WorldWideScience

Sample records for reliability high efficiency

  1. High power klystrons for efficient reliable high power amplifiers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Levin, M.

    1980-11-01

    This report covers the design of reliable high efficiency, high power klystrons which may be used in both existing and proposed troposcatter radio systems. High Power (10 kW) klystron designs were generated in C-band (4.4 GHz to 5.0 GHz), S-band (2.5 GHz to 2.7 GHz), and L-band or UHF frequencies (755 MHz to 985 MHz). The tubes were designed for power supply compatibility and use with a vapor/liquid phase heat exchanger. Four (4) S-band tubes were developed in the course of this program along with two (2) matching focusing solenoids and two (2) heat exchangers. These tubes use five (5) tuners with counters which are attached to the focusing solenoids. A reliability mathematical model of the tube and heat exchanger system was also generated.

  2. Efficiency criteria for high reliability measured system structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sal'nikov, N.L.

    2012-01-01

    The procedures of structural redundancy are usually used to develop high reliability measured systems. To estimate efficiency of such structures the criteria to compare different systems has been developed. So it is possible to develop more exact system by inspection of redundant system data unit stochastic characteristics in accordance with the developed criteria [ru

  3. Highly-reliable operation of 638-nm broad stripe laser diode with high wall-plug efficiency for display applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yagi, Tetsuya; Shimada, Naoyuki; Nishida, Takehiro; Mitsuyama, Hiroshi; Miyashita, Motoharu

    2013-03-01

    Laser based displays, as pico to cinema laser projectors have gathered much attention because of wide gamut, low power consumption, and so on. Laser light sources for the displays are operated mainly in CW, and heat management is one of the big issues. Therefore, highly efficient operation is necessitated. Also the light sources for the displays are requested to be highly reliable. 638 nm broad stripe laser diode (LD) was newly developed for high efficiency and highly reliable operation. An AlGaInP/GaAs red LD suffers from low wall plug efficiency (WPE) due to electron overflow from an active layer to a p-cladding layer. Large optical confinement factor (Γ) design with AlInP cladding layers is adopted to improve the WPE. The design has a disadvantage for reliable operation because the large Γ causes high optical density and brings a catastrophic optical degradation (COD) at a front facet. To overcome the disadvantage, a window-mirror structure is also adopted in the LD. The LD shows WPE of 35% at 25°C, highest record in the world, and highly stable operation at 35°C, 550 mW up to 8,000 hours without any catastrophic optical degradation.

  4. Highly Efficient and Reliable Transparent Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Film.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jia, Li-Chuan; Yan, Ding-Xiang; Liu, Xiaofeng; Ma, Rujun; Wu, Hong-Yuan; Li, Zhong-Ming

    2018-04-11

    Electromagnetic protection in optoelectronic instruments such as optical windows and electronic displays is challenging because of the essential requirements of a high optical transmittance and an electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding effectiveness (SE). Herein, we demonstrate the creation of an efficient transparent EMI shielding film that is composed of calcium alginate (CA), silver nanowires (AgNWs), and polyurethane (PU), via a facile and low-cost Mayer-rod coating method. The CA/AgNW/PU film with a high optical transmittance of 92% achieves an EMI SE of 20.7 dB, which meets the requirements for commercial shielding applications. A superior EMI SE of 31.3 dB could be achieved, whereas the transparent film still maintains a transmittance of 81%. The integrated efficient EMI SE and high transmittance are superior to those of most previously reported transparent EMI shielding materials. Moreover, our transparent films exhibit a highly reliable shielding ability in a complex service environment, with 98 and 96% EMI SE retentions even after 30 min of ultrasound treatment and 5000 bending cycles (1.5 mm radius), respectively. The comprehensive performance that is associated with the facile fabrication strategy imparts the CA/AgNW/PU film with great potential as an optimized EMI shielding material in emerging optoelectronic devices, such as flexible solar cells, displays, and touch panels.

  5. High-Efficiency Reliable Stirling Generator for Space Exploration Missions, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — NASA needs advanced power-conversion technologies to improve the efficiency and reliability of power conversion for space exploration missions. We propose to develop...

  6. Efficient surrogate models for reliability analysis of systems with multiple failure modes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bichon, Barron J.; McFarland, John M.; Mahadevan, Sankaran

    2011-01-01

    Despite many advances in the field of computational reliability analysis, the efficient estimation of the reliability of a system with multiple failure modes remains a persistent challenge. Various sampling and analytical methods are available, but they typically require accepting a tradeoff between accuracy and computational efficiency. In this work, a surrogate-based approach is presented that simultaneously addresses the issues of accuracy, efficiency, and unimportant failure modes. The method is based on the creation of Gaussian process surrogate models that are required to be locally accurate only in the regions of the component limit states that contribute to system failure. This approach to constructing surrogate models is demonstrated to be both an efficient and accurate method for system-level reliability analysis. - Highlights: → Extends efficient global reliability analysis to systems with multiple failure modes. → Constructs locally accurate Gaussian process models of each response. → Highly efficient and accurate method for assessing system reliability. → Effectiveness is demonstrated on several test problems from the literature.

  7. Interaction Entropy: A New Paradigm for Highly Efficient and Reliable Computation of Protein-Ligand Binding Free Energy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duan, Lili; Liu, Xiao; Zhang, John Z H

    2016-05-04

    Efficient and reliable calculation of protein-ligand binding free energy is a grand challenge in computational biology and is of critical importance in drug design and many other molecular recognition problems. The main challenge lies in the calculation of entropic contribution to protein-ligand binding or interaction systems. In this report, we present a new interaction entropy method which is theoretically rigorous, computationally efficient, and numerically reliable for calculating entropic contribution to free energy in protein-ligand binding and other interaction processes. Drastically different from the widely employed but extremely expensive normal mode method for calculating entropy change in protein-ligand binding, the new method calculates the entropic component (interaction entropy or -TΔS) of the binding free energy directly from molecular dynamics simulation without any extra computational cost. Extensive study of over a dozen randomly selected protein-ligand binding systems demonstrated that this interaction entropy method is both computationally efficient and numerically reliable and is vastly superior to the standard normal mode approach. This interaction entropy paradigm introduces a novel and intuitive conceptual understanding of the entropic effect in protein-ligand binding and other general interaction systems as well as a practical method for highly efficient calculation of this effect.

  8. A Compact, Light-weight, Reliable and Highly Efficient Heat Pump for, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — RTI proposes to develop an efficient, reliable, compact and lightweight heat pump for space applications. The proposed effort is expected to lead to (at the end of...

  9. Application of high efficiency and reliable 3D-designed integral shrouded blades to nuclear turbines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watanabe, Eiichiro; Ohyama, Hiroharu; Tashiro, Hikaru; Sugitani, Toshiro; Kurosawa, Masaru

    1998-01-01

    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. has recently developed new blades for nuclear turbines, in order to achieve higher efficiency and higher reliability. The 3D aerodynamic design for 41 inch and 46 inch blades, their one piece structural design (integral-shrouded blades: ISB), and the verification test results using a model steam turbine are described in this paper. The predicted efficiency and lower vibratory stress have been verified. Based on these 60Hz ISB, 50Hz ISB series are under development using 'the law of similarity' without changing their thermodynamic performance and mechanical stress levels. Our 3D-designed reaction blades which are used for the high pressure and low pressure upstream stages, are also briefly mentioned. (author)

  10. Application to nuclear turbines of high-efficiency and reliable 3D-designed integral shrouded blades

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Watanabe, Eiichiro; Ohyama, Hiroharu; Tashiro, Hikaru; Sugitani, Toshio; Kurosawa, Masaru

    1999-01-01

    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has recently developed new blades for nuclear turbines, in order to achieve higher efficiency and higher reliability. The three-dimensional aerodynamic design for 41-inch and 46-inch blades, their one piece structural design (integral shrouded blades: ISB), and the verification test results using a model steam turbine are described in this paper. The predicted efficiency and lower vibratory stress have been verified. On the basis of these 60 Hz ISB, 50 Hz ISB series are under development using 'the law of similarity' without changing their thermodynamic performance and mechanical stress levels. Our 3D-designed reaction blades which are used for the high pressure and low pressure upstream stages, are also briefly mentioned. (author)

  11. An accurate and efficient reliability-based design optimization using the second order reliability method and improved stability transformation method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meng, Zeng; Yang, Dixiong; Zhou, Huanlin; Yu, Bo

    2018-05-01

    The first order reliability method has been extensively adopted for reliability-based design optimization (RBDO), but it shows inaccuracy in calculating the failure probability with highly nonlinear performance functions. Thus, the second order reliability method is required to evaluate the reliability accurately. However, its application for RBDO is quite challenge owing to the expensive computational cost incurred by the repeated reliability evaluation and Hessian calculation of probabilistic constraints. In this article, a new improved stability transformation method is proposed to search the most probable point efficiently, and the Hessian matrix is calculated by the symmetric rank-one update. The computational capability of the proposed method is illustrated and compared to the existing RBDO approaches through three mathematical and two engineering examples. The comparison results indicate that the proposed method is very efficient and accurate, providing an alternative tool for RBDO of engineering structures.

  12. High Reliability Oscillators for Terahertz Systems, Phase II

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — To develop reliable THz sources with high power and high DC-RF efficiency, Virginia Diodes, Inc. will develop a thorough understanding of the complex interactions...

  13. A Highly Reliable and Cost-Efficient Multi-Sensor System for Land Vehicle Positioning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xu Li

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we propose a novel positioning solution for land vehicles which is highly reliable and cost-efficient. The proposed positioning system fuses information from the MEMS-based reduced inertial sensor system (RISS which consists of one vertical gyroscope and two horizontal accelerometers, low-cost GPS, and supplementary sensors and sources. First, pitch and roll angle are accurately estimated based on a vehicle kinematic model. Meanwhile, the negative effect of the uncertain nonlinear drift of MEMS inertial sensors is eliminated by an H∞ filter. Further, a distributed-dual-H∞ filtering (DDHF mechanism is adopted to address the uncertain nonlinear drift of the MEMS-RISS and make full use of the supplementary sensors and sources. The DDHF is composed of a main H∞ filter (MHF and an auxiliary H∞ filter (AHF. Finally, a generalized regression neural network (GRNN module with good approximation capability is specially designed for the MEMS-RISS. A hybrid methodology which combines the GRNN module and the AHF is utilized to compensate for RISS position errors during GPS outages. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed solution, road-test experiments with various scenarios were performed. The experimental results illustrate that the proposed system can achieve accurate and reliable positioning for land vehicles.

  14. Efficient and reliable inspection through the use of optimised NDT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Highmore, P.J.

    1993-01-01

    Current activities within AEA Technology are described aiming at the constitution of an optimized and reliable inspection technology for the UK nuclear programme. Three main factors, i.e. optimized inspection design, efficient inspection reliability assessment and effective inspector training, influencing the efficiency and reliability of the on-site inspection are discussed. (Z.S.)

  15. Exact reliability quantification of highly reliable systems with maintenance

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bris, Radim, E-mail: radim.bris@vsb.c [VSB-Technical University Ostrava, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Applied Mathematics, 17. listopadu 15, 70833 Ostrava-Poruba (Czech Republic)

    2010-12-15

    When a system is composed of highly reliable elements, exact reliability quantification may be problematic, because computer accuracy is limited. Inaccuracy can be due to different aspects. For example, an error may be made when subtracting two numbers that are very close to each other, or at the process of summation of many very different numbers, etc. The basic objective of this paper is to find a procedure, which eliminates errors made by PC when calculations close to an error limit are executed. Highly reliable system is represented by the use of directed acyclic graph which is composed from terminal nodes, i.e. highly reliable input elements, internal nodes representing subsystems and edges that bind all of these nodes. Three admissible unavailability models of terminal nodes are introduced, including both corrective and preventive maintenance. The algorithm for exact unavailability calculation of terminal nodes is based on merits of a high-performance language for technical computing MATLAB. System unavailability quantification procedure applied to a graph structure, which considers both independent and dependent (i.e. repeatedly occurring) terminal nodes is based on combinatorial principle. This principle requires summation of a lot of very different non-negative numbers, which may be a source of an inaccuracy. That is why another algorithm for exact summation of such numbers is designed in the paper. The summation procedure uses benefits from a special number system with the base represented by the value 2{sup 32}. Computational efficiency of the new computing methodology is compared with advanced simulation software. Various calculations on systems from references are performed to emphasize merits of the methodology.

  16. Reliability-based design optimization via high order response surface method

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Li, Hong Shuang

    2013-01-01

    To reduce the computational effort of reliability-based design optimization (RBDO), the response surface method (RSM) has been widely used to evaluate reliability constraints. We propose an efficient methodology for solving RBDO problems based on an improved high order response surface method (HORSM) that takes advantage of an efficient sampling method, Hermite polynomials and uncertainty contribution concept to construct a high order response surface function with cross terms for reliability analysis. The sampling method generates supporting points from Gauss-Hermite quadrature points, which can be used to approximate response surface function without cross terms, to identify the highest order of each random variable and to determine the significant variables connected with point estimate method. The cross terms between two significant random variables are added to the response surface function to improve the approximation accuracy. Integrating the nested strategy, the improved HORSM is explored in solving RBDO problems. Additionally, a sampling based reliability sensitivity analysis method is employed to reduce the computational effort further when design variables are distributional parameters of input random variables. The proposed methodology is applied on two test problems to validate its accuracy and efficiency. The proposed methodology is more efficient than first order reliability method based RBDO and Monte Carlo simulation based RBDO, and enables the use of RBDO as a practical design tool.

  17. Achieving High Reliability with People, Processes, and Technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saunders, Candice L; Brennan, John A

    2017-01-01

    High reliability as a corporate value in healthcare can be achieved by meeting the "Quadruple Aim" of improving population health, reducing per capita costs, enhancing the patient experience, and improving provider wellness. This drive starts with the board of trustees, CEO, and other senior leaders who ingrain high reliability throughout the organization. At WellStar Health System, the board developed an ambitious goal to become a top-decile health system in safety and quality metrics. To achieve this goal, WellStar has embarked on a journey toward high reliability and has committed to Lean management practices consistent with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's definition of a high-reliability organization (HRO): one that is committed to the prevention of failure, early identification and mitigation of failure, and redesign of processes based on identifiable failures. In the end, a successful HRO can provide safe, effective, patient- and family-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care through a convergence of people, processes, and technology.

  18. High efficiency, variable geometry, centrifugal cryogenic pump

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forsha, M.D.; Nichols, K.E.; Beale, C.A.

    1994-01-01

    A centrifugal cryogenic pump has been developed which has a basic design that is rugged and reliable with variable speed and variable geometry features that achieve high pump efficiency over a wide range of head-flow conditions. The pump uses a sealless design and rolling element bearings to achieve high reliability and the ruggedness to withstand liquid-vapor slugging. The pump can meet a wide range of variable head, off-design flow requirements and maintain design point efficiency by adjusting the pump speed. The pump also has features that allow the impeller and diffuser blade heights to be adjusted. The adjustable height blades were intended to enhance the pump efficiency when it is operating at constant head, off-design flow rates. For small pumps, the adjustable height blades are not recommended. For larger pumps, they could provide off-design efficiency improvements. This pump was developed for supercritical helium service, but the design is well suited to any cryogenic application where high efficiency is required over a wide range of head-flow conditions

  19. A Hierarchical Energy Efficient Reliable Transport Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prabhudutta Mohanty

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The two important requirements for many Wireless Senor Networks (WSNs are prolonged network lifetime and end-to-end reliability. The sensor nodes consume more energy during data transmission than the data sensing. In WSN, the redundant data increase the energy consumption, latency and reduce reliability during data transmission. Therefore, it is important to support energy efficient reliable data transport in WSNs. In this paper, we present a Hierarchical Energy Efficient Reliable Transport Protocol (HEERTP for the data transmission within the WSN. This protocol maximises the network lifetime by controlling the redundant data transmission with the co-ordination of Base Station (BS. The proposed protocol also achieves end-to-end reliability using a hop-by-hop acknowledgement scheme. We evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol through simulation. The simulation results reveal that our proposed protocol achieves better performance in terms of energy efficiency, latency and reliability than the existing protocols.

  20. Ejectors of power plants turbine units efficiency and reliability increasing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aronson, K. E.; Ryabchikov, A. Yu.; Kuptsov, V. K.; Murmanskii, I. B.; Brodov, Yu. M.; Zhelonkin, N. V.; Khaet, S. I.

    2017-11-01

    The functioning of steam turbines condensation systems influence on the efficiency and reliability of a power plant a lot. At the same time, the condensation system operating is provided by basic ejectors, which maintain the vacuum level in the condenser. Development of methods of efficiency and reliability increasing for ejector functioning is an actual problem of up-to-date power engineering. In the paper there is presented statistical analysis of ejector breakdowns, revealed during repairing processes, the influence of such damages on the steam turbine operating reliability. It is determined, that 3% of steam turbine equipment breakdowns are the ejector breakdowns. At the same time, about 7% of turbine breakdowns are caused by different ejector malfunctions. Developed and approved design solutions, which can increase the ejector functioning indexes, are presented. Intercoolers are designed in separated cases, so the air-steam mixture can’t move from the high-pressure zones to the low-pressure zones and the maintainability of the apparatuses is increased. By U-type tubes application, the thermal expansion effect of intercooler tubes is compensated and the heat-transfer area is increased. By the applied nozzle fixing construction, it is possible to change the distance between a nozzle and a mixing chamber (nozzle exit position) for operating performance optimization. In operating conditions there are provided experimental researches of more than 30 serial ejectors and also high-efficient 3-staged ejector EPO-3-80, designed by authors. The measurement scheme of the designed ejector includes 21 indicator. The results of experimental tests with different nozzle exit positions of the ejector EPO-3-80 stream devices are presented. The pressure of primary stream (water steam) is optimized. Experimental data are well-approved by the calculation results.

  1. Design and Construction of a Test Bench to Characterize Efficiency and Reliability of High Voltage Battery Energy Storage Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blank, Tobias; Thomas, Stephan; Roggendorf, Christoph

    2010-01-01

    system efficiency. High voltage batteries may be advantageous for future medium voltage DC-grids as well. In all cases, high availability and reliability is indispensable. Investigations on the operating behavior of such systems are needed. For this purpose, a test bench for high voltage storage systems...... was built to analyze these processes for different battery technologies. A special safety infrastructure for the test bench was developed due to the high voltage and the storable energy of approximately 120 kWh. This paper presents the layout of the test bench for analyzing high voltage batteries with about...... 4,300 volts including all components, the safety requirements with the resultant safety circuit and the aim of the investigations to be performed with the test bench....

  2. Forward reliability markets: Less risk, less market power, more efficiency

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Cramton, Peter; Stoft, Steven

    2008-01-01

    A forward reliability market is presented. The market coordinates new entry through the forward procurement of reliability options - physical capacity bundled with a financial option to supply energy above a strike price. The market assures adequate generating resources and prices capacity from the bids of competitive new entry in an annual auction. Efficient performance incentives are maintained from a load-following obligation to supply energy above the strike price. The capacity payment fully hedges load from high spot prices, and reduces supplier risk as well. Market power is reduced in the spot market, since suppliers enter the spot market with a nearly balanced position in times of scarcity. Market power in the reliability market is addressed by not allowing existing supply to impact the capacity price. The approach, which has been adopted in New England and Colombia, is readily adapted to either a thermal system or a hydro system. (author)

  3. Coal-Powered Electric Generating Unit Efficiency and Reliability Dialogue: Summary Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Taylor, Emmanuel [Energetics, Inc., Columbia, MD (United States)

    2018-02-01

    Coal continues to play a critical role in powering the Nation’s electricity generation, especially for baseload power plants. With aging coal generation assets facing decreased performance due to the state of the equipment, and with challenges exacerbated by the current market pressures on the coal sector, there are opportunities to advance early-stage technologies that can retrofit or replace equipment components. These changes will eventually result in significant improvements in plant performance once further developed and deployed by industry. Research and development in areas such as materials, fluid dynamics, fuel properties and preparation characteristics, and a new generation of plant controls can lead to new components and systems that can help improve the efficiency and reliability of coal-fired power plants significantly, allowing these assets to continue to provide baseload power. Coal stockpiles at electricity generation plants are typically large enough to provide 30 to 60 days of power prior to resupply—significantly enhancing the stability and reliability of the U.S. electricity sector. Falling prices for non-dispatchable renewable energy and mounting environmental regulations, among other factors, have stimulated efforts to improve the efficiency of these coal-fired electric generating units (EGUs). In addition, increased reliance on natural gas and non-dispatchable energy sources has spurred efforts to further increase the reliability of coal EGUs. The Coal Powered EGU Efficiency and Reliability Dialogue brought together stakeholders from across the coal EGU industry to discuss methods for improvement. Participants at the event reviewed performance-enhancing innovations in coal EGUs, discussed the potential for data-driven management practices to increase efficiency and reliability, investigated the impacts of regulatory compliance on coal EGU performance, and discussed upcoming challenges for the coal industry. This report documents the key

  4. An Energy-Efficient Link Layer Protocol for Reliable Transmission over Wireless Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Iqbal Adnan

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available In multihop wireless networks, hop-by-hop reliability is generally achieved through positive acknowledgments at the MAC layer. However, positive acknowledgments introduce significant energy inefficiencies on battery-constrained devices. This inefficiency becomes particularly significant on high error rate channels. We propose to reduce the energy consumption during retransmissions using a novel protocol that localizes bit-errors at the MAC layer. The proposed protocol, referred to as Selective Retransmission using Virtual Fragmentation (SRVF, requires simple modifications to the positive-ACK-based reliability mechanism but provides substantial improvements in energy efficiency. The main premise of the protocol is to localize bit-errors by performing partial checksums on disjoint parts or virtual fragments of a packet. In case of error, only the corrupted virtual fragments are retransmitted. We develop stochastic models of the Simple Positive-ACK-based reliability, the previously-proposed Packet Length Optimization (PLO protocol, and the SRVF protocol operating over an arbitrary-order Markov wireless channel. Our analytical models show that SRVF provides significant theoretical improvements in energy efficiency over existing protocols. We then use bit-error traces collected over different real networks to empirically compare the proposed and existing protocols. These experimental results further substantiate that SRVF provides considerably better energy efficiency than Simple Positive-ACK and Packet Length Optimization protocols.

  5. Ti/TaN Bilayer for Efficient Injection and Reliable AlGaN Nanowires LEDs

    KAUST Repository

    Priante, Davide; Janjua, Bilal; Prabaswara, Aditya; Subedi, Ram Chandra; Elafandy, Rami T.; Lopatin, Sergei; Anjum, Dalaver H.; Zhao, Chao; Ng, Tien Khee; Ooi, Boon S.

    2018-01-01

    Reliable operation of UV AlGaN-based nanowires-LED at high injection current was realized by incorporating a Ti-pre-orienting/TaN-diffusion-barrier bilayer, thus enhancing external quantum efficiency, and resolving the existing device degradation

  6. Performance and reliability of TPE-2 device with pulsed high power source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sato, Y.; Takeda, S.; Kiyama, S.

    1987-01-01

    The performance and the reliability of TPE-2 device with pulsed high power sources are described. To obtain the stable high beta plasma, the reproducibility and the reliability of the pulsed power sources must be maintained. A new power crowbar system with high efficiency and the switches with low jitter time are adopted to the bank system. A monitor system which always watches the operational states of the switches is developed too, and applied for the fast rising capacitor banks of TPE-2 device. The reliable operation for the bank has been realized, based on the data of switch monitor system

  7. High-reliability, 4. pi. -scan, leakage-x-ray dosimeter

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kaneko, T; Iida, H; Yoshida, T; Sugimoto, H [Tokyo Shibaura Electric Co. Ltd., Kawasaki, Kanagawa (Japan). Tamagawa Works

    1978-04-01

    A world-wide movement is growing for the protection of living bodies against leakage radiations. In Japan, detailed regulations have been established for the enforcement of the law in regard to this problem. The substances of the measurement provided in the regulations are extremely diversified, much affecting the reliability and the economic efficiency of the equipment. Now a new 4..pi..-scan X-ray dosimeter with high reliability has been developed and proved to effect qualitative improvement of measurement as well as elevation of productivity.

  8. On the complex analysis of the reliability, safety, and economic efficiency of atomic electric power stations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Emel'yanov, I.Ya.; Klemin, A.I.; Polyakov, E.F.

    1977-01-01

    The problem is posed of effectively increasing the engineering performance of nuclear electric power stations (APS). The principal components of the engineering performance of modern large APS are considered: economic efficiency, radiation safety, reliability, and their interrelationship. A nomenclature is proposed for the quantitative indices which most completely characterize the enumerated properties and are convenient for the analysis of the engineering performance. The urgent problem of developing a methodology for the complex analysis and optimization of the principal performance components is considered; this methodology is designed to increase the efficiency of the work on high-performance competitive APS. The principle of complex optimization of the reliability, safety, and economic-efficiency indices is formulated; specific recommendations are made for the practical realization of this principle. The structure of the complex quantiative analysis of the enumerated performance components is given. The urgency and promise of the complex approach to solving the problem of APS optimization is demonstrated, i.e., the solution of the problem of creating optimally reliable, fairly safe, and maximally economically efficient stations

  9. Management systems for high reliability organizations. Integration and effectiveness; Managementsysteme fuer Hochzuverlaessigkeitsorganisationen. Integration und Wirksamkeit

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mayer, Michael

    2015-03-09

    The scope of the thesis is the development of a method for improvement of efficient integrated management systems for high reliability organizations (HRO). A comprehensive analysis of severe accident prevention is performed. Severe accident management, mitigation measures and business continuity management are not included. High reliability organizations are complex and potentially dynamic organization forms that can be inherently dangerous like nuclear power plants, offshore platforms, chemical facilities, large ships or large aircrafts. A recursive generic management system model (RGM) was development based on the following factors: systemic and cybernetic Asepcts; integration of different management fields, high decision quality, integration of efficient methods of safety and risk analysis, integration of human reliability aspects, effectiveness evaluation and improvement.

  10. Improving Reliability, Security, and Efficiency of Reconfigurable Hardware Systems (Habilitation)

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ziener, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    In this treatise,  my research on methods to improve efficiency, reliability, and security of reconfigurable hardware systems, i.e., FPGAs, through partial dynamic reconfiguration is outlined. The efficiency of reconfigurable systems can be improved by loading optimized data paths on-the-fly on an

  11. Ti/TaN Bilayer for Efficient Injection and Reliable AlGaN Nanowires LEDs

    KAUST Repository

    Priante, Davide

    2018-05-07

    Reliable operation of UV AlGaN-based nanowires-LED at high injection current was realized by incorporating a Ti-pre-orienting/TaN-diffusion-barrier bilayer, thus enhancing external quantum efficiency, and resolving the existing device degradation issue in group-III-nanowires-on-silicon devices.

  12. Efficient approach for reliability-based optimization based on weighted importance sampling approach

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Yuan, Xiukai; Lu, Zhenzhou

    2014-01-01

    An efficient methodology is presented to perform the reliability-based optimization (RBO). It is based on an efficient weighted approach for constructing an approximation of the failure probability as an explicit function of the design variables which is referred to as the ‘failure probability function (FPF)’. It expresses the FPF as a weighted sum of sample values obtained in the simulation-based reliability analysis. The required computational effort for decoupling in each iteration is just single reliability analysis. After the approximation of the FPF is established, the target RBO problem can be decoupled into a deterministic one. Meanwhile, the proposed weighted approach is combined with a decoupling approach and a sequential approximate optimization framework. Engineering examples are given to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the presented methodology

  13. High-reliability computing for the smarter planet

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Quinn, Heather M.; Graham, Paul; Manuzzato, Andrea; Dehon, Andre

    2010-01-01

    The geometric rate of improvement of transistor size and integrated circuit performance, known as Moore's Law, has been an engine of growth for our economy, enabling new products and services, creating new value and wealth, increasing safety, and removing menial tasks from our daily lives. Affordable, highly integrated components have enabled both life-saving technologies and rich entertainment applications. Anti-lock brakes, insulin monitors, and GPS-enabled emergency response systems save lives. Cell phones, internet appliances, virtual worlds, realistic video games, and mp3 players enrich our lives and connect us together. Over the past 40 years of silicon scaling, the increasing capabilities of inexpensive computation have transformed our society through automation and ubiquitous communications. In this paper, we will present the concept of the smarter planet, how reliability failures affect current systems, and methods that can be used to increase the reliable adoption of new automation in the future. We will illustrate these issues using a number of different electronic devices in a couple of different scenarios. Recently IBM has been presenting the idea of a 'smarter planet.' In smarter planet documents, IBM discusses increased computer automation of roadways, banking, healthcare, and infrastructure, as automation could create more efficient systems. A necessary component of the smarter planet concept is to ensure that these new systems have very high reliability. Even extremely rare reliability problems can easily escalate to problematic scenarios when implemented at very large scales. For life-critical systems, such as automobiles, infrastructure, medical implantables, and avionic systems, unmitigated failures could be dangerous. As more automation moves into these types of critical systems, reliability failures will need to be managed. As computer automation continues to increase in our society, the need for greater radiation reliability is necessary

  14. High-reliability computing for the smarter planet

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Quinn, Heather M [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Graham, Paul [Los Alamos National Laboratory; Manuzzato, Andrea [UNIV OF PADOVA; Dehon, Andre [UNIV OF PENN; Carter, Nicholas [INTEL CORPORATION

    2010-01-01

    The geometric rate of improvement of transistor size and integrated circuit performance, known as Moore's Law, has been an engine of growth for our economy, enabling new products and services, creating new value and wealth, increasing safety, and removing menial tasks from our daily lives. Affordable, highly integrated components have enabled both life-saving technologies and rich entertainment applications. Anti-lock brakes, insulin monitors, and GPS-enabled emergency response systems save lives. Cell phones, internet appliances, virtual worlds, realistic video games, and mp3 players enrich our lives and connect us together. Over the past 40 years of silicon scaling, the increasing capabilities of inexpensive computation have transformed our society through automation and ubiquitous communications. In this paper, we will present the concept of the smarter planet, how reliability failures affect current systems, and methods that can be used to increase the reliable adoption of new automation in the future. We will illustrate these issues using a number of different electronic devices in a couple of different scenarios. Recently IBM has been presenting the idea of a 'smarter planet.' In smarter planet documents, IBM discusses increased computer automation of roadways, banking, healthcare, and infrastructure, as automation could create more efficient systems. A necessary component of the smarter planet concept is to ensure that these new systems have very high reliability. Even extremely rare reliability problems can easily escalate to problematic scenarios when implemented at very large scales. For life-critical systems, such as automobiles, infrastructure, medical implantables, and avionic systems, unmitigated failures could be dangerous. As more automation moves into these types of critical systems, reliability failures will need to be managed. As computer automation continues to increase in our society, the need for greater radiation reliability is

  15. Reliable and Efficient Autonomous Driving: the Need for Heterogeneous Vehicular Networks

    OpenAIRE

    Zheng, Kan; Zheng, Qiang; Yang, Haojun; Zhao, Long; Hou, Lu; Chatzimisios, Periklis

    2015-01-01

    Autonomous driving technology has been regarded as a promising solution to reduce road accidents and traffic congestion, as well as to optimize the usage of fuel and lane. Reliable and high efficient Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications are essential to let commercial autonomous driving vehicles be on the road before 2020. The current paper firstly presents the concept of Heterogeneous Vehicular NETworks (HetVNETs) for autonomous driving, in which an imp...

  16. Energy Efficient and Reliable Target Monitoring in the Tactical Battlefield

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Yan-Xiao; Guan, Hua; Zhang, Yue-Ling

    In the tactical battlefield target monitoring it is crucial to take into account the energy efficiency and data reliability issues for the purpose of military decision making, especially in large scale sensor networks. However, due to the inherent nature of power constraint and wireless communication medium it is a challenging problem in the process of actual application. An efficient and reliable data aggregation scheme is proposed to enhance the performance of wireless sensor network used in the target monitoring. Firstly, the energy consumption model is presented and analyzed in the multihop WSNs. Then idea of mobile sinks, adaptive energy saving mechanism is introduced and the concept of multiple sinks cooperation is used to assure the reliability of the data aggregation. The simulation and the associated analysis show the improved results of the presented schema. At last the future discussion about the large scale tactical battlefield application is made to broaden the coming research scope.

  17. Designing reliability into high-effectiveness industrial gas turbine regenerators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Valentino, S.J.

    1979-01-01

    The paper addresses the measures necessary to achieve a reliable regenerator design that can withstand higher temperatures (1000-1200 F) and many start and stop cycles - conditions encountered in high-efficiency operation in pipeline applications. The discussion is limited to three major areas: (1) structural analysis of the heat exchanger core - the part of the regenerator that must withstand the higher temperatures and cyclic duty (2) materials data and material selection and (3) a comprehensive test program to demonstrate the reliability of the regenerator. This program includes life-cycle tests, pressure containment in fin panels, core-to-core joint structural test, bellows pressure containment test, sliding pad test, core gas-side passage flow distribution test, and production test. Today's regenerators must have high cyclic life capability, stainless steel construction, and long fault-free service life of 120,000 hr

  18. Improvement of the reliability and efficiency of the NPP operation by training high-skilled personnel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Korolev, V.V.; Sereda, G.A.

    1981-01-01

    Nuclear power at the modern stage of development is characterized by utilization of large power commercial reactors high technical specifications and economic parameters of which can be provided only at high reliability of the equipment and high qualification of the personnel. Special educational institution - Institute of nuclear engineering is organized for education of the operation personnel of high qualification for modern NPPs. Discussed are some problems occurring in this connection [ru

  19. Efficiency evaluation of an electronic equipment: availability,reliability and maintenance

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Guyot, C.

    1966-01-01

    This concept of efficiency often called ''system effectiveness'', is presented and analyzed in terms of reliability and maintenance. It allows to define the availability factor of an electronic equipment. A procedure of evaluation is proposed. (A.L.B.)

  20. A new efficient algorithm for computing the imprecise reliability of monotone systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Utkin, Lev V.

    2004-01-01

    Reliability analysis of complex systems by partial information about reliability of components and by different conditions of independence of components may be carried out by means of the imprecise probability theory which provides a unified framework (natural extension, lower and upper previsions) for computing the system reliability. However, the application of imprecise probabilities to reliability analysis meets with a complexity of optimization problems which have to be solved for obtaining the system reliability measures. Therefore, an efficient simplified algorithm to solve and decompose the optimization problems is proposed in the paper. This algorithm allows us to practically implement reliability analysis of monotone systems under partial and heterogeneous information about reliability of components and under conditions of the component independence or the lack of information about independence. A numerical example illustrates the algorithm

  1. Reliable and Efficient Communications in Wireless Sensor Networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Abdelhakim, M.M.

    2014-01-01

    Wireless sensor network (WSN) is a key technology for a wide range of military and civilian applications. Limited by the energy resources and processing capabilities of the sensor nodes, reliable and efficient communications in wireless sensor networks are challenging, especially when the sensors are deployed in hostile environments. This research aims to improve the reliability and efficiency of time-critical communications in WSNs, under both benign and hostile environments. We start with wireless sensor network with mobile access points (SENMA), where the mobile access points traverse the network to collect information from individual sensors. Due to its routing simplicity and energy efficiency, SENMA has attracted lots of attention from the research community. Here, we study reliable distributed detection in SENMA under Byzantine attacks, where some authenticated sensors are compromised to report fictitious information. The q-out-of-m rule is considered. It is popular in distributed detection and can achieve a good trade-off between the miss detection probability and the false alarm rate. However, a major limitation with this rule is that the optimal scheme parameters can only be obtained through exhaustive search. By exploiting the linear relationship between the scheme parameters and the network size, we propose simple but effective sub-optimal linear approaches. Then, for better flexibility and scalability, we derive a near-optimal closed-form solution based on the central limit theorem. It is proved that the false alarm rate of the q-out-of-m scheme diminishes exponentially as the network size increases, even if the percentage of malicious nodes remains fixed. This implies that large-scale sensor networks are more reliable under malicious attacks. To further improve the performance under time varying attacks, we propose an effective malicious node detection scheme for adaptive data fusion; the proposed scheme is analyzed using the entropy-based trust model

  2. Design and reliability, availability, maintainability, and safety analysis of a high availability quadruple vital computer system

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Ping TAN; Wei-ting HE; Jia LIN; Hong-ming ZHAO; Jian CHU

    2011-01-01

    With the development of high-speed railways in China,more than 2000 high-speed trains will be put into use.Safety and efficiency of railway transportation is increasingly important.We have designed a high availability quadruple vital computer (HAQVC) system based on the analysis of the architecture of the traditional double 2-out-of-2 system and 2-out-of-3 system.The HAQVC system is a system with high availability and safety,with prominent characteristics such as fire-new internal architecture,high efficiency,reliable data interaction mechanism,and operation state change mechanism.The hardware of the vital CPU is based on ARM7 with the real-time embedded safe operation system (ES-OS).The Markov modeling method is designed to evaluate the reliability,availability,maintainability,and safety (RAMS) of the system.In this paper,we demonstrate that the HAQVC system is more reliable than the all voting triple modular redundancy (AVTMR) system and double 2-out-of-2 system.Thus,the design can be used for a specific application system,such as an airplane or high-speed railway system.

  3. Optimization of high-efficiency components; Optimieren auf hohem Niveau

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Neumann, Eva

    2009-07-01

    High efficiency is a common feature of modern current inverters and is not a unique selling proposition. Other factors that influence the buyer's decision are cost reduction, reliability and service, optimum grid integration, and the challenges of the competitive thin film technology. (orig.)

  4. An economic perspective on the reliability of lighting systems in building with highly efficient energy: A case study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Salata, F.; Lieto Vollaro, A. de; Ferraro, A.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Proper design of efficient lighting systems. • The reliability and durability of the light sources. • Maintenance of lighting systems. • Quality standards of LED lamps. • Optimum economic choice of light sources. - Abstract: The performance of lighting system must be calculated in order to determine the energy requirements of the building. In the normative [EN 12464-1] are established lighting requirements which have effects on energy needs. The European standard [EN 15193] provides guidance on that evaluation. The easiest way to comply with reduction of energy requirements leads to the replacement of traditional lamps with LED ones, but if we calculate also the reliability parameters, the economic return is not guaranteed. Using bibliographic data, we have compared lighting’s results for a museum (LED lamps versus CFL and halogen lamps). The objective function of the study is to optimize the energy consumption of lighting systems, but at the same time to assess the reliability (MTTF of the lamps) of these systems. Without accurate information about this last parameters, the right choice of the lamps cannot be done successfully

  5. Efficient Unsteady Flow Visualization with High-Order Access Dependencies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhang, Jiang; Guo, Hanqi; Yuan, Xiaoru

    2016-04-19

    We present a novel high-order access dependencies based model for efficient pathline computation in unsteady flow visualization. By taking longer access sequences into account to model more sophisticated data access patterns in particle tracing, our method greatly improves the accuracy and reliability in data access prediction. In our work, high-order access dependencies are calculated by tracing uniformly-seeded pathlines in both forward and backward directions in a preprocessing stage. The effectiveness of our proposed approach is demonstrated through a parallel particle tracing framework with high-order data prefetching. Results show that our method achieves higher data locality and hence improves the efficiency of pathline computation.

  6. Highly-reliable laser diodes and modules for spaceborne applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Deichsel, E.

    2017-11-01

    Laser applications become more and more interesting in contemporary missions such as earth observations or optical communication in space. One of these applications is light detection and ranging (LIDAR), which comprises huge scientific potential in future missions. The Nd:YAG solid-state laser of such a LIDAR system is optically pumped using 808nm emitting pump sources based on semiconductor laser-diodes in quasi-continuous wave (qcw) operation. Therefore reliable and efficient laser diodes with increased output powers are an important requirement for a spaceborne LIDAR-system. In the past, many tests were performed regarding the performance and life-time of such laser-diodes. There were also studies for spaceborne applications, but a test with long operation times at high powers and statistical relevance is pending. Other applications, such as science packages (e.g. Raman-spectroscopy) on planetary rovers require also reliable high-power light sources. Typically fiber-coupled laser diode modules are used for such applications. Besides high reliability and life-time, designs compatible to the harsh environmental conditions must be taken in account. Mechanical loads, such as shock or strong vibration are expected due to take-off or landing procedures. Many temperature cycles with high change rates and differences must be taken in account due to sun-shadow effects in planetary orbits. Cosmic radiation has strong impact on optical components and must also be taken in account. Last, a hermetic sealing must be considered, since vacuum can have disadvantageous effects on optoelectronics components.

  7. Cross Layer Design for Optimizing Transmission Reliability, Energy Efficiency, and Lifetime in Body Sensor Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xi; Xu, Yixuan; Liu, Anfeng

    2017-04-19

    High transmission reliability, energy efficiency, and long lifetime are pivotal issues for wireless body area networks (WBANs. However, these performance metrics are not independent of each other, making it hard to obtain overall improvements through optimizing one single aspect. Therefore, a Cross Layer Design Optimal (CLDO) scheme is proposed to simultaneously optimize transmission reliability, energy efficiency, and lifetime of WBANs from several layers. Firstly, due to the fact that the transmission power of nodes directly influences the reliability of links, the optimized transmission power of different nodes is deduced, which is able to maximize energy efficiency in theory under the premise that requirements on delay and jitter are fulfilled. Secondly, a relay decision algorithm is proposed to choose optimized relay nodes. Using this algorithm, nodes will choose relay nodes that ensure a balance of network energy consumption, provided that all nodes transmit with optimized transmission power and the same packet size. Thirdly, the energy consumption of nodes is still unbalanced even with optimized transmission power because of their different locations in the topology of the network. In addition, packet size also has an impact on final performance metrics. Therefore, a synthesized cross layer method for optimization is proposed. With this method, the transmission power of nodes with more residual energy will be enhanced while suitable packet size is determined for different links in the network, leading to further improvements in the WBAN system. Both our comprehensive theoretical analysis and experimental results indicate that the performance of our proposed scheme is better than reported in previous studies. Relative to the relay selection and power control game (RSPCG) scheme, the CLDO scheme can enhance transmission reliability by more than 44.6% and prolong the lifetime by as much as 33.2%.

  8. Innovative-Simplified Nuclear Power Plant Efficiency Evaluation with High-Efficiency Steam Injector System

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shoji, Goto; Shuichi, Ohmori; Michitsugu, Mori

    2006-01-01

    It is possible to establish simplified system with reduced space and total equipment weight using high-efficiency Steam Injectors (SI) instead of low-pressure feedwater heaters in Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The SI works as a heat exchanger through direct contact between feedwater from condensers and extracted steam from turbines. It can get higher pressure than supplied steam pressure. The maintenance and reliability are still higher than the feedwater ones because SI has no movable parts. This paper describes the analysis of the heat balance, plant efficiency and the operation of this Innovative-Simplified NPP with high-efficiency SI. The plant efficiency and operation are compared with the electric power of 1100 MWe-class BWR system and the Innovative-Simplified BWR system with SI. The SI model is adapted into the heat balance simulator with a simplified model. The results show that plant efficiencies of the Innovated-Simplified BWR system are almost equal to original BWR ones. The present research is one of the projects that are carried out by Tokyo Electric Power Company, Toshiba Corporation, and six Universities in Japan, funded from the Institute of Applied Energy (IAE) of Japan as the national public research-funded program. (authors)

  9. Toward reliable and repeatable automated STEM-EDS metrology with high throughput

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhong, Zhenxin; Donald, Jason; Dutrow, Gavin; Roller, Justin; Ugurlu, Ozan; Verheijen, Martin; Bidiuk, Oleksii

    2018-03-01

    New materials and designs in complex 3D architectures in logic and memory devices have raised complexity in S/TEM metrology. In this paper, we report about a newly developed, automated, scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) based, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDS) metrology method that addresses these challenges. Different methodologies toward repeatable and efficient, automated STEM-EDS metrology with high throughput are presented: we introduce the best known auto-EDS acquisition and quantification methods for robust and reliable metrology and present how electron exposure dose impacts the EDS metrology reproducibility, either due to poor signalto-noise ratio (SNR) at low dose or due to sample modifications at high dose conditions. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the STEM-EDS metrology technique and propose strategies to optimize the process both in terms of throughput and metrology reliability.

  10. High-Reliability Health Care: Getting There from Here

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chassin, Mark R; Loeb, Jerod M

    2013-01-01

    Context Despite serious and widespread efforts to improve the quality of health care, many patients still suffer preventable harm every day. Hospitals find improvement difficult to sustain, and they suffer “project fatigue” because so many problems need attention. No hospitals or health systems have achieved consistent excellence throughout their institutions. High-reliability science is the study of organizations in industries like commercial aviation and nuclear power that operate under hazardous conditions while maintaining safety levels that are far better than those of health care. Adapting and applying the lessons of this science to health care offer the promise of enabling hospitals to reach levels of quality and safety that are comparable to those of the best high-reliability organizations. Methods We combined the Joint Commission's knowledge of health care organizations with knowledge from the published literature and from experts in high-reliability industries and leading safety scholars outside health care. We developed a conceptual and practical framework for assessing hospitals’ readiness for and progress toward high reliability. By iterative testing with hospital leaders, we refined the framework and, for each of its fourteen components, defined stages of maturity through which we believe hospitals must pass to reach high reliability. Findings We discovered that the ways that high-reliability organizations generate and maintain high levels of safety cannot be directly applied to today's hospitals. We defined a series of incremental changes that hospitals should undertake to progress toward high reliability. These changes involve the leadership's commitment to achieving zero patient harm, a fully functional culture of safety throughout the organization, and the widespread deployment of highly effective process improvement tools. Conclusions Hospitals can make substantial progress toward high reliability by undertaking several specific

  11. Development of a highly reliable CRT processor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shimizu, Tomoya; Saiki, Akira; Hirai, Kenji; Jota, Masayoshi; Fujii, Mikiya

    1996-01-01

    Although CRT processors have been employed by the main control board to reduce the operator's workload during monitoring, the control systems are still operated by hardware switches. For further advancement, direct controller operation through a display device is expected. A CRT processor providing direct controller operation must be as reliable as the hardware switches are. The authors are developing a new type of highly reliable CRT processor that enables direct controller operations. In this paper, we discuss the design principles behind a highly reliable CRT processor. The principles are defined by studies of software reliability and of the functional reliability of the monitoring and operation systems. The functional configuration of an advanced CRT processor is also addressed. (author)

  12. Advances in a high efficiency commercial pulse tube cooler

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Yibing; Li, Haibing; Wang, Xiaotao; Dai, Wei; Yang, Zhaohui; Luo, Ercang

    2017-12-01

    The pulse tube cryocooler has the advantage of no moving part at the cold end and offers a high reliability. To further extend its use in commercial applications, efforts are still needed to improve efficiency, reliability and cost effectiveness. This paper generalizes several key innovations in our newest cooler. The cooler consists of a moving magnet compressor with dual-opposed pistons, and a co-axial cold finger. Ambient displacers are employed to recover the expansion work to increase cooling efficiency. Inside the cold finger, the conventional flow straightener screens are replaced by a tapered throat between the cold heat exchanger and the pulse tube to strengthen its immunity to the working gas contamination as well as to simplify the manufacturing processes. The cold heat exchanger is made by copper forging process which further reduces the cost. Inside the compressor, a new gas bearing design has brought in assembling simplicity and running reliability. Besides the cooler itself, electronic controller is also important for actual application. A dual channel and dual driving mode control mechanism has been selected, which reduces the vibration to a minimum, meanwhile the cool-down speed becomes faster and run-time efficiency is higher. With these innovations, the cooler TC4189 reached a no-load temperature of 44 K and provided 15 W cooling power at 80K, with an input electric power of 244 W and a cooling water temperature of 23 ℃. The efficiency reached 16.9% of Carnot at 80 K. The whole system has a total mass of 4.3 kg.

  13. A high efficiency hybrid stirling-pulse tube cryocooler

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xiaotao Wang

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This article presented a hybrid cryocooler which combines the room temperature displacers and the pulse tube in one system. Compared with a traditional pulse tube cryocooler, the system uses the rod-less ambient displacer to recover the expansion work from the pulse tube cold end to improve the efficiency while still keeps the advantage of the pulse tube cryocooler with no moving parts at the cold region. In the meantime, dual-opposed configurations for both the compression pistons and displacers reduce the cooler vibration to a very low level. In the experiments, a lowest no-load temperature of 38.5 K has been obtained and the cooling power at 80K was 26.4 W with an input electric power of 290 W. This leads to an efficiency of 24.2% of Carnot, marginally higher than that of an ordinary pulse tube cryocooler. The hybrid configuration herein provides a very competitive option when a high efficiency, high-reliability and robust cryocooler is desired.

  14. High-reliability health care: getting there from here.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chassin, Mark R; Loeb, Jerod M

    2013-09-01

    Despite serious and widespread efforts to improve the quality of health care, many patients still suffer preventable harm every day. Hospitals find improvement difficult to sustain, and they suffer "project fatigue" because so many problems need attention. No hospitals or health systems have achieved consistent excellence throughout their institutions. High-reliability science is the study of organizations in industries like commercial aviation and nuclear power that operate under hazardous conditions while maintaining safety levels that are far better than those of health care. Adapting and applying the lessons of this science to health care offer the promise of enabling hospitals to reach levels of quality and safety that are comparable to those of the best high-reliability organizations. We combined the Joint Commission's knowledge of health care organizations with knowledge from the published literature and from experts in high-reliability industries and leading safety scholars outside health care. We developed a conceptual and practical framework for assessing hospitals' readiness for and progress toward high reliability. By iterative testing with hospital leaders, we refined the framework and, for each of its fourteen components, defined stages of maturity through which we believe hospitals must pass to reach high reliability. We discovered that the ways that high-reliability organizations generate and maintain high levels of safety cannot be directly applied to today's hospitals. We defined a series of incremental changes that hospitals should undertake to progress toward high reliability. These changes involve the leadership's commitment to achieving zero patient harm, a fully functional culture of safety throughout the organization, and the widespread deployment of highly effective process improvement tools. Hospitals can make substantial progress toward high reliability by undertaking several specific organizational change initiatives. Further research

  15. RF-MEMS capacitive switches with high reliability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Goldsmith, Charles L.; Auciello, Orlando H.; Carlisle, John A.; Sampath, Suresh; Sumant, Anirudha V.; Carpick, Robert W.; Hwang, James; Mancini, Derrick C.; Gudeman, Chris

    2013-09-03

    A reliable long life RF-MEMS capacitive switch is provided with a dielectric layer comprising a "fast discharge diamond dielectric layer" and enabling rapid switch recovery, dielectric layer charging and discharging that is efficient and effective to enable RF-MEMS switch operation to greater than or equal to 100 billion cycles.

