976 nm pump. Fiber core diameter is 118 μm and case temperature is 25deg. C. Polarization multiplexing technique was newly applied to our optical system. High-reliability of the laser diodes (LD) at high-power operation has been demonstrated by aging tests. Advanced package structure was developed that manages uncoupled light around input end of the fiber. 800 hours continuous drive with uncoupled light power of 100 W has been achieved.

High-Order Modulation for Optical Fiber Transmission

CERN Document Server

Seimetz, Matthias

2009-01-01

Catering to the current interest in increasing the spectral efficiency of optical fiber networks by the deployment of high-order modulation formats, this monograph describes transmitters, receivers and performance of optical systems with high-order phase and quadrature amplitude modulation. In the first part of the book, the author discusses various transmitter implementation options as well as several receiver concepts based on direct and coherent detection, including designs of new structures. Hereby, both optical and electrical parts are considered, allowing the assessment of practicability and complexity. In the second part, a detailed characterization of optical fiber transmission systems is presented, regarding a wide range of modulation formats. It provides insight in the fundamental behavior of different formats with respect to relevant performance degradation effects and identifies the major trends in system performance.

Ultrafine MnO2 Nanowire Arrays Grown on Carbon Fibers for High-Performance Supercapacitors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jiyu Hu

2016-10-01

Full Text Available Abstract Large-area ultrafine MnO2 nanowire arrays (NWA directly grew on a carbon fiber (CF, used as a substrate by a simple electrochemical method, forming three-dimensional (3D hierarchical heterostructures of a CF@MnO2 NWA composite. As an electrode for supercapacitors, the CF@MnO2 NWA composite exhibits excellent electrochemical performances including high specific capacitance (321.3 F g−1 at 1000 mA g−1 and good rate capability. Further, the overall capacitance retention is ~99.7 % capacitance after 3000 cycles. These outstanding electrochemical performances attribute to a large number of transport channels for the penetration of electrolyte and the transportation of ions and electrons of electrodes. The as-prepared CF@MnO2 NWA composite may be a promising electrode material for high-performance supercapacitors.

Building unique surface structure on aramid fibers through a green layer-by-layer self-assembly technique to develop new high performance fibers with greatly improved surface activity, thermal resistance, mechanical properties and UV resistance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zhou, Lifang; Yuan, Li; Guan, Qingbao; Gu, Aijuan, E-mail: ajgu@suda.edu.cn; Liang, Guozheng, E-mail: lgzheng@suda.edu.cn

2017-07-31

Highlights: • A green technology is setup to build unique surface structure on aramid fiber (AF). • The method is layer-by-layer self-assembling SiO{sub 2} and layered double hydroxide. • The surface of AF is adjustable by controlling the self-assembly cycle number. • New AF has excellent surface activity, anti-UV, thermal and mechanical properties. • The origin behind attractive performances of new AFs was intensively studied. - Abstract: Combining green preparation and high performance is becoming the direction of sustainable development of materials. How to simultaneously overcome the two bottlenecks (poor surface activity and UV resistance) of aramid fibers (AFs) while improving thermal and mechanical properties through a green process is still an interesting issue with big challenge. Herein, new AFs (BL-AFs) were prepared by alternately self-assembling SiO{sub 2} and MgAlFe layered double hydroxide (LDH) on surfaces of AFs, successively, through a green layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly technique without using high temperature and organic solvent. The structures and properties of BL-AFs were systematically studied, which are controllable by adjusting the number of self-assembly cycle. The new fibers with three or more self-assembly cycles have remarkably improved surface activity, thermal resistance, mechanical properties and UV resistance compared with AFs. Typically, with three self-assembly cycles, the initial degradation temperature and char yield of the new fiber (3BL-AF) are as high as 552.9 °C and 81.2%, about 92 °C and 25.2% higher than those of AF, respectively; after 168 h-UV irradiation, the retention of tensile performances of 3BL-AF fiber is as high as 91–95%, about 29–14% higher than that of AF, showing the best overall performances among all modified AFs prepared using a green technique reported so far. The origin behind the attractive performances of BL-AFs is revealed through correlating with structures of original and

Effects of high-speed homogenization and high-pressure homogenization on structure of tomato residue fibers.

Science.gov (United States)

Hua, Xiao; Xu, Shanan; Wang, Mingming; Chen, Ying; Yang, Hui; Yang, Ruijin

2017-10-01

Tomato residue fibers obtained after derosination and deproteinization were processed by high-speed homogenization (HSH) and high-pressure homogenization (HPH), and their effects on fiber structure was investigated, respectively. Characterizations including particle size distribution, SEM, TEM and XRD were performed. HSH could break raw fibers to small particles of around 60μm, while HPH could reshape fibers to build network structure. Microfibrils were released and their nanostructure consisting of elementary fibrils was observed by TEM. XRD patterns indicated both HSH and HPH could hardly alter the nanostructure of the fibers. Physicochemical properties including expansibility, WHC and OHC were determined. Both HSH and HPH could increase the soluble fiber content by about 8%, but HSH-HPH combined processing did not show better result. Acid (4mol/L HCl) was used in replacement of water medium and the acidic degradation of fibers could be promoted by high speed shearing or high pressure processing. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wedge Splitting Test and Inverse Analysis on Fracture Behaviour of Fiber Reinforced and Regular High Performance Concretes

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hodicky, Kamil; Hulin, Thomas; Schmidt, Jacob Wittrup

2014-01-01

The fracture behaviour of three fiber reinforced and regular HPC (high performance concretes) is presented in this paper. Two mixes are based on optimization of HPC whereas the third mix was a commercial mix developed by CONTEC ApS (Denmark). The wedge splitting test setup with 48 cubical specimens...

Containment performance evaluation of prestressed concrete containment vessels with fiber reinforcement

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choun, Young Sun; Park, Hyung Kui [Integrated Safety Assessment Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2015-12-15

Fibers in concrete resist the growth of cracks and enhance the postcracking behavior of structures. The addition of fibers into a conventional reinforced concrete can improve the structural and functional performance of safety-related concrete structures in nuclear power plants. The influence of fibers on the ultimate internal pressure capacity of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) was investigated through a comparison of the ultimate pressure capacities between conventional and fiber-reinforced PCCVs. Steel and polyamide fibers were used. The tension behaviors of conventional concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete specimens were investigated through uniaxial tension tests and their tension-stiffening models were obtained. For a PCCV reinforced with 1% volume hooked-end steel fiber, the ultimate pressure capacity increased by approximately 12% in comparison with that for a conventional PCCV. For a PCCV reinforced with 1.5% volume polyamide fiber, an increase of approximately 3% was estimated for the ultimate pressure capacity. The ultimate pressure capacity can be greatly improved by introducing steel and polyamide fibers in a conventional reinforced concrete. Steel fibers are more effective at enhancing the containment performance of a PCCV than polyamide fibers. The fiber reinforcement was shown to be more effective at a high pressure loading and a low prestress level.

Containment performance evaluation of prestressed concrete containment vessels with fiber reinforcement

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choun, Young Sun; Park, Hyung Kui

2015-01-01

Fibers in concrete resist the growth of cracks and enhance the postcracking behavior of structures. The addition of fibers into a conventional reinforced concrete can improve the structural and functional performance of safety-related concrete structures in nuclear power plants. The influence of fibers on the ultimate internal pressure capacity of a prestressed concrete containment vessel (PCCV) was investigated through a comparison of the ultimate pressure capacities between conventional and fiber-reinforced PCCVs. Steel and polyamide fibers were used. The tension behaviors of conventional concrete and fiber-reinforced concrete specimens were investigated through uniaxial tension tests and their tension-stiffening models were obtained. For a PCCV reinforced with 1% volume hooked-end steel fiber, the ultimate pressure capacity increased by approximately 12% in comparison with that for a conventional PCCV. For a PCCV reinforced with 1.5% volume polyamide fiber, an increase of approximately 3% was estimated for the ultimate pressure capacity. The ultimate pressure capacity can be greatly improved by introducing steel and polyamide fibers in a conventional reinforced concrete. Steel fibers are more effective at enhancing the containment performance of a PCCV than polyamide fibers. The fiber reinforcement was shown to be more effective at a high pressure loading and a low prestress level

High performance methanol-oxygen fuel cell with hollow fiber electrode

Science.gov (United States)

Lawson, Daniel D. (Inventor); Ingham, John D. (Inventor)

1983-01-01

A methanol/air-oxygen fuel cell including an electrode formed by open-ended ion-exchange hollow fibers having a layer of catalyst deposited on the inner surface thereof and a first current collector in contact with the catalyst layer. A second current collector external of said fibers is provided which is immersed along with the hollow fiber electrode in an aqueous electrolyte body. Upon passage of air or oxygen through the hollow fiber electrode and introduction of methanol into the aqueous electrolyte, a steady current output is obtained. Two embodiments of the fuel cell are disclosed. In the first embodiment the second metal electrode is displaced away from the hollow fiber in the electrolyte body while in the second embodiment a spiral-wrap electrode is provided about the outer surface of the hollow fiber electrode.

Development of a High Performance PES Ultrafiltration Hollow Fiber Membrane for Oily Wastewater Treatment Using Response Surface Methodology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Noor Adila Aluwi Shakir

2015-12-01

Full Text Available This study attempts to optimize the spinning process used for fabricating hollow fiber membranes using the response surface methodology (RSM. The spinning factors considered for the experimental design are the dope extrusion rate (DER, air gap length (AGL, coagulation bath temperature (CBT, bore fluid ratio (BFR, and post-treatment time (PT whilst the response investigated is rejection. The optimal spinning conditions promising the high rejection performance of polyethersulfone (PES ultrafiltration hollow fiber membranes for oily wastewater treatment are at the dope extrusion rate of 2.13 cm3/min, air gap length of 0 cm, coagulation bath temperature of 30 °C, and bore fluid ratio (NMP/H2O of 0.01/99.99 wt %. This study will ultimately enable the membrane fabricators to produce high-performance membranes that contribute towards the availability of a more sustainable water supply system.

Fiber facet gratings for high power fiber lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Vanek, Martin; Vanis, Jan; Baravets, Yauhen; Todorov, Filip; Ctyroky, Jiri; Honzatko, Pavel

2017-12-01

We numerically investigated the properties of diffraction gratings designated for fabrication on the facet of an optical fiber. The gratings are intended to be used in high-power fiber lasers as mirrors either with a low or high reflectivity. The modal reflectance of low reflectivity polarizing grating has a value close to 3% for TE mode while it is significantly suppressed for TM mode. Such a grating can be fabricated on laser output fiber facet. The polarizing grating with high modal reflectance is designed as a leaky-mode resonant diffraction grating. The grating can be etched in a thin layer of high index dielectric which is sputtered on fiber facet. We used refractive index of Ta2O5 for such a layer. We found that modal reflectance can be close to 0.95 for TE polarization and polarization extinction ratio achieves 18 dB. Rigorous coupled wave analysis was used for fast optimization of grating parameters while aperiodic rigorous coupled wave analysis, Fourier modal method and finite difference time domain method were compared and used to compute modal reflectance of designed gratings.

Characterization and modeling of performance of Polymer Composites Reinforced with Highly Non-Linear Cellulosic Fibers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rozite, L; Joffe, R; Varna, J; Nyström, B

2012-01-01

The behaviour of highly non-linear cellulosic fibers and their composite is characterized. Micro-mechanisms occurring in these materials are identified. Mechanical properties of regenerated cellulose fibers and composites are obtained using simple tensile test. Material visco-plastic and visco-elastic properties are analyzed using creep tests. Two bio-based resins are used in this study – Tribest and EpoBioX. The glass and flax fiber composites are used as reference materials to compare with Cordenka fiber laminates.

Characterization and modeling of performance of Polymer Composites Reinforced with Highly Non-Linear Cellulosic Fibers

Science.gov (United States)

Rozite, L.; Joffe, R.; Varna, J.; Nyström, B.

2012-02-01

The behaviour of highly non-linear cellulosic fibers and their composite is characterized. Micro-mechanisms occurring in these materials are identified. Mechanical properties of regenerated cellulose fibers and composites are obtained using simple tensile test. Material visco-plastic and visco-elastic properties are analyzed using creep tests. Two bio-based resins are used in this study - Tribest and EpoBioX. The glass and flax fiber composites are used as reference materials to compare with Cordenka fiber laminates.

Packaging of active fiber composites for improved sensor performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Melnykowycz, M; Barbezat, M; Koller, R; Brunner, A J

2010-01-01

Active fiber composites (AFC) composed of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) fibers embedded in an epoxy matrix and sandwiched between two interdigitated electrodes provide a thin and flexible smart material device which can act as a sensor or actuator. The thin profiles of AFC make them ideal for integration in glass or carbon fiber composite laminates. However, due to the low tensile limit of the PZT fibers, AFC can fail at strains below the tensile limit of many composites. This makes their use as a component in an active laminate design somewhat undesirable. In the current work, tensile testing of smart laminates composed of AFC integrated in glass fiber laminates was conducted to assess the effectiveness of different packaging strategies for improving AFC sensor performance at high strains relative to the tensile limit of the AFC. AFC were encased in carbon fiber, silicon, and pre-stressed carbon fiber to improve the tensile limit of the AFC when integrated in glass fiber laminates. By laminating AFC with pre-stressed carbon fiber, the tensile limit and strain sensor ability of the AFC were significantly improved. Acoustic emission monitoring was used and the results show that PZT fiber breakage was reduced due to the pre-stressed packaging process

Advanced specialty fiber designs for high power fiber lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Gu, Guancheng

The output power of fiber lasers has increased rapidly over the last decade. There are two major limiting factors, namely nonlinear effects and transverse mode instability, prohibiting the power scaling capability of fiber lasers. The nonlinear effects, originating from high optical intensity, primarily limit the peak power scaling. The mode instability, on the other hand, arises from quantum-defect driven heating, causing undesired mode coupling once the power exceeds the threshold and degradation of beam quality. The mode instability has now become the bottleneck for average output power scaling of fiber lasers. Mode area scaling is the most effective way to mitigate nonlinear effects. However, the use of large mode area may increase the tendency to support multiple modes in the core, resulting in lower mode instability threshold. Therefore, it is critical to maintain single mode operation in a large mode area fiber. Sufficient higher order mode suppression can lead to effective single-transverse-mode propagation. In this dissertation, we explore the feasibility of using specialty fiber to construct high power fiber lasers with robust single-mode output. The first type of fiber discussed is the resonantly-enhanced leakage channel fiber. Coherent reflection at the fiber outer boundary can lead to additional confinement especially for highly leaky HOM, leading to lower HOM losses than what are predicted by conventional finite element mothod mode solver considering infinite cladding. In this work, we conducted careful measurements of HOM losses in two leakage channel fibers (LCF) with circular and rounded hexagonal boundary shapes respectively. Impact on HOM losses from coiling, fiber boundary shapes and coating indexes were studied in comparison to simulations. This work demonstrates the limit of the simulation method commonly used in the large-mode-area fiber designs and the need for an improved approach. More importantly, this work also demonstrates that a

PREDICTION OF MAXIMUM CREEP STRAIN OF HIGH PERFORMANCE STEEL FIBER REINFORCED CONCRETE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mishina Alexandra Vasil'evna

2012-12-01

Full Text Available The strongest research potential is demonstrated by the areas of application of high performance steel fiber reinforced concrete (HPSFRC. The research of its rheological characteristics is very important for the purposes of understanding its behaviour. This article is an overview of an experimental study of UHSSFRC. The study was carried out in the form of lasting creep tests of HPSFRC prism specimen, loaded by stresses of varied intensity. The loading was performed at different ages: 7, 14, 28 and 90 days after concreting. The stress intensity was 0.3 and 0.6 Rb; it was identified on the basis of short-term crush tests of similar prism-shaped specimen, performed on the same day. As a result, values of ultimate creep strains and ultimate specific creep of HPSFRC were identified. The data was used to construct an experimental diagramme of the ultimate specific creep on the basis of the HPSFRC loading age if exposed to various stresses. The research has resulted in the identification of a theoretical relationship that may serve as the basis for the high-precision projection of the pattern of changes in the ultimate specific creep of HPSFRC, depending on the age of loading and the stress intensity.

Energy absorption at high strain rate of glass fiber reinforced mortars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fenu Luigi

2015-01-01

Full Text Available In this paper, the dynamic behaviour of cement mortars reinforced with glass fibers was studied. The influence of the addition of glass fibers on energy absorption and tensile strength at high strain-rate was investigated. Static tests in compression, in tension and in bending were first performed. Dynamic tests by means of a Modified Hopkinson Bar were then carried out in order to investigate how glass fibers affected energy absorption and tensile strength at high strain-rate of the fiber reinforced mortar. The Dynamic Increase Factor (DIF was finally evaluated.

High power nickel - cadmium cells with fiber electrodes (FNC)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Haschka, F.; Schlieck, D.

1986-01-01

Nickel cadmium batteries differ greatly in their mechanical design and construction of the electrodes. Using available electrode constructions, batteries are designed which meet the requirements of specific applications and offer optimum performance. Pocket- and tubular cells are basically developed with the technology of the year 1895. Since then some improvements with todays technology have been made. The sintered cells use the technology of the 1930's and they are still limited to high power application. With this knowledge and the technology of today the fiber-structured nickel electrode (FNC) was developed at DAUG laboratory, a subsidiary company of Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. After ten years of experience in light weight prototype batteries for electric vehicles (1-2), the system was brought into production by a new company, DAUG-HOPPECKE. Characteristics of fiber electrodes: thickness and size can be easily changed; pure active materials are used; high conductor density; high elasticity of the structure; high porosity. Since 1983 NiCd-batteries with fiber-structured nickel electrodes (FNC) have been in production. Starting with the highly demanded cell-types for low, medium and high performance called L, M and H according to IEC 623 for low, medium and high performance applications, the program was recently completed with the X-type cell for very high power, as an alternative to sintered cells

Effect of Using Metakaolin on Chloride Ion Penetration in High Performance Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Adnan Mohammed Shihab

2016-03-01

Full Text Available This paper attempts to reduce the penetrability of high performance steel fiber reinforced concrete to chloride ions originating from external sources, by using High Reactivity Metakaolin (HRM as a highly active pozzolanic material, in order to prolong the time to initiation of the steel fibers corrosion and to minimize concrete damage that may occur due to the exposure to chloride ion penetration. According to pozzolanic activity index (P.A.I., 8% content of HRM was used as a partial replacement by weight of cement with 2% steel fibers by volume of concrete. During the exposure period of 300 days in 4.5% of NaCl solution, the total and free chloride contents (Cltotal, Clfree with the chloride profiles at the ages of 28 and 300 days were investigated. Also the rapid chloride penetrability test (RCPT, compressive and flexural strengths tests were conducted at the ages of 28, 90, 180 and 300 days. Results showed that the incorporation of 8% HRM caused a reduction in the (Clfree/Cltota ratio, the chloride penetration depth and the electrical conductivity with percentages of 21%, 40% and 43% respectively after 300 days exposure to chloride solution in comparing with the mix of 0% HRM. Results also indicated that the losses in compressive and flexural strengths after exposure of 300 days to chloride solution for the mix incorporating 8% HRM were by 5% and 5.8% respectively while they reached 9.5% and 11% respectively for the mix without HRM in relation to the correspondent test specimens cured in tap water.

Performance of different hollow fiber membranes for seawater desalination using membrane distillation

KAUST Repository

Francis, Lijo; Ghaffour, NorEddine; Alsaadi, Ahmad Salem; Amy, Gary L.

2014-01-01

Membrane distillation requires a highly porous hydrophobic membrane with low surface energy. In this paper, we compare the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) performances of four different types of in-house fabricated hollow fiber membranes and two different commercially available hollow fiber membranes. Hollow fiber membranes are fabricated using wet-jet phase inversion technique and the polymeric matrices used for the fabrication are polyvinylidine fluoride (PVDF) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Commercial hollow fiber membrane materials are made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polypropylene (PP). PVDF hollow fibers showed a superior performance among all the hollow fibers tested in the DCMD process and gave a water vapor flux of 31 kg m-2h-1 at a feed and coolant inlet temperatures of 80 and 20°C, respectively. Under the same conditions, the water vapor flux observed for PP, PTFE, and PVC hollow fiber membranes are 13, 11, and 6 kg m-2h-1, respectively, with 99.99% salt rejection observed for all membranes used.

Performance of different hollow fiber membranes for seawater desalination using membrane distillation

KAUST Repository

Francis, Lijo

2014-08-11

Membrane distillation requires a highly porous hydrophobic membrane with low surface energy. In this paper, we compare the direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) performances of four different types of in-house fabricated hollow fiber membranes and two different commercially available hollow fiber membranes. Hollow fiber membranes are fabricated using wet-jet phase inversion technique and the polymeric matrices used for the fabrication are polyvinylidine fluoride (PVDF) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Commercial hollow fiber membrane materials are made of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polypropylene (PP). PVDF hollow fibers showed a superior performance among all the hollow fibers tested in the DCMD process and gave a water vapor flux of 31 kg m-2h-1 at a feed and coolant inlet temperatures of 80 and 20°C, respectively. Under the same conditions, the water vapor flux observed for PP, PTFE, and PVC hollow fiber membranes are 13, 11, and 6 kg m-2h-1, respectively, with 99.99% salt rejection observed for all membranes used.

High Performance Graded Index Polymer Optical Fibers

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Garito, Anthony

1998-01-01

...) plastic optical fibers (POF) and graded index (GI) POFs are reported. A set of criteria and analyses of physical parameters are developed in context to the major issues of POF applications in short-distance communication systems...

High Average Power, High Energy Short Pulse Fiber Laser System

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Messerly, M J

2007-11-13

Recently continuous wave fiber laser systems with output powers in excess of 500W with good beam quality have been demonstrated [1]. High energy, ultrafast, chirped pulsed fiber laser systems have achieved record output energies of 1mJ [2]. However, these high-energy systems have not been scaled beyond a few watts of average output power. Fiber laser systems are attractive for many applications because they offer the promise of high efficiency, compact, robust systems that are turn key. Applications such as cutting, drilling and materials processing, front end systems for high energy pulsed lasers (such as petawatts) and laser based sources of high spatial coherence, high flux x-rays all require high energy short pulses and two of the three of these applications also require high average power. The challenge in creating a high energy chirped pulse fiber laser system is to find a way to scale the output energy while avoiding nonlinear effects and maintaining good beam quality in the amplifier fiber. To this end, our 3-year LDRD program sought to demonstrate a high energy, high average power fiber laser system. This work included exploring designs of large mode area optical fiber amplifiers for high energy systems as well as understanding the issues associated chirped pulse amplification in optical fiber amplifier systems.

High performance natural rubber composites with a hierarchical reinforcement structure of carbon nanotube modified natural fibers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Tzounis, Lazaros; Debnath, Subhas; Rooj, Sandip; Fischer, Dieter; Mäder, Edith; Das, Amit; Stamm, Manfred; Heinrich, Gert

2014-01-01

A simple and facile method for depositing multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) onto the surface of naturally occurring short jute fibers (JFs) is reported. Hierarchical multi-scale structures were formed with CNT-networks uniformly distributed and fully covering the JFs (JF–CNT), as depicted by the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs. The impact of these hybrid fillers on the mechanical properties of a natural rubber (NR) matrix was systematically investigated. Pristine JFs were cut initially to an average length of 2.0 mm and exposed to an alkali treatment (a-JFs) to remove impurities existing in the raw jute. MWCNTs were treated under mild acidic conditions to generate carboxylic acid moieties. Afterward, MWCNTs were dispersed in an aqueous media and short a-JFs were allowed to react with them. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the chemical interaction between CNTs and JFs. The JF–CNT exposed quite hydrophobic behavior as revealed by the water contact angle measurements, improving the wettability of the non-polar NR. Consequently, the composite interfacial adhesion strength was significantly enhanced while a micro-scale “mechanical interlocking” mechanism was observed from the interphase-section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. SEM analysis of the composite fracture surfaces demonstrated the interfacial strength of NR/a-JF and NR/JF–CNT composites, at different fiber loadings. It can be presumed that the CNT-coating effectively compatibillized the composite structure acting as a macromolecular coupling agent. A detailed analysis of stress-strain and dynamic mechanical spectra confirmed the high mechanical performance of the hierarchical composites, consisting mainly of materials arising from natural resources. - Highlights: • Natural rubber (NR) composites reinforced with CNT-modified short jute fibers. • MWCNTs deposited to the surface of jute fibers via non-covalent interactions. • Hierarchical reinforcement structure with

High-performance wearable supercapacitors fabricated with surface activated continuous filament graphite fibers

Science.gov (United States)

Jia, Dedong; Yu, Xin; Chen, Tinghan; Wang, Shu; Tan, Hua; Liu, Hong; Wang, Zhong Lin; Li, Linlin

2017-08-01

Generally, carbon or graphite fibers (GFs) are used as the supporting materials for the preparation of flexible supercapacitors (SCs) by assembling various electrochemically active nanomaterials on them. A facile and rapid electrochemical oxidation method with a voltage of 3 V in a mixed H2SO4-HNO3 solution for 2-15 min is proposed to active continuous filament GFs. Detailed structural characterization, SEM, TEM, XRD, Raman and XPS demonstrate that the GFs-8 (oxidized for 8 min) possessing high specific surface area which provided numerous electrochemical sites and a large number of oxygen-containing functional groups producing pseudocapacitance. Cyclic voltammetric (CV), galvanostatic charge-discharge measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) are conducted to test the capacitive of GFs and activated GFs. The capacitance of GFs-8 reaches as high as 570 mF cm-1 at the current density of 1 mA cm-1 in LiCl electrolyte, a 1965-fold enhancement with respect to the pristine GFs (0.29 mF cm-1). The fabricated fiber solid-state supercapacitors (SSCs) provide high energy density of 0.68 mWh cm-3 at the power density 3.3 W cm-3 and have excellent durability with 90% capacitance retention after 10000 cycles. In addition, such fiber SSCs features flexibility and mechanical stability, which may have wide applications in wearable electronic devices.

E- and W-band high-capacity hybrid fiber-wireless link

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vegas Olmos, Juan José; Pang, Xiaodan; Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso

2014-01-01

In this paper we summarize the work conducted in our group in the area of E- and W-band optical high-capacity fiber-wireless links. We present performance evaluations of E- and W-band mm-wave signal generation using photonic frequency upconversion employing both VCSELs and ECLs, along with transm...... in mobile backhaul/fronthaul applications, dense distributed antenna systems and fiber-over-radio scenarios.......In this paper we summarize the work conducted in our group in the area of E- and W-band optical high-capacity fiber-wireless links. We present performance evaluations of E- and W-band mm-wave signal generation using photonic frequency upconversion employing both VCSELs and ECLs, along...... with transmission over different type of optical fibers and for a number of values for the wireless link distance. Hybrid wireless-optical links can be composed of mature and resilient technology available off-the-shelf, and provide functionalities that can add value to optical access networks, specifically...

Behaviors of SiC fibers at high temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Colin, C.; Falanga, V.; Gelebart, L.

2010-01-01

On the one hand, considering the improvements of mechanical and thermal behaviours of the last generation of SiC fibers (Hi-Nicalon S, Tyranno SA3); on the other hand, regarding physical and chemical properties and stability under irradiation, SiC/SiC composites are potential candidates for nuclear applications in advanced fission and fusion reactors. CEA must characterize and optimize these composites before their uses in reactors. In order to study this material, CEA is developing a multi-scale approach by modelling from fibers to bulk composite specimen: fibres behaviours must be well known in first. Thus, CEA developed a specific tensile test device on single fibers at high temperature, named MecaSiC. Using this device, we have already characterized the thermoelastic and thermoelectric behaviours of SiC fibers. Additional results about the plastic properties at high temperatures were also obtained. Indeed, we performed tensile tests between 1200 degrees C up to 1700 degrees C to characterize this plastic behaviour. Some thermal annealing, up to 3 hours at 1700 degrees C, had been also performed. Furthermore, we compare the mechanical behaviours with the thermal evolution of the electric resistivity of these SiC fibers. Soon, MecaSiC will be coupled to a new charged particle accelerator. Thus, in this configuration, we will be able to study in-situ irradiation effects on fibre behaviours, as swelling or creep for example

Hybrid Effect Evaluation of Steel Fiber and Carbon Fiber on the Performance of the Fiber Reinforced Concrete.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Weimin; Yin, Jian

2016-08-18

Fiber reinforcement is an important method to enhance the performance of concrete. In this study, the compressive test and impact test were conducted, and then the hybrid effect between steel fiber (SF) and carbon fiber (CF) was evaluated by employing the hybrid effect index. Compressive toughness and impact toughness of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC), carbon fiber reinforced concrete (CFRC) and hybrid fiber reinforced concrete (HFRC) were explored at steel fiber volume fraction 0.5%, 1%, 1.5% and carbon fiber 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3%. Results showed that the addition of steel fiber and carbon fiber can increase the compressive strength. SF, CF and the hybridization between them could increase the compressive toughness significantly. The impact test results showed that as the volume of fiber increased, the impact number of the first visible crack and the ultimate failure also increased. The improvement of toughness mainly lay in improving the crack resistance after the first crack. Based on the test results, the positive hybrid effect of steel fiber and carbon fiber existed in hybrid fiber reinforced concrete. The relationship between the compressive toughness and impact toughness was also explored.

Latest development of high-power fiber lasers in SPI

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, Stephen; Zervas, Mikhail N.; Appleyard, Andrew; Durkin, Michael K.; Horley, Ray; Varnham, Malcolm P.; Nilsson, Johan; Jeong, Yoonchan

2004-06-01

High Power Fiber Lasers (HPFLs) and High Power Fiber Amplifiers (HPFAs) promise a number of benefits in terms of their high optical efficiency, degree of integration, beam quality, reliability, spatial compactness and thermal management. These benefits are driving the rapid adoption of HPFLs in an increasingly wide range of applications and power levels ranging from a few Watts, in for example analytical applications, to high-power >1kW materials processing (machining and welding) applications. This paper describes SPI"s innovative technologies, HPFL products and their performance capabilities. The paper highlights key aspects of the design basis and provides an overview of the applications space in both the industrial and aerospace domains. Single-fiber CW lasers delivering 1kW output power at 1080nm have been demonstrated and are being commercialized for aerospace and industrial applications with wall-plug efficiencies in the range 20 to 25%, and with beam parameter products in the range 0.5 to 100 mm.mrad (corresponding to M2 = 1.5 to 300) tailored to application requirements. At power levels in the 1 - 200 W range, SPI"s proprietary cladding-pumping technology, GTWaveTM, has been employed to produce completely fiber-integrated systems using single-emitter broad-stripe multimode pump diodes. This modular construction enables an agile and flexible approach to the configuration of a range of fiber laser / amplifier systems for operation in the 1080nm and 1550nm wavelength ranges. Reliability modeling is applied to determine Systems martins such that performance specifications are robustly met throughout the designed product lifetime. An extensive Qualification and Reliability-proving programme is underway to qualify the technology building blocks that are utilized for the fiber laser cavity, pump modules, pump-driver systems and thermo-mechanical management. In addition to the CW products, pulsed fiber lasers with pulse energies exceeding 1mJ with peak pulse

Optical Fiber for High-Power Optical Communication

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kenji Kurokawa

2012-09-01

Full Text Available We examined optical fibers suitable for avoiding such problems as the fiber fuse phenomenon and failures at bends with a high power input. We found that the threshold power for fiber fuse propagation in photonic crystal fiber (PCF and hole-assisted fiber (HAF can exceed 18 W, which is more than 10 times that in conventional single-mode fiber (SMF. We considered this high threshold power in PCF and HAF to be caused by a jet of high temperature fluid penetrating the air holes. We showed examples of two kinds of failures at bends in conventional SMF when the input power was 9 W. We also observed the generation of a fiber fuse under a condition that caused a bend-loss induced failure. We showed that one solution for the failures at bends is to use optical fibers with a low bending loss such as PCF and HAF. Therefore, we consider PCF and HAF to be attractive solutions to the problems of the fiber fuse phenomenon and failures at bends with a high power input.

Thermal conductivity of high performance carbon nanotube yarn-like fibers

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mayhew, Eric; Prakash, Vikas, E-mail: vikas.prakash@case.edu [Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106-7222 (United States)

2014-05-07

In the present paper, we present results of thermal conductivity measurements in free standing carbon nanotube (CNT) yarn-like fibers. The measurements are made using a T-type experimental configuration utilizing a Wollaston-wire hot probe inside a scanning electron microscope. In this technique, a suspended platinum wire is used both as a heater and a thermal sensor. A low frequency alternating current source is used to heat the probe wire while the third harmonic voltage across the wire is measured by a lock-in amplifier. The conductivity is deduced from an analytical model that relates the drop in the spatially averaged temperature of the wire to that of the sample. The average thermal conductivity of the neat CNT fibers and the CNT –polymer composite fibers is found to be 448 W/m-K and 225 W/m-K, respectively. These values for conductivity are amongst the highest measured for CNT yarn-like fibers fabricated using a dry spinning process from vertically aligned CNT arrays. The enhancement in thermal conductivity is understood to be due to an increase in the CNT fiber elastic stiffness during the draw and twist operations, lower CNT thermal contact resistance due to increase in CNT contact area, and better alignment of the CNT fibrils along the length of the fiber.

Performance and safety of holmium: YAG laser optical fibers.

Science.gov (United States)

Knudsen, Bodo E; Glickman, Randolph D; Stallman, Kenneth J; Maswadi, Saher; Chew, Ben H; Beiko, Darren T; Denstedt, John D; Teichman, Joel M H

2005-11-01

Lower-pole ureteronephroscopy requires transmission of holmium:YAG energy along a deflected fiber. Current ureteroscopes are capable of high degrees of deflection, which may stress laser fibers beyond safe limits during lower-pole use. We hypothesized that optical fiber and safety measures differ among manufacturers. Small (200-273-microm) and medium-diameter (300-400-microm) Ho:YAG fibers were tested in a straight and 180 degrees bent configuration. Energy transmission was measured by an energy detector. Fiber durability was assessed by firing the laser in sequentially tighter bending diameters. The fibers were bent to 180 degrees with a diameter of 6 cm and run at 200- to 4000-mJ pulse energy to determine the minimum energy required to fracture the fiber. The bending diameter was decreased by 1-cm increments and testing repeated until a bending diameter of 1 cm was reached. The maximum deflection of the ACMI DUR-8E ureteroscope with each fiber in the working channel was recorded. The flow rate through the working channel of the DUR-8E was measured for each fiber. The mean energy transmission differed among fibers (P < 0.001). The Lumenis SL 200 and the InnovaQuartz 400 were the best small and medium-diameter fibers, respectively, in resisting thermal breakdown (P < 0.01). The Dornier Lightguide Super 200 fractured repeatedly at a bend diameter of 2 cm and with the lowest energy (200 mJ). The other small fibers fractured only at a bend diameter of 1 cm. The Sharplan 200 and InnovaQuartz Sureflex 273T were the most flexible fibers, the Lumenis SL 365 the least. The flow rate was inversely proportional to four times the power of the diameter of the fiber. Optical performance and safety differ among fibers. Fibers transmit various amounts of energy to their cladding when bent. During lower-pole nephroscopy with the fiber deflected, there is a risk of fiber fracture from thermal breakdown and laser-energy transmission to the endoscope. Some available laser fibers

Scintillating plastic optical fiber radiation detectors in high energy particle physics

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bross, A.D.

1991-01-01

We describe the application of scintillating optical fiber in instrumentation for high energy particle physics. The basic physics of the scintillation process in polymers is discussed first and then we outline the fundamentals of scintillating fiber technology. Fiber performance, optimization, and characterization measurements are given. Detector applications in the areas of particle tracking and particle energy determination are then described. 13 refs., 12 figs

Effects of withdrawing high-fiber ingredients before marketing on finishing pig growth performance, carcass characteristics, and intestinal weights.

Science.gov (United States)

Coble, Kyle F; DeRouchey, Joel M; Tokach, Mike D; Dritz, Steve S; Goodband, Robert D; Woodworth, Jason C

2018-02-15

Two experiments were conducted to determine the duration of high-fiber ingredient removal from finishing pig diets before marketing to restore carcass yield and carcass fat iodine value (IV), similar to pigs continuously fed a corn-soybean meal diet. In experiment 1, 288 pigs (initially 38.4 ± 0.3 kg body weight [BW]) were used in an 88-d study and fed either a low-fiber corn-soybean meal diet from day 0 to 88 or a high-fiber diet containing 30% corn distillers dried grains with solubles and 19% wheat middlings until day 20, 15, 10, 5, or 0 before slaughter and switched to the low-fiber corn-soybean meal diet thereafter. Diets were not balanced for net energy. From day 0 to 88, pigs continuously fed the high-fiber diet tended to have increased average daily feed intake (P = 0.072) and decreased G:F and carcass yield (P = 0.001) compared with pigs fed the low-fiber corn-soybean meal diet. Pigs continuously fed the high-fiber diet had greater (P market increased carcass yield (experiment 1) or HCW (experiment 2) with the improvement most prominent during the first 5 to 9 d after withdrawal.

High Performance Macromolecular Material

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Forest, M

2002-01-01

.... In essence, most commercial high-performance polymers are processed through fiber spinning, following Nature and spider silk, which is still pound-for-pound the toughest liquid crystalline polymer...

Performance Evaluation of Digital Coherent Receivers for Phase-Modulated Radio-Over-Fiber Links

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Caballero Jambrina, Antonio; Zibar, Darko; Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso

2011-01-01

The performance of optical phase-modulated (PM) radio-over-fiber (RoF) links assisted with coherent detection and digital signal processing (PM-Coh) is analyzed and experimentally demonstrated for next-generation wireless-over-fiber systems. PM-Coh offers high linearity for transparent transport ...

High-power fused assemblies enabled by advances in fiber-processing technologies

Science.gov (United States)

Wiley, Robert; Clark, Brett

2011-02-01

The power handling capabilities of fiber lasers are limited by the technologies available to fabricate and assemble the key optical system components. Previous tools for the assembly, tapering, and fusion of fiber laser elements have had drawbacks with regard to temperature range, alignment capability, assembly flexibility and surface contamination. To provide expanded capabilities for fiber laser assembly, a wide-area electrical plasma heat source was used in conjunction with an optimized image analysis method and a flexible alignment system, integrated according to mechatronic principles. High-resolution imaging and vision-based measurement provided feedback to adjust assembly, fusion, and tapering process parameters. The system was used to perform assembly steps including dissimilar-fiber splicing, tapering, bundling, capillary bundling, and fusion of fibers to bulk optic devices up to several mm in diameter. A wide range of fiber types and diameters were tested, including extremely large diameters and photonic crystal fibers. The assemblies were evaluated for conformation to optical and mechanical design criteria, such as taper geometry and splice loss. The completed assemblies met the performance targets and exhibited reduced surface contamination compared to assemblies prepared on previously existing equipment. The imaging system and image analysis algorithms provided in situ fiber geometry measurement data that agreed well with external measurement. The ability to adjust operating parameters dynamically based on imaging was shown to provide substantial performance benefits, particularly in the tapering of fibers and bundles. The integrated design approach was shown to provide sufficient flexibility to perform all required operations with a minimum of reconfiguration.

Seismic Performance of High-Ductile Fiber-Reinforced Concrete Short Columns

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mingke Deng

2018-01-01

Full Text Available This study mainly aims to investigate the effectiveness of high-ductile fiber-reinforced concrete (HDC as a means to enhance the seismic performance of short columns. Six HDC short columns and one reinforced concrete (RC short column were designed and tested under lateral cyclic loading. The influence of the material type (concrete or HDC, axial load, stirrup ratio, and shear span ratio on crack patterns, hysteresis behavior, shear strength, deformation capacity, energy dissipation, and stiffness degradation was presented and discussed, respectively. The test results show that the RC short column failed in brittle shear with poor energy dissipation, while using HDC to replace concrete can effectively improve the seismic behavior of the short columns. Compared with the RC short column, the shear strength of HDC specimens was improved by 12.6–30.2%, and the drift ratio and the energy dissipation increases were 56.9–88.5% and 237.7–336.7%, respectively, at the ultimate displacement. Additionally, the prediction model of the shear strength for RC columns based on GB50010-2010 (Chinese code can be safely adopted to evaluate the shear strength of HDC short columns.

An Ultrastable and High-Performance Flexible Fiber-Shaped Ni-Zn Battery based on a Ni-NiO Heterostructured Nanosheet Cathode.