  16. Contribution to high voltage matrix switches reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lausenaz, Yvan

    2000-01-01

    Nowadays, power electronic equipment requirements are important, concerning performances, quality and reliability. On the other hand, costs have to be reduced in order to satisfy the market rules. To provide cheap, reliability and performances, many standard components with mass production are developed. But the construction of specific products must be considered following these two different points: in one band you can produce specific components, with delay, over-cost problems and eventuality quality and reliability problems, in the other and you can use standard components in a adapted topologies. The CEA of Pierrelatte has adopted this last technique of power electronic conception for the development of these high voltage pulsed power converters. The technique consists in using standard components and to associate them in series and in parallel. The matrix constitutes high voltage macro-switch where electrical parameters are distributed between the synchronized components. This study deals with the reliability of these structures. It brings up the high reliability aspect of MOSFETs matrix associations. Thanks to several homemade test facilities, we obtained lots of data concerning the components we use. The understanding of defects propagation mechanisms in matrix structures has allowed us to put forwards the necessity of robust drive system, adapted clamping voltage protection, and careful geometrical construction. All these reliability considerations in matrix associations have notably allowed the construction of a new matrix structure regrouping all solutions insuring reliability. Reliable and robust, this product has already reaches the industrial stage. (author) [fr

  17. RICE: A Reliable and Efficient Remote Instrumentation Collaboration Environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prasad Calyam

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Remote access of scientific instruments over the Internet (i.e., remote instrumentation demand high-resolution (2D and 3D video image transfers with simultaneous real-time mouse and keyboard controls. Consequently, user quality of experience (QoE is highly sensitive to network bottlenecks. Further, improper user control while reacting to impaired video caused due to network bottlenecks could result in physical damages to the expensive instrument equipment. Hence, it is vital to understand the interplay between (a user keyboard/mouse actions toward the instrument, and (b corresponding network reactions for transfer of instrument video images toward the user. In this paper, we first present an analytical model for characterizing user and network interplay during remote instrumentation sessions in terms of demand and supply interplay principles of traditional economics. Next, we describe the trends of the model parameters using subjective and objective measurements obtained from QoE experiments. Thereafter, we describe our Remote Instrumentation Collaboration Environment (RICE software that leverages our experiences from the user and network interplay studies, and has functionalities that facilitate reliable and efficient remote instrumentation such as (a network health awareness to detect network bottleneck periods, and (b collaboration tools for multiple participants to interact during research and training sessions.

  18. Efficient purification and concentration of viruses from a large body of high turbidity seawater.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sun, Guowei; Xiao, Jinzhou; Wang, Hongming; Gong, Chaowen; Pan, Yingjie; Yan, Shuling; Wang, Yongjie

    2014-01-01

    Marine viruses are the most abundant entities in the ocean and play crucial roles in the marine ecological system. However, understanding of viral diversity on large scale depends on efficient and reliable viral purification and concentration techniques. Here, we report on developing an efficient method to purify and concentrate viruses from large body of high turbidity seawater. The developed method characterizes with high viral recovery efficiency, high concentration factor, high viral particle densities and high-throughput, and is reliable for viral concentration from high turbidity seawater. Recovered viral particles were used directly for subsequent analysis by epifluorescence microscopy, transmission electron microscopy and metagenomic sequencing. Three points are essential for this method:•The sampled seawater (>150 L) was initially divided into two parts, water fraction and settled matter fraction, after natural sedimentation.•Both viruses in the water fraction concentrated by tangential flow filtration (TFF) and viruses isolated from the settled matter fraction were considered as the whole viral community in high turbidity seawater.•The viral concentrates were re-concentrated by using centrifugal filter device in order to obtain high density of viral particles.

  19. Sliver Solar Cells: High-Efficiency, Low-Cost PV Technology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Evan Franklin

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available Sliver cells are thin, single-crystal silicon solar cells fabricated using standard fabrication technology. Sliver modules, composed of several thousand individual Sliver cells, can be efficient, low-cost, bifacial, transparent, flexible, shadow tolerant, and lightweight. Compared with current PV technology, mature Sliver technology will need 10% of the pure silicon and fewer than 5% of the wafer starts per MW of factory output. This paper deals with two distinct challenges related to Sliver cell and Sliver module production: providing a mature and robust Sliver cell fabrication method which produces a high yield of highly efficient Sliver cells, and which is suitable for transfer to industry; and, handling, electrically interconnecting, and encapsulating billions of sliver cells at low cost. Sliver cells with efficiencies of 20% have been fabricated at ANU using a reliable, optimised processing sequence, while low-cost encapsulation methods have been demonstrated using a submodule technique.

  20. Efficient and Reliable Solar Panels for Small CubeSat Picosatellites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ivo Vertat

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available CubeSat picosatellites have a limited area of walls for solar cells assembling and the available area has to be effectively shared with other parts, such as planar antennas, optical sensors, camera lens, and access port. With standard size of solar cell strings, it is not possible to construct a reliable solar panel for CubeSat with redundant strings interconnection. Typical solar panels for CubeSat consist of two solar cell strings serially wired with no redundancy in case of solar string failure. The loss of electric energy from one solar panel can cause a serious problem for most picosatellites due to minimum margin in the blueprints of the picosatellite subsystem power budget. In this paper, we propose a new architecture of solar panels for PilsenCUBE CubeSat with a high level of redundancy in the case of solar string failure or following switched power regulator failure. Our solar panels use a high efficiency triple junction GaInP2/GaAs/Ge in the form of small triangle strings from the Spectrolab Company. A suitable technology for precise solar cell assembling is also discussed, because CubeSat picosatellites are usually developed by small teams with limited access to high-end facilities.

  1. Efficient and reliable 3D dose quality assurance for IMRT by combining independent dose calculations with measurements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Visser, R.; Wauben, D. J. L.; Godart, J.; Langendijk, J. A.; Veld, A. A. van't; Korevaar, E. W.; Groot, M. de

    2013-01-01

    Purpose: Advanced radiotherapy treatments require appropriate quality assurance (QA) to verify 3D dose distributions. Moreover, increase in patient numbers demand efficient QA-methods. In this study, a time efficient method that combines model-based QA and measurement-based QA was developed; i.e., the hybrid-QA. The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability of the model-based QA and to evaluate time efficiency of the hybrid-QA method. Methods: Accuracy of the model-based QA was determined by comparison of COMPASS calculated dose with Monte Carlo calculations for heterogeneous media. In total, 330 intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) treatment plans were evaluated based on the mean gamma index (GI) with criteria of 3%/3mm and classification of PASS (GI ≤ 0.4), EVAL (0.4 0.6), and FAIL (GI ≥ 0.6). Agreement between model-based QA and measurement-based QA was determined for 48 treatment plans, and linac stability was verified for 15 months. Finally, time efficiency improvement of the hybrid-QA was quantified for four representative treatment plans. Results: COMPASS calculated dose was in agreement with Monte Carlo dose, with a maximum error of 3.2% in heterogeneous media with high density (2.4 g/cm 3 ). Hybrid-QA results for IMRT treatment plans showed an excellent PASS rate of 98% for all cases. Model-based QA was in agreement with measurement-based QA, as shown by a minimal difference in GI of 0.03 ± 0.08. Linac stability was high with an average GI of 0.28 ± 0.04. The hybrid-QA method resulted in a time efficiency improvement of 15 min per treatment plan QA compared to measurement-based QA. Conclusions: The hybrid-QA method is adequate for efficient and accurate 3D dose verification. It combines time efficiency of model-based QA with reliability of measurement-based QA and is suitable for implementation within any radiotherapy department.

  2. Control Strategies for Improving Energy Efficiency and Reliability in Autonomous Microgrids with Communication Constraints

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Francisco Martins Portelinha Júnior

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Microgrids are a feasible path to deploy smart grids, an intelligent and highly automated power system. Their operation demands a dedicated communication infrastructure to manage, control and monitor the intermittent sources of energy and loads. Therefore, smart devices will be connected to support the growth of grid smartness increasing the dependency on communication networks, which consumes a high amount of power. In an energy-limited scenario, one of the main issues is to enhance the power supply time. Therefore, this paper proposes a hybrid methodology for microgrid energy management, integrated with a communication infrastructure to improve and to optimize islanded microgrid operation at maximum energy efficiency. The hybrid methodology applies some control management rules, such as intentional load shedding, priority load management, and communication energy saving. These energy saving rules establish a trade-off between increasing microgrid energy availability and communication system reliability. To achieve a compromised solution, a continuous time Markov chain model describes the impact of energy saving policies into system reliability. The proposed methodology is simulated and tested with the help of the modified IEEE 34 node test-system.

  3. A quick aphasia battery for efficient, reliable, and multidimensional assessment of language function.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Stephen M; Eriksson, Dana K; Schneck, Sarah M; Lucanie, Jillian M

    2018-01-01

    This paper describes a quick aphasia battery (QAB) that aims to provide a reliable and multidimensional assessment of language function in about a quarter of an hour, bridging the gap between comprehensive batteries that are time-consuming to administer, and rapid screening instruments that provide limited detail regarding individual profiles of deficits. The QAB is made up of eight subtests, each comprising sets of items that probe different language domains, vary in difficulty, and are scored with a graded system to maximize the informativeness of each item. From the eight subtests, eight summary measures are derived, which constitute a multidimensional profile of language function, quantifying strengths and weaknesses across core language domains. The QAB was administered to 28 individuals with acute stroke and aphasia, 25 individuals with acute stroke but no aphasia, 16 individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia, and 14 healthy controls. The patients with chronic post-stroke aphasia were tested 3 times each and scored independently by 2 raters to establish test-retest and inter-rater reliability. The Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) was also administered to these patients to assess concurrent validity. We found that all QAB summary measures were sensitive to aphasic deficits in the two groups with aphasia. All measures showed good or excellent test-retest reliability (overall summary measure: intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.98), and excellent inter-rater reliability (overall summary measure: ICC = 0.99). Sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of aphasia (relative to clinical impression) were 0.91 and 0.95 respectively. All QAB measures were highly correlated with corresponding WAB measures where available. Individual patients showed distinct profiles of spared and impaired function across different language domains. In sum, the QAB efficiently and reliably characterized individual profiles of language deficits.

  4. High Power High Efficiency Diode Laser Stack for Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gu, Yuanyuan; Lu, Hui; Fu, Yueming; Cui, Yan

    2018-03-01

    High-power diode lasers based on GaAs semiconductor bars are well established as reliable and highly efficient laser sources. As diode laser is simple in structure, small size, longer life expectancy with the advantages of low prices, it is widely used in the industry processing, such as heat treating, welding, hardening, cladding and so on. Respectively, diode laser could make it possible to establish the practical application because of rectangular beam patterns which are suitable to make fine bead with less power. At this power level, it can have many important applications, such as surgery, welding of polymers, soldering, coatings and surface treatment of metals. But there are some applications, which require much higher power and brightness, e.g. hardening, key hole welding, cutting and metal welding. In addition, High power diode lasers in the military field also have important applications. So all developed countries have attached great importance to high-power diode laser system and its applications. This is mainly due their low performance. In this paper we will introduce the structure and the principle of the high power diode stack.

  5. Reliability and Failure in NASA Missions: Blunders, Normal Accidents, High Reliability, Bad Luck

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Harry W.

    2015-01-01

    NASA emphasizes crew safety and system reliability but several unfortunate failures have occurred. The Apollo 1 fire was mistakenly unanticipated. After that tragedy, the Apollo program gave much more attention to safety. The Challenger accident revealed that NASA had neglected safety and that management underestimated the high risk of shuttle. Probabilistic Risk Assessment was adopted to provide more accurate failure probabilities for shuttle and other missions. NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" initiative and government procurement reform led to deliberately dismantling traditional reliability engineering. The Columbia tragedy and Mars mission failures followed. Failures can be attributed to blunders, normal accidents, or bad luck. Achieving high reliability is difficult but possible.

  6. Efficient, reliable and fast high-level triggering using a bonsai boosted decision tree

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gligorov, V V; Williams, M

    2013-01-01

    High-level triggering is a vital component of many modern particle physics experiments. This paper describes a modification to the standard boosted decision tree (BDT) classifier, the so-called bonsai BDT, that has the following important properties: it is more efficient than traditional cut-based approaches; it is robust against detector instabilities, and it is very fast. Thus, it is fit-for-purpose for the online running conditions faced by any large-scale data acquisition system.

  7. Post-staining electroblotting for efficient and reliable peptide blotting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Der-Yen; Chang, Geen-Dong

    2015-01-01

    Post-staining electroblotting has been previously described to transfer Coomassie blue-stained proteins from polyacrylamide gel onto polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) membranes. Actually, stained peptides can also be efficiently and reliably transferred. Because of selective staining procedures for peptides and increased retention of stained peptides on the membrane, even peptides with molecular masses less than 2 kDa such as bacitracin and granuliberin R are transferred with satisfactory results. For comparison, post-staining electroblotting is about 16-fold more sensitive than the conventional electroblotting for visualization of insulin on the membrane. Therefore, the peptide blots become practicable and more accessible to further applications, e.g., blot overlay detection or immunoblotting analysis. In addition, the efficiency of peptide transfer is favorable for N-terminal sequence analysis. With this method, peptide blotting can be normalized for further analysis such as blot overlay assay, immunoblotting, and N-terminal sequencing for identification of peptide in crude or partially purified samples.

  8. Offshore compression system design for low cost high and reliability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Castro, Carlos J. Rocha de O.; Carrijo Neto, Antonio Dias; Cordeiro, Alexandre Franca [Chemtech Engineering Services and Software Ltd., Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil). Special Projects Div.], Emails: antonio.carrijo@chemtech.com.br, carlos.rocha@chemtech.com.br, alexandre.cordeiro@chemtech.com.br

    2010-07-01

    In the offshore oil fields, the oil streams coming from the wells usually have significant amounts of gas. This gas is separated at low pressure and has to be compressed to the export pipeline pressure, usually at high pressure to reduce the needed diameter of the pipelines. In the past, this gases where flared, but nowadays there are a increasing pressure for the energy efficiency improvement of the oil rigs and the use of this gaseous fraction. The most expensive equipment of this kind of plant are the compression and power generation systems, being the second a strong function of the first, because the most power consuming equipment are the compressors. For this reason, the optimization of the compression system in terms of efficiency and cost are determinant to the plant profit. The availability of the plants also have a strong influence in the plant profit, specially in gas fields where the products have a relatively low aggregated value, compared to oil. Due this, the third design variable of the compression system becomes the reliability. As high the reliability, larger will be the plant production. The main ways to improve the reliability of compression system are the use of multiple compression trains in parallel, in a 2x50% or 3x50% configuration, with one in stand-by. Such configurations are possible and have some advantages and disadvantages, but the main side effect is the increase of the cost. This is the offshore common practice, but that does not always significantly improve the plant availability, depending of the previous process system. A series arrangement and a critical evaluation of the overall system in some cases can provide a cheaper system with equal or better performance. This paper shows a case study of the procedure to evaluate a compression system design to improve the reliability but without extreme cost increase, balancing the number of equipment, the series or parallel arrangement, and the driver selection. Two cases studies will be

  9. Design of piezoelectric transducer layer with electromagnetic shielding and high connection reliability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qiu, Lei; Yuan, Shenfang; Shi, Xiaoling; Huang, Tianxiang

    2012-07-01

    Piezoelectric transducer (PZT) and Lamb wave based structural health monitoring (SHM) method have been widely studied for on-line SHM of high-performance structures. To monitor large-scale structures, a dense PZTs array is required. In order to improve the placement efficiency and reduce the wire burden of the PZTs array, the concept of the piezoelectric transducers layer (PSL) was proposed. The PSL consists of PZTs, a flexible interlayer with printed wires and signal input/output interface. For on-line SHM on real aircraft structures, there are two main issues on electromagnetic interference and connection reliability of the PSL. To address the issues, an electromagnetic shielding design method of the PSL to reduce spatial electromagnetic noise and crosstalk is proposed and a combined welding-cementation process based connection reliability design method is proposed to enhance the connection reliability between the PZTs and the flexible interlayer. Two experiments on electromagnetic interference suppression are performed to validate the shielding design of the PSL. The experimental results show that the amplitudes of the spatial electromagnetic noise and crosstalk output from the shielded PSL developed by this paper are - 15 dB and - 25 dB lower than those of the ordinary PSL, respectively. Other two experiments on temperature durability ( - 55 °C-80 °C ) and strength durability (160-1600μɛ, one million load cycles) are applied to the PSL to validate the connection reliability. The low repeatability errors (less than 3% and less than 5%, respectively) indicate that the developed PSL is of high connection reliability and long fatigue life.

  10. On the Path to SunShot. The Role of Advancements in Solar Photovoltaic Efficiency, Reliability, and Costs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Woodhouse, Michael [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Jones-Albertus, Rebecca [U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, DC (United States); Feldman, David [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Fu, Ran [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Horowitz, Kelsey [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Chung, Donald [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Jordan, Dirk [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2016-05-01

    This report examines the remaining challenges to achieving the competitive photovoltaic (PV) costs and large-scale deployment envisioned under the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative. Solar-energy cost reductions can be realized through lower PV module and balance-of-system (BOS) costs as well as improved system efficiency and reliability. Numerous combinations of PV improvements could help achieve the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) goals because of the tradeoffs among key metrics like module price, efficiency, and degradation rate as well as system price and lifetime. Using LCOE modeling based on bottom-up cost analysis, two specific pathways are mapped to exemplify the many possible approaches to module cost reductions of 29%-38% between 2015 and 2020. BOS hardware and soft cost reductions, ranging from 54%-77% of total cost reductions, are also modeled. The residential sector's high supply-chain costs, labor requirements, and customer-acquisition costs give it the greatest BOS cost-reduction opportunities, followed by the commercial sector, although opportunities are available to the utility-scale sector as well. Finally, a future scenario is considered in which very high PV penetration requires additional costs to facilitate grid integration and increased power-system flexibility--which might necessitate even lower solar LCOEs. The analysis of a pathway to 3-5 cents/kWh PV systems underscores the importance of combining robust improvements in PV module and BOS costs as well as PV system efficiency and reliability if such aggressive long-term targets are to be achieved.

  11. High efficiency motors - performance, economy and reliability, by optimisation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Caselotti, P.; Conchetto, A.; Tavner, P.J.

    2000-07-01

    The challenge of the efficiency initiatives in North America and the European Union is to improve performance without reducing power-weight by adding materials and increasing cost. This has been the subject of other papers, Haataja et al Ref2, where the key area has been identified as reducing loss. This paper suggests that addressing the fundamental problem of heat transfer in the TEFC machine, in addition to reducing loss will make it possible to improve performance and still provide competitive products. (orig.)

  12. On the Path to SunShot - The Role of Advancements in Solar Photovoltaic Efficiency, Reliability, and Costs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Woodhouse, Michael [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Jones-Albertus, Rebecca [Dept. of Energy (DOE), Washington DC (United States); Feldman, David [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Fu, Ran [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Horowitz, Kelsey [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Chung, Donald [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Jordan, Dirk [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2016-05-01

    Although tremendous progress has been made in reducing the cost of PV systems, additional LCOE reductions of 40%–50% between 2015 and 2020 will be required to reach the SunShot Initiative’s targets (see Woodhouse et al. 2016). Understanding the tradeoffs between installed prices and other PV system characteristics—such as module efficiency, module degradation rate, and system lifetime—are vital. For example, with 29%-efficient modules and high reliability (a 50-year lifetime and a 0.2%/year module degradation rate), a residential PV system could achieve the SunShot LCOE goal with modules priced at almost $1.20/W. But change the lifetime to 10 years and the degradation rate to 2%/year, and the system would need those very high-efficiency modules at zero cost to achieve the same LCOE. Although these examples are extreme, they serve to illustrate the wide range of technological combinations that could help drive PV toward the LCOE goals. SunShot’s PV roadmaps illustrate specific potential pathways to the target cost reductions.

  13. High efficiency pump combiner fabricated by CO2 laser splicing system

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Gongwen

    2018-02-01

    High power combiners are of great interest for high power fiber lasers and fiber amplifiers. With the advent of CO2 laser splicing system, power combiners are made possible with low manufacturing cost, low loss, high reliability and high performance. Traditionally fiber optical components are fabricated with flame torch, electrode arc discharge or filament heater. However, these methods can easily leave contamination on the fiber, resulting inconsistent performance or even catching fire in high power operations. The electrodes or filaments also degrade rapidly during the combiner manufacturing process. The rapid degradation will lead to extensive maintenance, making it unpractical or uneconomic for volume production. By contrast, CO2 laser is the cleanest heating source which provides reliable and repeatable process for fabricating fiber optic components including high power combiners. In this paper we present an all fiber end pumped 7x1 pump combiner fabricated by CO2 laser splicing system. The input pump fibers are 105/125 (core/clad diameters in μm) fibers with a core NA of 0.22. The output fiber is a 300/320 fiber with a core NA of 0.22. The average efficiency is 99.4% with all 7 ports more than 99%. The process is contamination-free and highly repeatable. To our best knowledge, this is the first report in the literature on power combiners fabricated by CO2 laser splicing system. It also has the highest reported efficiency of its kind.

  14. Developing MESA : an accelerated reliability test

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Baskoro, G.; Rouvroye, J.L.; Bacher, W.; Brombacher, A.C.

    2003-01-01

    This paper describes the on-going research on an accelerated reliability test strategy called MESA (Multiple Environment Stress Analysis) intended to find in a fast and efficient manner (potential) reliability problems during the design phase of high volume consumer products. This test has shown

  15. Design of piezoelectric transducer layer with electromagnetic shielding and high connection reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Qiu, Lei; Yuan, Shenfang; Shi, Xiaoling; Huang, Tianxiang

    2012-01-01

    Piezoelectric transducer (PZT) and Lamb wave based structural health monitoring (SHM) method have been widely studied for on-line SHM of high-performance structures. To monitor large-scale structures, a dense PZTs array is required. In order to improve the placement efficiency and reduce the wire burden of the PZTs array, the concept of the piezoelectric transducers layer (PSL) was proposed. The PSL consists of PZTs, a flexible interlayer with printed wires and signal input/output interface. For on-line SHM on real aircraft structures, there are two main issues on electromagnetic interference and connection reliability of the PSL. To address the issues, an electromagnetic shielding design method of the PSL to reduce spatial electromagnetic noise and crosstalk is proposed and a combined welding–cementation process based connection reliability design method is proposed to enhance the connection reliability between the PZTs and the flexible interlayer. Two experiments on electromagnetic interference suppression are performed to validate the shielding design of the PSL. The experimental results show that the amplitudes of the spatial electromagnetic noise and crosstalk output from the shielded PSL developed by this paper are − 15 dB and − 25 dB lower than those of the ordinary PSL, respectively. Other two experiments on temperature durability ( − 55 °C–80 °C ) and strength durability (160–1600με, one million load cycles) are applied to the PSL to validate the connection reliability. The low repeatability errors (less than 3% and less than 5%, respectively) indicate that the developed PSL is of high connection reliability and long fatigue life. (paper)

  16. Efficient high-precision matrix algebra on parallel architectures for nonlinear combinatorial optimization

    KAUST Repository

    Gunnels, John; Lee, Jon; Margulies, Susan

    2010-01-01

    We provide a first demonstration of the idea that matrix-based algorithms for nonlinear combinatorial optimization problems can be efficiently implemented. Such algorithms were mainly conceived by theoretical computer scientists for proving efficiency. We are able to demonstrate the practicality of our approach by developing an implementation on a massively parallel architecture, and exploiting scalable and efficient parallel implementations of algorithms for ultra high-precision linear algebra. Additionally, we have delineated and implemented the necessary algorithmic and coding changes required in order to address problems several orders of magnitude larger, dealing with the limits of scalability from memory footprint, computational efficiency, reliability, and interconnect perspectives. © Springer and Mathematical Programming Society 2010.

  17. Efficient high-precision matrix algebra on parallel architectures for nonlinear combinatorial optimization

    KAUST Repository

    Gunnels, John

    2010-06-01

    We provide a first demonstration of the idea that matrix-based algorithms for nonlinear combinatorial optimization problems can be efficiently implemented. Such algorithms were mainly conceived by theoretical computer scientists for proving efficiency. We are able to demonstrate the practicality of our approach by developing an implementation on a massively parallel architecture, and exploiting scalable and efficient parallel implementations of algorithms for ultra high-precision linear algebra. Additionally, we have delineated and implemented the necessary algorithmic and coding changes required in order to address problems several orders of magnitude larger, dealing with the limits of scalability from memory footprint, computational efficiency, reliability, and interconnect perspectives. © Springer and Mathematical Programming Society 2010.

  18. Statistical estimation Monte Carlo for unreliability evaluation of highly reliable system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xiao Gang; Su Guanghui; Jia Dounan; Li Tianduo

    2000-01-01

    Based on analog Monte Carlo simulation, statistical Monte Carlo methods for unreliable evaluation of highly reliable system are constructed, including direct statistical estimation Monte Carlo method and weighted statistical estimation Monte Carlo method. The basal element is given, and the statistical estimation Monte Carlo estimators are derived. Direct Monte Carlo simulation method, bounding-sampling method, forced transitions Monte Carlo method, direct statistical estimation Monte Carlo and weighted statistical estimation Monte Carlo are used to evaluate unreliability of a same system. By comparing, weighted statistical estimation Monte Carlo estimator has smallest variance, and has highest calculating efficiency

  19. DOE/OER-sponsored basic research in high-efficiency photovoltaics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Deb, S.K.; Benner, J.P. [National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)

    1996-05-01

    A high-efficiency photovoltaic project involving many of the national laboratories and several universities has been initiated under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Center of Excellence for the Synthesis and Processing of Advanced Materials. The objectives of this project are to generate advances in fundamental scientific understanding that will impact the efficiency, cost and reliability of thin-film photovoltaic cells. The project is focused on two areas. (1) Silicon-Based Thin Films, in which key scientific and technological problems involving amorphous and polycrystalline silicon thin films will be addressed, and (2) Next-Generation Thin-Film Photovoltaics, which will be concerned with the possibilities of new advances and breakthroughs in the materials and physics of photovoltaics using non-silicon-based materials.

  20. Behavior of high efficiency electric motors; Comportamiento de motores electricos de alta eficiencia

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bonett, Austin H. [IEEE, (United States)

    2001-09-01

    The energy efficiency is one of the main parameters in the design of the industrial motors of general purpose; nevertheless, it is avoided that it is at the cost of the reliability or to the global performance of the motor. Exist user groups of this equipment that consider that, in the search of a greater efficiency, the useful life period is diminished and the characteristics of operation of the motor are affected. During the past last years, the author has studied the aspects of quality and reliability, as well as the operative advantages of the high efficiency motors and written down the increasing interest for these aspects. Also he has detected that a great number of users has realized that, additionally to the obvious energy saving, the efficient motor offers a greater reliability and a longer useful life in most of the industrial applications. The objective of this article is to present the differences in the quality levels, reliability and operation parameters of high efficiency squirrel cage type electrical motors with those of the motors of standard manufacture. [Spanish] La eficiencia energetica es uno de los principales parametros en el diseno de los motores industriales de proposito general; sin embargo, se evita que sea a costa de la confiabilidad o del desempeno global del motor. Existen grupos de usuarios de estos equipos que consideran que, en la busqueda de una mayor eficiencia, se disminuye el periodo de vida util y se afectan las caracteristicas de operacion del motor. Durante los ultimos anos, el autor ha estudiado los aspectos de calidad y confiabilidad, asi como las ventajas operativas de los motores de alta eficiencia y anotado el incremento del interes por estos aspectos. Tambien ha detectado que un gran numero de usuarios se ha dado cuenta que, adicionalmente a los obvios ahorros de energia, el motor eficiente ofrece una mayor confiabilidad y una vida util mas larga en la mayoria de las aplicaciones industriales. El objetivo de este

  1. Reliable and energy-efficient communications for wireless biomedical implant systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ntouni, Georgia D; Lioumpas, Athanasios S; Nikita, Konstantina S

    2014-11-01

    Implant devices are used to measure biological parameters and transmit their results to remote off-body devices. As implants are characterized by strict requirements on size, reliability, and power consumption, applying the concept of cooperative communications to wireless body area networks offers several benefits. In this paper, we aim to minimize the power consumption of the implant device by utilizing on-body wearable devices, while providing the necessary reliability in terms of outage probability and bit error rate. Taking into account realistic power considerations and wireless propagation environments based on the IEEE P802.l5 channel model, an exact theoretical analysis is conducted for evaluating several communication scenarios with respect to the position of the wearable device and the motion of the human body. The derived closed-form expressions are employed toward minimizing the required transmission power, subject to a minimum quality-of-service requirement. In this way, the complexity and power consumption are transferred from the implant device to the on-body relay, which is an efficient approach since they can be easily replaced, in contrast to the in-body implants.

  2. Corona ignition system for highly efficient gasoline engines; Corona-Zuendsystem fuer hocheffiziente Ottomotoren

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Burrows, John [Federal-Mogul Limited, Manchester (United Kingdom); Lykowski, Jim; Mixell, Kristapher [Federal-Mogul, Plymouth, MI (United States)

    2013-06-01

    Many future gasoline engines will require higher air/fuel ratios and higher mean effective pressures to further improve fuel efficiency. Federal-Mogul has taken up this challenge and has developed the Advanced Corona Ignition System (ACIS) as a new solution to reliably ignite a mix with high AFR/EGR and high MEP. During engine tests ACIS enabled a direct fuel economy improvement of up to 10 %. (orig.)

  3. Lightweight High Efficiency Electric Motors for Space Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Robertson, Glen A.; Tyler, Tony R.; Piper, P. J.

    2011-01-01

    Lightweight high efficiency electric motors are needed across a wide range of space applications from - thrust vector actuator control for launch and flight applications to - general vehicle, base camp habitat and experiment control for various mechanisms to - robotics for various stationary and mobile space exploration missions. QM Power?s Parallel Path Magnetic Technology Motors have slowly proven themselves to be a leading motor technology in this area; winning a NASA Phase II for "Lightweight High Efficiency Electric Motors and Actuators for Low Temperature Mobility and Robotics Applications" a US Army Phase II SBIR for "Improved Robot Actuator Motors for Medical Applications", an NSF Phase II SBIR for "Novel Low-Cost Electric Motors for Variable Speed Applications" and a DOE SBIR Phase I for "High Efficiency Commercial Refrigeration Motors" Parallel Path Magnetic Technology obtains the benefits of using permanent magnets while minimizing the historical trade-offs/limitations found in conventional permanent magnet designs. The resulting devices are smaller, lower weight, lower cost and have higher efficiency than competitive permanent magnet and non-permanent magnet designs. QM Power?s motors have been extensively tested and successfully validated by multiple commercial and aerospace customers and partners as Boeing Research and Technology. Prototypes have been made between 0.1 and 10 HP. They are also in the process of scaling motors to over 100kW with their development partners. In this paper, Parallel Path Magnetic Technology Motors will be discussed; specifically addressing their higher efficiency, higher power density, lighter weight, smaller physical size, higher low end torque, wider power zone, cooler temperatures, and greater reliability with lower cost and significant environment benefit for the same peak output power compared to typically motors. A further discussion on the inherent redundancy of these motors for space applications will be provided.

  4. Reliable high-power diode lasers: thermo-mechanical fatigue aspects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klumel, Genady; Gridish, Yaakov; Szafranek, Igor; Karni, Yoram

    2006-02-01

    High power water-cooled diode lasers are finding increasing demand in biomedical, cosmetic and industrial applications, where repetitive cw (continuous wave) and pulsed cw operation modes are required. When operating in such modes, the lasers experience numerous complete thermal cycles between "cold" heat sink temperature and the "hot" temperature typical of thermally equilibrated cw operation. It is clearly demonstrated that the main failure mechanism directly linked to repetitive cw operation is thermo-mechanical fatigue of the solder joints adjacent to the laser bars, especially when "soft" solders are used. Analyses of the bonding interfaces were carried out using scanning electron microscopy. It was observed that intermetallic compounds, formed already during the bonding process, lead to the solders fatigue both on the p- and n-side of the laser bar. Fatigue failure of solder joints in repetitive cw operation reduces useful lifetime of the stacks to hundreds hours, in comparison with more than 10,000 hours lifetime typically demonstrated in commonly adopted non-stop cw reliability testing programs. It is shown, that proper selection of package materials and solders, careful design of fatigue sensitive parts and burn-in screening in the hard pulse operation mode allow considerable increase of lifetime and reliability, without compromising the device efficiency, optical power density and compactness.

  5. Column Grid Array Rework for High Reliability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mehta, Atul C.; Bodie, Charles C.

    2008-01-01

    Due to requirements for reduced size and weight, use of grid array packages in space applications has become common place. To meet the requirement of high reliability and high number of I/Os, ceramic column grid array packages (CCGA) were selected for major electronic components used in next MARS Rover mission (specifically high density Field Programmable Gate Arrays). ABSTRACT The probability of removal and replacement of these devices on the actual flight printed wiring board assemblies is deemed to be very high because of last minute discoveries in final test which will dictate changes in the firmware. The questions and challenges presented to the manufacturing organizations engaged in the production of high reliability electronic assemblies are, Is the reliability of the PWBA adversely affected by rework (removal and replacement) of the CGA package? and How many times can we rework the same board without destroying a pad or degrading the lifetime of the assembly? To answer these questions, the most complex printed wiring board assembly used by the project was chosen to be used as the test vehicle, the PWB was modified to provide a daisy chain pattern, and a number of bare PWB s were acquired to this modified design. Non-functional 624 pin CGA packages with internal daisy chained matching the pattern on the PWB were procured. The combination of the modified PWB and the daisy chained packages enables continuity measurements of every soldered contact during subsequent testing and thermal cycling. Several test vehicles boards were assembled, reworked and then thermal cycled to assess the reliability of the solder joints and board material including pads and traces near the CGA. The details of rework process and results of thermal cycling are presented in this paper.

  6. An efficient particle swarm approach for mixed-integer programming in reliability-redundancy optimization applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Santos Coelho, Leandro dos

    2009-01-01

    The reliability-redundancy optimization problems can involve the selection of components with multiple choices and redundancy levels that produce maximum benefits, and are subject to the cost, weight, and volume constraints. Many classical mathematical methods have failed in handling nonconvexities and nonsmoothness in reliability-redundancy optimization problems. As an alternative to the classical optimization approaches, the meta-heuristics have been given much attention by many researchers due to their ability to find an almost global optimal solutions. One of these meta-heuristics is the particle swarm optimization (PSO). PSO is a population-based heuristic optimization technique inspired by social behavior of bird flocking and fish schooling. This paper presents an efficient PSO algorithm based on Gaussian distribution and chaotic sequence (PSO-GC) to solve the reliability-redundancy optimization problems. In this context, two examples in reliability-redundancy design problems are evaluated. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed PSO-GC is a promising optimization technique. PSO-GC performs well for the two examples of mixed-integer programming in reliability-redundancy applications considered in this paper. The solutions obtained by the PSO-GC are better than the previously best-known solutions available in the recent literature

  7. An efficient particle swarm approach for mixed-integer programming in reliability-redundancy optimization applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Santos Coelho, Leandro dos [Industrial and Systems Engineering Graduate Program, LAS/PPGEPS, Pontifical Catholic University of Parana, PUCPR, Imaculada Conceicao, 1155, 80215-901 Curitiba, Parana (Brazil)], E-mail: leandro.coelho@pucpr.br

    2009-04-15

    The reliability-redundancy optimization problems can involve the selection of components with multiple choices and redundancy levels that produce maximum benefits, and are subject to the cost, weight, and volume constraints. Many classical mathematical methods have failed in handling nonconvexities and nonsmoothness in reliability-redundancy optimization problems. As an alternative to the classical optimization approaches, the meta-heuristics have been given much attention by many researchers due to their ability to find an almost global optimal solutions. One of these meta-heuristics is the particle swarm optimization (PSO). PSO is a population-based heuristic optimization technique inspired by social behavior of bird flocking and fish schooling. This paper presents an efficient PSO algorithm based on Gaussian distribution and chaotic sequence (PSO-GC) to solve the reliability-redundancy optimization problems. In this context, two examples in reliability-redundancy design problems are evaluated. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed PSO-GC is a promising optimization technique. PSO-GC performs well for the two examples of mixed-integer programming in reliability-redundancy applications considered in this paper. The solutions obtained by the PSO-GC are better than the previously best-known solutions available in the recent literature.

  8. Reliable, Economic, Efficient CO2 Heat Pump Water Heater for North America

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Radcliff, Thomas D; Sienel, Tobias; Huff, Hans-Joachim; Thompson, Adrian; Sadegh, Payman; Olsommer, Benoit; Park, Young

    2006-12-31

    Adoption of heat pump water heating technology for commercial hot water could save up to 0.4 quads of energy and 5 million metric tons of CO2 production annually in North America, but industry perception is that this technology does not offer adequate performance or reliability and comes at too high of a cost. Development and demonstration of a CO2 heat pump water heater is proposed to reduce these barriers to adoption. Three major themes are addressed: market analysis to understand barriers to adoption, use of advanced reliability models to design optimum qualification test plans, and field testing of two phases of water heater prototypes. Market experts claim that beyond good performance, market adoption requires 'drop and forget' system reliability and a six month payback of first costs. Performance, reliability and cost targets are determined and reliability models are developed to evaluate the minimum testing required to meet reliability targets. Three phase 1 prototypes are designed and installed in the field. Based on results from these trials a product specification is developed and a second phase of five field trial units are built and installed. These eight units accumulate 11 unit-years of service including 15,650 hours and 25,242 cycles of compressor operation. Performance targets can be met. An availability of 60% is achieved and the capability to achieve >90% is demonstrated, but overall reliability is below target, with an average of 3.6 failures/unit-year on the phase 2 demonstration. Most reliability issues are shown to be common to new HVAC products, giving high confidence in mature product reliability, but the need for further work to minimize leaks and ensure reliability of the electronic expansion valve is clear. First cost is projected to be above target, leading to an expectation of 8-24 month payback when substituted for an electric water heater. Despite not meeting all targets, arguments are made that an industry leader could

  9. Completion of a high efficiency ultralarge capacity three-phase transformer

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Maejima, Masaaki; Maruyama, Katsuya; Fukuda, Teruo.

    1986-01-01

    As for the boosting transformers for thermal and nuclear power stations, at present the ultralarge capacity transformers of 1000 - 1200 MVA class are the main, and particularly in nuclear power, accompanying the development of improved type BWRs and the rise of system stability, there is the tendency toward further large capacity and large size. Consequently, reflecting the recent rise of energy cost, the demand of energy conservation and the reduction of required sites heightened largely as well as the high reliability. In order to meet these demands, Hitachi Ltd. has established the technology of changing to iron machines such as ultralarge iron cores and ultralarge capacity undivided disk windings using the latest design and manufacture techniques were applied to the 525 kV, 1200 MVA transformer for No.4 plant in Fukushima No.2 Nuclear Power Station, Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc., thus a three-phase transformer of the highest level, high efficiency and ultralarge capacity was completed. In this paper, the outline of this transformer and the test for verifying its reliability are described. The technical change of large capacity three-phase transformers, the specifications, construction, manufacture, reliability test and the effect of modification of this transformer, and the expansion of application to the next generation ultralarge capacity transformers are reported. (Kako, I.)

  10. Highly efficient 400  W near-fundamental-mode green thin-disk laser.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piehler, Stefan; Dietrich, Tom; Rumpel, Martin; Graf, Thomas; Ahmed, Marwan Abdou

    2016-01-01

    We report on the efficient generation of continuous-wave, high-brightness green laser radiation. Green lasers are particularly interesting for reliable and reproducible deep-penetration welding of copper or for pumping Ti:Sa oscillators. By intracavity second-harmonic generation in a thin-disk laser resonator designed for fundamental-mode operation, an output power of up to 403 W is demonstrated at a wavelength of 515 nm with almost diffraction-limited beam quality. The unprecedented optical efficiency of 40.7% of green output power with respect to the pump power of the thin-disk laser is enabled by the intracavity use of a highly efficient grating waveguide mirror, which combines the functions of wavelength stabilization and spectral narrowing, as well as polarization selection in a single element.

  11. Reliability and Efficiency of Generalized Rumor Spreading Model on Complex Social Networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Naimi, Yaghoob; Naimi, Mohammad

    2013-01-01

    We introduce the generalized rumor spreading model and investigate some properties of this model on different complex social networks. Despite pervious rumor models that both the spreader-spreader (SS) and the spreader-stifler (SR) interactions have the same rate α, we define α (1) and α (2) for SS and SR interactions, respectively. The effect of variation of α (1) and α (2) on the final density of stiflers is investigated. Furthermore, the influence of the topological structure of the network in rumor spreading is studied by analyzing the behavior of several global parameters such as reliability and efficiency. Our results show that while networks with homogeneous connectivity patterns reach a higher reliability, scale-free topologies need a less time to reach a steady state with respect the rumor. (interdisciplinary physics and related areas of science and technology)

  12. Delivering high performance BWR fuel reliably

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schardt, J.F.

    1998-01-01

    Utilities are under intense pressure to reduce their production costs in order to compete in the increasingly deregulated marketplace. They need fuel, which can deliver high performance to meet demanding operating strategies. GE's latest BWR fuel design, GE14, provides that high performance capability. GE's product introduction process assures that this performance will be delivered reliably, with little risk to the utility. (author)

  13. Highly reliable electro-hydraulic control system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mande, Morima; Hiyama, Hiroshi; Takahashi, Makoto

    1984-01-01

    The unscheduled shutdown of nuclear power stations disturbs power system, and exerts large influence on power generation cost due to the lowering of capacity ratio; therefore, high reliability is required for the control system of nuclear power stations. Toshiba Corp. has exerted effort to improve the reliability of the control system of power stations, and in this report, the electro-hydraulic control system for the turbines of nuclear power stations is described. The main functions of the electro-hydraulic control system are the control of main steam pressure with steam regulation valves and turbine bypass valves, the control of turbine speed and load, the prevention of turbine overspeed, the protection of turbines and so on. The system is composed of pressure sensors and a speed sensor, the control board containing the electronic circuits for control computation and protective sequence, the oil cylinders, servo valves and opening detectors of the valves for control, a high pressure oil hydraulic machine and piping, the operating panel and so on. The main features are the adoption of tripling intermediate value selection method, the multiplying of protection sensors and the adoption of 2 out of 3 trip logic, the multiplying of power sources, the improvement of the reliability of electronic circuit hardware and oil hydraulic system. (Kako, I.)

  14. High-efficiency target-ion sources for RIB generation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alton, G.D.

    1993-01-01

    A brief review is given of high-efficiency ion sources which have been developed or are under development at ISOL facilities which show particular promise for use at existing, future, or radioactive ion beam (RIB) facilities now under construction. Emphasis will be placed on those sources which have demonstrated high ionization efficiency, species versatility, and operational reliability and which have been carefully designed for safe handling in the high level radioactivity radiation fields incumbent at such facilities. Brief discussions will also be made of the fundamental processes which affect the realizable beam intensities in target-ion sources. Among the sources which will be reviewed will be selected examples of state-of-the-art electron-beam plasma-type ion sources, thermal-ionization, surface-ionization, ECR, and selectively chosen ion source concepts which show promise for radioactive ion beam generation. A few advanced, chemically selective target-ion sources will be described, such as sources based on the use of laser-resonance ionization, which, in principle, offer a more satisfactory solution to isobaric contamination problems than conventional electromagnetic techniques. Particular attention will be given to the sources which have been selected for initial or future use at the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility now under construction at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  15. An adaptive cubature formula for efficient reliability assessment of nonlinear structural dynamic systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jun; Kong, Fan

    2018-05-01

    Extreme value distribution (EVD) evaluation is a critical topic in reliability analysis of nonlinear structural dynamic systems. In this paper, a new method is proposed to obtain the EVD. The maximum entropy method (MEM) with fractional moments as constraints is employed to derive the entire range of EVD. Then, an adaptive cubature formula is proposed for fractional moments assessment involved in MEM, which is closely related to the efficiency and accuracy for reliability analysis. Three point sets, which include a total of 2d2 + 1 integration points in the dimension d, are generated in the proposed formula. In this regard, the efficiency of the proposed formula is ensured. Besides, a "free" parameter is introduced, which makes the proposed formula adaptive with the dimension. The "free" parameter is determined by arranging one point set adjacent to the boundary of the hyper-sphere which contains the bulk of total probability. In this regard, the tail distribution may be better reproduced and the fractional moments could be evaluated with accuracy. Finally, the proposed method is applied to a ten-storey shear frame structure under seismic excitations, which exhibits strong nonlinearity. The numerical results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.

  16. Highly-efficient, frequency-tripled Nd:YAG laser for spaceborne LIDARs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Treichel, R.; Hoffmann, H.-D.; Luttmann, J.; Morasch, V.; Nicklaus, K.; Wührer, C.

    2017-11-01

    For a spaceborne lidar a highly reliable, long living and efficient laser source is absolutely essential. Within the frame of the development of a laser source for the backscatter lidar ATLID, which will be flown on EarthCare mission, we setup and tested a predevelopment model of an injection-seeded, diode pumped, frequency tripled, pulsed high power Nd:YAG MOPA laser operating nominally at 100 Hz pulse repetition frequency. We also tested the burst operation mode. The excellent measured performance parameter will be introduced. The oscillator rod is longitudinally pumped from both sides. The oscillator has been operated with three cavity control methods: "Cavity Dither", "Pound-Drever-Hall" and "Adaptive Ramp & Fire". Especially the latter method is very suitable to operate the laser in harsh vibrating environment such in airplanes. The amplifier bases on the InnoSlab design concept. The constant keeping of a moderate fluence in the InnoSlab crystal permits excellent possibilities to scale the pulse energy to several 100 mJ. An innovative pump unit and optics makes the laser performance insensitive to inhomogeneous diode degradation and allows switching of additional redundant diodes. Further key features have been implemented in a FM design concept. The operational lifetime is extended by the implementation of internal redundancies for the most critical parts. The reliability is increased due to the higher margin onto the laser induced damage threshold by a pressurized housing. Additionally air-to-vacuum effects becomes obsolete. A high efficient heat removal concept has been implemented.

  17. A double-loop adaptive sampling approach for sensitivity-free dynamic reliability analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Zequn; Wang, Pingfeng

    2015-01-01

    Dynamic reliability measures reliability of an engineered system considering time-variant operation condition and component deterioration. Due to high computational costs, conducting dynamic reliability analysis at an early system design stage remains challenging. This paper presents a confidence-based meta-modeling approach, referred to as double-loop adaptive sampling (DLAS), for efficient sensitivity-free dynamic reliability analysis. The DLAS builds a Gaussian process (GP) model sequentially to approximate extreme system responses over time, so that Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) can be employed directly to estimate dynamic reliability. A generic confidence measure is developed to evaluate the accuracy of dynamic reliability estimation while using the MCS approach based on developed GP models. A double-loop adaptive sampling scheme is developed to efficiently update the GP model in a sequential manner, by considering system input variables and time concurrently in two sampling loops. The model updating process using the developed sampling scheme can be terminated once the user defined confidence target is satisfied. The developed DLAS approach eliminates computationally expensive sensitivity analysis process, thus substantially improves the efficiency of dynamic reliability analysis. Three case studies are used to demonstrate the efficacy of DLAS for dynamic reliability analysis. - Highlights: • Developed a novel adaptive sampling approach for dynamic reliability analysis. • POD Developed a new metric to quantify the accuracy of dynamic reliability estimation. • Developed a new sequential sampling scheme to efficiently update surrogate models. • Three case studies were used to demonstrate the efficacy of the new approach. • Case study results showed substantially enhanced efficiency with high accuracy

  18. Efficient/reliable dc-to-dc inverter circuit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pasciutti, E. R.

    1970-01-01

    Feedback loop, which contains an inductor in series with a saturable reactor, is added to a standard inverter circuit to permit the inverter power transistors to be switched in a controlled and efficient manner. This inverter is applicable where the power source has either high or low impedance properties.

  19. Delivering high performance BWR fuel reliably

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schardt, J.F. [GE Nuclear Energy, Wilmington, NC (United States)

    1998-07-01

    Utilities are under intense pressure to reduce their production costs in order to compete in the increasingly deregulated marketplace. They need fuel, which can deliver high performance to meet demanding operating strategies. GE's latest BWR fuel design, GE14, provides that high performance capability. GE's product introduction process assures that this performance will be delivered reliably, with little risk to the utility. (author)

  20. A new approach to a high efficiency inductive store

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zowarka, R.C. Jr.; Kajs, J.P.; Price, J.H.; Weldon, W.F.

    1991-01-01

    In the Spring of 1989, Parker Kinetic Design, Inc. (PKD) and the Center for Electromechanics at The University of Texas at Austin (CEM-UT) conducted a study to examine the basic technologies to be used in the construction and operation of a feasible and reliable electromagnetic (EM) gun system. This work was performed for Brown and Root Vickers, Ltd. (BRV) in response to a feasibility analysis requirement of the Royal Armament and Development Establishment (RARDE), Ministry of Defence (MD) of the United Kingdom. This paper summarizes that this study focused on the analysis and evaluation of the suitability and applicability of various pulsed power supply options for the performance goals of the RARDE EM gun program. The existing technologies considered included batteries, compulsators, capacitors, and homopolar generators (HPGs). Primary performance specifications for the electrical energy radius system were that it be capable of providing 12 MJ of muzzle energy; velocities between 2.0 and 3.5 km/s; and a repetitive shot rate of up to 10 shots per day, with no more than a 30-min interval between shots. In addition, the recommended system needed to be reliable, easily maintainable, and capable of routinely firing large numbers of shots. Strict adherence to the goal of designing a system based only on demonstrated technology results in power supplies that are prohibitively expensive and large. As a consequence, candidate system designs represent a modest extrapolation from demonstrated technology well within an acceptable design envelope. A new topology has been developed for a highly efficient inductive store suitable for pulsed-power applications. The new design features high L/R ratios without having to cryogenically cool the conductors. This allows for high efficiency charging of the inductor from low impedance dc sources such as batteries of HPGs

  1. Compact, Efficient, and Reliable Ventilation Fan for EVA Suits, Phase II

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Advanced EVA suits for space exploration will need a portable life support system (PLSS) that is compact, lightweight, highly reliable, and meets stringent...

  2. Custom high-reliability radiation-hard CMOS-LSI circuit design

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Barnard, W.J.

    1981-01-01

    Sandia has developed a custom CMOS-LSI design capability to provide high reliability radiation-hardened circuits. This capability relies on (1) proven design practices to enhance reliability, (2) use of well characterized cells and logic modules, (3) computer-aided design tools to reduce design time and errors and to standardize design definition, and (4) close working relationships with the system designer and technology fabrication personnel. Trade-offs are made during the design between circuit complexity/performance and technology/producibility for high reliability and radiation-hardened designs to result. Sandia has developed and is maintaining a radiation-hardened bulk CMOS technology fabrication line for production of prototype and small production volume parts

  3. Assessment of microelectronics packaging for high temperature, high reliability applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Uribe, F.

    1997-04-01

    This report details characterization and development activities in electronic packaging for high temperature applications. This project was conducted through a Department of Energy sponsored Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Sandia National Laboratories and General Motors. Even though the target application of this collaborative effort is an automotive electronic throttle control system which would be located in the engine compartment, results of this work are directly applicable to Sandia`s national security mission. The component count associated with the throttle control dictates the use of high density packaging not offered by conventional surface mount. An enabling packaging technology was selected and thermal models defined which characterized the thermal and mechanical response of the throttle control module. These models were used to optimize thick film multichip module design, characterize the thermal signatures of the electronic components inside the module, and to determine the temperature field and resulting thermal stresses under conditions that may be encountered during the operational life of the throttle control module. Because the need to use unpackaged devices limits the level of testing that can be performed either at the wafer level or as individual dice, an approach to assure a high level of reliability of the unpackaged components was formulated. Component assembly and interconnect technologies were also evaluated and characterized for high temperature applications. Electrical, mechanical and chemical characterizations of enabling die and component attach technologies were performed. Additionally, studies were conducted to assess the performance and reliability of gold and aluminum wire bonding to thick film conductor inks. Kinetic models were developed and validated to estimate wire bond reliability.

  4. Analysis of fatigue reliability for high temperature and high pressure multi-stage decompression control valve

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yu, Long; Xu, Juanjuan; Zhang, Lifang; Xu, Xiaogang

    2018-03-01

    Based on stress-strength interference theory to establish the reliability mathematical model for high temperature and high pressure multi-stage decompression control valve (HMDCV), and introduced to the temperature correction coefficient for revising material fatigue limit at high temperature. Reliability of key dangerous components and fatigue sensitivity curve of each component are calculated and analyzed by the means, which are analyzed the fatigue life of control valve and combined with reliability theory of control valve model. The impact proportion of each component on the control valve system fatigue failure was obtained. The results is shown that temperature correction factor makes the theoretical calculations of reliability more accurate, prediction life expectancy of main pressure parts accords with the technical requirements, and valve body and the sleeve have obvious influence on control system reliability, the stress concentration in key part of control valve can be reduced in the design process by improving structure.

  5. Design for Reliability in Renewable Energy Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Blaabjerg, Frede; Zhou, Dao; Sangwongwanich, Ariya

    2017-01-01

    Power electronics are widely used in renewable energy systems to achieve lower cost of energy, higher efficiency and high power density. At the same time, the high reliability of the power electronics products is demanded, in order to reduce the failure rates and ensure cost-effective operation...... of the renewable energy systems. This paper thus describes the basic concepts used in reliability engineering, and presents the status and future trends of Design for Reliability (DfR) in power electronics, which is currently undergoing a paradigm shift to a physics-of-failure approach. Two case studies of a 2 MW...

  6. Compact, Efficient, and Reliable Ventilation Fan for EVA Suits, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Advanced EVA suits for space exploration will need a portable life support system (PLSS) that is compact, lightweight, and highly reliable. A key component is a...

  7. High reliability low jitter 80 kV pulse generator

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Savage, Mark Edward; Stoltzfus, Brian Scott

    2009-01-01

    Switching can be considered to be the essence of pulsed power. Time accurate switch/trigger systems with low inductance are useful in many applications. This article describes a unique switch geometry coupled with a low-inductance capacitive energy store. The system provides a fast-rising high voltage pulse into a low impedance load. It can be challenging to generate high voltage (more than 50 kilovolts) into impedances less than 10 (Omega), from a low voltage control signal with a fast rise time and high temporal accuracy. The required power amplification is large, and is usually accomplished with multiple stages. The multiple stages can adversely affect the temporal accuracy and the reliability of the system. In the present application, a highly reliable and low jitter trigger generator was required for the Z pulsed-power facility [M. E. Savage, L. F. Bennett, D. E. Bliss, W. T. Clark, R. S. Coats,J. M. Elizondo, K. R. LeChien, H. C. Harjes, J. M. Lehr, J. E. Maenchen, D. H. McDaniel, M. F. Pasik, T. D. Pointon, A. C. Owen, D. B. Seidel, D. L. Smith, B. S. Stoltzfus, K.W. Struve, W.A. Stygar, L.K. Warne, and J. R. Woodworth, 2007 IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Albuquerque, NM (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 2007), p. 979]. The large investment in each Z experiment demands low prefire probability and low jitter simultaneously. The system described here is based on a 100 kV DC-charged high-pressure spark gap, triggered with an ultraviolet laser. The system uses a single optical path for simultaneously triggering two parallel switches, allowing lower inductance and electrode erosion with a simple optical system. Performance of the system includes 6 ns output rise time into 5.6 (Omega), 550 ps one-sigma jitter measured from the 5 V trigger to the high voltage output, and misfire probability less than 10 -4 . The design of the system and some key measurements will be shown in the paper. We will discuss the design goals related to high reliability and low jitter. While

  8. Interactive reliability assessment using an integrated reliability data bank

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Allan, R.N.; Whitehead, A.M.

    1986-01-01

    The logical structure, techniques and practical application of a computer-aided technique based on a microcomputer using floppy disc Random Access Files is described. This interactive computational technique is efficient if the reliability prediction program is coupled directly to a relevant source of data to create an integrated reliability assessment/reliability data bank system. (DG)

  9. Highly efficient and reliable high power LEDs with patterned sapphire substrate and strip-shaped distributed current blocking layer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zhou, Shengjun [School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China); State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China); Yuan, Shu; Liu, Yingce [Quantum Wafer Inc., Foshan 528251 (China); Guo, L. Jay [Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States); Liu, Sheng, E-mail: victor_liu63@126.com [School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 (China); Ding, Han [State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

    2015-11-15

    Graphical abstract: - Highlights: • TEM is used to characterize threading dislocation existing in GaN epitaxial layer. • Effect of threading dislocation on optical and electrical of LEDs is discussed. • Strip-shaped SiO{sub 2} DCBL is designed to improve current spreading performance of LEDs. - Abstract: We demonstrated that the improvement in optical and electrical performance of high power LEDs was achieved using cone-shaped patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) and strip-shaped SiO{sub 2} distributed current blocking layer (DCBL). We found through transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observation that densities of both the screw dislocation and edge dislocation existing in GaN epitaxial layer grown on PSS were much less than that of GaN epitaxial layer grown on flat sapphire substrate (FSS). Compared to LED grown on FSS, LED grown on PSS showed higher sub-threshold forward-bias voltage and lower reverse leakage current, resulting in an enhancement in device reliability. We also designed a strip-shaped SiO{sub 2} DCBL beneath a strip-shaped p-electrode, which prevents the current from being concentrated on regions immediately adjacent the strip-shaped p-electrode, thereby facilitating uniform current spreading into the active region. By implementing strip-shaped SiO{sub 2} DCBL, light output power of high power PSS-LED chip could be further increased by 13%.

  10. Memorial Hermann: high reliability from board to bedside.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shabot, M Michael; Monroe, Douglas; Inurria, Juan; Garbade, Debbi; France, Anne-Claire

    2013-06-01

    In 2006 the Memorial Hermann Health System (MHHS), which includes 12 hospitals, began applying principles embraced by high reliability organizations (HROs). Three factors support its HRO journey: (1) aligned organizational structure with transparent management systems and compressed reporting processes; (2) Robust Process Improvement (RPI) with high-reliability interventions; and (3) cultural establishment, sustainment, and evolution. The Quality and Safety strategic plan contains three domains, each with a specific set of measures that provide goals for performance: (1) "Clinical Excellence;" (2) "Do No Harm;" and (3) "Saving Lives," as measured by the Serious Safety Event rate. MHHS uses a uniform approach to performance improvement--RPI, which includes Six Sigma, Lean, and change management, to solve difficult safety and quality problems. The 9 acute care hospitals provide multiple opportunities to integrate high-reliability interventions and best practices across MHHS. For example, MHHS partnered with the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare in its inaugural project to establish reliable hand hygiene behaviors, which improved MHHS's average hand hygiene compliance rate from 44% to 92% currently. Soon after compliance exceeded 85% at all 12 hospitals, the average rate of central line-associated bloodstream and ventilator-associated pneumonias decreased to essentially zero. MHHS's size and diversity require a disciplined approach to performance improvement and systemwide achievement of measurable success. The most significant cultural change at MHHS has been the expectation for 100% compliance with evidence-based quality measures and 0% incidence of patient harm.

  11. A new kind high-reliability digital reactivity meter

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shen Feng; Jiang Zongbing

    2001-01-01

    The paper introduces a new kind of high-reliability Digital Reactivity Meter developed by the DRM developing group in designing department of Nuclear Power Institute of China. The meter has two independent measure channels, which can be set as either master-slave structure or working independently. This structure will ensure that the meter can continually fulfill its online measure task under the condition of single failure with it. It provides a solution for the conflict between nuclear station's extreme demand in DRM's reliability and instability of computer's business software platform. The instrument reaches both advance and reliability by covering a lot of kinds of complex functions in data process and display

  12. Intelligent software solution for reliable high efficiency/low false alarm border monitoring

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rieck, W.; Iwatschenko, M.

    2001-01-01

    Full text: Radioactivity Monitoring at border stations requires detection systems that are reliably operating under special conditions such as: different types and shapes of vehicles; different velocities; stop and go traffic. ESM has developed a solution that achieves under all such conditions the lowest possible detection limit and avoids false alarms generated by naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). NBR (Natural Background Reduction) data evaluation - One of the main reasons for the success of the ESM gate monitors is the unique and proprietary NBR-technology of instantaneous discrimination of artificial and natural gamma radiation using large area plastic scintillators. Thus the FHT 1388 gate monitors show 2 unique features: Possible setting of different alarm levels for NORM and artificial gamma sources; Self adjusting compensation of the background shielding of the truck in respect to the detection of artificial sources. Both properties are a preposition for the highly sensitive detection of artificial gamma sources. While at scrap yards and steel mills usually all radioactivity (including NORM) must be detected, the main object of interest in respect to the measuring task at border stations, airports or harbours is clearly the detection of even very small signals of artificial radioactivity. The reliable rejection of the influence of natural radioactivity is of special importance in the case of detection of illicit trafficking, since construction material, fertilisers or soil often lead to much higher detector signals than the alarming levels for dangerous sources of interest. Beside the varying content of natural radioactivity in the load of a truck, different loads and trucks show different influence on the reduction of the ambient radiation due to the passing vehicle. Thus software approaches assuming a specific reduction of the background count rate (regarding relative magnitude and shape) must fail when trucks of different shape and load

  13. 2.097μ Cth:YAG flashlamp pumped high energy high efficiency laser operation (patent pending)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bar-Joseph, Dan

    2018-02-01

    Flashlamp pumped Cth:YAG lasers are mainly used in medical applications (urology). The main laser transition is at 2.13μ and is called a quasi-three level having an emission cross-section of 7x10-21 cm2 and a ground state absorption of approximately 5%/cm. Because of the relatively low absorption, combined with a modest emission cross-section, the laser requires high reflectivity output coupling, and therefore high intra-cavity energy density which limits the output to approximately 4J/pulse for reliable operation. This paper will describe a method of efficiently generating high output energy at low intra-cavity energy density by using an alternative 2.097μ transition having an emission cross-section of 5x10-21 cm2 and a ground level absorption of approximately 14%/cm.

  14. Reliability analysis and updating of deteriorating systems with subset simulation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schneider, Ronald; Thöns, Sebastian; Straub, Daniel

    2017-01-01

    An efficient approach to reliability analysis of deteriorating structural systems is presented, which considers stochastic dependence among element deterioration. Information on a deteriorating structure obtained through inspection or monitoring is included in the reliability assessment through B...... is an efficient and robust sampling-based algorithm suitable for such analyses. The approach is demonstrated in two case studies considering a steel frame structure and a Daniels system subjected to high-cycle fatigue....

  15. Product quality, service reliability and management of operations at ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    High product quality, service reliability, and management of operations are key factors in business growth and sustainability. Analyzing “The Starbucks Experience” is a pedagogical approach to reinforcing the concepts of control and management of quality, service reliability, and efficient operations in action. The objective ...

  16. Detecting binary black holes with efficient and reliable templates

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Damour, T.; Iyer, B.R.; Sathyaprakash, B.S.

    2001-01-01

    Detecting binary black holes in interferometer data requires an accurate knowledge of the orbital phase evolution of the system. From the point of view of data analysis one also needs fast algorithms to compute the templates that will be employed in searching for black hole binaries. Recently, there has been progress on both these fronts: On one hand, re-summation techniques have made it possible to accelerate the convergence of poorly convergent asymptotic post-Newtonian series and derive waveforms beyond the conventional adiabatic approximation. We now have a waveform model that extends beyond the inspiral regime into the plunge phase followed by the quasi-normal mode ringing. On the other hand, explicit Fourier domain waveforms have been derived that make the generation of waveforms fast enough so as not to be a burden on the computational resources required in filtering the detector data. These new developments should make it possible to efficiently and reliably search for black hole binaries in data from first interferometers. (author)

  17. High-efficiency photovoltaic technology including thermoelectric generation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisac, Miguel; Villasevil, Francesc X.; López, Antonio M.

    2014-04-01

    Nowadays, photovoltaic solar energy is a clean and reliable source for producing electric power. Most photovoltaic systems have been designed and built up for use in applications with low power requirements. The efficiency of solar cells is quite low, obtaining best results in monocrystalline silicon structures, with an efficiency of about 18%. When temperature rises, photovoltaic cell efficiency decreases, given that the short-circuit current is slightly increased, and the open-circuit voltage, fill factor and power output are reduced. To ensure that this does not affect performance, this paper describes how to interconnect photovoltaic and thermoelectric technology into a single structure. The temperature gradient in the solar panel is used to supply thermoelectric cells, which generate electricity, achieving a positive contribution to the total balance of the complete system.

  18. A structural approach to constructing perspective efficient and reliable human-computer interfaces

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Balint, L.

    1989-01-01

    The principles of human-computer interface (HCI) realizations are investigated with the aim of getting closer to a general framework and thus, to a more or less solid background of constructing perspective efficient, reliable and cost-effective human-computer interfaces. On the basis of characterizing and classifying the different HCI solutions, the fundamental problems of interface construction are pointed out especially with respect to human error occurrence possibilities. The evolution of HCI realizations is illustrated by summarizing the main properties of past, present and foreseeable future interface generations. HCI modeling is pointed out to be a crucial problem in theoretical and practical investigations. Suggestions concerning HCI structure (hierarchy and modularity), HCI functional dynamics (mapping from input to output information), minimization of human error caused system failures (error-tolerance, error-recovery and error-correcting) as well as cost-effective HCI design and realization methodology (universal and application-oriented vs. application-specific solutions) are presented. The concept of RISC-based and SCAMP-type HCI components is introduced with the aim of having a reduced interaction scheme in communication and a well defined architecture in HCI components' internal structure. HCI efficiency and reliability are dealt with, by taking into account complexity and flexibility. The application of fast computerized prototyping is also briefly investigated as an experimental device of achieving simple, parametrized, invariant HCI models. Finally, a concise outline of an approach of how to construct ideal HCI's is also suggested by emphasizing the open questions and the need of future work related to the proposals, as well. (author). 14 refs, 6 figs

  19. Energy efficiency and demand respond programs play vital roles in short- and long-term system reliability

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mitola, J. P.

    2003-12-01

    The effects of deregulation of the electric power industry on the reliability of the power grid in the United States are examined. Three major factors -- customer load, utility infrastructure, and demand response -- together are suggested as being most important; the ability of the industry to maintain the equilibrium among these three factors will determine the success or failure of deregulation. Each of these factors are examined in turn, followed by recommendations encouraging demand response or energy efficiency innovations, particularly new demand response technologies that are reliable, measurable, competitive to end-users, and fully dispatchable to utilities.

  20. High efficiency video coding (HEVC) algorithms and architectures

    CERN Document Server

    Budagavi, Madhukar; Sullivan, Gary

    2014-01-01

    This book provides developers, engineers, researchers and students with detailed knowledge about the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard. HEVC is the successor to the widely successful H.264/AVC video compression standard, and it provides around twice as much compression as H.264/AVC for the same level of quality. The applications for HEVC will not only cover the space of the well-known current uses and capabilities of digital video – they will also include the deployment of new services and the delivery of enhanced video quality, such as ultra-high-definition television (UHDTV) and video with higher dynamic range, wider range of representable color, and greater representation precision than what is typically found today. HEVC is the next major generation of video coding design – a flexible, reliable and robust solution that will support the next decade of video applications and ease the burden of video on world-wide network traffic. This book provides a detailed explanation of the various parts ...

  1. Development of high-reliability control system for nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Asami, K.; Yanai, K.; Hirose, H.; Ito, T.

    1983-01-01

    In Japan, many nuclear power generating plants are in operation and under construction. There is a general awareness of the problems in connection with nuclear power generation and strong emphasis is put on achieving highly reliable operation of nuclear power plants. Hitachi has developed a new high-reliability control system. NURECS-3000 (NUclear Power Plant High-REliability Control System), which is applied to the main control systems, such as the reactor feedwater control system, the reactor recirculation control system and the main turbine control system. The NURECS-3000 system was designed taking into account the fact that there will be failures, but the aim is for the system to continue to function correctly; it is therefore a fault-tolerant system. It has redundant components which can be completely isolated from each other in order to prevent fault propagation. The system has a hierarchical configuration, with a main controller, consisting of a triplex microcomputer system, and sub-loop controllers. Special care was taken to ensure the independence of these subsystems. Since most of the redundant system failures are caused by common-mode failures and the reliability of redundant systems depends on the reliability of the common-mode parts, the aim was to minimize these parts. (author)

  2. High reliability megawatt transformer/rectifier

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zwass, Samuel; Ashe, Harry; Peters, John W.

    1991-01-01

    The goal of the two phase program is to develop the technology and design and fabricate ultralightweight high reliability DC to DC converters for space power applications. The converters will operate from a 5000 V dc source and deliver 1 MW of power at 100 kV dc. The power weight density goal is 0.1 kg/kW. The cycle to cycle voltage stability goals was + or - 1 percent RMS. The converter is to operate at an ambient temperature of -40 C with 16 minute power pulses and one hour off time. The uniqueness of the design in Phase 1 resided in the dc switching array which operates the converter at 20 kHz using Hollotron plasma switches along with a specially designed low loss, low leakage inductance and a light weight high voltage transformer. This approach reduced considerably the number of components in the converter thereby increasing the system reliability. To achieve an optimum transformer for this application, the design uses four 25 kV secondary windings to produce the 100 kV dc output, thus reducing the transformer leakage inductance, and the ac voltage stresses. A specially designed insulation system improves the high voltage dielectric withstanding ability and reduces the insulation path thickness thereby reducing the component weight. Tradeoff studies and tests conducted on scaled-down model circuits and using representative coil insulation paths have verified the calculated transformer wave shape parameters and the insulation system safety. In Phase 1 of the program a converter design approach was developed and a preliminary transformer design was completed. A fault control circuit was designed and a thermal profile of the converter was also developed.

  3. Achieving High Reliability Operations Through Multi-Program Integration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Holly M. Ashley; Ronald K. Farris; Robert E. Richards

    2009-04-01

    Over the last 20 years the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has adopted a number of operations and safety-related programs which has each periodically taken its turn in the limelight. As new programs have come along there has been natural competition for resources, focus and commitment. In the last few years, the INL has made real progress in integrating all these programs and are starting to realize important synergies. Contributing to this integration are both collaborative individuals and an emerging shared vision and goal of the INL fully maturing in its high reliability operations. This goal is so powerful because the concept of high reliability operations (and the resulting organizations) is a masterful amalgam and orchestrator of the best of all the participating programs (i.e. conduct of operations, behavior based safety, human performance, voluntary protection, quality assurance, and integrated safety management). This paper is a brief recounting of the lessons learned, thus far, at the INL in bringing previously competing programs into harmony under the goal (umbrella) of seeking to perform regularly as a high reliability organization. In addition to a brief diagram-illustrated historical review, the authors will share the INL’s primary successes (things already effectively stopped or started) and the gaps yet to be bridged.

  4. High Reliability Cryogenic Piezoelectric Valve Actuator, Phase II

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Cryogenic fluid valves are subject to harsh exposure and actuators to drive these valves require robust performance and high reliability. DSM's piezoelectric...

  5. Subset simulation for structural reliability sensitivity analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Song Shufang; Lu Zhenzhou; Qiao Hongwei

    2009-01-01

    Based on two procedures for efficiently generating conditional samples, i.e. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation and importance sampling (IS), two reliability sensitivity (RS) algorithms are presented. On the basis of reliability analysis of Subset simulation (Subsim), the RS of the failure probability with respect to the distribution parameter of the basic variable is transformed as a set of RS of conditional failure probabilities with respect to the distribution parameter of the basic variable. By use of the conditional samples generated by MCMC simulation and IS, procedures are established to estimate the RS of the conditional failure probabilities. The formulae of the RS estimator, its variance and its coefficient of variation are derived in detail. The results of the illustrations show high efficiency and high precision of the presented algorithms, and it is suitable for highly nonlinear limit state equation and structural system with single and multiple failure modes

  6. Overview of Ecological Agriculture with High Efficiency

    OpenAIRE

    Huang, Guo-qin; Zhao, Qi-guo; Gong, Shao-lin; Shi, Qing-hua

    2012-01-01

    From the presentation, connotation, characteristics, principles, pattern, and technologies of ecological agriculture with high efficiency, we conduct comprehensive and systematic analysis and discussion of the theoretical and practical progress of ecological agriculture with high efficiency. (i) Ecological agriculture with high efficiency was first advanced in China in 1991. (ii) Ecological agriculture with high efficiency highlights "high efficiency", "ecology", and "combination". (iii) Ecol...

  7. Towards Reliable and Energy-Efficient Incremental Cooperative Communication for Wireless Body Area Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yousaf, Sidrah; Javaid, Nadeem; Qasim, Umar; Alrajeh, Nabil; Khan, Zahoor Ali; Ahmed, Mansoor

    2016-02-24

    In this study, we analyse incremental cooperative communication for wireless body area networks (WBANs) with different numbers of relays. Energy efficiency (EE) and the packet error rate (PER) are investigated for different schemes. We propose a new cooperative communication scheme with three-stage relaying and compare it to existing schemes. Our proposed scheme provides reliable communication with less PER at the cost of surplus energy consumption. Analytical expressions for the EE of the proposed three-stage cooperative communication scheme are also derived, taking into account the effect of PER. Later on, the proposed three-stage incremental cooperation is implemented in a network layer protocol; enhanced incremental cooperative critical data transmission in emergencies for static WBANs (EInCo-CEStat). Extensive simulations are conducted to validate the proposed scheme. Results of incremental relay-based cooperative communication protocols are compared to two existing cooperative routing protocols: cooperative critical data transmission in emergencies for static WBANs (Co-CEStat) and InCo-CEStat. It is observed from the simulation results that incremental relay-based cooperation is more energy efficient than the existing conventional cooperation protocol, Co-CEStat. The results also reveal that EInCo-CEStat proves to be more reliable with less PER and higher throughput than both of the counterpart protocols. However, InCo-CEStat has less throughput with a greater stability period and network lifetime. Due to the availability of more redundant links, EInCo-CEStat achieves a reduced packet drop rate at the cost of increased energy consumption.

  8. High-Reliable PLC RTOS Development and RPS Structure Analysis

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sohn, H. S.; Song, D. Y.; Sohn, D. S.; Kim, J. H. [Enersys Co., Daejeon (Korea, Republic of)

    2008-04-15

    One of the KNICS objectives is to develop a platform for Nuclear Power Plant(NPP) I and C(Instrumentation and Control) system, especially plant protection system. The developed platform is POSAFE-Q and this work supports the development of POSAFE-Q with the development of high-reliable real-time operating system(RTOS) and programmable logic device(PLD) software. Another KNICS objective is to develop safety I and C systems, such as Reactor Protection System(RPS) and Engineered Safety Feature-Component Control System(ESF-CCS). This work plays an important role in the structure analysis for RPS. Validation and verification(V and V) of the safety critical software is an essential work to make digital plant protection system highly reliable and safe. Generally, the reliability and safety of software based system can be improved by strict quality assurance framework including the software development itself. In other words, through V and V, the reliability and safety of a system can be improved and the development activities like software requirement specification, software design specification, component tests, integration tests, and system tests shall be appropriately documented for V and V.

  9. High-Reliable PLC RTOS Development and RPS Structure Analysis

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sohn, H. S.; Song, D. Y.; Sohn, D. S.; Kim, J. H.

    2008-04-01

    One of the KNICS objectives is to develop a platform for Nuclear Power Plant(NPP) I and C(Instrumentation and Control) system, especially plant protection system. The developed platform is POSAFE-Q and this work supports the development of POSAFE-Q with the development of high-reliable real-time operating system(RTOS) and programmable logic device(PLD) software. Another KNICS objective is to develop safety I and C systems, such as Reactor Protection System(RPS) and Engineered Safety Feature-Component Control System(ESF-CCS). This work plays an important role in the structure analysis for RPS. Validation and verification(V and V) of the safety critical software is an essential work to make digital plant protection system highly reliable and safe. Generally, the reliability and safety of software based system can be improved by strict quality assurance framework including the software development itself. In other words, through V and V, the reliability and safety of a system can be improved and the development activities like software requirement specification, software design specification, component tests, integration tests, and system tests shall be appropriately documented for V and V.

  10. Reliable tool life measurements in turning - an application to cutting fluid efficiency evaluation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Axinte, Dragos A.; Belluco, Walter; De Chiffre, Leonardo

    2001-01-01

    The paper proposes a method to obtain reliable measurements of tool life in turning, discussing some aspects related to experimental procedure and measurement accuracy. The method (i) allows and experimental determination of the extended Taylor's equation, with a limited set of experiments and (ii......) provides efficiency evaluation. Six cutting oils, five of which formulated from vegetable basestock, were evaluated in turning. Experiments were run in a range of cutting parameters. according to a 2, 3-1 factorial design, machining AISI 316L stainless steel with coated carbide tools. Tool life...

  11. Design for Reliability of Power Electronic Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Huai; Ma, Ke; Blaabjerg, Frede

    2012-01-01

    Advances in power electronics enable efficient and flexible processing of electric power in the application of renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, adjustable-speed drives, etc. More and more efforts are devoted to better power electronic systems in terms of reliability to ensure high......). A collection of methodologies based on Physics-of-Failure (PoF) approach and mission profile analysis are presented in this paper to perform reliability-oriented design of power electronic systems. The corresponding design procedures and reliability prediction models are provided. Further on, a case study...... on a 2.3 MW wind power converter is discussed with emphasis on the reliability critical components IGBTs. Different aspects of improving the reliability of the power converter are mapped. Finally, the challenges and opportunities to achieve more reliable power electronic systems are addressed....

  12. Inverse Reliability Task: Artificial Neural Networks and Reliability-Based Optimization Approaches

    OpenAIRE

    Lehký , David; Slowik , Ondřej; Novák , Drahomír

    2014-01-01

    Part 7: Genetic Algorithms; International audience; The paper presents two alternative approaches to solve inverse reliability task – to determine the design parameters to achieve desired target reliabilities. The first approach is based on utilization of artificial neural networks and small-sample simulation Latin hypercube sampling. The second approach considers inverse reliability task as reliability-based optimization task using double-loop method and also small-sample simulation. Efficie...

  13. High pressure, high current, low inductance, high reliability sealed terminals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsu, John S [Oak Ridge, TN; McKeever, John W [Oak Ridge, TN

    2010-03-23

    The invention is a terminal assembly having a casing with at least one delivery tapered-cone conductor and at least one return tapered-cone conductor routed there-through. The delivery and return tapered-cone conductors are electrically isolated from each other and positioned in the annuluses of ordered concentric cones at an off-normal angle. The tapered cone conductor service can be AC phase conductors and DC link conductors. The center core has at least one service conduit of gate signal leads, diagnostic signal wires, and refrigerant tubing routed there-through. A seal material is in direct contact with the casing inner surface, the tapered-cone conductors, and the service conduits thereby hermetically filling the interstitial space in the casing interior core and center core. The assembly provides simultaneous high-current, high-pressure, low-inductance, and high-reliability service.

  14. Assessing high reliability via Bayesian approach and accelerated tests

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Erto, Pasquale; Giorgio, Massimiliano

    2002-01-01

    Sometimes the assessment of very high reliability levels is difficult for the following main reasons: - the high reliability level of each item makes it impossible to obtain, in a reasonably short time, a sufficient number of failures; - the high cost of the high reliability items to submit to life tests makes it unfeasible to collect enough data for 'classical' statistical analyses. In the above context, this paper presents a Bayesian solution to the problem of estimation of the parameters of the Weibull-inverse power law model, on the basis of a limited number (say six) of life tests, carried out at different stress levels, all higher than the normal one. The over-stressed (i.e. accelerated) tests allow the use of experimental data obtained in a reasonably short time. The Bayesian approach enables one to reduce the required number of failures adding to the failure information the available a priori engineers' knowledge. This engineers' involvement conforms to the most advanced management policy that aims at involving everyone's commitment in order to obtain total quality. A Monte Carlo study of the non-asymptotic properties of the proposed estimators and a comparison with the properties of maximum likelihood estimators closes the work

  15. Human reliability in high dose rate afterloading radiotherapy based on FMECA

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Deng Jun; Fan Yaohua; Yue Baorong; Wei Kedao; Ren Fuli

    2012-01-01

    Objective: To put forward reasonable and feasible recommendations against the procedure with relative high risk during the high dose rate (HDR) afterloading radiotherapy, so as to enhance its clinical application safety, through studying the human reliability in the process of carrying out the HDR afterloading radiotherapy. Methods: Basic data were collected by on-site investigation and process analysis as well as expert evaluation. Failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (FMECA) employed to study the human reliability in the execution of HDR afterloading radiotherapy. Results: The FMECA model of human reliability for HDR afterloading radiotherapy was established, through which 25 procedures with relative high risk index were found,accounting for 14.1% of total 177 procedures. Conclusions: FMECA method in human reliability study for HDR afterloading radiotherapy is feasible. The countermeasures are put forward to reduce the human error, so as to provide important basis for enhancing clinical application safety of HDR afterloading radiotherapy. (authors)

  16. Improving the Efficiency of Administrative Decision-Making when Monitoring Reliability and Safety of Oil and Gas Equipment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zemenkova Maria

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Methodology of rapid assessment of reliability index was developed based on system analysis of technological parameters. Within functioning of on-line monitoring system of reliability index of industrial facility this method allows to increase efficiency of making managerial decisions on technical and preventive maintenance. The technique is based on the analysis of technological parameters of operational modes of pipeline transport facilities registered by dispatcher controls. The created technique can be used by the operating, research, design institutes and oil and gas transport enterprises when declaring industrial safety. The received mathematical models allow federal services of supervision, the independent expert organizations to predict the development of reliability in the registered block of dispatching data either in real time mode, or taking into account the dynamics of service conditions of the object.

  17. Reliability-Based Decision Fusion in Multimodal Biometric Verification Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kryszczuk Krzysztof

    2007-01-01

    Full Text Available We present a methodology of reliability estimation in the multimodal biometric verification scenario. Reliability estimation has shown to be an efficient and accurate way of predicting and correcting erroneous classification decisions in both unimodal (speech, face, online signature and multimodal (speech and face systems. While the initial research results indicate the high potential of the proposed methodology, the performance of the reliability estimation in a multimodal setting has not been sufficiently studied or evaluated. In this paper, we demonstrate the advantages of using the unimodal reliability information in order to perform an efficient biometric fusion of two modalities. We further show the presented method to be superior to state-of-the-art multimodal decision-level fusion schemes. The experimental evaluation presented in this paper is based on the popular benchmarking bimodal BANCA database.

  18. Reliability studies of high operating temperature MCT photoconductor detectors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Wei; Xu, Jintong; Zhang, Yan; Li, Xiangyang

    2010-10-01

    This paper concerns HgCdTe (MCT) infrared photoconductor detectors with high operating temperature. The near room temperature operation of detectors have advantages of light weight, less cost and convenient usage. Their performances are modest and they suffer from reliable problems. These detectors face with stability of the package, chip bonding area and passivation layers. It's important to evaluate and improve the reliability of such detectors. Defective detectors were studied with SEM(Scanning electron microscope) and microscopy. Statistically significant differences were observed between the influence of operating temperature and the influence of humidity. It was also found that humility has statistically significant influence upon the stability of the chip bonding and passivation layers, and the amount of humility isn't strongly correlated to the damage on the surface. Considering about the commonly found failures modes in detectors, special test structures were designed to improve the reliability of detectors. An accelerated life test was also implemented to estimate the lifetime of the high operating temperature MCT photoconductor detectors.

  19. Advanced RESTART method for the estimation of the probability of failure of highly reliable hybrid dynamic systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Turati, Pietro; Pedroni, Nicola; Zio, Enrico

    2016-01-01

    The efficient estimation of system reliability characteristics is of paramount importance for many engineering applications. Real world system reliability modeling calls for the capability of treating systems that are: i) dynamic, ii) complex, iii) hybrid and iv) highly reliable. Advanced Monte Carlo (MC) methods offer a way to solve these types of problems, which are feasible according to the potentially high computational costs. In this paper, the REpetitive Simulation Trials After Reaching Thresholds (RESTART) method is employed, extending it to hybrid systems for the first time (to the authors’ knowledge). The estimation accuracy and precision of RESTART highly depend on the choice of the Importance Function (IF) indicating how close the system is to failure: in this respect, proper IFs are here originally proposed to improve the performance of RESTART for the analysis of hybrid systems. The resulting overall simulation approach is applied to estimate the probability of failure of the control system of a liquid hold-up tank and of a pump-valve subsystem subject to degradation induced by fatigue. The results are compared to those obtained by standard MC simulation and by RESTART with classical IFs available in the literature. The comparison shows the improvement in the performance obtained by our approach. - Highlights: • We consider the issue of estimating small failure probabilities in dynamic systems. • We employ the RESTART method to estimate the failure probabilities. • New Importance Functions (IFs) are introduced to increase the method performance. • We adopt two dynamic, hybrid, highly reliable systems as case studies. • A comparison with literature IFs proves the effectiveness of the new IFs.

  20. High reliability - low noise radionuclide signature identification algorithms for border security applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Sangkyu

    Illicit trafficking and smuggling of radioactive materials and special nuclear materials (SNM) are considered as one of the most important recent global nuclear threats. Monitoring the transport and safety of radioisotopes and SNM are challenging due to their weak signals and easy shielding. Great efforts worldwide are focused at developing and improving the detection technologies and algorithms, for accurate and reliable detection of radioisotopes of interest in thus better securing the borders against nuclear threats. In general, radiation portal monitors enable detection of gamma and neutron emitting radioisotopes. Passive or active interrogation techniques, present and/or under the development, are all aimed at increasing accuracy, reliability, and in shortening the time of interrogation as well as the cost of the equipment. Equally important efforts are aimed at advancing algorithms to process the imaging data in an efficient manner providing reliable "readings" of the interiors of the examined volumes of various sizes, ranging from cargos to suitcases. The main objective of this thesis is to develop two synergistic algorithms with the goal to provide highly reliable - low noise identification of radioisotope signatures. These algorithms combine analysis of passive radioactive detection technique with active interrogation imaging techniques such as gamma radiography or muon tomography. One algorithm consists of gamma spectroscopy and cosmic muon tomography, and the other algorithm is based on gamma spectroscopy and gamma radiography. The purpose of fusing two detection methodologies per algorithm is to find both heavy-Z radioisotopes and shielding materials, since radionuclides can be identified with gamma spectroscopy, and shielding materials can be detected using muon tomography or gamma radiography. These combined algorithms are created and analyzed based on numerically generated images of various cargo sizes and materials. In summary, the three detection

  1. Sticking efficiency of nanoparticles in high-velocity collisions with various target materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Reissaus, Philipp; Waldemarsson, Tomas; Blum, Juergen; Clement, Dominik; Llamas, Isabel; Mutschke, Harald; Giovane, Frank

    2006-01-01

    In order to find reliable collector surfaces for the Mesospheric Aerosol - Genesis, Interaction and Composition (MAGIC) sounding rocket experiment, intended to collect atmospheric nanoparticles, the sticking efficiency of nanoparticles was measured on several targets of different materials. The nanoparticles were generated by a molecular beam apparatus in Jena, Germany, by laser ablation (Al 2 O 3 particles, diameter 5-50 nm) and by laser pyrolysis (carbon particles, diameter 10-20 nm). In a vacuum environment (>10 -5 mbar) the particles condensed from the gas phase, formed a particle beam, and were accelerated to ∼∼1 km/s. The sticking efficiency on the target materials carbon, gold and grease was measured by a microbalance. Results demonstrate moderate to high sticking probabilities. Thus, the capture and retrieval of atmospheric nanoparticles was found to be quantitatively feasible

  2. Efficient Estimation of Extreme Non-linear Roll Motions using the First-order Reliability Method (FORM)

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jensen, Jørgen Juncher

    2007-01-01

    In on-board decision support systems efficient procedures are needed for real-time estimation of the maximum ship responses to be expected within the next few hours, given on-line information on the sea state and user defined ranges of possible headings and speeds. For linear responses standard...... frequency domain methods can be applied. To non-linear responses like the roll motion, standard methods like direct time domain simulations are not feasible due to the required computational time. However, the statistical distribution of non-linear ship responses can be estimated very accurately using...... the first-order reliability method (FORM), well-known from structural reliability problems. To illustrate the proposed procedure, the roll motion is modelled by a simplified non-linear procedure taking into account non-linear hydrodynamic damping, time-varying restoring and wave excitation moments...

  3. A Simulation Model for Machine Efficiency Improvement Using Reliability Centered Maintenance: Case Study of Semiconductor Factory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Srisawat Supsomboon

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to increase the quality of product by focusing on the machine efficiency improvement. The principle of the reliability centered maintenance (RCM was applied to increase the machine reliability. The objective was to create preventive maintenance plan under reliability centered maintenance method and to reduce defects. The study target was set to reduce the Lead PPM for a test machine by simulating the proposed preventive maintenance plan. The simulation optimization approach based on evolutionary algorithms was employed for the preventive maintenance technique selection process to select the PM interval that gave the best total cost and Lead PPM values. The research methodology includes procedures such as following the priority of critical components in test machine, analyzing the damage and risk level by using Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA, calculating the suitable replacement period through reliability estimation, and optimizing the preventive maintenance plan. From the result of the study it is shown that the Lead PPM of test machine can be reduced. The cost of preventive maintenance, cost of good product, and cost of lost product were decreased.

  4. High reliability low jitter 80 kV pulse generator

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. E. Savage

    2009-08-01

    Full Text Available Switching can be considered to be the essence of pulsed power. Time accurate switch/trigger systems with low inductance are useful in many applications. This article describes a unique switch geometry coupled with a low-inductance capacitive energy store. The system provides a fast-rising high voltage pulse into a low impedance load. It can be challenging to generate high voltage (more than 50 kilovolts into impedances less than 10  Ω, from a low voltage control signal with a fast rise time and high temporal accuracy. The required power amplification is large, and is usually accomplished with multiple stages. The multiple stages can adversely affect the temporal accuracy and the reliability of the system. In the present application, a highly reliable and low jitter trigger generator was required for the Z pulsed-power facility [M. E. Savage, L. F. Bennett, D. E. Bliss, W. T. Clark, R. S. Coats,J. M. Elizondo, K. R. LeChien, H. C. Harjes, J. M. Lehr, J. E. Maenchen, D. H. McDaniel, M. F. Pasik, T. D. Pointon, A. C. Owen, D. B. Seidel, D. L. Smith, B. S. Stoltzfus, K. W. Struve, W. A. Stygar, L. K. Warne, and J. R. Woodworth, 2007 IEEE Pulsed Power Conference, Albuquerque, NM (IEEE, Piscataway, NJ, 2007, p. 979]. The large investment in each Z experiment demands low prefire probability and low jitter simultaneously. The system described here is based on a 100 kV DC-charged high-pressure spark gap, triggered with an ultraviolet laser. The system uses a single optical path for simultaneously triggering two parallel switches, allowing lower inductance and electrode erosion with a simple optical system. Performance of the system includes 6 ns output rise time into 5.6  Ω, 550 ps one-sigma jitter measured from the 5 V trigger to the high voltage output, and misfire probability less than 10^{-4}. The design of the system and some key measurements will be shown in the paper. We will discuss the

  5. Reliability Assessment of Transformerless PV Inverters considering Mission Profiles

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yongheng Yang

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Due to the small volume and high efficiency, transformerless inverters have gained much popularity in grid-connected PV applications, where minimizing leakage current injection is mandatory. This can be achieved by either modifying the modulation schemes or adding extra power switching devices, resulting in an uneven distribution of the power losses on the switching devices. Consequently, the device thermal loading is redistributed and thus may alter the entire inverter reliability performance, especially under a long-term operation. In this consideration, this paper assesses the device reliability of three transformerless inverters under a yearly mission profile (i.e., solar irradiance and ambient temperature. The mission profile is translated to device thermal loading, which is used for lifetime prediction. Comparison results reveal the lifetime mismatches among the power switching devices operating under the same condition, which offers new thoughts for a robust design and a reliable operation of grid-connected transformerless PV inverters with high efficiency.

  6. Highly reliable TOFD UT Technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Acharya, G.D.; Trivedi, S.A.R.; Pai, K.B.

    2003-01-01

    The high performance of the time of flight diffraction technique (TOFD) with regard to the detection capabilities of weld defects such as crack, slag, lack of fusion has led to a rapidly increasing acceptance of the technique as a pre?service inspection tool. Since the early 1990s TOFD has been applied to several projects, where it replaced the commonly used radiographic testing. The use of TOM lead to major time savings during new build and replacement projects. At the same time the TOFD technique was used as base line inspection, which enables monitoring in the future for critical welds, but also provides documented evidence for life?time. The TOFD technique as the ability to detect and simultaneously size flows of nearly any orientation within the weld and heat affected zone. TOM is recognized as a reliable, proven technique for detection and sizing of defects and proven to be a time saver, resulting in shorter shutdown periods and construction project times. Thus even in cases where inspection price of TOFD per welds is higher, in the end it will result in significantly lower overall costs and improve quality. This paper deals with reliability, economy, acceptance criteria and field experience. It also covers comparative study between radiography technique Vs. TOFD. (Author)

  7. The Berg Balance Scale has high intra- and inter-rater reliability but absolute reliability varies across the scale: a systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Downs, Stephen; Marquez, Jodie; Chiarelli, Pauline

    2013-06-01

    What is the intra-rater and inter-rater relative reliability of the Berg Balance Scale? What is the absolute reliability of the Berg Balance Scale? Does the absolute reliability of the Berg Balance Scale vary across the scale? Systematic review with meta-analysis of reliability studies. Any clinical population that has undergone assessment with the Berg Balance Scale. Relative intra-rater reliability, relative inter-rater reliability, and absolute reliability. Eleven studies involving 668 participants were included in the review. The relative intrarater reliability of the Berg Balance Scale was high, with a pooled estimate of 0.98 (95% CI 0.97 to 0.99). Relative inter-rater reliability was also high, with a pooled estimate of 0.97 (95% CI 0.96 to 0.98). A ceiling effect of the Berg Balance Scale was evident for some participants. In the analysis of absolute reliability, all of the relevant studies had an average score of 20 or above on the 0 to 56 point Berg Balance Scale. The absolute reliability across this part of the scale, as measured by the minimal detectable change with 95% confidence, varied between 2.8 points and 6.6 points. The Berg Balance Scale has a higher absolute reliability when close to 56 points due to the ceiling effect. We identified no data that estimated the absolute reliability of the Berg Balance Scale among participants with a mean score below 20 out of 56. The Berg Balance Scale has acceptable reliability, although it might not detect modest, clinically important changes in balance in individual subjects. The review was only able to comment on the absolute reliability of the Berg Balance Scale among people with moderately poor to normal balance. Copyright © 2013 Australian Physiotherapy Association. Published by .. All rights reserved.

  8. Progress of OLED devices with high efficiency at high luminance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nguyen, Carmen; Ingram, Grayson; Lu, Zhenghong

    2014-03-01

    Organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) have progressed significantly over the last two decades. For years, OLEDs have been promoted as the next generation technology for flat panel displays and solid-state lighting due to their potential for high energy efficiency and dynamic range of colors. Although high efficiency can readily be obtained at low brightness levels, a significant decline at high brightness is commonly observed. In this report, we will review various strategies for achieving highly efficient phosphorescent OLED devices at high luminance. Specifically, we will provide details regarding the performance and general working principles behind each strategy. We will conclude by looking at how some of these strategies can be combined to produce high efficiency white OLEDs at high brightness.

  9. Seeking high reliability in primary care: Leadership, tools, and organization.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Weaver, Robert R

    2015-01-01

    Leaders in health care increasingly recognize that improving health care quality and safety requires developing an organizational culture that fosters high reliability and continuous process improvement. For various reasons, a reliability-seeking culture is lacking in most health care settings. Developing a reliability-seeking culture requires leaders' sustained commitment to reliability principles using key mechanisms to embed those principles widely in the organization. The aim of this study was to examine how key mechanisms used by a primary care practice (PCP) might foster a reliability-seeking, system-oriented organizational culture. A case study approach was used to investigate the PCP's reliability culture. The study examined four cultural artifacts used to embed reliability-seeking principles across the organization: leadership statements, decision support tools, and two organizational processes. To decipher their effects on reliability, the study relied on observations of work patterns and the tools' use, interactions during morning huddles and process improvement meetings, interviews with clinical and office staff, and a "collective mindfulness" questionnaire. The five reliability principles framed the data analysis. Leadership statements articulated principles that oriented the PCP toward a reliability-seeking culture of care. Reliability principles became embedded in the everyday discourse and actions through the use of "problem knowledge coupler" decision support tools and daily "huddles." Practitioners and staff were encouraged to report unexpected events or close calls that arose and which often initiated a formal "process change" used to adjust routines and prevent adverse events from recurring. Activities that foster reliable patient care became part of the taken-for-granted routine at the PCP. The analysis illustrates the role leadership, tools, and organizational processes play in developing and embedding a reliable-seeking culture across an

  10. High-power, high-efficiency FELs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sessler, A.M.

    1989-04-01

    High power, high efficiency FELs require tapering, as the particles loose energy, so as to maintain resonance between the electromagnetic wave and the particles. They also require focusing of the particles (usually done with curved pole faces) and focusing of the electromagnetic wave (i.e. optical guiding). In addition, one must avoid transverse beam instabilities (primarily resistive wall) and longitudinal instabilities (i.e sidebands). 18 refs., 7 figs., 3 tabs

  11. Improving patient safety: patient-focused, high-reliability team training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McKeon, Leslie M; Cunningham, Patricia D; Oswaks, Jill S Detty

    2009-01-01

    Healthcare systems are recognizing "human factor" flaws that result in adverse outcomes. Nurses work around system failures, although increasing healthcare complexity makes this harder to do without risk of error. Aviation and military organizations achieve ultrasafe outcomes through high-reliability practice. We describe how reliability principles were used to teach nurses to improve patient safety at the front line of care. Outcomes include safety-oriented, teamwork communication competency; reflections on safety culture and clinical leadership are discussed.

  12. A High Reliability Frequency Stabilized Semiconductor Laser Source, Phase II

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — Ultrastable, narrow linewidth, high reliability MOPA sources are needed for high performance LIDARs in NASA for, wind speed measurement, surface topography and earth...

  13. ON THE EFFECT OF ADAPTIVE USER INTERFACES ON RELIABILITY AND EFFICIENCY OF THE AUTOMATED SYSTEMS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu. O. Furtat

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available In modern automated systems users often have to face the information overload problem because of ever increasing volumes of information with short time processing requirements. Working in such conditions affects the system operator’s work quality and the systems reliability. One possible approach to solving the information overload problem is to create personalized interfaces that take into account the user’s information management particularities. System operator’s features, which determine the shape and pace of information representation preferred by him, form the user’s cognitive portrait. To determine the values of portrait characteristics professional testing with the assistance of psychologists or operational testing at the user’s workplace is performed. The second option is more preferable for use in automated systems, since it has no issue with lack of psychologists. Cognitive portrait is then built as a result of user interaction with the software diagnostic tools that are based on the cognitive psychology methods. The effect of personalized user interface application in an automated system can be estimated by quantifying how the reduction in user’s response time to critical events affects the system reliability and efficiency. For this purpose, the formulae of reliability theory for complex automated systems are used, showing the dependence between the system reliability and user’s response time to critical event.

  14. On the design of high-rise buildings with a specified level of reliability

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dolganov, Andrey; Kagan, Pavel

    2018-03-01

    High-rise buildings have a specificity, which significantly distinguishes them from traditional buildings of high-rise and multi-storey buildings. Steel structures in high-rise buildings are advisable to be used in earthquake-proof regions, since steel, due to its plasticity, provides damping of the kinetic energy of seismic impacts. These aspects should be taken into account when choosing a structural scheme of a high-rise building and designing load-bearing structures. Currently, modern regulatory documents do not quantify the reliability of structures. Although the problem of assigning an optimal level of reliability has existed for a long time. The article shows the possibility of designing metal structures of high-rise buildings with specified reliability. Currently, modern regulatory documents do not quantify the reliability of high-rise buildings. Although the problem of assigning an optimal level of reliability has existed for a long time. It is proposed to establish the value of reliability 0.99865 (3σ) for constructions of buildings and structures of a normal level of responsibility in calculations for the first group of limiting states. For increased (construction of high-rise buildings) and reduced levels of responsibility for the provision of load-bearing capacity, it is proposed to assign respectively 0.99997 (4σ) and 0.97725 (2σ). The coefficients of the use of the cross section of a metal beam for different levels of security are given.