Science.gov (United States)

Zeng, Yinxiang; Meng, Yue; Lai, Zhengzhe; Zhang, Xiyue; Yu, Minghao; Fang, Pingping; Wu, Mingmei; Tong, Yexiang; Lu, Xihong

2017-11-01

Currently, the main bottleneck for the widespread application of Ni-Zn batteries is their poor cycling stability as a result of the irreversibility of the Ni-based cathode and dendrite formation of the Zn anode during the charging-discharging processes. Herein, a highly rechargeable, flexible, fiber-shaped Ni-Zn battery with impressive electrochemical performance is rationally demonstrated by employing Ni-NiO heterostructured nanosheets as the cathode. Benefiting from the improved conductivity and enhanced electroactivity of the Ni-NiO heterojunction nanosheet cathode, the as-fabricated fiber-shaped Ni-NiO//Zn battery displays high capacity and admirable rate capability. More importantly, this Ni-NiO//Zn battery shows unprecedented cyclic durability both in aqueous (96.6% capacity retention after 10 000 cycles) and polymer (almost no capacity attenuation after 10 000 cycles at 22.2 A g -1 ) electrolytes. Moreover, a peak energy density of 6.6 µWh cm -2 , together with a remarkable power density of 20.2 mW cm -2 , is achieved by the flexible quasi-solid-state fiber-shaped Ni-NiO//Zn battery, outperforming most reported fiber-shaped energy-storage devices. Such a novel concept of a fiber-shaped Ni-Zn battery with impressive stability will greatly enrich the flexible energy-storage technologies for future portable/wearable electronic applications. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Enhanced performance of an S-band fiber laser using a thulium-doped photonic crystal fiber

Science.gov (United States)

Muhammad, A. R.; Emami, S. D.; Hmood, J. K.; Sayar, K.; Penny, R.; Abdul-Rashid, H. A.; Ahmad, H.; Harun, S. W.

2014-11-01

This work proposes a new method to enhance the performance of an S-band fiber laser by using a thulium-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The proposed method is based on amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) suppression provided by the thulium-doped PCF unique geometric structure. The enhanced performance of this filter based PCF is dependent on the short and long cut-off wavelength characteristics that define the fiber transmission window. Realizing the short wavelength cut-off location requires the PCF cladding to be doped with a high index material, which provides a refractive index difference between the core and cladding region. Achieving the long cut-off wavelength necessitates enlarging the size of the air holes surrounding the rare-earth doped core region. The PCF structure is optimized so as to achieve the desired ASE suppression regions of below 0.8 μm and above 1.8 μm. The laser performance is simulated for different host media, namely pure silica, alumino-silicate, and fluoride-based fiber ZBLAN based on this thulium-doped PCF design. The host media spectroscopic details, including lifetime variations and quantum efficiency effect on the lasing emission are also discussed. Information on the filter based PCF design is gathered via a full-vectorial finite element method analysis and specifically a numerical modelling solution for the energy level rate equation using the Runge-Kutta method. Results are analyzed for gain improvement, lasing cavity, laser efficiency and effect of core size diameter variation. Results are compared with conventional thulium-doped fiber and thulium-doped PCF for every single host media. We observe that the ZBLAN host media is the most promising candidate due to its greater quantum efficiency.

Enhanced performance of an S-band fiber laser using a thulium-doped photonic crystal fiber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Muhammad, A R; Emami, S D; Penny, R; Ahmad, H; Harun, S W; Hmood, J K; Sayar, K; Abdul-Rashid, H A

2014-01-01

This work proposes a new method to enhance the performance of an S-band fiber laser by using a thulium-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF). The proposed method is based on amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) suppression provided by the thulium-doped PCF unique geometric structure. The enhanced performance of this filter based PCF is dependent on the short and long cut-off wavelength characteristics that define the fiber transmission window. Realizing the short wavelength cut-off location requires the PCF cladding to be doped with a high index material, which provides a refractive index difference between the core and cladding region. Achieving the long cut-off wavelength necessitates enlarging the size of the air holes surrounding the rare-earth doped core region. The PCF structure is optimized so as to achieve the desired ASE suppression regions of below 0.8 μm and above 1.8 μm. The laser performance is simulated for different host media, namely pure silica, alumino-silicate, and fluoride-based fiber ZBLAN based on this thulium-doped PCF design. The host media spectroscopic details, including lifetime variations and quantum efficiency effect on the lasing emission are also discussed. Information on the filter based PCF design is gathered via a full-vectorial finite element method analysis and specifically a numerical modelling solution for the energy level rate equation using the Runge–Kutta method. Results are analyzed for gain improvement, lasing cavity, laser efficiency and effect of core size diameter variation. Results are compared with conventional thulium-doped fiber and thulium-doped PCF for every single host media. We observe that the ZBLAN host media is the most promising candidate due to its greater quantum efficiency. (paper)

Electrodeposited manganese dioxide nanostructures on electro-etched carbon fibers: High performance materials for supercapacitor applications

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kazemi, Sayed Habib; Maghami, Mostafa Ghaem; Kiani, Mohammad Ali

2014-01-01

Highlights: • We report a facile method for fabrication of MnO 2 nanostructures on electro-etched carbon fiber. • MnO 2 -ECF electrode shows outstanding supercapacitive behavior even at high discharge rates. • Exceptional cycle stability was achieved for MnO 2 -ECF electrode. • The coulombic efficiency of MnO 2 -ECF electrode is nearly 100%. - Abstract: In this article we introduce a facile, low cost and additive/template free method to fabricate high-rate electrochemical capacitors. Manganese oxide nanostructures were electrodeposited on electro-etched carbon fiber substrate by applying a constant anodic current. Nanostructured MnO 2 on electro-etched carbon fiber was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The electrochemical behavior of MnO 2 electro-etched carbon fiber electrode was investigated by electrochemical techniques including cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. A maximum specific capacitance of 728.5 F g −1 was achieved at a scan rate of 5 mV s −1 for MnO 2 electro-etched carbon fiber electrode. Also, this electrode showed exceptional cycle stability, suggesting that it can be considered as a good candidate for supercapacitor electrodes

Electrodeposited manganese dioxide nanostructures on electro-etched carbon fibers: High performance materials for supercapacitor applications

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kazemi, Sayed Habib, E-mail: habibkazemi@iasbs.ac.ir [Department of Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan 45137-66731 (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Center for Research in Climate Change and Global Warming (CRCC), Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan 45137-66731 (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Maghami, Mostafa Ghaem [Department of Chemistry, Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences (IASBS), Zanjan 45137-66731 (Iran, Islamic Republic of); Kiani, Mohammad Ali [Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Research Center of Iran, P.O. Box 14335-186, Tehran (Iran, Islamic Republic of)

2014-12-15

Highlights: • We report a facile method for fabrication of MnO{sub 2} nanostructures on electro-etched carbon fiber. • MnO{sub 2}-ECF electrode shows outstanding supercapacitive behavior even at high discharge rates. • Exceptional cycle stability was achieved for MnO{sub 2}-ECF electrode. • The coulombic efficiency of MnO{sub 2}-ECF electrode is nearly 100%. - Abstract: In this article we introduce a facile, low cost and additive/template free method to fabricate high-rate electrochemical capacitors. Manganese oxide nanostructures were electrodeposited on electro-etched carbon fiber substrate by applying a constant anodic current. Nanostructured MnO{sub 2} on electro-etched carbon fiber was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The electrochemical behavior of MnO{sub 2} electro-etched carbon fiber electrode was investigated by electrochemical techniques including cyclic voltammetry, galvanostatic charge/discharge, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. A maximum specific capacitance of 728.5 F g{sup −1} was achieved at a scan rate of 5 mV s{sup −1} for MnO{sub 2} electro-etched carbon fiber electrode. Also, this electrode showed exceptional cycle stability, suggesting that it can be considered as a good candidate for supercapacitor electrodes.

Modeling illumination performance of plastic optical fiber passive daylighting system

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Sulaiman, F; Ahmad, A [Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam (Malaysia). Faculty of Electrical Engineering; Ahmed, A Z [Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam (Malaysia). Bureau of Reseaarch and Consultancy

2006-12-15

of the most direct methods of utilizing solar energy for energy conservation is to bring natural light indoors to light up an area. This paper reports on the investigation of the feasibility to utilize large core optical fibers to convey and distribute solar light passively throughout residential or commercial structures. The focus of this study is on the mathematical modeling of the illumination performance and the light transmission efficiency of solid core end light fiber for optical day lighting systems. The Meatball simulations features the optical fiber transmittance for glass and plastic fibers, illumination performance over lengths of plastic end-lit fiber, spectral transmission, light intensity loss through the large diameter solid core optical fibers as well as the transmission efficiency of the optical fiber itself. It was found that plastic optical fiber has less transmission loss over the distance of the fiber run which clearly shows that the Plastic Optical Fiber should be optimized for emitting visible light. The findings from the analysis on the performance of large diameter optical fibers for day lighting systems seems feasible for energy efficient lighting system in commercial or residential buildings.

Modeling illumination performance of plastic optical fiber passive daylighting system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sulaiman, F.; Ahmad, A.; Ahmed, A.Z.

2006-01-01

One of the most direct methods of utilizing solar energy for energy conservation is to bring natural light indoors to light up an area. This paper reports on the investigation of the feasibility to utilize large core optical fibers to convey and distribute solar light passively throughout residential or commercial structures. The focus of this study is on the mathematical modeling of the illumination performance and the light transmission efficiency of solid core end light fiber for optical day lighting systems. The Meatball simulations features the optical fiber transmittance for glass and plastic fibers, illumination performance over lengths of plastic end-lit fiber, spectral transmission, light intensity loss through the large diameter solid core optical fibers as well as the transmission efficiency of the optical fiber itself. It was found that plastic optical fiber has less transmission loss over the distance of the fiber run which clearly shows that the Plastic Optical Fiber should be optimized for emitting visible light. The findings from the analysis on the performance of large diameter optical fibers for day lighting systems seems feasible for energy efficient lighting system in commercial or residential buildings

High Per formance and Flexible Supercapacitors based on Carbonized Bamboo Fibers for Wide Temperature Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Zequine, Camila; Ranaweera, C. K.; Wang, Z.; Singh, Sweta; Tripathi, Prashant; Srivastava, O. N.; Gupta, Bipin Kumar; Ramasamy, K.; Kahol, P. K.; Dvornic, P. R.; Gupta, Ram K.

2016-08-01

High performance carbonized bamboo fibers were synthesized for a wide range of temperature dependent energy storage applications. The structural and electrochemical properties of the carbonized bamboo fibers were studied for flexible supercapacitor applications. The galvanostatic charge-discharge studies on carbonized fibers exhibited specific capacity of ~510F/g at 0.4 A/g with energy density of 54 Wh/kg. Interestingly, the carbonized bamboo fibers displayed excellent charge storage stability without any appreciable degradation in charge storage capacity over 5,000 charge-discharge cycles. The symmetrical supercapacitor device fabricated using these carbonized bamboo fibers exhibited an areal capacitance of ~1.55 F/cm2 at room temperature. In addition to high charge storage capacity and cyclic stability, the device showed excellent flexibility without any degradation to charge storage capacity on bending the electrode. The performance of the supercapacitor device exhibited ~65% improvement at 70 °C compare to that at 10 °C. Our studies suggest that carbonized bamboo fibers are promising candidates for stable, high performance and flexible supercapacitor devices.

Development and Performance Verification of Fiber Optic Temperature Sensors in High Temperature Engine Environments

Science.gov (United States)

Adamovsky, Grigory; Mackey, Jeffrey R.; Kren, Lawrence A.; Floyd, Bertram M.; Elam, Kristie A.; Martinez, Martel

2014-01-01

A High Temperature Fiber Optic Sensor (HTFOS) has been developed at NASA Glenn Research Center for aircraft engine applications. After fabrication and preliminary in-house performance evaluation, the HTFOS was tested in an engine environment at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. The engine tests enabled the performance of the HTFOS in real engine environments to be evaluated along with the ability of the sensor to respond to changes in the engine's operating condition. Data were collected prior, during, and after each test in order to observe the change in temperature from ambient to each of the various test point levels. An adequate amount of data was collected and analyzed to satisfy the research team that HTFOS operates properly while the engine was running. Temperature measurements made by HTFOS while the engine was running agreed with those anticipated.

Mode profiling of optical fibers at high laser powers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Nielsen, Peter Carøe; Pedersen, David Bue; Simonsen, R.B.

2008-01-01

of the focused spot can be determined. The analyser is based on the principle of a rotating wire being swept though the laser beam, while the reflected signal is recorded [1]. By changing the incident angle of the rotating rod from 0° to 360° in relation to the fiber, the full profile of the laser beam...... is obtained. Choosing a highly reflective rod material and a sufficiently high rotation speed, these measurements can be done with high laser powers, without any additional optical elements between the fiber and analyzer. The performance of the analyzer was evaluated by coupling laser light into different...

An instrument for the high-statistics measurement of plastic scintillating fibers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Buontempo, S.; Ereditato, A.; Marchetti-Stasi, F.; Riccardi, F.; Strolin, P.

1994-01-01

There is today widespread use of plastic scintillating fibers in particle physics, mainly for calorimetric and tracking applications. In the case of calorimeters, we have to cope with very massive detectors and a large quantity of scintillating fibers. The CHORUS Collaboration has built a new detector to search for ν μ -ν τ oscillations in the CERN neutrino beam. A crucial task of the detector is ruled by the high-energy resolution calorimeter. For its construction more than 400 000 scintillating plastic fibers have been used. In this paper we report on the design and performance of a new instrument for the high-statistics measurement of the fiber properties, in terms of light yield and light attenuation length. The instrument has been successfully used to test about 3% of the total number of fibers before the construction of the calorimeter. ((orig.))

Free-standing 3D polyaniline-CNT/Ni-fiber hybrid electrodes for high-performance supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yuan; Fang, Yuzhu; Liu, Hong; Wu, Xiaoming; Lu, Yong

2012-04-01

Free-standing 3D macroscopic polyaniline (PANi)-carbon nanotube (CNT)-nickel fiber hybrids have been developed, and they deliver high specific capacitance (725 F g-1 at 0.5 A g-1) and high energy density at high rates (~22 W h kg-1 at 2000 W kg-1, based on total electrode mass) with good cyclability.Free-standing 3D macroscopic polyaniline (PANi)-carbon nanotube (CNT)-nickel fiber hybrids have been developed, and they deliver high specific capacitance (725 F g-1 at 0.5 A g-1) and high energy density at high rates (~22 W h kg-1 at 2000 W kg-1, based on total electrode mass) with good cyclability. Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental details on preparation, characterization, and electrochemical testing; Fig. S1-S8, Schemes S1 and S2. See DOI: 10.1039/c2nr30252g

High performance 1.3 μm buried crescent lasers and LEDs for fiber optic links

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fu, R.J.; Chan, E.Y.; Hong, C.S.

1989-01-01

Self-aligned buried crescent heterostructure (BCH) semiconductor lasers and LEDs have been successfully developed as superb light sources for fiber optic communications. The fabrication and performance characteristics of these InGaAsP/InP lasers and LEDs are described. For lasers, the threshold currents as low as 10 mA and differential quantum efficiencies as high as 50% are achieved. For LEDs, the output powers at 150 mA are higher than 1 mW. Good far field patterns are obtained in both the LEDs and lasers. Measured I-V, L-I, spectrum and far field patterns are presented

An All-Solid-State Fiber-Shaped Aluminum-Air Battery with Flexibility, Stretchability, and High Electrochemical Performance.

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Yifan; Zhao, Yang; Ren, Jing; Zhang, Ye; Peng, Huisheng

2016-07-04

Owing to the high theoretical energy density of metal-air batteries, the aluminum-air battery has been proposed as a promising long-term power supply for electronics. However, the available energy density from the aluminum-air battery is far from that anticipated and is limited by current electrode materials. Herein we described the creation of a new family of all-solid-state fiber-shaped aluminum-air batteries with a specific capacity of 935 mAh g(-1) and an energy density of 1168 Wh kg(-1) . The synthesis of an electrode composed of cross-stacked aligned carbon-nanotube/silver-nanoparticle sheets contributes to the remarkable electrochemical performance. The fiber shape also provides the aluminum-air batteries with unique advantages; for example, they are flexible and stretchable and can be woven into a variety of textiles for large-scale applications. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Influence of the optical fiber type on the performances of fiber-optics current sensor dedicated to plasma current measurement in ITER.

Science.gov (United States)

Aerssens, Matthieu; Descamps, Frédéric; Gusarov, Andrei; Mégret, Patrice; Moreau, Philippe; Wuilpart, Marc

2015-07-01

In this paper, we compare, by means of simulations using the Jones formalism, the performances of several optical fiber types (low birefringence and spun fibers) for the measurement of plasma current in international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER). The main results presented in this paper concern the minimum value of the ratio between the beat length and the spun period, which allows meeting the ITER current measurement specifications. Assuming a high-birefringence spun fiber with a beat length of 3 mm, we demonstrate that the minimum ratio between the beat length and the spun period is 4.4 when considering a 28 m long sensing fiber surrounding the vacuum vessel. This minimum ratio rises to 10.14 when a 100 m long lead fiber connecting the interrogating system to the sensing fiber is taken into account.

High power pulsed sources based on fiber amplifiers

Science.gov (United States)

Canat, Guillaume; Jaouën, Yves; Mollier, Jean-Claude; Bouzinac, Jean-Pierre; Cariou, Jean-Pierre

2017-11-01

Cladding-pumped rare-earth-doped fiber laser technologies are currently among the best sources for high power applications. Theses extremely compact and robust sources appoint them as good candidate for aeronautical and space applications. The double-clad (DC) fiber converts the poor beamquality of high-power large-area pump diodes from the 1st cladding to laser light at another wavelength guided in an active single-mode core. High-power coherent MOPA (Master Oscillator Power Amplifier) sources (several 10W CW or several 100W in pulsed regime) will soon be achieved. Unfortunately it also brings nonlinear effects which quickly impairs output signal distortions. Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and optical parametric amplification (OPA) have been shown to be strong limitations. Based on amplifier modeling and experiments we discuss the performances of these sources.

High precision Cross-correlated imaging in Few-mode fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Muliar, Olena; Usuga Castaneda, Mario A.; Kristensen, Torben

2017-01-01

us to distinguishing differential time delays between HOMs in the picosecond timescale. Broad wavelength scanning in combination with spectral shaping, allows us to estimate the modal behavior of FMF without prior knowledge of the fiber parameters. We performed our demonstration at wavelengths from...... existing approaches for modal content analysis, several methods as S2, C2 in time and frequency domain are available. In this contribution we will present an improved time-domain cross-correlated (C2) imaging technique for the experimental evaluation of modal properties in HOM fibers over a broad range......) in a few-mode fiber (FMF) are used as multiple spatial communication channels, comes in this context as a viable approach to enable the optimization of high-capacity links. From this perspective, it becomes highly necessary to possess a diagnostic tool for the precise modal characterization of FMFs. Among...

Skeletal muscle fiber type composition and performance during repeated bouts of maximal, concentric contractions

Science.gov (United States)

Colliander, E. B.; Dudley, G. A.; Tesch, P. A.

1988-01-01

Force output and fatigue and recovery patterns were studied during intermittent short-term exercise. 27 men performed three bouts of 30 maximal unilateral knee extensions on 2 different occasions. Blood flow was maintained or occluded during recovery periods (60 s). Blood flow was restricted by inflating a pneumatic cuff placed around the proximal thigh. Muscle biopsies from vastus lateralis were analyzed for identification of fast twitch (FT) and slow twitch (ST) fibers and relative FT area. Peak torque decreased during each bout of exercise and more when blood flow was restricted during recovery. Initial peak torque (IPT) and average peak torque (APT) decreased over the three exercise bouts. This response was 3 fold greater without than with blood flow during recovery. IPT and APT decreased more in individuals with mainly FT fibers than in those with mainly ST fibers. It is suggested that performance during repeated bouts of maximal concentric contractions differs between individuals with different fiber type composition. Specifically, in high intensity, intermittent exercise with emphasis on anaerobic energy release a high FT composition may not necessarily be advantageous for performance.

Development of a biotechnological process for the production of high quality linen fibers.

Science.gov (United States)

Valladares Juárez, Ana Gabriela; Rost, Gernot; Heitmann, Uwe; Heger, Egon; Müller, Rudolf

2011-10-01

A novel biotechnological process for the production of high-quality flax fibers was developed. In this process, decorticated fibers from green flax were washed with 0.5% soda solution and treated with the pectinolytic strain Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius PB94A. Before drying the fibers, they were treated with the textile softener Adulcinol BUN. If the fibers contained contaminant shives, a bleaching step with hydrogen peroxide was performed before the softener treatment. In experiments where fibers were treated by the new process, and in which the bacterial solutions were reused seven times, the fiber quality was similar in all batches. The resolution of the treated fibers was 2.7 ± 0.4 and the fineness was 11.1 ± 1.1 dtex, while the starting material had a resolution of 7.3 and a fineness of 37 dtex. The new biotechnological treatment eliminates the weather-associated risks of the traditional fiber retting completely and produces consistently high-quality fibers that can be used to produce fine linen yarns.

High-brightness fiber-coupled pump laser development

Science.gov (United States)

Price, Kirk; Karlsen, Scott; Leisher, Paul; Martinsen, Robert

2010-02-01

We report on the continued development of high brightness laser diode modules at nLIGHT Photonics. These modules, based on nLIGHT's PearlTM product platform, demonstrate excellence in output power, brightness, wavelength stabilization, and long wavelength performance. This system, based on 14 single emitters, is designed to couple diode laser light into a 105 μm fiber at an excitation NA of under 0.14. We demonstrate over 100W of optical power at 9xx nm with a diode brightness exceeding 20 MW/cm2-str with an operating efficiency of approximately 50%. Additional results show over 70W of optical coupled at 8xx nm. Record brilliance at wavelengths 14xx nm and longer will also be demonstrated, with over 15 W of optical power with a beam quality of 7.5 mm-mrad. These results of high brightness, high efficiency, and wavelength stabilization demonstrate the pump technology required for next generation solid state and fiber lasers.

Interfacial (Fiber-matrix) Properties of High-strength Mortar (150 MPa) from Fiber Pullout

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Shannag, M.J.; Brincker, Rune; Hansen, Will

1996-01-01

 The steel fiber-matrix properties of high-strength mortar (150 MPa), such as DSP (densified small particle), are obtained and compared to an ordinary strength mortar (40 MPa) using a specially designed fiber pullout apparatus. A new method for estimating the debonding energy of the interfacial z......-strength DSP mortar has significantly improved interfacial properties compared to ordinary strength mortar. These results are important in the understanding of the role of steel fibers in improving the tensile properties of high-strength, brittle, cement-matrix composites....... The steel fiber-matrix properties of high-strength mortar (150 MPa), such as DSP (densified small particle), are obtained and compared to an ordinary strength mortar (40 MPa) using a specially designed fiber pullout apparatus. A new method for estimating the debonding energy of the interfacial...

Structural stability of PAN fiber under high electron beam radiation doses

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pino, Eddy S.; Machado, Luci D.B.; Arruda, Clarissa P. Zelinschi de; Carvalho, Alvaro A. Silva de; Giovedi, Claudia

2009-01-01

Fiber-reinforced composite are an important class of engineering material. A relevant task of composite technology in order to produce materials for structures of high mechanical performance is to obtain the best carbon fiber. One of the main ways to produce carbon fibers of high Young's modulus and tensile strength is to use as starting material polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers which after a rigorous and carefully thermal process become carbon fibers. Since some chemical modifications produced in the thermal treatment can be induced by ionizing radiation, the aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of high electron beam (EB) doses on a commercial PAN fiber in order to evaluate the use of this technology as an alternative treatment to improve the properties and characteristics of the produced carbon fiber. The doses applied were: 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0 and 1.2 MGy. The irradiation effects induced on the PAN fiber were evaluated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermogravimetry (TG). FTIR obtained data have shown that the main functional groups remain practically unchanged in the non-irradiated and irradiated samples. The single DSC exothermic peak obtained for non-irradiated sample, becomes a double peak after the irradiation, presenting lower initial and higher final temperatures for exothermic DSC curves. The enthalpy involved in the chemical reaction decreases for irradiated samples as compared with the non-irradiated PAN fiber. TG data have shown that irradiated samples start a decomposition process at lower temperatures compared to the non-irradiated sample. (author)

Effects of radiation on scintillating fiber performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bauer, M.L.; Cohn, H.; Efremenko, Yu.; Gordeev, A.; Kamyshkov, Yu.; Onopienko, D.; Savin, S.; Shmakov, K.; Tarkovsky, E.; Young, K.G.; Carey, R.; Rothman, M.; Sulak, L.; Worstell, W.; Parr, H.

1992-01-01

Continued rapid improvements in formulations for scintillating fibers require the ability to parameterize and predict effects of radiation on detector performance. Experimental techniques necessary to obtain needed information and calculational procedures used in performing predications for hadron scintillating fiber calorimetry in the Superconducting Supercollider environment are described. The experimental techniques involve control of the testing environment, consideration of dose rate effects, and other factors. These calculations involve the behavior of particle showers in the detector, expected levels of radiation, and parameterization of the radiation effects. A summary of significant work is also presented

Effects of radiation on scintillating fiber performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Young, K.G.; Bauer, M.L.; Cohn, H.; Efremenko, Yu.; Gordeev, A.; Kamyshkov, Yu.; Onopienko, D.; Savin, S.; Shmakov, K.; Tarkovsky, E.; Carey, R.; Rothman, M.; Sulak, L.; Worstell, W.; Paar, H.

1993-01-01

Continued rapid improvements in formulations for scintillating fibers require the ability to parameterize and predict effects of radiation on detector performance. Experimental techniques necessary to obtain desired information and calculational procedures used in performing predictions for hadron scintillating fiber calorimetry in the Superconducting Supercollider environment are described. The experimental techniques involve control of the testing environment, consideration of dose rate effects, and other factors. The calculations involve the behavior of particle showers in the detector, expected levels of radiation, and parameterization of the radiation effects. A summary of significant work is also presented

Mitigation of stimulated Raman scattering in high power fiber lasers using transmission gratings

Science.gov (United States)

Heck, Maximilian; Bock, Victor; Krämer, Ria G.; Richter, Daniel; Goebel, Thorsten A.; Matzdorf, Christian; Liem, Andreas; Schreiber, Thomas; Tünnermann, Andreas; Nolte, Stefan

2018-02-01

The average output power of fiber lasers have been scaled deep into the kW regime within the recent years. However a further scaling is limited due to nonlinear effects like stimulated Raman scattering (SRS). Using the special characteristics of femtosecond laser pulse written transmission fiber gratings, it is possible to realize a notch filter that mitigates efficiently this negative effect by coupling the Raman wavelength from the core into the cladding of the fiber. To the best of our knowledge, we realized for the first time highly efficient gratings in large mode area (LMA) fibers with cladding diameters up to 400 μm. The resonances show strong attenuation at design wavelength and simultaneously low out of band losses. A high power fiber amplifier with an implemented passive fiber grating is shown and its performance is carefully investigated.

Low-Cost Bio-Based Carbon Fibers for High Temperature Processing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paul, Ryan Michael [GrafTech International, Brooklyn Heights, OH (United States); Naskar, Amit [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

2017-08-03

GrafTech International Holdings Inc. (GTI), under Award No. DE-EE0005779, worked with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under CRADA No. NFE-15-05807 to develop lignin-based carbon fiber (LBCF) technology and to demonstrate LBCF performance in high-temperature products and applications. This work was unique and different from other reported LBCF work in that this study was application-focused and scalability-focused. Accordingly, the executed work was based on meeting criteria based on technology development, cost, and application suitability. High-temperature carbon fiber based insulation is used in energy intensive industries, such as metal heat treating and ceramic and semiconductor material production. Insulation plays a critical role in achieving high thermal and process efficiency, which is directly related to energy usage, cost, and product competitiveness. Current high temperature insulation is made with petroleum based carbon fibers, and one goal of this protect was to develop and demonstrate an alternative lignin (biomass) based carbon fiber that would achieve lower cost, CO2 emissions, and energy consumption and result in insulation that met or exceeded the thermal efficiency of current commercial insulation. In addition, other products were targeted to be evaluated with LBCF. As the project was designed to proceed in stages, the initial focus of this work was to demonstrate lab-scale LBCF from at least 4 different lignin precursor feedstock sources that could meet the estimated production cost of $5.00/pound and have ash level of less than 500 ppm in the carbonized insulation-grade fiber. Accordingly, a preliminary cost model was developed based on publicly available information. The team demonstrated that 4 lignin samples met the cost criteria. In addition, the ash level for the 4 carbonized lignin samples was below 500 ppm. Processing as-received lignin to produce a high purity lignin fiber was a significant accomplishment in that most industrial

An inexpensive high-temperature optical fiber thermometer

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Moore, Travis J.; Jones, Matthew R.; Tree, Dale R.; Allred, David D.

2017-01-01

An optical fiber thermometer consists of an optical fiber whose tip is coated with a highly conductive, opaque material. When heated, this sensing tip becomes an isothermal cavity that emits like a blackbody. This emission is used to predict the sensing tip temperature. In this work, analytical and experimental research has been conducted to further advance the development of optical fiber thermometry. An inexpensive optical fiber thermometer is developed by applying a thin coating of a high-temperature cement onto the tip of a silica optical fiber. An FTIR spectrometer is used to detect the spectral radiance exiting the fiber. A rigorous mathematical model of the irradiation incident on the detection system is developed. The optical fiber thermometer is calibrated using a blackbody radiator and inverse methods are used to predict the sensing tip temperature when exposed to various heat sources. - Highlights: • An inexpensive coating for an optical fiber thermometer sensing tip is tested. • Inverse heat transfer methods are used to estimate the sensing tip temperature. • An FTIR spectrometer is used as the detector to test the optical fiber thermometer using various heat sources.

High performance micro-engineered hollow fiber membranes by smart spinneret design

NARCIS (Netherlands)

de Jong, J.; Nijdam, W.; van Rijn, C.J.M.; Visser, Tymen; Bolhuis-Versteeg, Lydia A.M.; Kapantaidakis, G.; Koops, G.H.; Wessling, Matthias

2005-01-01

Can hollow fiber membranes be produced in other geometries than circular? If so, are membrane properties maintained and what could be the possible benefits of other geometries? This article gives answers and describes the fabrication of micro-structured hollow fiber membranes using micro-fabricated

Fiber Fabry-Perot Force Sensor with Small Volume and High Performance for Assessing Fretting Damage of Steam Generator Tubes.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Peijian; Wang, Ning; Li, Junying; Zhu, Yong; Zhang, Jie

2017-12-13

Measuring the radial collision force between the steam generator tube (SGT) and the tube support plate (TSP) is essential to assess the fretting damage of the SGT. In order to measure the radial collision force, a novel miniaturized force sensor based on fiber Fabry-Perot (F-P) was designed, and the principle and characteristics of the sensor were analyzed in detail. Then, the F-P force sensor was successfully fabricated and calibrated, and the overall dimensions of the encapsulated fiber F-P sensor were 17 mm × 5 mm × 3 mm (L × W × H). The sensor works well in humid, high pressure (10 MPa), high temperature (350 °C), and vibration (40 kHz) environments. Finally, the F-P force sensors were installed in a 1:1 steam generator test loop, and the radial collision force signals between the SGT and the TSP were obtained. The experiments indicated that the F-P sensor with small volume and high performance could help in assessing the fretting damage of the steam generator tubes.

Measurement and removal of cladding light in high power fiber systems

Science.gov (United States)

Walbaum, Till; Liem, Andreas; Schreiber, Thomas; Eberhardt, Ramona; Tünnermann, Andreas

2018-02-01

The amount of cladding light is important to ensure longevity of high power fiber components. However, it is usually measured either by adding a cladding light stripper (and thus permanently modifying the fiber) or by using a pinhole to only transmit the core light (ignoring that there may be cladding mode content in the core area). We present a novel noninvasive method to measure the cladding light content in double-clad fibers based on extrapolation from a cladding region of constant average intensity. The method can be extended to general multi-layer radially symmetric fibers, e.g. to evaluate light content in refractive index pedestal structures. To effectively remove cladding light in high power systems, cladding light strippers are used. We show that the stripping efficiency can be significantly improved by bending the fiber in such a device and present respective experimental data. Measurements were performed with respect to the numerical aperture as well, showing the dependency of the CLS efficiency on the NA of the cladding light and implying that efficiency data cannot reliably be given for a certain fiber in general without regard to the properties of the guided light.

Visible high power fiber coupled diode lasers

Science.gov (United States)

Köhler, Bernd; Drovs, Simon; Stoiber, Michael; Dürsch, Sascha; Kissel, Heiko; Könning, Tobias; Biesenbach, Jens; König, Harald; Lell, Alfred; Stojetz, Bernhard; Löffler, Andreas; Strauß, Uwe

2018-02-01

In this paper we report on further development of fiber coupled high-power diode lasers in the visible spectral range. New visible laser modules presented in this paper include the use of multi single emitter arrays @ 450 nm leading to a 120 W fiber coupled unit with a beam quality of 44 mm x mrad, as well as very compact modules with multi-W output power from 405 nm to 640 nm. However, as these lasers are based on single emitters, power scaling quickly leads to bulky laser units with a lot of optical components to be aligned. We also report on a new approach based on 450 nm diode laser bars, which dramatically reduces size and alignment effort. These activities were performed within the German government-funded project "BlauLas": a maximum output power of 80 W per bar has been demonstrated @ 450 nm. We show results of a 200 μm NA0.22 fiber coupled 35 W source @ 450 nm, which has been reduced in size by a factor of 25 compared to standard single emitter approach. In addition, we will present a 200 μm NA0.22 fiber coupled laser unit with an output power of 135 W.

Optical Fiber High Temperature Sensor Instrumentation for Energy Intensive Industries

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Cooper, Kristie L.; Wang, Anbo; Pickrell, Gary R.

2006-11-14

This report summarizes technical progress during the program “Optical Fiber High Temperature Sensor Instrumentation for Energy Intensive Industries”, performed by the Center for Photonics Technology of the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. The objective of this program was to use technology recently invented at Virginia Tech to develop and demonstrate the application of self-calibrating optical fiber temperature and pressure sensors to several key energy-intensive industries where conventional, commercially available sensors exhibit greatly abbreviated lifetimes due primarily to environmental degradation. A number of significant technologies were developed under this program, including • a laser bonded silica high temperature fiber sensor with a high temperature capability up to 700°C and a frequency response up to 150 kHz, • the world’s smallest fiber Fabry-Perot high temperature pressure sensor (125 x 20 μm) with 700°C capability, • UV-induced intrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometric sensors for distributed measurement, • a single crystal sapphire fiber-based sensor with a temperature capability up to 1600°C. These technologies have been well demonstrated and laboratory tested. Our work plan included conducting major field tests of these technologies at EPRI, Corning, Pratt & Whitney, and Global Energy; field validation of the technology is critical to ensuring its usefulness to U.S. industries. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, DOE was unable to follow through with its funding commitment to support Energy Efficiency Science Initiative projects and this final phase was eliminated.

Application of diffusion barriers to high modulus fibers

Science.gov (United States)

Veltri, R. D.; Douglas, F. C.; Paradis, E. L.; Galasso, F. S.

1977-01-01

Barrier layers were coated onto high-modulus fibers, and nickel and titanium layers were overcoated as simulated matrix materials. The objective was to coat the high-strength fibers with unreactive selected materials without degrading the fibers. The fibers were tungsten, niobium, and single-crystal sapphire, while the materials used as barrier coating layers were Al2O3, Y2O3, TiC, ZrC, WC with 14% Co, and HfO2. An ion-plating technique was used to coat the fibers. The fibers were subjected to high-temperature heat treatments to evaluate the effectiveness of the barrier layer in preventing fiber-metal interactions. Results indicate that Al2O3, Y2O3, and HfO2 can be used as barrier layers to minimize the nickel-tungsten interaction. Further investigation, including thermal cycling tests at 1090 C, revealed that HfO2 is probably the best of the three.

High-temperature fiber optic pressure sensor

Science.gov (United States)

Berthold, J. W.

1984-01-01

Attention is given to a program to develop fiber optic methods to measure diaphragm deflection. The end application is intended for pressure transducers capable of operating to 540 C. In this paper are reported the results of a laboratory study to characterize the performance of the fiber-optic microbend sensor. The data presented include sensitivity and spring constant. The advantages and limitations of the microbend sensor for static pressure measurement applications are described. A proposed design is presented for a 540 C pressure transducer using the fiber optic microbend sensor.

Restrained Shrinkage Cracking of Fiber-Reinforced High-Strength Concrete

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ashkan Saradar

2018-02-01

Full Text Available Concrete shrinkage and volume reduction happens due to the loss of moisture, which eventually results in cracks and more concrete deformation. In this study, the effect of polypropylene (PP, steel, glass, basalt, and polyolefin fibers on compressive and flexural strength, drying shrinkage, and cracking potential, using the ring test at early ages of high-strength concrete mixtures, was investigated. The restrained shrinkage test was performed on concrete ring specimens according to the ASTM C1581 standard. The crack width and age of restrained shrinkage cracking were the main parameters studied in this research. The results indicated that the addition of fiber increases the compressive strength by 16%, 20%, and 3% at the age of 3, 7, and 28 days, respectively, and increases the flexural toughness index up to 7.7 times. Steel and glass fibers had a better performance in flexural strength, but relatively poor action in the velocity reduction and cracking time of the restrained shrinkage. Additionally, cracks in all concrete ring specimens except for the polypropylene-containing mixture, was developed to a full depth crack. The mixture with polypropylene fiber indicated a reduction in crack width up to 62% and an increasing age cracking up to 84%.

High-Performance Supercapacitor of Functionalized Carbon Fiber Paper with High Surface Ionic and Bulk Electronic Conductivity: Effect of Organic Functional Groups

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Suktha, Phansiri; Chiochan, Poramane; Iamprasertkun, Pawin; Wutthiprom, Juthaporn; Phattharasupakun, Nutthaphon; Suksomboon, Montakan; Kaewsongpol, Tanon; Sirisinudomkit, Pichamon; Pettong, Tanut; Sawangphruk, Montree

2015-01-01

Highlights: • A supercapacitor of organic functionalized carbon fiber paper (f-CFP) exhibits high areal and volumetric capacitances. • The performance of the supercapacitor depends on the organic functional group on the surface of the f-CFP. • Hydroxyl and carboxylic groups modified on the surface of f-CFP have higher pseudocapacitive property than amide and amine functional groups. • The f-CFP exhibits high surface ionic and bulk electrical conductivities. - Abstract: Although carbon fiber paper (CFP) or nonwovens are widely used as a non-corrosive and conductive substrate or current collector in batteries and supercapacitors as well as a gas diffusion layer in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, the CFP cannot store charges due to its poor ionic conductivity and its hydrophobic surface. In this work, the chemically functionalized CFP (f-CFP) consisting of hydroxyl and carboxylic groups on its surface was produced by an oxidation reaction of CFP in a mixed concentrated acid solution of H 2 SO 4 :HNO 3 (3:1 v/v) at 60 °C for 1 h. Other amide and amine groups modified CFP were also synthesized for comparison using a dehydration reaction of carboxylic modified CFP with ethylenediamine and n-butylamine. Interestingly, it was found that hydroxyl and carboxylic groups modified CFP behave as a pseudocapacitor electrode, which can store charges via the surface redox reaction in addition to electrochemical double layer capacitance. The aqueous-based supercapacitor of f-CFP has high areal, volumetric, and specific energy (49.0 μW.h/cm 2 , 1960 mW.h/L, and 5.2 W.h/Kg) and power (3.0 mW/cm 2 , 120 W/L, and 326.2 W/Kg) based on the total geometrical surface area and volume as well as the total weight of positive and negative electrodes. High charge capacity of the f-CFP stems from high ionic charge and pseudocapacitive behavior due to hydroxyl and carboxylic groups on its surface and high bulk electronic conductivity (2.03 mS/cm) due to 1D carbon fiber paper. The

Yb-doped aluminophosphosilicate ternary fiber with high efficiency and excellent laser stability

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Yuwei; Peng, Kun; Zhan, Huan; Liu, Shuang; Ni, Li; Wang, Yuying; Yu, Juan; Wang, Xiaolong; Wang, Jianjun; Jing, Feng; Lin, Aoxiang

2018-03-01

By using chelate precursor doping technique and traditional modified chemical vapor deposition system, we fabricated Yb-doped aluminophosphosilicate (Al2O3-P2O5-SiO2, ternary Yb-APS) large-mode-area fiber and reported on its laser performance. The fiber preform was doped with Al, P and Yb with concentration of ∼8000 ppm, ∼1700 ppm and ∼400 ppm in molar percent, respectively. Tested with master oscillator power amplifier system, the home-made Yb-APS fiber was found to present 1.02 kW at 1061.1 nm with a high slope efficiency of 81.2% and excellent laser stability with power fluctuation less than ±1.1% for over 10 h. Compared with Yb-doped aluminosilicate (Al2O3-SiO2, binary Yb-AS) fiber, the introduction of P2O5 effectively suppressed photodarkening effect even the P/Al ratio is much less than 1, indicating that Yb-APS fiber is a better candidate for high power fiber lasers.

Construction and performance of a cylindrical scintillating fiber detector for experiment 835 at FNAL

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ambrogiani, M.; Baldini, W.; Bettoni, D.