  15. The Development of DNA Based Methods for the Reliable and Efficient Identification of Nicotiana tabacum in Tobacco and Its Derived Products

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sukumar Biswas

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Reliable methods are needed to detect the presence of tobacco components in tobacco products to effectively control smuggling and classify tariff and excise in tobacco industry to control illegal tobacco trade. In this study, two sensitive and specific DNA based methods, one quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR assay and the other loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP assay, were developed for the reliable and efficient detection of the presence of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum in various tobacco samples and commodities. Both assays targeted the same sequence of the uridine 5′-monophosphate synthase (UMPS, and their specificities and sensitivities were determined with various plant materials. Both qPCR and LAMP methods were reliable and accurate in the rapid detection of tobacco components in various practical samples, including customs samples, reconstituted tobacco samples, and locally purchased cigarettes, showing high potential for their application in tobacco identification, particularly in the special cases where the morphology or chemical compositions of tobacco have been disrupted. Therefore, combining both methods would facilitate not only the detection of tobacco smuggling control, but also the detection of tariff classification and of excise.

  16. Reliability Calculations

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Kurt Erling

    1986-01-01

    Risk and reliability analysis is increasingly being used in evaluations of plant safety and plant reliability. The analysis can be performed either during the design process or during the operation time, with the purpose to improve the safety or the reliability. Due to plant complexity and safety...... and availability requirements, sophisticated tools, which are flexible and efficient, are needed. Such tools have been developed in the last 20 years and they have to be continuously refined to meet the growing requirements. Two different areas of application were analysed. In structural reliability probabilistic...... approaches have been introduced in some cases for the calculation of the reliability of structures or components. A new computer program has been developed based upon numerical integration in several variables. In systems reliability Monte Carlo simulation programs are used especially in analysis of very...

  17. Efficient and reliable characterization of the corticospinal system using transcranial magnetic stimulation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kukke, Sahana N; Paine, Rainer W; Chao, Chi-Chao; de Campos, Ana C; Hallett, Mark

    2014-06-01

    The purpose of this study is to develop a method to reliably characterize multiple features of the corticospinal system in a more efficient manner than typically done in transcranial magnetic stimulation studies. Forty transcranial magnetic stimulation pulses of varying intensity were given over the first dorsal interosseous motor hot spot in 10 healthy adults. The first dorsal interosseous motor-evoked potential size was recorded during rest and activation to create recruitment curves. The Boltzmann sigmoidal function was fit to the data, and parameters relating to maximal motor-evoked potential size, curve slope, and stimulus intensity leading to half-maximal motor-evoked potential size were computed from the curve fit. Good to excellent test-retest reliability was found for all corticospinal parameters at rest and during activation with 40 transcranial magnetic stimulation pulses. Through the use of curve fitting, important features of the corticospinal system can be determined with fewer stimuli than typically used for the same information. Determining the recruitment curve provides a basis to understand the state of the corticospinal system and select subject-specific parameters for transcranial magnetic stimulation testing quickly and without unnecessary exposure to magnetic stimulation. This method can be useful in individuals who have difficulty in maintaining stillness, including children and patients with motor disorders.

  18. New, Efficient, and Reliable Air Electrode Material for Proton-Conducting Reversible Solid Oxide Cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huan, Daoming; Shi, Nai; Zhang, Lu; Tan, Wenzhou; Xie, Yun; Wang, Wanhua; Xia, Changrong; Peng, Ranran; Lu, Yalin

    2018-01-17

    Driven by the demand to minimize fluctuation in common renewable energies, reversible solid oxide cells (RSOCs) have drawn increasing attention for they can operate either as fuel cells to produce electricity or as electrolysis cells to store electricity. Unfortunately, development of proton-conducting RSOCs (P-RSOCs) faces a major challenge of poor reliability because of the high content of steam involved in air electrode reactions, which could seriously decay the lifetime of air electrode materials. In this work, a very stable and efficient air electrode, SrEu 2 Fe 1.8 Co 0.2 O 7-δ (SEFC) with layer structure, is designed and deployed in P-RSOCs. X-ray diffraction analysis and High-angle annular dark-filed scanning transmission electron microscopy images of SEFC reveal that Sr atoms occupy the center of perovskite slabs, whereas Eu atoms arrange orderly in the rock-salt layer. Such a special structure of SEFC largely depresses its Lewis basicity and therefore its reactivity with steam. Applying the SEFC air electrode, our button switches smoothly between both fuel cell and electrolysis cell (EC) modes with no obvious degradation over a 135 h long-term test under wet H 2 (∼3% H 2 O) and 10% H 2 O-air atmospheres. A record of over 230 h is achieved in the long-term stability test in the EC mode, doubling the longest test that had been previously reported. Besides good stability, SEFC demonstrates great catalytic activity toward air electrode reactions when compared with traditional La 0.6 Sr 0.4 Co 0.2 Fe 0.8 O 3-δ air electrodes. This research highlights the potential of stable and efficient P-RSOCs as an important part in a sustainable new energy power system.

  19. A cost-efficient and reliable energy management of a micro-grid using intelligent demand-response program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Safamehr, Hossein; Rahimi-Kian, Ashkan

    2015-01-01

    Providing a cost-efficient and reliable energy is one of the main issues in human societies of the 21st century. In response to this demand, new features of micro grid technology have provided huge potentials, specifically by the capability of having an interactive coordination between energy suppliers and consumers. Accordingly, this paper offers an improved model for achieving an optimal Demand Response programing. To solve the proposed multi-objective optimization problem, Artificial Bee Colony algorithm and quasi-static technique are utilized. The considered objectives in this paper are minimizing the overall cost of energy consumption and also improving the technical parameters of micro grid over a time horizon. This optimization is subject to several constraints such as satisfying the energy balance and the operating constraints of each energy supply sources. Manageable load or load as source is another enabling feature existing in smart energy networks, which is considered in this paper and its effect on cost reduction and reliability improvement is studied. Trying to examine the performance of the proposed Demand Response Programing in real conditions, the uncertainties are also analyzed by stochastic methods. The results show significant improvements which are obtained by applying just intelligent programming and management. - Highlights: • This paper presents a cost-efficient and reliable energy management of a micro-grid. • New models of battery and manageable loads are formulated. • Artificial Bee Colony algorithm is used to solve the optimization problem. • Quasi-static technique is used to simplify the solving procedure. • The uncertainties are also analyzed by stochastic methods.

  20. Long-duration heat load measurement approach by novel apparatus design and highly efficient algorithm

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhu, Yanwei; Yi, Fajun; Meng, Songhe; Zhuo, Lijun; Pan, Weizhen

    2017-11-01

    Improving the surface heat load measurement technique for vehicles in aerodynamic heating environments is imperative, regarding aspects of both the apparatus design and identification efficiency. A simple novel apparatus is designed for heat load identification, taking into account the lessons learned from several aerodynamic heating measurement devices. An inverse finite difference scheme (invFDM) for the apparatus is studied to identify its surface heat flux from the interior temperature measurements with high efficiency. A weighted piecewise regression filter is also proposed for temperature measurement prefiltering. Preliminary verification of the invFDM scheme and the filter is accomplished via numerical simulation experiments. Three specific pieces of apparatus have been concretely designed and fabricated using different sensing materials. The aerodynamic heating process is simulated by an inductively coupled plasma wind tunnel facility. The identification of surface temperature and heat flux from the temperature measurements is performed by invFDM. The results validate the high efficiency, reliability and feasibility of heat load measurements with different heat flux levels utilizing the designed apparatus and proposed method.

  1. Long-duration heat load measurement approach by novel apparatus design and highly efficient algorithm

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhu, Yanwei; Yi, Fajun; Meng, Songhe; Zhuo, Lijun; Pan, Weizhen

    2017-01-01

    Improving the surface heat load measurement technique for vehicles in aerodynamic heating environments is imperative, regarding aspects of both the apparatus design and identification efficiency. A simple novel apparatus is designed for heat load identification, taking into account the lessons learned from several aerodynamic heating measurement devices. An inverse finite difference scheme (invFDM) for the apparatus is studied to identify its surface heat flux from the interior temperature measurements with high efficiency. A weighted piecewise regression filter is also proposed for temperature measurement prefiltering. Preliminary verification of the invFDM scheme and the filter is accomplished via numerical simulation experiments. Three specific pieces of apparatus have been concretely designed and fabricated using different sensing materials. The aerodynamic heating process is simulated by an inductively coupled plasma wind tunnel facility. The identification of surface temperature and heat flux from the temperature measurements is performed by invFDM. The results validate the high efficiency, reliability and feasibility of heat load measurements with different heat flux levels utilizing the designed apparatus and proposed method. (paper)

  2. Utilizing leadership to achieve high reliability in the delivery of perinatal care

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Parrotta C

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available Carmen Parrotta,1 William Riley,1 Les Meredith21School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2Premier Insurance Management Services Inc, Charlotte, NC, USAAbstract: Highly reliable care requires standardization of clinical practices and is a prerequisite for patient safety. However, standardization in complex hospital settings is extremely difficult to attain and health care leaders are challenged to create care delivery processes that ensure patient safety. Moreover, once high reliability is achieved in a hospital unit, it must be maintained to avoid process deterioration. This case study examines an intervention to implement care bundles (a collection of evidence-based practices in four hospitals to achieve standardized care in perinatal units. The results show different patterns in the rate and magnitude of change within the hospitals to achieve high reliability. The study is part of a larger nationwide study of 16 hospitals to improve perinatal safety. Based on the findings, we discuss the role of leadership for implementing and sustaining high reliability to ensure freedom from unintended injury.Keywords: care bundles, evidence-based practice, standardized care, process improvement

  3. To the problem of reliability of high-voltage accelerators for industrial purposes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Al'bertinskij, B.I.; Svin'in, M.P.; Tsepakin, S.G.

    1979-01-01

    Statistical data characterizing the reliability of ELECTRON and AVRORA-2 type accelerators are presented. Used as a reliability index was the mean time to failure of the main accelerator units. The analysis of accelerator failures allowed a number of conclusions to be drawn. The high failure rate level is connected with inadequate training of the servicing personnel and a natural period of equipment adjustment. The mathematical analysis of the failure rate showed that the main responsibility for insufficient high reliability rests with selenium diodes which are employed in the high voltage power supply. Substitution of selenium diodes by silicon ones increases time between failures. It is shown that accumulation and processing of operational statistical data will permit more accurate prediction of the reliability of produced high-voltage accelerators, make it possible to cope with the problems of planning optimal, in time, preventive inspections and repair, and to select optimal safety factors and test procedures n time, preventive inspections and repair, and to select optimal safety factors and test procedures n time, prevent

  4. Reliability of high power electron accelerators for radiation processing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Zimek, Z. [Department of Radiation Chemistry and Technology, Institute of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology, Warsaw (Poland)

    2011-07-01

    Accelerators applied for radiation processing are installed in industrial facilities where accelerator availability coefficient should be at the level of 95% to fulfill requirements according to industry standards. Usually the exploitation of electron accelerator reviles the number of short and few long lasting failures. Some technical shortages can be overcome by practical implementation the experience gained in accelerator technology development by different accelerator manufactures. The reliability/availability of high power accelerators for application in flue gas treatment process must be dramatically improved to meet industrial standards. Support of accelerator technology dedicated for environment protection should be provided by governmental and international institutions to overcome accelerator reliability/availability problem and high risk and low direct profit in this particular application. (author)

  5. Reliability of high power electron accelerators for radiation processing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zimek, Z.

    2011-01-01

    Accelerators applied for radiation processing are installed in industrial facilities where accelerator availability coefficient should be at the level of 95% to fulfill requirements according to industry standards. Usually the exploitation of electron accelerator reviles the number of short and few long lasting failures. Some technical shortages can be overcome by practical implementation the experience gained in accelerator technology development by different accelerator manufactures. The reliability/availability of high power accelerators for application in flue gas treatment process must be dramatically improved to meet industrial standards. Support of accelerator technology dedicated for environment protection should be provided by governmental and international institutions to overcome accelerator reliability/availability problem and high risk and low direct profit in this particular application. (author)

  6. Modeling high-Power Accelerators Reliability-SNS LINAC (SNS-ORNL); MAX LINAC (MYRRHA)

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pitigoi, A. E.; Fernandez Ramos, P.

    2013-01-01

    Improving reliability has recently become a very important objective in the field of particle accelerators. The particle accelerators in operation are constantly undergoing modifications, and improvements are implemented using new technologies, more reliable components or redundant schemes (to obtain more reliability, strength, more power, etc.) A reliability model of SNS (Spallation Neutron Source) LINAC has been developed within MAX project and analysis of the accelerator systems reliability has been performed within the MAX project, using the Risk Spectrum reliability analysis software. The analysis results have been evaluated by comparison with the SNS operational data. Results and conclusions are presented in this paper, oriented to identify design weaknesses and provide recommendations for improving reliability of MYRRHA linear accelerator. The SNS reliability model developed for the MAX preliminary design phase indicates possible avenues for further investigation that could be needed to improve the reliability of the high-power accelerators, in view of the future reliability targets of ADS accelerators.

  7. Validity and Reliability of the Academic Resilience Scale in Turkish High School

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kapikiran, Sahin

    2012-01-01

    The present study aims to determine the validity and reliability of the academic resilience scale in Turkish high school. The participances of the study includes 378 high school students in total (192 female and 186 male). A set of analyses were conducted in order to determine the validity and reliability of the study. Firstly, both exploratory…

  8. High-efficiency airfoil rudders applied to submarines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    ZHOU Yimei

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Modern submarine design puts forward higher and higher requirements for control surfaces, and this creates a requirement for designers to constantly innovate new types of rudder so as to improve the efficiency of control surfaces. Adopting the high-efficiency airfoil rudder is one of the most effective measures for improving the efficiency of control surfaces. In this paper, we put forward an optimization method for a high-efficiency airfoil rudder on the basis of a comparative analysis of the various strengths and weaknesses of the airfoil, and the numerical calculation method is adopted to analyze the influence rule of the hydrodynamic characteristics and wake field by using the high-efficiency airfoil rudder and the conventional NACA rudder comparatively; at the same time, a model load test in a towing tank was carried out, and the test results and simulation calculation obtained good consistency:the error between them was less than 10%. The experimental results show that the steerage of a high-efficiency airfoil rudder is increased by more than 40% when compared with the conventional rudder, but the total resistance is close:the error is no more than 4%. Adopting a high-efficiency airfoil rudder brings much greater lifting efficiency than the total resistance of the boat. The results show that high-efficiency airfoil rudder has obvious advantages for improving the efficiency of control, giving it good application prospects.

  9. A standard for test reliability in group research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellis, Jules L

    2013-03-01

    Many authors adhere to the rule that test reliabilities should be at least .70 or .80 in group research. This article introduces a new standard according to which reliabilities can be evaluated. This standard is based on the costs or time of the experiment and of administering the test. For example, if test administration costs are 7 % of the total experimental costs, the efficient value of the reliability is .93. If the actual reliability of a test is equal to this efficient reliability, the test size maximizes the statistical power of the experiment, given the costs. As a standard in experimental research, it is proposed that the reliability of the dependent variable be close to the efficient reliability. Adhering to this standard will enhance the statistical power and reduce the costs of experiments.

  10. Reliability payments to generation capacity in electricity markets

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Olsina, Fernando; Pringles, Rolando; Larisson, Carlos; Garcés, Francisco

    2014-01-01

    Electric power is a critical input to modern economies. Generation adequacy and security of supply in power systems running under competition are currently topics of high concern for consumers, regulators and governments. In a market setting, generation investments and adequacy can only be achieved by an appropriate regulatory framework that sets efficient remuneration to power capacity. Theoretically, energy-only electricity markets are efficient and no additional mechanism is needed. Nonetheless, the energy-only market design suffers from serious drawbacks. Therefore, jointly with the evolution of electricity markets, many remunerating mechanisms for generation capacity have been proposed. Explicit capacity payment was the first remunerating approach implemented and perhaps still the most applied. However, this price-based regulation has been applied no without severe difficulties and criticism. In this paper, a new reliability payment mechanism is envisioned. Capacity of each generating unit is paid according to its effective contribution to overall system reliability. The proposed scheme has many attractive features and preserves the theoretical efficiency properties of energy-only markets. Fairness, incentive compatibility, market power mitigation and settlement rules are investigated in this work. The article also examines the requirements for system data and models in order to implement the proposed capacity mechanism. A numerical example on a real hydrothermal system serves for illustrating the practicability of the proposed approach and the resulting reliability payments to the generation units. - Highlights: • A new approach for remunerating supply reliability provided by generation units is proposed. • The contribution of each generating unit to lessen power shortfalls is determined by simulations. • Efficiency, fairness and incentive compatibility of the proposed reliability payment are assessed

  11. Survey of industry methods for producing highly reliable software

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lawrence, J.D.; Persons, W.L.

    1994-11-01

    The Nuclear Reactor Regulation Office of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is charged with assessing the safety of new instrument and control designs for nuclear power plants which may use computer-based reactor protection systems. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has evaluated the latest techniques in software reliability for measurement, estimation, error detection, and prediction that can be used during the software life cycle as a means of risk assessment for reactor protection systems. One aspect of this task has been a survey of the software industry to collect information to help identify the design factors used to improve the reliability and safety of software. The intent was to discover what practices really work in industry and what design factors are used by industry to achieve highly reliable software. The results of the survey are documented in this report. Three companies participated in the survey: Computer Sciences Corporation, International Business Machines (Federal Systems Company), and TRW. Discussions were also held with NASA Software Engineering Lab/University of Maryland/CSC, and the AIAA Software Reliability Project

  12. A reliable and consistent production technology for high volume compacted graphite iron castings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liu Jincheng

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available The demands for improved engine performance, fuel economy, durability, and lower emissions provide a continual challenge for engine designers. The use of Compacted Graphite Iron (CGI has been established for successful high volume series production in the passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle and industrial power sectors over the last decade. The increased demand for CGI engine components provides new opportunities for the cast iron foundry industry to establish efficient and robust CGI volume production processes, in China and globally. The production window range for stable CGI is narrow and constantly moving. Therefore, any one step single addition of magnesium alloy and the inoculant cannot ensure a reliable and consistent production process for complicated CGI engine castings. The present paper introduces the SinterCast thermal analysis process control system that provides for the consistent production of CGI with low nodularity and reduced porosity, without risking the formation of flake graphite. The technology is currently being used in high volume Chinese foundry production. The Chinese foundry industry can develop complicated high demand CGI engine castings with the proper process control technology.

  13. [Characteristics of phosphorus uptake and use efficiency of rice with high yield and high phosphorus use efficiency].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Li; Zhang, Xi-Zhou; Li, Tinx-Xuan; Yu, Hai-Ying; Ji, Lin; Chen, Guang-Deng

    2014-07-01

    A total of twenty seven middle maturing rice varieties as parent materials were divided into four types based on P use efficiency for grain yield in 2011 by field experiment with normal phosphorus (P) application. The rice variety with high yield and high P efficiency was identified by pot experiment with normal and low P applications, and the contribution rates of various P efficiencies to yield were investigated in 2012. There were significant genotype differences in yield and P efficiency of the test materials. GRLu17/AiTTP//Lu17_2 (QR20) was identified as a variety with high yield and high P efficiency, and its yields at the low and normal rates of P application were 1.96 and 1.92 times of that of Yuxiang B, respectively. The contribution rate of P accumulation to yield was greater than that of P grain production efficiency and P harvest index across field and pot experiments. The contribution rates of P accumulation and P grain production efficiency to yield were not significantly different under the normal P condition, whereas obvious differences were observed under the low P condition (66.5% and 26.6%). The minimal contribution to yield was P harvest index (11.8%). Under the normal P condition, the contribution rates of P accumulation to yield and P harvest index were the highest at the jointing-heading stage, which were 93.4% and 85.7%, respectively. In addition, the contribution rate of P accumulation to grain production efficiency was 41.8%. Under the low P condition, the maximal contribution rates of P accumulation to yield and grain production efficiency were observed at the tillering-jointing stage, which were 56.9% and 20.1% respectively. Furthermore, the contribution rate of P accumulation to P harvest index was 16.0%. The yield, P accumulation, and P harvest index of QR20 significantly increased under the normal P condition by 20.6%, 18.1% and 18.2% respectively compared with that in the low P condition. The rank of the contribution rates of P

  14. High-Temperature High-Efficiency Solar Thermoelectric Generators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Baranowski, LL; Warren, EL; Toberer, ES

    2014-03-01

    Inspired by recent high-efficiency thermoelectric modules, we consider thermoelectrics for terrestrial applications in concentrated solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs). The STEG is modeled as two subsystems: a TEG, and a solar absorber that efficiently captures the concentrated sunlight and limits radiative losses from the system. The TEG subsystem is modeled using thermoelectric compatibility theory; this model does not constrain the material properties to be constant with temperature. Considering a three-stage TEG based on current record modules, this model suggests that 18% efficiency could be experimentally expected with a temperature gradient of 1000A degrees C to 100A degrees C. Achieving 15% overall STEG efficiency thus requires an absorber efficiency above 85%, and we consider two methods to achieve this: solar-selective absorbers and thermally insulating cavities. When the TEG and absorber subsystem models are combined, we expect that the STEG modeled here could achieve 15% efficiency with optical concentration between 250 and 300 suns.

  15. Scheduling for energy and reliability management on multiprocessor real-time systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Qi, Xuan

    Scheduling algorithms for multiprocessor real-time systems have been studied for years with many well-recognized algorithms proposed. However, it is still an evolving research area and many problems remain open due to their intrinsic complexities. With the emergence of multicore processors, it is necessary to re-investigate the scheduling problems and design/develop efficient algorithms for better system utilization, low scheduling overhead, high energy efficiency, and better system reliability. Focusing cluster schedulings with optimal global schedulers, we study the utilization bound and scheduling overhead for a class of cluster-optimal schedulers. Then, taking energy/power consumption into consideration, we developed energy-efficient scheduling algorithms for real-time systems, especially for the proliferating embedded systems with limited energy budget. As the commonly deployed energy-saving technique (e.g. dynamic voltage frequency scaling (DVFS)) will significantly affect system reliability, we study schedulers that have intelligent mechanisms to recuperate system reliability to satisfy the quality assurance requirements. Extensive simulation is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms on reduction of scheduling overhead, energy saving, and reliability improvement. The simulation results show that the proposed reliability-aware power management schemes could preserve the system reliability while still achieving substantial energy saving.

  16. Engineering high reliability, low-jitter Marx generators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schneider, L.X.; Lockwood, G.J.

    1985-01-01

    Multimodule pulsed power accelerators typically require high module reliability and nanosecond regime simultaneity between modules. Energy storage using bipolar Marx generators can meet these requirements. Experience gained from computer simulations and the development of the DEMON II Marx generator has led to a fundamental understanding of the operation of these multistage devices. As a result of this research, significant improvements in erection time jitter and reliability have been realized in multistage, bipolar Marx generators. Erection time jitter has been measured as low as 2.5 nanoseconds for the 3.2MV, 16-stage PBFA I Marx and 3.5 nanoseconds for the 6.0MV, 30-stage PBFA II (DEMON II) Marx, while maintaining exceptionally low prefire rates. Performance data are presented from the DEMON II Marx research program, as well as discussions on the use of computer simulations in designing low-jitter Marx generators

  17. Series-Tuned High Efficiency RF-Power Amplifiers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Vidkjær, Jens

    2008-01-01

    An approach to high efficiency RF-power amplifier design is presented. It addresses simultaneously efficiency optimization and peak voltage limitations when transistors are pushed towards their power limits.......An approach to high efficiency RF-power amplifier design is presented. It addresses simultaneously efficiency optimization and peak voltage limitations when transistors are pushed towards their power limits....

  18. Instrument reliability for high-level nuclear-waste-repository applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rogue, F.; Binnall, E.P.; Armantrout, G.A.

    1983-01-01

    Reliable instrumentation will be needed to evaluate the characteristics of proposed high-level nuclear-wasted-repository sites and to monitor the performance of selected sites during the operational period and into repository closure. A study has been done to assess the reliability of instruments used in Department of Energy (DOE) waste repository related experiments and in other similar geological applications. The study included experiences with geotechnical, hydrological, geochemical, environmental, and radiological instrumentation and associated data acquisition equipment. Though this paper includes some findings on the reliability of instruments in each of these categories, the emphasis is on experiences with geotechnical instrumentation in hostile repository-type environments. We review the failure modes, rates, and mechanisms, along with manufacturers modifications and design changes to enhance and improve instrument performance; and include recommendations on areas where further improvements are needed

  19. Extented second moment algebra as an efficient tool in structural reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ditlevsen, O.

    1982-01-01

    During the seventies, second moment structural reliability analysis was extensively discussed with respect to philosophy and method. One recent clarification into a consistent formalism is represented by the extended second moment reliability theory with the generalized reliability index as its measure of safety. Its methods of formal failure probability calculations are useful independent of the opinion that one may adopt about the philosophy of the second moment reliability formalism. After an introduction of the historical development of the philosphy the paper gives a short introductory review of the extended second moment structural reliability theory. (orig.)

  20. Novel Low Cost, High Reliability Wind Turbine Drivetrain

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chobot, Anthony; Das, Debarshi; Mayer, Tyler; Markey, Zach; Martinson, Tim; Reeve, Hayden; Attridge, Paul; El-Wardany, Tahany

    2012-09-13

    Clipper Windpower, in collaboration with United Technologies Research Center, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and Hamilton Sundstrand Corporation, developed a low-cost, deflection-compliant, reliable, and serviceable chain drive speed increaser. This chain and sprocket drivetrain design offers significant breakthroughs in the areas of cost and serviceability and addresses the key challenges of current geared and direct-drive systems. The use of gearboxes has proven to be challenging; the large torques and bending loads associated with use in large multi-MW wind applications have generally limited demonstrated lifetime to 8-10 years [1]. The large cost of gearbox replacement and the required use of large, expensive cranes can result in gearbox replacement costs on the order of $1M, representing a significant impact to overall cost of energy (COE). Direct-drive machines eliminate the gearbox, thereby targeting increased reliability and reduced life-cycle cost. However, the slow rotational speeds require very large and costly generators, which also typically have an undesirable dependence on expensive rare-earth magnet materials and large structural penalties for precise air gap control. The cost of rare-earth materials has increased 20X in the last 8 years representing a key risk to ever realizing the promised cost of energy reductions from direct-drive generators. A common challenge to both geared and direct drive architectures is a limited ability to manage input shaft deflections. The proposed Clipper drivetrain is deflection-compliant, insulating later drivetrain stages and generators from off-axis loads. The system is modular, allowing for all key parts to be removed and replaced without the use of a high capacity crane. Finally, the technology modularity allows for scalability and many possible drivetrain topologies. These benefits enable reductions in drivetrain capital cost by 10.0%, levelized replacement and O&M costs by 26.7%, and overall cost of

  1. High efficiency, long life terrestrial solar panel

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chao, T.; Khemthong, S.; Ling, R.; Olah, S.

    1977-01-01

    The design of a high efficiency, long life terrestrial module was completed. It utilized 256 rectangular, high efficiency solar cells to achieve high packing density and electrical output. Tooling for the fabrication of solar cells was in house and evaluation of the cell performance was begun. Based on the power output analysis, the goal of a 13% efficiency module was achievable.

  2. The role of high cycle fatigue (HCF) onset in Francis runner reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gagnon, M; Tahan, S A; Bocher, P; Thibault, D

    2012-01-01

    High Cycle Fatigue (HCF) plays an important role in Francis runner reliability. This paper presents a model in which reliability is defined as the probability of not exceeding a threshold above which HCF contributes to crack propagation. In the context of combined Low Cycle Fatigue (LCF) and HCF loading, the Kitagawa diagram is used as the limit state threshold for reliability. The reliability problem is solved using First-Order Reliability Methods (FORM). A study case is proposed using in situ measured strains and operational data. All the parameters of the reliability problem are based either on observed data or on typical design specifications. From the results obtained, we observed that the uncertainty around the defect size and the HCF stress range play an important role in reliability. At the same time, we observed that expected values for the LCF stress range and the number of LCF cycles have a significant influence on life assessment, but the uncertainty around these values could be neglected in the reliability assessment.

  3. New advances in wet scrubbing improvement efficiencies

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Keen, A.R. [Altech Group, Toronto, ON (Canada)

    2000-07-01

    Wet scrubbing systems are the most versatile and cost efficient of all air pollution abatement technologies. This paper presented System REITHER{sup TM} which is a new generation of venturi scrubber. The advantages of this design are that it is simple and compact, has high removal efficiencies for sub-micron dusts or aerosols and it is flexible to handle any mass flow rate. It also provides high and constant reliability, is easy to control and has the potential to absorb gaseous pollutants. Another advantage is that it can handle corrosive streams through corrosion resistant materials. Innovations in wet scrubbing have made it possible to provide reliable and efficient separation of fine particles, corrosive aerosols and gases. New technology provides industrial engineers with a cost effective option when control air emissions is required. 1 fig.

  4. Advanced control systems to improve nuclear power plant reliability and efficiency

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1997-07-01

    The TECDOC is the result of a series of an advisory and consultants meetings held by the IAEA in 1995-1996 in Vienna (March 1995), in Erlangen Germany (December 1995), in Garching, Germany (June 1996) and in Vienna (November 1996). It was prepared with the participation and contributions of experts from Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Norway, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The publication not only describes advanced control systems for the improvement of nuclear power plant reliability and efficiency, but also provides a road map to guide interested readers to plan and execute an advanced instrumentation and control project. The subjects include: identification of needs and requirements, justification for safety and user acceptance, and the development of an engineering process. The report should be of interest to nuclear power plant staff, I and C system designers and integrators as well as regulators and researchers. Refs, figs, tabs

  5. Advanced control systems to improve nuclear power plant reliability and efficiency

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1997-07-01

    The TECDOC is the result of a series of an advisory and consultants meetings held by the IAEA in 1995-1996 in Vienna (March 1995), in Erlangen Germany (December 1995), in Garching, Germany (June 1996) and in Vienna (November 1996). It was prepared with the participation and contributions of experts from Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Norway, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The publication not only describes advanced control systems for the improvement of nuclear power plant reliability and efficiency, but also provides a road map to guide interested readers to plan and execute an advanced instrumentation and control project. The subjects include: identification of needs and requirements, justification for safety and user acceptance, and the development of an engineering process. The report should be of interest to nuclear power plant staff, I and C system designers and integrators as well as regulators and researchers. Refs, figs, tabs.

  6. Efficient reliability analysis of structures with the rotational quasi-symmetric point- and the maximum entropy methods

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jun; Dang, Chao; Kong, Fan

    2017-10-01

    This paper presents a new method for efficient structural reliability analysis. In this method, a rotational quasi-symmetric point method (RQ-SPM) is proposed for evaluating the fractional moments of the performance function. Then, the derivation of the performance function's probability density function (PDF) is carried out based on the maximum entropy method in which constraints are specified in terms of fractional moments. In this regard, the probability of failure can be obtained by a simple integral over the performance function's PDF. Six examples, including a finite element-based reliability analysis and a dynamic system with strong nonlinearity, are used to illustrate the efficacy of the proposed method. All the computed results are compared with those by Monte Carlo simulation (MCS). It is found that the proposed method can provide very accurate results with low computational effort.

  7. High Efficiency Driving Electronics for General Illumination LED Luminaires

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Upadhyay, Anand

    2012-10-31

    New generation of standalone LED driver platforms developed, which are more efficient These LED Drivers are more efficient (≥90%), smaller in size ( 0.15 in3/watt), lower in cost ( 12 cents/watt in high volumes in millions of units). And these products are very reliable having an operating life of over 50,000 hours. This technology will enable growth of LED light sources in the use. This will also help in energy saving and reducing total life cycle cost of LED units. Two topologies selected for next generation of LED drivers: 1) Value engineered single stage Flyback topology. This is suitable for low powered LED drivers up to 50W power. 2) Two stage boost power factor correction (PFC) plus LLC half bridge platform for higher powers. This topology is suitable for 40W to 300W LED drivers. Three new product platforms were developed to cover a wide range of LED drivers: 1) 120V 40W LED driver, 2) Intellivolt 75W LED driver, & 3) Intellivolt 150W LED driver. These are standalone LED drivers for rugged outdoor lighting applications. Based on these platforms number of products are developed and successfully introduced in the market place meeting key performance, size and cost goals.

  8. Chip-Level Electromigration Reliability for Cu Interconnects

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gall, M.; Oh, C.; Grinshpon, A.; Zolotov, V.; Panda, R.; Demircan, E.; Mueller, J.; Justison, P.; Ramakrishna, K.; Thrasher, S.; Hernandez, R.; Herrick, M.; Fox, R.; Boeck, B.; Kawasaki, H.; Haznedar, H.; Ku, P.

    2004-01-01

    Even after the successful introduction of Cu-based metallization, the electromigration (EM) failure risk has remained one of the most important reliability concerns for most advanced process technologies. Ever increasing operating current densities and the introduction of low-k materials in the backend process scheme are some of the issues that threaten reliable, long-term operation at elevated temperatures. The traditional method of verifying EM reliability only through current density limit checks is proving to be inadequate in general, or quite expensive at the best. A Statistical EM Budgeting (SEB) methodology has been proposed to assess more realistic chip-level EM reliability from the complex statistical distribution of currents in a chip. To be valuable, this approach requires accurate estimation of currents for all interconnect segments in a chip. However, no efficient technique to manage the complexity of such a task for very large chip designs is known. We present an efficient method to estimate currents exhaustively for all interconnects in a chip. The proposed method uses pre-characterization of cells and macros, and steps to identify and filter out symmetrically bi-directional interconnects. We illustrate the strength of the proposed approach using a high-performance microprocessor design for embedded applications as a case study

  9. New highly efficient piezoceramic materials

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Dantsiger, A.Ya.; Razumovskaya, O.N.; Reznichenko, L.A.; Grineva, L.D.; Devlikanova, R.U.; Dudkina, S.I.; Gavrilyachenko, S.V.; Dergunova, N.V.

    1993-01-01

    New high efficient piezoceramic materials with various combination of parameters inclusing high Curie point for high-temperature transducers using in atomic power engineering are worked. They can be used in systems for heated matters nondestructive testing, controllers for varied industrial power plants and other high-temperature equipment

  10. Systems reliability in high risk situations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hunns, D.M.

    1974-12-01

    A summary is given of five papers and the discussion of a seminar promoted by the newly-formed National Centre of Systems Reliability. The topics covered include hazard analysis, reliability assessment, and risk assessment in both nuclear and non-nuclear industries. (U.K.)

  11. Improving Reliability of High Power Quasi-CW Laser Diode Arrays for Pumping Solid State Lasers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amzajerdian, Farzin; Meadows, Byron L.; Baker, Nathaniel R.; Barnes, Bruce W.; Baggott, Renee S.; Lockard, George E.; Singh, Upendra N.; Kavaya, Michael J.

    2005-01-01

    Most Lidar applications rely on moderate to high power solid state lasers to generate the required transmitted pulses. However, the reliability of solid state lasers, which can operate autonomously over long periods, is constrained by their laser diode pump arrays. Thermal cycling of the active regions is considered the primary reason for rapid degradation of the quasi-CW high power laser diode arrays, and the excessive temperature rise is the leading suspect in premature failure. The thermal issues of laser diode arrays are even more drastic for 2-micron solid state lasers which require considerably longer pump pulses compared to the more commonly used pump arrays for 1-micron lasers. This paper describes several advanced packaging techniques being employed for more efficient heat removal from the active regions of the laser diode bars. Experimental results for several high power laser diode array devices will be reported and their performance when operated at long pulsewidths of about 1msec will be described.

  12. High-efficiency cavity-dumped micro-chip Yb:YAG laser

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishio, M.; Maruko, A.; Inoue, M.; Takama, M.; Matsubara, S.; Okunishi, H.; Kato, K.; Kyomoto, K.; Yoshida, T.; Shimabayashi, K.; Morioka, M.; Inayoshi, S.; Yamagata, S.; Kawato, S.

    2014-09-01

    High-efficiency cavity-dumped ytterbium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Yb:YAG) laser was developed. Although the high quantum efficiency of ytterbium-doped laser materials is appropriate for high-efficiency laser oscillation, the efficiency is decreased by their quasi-three/four laser natures. High gain operation by high intensity pumping is suitable for high efficiency oscillation on the quasi-three/four lasers without extremely low temperature cooling. In our group, highest efficiency oscillations for continuous wave, nanosecond to picosecond pulse lasers were achieved at room temperature by the high gain operation in which pump intensities were beyond 100 kW/cm2.

  13. Reliability calculations

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Petersen, K.E.

    1986-03-01

    Risk and reliability analysis is increasingly being used in evaluations of plant safety and plant reliability. The analysis can be performed either during the design process or during the operation time, with the purpose to improve the safety or the reliability. Due to plant complexity and safety and availability requirements, sophisticated tools, which are flexible and efficient, are needed. Such tools have been developed in the last 20 years and they have to be continuously refined to meet the growing requirements. Two different areas of application were analysed. In structural reliability probabilistic approaches have been introduced in some cases for the calculation of the reliability of structures or components. A new computer program has been developed based upon numerical integration in several variables. In systems reliability Monte Carlo simulation programs are used especially in analysis of very complex systems. In order to increase the applicability of the programs variance reduction techniques can be applied to speed up the calculation process. Variance reduction techniques have been studied and procedures for implementation of importance sampling are suggested. (author)

  14. Impact of High-Reliability Education on Adverse Event Reporting by Registered Nurses.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McFarland, Diane M; Doucette, Jeffrey N

    Adverse event reporting is one strategy to identify risks and improve patient safety, but, historically, adverse events are underreported by registered nurses (RNs) because of fear of retribution and blame. A program was provided on high reliability to examine whether education would impact RNs' willingness to report adverse events. Although the findings were not statistically significant, they demonstrated a positive impact on adverse event reporting and support the need to create a culture of high reliability.

  15. Highly efficient high temperature electrolysis

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hauch, Anne; Ebbesen, Sune; Jensen, Søren Højgaard

    2008-01-01

    High temperature electrolysis of water and steam may provide an efficient, cost effective and environmentally friendly production of H-2 Using electricity produced from sustainable, non-fossil energy sources. To achieve cost competitive electrolysis cells that are both high performing i.e. minimum...... internal resistance of the cell, and long-term stable, it is critical to develop electrode materials that are optimal for steam electrolysis. In this article electrolysis cells for electrolysis of water or steam at temperatures above 200 degrees C for production of H-2 are reviewed. High temperature...... electrolysis is favourable from a thermodynamic point of view, because a part of the required energy can be supplied as thermal heat, and the activation barrier is lowered increasing the H-2 production rate. Only two types of cells operating at high temperature (above 200 degrees C) have been described...

  16. Gearbox Reliability Collaborative High-Speed Shaft Calibration

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Keller, J.; McNiff, B.

    2014-09-01

    Instrumentation has been added to the high-speed shaft, pinion, and tapered roller bearing pair of the Gearbox Reliability Collaborative gearbox to measure loads and temperatures. The new shaft bending moment and torque instrumentation was calibrated and the purpose of this document is to describe this calibration process and results, such that the raw shaft bending and torque signals can be converted to the proper engineering units and coordinate system reference for comparison to design loads and simulation model predictions.

  17. A compact and high efficiency GAGG well counter for radiocesium concentration measurements

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yamamoto, Seiichi, E-mail: s-yama@met.nagoya-u.ac.jp; Ogata, Yoshimune

    2014-07-01

    After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, social concern about radiocesium ({sup 137}Cs and {sup 134}Cs) contamination in food increased. However, highly efficient instruments that can measure low level radioactivity are quite expensive and heavy. A compact, lightweight, and reliable radiation detector that can inexpensively monitor low level radiocesium is highly desired. We developed a compact and highly efficient radiocesium detector to detect ∼32 keV X-rays from radiocesium instead of high energy gamma photons. A 1-mm thick GAGG scintillator was selected to effectively detect ∼32 keV X-rays from {sup 137}Cs to reduce the influence of ambient radiation. Four sets of 25 mm×25 mm×1 mm GAGG plates, each of which was optically coupled to a triangular-shaped light guide, were optically coupled to a photomultiplier tube (PMT) to form a square-shaped well counter. Another GAGG plate was directly optically coupled to the PMT to form its bottom detector. The energy resolution of the GAGG well counter was 22.3% FWHM for 122 keV gamma rays and 32% FWHM for ∼32 keV X-rays. The counting efficiency for the X-rays from radiocesium (mixture of {sup 137}Cs and {sup 134}Cs) was 4.5%. In measurements of the low level radiocesium mixture, a photo-peak of ∼32 keV X-rays can clearly be distinguished from the background. The minimum detectable activity (MDA) was estimated to be ∼100 Bq/kg for 1000 s measurement. The results show that our developed GAGG well counter is promising for the detection of radiocesium in food.

  18. Learning Organizations in High Reliability Industries

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schwalbe, D.; Wächter, C.

    2016-01-01

    Full text: Humans make mistakes. Sometimes we learn from them. In a high reliability organization we have to learn before an error leads to an incident (or even accident). Therefore the “human factor” is most important as most of the time the human is the last line of defense. The “human factor” is more than communication or leadership skills. At the end, it is the personal attitude. This attitude has to be safety minded. And this attitude has to be self-reflected continuously. Moreover, feedback from others is urgently needed to improve one’s personal skills daily and learn from our own experience as well as from others. (author

  19. Efficiency evaluation of an electronic equipment: availability,reliability and maintenance; Notion d'efficacite d'un equipement electronique: disponibilite, fiabilite et maintenabilite

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guyot, C

    1966-07-01

    This concept of efficiency often called ''system effectiveness'', is presented and analyzed in terms of reliability and maintenance. It allows to define the availability factor of an electronic equipment. A procedure of evaluation is proposed. (A.L.B.)

  20. High Efficiency Power Converter for Low Voltage High Power Applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nymand, Morten

    The topic of this thesis is the design of high efficiency power electronic dc-to-dc converters for high-power, low-input-voltage to high-output-voltage applications. These converters are increasingly required for emerging sustainable energy systems such as fuel cell, battery or photo voltaic based......, and remote power generation for light towers, camper vans, boats, beacons, and buoys etc. A review of current state-of-the-art is presented. The best performing converters achieve moderately high peak efficiencies at high input voltage and medium power level. However, system dimensioning and cost are often...

  1. Educational Management Organizations as High Reliability Organizations: A Study of Victory's Philadelphia High School Reform Work

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomas, David E.

    2013-01-01

    This executive position paper proposes recommendations for designing reform models between public and private sectors dedicated to improving school reform work in low performing urban high schools. It reviews scholarly research about for-profit educational management organizations, high reliability organizations, American high school reform, and…

  2. Analysis of recovery efficiency in high-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage: a Rayleigh-based method

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schout, Gilian; Drijver, Benno; Gutierrez-Neri, Mariene; Schotting, Ruud

    2014-01-01

    High-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage (HT-ATES) is an important technique for energy conservation. A controlling factor for the economic feasibility of HT-ATES is the recovery efficiency. Due to the effects of density-driven flow (free convection), HT-ATES systems applied in permeable aquifers typically have lower recovery efficiencies than conventional (low-temperature) ATES systems. For a reliable estimation of the recovery efficiency it is, therefore, important to take the effect of density-driven flow into account. A numerical evaluation of the prime factors influencing the recovery efficiency of HT-ATES systems is presented. Sensitivity runs evaluating the effects of aquifer properties, as well as operational variables, were performed to deduce the most important factors that control the recovery efficiency. A correlation was found between the dimensionless Rayleigh number (a measure of the relative strength of free convection) and the calculated recovery efficiencies. Based on a modified Rayleigh number, two simple analytical solutions are proposed to calculate the recovery efficiency, each one covering a different range of aquifer thicknesses. The analytical solutions accurately reproduce all numerically modeled scenarios with an average error of less than 3 %. The proposed method can be of practical use when considering or designing an HT-ATES system.

  3. Sub-nanosecond jitter, repetitive impulse generators for high reliability applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Krausse, G.J.; Sarjeant, W.J.

    1981-01-01

    Low jitter, high reliability impulse generator development has recently become of ever increasing importance for developing nuclear physics and weapons applications. The research and development of very low jitter (< 30 ps), multikilovolt generators for high reliability, minimum maintenance trigger applications utilizing a new class of high-pressure tetrode thyratrons now commercially available are described. The overall system design philosophy is described followed by a detailed analysis of the subsystem component elements. A multi-variable experimental analysis of this new tetrode thyratron was undertaken, in a low-inductance configuration, as a function of externally available parameters. For specific thyratron trigger conditions, rise times of 18 ns into 6.0-Ω loads were achieved at jitters as low as 24 ps. Using this database, an integrated trigger generator system with solid-state front-end is described in some detail. The generator was developed to serve as the Master Trigger Generator for a large neutrino detector installation at the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility

  4. Reliable on-line storage in the ALICE High-Level Trigger

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kalcher, Sebastian; Lindenstruth, Volker [Kirchhoff Institute of Physics, University of Heidelberg (Germany)

    2009-07-01

    The on-line disk capacity within large computing clusters such as used in the ALICE High-Level Trigger (HLT) is often not used due to the inherent unreliability of the involved disks. With currently available hard drive capacities the total on-line capacity can be significant when compared to the storage requirements of present high energy physics experiments. In this talk we report on ClusterRAID, a reliable, distributed mass storage system, which allows to harness the (often unused) disk capacities of large cluster installations. The key paradigm of this system is to transform the local hard drive into a reliable device. It provides adjustable fault-tolerance by utilizing sophisticated error-correcting codes. To reduce the costs of coding and decoding operations the use of modern graphics processing units as co-processor has been investigated. Also, the utilization of low overhead, high performance communication networks has been examined. A prototype set up of the system exists within the HLT with 90 TB gross capacity.

  5. High level issues in reliability quantification of safety-critical software

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Man Cheol

    2012-01-01

    For the purpose of developing a consensus method for the reliability assessment of safety-critical digital instrumentation and control systems in nuclear power plants, several high level issues in reliability assessment of the safety-critical software based on Bayesian belief network modeling and statistical testing are discussed. Related to the Bayesian belief network modeling, the relation between the assessment approach and the sources of evidence, the relation between qualitative evidence and quantitative evidence, how to consider qualitative evidence, and the cause-consequence relation are discussed. Related to the statistical testing, the need of the consideration of context-specific software failure probabilities and the inability to perform a huge number of tests in the real world are discussed. The discussions in this paper are expected to provide a common basis for future discussions on the reliability assessment of safety-critical software. (author)

  6. Transferring Aviation Practices into Clinical Medicine for the Promotion of High Reliability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Powell-Dunford, Nicole; McPherson, Mark K; Pina, Joseph S; Gaydos, Steven J

    2017-05-01

    Aviation is a classic example of a high reliability organization (HRO)-an organization in which catastrophic events are expected to occur without control measures. As health care systems transition toward high reliability, aviation practices are increasingly transferred for clinical implementation. A PubMed search using the terms aviation, crew resource management, and patient safety was undertaken. Manuscripts authored by physician pilots and accident investigation regulations were analyzed. Subject matter experts involved in adoption of aviation practices into the medical field were interviewed. A PubMed search yielded 621 results with 22 relevant for inclusion. Improved clinical outcomes were noted in five research trials in which aviation practices were adopted, particularly with regard to checklist usage and crew resource-management training. Effectiveness of interventions was influenced by intensity of application, leadership involvement, and provision of staff training. The usefulness of incorporating mishap investigation techniques has not been established. Whereas aviation accident investigation is highly standardized, the investigation of medical error is characterized by variation. The adoption of aviation practices into clinical medicine facilitates an evolution toward high reliability. Evidence for the efficacy of the checklist and crew resource-management training is robust. Transference of aviation accident investigation practices is preliminary. A standardized, independent investigation process could facilitate the development of a safety culture commensurate with that achieved in the aviation industry.Powell-Dunford N, McPherson MK, Pina JS, Gaydos SJ. Transferring aviation practices into clinical medicine for the promotion of high reliability. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2017; 88(5):487-491.

  7. Developing a novel hierarchical approach for multiscale structural reliability predictions for ultra-high consequence applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Emery, John M. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Coffin, Peter [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Robbins, Brian A. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Carroll, Jay [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Field, Richard V. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Jeremy Yoo, Yung Suk [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Kacher, Josh [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2017-09-01

    Microstructural variabilities are among the predominant sources of uncertainty in structural performance and reliability. We seek to develop efficient algorithms for multiscale calcu- lations for polycrystalline alloys such as aluminum alloy 6061-T6 in environments where ductile fracture is the dominant failure mode. Our approach employs concurrent multiscale methods, but does not focus on their development. They are a necessary but not sufficient ingredient to multiscale reliability predictions. We have focused on how to efficiently use concurrent models for forward propagation because practical applications cannot include fine-scale details throughout the problem domain due to exorbitant computational demand. Our approach begins with a low-fidelity prediction at the engineering scale that is sub- sequently refined with multiscale simulation. The results presented in this report focus on plasticity and damage at the meso-scale, efforts to expedite Monte Carlo simulation with mi- crostructural considerations, modeling aspects regarding geometric representation of grains and second-phase particles, and contrasting algorithms for scale coupling.

  8. Reliability of force-velocity relationships during deadlift high pull.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lu, Wei; Boyas, Sébastien; Jubeau, Marc; Rahmani, Abderrahmane

    2017-11-13

    This study aimed to evaluate the within- and between-session reliability of force, velocity and power performances and to assess the force-velocity relationship during the deadlift high pull (DHP). Nine participants performed two identical sessions of DHP with loads ranging from 30 to 70% of body mass. The force was measured by a force plate under the participants' feet. The velocity of the 'body + lifted mass' system was calculated by integrating the acceleration and the power was calculated as the product of force and velocity. The force-velocity relationships were obtained from linear regression of both mean and peak values of force and velocity. The within- and between-session reliability was evaluated by using coefficients of variation (CV) and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC). Results showed that DHP force-velocity relationships were significantly linear (R² > 0.90, p  0.94), mean and peak velocities showed a good agreement (CV reliable and can therefore be utilised as a tool to characterise individuals' muscular profiles.

  9. Direct unavailability computation of a maintained highly reliable system

    Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

    Briš, R.; Byczanski, Petr

    2010-01-01

    Roč. 224, č. 3 (2010), s. 159-170 ISSN 1748-0078 Grant - others:GA Mšk(CZ) MSM6198910007 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z30860518 Keywords : high reliability * availability * directed acyclic graph Subject RIV: BA - General Mathematics http:// journals .pepublishing.com/content/rtp3178l17923m46/

  10. Reliable and efficient solution of genome-scale models of Metabolism and macromolecular Expression

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ma, Ding; Yang, Laurence; Fleming, Ronan M. T.