1996-01-01

A tracking detector made of scintillating fibers has been built for the Fermilab experiment E835. The tracker is being used for a high resolution measurement of the polar angle θ and to provide a first level trigger, exploiting the fast response and very good time resolution of the signal from the fibers. The small amount of light from the fibers is detected by solid state devices (VLPC: Visible Light Photon Counters), with very high quantum efficiency. This paper reports about the construction of the tracker and gives the first results on the detector performance: light yield/mip, efficiency, signal homogeneity and time resolution

OptoCeramic-Based High Speed Fiber Multiplexer for Multimode Fiber, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — A fiber-based fixed-array laser transmitter can be combined with a fiber-arrayed detector to create the next-generation NASA array LIDAR systems. High speed optical...

Flexural Behavior of High-Volume Steel Fiber Cementitious Composite Externally Reinforced with Basalt FRP Sheet

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Seungwon Kim

2016-01-01

Full Text Available High-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCCs are characterized by unique tensile strain hardening and multiple microcracking behaviors. The HPFRCC, which demonstrates remarkable properties such as strength, ductility, toughness, durability, stiffness, and thermal resistance, is a class of fiber cement composite with fine aggregates. It can withstand tensile stresses by forming distributed microcracks owing to the embedded fibers in the concrete, which improve the energy absorption capacity and apparent ductility. This high energy absorbing capacity can be enhanced further by an external stiff fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP. Basalt fabric is externally bonded as a sheet on concrete materials to enhance the durability and resistance to fire and other environmental attacks. This study investigates the flexural performance of an HPFRCC that is externally reinforced with multiple layers of basalt FRP. The HPFRCC considered in the study contains steel fibers at a volume fraction of 8%.

Recycling high-performance carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites using sub-critical and supercritical water

Science.gov (United States)

Knight, Chase C.

Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are composite materials that consist of carbon fibers embedded in a polymer matrix, a combination that yields materials with properties exceeding the individual properties of each component. CFRP have several advantages over metals: they offer superior strength to weight ratios and superior resistance to corrosion and chemical attack. These advantages, along with continuing improvement in manufacturing processes, have resulted in rapid growth in the number of CFRP products and applications especially in the aerospace/aviation, wind energy, automotive, and sporting goods industries. Due to theses well-documented benefits and advancements in manufacturing capabilities, CFRP will continue to replace traditional materials of construction throughout several industries. However, some of the same properties that make CFRP outstanding materials also pose a major problem once these materials reach the end of service life. They become difficult to recycle. With composite consumption in North America growing by almost 5 times the rate of the US GDP in 2012, this lack of recyclability is a growing concern. As consumption increases, more waste will inevitably be generated. Current composite recycling technologies include mechanical recycling, thermal processing, and chemical processing. The major challenge of CFRP recycling is the ability to recover materials of high-value and preserve their properties. To this end, the most suitable technology is chemical processing, where the polymer matrix can be broken down and removed from the fiber, with limited damage to the fibers. This can be achieved using high concentration acids, but such a process is undesirable due to the toxicity of such materials. A viable alternative to acid is water in the sub-critical and supercritical region. Under these conditions, the behavior of this abundant and most environmentally friendly solvent resembles that of an organic compound, facilitating the breakdown

Low–Cost Bio-Based Carbon Fiber for High-Temperature Processing

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Naskar, Amit K. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Akato, Kokouvi M. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Tran, Chau D. [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Paul, Ryan M. [GrafTech International Holdings, Inc., Brooklyn Heights, OH (United States); Dai, Xuliang [GrafTech International Holdings, Inc., Brooklyn Heights, OH (United States)

2017-02-01

GrafTech International Holdings Inc. (GTI), worked with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) under CRADA No. NFE-15-05807 to develop lignin-based carbon fiber (LBCF) technology and to demonstrate LBCF performance in high-temperature products and applications. This work was unique and different from other reported LBCF work in that this study was application-focused and scalability-focused. Accordingly, the executed work was based on meeting criteria based on technology development, cost, and application suitability. The focus of this work was to demonstrate lab-scale LBCF from at least 4 different precursor feedstock sources that could meet the estimated production cost of $5.00/pound and have ash level of less than 500 ppm in the carbonized insulation-grade fiber. Accordingly, a preliminary cost model was developed based on publicly available information. The team demonstrated that 4 lignin samples met the cost criteria, as highlighted in Table 1. In addition, the ash level for the 4 carbonized lignin samples were below 500 ppm. Processing asreceived lignin to produce a high purity lignin fiber was a significant accomplishment in that most industrial lignin, prior to purification, had greater than 4X the ash level needed for this project, and prior to this work there was not a clear path of how to achieve the purity target. The lab scale development of LBCF was performed with a specific functional application in mind, specifically for high temperature rigid insulation. GTI is currently a consumer of foreignsourced pitch and rayon based carbon fibers for use in its high temperature insulation products, and the motivation was that LBCF had potential to decrease costs and increase product competitiveness in the marketplace through lowered raw material costs, lowered energy costs, and decreased environmental footprint. At the end of this project, the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) remained at 5 for LBCF in high temperature insulation.

High-resolution wavefront shaping with a photonic crystal fiber for multimode fiber imaging

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Amitonova, L. V.; Descloux, A.; Petschulat, J.; Frosz, M. H.; Ahmed, G.; Babic, F.; Jiang, X.; Mosk, A. P.; Russell, P. S. J.; Pinkse, P.W.H.

2016-01-01

We demonstrate that a high-numerical-aperture photonic crystal fiber allows lensless focusing at an unparalleled res- olution by complex wavefront shaping. This paves the way toward high-resolution imaging exceeding the capabilities of imaging with multi-core single-mode optical fibers. We analyze

Fiber-Optic Refractometer Based on an Etched High-Q ?-Phase-Shifted Fiber-Bragg-Grating

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Qi; Ianno, Natale J.; Han, Ming

2013-01-01

We present a compact and highly-sensitive fiber-optic refractometer based on a high-Q p-phase-shifted fiber-Bragg-grating (pFBG) that is chemically etched to the core of the fiber. Due to the p phase-shift, a strong pFBG forms a high-Q optical resonator and the reflection spectrum features an extremely narrow notch that can be used for highly sensitivity refractive index measurement. The etched pFBG demonstrated here has a diameter of ~9.3 μm and a length of only 7 mm, leading to a refractive...

Direct growth of vanadium nitride nanosheets on carbon nanotube fibers as novel negative electrodes for high-energy-density wearable fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Jiabin; Zhang, Qichong; Sun, Juan; Li, Chaowei; Zhao, Jingxin; Zhou, Zhenyu; He, Bing; Wang, Xiaona; Man, Ping; Li, Qiulong; Zhang, Jun; Xie, Liyan; Li, Mingxing; Yao, Yagang

2018-04-01

Significant efforts have been recently devoted to constructing high-performance fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitors. However, it is still a paramount challenge to develop high-energy-density fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitors for practical applications in portable and wearable electronics. This work reports a simple and efficient method to directly grow vanadium nitride nanosheets on carbon nanotube fibers as advanced negative electrodes with a high specific capacitance of 188 F/cm3 (564 mF/cm2). Taking advantage of their attractive structure, we successfully fabricated a fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitor device with a maximum operating voltage of 1.6 V by assembling the vanadium nitride/carbon nanotube fiber negative electrode with the Zinc-Nickel-Cobalt ternary oxides nanowire arrays positive electrode. Due to the excellent synergistic effects between positive and negative electrodes, a remarkable specific capacitance of 50 F/cm3 (150 mF/cm2) and an outstanding energy density of 17.78 mWh/cm3 (53.33 μWh/cm2) for our fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitor can be achieved. Furthermore, the as-assembled fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitor device has excellent mechanical flexibility in that 91% of the capacitance retained after bending 90° for 3000 times. Thus, this work exploits a pathway to construct high-energy-density fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitor for next-generation portable and wearable electronics.

Highly Doped Phosphate Glass Fibers for Compact Lasers and Amplifiers: A Review

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Nadia Giovanna Boetti

2017-12-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the exploitation of compact laser sources and amplifiers in fiber form has found extensive applications in industrial and scientific fields. The fiber format offers compactness, high beam quality through single-mode regime and excellent heat dissipation, thus leading to high laser reliability and long-term stability. The realization of devices based on this technology requires an active medium with high optical gain over a short length to increase efficiency while mitigating nonlinear optical effects. Multicomponent phosphate glasses meet these requirements thanks to the high solubility of rare-earth ions in their glass matrix, alongside with high emission cross-sections, chemical stability and high optical damage threshold. In this paper, we review recent advances in the field thanks to the combination of highly-doped phosphate glasses and innovative fiber drawing techniques. We also present the main performance achievements and outlook both in continuous wave (CW and pulsed mode regimes.

Adsorption performance of silver-loaded activated carbon fibers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yan Xue-Feng

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Silver-loaded activated carbon fiber is prepared, and its adsorption performance is studied experimentally using five methylene blue solutions with different concentrations under three different temperature conditions. The adsorption tests show that fibers adsorption increase as the increase of temperature, and there is an optimal value for solution concentration, beyond which its adsorption will de-crease. Fibers isothermal adsorption to methylene blue is different from those by the monolayer adsorption by Langmuir model and the multilayer adsorption by Freundlich model. Through the analysis of thermodynamic parameters, Gibbs free energy, standard entropy, and standard enthalpy, it is found that the fibers adsorption to methylene blue is an exothermic process of physical adsorption.

AN EFFICIENT, COMPACT, AND VERSATILE FIBER DOUBLE SCRAMBLER FOR HIGH PRECISION RADIAL VELOCITY INSTRUMENTS

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Halverson, Samuel; Roy, Arpita; Mahadevan, Suvrath; Ramsey, Lawrence; Levi, Eric; Schwab, Christian; Hearty, Fred [Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, 525 Davey Lab, University Park, PA 16802 (United States); MacDonald, Nick, E-mail: shalverson@psu.edu, E-mail: aur17@psu.edu [Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)

2015-06-10

We present the design and test results of a compact optical fiber double-scrambler for high-resolution Doppler radial velocity instruments. This device consists of a single optic: a high-index n ∼ 2 ball lens that exchanges the near and far fields between two fibers. When used in conjunction with octagonal fibers, this device yields very high scrambling gains (SGs) and greatly desensitizes the fiber output from any input illumination variations, thereby stabilizing the instrument profile of the spectrograph and improving the Doppler measurement precision. The system is also highly insensitive to input pupil variations, isolating the spectrograph from telescope illumination variations and seeing changes. By selecting the appropriate glass and lens diameter the highest efficiency is achieved when the fibers are practically in contact with the lens surface, greatly simplifying the alignment process when compared to classical double-scrambler systems. This prototype double-scrambler has demonstrated significant performance gains over previous systems, achieving SGs in excess of 10,000 with a throughput of ∼87% using uncoated Polymicro octagonal fibers. Adding a circular fiber to the fiber train further increases the SG to >20,000, limited by laboratory measurement error. While this fiber system is designed for the Habitable-zone Planet Finder spectrograph, it is more generally applicable to other instruments in the visible and near-infrared. Given the simplicity and low cost, this fiber scrambler could also easily be multiplexed for large multi-object instruments.

Fiber Bragg Grating-Based Performance Monitoring of Piles Fiber in a Geotechnical Centrifugal Model Test

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiaolin Weng

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In centrifugal tests, conventional sensors can hardly capture the performance of reinforcement in small-scale models. However, recent advances in fiber optic sensing technologies enable the accurate and reliable monitoring of strain and temperature in laboratory geotechnical tests. This paper outlines a centrifugal model test, performed using a 60 g ton geocentrifuge, to investigate the performance of pipe piles used to reinforce the loess foundation below a widened embankment. Prior to the test, quasidistributed fiber Bragg grating (FBG strain sensors were attached to the surface of the pipe piles to measure the lateral friction resistance in real time. Via the centrifuge actuator, the driving of pipe piles was simulated. During testing, the variations of skin friction distribution along the pipe piles were measured automatically using an optical fiber interrogator. This paper represents the presentation and detailed analysis of monitoring results. Herein, we verify the reliability of the fiber optic sensors in monitoring the model piles without affecting the integrity of the centrifugal model. This paper, furthermore, shows that lateral friction resistance developed in stages with the pipe piles being pressed in and that this sometimes may become negative.

Optical performance monitoring in high-speed optical fiber communication systems

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Changyuan; Yang, Jing; Hu, Junhao; Zhang, Banghong

2011-11-01

Optical performance monitoring (OPM) becomes an attractive topic as the rapid growth of data rate in optical communication networks. It provides improved operation of the high capacity optical transmission systems. Among the various impairments, chromatic dispersion (CD) is one of major factors limiting the transmission distance in high-speed communication systems. Polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) also becomes a degrading effect in the system with data rate larger than 40 Gbit/s. In this paper, we summarize several CD and PMD monitoring methods based on RF spectrum analysis and delay-tap sampling. By using a narrow band fiber Bragg grating (FBG) notch filter, centered at 10 GHz away from the optical carrier, 10-GHz RF power can be used as a CD-insensitive PMD monitoring signal. By taking the 10-GHz RF power ratio of non-filtered and filtered signal, PMD-insensitive CD monitoring can be achieved. If the FBG notch filter is placed at optical carrier, the RF clock power ratio between non-filtered and filtered signal is also a PMDinsensitive CD monitoring parameter, which has larger RF power dynamic range and better measurement resolution. Both simulation and experiment results show that the proposed methods are efficient on measuring CD and PMD values in 57-Gbit/s D8PSK systems. Delay-tap sampling is another efficient method of measuring residual CD. Amplitude ratio of asynchronous delay-tap sampling plot decreases with CD monotonously, and the amplitude ratio can be obtained by using low bandwidth balanced receiver. The simulated results show that our method is efficient on residual CD measurement in 50-Gbit/s 50% RZ DQPSK systems with a 12-GHz balanced receiver. Since no modification on the transmitter or receiver is required, the proposed scheme is simple and cost effective.

Optical fiber cable for transmission of high power laser energy over great distances

Science.gov (United States)

Zediker, Mark S.; Rinzler, Charles C.; Faircloth, Brian O.; Moxley, Joel F.; Koblick, Yeshaya

2016-05-24

There is provided a system and apparatus for the transmission of high power laser energy over great distances without substantial power loss and without the presence of stimulated Raman scattering. There is further provided systems and optical fiber cable configurations and optical fiber structures for the delivering high power laser energy over great distances to a tool or surface to perform an operation or work with the tool or upon the surface.

Genome Regions Associated with Functional Performance of Soybean Stem Fibers in Polypropylene Thermoplastic Composites.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yarmilla Reinprecht

Full Text Available Plant fibers can be used to produce composite materials for automobile parts, thus reducing plastic used in their manufacture, overall vehicle weight and fuel consumption when they replace mineral fillers and glass fibers. Soybean stem residues are, potentially, significant sources of inexpensive, renewable and biodegradable natural fibers, but are not curretly used for biocomposite production due to the functional properties of their fibers in composites being unknown. The current study was initiated to investigate the effects of plant genotype on the performance characteristics of soybean stem fibers when incorporated into a polypropylene (PP matrix using a selective phenotyping approach. Fibers from 50 lines of a recombinant inbred line population (169 RILs grown in different environments were incorporated into PP at 20% (wt/wt by extrusion. Test samples were injection molded and characterized for their mechanical properties. The performance of stem fibers in the composites was significantly affected by genotype and environment. Fibers from different genotypes had significantly different chemical compositions, thus composites prepared with these fibers displayed different physical properties. This study demonstrates that thermoplastic composites with soybean stem-derived fibers have mechanical properties that are equivalent or better than wheat straw fiber composites currently being used for manufacturing interior automotive parts. The addition of soybean stem residues improved flexural, tensile and impact properties of the composites. Furthermore, by linkage and in silico mapping we identified genomic regions to which quantitative trait loci (QTL for compositional and functional properties of soybean stem fibers in thermoplastic composites, as well as genes for cell wall synthesis, were co-localized. These results may lead to the development of high value uses for soybean stem residue.

Gain optimization in fiber optical parametric amplifiers by combining standard and high-SBS threshold highly nonlinear fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Da Ros, Francesco; Rottwitt, Karsten; Peucheret, Christophe

2012-01-01

Combining Al-doped and Ge-doped HNLFs as gain media in FOPAs is proposed and optimized, resulting in efficient SBS mitigation while circumventing the additional loss of the high SBS threshold Al-doped fiber.......Combining Al-doped and Ge-doped HNLFs as gain media in FOPAs is proposed and optimized, resulting in efficient SBS mitigation while circumventing the additional loss of the high SBS threshold Al-doped fiber....

Ultrathin Coaxial Fiber Supercapacitors Achieving High Energy and Power Densities.

Science.gov (United States)

Shen, Caiwei; Xie, Yingxi; Sanghadasa, Mohan; Tang, Yong; Lu, Longsheng; Lin, Liwei

2017-11-15

Fiber-based supercapacitors have attracted significant interests because of their potential applications in wearable electronics. Although much progress has been made in recent years, the energy and power densities, mechanical strength, and flexibility of such devices are still in need of improvement for practical applications. Here, we demonstrate an ultrathin microcoaxial fiber supercapacitor (μCFSC) with high energy and power densities (2.7 mW h/cm 3 and 13 W/cm 3 ), as well as excellent mechanical properties. The prototype with the smallest reported overall diameter (∼13 μm) is fabricated by successive coating of functional layers onto a single micro-carbon-fiber via a scalable process. Combining the simulation results via the electrochemical model, we attribute the high performance to the well-controlled thin coatings that make full use of the electrode materials and minimize the ion transport path between electrodes. Moreover, the μCFSC features high bending flexibility and large tensile strength (more than 1 GPa), which make it promising as a building block for various flexible energy storage applications.

High pumping-power fiber combiner for double-cladding fiber lasers and amplifiers

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Jinkun; Zhao, Wei; Zhao, Baoyin; Li, Zhe; Chang, Chang; Li, Gang; Gao, Qi; Ju, Pei; Gao, Wei; She, Shengfei; Wu, Peng; Hou, Chaoqi; Li, Weinan

2018-03-01

A high pumping-power fiber combiner for backward pumping configurations is fabricated and demonstrated by manufacturing process refinement. The pump power handling capability of every pump fiber can extend to 600 W, corresponding to the average pump coupling efficiency of 94.83%. Totally, 2.67-kW output power with the beam quality factor M2 of 1.41 was obtained, using this combiner in the fiber amplifier experimental setup. In addition, the temperature of the splicing region was less than 50.0°C in the designed combiner under the action of circulating cooling water. The experimental results prove that the designed combiner is a promising integrated all-fiber device for multikilowatt continuous-wave fiber laser with excellent beam quality.

Resonant filtered fiber amplifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Alkeskjold, Thomas Tanggaard; Laurila, Marko; Olausson, Christina Bjarnal Thulin

2013-01-01

In this paper we present our recent result on utilizing resonant/bandgap fiber designs to achieve high performance ytterbium doped fiber amplifers for achieving diffraction limited beam quality in large mode area fibers, robust bending performance and gain shaping for long wavelength operation...

Highly Stretchable, Strain Sensing Hydrogel Optical Fibers.

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Jingjing; Liu, Xinyue; Jiang, Nan; Yetisen, Ali K; Yuk, Hyunwoo; Yang, Changxi; Khademhosseini, Ali; Zhao, Xuanhe; Yun, Seok-Hyun

2016-12-01

A core-clad fiber made of elastic, tough hydrogels is highly stretchable while guiding light. Fluorescent dyes are easily doped into the hydrogel fiber by diffusion. When stretched, the transmission spectrum of the fiber is altered, enabling the strain to be measured and also its location. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

[The research on the surfacial modification of organic high-performance Kevlar fiber].

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Yu-ying; Fu, Ming-lian; Cai, Wei-long; Wang, Can-yao; Wang, Liang-en

2004-04-01

In the paper the authors tried to use chemical disposal to bring the activity mass onto the surface of Kevlar fiber with the purpose of surface graft modification. In the paper the authors used the FTIR spectra to discuss the graft of toluene-2, 4-diisocyanate onto Kevlar fiber. The authors studied and analysed the effect of hydrolytic time on the content of -O-H group of the production, and the effect of hydrolyzation and hexyl-lactam steadily disposing on the graft reaction. The result showed that the content of -O-H group increased after hydrolyzation, it's helpful for the graft reaction, and hexyl-lactam steadily disposing made the graf product more stable. Through the research the authors came to the conclusion that by bringing some activity masses onto the fiber surface the authors can improve the interface of fiber/resin effectively.

Synthetic fiber technology evolving into a high-tech field

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Yumura, Takao

1988-07-01

This paper reports the trend of synthetic fiber technology. Representative synthetic fibers are nylon, polyester, and acrylic. Researchers are studying the continuation of polymerization processes, high-efficiency catalysts, thin-film polymerization, the possibility of energy saving by interfacial polymerization, and small quantities of a large variety of items method. They are making considerable progress in accelerating, simplifying, and rationalizing production processes. As a result, they have already omitted the elongation chamber and realized the continuation of spinning and elongation processes. The textile industry is planning to adopt a super-fast spinning system. To meet customers' needs for a wider variety of advanced materials, researchers are developing differential, high-value-added materials. High functions are added to fibers during all processes including polymerization, spinning, thread or cotton making, knitting, and after-treatment. Researchers have developed new materials looking exactly like silk or wool, having aesthetic properties, artificial suede, and combining moisture permeability and waterproofness. New materials developed for high-technology purposes include carbon fiber, aramid fiber that obtains high strength and elasticity without being elongated, high-strength, and high-elasticity super-high-polymer polyethylene fiber. (3 figs, 1 tab)

Environmental performance of an elliptical core polarization maintaining optical fiber for fiber optic gyro applications

Science.gov (United States)

Martinelli, Vincent P.; Squires, Emily M.; Watkins, James J.

1994-03-01

Corning has introduced a new polarization-maintaining optical fiber to satisfy customer requirements for a range of commercial and military FOG applications. This fiber has an elliptical core, matched-clad design, and is intended for operation in the 780 to 850 nm wavelength region. The fiber has a beat length less than 1.5 mm, attenuation rate less than 10 dB/km, and a typical coiled h-parameter less than 1.5 X 10-4 m-1 in the designated operating wavelength range. It has a cladding diameter of 80 micrometers and a coating diameter of 185 micrometers . The coating is an acrylate system, similar to that used in telecommunications optical fibers. We report on the performance of this elliptical core fiber for a variety of environmental exposures representative of an automotive application.

Fiber optic chemical sensors: The evolution of high- density fiber-optic DNA microarrays

Science.gov (United States)

Ferguson, Jane A.

2001-06-01

Sensors were developed for multianalyte monitoring, fermentation monitoring, lactate analysis, remote oxygen detection for use in bioremediation monitoring and in a fuel spill clean-up project, heavy metal analysis, and high density DNA microarrays. The major focus of this thesis involved creating and improving high-density DNA gene arrays. Fiber optic sensors are created using fluorescent indicators, polymeric supports, and optical fiber substrates. The fluorescent indicator is entrapped in a polymer layer and attached to the tip of the optical fiber. The tip of the fiber bearing the sensing layer (the distal end) is placed in the sample of interest while the other end of the fiber (the proximal end) is connected to an analysis system. Any length of fiber can be used without compromising the integrity or sensitivity of the system. A fiber optic oxygen sensor was designed incorporating an oxygen sensitive fluorescent dye and a gas permeable polymer attached to an optical fiber. The construction simplicity and ruggedness of the sensor enabled its deployment for in situ chemical oxidation and bioremediation studies. Optical fibers were also used as the substrate to detect biomolecules in solution. To monitor bioprocesses, the production of the analyte of interest must be coupled with a species that is optically measurable. For example, oxygen is consumed in many metabolic functions. The fiber optic oxygen sensor is equipped with an additional sensing layer. Upon contact with a specific biochemical in the sample, a reaction occurs in the additional sensing layer that either consumes or produces oxygen. This dual layer system was used to monitor the presence of lactate, an important metabolite for clinical and bioprocess analysis. In many biological and environmental systems, the generation of one species occurs coincidentally with the generation or consumption of another species. A multianalyte sensor was prepared that can monitor the simultaneous activity of pH, CO2

Preparation, ferromagnetic and photocatalytic performance of NiO and hollow Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} fibers through centrifugal-spinning technique

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Feng, Cong; Lin, Xuejun; Wang, Xinqiang, E-mail: xqwang@sdu.edu.cn; Liu, Hongjing; Liu, Benxue; Zhu, Luyi; Zhang, Guanghui; Xu, Dong

2016-02-15

Highlights: • NiO and hollow Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} fibers with the diameter of about 10 μm were prepared through centrifugal-spinning technique. • The evolution mechanism from precursor to crystalline fibers was explored. • Both NiO and hollow Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} fibers show ferromagnetism. • The NiO fibers exhibit good photocatalytic performance. - Abstract: Both NiO and hollow Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} fibers with the diameter of about 10 μm have been successfully prepared through spinning high viscous sols into precursor fibers and followed calcination process. The evolution process from precursor to crystalline fibers and the microstructures of the obtained fibers were characterized by TG-DSC, FT-IR, XRD, HRTEM, SEM and the like. The method is facile and cost-effective for mass production of fibers and the obtained fibers are pure phase with high crystallinity. Their magnetic properties were investigated, showing that both the fibers are ferromagnetic. Meanwhile, the NiO fibers exhibit good photocatalytic performance for the removal of Congo red from water under UV light irradiation.

Performance of steel wool fiber reinforced geopolymer concrete

Science.gov (United States)

Faris, Meor Ahmad; Abdullah, Mohd Mustafa Al Bakri; Ismail, Khairul Nizar; Muniandy, Ratnasamy; Ariffin, Nurliayana

2017-09-01

In this paper, performance of geopolymer concrete was studied by mixing of Class F fly ash from Manjung power station, Lumut, Perak, Malaysia with alkaline activator which are combination of sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. Steel wool fiber were added into the geopolymer concrete as reinforcement with different weight percentage vary from 0 % - 5 %. Chemical compositions of Malaysian fly ash was first analyzed by using X-ray fluorescence. All geopolymer concrete reinforced with steel wool fiber with different weight percentage were tested in terms of density, workability, and compression. Result shows Malaysian fly ash identified by using XRF was class F. Density of geopolymer concrete close to density of OPC which is approximately 2400 kg/m3 and the density was increase gradually with the additions of steel fiber. However, the inclusions of steel fibers also shows some reduction to the workability of geopolymer concrete. Besides, the compressive strength was increased with the increasing of fibers addition until maximum of 18.6 % improvement at 3 % of steel fibers.

Microdroplet-etched highly birefringent low-loss fiber tapers.

Science.gov (United States)

Mikkelsen, Jared C; Poon, Joyce K S

2012-07-01

We use hydrofluoric acid microdroplets to directly etch highly birefringent biconical fiber tapers from standard single-mode fibers. The fiber tapers have micrometer-sized cross sections, which are controlled by the etching condition. The characteristic teardrop cross section leads to a high group birefringence of B(G)≈0.017 and insertion losses <0.7 dB over waist lengths of about 2.1 mm.

Radiation tolerant fiber optic humidity sensors for High Energy Physics applications

CERN Document Server

Berruti, Gaia Maria; Cusano, Andrea

This work is devoted to the development of fiber optic humidity sensors to be applied in high-energy physics applications and in particular in experiments currently running at CERN. The high radiation level resulting from the operation of the accelerator at full luminosity can cause serious performance deterioration of the silicon sensors which are responsible for the particle tracking. To increase their lifetime, the sensors must be kept cold at temperatures below 0 C. At such low temperatures, any condensation risk has to be prevented and a precise thermal and hygrometric control of the air filling and surrounding the tracker detector cold volumes is mandatory. The technologies proposed at CERN for relative humidity monitoring are mainly based on capacitive sensing elements which are not designed with radiation resistance characteristic. In this scenario, fiber optic sensors seem to be perfectly suitable. Indeed, the fiber itself, if properly selected, can tolerate a very high level of radiation, optical fi...

Field test investigation of high sensitivity fiber optic seismic geophone

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Meng; Min, Li; Zhang, Xiaolei; Zhang, Faxiang; Sun, Zhihui; Li, Shujuan; Wang, Chang; Zhao, Zhong; Hao, Guanghu

2017-10-01

Seismic reflection, whose measured signal is the artificial seismic waves ,is the most effective method and widely used in the geophysical prospecting. And this method can be used for exploration of oil, gas and coal. When a seismic wave travelling through the Earth encounters an interface between two materials with different acoustic impedances, some of the wave energy will reflect off the interface and some will refract through the interface. At its most basic, the seismic reflection technique consists of generating seismic waves and measuring the time taken for the waves to travel from the source, reflect off an interface and be detected by an array of geophones at the surface. Compared to traditional geophones such as electric, magnetic, mechanical and gas geophone, optical fiber geophones have many advantages. Optical fiber geophones can achieve sensing and signal transmission simultaneously. With the development of fiber grating sensor technology, fiber bragg grating (FBG) is being applied in seismic exploration and draws more and more attention to its advantage of anti-electromagnetic interference, high sensitivity and insensitivity to meteorological conditions. In this paper, we designed a high sensitivity geophone and tested its sensitivity, based on the theory of FBG sensing. The frequency response range is from 10 Hz to 100 Hz and the acceleration of the fiber optic seismic geophone is over 1000pm/g. sixteen-element fiber optic seismic geophone array system is presented and the field test is performed in Shengli oilfield of China. The field test shows that: (1) the fiber optic seismic geophone has a higher sensitivity than the traditional geophone between 1-100 Hz;(2) The low frequency reflection wave continuity of fiber Bragg grating geophone is better.

Graphene fiber: a new trend in carbon fibers

OpenAIRE

Zhen Xu; Chao Gao

2015-01-01

New fibers with increased strength and rich functionalities have been untiringly pursued by materials researchers. In recent years, graphene fiber has arisen as a new carbonaceous fiber with high expectations in terms of mechanical and functional performance. In this review, we elucidated the concept of sprouted graphene fibers, including strategies for their fabrication and their basic structural attributes. We examine the rapid advances in the promotion of mechanical/functional properties o...

Influence of natural fibers on the phase transitions in high-density polyethylene composites using dynamic mechanical analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Mehdi Tajvidi; Robert H. Falk; John C. Hermanson; Colin Felton

2003-01-01

Dynamic mechanical analysis was employed to evaluate the performance of various natural fibers in high-density polyethylene composites. Kenaf, newsprint, rice hulls, and wood flour were sources of fiber. Composites were made at 25 percent and 50 percent by weight fiber contents. Maleic anhydride modified polyethylene was also added at 1:25 ratio to the fiber....

Enhancing Electrochemical Performance of Graphene Fiber-Based Supercapacitors by Plasma Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Jie; Nie, Wenqi; Zhang, Kun; Xu, Fujun; Ding, Xin; Wang, Shiren; Qiu, Yiping

2018-04-25

Graphene fiber-based supercapacitors (GFSCs) hold high power density, fast charge-discharge rate, ultralong cycling life, exceptional mechanical/electrical properties, and safe operation conditions, making them very promising to power small wearable electronics. However, the electrochemical performance is still limited by the severe stacking of graphene sheets, hydrophobicity of graphene fibers, and complex preparation process. In this work, we develop a facile but robust strategy to easily enhance electrochemical properties of all-solid-state GFSCs by simple plasma treatment. We find that 1 min plasma treatment under an ambient condition results in 33.1% enhancement of areal specific capacitance (36.25 mF/cm 2 ) in comparison to the as-prepared GFSC. The energy density reaches 0.80 μW h/cm 2 in polyvinyl alcohol/H 2 SO 4 gel electrolyte and 18.12 μW h/cm 2 in poly(vinylidene difluoride)/ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate electrolyte, which are 22 times of that of as-prepared ones. The plasma-treated GFSCs also exhibit ultrahigh rate capability (69.13% for 40 s plasma-treated ones) and superior cycle stability (96.14% capacitance retention after 20 000 cycles for 1 min plasma-treated ones). This plasma strategy can be extended to mass-manufacture high-performance carbonaceous fiber-based supercapacitors, such as graphene and carbon nanotube-based ones.

Fiber Scrambling for High Precision Spectrographs

Science.gov (United States)

Kaplan, Zachary; Spronck, J. F. P.; Fischer, D.

2011-05-01

The detection of Earth-like exoplanets with the radial velocity method requires extreme Doppler precision and long-term stability in order to measure tiny reflex velocities in the host star. Recent planet searches have led to the detection of so called "super-Earths” (up to a few Earth masses) that induce radial velocity changes of about 1 m/s. However, the detection of true Earth analogs requires a precision of 10 cm/s. One of the largest factors limiting Doppler precision is variation in the Point Spread Function (PSF) from observation to observation due to changes in the illumination of the slit and spectrograph optics. Thus, this stability has become a focus of current instrumentation work. Fiber optics have been used since the 1980's to couple telescopes to high-precision spectrographs, initially for simpler mechanical design and control. However, fiber optics are also naturally efficient scramblers. Scrambling refers to a fiber's ability to produce an output beam independent of input. Our research is focused on characterizing the scrambling properties of several types of fibers, including circular, square and octagonal fibers. By measuring the intensity distribution after the fiber as a function of input beam position, we can simulate guiding errors that occur at an observatory. Through this, we can determine which fibers produce the most uniform outputs for the severest guiding errors, improving the PSF and allowing sub-m/s precision. However, extensive testing of fibers of supposedly identical core diameter, length and shape from the same manufacturer has revealed the "personality” of individual fibers. Personality describes differing intensity patterns for supposedly duplicate fibers illuminated identically. Here, we present our results on scrambling characterization as a function of fiber type, while studying individual fiber personality.

Hollow-core fibers for high power pulse delivery

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michieletto, Mattia; Lyngsø, Jens K.; Jakobsen, Christian

2016-01-01

We investigate hollow-core fibers for fiber delivery of high power ultrashort laser pulses. We use numerical techniques to design an anti-resonant hollow-core fiber having one layer of non-touching tubes to determine which structures offer the best optical properties for the delivery of high power...... picosecond pulses. A novel fiber with 7 tubes and a core of 30 mu m was fabricated and it is here described and characterized, showing remarkable low loss, low bend loss, and good mode quality. Its optical properties are compared to both a 10 mu m and a 18 mu m core diameter photonic band gap hollow......-core fiber. The three fibers are characterized experimentally for the delivery of 22 picosecond pulses at 1032nm. We demonstrate flexible, diffraction limited beam delivery with output average powers in excess of 70W. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America...

Flexural Behavior of High-Volume Steel Fiber Cementitious Composite Externally Reinforced with Basalt FRP Sheet

OpenAIRE

Seungwon Kim; Cheolwoo Park

2016-01-01

High-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCCs) are characterized by unique tensile strain hardening and multiple microcracking behaviors. The HPFRCC, which demonstrates remarkable properties such as strength, ductility, toughness, durability, stiffness, and thermal resistance, is a class of fiber cement composite with fine aggregates. It can withstand tensile stresses by forming distributed microcracks owing to the embedded fibers in the concrete, which improve the energy...

Review of High-Speed Fiber Optic Grating Sensors Systems

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Udd, E; Benterou, J; May, C; Mihailov, S J; Lu, P

2010-03-24

Fiber grating sensors can be used to support a wide variety of high speed measurement applications. This includes measurements of vibrations on bridges, traffic monitoring on freeways, ultrasonic detection to support non-destructive tests on metal plates and providing details of detonation events. This paper provides a brief overview of some of the techniques that have been used to support high speed measurements using fiber grating sensors over frequency ranges from 10s of kHz, to MHZ and finally toward frequencies approaching the GHz regime. Very early in the development of fiber grating sensor systems it was realized that a high speed fiber grating sensor system could be realized by placing an optical filter that might be a fiber grating in front of a detector so that spectral changes in the reflection from a fiber grating were amplitude modulated. In principal the only limitation on this type of system involved the speed of the output detector which with the development of high speed communication links moved from the regime of 10s of MHz toward 10s of GHz. The earliest deployed systems involved civil structures including measurements of the strain fields on composite utility poles and missile bodies during break tests, bridges and freeways. This was followed by a series of developments that included high speed fiber grating sensors to support nondestructive testing via ultrasonic wave detection, high speed machining and monitoring ship hulls. Each of these applications involved monitoring mechanical motion of structures and thus interest was in speeds up to a few 10s of MHz. Most recently there has been interest in using fiber grating to monitor the very high speed events such as detonations and this has led to utilization of fiber gratings that are consumed during an event that may require detection speeds of hundreds of MHz and in the future multiple GHz.

Advances in high power linearly polarized fiber laser and its application

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Pu; Huang, Long; Ma, Pengfei; Xu, Jiangming; Su, Rongtao; Wang, Xiaolin

2017-10-01

Fiber lasers are now attracting more and more research interest due to their advantages in efficiency, beam quality and flexible operation. Up to now, most of the high power fiber lasers have random distributed polarization state. Linearlypolarized (LP) fiber lasers, which could find wide application potential in coherent detection, coherent/spectral beam combining, nonlinear frequency conversion, have been a research focus in recent years. In this paper, we will present a general review on the achievements of various kinds of high power linear-polarized fiber laser and its application. The recent progress in our group, including power scaling by using power amplifier with different mechanism, high power linearly polarized fiber laser with diversified properties, and various applications of high power linear-polarized fiber laser, are summarized. We have achieved 100 Watt level random distributed feedback fiber laser, kilowatt level continuous-wave (CW) all-fiber polarization-maintained fiber amplifier, 600 watt level average power picosecond polarization-maintained fiber amplifier and 300 watt level average power femtosecond polarization-maintained fiber amplifier. In addition, high power linearly polarized fiber lasers have been successfully applied in 5 kilowatt level coherent beam combining, structured light field and ultrasonic generation.

Preparation and Properties of Nano Dy/TiO2 Films Supported on High Silica Fiber

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

HUANG Feng-ping

2017-07-01

Full Text Available In order to improve the photocatalytic degradation performance and stability of nano TiO2, Dy doped TiO2 supported on high silica glass fiber was prepared by microwave-sol method combined with dip-coating method. The samples were analyzed by XRD,SEM,PL,EDS,XPS and other equipments for phase composition of films,surface topography, surface elements and the stability of films. And the effects of pretreatment solution and coating method on the high-silica fiber film were investigated.In addition, the photocatalytic performance of the sample has been investigated by degrading methylene blue. The results show that the catalytic stability of Dy doping TiO2 nanofilms supported on high silica glass fiber can be improved and the degradation of methyl orange can reach 94% in 30min after 5 times of coating treatment.

Development of non-contract fiber jumper cord and evaluation of light transmission performance

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Heon Young; Kang, Dong Hoon

2016-01-01

Recently, fiber optic sensors, which have many advantages are being applied in various fields by replacing conventional electric sensors. To transmit the light signals between an interrogator and a sensor head, optical components such as an optical adapt or and optical jumper cords are generally used. When signals are transmitted using an adapt or, the end surface of each jumper cord is faced together. If alien substances exist on the core surface of an optical fiber, those can cause light transmission loss and signal disappearance. For this reason, non-contact fiber jumper cords are developed to overcome the problems that require continual attention. The light transmission performance of non-contact fiber jumper cords are also evaluated. From the test results, conventional fiber jumper cords are unable to transmit the signals over 2 mm cavity between the ends of both cords. Otherwise, non-contact fiber jumper cords can transmit the signals with stability up to the cavity of 7 mm though they have more transmission loss than the conventional ones. Consequently, non-contact fiber jumper cords that have better signal stability than conventional ones in environments are highly recommended in field applications, especially if they play a role as a cable for signal transmission between fiber optic sensors

Development of non-contract fiber jumper cord and evaluation of light transmission performance

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Heon Young; Kang, Dong Hoon [Advanced Materials Research Team, Korea Railroad Research Institute, Uiwang (Korea, Republic of)

2016-10-15

Recently, fiber optic sensors, which have many advantages are being applied in various fields by replacing conventional electric sensors. To transmit the light signals between an interrogator and a sensor head, optical components such as an optical adapt or and optical jumper cords are generally used. When signals are transmitted using an adapt or, the end surface of each jumper cord is faced together. If alien substances exist on the core surface of an optical fiber, those can cause light transmission loss and signal disappearance. For this reason, non-contact fiber jumper cords are developed to overcome the problems that require continual attention. The light transmission performance of non-contact fiber jumper cords are also evaluated. From the test results, conventional fiber jumper cords are unable to transmit the signals over 2 mm cavity between the ends of both cords. Otherwise, non-contact fiber jumper cords can transmit the signals with stability up to the cavity of 7 mm though they have more transmission loss than the conventional ones. Consequently, non-contact fiber jumper cords that have better signal stability than conventional ones in environments are highly recommended in field applications, especially if they play a role as a cable for signal transmission between fiber optic sensors.

High Temperature Testing with Sapphire Fiber White-Light Michelson Interferometers

Science.gov (United States)

Barnes, A.; Pedrazzani, J.; May, R.; Murphy, K.; Tran, T.; Coate, J.

1996-01-01

In the design of new aerospace materials, developmental testing is conducted to characterize the behavior of the material under severe environmental conditions of high stress, temperature, and vibration. But to test these materials under extreme conditions requires sensors that can perform in harsh environments. Current sensors can only monitor high temperature test samples using long throw instrumentation, but this is inherently less accurate than a surface mounted sensor, and provides no means for fabrication process monitoring. A promising alternative is the use of sapphire optical fiber sensors. Sapphire is an incredibly rugged material, being extremely hard (9 mhos), chemically inert, and having a melting temperature (over 2000 C). Additionally, there is a extensive background of optical fiber sensors upon which to draw for sapphire sensor configurations.

Bi-based superconducting fibers with high critical parameters

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Huo Yujing; He Yusheng; Liu Menglin; Mao Sining; Cai Liying; Wang Ying; Zhang Jincang; He Aisheng; Wang Jinsong

1991-01-01

Superconducting fibers of Bi(Pb)-Sr-Ca-Cu-O high Tc superconducting materials have been prepared by means of the laser-heated pedestal growth (LHPG) method. The highest zero resistance temperature T c0 reaches is 114K, and the highest critical current density J c (77K, O T) is greater than 5000 A/cm 2 . As-grown superconducting fibers were successfully fabricated without post growth heat treatment. Amorphous materials were used for the first time to make high quality fibers. The influence of growth conditions, thermal treatment and the composition of the fibers were discussed. (author). 5 refs., 7 figs., 3 tabs

High Speed and High Spatial Density Parameter Measurement Using Fiber Optic Sensing Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Allen R. Jr. (Inventor); Chan, Hon Man (Inventor); Richards, William Lance (Inventor); Piazza, Anthony (Inventor); Hamory, Philip J (Inventor)

2017-01-01

The present invention is an improved fiber optic sensing system (FOSS) having the ability to provide both high spatial resolution and high frequency strain measurements. The inventive hybrid FOSS fiber combines sensors from high acquisition speed and low spatial resolution Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (WDM) systems and from low acquisition speed and high spatial resolution Optical Frequency Domain Reflection (OFDR) systems. Two unique light sources utilizing different wavelengths are coupled with the hybrid FOSS fiber to generate reflected data from both the WDM sensors and OFDR sensors operating on a single fiber optic cable without incurring interference from one another. The two data sets are then de-multiplexed for analysis, optionally with conventionally-available WDM and OFDR system analyzers.

Radiation shielding properties of high performance concrete reinforced with basalt fibers infused with natural and enriched boron

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Zorla, Eyüp; Ipbüker, Cagatay [University of Tartu, Institute of Physics (Estonia); Biland, Alex [US Basalt Corp., Houston (United States); Kiisk, Madis [University of Tartu, Institute of Physics (Estonia); Kovaljov, Sergei [OÜ Basaltest, Tartu (Estonia); Tkaczyk, Alan H. [University of Tartu, Institute of Physics (Estonia); Gulik, Volodymyr, E-mail: volodymyr.gulik@gmail.com [Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants, Lysogirska 12, of. 201, 03028 Kyiv (Ukraine)

2017-03-15

Highlights: • Basalt fiber infused with natural and enriched boron in varying proportions. • Gamma-ray attenuation remains stable with addition of basalt-boron fiber. • Improvement in neutron shielding for nuclear facilities producing fast fission spectrum. • Basalt-boron fiber could decrease the shielding thickness in thermal spectrum reactors. - Abstract: The importance of radiation shielding is increasing in parallel with the expansion of the application areas of nuclear technologies. This study investigates the radiation shielding properties of two types of high strength concrete reinforced with basalt fibers infused with 12–20% boron oxide, containing varying fractions of natural and enriched boron. The gamma-ray shielding characteristics are analyzed with the help of the WinXCom, whereas the neutron shielding characteristics are modeled and computed by Monte Carlo Serpent code. For gamma-ray shielding, the attenuation coefficients of the studied samples do not display any significant variation due to the addition of basalt-boron fibers at any mixing proportion. For neutron shielding, the addition of basalt-boron fiber has negligible effects in the case of very fast neutrons (14 MeV), but it could considerably improve the neutron shielding of concrete for nuclear facilities producing a fast fission spectrum (e.g. with reactors as BN-800, FBTR) and thermal neutron spectrum (Light Water Reactors (LWR)). It was also found that basalt-boron fiber could decrease the thickness of radiation shielding material in thermal spectrum reactors.

Radiation shielding properties of high performance concrete reinforced with basalt fibers infused with natural and enriched boron

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zorla, Eyüp; Ipbüker, Cagatay; Biland, Alex; Kiisk, Madis; Kovaljov, Sergei; Tkaczyk, Alan H.; Gulik, Volodymyr

2017-01-01

Highlights: • Basalt fiber infused with natural and enriched boron in varying proportions. • Gamma-ray attenuation remains stable with addition of basalt-boron fiber. • Improvement in neutron shielding for nuclear facilities producing fast fission spectrum. • Basalt-boron fiber could decrease the shielding thickness in thermal spectrum reactors. - Abstract: The importance of radiation shielding is increasing in parallel with the expansion of the application areas of nuclear technologies. This study investigates the radiation shielding properties of two types of high strength concrete reinforced with basalt fibers infused with 12–20% boron oxide, containing varying fractions of natural and enriched boron. The gamma-ray shielding characteristics are analyzed with the help of the WinXCom, whereas the neutron shielding characteristics are modeled and computed by Monte Carlo Serpent code. For gamma-ray shielding, the attenuation coefficients of the studied samples do not display any significant variation due to the addition of basalt-boron fibers at any mixing proportion. For neutron shielding, the addition of basalt-boron fiber has negligible effects in the case of very fast neutrons (14 MeV), but it could considerably improve the neutron shielding of concrete for nuclear facilities producing a fast fission spectrum (e.g. with reactors as BN-800, FBTR) and thermal neutron spectrum (Light Water Reactors (LWR)). It was also found that basalt-boron fiber could decrease the thickness of radiation shielding material in thermal spectrum reactors.

Maximum-performance fiber-optic irradiation with nonimaging designs.

Science.gov (United States)

Fang, Y; Feuermann, D; Gordon, J M

1997-10-01

A range of practical nonimaging designs for optical fiber applications is presented. Rays emerging from a fiber over a restricted angular range (small numerical aperture) are needed to illuminate a small near-field detector at maximum radiative efficiency. These designs range from pure reflector (all-mirror), to pure dielectric (refractive and based on total internal reflection) to lens-mirror combinations. Sample designs are shown for a specific infrared fiber-optic irradiation problem of practical interest. Optical performance is checked with computer three-dimensional ray tracing. Compared with conventional imaging solutions, nonimaging units offer considerable practical advantages in compactness and ease of alignment as well as noticeably superior radiative efficiency.

High Performance Fiber-Optic Sensor for Environmental Monitoring, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Los Gatos Research (LGR) proposes to develop a low-cost, compact, lightweight, rugged and easy-to-use environmental monitoring optical fiber sensor device based on...

Effects of CO 2 on a High Performance Hollow-Fiber Membrane for Natural Gas Purification

KAUST Repository

Omole, Imona C.; Adams, Ryan T.; Miller, Stephen J.; Koros, William J.

2010-01-01

A 6FDA-based, cross-linkable polyimide was characterized in the form of a defect-free asymmetric hollow-fiber membrane. The novel membrane was cross-linked at various temperatures and tested for natural gas purification in the presence of high CO2

Simulation and performance evaluation of fiber optic sensor for detection of hepatic malignancies in human liver tissues

Science.gov (United States)

Sharma, Anuj K.; Gupta, Jyoti; Basu, Rikmantra

2018-01-01

A fiber optic sensor is proposed for the identification of healthy and cancerous liver tissues through determination of their corresponding refractive index values. Existing experimental results describing variation of complex refractive index of liver tissues in near infrared (NIR) spectral region are considered for theoretical calculations. The intensity interrogation method with chalcogenide fiber is considered. The sensor's performance is closely analyzed in terms of its sensitivity at multiple operating wavelengths falling in NIR region. Operating at shorter NIR wavelengths leads to greater sensitivity. The effect of design parameters (sensing region length and fiber core diameter), different launching conditions, and fiber glass materials on sensor's performance is examined. The proposed sensor has the potential to provide high sensitivity of liver tissue detection.

Performance of Series Connected GaAs Photovoltaic Converters under Multimode Optical Fiber Illumination

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tiqiang Shan

2014-01-01

Full Text Available In many military and industrial applications, GaAs photovoltaic (PV converters are connected in series in order to generate the required voltage compatible with most common electronics. Multimode optical fibers are usually used to carry high-intensity laser and illuminate the series connected GaAs PV converters in real time. However, multimode optical fiber illumination has a speckled intensity pattern. The series connected PV array is extremely sensitive to nonuniform illumination; its performance is limited severely by the converter that is illuminated the least. This paper quantifies the effects of multimode optical fiber illumination on the performance of series connected GaAs PV converters, analyzes the loss mechanisms due to speckles, and discusses the maximum illumination efficiency. In order to describe the illumination dependent behavior detailedly, modeling of the series connected PV array is accomplished based on the equivalent circuit for PV cells. Finally, a series of experiments are carried out to demonstrate the theory analysis.

Behavior of hybrid high-strength fiber reinforced concrete slab-column connections under the effect of high tempera

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Reham H. Ahmed

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Concrete can be modified to perform in a more ductile form by the addition of randomly distributed discrete fibers in the concrete matrix. The combined effect of the addition of two types of fibers (steel fiber and polypropylene fiber with different percentages to concrete matrix, which is called hybrid effect is currently under investigation worldwide. The current research work presents the conducted experimental program to observe the behavior of hybrid high strength reinforced concrete slab-column connections under the effect of high temperature. For this purpose, ten slab-column connections were casted and tested. The experimental program was designed to investigate the effect of different variables such as concrete mixture, column location and temperature fighting system. All specimens were exposed to a temperature of 500 °C for duration of two hours. To observe the effect of each variable, specimens were divided into four groups according to the studied parameters. The test results revealed that using hybrid high strength concrete HFHSC produced more strength in punching failure compared with high strength concrete HSC when exposed to elevated temperature. Fighting by air had higher initial crack load compared with that for without fighting and fighting by water. On the other hand, fighting by water decreased the ultimate load.

Enhanced performance of semiconductor optical amplifier at high direct modulation speed with birefringent fiber loop

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

K. E. Zoiros

2014-07-01

Full Text Available We employ a birefringent fiber loop (BFL for enhancing the performance of a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA which is directly modulated. By properly exploiting the BFL comb-like spectral response, we show that the SOA can be directly modulated at a data rate which is more than five times faster than that enabled by the SOA electrical bandwidth. The experimental results, which include chirp measurements, demonstrate the significant improvements achieved in the performance of the directly modulated SOA with the help of the BFL.

Analysis of aromatic amines in water samples by liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction with hollow fibers and high-performance liquid chromatography.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Limian; Zhu, Lingyan; Lee, Hian Kee

2002-07-19

Liquid-liquid-liquid microextraction (LLLME) with hollow fibers in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has been applied as a rapid and sensitive quantitative method for the detection of four aromatic amines (3-nitroaniline, 4-chloroaniline, 4-bromoaniline and 3,4-dichloroaniline) in environmental water samples. The preconcentration procedure was induced by the pH difference inside and outside the hollow fiber. The target compounds were extracted from 4-ml aqueous sample (donor solution, pH approximately 13) through a microfilm of organic solvent (di-n-hexyl ether), immobilized in the pores of a hollow fiber (1.5 cm length x 0.6 mm I.D.), and finally into 4 microl of acid acceptor solution inside the fiber. After a prescribed period of time, the acceptor solution inside the fiber was withdrawn into the microsyringe and directly injected into the HPLC system for analysis. Factors relevant to the extraction procedure were studied. Up to 500-fold enrichment of analytes could be obtained under the optimized conditions (donor solution: 0.1 M sodium hydroxide solution with 20% sodium chloride and 2% acetone; organic phase: di-n-hexyl ether; acceptor solution: 0.5 M hydrochloric acid and 500 mM 18-crown-6 ether; extraction time of 30 min; stirring at 1,000 rev./min). The procedure also served as a sample clean-up step. The influence of humic acid on the extraction efficiency was also investigated, and more than 85% relative recoveries of the analytes at two different concentrations (20 and 100 microg/l) were achieved at various concentration of humic acid. This technique is a low cost, simple and fast approach to the analysis of polar compounds in aqueous samples.

A novel extraction technique based on carbon nanotubes reinforced hollow fiber solid/liquid microextraction for the measurement of piroxicam and diclofenac combined with high performance liquid chromatography.

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Xin-Yue; Shi, Yan-Ping; Chen, Juan

2012-10-15

A novel design of carbon nanotubes reinforced hollow fiber solid/liquid phase microextraction (CNTs-HF-SLPME) was developed to determine piroxicam and diclofenac in different real water samples. Functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were held in the pores of hollow fiber with sol-gel technology. The pores and lumen of carbon nanotubes reinforced hollow fiber were subsequently filled with a μL volume of organic solvent (1-octanol), and then the whole assembly was used for the extraction of the target analytes in direct immersion sampling mode. The target analytes were extracted from the sample by two extractants, one of which is organic solvent placed inside the pores and lumen of hollow fiber and the other one is CNTs held in the pores of hollow fiber. After extraction, the analytes were desorbed in acetonitrile and analyzed using high performance liquid chromatography. This novel extraction mode showed more excellent extraction performance in comparison with conventional hollow fiber liquid microextraction (without adding CNTs) and carbon nanotubes reinforced hollow fiber solid microextraction (CNTs held in the pores of hollow fiber, but no organic solvents placed inside the lumen of hollow fiber) under the respective optimum conditions. This method provided 47- and 184-fold enrichment factors for piroxicam and diclofenac, respectively, good inter-fiber repeatability and batch-to-batch reproducibility. Linearity was observed in the range of 20-960 μg L(-1) for piroxicam, and 10-2560 μg L(-1) for diclofenac, with correlation coefficients of 0.9985 and 0.9989, respectively. The limits of detection were 4.58 μg L(-1) for piroxicam and 0.40 μg L(-1) for diclofenac. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

High-efficiency ytterbium-free erbium-doped all-glass double cladding silicate glass fiber for resonantly-pumped fiber lasers.

Science.gov (United States)

Qiang, Zexuan; Geng, Jihong; Luo, Tao; Zhang, Jun; Jiang, Shibin

2014-02-01

A highly efficient ytterbium-free erbium-doped silicate glass fiber has been developed for high-power fiber laser applications at an eye-safe wavelength near 1.55 μm. Our preliminary experiments show that high laser efficiency can be obtained from a relatively short length of the gain fiber when resonantly pumped at 1535 nm in both core- and cladding-pumping configurations. With a core-pumping configuration as high as 75%, optical-to-optical efficiency and 4 W output power were obtained at 1560 nm from a 1 m long gain fiber. When using a cladding-pumping configuration, approximately 13 W output power with 67.7% slope efficiency was demonstrated from a piece of 2 m long fiber. The lengths of silicate-based gain fiber are much shorter than their silica-based counterparts used in other experiments, which is significantly important for high-power narrow-band and/or pulsed laser applications.

Ultra-high Frequency Linear Fiber Optic Systems

CERN Document Server

Lau, Kam

2011-01-01

This book provides an in-depth treatment of both linear fiber-optic systems and their key enabling devices. It presents a concise but rigorous treatment of the theory and practice of analog (linear) fiber-optics links and systems that constitute the foundation of Hybrid Fiber Coax infrastructure in present-day CATV distribution and cable modem Internet access. Emerging applications in remote fiber-optic feed for free-space millimeter wave enterprise campus networks are also described. Issues such as dispersion and interferometric noise are treated quantitatively, and means for mitigating them are explained. This broad but concise text will thus be invaluable not only to students of fiber-optics communication but also to practicing engineers. To the second edition of this book important new aspects of linear fiber-optic transmission technologies are added, such as high level system architectural issues, algorithms for deriving the optimal frequency assignment, directly modulated or externally modulated laser t...

Electrospun amplified fiber optics.

Science.gov (United States)

Morello, Giovanni; Camposeo, Andrea; Moffa, Maria; Pisignano, Dario

2015-03-11

All-optical signal processing is the focus of much research aiming to obtain effective alternatives to existing data transmission platforms. Amplification of light in fiber optics, such as in Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, is especially important for efficient signal transmission. However, the complex fabrication methods involving high-temperature processes performed in a highly pure environment slow the fabrication process and make amplified components expensive with respect to an ideal, high-throughput, room temperature production. Here, we report on near-infrared polymer fiber amplifiers working over a band of ∼20 nm. The fibers are cheap, spun with a process entirely carried out at room temperature, and shown to have amplified spontaneous emission with good gain coefficients and low levels of optical losses (a few cm(-1)). The amplification process is favored by high fiber quality and low self-absorption. The found performance metrics appear to be suitable for short-distance operations, and the large variety of commercially available doping dyes might allow for effective multiwavelength operations by electrospun amplified fiber optics.

Development of a Highly Stressed Bladed Rotor Made of a CFRP Using the Tailored Fiber Placement Technology

Science.gov (United States)

Uhlig, K.; Spickenheuer, A.; Bittrich, L.; Heinrich, G.

2013-05-01

Increasing the rotational frequency of bladed rotors used in turbomachinery leads to their increased efficiency and performance. Especially for turbomolecular pumps, this would allow either higher compression rates or smaller pump dimensions. The maximal rotational frequency is focused on the structural strength of the construction and the material used. Due to their high density, specific strength, and stiffness in the fiber direction, carbon-fiberreinforced plastics (CFRPs) seem to be ideal for such an application. The highly orthotropic material behavior of CFRPs demands new approaches in terms of their manufacturing and dimensioning. As a new approach, a rotor with 17 blades in a blade-integrated disk construction (BLISK) made of a CFRP, allowing a 35% higher burst speed than a bladed rotor made of a high-strength aluminum alloy, was developed. An appropriate fiber layout has to reflect the rotational symmetry, which demands either a radial or tangential fiber orientation. Therefore, the Tailored Fiber Placement (TFP) technology was used, which allows a high flexibility for the fiber layout. For consolidation, resin infiltration was performed using a modified vacuum-assisted process, and the final geometry was generated employing a milling machine. A radius-dependent layer setup of tangential and radial fibers was chosen to maximize the burst speed by using an adapted finite-element analysis. Additionally, a numerical modal analysis and a numerical failure analysis were performed. Finally, the theoretical results were verified on manufactured rotors by an experimental modal analysis and burst tests, where experimental data showed a good coincidence with numerical results.

Fiber-optic refractometer based on an etched high-Q π-phase-shifted fiber-Bragg-grating.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qi; Ianno, Natale J; Han, Ming

2013-07-10

We present a compact and highly-sensitive fiber-optic refractometer based on a high-Q π-phase-shifted fiber-Bragg-grating (πFBG) that is chemically etched to the core of the fiber. Due to the p phase-shift, a strong πFBG forms a high-Q optical resonator and the reflection spectrum features an extremely narrow notch that can be used for highly sensitivity refractive index measurement. The etched πFBG demonstrated here has a diameter of ~9.3 μm and a length of only 7 mm, leading to a refractive index responsivity of 2.9 nm/RIU (RIU: refractive index unit) at an ambient refractive index of 1.318. The reflection spectrum of the etched πFBG features an extremely narrow notch with a linewidth of only 2.1 pm in water centered at ~1,550 nm, corresponding to a Q-factor of 7.4 × 10(5), which allows for potentially significantly improved sensitivity over refractometers based on regular fiber Bragg gratings.

Effect of high- and low-fiber diets on plasma lipids and insulin.

Science.gov (United States)

Albrink, M J; Newman, T; Davidson, P C

1979-07-01

Seven healthy young adults were maintained for two separate 1-week periods on each of two very high-carbohydrate diets, one with low-fiber and one with high-fiber content. In both diets 15% of the calories were from protein, 15% from fat, and 70% were from carbohydrate. The low-fiber diet consisted of milk, glucose, and dextrins in liquid formula form, the high-fiber diet was composed of starchy foods. The crude fiber content of the high- and low-fiber diets was 18.0 and 1.0 g, respectively. The diets were isocaloric and the subjects maintained a stable weight. During the low-fiber diet the fasting triglycerides rose, reaching a peak 45% above base-line in 6 days. During the high-fiber diet the triglycerides fell to a level slightly below base-line. The cholesterol fell 16 and 23% below base-line on the low- and high-fiber diets. The glucose response to test meals representative of each diet was similar. The insulin response to a low-fiber meal was twice as great as that to a high-fiber meal containing an equivalent amount of carbohydrate. The results suggest that carbohydrate-induced hyperlipemia does not occur if the high carbohydrate diet is rich in dietary fiber, and furthermore that the insulin-stimulating potential of foods in a very high-carbohydrate diet is a critical determinant of the magnitude of carbohydrate-induced lipemia.

Time-domain multiplexed high resolution fiber optics strain sensor system based on temporal response of fiber Fabry-Perot interferometers.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Jiageng; Liu, Qingwen; He, Zuyuan

2017-09-04

We developed a multiplexed strain sensor system with high resolution using fiber Fabry-Perot interferometers (FFPI) as sensing elements. The temporal responses of the FFPIs excited by rectangular laser pulses are used to obtain the strain applied on each FFPI. The FFPIs are connected by cascaded couplers and delay fiber rolls for the time-domain multiplexing. A compact optoelectronic system performing closed-loop cyclic interrogation is employed to improve the sensing resolution and the frequency response. In the demonstration experiment, 3-channel strain sensing with resolutions better than 0.1 nε and frequency response higher than 100 Hz is realized.

Effect of PVA fiber content on creep property of fiber reinforced high-strength concrete columns

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Zongnan; Wang, Tao; Wang, Weilun

2018-04-01

The effect of PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) fiber content on the creep property of fiber reinforced high-strength concrete columns was investigated. The correction factor of PVA fiber content was proposed and the creep prediction model of ACI209 was modified. Controlling the concrete strength as C80, changing the content of PVA fiber (volume fraction 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1% respectively), the creep experiment of PVA fiber reinforced concrete columns was carried out, the creep coefficient of each specimen was calculated to characterize the creep property. The influence of PVA fiber content on the creep property was analyzed based on the creep coefficient and the calculation results of several frequently used creep prediction models. The correction factor of PVA fiber content was proposed to modify the ACI209 creep prediction model.

Lightweight, high-opacity Bible paper by fiber loading

Science.gov (United States)

Klaus Doelle; Oliver Heise; John H. Klungness; Said M. AbuBakr

2000-01-01

This paper has been prepared in order to discuss Fiber Loading™ for lightweight, high-opacity bible paper. Incorporating fillers within pulp fibers has been subject to research since 1960 (Green et al. 1962, Scallan et al. 1985, Allen et al. 1992). Fiber Loading™ is a method for manufacturing precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) directly within the pulp processing...

Continuous Natural Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites by Fiber Surface Modification

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Patcharat Wongsriraksa

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Continuous natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic materials are expected to replace inorganic fiber reinforced thermosetting materials. However, in the process of fabricating the composite, it is difficult to impregnate the thermoplastic resin into reinforcement fiber because of the high melt viscosity. Therefore, intermediate material, which allows high impregnation during molding, has been investigated for fabricating continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite by aligning resin fiber alongside reinforcing fiber with braiding technique. This intermediate material has been called “microbraid yarn (MBY.” Moreover, it is well known that the interfacial properties between natural fiber and resin are low; therefore, surface treatment on continuous natural fiber was performed by using polyurethane (PU and flexible epoxy (FLEX to improve the interfacial properties. The effect of surface treatment on the mechanical properties of continuous natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites was examined. From these results, it was suggested that surface treatment by PU with low content could produce composites with better mechanical properties.

3 kW single stage all-fiber Yb-doped single-mode fiber laser for highly reflective and highly thermal conductive materials processing

Science.gov (United States)

Ikoma, S.; Nguyen, H. K.; Kashiwagi, M.; Uchiyama, K.; Shima, K.; Tanaka, D.

2017-02-01

A 3 kW single stage all-fiber Yb-doped single-mode fiber laser with bi-directional pumping configuration has been demonstrated. Our newly developed high-power LD modules are employed for a high available pump power of 4.9 kW. The length of the delivery fiber is 20 m which is long enough to be used in most of laser processing machines. An output power of 3 kW was achieved at a pump power of 4.23 kW. The slope efficiency was 70%. SRS was able to be suppressed at the same output power by increasing ratio of backward pump power. The SRS level was improved by 5dB when 57% backward pump ratio was adopted compared with the case of 50%. SRS was 35dB below the laser power at the output power of 3 kW even with a 20-m delivery fiber. The M-squared factor was 1.3. Single-mode beam quality was obtained. To evaluate practical utility of the 3 kW single-mode fiber laser, a Bead-on-Plate (BoP) test onto a pure copper plate was executed. The BoP test onto a copper plate was made without stopping or damaging the laser system. That indicates our high power single-mode fiber lasers can be used practically in processing of materials with high reflectivity and high thermal conductivity.

Pyrolyzed feather fibers for adsorbent and high temperature applications

Science.gov (United States)

Senoz, Erman

used in applications such as adsorption, storage, and separation of small gas molecules. The maximum excess H2 storage capacity was 1.5 wt% at 77 K and at pressures below 2 MPa. The notable H2 adsorption of PCFF below 1 MPa can be justified by the abundance of microporosity and the nanopores available for H2 penetration. In the second step of the pyrolysis the protein matrix went through a series of transformations including cyclization and aromatization reactions above the melting point. A partially cyclic carbon-nitrogen framework (carbon/nitrogen ratio=2.38) supported by double and triple bonds and oxygen functionalities is the suggested structural model for the PCFF. The useful fibers and adsorbents produced from CFF in this dissertation can encourage researchers to use high temperature heat treatments on keratin-based fibers. Also, the identified pyrolysis mechanisms can serve as a guide for producing materials with desired properties from protein-based materials, particularly in textile, high performance composite and catalyst industries.

Increasing the Performance of Vacuum Membrane Distillation Using Micro-Structured Hydrophobic Aluminum Hollow Fiber Membranes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Chia-Chieh Ko

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This study develops a micro-structured hydrophobic alumina hollow fiber with a high permeate flux of 60 Lm−2h−1 and salt rejection over 99.9% in a vacuum membrane distillation process. The fiber is fabricated by phase inversion and sintering, and then modified with fluoroalkylsilanes to render it hydrophobic. The influence of the sintering temperature and feeding temperature in membrane distillation (MD on the characteristics of the fiber and MD performance are investigated. The vacuum membrane distillation uses 3.5 wt % NaCl aqueous solution at 70 °C at 0.03 bar. The permeate flux of 60 Lm−2h−1 is the highest, compared with reported data and is higher than that for polymeric hollow fiber membranes.

Ce-doped LuAG single-crystal fibers grown from the melt for high-energy physics

CERN Document Server

Xu, X; Moretti, F; Pauwels, K; Lecoq, P; Auffray, E; Dujardin, C

2014-01-01

Under a stationary stable regime undoped and Ce-doped LuAG (Lu3Al5O12) single-crystal fibers were grown by a micro-pulling-down technique. The meniscus length corresponding to the equilibrium state was <200 mu m. Fluctuations in the fiber composition and pulling rate were found to have a significant effect on the properties of the fibers grown. A great improvement in the performance was found in samples containing low Ce concentrations (<= 0.1 at.\\%) and produced using pulling rates <0.5 mm min(-1). Under such conditions a good lateral surface fiber quality was obtained and light propagation was significantly improved. Conversely, a high Ce concentration and a high pulling rate resulted in a strong degradation of the fiber surface quality causing defects to appear and a decrease in light output. (C) 2014 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

High-Power ZBLAN Glass Fiber Lasers: Review and Prospect

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiushan Zhu

2010-01-01

Full Text Available ZBLAN (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-AlF3-NaF, considered as the most stable heavy metal fluoride glass and the excellent host for rare-earth ions, has been extensively used for efficient and compact ultraviolet, visible, and infrared fiber lasers due to its low intrinsic loss, wide transparency window, and small phonon energy. In this paper, the historical progress and the properties of fluoride glasses and the fabrication of ZBLAN fibers are briefly described. Advances of infrared, upconversion, and supercontinuum ZBLAN fiber lasers are addressed in detail. Finally, constraints on the power scaling of ZBLAN fiber lasers are analyzed and discussed. ZBLAN fiber lasers are showing promise of generating high-power emissions covering from ultraviolet to mid-infrared considering the recent advances in newly designed optical fibers, beam-shaped high-power pump diodes, beam combining techniques, and heat-dissipating technology.

High-power random distributed feedback fiber laser: From science to application

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Du, Xueyuan [College of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073 (China); Naval Academy of Armament, Beijing 100161 (China); Zhang, Hanwei; Xiao, Hu; Ma, Pengfei; Wang, Xiaolin; Zhou, Pu; Liu, Zejin [College of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073 (China)

2016-10-15

A fiber laser based on random distributed feedback has attracted increasing attention in recent years, as it has become an important photonic device and has found wide applications in fiber communications or sensing. In this article, recent advances in high-power random distributed feedback fiber laser are reviewed, including the theoretical analyses, experimental approaches, discussion on the practical applications and outlook. It is found that a random distributed feedback fiber laser can not only act as an information photonics device, but also has the feasibility for high-efficiency/high-power generation, which makes it competitive with conventional high-power laser sources. In addition, high-power random distributed feedback fiber laser has been successfully applied for midinfrared lasing, frequency doubling to the visible and high-quality imaging. It is believed that the high-power random distributed feedback fiber laser could become a promising light source with simple and economic configurations. (copyright 2016 by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Self-centering fiber alignment structures for high-precision field installable single-mode fiber connectors

Science.gov (United States)

Van Erps, Jürgen; Ebraert, Evert; Gao, Fei; Vervaeke, Michael; Berghmans, Francis; Beri, Stefano; Watté, Jan; Thienpont, Hugo

2014-05-01

There is a steady increase in the demand for internet bandwidth, primarily driven by cloud services and high-definition video streaming. Europe's Digital Agenda states the ambitious objective that by 2020 all Europeans should have access to internet at speeds of 30Mb/s or above, with 50% or more of households subscribing to connections of 100Mb/s. Today however, internet access in Europe is mainly based on the first generation of broadband, meaning internet accessed over legacy telephone copper and TV cable networks. In recent years, Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) networks have been adopted as a replacement of traditional electrical connections for the `last mile' transmission of information at bandwidths over 1Gb/s. However, FTTH penetration is still very low (economies. The main reason for this is the high deployment cost of FTTH networks. Indeed, the success and adoption of optical access networks critically depend on the quality and reliability of connections between optical fibers. In particular a further reduction of insertion loss of field- installable connectors must be achieved without a significant increase in component cost. This requires precise alignment of fibers that can differ in terms of ellipticity, eccentricity or diameter and seems hardly achievable using today's widespread ferrule-based alignment systems. In this paper, we present a field-installable connector based on deflectable/compressible spring structures, providing a self-centering functionality for the fiber. This way, it can accommodate for possible fiber cladding diameter variations (the tolerance on the cladding diameter of G.652 fiber is typically +/-0.7μm). The mechanical properties of the cantilever are derived through an analytical approximation and a mathematical model of the spring constant, and finite element-based simulations are carried out to find the maximum first principal stress as well as the stress distribution distribution in the fiber alignment structure. Elastic

Creep performance of oxide ceramic fiber materials at elevated temperature in air and in steam

Science.gov (United States)

Armani, Clinton J.

Structural aerospace components that operate in severe conditions, such as extreme temperatures and detrimental environments, require structural materials that have superior long-term mechanical properties and that are thermochemically stable over a broad range of service temperatures and environments. Ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) capable of excellent mechanical performance in harsh environments are prime candidates for such applications. Oxide ceramic materials have been used as constituents in CMCs. However, recent studies have shown that high-temperature mechanical performance of oxide-oxide CMCs deteriorate in a steam-rich environment. The degradation of strength at elevated temperature in steam has been attributed to the environmentally assisted subcritical crack growth in the oxide fibers. Furthermore, oxide-oxide CMCs have shown significant increases in steady-state creep rates in steam. The present research investigated the effects of steam on the high-temperature creep and monotonic tension performance of several oxide ceramic materials. Experimental facilities were designed and configured, and experimental methods were developed to explore the influence of steam on the mechanical behaviors of ceramic fiber tows and of ceramic bulk materials under temperatures in the 1100--1300°C range. The effects of steam on creep behavior of Nextel(TM)610 and Nextel(TM)720 fiber tows were examined. Creep rates at elevated temperatures in air and in steam were obtained for both types of fibers. Relationships between creep rates and applied stresses were modeled and underlying creep mechanisms were identified. For both types of fiber tows, a creep life prediction analysis was performed using linear elastic fracture mechanics and a power-law crack velocity model. These results have not been previously reported and have critical design implications for CMC components operating in steam or near the recommended design limits. Predictions were assessed and validated via

Sapphire-fiber-based distributed high-temperature sensing system.

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Bo; Yu, Zhihao; Hill, Cary; Cheng, Yujie; Homa, Daniel; Pickrell, Gary; Wang, Anbo

2016-09-15

We present, for the first time to our knowledge, a sapphire-fiber-based distributed high-temperature sensing system based on a Raman distributed sensing technique. High peak power laser pulses at 532 nm were coupled into the sapphire fiber to generate the Raman signal. The returned Raman Stokes and anti-Stokes signals were measured in the time domain to determine the temperature distribution along the fiber. The sensor was demonstrated from room temperature up to 1200°C in which the average standard deviation is about 3.7°C and a spatial resolution of about 14 cm was achieved.

Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) for High Rise Construction: Case Studies

Science.gov (United States)

Gharehbaghi, Koorosh; Chenery, Rhea

2017-12-01

Due to its material element, Fiber Reinforced Concrete (FRC) could be stronger than traditional Concrete. This is due to FRC internal material compounds and elements. Furthermore, FRC can also significantly improve flexural strength when compared to traditional Concrete. This improvement in flexural strength can be varied depending on the actual fibers used. Although not new, FRC is gradually gaining popularity in the construction industry, in particular for high rise structures. This is due to its flexural strength, especially for high seismic zones, as it will provide a better solution then reinforced Concrete. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the structural importance of FRC for the high rise construction. Although there has been numerous studies and literature in justifying the FRC for general construction; this paper will consider its use specifically for high rise construction. Moreover, this paper will closely investigate eight case studies from Australian and United States as a part of the FRC validation for high rise construction. In doing so, this paper will examine their Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) to determine their overall structural performance.

High Power Spark Delivery System Using Hollow Core Kagome Lattice Fibers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ciprian Dumitrache

2014-08-01

Full Text Available This study examines the use of the recently developed hollow core kagome lattice fibers for delivery of high power laser pulses. Compared to other photonic crystal fibers (PCFs, the hollow core kagome fibers have larger core diameter (~50 µm, which allows for higher energy coupling in the fiber while also maintaining high beam quality at the output (M2 = 1.25. We have conducted a study of the maximum deliverable energy versus laser pulse duration using a Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm. Pulse energies as high as 30 mJ were transmitted for 30 ns pulse durations. This represents, to our knowledge; the highest laser pulse energy delivered using PCFs. Two fiber damage mechanisms were identified as damage at the fiber input and damage within the bulk of the fiber. Finally, we have demonstrated fiber delivered laser ignition on a single-cylinder gasoline direct injection engine.

Fiber-Optic Refractometer Based on an Etched High-Q π-Phase-Shifted Fiber-Bragg-Grating

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ming Han

2013-07-01

Full Text Available We present a compact and highly-sensitive fiber-optic refractometer based on a high-Q p-phase-shifted fiber-Bragg-grating (pFBG that is chemically etched to the core of the fiber. Due to the p phase-shift, a strong pFBG forms a high-Q optical resonator and the reflection spectrum features an extremely narrow notch that can be used for highly sensitivity refractive index measurement. The etched pFBG demonstrated here has a diameter of ~9.3 μm and a length of only 7 mm, leading to a refractive index responsivity of 2.9 nm/RIU (RIU: refractive index unit at an ambient refractive index of 1.318. The reflection spectrum of the etched pFBG features an extremely narrow notch with a linewidth of only 2.1 pm in water centered at ~1,550 nm, corresponding to a Q-factor of 7.4 ´ 105, which allows for potentially significantly improved sensitivity over refractometers based on regular fiber Bragg gratings.

Coaxial MoS2@Carbon Hybrid Fibers: A Low-Cost Anode Material for High-Performance Li-Ion Batteries

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rui Zhou

2017-02-01

Full Text Available A low-cost bio-mass-derived carbon substrate has been employed to synthesize MoS2@carbon composites through a hydrothermal method. Carbon fibers derived from natural cotton provide a three-dimensional and open framework for the uniform growth of MoS2 nanosheets, thus hierarchically constructing coaxial architecture. The unique structure could synergistically benefit fast Li-ion and electron transport from the conductive carbon scaffold and porous MoS2 nanostructures. As a result, the MoS2@carbon composites—when serving as anodes for Li-ion batteries—exhibit a high reversible specific capacity of 820 mAh·g−1, high-rate capability (457 mAh·g−1 at 2 A·g−1, and excellent cycling stability. The use of bio-mass-derived carbon makes the MoS2@carbon composites low-cost and promising anode materials for high-performance Li-ion batteries.

Highly phosphorescent hollow fibers inner-coated with tungstate nanocrystals

Science.gov (United States)

Ng, Pui Fai; Bai, Gongxun; Si, Liping; Lee, Ka I.; Hao, Jianhua; Xin, John H.; Fei, Bin

2017-12-01

In order to develop luminescent microtubes from natural fibers, a facile biomimetic mineralization method was designed to introduce the CaWO4-based nanocrystals into kapok lumens. The structure, composition, and luminescence properties of resultant fibers were investigated with microscopes, x-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, and fluorescence spectrometry. The yield of tungstate crystals inside kapok was significantly promoted with a process at high temperature and pressure—the hydrothermal treatment. The tungstate crystals grown on the inner wall of kapok fibers showed the same crystal structure with those naked powders, but smaller in crystal size. The resultant fiber assemblies demonstrated reduced phosphorescence intensity in comparison to the naked tungstate powders. However, the fibers gave more stable luminescence than the naked powders in wet condition. This approach explored the possibility of decorating natural fibers with high load of nanocrystals, hinting potential applications in anti-counterfeit labels, security textiles, and even flexible and soft optical devices.

High-power fiber laser cutting parameter optimization for nuclear Decommissioning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana Beatriz Lopez

2017-06-01

Full Text Available For more than 10 years, the laser process has been studied for dismantling work; however, relatively few research works have addressed the effect of high-power fiber laser cutting for thick sections. Since in the nuclear sector, a significant quantity of thick material is required to be cut, this study aims to improve the reliability of laser cutting for such work and indicates guidelines to optimize the cutting procedure, in particular, nozzle combinations (standoff distance and focus position, to minimize waste material. The results obtained show the performance levels that can be reached with 10 kW fiber lasers, using which it is possible to obtain narrower kerfs than those found in published results obtained with other lasers. Nonetheless, fiber lasers appear to show the same effects as those of CO2 and ND:YAG lasers. Thus, the main factor that affects the kerf width is the focal position, which means that minimum laser spot diameters are advised for smaller kerf widths.

High-power fiber laser cutting parameter optimization for nuclear decommissioning

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Lopez, Ana Beatriz; Assuncao, Eurico; Quintino, Luisa [IDMEC, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa (Portugal); Khan, Ali; Blackbun, Jonathan [TWI Ltd., Cambridge (United States)

2017-06-15

For more than 10 years, the laser process has been studied for dismantling work; however, relatively few research works have addressed the effect of high-power fiber laser cutting for thick sections. Since in the nuclear sector, a significant quantity of thick material is required to be cut, this study aims to improve the reliability of laser cutting for such work and indicates guidelines to optimize the cutting procedure, in particular, nozzle combinations (standoff distance and focus position), to minimize waste material. The results obtained show the performance levels that can be reached with 10 kW fiber lasers, using which it is possible to obtain narrower kerfs than those found in published results obtained with other lasers. Nonetheless, fiber lasers appear to show the same effects as those of CO{sub 2} and ND:YAG lasers. Thus, the main factor that affects the kerf width is the focal position, which means that minimum laser spot diameters are advised for smaller kerf widths.

All-fiber probe for optical coherence tomography with an extended depth of focus by a high-efficient fiber-based filter

Science.gov (United States)

Qiu, Jianrong; Shen, Yi; Shangguan, Ziwei; Bao, Wen; Yang, Shanshan; Li, Peng; Ding, Zhihua

2018-04-01

Although methods have been proposed to maintain high transverse resolution over an increased depth range, it is not straightforward to scale down the bulk-optic solutions to minimized probes of optical coherence tomography (OCT). In this paper, we propose a high-efficient fiber-based filter in an all-fiber OCT probe to realize an extended depth of focus (DOF) while maintaining a high transverse resolution. Mode interference in the probe is exploited to modulate the complex field with controllable radial distribution. The principle of DOF extension by the fiber-based filter is theoretically analyzed. Numerical simulations are conducted to evaluate the performances of the designed probes. A DOF extension ratio of 2.6 over conventional Gaussian beam is obtainable in one proposed probe under a focused beam diameter of 4 . 6 μm. Coupling efficiencies of internal interfaces of the proposed probe are below -40 dB except the last probe-air interface, which can also be depressed to be -44 dB after minor modification in lengths for the filter. Length tolerance of the proposed probe is determined to be - 28 / + 20 μm, which is readily satisfied in fabrication. With the merits of extended-DOF, high-resolution, high-efficiency and easy-fabrication, the proposed probe is promising in endoscopic applications.