    2017-01-01

    orders of magnitude. Data values also have greatly varying magnitudes. Standard double-precision solvers may return inaccurate solutions or report that no solution exists. Exact simplex solvers based on rational arithmetic require a near-optimal warm start to be practical on large problems (current ME......Constraint-Based Reconstruction and Analysis (COBRA) is currently the only methodology that permits integrated modeling of Metabolism and macromolecular Expression (ME) at genome-scale. Linear optimization computes steady-state flux solutions to ME models, but flux values are spread over many...... models have 70,000 constraints and variables and will grow larger). We have developed a quadrupleprecision version of our linear and nonlinear optimizer MINOS, and a solution procedure (DQQ) involving Double and Quad MINOS that achieves reliability and efficiency for ME models and other challenging...

  11. Implementing eco friendly highly reliable upload feature using multi 3G service

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tanutama, Lukas; Wijaya, Rico

    2017-12-01

    The current trend of eco friendly Internet access is preferred. In this research the understanding of eco friendly is minimum power consumption. The devices that are selected have operationally low power consumption and normally have no power consumption as they are hibernating during idle state. To have the reliability a router of a router that has internal load balancing feature will provide the improvement of previous research on multi 3G services for broadband lines. Previous studies emphasized on accessing and downloading information files from Public Cloud residing Web Servers. The demand is not only for speed but high reliability of access as well. High reliability will mean mitigating both direct and indirect high cost due to repeated attempts of uploading and downloading the large files. Nomadic and mobile computer users need viable solution. Following solution for downloading information has been proposed and tested. The solution is promising. The result is now extended to providing reliable access line by means of redundancy and automatic reconfiguration for uploading and downloading large information files to a Web Server in the Cloud. The technique is taking advantage of internal load balancing feature to provision a redundant line acting as a backup line. A router that has the ability to provide load balancing to several WAN lines is chosen. The WAN lines are constructed using multiple 3G lines. The router supports the accessing Internet with more than one 3G access line which increases the reliability and availability of the Internet access as the second line immediately takes over if the first line is disturbed.

  12. High-efficiency VCSEL arrays for illumination and sensing in consumer applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seurin, Jean-Francois; Zhou, Delai; Xu, Guoyang; Miglo, Alexander; Li, Daizong; Chen, Tong; Guo, Baiming; Ghosh, Chuni

    2016-03-01

    There has been increased interest in vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for illumination and sensing in the consumer market, especially for 3D sensing ("gesture recognition") and 3D image capture. For these applications, the typical wavelength range of interest is 830~950nm and power levels vary from a few milli-Watts to several Watts. The devices are operated in short pulse mode (a few nano-seconds) with fast rise and fall times for time-of-flight applications (ToF), or in CW/quasi-CW for structured light applications. In VCSELs, the narrow spectrum and its low temperature dependence allows the use of narrower filters and therefore better signal-to-noise performance, especially for outdoor applications. In portable devices (mobile devices, wearable devices, laptops etc.) the size of the illumination module (VCSEL and optics) is a primary consideration. VCSELs offer a unique benefit compared to other laser sources in that they are "surface-mountable" and can be easily integrated along with other electronics components on a printed circuit board (PCB). A critical concern is the power-conversion efficiency (PCE) of the illumination source operating at high temperatures (>50 deg C). We report on various VCSEL based devices and diffuser-integrated modules with high efficiency at high temperatures. Over 40% PCE was achieved in broad temperature range of 0-70 °C for either low power single devices or high power VCSEL arrays, with sub- nano-second rise and fall time. These high power VCSEL arrays show excellent reliability, with extracted mean-time-to-failure (MTTF) of over 500 years at 60 °C ambient temperature and 8W peak output.

  13. Reliability of a Computerized Neurocognitive Test in Baseline Concussion Testing of High School Athletes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacDonald, James; Duerson, Drew

    2015-07-01

    Baseline assessments using computerized neurocognitive tests are frequently used in the management of sport-related concussions. Such testing is often done on an annual basis in a community setting. Reliability is a fundamental test characteristic that should be established for such tests. Our study examined the test-retest reliability of a computerized neurocognitive test in high school athletes over 1 year. Repeated measures design. Two American high schools. High school athletes (N = 117) participating in American football or soccer during the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 academic years. All study participants completed 2 baseline computerized neurocognitive tests taken 1 year apart at their respective schools. The test measures performance on 4 cognitive tasks: identification speed (Attention), detection speed (Processing Speed), one card learning accuracy (Learning), and one back speed (Working Memory). Reliability was assessed by measuring the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between the repeated measures of the 4 cognitive tasks. Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated as a secondary outcome measure. The measure for identification speed performed best (ICC = 0.672; 95% confidence interval, 0.559-0.760) and the measure for one card learning accuracy performed worst (ICC = 0.401; 95% confidence interval, 0.237-0.542). All tests had marginal or low reliability. In a population of high school athletes, computerized neurocognitive testing performed in a community setting demonstrated low to marginal test-retest reliability on baseline assessments 1 year apart. Further investigation should focus on (1) improving the reliability of individual tasks tested, (2) controlling for external factors that might affect test performance, and (3) identifying the ideal time interval to repeat baseline testing in high school athletes. Computerized neurocognitive tests are used frequently in high school athletes, often within a model of baseline testing

  14. High Efficiency Room Air Conditioner

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bansal, Pradeep [Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

    2015-01-01

    This project was undertaken as a CRADA project between UT-Battelle and Geberal Electric Company and was funded by Department of Energy to design and develop of a high efficiency room air conditioner. A number of novel elements were investigated to improve the energy efficiency of a state-of-the-art WAC with base capacity of 10,000 BTU/h. One of the major modifications was made by downgrading its capacity from 10,000 BTU/hr to 8,000 BTU/hr by replacing the original compressor with a lower capacity (8,000 BTU/hr) but high efficiency compressor having an EER of 9.7 as compared with 9.3 of the original compressor. However, all heat exchangers from the original unit were retained to provide higher EER. The other subsequent major modifications included- (i) the AC fan motor was replaced by a brushless high efficiency ECM motor along with its fan housing, (ii) the capillary tube was replaced with a needle valve to better control the refrigerant flow and refrigerant set points, and (iii) the unit was tested with a drop-in environmentally friendly binary mixture of R32 (90% molar concentration)/R125 (10% molar concentration). The WAC was tested in the environmental chambers at ORNL as per the design rating conditions of AHAM/ASHRAE (Outdoor- 95F and 40%RH, Indoor- 80F, 51.5%RH). All these modifications resulted in enhancing the EER of the WAC by up to 25%.

  15. Plasmonics for solid-state lighting : enhanced excitation and directional emission of highly efficient light sources

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lozano, G.; Louwers, Davy J.; Rodriguez, S.R.K.; Murai, S.; Jansen, O.T.A.; Verschuuren, M.A.; Gomez Rivas, J.

    2013-01-01

    Light sources based on reliable and energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are instrumental in the development of solid-state lighting (SSL). Most research efforts in SSL have focused on improving both the intrinsic quantum efficiency (QE) and the stability of light emitters. For this reason,

  16. Reliable Rescue Routing Optimization for Urban Emergency Logistics under Travel Time Uncertainty

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qiuping Li

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The reliability of rescue routes is critical for urban emergency logistics during disasters. However, studies on reliable rescue routing under stochastic networks are still rare. This paper proposes a multiobjective rescue routing model for urban emergency logistics under travel time reliability. A hybrid metaheuristic integrating ant colony optimization (ACO and tabu search (TS was designed to solve the model. An experiment optimizing rescue routing plans under a real urban storm event, was carried out to validate the proposed model. The experimental results showed how our approach can improve rescue efficiency with high travel time reliability.

  17. Completion of high-efficiency BWR turbine plant 'Hamaoka unit No. 4'

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tsuji, Kunio; Hamaura, Norikazu; Shibashita, Naoaki; Kazama, Seiichi

    1995-01-01

    Accompanying the increase of capacity of nuclear power plants in Japan, the plants having heightened economical efficiency, which are supported by the improvement of thermal efficiency and the reduction of dose, are demanded. Hitachi Ltd. has completed No. 4 turbine unit of 1137 MW output in Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc., which is the largest capacity machine in Japanese BWR plants. In this unit, the moisture separator heater, the steam turbine with high efficiency, and the hollow thread film condensate filter which treats the total flow rate of condensate are used as the reheating type BWR plant for the first time in Japan, and the plan of heightened economy and operation was adopted. It was confirmed by the trial for about 10 months that the planned performance was sufficiently satisfied, and the commercial operation was started in September, 1993. The features of the 1137 MW turbine unit are explained. The turbine is of tandem six-flow exhaust condensation type. Diffuser type low pressure turbine exhaust chambers, butterfly type combination intermediate valve are adopted. The stages with the blades having moisture-separating grooves were corrected. The reliability of the shaft system was improved. The adoption of the moisture separator heater and the application of the hollow thread film type condensate filter are explained. (K.I.)

  18. Towards Reliable, Scalable, and Energy Efficient Cognitive Radio Systems

    KAUST Repository

    Sboui, Lokman

    2017-11-01

    The cognitive radio (CR) concept is expected to be adopted along with many technologies to meet the requirements of the next generation of wireless and mobile systems, the 5G. Consequently, it is important to determine the performance of the CR systems with respect to these requirements. In this thesis, after briefly describing the 5G requirements, we present three main directions in which we aim to enhance the CR performance. The first direction is the reliability. We study the achievable rate of a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay-assisted CR under two scenarios; an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) one-way relaying (OWR) and a fixed two-way relaying (TWR). We propose special linear precoding schemes that enable the secondary user (SU) to take advantage of the primary-free channel eigenmodes. We study the SU rate sensitivity to the relay power, the relay gain, the UAV altitude, the number of antennas and the line of sight availability. The second direction is the scalability. We first study a multiple access channel (MAC) with multiple SUs scenario. We propose a particular linear precoding and SUs selection scheme maximizing their sum-rate. We show that the proposed scheme provides a significant sum-rate improvement as the number of SUs increases. Secondly, we expand our scalability study to cognitive cellular networks. We propose a low-complexity algorithm for base station activation/deactivation and dynamic spectrum management maximizing the profits of primary and secondary networks subject to green constraints. We show that our proposed algorithms achieve performance close to those obtained with the exhaustive search method. The third direction is the energy efficiency (EE). We present a novel power allocation scheme based on maximizing the EE of both single-input and single-output (SISO) and MIMO systems. We solve a non-convex problem and derive explicit expressions of the corresponding optimal power. When the instantaneous channel is not available, we

  19. Design for reliability in power electronics in renewable energy systems – status and future

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Wang, Huai; Blaabjerg, Frede; Ma, Ke

    2013-01-01

    Advances in power electronics enable efficient and flexible interconnection of renewable sources, loads and electric grids. While targets concerning efficiency of power converters are within reach, recent research endeavors to predict and improve their reliability to ensure high availability, low...... maintenance costs, and herefore, low Levelized-Cost-of-Energy (LCOE) of renewable energy systems. This paper presents the prior-art Design for Reliability (DFR) process for power converters and addresses the paradigm shift to Physics-of-Failure (PoF) approach and mission profile based analysis. Moreover...

  20. Improved reliability of power modules

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Baker, Nick; Liserre, Marco; Dupont, Laurent

    2014-01-01

    Power electronic systems play an increasingly important role in providing high-efficiency power conversion for adjustable-speed drives, power-quality correction, renewable-energy systems, energy-storage systems, and electric vehicles. However, they are often presented with demanding operating...... environments that challenge the reliability aspects of power electronic techniques. For example, increasingly thermally stressful environments are seen in applications such as electric vehicles, where ambient temperatures under the hood exceed 150 °C, while some wind turbine applications can place large...

  1. Reliability and construction control

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sherif S. AbdelSalam

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The goal of this study was to determine the most reliable and efficient combination of design and construction methods required for vibro piles. For a wide range of static and dynamic formulas, the reliability-based resistance factors were calculated using EGYPT database, which houses load test results for 318 piles. The analysis was extended to introduce a construction control factor that determines the variation between the pile nominal capacities calculated using static versus dynamic formulae. From the major outcomes, the lowest coefficient of variation is associated with Davisson’s criterion, and the resistance factors calculated for the AASHTO method are relatively high compared with other methods. Additionally, the CPT-Nottingham and Schmertmann method provided the most economic design. Recommendations related to a pile construction control factor were also presented, and it was found that utilizing the factor can significantly reduce variations between calculated and actual capacities.

  2. Reliability and efficiency upgrades of power systems operation by implementing intelligent electronic devices with synchrophasor measurement technology support

    OpenAIRE

    Mokeev Alexey

    2017-01-01

    This paper reviews issues of reliability and efficiency upgrades of power systems functions by means of a widespread implementation of intelligent electronic devices (IED) in various purposes supporting synchrophasor measurement technology. Thus, such issues as IED’s operational analysis in the conditions of electromagnetic and electromechanical transient processes and synthesis of digital filters that improve static and dynamic responses of these devices play an important role in their devel...

  3. 40 CFR 761.71 - High efficiency boilers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... 40 Protection of Environment 30 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false High efficiency boilers. 761.71... PROHIBITIONS Storage and Disposal § 761.71 High efficiency boilers. (a) To burn mineral oil dielectric fluid containing a PCB concentration of ≥50 ppm, but boiler shall comply with the following...

  4. Pulsed high field magnets. An efficient way of shaping laser accelerated proton beams for application

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kroll, Florian; Schramm, Ulrich [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden (Germany); Technische Universitaet Dresden, 01062 Dresden (Germany); Bagnoud, Vincent; Blazevic, Abel; Busold, Simon [GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Helmholtz Institut Jena, 07734 Jena (Germany); Brabetz, Christian; Schumacher, Dennis [GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung, 64291 Darmstadt (Germany); Deppert, Oliver; Jahn, Diana; Roth, Markus [Technische Universitaet Darmstadt, 64289 Darmstadt (Germany); Karsch, Leonhard; Masood, Umar [OncoRay-National Center for Radiation Research in Oncology, TU Dresden, 01307 Dresden (Germany); Kraft, Stephan [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf, 01328 Dresden (Germany)

    2015-07-01

    Compact laser-driven proton accelerators are a potential alternative to complex, expensive conventional accelerators, enabling unique beam properties, like ultra-high pulse dose. Nevertheless, they still require substantial development in reliable beam generation and transport. We present experimental studies on capture, shape and transport of laser and conventionally accelerated protons via pulsed high-field magnets. These magnets, common research tools in the fields of solid state physics, have been adapted to meet the demands of laser acceleration experiments.Our work distinctively shows that pulsed magnet technology makes laser acceleration more suitable for application and can facilitate compact and efficient accelerators, e.g. for material research as well as medical and biological purposes.

  5. Unconventional, High-Efficiency Propulsors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Poul

    1996-01-01

    The development of ship propellers has generally been characterized by search for propellers with as high efficiency as possible and at the same time low noise and vibration levels and little or no cavitation. This search has lead to unconventional propulsors, like vane-wheel propulsors, contra-r...

  6. Analyzing the reliability of shuffle-exchange networks using reliability block diagrams

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bistouni, Fathollah; Jahanshahi, Mohsen

    2014-01-01

    Supercomputers and multi-processor systems are comprised of thousands of processors that need to communicate in an efficient way. One reasonable solution would be the utilization of multistage interconnection networks (MINs), where the challenge is to analyze the reliability of such networks. One of the methods to increase the reliability and fault-tolerance of the MINs is use of various switching stages. Therefore, recently, the reliability of one of the most common MINs namely shuffle-exchange network (SEN) has been evaluated through the investigation on the impact of increasing the number of switching stage. Also, it is concluded that the reliability of SEN with one additional stage (SEN+) is better than SEN or SEN with two additional stages (SEN+2), even so, the reliability of SEN is better compared to SEN with two additional stages (SEN+2). Here we re-evaluate the reliability of these networks where the results of the terminal, broadcast, and network reliability analysis demonstrate that SEN+ and SEN+2 continuously outperform SEN and are very alike in terms of reliability. - Highlights: • The impact of increasing the number of stages on reliability of MINs is investigated. • The RBD method as an accurate method is used for the reliability analysis of MINs. • Complex series–parallel RBDs are used to determine the reliability of the MINs. • All measures of the reliability (i.e. terminal, broadcast, and network reliability) are analyzed. • All reliability equations will be calculated for different size N×N

  7. Structural Reliability: An Assessment Using a New and Efficient Two-Phase Method Based on Artificial Neural Network and a Harmony Search Algorithm

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naser Kazemi Elaki

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available In this research, a two-phase algorithm based on the artificial neural network (ANN and a harmony search (HS algorithm has been developed with the aim of assessing the reliability of structures with implicit limit state functions. The proposed method involves the generation of datasets to be used specifically for training by Finite Element analysis, to establish an ANN model using a proven ANN model in the reliability assessment process as an analyzer for structures, and finally estimate the reliability index and failure probability by using the HS algorithm, without any requirements for the explicit form of limit state function. The proposed algorithm is investigated here, and its accuracy and efficiency are demonstrated by using several numerical examples. The results obtained show that the proposed algorithm gives an appropriate estimate for the assessment of reliability of structures.

  8. A Probabilistic and Highly Efficient Topology Control Algorithm for Underwater Cooperating AUV Networks.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Ning; Cürüklü, Baran; Bastos, Joaquim; Sucasas, Victor; Fernandez, Jose Antonio Sanchez; Rodriguez, Jonathan

    2017-05-04

    The aim of the Smart and Networking Underwater Robots in Cooperation Meshes (SWARMs) project is to make autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), remote operated vehicles (ROVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) more accessible and useful. To achieve cooperation and communication between different AUVs, these must be able to exchange messages, so an efficient and reliable communication network is necessary for SWARMs. In order to provide an efficient and reliable communication network for mission execution, one of the important and necessary issues is the topology control of the network of AUVs that are cooperating underwater. However, due to the specific properties of an underwater AUV cooperation network, such as the high mobility of AUVs, large transmission delays, low bandwidth, etc., the traditional topology control algorithms primarily designed for terrestrial wireless sensor networks cannot be used directly in the underwater environment. Moreover, these algorithms, in which the nodes adjust their transmission power once the current transmission power does not equal an optimal one, are costly in an underwater cooperating AUV network. Considering these facts, in this paper, we propose a Probabilistic Topology Control (PTC) algorithm for an underwater cooperating AUV network. In PTC, when the transmission power of an AUV is not equal to the optimal transmission power, then whether the transmission power needs to be adjusted or not will be determined based on the AUV's parameters. Each AUV determines their own transmission power adjustment probability based on the parameter deviations. The larger the deviation, the higher the transmission power adjustment probability is, and vice versa. For evaluating the performance of PTC, we combine the PTC algorithm with the Fuzzy logic Topology Control (FTC) algorithm and compare the performance of these two algorithms. The simulation results have demonstrated that the PTC is efficient at reducing the transmission power

  9. A Probabilistic and Highly Efficient Topology Control Algorithm for Underwater Cooperating AUV Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ning Li

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the Smart and Networking Underwater Robots in Cooperation Meshes (SWARMs project is to make autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs, remote operated vehicles (ROVs and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs more accessible and useful. To achieve cooperation and communication between different AUVs, these must be able to exchange messages, so an efficient and reliable communication network is necessary for SWARMs. In order to provide an efficient and reliable communication network for mission execution, one of the important and necessary issues is the topology control of the network of AUVs that are cooperating underwater. However, due to the specific properties of an underwater AUV cooperation network, such as the high mobility of AUVs, large transmission delays, low bandwidth, etc., the traditional topology control algorithms primarily designed for terrestrial wireless sensor networks cannot be used directly in the underwater environment. Moreover, these algorithms, in which the nodes adjust their transmission power once the current transmission power does not equal an optimal one, are costly in an underwater cooperating AUV network. Considering these facts, in this paper, we propose a Probabilistic Topology Control (PTC algorithm for an underwater cooperating AUV network. In PTC, when the transmission power of an AUV is not equal to the optimal transmission power, then whether the transmission power needs to be adjusted or not will be determined based on the AUV’s parameters. Each AUV determines their own transmission power adjustment probability based on the parameter deviations. The larger the deviation, the higher the transmission power adjustment probability is, and vice versa. For evaluating the performance of PTC, we combine the PTC algorithm with the Fuzzy logic Topology Control (FTC algorithm and compare the performance of these two algorithms. The simulation results have demonstrated that the PTC is efficient at reducing the

  10. Research & Implementation of AC - DC Converter with High Power Factor & High Efficiency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hsiou-Hsian Nien

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available In this paper, we design and develop a high power factor, high efficiency two-stage AC - DC power converter. This paper proposes a two-stage AC - DC power converter. The first stage is boost active power factor correction circuit. The latter stage is near constant frequency LLC resonant converter. In addition to traditional LLC high efficiency advantages, light-load conversion efficiency of this power converter can be improved. And it possesses high power factor and near constant frequency operating characteristics, can significantly reduce the electromagnetic interference. This paper first discusses the main structure and control manner of power factor correction circuit. And then by the LLC resonant converter equivalent model proceed to circuit analysis to determine the important parameters of the converter circuit elements. Then design a variable frequency resonant tank. The resonant frequency can change automatically on the basis of the load to reach near constant frequency operation and a purpose of high efficiency. Finally, actually design and produce an AC – DC power converter with output of 190W to verify the characteristics and feasibility of this converter. The experimental results show that in a very light load (9.5 W the efficiency is as high as 81%, the highest efficiency of 88% (90 W. Full load efficiency is 87%. At 19 W ~ 190 W power changes, the operating frequency change is only 0.4 kHz (AC 110 V and 0.3 kHz (AC 220 V.

  11. Efficiency of poly-generating high temperature fuel cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Margalef, Pere; Brown, Tim; Brouwer, Jacob; Samuelsen, Scott [National Fuel Cell Research Center (NFCRC), University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-3550 (United States)

    2011-02-15

    High temperature fuel cells can be designed and operated to poly-generate electricity, heat, and useful chemicals (e.g., hydrogen) in a variety of configurations. The highly integrated and synergistic nature of poly-generating high temperature fuel cells, however, precludes a simple definition of efficiency for analysis and comparison of performance to traditional methods. There is a need to develop and define a methodology to calculate each of the co-product efficiencies that is useful for comparative analyses. Methodologies for calculating poly-generation efficiencies are defined and discussed. The methodologies are applied to analysis of a Hydrogen Energy Station (H{sub 2}ES) showing that high conversion efficiency can be achieved for poly-generation of electricity and hydrogen. (author)

  12. Leadership in organizations with high security and reliability requirements

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gonzalez, F.

    2013-01-01

    Developing leadership skills in organizations is the key to ensure the sustainability of excellent results in industries with high requirements safety and reliability. In order to have a model of leadership development specific to this type of organizations, Tecnatom in 2011, we initiated a project internal, to find and adapt a competency model to these requirements.

  13. Criteriom of efficiency of thermometric systems with increased reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sal'nikov, N.L.; Filimonov, E.V.

    1995-01-01

    Problems on metrological reliability of thermometric systems, intended for temperature regime control at nuclear power facilities are discussed. Thermoelectrical converters and resistance thermoconverters are the most utilized sources of thermometric information at nuclear power plants. Two or more transducers are proposed to be unified in one measurement system in order to increase the accuracy of temperature measurements through obtaining surplus values. Two versions of thermometric systems organization are considered. The first system combined various-type temperature transducers whereas the second system consists of two similar-type transducers. It is established that thermometric systems with various-type transducers are characterized by higher metrological reliability. 3 refs.; 2 figs

  14. An efficient entire chaos-based scheme for deniable authentication

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xiao Di; Liao Xiaofeng; Wong, K.W.

    2005-01-01

    By using a chaotic encryption-hash parallel algorithm and the semi-group property of Chebyshev chaotic map, we propose a secure and efficient scheme for the deniable authentication. The scheme is efficient, practicable and reliable, with high potential to be adopted for e-commerce

  15. An efficient entire chaos-based scheme for deniable authentication

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xiao Di [College of Computer Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044 (China) and College of Mechanical Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044 (China)]. E-mail: xiaodi_cqu@hotmail.com; Liao Xiaofeng [College of Computer Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044 (China); Wong, K.W. [Department of Computer Engineering and Information Technology, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (China)

    2005-02-01

    By using a chaotic encryption-hash parallel algorithm and the semi-group property of Chebyshev chaotic map, we propose a secure and efficient scheme for the deniable authentication. The scheme is efficient, practicable and reliable, with high potential to be adopted for e-commerce.

  16. Surviving the Lead Reliability Engineer Role in High Unit Value Projects

    Science.gov (United States)

    Perez, Reinaldo J.

    2011-01-01

    A project with a very high unit value within a company is defined as a project where a) the project constitutes one of a kind (or two-of-a-kind) national asset type of project, b) very large cost, and c) a mission failure would be a very public event that will hurt the company's image. The Lead Reliability engineer in a high visibility project is by default involved in all phases of the project, from conceptual design to manufacture and testing. This paper explores a series of lessons learned, over a period of ten years of practical industrial experience by a Lead Reliability Engineer. We expand on the concepts outlined by these lessons learned via examples. The lessons learned are applicable to all industries.

  17. Reliability and efficiency upgrades of power systems operation by implementing intelligent electronic devices with synchrophasor measurement technology support

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mokeev Alexey

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper reviews issues of reliability and efficiency upgrades of power systems functions by means of a widespread implementation of intelligent electronic devices (IED in various purposes supporting synchrophasor measurement technology. Thus, such issues as IED’s operational analysis in the conditions of electromagnetic and electromechanical transient processes and synthesis of digital filters that improve static and dynamic responses of these devices play an important role in their development.

  18. Reliability engineering for nuclear and other high technology systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lakner, A.A.; Anderson, R.T.

    1985-01-01

    This book is written for the reliability instructor, program manager, system engineer, design engineer, reliability engineer, nuclear regulator, probability risk assessment (PRA) analyst, general manager and others who are involved in system hardware acquisition, design and operation and are concerned with plant safety and operational cost-effectiveness. It provides criteria, guidelines and comprehensive engineering data affecting reliability; it covers the key aspects of system reliability as it relates to conceptual planning, cost tradeoff decisions, specification, contractor selection, design, test and plant acceptance and operation. It treats reliability as an integrated methodology, explicitly describing life cycle management techniques as well as the basic elements of a total hardware development program, including: reliability parameters and design improvement attributes, reliability testing, reliability engineering and control. It describes how these elements can be defined during procurement, and implemented during design and development to yield reliable equipment. (author)

  19. High reliability fuel in the US

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neuhold, R.J.; Leggett, R.D.; Walters, L.C.; Matthews, R.B.

    1986-05-01

    The fuels development program of the United States is described for liquid metal reactors (LMR's). The experience base, status and future potential are discussed for the three systems - oxide, metal and carbide - that have proved to have high reliability. Information is presented showing burnup capability of the oxide fuel system in a large core, e.g., FFTF, to be 150 MWd/kgM with today's technology with the potential for a capability as high as 300 MWd/kgM. Data provided for the metal fuel system show 8 at. % being routinely achieved as the EBR-II driver fuel with good potential for extending this to 15 at. % since special test pins have already exceeded this burnup level. The data included for the carbide fuel system are from pin and assembly irradiations in EBR-II and FFTF, respectively. Burnup to 12 at. % appears readily achievable with burnups to 20 at. % being demonstrated in a few pins. Efforts continue on all three systems with the bulk of the activity on metal and oxide

  20. Reliability of an Automated High-Resolution Manometry Analysis Program across Expert Users, Novice Users, and Speech-Language Pathologists

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jones, Corinne A.; Hoffman, Matthew R.; Geng, Zhixian; Abdelhalim, Suzan M.; Jiang, Jack J.; McCulloch, Timothy M.

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate inter- and intrarater reliability among expert users, novice users, and speech-language pathologists with a semiautomated high-resolution manometry analysis program. We hypothesized that all users would have high intrarater reliability and high interrater reliability. Method: Three expert…

  1. Evaluation of nodal reliability risk in a deregulated power system with photovoltaic power penetration

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhao, Qian; Wang, Peng; Goel, Lalit

    2014-01-01

    Owing to the intermittent characteristic of solar radiation, power system reliability may be affected with high photovoltaic (PV) power penetration. To reduce large variation of PV power, additional system balancing reserve would be needed. In deregulated power systems, deployment of reserves...... and customer reliability requirements are correlated with energy and reserve prices. Therefore a new method should be developed to evaluate the impacts of PV power on customer reliability and system reserve deployment in the new environment. In this study, a method based on the pseudo-sequential Monte Carlo...... simulation technique has been proposed to evaluate the reserve deployment and customers' nodal reliability with high PV power penetration. The proposed method can effectively model the chronological aspects and stochastic characteristics of PV power and system operation with high computation efficiency...

  2. HIGH EFFICIENCY TURBINE

    OpenAIRE

    VARMA, VIJAYA KRUSHNA

    2012-01-01

    Varma designed ultra modern and high efficiency turbines which can use gas, steam or fuels as feed to produce electricity or mechanical work for wide range of usages and applications in industries or at work sites. Varma turbine engines can be used in all types of vehicles. These turbines can also be used in aircraft, ships, battle tanks, dredgers, mining equipment, earth moving machines etc, Salient features of Varma Turbines. 1. Varma turbines are simple in design, easy to manufac...

  3. Modeling Sensor Reliability in Fault Diagnosis Based on Evidence Theory

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kaijuan Yuan

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Sensor data fusion plays an important role in fault diagnosis. Dempster–Shafer (D-R evidence theory is widely used in fault diagnosis, since it is efficient to combine evidence from different sensors. However, under the situation where the evidence highly conflicts, it may obtain a counterintuitive result. To address the issue, a new method is proposed in this paper. Not only the statistic sensor reliability, but also the dynamic sensor reliability are taken into consideration. The evidence distance function and the belief entropy are combined to obtain the dynamic reliability of each sensor report. A weighted averaging method is adopted to modify the conflict evidence by assigning different weights to evidence according to sensor reliability. The proposed method has better performance in conflict management and fault diagnosis due to the fact that the information volume of each sensor report is taken into consideration. An application in fault diagnosis based on sensor fusion is illustrated to show the efficiency of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method improves the accuracy of fault diagnosis from 81.19% to 89.48% compared to the existing methods.

  4. Economic efficiency or self-sufficiency: alternative strategies for oil consumers?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Heal, D.W.

    1992-01-01

    The ideal energy source is low cost (efficient) and reliable (secure). The high price and perceived political unreliability of Middle East oil supplies prompted a nearly worldwide trend towards energy self-sufficiency. Gains in energy efficiency, which have been most marked in the OECD, are permanent and, prompted by environmental concern, probably progressive. But the opportunity that is still available to low cost oil suppliers to regain lost markets will only be realized if those supplies are demonstrably reliable. (author)

  5. Gamma-ray spectrometer system with high efficiency and high resolution

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moss, C.E.; Bernard, W.; Dowdy, E.J.; Garcia, C.; Lucas, M.C.; Pratt, J.C.

    1983-01-01

    Our gamma-ray spectrometer system, designed for field use, offers high efficiency and high resolution for safeguards applications. The system consists of three 40% high-purity germanium detectors and a LeCroy 3500 data acquisition system that calculates a composite spectrum for the three detectors. The LeCroy 3500 mainframe can be operated remotely from the detector array with control exercised through modems and the telephone system. System performance with a mixed source of 125 Sb, 154 Eu, and 155 Eu confirms the expected efficiency of 120% with the overall resolution showing little degradation over that of the worst detector

  6. High reliable and Real-time Data Communication Network Technology for Nuclear Power Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeong, K. I.; Lee, J. K.; Choi, Y. R.; Lee, J. C.; Choi, Y. S.; Cho, J. W.; Hong, S. B.; Jung, J. E.; Koo, I. S.

    2008-03-01

    As advanced digital Instrumentation and Control (I and C) system of NPP(Nuclear Power Plant) are being introduced to replace analog systems, a Data Communication Network(DCN) is becoming the important system for transmitting the data generated by I and C systems in NPP. In order to apply the DCNs to NPP I and C design, DCNs should conform to applicable acceptance criteria and meet the reliability and safety goals of the system. As response time is impacted by the selected protocol, network topology, network performance, and the network configuration of I and C system, DCNs should transmit a data within time constraints and response time required by I and C systems to satisfy response time requirements of I and C system. To meet these requirements, the DCNs of NPP I and C should be a high reliable and real-time system. With respect to high reliable and real-time system, several reports and techniques having influences upon the reliability and real-time requirements of DCNs are surveyed and analyzed

  7. High voltage generator circuit with low power and high efficiency applied in EEPROM

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu Yan; Zhang Shilin; Zhao Yiqiang

    2012-01-01

    This paper presents a low power and high efficiency high voltage generator circuit embedded in electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM). The low power is minimized by a capacitance divider circuit and a regulator circuit using the controlling clock switch technique. The high efficiency is dependent on the zero threshold voltage (V th ) MOSFET and the charge transfer switch (CTS) charge pump. The proposed high voltage generator circuit has been implemented in a 0.35 μm EEPROM CMOS process. Measured results show that the proposed high voltage generator circuit has a low power consumption of about 150.48 μW and a higher pumping efficiency (83.3%) than previously reported circuits. This high voltage generator circuit can also be widely used in low-power flash devices due to its high efficiency and low power dissipation. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

  8. Managing the higher risks of low-cost high-efficiency advanced power generation technologies

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pearson, M.

    1997-01-01

    Independent power producers operate large coal-fired installations and gas turbine combined-cycle (GTCC) facilities. Combined cycle units are complex and their reliability and availability is greatly influenced by mechanical, instrumentation and control weaknesses. It was suggested that these weaknesses could be avoided by tighter specifications and more rigorous functional testing before acceptance by the owner. For the present, the difficulties of developing reliable, lower installed cost/kw, more efficient GTCC designs, pressure for lower NO x emissions with 'dry' combustors continue to be the most difficult challenges for all GT manufacturers

  9. Sandwich-structured polymer nanocomposites with high energy density and great charge–discharge efficiency at elevated temperatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Qi; Liu, Feihua; Yang, Tiannan; Gadinski, Matthew R.; Zhang, Guangzu; Chen, Long-Qing; Wang, Qing

    2016-01-01

    The demand for a new generation of high-temperature dielectric materials toward capacitive energy storage has been driven by the rise of high-power applications such as electric vehicles, aircraft, and pulsed power systems where the power electronics are exposed to elevated temperatures. Polymer dielectrics are characterized by being lightweight, and their scalability, mechanical flexibility, high dielectric strength, and great reliability, but they are limited to relatively low operating temperatures. The existing polymer nanocomposite-based dielectrics with a limited energy density at high temperatures also present a major barrier to achieving significant reductions in size and weight of energy devices. Here we report the sandwich structures as an efficient route to high-temperature dielectric polymer nanocomposites that simultaneously possess high dielectric constant and low dielectric loss. In contrast to the conventional single-layer configuration, the rationally designed sandwich-structured polymer nanocomposites are capable of integrating the complementary properties of spatially organized multicomponents in a synergistic fashion to raise dielectric constant, and subsequently greatly improve discharged energy densities while retaining low loss and high charge–discharge efficiency at elevated temperatures. At 150 °C and 200 MV m−1, an operating condition toward electric vehicle applications, the sandwich-structured polymer nanocomposites outperform the state-of-the-art polymer-based dielectrics in terms of energy density, power density, charge–discharge efficiency, and cyclability. The excellent dielectric and capacitive properties of the polymer nanocomposites may pave a way for widespread applications in modern electronics and power modules where harsh operating conditions are present. PMID:27551101

  10. REMOTE SENSING APPLICATIONS WITH HIGH RELIABILITY IN CHANGJIANG WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Ma

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available Remote sensing technology has been widely used in many fields. But most of the applications cannot get the information with high reliability and high accuracy in large scale, especially for the applications using automatic interpretation methods. We have designed an application-oriented technology system (PIR composed of a series of accurate interpretation techniques,which can get over 85 % correctness in Water Resource Management from the view of photogrammetry and expert knowledge. The techniques compose of the spatial positioning techniques from the view of photogrammetry, the feature interpretation techniques from the view of expert knowledge, and the rationality analysis techniques from the view of data mining. Each interpreted polygon is accurate enough to be applied to the accuracy sensitive projects, such as the Three Gorge Project and the South - to - North Water Diversion Project. In this paper, we present several remote sensing applications with high reliability in Changjiang Water Resource Management,including water pollution investigation, illegal construction inspection, and water conservation monitoring, etc.

  11. Remote Sensing Applications with High Reliability in Changjiang Water Resource Management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ma, L.; Gao, S.; Yang, A.

    2018-04-01

    Remote sensing technology has been widely used in many fields. But most of the applications cannot get the information with high reliability and high accuracy in large scale, especially for the applications using automatic interpretation methods. We have designed an application-oriented technology system (PIR) composed of a series of accurate interpretation techniques,which can get over 85 % correctness in Water Resource Management from the view of photogrammetry and expert knowledge. The techniques compose of the spatial positioning techniques from the view of photogrammetry, the feature interpretation techniques from the view of expert knowledge, and the rationality analysis techniques from the view of data mining. Each interpreted polygon is accurate enough to be applied to the accuracy sensitive projects, such as the Three Gorge Project and the South - to - North Water Diversion Project. In this paper, we present several remote sensing applications with high reliability in Changjiang Water Resource Management,including water pollution investigation, illegal construction inspection, and water conservation monitoring, etc.

  12. Testing the reliability and efficiency of the pilot Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) for systematic mixed studies review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pace, Romina; Pluye, Pierre; Bartlett, Gillian; Macaulay, Ann C; Salsberg, Jon; Jagosh, Justin; Seller, Robbyn

    2012-01-01

    Systematic literature reviews identify, select, appraise, and synthesize relevant literature on a particular topic. Typically, these reviews examine primary studies based on similar methods, e.g., experimental trials. In contrast, interest in a new form of review, known as mixed studies review (MSR), which includes qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies, is growing. In MSRs, reviewers appraise studies that use different methods allowing them to obtain in-depth answers to complex research questions. However, appraising the quality of studies with different methods remains challenging. To facilitate systematic MSRs, a pilot Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) has been developed at McGill University (a checklist and a tutorial), which can be used to concurrently appraise the methodological quality of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies. The purpose of the present study is to test the reliability and efficiency of a pilot version of the MMAT. The Center for Participatory Research at McGill conducted a systematic MSR on the benefits of Participatory Research (PR). Thirty-two PR evaluation studies were appraised by two independent reviewers using the pilot MMAT. Among these, 11 (34%) involved nurses as researchers or research partners. Appraisal time was measured to assess efficiency. Inter-rater reliability was assessed by calculating a kappa statistic based on dichotomized responses for each criterion. An appraisal score was determined for each study, which allowed the calculation of an overall intra-class correlation. On average, it took 14 min to appraise a study (excluding the initial reading of articles). Agreement between reviewers was moderate to perfect with regards to MMAT criteria, and substantial with respect to the overall quality score of appraised studies. The MMAT is unique, thus the reliability of the pilot MMAT is promising, and encourages further development. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  13. Least reliable bits coding (LRBC) for high data rate satellite communications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanderaar, Mark; Budinger, James; Wagner, Paul

    1992-01-01

    LRBC, a bandwidth efficient multilevel/multistage block-coded modulation technique, is analyzed. LRBC uses simple multilevel component codes that provide increased error protection on increasingly unreliable modulated bits in order to maintain an overall high code rate that increases spectral efficiency. Soft-decision multistage decoding is used to make decisions on unprotected bits through corrections made on more protected bits. Analytical expressions and tight performance bounds are used to show that LRBC can achieve increased spectral efficiency and maintain equivalent or better power efficiency compared to that of BPSK. The relative simplicity of Galois field algebra vs the Viterbi algorithm and the availability of high-speed commercial VLSI for block codes indicates that LRBC using block codes is a desirable method for high data rate implementations.

  14. A least squares approach for efficient and reliable short-term versus long-term optimization

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Christiansen, Lasse Hjuler; Capolei, Andrea; Jørgensen, John Bagterp

    2017-01-01

    The uncertainties related to long-term forecasts of oil prices impose significant financial risk on ventures of oil production. To minimize risk, oil companies are inclined to maximize profit over short-term horizons ranging from months to a few years. In contrast, conventional production...... optimization maximizes long-term profits over horizons that span more than a decade. To address this challenge, the oil literature has introduced short-term versus long-term optimization. Ideally, this problem is solved by a posteriori multi-objective optimization methods that generate an approximation...... the balance between the objectives, leaving an unfulfilled potential to increase profits. To promote efficient and reliable short-term versus long-term optimization, this paper introduces a natural way to characterize desirable Pareto points and proposes a novel least squares (LS) method. Unlike hierarchical...

  15. AK-SYS: An adaptation of the AK-MCS method for system reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fauriat, W.; Gayton, N.

    2014-01-01

    A lot of research work has been proposed over the last two decades to evaluate the probability of failure of a structure involving a very time-consuming mechanical model. Surrogate model approaches based on Kriging, such as the Efficient Global Reliability Analysis (EGRA) or the Active learning and Kriging-based Monte-Carlo Simulation (AK-MCS) methods, are very efficient and each has advantages of its own. EGRA is well suited to evaluating small probabilities, as the surrogate can be used to classify any population. AK-MCS is built in relation to a given population and requires no optimization program for the active learning procedure to be performed. It is therefore easier to implement and more likely to spend computational effort on areas with a significant probability content. When assessing system reliability, analytical approaches and first-order approximation are widely used in the literature. However, in the present paper we rather focus on sampling techniques and, considering the recent adaptation of the EGRA method for systems, a strategy is presented to adapt the AK-MCS method for system reliability. The AK-SYS method, “Active learning and Kriging-based SYStem reliability method”, is presented. Its high efficiency and accuracy are illustrated via various examples

  16. Study on application of a high-speed trigger-type SFCL (TSFCL) for interconnection of power systems with different reliabilities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Hye Ji; Yoon, Yong Tae

    2016-01-01

    Highlights: • Application of TSFCL to interconnect systems with different reliabilities is proposed. • TSFCL protects a grid by preventing detrimental effects from being delivered through the interconnection line. • A high-speed TSFCL with high impedance for transmission systems is required to be developed. - Abstract: Interconnection of power systems is one effective way to improve power supply reliability. However, differences in the reliability of each power system create a greater obstacle for the stable interconnection of power systems, as after interconnection a high-reliability system is affected by frequent faults in low reliability side systems. Several power system interconnection methods, such as the back-to-back method and the installation of either transformers or series reactors, have been investigated to counteract the damage caused by faults in the other neighboring systems. However, these methods are uneconomical and require complex operational management plans. In this work, a high-speed trigger-type superconducting fault current limiter (TSFCL) with large-impedance is proposed as a solution to maintain reliability and power quality when a high reliability power system is interconnected with a low reliability power system. Through analysis of the reliability index for the numerical examples obtained from a PSCAD/EMTDC simulator, a high-speed TSFCL with a large-impedance is confirmed to be effective for the interconnection between power systems with different reliabilities.

  17. Development and characterization of high-efficiency, high-specific impulse xenon Hall thrusters

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hofer, Richard Robert

    This dissertation presents research aimed at extending the efficient operation of 1600 s specific impulse Hall thruster technology to the 2000--3000 s range. While recent studies of commercially developed Hall thrusters demonstrated greater than 4000 s specific impulse, maximum efficiency occurred at less than 3000 s. It was hypothesized that the efficiency maximum resulted as a consequence of modern magnetic field designs, optimized for 1600 s, which were unsuitable at high-specific impulse. Motivated by the industry efforts and mission studies, the aim of this research was to develop and characterize xenon Hall thrusters capable of both high-specific impulse and high-efficiency operation. The research divided into development and characterization phases. During the development phase, the laboratory-model NASA-173M Hall thrusters were designed with plasma lens magnetic field topographies and their performance and plasma characteristics were evaluated. Experiments with the NASA-173M version 1 (v1) validated the plasma lens design by showing how changing the magnetic field topography at high-specific impulse improved efficiency. Experiments with the NASA-173M version 2 (v2) showed there was a minimum current density and optimum magnetic field topography at which efficiency monotonically increased with voltage. Between 300--1000 V, total specific impulse and total efficiency of the NASA-173Mv2 operating at 10 mg/s ranged from 1600--3400 s and 51--61%, respectively. Comparison of the thrusters showed that efficiency can be optimized for specific impulse by varying the plasma lens design. During the characterization phase, additional plasma properties of the NASA-173Mv2 were measured and a performance model was derived accounting for a multiply-charged, partially-ionized plasma. Results from the model based on experimental data showed how efficient operation at high-specific impulse was enabled through regulation of the electron current with the magnetic field. The

  18. Reliability studies of a high-power proton accelerator for accelerator-driven system applications for nuclear waste transmutation

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Burgazzi, Luciano [ENEA-Centro Ricerche ' Ezio Clementel' , Advanced Physics Technology Division, Via Martiri di Monte Sole, 4, 40129 Bologna (Italy)]. E-mail: burgazzi@bologna.enea.it; Pierini, Paolo [INFN-Sezione di Milano, Laboratorio Acceleratori e Superconduttivita Applicata, Via Fratelli Cervi 201, I-20090 Segrate (MI) (Italy)

    2007-04-15

    The main effort of the present study is to analyze the availability and reliability of a high-performance linac (linear accelerator) conceived for Accelerator-Driven Systems (ADS) purpose and to suggest recommendations, in order both to meet the high operability goals and to satisfy the safety requirements dictated by the reactor system. Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD) approach has been considered for system modelling, according to the present level of definition of the design: component failure modes are assessed in terms of Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), reliability and availability figures are derived, applying the current reliability algorithms. The lack of a well-established component database has been pointed out as the main issue related to the accelerator reliability assessment. The results, affected by the conservative character of the study, show a high margin for the improvement in terms of accelerator reliability and availability figures prediction. The paper outlines the viable path towards the accelerator reliability and availability enhancement process and delineates the most proper strategies. The improvement in the reliability characteristics along this path is shown as well.

  19. Reliability studies of a high-power proton accelerator for accelerator-driven system applications for nuclear waste transmutation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burgazzi, Luciano; Pierini, Paolo

    2007-01-01

    The main effort of the present study is to analyze the availability and reliability of a high-performance linac (linear accelerator) conceived for Accelerator-Driven Systems (ADS) purpose and to suggest recommendations, in order both to meet the high operability goals and to satisfy the safety requirements dictated by the reactor system. Reliability Block Diagrams (RBD) approach has been considered for system modelling, according to the present level of definition of the design: component failure modes are assessed in terms of Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) and Mean Time To Repair (MTTR), reliability and availability figures are derived, applying the current reliability algorithms. The lack of a well-established component database has been pointed out as the main issue related to the accelerator reliability assessment. The results, affected by the conservative character of the study, show a high margin for the improvement in terms of accelerator reliability and availability figures prediction. The paper outlines the viable path towards the accelerator reliability and availability enhancement process and delineates the most proper strategies. The improvement in the reliability characteristics along this path is shown as well

  20. A novel high reliability CMOS SRAM cell

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Xie Chengmin; Wang Zhongfang; Wu Longsheng; Liu Youbao, E-mail: hglnew@sina.com [Computer Research and Design Department, Xi' an Microelectronic Technique Institutes, Xi' an 710054 (China)

    2011-07-15

    A novel 8T single-event-upset (SEU) hardened and high static noise margin (SNM) SRAM cell is proposed. By adding one transistor paralleled with each access transistor, the drive capability of pull-up PMOS is greater than that of the conventional cell and the read access transistors are weaker than that of the conventional cell. So the hold, read SNM and critical charge increase greatly. The simulation results show that the critical charge is almost three times larger than that of the conventional 6T cell by appropriately sizing the pull-up transistors. The hold and read SNM of the new cell increase by 72% and 141.7%, respectively, compared to the 6T design, but it has a 54% area overhead and read performance penalty. According to these features, this novel cell suits high reliability applications, such as aerospace and military. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

  1. A novel high reliability CMOS SRAM cell

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Xie Chengmin; Wang Zhongfang; Wu Longsheng; Liu Youbao

    2011-01-01

    A novel 8T single-event-upset (SEU) hardened and high static noise margin (SNM) SRAM cell is proposed. By adding one transistor paralleled with each access transistor, the drive capability of pull-up PMOS is greater than that of the conventional cell and the read access transistors are weaker than that of the conventional cell. So the hold, read SNM and critical charge increase greatly. The simulation results show that the critical charge is almost three times larger than that of the conventional 6T cell by appropriately sizing the pull-up transistors. The hold and read SNM of the new cell increase by 72% and 141.7%, respectively, compared to the 6T design, but it has a 54% area overhead and read performance penalty. According to these features, this novel cell suits high reliability applications, such as aerospace and military. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

  2. High-efficiency white OLEDs based on small molecules

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatwar, Tukaram K.; Spindler, Jeffrey P.; Ricks, M. L.; Young, Ralph H.; Hamada, Yuuhiko; Saito, N.; Mameno, Kazunobu; Nishikawa, Ryuji; Takahashi, Hisakazu; Rajeswaran, G.

    2004-02-01

    Eastman Kodak Company and SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. recently demonstrated a 15" full-color, organic light-emitting diode display (OLED) using a high-efficiency white emitter combined with a color-filter array. Although useful for display applications, white emission from organic structures is also under consideration for other applications, such as solid-state lighting, where high efficiency and good color rendition are important. By incorporating adjacent blue and orange emitting layers in a multi-layer structure, highly efficient, stable white emission has been attained. With suitable host and dopant combinations, a luminance yield of 20 cd/A and efficiency of 8 lm/W have been achieved at a drive voltage of less than 8 volts and luminance level of 1000 cd/m2. The estimated external efficiency of this device is 6.3% and a high level of operational stability is observed. To our knowledge, this is the highest performance reported so far for white organic electroluminescent devices. We will review white OLED technology and discuss the fabrication and operating characteristics of these devices.

  3. Approaches to achieve high grain yield and high resource use efficiency in rice

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jianchang YANG

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available This article discusses approaches to simultaneously increase grain yield and resource use efficiency in rice. Breeding nitrogen efficient cultivars without sacrificing rice yield potential, improving grain fill in later-flowering inferior spikelets and enhancing harvest index are three important approaches to achieving the dual goal of high grain yield and high resource use efficiency. Deeper root distribution and higher leaf photosynthetic N use efficiency at lower N rates could be used as selection criteria to develop N-efficient cultivars. Enhancing sink activity through increasing sugar-spikelet ratio at the heading time and enhancing the conversion efficiency from sucrose to starch though increasing the ratio of abscisic acid to ethylene in grains during grain fill could effectively improve grain fill in inferior spikelets. Several practices, such as post-anthesis controlled soil drying, an alternate wetting and moderate soil drying regime during the whole growing season, and non-flooded straw mulching cultivation, could substantially increase grain yield and water use efficiency, mainly via enhanced remobilization of stored carbon from vegetative tissues to grains and improved harvest index. Further research is needed to understand synergistic interaction between water and N on crop and soil and the mechanism underlying high resource use efficiency in high-yielding rice.