Evaluation of fiber optic performance in the ACRR

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bodette, D.E.; Brannon, P.J.

1993-05-01

Four fluorosilica clad, all silica core fibers with polyamide buffers were examined for radiation-induced, transient absorption in the central cavity of the Annular Core Research Reactor. The reactor operated 24 times in the pulse mode, typically yielding gamma doses of 15 krad(Si) and neutron fluences of 1.4 x10 14 nts/cm 2 thermal and 1.0 x 10 15 nts/cm 2 (fast). The two low-OH fibers absorbed 90% of the light in the 400 to 500 nm region and 30% in the 700 and 800 nm region. The high-OH fibers absorbed 20% in the 400 to 500 nm region and 50% in the 700 to 800 nm region. Saturation of the transient induced absorption was observed in all the fibers. No systematic measurements were taken of long term induced absorption. However, excessive absorption was not a problem in any fibers, even those that received total gamma doses of 5 Mrad(Si). Scintillation in the 680 to 820 mn band was observed. This report documents the data from these experiments

Hierarchical Ni0.54Co0.46O2 nanowire and nanosheet arrays grown on carbon fiber cloth for high-performance supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Yuanzhi; Zhang, Lijuan; Zhang, Hang; Zhang, Cui; Liu, Shuangxi

2016-10-01

Hierarchical Ni0.54Co0.46O2 architectures composed by nanowires or nanosheets were successfully grown on bio-mass carbon fiber cloth (CFC) by hydrothermal method. The morphology of Ni0.54Co0.46O2 can be effectively controlled by using different precipitators. The structural effects of the two kinds of morphologies were researched. the results suggest that the Ni0.54Co0.46O2 nanosheet arrays grown on CFC (NCO-NSs/CFC) shows a higher Faradaic areal capacity of 438 μAh cm-2 (238.1 mAh g-1) at a current density of 1 mA cm-2 and still about 90.3% initial capacity retention even at the high current density of 50 mA cm-2. Moreover, an all-solid-state flexible symmetric supercapacitor device has been successfully assembled. The optimized device delivers superior electrochemical performance with an outstanding energy density of 92.4 Wh kg-1 at a power density of 207.2 W kg-1. Such hierarchical nanostructure composed by well-aligned uniform Ni0.54Co0.46O2 nanosheet arrays grown on bio-mass carbon fiber cloth might hold great promise as battery-type electrode material for high-performance supercapacitor.

Biobased Carbon Fibers and High-Performance Thermosetting Resins for Use in U.S. Department of Defense Applications

Science.gov (United States)

2012-06-01

their light weight, high strength, high toughness, resistance to plastic deformation, and inherent corrosion resistance. Therefore, future classes of...processes include high-rate but low-selectivity catalytic cracking and acidification . In contrast, microbial mechanisms produce better selectivity but...alkaline solution of lignin with polyvinyl alcohol added as a plasticizer . More recently, researchers have focused on producing carbon fiber from

Transient attenuation in optical fibers

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hopkins, A.A.; Kelly, R.E.; Looney, L.D.; Lyons, P.B.

1984-01-01

Low and high energy pulsed electron beams were used to generate radiation-induced transient attenuation in high-OH, Suprasil core, PCS fibers, demonstrating the energy dependence of the radiation damage and recovery mechanisms. A radiation resistant low-OH fiber was studied and its performance contrasted to that of high-OH materials. Several fibers with differing core compositions were also studied

Highly thermal conductive carbon fiber/boron carbide composite material

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chiba, Akio; Suzuki, Yasutaka; Goto, Sumitaka; Saito, Yukio; Jinbo, Ryutaro; Ogiwara, Norio; Saido, Masahiro.

1996-01-01

In a composite member for use in walls of a thermonuclear reactor, if carbon fibers and boron carbide are mixed, since they are brought into contact with each other directly, boron is reacted with the carbon fibers to form boron carbide to lower thermal conductivity of the carbon fibers. Then, in the present invention, graphite or amorphous carbon is filled between the carbon fibers to provide a fiber bundle of not less than 500 carbon fibers. Further, the surface of the fiber bundle is coated with graphite or amorphous carbon to suppress diffusion or solid solubilization of boron to carbon fibers or reaction of them. Then, lowering of thermal conductivity of the carbon fibers is prevented, as well as the mixing amount of the carbon fiber bundles with boron carbide, a sintering temperature and orientation of carbon fiber bundles are optimized to provide a highly thermal conductive carbon fiber/boron carbide composite material. In addition, carbide or boride type short fibers, spherical graphite, and amorphous carbon are mixed in the boron carbide to prevent development of cracks. Diffusion or solid solubilization of boron to carbon fibers is reduced or reaction of them if the carbon fibers are bundled. (N.H.)

Fiber lightguide-coupled high frequency analog data system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Davies, T.J.; Nelson, M.A.; Morton, J.R.; Pruett, B.

1976-06-01

An experimental system is described for measuring the time history of a high voltage, high frequency electrical pulse from a radiation detector. The system employs several fibers of a 500-m graded index light-guide cable to carry modelocked laser pulses from a safe location to an electro-optical Kerr cell located near the detector. These 200-ps pulses are widened to 500 ps at the cell by fiber dispersion. They are intensity-modulated in the cell by the electrical signal and returned over other cable fibers to an optical detector and recorder located near the laser. System frequency response exceeds 500 MHz over an amplitude dynamic range of 1000:1

Optical Fiber Demodulation System with High Performance for Assessing Fretting Damage of Steam Generator Tubes.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Peijian; Wang, Ning; Li, Junying; Zhu, Yong; Zhang, Jie; Xi, Zhide

2018-01-12

In order to access the fretting damage of the steam generator tube (SGT), a fast fiber Fabry-Perot (F-P) non-scanning correlation demodulation system based on a super luminescent light emitting diode (SLED) was performed. By demodulating the light signal coming out from the F-P force sensor, the radial collision force between the SGT and the tube support plate (TSP) was interrogated. For higher demodulation accuracy, the effects of the center wavelength, bandwidth, and spectrum noise of SLED were discussed in detail. Specially, a piezoelectric ceramic transducer (PZT) modulation method was developed to get rid of the interference of mode coupling induced by different types of fiber optics in the demodulation system. The reflectivity of optical wedge and F-P sensor was optimized. Finally, the demodulation system worked well in a 1:1 steam generator test loop and successfully demodulated a force signal of 32 N with a collision time of 2 ms.

Optical Fiber Demodulation System with High Performance for Assessing Fretting Damage of Steam Generator Tubes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Peijian Huang

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In order to access the fretting damage of the steam generator tube (SGT, a fast fiber Fabry-Perot (F-P non-scanning correlation demodulation system based on a super luminescent light emitting diode (SLED was performed. By demodulating the light signal coming out from the F-P force sensor, the radial collision force between the SGT and the tube support plate (TSP was interrogated. For higher demodulation accuracy, the effects of the center wavelength, bandwidth, and spectrum noise of SLED were discussed in detail. Specially, a piezoelectric ceramic transducer (PZT modulation method was developed to get rid of the interference of mode coupling induced by different types of fiber optics in the demodulation system. The reflectivity of optical wedge and F-P sensor was optimized. Finally, the demodulation system worked well in a 1:1 steam generator test loop and successfully demodulated a force signal of 32 N with a collision time of 2 ms.

Harvest timing and techniques to optimize fiber quality in the Texas High Plains

Science.gov (United States)

Production conditions typical to the Texas High Plains region can produce cotton crops with high short fiber and nep content, both of which have a detrimental impact on ring spinning performance. Since Texas now produces nearly 50% of the US cotton crop annually, it is critical that research focuses...

Performance polymeric concrete with synthetic fiber reinforcement against reflective cracking in rigid pavement overlay

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Khan, N.U.; Khan, B.

2012-01-01

Cement concrete pavements are used for heavy traffic loads throughout the world owing to its better and economical performance. Placing of a concrete overlay on the existing pavement is the most prevalent rehabilitating method for such pavements, however, the problem associated with the newly placed overlay is the occurrence of reflective cracking. This paper presents an assessment of the performance of polymeric concrete with synthetic fiber reinforcement against reflective cracking in an overlay system. The performance of polymeric concrete with synthetic fibers as an overlay material is measured in terms of the load-deflection, strain-deflection and load-strain behavior of beams of the polymeric concrete. For this purpose, five types of beams having different number of fiber wires and position are tested for flexure strength. Deflection/strains for each increment of load are recorded. In addition, cubes of plain concrete and of concrete with synthetic fiber needles were tested after 7 and 28 days for compressive strengths. Finite element models in ANSYS software for the beams have also been developed. Beams with greater number of longitudinal fiber wires displayed relatively better performance against deflection whilst beams with synthetic fiber needles showed better performance against strains. Thus, polymeric concrete overlay with fiber reinforcement will serve relatively better against occurrence of reflective cracking. (author)

Portable evanescent wave fiber biosensor for highly sensitive detection of Shigella

Science.gov (United States)

Xiao, Rui; Rong, Zhen; Long, Feng; Liu, Qiqi

2014-11-01

A portable evanescent wave fiber biosensor was developed to achieve the rapid and highly sensitive detection of Shigella. In this study, a DNA probe was covalently immobilized onto fiber-optic biosensors that can hybridize with a fluorescently labeled complementary DNA. The sensitivity of detection for synthesized oligonucleotides can reach 10-10 M. The surface of the sensor can be regenerated with 0.5% sodium dodecyl sulfate solution (pH 1.9) for over 30 times without significant deterioration of performance. The total analysis time for a single sample, including the time for measurement and surface regeneration, was less than 6 min. We employed real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and compared the results of both methods to investigate the actual Shigella DNA detection capability of the fiber-optic biosensor. The fiber-optic biosensor could detect as low as 102 colony-forming unit/mL Shigella. This finding was comparable with that by real-time PCR, which suggests that this method is a potential alternative to existing detection methods.

High tensile strength fly ash based geopolymer composite using copper coated micro steel fiber

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ranjbar, Navid; Mehrali, Mehdi; Mehrali, Mohammad

2016-01-01

-matrix interaction. In this present study, effects of micro steel fibers (MSF) incorporation on mechanical properties of fly ash based geopolymer was investigated at different volume ratio of matrix. Various properties of the composite were compared in terms of fresh state by flow measurement and hardened state......As a ceramic-like material, geopolymers show a high quasi-brittle behavior and relatively low fracture energy. To overcome this, the addition of fibers to a brittle matrix is a well-known method to improve the flexural strength. Moreover, the success of the reinforcements is dependent on the fiber...... by variation of shrinkage over time to assess performance of the composites subjected to flexural and compressive load. The fiber-matrix interface, fiber surface and toughening mechanisms were assessed using field emission scan electron microscopy (FESEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) through a period...

Influence of Steel Fibers on the Structural Performance of a Prestressed Concrete Containment Building

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choun, Youngsun; Hahm, Daegi; Park, Junhee

2013-01-01

A large number of previous experimental investigations indicate that the use of steel fibers in conventional reinforced concrete (RC) can enhance the structural and functional performance of prestressed concrete containment buildings (PCCBs) in nuclear power plants. A prevention of through-wall cracks and an increase of the post-cracking ductility will improve the ultimate internal pressure capacity, and a high shear resistance under cyclic loadings will increase the seismic resisting capacity. In this study, the effects of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) on the ultimate pressure and seismic capacities of a PCCB are investigated. The effects of steel fibers on the ultimate pressure and shear resisting capacities of a PCCB are investigated. It is revealed that both of the ultimate pressure capacity and the shear resisting capacity of a PCCB can be greatly enhanced by introducing steel fibers in a conventional RC. Estimation results indicate that the ultimate pressure capacity and maximum lateral displacement of a PCCB can be improved by 16% and 64%, respectively, if a conventional RC contains hooked steel fibers in a volume fraction of 1.0%

Influence of Steel Fibers on the Structural Performance of a Prestressed Concrete Containment Building

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Choun, Youngsun; Hahm, Daegi; Park, Junhee [Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

2013-05-15

A large number of previous experimental investigations indicate that the use of steel fibers in conventional reinforced concrete (RC) can enhance the structural and functional performance of prestressed concrete containment buildings (PCCBs) in nuclear power plants. A prevention of through-wall cracks and an increase of the post-cracking ductility will improve the ultimate internal pressure capacity, and a high shear resistance under cyclic loadings will increase the seismic resisting capacity. In this study, the effects of steel fiber reinforced concrete (SFRC) on the ultimate pressure and seismic capacities of a PCCB are investigated. The effects of steel fibers on the ultimate pressure and shear resisting capacities of a PCCB are investigated. It is revealed that both of the ultimate pressure capacity and the shear resisting capacity of a PCCB can be greatly enhanced by introducing steel fibers in a conventional RC. Estimation results indicate that the ultimate pressure capacity and maximum lateral displacement of a PCCB can be improved by 16% and 64%, respectively, if a conventional RC contains hooked steel fibers in a volume fraction of 1.0%.

Hollow fiber-based liquid phase microextraction combined with high-performance liquid chromatography for extraction and determination of some antidepressant drugs in biological fluids.

Science.gov (United States)

Esrafili, Ali; Yamini, Yadollah; Shariati, Shahab

2007-12-05

The applicability of hollow fiber-based liquid phase microextraction (HF-LPME) was evaluated for the extraction and preconcentration of three antidepressant drugs (amitriptyline, imipramine and sertraline) prior to their determination by HPLC-UV. The target drugs were extracted from 11.0 mL of aqueous solution with pH 12.0 (source phase) into an organic extracting solvent (n-dodecane) impregnated in the pores of a hollow fiber and finally back extracted into 24 microL of aqueous solution located inside the lumen of the hollow fiber and adjusted to pH 2.1 using 0.1M of H3PO4 (receiving phase). The extraction was performed due to pH gradient between the inside and outside of the hollow fiber membrane. In order to obtain high extraction efficiency, the parameters affecting the HF-LPME including pH of the source and receiving phases, the type of organic phase, ionic strength and volume of the source phase, stirring rate and extraction time were studied and optimized. Under the optimized conditions, enrichment factors up to 300 were achieved and the relative standard deviation (R.S.D.%) of the method was in the range of 2-12%. The calibration curves were obtained in the range of 5-500 microg L(-1) with reasonable linearity (R2>0.998) and the limits of detection (LODs) ranged between 0.5 and 0.7 microg L(-1) (based on S/N=3). Finally, the applicability of the proposed method was evaluated by extraction and determination of the drugs in urine, plasma and tap water samples. The results indicated that hollow fiber microextraction method has excellent clean-up and high-preconcentration factor and can be served as a simple and sensitive method for monitoring of antidepressant drugs in the biological samples.

Waveguide-loaded silica fibers for coupling to high-index micro-resonators

Science.gov (United States)

Latawiec, P.; Burek, M. J.; Venkataraman, V.; Lončar, M.

2016-01-01

Tapered silica fibers are often used to rapidly probe the optical properties of micro-resonators. However, their low refractive index precludes phase-matching when coupling to high-index micro-resonators, reducing efficiency. Here, we demonstrate efficient optical coupling from tapered fibers to high-index micro-resonators by loading the fibers with an ancillary adiabatic waveguide-coupler fabricated via angled-etching. We demonstrate greatly enhanced coupling to a silicon multimode micro-resonator when compared to coupling via the bare fiber only. Signatures of resonator optical bistability are observed at high powers. This scheme can be applied to resonators of any size and material, increasing the functional scope of fiber coupling.

Behavior and strength of beams cast with ultra high strength concrete containing different types of fibers

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M.M. Kamal

2014-04-01

Full Text Available Ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC is a special type of concrete with extraordinary potentials in terms of strength and durability performance. Its production and application implement the most up-to-date knowledge and technology of concrete manufacturing. Sophisticated structural designs in bridges and high-rise buildings, repair works and special structures like nuclear facilities are currently the main fields of applications of UHPC. This paper aimed to evaluate the behavior of ultra-high strength concrete beams. This paper also aimed to determine the effect of adding fibers and explore their effect upon the behavior and strength of the reinforced concrete beams. A total of twelve simple concrete beams with and without shear reinforcements were tested in flexure. The main variables taken into consideration in this research were the type of fibers and the percentage of longitudinal reinforcement as well as the existence or absence of the web reinforcement. Two types of fibers were used including steel and polypropylene fibers. The behavior of the tested beams was investigated with special attention to the deflection under different stages of loading, initial cracking, cracking pattern, and ultimate load. Increased number of cracks was observed at the end of loading due to the use of fibers, which led to the reduced width of cracks. This led to increased stiffness and higher values of maximum loads.

Development in High-Density Cobra Fiber Positioners for the Subaru Telescope's Prime Focus Spectrometer

Science.gov (United States)

Fisher, Charles D.; Braun, David F.; Kaluzny, Joel V.; Seiffert, Mic D.; Dekany, Richard G.; Ellis, Richard S.; Smith, Roger S.

2012-01-01

The Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) is a fiber fed multi-object spectrometer for the Subaru Telescope that will conduct a variety of targeted surveys for studies of dark energy, galaxy evolution, and galactic archaeology. The key to the instrument is a high density array of fiber positioners placed at the prime focus of the Subaru Telescope. The system, nicknamed "Cobra", will be capable of rapidly reconfiguring the array of 2394 optical fibers to the image positions of astronomical targets in the focal plane with high accuracy. The system uses 2394 individual "SCARA robot" mechanisms that are 7.7mm in diameter and use 2 piezo-electric rotary motors to individually position each of the optical fibers within its patrol region. Testing demonstrates that the Cobra positioner can be moved to within 5 micrometers of an astronomical target in 6 move iterations with a success rate of 95%. The Cobra system is a key aspect of PFS that will enable its unprecedented combination of high-multiplex factor and observing efficiency on the Subaru telescope. The requirements, design, and prototyping efforts for the fiber positioner system for the PFS are described here as are the plans for modular construction, assembly, integration, functional testing, and performance validation.

Performance and calibration of wave length shifting fibers for K2K SciBar detector

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Morita, Taichi

2004-01-01

The wave length shifting (WLS) fibers (Kuraray Y11 (200) MS) are used for light collection from scintillators in the SciBar detector. The performance of WLS fibers was measured before installation. Because the number of WLS fibers is about 15,000, it is necessary to make a system to measure attenuation length of WLS fibers efficiently. I will report the pre-calibration method for measurement and the performance of the WLS fibers in SciBar detector. (author)

Fabrication of highly conductive carbon nanotube fibers for electrical application

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guo, Fengmei; Li, Can; Wei, Jinquan; Xu, Ruiqiao; Zhang, Zelin; Cui, Xian; Wang, Kunlin; Wu, Dehai

2015-01-01

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have great potential for use as electrical wires because of their outstanding electrical and mechanical properties. Here, we fabricate lightweight CNT fibers with electrical conductivity as high as that of stainless steel from macroscopic CNT films by drawing them through diamond wire-drawing dies. The entangled CNT bundles are straightened by suffering tension, which improves the alignment of the fibers. The loose fibers are squeezed by the diamond wire-drawing dies, which reduces the intertube space and contact resistance. The CNT fibers prepared by drawing have an electrical conductivity as high as 1.6 × 10 6 s m −1 . The fibers are very stable when kept in the air and under cyclic tensile test. A prototype of CNT motor is demonstrated by replacing the copper wires with the CNT fibers. (paper)

High-power fiber lasers for photocathode electron injectors

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Zhi Zhao

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Many new applications for electron accelerators require high-brightness, high-average power beams, and most rely on photocathode-based electron injectors as a source of electrons. To achieve such a photoinjector, one requires both a high-power laser system to produce the high average current beam, and also a system at reduced repetition rate for electron beam diagnostics to verify high beam brightness. Here we report on two fiber laser systems designed to meet these specific needs, at 50 MHz and 1.3 GHz repetition rate, together with pulse pickers, second harmonic generation, spatiotemporal beam shaping, intensity feedback, and laser beam transport. The performance and flexibility of these laser systems have allowed us to demonstrate electron beam with both low emittance and high average current for the Cornell energy recovery linac.

A simple-architecture fibered transmission system for dissemination of high stability 100 MHz signals

Science.gov (United States)

Bakir, A.; Rocher, C.; Maréchal, B.; Bigler, E.; Boudot, R.; Kersalé, Y.; Millo, J.

2018-05-01

We report on the development of a simple-architecture fiber-based frequency distribution system used to transfer high frequency stability 100 MHz signals. This work is focused on the emitter and the receiver performances that allow the transmission of the radio-frequency signal over an optical fiber. The system exhibits a residual fractional frequency stability of 1 × 10-14 at 1 s integration time and in the low 10-16 range after 100 s. These performances are suitable to transfer the signal of frequency references such as those of a state-of-the-art hydrogen maser without any phase noise compensation scheme. As an application, we demonstrate the dissemination of such a signal through a 100 m long optical fiber without any degradation. The proposed setup could be easily extended for operating frequencies in the 10 MHz-1 GHz range.

Solid-State High Performance Flexible Supercapacitors Based on Polypyrrole-MnO2-Carbon Fiber Hybrid Structure

Science.gov (United States)

Tao, Jiayou; Liu, Nishuang; Ma, Wenzhen; Ding, Longwei; Li, Luying; Su, Jun; Gao, Yihua

2013-07-01

A solid-state flexible supercapacitor (SC) based on organic-inorganic composite structure was fabricated through an ``in situ growth for conductive wrapping'' and an electrode material of polypyrrole (PPy)-MnO2 nanoflakes-carbon fiber (CF) hybrid structure was obtained. The conductive organic material of PPy greatly improved the electrochemical performance of the device. With a high specific capacitance of 69.3 F cm-3 at a discharge current density of 0.1 A cm-3 and an energy density of 6.16 × 10-3 Wh cm-3 at a power density of 0.04 W cm-3, the device can drive a commercial liquid crystal display (LCD) after being charged. The organic-inorganic composite active materials have enormous potential in energy management and the ``in situ growth for conductive wrapping'' method might be generalized to open up new strategies for designing next-generation energy storage devices.

Development of high capacity, high rate lithium ion batteries utilizing metal fiber conductive additives

Science.gov (United States)

Ahn, Soonho; Kim, Youngduk; Kim, Kyung Joon; Kim, Tae Hyung; Lee, Hyungkeun; Kim, Myung H.

As lithium ion cells dominate the battery market, the performance improvement is an utmost concern among developers and researchers. Conductive additives are routinely employed to enhance electrode conductivity and capacity. Carbon particulates—graphite or carbon black powders—are conventional and popular choices as conductive fillers. However, percolation requirements of particles demand significant volumetric content of impalpable, and thereby high area conductive fillers. As might be expected, the electrode active surface area escalates unnecessarily, resulting in overall increase in reaction with electrolytes and organic solvents. The increased reactions usually manifest as an irreversible loss of anode capacity, gradual oxidation and consumption of electrolyte on the cathode—which causes capacity decline during cycling—and an increased threat to battery safety by gas evolution and exothermic solvent oxidation. In this work we have utilized high aspect ratio, flexible, micronic metal fibers as low active area and high conductivity additives. The metal fibers appear well dispersed within the electrode and to satisfy percolation requirements very efficiently at very low volumetric content compared to conventional carbon-based conductive additives. Results from 18650-type cells indicate significant enhancements in electrode capacity and high rate capability while the irreversible capacity loss is negligible.

A fiber optic temperature sensor based on multi-core microstructured fiber with coupled cores for a high temperature environment

Science.gov (United States)

Makowska, A.; Markiewicz, K.; Szostkiewicz, L.; Kolakowska, A.; Fidelus, J.; Stanczyk, T.; Wysokinski, K.; Budnicki, D.; Ostrowski, L.; Szymanski, M.; Makara, M.; Poturaj, K.; Tenderenda, T.; Mergo, P.; Nasilowski, T.

2018-02-01

Sensors based on fiber optics are irreplaceable wherever immunity to strong electro-magnetic fields or safe operation in explosive atmospheres is needed. Furthermore, it is often essential to be able to monitor high temperatures of over 500°C in such environments (e.g. in cooling systems or equipment monitoring in power plants). In order to meet this demand, we have designed and manufactured a fiber optic sensor with which temperatures up to 900°C can be measured. The sensor utilizes multi-core fibers which are recognized as the dedicated medium for telecommunication or shape sensing, but as we show may be also deployed advantageously in new types of fiber optic temperature sensors. The sensor presented in this paper is based on a dual-core microstructured fiber Michelson interferometer. The fiber is characterized by strongly coupled cores, hence it acts as an all-fiber coupler, but with an outer diameter significantly wider than a standard fused biconical taper coupler, which significantly increases the coupling region's mechanical reliability. Owing to the proposed interferometer imbalance, effective operation and high-sensitivity can be achieved. The presented sensor is designed to be used at high temperatures as a result of the developed low temperature chemical process of metal (copper or gold) coating. The hermetic metal coating can be applied directly to the silica cladding of the fiber or the fiber component. This operation significantly reduces the degradation of sensors due to hydrolysis in uncontrolled atmospheres and high temperatures.

Scintillating-Glass-Fiber neutron sensors, their application and performance for plutonium detection and monitoring

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Seymour, R.S.; Richardson, B.; Morichi, M.; Bliss, M.; Craig, R.A.; Sunberg, D.S.

1998-01-01

Most neutron detection sensors presently employ 3 He gas-filled detectors. Despite their excellent performance and widespread use, there are significant limitations to this technology. A significant alternative neutron sensor utilizing neutron-active material incorporated into a glass scintillator is presented that offers novel commercial sensors not possible or practical with gas tube technology. The scintillating optical fiber permits sensors with a multitude of sizes ranging from devices of a single fiber of 150μm to sensors with tens of thousands of fibers with areas as large as 5m 2 depending on the neutron flux to be measured. A second significant advantage is the use of high-speed electronics that allow a greater dynamic range, not possible with gas detectors. These sensors are flexible, conformable and less sensitive to vibration that optimizes the source-to-detector geometry and provides robust performance in field applications. The glass-fibers are sensitive to both gamma rays and neutrons. However the coincidence electronics are optimized for neutron to gamma ray discrimination allowing very sensitive measurements with a low false-alarm rate. Applications include SNM surveillance, material control and accountability (MC and A), safeguard inspections, Pu health physics / bioassay and environmental characterization. (author)

A fiber-optic polarimetric demonstration kit

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Eftimov, T; Dimitrova, T L; Ivanov, G

2012-01-01

A simple and multifunctional fiber-optic polarimetric kit on the basis of highly birefringent single-mode fibers is presented. The fiber-optic polarimetric kit allows us to perform the following laboratory exercises: (i) fiber excitation and the measurement of numerical aperture, (ii) polarization preservation and (iii) obtain polarization-sensitive fiberized interferometers.

High-Tg TOPAS microstructured polymer optical fiber for fiber Bragg grating strain sensing at 110 degrees

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Markos, Christos; Stefani, Alessio; Nielsen, Kristian

2013-01-01

We present the fabrication and characterization of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in an endlessly single-mode microstructured polymer optical fiber (mPOF) made of humidity-insensitive high-Tg TOPAS cyclic olefin copolymer. The mPOF is the first made from grade 5013 TOPAS with a glass transition...... temperature of Tg = 135°C and we experimentally demonstrate high strain operation (2.5%) of the FBG at 98°C and stable operation up to a record high temperature of 110°C. The Bragg wavelengths of the FBGs are around 860 nm, where the propagation loss is 5.1dB/m, close to the fiber loss minimum of 3.67d...

Daylight photocatalysis performance of biomorphic CeO2 hollow fibers prepared with lens cleaning paper as biotemplate

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qian, Junchao; Chen, Feng; Wang, Fang; Zhao, Xiaobing; Chen, Zhigang

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► A novel, simple and eco-friendly approach for hierarchical, biomorphic CeO 2 hollow fibers with mesoporous tube walls is presented by using paper as template. ► The biomorphic CeO 2 fibers was composed of nanosheets with bimodal pore-size mesoporous distribution and exhibited high light-harvesting under sunlight irradiation. ► The CeO 2 microfibers biomimicking the natural plant structures have promising application for photodegradation of organic pollutants in water. -- Abstract: Hierarchical, biomorphic CeO 2 hollow fibers with mesoporous tube walls have been fabricated using lens cleaning paper as biotemplates. After sintered at 550 °C in air, the cellulosic fibers of paper were converted into micro-tubes composing of CeO 2 crystallites with grain size about 8 nm. The photocatalytic activity of the CeO 2 fibers was evaluated by photodegradation efficiency of methylene blue in aqueous solution under daylight irradiation. The characterized results show that the CeO 2 fibers faithfully replicated micro-fibrous structure derived from original template and possessed dramatic enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with bulk CeO 2 . This simple biotemplate method provides a cost-effective and eco-friendly route to obtain high performance photocatalysts.

High Power Fiber Laser Test Bed

Data.gov (United States)

Federal Laboratory Consortium — This facility, unique within DoD, power-combines numerous cutting-edge fiber-coupled laser diode modules (FCLDM) to integrate pumping of high power rare earth-doped...

Performance of multiclad scintillating and clear waveguide fibers read out with visible light photon counters

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Baumbaugh, B. (Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)); Erdman, J. (Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)); Gaskell, D. (Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)); Lu, Q. (Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)); Marchant, J. (Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)); Ruchti, R. (Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)); Wayne, M. (Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)); Cooper, C. (Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (United States)); Hinson, J. (Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (United States)); Koltick, D.S. (Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907 (United State

1994-06-15

Measurements have been made of the performance of scintillating fibers read out with visible light photon counters (VLPCs). The light yields of single-clad and multiclad scintillating fibers have been compared. The experiment consisted of 3 m long scintillating fibers of 830 [mu]m diameter optically coupled to 8 m long waveguide fibers of 965 [mu]m diameter read out with HISTE-IV VLPCs. For the case of multiclad scintillating fiber and waveguide, an average of 6.2 photoelectrons was detected from the far end of the scintillating fiber if the fiber end was unmirrored, and 10.2 photoelectrons if the fiber end was mirrored. With this substantial photoelectron yield, minimum-ionizing tracks can be easily detected in fiber arrays, and excellent performance characteristics are expected for the fiber trackers designed for the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider and the SDC experiment at the SSC Laboratory. ((orig.))

Study on creep of fiber reinforced ultra-high strength concrete based on strength

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Wenjun; Wang, Tao

2018-04-01

To complement the creep performance of ultra-high strength concrete, the long creep process of fiber reinforced concrete was studied in this paper. The long-term creep process and regularity of ultra-high strength concrete with 0.5% PVA fiber under the same axial compression were analyzed by using concrete strength (C80/C100/C120) as a variable. The results show that the creep coefficient of ultra-high strength concrete decreases with the increase of concrete strength. Compared with ACI209R (92), GL2000 models, it is found that the predicted value of ACI209R (92) are close to the experimental value, and the creep prediction model suitable for this experiment is proposed based on ACI209R (92).

Study on Performance of Steel Fiber Concrete Bridge Pier Specimens under Horizontal Cyclic Loading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baiben Chen

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Because of that steel fiber can effectively prevent the extension and development of small cracks in the concrete, steel fiber reinforced concrete has good toughness and tensile strength. In the application of building materials, steel fiber reinforced concrete is an ideal elastic-plastic material. For the seismic performance, it has advantages. In order to analyze the seismic performance of steel fiber reinforced concrete, 4 piers of the scale model test under horizontal cyclic loading were done. The results showed that failure mode of steel fiber reinforced concrete is better than that of ordinary concrete, and has a large yield moment under the external loads.

Demonstration of a Fiber Optic Regression Probe in a High-Temperature Flow

Science.gov (United States)

Korman, Valentin; Polzin, Kurt

2011-01-01

The capability to provide localized, real-time monitoring of material regression rates in various applications has the potential to provide a new stream of data for development testing of various components and systems, as well as serving as a monitoring tool in flight applications. These applications include, but are not limited to, the regression of a combusting solid fuel surface, the ablation of the throat in a chemical rocket or the heat shield of an aeroshell, and the monitoring of erosion in long-life plasma thrusters. The rate of regression in the first application is very fast, while the second and third are increasingly slower. A recent fundamental sensor development effort has led to a novel regression, erosion, and ablation sensor technology (REAST). The REAST sensor allows for measurement of real-time surface erosion rates at a discrete surface location. The sensor is optical, using two different, co-located fiber-optics to perform the regression measurement. The disparate optical transmission properties of the two fiber-optics makes it possible to measure the regression rate by monitoring the relative light attenuation through the fibers. As the fibers regress along with the parent material in which they are embedded, the relative light intensities through the two fibers changes, providing a measure of the regression rate. The optical nature of the system makes it relatively easy to use in a variety of harsh, high temperature environments, and it is also unaffected by the presence of electric and magnetic fields. In addition, the sensor could be used to perform optical spectroscopy on the light emitted by a process and collected by fibers, giving localized measurements of various properties. The capability to perform an in-situ measurement of material regression rates is useful in addressing a variety of physical issues in various applications. An in-situ measurement allows for real-time data regarding the erosion rates, providing a quick method for

Exploration of coal-based pitch precursors for ultra-high thermal conductivity graphite fibers. Final report

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Deshpande, G.V. [Amoco Performance Products, Inc., Alpharetta, GA (United States)

1996-12-27

Goal was to explore the utility of coal-based pitch precursors for use in ultra high thermal conductivity carbon (graphite) fibers. From graphite electrode experience, it was established that coal-based pitches tend to form more highly crystalline graphite at lower temperatures. Since the funding was limited to year 1 effort of the 3 year program, the goal was only partially achieved. The coal-base pitches can form large domain mesophase in spite of high N and O contents. The mesophase reactivity test performed on one of the variants of coal-based pitch (DO84) showed that it was not a good candidate for carbon fiber processing. Optimization of WVU`s isotropic pitch process is required to tailor the pitch for carbon fiber processing. The hetero atoms in the coal pitch need to be reduced to improve mesophase formation.

Monolithic, High-Speed Fiber-Optic Switching Array for Lidar

Science.gov (United States)

Suckow, Will; Roberts, Tony; Switzer, Gregg; Terwilliger, Chelle

2011-01-01

Current fiber switch technologies use mechanical means to redirect light beams, resulting in slow switch time, as well as poor reliability due to moving parts wearing out quickly at high speeds. A non-mechanical ability to switch laser output into one of multiple fibers within a fiber array can provide significant power, weight, and costs savings to an all-fiber system. This invention uses an array of crystals that act as miniature prisms to redirect light as an electric voltage changes the prism s properties. At the heart of the electro-optic fiber-optic switch is an electro- optic crystal patterned with tiny prisms that can deflect the beam from the input fiber into any one of the receiving fibers arranged in a linear array when a voltage is applied across the crystal. Prism boundaries are defined by a net dipole moment in the crystal lattice that has been poled opposite to the surrounding lattice fabricated using patterned, removable microelectrodes. When a voltage is applied across the crystal, the resulting electric field changes the index of refraction within the prism boundaries relative to the surrounding substrate, causing light to deflect slightly according to Snell s Law. There are several materials that can host the necessary monolithic poled pattern (including, but not limited to, SLT, KTP, LiNbO3, and Mg:LiNbO3). Be cause this is a solid-state system without moving parts, it is very fast, and does not wear down easily. This invention is applicable to all fiber networks, as well as industries that use such networks. The unit comes in a compact package, can handle both low and high voltages, and has a high reliability (100,000 hours without maintenance).

Ultra High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (UHPFRC: a review of material properties and design procedures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. E. T. Buttignol

Full Text Available ABSTRACT This paper does a review of the recent achievements on the knowledge of UHPFRC properties and in the development of design procedures. UHPFRC is defined as a new material, with unique properties (high ductility, low permeability, very high strength capacity in compression, higher toughness in comparison to conventional concrete. It is important to know both material and mechanical properties to fully take advantage of its outstanding properties for structural applications. However, since this is a new material, the current design codes are not well suited and should be reviewed before being applied to UHPFRC. In the first part, the following material properties are addressed: hydration process; permeability; fibers role; mix design; fiber-matrix bond properties workability; mixing procedure; and curing. In the second part, the mechanical properties of the material are discussed, together with some design recommendations. The aspects herein examined are: size effect; compressive and flexural strength; tensile stress-strain relation; shear and punching shear capacity; creep and shrinkage; fracture energy; steel bars anchorage and adherence. Besides, the tensile mechanical characterization is described using inverse analysis based on bending tests data. In the last part, material behavior at high temperature is discussed, including physical-chemical transformations of the concrete, spalling effect, and transient creep. In the latter case, a new Load Induced Thermal Strain (LITS semi-empirical model is described and compared with UHPC experimental results.

High-power picosecond pulse delivery through hollow core photonic band gap fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michieletto, Mattia; Johansen, Mette Marie; Lyngsø, Jens Kristian

2015-01-01

We demonstrated robust and bend insensitive fiber delivery of high power pulsed laser with diffraction limited beam quality for two different kind of hollow core photonic band gap fibers......We demonstrated robust and bend insensitive fiber delivery of high power pulsed laser with diffraction limited beam quality for two different kind of hollow core photonic band gap fibers...

No-core fiber-based highly sensitive optical fiber pH sensor.

Science.gov (United States)

Bhardwaj, Vanita; Pathak, Akhilesh Kumar; Singh, Vinod Kumar

2017-05-01

The present work describes the fabrication and characterization of an optical fiber pH sensor using a sol–gel technique. The sensing head configuration is incorporated using a short section of no-core fiber, coated with tetraethyl orthosilicate and spliced at the end of a single mode fiber with a bulge. Different types of indicators (bromophenol blue, cresol red, and chlorophenol red) were used to achieve a wide pH range from 2 to 13. High sensitivities of the fabricated device were found to be 1.02 and ? 0.93 ?? nm / pH for acidic and alkaline solutions, respectively. From the characterization results, it was noted that there is an impact of ionic strength and an effect of the temperature of liquid on the response characteristic, which is an advantage of the existing device over the other pH sensors. The fabricated sensor exhibited good reflection spectrum, indicating a blueshift in resonance wavelength for alkaline solutions and a redshift for acidic solutions.

High-power ultralong-wavelength Tm-doped silica fiber laser cladding-pumped with a random distributed feedback fiber laser.

Science.gov (United States)

Jin, Xiaoxi; Du, Xueyuan; Wang, Xiong; Zhou, Pu; Zhang, Hanwei; Wang, Xiaolin; Liu, Zejin

2016-07-15

We demonstrated a high-power ultralong-wavelength Tm-doped silica fiber laser operating at 2153 nm with the output power exceeding 18 W and the slope efficiency of 25.5%. A random distributed feedback fiber laser with the center wavelength of 1173 nm was employed as pump source of Tm-doped fiber laser for the first time. No amplified spontaneous emissions or parasitic oscillations were observed when the maximum output power reached, which indicates that employing 1173 nm random distributed feedback fiber laser as pump laser is a feasible and promising scheme to achieve high-power emission of long-wavelength Tm-doped fiber laser. The output power of this Tm-doped fiber laser could be further improved by optimizing the length of active fiber, reflectivity of FBGs, increasing optical efficiency of pump laser and using better temperature management. We also compared the operation of 2153 nm Tm-doped fiber lasers pumped with 793 nm laser diodes, and the maximum output powers were limited to ~2 W by strong amplified spontaneous emission and parasitic oscillation in the range of 1900-2000 nm.

Heterogeneous all-solid multicore fiber based multipath Michelson interferometer for high temperature sensing.

Science.gov (United States)

Duan, Li; Zhang, Peng; Tang, Ming; Wang, Ruoxu; Zhao, Zhiyong; Fu, Songnian; Gan, Lin; Zhu, Benpeng; Tong, Weijun; Liu, Deming; Shum, Perry Ping

2016-09-05

A compact high temperature sensor utilizing a multipath Michelson interferometer (MI) structure based on weak coupling multicore fiber (MCF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The device is fabricated by program-controlled tapering the spliced region between single mode fiber (SMF) and a segment of MCF. After that, a spherical reflective structure is formed by arc-fusion splicing the end face of MCF. Theoretical analysis has been implemented for this specific multipath MI structure; beam propagation method based simulation and corresponding experiments were performed to investigate the effect of taper and spherical end face on system's performance. Benefiting from the multipath interferences and heterogeneous structure between the center core and surrounding cores of the all-solid MCF, an enhanced temperature sensitivity of 165 pm/°C up to 900°C and a high-quality interference spectrum with 25 dB fringe visibility were achieved.

The Application of Several High Performance Fibers and Composite Materials in High Speed Train both in Abroad and Home%国外高性能纤维及其复合材料在高速列车的应用

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

罗晰旻; 罗益锋

2011-01-01

简述了数种高性能纤维的特性,并列举韩国铁道研究所和韩国纤维玻璃公司承建的CFRP车厢、日本新干线N700系列高速列车、意大利ETR 500和ETR 1000高速列车车头、法国国营铁路公司的TGV高速列车所使用的高性能纤维复合材料情况。最后,列举了国内外专利所发表的有关高速列车所用的各种部件的材料。%The characteristics of several high performance fibers were illustrated briefly. The application of high performance fibers composites in South Korea Railway Institute and Hankuk Fiber Glass Company＇s CFRP railway carriage, Japanese new trunk line N700 series high speed train, Italian ETR500 and ETR1000 high speed train locomotive, French state Run Railway Company＇s TGV high speed train were also introduced. Finally, the materials of various parts used in high speed train were related.

Influence of Basalt FRP Mesh Reinforcement on High-Performance Concrete Thin Plates at High Temperatures

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hulin, Thomas; Lauridsen, Dan H.; Hodicky, Kamil

2015-01-01

A basalt fiber–reinforced polymer (BFRP) mesh was introduced as reinforcement in high-performance concrete (HPC) thin plates (20–30 mm) for implementation in precast sandwich panels. An experimental program studied the BFRP mesh influence on HPC exposed to high temperature. A set of standard...... furnace tests compared performances of HPC with and without BFRP mesh, assessing material behavior; another set including polypropylene (PP) fibers to avoid spalling compared the performance of BFRP mesh reinforcement to that of regular steel reinforcement, assessing mechanical properties......, requiring the use of steel. Microscope observations highlighted degradation of the HPC-BFRP mesh interface with temperature due to the melting polymer matrix of the mesh. These observations call for caution when using fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) reinforcement in elements exposed to fire hazard....

Welding with high power fiber lasers - A preliminary study

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Quintino, L.; Costa, A.; Miranda, R.; Yapp, D.; Kumar, V.; Kong, C.J.

2007-01-01

The new generation of high power fiber lasers presents several benefits for industrial purposes, namely high power with low beam divergence, flexible beam delivery, low maintenance costs, high efficiency and compact size. This paper presents a brief review of the development of high power lasers, and presents initial data on welding of API 5L: X100 pipeline steel with an 8 kW fiber laser. Weld bead geometry was evaluated and transition between conduction and deep penetration welding modes was investigated

Basic role of the fiber/matrix interface on the fatigue performance of unidirectional fiberglass-reinforced composites

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shih, C.

1985-01-01

The goal of this study was that of determining the fiber/matrix interface in affecting the static bending and flexural fatigue performance of oriented fiber composites, and of evaluating the performance of silicon phthalocyanine coupling agents. Untreated, commercial silane treated, and silicon phthalocyanine agent treated fiberglass composites, as well as boiling-water degraded composites, were used to get different fiber/matrix interface conditions. The dry flexural strength of all composites was about the same. The flexural strength and the fractography of N-(2-aminoethyl)-3-aminopropyl-trimethoxysilane treated composites essentially remained the same after the hydrothermal treatment. Silicon phthalocyanine agent treated composites had a marginally high wet flexural strength retention as compared with that of the composites without coupling agent. When the interface degraded, the failure modes in a four-point bending (flexural) test changed from tensile flexural failure to compressive flexural failure, then to the shear failure mode

Performance of the CHORUS lead-scintillating fiber calorimeter

CERN Document Server

Buontempo, S

1997-01-01

We report on the design and performance of the lead-scintillating fiber calorimeter of the CHORUS experiment, which searches for νμ-ντ oscillations in the CERN Wide Band Neutrino beam. Two of the three sectors in which the calorimeter is divided are made of lead and plastic scintillating fibers, and they represent the first large scale application of this technique for combined electromagnetic and hadronic calorimetry. The third sector is built using the sandwich technique with lead plates and scintillator strips and acts as a tail catcher for the hadronic energy flow. From tests performed at the CERN SPS and PS an energy resolution of σ(E)/E=(32.3±2.4)%/E(GeV)+(1.4±0.7)% was measured for pions, and σ(E)/E=(13.8±0.9)%/E(GeV)+(−0.2±0.4)% for electrons.

Fiber optic quench detection via optimized Rayleigh Scattering in high-field YBCO accelerator magnets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Flanagan, Gene [North Carolina State Univ., Raleigh, NC (United States)

2016-02-17

Yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) coated conductors are known for their ability to operate in the superconducting state at relatively high temperatures, even above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K). When these same conductors are operated at lower temperatures, they are able to operate in much higher magnetic fields than traditional superconductors like NiTi or Nb₃Sn. Thus, YBCO superconducting magnets are one of the primary options for generating the high magnetic fields needed for future high energy physics devices. Due to slow quench propagation, quench detection remains one of the primary limitations to YBCO magnets. Fiber optic sensing, based upon Rayleigh scattering, has the potential for spatial resolution approaching the wavelength of light, or very fast temporal resolution at low spatial resolution, and a continuum of combinations in between. This project has studied, theoretically and experimentally, YBCO magnets and Rayleigh scattering quench detection systems to demonstrate feasibility of the systems for YBCO quench protection systems. Under this grant an experimentally validated 3D quench propagation model was used to accurately define the acceptable range of spatial and temporal resolutions for effective quench detection in YBCO magnets and to evaluate present-day and potentially improved YBCO conductors. The data volume and speed requirements for quench detection via Rayleigh scattering required the development of a high performance fiber optic based quench detection/data acquisition system and its integration with an existing voltage tap/thermo-couple based system. In this project, optical fibers are tightly co-wound into YBCO magnet coils, with the fiber on top of the conductor as turn-to-turn insulation. Local changes in the temperature or strain of the conductor are sensed by the optical fiber, which is in close thermal and mechanical contact with the conductor. Intrinsic imperfections in the fiber reflect Rayleigh

Synthesis of ultrathin mesoporous NiCo2O4 nanosheets on carbon fiber paper as integrated high-performance electrodes for supercapacitors

Science.gov (United States)

Deng, Fangze; Yu, Lin; Cheng, Gao; Lin, Ting; Sun, Ming; Ye, Fei; Li, Yongfeng

2014-04-01

Two-dimensional ultrathin mesoporous NiCo2O4 nanosheets on carbon fiber paper (CFP) are synthesized through a facile solvothermal method combined with a post thermal treatment. The well interconnected ultrathin NiCo2O4 nanosheets directly grown on the carbon nanofibers could allow for easy diffusion of the electrolyte, shorten the transport path of ion and electron and accommodate the strain during cycling. As a result, superior pseudocapacitive performance is achieved with large specific capacitance of 999 F g-1 at a high current density of 20 A g-1. The capacitance loss is 15.6% after 3000 cycles at a current density of 10 A g-1, displaying good cycle ability and high rate capability.

Water Absorption Properties of Heat-Treated Bamboo Fiber and High Density Polyethylene Composites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lanxing Du

2014-01-01

Full Text Available To modify water absorption properties of bamboo fiber (BF and high density polyethylene (HDPE composites, heat treatment of BFs was performed prior to compounding them with HDPE to form the composites. The moisture sorption property of the composites was measured and their diffusion coefficients (Dm were evaluated using a one-dimensional diffusion model. Moisture diffusion coefficient values of all composites were in the range of 0.115x10-8 to 1.267x10-8 cm2/s. The values of Dm decreased with increasing BF heat-treatment temperature, and increased with increasing BF loading level. The Dm value of 40 wt% bamboo fiber/HDPE composites with BFs treated with 100 oC was the greatest (i.e., 1.267x10-8cm2/s. Morphology analysis showed increased fiber-matrix interfacial bonding damage due to fiber swelling and shrinking from water uptaking and drying. The mechanism of water absorption of the composite, indicated a general Fickian diffusion process.

Polyacrylonitrile Fibers Anchored Cobalt/Graphene Sheet Nanocomposite: A Low-Cost, High-Performance and Reusable Catalyst for Hydrogen Generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Fei; Huang, Guoji; Hou, Chengyi; Wang, Hongzhi; Zhang, Qinghong; Li, Yaogang

2016-06-01

Cobalt and its composites are known to be active and inexpensive catalysts in sodium borohydride (NaBH4) hydrolysis to generate clean and renewable hydrogen energy. A novel fiber catalyst, cobalt/graphene sheet nanocomposite anchored on polyacrylonitrile fibers (Co/GRs-PANFs), which can be easily recycled and used in any reactor with different shapes, were synthesized by anchoring cobalt/graphene (Co/GRs) on polyacrylonitrile fibers coated with graphene (GRs-PANFs) at low temperature. The unique structure design effectively prevents the inter-sheet restacking of Co/GRs and fully exploits the large surface area of novel hybrid material for generate hydrogen. And the extra electron transfer path supplied by GRs on the surface of GRs-PANFs can also enhance their catalysis performances. The catalytic activity of the catalyst was investigated by the hydrolysis of NaBH4 in aqueous solution with GRs-PANFs. GRs powders and Co powders were used as control groups. It was found that both GRs and fiber contributed to the hydrogen generation rate of Co/GRs-PANFs (3222 mL x min(-1) x g(-1)), which is much higher than that of cobalt powders (915 mL x min(-1) x g(-1)) and Co/GRs (995 mL x min(-1) x g(-1)). The improved hydrogen generation rate, low cost and uncomplicated recycling make the Co/GRs-PANFs promising candidate as catalysts for hydrogen generation.

Microstructured fibers with high lanthanum oxide glass core for nonlinear applications

Science.gov (United States)

Kobelke, J.; Schuster, K.; Litzkendorf, D.; Schwuchow, A.; Kirchhof, J.; Bartelt, H.; Tombelaine, V.; Leproux, P.; Couderc, V.; Labruyere, A.

2009-05-01

We demonstrate a low loss microstructured fiber (MOF) with a high nonlinear glass core and silica holey cladding. The substitution of mostly used silica as core material of microstructured fibers by lanthanum oxide glass promises a high nonlinear conversion efficiency for supercontinuum (SC) generation. The glass composition is optimized in terms of thermochemical and optical requirements. The glass for the MOF core has a high lanthanum oxide concentration (10 mol% La2O3) and a good compatibility with the silica cladding. This is performed by adding a suitable alumina concentration up to 20 mol%. The lanthanum oxide glass preform rods were manufactured by melting technique. Besides purity issues the material homogeneity plays an important role to achieve low optical loss. The addition of fluorides allows the better homogenization of the glass composition in the preform volume by refining. The minimum attenuation of an unstructured fiber drawn from this glass is about 0.6 dB/m. It is mostly caused by decreasing of scattering effects. The microstructured silica cladding allows the considerable shifting of dispersive behavior of the MOF for an optimal pump light conversion. The MOF shows zero dispersion wavelengths (ZDW) of 1140 nm (LP01 mode) and 970 nm (LP11 mode). The supercontinuum generation was investigated with a 1064 nm pump laser (650 ps). It shows a broad band emission between 500 nm and 2200 nm.

FEM performance of concrete beams reinforced by carbon fiber bars

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hasan Hashim

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Concrete structures may be vulnerable to harsh environment, reinforcement with Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP bars have an increasing acceptance than normal steel. The nature of (FRP bar is (non-corrosive which is very beneficial for increased durability as well as the reinforcement of FRP bar has higher strength than steel bar. FRP usage are being specified more and more by public structural engineers and individual companies as main reinforcement and as strengthening of structures. Steel reinforcement as compared to (FRP reinforcement are decreasingly acceptable for structural concrete reinforcement including precast concrete, cast in place concrete, columns, beams and other components. Carbon Fiber Reinforcement Polymer (CFRP have a very high modulus of elasticity “high modulus” and very high tensile strength. In aerospace industry, CFRP with high modulus are popular among all FRPs because it has a high strength to weight ratio. In this research, a finite element models will be used to represent beams with Carbon Fiber Reinforcement and beams with steel reinforcement. The primary objective of the research is the evaluation of the effect of (CFR on beam reinforcement.

Fiber Optic Telemetry System for LLL High-Voltage Test Stand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Richter, J.P.

1977-01-01

This paper describes the Fiber Optic Telemetry System designed to operate in the hostile particle and electromagnetic radiation environment of the High Voltage Test Stand. It discusses system criteria, components, packaging, and performance. In all tests to date, the system exceeds its design goals with very comfortable margins. It is well advanced into the fabrication stages with all crucial components tested and only straightforward TTL (Transistor Transistor Logic) circuitry to be completed

Design of FHiRE: the Fiber High Resolution Echelle Spectrograph

Science.gov (United States)

Pierce, Michael J.; McLane, Jacob N.; Pilachowski, C. A.; Kobulnicky, Henry; Jang-Condell, Hannah

2018-01-01

The enormous success of the Kepler mission in the discovery of transiting exoplanets implies that the majority of stars have planetary systems. NASA's upcomming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is designed to survey the brightest stars over the entire sky, systems that are accessible to spectroscopic follow-up with mid-sized telescopes. We have undertaken the development of a precision radial velocity spectrograph with the goal of providing ground-based suppoert for TESS. The instrument, known as FHiRE (Fiber High Resolution Echelle spectrograph), is being developed in collaboration with Indiana University and will deployed at the 2.3-meter telescope of the Wyoming InfraRed Observatory (WIRO). FHiRE features a traditional white pupil echelle design with R ~ 60,000 that is fed via two optical fibers from the telescope. Both the science fiber and a simultaneously sampled Thorium-Argon comparison fiber will make use of double mode scramblers. FHiRE itself will be housed within a vacuum enclosure in order to minimize any temperatue variations of the instrument and maximize its radial velocity precision. Together, these two features should enable FHiRE to reach a long-term velocity precision of < 1 m/s. We present the design of FHiRE and its expected performance. In a companion poster (Jang-Condell et al.) we will present the exoplanet science goals of the project.

Effect of Hybrid Fibers on the Mechanical Properties of High Strength Concrete

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hamid H. Hussein, Saeed K. Rejeb Hayder T. Abd

2014-04-01

Full Text Available In this study, high strength concrete of 75 MPa compressive strength was investigated. The experimental program was designed to study the effect of fibers and hybrid fibers (steel and polypropylene fibers on the fresh (workability and wet density and hardened properties (compressive strength, splitting strength, flexural strength and dry density of high strength concrete. Results show that decreases in slump flow of all concrete mixtures containing steel, polypropylene and hybrid fibers compared with control mix (0% fiber. Hybrid high strength concrete with steel and polypropylene fibers showed superior compressive, splitting, flexural strengths over the others concrete without or with single fibers content. The test results indicate that the maximum increase in compressive and flexural strengths are obtains with the hybridization ratio (70%steel + 30% polypropylene and were equal to 14.54% and 23.34% respectively, compared with the control mix. While, the maximum increase in splitting tensile strength with (100% steel fiber + 0 polypropylene is 21.19%. 

High-Capacity Transmission Using High-Density Multicore Fiber

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Morioka, Toshio

2017-01-01

There have been intense research activities on SDM technologies including SDM fibers, MC-, MM-amplifiers, DEMUXs/DEMUXs with record-breaking transmission demonstrations up to 2 Pbit/s. 100 (20 dB) SDM gain, i.e. 10 Pbit/s per fiber will be a short-term goal in order for the new fibers to be consi......There have been intense research activities on SDM technologies including SDM fibers, MC-, MM-amplifiers, DEMUXs/DEMUXs with record-breaking transmission demonstrations up to 2 Pbit/s. 100 (20 dB) SDM gain, i.e. 10 Pbit/s per fiber will be a short-term goal in order for the new fibers...... to be considered for installation in the future systems although the far long term demand should be transporting 1 Ebit/s per fiber over 1000 km meaning Zbit/s-km. Cost effective network capability such as ADM and XC should also be investigated based on the new SDM schemes. In the 10-20 years time frame, we need...

Highly Sensitive and Wide-Dynamic-Range Multichannel Optical-Fiber pH Sensor Based on PWM Technique.

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Md Rajibur Rahaman; Kang, Shin-Won

2016-11-09

In this study, we propose a highly sensitive multichannel pH sensor that is based on an optical-fiber pulse width modulation (PWM) technique. According to the optical-fiber PWM method, the received sensing signal's pulse width changes when the optical-fiber pH sensing-element of the array comes into contact with pH buffer solutions. The proposed optical-fiber PWM pH-sensing system offers a linear sensing response over a wide range of pH values from 2 to 12, with a high pH-sensing ability. The sensitivity of the proposed pH sensor is 0.46 µs/pH, and the correlation coefficient R² is approximately 0.997. Additional advantages of the proposed optical-fiber PWM pH sensor include a short/fast response-time of about 8 s, good reproducibility properties with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of about 0.019, easy fabrication, low cost, small size, reusability of the optical-fiber sensing-element, and the capability of remote sensing. Finally, the performance of the proposed PWM pH sensor was compared with that of potentiometric, optical-fiber modal interferometer, and optical-fiber Fabry-Perot interferometer pH sensors with respect to dynamic range width, linearity as well as response and recovery times. We observed that the proposed sensing systems have better sensing abilities than the above-mentioned pH sensors.

Highly Sensitive and Wide-Dynamic-Range Multichannel Optical-Fiber pH Sensor Based on PWM Technique

Science.gov (United States)

Khan, Md. Rajibur Rahaman; Kang, Shin-Won

2016-01-01

In this study, we propose a highly sensitive multichannel pH sensor that is based on an optical-fiber pulse width modulation (PWM) technique. According to the optical-fiber PWM method, the received sensing signal’s pulse width changes when the optical-fiber pH sensing-element of the array comes into contact with pH buffer solutions. The proposed optical-fiber PWM pH-sensing system offers a linear sensing response over a wide range of pH values from 2 to 12, with a high pH-sensing ability. The sensitivity of the proposed pH sensor is 0.46 µs/pH, and the correlation coefficient R2 is approximately 0.997. Additional advantages of the proposed optical-fiber PWM pH sensor include a short/fast response-time of about 8 s, good reproducibility properties with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of about 0.019, easy fabrication, low cost, small size, reusability of the optical-fiber sensing-element, and the capability of remote sensing. Finally, the performance of the proposed PWM pH sensor was compared with that of potentiometric, optical-fiber modal interferometer, and optical-fiber Fabry–Perot interferometer pH sensors with respect to dynamic range width, linearity as well as response and recovery times. We observed that the proposed sensing systems have better sensing abilities than the above-mentioned pH sensors. PMID:27834865

Renewable High-Performance Fibers from the Chemical Recycling of Cotton Waste Utilizing an Ionic Liquid.

Science.gov (United States)

Asaadi, Shirin; Hummel, Michael; Hellsten, Sanna; Härkäsalmi, Tiina; Ma, Yibo; Michud, Anne; Sixta, Herbert

2016-11-23

A new chemical recycling method for waste cotton is presented that allows the production of virgin textile fibers of substantially higher quality than that from the mechanical recycling methods that are used currently. Cotton postconsumer textile wastes were solubilized fully in the cellulose-dissolving ionic liquid 1,5-diazabicyclo[4.3.0]non-5-enium acetate ([DBNH]OAc) to be processed into continuous filaments. As a result of the heterogeneous raw material that had a different molar mass distribution and degree of polymerization, pretreatment to adjust the cellulose degree of polymerization by acid hydrolysis, enzyme hydrolysis, or blending the waste cotton with birch prehydrolyzed kraft pulp was necessary to ensure spinnability. The physical properties of the spun fibers and the effect of the processing parameters on the ultrastructural changes of the fibers were measured. Fibers with a tenacity (tensile strength) of up to 58 cN tex -1 (870 MPa) were prepared, which exceeds that of native cotton and commercial man-made cellulosic fibers. © 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Optical Communication over Plastic Optical Fibers Integrated Optical Receiver Technology

CERN Document Server

Atef, Mohamed

2013-01-01

This book presents high-performance data transmission over plastic optical fibers (POF) using integrated optical receivers having good properties with multilevel modulation, i.e. a higher sensitivity and higher data rate transmission over a longer plastic optical fiber length. Integrated optical receivers and transmitters with high linearity are introduced for multilevel communication. For binary high-data rate transmission over plastic optical fibers, an innovative receiver containing an equalizer is described leading also to a high performance of a plastic optical fiber link. The cheap standard PMMA SI-POF (step-index plastic optical fiber) has the lowest bandwidth and the highest attenuation among multimode fibers. This small bandwidth limits the maximum data rate which can be transmitted through plastic optical fibers. To overcome the problem of the plastic optical fibers high transmission loss, very sensitive receivers must be used to increase the transmitted length over POF. The plastic optical fiber li...

Mechanical performance of hemp fiber polypropylene composites at different operating temperatures

Science.gov (United States)

Mehdi Tajvidi; Nazanin Motie; Ghonche Rassam; Robert H. Falk; Colin Felton

2010-01-01

In order to quantify the effect of temperature on the mechanical properties of hemp fiber polypropylene composites, formulations containing 25% and 40% (by weight) hemp fiber were produced and tested at three representative temperatures of 256, 296, and 336 K. Flexural, tensile, and impact tests, as well as dynamic mechanical analysis, were performed and the reduction...

Giant Pulse Phenomena in a High Gain Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Stephen X.; Merritt, Scott; Krainak, Michael A.; Yu, Anthony

2018-01-01

High gain Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifiers (EDFAs) are vulnerable to optical damage when unseeded, e.g. due to nonlinear effects that produce random, spontaneous Q-switched (SQS) pulses with high peak power, i.e. giant pulses. Giant pulses can damage either the components within a high gain EDFA or external components and systems coupled to the EDFA. We explore the conditions under which a reflective, polarization-maintaining (PM), core-pumped high gain EDFA generates giant pulses, provide details on the evolution of normal pulses into giant pulses, and provide results on the transient effects of giant pulses on an amplifier's fused-fiber couplers, an effect which we call Fiber Overload Induced Leakage (FOIL). While FOIL's effect on fused-fiber couplers is temporary, its damage to forward pump lasers in a high gain EDFA can be permanent.

Performance of Lightweight Natural-Fiber Reinforced Concrete

OpenAIRE

Hardjasaputra Harianto; Ng Gino; Urgessa Girum; Lesmana Gabriella; Sidharta Steven

2017-01-01

Concrete, the most common construction material, has negligible tension capacity. However, a reinforcement material such as natural fibers, can be used to improve the tensile properties of concrete. This paper presents experiments conducted on Super Lightweight Concrete mixed with coconut fibers (SLNFRC). Coconut fibers are regarded as one of the toughest natural fibers to strengthen concrete. Coconut fiber reinforced composites have been considered as a sustainable construction material beca...

Heat suppression of the fiber coating on a cladding light stripper in high-power fiber laser.

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Ming-Jian; Wang, Zheng; Meng, Ling-Qiang; Yin, Lu; Han, Zhi-Gang; Shen, Hua; Wang, Hai-Lin; Zhu, Ri-Hong

2018-01-20

We present a theoretical model for the thermal effect of the fiber coating on a high-power cladding light stripper, which is fabricated by chemical etching. For the input and output of the fiber coating, a novel segmented corrosion method and increasing attenuation method are proposed for heat suppression, respectively. The relationship between the attenuation and temperature rise of the fiber coating at the output is experimentally demonstrated. The temperature distribution of the fiber coating at the input as well as the return light power caused by scattering are measured for the etched fiber with different surface roughness values. The results suggest that the rise in temperature is primarily caused by the scattering light propagating into the coating. Finally, an attenuation of 27 dB is achieved. At a room temperature of 23°C and input pump power of 438 W, the highest temperature of the input fiber coating decreases from 39.5°C to 27.9°C by segmented corrosion, and the temperature rise of the output fiber coating is close to 0.

Highly reflective Bragg gratings in slightly etched step-index polymer optical fiber.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Xuehao; Pun, Chi-Fung Jeff; Tam, Hwa-Yaw; Mégret, Patrice; Caucheteur, Christophe

2014-07-28

During the past few years, a strong progress has been made in the photo-writing of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) in polymer optical fibers (POFs), animated by the constant wish to enhance the grating reflectivity and improve the sensing performances. In this paper, we report the photo-inscription of highly reflective gratings in step-index POFs, obtained thanks to a slight etching of the cladding. We demonstrate that a cladding diameter decrease of ~12% is an ideal trade-off to produce highly reflective gratings with enhanced axial strain sensitivity, while keeping almost intact their mechanical resistance. For this, we make use of Trans-4-stilbenemethanol-doped photosensitive step-index poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) POFs. FBGs are inscribed at ~1550 nm by the scanning phase mask technique in POFs of different external diameters. Reflectivity reaching 97% is achieved for 6 mm long FBGs, compared to 25% for non-etched POFs. We also report that a cladding decrease enhances the FBG axial tension while keeping unchanged temperature and surrounding refractive index sensitivities. Finally and for the first time, a measurement is conducted in transmission with polarized light, showing that a photo-induced birefringence of 7 × 10(-6) is generated (one order of magnitude higher than the intrinsic fiber birefringence), which is similar to the one generated in silica fiber using ultra-violet laser.

Effect of high pressure hydrogen on the mechanical characteristics of single carbon fiber

Science.gov (United States)

Jeon, Sang Koo; Kwon, Oh Heon; Jang, Hoon-Sik; Ryu, Kwon Sang; Nahm, Seung Hoon

2018-02-01

In this study, carbon fiber was exposed to a pressure of 7 MPa for 24 h in high pressure chamber. The tensile test for carbon fiber was conducted to estimate the effect on the high pressure hydrogen in the atmosphere. To determine the tensile strength and Weibull modulus, approximately thirty carbon fiber samples were measured in all cases, and carbon fiber exposed to high pressure argon was evaluated to verify only the effect of hydrogen. Additionally, carbon fiber samples were annealed at 1950 °C for 1 h for a comparison with normal carbon fiber and then tested under identical conditions. The results showed that the tensile strength scatter of normal carbon fiber exposed to hydrogen was relatively wider and the Weibull modulus was decreased. Moreover, the tensile strength of the annealed carbon fiber exposed to hydrogen was increased, and these samples indicated a complex Weibull modulus because the hydrogen stored in the carbon fiber influenced the mechanical characteristic.

New approach for high reliability, low loss splicing between silica and ZBLAN fibers

Science.gov (United States)

Carbonnier, Robin; Zheng, Wenxin

2018-02-01

In the past decade, ZBLAN (ZrF4-BaF2-LaF3-NaF) fibers have drawn increasing interest for laser operations at wavelengths where Fused Silica-based (SiO2) fibers do not perform well. One limitation to the expansion of ZBLAN fiber lasers today is the difficulty to efficiently inject and extract light in/from the guiding medium using SiO2 fibers. Although free space and butt coupling have provided acceptable results, consistent and long lasting physical joints between SiO2 and ZBLAN fibers will allow smaller, cheaper, and more robust component manufacturing. While low loss splices have been reported using a traditional splicing approach, the very low mechanical strength of the joint makes it difficult to scale. Difficulties in achieving a strong bond are mainly due to the large difference of transition temperature between ZBLAN and SiO2 fibers ( 260°C vs 1175°C). This paper presents results obtained by using the high thermal expansion coefficient of the ZBLAN fiber to encapsulate a smaller SiO2 fiber. A CO2 laser glass processing system was used to control the expansion and contraction of the ZBLAN material during the splicing process for optimum reliability. This method produced splices between 125μm ZBLAN to 80μm SiO2 fibers with average transmission loss of 0.225dB (measured at 1550nm) and average ultimate tension strength of 121.4gf. The Resulting splices can be durably packaged without excessive care. Other combinations using 125μm SiO2 fibers tapered to 80μm are also discussed.

Bond behavior of reinforcing steel in ultra-high performance concrete.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-10-01

Ultra-High Performance Concrete (UHPC) is a relatively new class of advanced cementitious composite : materials, which exhibits high compressive [above 21.7 ksi (150 MPa)] and tensile [above 0.72 ksi (5 MPa)] : strengths. The discrete steel fiber rei...

Experimental research on continuous basalt fiber and basalt-fibers-reinforced polymers

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Xueyi; Zou, Guangping; Shen, Zhiqiang

2008-11-01

The interest for continuous basalt fibers and reinforced polymers has recently grown because of its low price and rich natural resource. Basalt fiber was one type of high performance inorganic fibers which were made from natural basalt by the method of melt extraction. This paper discusses basic mechanical properties of basalt fiber. The other work in this paper was to conduct tensile testing of continuous basalt fiber-reinforced polymer rod. Tensile strength and stress-strain curve were obtained in this testing. The strength of rod was fairly equal to rod of E-glass fibers and weaker than rod of carbon fibers. Surface of crack of rod was studied. An investigation of fracture mechanism between matrix and fiber was analyzed by SEM (Scanning electron microscopy) method. A poor adhesion between the matrix and fibers was also shown for composites analyzing SEM photos. The promising tensile properties of the presented basalt fibers composites have shown their great potential as alternative classical composites.

Optimization of High Temperature and Pressurized Steam Modified Wood Fibers for High-Density Polyethylene Matrix Composites Using the Orthogonal Design Method

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xun Gao

2016-10-01

Full Text Available The orthogonal design method was used to determine the optimum conditions for modifying poplar fibers through a high temperature and pressurized steam treatment for the subsequent preparation of wood fiber/high-density polyethylene (HDPE composites. The extreme difference, variance, and significance analyses were performed to reveal the effect of the modification parameters on the mechanical properties of the prepared composites, and they yielded consistent results. The main findings indicated that the modification temperature most strongly affected the mechanical properties of the prepared composites, followed by the steam pressure. A temperature of 170 °C, a steam pressure of 0.8 MPa, and a processing time of 20 min were determined as the optimum parameters for fiber modification. Compared to the composites prepared from untreated fibers, the tensile, flexural, and impact strength of the composites prepared from modified fibers increased by 20.17%, 18.5%, and 19.3%, respectively. The effect on the properties of the composites was also investigated by scanning electron microscopy and dynamic mechanical analysis. When the temperature, steam pressure, and processing time reached the highest values, the composites exhibited the best mechanical properties, which were also well in agreement with the results of the extreme difference, variance, and significance analyses. Moreover, the crystallinity and thermal stability of the fibers and the storage modulus of the prepared composites improved; however, the hollocellulose content and the pH of the wood fibers decreased.

The applicability of alkaline-resistant glass fiber in cement mortar of road pavement: Corrosion mechanism and performance analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qin Xiaochun

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The main technical requirements of road pavement concrete are high flexural strength and fatigue durability. Adding glass fiber into concrete could greatly increase flexural strength and wearing resistance of concrete. However, glass fiber has the great potential of corrosion during the cement hydration, which will directly affect the long-term performance and strength stability. In this paper, accelerated corrosion experiments have been done to find out the corrosion mechanism and property of alkali-resistant glass fiber in cement mortar. The applicability and practicability of alkaline-resistant glass fiber in road concrete have been illustrated in the analysis of flexural strength changing trend of cement mortar mixed with different proportions of activated additives to protect the corrosion of glass fiber by cement mortar. The results have shown that a 30% addition of fly ash or 10% addition of silica fume to cement matrix could effectively improve the corrosion resistance of alkali-resistant glass fiber. The optimal mixing amount of alkali-resistant glass fiber should be about 1.0 kg/m3 in consideration of ensuring the compressive strength of reinforced concrete in road pavement. The closest-packing method has been adopted in the mixture ratio design of alkali-resistant glass fiber reinforced concrete, not only to reduce the alkalinity of the cement matrix through large amount addition of activated additives but also to greatly enhance the flexural performance of concrete with the split pressure ratio improvement of 12.5–16.7%. The results suggested a prosperous application prospect for alkaline-resistant glass fiber reinforced concrete in road pavement.

High performance maleated lignocellulose epicarp fibers for copper ion removal

OpenAIRE

Vieira,A. P.; Santana,S. A. A.; Bezerra,C. W. B.; Silva,H. A. S.; Santos,K. C. A.; Melo,J. C. P.; Silva Filho,E. C.; Airoldi,C.

2014-01-01

Natural lignocellulosic fiber epicarp extracted from the babassu coconut (Orbignya speciosa) was chemically modified through reaction with molten maleic anhydride without solvent, with incorporation of 189.34 mg g(-1) of carboxylic acid groups into the biopolymer structure. The success of this reaction was also confirmed by the presence of carboxylic acid bands at 1741 and 1164 cm(-1) in the infrared spectrum. Identically, the same group is observed through C-13 NMR CP/MAS in the solid state,...

High-power picosecond pulse delivery through hollow core photonic band gap fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Michieletto, Mattia; Johansen, Mette Marie; Lyngsø, Jens Kristian

2016-01-01

We demonstrated robust and bend insensitive fiber delivery of high power laser with diffraction limited beam quality for two different kinds of hollow core band gap fibers. The light source for this experiment consists of ytterbium-doped double clad fiber aeroGAIN-ROD-PM85 in a high power amplifier...

Hull Fiber From DDGS and Corn Grain as Alternative Fillers in Polymer Composites with High Density Polyethylene

Science.gov (United States)

Pandey, Pankaj

The steady increase in corn based ethanol production has resulted in a dramatic rise in the supply of its co-product known as distillers' dried grain with solubles (DDGS). Currently, the main outlet for DDGS is the animal feed industry, but the presence of fibers makes them indigestible by non-ruminants such as swine and poultry. Separation of fiber from DDGS would increase the nutritional value of DDGS with higher protein and fat contents and reduced fiber content. The fiber from DDGS can be separated through a physical separation process known as elusieve. The DDGS fiber has the potential to be used as a fiber filler in thermoplastic composites. This research project evaluates DDGS fiber as a filler in thermoplastic composites. The fibers from corn hull and DDGS have been used as fillers at 30% and 50% fiber loading in high density polyethylene (HDPE) composites and compared against a standard oak fiber filler composites at a lab scale. DDGS and corn fiber composites showed comparable mechanical properties as the oak wood fiber HDPE composites. Further evaluation was completed on the performance of composite samples at commercial scale with six combinations of oak fiber, corn hull fiber and DDGS fiber with fiber loading maintained at 50%, and then samples were exposed to UV accelerated weathering for 2000 h. The UV weathering decreased the mechanical properties of all the exposed samples compared to the unexposed samples. Also, UV weathering resulted in a severe chain scission of the HDPE polymer, increasing their crystallinity. The performance of mercerized or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treated DDGS fiber as filler was investigated by characterizing the effects of treated and untreated DDGS fibers on physical, mechanical, and thermal properties of HDPE composites. The NaOH treated DDGS fiber at 25% loading showed consistent improvement in flexural and tensile modulus of elasticities of the composites compared to the neat HDPE.

Nanosphere Lithography on Fiber: Towards Engineered Lab-On-Fiber SERS Optrodes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Giuseppe Quero

2018-02-01

Full Text Available In this paper we report on the engineering of repeatable surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS optical fiber sensor devices (optrodes, as realized through nanosphere lithography. The Lab-on-Fiber SERS optrode consists of polystyrene nanospheres in a close-packed arrays configuration covered by a thin film of gold on the optical fiber tip. The SERS surfaces were fabricated by using a nanosphere lithography approach that is already demonstrated as able to produce highly repeatable patterns on the fiber tip. In order to engineer and optimize the SERS probes, we first evaluated and compared the SERS performances in terms of Enhancement Factor (EF pertaining to different patterns with different nanosphere diameters and gold thicknesses. To this aim, the EF of SERS surfaces with a pitch of 500, 750 and 1000 nm, and gold films of 20, 30 and 40 nm have been retrieved, adopting the SERS signal of a monolayer of biphenyl-4-thiol (BPT as a reliable benchmark. The analysis allowed us to identify of the most promising SERS platform: for the samples with nanospheres diameter of 500 nm and gold thickness of 30 nm, we measured values of EF of 4 × 105, which is comparable with state-of-the-art SERS EF achievable with highly performing colloidal gold nanoparticles. The reproducibility of the SERS enhancement was thoroughly evaluated. In particular, the SERS intensity revealed intra-sample (i.e., between different spatial regions of a selected substrate and inter-sample (i.e., between regions of different substrates repeatability, with a relative standard deviation lower than 9 and 15%, respectively. Finally, in order to determine the most suitable optical fiber probe, in terms of excitation/collection efficiency and Raman background, we selected several commercially available optical fibers and tested them with a BPT solution used as benchmark. A fiber probe with a pure silica core of 200 µm diameter and high numerical aperture (i.e., 0.5 was found to be the

Optimal Performance Simulation of a Metal Fiber Filter for Capturing Radioactive Aerosols

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lee, Seung Uk; Lee, Chan Hyun; Park, Min Chan; Lee, Jaek Eun

2016-01-01

In this study, the metal fiber filter used for removing radioactive aerosol is systematically dissected and studied in order to figure out the optimal design which can be applied to the actual operation conditions in nuclear heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems for particle collection. In order to derive the optimal design for metal fiber HEPA filter, a numerical model is developed and its results are compared to experimental data to test reliability. Moreover, sensitivity analysis is performed using important parameters to determine which parameters have large influence on the filter performance. Using the model developed in this study, optimal design parameters for pleated metal fiber filters are derived which include fiber diameter less than 4 μm, solidity larger than 0.2, filter thickness larger than 1 mm, and face velocity lower than 5 cm/s. With these conditions, the metal filter qualified for the HEPA filter standard which specified 99.97% efficiency in the 0.3 μm particle size range.

High performance liquid-level sensor based on mPOFBG for aircraft applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Marques, C. A. F.; Pospori, A.; Saez-Rodriguez, D.

2015-01-01

A high performance liquid-level sensor based on microstructured polymer optical fiber Bragg grating (mPOFBG) array sensors is reported in detail. The sensor sensitivity is found to be 98pm/cm of liquid, enhanced by more than a factor of 9 compared to a reported silica fiber-based sensor....

Compressive behaviour of hybrid fiber-reinforced reactive powder concrete after high temperature

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zheng, Wenzhong; Li, Haiyan; Wang, Ying

2012-01-01

Highlights: ► We complete the high temperature test and compression test of RPC after 20–900 °C. ► The presence of steel fiber and polypropylene fiber can prevent RPC from spalling. ► Compressive strength increases first and then decreases with elevated temperatures. ► Microstructure deterioration is the root cause of macro-properties recession. ► Equations to express the compressive strength change with temperature are proposed. -- Abstract: This study focuses on the compressive properties and microstructures of reactive powder concrete (RPC) mixed with steel fiber and polypropylene fiber after exposure to 20–900 °C. The volume dosage of steel fiber and polypropylene fiber is (2%, 0.1%), (2%, 0.2%) and (1%, 0.2%). The effects of heating temperature, fiber content and specimen size on the compressive properties are analyzed. The microstructures of RPC exposed to different high temperatures are studied by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicate that the compressive strength of hybrid fiber-reinforced RPC increases at first, then decreases with the increasing temperature, and the basic reason for the degradation of macro-mechanical properties is the deterioration of RPC microstructure. Based on the experimental results, equations to express the relationships of the compressive strength with the heating temperatures are established. Compared with normal-strength and high-strength concrete, the hybrid fiber-reinforced RPC has excellent capacity in resistance to high temperature.

High-rate tensile behavior of steel fiber-reinforced concrete for nuclear power plants

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kim, Jung Jin; Park, Gi-Joon [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sejong University, 98 Gunja-Dong, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul 143-747 (Korea, Republic of); Kim, Dong Joo, E-mail: djkim75@sejong.ac.kr [Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Sejong University, 98 Gunja-Dong, Gwangjin-Gu, Seoul 143-747 (Korea, Republic of); Moon, Jae Heum; Lee, Jang Hwa [Korea Institute of Construction Technology, 2311 Daewha-Dong, Ilsan-Gu, Goyang-Si, Gyeonggi-Do 411-712 (Korea, Republic of)

2014-01-15

Highlights: • The final goal is to develop a fiber reinforced concrete for containment buildings. • High rate tensile behavior of FRC was investigated. • Strain energy frame impact machine was used for tensile impact tests. • Different rate sensitivity of FRC was found according to the type fiber. • Adding more fibers by increasing S/a is positive for higher impact resistance of FRC. -- Abstract: The direct tensile behavior of fiber-reinforced concrete (FRC) at high strain rates were investigated for their potential to enhance the resistance of the containment building of nuclear power plants (NPPs) against aircraft impact. Two types of deformed steel, hooked (H) and twisted (T) fibers were employed. To improve the tensile resistance of FRCs even at higher rates by adding more fibers, the mixture of concrete was modified by either increasing the sand-to-coarse aggregate ratio or decreasing the maximum size of coarse aggregate. All FRC specimens produced two to six times greater tensile strength and one to five times higher toughness at high strain rates (4–53 s{sup −1}) than those at a static rate (0.000167 s{sup −1}). T-fiber generally produced higher tensile strength and toughness than H-fiber at both static and high rates. Although both fibers showed favorable rate sensitivity, T-fiber produced much greater enhancement, at higher strain rates, in tensile strength and slightly lower enhancement in toughness than H-fiber. As the maximum size of coarse aggregate decreased from 19 to 5 mm, the tensile strength and toughness of FRCs with T-fibers noticeably increased at both static and high strain rates.