  4. High-efficiency pump for space helium transfer. Final Technical Report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hasenbein, R.; Izenson, M.G.; Swift, W.L.; Sixsmith, H.

    1991-12-01

    A centrifugal pump was developed for the efficient and reliable transfer of liquid helium in space. The pump can be used to refill cryostats on orbiting satellites which use liquid helium for refrigeration at extremely low temperatures. The pump meets the head and flow requirements of on-orbit helium transfer: a flow rate of 800 L/hr at a head of 128 J/kg. The overall pump efficiency at the design point is 0.45. The design head and flow requirements are met with zero net positive suction head, which is the condition in an orbiting helium supply Dewar. The mass transfer efficiency calculated for a space transfer operation is 0.99. Steel ball bearings are used with gas fiber-reinforced teflon retainers to provide solid lubrication. These bearings have demonstrated the longest life in liquid helium endurance tests under simulated pumping conditions. Technology developed in the project also has application for liquid helium circulation in terrestrial facilities and for transfer of cryogenic rocket propellants in space

  5. High-Efficiency Amorphous Silicon Alloy Based Solar Cells and Modules; Final Technical Progress Report, 30 May 2002--31 May 2005

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Guha, S.; Yang, J.

    2005-10-01

    The principal objective of this R&D program is to expand, enhance, and accelerate knowledge and capabilities for development of high-efficiency hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and amorphous silicon-germanium alloy (a-SiGe:H) related thin-film multijunction solar cells and modules with low manufacturing cost and high reliability. Our strategy has been to use the spectrum-splitting triple-junction structure, a-Si:H/a-SiGe:H/a-SiGe:H, to improve solar cell and module efficiency, stability, and throughput of production. The methodology used to achieve the objectives included: (1) explore the highest stable efficiency using the triple-junction structure deposited using RF glow discharge at a low rate, (2) fabricate the devices at a high deposition rate for high throughput and low cost, and (3) develop an optimized recipe using the R&D batch large-area reactor to help the design and optimization of the roll-to-roll production machines. For short-term goals, we have worked on the improvement of a-Si:H and a-SiGe:H alloy solar cells. a-Si:H and a-SiGe:H are the foundation of current a-Si:H based thin-film photovoltaic technology. Any improvement in cell efficiency, throughput, and cost reduction will immediately improve operation efficiency of our manufacturing plant, allowing us to further expand our production capacity.

  6. Computing with memory for energy-efficient robust systems

    CERN Document Server

    Paul, Somnath

    2013-01-01

    This book analyzes energy and reliability as major challenges faced by designers of computing frameworks in the nanometer technology regime.  The authors describe the existing solutions to address these challenges and then reveal a new reconfigurable computing platform, which leverages high-density nanoscale memory for both data storage and computation to maximize the energy-efficiency and reliability. The energy and reliability benefits of this new paradigm are illustrated and the design challenges are discussed. Various hardware and software aspects of this exciting computing paradigm are de

  7. Efficiency and Loading Evaluation of High Efficiency Mist Eliminators (HEME) - 12003

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Giffin, Paxton K.; Parsons, Michael S.; Waggoner, Charles A. [Institute for Clean Energy Technology, Mississippi State University, 205 Research Blvd Starkville, MS 39759 (United States)

    2012-07-01

    High efficiency mist eliminators (HEME) are filters primarily used to remove moisture and/or liquid aerosols from an air stream. HEME elements are designed to reduce aerosol and particulate load on primary High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filters and to have a liquid particle removal efficiency of approximately 99.5% for aerosols down to sub-micron size particulates. The investigation presented here evaluates the loading capacity of the element in the absence of a water spray cleaning system. The theory is that without the cleaning system, the HEME element will suffer rapid buildup of solid aerosols, greatly reducing the particle loading capacity. Evaluation consists of challenging the element with a waste surrogate dry aerosol and di-octyl phthalate (DOP) at varying intervals of differential pressure to examine the filtering efficiency of three different element designs at three different media velocities. Also, the elements are challenged with a liquid waste surrogate using Laskin nozzles and large dispersion nozzles. These tests allow the loading capacity of the unit to be determined and the effectiveness of washing down the interior of the elements to be evaluated. (authors)

  8. Increase of efficiency and reliability of liquid fuel combustion in small-sized boilers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roslyakov, P. V.; Proskurin, Yu V.; Ionkin, I. L.

    2017-11-01

    One of the ways to increase the efficiency of using fuels is to create highly efficient domestic energy equipment, in particular small-sized hot-water boilers in autonomous heating systems. Increasing the efficiency of the boiler requires a reduction in the temperature of the flue gases leaving, which, in turn, can be achieved by installing additional heating surfaces. The purpose of this work was to determine the principal design solutions and to develop a draft design for a high-efficiency 3-MW hot-water boiler using crude oil as its main fuel. Ensuring a high efficiency of the boiler is realized through the use of an external remote economizer, which makes it possible to reduce the dimensions of the boiler, facilitate the layout of equipment in a limited size block-modular boiler house and virtually eliminate low-temperature corrosion of boiler heat exchange surfaces. In the article the variants of execution of the water boiler and remote economizer are considered and the preliminary design calculations of the remote economizer for various schemes of the boiler layout in the Boiler Designer software package are made. Based on the results of the studies, a scheme was chosen with a three-way boiler and a two-way remote economizer. The design of a three-way fire tube hot water boiler and an external economizer with an internal arrangement of the collectors, providing for its location above the boiler in a block-modular boiler house and providing access for servicing both a remote economizer and a hot water boiler, is proposed. Its mass-dimensional and design parameters are determined. In the software package Boiler Designer thermal, hydraulic and aerodynamic calculations of the developed fire tube boiler have been performed. Optimization of the boiler design was performed, providing the required 94% efficiency value for crude oil combustion. The description of the developed flue and fire-tube hot water boiler and the value of the main design and technical and

  9. An efficient phased mission reliability analysis for autonomous vehicles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Remenyte-Prescott, R., E-mail: R.Remenyte-Prescott@nottingham.ac.u [Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD (United Kingdom); Andrews, J.D. [Nottingham Transportation Engineering Centre, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD (United Kingdom); Chung, P.W.H. [Department of Computer Science, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU (United Kingdom)

    2010-03-15

    Autonomous systems are becoming more commonly used, especially in hazardous situations. Such systems are expected to make their own decisions about future actions when some capabilities degrade due to failures of their subsystems. Such decisions are made without human input, therefore they need to be well-informed in a short time when the situation is analysed and future consequences of the failure are estimated. The future planning of the mission should take account of the likelihood of mission failure. The reliability analysis for autonomous systems can be performed using the methodologies developed for phased mission analysis, where the causes of failure for each phase in the mission can be expressed by fault trees. Unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) are of a particular interest in the aeronautical industry, where it is a long term ambition to operate them routinely in civil airspace. Safety is the main requirement for the UAV operation and the calculation of failure probability of each phase and the overall mission is the topic of this paper. When components or subsystems fail or environmental conditions throughout the mission change, these changes can affect the future mission. The new proposed methodology takes into account the available diagnostics data and is used to predict future capabilities of the UAV in real time. Since this methodology is based on the efficient BDD method, the quickly provided advice can be used in making decisions. When failures occur appropriate actions are required in order to preserve safety of the autonomous vehicle. The overall decision making strategy for autonomous vehicles is explained in this paper. Some limitations of the methodology are discussed and further improvements are presented based on experimental results.

  10. An efficient phased mission reliability analysis for autonomous vehicles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Remenyte-Prescott, R.; Andrews, J.D.; Chung, P.W.H.

    2010-01-01

    Autonomous systems are becoming more commonly used, especially in hazardous situations. Such systems are expected to make their own decisions about future actions when some capabilities degrade due to failures of their subsystems. Such decisions are made without human input, therefore they need to be well-informed in a short time when the situation is analysed and future consequences of the failure are estimated. The future planning of the mission should take account of the likelihood of mission failure. The reliability analysis for autonomous systems can be performed using the methodologies developed for phased mission analysis, where the causes of failure for each phase in the mission can be expressed by fault trees. Unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) are of a particular interest in the aeronautical industry, where it is a long term ambition to operate them routinely in civil airspace. Safety is the main requirement for the UAV operation and the calculation of failure probability of each phase and the overall mission is the topic of this paper. When components or subsystems fail or environmental conditions throughout the mission change, these changes can affect the future mission. The new proposed methodology takes into account the available diagnostics data and is used to predict future capabilities of the UAV in real time. Since this methodology is based on the efficient BDD method, the quickly provided advice can be used in making decisions. When failures occur appropriate actions are required in order to preserve safety of the autonomous vehicle. The overall decision making strategy for autonomous vehicles is explained in this paper. Some limitations of the methodology are discussed and further improvements are presented based on experimental results.

  11. Technology Improvement for the High Reliability LM-2F Launch Vehicle

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    QIN Tong; RONG Yi; ZHENG Liwei; ZHANG Zhi

    2017-01-01

    The Long March 2F (LM-2F) launch vehicle,the only launch vehicle designed for manned space flight in China,successfully launched the Tiangong 2 space laboratory and the Shenzhou ll manned spaceship into orbits in 2016 respectively.In this study,it introduces the technological improvements for enhancing the reliability of the LM-2F launch vehicle in the aspects of general technology,control system,manufacture and ground support system.The LM2F launch vehicle will continue to provide more contributions to the Chinese Space Station Project with its high reliability and 100% success rate.

  12. Critical study of high efficiency deep grinding

    OpenAIRE

    Johnstone, lain

    2002-01-01

    The recent years, the aerospace industry in particular has embraced and actively pursued the development of stronger high performance materials, namely nickel based superalloys and hardwearing steels. This has resulted in a need for a more efficient method of machining, and this need was answered with the advent of High Efficiency Deep Grinding (HEDG). This relatively new process using Cubic Boron Nitride (CBN) electroplated grinding wheels has been investigated through experim...

  13. Combustion phasing for maximum efficiency for conventional and high efficiency engines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caton, Jerald A.

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • Combustion phasing for max efficiency is a function of engine parameters. • Combustion phasing is most affected by heat transfer, compression ratio, burn duration. • Combustion phasing is less affected by speed, load, equivalence ratio and EGR. • Combustion phasing for a high efficiency engine was more advanced. • Exergy destruction during combustion as functions of combustion phasing is reported. - Abstract: The importance of the phasing of the combustion event for internal-combustion engines is well appreciated, but quantitative details are sparse. The objective of the current work was to examine the optimum combustion phasing (based on maximum bmep) as functions of engine design and operating variables. A thermodynamic, engine cycle simulation was used to complete this assessment. As metrics for the combustion phasing, both the crank angle for 50% fuel mass burned (CA 50 ) and the crank angle for peak pressure (CA pp ) are reported as functions of the engine variables. In contrast to common statements in the literature, the optimum CA 50 and CA pp vary depending on the design and operating variables. Optimum, as used in this paper, refers to the combustion timing that provides the maximum bmep and brake thermal efficiency (MBT timing). For this work, the variables with the greatest influence on the optimum CA 50 and CA pp were the heat transfer level, the burn duration and the compression ratio. Other variables such as equivalence ratio, EGR level, engine speed and engine load had a much smaller impact on the optimum CA 50 and CA pp . For the conventional engine, for the conditions examined, the optimum CA 50 varied between about 5 and 11°aTDC, and the optimum CA pp varied between about 9 and 16°aTDC. For a high efficiency engine (high dilution, high compression ratio), the optimum CA 50 was 2.5°aTDC, and the optimum CA pp was 7.8°aTDC. These more advanced values for the optimum CA 50 and CA pp for the high efficiency engine were

  14. Basic conceptions for development of new-type high-efficiency cooling towers with enhanced reliability, maneuverability and maintainability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim En Be; Nedviga, Yu.S.

    1990-01-01

    The state-of-the-art of cooling tower design, construction and operation is analysed. From the analysis formulated are general requirements which can be imposed upon cooling towers serving as most important technological apparatuses in water supply systems of thermal and nuclear power plants. With these requirements taken into account, basic research and technical conceptions are developed to be used in designing new-type cooling towers characterized by enhanced reliability, maneuverability and maintainability

  15. Sequential optimization and reliability assessment method for metal forming processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sahai, Atul; Schramm, Uwe; Buranathiti, Thaweepat; Chen Wei; Cao Jian; Xia, Cedric Z.

    2004-01-01

    Uncertainty is inevitable in any design process. The uncertainty could be due to the variations in geometry of the part, material properties or due to the lack of knowledge about the phenomena being modeled itself. Deterministic design optimization does not take uncertainty into account and worst case scenario assumptions lead to vastly over conservative design. Probabilistic design, such as reliability-based design and robust design, offers tools for making robust and reliable decisions under the presence of uncertainty in the design process. Probabilistic design optimization often involves double-loop procedure for optimization and iterative probabilistic assessment. This results in high computational demand. The high computational demand can be reduced by replacing computationally intensive simulation models with less costly surrogate models and by employing Sequential Optimization and reliability assessment (SORA) method. The SORA method uses a single-loop strategy with a series of cycles of deterministic optimization and reliability assessment. The deterministic optimization and reliability assessment is decoupled in each cycle. This leads to quick improvement of design from one cycle to other and increase in computational efficiency. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of Sequential Optimization and Reliability Assessment (SORA) method when applied to designing a sheet metal flanging process. Surrogate models are used as less costly approximations to the computationally expensive Finite Element simulations

  16. Highly efficient red electrophosphorescent devices at high current densities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wu Youzhi; Zhu Wenqing; Zheng Xinyou; Sun, Runguang; Jiang Xueyin; Zhang Zhilin; Xu Shaohong

    2007-01-01

    Efficiency decrease at high current densities in red electrophosphorescent devices is drastically restrained compared with that from conventional electrophosphorescent devices by using bis(2-methyl-8-quinolinato)4-phenylphenolate aluminum (BAlq) as a hole and exciton blocker. Ir complex, bis(2-(2'-benzo[4,5-α]thienyl) pyridinato-N,C 3' ) iridium (acetyl-acetonate) is used as an emitter, maximum external quantum efficiency (QE) of 7.0% and luminance of 10000cd/m 2 are obtained. The QE is still as high as 4.1% at higher current density J=100mA/cm 2 . CIE-1931 co-ordinates are 0.672, 0.321. A carrier trapping mechanism is revealed to dominate in the process of electroluminescence

  17. System principles, mathematical models and methods to ensure high reliability of safety systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zaslavskyi, V.

    2017-04-01

    Modern safety and security systems are composed of a large number of various components designed for detection, localization, tracking, collecting, and processing of information from the systems of monitoring, telemetry, control, etc. They are required to be highly reliable in a view to correctly perform data aggregation, processing and analysis for subsequent decision making support. On design and construction phases of the manufacturing of such systems a various types of components (elements, devices, and subsystems) are considered and used to ensure high reliability of signals detection, noise isolation, and erroneous commands reduction. When generating design solutions for highly reliable systems a number of restrictions and conditions such as types of components and various constrains on resources should be considered. Various types of components perform identical functions; however, they are implemented using diverse principles, approaches and have distinct technical and economic indicators such as cost or power consumption. The systematic use of different component types increases the probability of tasks performing and eliminates the common cause failure. We consider type-variety principle as an engineering principle of system analysis, mathematical models based on this principle, and algorithms for solving optimization problems of highly reliable safety and security systems design. Mathematical models are formalized in a class of two-level discrete optimization problems of large dimension. The proposed approach, mathematical models, algorithms can be used for problem solving of optimal redundancy on the basis of a variety of methods and control devices for fault and defects detection in technical systems, telecommunication networks, and energy systems.

  18. High Efficiency, Low Emission Refrigeration System

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fricke, Brian A [ORNL; Sharma, Vishaldeep [ORNL

    2016-08-01

    Supermarket refrigeration systems account for approximately 50% of supermarket energy use, placing this class of equipment among the highest energy consumers in the commercial building domain. In addition, the commonly used refrigeration system in supermarket applications is the multiplex direct expansion (DX) system, which is prone to refrigerant leaks due to its long lengths of refrigerant piping. This leakage reduces the efficiency of the system and increases the impact of the system on the environment. The high Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants commonly used in these systems, coupled with the large refrigerant charge and the high refrigerant leakage rates leads to significant direct emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Methods for reducing refrigerant leakage and energy consumption are available, but underutilized. Further work needs to be done to reduce costs of advanced system designs to improve market utilization. In addition, refrigeration system retrofits that result in reduced energy consumption are needed since the majority of applications address retrofits rather than new stores. The retrofit market is also of most concern since it involves large-volume refrigerant systems with high leak rates. Finally, alternative refrigerants for new and retrofit applications are needed to reduce emissions and reduce the impact on the environment. The objective of this Collaborative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Hill Phoenix is to develop a supermarket refrigeration system that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and has 25 to 30 percent lower energy consumption than existing systems. The outcomes of this project will include the design of a low emission, high efficiency commercial refrigeration system suitable for use in current U.S. supermarkets. In addition, a prototype low emission, high efficiency supermarket refrigeration system will be produced for

  19. High quality ceramic coatings sprayed by high efficiency hypersonic plasma spraying gun

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhu Sheng; Xu Binshi; Yao JiuKun

    2005-01-01

    This paper introduced the structure of the high efficiency hypersonic plasma spraying gun and the effects of hypersonic plasma jet on the sprayed particles. The optimised spraying process parameters for several ceramic powders such as Al 2 O 3 , Cr 2 O 3 , ZrO 2 , Cr 3 C 2 and Co-WC were listed. The properties and microstructure of the sprayed ceramic coatings were investigated. Nano Al 2 O 3 -TiO 2 ceramic coating sprayed by using the high efficiency hypersonic plasma spraying was also studied. Compared with the conventional air plasma spraying, high efficiency hypersonic plasma spraying improves greatly the ceramic coatings quality but at low cost. (orig.)

  20. Simple Motor Control Concept Results High Efficiency at High Velocities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Starin, Scott; Engel, Chris

    2013-09-01

    The need for high velocity motors in space applications for reaction wheels and detectors has stressed the limits of Brushless Permanent Magnet Motors (BPMM). Due to inherent hysteresis core losses, conventional BPMMs try to balance the need for torque verses hysteresis losses. Cong-less motors have significantly less hysteresis losses but suffer from lower efficiencies. Additionally, the inherent low inductance in cog-less motors result in high ripple currents or high switching frequencies, which lowers overall efficiency and increases performance demands on the control electronics.However, using a somewhat forgotten but fully qualified technology of Isotropic Magnet Motors (IMM), extremely high velocities may be achieved at low power input using conventional drive electronics. This paper will discuss the trade study efforts and empirical test data on a 34,000 RPM IMM.

  1. High efficiency nebulization for helium inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jorabchi, Kaveh; McCormick, Ryan; Levine, Jonathan A.; Liu Huiying; Nam, S.-H.; Montaser, Akbar

    2006-01-01

    A pneumatically-driven, high efficiency nebulizer is explored for helium inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The aerosol characteristics and analyte transport efficiencies of the high efficiency nebulizer for nebulization with helium are measured and compared to the results obtained with argon. Analytical performance indices of the helium inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry are evaluated in terms of detection limits and precision. The helium inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry detection limits obtained with the high efficiency nebulizer at 200 μL/min are higher than those achieved with the ultrasonic nebulizer consuming 2 mL/min solution, however, precision is generally better with high efficiency nebulizer (1-4% vs. 3-8% with ultrasonic nebulizer). Detection limits with the high efficiency nebulizer at 200 μL/min solution uptake rate approach those using ultrasonic nebulizer upon efficient desolvation with a heated spray chamber followed by a Peltier-cooled multipass condenser

  2. 76 FR 72203 - Voltage Coordination on High Voltage Grids; Notice of Reliability Workshop Agenda

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-11-22

    ... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Docket No. AD12-5-000] Voltage Coordination on High Voltage Grids; Notice of Reliability Workshop Agenda As announced in the Notice of Staff..., from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to explore the interaction between voltage control, reliability, and economic...

  3. High Reliability Prototype Quadrupole for the Next Linear Collider

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Spencer, Cherrill M

    2001-01-01

    The Next Linear Collider (NLC) will require over 5600 magnets, each of which must be highly reliable and/or quickly repairable in order that the NLC reach its 85% overall availability goal. A multidiscipline engineering team was assembled at SLAC to develop a more reliable electromagnet design than historically had been achieved at SLAC. This team carried out a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) on a standard SLAC quadrupole magnet system. They overcame a number of longstanding design prejudices, producing 10 major design changes. This paper describes how a prototype magnet was constructed and the extensive testing carried out on it to prove full functionality with an improvement in reliability. The magnet's fabrication cost will be compared to the cost of a magnet with the same requirements made in the historic SLAC way. The NLC will use over 1600 of these 12.7 mm bore quadrupoles with a range of integrated strengths from 0.6 to 132 Tesla, a maximum gradient of 135 Tesla per meter, an adjustment range of 0 to -20% and core lengths from 324 mm to 972 mm. The magnetic center must remain stable to within 1 micron during the 20% adjustment. A magnetic measurement set-up has been developed that can measure sub-micron shifts of a magnetic center. The prototype satisfied the center shift requirement over the full range of integrated strengths

  4. High Efficiency Power Converter for Low Voltage High Power Applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nymand, Morten

    The topic of this thesis is the design of high efficiency power electronic dc-to-dc converters for high-power, low-input-voltage to high-output-voltage applications. These converters are increasingly required for emerging sustainable energy systems such as fuel cell, battery or photo voltaic based...

  5. High-efficient full-duplex WDM-RoF system with sub-central station

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Anliang; Yin, Hongxi; Wu, Bin

    2018-05-01

    With an additional sub-central station (S-CS), a high-efficient full-duplex radio-over-fiber (RoF) system compatible with the wavelength-division-multiplexing technology is proposed and experimentally demonstrated in this paper. To improve the dispersion tolerance of the RoF system, the baseband data format for the downlink and an all-optical down-conversion approach for the uplink are employed. In addition, this RoF system can not only make full use of the fiber link resources but also realize the upstream transmission without any local light sources at remote base stations (BSs). A 10-GHz RoF experimental system with a 1.25-Gb/s rate bidirectional transmission is established based on the S-CS structure. The feasibility and reliability of this RoF system are verified through eye diagrams and bit error rate (BER) curves experimentally obtained.

  6. High Current Planar Transformer for Very High Efficiency Isolated Boost DC-DC Converters

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pittini, Riccardo; Zhang, Zhe; Andersen, Michael A. E.

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a design and optimization of a high current planar transformer for very high efficiency dc-dc isolated boost converters. The analysis considers different winding arrangements, including very high copper thickness windings. The analysis is focused on the winding ac-resistance a......This paper presents a design and optimization of a high current planar transformer for very high efficiency dc-dc isolated boost converters. The analysis considers different winding arrangements, including very high copper thickness windings. The analysis is focused on the winding ac......-resistance and transformer leakage inductance. Design and optimization procedures are validated based on an experimental prototype of a 6 kW dcdc isolated full bridge boost converter developed on fully planar magnetics. The prototype is rated at 30-80 V 0-80 A on the low voltage side and 700-800 V on the high voltage side...... with a peak efficiency of 97.8% at 80 V 3.5 kW. Results highlights that thick copper windings can provide good performance at low switching frequencies due to the high transformer filling factor. PCB windings can also provide very high efficiency if stacked in parallel utilizing the transformer winding window...

  7. High-efficiency silicon solar cells for low-illumination applications

    OpenAIRE

    Glunz, S.W.; Dicker, J.; Esterle, M.; Hermle, M.; Isenberg, J.; Kamerewerd, F.; Knobloch, J.; Kray, D.; Leimenstoll, A.; Lutz, F.; Oßwald, D.; Preu, R.; Rein, S.; Schäffer, E.; Schetter, C.

    2002-01-01

    At Fraunhofer ISE the fabrication of high-efficiency solar cells was extended from a laboratory scale to a small pilot-line production. Primarily, the fabricated cells are used in small high-efficiency modules integrated in prototypes of solar-powered portable electronic devices such as cellular phones, handheld computers etc. Compared to other applications of high-efficiency cells such as solar cars and planes, the illumination densities found in these mainly indoor applications are signific...

  8. A criterion of the performance of thermometric systems of high metrological reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sal'nikov, N.L.; Filimonov, E.V.

    1995-01-01

    Monitoring temperature regimes is an important part of ensuring the operational safety of a nuclear power plant. Therefore, high standards are imposed upon the reliability of the primary information on the heat field of the object obtained from different sensors, and it is urgent to develop methods of evaluating the metrological reliability of these sensors. THe main sources of thermometric information at nuclear power plants are contact temperature sensors, the most widely used of these being thermoelectric converters (TEC) and thermal resistance converters (TRC)

  9. High Efficiency Colloidal Quantum Dot Phosphors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kahen, Keith

    2013-12-31

    The project showed that non-Cd containing, InP-based nanocrystals (semiconductor materials with dimensions of ~6 nm) have high potential for enabling next-generation, nanocrystal-based, on chip phosphors for solid state lighting. Typical nanocrystals fall short of the requirements for on chip phosphors due to their loss of quantum efficiency under the operating conditions of LEDs, such as, high temperature (up to 150 °C) and high optical flux (up to 200 W/cm2). The InP-based nanocrystals invented during this project maintain high quantum efficiency (>80%) in polymer-based films under these operating conditions for emission wavelengths ranging from ~530 to 620 nm. These nanocrystals also show other desirable attributes, such as, lack of blinking (a common problem with nanocrystals which limits their performance) and no increase in the emission spectral width from room to 150 °C (emitters with narrower spectral widths enable higher efficiency LEDs). Prior to these nanocrystals, no nanocrystal system (regardless of nanocrystal type) showed this collection of properties; in fact, other nanocrystal systems are typically limited to showing only one desirable trait (such as high temperature stability) but being deficient in other properties (such as high flux stability). The project showed that one can reproducibly obtain these properties by generating a novel compositional structure inside of the nanomaterials; in addition, the project formulated an initial theoretical framework linking the compositional structure to the list of high performance optical properties. Over the course of the project, the synthetic methodology for producing the novel composition was evolved to enable the synthesis of these nanomaterials at a cost approximately equal to that required for forming typical conventional nanocrystals. Given the above results, the last major remaining step prior to scale up of the nanomaterials is to limit the oxidation of these materials during the tens of

  10. Equipment Reliability Program in NPP Krsko

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Skaler, F.; Djetelic, N.

    2006-01-01

    Operation that is safe, reliable, effective and acceptable to public is the common message in a mission statement of commercial nuclear power plants (NPPs). To fulfill these goals, nuclear industry, among other areas, has to focus on: 1 Human Performance (HU) and 2 Equipment Reliability (EQ). The performance objective of HU is as follows: The behaviors of all personnel result in safe and reliable station operation. While unwanted human behaviors in operations mostly result directly in the event, the behavior flaws either in the area of maintenance or engineering usually cause decreased equipment reliability. Unsatisfied Human performance leads even the best designed power plants into significant operating events, which can be found as well-known examples in nuclear industry. Equipment reliability is today recognized as the key to success. While the human performance at most NPPs has been improving since the start of WANO / INPO / IAEA evaluations, the open energy market has forced the nuclear plants to reduce production costs and operate more reliably and effectively. The balance between these two (opposite) goals has made equipment reliability even more important for safe, reliable and efficient production. Insisting on on-line operation by ignoring some principles of safety could nowadays in a well-developed safety culture and human performance environment exceed the cost of electricity losses. In last decade the leading USA nuclear companies put a lot of effort to improve equipment reliability primarily based on INPO Equipment Reliability Program AP-913 at their NPP stations. The Equipment Reliability Program is the key program not only for safe and reliable operation, but also for the Life Cycle Management and Aging Management on the way to the nuclear power plant life extension. The purpose of Equipment Reliability process is to identify, organize, integrate and coordinate equipment reliability activities (preventive and predictive maintenance, maintenance

  11. Implementing voice over Internet protocol in mobile ad hoc network – analysing its features regarding efficiency, reliability and security

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Naveed Ahmed Sheikh

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Providing secure and efficient real-time voice communication in mobile ad hoc network (MANET environment is a challenging problem. Voice over Internet protocol (VoIP has originally been developed over the past two decades for infrastructure-based networks. There are strict timing constraints for acceptable quality VoIP services, in addition to registration and discovery issues in VoIP end-points. In MANETs, ad hoc nature of networks and multi-hop wireless environment with significant packet loss and delays present formidable challenges to the implementation. Providing a secure real-time VoIP service on MANET is the main design objective of this paper. The authors have successfully developed a prototype system that establishes reliable and efficient VoIP communication and provides an extremely flexible method for voice communication in MANETs. The authors’ cooperative mesh-based MANET implementation can be used for rapidly deployable VoIP communication with survivable and efficient dynamic networking using open source software.

  12. Structural reliability analysis based on the cokriging technique

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhao Wei; Wang Wei; Dai Hongzhe; Xue Guofeng

    2010-01-01

    Approximation methods are widely used in structural reliability analysis because they are simple to create and provide explicit functional relationships between the responses and variables in stead of the implicit limit state function. Recently, the kriging method which is a semi-parameter interpolation technique that can be used for deterministic optimization and structural reliability has gained popularity. However, to fully exploit the kriging method, especially in high-dimensional problems, a large number of sample points should be generated to fill the design space and this can be very expensive and even impractical in practical engineering analysis. Therefore, in this paper, a new method-the cokriging method, which is an extension of kriging, is proposed to calculate the structural reliability. cokriging approximation incorporates secondary information such as the values of the gradients of the function being approximated. This paper explores the use of the cokriging method for structural reliability problems by comparing it with the Kriging method based on some numerical examples. The results indicate that the cokriging procedure described in this work can generate approximation models to improve on the accuracy and efficiency for structural reliability problems and is a viable alternative to the kriging.

  13. Reliability demonstration methodology for products with Gamma Process by optimal accelerated degradation testing

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Chunhua; Lu, Xiang; Tan, Yuanyuan; Wang, Yashun

    2015-01-01

    For products with high reliability and long lifetime, accelerated degradation testing (ADT) may be adopted during product development phase to verify whether its reliability satisfies the predetermined level within feasible test duration. The actual degradation from engineering is usually a strictly monotonic process, such as fatigue crack growth, wear, and erosion. However, the method for reliability demonstration by ADT with monotonic degradation process has not been investigated so far. This paper proposes a reliability demonstration methodology by ADT for this kind of product. We first apply Gamma process to describe the monotonic degradation. Next, we present a reliability demonstration method by converting the required reliability level into allowable cumulative degradation in ADT and comparing the actual accumulative degradation with the allowable level. Further, we suggest an analytical optimal ADT design method for more efficient reliability demonstration by minimizing the asymptotic variance of decision variable in reliability demonstration under the constraints of sample size, test duration, test cost, and predetermined decision risks. The method is validated and illustrated with example on reliability demonstration of alloy product, and is applied to demonstrate the wear reliability within long service duration of spherical plain bearing in the end. - Highlights: • We present a reliability demonstration method by ADT for products with monotonic degradation process, which may be applied to verify reliability with long service life for products with monotonic degradation process within feasible test duration. • We suggest an analytical optimal ADT design method for more efficient reliability demonstration, which differs from the existed optimal ADT design for more accurate reliability estimation by different objective function and different constraints. • The methods are applied to demonstrate the wear reliability within long service duration of

  14. Highly efficient fully transparent inverted OLEDs

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meyer, J.; Winkler, T.; Hamwi, S.; Schmale, S.; Kröger, M.; Görrn, P.; Johannes, H.-H.; Riedl, T.; Lang, E.; Becker, D.; Dobbertin, T.; Kowalsky, W.

    2007-09-01

    One of the unique selling propositions of OLEDs is their potential to realize highly transparent devices over the visible spectrum. This is because organic semiconductors provide a large Stokes-Shift and low intrinsic absorption losses. Hence, new areas of applications for displays and ambient lighting become accessible, for instance, the integration of OLEDs into the windshield or the ceiling of automobiles. The main challenge in the realization of fully transparent devices is the deposition of the top electrode. ITO is commonly used as transparent bottom anode in a conventional OLED. To obtain uniform light emission over the entire viewing angle and a low series resistance, a TCO such as ITO is desirable as top contact as well. However, sputter deposition of ITO on top of organic layers causes damage induced by high energetic particles and UV radiation. We have found an efficient process to protect the organic layers against the ITO rf magnetron deposition process of ITO for an inverted OLED (IOLED). The inverted structure allows the integration of OLEDs in more powerful n-channel transistors used in active matrix backplanes. Employing the green electrophosphorescent material Ir(ppy) 3 lead to IOLED with a current efficiency of 50 cd/A and power efficiency of 24 lm/W at 100 cd/m2. The average transmittance exceeds 80 % in the visible region. The on-set voltage for light emission is lower than 3 V. In addition, by vertical stacking we achieved a very high current efficiency of more than 70 cd/A for transparent IOLED.

  15. High efficiency lithium-thionyl chloride cell

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doddapaneni, N.

    1982-08-01

    The polarization characteristics and the specific cathode capacity of Teflon bonded carbon electrodes in the Li/SOCl2 system have been evaluated. Doping of electrocatalysts such as cobalt and iron phthalocyanine complexes improved both cell voltage and cell rate capability. High efficiency Li/SOCl2 cells were thus achieved with catalyzed cathodes. The electrochemical reduction of SOCl2 seems to undergo modification at catalyzed cathode. For example, the reduction of SOCl2 at FePc catalyzed cathode involves 2-1/2 e-/mole of SOCl2. Furthermore, the reduction mechanism is simplified and unwanted chemical species are eliminated by the catalyst. Thus a potentially safer high efficiency Li/SOCl2 can be anticipated.

  16. A highly efficient microfluidic nano biochip based on nanostructured nickel oxide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ali, Md Azahar; Solanki, Pratima R; Patel, Manoj K; Dhayani, Hemant; Agrawal, Ved Varun; John, Renu; Malhotra, Bansi D

    2013-04-07

    We present results of the studies relating to fabrication of a microfluidic biosensor chip based on nickel oxide nanorods (NRs-NiO) that is capable of directly measuring the concentration of total cholesterol in human blood through electrochemical detection. Using this chip we demonstrate, with high reliability and in a time efficient manner, the detection of cholesterol present in buffer solutions at clinically relevant concentrations. The microfluidic channel has been fabricated onto a nickel oxide nanorod-based electrode co-immobilized with cholesterol esterase (ChEt) and cholesterol oxidase (ChOx) that serves as the working electrode. Bare indium tin oxide served as the counter electrode. A Ag/AgCl wire introduced to the outlet of the microchannel acts as a reference electrode. The fabricated NiO nanorod-based electrode has been characterized using X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, HR-TEM, FT-IR, UV-visible spectroscopy and electrochemical techniques. The presented NRs-NiO based microfluidic sensor exhibits linearity in the range of 1.5-10.3 mM, a high sensitivity of 0.12 mA mM(-1) cm(-2) and a low value of 0.16 mM of the Michaelis-Menten constant (Km).

  17. Imprecise system reliability and component importance based on survival signature

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feng, Geng; Patelli, Edoardo; Beer, Michael; Coolen, Frank P.A.

    2016-01-01

    The concept of the survival signature has recently attracted increasing attention for performing reliability analysis on systems with multiple types of components. It opens a new pathway for a structured approach with high computational efficiency based on a complete probabilistic description of the system. In practical applications, however, some of the parameters of the system might not be defined completely due to limited data, which implies the need to take imprecisions of component specifications into account. This paper presents a methodology to include explicitly the imprecision, which leads to upper and lower bounds of the survival function of the system. In addition, the approach introduces novel and efficient component importance measures. By implementing relative importance index of each component without or with imprecision, the most critical component in the system can be identified depending on the service time of the system. Simulation method based on survival signature is introduced to deal with imprecision within components, which is precise and efficient. Numerical example is presented to show the applicability of the approach for systems. - Highlights: • Survival signature is a novel way for system reliability and component importance • High computational efficiency based on a complete description of system. • Include explicitly the imprecision, which leads to bounds of the survival function. • A novel relative importance index is proposed as importance measure. • Allows to identify critical components depending on the service time of the system.

  18. Measure Guideline. High Efficiency Natural Gas Furnaces

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brand, L. [Partnership for Advanced Residential Retrofit (PARR), Des Plaines, IL (United States); Rose, W. [Partnership for Advanced Residential Retrofit (PARR), Des Plaines, IL (United States)

    2012-10-01

    This measure guideline covers installation of high-efficiency gas furnaces, including: when to install a high-efficiency gas furnace as a retrofit measure; how to identify and address risks; and the steps to be used in the selection and installation process. The guideline is written for Building America practitioners and HVAC contractors and installers. It includes a compilation of information provided by manufacturers, researchers, and the Department of Energy as well as recent research results from the Partnership for Advanced Residential Retrofit (PARR) Building America team.

  19. Highly Efficient Estimators of Multivariate Location with High Breakdown Point

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lopuhaa, H.P.

    1991-01-01

    We propose an affine equivariant estimator of multivariate location that combines a high breakdown point and a bounded influence function with high asymptotic efficiency. This proposal is basically a location $M$-estimator based on the observations obtained after scaling with an affine equivariant

  20. Proneural transcription factor Atoh1 drives highly efficient differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells into dopaminergic neurons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sagal, Jonathan; Zhan, Xiping; Xu, Jinchong; Tilghman, Jessica; Karuppagounder, Senthilkumar S; Chen, Li; Dawson, Valina L; Dawson, Ted M; Laterra, John; Ying, Mingyao

    2014-08-01

    Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are a promising cell resource for various applications in regenerative medicine. Highly efficient approaches that differentiate human PSCs into functional lineage-specific neurons are critical for modeling neurological disorders and testing potential therapies. Proneural transcription factors are crucial drivers of neuron development and hold promise for driving highly efficient neuronal conversion in PSCs. Here, we study the functions of proneural transcription factor Atoh1 in the neuronal differentiation of PSCs. We show that Atoh1 is induced during the neuronal conversion of PSCs and that ectopic Atoh1 expression is sufficient to drive PSCs into neurons with high efficiency. Atoh1 induction, in combination with cell extrinsic factors, differentiates PSCs into functional dopaminergic (DA) neurons with >80% purity. Atoh1-induced DA neurons recapitulate key biochemical and electrophysiological features of midbrain DA neurons, the degeneration of which is responsible for clinical symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). Atoh1-induced DA neurons provide a reliable disease model for studying PD pathogenesis, such as neurotoxin-induced neurodegeneration in PD. Overall, our results determine the role of Atoh1 in regulating neuronal differentiation and neuron subtype specification of human PSCs. Our Atoh1-mediated differentiation approach will enable large-scale applications of PD patient-derived midbrain DA neurons in mechanistic studies and drug screening for both familial and sporadic PD. ©AlphaMed Press.

  1. How often should we monitor for reliable detection of atrial fibrillation recurrence? Efficiency considerations and implications for study design.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Efstratios I Charitos

    Full Text Available Although atrial fibrillation (AF recurrence is unpredictable in terms of onset and duration, current intermittent rhythm monitoring (IRM diagnostic modalities are short-termed and discontinuous. The aim of the present study was to investigate the necessary IRM frequency required to reliably detect recurrence of various AF recurrence patterns.The rhythm histories of 647 patients (mean AF burden: 12 ± 22% of monitored time; 687 patient-years with implantable continuous monitoring devices were reconstructed and analyzed. With the use of computationally intensive simulation, we evaluated the necessary IRM frequency to reliably detect AF recurrence of various AF phenotypes using IRM of various durations.The IRM frequency required for reliable AF detection depends on the amount and temporal aggregation of the AF recurrence (p95% sensitivity of AF recurrence required higher IRM frequencies (>12 24-hour; >6 7-day; >4 14-day; >3 30-day IRM per year; p<0.0001 than currently recommended. Lower IRM frequencies will under-detect AF recurrence and introduce significant bias in the evaluation of therapeutic interventions. More frequent but of shorter duration, IRMs (24-hour are significantly more time effective (sensitivity per monitored time than a fewer number of longer IRM durations (p<0.0001.Reliable AF recurrence detection requires higher IRM frequencies than currently recommended. Current IRM frequency recommendations will fail to diagnose a significant proportion of patients. Shorter duration but more frequent IRM strategies are significantly more efficient than longer IRM durations.Unique identifier: NCT00806689.

  2. Prediction and design of efficient exciplex emitters for high-efficiency, thermally activated delayed-fluorescence organic light-emitting diodes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Xiao-Ke; Chen, Zhan; Zheng, Cai-Jun; Liu, Chuan-Lin; Lee, Chun-Sing; Li, Fan; Ou, Xue-Mei; Zhang, Xiao-Hong

    2015-04-08

    High-efficiency, thermally activated delayed-fluorescence organic light-emitting diodes based on exciplex emitters are demonstrated. The best device, based on a TAPC:DPTPCz emitter, shows a high external quantum efficiency of 15.4%. Strategies for predicting and designing efficient exciplex emitters are also provided. This approach allow prediction and design of efficient exciplex emitters for achieving high-efficiency organic light-emitting diodes, for future use in displays and lighting applications. © 2015 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  3. The Accelerator Reliability Forum

    CERN Document Server

    Lüdeke, Andreas; Giachino, R

    2014-01-01

    A high reliability is a very important goal for most particle accelerators. The biennial Accelerator Reliability Workshop covers topics related to the design and operation of particle accelerators with a high reliability. In order to optimize the over-all reliability of an accelerator one needs to gather information on the reliability of many different subsystems. While a biennial workshop can serve as a platform for the exchange of such information, the authors aimed to provide a further channel to allow for a more timely communication: the Particle Accelerator Reliability Forum [1]. This contribution will describe the forum and advertise it’s usage in the community.

  4. Simple Retrofit High-Efficiency Natural Gas Water Heater Field Test

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schoenbauer, Ben [NorthernSTAR, St. Paul, MN (United States)

    2017-03-01

    High-performance water heaters are typically more time consuming and costly to install in retrofit applications, making high performance water heaters difficult to justify economically. However, recent advancements in high performance water heaters have targeted the retrofit market, simplifying installations and reducing costs. Four high efficiency natural gas water heaters designed specifically for retrofit applications were installed in single-family homes along with detailed monitoring systems to characterize their savings potential, their installed efficiencies, and their ability to meet household demands. The water heaters tested for this project were designed to improve the cost-effectiveness and increase market penetration of high efficiency water heaters in the residential retrofit market. The retrofit high efficiency water heaters achieved their goal of reducing costs, maintaining savings potential and installed efficiency of other high efficiency water heaters, and meeting the necessary capacity in order to improve cost-effectiveness. However, the improvements were not sufficient to achieve simple paybacks of less than ten years for the incremental cost compared to a minimum efficiency heater. Significant changes would be necessary to reduce the simple payback to six years or less. Annual energy savings in the range of $200 would also reduce paybacks to less than six years. These energy savings would require either significantly higher fuel costs (greater than $1.50 per therm) or very high usage (around 120 gallons per day). For current incremental costs, the water heater efficiency would need to be similar to that of a heat pump water heater to deliver a six year payback.

  5. Simple Retrofit High-Efficiency Natural Gas Water Heater Field Test

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schoenbauer, Ben [NorthernSTAR, St. Paul, MN (United States)

    2017-03-28

    High performance water heaters are typically more time consuming and costly to install in retrofit applications, making high performance water heaters difficult to justify economically. However, recent advancements in high performance water heaters have targeted the retrofit market, simplifying installations and reducing costs. Four high efficiency natural gas water heaters designed specifically for retrofit applications were installed in single-family homes along with detailed monitoring systems to characterize their savings potential, their installed efficiencies, and their ability to meet household demands. The water heaters tested for this project were designed to improve the cost-effectiveness and increase market penetration of high efficiency water heaters in the residential retrofit market. The retrofit high efficiency water heaters achieved their goal of reducing costs, maintaining savings potential and installed efficiency of other high efficiency water heaters, and meeting the necessary capacity in order to improve cost-effectiveness. However, the improvements were not sufficient to achieve simple paybacks of less than ten years for the incremental cost compared to a minimum efficiency heater. Significant changes would be necessary to reduce the simple payback to six years or less. Annual energy savings in the range of $200 would also reduce paybacks to less than six years. These energy savings would require either significantly higher fuel costs (greater than $1.50 per therm) or very high usage (around 120 gallons per day). For current incremental costs, the water heater efficiency would need to be similar to that of a heat pump water heater to deliver a six year payback.

  6. Reliability Improved Cooperative Communication over Wireless Sensor Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhuangbin Chen

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available With the development of smart devices and connection technologies, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs are becoming increasingly intelligent. New or special functions can be obtained by receiving new versions of program codes to upgrade their software systems, forming the so-called smart Internet of Things (IoT. Due to the lossy property of wireless channels, data collection in WSNs still suffers from a long delay, high energy consumption, and many retransmissions. Thanks to wireless software-defined networks (WSDNs, software in sensors can now be updated to help them transmit data cooperatively, thereby achieving more reliable communication. In this paper, a Reliability Improved Cooperative Communication (RICC data collection scheme is proposed to improve the reliability of random-network-coding-based cooperative communications in multi-hop relay WSNs without reducing the network lifetime. In WSNs, sensors in different positions can have different numbers of packets to handle, resulting in the unbalanced energy consumption of the network. In particular, nodes in non-hotspot areas have up to 90% of their original energy remaining when the network dies. To efficiently use the residual energy, in RICC, high data transmission power is adopted in non-hotspot areas to achieve a higher reliability at the cost of large energy consumption, and relatively low transmission power is adopted in hotspot areas to maintain the long network lifetime. Therefore, high reliability and a long network lifetime can be obtained simultaneously. The simulation results show that compared with other scheme, RICC can reduce the end-to-end Message Fail delivering Ratio (MFR by 59.4%–62.8% under the same lifetime with a more balanced energy utilization.

  7. High efficiency carbon nanotube thread antennas

    Science.gov (United States)

    Amram Bengio, E.; Senic, Damir; Taylor, Lauren W.; Tsentalovich, Dmitri E.; Chen, Peiyu; Holloway, Christopher L.; Babakhani, Aydin; Long, Christian J.; Novotny, David R.; Booth, James C.; Orloff, Nathan D.; Pasquali, Matteo

    2017-10-01

    Although previous research has explored the underlying theory of high-frequency behavior of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and CNT bundles for antennas, there is a gap in the literature for direct experimental measurements of radiation efficiency. These measurements are crucial for any practical application of CNT materials in wireless communication. In this letter, we report a measurement technique to accurately characterize the radiation efficiency of λ/4 monopole antennas made from the CNT thread. We measure the highest absolute values of radiation efficiency for CNT antennas of any type, matching that of copper wire. To capture the weight savings, we propose a specific radiation efficiency metric and show that these CNT antennas exceed copper's performance by over an order of magnitude at 1 GHz and 2.4 GHz. We also report direct experimental observation that, contrary to metals, the radiation efficiency of the CNT thread improves significantly at higher frequencies. These results pave the way for practical applications of CNT thread antennas, particularly in the aerospace and wearable electronics industries where weight saving is a priority.

  8. Doping efficiency analysis of highly phosphorous doped epitaxial/amorphous silicon emitters grown by PECVD for high efficiency silicon solar cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    El-Gohary, H.G.; Sivoththaman, S. [Waterloo Univ., ON (Canada). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering

    2008-08-15

    The efficient doping of hydrogenated amorphous and crystalline silicon thin films is a key factor in the fabrication of silicon solar cells. The most popular method for developing those films is plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) because it minimizes defect density and improves doping efficiency. This paper discussed the preparation of different structure phosphorous doped silicon emitters ranging from epitaxial to amorphous films at low temperature. Phosphine (PH{sub 3}) was employed as the doping gas source with the same gas concentration for both epitaxial and amorphous silicon emitters. The paper presented an analysis of dopant activation by applying a very short rapid thermal annealing process (RTP). A spreading resistance profile (SRP) and SIMS analysis were used to detect both the active dopant and the dopant concentrations, respectively. The paper also provided the results of a structural analysis for both bulk and cross-section at the interface using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, for epitaxial and amorphous films. It was concluded that a unity doping efficiency could be achieved in epitaxial layers by applying an optimized temperature profile using short time processing rapid thermal processing technique. The high quality, one step epitaxial layers, led to both high conductive and high doping efficiency layers.

  9. Measure Guideline: High Efficiency Natural Gas Furnaces

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Brand, L.; Rose, W.

    2012-10-01

    This Measure Guideline covers installation of high-efficiency gas furnaces. Topics covered include when to install a high-efficiency gas furnace as a retrofit measure, how to identify and address risks, and the steps to be used in the selection and installation process. The guideline is written for Building America practitioners and HVAC contractors and installers. It includes a compilation of information provided by manufacturers, researchers, and the Department of Energy as well as recent research results from the Partnership for Advanced Residential Retrofit (PARR) Building America team.

  10. Energy efficiency indicators for high electric-load buildings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Aebischer, Bernard; Balmer, Markus A.; Kinney, Satkartar; Le Strat, Pascale; Shibata, Yoshiaki; Varone, Frederic

    2003-06-01

    Energy per unit of floor area is not an adequate indicator for energy efficiency in high electric-load buildings. For two activities, restaurants and computer centres, alternative indicators for energy efficiency are discussed.

  11. High Efficiency Centrifugal Compressor for Rotorcraft Applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Medic, Gorazd; Sharma, Om P.; Jongwook, Joo; Hardin, Larry W.; McCormick, Duane C.; Cousins, William T.; Lurie, Elizabeth A.; Shabbir, Aamir; Holley, Brian M.; Van Slooten, Paul R.

    2017-01-01

    A centrifugal compressor research effort conducted by United Technologies Research Center under NASA Research Announcement NNC08CB03C is documented. The objectives were to identify key technical barriers to advancing the aerodynamic performance of high-efficiency, high work factor, compact centrifugal compressor aft-stages for turboshaft engines; to acquire measurements needed to overcome the technical barriers and inform future designs; to design, fabricate, and test a new research compressor in which to acquire the requisite flow field data. A new High-Efficiency Centrifugal Compressor stage -- splittered impeller, splittered diffuser, 90 degree bend, and exit guide vanes -- with aerodynamically aggressive performance and configuration (compactness) goals were designed, fabricated, and subquently tested at the NASA Glenn Research Center.