Fabricating and strengthening the carbon nanotube/copper composite fibers with high strength and high electrical conductivity

Science.gov (United States)

Han, Baoshuai; Guo, Enyu; Xue, Xiang; Zhao, Zhiyong; Li, Tiejun; Xu, Yanjin; Luo, Liangshun; Hou, Hongliang

2018-05-01

Combining the excellent properties of carbon nanotube (CNT) and copper, CNT/Cu composite fibers were fabricated by physical vapor deposition (PVD) and rolling treatment. Dense and continuous copper film (∼2 μm) was coated on the surface of the CNT fibers by PVD, and rolling treatment was adopt to strengthen the CNT/Cu composite fibers. After the rolling treatment, the defects between the Cu grains and the CNT bundles were eliminated, and the structure of both the copper film and the core CNT fibers were optimized. The rolled CNT/Cu composite fibers possess high tensile effective strength (1.01 ± 0.13 GPa) and high electrical conductivity ((2.6 ± 0.3) × 107 S/m), and thus, this material may become a promising wire material.

Isolation of aramid nanofibers for high strength multiscale fiber reinforced composites

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Jiajun; Patterson, Brendan A.; Malakooti, Mohammad H.; Sodano, Henry A.

2018-03-01

Aramid fibers are famous for their high specific strength and energy absorption properties and have been intensively used for soft body armor and ballistic protection. However, the use of aramid fiber reinforced composites is barely observed in structural applications. Aramid fibers have smooth and inert surfaces that are unable to form robust adhesion to polymeric matrices due to their high crystallinity. Here, a novel method to effectively integrate aramid fibers into composites is developed through utilization of aramid nanofibers. Aramid nanofibers are prepared from macroscale aramid fibers (such as Kevlar®) and isolated through a simple and scalable dissolution method. Prepared aramid nanofibers are dispersible in many polymers due to their improved surface reactivity, meanwhile preserve the conjugated structure and likely the strength of their macroscale counterparts. Simultaneously improved elastic modulus, strength and fracture toughness are observed in aramid nanofiber reinforced epoxy nanocomposites. When integrated in continuous fiber reinforced composites, aramid nanofibers can also enhance interfacial properties by forming hydrogen bonds and π-π coordination to bridge matrix and macroscale fibers. Such multiscale reinforcement by aramid nanofibers and continuous fibers results in strong polymeric composites with robust mechanical properties that are necessary and long desired for structural applications.

Dispersion-optimized optical fiber for high-speed long-haul dense wavelength division multiplexing transmission

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Jindong; Chen, Liuhua; Li, Qingguo; Wu, Wenwen; Sun, Keyuan; Wu, Xingkun

2011-07-01

Four non-zero-dispersion-shifted fibers with almost the same large effective area (Aeff) and optimized dispersion properties are realized by novel index profile designing and modified vapor axial deposition and modified chemical vapor deposition processes. An Aeff of greater than 71 μm2 is obtained for the designed fibers. Three of the developed fibers with positive dispersion are improved by reducing the 1550nm dispersion slope from 0.072ps/nm2/km to 0.063ps/nm2/km or 0.05ps/nm2/km, increasing the 1550nm dispersion from 4.972ps/nm/km to 5.679ps/nm/km or 7.776ps/nm/km, and shifting the zero-dispersion wavelength from 1500nm to 1450nm. One of these fibers is in good agreement with G655D and G.656 fibers simultaneously, and another one with G655E and G.656 fibers; both fibers are beneficial to high-bit long-haul dense wavelength division multiplexing systems over S-, C-, and L-bands. The fourth developed fiber with negative dispersion is also improved by reducing the 1550nm dispersion slope from 0.12ps/nm2/km to 0.085ps/nm2/km, increasing the 1550nm dispersion from -4ps/nm/km to -6.016ps/nm/km, providing facilities for a submarine transmission system. Experimental measurements indicate that the developed fibers all have excellent optical transmission and good macrobending and splice performances.

Effects of Fiber Finish on the Performance of Asphalt Binders and Mastics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bradley J. Putman

2011-01-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to determine the effects of finishes applied to polyester fibers on the properties of asphalt binders and mastics. Asphalt binders were mixed with finishes that were extracted from the fibers, and mastics were also made with binder and fibers (with and without finish to isolate the effects of the finish. The results indicated that crude source plays a significant role in how the fiber finish affects the binders and mastics. Additionally different finishes had different effects on binder properties. The major finding of this study is that different polyester fibers, even from the same manufacturer, may not necessarily perform the same in an asphalt mixture. It is important to use fibers that are compatible with the particular asphalt binder that is being used because of the significance of the binder source on the interaction between the finish and the binder.

Improved thermoelectric performance of CdO by adding SiC fibers versus by adding SiC nanoparticles inclusions

Science.gov (United States)

Liang, S.; Li, Longjiang

2018-03-01

We report the improved thermoelectric (TE) performance of CdO by alloying with SiC fibers. In contrast to the lowered thermoelectric figure of merit (ZT) in a CdO matrix with SiC nanoparticle composites, an appreciable ZT value increment of about 36% (from 0.32 to 0.435) at 1000 K was obtained in the CdO matrix with SiC fiber composites. Both kinds of composites show substantially decreased thermal conductivity due to additional phonon scattering by the nano-inclusions. Compared to the very high electrical resistivity (ρ ˜ 140 μΩ m) for 5 at. % SiC nanoparticle composites, SiC fiber composites favorably maintained a very low ρ (˜30 μΩ m) even with 5 at. % SiC at 1000 K. We think the substantial difference of specific surface areas of these two nano-inclusions (30 m2/g for fibers vs 300 m2/g for nanoparticles) might play a crucial role to fine tune the TE performance. Larger interface could be inductive to diffusion and electron acceptor activation, which affect carrier mobility considerably. This work might hint at an alternative approach to improve TE materials' performance.

Implementation of Highly-Flowable Strain Hardening Fiber Reinforced Concrete in New RC Beam-Column Joints

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Liao Wen-Cheng

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of New RC project was aimed to reduce the member sections and increase the available space of high rise buildings by using high strength concrete (f’c > 70 MPa and high strength rebars (fy > 685 MPa. Material consumptions and member section sizes can be further reduced owing to the upgrade of strength. However, the nature of brittleness of high strength may also cause early cover spalling and other ductility issues. Addition of steel fibers is an alternative as transverse reinforcement. Highly flowable strain hardening fiber reinforced concrete (HF-SHFRC has excellent workability in the fresh state and exhibits the strain-hardening and multiple cracking characteristics of high performance fiber reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCC in their hardened state. The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of implementing HF-SHFRC in New RC building systems, particularly for beam-column joints as an alternative of transverse reinforcements. Four full-scale exterior beam-column joints, including two specimens with intensive transverse reinforcements and two specimens made of HF-SHFRC without any stirrup, are tested. Test results show that the HF-SHFRC specimens perform as well as specimens with intensive transverse reinforcements regarding failure mode, ductility, energy dissipation and crack width control. Integration of New RC building systems and HF-SHFRC can assuring construction qualities and further diminish labor work and give infrastructure longer service life, and eventually lower the life-cycle cost.

Hybrid Composite Ni(OH)(2)@NiCo2O4 Grown on Carbon Fiber Paper for High-Performance Supercapacitors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Huang, L; Chen, DC; Ding, Y; Wang, ZL; Zeng, ZZ; Liu, ML

2013-11-13

We have successfully fabricated and tested the electrochemical performance of supercapacitor electrodes consisting of Ni(OH)(2) nanosheets coated on NiCo2O4 nanosheets grown on carbon fiber paper (CFP) current collectors. When the NiCo2O4 nanosheets are replaced by Co3O4 nanosheets, however, the energy and power density as well as the rate capability of the electrodes are significantly reduced, most likely due to the lower conductivity of Co3O4 than that of NiCo2O4. The 3D hybrid composite Ni(OH)(2)/ NiCo2O4/CFP electrodes demonstrate a high areal capacitance of 5.2 F/cm(2) at a cycling current density of 2 rnA/cm(2), with a capacitance retention of 79% as the cycling current density was increased from 2 to 50 mA/cm(2). The remarkable performance of these hybrid composite electrodes implies that supercapacitors based on them have potential for many practical applications.

Hybrid composite Ni(OH)2@NiCo2O4 grown on carbon fiber paper for high-performance supercapacitors.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Liang; Chen, Dongchang; Ding, Yong; Wang, Zhong Lin; Zeng, Zhengzhi; Liu, Meilin

2013-11-13

We have successfully fabricated and tested the electrochemical performance of supercapacitor electrodes consisting of Ni(OH)2 nanosheets coated on NiCo2O4 nanosheets grown on carbon fiber paper (CFP) current collectors. When the NiCo2O4 nanosheets are replaced by Co3O4 nanosheets, however, the energy and power density as well as the rate capability of the electrodes are significantly reduced, most likely due to the lower conductivity of Co3O4 than that of NiCo2O4. The 3D hybrid composite Ni(OH)2/NiCo2O4/CFP electrodes demonstrate a high areal capacitance of 5.2 F/cm(2) at a cycling current density of 2 mA/cm(2), with a capacitance retention of 79% as the cycling current density was increased from 2 to 50 mA/cm(2). The remarkable performance of these hybrid composite electrodes implies that supercapacitors based on them have potential for many practical applications.

Economic viability of ultra high-performance fiber reinforced concrete in prestressed concrete wind towers to support a 5 MW turbine

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

P. V. C. N. GAMA

Full Text Available Abstract The Ultra-High Performance Fiber-Reinforced Concrete is a material with remarkable mechanical properties and durability when compared to conventional and high performance concrete, which allows its use even without the reinforcement. This paper proposes the design of prestressed towers for a 5 MW turbine, through regulatory provisions and the limit states method, with UHPFRC and the concrete class C50, comparing the differences obtained in the design by parametric analysis, giving the advantages and disadvantages of using this new type of concrete. Important considerations, simplifications and notes are made to the calculation process, as well as in obtaining the prestressing and passive longitudinal and passive transverse reinforcement, highlighting the shear strength of annular sections comparing a model proposed here with recent experimental results present in the literature, which was obtained good agreement. In the end, it is estimated a first value within the constraints here made to ensure the economic viability of the use of UHPFRC in a 100 m prestressed wind tower with a 5 MW turbine.

Fracture toughness of ultra high performance concrete by flexural performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Manolova Emanuela

2016-01-01

Full Text Available This paper describes the fracture toughness of the innovative structural material - Ultra High Performance Concrete (UHPC, evaluated by flexural performance. For determination the material behaviour by static loading are used adapted standard test methods for flexural performance of fiber-reinforced concrete (ASTM C 1609 and ASTM C 1018. Fracture toughness is estimated by various deformation parameters derived from the load-deflection curve, obtained by testing simple supported beam under third-point loading, using servo-controlled testing system. This method is used to be estimated the contribution of the embedded fiber-reinforcement into improvement of the fractural behaviour of UHPC by changing the crack-resistant capacity, fracture toughness and energy absorption capacity with various mechanisms. The position of the first crack has been formulated based on P-δ (load- deflection response and P-ε (load - longitudinal deformation in the tensile zone response, which are used for calculation of the two toughness indices I5 and I10. The combination of steel fibres with different dimensions leads to a composite, having at the same time increased crack resistance, first crack formation, ductility and post-peak residual strength.

Actively doped solid core Photonic Bandgap Fiber

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Broeng, Jes; Olausson, Christina Bjarnal Thulin; Lyngsøe, Jens Kristian

2010-01-01

Solid photonic bandgap fibers offer distributed spectral filtering with extraordinary high suppression. This opens new possibilities of artificially tailoring the gain spectrum of fibers. We present record-performance of such fibers and outline their future applications....

Development and performance evaluation of fiber reinforced polymer bridge.

Science.gov (United States)

2014-03-01

Fiber reinforced polymers (FRP) have become more popular construction materials in the last decade due to the reduction of : material costs. The installation and performance evaluation of the first FRP-wrapped balsa wood bridge in Louisiana is descri...

Critical determinants of combined sprint and endurance performance: an integrative analysis from muscle fiber to the human body.

Science.gov (United States)

van der Zwaard, Stephan; van der Laarse, Willem J; Weide, Guido; Bloemers, Frank W; Hofmijster, Mathijs J; Levels, Koen; Noordhof, Dionne A; de Koning, Jos J; de Ruiter, Cornelis J; Jaspers, Richard T

2018-04-01

Optimizing physical performance is a major goal in current physiology. However, basic understanding of combining high sprint and endurance performance is currently lacking. This study identifies critical determinants of combined sprint and endurance performance using multiple regression analyses of physiologic determinants at different biologic levels. Cyclists, including 6 international sprint, 8 team pursuit, and 14 road cyclists, completed a Wingate test and 15-km time trial to obtain sprint and endurance performance results, respectively. Performance was normalized to lean body mass 2/3 to eliminate the influence of body size. Performance determinants were obtained from whole-body oxygen consumption, blood sampling, knee-extensor maximal force, muscle oxygenation, whole-muscle morphology, and muscle fiber histochemistry of musculus vastus lateralis. Normalized sprint performance was explained by percentage of fast-type fibers and muscle volume ( R 2 = 0.65; P body.

Tm-Yb Doped Optical Fiber Performance with Variation of Host-Glass Composition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anirban Dhar

2014-01-01

Full Text Available The fabrication process of Thulium-Ytterbium doped optical fiber comprising different host glass through the Modified Chemical Vapor Deposition (MCVD coupled with solution doping technique is presented. The material and optical performance of different fibers are compared with special emphasis on their lasing efficiency for 2 µm application.

Daylight photocatalysis performance of biomorphic CeO{sub 2} hollow fibers prepared with lens cleaning paper as biotemplate

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Qian, Junchao; Chen, Feng [Department of Material Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, 212013 Zhenjiang (China); Wang, Fang; Zhao, Xiaobing [Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Changzhou University, 213164 Changzhou (China); Chen, Zhigang, E-mail: ziyou1900@gmail.com [Department of Material Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, 212013 Zhenjiang (China); Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Environment Functional Materials, 215009 Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou (China); State Key laboratory of Crystal Material, Shandong University, 250100 Jinan (China)

2012-08-15

Highlights: ► A novel, simple and eco-friendly approach for hierarchical, biomorphic CeO{sub 2} hollow fibers with mesoporous tube walls is presented by using paper as template. ► The biomorphic CeO{sub 2} fibers was composed of nanosheets with bimodal pore-size mesoporous distribution and exhibited high light-harvesting under sunlight irradiation. ► The CeO{sub 2} microfibers biomimicking the natural plant structures have promising application for photodegradation of organic pollutants in water. -- Abstract: Hierarchical, biomorphic CeO{sub 2} hollow fibers with mesoporous tube walls have been fabricated using lens cleaning paper as biotemplates. After sintered at 550 °C in air, the cellulosic fibers of paper were converted into micro-tubes composing of CeO{sub 2} crystallites with grain size about 8 nm. The photocatalytic activity of the CeO{sub 2} fibers was evaluated by photodegradation efficiency of methylene blue in aqueous solution under daylight irradiation. The characterized results show that the CeO{sub 2} fibers faithfully replicated micro-fibrous structure derived from original template and possessed dramatic enhanced photocatalytic activity compared with bulk CeO{sub 2}. This simple biotemplate method provides a cost-effective and eco-friendly route to obtain high performance photocatalysts.

Preliminary Study on Evaluation of Impact Resistance Performance of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Walls

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jin, Byeong Moo; Lee, Yun Seok; Kim, Young Jin; Jeon, Se Jin

2012-01-01

As the safety assessments of nuclear power plants for the hypothetical large civil aircraft crash should be made mandatory, studies on large aircraft-nuclear power plant impact analyses and assessments studies are actively in progress. For the safety assessment of nuclear power plants against large civil aircraft crash, it is practically impossible to conduct full-scale experiments. Therefore, analysis using general purpose numerical analysis program accompanied by scale model experiments and element experiments has been adopted for the safety assessment. The safety of nuclear power plants against large civil aircraft crash is able to be accomplished by enhancement of the impact resistance performance, such as increasing the wall thickness, increasing the strength of concrete and using the fiber reinforced concrete which is able to be acquired by relatively simple process of adding fibers to a concrete mix without significant change of design and construction. A research for the enhancement of impact resistance performance depending upon design parameters for fiber reinforced concrete, such as type of fibers and application rate, is in progress. In this study, before the safety assessment of nuclear power plants against large civil aircraft crash, we assess the impact resistance performance of concrete wall depending upon type of fibers and impact velocity of objects

Preliminary Study on Evaluation of Impact Resistance Performance of Fiber Reinforced Concrete Walls

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Jin, Byeong Moo; Lee, Yun Seok; Kim, Young Jin [Daewoo E and C Co. Ltd., Suwon (Korea, Republic of); Jeon, Se Jin [Ajou University, Suwon (Korea, Republic of)

2012-05-15

As the safety assessments of nuclear power plants for the hypothetical large civil aircraft crash should be made mandatory, studies on large aircraft-nuclear power plant impact analyses and assessments studies are actively in progress. For the safety assessment of nuclear power plants against large civil aircraft crash, it is practically impossible to conduct full-scale experiments. Therefore, analysis using general purpose numerical analysis program accompanied by scale model experiments and element experiments has been adopted for the safety assessment. The safety of nuclear power plants against large civil aircraft crash is able to be accomplished by enhancement of the impact resistance performance, such as increasing the wall thickness, increasing the strength of concrete and using the fiber reinforced concrete which is able to be acquired by relatively simple process of adding fibers to a concrete mix without significant change of design and construction. A research for the enhancement of impact resistance performance depending upon design parameters for fiber reinforced concrete, such as type of fibers and application rate, is in progress. In this study, before the safety assessment of nuclear power plants against large civil aircraft crash, we assess the impact resistance performance of concrete wall depending upon type of fibers and impact velocity of objects

Molecular Dynamics and Morphology of High Performance Elastomers and Fibers by Solid State NMR

Science.gov (United States)

2016-06-30

nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) spectroscopy to investigate the chemical structure and physical state of the residual phosphorous in PBO fiber...ssNMR) spectroscopy to investigate the chemical structure and physical state of the residual phosphorous in PBO fiber, which has been long suspected to...Jason Cain, Jian H. Yu, David Veysset, Keith A. Nelson . Probing the Influence of Molecular Dynamics of Matrix Elastomers on Ballistic Impact Back-face

All-Fiber Components for Micro-Structured Fibers, Phase I

Data.gov (United States)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration — We propose new concepts for developing components for high performance space based Lidar systems. While it is generally recognized that photonic crystal fiber...

Advanced ultrafast fiber laser sources enabled by fiber nonlinearities

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Liu, Wei

2017-05-15

Development of high power/energy ultrafast fiber lasers for scientific research and industrial applications is one of the most exciting fields in ultrafast optics. This thesis demonstrated new means to improve two essential properties - which are indispensable for novel applications such as high-harmonic generation (HHG) and multiphoton microscopy (MPM) - of an ultrafast fiber laser system: energy scaling capability and wavelength tunability. High photon-flux extreme ultraviolet sources enabled by HHG desire high power (>100 W), high repetition-rate (>1 MHz) ultrafast driving laser sources. We have constructed from scratch a high-power Yb-fiber laser system using the well-known chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) technique. Such a CPA system capable of producing ∝200-W average power consists of a monolithic Yb-fiber oscillator, an all-fiber stretcher, a pre-amplifier chain, a main amplifier constructed from rode-type large pitch fiber, and a diffraction-grating based compressor. To increase the HHG efficiency, ultrafast pulses with duration <60 fs are highly desired. We proposed and demonstrated a novel amplification technique, named as pre-chirp managed amplification (PCMA). We successfully constructed an Yb-fiber based PCMA system that outputs 75-MHz spectrally broadened pulses with >130-W average power. The amplified pulses are compressed to 60-fs pulses with 100-W average power, constituting a suitable HHG driving source. MPM is a powerful biomedical imaging tool, featuring larger penetration depth while providing the capability of optical sectioning. Although femtosecond solid-state lasers have been widely accepted as the standard option as MPM driving sources, fiber-based sources have received growing research efforts due to their superior performance. In the second part of this thesis, we both theoretically and experimentally demonstrated a new method of producing wavelength widely tunable femtosecond pulses for driving MPM. We employed self-phase modulation

Spalling behavior and residual resistance of fibre reinforced Ultra-High performance concrete after exposure to high temperatures

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Xiong, Ming-Xiang

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Experimental results of spalling and residual mechanical properties of ultra-high performance concrete after exposure to high temperatures are presented in this paper. The compressive strength of the ultra-high performance concrete ranged from 160 MPa~185 MPa. This study aimed to discover the effective way to prevent spalling for the ultra-high performance concrete and gauge its mechanical properties after it was subjected to fire. The effects of fiber type, fiber dosage, heating rate and curing condition were investigated. Test results showed that the compressive strength and elastic modulus of the ultra-high performance concrete declined slower than those of normal strength concrete after elevated temperatures. Polypropylene fiber rather than steel fiber was found effective to prevent spalling but affected workability. The effective fiber type and dosage were recommended to prevent spalling and ensure sufficient workability for casting and pumping of the ultra-high performance concrete.En este trabajo se presentan los resultados más relevantes del trabajo experimental realizado para valorar la laminación y las propiedades mecánicas residuales de hormigón de ultra-altas prestaciones tras su exposición a altas temperaturas. La resistencia a la compresión del hormigón de ultra-altas prestaciones osciló entre 160 MPa~185 MPa. El objetivo de este estudio fue descubrir una manera eficaz de prevenir desprendimientos y/o laminaciones en este hormigón y medir sus propiedades mecánicas después de ser sometido al fuego. Las variables estudiadas fueron la presencia y dosificación de fibras, velocidad de calentamiento y condiciones de curado. Los resultados mostraron, tras la exposición a altas temperaturas, que la resistencia a compresión y el módulo de elasticidad del hormigón de ultra-altas prestaciones disminuían más lento que las de un hormigón con resistencia normal. La fibra de polipropileno resultó más eficaz para prevenir

Advanced ultrafast fiber laser sources enabled by fiber nonlinearities

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Liu, Wei

2017-05-01

Development of high power/energy ultrafast fiber lasers for scientific research and industrial applications is one of the most exciting fields in ultrafast optics. This thesis demonstrated new means to improve two essential properties - which are indispensable for novel applications such as high-harmonic generation (HHG) and multiphoton microscopy (MPM) - of an ultrafast fiber laser system: energy scaling capability and wavelength tunability. High photon-flux extreme ultraviolet sources enabled by HHG desire high power (>100 W), high repetition-rate (>1 MHz) ultrafast driving laser sources. We have constructed from scratch a high-power Yb-fiber laser system using the well-known chirped-pulse amplification (CPA) technique. Such a CPA system capable of producing ∝200-W average power consists of a monolithic Yb-fiber oscillator, an all-fiber stretcher, a pre-amplifier chain, a main amplifier constructed from rode-type large pitch fiber, and a diffraction-grating based compressor. To increase the HHG efficiency, ultrafast pulses with duration 130-W average power. The amplified pulses are compressed to 60-fs pulses with 100-W average power, constituting a suitable HHG driving source. MPM is a powerful biomedical imaging tool, featuring larger penetration depth while providing the capability of optical sectioning. Although femtosecond solid-state lasers have been widely accepted as the standard option as MPM driving sources, fiber-based sources have received growing research efforts due to their superior performance. In the second part of this thesis, we both theoretically and experimentally demonstrated a new method of producing wavelength widely tunable femtosecond pulses for driving MPM. We employed self-phase modulation to broaden a narrowband spectrum followed by bandpass filters to select the rightmost/leftmost spectral lobes. Widely tunable in 820-1225 nm, the resulting sources generated nearly transform-limited, ∝100 fs pulses. Using short fibers with large

Preparation and photocatalytic performance of fibrous Tb3+-doped TiO2 using collagen fiber as template

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Ting; Wan, Xiang-Jun; Jiang, Shang-Xuan; Zhang, Li-Yuan; Hong, Zheng-Qu; Liu, Jiao

2018-04-01

Fibrous Tb3+-doped TiO2 were prepared using collagen fiber as template. Morphology, crystalline structure, surface area, element content, chemical composition and elemental chemical status, microstructure and element distribution of the prepared samples were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, specific surface area analysis, inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope and element mapping, respectively. The photocatalytic activities were evaluated by following degradation of methyl orange. The results showed that the fiber structure of collagen template was fully preserved when the calcination temperature was 500-800 °C. However, with the increase of calcination temperature, crystallinity and average particle size were increased, and the photocatalytic performance was decreased. For 2% Tb3+-TiO2 calcined at 500 °C, the degradation rate of methyl orange reached 93.87% after 6 h when a high-pressure mercury lamp (150 W) was used as the light source for photocatalytic degradation. Titanium tanning agent performance was excellent, the yield of TiO2 was high, and the fiber structure was presented when 0.2 mol/L citric acid/sodium citrate buffer solution was used.

High efficiency, monolithic fiber chirped pulse amplification system for high energy femtosecond pulse generation.

Science.gov (United States)

Peng, Xiang; Kim, Kyungbum; Mielke, Michael; Jennings, Stephen; Masor, Gordon; Stohl, Dave; Chavez-Pirson, Arturo; Nguyen, Dan T; Rhonehouse, Dan; Zong, Jie; Churin, Dmitriy; Peyghambarian, N

2013-10-21

A novel monolithic fiber-optic chirped pulse amplification (CPA) system for high energy, femtosecond pulse generation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By employing a high gain amplifier comprising merely 20 cm of high efficiency media (HEM) gain fiber, an optimal balance of output pulse energy, optical efficiency, and B-integral is achieved. The HEM amplifier is fabricated from erbium-doped phosphate glass fiber and yields gain of 1.443 dB/cm with slope efficiency >45%. We experimentally demonstrate near diffraction-limited beam quality and near transform-limited femtosecond pulse quality at 1.55 µm wavelength. With pulse energy >100 µJ and pulse duration of 636 fs (FWHM), the peak power is estimated to be ~160 MW. NAVAIR Public Release Distribution Statement A-"Approved for Public release; distribution is unlimited".

2 µm high-power dissipative soliton resonance in a compact σ-shaped Tm-doped double-clad fiber laser

Science.gov (United States)

Du, Tuanjie; Li, Weiwei; Ruan, Qiujun; Wang, Kaijie; Chen, Nan; Luo, Zhengqian

2018-05-01

We report direct generation of a high-power, large-energy dissipative soliton resonance (DSR) in a 2 µm Tm-doped double-clad fiber laser. A compact σ-shaped cavity is formed by a fiber Bragg grating and a 10/90 fiber loop mirror (FLM). The 10/90 FLM is not only used as an output mirror, but also acts as a nonlinear optical loop mirror for initiating mode locking. The mode-locked laser can deliver high-power, nanosecond DSR pulses at 2005.9 nm. We further perform a comparison study of the effect of the FLM’s loop length on the mode-locking threshold, peak power, pulse energy, and optical spectrum of the DSR pulses. We achieve a maximum average output power as high as 1.4 W, a maximum pulse energy of 353 nJ, and a maximum peak power of 84 W. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest power for 2 µm DSR pulses obtained in a mode-locked fiber laser.

Performance of Lightweight Natural-Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hardjasaputra Harianto

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Concrete, the most common construction material, has negligible tension capacity. However, a reinforcement material such as natural fibers, can be used to improve the tensile properties of concrete. This paper presents experiments conducted on Super Lightweight Concrete mixed with coconut fibers (SLNFRC. Coconut fibers are regarded as one of the toughest natural fibers to strengthen concrete. Coconut fiber reinforced composites have been considered as a sustainable construction material because the fibers are derived from waste. These wastes, which are available in large quantities in Asia, have to be extracted from the husk of coconut fruits and must pass a mechanical process before being added to a concrete mixture. The Super Lightweight Concrete was made by mixing concrete paste with foam agent that can reduce the overall weight of concrete up to 60% with compressive strength up to 6 MPa. The Super Lightweight Concrete is intended to be used for non-structural walls, as alternative conventional construction materials such as brick walls. The influence of coconut fibers content in increasing the flexural tensile strength of Super Lightweight Concrete was studied in this research. The fiber content studied include 0%, 0.1%, 0.175%, and 0.25% by weight of cement content. Sixteen specimens of SLNFRC mini beams of 60 mm x 60 mm x 300 mm were tested to failure to investigate their flexural strengths. The optimum percent fibers yielding higher tensile strength was found to be 0.175%

Evolution of Durable High-Strength Flowable Mortar Reinforced with Hybrid Fibers

OpenAIRE

Dawood, Eethar Thanon; Ramli, Mahyuddin

2012-01-01

The production and use of durable materials in construction are considered as one of the most challenging things for the professional engineers. Therefore, this research was conducted to investigate the mechanical properties and the durability by using of different percentages of steel fiber with high-strength flowable mortar (HSFM) and also the use of the hybridization of steel fibers, palm fibers, and synthetic fiber (Barchip). Different experimental tests (compressive strength, splitting t...

Continuous Fiber Ceramic Composites

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Fareed, Ali [Honeywell Advanced Composites Inc. (HACI), Newark, DE (United States); Craig, Phillip A. [Honeywell Advanced Composites Inc. (HACI), Newark, DE (United States)

2002-09-01

Fiber-reinforced ceramic composites demonstrate the high-temperature stability of ceramics--with an increased fracture toughness resulting from the fiber reinforcement of the composite. The material optimization performed under the continuous fiber ceramic composites (CFCC) included a series of systematic optimizations. The overall goals were to define the processing window, to increase the robustinous of the process, to increase process yield while reducing costs, and to define the complexity of parts that could be fabricated.

Highly-stable monolithic femtosecond Yb-fiber laser system based on photonic crystal fibers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Xiaomin; Lægsgaard, Jesper; Turchinovich, Dmitry

2010-01-01

in the oscillator cavity for dispersion balancing and nonlinear optical limiting, and another one is used for low nonlinearity final pulse recompression. The chirped-pulse amplification and recompression of the 232-fs, 45-pJ/pulse oscillator output yields a final direct fiber-end delivery of 7.3-nJ energy pulses......A self-starting, passively stabilized, monolithic all polarizationmaintaining femtosecond Yb-fiber master oscillator / power amplifier with very high operational and environmental stability is demonstrated. The system is based on the use of two different photonic crystal fibers. One is used...... of around 297 fs duration. Our laser shows exceptional stability. No Q-switched modelocking events were detected during 4-days long observation. An average fluctuation of only 7.85 · 10−4 over the mean output power was determined as a result of more than 6-hours long measurement. The laser is stable towards...

Curaua fiber reinforced high-density polyethylene composites: effect of impact modifier and fiber loading

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jaqueline Albano de Morais

Full Text Available Abstract Short fibers are used in thermoplastic composites to increase their tensile and flexural resistance; however, it often decreases impact resistance. Composites with short vegetal fibers are not an exception to this behavior. The purpose of this work is to produce a vegetal fiber reinforced composite with improved tensile and impact resistance in relation to the polymer matrix. We used poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate, EVA, to recover the impact resistance of high density polyethylene, HDPE, reinforced with Curauá fibers, CF. Blends and composites were processed in a corotating twin screw extruder. The pure polymers, blends and composites were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetry, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, tensile mechanical properties and Izod impact resistance. EVA used as impact modifier in the HDPE matrix exhibited a co-continuous phase and in the composites the fibers were homogeneously dispersed. The best combination of mechanical properties, tensile, flexural and impact, were obtained for the formulations of composites with 20 wt. % of CF and 20 to 40 wt. % of EVA. The composite prepared with 20 wt. % EVA and containing 30 wt. % of CF showed impact resistance comparable to pure HDPE and improved tensile and flexural mechanical properties.

Analysis of key factors influencing the evaporation performances of an oriented linear cutting copper fiber sintered felt

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Minqiang; Zhong, Yujian

2018-01-01

Porous structure can effectively enhance the heat transfer efficiency. A kind of micro vaporizer using the oriented linear cutting copper fiber sintered felt is proposed in this work. Multiple long cutting copper fibers are firstly fabricated with a multi-tooth tool and then sintered together in parallel to form uniform thickness metal fiber sintered felts that provided a characteristic of oriented microchannels. The temperature rise response and thermal conversion efficiency are experimentally investigated to evaluate the influences of porosity, surface structure, feed flow rate and input power on the evaporation characteristics. It is indicated that the temperature rise response of water is mainly affected by input power and feed flow rate. High input power and low feed flow rate present better temperature rise response of water. Porosity rather than surface structure plays an important role in the temperature rise response of water at a relatively high input power. The thermal conversion efficiency is dominated by the input power and surface structure. The oriented linear cutting copper fiber sintered felts for three kinds of porosities show better thermal conversion efficiency than that of the oriented linear copper wire sintered felt when the input power is less than 115 W. All the sintered felts have almost the same performance of thermal conversion at a high input power.

Comparison of in situ ionizing radiation effects on Raman and photoluminescence intensity of high OH, low OH silica, and fluoride core fibers

Science.gov (United States)

Bilodeau, T. G.; Ewing, K. J.; Nau, G. M.; Aggarwal, I. D.

1995-06-01

An in situ study of the effects of ionizing radiation on the strength of the Raman and photoluminescence signal of high OH, low OH, and fluoride core fibers has been performed with 514.5 nm laser excitation. The fibers were irradiated with a 60Co source at a constant dose rate of 560 rads/h. The high OH fiber displayed a much slower decay of the fiber Raman intensity than the other two fibers during irradiation. The fluoride fiber exhibited the quickest decline in Raman signal with the intensity dropping by a factor of 1000 in less than 20 min. The Raman intensity of the low OH silica fiber recovered to greater than 90% of its pre-irradiation value after a post-irradiation photoanneal with 488 nm laser light. The silica fibers displayed an increase in intensity of a broad photoluminescence feature centered at 650 nm. However the fiber photoluminescence intensity remained much weaker than the Raman intensity throughout the irradiations.

Development Manufacturing Method of Highly Functional Kapok Fiber Absorbent Using Irradiation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chung, Byung Yeoup; Kim, Jae Sung; Nho, Young Chang; Kang, Phil Hyun; Baek, Myung Hwa

2006-01-01

The hydrophobic characteristic of kapok fibers was changed to hydrophilic property after NaClO2, treatments which is able to break all phenolic units especially lignin. After NaClO2 treatment, NaIO4, applied to kapok fibers for opening hexagonal polysaccharide structure, this step led to produce carbonyl groups(>C=O) on kapok fibers. In the final step, NaClO2, treatments were performed again to provide carboxyl groups(-COOH) on kapok fibers. In addition, kapok fibers after all chemical treatments were retained hollow structure which was observed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM). Kapok fibers which were obtained after chemical treatments would be a good heavy metal absorbent when these fibers applied less than in 10 mg/L standard solution. Moreover, these fibers were not detached heavy metals even added physical forces and used kapok fibers are able to reuse after detached heavy metals under pH 2-3. The degree of grafting increased as the irradiation dose increased, and are in the range 32% to 250% when the concentration of glycidyl methacrylate monomer was 50 vol. %. Based on this result, various functional groups are possible to be attached on kapok fibers used by radiation grafting technique

Surface modification of lignocellulosic fibers using high-frequency ultrasound

Science.gov (United States)

Jayant B. Gadhe; Ram B. Gupta; Thomas Elder

2005-01-01

Enzymatic and chemical oxidation of fiber surfaces has been reported in the literature as a method for producing medium density fiberboards without using synthetic adhesives. This work focuses on modifying the surface properties of wood fibers by the generation of free radicals using high-frequency ultrasound. A sonochemical reactor operating at 610 kHz is used to...

Zeonex microstructured polymer optical fiber: fabrication friendly fibers for high temperature and humidity insensitive Bragg grating sensing

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Woyessa, Getinet; Fasano, Andrea; Markos, Christos

2017-01-01

In the quest of finding the ideal polymer optical fiber (POF) for Bragg grating sensing, we have fabricated and characterized an endlessly single mode microstructured POF (mPOF). This fiber is made from cyclo-olefin homopolymer Zeonex grade 480R which has a very high glass transition temperature...

Controlling Stimulated Brillouin/Raman Scattering in High Power Fiber Lasers

Science.gov (United States)

2017-08-09

AFRL-RD-PS- AFRL-RD-PS- TR-2017-0043 TR-2017-0043 CONTROLLING STIMULATED BRILLOUIN/RAMAN SCATTERING IN HIGH POWER FIBER LASERS Cody Mart Ben...average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed...unlimited. 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES 14. ABSTRACT This research addressed suppression of stimulated Brillouin/Raman scattering in high power fiber lasers

Fiber Bragg grating-based performance monitoring of a slope model subjected to seepage

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Hong-Hu; Shi, Bin; Yan, Jun-Fan; Zhang, Jie; Zhang, Cheng-Cheng; Wang, Bao-Jun

2014-09-01

In the past few years, fiber optic sensing technologies have played an increasingly important role in the health monitoring of civil infrastructures. These innovative sensing technologies have recently been successfully applied to the performance monitoring of a series of geotechnical structures. Fiber optic sensors have shown many unique advantages in comparison with conventional sensors, including immunity to electrical noise, higher precision and improved durability and embedding capabilities; fiber optic sensors are also smaller in size and lighter in weight. In order to explore the mechanism of seepage-induced slope instability, a small-scale 1 g model test of the soil slope has been performed in the laboratory. During the model’s construction, specially fabricated sensing fibers containing nine fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors connected in a series were horizontally and vertically embedded into the soil mass. The surcharge load was applied on the slope crest, and the groundwater level inside of the slope was subsequently varied using two water chambers installed besides the slope model. The fiber optic sensing data of the vertical and horizontal strains within the slope model were automatically recorded by an FBG interrogator and a computer during the test. The test results are presented and interpreted in detail. It is found that the gradually accumulated deformation of the slope model subjected to seepage can be accurately captured by the quasi-distributed FBG strain sensors. The test results also demonstrate that the slope stability is significantly affected by ground water seepage, which fits well with the results that were calculated using finite element and limit equilibrium methods. The relationship between the strain measurements and the safety factors is further analyzed, together with a discussion on the residual strains. The performance evaluation of a soil slope using fiber optic strain sensors is proved to be a potentially effective

Fiber Bragg grating-based performance monitoring of a slope model subjected to seepage

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu, Hong-Hu; Shi, Bin; Yan, Jun-Fan; Zhang, Cheng-Cheng; Wang, Bao-Jun; Zhang, Jie

2014-01-01

In the past few years, fiber optic sensing technologies have played an increasingly important role in the health monitoring of civil infrastructures. These innovative sensing technologies have recently been successfully applied to the performance monitoring of a series of geotechnical structures. Fiber optic sensors have shown many unique advantages in comparison with conventional sensors, including immunity to electrical noise, higher precision and improved durability and embedding capabilities; fiber optic sensors are also smaller in size and lighter in weight. In order to explore the mechanism of seepage-induced slope instability, a small-scale 1 g model test of the soil slope has been performed in the laboratory. During the model’s construction, specially fabricated sensing fibers containing nine fiber Bragg grating (FBG) strain sensors connected in a series were horizontally and vertically embedded into the soil mass. The surcharge load was applied on the slope crest, and the groundwater level inside of the slope was subsequently varied using two water chambers installed besides the slope model. The fiber optic sensing data of the vertical and horizontal strains within the slope model were automatically recorded by an FBG interrogator and a computer during the test. The test results are presented and interpreted in detail. It is found that the gradually accumulated deformation of the slope model subjected to seepage can be accurately captured by the quasi-distributed FBG strain sensors. The test results also demonstrate that the slope stability is significantly affected by ground water seepage, which fits well with the results that were calculated using finite element and limit equilibrium methods. The relationship between the strain measurements and the safety factors is further analyzed, together with a discussion on the residual strains. The performance evaluation of a soil slope using fiber optic strain sensors is proved to be a potentially effective

Highly stretchable and conductive fibers enabled by liquid metal dip-coating

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Qiang; Roach, Devin J.; Geng, Luchao; Chen, Haosen; Qi, H. Jerry; Fang, Daining

2018-03-01

Highly stretchable and conductive fibers have been fabricated by dip-coating of a layer of liquid metal (eutectic gallium indium, EGaIn) on printed silicone elastomer filaments. This fabrication method exploits a nanolayer of oxide skin that rapidly forms on the surface of EGaIn when exposed to air. Through dip-coating, the sticky nature of the oxide skin leads to the formation of a thin EGaIn coating (˜5 μm thick) on the originally nonconductive filaments and renders these fibers excellent conductivity. Electrical characterization shows that the fiber resistance increases moderately as the fiber elongates but always maintains conductivity even when stretched by 800%. Besides this, these fibers possess good cyclic electrical stability with little degradation after hundreds of stretching cycles, which makes them an excellent candidate for stretchable conductors. We then demonstrate a highly stretchable LED circuit as well as a conductive stretchable net that extends the 1D fibers into a 2D configuration. These examples demonstrate potential applications for topologically complex stretchable electronics.

Evaluation of ultra-high-performance-fiber reinforced concrete binder content using the response surface method

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Aldahdooh, M.A.A.; Muhamad Bunnori, N.; Megat Johari, M.A.