  12. Quasi-kinoform type multilayer zone plate with high diffraction efficiency for high-energy X-rays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tamura, S; Yasumoto, M; Kamijo, N; Uesugi, K; Takeuchi, A; Terada, Y; Suzuki, Y

    2009-01-01

    Fresnel zone plate (FZP) with high diffraction efficiency leads to high performance X-ray microscopy with the reduction of the radiation damage to biological specimens. In order to attain high diffraction efficiency in high energy X-ray region, we have developed multilevel-type (6-step) multilayer FZPs with the diameter of 70 micron. The efficiencies of two FZPs were evaluated at the BL20XU beamline of SPring-8. For one FZP, the peak efficiency for the 1st-order diffraction of 51% has been obtained at 70 keV. The efficiencies higher than 40% have been achieved in the wide energy range of 70-90 keV. That for the 2nd-order diffraction of 46% has been obtained at 37.5 keV.

  13. Reliable multicast for the Grid: a case study in experimental computer science.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nekovee, Maziar; Barcellos, Marinho P; Daw, Michael

    2005-08-15

    In its simplest form, multicast communication is the process of sending data packets from a source to multiple destinations in the same logical multicast group. IP multicast allows the efficient transport of data through wide-area networks, and its potentially great value for the Grid has been highlighted recently by a number of research groups. In this paper, we focus on the use of IP multicast in Grid applications, which require high-throughput reliable multicast. These include Grid-enabled computational steering and collaborative visualization applications, and wide-area distributed computing. We describe the results of our extensive evaluation studies of state-of-the-art reliable-multicast protocols, which were performed on the UK's high-speed academic networks. Based on these studies, we examine the ability of current reliable multicast technology to meet the Grid's requirements and discuss future directions.

  14. High-efficiency organic glass scintillators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feng, Patrick L.; Carlson, Joseph S.

    2017-12-19

    A new family of neutron/gamma discriminating scintillators is disclosed that comprises stable organic glasses that may be melt-cast into transparent monoliths. These materials have been shown to provide light yields greater than solution-grown trans-stilbene crystals and efficient PSD capabilities when combined with 0.01 to 0.05% by weight of the total composition of a wavelength-shifting fluorophore. Photoluminescence measurements reveal fluorescence quantum yields that are 2 to 5 times greater than conventional plastic or liquid scintillator matrices, which accounts for the superior light yield of these glasses. The unique combination of high scintillation light-yields, efficient neutron/gamma PSD, and straightforward scale-up via melt-casting distinguishes the developed organic glasses from existing scintillators.

  15. Reliability assessment based on subjective inferences

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ma Zhibo; Zhu Jianshi; Xu Naixin

    2003-01-01

    The reliability information which comes from subjective analysis is often incomplete prior. This information can be generally assumed to exist in the form of either a stated prior mean of R (reliability) or a stated prior credibility interval on R. An efficient approach is developed to determine a complete beta prior distribution from the subjective information according to the principle of maximum entropy, and the the reliability of survival/failure product is assessed via Bayes theorem. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the methods

  16. An Efficient Constraint Boundary Sampling Method for Sequential RBDO Using Kriging Surrogate Model

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kim, Jihoon; Jang, Junyong; Kim, Shinyu; Lee, Tae Hee [Hanyang Univ., Seoul (Korea, Republic of); Cho, Sugil; Kim, Hyung Woo; Hong, Sup [Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering, Busan (Korea, Republic of)

    2016-06-15

    Reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) requires a high computational cost owing to its reliability analysis. A surrogate model is introduced to reduce the computational cost in RBDO. The accuracy of the reliability depends on the accuracy of the surrogate model of constraint boundaries in the surrogated-model-based RBDO. In earlier researches, constraint boundary sampling (CBS) was proposed to approximate accurately the boundaries of constraints by locating sample points on the boundaries of constraints. However, because CBS uses sample points on all constraint boundaries, it creates superfluous sample points. In this paper, efficient constraint boundary sampling (ECBS) is proposed to enhance the efficiency of CBS. ECBS uses the statistical information of a kriging surrogate model to locate sample points on or near the RBDO solution. The efficiency of ECBS is verified by mathematical examples.

  17. Accelerated life testing and reliability of high K multilayer ceramic capacitors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Minford, W. J.

    1981-01-01

    The reliability of one lot of high K multilayer ceramic capacitors was evaluated using accelerated life testing. The degradation in insulation resistance was characterized as a function of voltage and temperature. The times to failure at a voltage-temperature stress conformed to a lognormal distribution with a standard deviation approximately 0.5.

  18. The thermodynamic characteristics of high efficiency, internal-combustion engines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Caton, Jerald A.

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► The thermodynamics of an automotive engine are determined using a cycle simulation. ► The net indicated thermal efficiency increased from 37.0% to 53.9%. ► High compression ratio, lean mixtures and high EGR were the important features. ► Efficiency increased due to lower heat losses, and increased work conversion. ► The nitric oxides were essentially zero due to the low combustion temperatures. - Abstract: Recent advancements have demonstrated new combustion modes for internal combustion engines that exhibit low nitric oxide emissions and high thermal efficiencies. These new combustion modes involve various combinations of stratification, lean mixtures, high levels of EGR, multiple injections, variable valve timings, two fuels, and other such features. Although the exact combination of these features that provides the best design is not yet clear, the results (low emissions with high efficiencies) are of major interest. The current work is directed at determining some of the fundamental thermodynamic reasons for the relatively high efficiencies and to quantify these factors. Both the first and second laws are used in this assessment. An automotive engine (5.7 l) which included some of the features mentioned above (e.g., high compression ratios, lean mixtures, and high EGR) was evaluated using a thermodynamic cycle simulation. These features were examined for a moderate load (bmep = 900 kPa), moderate speed (2000 rpm) condition. By the use of lean operation, high EGR levels, high compression ratio and other features, the net indicated thermal efficiency increased from 37.0% to 53.9%. These increases are explained in a step-by-step fashion. The major reasons for these improvements include the higher compression ratio and the dilute charge (lean mixture, high EGR). The dilute charge resulted in lower temperatures which in turn resulted in lower heat loss. In addition, the lower temperatures resulted in higher ratios of the specific heats which

  19. Experiments on high efficiency aerosol filtration

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mazzini, M.; Cuccuru, A.; Kunz, P.

    1977-01-01

    Research on high efficiency aerosol filtration by the Nuclear Engineering Institute of Pisa University and by CAMEN in collaboration with CNEN is outlined. HEPA filter efficiency was studied as a function of the type and size of the test aerosol, and as a function of flowrate (+-50% of the nominal value), air temperature (up to 70 0 C), relative humidity (up to 100%), and durability in a corrosive atmosphere (up to 140 hours in NaCl mist). In the selected experimental conditions these influences were appreciable but are not sufficient to be significant in industrial HEPA filter applications. Planned future research is outlined: measurement of the efficiency of two HEPA filters in series using a fixed particle size; dependence of the efficiency on air, temperatures up to 300-500 0 C; performance when subject to smoke from burning organic materials (natural rubber, neoprene, miscellaneous plastics). Such studies are relevant to possible accidental fires in a plutonium laboratory

  20. Performance of a high efficiency high power UHF klystron

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Konrad, G.T.

    1977-03-01

    A 500 kW c-w klystron was designed for the PEP storage ring at SLAC. The tube operates at 353.2 MHz, 62 kV, a microperveance of 0.75, and a gain of approximately 50 dB. Stable operation is required for a VSWR as high as 2 : 1 at any phase angle. The design efficiency is 70%. To obtain this value of efficiency, a second harmonic cavity is used in order to produce a very tightly bunched beam in the output gap. At the present time it is planned to install 12 such klystrons in PEP. A tube with a reduced size collector was operated at 4% duty at 500 kW. An efficiency of 63% was observed. The same tube was operated up to 200 kW c-w for PEP accelerator cavity tests. A full-scale c-w tube reached 500 kW at 65 kV with an efficiency of 55%. In addition to power and phase measurements into a matched load, some data at various load mismatches are presented

  1. Standard semiconductor packaging for high-reliability low-cost MEMS applications

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harney, Kieran P.

    2005-01-01

    Microelectronic packaging technology has evolved over the years in response to the needs of IC technology. The fundamental purpose of the package is to provide protection for the silicon chip and to provide electrical connection to the circuit board. Major change has been witnessed in packaging and today wafer level packaging technology has further revolutionized the industry. MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) technology has created new challenges for packaging that do not exist in standard ICs. However, the fundamental objective of MEMS packaging is the same as traditional ICs, the low cost and reliable presentation of the MEMS chip to the next level interconnect. Inertial MEMS is one of the best examples of the successful commercialization of MEMS technology. The adoption of MEMS accelerometers for automotive airbag applications has created a high volume market that demands the highest reliability at low cost. The suppliers to these markets have responded by exploiting standard semiconductor packaging infrastructures. However, there are special packaging needs for MEMS that cannot be ignored. New applications for inertial MEMS devices are emerging in the consumer space that adds the imperative of small size to the need for reliability and low cost. These trends are not unique to MEMS accelerometers. For any MEMS technology to be successful the packaging must provide the basic reliability and interconnection functions, adding the least possible cost to the product. This paper will discuss the evolution of MEMS packaging in the accelerometer industry and identify the main issues that needed to be addressed to enable the successful commercialization of the technology in the automotive and consumer markets.

  2. Application of subset simulation in reliability estimation of underground pipelines

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tee, Kong Fah; Khan, Lutfor Rahman; Li, Hongshuang

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents a computational framework for implementing an advanced Monte Carlo simulation method, called Subset Simulation (SS) for time-dependent reliability prediction of underground flexible pipelines. The SS can provide better resolution for low failure probability level of rare failure events which are commonly encountered in pipeline engineering applications. Random samples of statistical variables are generated efficiently and used for computing probabilistic reliability model. It gains its efficiency by expressing a small probability event as a product of a sequence of intermediate events with larger conditional probabilities. The efficiency of SS has been demonstrated by numerical studies and attention in this work is devoted to scrutinise the robustness of the SS application in pipe reliability assessment and compared with direct Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) method. Reliability of a buried flexible steel pipe with time-dependent failure modes, namely, corrosion induced deflection, buckling, wall thrust and bending stress has been assessed in this study. The analysis indicates that corrosion induced excessive deflection is the most critical failure event whereas buckling is the least susceptible during the whole service life of the pipe. The study also shows that SS is robust method to estimate the reliability of buried pipelines and it is more efficient than MCS, especially in small failure probability prediction

  3. Improved Yield, Performance and Reliability of High-Actuator-Count Deformable Mirrors, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The project team will conduct processing and design research aimed at improving yield, performance, and reliability of high-actuator-count micro-electro-mechanical...

  4. Operational experience, availability and reliability of nuclear power plants

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kueffer, K.

    1980-01-01

    This lecture - presents a survey on nuclear power production and plant performance in the Western World covering all reactor types and light-water reactors in particular and discusses key parameters such as load factors and non-availability analysis. - outlines the main reasons for the reliable performance of Swiss nuclear power plants - quality equipment - operator qualification and training - engineering know how on site - maintenance philosophy and outage planning - information system and feedback of experience - explains the management functions as applied at the Beznau Nuclear Power Station to ensure high power productivity and reliability - improvement - a feedback control system - analysis of production losses - optimization in shut-down planning - minimizing disturbances during plant operation - optimizing personnel qualification and efficiency. (orig.)

  5. Efficient technique for computational design of thermoelectric materials

    Science.gov (United States)

    Núñez-Valdez, Maribel; Allahyari, Zahed; Fan, Tao; Oganov, Artem R.

    2018-01-01

    Efficient thermoelectric materials are highly desirable, and the quest for finding them has intensified as they could be promising alternatives to fossil energy sources. Here we present a general first-principles approach to predict, in multicomponent systems, efficient thermoelectric compounds. The method combines a robust evolutionary algorithm, a Pareto multiobjective optimization, density functional theory and a Boltzmann semi-classical calculation of thermoelectric efficiency. To test the performance and reliability of our overall framework, we use the well-known system Bi2Te3-Sb2Te3.

  6. Process development for high-efficiency silicon solar cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gee, J.M.; Basore, P.A.; Buck, M.E.; Ruby, D.S.; Schubert, W.K.; Silva, B.L.; Tingley, J.W.

    1991-12-31

    Fabrication of high-efficiency silicon solar cells in an industrial environment requires a different optimization than in a laboratory environment. Strategies are presented for process development of high-efficiency silicon solar cells, with a goal of simplifying technology transfer into an industrial setting. The strategies emphasize the use of statistical experimental design for process optimization, and the use of baseline processes and cells for process monitoring and quality control. 8 refs.

  7. Test-retest reliability for aerodynamic measures of voice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Awan, Shaheen N; Novaleski, Carolyn K; Yingling, Julie R

    2013-11-01

    The purpose of this study was to investigate the intrasubject reliability of aerodynamic characteristics of the voice within typical/normal speakers across testing sessions using the Phonatory Aerodynamic System (PAS 6600; KayPENTAX, Montvale, NJ). Participants were 60 healthy young adults (30 males and 30 females) between the ages 18 and 31 years with perceptually typical voice. Participants were tested using the PAS 6600 (Phonatory Aerodynamic System) on two separate days with approximately 1 week between each session at approximately the same time of day. Four PAS protocols were conducted (vital capacity, maximum sustained phonation, comfortable sustained phonation, and voicing efficiency) and measures of expiratory volume, maximum phonation time, mean expiratory airflow (during vowel production) and target airflow (obtained via syllable repetition), peak air pressure, aerodynamic power, aerodynamic resistance, and aerodynamic efficiency were obtained during each testing session. Associated acoustic measures of vocal intensity and frequency were also collected. All phonations were elicited at comfortable pitch and loudness. All aerodynamic and associated variables evaluated in this study showed useable test-retest reliability (ie, intraclass correlation coefficients [ICCs] ≥ 0.60). A high degree of mean test-retest reliability was found across all subjects for aerodynamic and associated acoustic measurements of vital capacity, maximum sustained phonation, glottal resistance, and vocal intensity (all with ICCs > 0.75). Although strong ICCs were observed for measures of glottal power and mean expiratory airflow in males, weaker overall results for these measures (ICC range: 0.60-0.67) were observed in females subjects and sizable coefficients of variation were observed for measures of power, resistance, and efficiency in both men and women. Differences in degree of reliability from measure to measure were revealed in greater detail using methods such as ICCs and

  8. Design reliability engineering

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Buden, D.; Hunt, R.N.M.

    1989-01-01

    Improved design techniques are needed to achieve high reliability at minimum cost. This is especially true of space systems where lifetimes of many years without maintenance are needed and severe mass limitations exist. Reliability must be designed into these systems from the start. Techniques are now being explored to structure a formal design process that will be more complete and less expensive. The intent is to integrate the best features of design, reliability analysis, and expert systems to design highly reliable systems to meet stressing needs. Taken into account are the large uncertainties that exist in materials, design models, and fabrication techniques. Expert systems are a convenient method to integrate into the design process a complete definition of all elements that should be considered and an opportunity to integrate the design process with reliability, safety, test engineering, maintenance and operator training. 1 fig

  9. Reliability-based trajectory optimization using nonintrusive polynomial chaos for Mars entry mission

    Science.gov (United States)

    Huang, Yuechen; Li, Haiyang

    2018-06-01

    This paper presents the reliability-based sequential optimization (RBSO) method to settle the trajectory optimization problem with parametric uncertainties in entry dynamics for Mars entry mission. First, the deterministic entry trajectory optimization model is reviewed, and then the reliability-based optimization model is formulated. In addition, the modified sequential optimization method, in which the nonintrusive polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) method and the most probable point (MPP) searching method are employed, is proposed to solve the reliability-based optimization problem efficiently. The nonintrusive PCE method contributes to the transformation between the stochastic optimization (SO) and the deterministic optimization (DO) and to the approximation of trajectory solution efficiently. The MPP method, which is used for assessing the reliability of constraints satisfaction only up to the necessary level, is employed to further improve the computational efficiency. The cycle including SO, reliability assessment and constraints update is repeated in the RBSO until the reliability requirements of constraints satisfaction are satisfied. Finally, the RBSO is compared with the traditional DO and the traditional sequential optimization based on Monte Carlo (MC) simulation in a specific Mars entry mission to demonstrate the effectiveness and the efficiency of the proposed method.

  10. Reliability-Aware Cooperative Node Sleeping and Clustering in Duty-Cycled Sensors Networks

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jeungeun Song

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available Duty-cycled sensor networks provide a new perspective for improvement of energy efficiency and reliability assurance of multi-hop cooperative sensor networks. In this paper, we consider the energy-efficient cooperative node sleeping and clustering problems in cooperative sensor networks where clusters of relay nodes jointly transmit sensory data to the next hop. Our key idea for guaranteeing reliability is to exploit the on-demand number of cooperative nodes, facilitating the prediction of personalized end-to-end (ETE reliability. Namely, a novel reliability-aware cooperative routing (RCR scheme is proposed to select k-cooperative nodes at every hop (RCR-selection. After selecting k cooperative nodes at every hop, all of the non-cooperative nodes will go into sleep status. In order to solve the cooperative node clustering problem, we propose the RCR-based optimal relay assignment and cooperative data delivery (RCR-delivery scheme to provide a low-communication-overhead data transmission and an optimal duty cycle for a given number of cooperative nodes when the network is dynamic, which enables part of cooperative nodes to switch into idle status for further energy saving. Through the extensive OPNET-based simulations, we show that the proposed scheme significantly outperforms the existing geographic routing schemes and beaconless geographic routings in wireless sensor networks with a highly dynamic wireless channel and controls energy consumption, while ETE reliability is effectively guaranteed.

  11. High efficiency confinement mode by electron cyclotron heating

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Funahashi, Akimasa

    1987-01-01

    In the medium size nuclear fusion experiment facility JFT-2M in the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, the research on the high efficiency plasma confinement mode has been advanced, and in the experiment in June, 1987, the formation of a high efficiency confinement mode was successfully controlled by electron cyclotron heating, for the first time in the world. This result further advanced the control of the formation of a high efficiency plasma confinement mode and the elucidation of the physical mechanism of that mode, and promoted the research and development of the plasma heating by electron cyclotron heating. In this paper, the recent results of the research on a high efficiency confinement mode at the JFT-2M are reported, and the role of the JFT-2M and the experiment on the improvement of core plasma performance are outlined. Now the plasma temperature exceeding 100 million deg C has been attained in large tokamaks, and in medium size facilities, the various measures for improving confinement performance are to be brought forth and their scientific basis is elucidated to assist large facilities. The JFT-2M started the operation in April, 1983, and has accumulated the results smoothly since then. (Kako, I.)

  12. Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials in Solar-Thermal Conversion Systems: Understanding Geometry-Dependent Heating Efficiency and System Reliability.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zheng, Zhaoliang; Chang, Zhuo; Xu, Guang-Kui; McBride, Fiona; Ho, Alexandra; Zhuola, Zhuola; Michailidis, Marios; Li, Wei; Raval, Rasmita; Akhtar, Riaz; Shchukin, Dmitry

    2017-01-24

    The performance of solar-thermal conversion systems can be improved by incorporation of nanocarbon-stabilized microencapsulated phase change materials (MPCMs). The geometry of MPCMs in the microcapsules plays an important role for improving their heating efficiency and reliability. Yet few efforts have been made to critically examine the formation mechanism of different geometries and their effect on MPCMs-shell interaction. Herein, through changing the cooling rate of original emulsions, we acquire MPCMs within the nanocarbon microcapsules with a hollow structure of MPCMs (h-MPCMs) or solid PCM core particles (s-MPCMs). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy reveals that the capsule shell of the h-MPCMs is enriched with nanocarbons and has a greater MPCMs-shell interaction compared to s-MPCMs. This results in the h-MPCMs being more stable and having greater heat diffusivity within and above the phase transition range than the s-MPCMs do. The geometry-dependent heating efficiency and system stability may have important and general implications for the fundamental understanding of microencapsulation and wider breadth of heating generating systems.

  13. Maximal network reliability for a stochastic power transmission network

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, Yi-Kuei; Yeh, Cheng-Ta

    2011-01-01

    Many studies regarded a power transmission network as a binary-state network and constructed it with several arcs and vertices to evaluate network reliability. In practice, the power transmission network should be stochastic because each arc (transmission line) combined with several physical lines is multistate. Network reliability is the probability that the network can transmit d units of electric power from a power plant (source) to a high voltage substation at a specific area (sink). This study focuses on searching for the optimal transmission line assignment to the power transmission network such that network reliability is maximized. A genetic algorithm based method integrating the minimal paths and the Recursive Sum of Disjoint Products is developed to solve this assignment problem. A real power transmission network is adopted to demonstrate the computational efficiency of the proposed method while comparing with the random solution generation approach.

  14. High efficiency electrotransformation of Lactococcus lactis spp. lactis cells pretreated with lithium acetate and dithiothreitol

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Filioussis George

    2007-03-01

    . Both host-vector systems proved to be reproducible and highly efficient. Conclusion This investigation sought to improve still further transformation efficiencies and to provide a reliable high efficiency transformation system for L. lactis spp. lactis. The applied methodology, tested in two well-known strains, allows the production of large numbers of transformants and the construction of large recombinant libraries.

  15. Advanced Functionalities for Highly Reliable Optical Networks

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    An, Yi

    This thesis covers two research topics concerning optical solutions for networks e.g. avionic systems. One is to identify the applications for silicon photonic devices for cost-effective solutions in short-range optical networks. The other one is to realise advanced functionalities in order...... to increase the availability of highly reliable optical networks. A cost-effective transmitter based on a directly modulated laser (DML) using a silicon micro-ring resonator (MRR) to enhance its modulation speed is proposed, analysed and experimentally demonstrated. A modulation speed enhancement from 10 Gbit...... interconnects and network-on-chips. A novel concept of all-optical protection switching scheme is proposed, where fault detection and protection trigger are all implemented in the optical domain. This scheme can provide ultra-fast establishment of the protection path resulting in a minimum loss of data...

  16. Mechanical reliability of bulk high Tc superconductors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Freiman, S.W.

    1990-01-01

    Most prospective applications for high T c superconductors in bulk form, e.g. magnets, motors, will require appreciable mechanical strength. Work at NIST [National Institute of Standards and Technology] has begun to address issues related to mechanical reliability. For example, recent studies on Ba-Y-Cu-O have shown that the intrinsic crack growth resistance, K IC , of crystals of this material is even smaller than was first reported, less than that of window glass, and is sensitive to moisture. Processing conditions, particularly sintering and annealing atmosphere, have been shown to have a major influence on microstructure and internal stresses in the material. Large internal stresses result from the tetragonal to orthorhombic phase transformation as well as the thermal expansion anisotropy in the grains of the ceramic. Because stress relief is absent, microcracks form which have a profound influence on strength

  17. Implosion lessons from national security, high reliability spacecraft, electronics, and the forces which changed them

    CERN Document Server

    Temple, L Parker

    2012-01-01

    Implosion is a focused study of the history and uses of high-reliability, solid-state electronics, military standards, and space systems that support our national security and defense. This book is unique in combining the interdependent evolution of and interrelationships among military standards, solid-state electronics, and very high-reliability space systems. Starting with a brief description of the physics that enabled the development of the first transistor, Implosion covers the need for standardizing military electronics, which began during World War II and continu

  18. Reliability and validity of academic motivation scale for sports high school students’

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haslofça Fehime

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This study was designed to test validity and reliability of Academic Motivation Scale (AMS for sports high school students. The research conducted with 357 volunteered girls (n=117 and boys (n=240. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that Chi square (χ2, degrees of freedom (df and χ2/df ratio were 1102.90, 341 and 3.234, respectively. Goodness of Fit Index, Comparative Fit Index, Non-normed Fit Index and Incremental Fit Index were between 0.92-0.95. Additionally, Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index, An Average Errors Square Root and Root Mean Square Error of Approximation were 0.88, 0.070 and 0.079, respectively. Subscale reliability coefficients were between 0.77 and 0.86. Test-retest correlations of AMS were found between 0.79 and 0.91. Results showed that scale was suitable for determination of sports high school students’ academicals motivation levels.

  19. High-Order Dielectric Metasurfaces for High-Efficiency Polarization Beam Splitters and Optical Vortex Generators

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Zhongyi; Zhu, Lie; Guo, Kai; Shen, Fei; Yin, Zhiping

    2017-08-01

    In this paper, a high-order dielectric metasurface based on silicon nanobrick array is proposed and investigated. By controlling the length and width of the nanobricks, the metasurfaces could supply two different incremental transmission phases for the X-linear-polarized (XLP) and Y-linear-polarized (YLP) light with extremely high efficiency over 88%. Based on the designed metasurface, two polarization beam splitters working in high-order diffraction modes have been designed successfully, which demonstrated a high transmitted efficiency. In addition, we have also designed two vortex-beam generators working in high-order diffraction modes to create vortex beams with the topological charges of 2 and 3. The employment of dielectric metasurfaces operating in high-order diffraction modes could pave the way for a variety of new ultra-efficient optical devices.

  20. A hybrid approach to quantify software reliability in nuclear safety systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arun Babu, P.; Senthil Kumar, C.; Murali, N.

    2012-01-01

    Highlights: ► A novel method to quantify software reliability using software verification and mutation testing in nuclear safety systems. ► Contributing factors that influence software reliability estimate. ► Approach to help regulators verify the reliability of safety critical software system during software licensing process. -- Abstract: Technological advancements have led to the use of computer based systems in safety critical applications. As computer based systems are being introduced in nuclear power plants, effective and efficient methods are needed to ensure dependability and compliance to high reliability requirements of systems important to safety. Even after several years of research, quantification of software reliability remains controversial and unresolved issue. Also, existing approaches have assumptions and limitations, which are not acceptable for safety applications. This paper proposes a theoretical approach combining software verification and mutation testing to quantify the software reliability in nuclear safety systems. The theoretical results obtained suggest that the software reliability depends on three factors: the test adequacy, the amount of software verification carried out and the reusability of verified code in the software. The proposed approach may help regulators in licensing computer based safety systems in nuclear reactors.

  1. A G-function-based reliability-based design methodology applied to a cam roller system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, W.; Sui, P.; Wu, Y.T.

    1996-01-01

    Conventional reliability-based design optimization methods treats the reliability function as an ordinary function and applies existing mathematical programming techniques to solve the design problem. As a result, the conventional approach requires nested loops with respect to g-function, and is very time consuming. A new reliability-based design method is proposed in this paper that deals with the g-function directly instead of the reliability function. This approach has the potential of significantly reducing the number of calls for g-function calculations since it requires only one full reliability analysis in a design iteration. A cam roller system in a typical high pressure fuel injection diesel engine is designed using both the proposed and the conventional approach. The proposed method is much more efficient for this application

  2. Report on the fiscal 1996 development of high efficient waste power generation technology; 1996 nendo kokoritsu haikibutsu hatsuden gijutsu kaihatsu hokokusho

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1997-03-01

    The technical development was made by which high-temperature/high-pressure steam is generated in the incineration furnace using general waste, combustible industrial waste, etc. as fuel to generate power high efficiently, and reliability of the superheater, etc. was verified by the pilot plant. For it, the following were conducted: development of element technology (high-temperature/high-efficiency combustion furnace, corrosion resistant super heater materials, environmental load reduction technology) and the demonstration (demonstrative test in pilot plant, study of an optimum total system). In relation to the external circulation type fluidized bed furnace, reformation was made which enables simultaneous sampling of dioxins, etc. The combustion test was done using the reformed combustion testing furnace to obtain the data necessary for the study of formation/decomposition mechanism of dioxin. The amount of corrosion reduction of superheater sample material for pilot plant use was determined. A study was made of improvement of removal of dioxins and NOx in the pulse plasma exhaust gas treatment method. The pilot plant was installed. 10 refs., 205 figs., 79 tabs.

  3. All passive architecture for high efficiency cascaded Raman conversion

    Science.gov (United States)

    Balaswamy, V.; Arun, S.; Chayran, G.; Supradeepa, V. R.

    2018-02-01

    Cascaded Raman fiber lasers have offered a convenient method to obtain scalable, high-power sources at various wavelength regions inaccessible with rare-earth doped fiber lasers. A limitation previously was the reduced efficiency of these lasers. Recently, new architectures have been proposed to enhance efficiency, but this came at the cost of enhanced complexity, requiring an additional low-power, cascaded Raman laser. In this work, we overcome this with a new, all-passive architecture for high-efficiency cascaded Raman conversion. We demonstrate our architecture with a fifth-order cascaded Raman converter from 1117nm to 1480nm with output power of ~64W and efficiency of 60%.

  4. Patient safety in anesthesia: learning from the culture of high-reliability organizations.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wright, Suzanne M

    2015-03-01

    There has been an increased awareness of and interest in patient safety and improved outcomes, as well as a growing body of evidence substantiating medical error as a leading cause of death and injury in the United States. According to The Joint Commission, US hospitals demonstrate improvements in health care quality and patient safety. Although this progress is encouraging, much room for improvement remains. High-reliability organizations, industries that deliver reliable performances in the face of complex working environments, can serve as models of safety for our health care system until plausible explanations for patient harm are better understood. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  5. High-efficiency photovoltaic cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, H.T.; Zehr, S.W.

    1982-06-21

    High efficiency solar converters comprised of a two cell, non-lattice matched, monolithic stacked semiconductor configuration using optimum pairs of cells having bandgaps in the range 1.6 to 1.7 eV and 0.95 to 1.1 eV, and a method of fabrication thereof, are disclosed. The high band gap subcells are fabricated using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) or molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to produce the required AlGaAs layers of optimized composition, thickness and doping to produce high performance, heteroface homojunction devices. The low bandgap subcells are similarly fabricated from AlGa(As)Sb compositions by LPE, MBE or MOCVD. These subcells are then coupled to form a monolithic structure by an appropriate bonding technique which also forms the required transparent intercell ohmic contact (IOC) between the two subcells. Improved ohmic contacts to the high bandgap semiconductor structure can be formed by vacuum evaporating to suitable metal or semiconductor materials which react during laser annealing to form a low bandgap semiconductor which provides a low contact resistance structure.

  6. Efficiency and reliability improvement in wind turbine converters by grid converter adaptive control

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Trintis, Ionut; Munk-Nielsen, Stig; Abrahamsen, Flemming

    2013-01-01

    This paper presents a control method that reduces the losses in wind turbine converters adaptively controlling the grid converter. The dc-link voltage adapts its reference based on the system state and therefore reduces the stored energy, and is therefore kept at the minimum necessary for the grid...... and generator side. Operating in this way, the electrical and thermal stress factors are decreased on the power electronic devices, increasing their lifetime. The simulation results using this method show efficiency increase and devices temperature cycles slightly decreased. Experimental results on a wind...... turbine power stack shows efficiency increase in the high power region....

  7. Ultra-high Efficiency DC-DC Converter using GaN Devices

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ramachandran, Rakesh

    2016-01-01

    properties of GaN devices can be utilized in power converters to make them more compact and highly efficient. This thesis entitled “Ultra-high Efficiency DC-DC Converter using GaN devices” focuses on achieving ultra-high conversion efficiency in an isolated dc-dc converter by the optimal utilization of Ga...... for many decades. However, the rate of improvement slowed as the silicon power materials asymptotically approached its theoretical bounds. Compared to Si, wideband gap materials such as Silicon Carbide (SiC) and Gallium Nitride (GaN) are promising semiconductors for power devices due to their superior...... in this thesis. Efficiency measurements from the hardware prototype of both the topologies are also presented in this thesis. Finally, the bidirectional operation of an optimized isolated dc-dc converter is presented. The optimized converter has achieved an ultra-high efficiency of 98.8% in both directions...

  8. Reliability and diagnostic of modular systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Kohlas

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Reliability and diagnostic are in general two problems discussed separately. Yet the two problems are in fact closely related to each other. Here, this relation is considered in the simple case of modular systems. We show, how the computation of reliability and diagnostic can efficiently be done within the same Bayesian network induced by the modularity of the structure function of the system.

  9. 650-nm-band high-power and highly reliable laser diodes with a window-mirror structure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shima, Akihiro; Hironaka, Misao; Ono, Ken-ichi; Takemi, Masayoshi; Sakamoto, Yoshifumi; Kunitsugu, Yasuhiro; Yamashita, Koji

    1998-05-01

    An active layer structure with 658 nm-emission at 25 degrees Celsius has been optimized in order to reduce the operating current of the laser diodes (LD) under high temperature condition. For improvement of the maximum output power and the reliability limited by mirror degradation, we have applied a zinc-diffused-type window-mirror structure which prevents the optical absorption at the mirror facet. As a result, the CW output power of 50 mW is obtained even at 80 degrees Celsius for a 650 micrometer-long window-mirror LD. In addition, the maximum light output power over 150 mW at 25 degrees Celsius has been realized without any optical mirror damage. In the aging tests, the LDs have been operating for over 2,500 - 5,000 hours under the CW condition of 30 - 50 mW at 60 degrees Celsius. The window-mirror structure also enables reliable 60 degree Celsius, 30 mW, CW operation of the LDs with 651 nm- emission at 25 degrees Celsius. Moreover, the maximum output power of around 100 mW even at 80 degrees Celsius and reliable 2,000-hour operation at 60 degrees Celsius, 70 mW have been realized for the first time by 659 nm LDs with a long cavity length of 900 micrometers.

  10. Saving energy via high-efficiency fans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Heine, Thomas

    2016-08-01

    Thomas Heine, sales and market manager for EC Upgrades, the retrofit arm of global provider of air movement solutions, ebm-papst A&NZ, discusses the retrofitting of high-efficiency fans to existing HVAC equipment to 'drastically reduce energy consumption'.

  11. [Employees in high-reliability organizations: systematic selection of personnel as a final criterion].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oubaid, V; Anheuser, P

    2014-05-01

    Employees represent an important safety factor in high-reliability organizations. The combination of clear organizational structures, a nonpunitive safety culture, and psychological personnel selection guarantee a high level of safety. The cockpit personnel selection process of a major German airline is presented in order to demonstrate a possible transferability into medicine and urology.

  12. Reliable wet-chemical cleaning of natively oxidized high-efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin-film solar cell absorbers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lehmann, Jascha; Lehmann, Sebastian; Lauermann, Iver; Rissom, Thorsten; Kaufmann, Christian A.; Lux-Steiner, Martha Ch.; Bär, Marcus; Sadewasser, Sascha

    2014-12-01

    Currently, Cu-containing chalcopyrite-based solar cells provide the highest conversion efficiencies among all thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technologies. They have reached efficiency values above 20%, the same performance level as multi-crystalline silicon-wafer technology that dominates the commercial PV market. Chalcopyrite thin-film heterostructures consist of a layer stack with a variety of interfaces between different materials. It is the chalcopyrite/buffer region (forming the p-n junction), which is of crucial importance and therefore frequently investigated using surface and interface science tools, such as photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy. To ensure comparability and validity of the results, a general preparation guide for "realistic" surfaces of polycrystalline chalcopyrite thin films is highly desirable. We present results on wet-chemical cleaning procedures of polycrystalline Cu(In1-xGax)Se2 thin films with an average x = [Ga]/([In] + [Ga]) = 0.29, which were exposed to ambient conditions for different times. The hence natively oxidized sample surfaces were etched in KCN- or NH3-based aqueous solutions. By x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we find that the KCN treatment results in a chemical surface structure which is - apart from a slight change in surface composition - identical to a pristine as-received sample surface. Additionally, we discover a different oxidation behavior of In and Ga, in agreement with thermodynamic reference data, and we find indications for the segregation and removal of copper selenide surface phases from the polycrystalline material.

  13. Reliability assessment of restructured power systems using reliability network equivalent and pseudo-sequential simulation techniques

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ding, Yi; Wang, Peng; Goel, Lalit; Billinton, Roy; Karki, Rajesh

    2007-01-01

    This paper presents a technique to evaluate reliability of a restructured power system with a bilateral market. The proposed technique is based on the combination of the reliability network equivalent and pseudo-sequential simulation approaches. The reliability network equivalent techniques have been implemented in the Monte Carlo simulation procedure to reduce the computational burden of the analysis. Pseudo-sequential simulation has been used to increase the computational efficiency of the non-sequential simulation method and to model the chronological aspects of market trading and system operation. Multi-state Markov models for generation and transmission systems are proposed and implemented in the simulation. A new load shedding scheme is proposed during generation inadequacy and network congestion to minimize the load curtailment. The IEEE reliability test system (RTS) is used to illustrate the technique. (author)

  14. Bioblendstocks that Enable High Efficiency Engine Designs

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    McCormick, Robert L.; Fioroni, Gina M.; Ratcliff, Matthew A.; Zigler, Bradley T.; Farrell, John

    2016-11-03

    The past decade has seen a high level of innovation in production of biofuels from sugar, lipid, and lignocellulose feedstocks. As discussed in several talks at this workshop, ethanol blends in the E25 to E50 range could enable more highly efficient spark-ignited (SI) engines. This is because of their knock resistance properties that include not only high research octane number (RON), but also charge cooling from high heat of vaporization, and high flame speed. Emerging alcohol fuels such as isobutanol or mixed alcohols have desirable properties such as reduced gasoline blend vapor pressure, but also have lower RON than ethanol. These fuels may be able to achieve the same knock resistance benefits, but likely will require higher blend levels or higher RON hydrocarbon blendstocks. A group of very high RON (>150) oxygenates such as dimethyl furan, methyl anisole, and related compounds are also produced from biomass. While providing no increase in charge cooling, their very high octane numbers may provide adequate knock resistance for future highly efficient SI engines. Given this range of options for highly knock resistant fuels there appears to be a critical need for a fuel knock resistance metric that includes effects of octane number, heat of vaporization, and potentially flame speed. Emerging diesel fuels include highly branched long-chain alkanes from hydroprocessing of fats and oils, as well as sugar-derived terpenoids. These have relatively high cetane number (CN), which may have some benefits in designing more efficient CI engines. Fast pyrolysis of biomass can produce diesel boiling range streams that are high in aromatic, oxygen and acid contents. Hydroprocessing can be applied to remove oxygen and consequently reduce acidity, however there are strong economic incentives to leave up to 2 wt% oxygen in the product. This oxygen will primarily be present as low CN alkyl phenols and aryl ethers. While these have high heating value, their presence in diesel fuel

  15. Stabilization void-fill encapsulation high-efficiency particulate filters

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Alexander, R.G.; Stewart, W.E.; Phillips, S.J.; Serkowski, M.M.; England, J.L.; Boynton, H.C.

    1994-05-01

    This report discusses high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter systems that which are contaminated with radionuclides are part of the nuclear fuel processing systems conducted by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and require replacement and safe and efficient disposal for plant safety. Two K-3 HEPA filters were removed from service, placed burial boxes, buried, and safely and efficiently stabilized remotely which reduced radiation exposure to personnel and the environment

  16. High-efficient electron linacs

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Glavatskikh, K.V.; Zverev, B.V.; Kalyuzhnyj, V.E.; Morozov, V.L.; Nikolaev, S.V.; Plotnikov, S.N.; Sobenin, N.P.; Vovna, V.A.; Gryzlov, A.V.

    1993-01-01

    Comparison analysis of ELA on running and still waves designed for 10 MeV energy and with high efficiency is carried out. It is shown, that from the point of view of dimensions ELA with a still wave or that of a combined type is more preferable. From the point of view of impedance characteristics in any variant with application of magnetron as HF-generator it is necessary to implement special requirements to the accelerating structure if no ferrite isolation is provided in HF-channel. 3 refs., 4 figs., 1 tab

  17. A new approach for reliability analysis with time-variant performance characteristics

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Zequn; Wang, Pingfeng

    2013-01-01

    Reliability represents safety level in industry practice and may variant due to time-variant operation condition and components deterioration throughout a product life-cycle. Thus, the capability to perform time-variant reliability analysis is of vital importance in practical engineering applications. This paper presents a new approach, referred to as nested extreme response surface (NERS), that can efficiently tackle time dependency issue in time-variant reliability analysis and enable to solve such problem by easily integrating with advanced time-independent tools. The key of the NERS approach is to build a nested response surface of time corresponding to the extreme value of the limit state function by employing Kriging model. To obtain the data for the Kriging model, the efficient global optimization technique is integrated with the NERS to extract the extreme time responses of the limit state function for any given system input. An adaptive response prediction and model maturation mechanism is developed based on mean square error (MSE) to concurrently improve the accuracy and computational efficiency of the proposed approach. With the nested response surface of time, the time-variant reliability analysis can be converted into the time-independent reliability analysis and existing advanced reliability analysis methods can be used. Three case studies are used to demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of NERS approach

  18. Optimization of a PCRAM Chip for high-speed read and highly reliable reset operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Xiaoyun; Chen, Houpeng; Li, Xi; Wang, Qian; Fan, Xi; Hu, Jiajun; Lei, Yu; Zhang, Qi; Tian, Zhen; Song, Zhitang

    2016-10-01

    The widely used traditional Flash memory suffers from its performance limits such as its serious crosstalk problems, and increasing complexity of floating gate scaling. Phase change random access memory (PCRAM) becomes one of the most potential nonvolatile memories among the new memory techniques. In this paper, a 1M-bit PCRAM chip is designed based on the SMIC 40nm CMOS technology. Focusing on the read and write performance, two new circuits with high-speed read operation and highly reliable reset operation are proposed. The high-speed read circuit effectively reduces the reading time from 74ns to 40ns. The double-mode reset circuit improves the chip yield. This 1M-bit PCRAM chip has been simulated on cadence. After layout design is completed, the chip will be taped out for post-test.

  19. Reliability Evaluation on Creep Life Prediction of Alloy 617 for a Very High Temperature Reactor

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kim, Woo-Gon; Hong, Sung-Deok; Kim, Yong-Wan; Park, Jae-Young; Kim, Seon-Jin

    2012-01-01

    This paper evaluates the reliability of creep rupture life under service conditions of Alloy 617, which is considered as one of the candidate materials for use in a very high temperature reactor (VHTR) system. A Z-parameter, which represents the deviation of creep rupture data from the master curve, was used for the reliability analysis of the creep rupture data of Alloy 617. A Service-condition Creep Rupture Interference (SCRI) model, which can consider both the scattering of the creep rupture data and the fluctuations of temperature and stress under any service conditions, was also used for evaluating the reliability of creep rupture life. The statistical analysis showed that the scattering of creep rupture data based on Z-parameter was supported by normal distribution. The values of reliability decreased rapidly with increasing amplitudes of temperature and stress fluctuations. The results established that the reliability decreased with an increasing service time.

  20. Segmentation of low‐cost high efficiency oxide‐based thermoelectric materials

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Le, Thanh Hung; Van Nong, Ngo; Linderoth, Søren

    2015-01-01

    Thermoelectric (TE) oxide materials have attracted great interest in advanced renewable energy research owing to the fact that they consist of abundant elements, can be manufactured by low-cost processing, sustain high temperatures, be robust and provide long lifetime. However, the low conversion...... efficiency of TE oxides has been a major drawback limiting these materials to broaden applications. In this work, theoretical calculations are used to predict how segmentation of oxide and semimetal materials, utilizing the benefits of both types of materials, can provide high efficiency, high temperature...... oxide-based segmented legs. The materials for segmentation are selected by their compatibility factors and their conversion efficiency versus material cost, i.e., “efficiency ratio”. Numerical modelling results showed that conversion efficiency could reach values of more than 10% for unicouples using...

  1. High-efficiency CARM

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bratman, V.L.; Kol`chugin, B.D.; Samsonov, S.V.; Volkov, A.B. [Institute of Applied Physics, Nizhny Novgorod (Russian Federation)

    1995-12-31

    The Cyclotron Autoresonance Maser (CARM) is a well-known variety of FEMs. Unlike the ubitron in which electrons move in a periodical undulator field, in the CARM the particles move along helical trajectories in a uniform magnetic field. Since it is much simpler to generate strong homogeneous magnetic fields than periodical ones for a relatively low electron energy ({Brit_pounds}{le}1-3 MeV) the period of particles` trajectories in the CARM can be sufficiently smaller than in the undulator in which, moreover, the field decreases rapidly in the transverse direction. In spite of this evident advantage, the number of papers on CARM is an order less than on ubitron, which is apparently caused by the low (not more than 10 %) CARM efficiency in experiments. At the same time, ubitrons operating in two rather complicated regimes-trapping and adiabatic deceleration of particles and combined undulator and reversed guiding fields - yielded efficiencies of 34 % and 27 %, respectively. The aim of this work is to demonstrate that high efficiency can be reached even for a simplest version of the CARM. In order to reduce sensitivity to an axial velocity spread of particles, a short interaction length where electrons underwent only 4-5 cyclotron oscillations was used in this work. Like experiments, a narrow anode outlet of a field-emission electron gun cut out the {open_quotes}most rectilinear{close_quotes} near-axis part of the electron beam. Additionally, magnetic field of a small correcting coil compensated spurious electron oscillations pumped by the anode aperture. A kicker in the form of a sloping to the axis frame with current provided a control value of rotary velocity at a small additional velocity spread. A simple cavity consisting of a cylindrical waveguide section restricted by a cut-off waveguide on the cathode side and by a Bragg reflector on the collector side was used as the CARM-oscillator microwave system.

  2. Energy efficiency of induction heating; Energieeffizienz von Anlagen zum induktiven Randschichthaerten

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schuboltz, Stefan; Stiele, Hansjuerg [EFD Induction GmbH, Freiburg (Germany)

    2012-09-15

    Based on increasing prices for energy and growing consciousness for ecology, the energy efficiency of machines has become an important aspect in many sectors of the industry. The significance of the efficiency factor of induction heating systems, which are generating power ratings up to the megawatt-band, has risen up eminently. Due to increasing needs on reliable solutions and high requirements for the components, induction as a tool for surface hardening obtains high demands. (orig.)

  3. New III-V cell design approaches for very high efficiency

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lundstrom, M.S.; Melloch, M.R.; Lush, G.B.; Patkar, M.P.; Young, M.P. (Purdue Univ., Lafayette, IN (United States))

    1993-04-01

    This report describes to examine new solar cell desip approaches for achieving very high conversion efficiencies. The program consists of two elements. The first centers on exploring new thin-film approaches specifically designed for M-III semiconductors. Substantial efficiency gains may be possible by employing light trapping techniques to confine the incident photons, as well as the photons emitted by radiative recombination. The thin-film approach is a promising route for achieving substantial performance improvements in the already high-efficiency, single-junction, III-V cell. The second element of the research involves exploring desip approaches for achieving high conversion efficiencies without requiring extremely high-quality material. This work has applications to multiple-junction cells, for which the selection of a component cell often involves a compromise between optimum band pp and optimum material quality. It could also be a benefit manufacturing environment by making the cell's efficiency less dependent on materialquality.

  4. An overview of the reliability prediction related aspects of high power IGBTs in wind power applications

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Busca, Christian; Teodorescu, Remus; Blaabjerg, Frede

    2011-01-01

    Reliability is becoming more and more important as the size and number of installed Wind Turbines (WTs) increases. Very high reliability is especially important for offshore WTs because the maintenance and repair of such WTs in case of failures can be very expensive. WT manufacturers need...

  5. Charge transport in highly efficient iridium cored electrophosphorescent dendrimers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Markham, Jonathan P. J.; Samuel, Ifor D. W.; Lo, Shih-Chun; Burn, Paul L.; Weiter, Martin; Bässler, Heinz

    2004-01-01

    Electrophosphorescent dendrimers are promising materials for highly efficient light-emitting diodes. They consist of a phosphorescent core onto which dendritic groups are attached. Here, we present an investigation into the optical and electronic properties of highly efficient phosphorescent dendrimers. The effect of dendrimer structure on charge transport and optical properties is studied using temperature-dependent charge-generation-layer time-of-flight measurements and current voltage (I-V) analysis. A model is used to explain trends seen in the I-V characteristics. We demonstrate that fine tuning the mobility by chemical structure is possible in these dendrimers and show that this can lead to highly efficient bilayer dendrimer light-emitting diodes with neat emissive layers. Power efficiencies of 20 lm/W were measured for devices containing a second-generation (G2) Ir(ppy)3 dendrimer with a 1,3,5-tris(2-N-phenylbenzimidazolyl)benzene electron transport layer.

  6. Reliability and Characterization of High Voltage Power Capacitors

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-03-01

    in a Faraday cage to minimize external noise. In addition, electron microscopy could also be performed to identify the change in trap concentration...military bases in the United States. Energy product reliability affects the sustainability and cost- effectiveness of these systems, which must be tested...Energy product reliability affects the sustainability and cost- effectiveness of these systems, which must be tested by outside entities to ensure

  7. Reliable and Efficient Procedure for Steady-State Analysis of Nonautonomous and Autonomous Systems

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Dobes

    2012-04-01

    Full Text Available The majority of contemporary design tools do not still contain steady-state algorithms, especially for the autonomous systems. This is mainly caused by insufficient accuracy of the algorithm for numerical integration, but also by unreliable steady-state algorithms themselves. Therefore, in the paper, a very stable and efficient procedure for the numerical integration of nonlinear differential-algebraic systems is defined first. Afterwards, two improved methods are defined for finding the steady state, which use this integration algorithm in their iteration loops. The first is based on the idea of extrapolation, and the second utilizes nonstandard time-domain sensitivity analysis. The two steady-state algorithms are compared by analyses of a rectifier and a C-class amplifier, and the extrapolation algorithm is primarily selected as a more reliable alternative. Finally, the method based on the extrapolation naturally cooperating with the algorithm for solving the differential-algebraic systems is thoroughly tested on various electronic circuits: Van der Pol and Colpitts oscillators, fragment of a large bipolar logical circuit, feedback and distributed microwave oscillators, and power amplifier. The results confirm that the extrapolation method is faster than a classical plain numerical integration, especially for larger circuits with complicated transients.

  8. Design of High Efficiency Illumination for LED Lighting

    OpenAIRE

    Chang, Yong-Nong; Cheng, Hung-Liang; Kuo, Chih-Ming

    2013-01-01

    A high efficiency illumination for LED street lighting is proposed. For energy saving, this paper uses Class-E resonant inverter as main electric circuit to improve efficiency. In addition, single dimming control has the best efficiency, simplest control scheme and lowest circuit cost among other types of dimming techniques. Multiple serial-connected transformers used to drive the LED strings as they can provide galvanic isolation and have the advantage of good current distribution against de...