2013-01-01

Highlights: • We develop a practical method for adjusting the binder content of UHP-FRC. • We adjust the binder content of UHP-FRC mixtures using RSM. • Increasing the cement content does not contribute to enhance strength. • Increasing the content of cement will increase the flow of UHP-FRC mixtures. - Abstract: One of the major disadvantages in ultra-high-performance-fiber reinforced concrete (UHP-FRC) is its high ordinary Portland cement (OPC) content, which directly translates into an increase in OPC production. More OPC production results in increased emission of greenhouse gases, as well increased electrical energy consumption and concrete price. This study is aimed at adjusting the binder content (OPC and silica fume (SF) contents) of UHP-FRC using the response surface method. The present investigation shows that, for a given water/binder and superplasticizer/OPC, the compressive strength is independent of the binder content, whereas the flow depends on the binder content. Increasing the binder content does not enhance the strength compared with the required design strength because the capillary porosity increases with increasing OPC content; however, the workability increases. The final result is the production of a UHP-FRC with an OPC content of 720.49 kg/m 3 , an SF content of 214.25 kg/m 3 , a compressive strength of 181.41 MPa, a direct tensile strength of 12.49 MPa, a bending tensile strength of 30.31 MPa, and a flow of 167 mm

3D carbon fiber mats/nano-Fe3O4 hybrid material with high electromagnetic shielding performance

Science.gov (United States)

Zhan, Yingqing; Long, Zhihang; Wan, Xinyi; Zhang, Jiemin; He, Shuangjiang; He, Yi

2018-06-01

To obtain high-performance electromagnetic shielding materials, structure and morphology are two key factors. We here developed an efficient and facial method to prepare high-performance 3D carbon nanofiber mats (CFM)/Fe3O4 hybrid electromagnetic shielding materials. For this purpose, the CFM were chemically modified by mussel-inspired poly-dopamine coating, which were further used as templates for decoration of Fe3O4 nanoparticles via solvothermal route. It was found that the Fe3O4 nano-spheres with diameters of 200-250 nm were uniformly coated on the surface of 3D carbon nanofibers. More importantly, the morphology and structure of resulting 3D carbon nanofiber mats/Fe3O4 hybrids could be easily controlled by altering the experiment parameters, which were examined by FT-IR, XPS, TGA, XRD, SEM, and TEM. The measured magnetic properties showed that saturation magnetism and coercivity increased from 13.4 to 39.7 emu/g and 85.3 to 104.6 Oe, respectively. The lowest reflectivity of resulting hybrid was calculated to be -47 dB at 10.0 GHz (2.5 mm). In addition, the reflectivity of 3D carbon nanofiber mats/Fe3O4 hybrid was less than -25 dB in the range of 7-13 GHz. Moreover, the resulting 3D carbon nanofiber mats/Fe3O4 hybrid exhibited an EMI shielding performance of -62.6 dB in the frequency range of 8.2-12.4 GHz. Therefore, 3D carbon fiber mats/Fe3O4 hybrids can be ideal EMI materials with strong absorption, low density, and wide absorption range.

Polarization-maintaining performance of large effective area, higher order modes fiber in a coiled configuration

Science.gov (United States)

Ahmad, Raja; Nicholson, Jeffrey W.; Abedin, Kazi S.; Westbrook, Paul S.; Headley, Clifford; Wisk, Patrick W.; Monberg, Eric M.; Yan, Man F.; DiGiovanni, David J.

2018-02-01

Scaling the power-level of fiber sources has many practical advantages, while also enabling fundamental studies on the light-matter interaction in amorphous guiding media. In order to scale the power-level of fiber-sources without encountering nonlinear impairments, a strategy is to increase the effective-area of the guided optical-mode. Increasing the effective-area of the fundamental mode in a fiber, however, presents the challenges of increased susceptibility to mode-distortion and effective-area-reduction under the influence of bends. Therefore, higher-order-mode (HOM) fibers, which guide light in large effective-area (Aeff) Bessel-like modes, are a good candidate for scaling the power-level of robust fiber-sources. Many applications of high-power fiber-sources also demand a deterministic control on the polarization-state of light. Furthermore, a polarization-maintaining (PM)-type HOM fiber can afford the added possibility of coherent-beam combination and polarization multiplexing of high-power fiber-lasers. Previously, we reported polarization-maintaining operation in a 1.3 m length of PM-HOM fiber that was held straight. The PM-HOM fiber guided Bessel-like modes with Aeff ranging from 1200-2800 μm2. In this work, we report, for the first time, that the polarization-extinction-ratio (PER) of the HOM exceeds 10 dB in an 8 m long fiber that is coiled down to a diameter of 40 cm. This opens a path towards compact and polarization-controlled high-power fiber-systems.

High-performance supercapacitors based on hollow polyaniline nanofibers by electrospinning.

Science.gov (United States)

Miao, Yue-E; Fan, Wei; Chen, Dan; Liu, Tianxi

2013-05-22

Hollow polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers with controllable wall thickness are fabricated by in situ polymerization of aniline using the electrospun poly(amic acid) fiber membrane as a template. A maximum specific capacitance of 601 F g(-1) has been achieved at 1 A g(-1), suggesting the potential application of hollow PANI nanofibers for supercapacitors. The superior electrochemical performance of the hollow nanofibers is attributed to their hollow structure, thin wall thickness, and orderly pore passages, which can drastically facilitate the ion diffusion and improve the utilization of the electroactive PANI during the charge-discharge processes. Furthermore, the high flexibility of the self-standing fiber membrane template provides possibilities for the facile construction and fabrication of conducting polymers with hollow nanostructures, which may find potential applications in various high-performance electrochemical devices.

Performance Analysis of a Noncontact Plastic Fiber Optical Fiber Displacement Sensor with Compensation of Target Reflectivity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Daniele Tosi

2013-01-01

Full Text Available An inexpensive fiber-based noncontact distance sensor specific for monitoring short-range displacements in micromachining applications is presented. To keep the overall costs low, the sensor uses plastic optical fibers and an intensiometric approach based on the received light intensity after the reflection from the target whose displacement has to be measured. A suitable target reflectivity compensation technique is implemented to mitigate the effects due to target surface nonuniformity or ageing. The performances of the sensor are first evaluated for different fiber configurations and target reflectivity profiles and positions using a numerical method based on Monte Carlo simulations. Then, experimental validations on a configuration designed to work up to 1.5 mm have been conducted. The results have confirmed the validity of the proposed sensor architecture, which demonstrated excellent compensation capabilities, with errors below 0.04 mm in the (0-1 mm range regardless the color and misalignment of the target.

Fatigue Performance of Fiber Reinforced Concrete

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Jun, Zhang; Stang, Henrik

1996-01-01

The objective of the present study is to obtain basic data of fibre reinforced concrete under fatigue load and to set up a theoretical model based on micromechanics. In this study, the bridging stress in fiber reinforced concrete under cyclic tensile load was investigted in details. The damage...... mechanism of the interface between fiber and matrix was proposed and a rational model given. Finally, the response of a steel fiber reinforced concrete beam under fatigue loading was predicted based on this model and compared with experimental results....

Multimode fiber tip Fabry-Perot cavity for highly sensitive pressure measurement.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, W P; Wang, D N; Xu, Ben; Zhao, C L; Chen, H F

2017-03-23

We demonstrate an optical Fabry-Perot interferometer fiber tip sensor based on an etched end of multimode fiber filled with ultraviolet adhesive. The fiber device is miniature (with diameter of less than 60 μm), robust and low cost, in a convenient reflection mode of operation, and has a very high gas pressure sensitivity of -40.94 nm/MPa, a large temperature sensitivity of 213 pm/°C within the range from 55 to 85 °C, and a relatively low temperature cross-sensitivity of 5.2 kPa/°C. This device has a high potential in monitoring environment of high pressure.

Highly Sensitive Multifilament Fiber Strain Sensors with Ultrabroad Sensing Range for Textile Electronics.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Jaehong; Shin, Sera; Lee, Sanggeun; Song, Jaekang; Kang, Subin; Han, Heetak; Kim, SeulGee; Kim, Seunghoe; Seo, Jungmok; Kim, DaeEun; Lee, Taeyoon

2018-05-22

Highly stretchable fiber strain sensors are one of the most important components for various applications in wearable electronics, electronic textiles, and biomedical electronics. Herein, we present a facile approach for fabricating highly stretchable and sensitive fiber strain sensors by embedding Ag nanoparticles into a stretchable fiber with a multifilament structure. The multifilament structure and Ag-rich shells of the fiber strain sensor enable the sensor to simultaneously achieve both a high sensitivity and largely wide sensing range despite its simple fabrication process and components. The fiber strain sensor simultaneously exhibits ultrahigh gauge factors (∼9.3 × 10 5 and ∼659 in the first stretching and subsequent stretching, respectively), a very broad strain-sensing range (450 and 200% for the first and subsequent stretching, respectively), and high durability for more than 10 000 stretching cycles. The fiber strain sensors can also be readily integrated into a glove to control a hand robot and effectively applied to monitor the large volume expansion of a balloon and a pig bladder for an artificial bladder system, thereby demonstrating the potential of the fiber strain sensors as candidates for electronic textiles, wearable electronics, and biomedical engineering.

Rheological Behavior of Tomato Fiber Suspensions Produced by High Shear and High Pressure Homogenization and Their Application in Tomato Products

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Ping; Adhikari, Benu P.; Li, Dong

2018-01-01

This study investigated the effects of high shear and high pressure homogenization on the rheological properties (steady shear viscosity, storage and loss modulus, and deformation) and homogeneity in tomato fiber suspensions. The tomato fiber suspensions at different concentrations (0.1%–1%, w/w) were subjected to high shear and high pressure homogenization and the morphology (distribution of fiber particles), rheological properties, and color parameters of the homogenized suspensions were measured. The homogenized suspensions were significantly more uniform compared to unhomogenized suspension. The homogenized suspensions were found to better resist the deformation caused by external stress (creep behavior). The apparent viscosity and storage and loss modulus of homogenized tomato fiber suspension are comparable with those of commercial tomato ketchup even at the fiber concentration as low as 0.5% (w/w), implying the possibility of using tomato fiber as thickener. The model tomato sauce produced using tomato fiber showed desirable consistency and color. These results indicate that the application of tomato fiber in tomato-based food products would be desirable and beneficial. PMID:29743890

Radiation damage and thermal shock response of carbon-fiber-reinforced materials to intense high-energy proton beams

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N. Simos

2016-11-01

Full Text Available A comprehensive study on the effects of energetic protons on carbon-fiber composites and compounds under consideration for use as low-Z pion production targets in future high-power accelerators and low-impedance collimating elements for intercepting TeV-level protons at the Large Hadron Collider has been undertaken addressing two key areas, namely, thermal shock absorption and resistance to irradiation damage. Carbon-fiber composites of various fiber weaves have been widely used in aerospace industries due to their unique combination of high temperature stability, low density, and high strength. The performance of carbon-carbon composites and compounds under intense proton beams and long-term irradiation have been studied in a series of experiments and compared with the performance of graphite. The 24-GeV proton beam experiments confirmed the inherent ability of a 3D C/C fiber composite to withstand a thermal shock. A series of irradiation damage campaigns explored the response of different C/C structures as a function of the proton fluence and irradiating environment. Radiolytic oxidation resulting from the interaction of oxygen molecules, the result of beam-induced radiolysis encountered during some of the irradiation campaigns, with carbon atoms during irradiation with the presence of a water coolant emerged as a dominant contributor to the observed structural integrity loss at proton fluences ≥5×10^{20}  p/cm^{2}. The carbon-fiber composites were shown to exhibit significant anisotropy in their dimensional stability driven by the fiber weave and the microstructural behavior of the fiber and carbon matrix accompanied by the presence of manufacturing porosity and defects. Carbon-fiber-reinforced molybdenum-graphite compounds (MoGRCF selected for their impedance properties in the Large Hadron Collider beam collimation exhibited significant decrease in postirradiation load-displacement behavior even after low dose levels (∼5×10^{18}�

High-fiber rye diet increases ileal excretion of energy and macronutrients compared with low-fiber wheat diet independent of meal frequency in ileostomy subjects.

Science.gov (United States)

Isaksson, Hanna; Landberg, Rikard; Sundberg, Birgitta; Lundin, Eva; Hallmans, Göran; Zhang, Jie-Xian; Tidehag, Per; Erik Bach Knudsen, Knud; Moazzami, Ali A; Aman, Per

2013-01-01

Whole-grain foods and cereal dietary fiber intake is associated with lower body weight. This may partly result from lower energy utilization of high-fiber diets. In the present study, the impact on ileal excretion of energy and macronutrients in response to a rye bread high-fiber diet compared to a refined wheat low-fiber diet was investigated. Furthermore, the effect of meal frequency on apparent absorption of nutrients was studied for the first time. Ten participants that had undergone ileostomy consumed standardized iso-caloric diets, including low-fiber wheat bread (20 g dietary fiber per day) for 2 weeks followed by high-fiber rye bread (52 g dietary fiber per day) for 2 weeks. The diets were consumed in an ordinary (three meals per day) and a nibbling (seven meals per day) meal frequency in a cross-over design. Ileal effluents were collected during 24 h at the third day of each of the four dietary periods and analyzed for gross energy and nutrient contents. The results showed that intake of rye bread high-fiber diet compared to the refined wheat low-fiber diet caused an increase in ileal excretion of energy and macronutrients. The effect was independent of meal frequency. This suggests that a high intake of rye may result in lower availability of macronutrients for small intestinal digestion and absorption. A regular intake of rye may therefore have implications for weight management.

Design and performances of trench-assisted G.657.A&B fiber optimized towards more space savings and miniaturization of components

Science.gov (United States)

Boivin, David; Bigot-Astruc, Marianne; De Montmorillon, Louis-Anne; Provost, Lionel; Sillard, Pierre; Bergonzo, Aurélien

2009-02-01

After many years of expectations, Fiber To The Home (FTTH) has finally become a reality with a wide number of projects already running worldwide and growing. Optical fiber is inevitably taking more and more importance in our environment, but for many good reasons, the space we are truly willing or able to allocate to it remains limited. These installation constrainsts have turned into additional requirements that need to be addressed for both active and passive components. If exceptional bending performances obtained without degrading backward compatibilities is a pre-requisite to deployment success,1 other parameters also need to be carefully taken into account when designing the ideal candidate for use in confined environments. Among them, one can cite the bend loss homogeneity over length and bending directions, the resistance to high optical power under bending and the tolerance to modal noise. In this paper, we present the design and performances of a bend insensitive fiber optimized towards more space savings and miniaturization of components. In addition to exceptional bending performances - lower than 0.1 dB/turn over a 5 mm bending radius -, its design guarantees impressive homogeneity levels and enhanced safety margins for high power applications while being still resistant to modal noise. Successfull cleave- and splice-ability results are finally presented, making this fiber ideally suited for use in components, pigtails and patchcords.

A study of liquid scintillator and fiber materials for use in a fiber calorimeter

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Altice, P.P. Jr.

1990-04-01

This reports an investigation into the performance of selected scintillation oils and fiber materials to test their applicability in high energy, liquid scintillator calorimetry. Two scintillating oils, Bicron BC-517 and an oil mixed for the MACRO experiment, and two fiber materials, Teflon and GlassClad PS-252, were tested for the following properties: light yield, attenuation length and internal reflection angle. The results of these tests indicated that the scintillation oils and the fiber materials had an overall good performance with lower energies and would meet the requirements of liquid scintillator detection at SSC energies. 6 refs

Influence of Kenaf Core Fiber Incorporation on the Mechanical Performance and Dimensional Stability of Oil Palm Fiber Reinforced Poly(lactic acid Hybrid Biocomposites

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Abubakar Umar Birnin-Yauri

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This study demonstrated the reinforcing potential of kenaf core fiber (KCF to complement and sustain oil palm fiber supply chain in the production of natural fiber-thermoplastic biocomposites. The lignin-rich KCF was incorporated into cellulose-rich oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber (EFBF- and oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF-poly(lactic acid (PLA composites, aimed at achieving synergism. The hybrid biocomposites developed by melt blending and subsequent compression molding were characterized for possible application as an alternative to medium-density fiberboards. The mechanical properties and dimensional stability of both single fiber- and hybrid fiber-PLA biocomposites were evaluated and compared. The test results showed a synergistic improvement as a consequence of fiber hybridization. Also, the findings suggested the best material performance with the incorporation of 5% KCF into 55% EFBF or OPMF and 40% PLA matrix. The OPMF-KCF-PLA hybrid biocomposites gave better results than the EFBF-KCF-PLA hybrid biocomposites.

Optical fiber communications

CERN Document Server

Keiser, Gerd

2008-01-01

The fourth edition of this popular text and reference book presents the fundamental principles for understanding and applying optical fiber technology to sophisticated modern telecommunication systems. Optical-fiber-based telecommunication networks have become a major information-transmission-system, with high capacity links encircling the globe in both terrestrial and undersea installations. Numerous passive and active optical devices within these links perform complex transmission and networking functions in the optical domain, such as signal amplification, restoration, routing, and switching. Along with the need to understand the functions of these devices comes the necessity to measure both component and network performance, and to model and stimulate the complex behavior of reliable high-capacity networks.

High-sensitivity bend angle measurements using optical fiber gratings.

Science.gov (United States)

Rauf, Abdul; Zhao, Jianlin; Jiang, Biqiang

2013-07-20

We present a high-sensitivity and more flexible bend measurement method, which is based on the coupling of core mode to the cladding modes at the bending region in concatenation with optical fiber grating serving as band reflector. The characteristics of a bend sensing arm composed of bending region and optical fiber grating is examined for different configurations including single fiber Bragg grating (FBG), chirped FBG (CFBG), and double FBGs. The bend loss curves for coated, stripped, and etched sections of fiber in the bending region with FBG, CFBG, and double FBG are obtained experimentally. The effect of separation between bending region and optical fiber grating on loss is measured. The loss responses for single FBG and CFBG configurations are compared to discover the effectiveness for practical applications. It is demonstrated that the sensitivity of the double FBG scheme is twice that of the single FBG and CFBG configurations, and hence acts as sensitivity multiplier. The bend loss response for different fiber diameters obtained through etching in 40% hydrofluoric acid, is measured in double FBG scheme that resulted in a significant increase in the sensitivity, and reduction of dead-zone.

Fiber-wireless links supporting high-capacity W-band channels

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Vegas Olmos, Juan José; Tafur Monroy, Idelfonso

2013-01-01

Seamless convergence of fiber-optic and the wireless networks is of great interest for enabling transparent delivery of broadband services to users in different locations, including both metropolitan and rural areas. Current demand of bandwidth by end-users, especially using mobile devices...... latest findings and experimental results on the W-band, specifically on its 81-86GHz sub-band. These include photonic generation of millimeter-wave carriers and transmission performance of broadband signals on different types of fibers and span lengths....

High pressure fiber optic sensor system

Science.gov (United States)

Guida, Renato; Xia, Hua; Lee, Boon K; Dekate, Sachin N

2013-11-26

The present application provides a fiber optic sensor system. The fiber optic sensor system may include a small diameter bellows, a large diameter bellows, and a fiber optic pressure sensor attached to the small diameter bellows. Contraction of the large diameter bellows under an applied pressure may cause the small diameter bellows to expand such that the fiber optic pressure sensor may measure the applied pressure.

The effects of high temperature and fiber diameter on the quasi static compressive behavior of metal fiber sintered sheets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Song, Weidong, E-mail: swdgh@bit.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081 (China); Liu, Ge [State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081 (China); Wang, Jianzhong; Tang, Huiping [State Key Laboratory of Porous Metal Materials, Northwest Institute for Non-ferrous Metal Research, Xi’an 710016 (China)

2017-04-06

The compressive mechanical properties of the sintered sheets of continuous stainless steel fibers with different fiber diameters (8 µm, 12 µm, 28 µm) are investigated at temperatures from 298 K to 1073 K. The stress-strain curves of metal fiber sintered sheet (MFSS) are obtained by testing under uniaxial compression and 0.2% offset yield stress are determined. Inner micro-structures of the material are revealed by using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and microscopic computer tomography. The results indicates that fabrication technique and porosity are two principle factors affecting the yield strength of MFSS and the strength of MFSS is insensitive to the temperature below 873 K while softening occurs at temperature 1073 K. At relative high porosity (e.g. 77%), the material with small diameter fibers tends to have higher yield strength while at low porosity, MFSS's yield strength becomes high with the increase of the fiber diameter, which is probably attributed to the joint size, the surface appearance of fibers and prehardening generated during the manufacturing of MFSS. A simplified structure model taking joint size into consideration is established to explain the influence of the joint size on the yield strength of MFSS.

Long-Period Gratings in Highly Germanium-Doped, Single-Mode Optical Fibers for Sensing Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Schlangen, Sebastian; Bremer, Kort; Zheng, Yulong; Böhm, Sebastian; Steinke, Michael; Wellmann, Felix; Neumann, Jörg; Overmeyer, Ludger

2018-01-01

Long-period fiber gratings (LPGs) are well known for their sensitivity to external influences, which make them interesting for a large number of sensing applications. For these applications, fibers with a high numerical aperture (i.e., fibers with highly germanium (Ge)-doped fused silica fiber cores) are more attractive since they are intrinsically photosensitive, as well as less sensitive to bend- and microbend-induced light attenuations. In this work, we introduce a novel method to inscribe LPGs into highly Ge-doped, single-mode fibers. By tapering the optical fiber, and thus, tailoring the effective indices of the core and cladding modes, for the first time, an LPG was inscribed into such fibers using the amplitude mask technique and a KrF excimer laser. Based on this novel method, sensitive LPG-based fiber optic sensors only a few millimeters in length can be incorporated in bend-insensitive fibers for use in various monitoring applications. Moreover, by applying the described inscription method, the LPG spectrum can be influenced and tailored according to the specific demands of a particular application. PMID:29702600

Long-Period Gratings in Highly Germanium-Doped, Single-Mode Optical Fibers for Sensing Applications

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sebastian Schlangen

2018-04-01

Full Text Available Long-period fiber gratings (LPGs are well known for their sensitivity to external influences, which make them interesting for a large number of sensing applications. For these applications, fibers with a high numerical aperture (i.e., fibers with highly germanium (Ge-doped fused silica fiber cores are more attractive since they are intrinsically photosensitive, as well as less sensitive to bend- and microbend-induced light attenuations. In this work, we introduce a novel method to inscribe LPGs into highly Ge-doped, single-mode fibers. By tapering the optical fiber, and thus, tailoring the effective indices of the core and cladding modes, for the first time, an LPG was inscribed into such fibers using the amplitude mask technique and a KrF excimer laser. Based on this novel method, sensitive LPG-based fiber optic sensors only a few millimeters in length can be incorporated in bend-insensitive fibers for use in various monitoring applications. Moreover, by applying the described inscription method, the LPG spectrum can be influenced and tailored according to the specific demands of a particular application.

Characterization of high performance silicon-based VMJ PV cells for laser power transmission applications

Science.gov (United States)

Perales, Mico; Yang, Mei-huan; Wu, Cheng-liang; Hsu, Chin-wei; Chao, Wei-sheng; Chen, Kun-hsien; Zahuranec, Terry

2016-03-01

Continuing improvements in the cost and power of laser diodes have been critical in launching the emerging fields of power over fiber (PoF), and laser power beaming. Laser power is transmitted either over fiber (for PoF), or through free space (power beaming), and is converted to electricity by photovoltaic cells designed to efficiently convert the laser light. MH GoPower's vertical multi-junction (VMJ) PV cell, designed for high intensity photovoltaic applications, is fueling the emergence of this market, by enabling unparalleled photovoltaic receiver flexibility in voltage, cell size, and power output. Our research examined the use of the VMJ PV cell for laser power transmission applications. We fully characterized the performance of the VMJ PV cell under various laser conditions, including multiple near IR wavelengths and light intensities up to tens of watts per cm2. Results indicated VMJ PV cell efficiency over 40% for 9xx nm wavelengths, at laser power densities near 30 W/cm2. We also investigated the impact of the physical dimensions (length, width, and height) of the VMJ PV cell on its performance, showing similarly high performance across a wide range of cell dimensions. We then evaluated the VMJ PV cell performance within the power over fiber application, examining the cell's effectiveness in receiver packages that deliver target voltage, intensity, and power levels. By designing and characterizing multiple receivers, we illustrated techniques for packaging the VMJ PV cell for achieving high performance (> 30%), high power (> 185 W), and target voltages for power over fiber applications.

Fiber Optic Cables for Transmission of High-Power Laser Pulses in Spaceflight Applications

Science.gov (United States)

Thomes, W. J., Jr.; Ott, M. N.; Chuska, R. F.; Switzer, R. C.; Blair, D. E.

2010-01-01

Lasers with high peak power pulses are commonly used in spaceflight missions for a wide range of applications, from LIDAR systems to optical communications. Due to the high optical power needed, the laser has to be located on the exterior of the satellite or coupled through a series of free space optics. This presents challenges for thermal management, radiation resistance, and mechanical design. Future applications will require multiple lasers located close together, which further complicates the design. Coupling the laser energy into a fiber optic cable allows the laser to be relocated to a more favorable position on the spacecraft. Typical fiber optic termination procedures are not sufficient for injection of these high-power laser pulses without catastrophic damage to the fiber endface. In the current study, we will review the causes of fiber damage during high-power injection and discuss our new manufacturing procedures that overcome these issues to permit fiber use with high reliability in these applications. We will also discuss the proper methods for launching the laser pulses into the fiber to avoid damage and how this is being implemented for current spaceflight missions.

Fiber optic cables for transmission of high-power laser pulses in spaceflight applications

Science.gov (United States)

Thomes, W. J.; Ott, M. N.; Chuska, R. F.; Switzer, R. C.; Blair, D. E.

2017-11-01

Lasers with high peak power pulses are commonly used in spaceflight missions for a wide range of applications, from LIDAR systems to optical communications. Due to the high optical power needed, the laser has to be located on the exterior of the satellite or coupled through a series of free space optics. This presents challenges for thermal management, radiation resistance, and mechanical design. Future applications will require multiple lasers located close together, which further complicates the design. Coupling the laser energy into a fiber optic cable allows the laser to be relocated to a more favorable position on the spacecraft. Typical fiber optic termination procedures are not sufficient for injection of these high-power laser pulses without catastrophic damage to the fiber endface. In the current study, we will review the causes of fiber damage during high-power injection and discuss our new manufacturing procedures that overcome these issues to permit fiber use with high reliability in these applications. We will also discuss the proper methods for launching the laser pulses into the fiber to avoid damage and how this is being implemented for current spaceflight missions.

High dietary fiber intake prevents stroke at a population level.

Science.gov (United States)

Casiglia, Edoardo; Tikhonoff, Valérie; Caffi, Sandro; Boschetti, Giovanni; Grasselli, Carla; Saugo, Mario; Giordano, Nunzia; Rapisarda, Valentina; Spinella, Paolo; Palatini, Paolo

2013-10-01

This research was aimed at clarifying whether high dietary fiber intake has an impact on incidence and risk of stroke at a population level. In 1647 unselected subjects, dietary fiber intake (DFI) was detected in a 12-year population-based study, using other dietary variables, anagraphics, biometrics, blood pressure, heart rate, blood lipids, glucose, insulin, uricaemia, fibrinogenaemia, erytrosedimentation rate, diabetes, insulin resistance, smoking, pulmonary disease and left ventricular hypertrophy as covariables. In adjusted Cox models, high DFI reduced the risk of stroke. In analysis based on quintiles of fiber intake adjusted for confounders, HR for incidence of stroke was lower when the daily intake of soluble fiber was >25 g or that of insoluble fiber was >47 g. In multivariate analyses, using these values as cut-off of DFI, the risk of stroke was lower in those intaking more that the cut-off of soluble (HR 0.31, 0.17-0.55) or insoluble (HR 0.35, 0.19-0.63) fiber. Incidence of stroke was also lower (-50%, p < 0.003 and -46%, p < 0.01, respectively). Higher dietary DFI is inversely and independently associated to incidence and risk of stroke in general population. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved.

A good performance watermarking LDPC code used in high-speed optical fiber communication system

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Wenbo; Li, Chao; Zhang, Xiaoguang; Xi, Lixia; Tang, Xianfeng; He, Wenxue

2015-07-01

A watermarking LDPC code, which is a strategy designed to improve the performance of the traditional LDPC code, was introduced. By inserting some pre-defined watermarking bits into original LDPC code, we can obtain a more correct estimation about the noise level in the fiber channel. Then we use them to modify the probability distribution function (PDF) used in the initial process of belief propagation (BP) decoding algorithm. This algorithm was tested in a 128 Gb/s PDM-DQPSK optical communication system and results showed that the watermarking LDPC code had a better tolerances to polarization mode dispersion (PMD) and nonlinearity than that of traditional LDPC code. Also, by losing about 2.4% of redundancy for watermarking bits, the decoding efficiency of the watermarking LDPC code is about twice of the traditional one.

Performance Assessment of Ordered Porous Electrospun Honeycomb Fibers for the Removal of Atmospheric Polar Volatile Organic Compounds

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yixin Wang

2018-05-01

Full Text Available This study explored a new facile method of preparing ordered porous electrospun honeycomb fibers to obtain the most promising composites for maximal adsorption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs. The self-assembly ordered porous material (OPM and polyacrylonitrile (PAN were formulated into a blend solution to prepare honeycomb fibers. SEM and TEM images showed that OPM was effectively bonded in PAN fibers because of the composite’s structure. Acetone was used as a model to assess the VOC adsorption performances of electrospun honeycomb fibers with different OPM contents. Experimental results revealed that the adsorption capacity of honeycomb fibers increased with the increase of loaded OPM within the PAN fibers. The highest adsorption capacity was 58.2 μg g−1 by the fibers containing with 60% OPM in weight. After several recycling times, the adsorption capacities of the reused honeycomb fibers were almost the same with the fresh fibers. This finding indicated that the electrospun honeycomb fibers have potential application in removing VOCs in the workplace, and promote the performance of masks for odor removal.

Thermal oxidation induced degradation of carbon fiber reinforced composites and carbon nanotube sheet enhanced fiber/matrix interface for high temperature aerospace structural applications

Science.gov (United States)

Haque, Mohammad Hamidul

Recent increase in the use of carbon fiber reinforced polymer matrix composite, especially for high temperature applications in aerospace primary and secondary structures along with wind energy and automotive industries, have generated new challenges to predict its failure mechanisms and service life. This dissertation reports the experimental study of a unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced bismaleimide (BMI) composites (CFRC), an excellent candidate for high temperature aerospace components, undergoing thermal oxidation at 260 °C in air for over 3000 hours. The key focus of the work is to investigate the mechanical properties of the carbon fiber BMI composite subjected to thermal aging in three key aspects - first, studying its bulk flexural properties (in macro scale), second, characterizing the crack propagation along the fiber direction, representing the interfacial bonding strength between fiber and matrix (in micro scale), and third, introducing nano-structured materials to modify the interface (in nano scale) between the carbon fiber and BMI resin and mechanical characterization to study its influence on mitigating the aging effect. Under the first category, weight loss and flexural properties have been monitored as the oxidation propagates through the fiber/matrix interface. Dynamic mechanical analysis and micro-computed tomography analysis have been performed to analyze the aging effects. In the second category, the long-term effects of thermal oxidation on the delamination (between the composite plies) and debonding (between fiber and matrix) type fracture toughness have been characterized by preparing two distinct types of double cantilever beam specimens. Digital image correlation has been used to determine the deformation field and strain distribution around the crack propagation path. Finally the resin system and the fiber/matrix interface have been modified using nanomaterials to mitigate the degradations caused by oxidation. Nanoclay modified

Carbon Fiber Damage in Accelerator Beam

CERN Document Server

Sapinski, M; Guerrero, A; Koopman, J; Métral, E

2009-01-01

Carbon fibers are commonly used as moving targets in Beam Wire Scanners. Because of their thermomechanical properties they are very resistant to particle beams. Their strength deteriorates with time due to radiation damage and low-cycle thermal fatigue. In case of high intensity beams this process can accelerate and in extreme cases the fiber is damaged during a single scan. In this work a model describing the fiber temperature, thermionic emission and sublimation is discussed. Results are compared with fiber damage test performed on SPS beam in November 2008. In conclusions the limits of Wire Scanner operation on high intensity beams are drawn.

Novel Fiber-Optic Ring Acoustic Emission Sensor.

Science.gov (United States)

Wei, Peng; Han, Xiaole; Xia, Dong; Liu, Taolin; Lang, Hao

2018-01-13

Acoustic emission technology has been applied to many fields for many years. However, the conventional piezoelectric acoustic emission sensors cannot be used in extreme environments, such as those with heavy electromagnetic interference, high pressure, or strong corrosion. In this paper, a novel fiber-optic ring acoustic emission sensor is proposed. The sensor exhibits high sensitivity, anti-electromagnetic interference, and corrosion resistance. First, the principle of a novel fiber-optic ring sensor is introduced. Different from piezoelectric and other fiber acoustic emission sensors, this novel sensor includes both a sensing skeleton and a sensing fiber. Second, a heterodyne interferometric demodulating method is presented. In addition, a fiber-optic ring sensor acoustic emission system is built based on this method. Finally, fiber-optic ring acoustic emission experiments are performed. The novel fiber-optic ring sensor is glued onto the surface of an aluminum plate. The 150 kHz standard continuous sinusoidal signals and broken lead signals are successfully detected by the novel fiber-optic ring acoustic emission sensor. In addition, comparison to the piezoelectric acoustic emission sensor is performed, which shows the availability and reliability of the novel fiber-optic ring acoustic emission sensor. In the future, this novel fiber-optic ring acoustic emission sensor will provide a new route to acoustic emission detection in harsh environments.

Thermo-optical effects in high-power Ytterbium-doped fiber amplifiers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Kristian Rymann; Alkeskjold, Thomas Tanggaard; Broeng, Jes

2011-01-01

We investigate the effect of temperature gradients in high-power Yb-doped fiber amplifiers by a numerical beam propagation model, which takes thermal effects into account in a self-consistent way. The thermally induced change in the refractive index of the fiber leads to a thermal lensing effect...

Single-longitudinal mode distributed-feedback fiber laser with low-threshold and high-efficiency

Science.gov (United States)

Jiang, Man; Zhou, Pu; Gu, Xijia

2018-01-01

Single-frequency fiber laser has attracted a lot of interest in recent years due to its numerous application potentials in telecommunications, LIDAR, high resolution sensing, atom frequency standard, etc. Phosphate glass fiber is one of the candidates for building compact high gain fiber lasers because of its capability of high-concentration of rare-earth ions doping in fiber core. Nevertheless, it is challenging for the integration of UV-written intra-core fiber Bragg gratings into the fiber laser cavity due to the low photosensitivity of phosphate glass fiber. The research presented in this paper will focus on demonstration of UV-written Bragg gratings in phosphate glass fiber and its application in direct-written short monolithic single-frequency fiber lasers. Strong π-phase shift Bragg grating structure is direct-inscribed into the Er/Yb co-doped gain fiber using an excimer laser, and a 5-cm-long phase mask is used to inscribe a laser cavity into the Er/Yb co-doped phosphate glass fibers. The phase mask is a uniform mask with a 50 μm gap in the middle. The fiber laser device emits output power of 10.44 mW with a slope efficiency of 21.5% and the threshold power is about 42.8 mW. Single-longitudinal mode operation is validated by radio frequency spectrum measurement. Moreover, the output spectrum at the highest power shows an excellent optical signal to noise ratio of about 70 dB. These results, to the best of our knowledge, show the lowest power threshold and highest efficiency among the reports that using the same structure to achieve single-longitudinal mode laser output.

Highly scalable, resonantly cladding-pumped, Er-doped fiber laser with record efficiency.

Science.gov (United States)

Dubinskii, M; Zhang, J; Ter-Mikirtychev, V

2009-05-15

We report the performance of a resonantly cladding-pumped, Yb-free, Er-doped fiber laser. We believe this is the first reported resonantly cladding-pumped fiber-Bragg-grating-based, Er-doped, large-mode-area (LMA) fiber laser. The laser, pumped by fiber-coupled InGaAsP/InP laser diode modules at 1,532.5 nm, delivers approximately 48 W of cw output at 1,590 nm. It is believed to be the highest power ever reported from a Yb-free Er-doped LMA fiber. This fully integrated laser also has the optical-to-optical efficiency of approximately 57%, to the best of our knowledge, the highest efficiency reported for cladding-pumped unidirectionally emitting Er-doped laser.

A Fiber-Optic Sensor for Acoustic Emission Detection in a High Voltage Cable System

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Tongzhi; Pang, Fufei; Liu, Huanhuan; Cheng, Jiajing; Lv, Longbao; Zhang, Xiaobei; Chen, Na; Wang, Tingyun

2016-01-01

We have proposed and demonstrated a Michelson interferometer-based fiber sensor for detecting acoustic emission generated from the partial discharge (PD) of the accessories of a high-voltage cable system. The developed sensor head is integrated with a compact and relatively high sensitivity cylindrical elastomer. Such a sensor has a broadband frequency response and a relatively high sensitivity in a harsh environment under a high-voltage electric field. The design and fabrication of the sensor head integrated with the cylindrical elastomer is described, and a series of experiments was conducted to evaluate the sensing performance. The experimental results demonstrate that the sensitivity of our developed sensor for acoustic detection of partial discharges is 1.7 rad/(m⋅Pa). A high frequency response up to 150 kHz is achieved. Moreover, the relatively high sensitivity for the detection of PD is verified in both the laboratory environment and gas insulated switchgear. The obtained results show the great potential application of a Michelson interferometer-based fiber sensor integrated with a cylindrical elastomer for in-situ monitoring high-voltage cable accessories for safety work. PMID:27916900

Dietary fiber and lipid peroxidation: effect of dietary fiber on levels of lipids and lipid peroxides in high fat diet.

Science.gov (United States)

Thampi, B S; Manoj, G; Leelamma, S; Menon, V P

1991-06-01

Effect of feeding coconut and blackgram fiber isolated as neutral detergent fiber (NDF) on the levels of lipids and lipid peroxides was studied in rats given a high fat diet. Concentration of cholesterol, free falty acid and phospholipids showed significant decrease in the serum, liver aorta and intestine of coconut and blackgram fiber groups. Concentration of malondialdehyde (MDA) and conjugated dienes was significantly decreased in liver and intestine of both fiber groups, while hydroperoxides showed significant increase in liver and heart of both the fiber groups. SOD and catalase activity was found to be increased in liver, intestine, heart proximal colon and distal colon of both the fiber groups. Serum ceruloplasmin levels showed a slight increase in animals fed coconut and blackgram fiber groups. Glutathione levels in liver, intestine proximal colon, distal colon and heart also showed a significant decrease in the animals of both the fiber groups.

High-order harmonics from an ultraintense laser pulse propagating inside a fiber

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bulanov, S.V.; Esirkepov, T. Zh.; Naumova, N.M.; Sokolov, I.V.

2003-01-01

A strong effect of high harmonic radiation during the propagation of a high intensity short laser pulse in a thin wall hollow channel ('fiber') is found and studied via relativistic particle-in-cell simulations. The fiber has finite width walls comprised of an overdense plasma. Only the harmonic radiation with the harmonic number above critical value, for which the fiber walls are transparent, propagates outwards in the form of a coherent ultrashort pulse with very short wavelength

Carbon fiber cloth supported interwoven WS{sub 2} nanosplates with highly enhanced performances for supercapacitors

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Shang, Xiao; Chi, Jing-Qi [State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China); Lu, Shan-Shan [State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China); College of Science, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China); Gou, Jian-Xia [State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China); Dong, Bin, E-mail: dongbin@upc.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China); College of Science, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China); Li, Xiao; Liu, Yan-Ru; Yan, Kai-Li; Chai, Yong-Ming [State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China); Liu, Chen-Guang, E-mail: cgliu@upc.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580 (China)

2017-01-15

Highlights: • WS{sub 2} nanoplates supported on carbon fiber cloth (WS{sub 2}/CFC) have been synthesized. • WS{sub 2}/CFC has the good dispersion and interwoven structure of WS{sub 2}. • CFC as substrate contributes to enhanced conductivity and close combination. • WS{sub 2}/CFC exhibits ultra-high activity and stability owing to CFC as support. - Abstract: The interwoven WS{sub 2} nanoplates supported on carbon fiber cloth (WS{sub 2}/CFC) have been successfully synthesized by a facile solvothermal process. XRD and XPS confirm the formation of WS{sub 2}/CFC. SEM images show the good dispersion of WS{sub 2} nanoplates with interwoven structures on the surface of CFC. Thanks to the 3D framework of CFC, WS{sub 2} nanoplates realize overall excellent-dispersion interwoven on the surface of CFC compared with pristine bulk WS{sub 2} with severe aggregation. Moreover, CFC not only serves as excellent conductive substrate to accelerate electron transport rate, but also contributes to the close combination between WS{sub 2} and CFC for long-term stability. The electrochemical measurements show that WS{sub 2}/CFC exhibit a high specific capacitance of 399 F g{sup −1} at 1.0 A g{sup −1}, demonstrating the obviously enhanced capability compared with pristine bulk WS{sub 2}. Furthermore, WS{sub 2}/CFC realizes ultra-stable cycling stability with 99% of retention of capacitance after 500 charge-discharge cycles. It may provide novel access of designing carbon-based transition metal disulfides composites for excellent super capacitive properties.