  9. Time-dependent reliability sensitivity analysis of motion mechanisms

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wei, Pengfei; Song, Jingwen; Lu, Zhenzhou; Yue, Zhufeng

    2016-01-01

    Reliability sensitivity analysis aims at identifying the source of structure/mechanism failure, and quantifying the effects of each random source or their distribution parameters on failure probability or reliability. In this paper, the time-dependent parametric reliability sensitivity (PRS) analysis as well as the global reliability sensitivity (GRS) analysis is introduced for the motion mechanisms. The PRS indices are defined as the partial derivatives of the time-dependent reliability w.r.t. the distribution parameters of each random input variable, and they quantify the effect of the small change of each distribution parameter on the time-dependent reliability. The GRS indices are defined for quantifying the individual, interaction and total contributions of the uncertainty in each random input variable to the time-dependent reliability. The envelope function method combined with the first order approximation of the motion error function is introduced for efficiently estimating the time-dependent PRS and GRS indices. Both the time-dependent PRS and GRS analysis techniques can be especially useful for reliability-based design. This significance of the proposed methods as well as the effectiveness of the envelope function method for estimating the time-dependent PRS and GRS indices are demonstrated with a four-bar mechanism and a car rack-and-pinion steering linkage. - Highlights: • Time-dependent parametric reliability sensitivity analysis is presented. • Time-dependent global reliability sensitivity analysis is presented for mechanisms. • The proposed method is especially useful for enhancing the kinematic reliability. • An envelope method is introduced for efficiently implementing the proposed methods. • The proposed method is demonstrated by two real planar mechanisms.

  10. Reliable computer systems.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wear, L L; Pinkert, J R

    1993-11-01

    In this article, we looked at some decisions that apply to the design of reliable computer systems. We began with a discussion of several terms such as testability, then described some systems that call for highly reliable hardware and software. The article concluded with a discussion of methods that can be used to achieve higher reliability in computer systems. Reliability and fault tolerance in computers probably will continue to grow in importance. As more and more systems are computerized, people will want assurances about the reliability of these systems, and their ability to work properly even when sub-systems fail.

  11. High thermal efficiency and low emission performance of a methanol reformed gas fueled engine for hybrid electric vehicles

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yamane, K.; Nakajima, Y.; Shudo, T.; Hiruma, M. [Musahi Inst. of Tech., Tokyo (Japan); Komatsu, H.; Takagi, Y. [Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Yokosuka (Japan)

    2000-07-01

    An internal combustion engine (ICE) operation was carried out experimentally by using the mixture of air and fuel simulating the reformed gas as the fuel. It has been found that the engine can expectedly attain ultra-low emission and high thermal efficiency, namely 35% brake thermal efficiency in the basis of the low heat value of the theoretically reformed gas or 42% in the basis of the low heat value of methanol. By using the result for the estimation of the total thermal efficiency at the end of the motor output shaft of a hybrid electric vehicle, it has been found that the total thermal efficiency of the reformed gas engine system is 34% in case of a 120% energy increment and 33% in case of a 116% energy increment with a little higher NOx emission of 60 ppm while the counterpart of the fuel cell system is 34%. When the emission level for EZEV is required, the total thermal efficiency falls to 32% in case of a 120% energy increment and 31% in case of a 116% energy increment. From the points of the reliability proved by the long history, higher specific power and low cost, the internal combustion engine system with the thermal efficiency almost equal to that of the fuel cell (FC) system is further more practical when methanol is used as the fuel. (orig.)

  12. High Quantum Efficiency OLED Lighting Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shiang, Joseph [General Electric (GE) Global Research, Fairfield, CT (United States)

    2011-09-30

    The overall goal of the program was to apply improvements in light outcoupling technology to a practical large area plastic luminaire, and thus enable the product vision of an extremely thin form factor high efficiency large area light source. The target substrate was plastic and the baseline device was operating at 35 LPW at the start of the program. The target LPW of the program was a >2x improvement in the LPW efficacy and the overall amount of light to be delivered was relatively high 900 lumens. Despite the extremely difficult challenges associated with scaling up a wet solution process on plastic substrates, the program was able to make substantial progress. A small molecule wet solution process was successfully implemented on plastic substrates with almost no loss in efficiency in transitioning from the laboratory scale glass to large area plastic substrates. By transitioning to a small molecule based process, the LPW entitlement increased from 35 LPW to 60 LPW. A further 10% improvement in outcoupling efficiency was demonstrated via the use of a highly reflecting cathode, which reduced absorptive loss in the OLED device. The calculated potential improvement in some cases is even larger, ~30%, and thus there is considerable room for optimism in improving the net light coupling efficacy, provided absorptive loss mechanisms are eliminated. Further improvements are possible if scattering schemes such as the silver nanowire based hard coat structure are fully developed. The wet coating processes were successfully scaled to large area plastic substrate and resulted in the construction of a 900 lumens luminaire device.

  13. Reliable implementation of evidence: a qualitative study of antenatal corticosteroid administration in Ohio hospitals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaplan, Heather C; Sherman, Susan N; Cleveland, Charlena; Goldenhar, Linda M; Lannon, Carole M; Bailit, Jennifer L

    2016-03-01

    Antenatal corticosteroids (ANCS) reduce complications of preterm birth; however, not all eligible women receive them. Many hospitals and providers do not have the right processes and conditions to enable ANCS administration with high reliability. The objective of this study was to understand conditions that enable delivery of ANCS with high reliability among hospitals participating in an Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative (OPQC) ANCS project. We conducted focus groups and semistructured interviews with members of the OPQC project team (n=27) and other care providers (n=70) using a purposeful sample of 6 sites involved in the OPQC ANCS project. Participants including nurses (n=57), attending obstetricians (n=17), physician trainees (n=21) and certified nurse midwives (n=2) were asked to reflect on their experiences and to identify factors contributing to optimal use of ANCS. Focus groups and interviews were transcribed verbatim and were analysed by a multidisciplinary team using an iterative approach that combined inductive and deductive methods to identify and categorise themes. Six major themes supporting reliable implementation of ANCS at these hospitals emerged including: (1) presence of a high reliability culture, (2) processes that emphasise high reliability, (3) timely and efficient administration process, (4) multiple disciplines are involved, (5) evidence of benefit supports ANCS use and (6) benefit is recognised at all levels of the care team. Our findings identify the key processes and supports needed to ensure delivery of ASCS with high reliability and are reinforced by implementation and reliability science. They are useful for foundation of the successful implementation of other evidence-based practices at high levels of reliability. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

  14. Sensitivity analysis of recovery efficiency in high-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage with single well

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jeon, Jun-Seo; Lee, Seung-Rae; Pasquinelli, Lisa; Fabricius, Ida Lykke

    2015-01-01

    High-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage system usually shows higher performance than other borehole thermal energy storage systems. Although there is a limitation in the widespread use of the HT-ATES system because of several technical problems such as clogging, corrosion, etc., it is getting more attention as these issues are gradually alleviated. In this study, a sensitivity analysis of recovery efficiency in two cases of HT-ATES system with a single well is conducted to select key parameters. For a fractional factorial design used to choose input parameters with uniformity, the optimal Latin hypercube sampling with an enhanced stochastic evolutionary algorithm is considered. Then, the recovery efficiency is obtained using a computer model developed by COMSOL Multiphysics. With input and output variables, the surrogate modeling technique, namely the Gaussian-Kriging method with Smoothly Clopped Absolute Deviation Penalty, is utilized. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is performed based on the variation decomposition. According to the result of sensitivity analysis, the most important input variables are selected and confirmed to consider the interaction effects for each case and it is confirmed that key parameters vary with the experiment domain of hydraulic and thermal properties as well as the number of input variables. - Highlights: • Main and interaction effects on recovery efficiency in HT-ATES was investigated. • Reliability depended on fractional factorial design and interaction effects. • Hydraulic permeability of aquifer had an important impact on recovery efficiency. • Site-specific sensitivity analysis of HT-ATES was recommended.

  15. Structural Reliability of Wind Turbine Blades

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Dimitrov, Nikolay Krasimirov

    turbine blades. The main purpose is to draw a clear picture of how reliability-based design of wind turbines can be done in practice. The objectives of the thesis are to create methodologies for efficient reliability assessment of composite materials and composite wind turbine blades, and to map...... the uncertainties in the processes, materials and external conditions that have an effect on the health of a composite structure. The study considers all stages in a reliability analysis, from defining models of structural components to obtaining the reliability index and calibration of partial safety factors...... by developing new models and standards or carrying out tests The following aspects are covered in detail: ⋅ The probabilistic aspects of ultimate strength of composite laminates are addressed. Laminated plates are considered as a general structural reliability system where each layer in a laminate is a separate...

  16. Short-Term and Medium-Term Reliability Evaluation for Power Systems With High Penetration of Wind Power

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ding, Yi; Singh, Chanan; Goel, Lalit

    2014-01-01

    reliability evaluation techniques for power systems are well developed. These techniques are more focused on steady-state (time-independent) reliability evaluation and have been successfully applied in power system planning and expansion. In the operational phase, however, they may be too rough......The expanding share of the fluctuating and less predictable wind power generation can introduce complexities in power system reliability evaluation and management. This entails a need for the system operator to assess the system status more accurately for securing real-time balancing. The existing...... an approximation of the time-varying behavior of power systems with high penetration of wind power. This paper proposes a time-varying reliability assessment technique. Time-varying reliability models for wind farms, conventional generating units, and rapid start-up generating units are developed and represented...

  17. High efficiency and broadband acoustic diodes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fu, Congyi; Wang, Bohan; Zhao, Tianfei; Chen, C. Q.

    2018-01-01

    Energy transmission efficiency and working bandwidth are the two major factors limiting the application of current acoustic diodes (ADs). This letter presents a design of high efficiency and broadband acoustic diodes composed of a nonlinear frequency converter and a linear wave filter. The converter consists of two masses connected by a bilinear spring with asymmetric tension and compression stiffness. The wave filter is a linear mass-spring lattice (sonic crystal). Both numerical simulation and experiment show that the energy transmission efficiency of the acoustic diode can be improved by as much as two orders of magnitude, reaching about 61%. Moreover, the primary working band width of the AD is about two times of the cut-off frequency of the sonic crystal filter. The cut-off frequency dependent working band of the AD implies that the developed AD can be scaled up or down from macro-scale to micro- and nano-scale.

  18. High-precision efficiency calibration of a high-purity co-axial germanium detector

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blank, B., E-mail: blank@cenbg.in2p3.fr [Centre d' Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan, UMR 5797, CNRS/IN2P3, Université de Bordeaux, Chemin du Solarium, BP 120, 33175 Gradignan Cedex (France); Souin, J.; Ascher, P.; Audirac, L.; Canchel, G.; Gerbaux, M.; Grévy, S.; Giovinazzo, J.; Guérin, H.; Nieto, T. Kurtukian; Matea, I. [Centre d' Etudes Nucléaires de Bordeaux Gradignan, UMR 5797, CNRS/IN2P3, Université de Bordeaux, Chemin du Solarium, BP 120, 33175 Gradignan Cedex (France); Bouzomita, H.; Delahaye, P.; Grinyer, G.F.; Thomas, J.C. [Grand Accélérateur National d' Ions Lourds, CEA/DSM, CNRS/IN2P3, Bvd Henri Becquerel, BP 55027, F-14076 CAEN Cedex 5 (France)

    2015-03-11

    A high-purity co-axial germanium detector has been calibrated in efficiency to a precision of about 0.15% over a wide energy range. High-precision scans of the detector crystal and γ-ray source measurements have been compared to Monte-Carlo simulations to adjust the dimensions of a detector model. For this purpose, standard calibration sources and short-lived online sources have been used. The resulting efficiency calibration reaches the precision needed e.g. for branching ratio measurements of super-allowed β decays for tests of the weak-interaction standard model.

  19. Octennial History of the Development and Quality of High-Efficiency Filters for the US Atomic Energy Program

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gilbert, H. [United States Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, DC (United States)

    1968-12-15

    Two facilities are operated for the US atomic energy commission in its program to ensure the uniform quality of commercially manufactured high-efficiency particulate filters. the filter-testing program was started in january 1960 after it was realized that the commercial fire-resistant product incorporated deficiencies of manufacture. the record of testing for quality assurance by the two facilities and an analysis of factors governing the quality of filters are presented. the analysis is complemented with a description of efforts, made in the course of the filter testing, to improve the design of the filter for efficiency and reliability. the fire-resistant (hepa) filter of 1959 was inadequate. the inadequacy of the filter, now judged by reflection, was brought about by the intensive accelerated efforts to replace and preclude, wherever possible in the US atomic energy program, use of filters made of combustible materials. this desire for fire resistance of filters has proliferated widely among other members of the international atomic energy family. the intensive AEC effort caused US industry to produce filters of fire-resistant design but without the opportunity for development of manufacturing technology adequate for ensuring reliability of the filter. the state of the fire-resistant filter today is in sharp contrast to the 1959 filter. the testing program, coupled with a program for continuing improvement of the filter, has resulted in the effective removal of radioactive aerosols at atomic energy installations on a consistent and dependable basis. (author)

  20. Design for High Performance, Low Power, and Reliable 3D Integrated Circuits

    CERN Document Server

    Lim, Sung Kyu

    2013-01-01

    This book describes the design of through-silicon-via (TSV) based three-dimensional integrated circuits.  It includes details of numerous “manufacturing-ready” GDSII-level layouts of TSV-based 3D ICs, developed with tools covered in the book. Readers will benefit from the sign-off level analysis of timing, power, signal integrity, and thermo-mechanical reliability for 3D IC designs.  Coverage also includes various design-for-manufacturability (DFM), design-for-reliability (DFR), and design-for-testability (DFT) techniques that are considered critical to the 3D IC design process. Describes design issues and solutions for high performance and low power 3D ICs, such as the pros/cons of regular and irregular placement of TSVs, Steiner routing, buffer insertion, low power 3D clock routing, power delivery network design and clock design for pre-bond testability. Discusses topics in design-for-electrical-reliability for 3D ICs, such as TSV-to-TSV coupling, current crowding at the wire-to-TSV junction and the e...

  1. Gearbox Reliability Collaborative Investigation of High-Speed-Shaft Bearing Loads

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Keller, Jonathan [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Guo, Yi [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2016-06-01

    The loads and contact stresses in the bearings of the high speed shaft section of the Gearbox Reliability Collaborative gearbox are examined in this paper. The loads were measured though strain gauges installed on the bearing outer races during dynamometer testing of the gearbox. Loads and stresses were also predicted with a simple analytical model and higher-fidelity commercial models. The experimental data compared favorably to each model, and bearing stresses were below thresholds for contact fatigue and axial cracking.

  2. Influence of reliability of the relay protection to the whole reliability of electric power systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Stojanovski, Ljupcho I.

    2001-01-01

    The influence of the reliability of the elements of relay protection up today analyses of the reliability on electric power systems, very rare has been taken into consideration, in other words, in these analyses it is assumed that the reliability of the protection has value one. In this work an attempt is that through modelling of individual types of protection of the elements of high-voltage systems to make calculation to the influence of the reliability of the relay protection on the total reliability of the high-voltage systems.(Author)

  3. Reliability-Based Optimization of Series Systems of Parallel Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Enevoldsen, I.; Sørensen, John Dalsgaard

    1993-01-01

    Reliability-based design of structural systems is considered. In particular, systems where the reliability model is a series system of parallel systems are treated. A sensitivity analysis for this class of problems is presented. Optimization problems with series systems of parallel systems...... optimization of series systems of parallel systems, but it is also efficient in reliability-based optimization of series systems in general....

  4. High-efficiency ballistic electrostatic generator using microdroplets

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xie, Yanbo; Bos, Diederik; de Vreede, Lennart J.; de Boer, Hans L.; van der Meulen, Mark-Jan; Versluis, Michel; Sprenkels, Ad J.; van den Berg, Albert; Eijkel, Jan C. T.

    2014-04-01

    The strong demand for renewable energy promotes research on novel methods and technologies for energy conversion. Microfluidic systems for energy conversion by streaming current are less known to the public, and the relatively low efficiencies previously obtained seemed to limit the further applications of such systems. Here we report a microdroplet-based electrostatic generator operating by an acceleration-deceleration cycle (‘ballistic’ conversion), and show that this principle enables both high efficiency and compact simple design. Water is accelerated by pumping it through a micropore to form a microjet breaking up into fast-moving charged droplets. Droplet kinetic energy is converted to electrical energy when the charged droplets decelerate in the electrical field that forms between membrane and target. We demonstrate conversion efficiencies of up to 48%, a power density of 160 kW m-2 and both high- (20 kV) and low- (500 V) voltage operation. Besides offering striking new insights, the device potentially opens up new perspectives for low-cost and robust renewable energy conversion.

  5. Reliability improvements on Thales RM2 rotary Stirling coolers: analysis and methodology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cauquil, J. M.; Seguineau, C.; Martin, J.-Y.; Benschop, T.

    2016-05-01

    The cooled IR detectors are used in a wide range of applications. Most of the time, the cryocoolers are one of the components dimensioning the lifetime of the system. The cooler reliability is thus one of its most important parameters. This parameter has to increase to answer market needs. To do this, the data for identifying the weakest element determining cooler reliability has to be collected. Yet, data collection based on field are hardly usable due to lack of informations. A method for identifying the improvement in reliability has then to be set up which can be used even without field return. This paper will describe the method followed by Thales Cryogénie SAS to reach such a result. First, a database was built from extensive expertizes of RM2 failures occurring in accelerate ageing. Failure modes have then been identified and corrective actions achieved. Besides this, a hierarchical organization of the functions of the cooler has been done with regard to the potential increase of its efficiency. Specific changes have been introduced on the functions most likely to impact efficiency. The link between efficiency and reliability will be described in this paper. The work on the two axes - weak spots for cooler reliability and efficiency - permitted us to increase in a drastic way the MTTF of the RM2 cooler. Huge improvements in RM2 reliability are actually proven by both field return and reliability monitoring. These figures will be discussed in the paper.

  6. High-Efficient Low-Cost Photovoltaics Recent Developments

    CERN Document Server

    Petrova-Koch, Vesselinka; Goetzberger, Adolf

    2009-01-01

    A bird's-eye view of the development and problems of recent photovoltaic cells and systems and prospects for Si feedstock is presented. High-efficient low-cost PV modules, making use of novel efficient solar cells (based on c-Si or III-V materials), and low cost solar concentrators are in the focus of this book. Recent developments of organic photovoltaics, which is expected to overcome its difficulties and to enter the market soon, are also included.

  7. Efficient random access high resolution region-of-interest (ROI) image retrieval using backward coding of wavelet trees (BCWT)

    Science.gov (United States)

    Corona, Enrique; Nutter, Brian; Mitra, Sunanda; Guo, Jiangling; Karp, Tanja

    2008-03-01

    Efficient retrieval of high quality Regions-Of-Interest (ROI) from high resolution medical images is essential for reliable interpretation and accurate diagnosis. Random access to high quality ROI from codestreams is becoming an essential feature in many still image compression applications, particularly in viewing diseased areas from large medical images. This feature is easier to implement in block based codecs because of the inherent spatial independency of the code blocks. This independency implies that the decoding order of the blocks is unimportant as long as the position for each is properly identified. In contrast, wavelet-tree based codecs naturally use some interdependency that exploits the decaying spectrum model of the wavelet coefficients. Thus one must keep track of the decoding order from level to level with such codecs. We have developed an innovative multi-rate image subband coding scheme using "Backward Coding of Wavelet Trees (BCWT)" which is fast, memory efficient, and resolution scalable. It offers far less complexity than many other existing codecs including both, wavelet-tree, and block based algorithms. The ROI feature in BCWT is implemented through a transcoder stage that generates a new BCWT codestream containing only the information associated with the user-defined ROI. This paper presents an efficient technique that locates a particular ROI within the BCWT coded domain, and decodes it back to the spatial domain. This technique allows better access and proper identification of pathologies in high resolution images since only a small fraction of the codestream is required to be transmitted and analyzed.

  8. Rapid and reliable high-throughput methods of DNA extraction for use in barcoding and molecular systematics of mushrooms.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dentinger, Bryn T M; Margaritescu, Simona; Moncalvo, Jean-Marc

    2010-07-01

    We present two methods for DNA extraction from fresh and dried mushrooms that are adaptable to high-throughput sequencing initiatives, such as DNA barcoding. Our results show that these protocols yield ∼85% sequencing success from recently collected materials. Tests with both recent (100 years) specimens reveal that older collections have low success rates and may be an inefficient resource for populating a barcode database. However, our method of extracting DNA from herbarium samples using small amount of tissue is reliable and could be used for important historical specimens. The application of these protocols greatly reduces time, and therefore cost, of generating DNA sequences from mushrooms and other fungi vs. traditional extraction methods. The efficiency of these methods illustrates that standardization and streamlining of sample processing should be shifted from the laboratory to the field. © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  9. Reliability Analysis Techniques for Communication Networks in Nuclear Power Plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lim, T. J.; Jang, S. C.; Kang, H. G.; Kim, M. C.; Eom, H. S.; Lee, H. J.

    2006-09-01

    The objectives of this project is to investigate and study existing reliability analysis techniques for communication networks in order to develop reliability analysis models for nuclear power plant's safety-critical networks. It is necessary to make a comprehensive survey of current methodologies for communication network reliability. Major outputs of this study are design characteristics of safety-critical communication networks, efficient algorithms for quantifying reliability of communication networks, and preliminary models for assessing reliability of safety-critical communication networks

  10. Improving Reliability and Durability of Efficient and Clean Energy Systems

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Singh, Prabhakar [Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (United States)

    2010-08-01

    Overall objective of the research program was to develop an in-depth understanding of the degradation processes in advanced electrochemical energy conversion systems. It was also the objective of the research program to transfer the technology to participating industries for implementation in manufacturing of cost effective and reliable integrated systems.

  11. Downtown Detroit Energy Efficient Street Lighting

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Goodwin, Malik [Detroit Economic Growth Corp, Detroit, MI (United States)

    2013-11-29

    Reliable public lighting remains a critically important and valuable public service in Detroit, Michigan. The Downtown Detroit Energy Efficiency Lighting Program (the, “Program”) was designed and implemented to bring the latest advancements in lighting technology, energy efficiency, public safety and reliability to Detroit’s Central Business District, and the Program accomplished those goals successfully. Downtown’s nighttime atmosphere has been upgraded as a result of the installation of over 1000 new LED roadway lighting fixtures that were installed as part of the Program. The reliability of the lighting system has also improved.

  12. Development of high-efficiency solar cells on silicon web

    Science.gov (United States)

    Meier, D. L.; Greggi, J.; Okeeffe, T. W.; Rai-Choudhury, P.

    1986-01-01

    Work was performed to improve web base material with a goal of obtaining solar cell efficiencies in excess of 18% (AM1). Efforts in this program are directed toward identifying carrier loss mechanisms in web silicon, eliminating or reducing these mechanisms, designing a high efficiency cell structure with the aid of numerical models, and fabricating high efficiency web solar cells. Fabrication techniques must preserve or enhance carrier lifetime in the bulk of the cell and minimize recombination of carriers at the external surfaces. Three completed cells were viewed by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) in order to investigate further the relation between structural defects and electrical performance of web cells. Consistent with past TEM examinations, the cell with the highest efficiency (15.0%) had no dislocations but did have 11 twin planes.

  13. Complexity-aware high efficiency video coding

    CERN Document Server

    Correa, Guilherme; Agostini, Luciano; Cruz, Luis A da Silva

    2016-01-01

    This book discusses computational complexity of High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) encoders with coverage extending from the analysis of HEVC compression efficiency and computational complexity to the reduction and scaling of its encoding complexity. After an introduction to the topic and a review of the state-of-the-art research in the field, the authors provide a detailed analysis of the HEVC encoding tools compression efficiency and computational complexity.  Readers will benefit from a set of algorithms for scaling the computational complexity of HEVC encoders, all of which take advantage from the flexibility of the frame partitioning structures allowed by the standard.  The authors also provide a set of early termination methods based on data mining and machine learning techniques, which are able to reduce the computational complexity required to find the best frame partitioning structures. The applicability of the proposed methods is finally exemplified with an encoding time control system that emplo...

  14. DJ-1 is a reliable serum biomarker for discriminating high-risk endometrial cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Di Cello, Annalisa; Di Sanzo, Maddalena; Perrone, Francesca Marta; Santamaria, Gianluca; Rania, Erika; Angotti, Elvira; Venturella, Roberta; Mancuso, Serafina; Zullo, Fulvio; Cuda, Giovanni; Costanzo, Francesco

    2017-06-01

    New reliable approaches to stratify patients with endometrial cancer into risk categories are highly needed. We have recently demonstrated that DJ-1 is overexpressed in endometrial cancer, showing significantly higher levels both in serum and tissue of patients with high-risk endometrial cancer compared with low-risk endometrial cancer. In this experimental study, we further extended our observation, evaluating the role of DJ-1 as an accurate serum biomarker for high-risk endometrial cancer. A total of 101 endometrial cancer patients and 44 healthy subjects were prospectively recruited. DJ-1 serum levels were evaluated comparing cases and controls and, among endometrial cancer patients, between high- and low-risk patients. The results demonstrate that DJ-1 levels are significantly higher in cases versus controls and in high- versus low-risk patients. The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis shows that DJ-1 has a very good diagnostic accuracy in discriminating endometrial cancer patients versus controls and an excellent accuracy in distinguishing, among endometrial cancer patients, low- from high-risk cases. DJ-1 sensitivity and specificity are the highest when high- and low-risk patients are compared, reaching the value of 95% and 99%, respectively. Moreover, DJ-1 serum levels seem to be correlated with worsening of the endometrial cancer grade and histotype, making it a reliable tool in the preoperative decision-making process.

  15. High bandgap III-V alloys for high efficiency optoelectronics

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Alberi, Kirstin; Mascarenhas, Angelo; Wanlass, Mark

    2017-01-10

    High bandgap alloys for high efficiency optoelectronics are disclosed. An exemplary optoelectronic device may include a substrate, at least one Al.sub.1-xIn.sub.xP layer, and a step-grade buffer between the substrate and at least one Al.sub.1-xIn.sub.xP layer. The buffer may begin with a layer that is substantially lattice matched to GaAs, and may then incrementally increase the lattice constant in each sequential layer until a predetermined lattice constant of Al.sub.1-xIn.sub.xP is reached.

  16. Quantized hopfield networks for reliability optimization

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nourelfath, Mustapha; Nahas, Nabil

    2003-01-01

    The use of neural networks in the reliability optimization field is rare. This paper presents an application of a recent kind of neural networks in a reliability optimization problem for a series system with multiple-choice constraints incorporated at each subsystem, to maximize the system reliability subject to the system budget. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear binary integer programming problem and characterized as an NP-hard problem. Our design of neural network to solve efficiently this problem is based on a quantized Hopfield network. This network allows us to obtain optimal design solutions very frequently and much more quickly than others Hopfield networks

  17. Increase of Ecological Safety, Reliability and Efficiency of Coal-Fired Boilers

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Volkov E.P.

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available The changes of environmental legislation of the Russian Federation will lead to a drastic increase of the ecological payments for environmental pollution in excess of technological standards. Significant excess in relative emissions of nitrogen oxides take place in burning solid fuel with liquid slag-tap removal. The purpose of this article was to develop technical solutions for low-cost reconstruction of the boilers to ensure efficient combustion of the fuel and technological standards of emissions of nitrogen oxides. As shown the use of straight-flow burners with compulsory optimization of the aerodynamics of the furnace and the organization of staged combustion of fuel will provide low nitrogen oxide emissions and efficient fuel combustion. Research on physical models has demonstrated the feasibility of increasing the angle of the pulverized coal burners down to 65-70o, and also achieved a more uniform distribution and increase the speed of the jets coming from upper and lower tertiary air vertical compartments of nozzles through the installation of the vertical extra sheets, which guide the flow in a space between jets. The results obtained allow the transfer of existing boilers with slag-tag removal to a solid with the installation of direct-flow burners and optimization of the aerodynamics of the furnace, which provides regulations for energy efficiency and ecological safety corresponding to the best, achieved technologies, and dramatically reduces environmental payments. The proposed technology in boiler BKZ-210-140F allowed reducing emissions of nitrogen oxides by more than 2 times when burning highly reactive Kuznetsk coal, as shown as an example.

  18. Reliability of supply of switchgear for auxiliary low voltage in substations extra high voltage to high voltage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Perić Dragoslav M.

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Switchgear for auxiliary low voltage in substations (SS of extra high voltages (EHV to high voltage (HV - SS EHV/HV kV/kV is of special interest for the functioning of these important SS, as it provides a supply for system of protection and other vital functions of SS. The article addresses several characteristic examples involving MV lines with varying degrees of independence of their supply, and the possible application of direct transformation EHV/LV through special voltage transformers. Auxiliary sources such as inverters and diesel generators, which have limited power and expensive energy, are also used for the supply of switchgear for auxiliary low voltage. Corresponding reliability indices are calculated for all examples including mean expected annual engagement of diesel generators. The applicability of certain solutions of switchgear for auxiliary low voltage SS EHV/HV, taking into account their reliability, feasibility and cost-effectiveness is analyzed too. In particular, the analysis of applications of direct transformation EHV/LV for supply of switchgear for auxiliary low voltage, for both new and existing SS EHV/HV.

  19. MEMS reliability: coming of age

    Science.gov (United States)

    Douglass, Michael R.

    2008-02-01

    In today's high-volume semiconductor world, one could easily take reliability for granted. As the MOEMS/MEMS industry continues to establish itself as a viable alternative to conventional manufacturing in the macro world, reliability can be of high concern. Currently, there are several emerging market opportunities in which MOEMS/MEMS is gaining a foothold. Markets such as mobile media, consumer electronics, biomedical devices, and homeland security are all showing great interest in microfabricated products. At the same time, these markets are among the most demanding when it comes to reliability assurance. To be successful, each company developing a MOEMS/MEMS device must consider reliability on an equal footing with cost, performance and manufacturability. What can this maturing industry learn from the successful development of DLP technology, air bag accelerometers and inkjet printheads? This paper discusses some basic reliability principles which any MOEMS/MEMS device development must use. Examples from the commercially successful and highly reliable Digital Micromirror Device complement the discussion.

  20. The photonic nanowire: A highly efficient single-photon source

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gregersen, Niels

    2014-01-01

    The photonic nanowire represents an attractive platform for a quantum light emitter. However, careful optical engineering using the modal method, which elegantly allows access to all relevant physical parameters, is crucial to ensure high efficiency.......The photonic nanowire represents an attractive platform for a quantum light emitter. However, careful optical engineering using the modal method, which elegantly allows access to all relevant physical parameters, is crucial to ensure high efficiency....

  1. Highly efficient procedure for the transesterification of vegetable oil

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Liang, Xuezheng; Gao, Shan; He, Mingyuan [Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Process, Department of Chemistry, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062 (China); Yang, Jianguo [Shanghai Key Laboratory of Green Chemistry and Chemical Process, Department of Chemistry, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062 (China); Energy Institute, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)

    2009-10-15

    The highly efficient procedure has been developed for the synthesis of biodiesel from vegetable oil and methanol. The KF/MgO has been selected as the most efficient catalyst for the reactions with the yield of 99.3%. Operational simplicity, without need of the purification of raw vegetable oil, low cost of the catalyst used, high activities, no saponification and reusability are the key features of this methodology. (author)

  2. Performance and reliability of the Y-Balance TestTM in high school athletes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Laura J; Creps, James R; Bean, Ryan; Rodda, Becky; Alsalaheen, Bara

    2017-11-07

    Lower extremity injuries account for 32.9% of the overall injuries in high school athletes. Previous research has suggested that asymmetry greater than 4cm using the Y-Balance TestTM Lower Quarter (YBT-LQ) in the anterior direction is predictive of non- contact injuries in adults and collegiate athletes. The prevalence of asymmetries or abnormal YBT-LQ performance is not well documented for adolescents. The primary purposes of this study are: 1) to characterize the prevalence of YBT-LQ asymmetries and performance in a cross-sectional sample of adolescents, 2) to examine possible differences in performance on the YBT-LQ between male and female adolescents, and 3) to describe the test-retest reliability of the YBT-LQ in a subsample of adolescents. Observational cross-sectional study. High-school athletes completed the YBT-LQ as main outcome measure. 51 male, 59 female high-school athletes participated in this study. Asymmetries greater than 4cm in the posteromedial (PM) reach direction were most prevalent for male (54.9%) and female (50.8%) participants. Females presented with slightly higher composite scores. Good reliability (ICC = 0.89) was found for the anterior (ANT) direction, and moderate reliability with 0.76 for posterolateral (PL) and 0.63 for PM directions. The MDC95 for the ANT direction was 6% and 12% for both the PL and PM directions. The YBT-LQ performance can be beneficial in assessing recovery in an injured extremity compared to the other limb. However, due to the large MDC95, noted in the PM and PL directions, the differences between sequential testing cannot be attributed to true change in balance unless they exceed the MDC95. In this study, 79% of the athletes presented with at least one asymmetry in YBT-LQ reach distances. Moderate reliability in the PL and PM directions warrants reexamination of the definition of asymmetry in these directions.

  3. Highly Flexible and Efficient Solar Steam Generation Device.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Chaoji; Li, Yiju; Song, Jianwei; Yang, Zhi; Kuang, Yudi; Hitz, Emily; Jia, Chao; Gong, Amy; Jiang, Feng; Zhu, J Y; Yang, Bao; Xie, Jia; Hu, Liangbing

    2017-08-01

    Solar steam generation with subsequent steam recondensation has been regarded as one of the most promising techniques to utilize the abundant solar energy and sea water or other unpurified water through water purification, desalination, and distillation. Although tremendous efforts have been dedicated to developing high-efficiency solar steam generation devices, challenges remain in terms of the relatively low efficiency, complicated fabrications, high cost, and inability to scale up. Here, inspired by the water transpiration behavior of trees, the use of carbon nanotube (CNT)-modified flexible wood membrane (F-Wood/CNTs) is demonstrated as a flexible, portable, recyclable, and efficient solar steam generation device for low-cost and scalable solar steam generation applications. Benefitting from the unique structural merits of the F-Wood/CNTs membrane-a black CNT-coated hair-like surface with excellent light absorbability, wood matrix with low thermal conductivity, hierarchical micro- and nanochannels for water pumping and escaping, solar steam generation device based on the F-Wood/CNTs membrane demonstrates a high efficiency of 81% at 10 kW cm -2 , representing one of the highest values ever-reported. The nature-inspired design concept in this study is straightforward and easily scalable, representing one of the most promising solutions for renewable and portable solar energy generation and other related phase-change applications. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  4. High Efficiency S-Band 20 Watt Amplifier

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — This project includes the design and build of a prototype 20 W, high efficiency, S-Band amplifier.   The design will incorporate the latest semiconductor technology,...

  5. Barriers and opportunities for labels for highly energy-efficient houses

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mlecnik, Erwin; Visscher, Henk; Van Hal, Anke

    2010-01-01

    Promoting energy efficiency in the building sector is essential if the agreements of the Kyoto Protocol are to be honoured. Different initiatives for energy labelling of highly energy-efficient residential buildings have emerged throughout Europe as an essential method to stimulate market demand, to control grants or to ensure the quality of demonstration projects with excellent energy performance. The paper identifies the barriers and opportunities for the further diffusion of labels for highly energy-efficient houses. A model based on the theory of the diffusion of innovation is developed to analyse perceived attributes of existing European labels. The paper investigates the innovation characteristics of existing labels in Europe, with a focus on advanced countries. The question of compatibility with the development of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) is examined in detail. We found that the diffusion of emerging and already existing voluntary European labels for highly energy-efficient houses is needed. Their complexity can be lowered and relative advantage, trialability, observability, and compatibility can be increased. EPBD calculation procedures should be able to receive highly energy-efficient houses. In the framework of the recast of the EPBD, official recognition of existing voluntary labels is recommended. (author)

  6. Silver-free Metallization Technology for Producing High Efficiency, Industrial Silicon Solar Cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Michaelson, Lynne M [Technic Inc; Munoz, Krystal [Technic Inc.; Karas, Joseph [Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States); Bowden, Stuart [Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States); Rand, James A; Gallegos, Anthony [Technic Inc.; Tyson, Tom [Technic Inc.; Buonassisi, Tonio [Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

    2018-03-30

    The goal of this project is to provide a commercially viable Ag-free metallization technology that will both reduce cost and increase efficiency of standard silicon solar cells. By removing silver from the front grid metallization and replacing it with lower cost nickel, copper, and tin metal, the front grid direct materials costs will decrease. This reduction in material costs should provide a path to meeting the Sunshot 2020 goal of $1 / WDC. As of today, plated contacts are not widely implemented in large scale manufacturing. For organizations that wish to implement pilot scale manufacturing, only two equipment choices exist. These equipment manufacturers do not supply plating chemistry. The main goal of this project is to provide a chemistry and equipment solution to the industry that enables reliable manufacturing of plated contacts marked by passing reliability results and higher efficiencies than silver paste front grid contacts. To date, there have been several key findings that point to plated contacts performing equal to or better than the current state of the art silver paste contacts. Poor adhesion and reliability concerns are a few of the hurdles for plated contacts, specifically plated nickel directly on silicon. A key finding of the Phase 1 budget period is that the plated contacts have the same adhesion as the silver paste controls. This is a huge win for plated contacts. With very little optimization work, state of the art electrical results for plated contacts on laser ablated lines have been demonstrated with efficiencies up to 19.1% and fill factors ~80% on grid lines 40-50 um wide. The silver paste controls with similar line widths demonstrate similar electrical results. By optimizing the emitter and grid design for the plated contacts, it is expected that the electrical performance will exceed the silver paste controls. In addition, cells plated using Technic chemistry and equipment pass reliability testing; i.e. 1000 hours damp heat and 200

  7. High Efficiency Heat Exchanger for High Temperature and High Pressure Applications

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sienicki, James J. [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division; Lv, Qiuping [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division; Moisseytsev, Anton [Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Nuclear Engineering Division

    2017-09-29

    CompRex, LLC (CompRex) specializes in the design and manufacture of compact heat exchangers and heat exchange reactors for high temperature and high pressure applications. CompRex’s proprietary compact technology not only increases heat exchange efficiency by at least 25 % but also reduces footprint by at least a factor of ten compared to traditional shell-and-tube solutions of the same capacity and by 15 to 20 % compared to other currently available Printed Circuit Heat Exchanger (PCHE) solutions. As a result, CompRex’s solution is especially suitable for Brayton cycle supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) systems given its high efficiency and significantly lower capital and operating expenses. CompRex has already successfully demonstrated its technology and ability to deliver with a pilot-scale compact heat exchanger that was under contract by the Naval Nuclear Laboratory for sCO2 power cycle development. The performance tested unit met or exceeded the thermal and hydraulic specifications with measured heat transfer between 95 to 98 % of maximum heat transfer and temperature and pressure drop values all consistent with the modeled values. CompRex’s vision is to commercialize its compact technology and become the leading provider for compact heat exchangers and heat exchange reactors for various applications including Brayton cycle sCO2 systems. One of the limitations of the sCO2 Brayton power cycle is the design and manufacturing of efficient heat exchangers at extreme operating conditions. Current diffusion-bonded heat exchangers have limitations on the channel size through which the fluid travels, resulting in excessive solid material per heat exchanger volume. CompRex’s design allows for more open area and shorter fluid proximity for increased heat transfer efficiency while sustaining the structural integrity needed for the application. CompRex is developing a novel improvement to its current heat exchanger design where fluids are directed to alternating

  8. High efficiency novel window air conditioner

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bansal, Pradeep

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Use of novel refrigerant mixture of R32/R125 (85/15% molar conc.) to reduce global warming and improve energy efficiency. • Use of novel features such as electronically commuted motor (ECM) fan motor, slinger and sub-merged sub-cooler. • Energy savings of up to 0.1 Quads per year in USA and much more in Asia/Middle East where WACs are used in large numbers. • Payback period of only 1.4 years of the novel efficient WAC. - Abstract: This paper presents the results of an experimental and analytical evaluation of measures to raise the efficiency of window air conditioners (WAC). In order to achieve a higher energy efficiency ratio (EER), the original capacity of a baseline R410A unit was reduced by replacing the original compressor with a lower capacity but higher EER compressor, while all heat exchangers and the chassis from the original unit were retained. Subsequent major modifications included – replacing the alternating current fan motor with a brushless high efficiency electronically commutated motor (ECM) motor, replacing the capillary tube with a needle valve to better control the refrigerant flow and refrigerant set points, and replacing R410A with a ‘drop-in’ lower global warming potential (GWP) binary mixture of R32/R125 (85/15% molar concentration). All these modifications resulted in significant enhancement in the EER of the baseline WAC. Further, an economic analysis of the new WAC revealed an encouraging payback period

  9. Compact high efficiency, light weight 200-800 MHz high power RF source

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shrader, M.B.; Preist, D.H.

    1985-01-01

    There has long been a need for a new more efficient less bulky high power RF power source to drive accelerators in the 200 to 800 MHz region. Results on a recent 5-year EIMAC sponsored R and D program which have lead to the introduction of the Klystrode for UHF television and troposcatter applications indicate that at power levels of 1MW or more efficiencies in excess of 75% can be obtained at 450 MHz. Efficiencies of this order coupled with potential size and weight parameters which are a fraction of those of existing high power UHF generators open up new applications which heretofore would have been impractical if not impossible. Measurements at 470 MHz on existing Klystrodes are given. Projected operating conditions for a 1MW 450 MHz Klystrode having an overall length of 60 inches and a total tube, circuit, and magnet weight of 250 pounds is presented

  10. Reliability Assessment of Transformerless PV Inverters Considering Mission Profiles

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yang, Yongheng; Wang, Huai; Blaabjerg, Frede

    2015-01-01

    reliability of three transformerless inverters under a yearly mission profile (i.e., solar irradiance and ambient temperature). The mission profile is translated to device thermal loading, which is used for lifetime prediction. Compar¬ison results reveal the lifetime mismatches among the power switching......Due to the small volume and high efficiency, transformerless inverters have gained much popularity in grid-connected PV applications, where minimizing leakage current injection is mandatory. This can be achieved either by modifying the modulation schemes or adding extra power switching devices......, resulting in an uneven distribution of the power losses on the switching devices. Consequently, the device thermal loading is redis-tributed, and thus may alter the entire inverter reliability performance, especially under a long-term operation. In this consideration, this paper assesses the device...

  11. Review of status developments of high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jingjing; Yao, Yao; Xiao, Shaoqing; Gu, Xiaofeng

    2018-03-01

    In order to further improve cell efficiency and reduce cost in achieving grid parity, a large number of PV manufacturing companies, universities and research institutes have been devoted to a variety of low-cost and high-efficiency crystalline Si solar cells. In this article, the cell structures, characteristics and efficiency progresses of several types of high-efficiency crystalline Si solar cells that have been in small scale production or are promising in mass production are presented, including passivated emitter rear cell, tunnel oxide passivated contact solar cell, interdigitated back contact cell, heterojunction with intrinsic thin-layer cell, and heterojunction solar cells with interdigitated back contacts. Both the industrialization status and future development trend of high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells are also pinpointed.

  12. Standard high-reliability integrated circuit logic packaging. [for deep space tracking stations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Slaughter, D. W.

    1977-01-01

    A family of standard, high-reliability hardware used for packaging digital integrated circuits is described. The design transition from early prototypes to production hardware is covered and future plans are discussed. Interconnections techniques are described as well as connectors and related hardware available at both the microcircuit packaging and main-frame level. General applications information is also provided.

  13. Evaluation of an automated double-synthesis module: efficiency and reliability of subsequent radiosyntheses of FHBG and FLT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Niedermoser, Sabrina; Pape, Manuela; Gildehaus, Franz Josef; Wängler, Carmen; Hartenbach, Markus; Schirrmacher, Ralf; Bartenstein, Peter; Wängler, Björn

    2012-01-01

    We optimized the synthesis methods for 3′-deoxy-3′-[ 18 F]fluorothymidine ([ 18 F]FLT) and 9-(4-[ 18 F]fluoro-3-[hydroxymethyl]butyl)guanine) ([ 18 F]FHBG) and automated them on an Explora General Nucleophilic double-synthesis module. Furthermore, the synthesis efficiency and reliability and the formation of cross-contaminations of the products when preparing two consecutive batches were evaluated. Whereas the preinstalled FLT synthesis conditions required substantial modification in reaction and neutralization conditions to achieve radiochemical yields of up to 60% within 70±10 min including high-performance liquid chromatography purification, the synthesis of FHBG had to be implemented to the module to obtain competitive radiochemical yields of up to 40% in an overall synthesis time of 60±10 min. The radiochemical purities obtained were ≥99% and ≥96% for the synthesis of [ 18 F]FLT and [ 18 F]FHBG, respectively. No significant changes in yield or purity could be observed between both batch productions. We found that the yields and purities also did not change when performing FLT after FHBG syntheses and vice versa. Hence, we developed a synthesis setup that offers the opportunity to perform two subsequent syntheses of either [ 18 F]FLT, [ 18 F]FHBG or [ 18 F]FLT after [ 18 F]FHBG without decrease in radiochemical yields and purities. Also, no cross-contaminations were observed, which can be attributed to the use of separate product delivery tubes, purification columns and an automated intermediate cleaning program. These results open up the possibility of producing consecutively either two equal 18 F-fluorinated tracers or two different ones in high yields on the same synthesis module.

  14. Blanket options for high-efficiency fusion power

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Usher, J.L.; Lazareth, O.W.; Fillo, J.A.; Horn, F.L.; Powell, J.R.

    1980-01-01

    The efficiencies of blankets for fusion reactors are usually in the range of 30 to 40%, limited by the operating temperatures (500 0 C) of conventional structural materials such as stainless steels. In this project two-zone blankets are proposed; these blankets consist of a low-temperature shell surrounding a high-temperature interior zone. A survey of nucleonics and thermal hydraulic parameters has led to a reference blanket design consisting of a water-cooled stainless steel shell around a BeO, ZrO 2 interior (cooled by argon) utilizing Li 2 O for tritium breeding. In this design, approximately 60% of the fusion energy is deposited in the high-temperature interior. The maximum argon temperature is 2230 0 C leading to an overall efficiency estimate of 55 to 60% for this reference case

  15. Fusion blankets for high-efficiency power cycles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Usher, J.L.; Lazareth, O.W.; Fillo, J.A.; Horn, F.L.; Powell, J.R.

    1980-01-01

    The efficiencies of blankets for fusion reactors are usually in the range of 30 to 40%, limited by the operating temperatures (500 0 C) of conventional structural materials such as stainless steels. In this project two-zone blankets are proposed; these blankets consist of a low-temperature shell surrounding a high-temperature interior zone. A survey of nucleonics and thermal hydraulic parameters has led to a reference blanket design consisting of a water-cooled stainless steel shell around a BeO, ZrO 2 interior (cooled by argon) utilizing Li 2 O for tritium breeding. In this design, approximately 60% of the fusion energy is deposited in the high-temperature interior. The maximum argon temperature is 2230 0 C leading to an overall efficiency estimate of 55 to 60% for this reference case

  16. Fusion blanket for high-efficiency power cycles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Usher, J.L.; Powell, J.R.; Fillo, J.A.; Horn, F.L.; Lazareth, O.W.; Taussig, R.

    1980-01-01

    The efficiencies of blankets for fusion reactors are usually in the range of 30 to 40%, limited by the operating temperature (500 0 C) of conventional structural materials such as stainless steels. In this project two-zone blankets are proposed; these blankets consist of a low-temperature shell surrounding a high-temperature interior zone. A survey of nucleonics and thermal hydraulic parameters has led to a reference blanket design consisting of a water-cooled stainless steel shell around a BeO, ZrO 2 interior (cooled by Ar) utilizing Li 2 O for tritium breeding. In this design, approx. 60% of the fusion energy is deposited in the high-temperature interior. The maximum Ar temperature is 2230 0 C leading to an overall efficiency estimate of 55 to 60% for this reference case

  17. Fusion blankets for high-efficiency power cycles

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Usher, J.L.; Lazareth, O.W.; Fillo, J.A.; Horn, F.L.; Powell, J.R.

    1981-01-01

    The efficiencies of blankets for fusion reactors are usually in the range of 30 to 40%, limited by the operating temperatures (500 deg C) of conventional structural materials such as stainless steels. In this project 'two-zone' blankets are proposed; these blankets consist of a low-temperature shell surrounding a high-temperature interior zone. A survey of nucleonics and thermal hydraulic parameters has led to a reference blanket design consisting of a water-cooled stainless steel shell around a BeO, ZrO 2 interior (cooled by argon) utilizing Li 2 O for tritium breeding. In this design, approximately 60% of the fusion energy is deposited in the high-temperature interior. The maximum argon temperature is 2230 deg C leading to an overall efficiency estimate of 55 to 60% for this reference case. (author)

  18. Designing high availability systems DFSS and classical reliability techniques with practical real life examples

    CERN Document Server

    Taylor, Zachary

    2014-01-01

    A practical, step-by-step guide to designing world-class, high availability systems using both classical and DFSS reliability techniques Whether designing telecom, aerospace, automotive, medical, financial, or public safety systems, every engineer aims for the utmost reliability and availability in the systems he, or she, designs. But between the dream of world-class performance and reality falls the shadow of complexities that can bedevil even the most rigorous design process. While there are an array of robust predictive engineering tools, there has been no single-source guide to understan

  19. Energy Efficient Authentication and Authorization for Multinode Cooperative Connectivity and Reliability

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rohokale, Vandana M.

    2013-01-01

    their effective QoS via cooperation. The performance of wireless networks is greatly affected by some of the channel parameters such as bandwidth and power scarcity, multi-user interference, non-reliability due to signal fading, vulnerability to the attacks, etc. The cooperative diversity mechanism makes use...... of the benefits of wireless sensor network scalability in terms of cooperative resource sharing wherein multiple diversity channels are created that results into the higher transmission rates, increased throughput and coverage range, improvement in reliability and end-to-end performance and much more. Cooperative......Wireless communication is a great revolution but it still suffers from limited battery life, broken connections from multi-path fading and insufficient coverage. Simple cooperation can mak a big difference in coverage range, energy and battery life. In CWC, the active nodes may increase...

  20. Mechanical Integrity Issues at MCM-Cs for High Reliability Applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Morgenstern, H.A.; Tarbutton, T.J.; Becka, G.A.; Uribe, F.; Monroe, S.; Burchett, S.

    1998-01-01

    During the qualification of a new high reliability low-temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) multichip module (MCM), two issues relating to the electrical and mechanical integrity of the LTCC network were encountered while performing qualification testing. One was electrical opens after aging tests that were caused by cracks in the solder joints. The other was fracturing of the LTCC networks during mechanical testing. Through failure analysis, computer modeling, bend testing, and test samples, changes were identified. Upon implementation of all these changes, the modules passed testing, and the MCM was placed into production

  1. Highly Efficient Spontaneous Emission from Self-Assembled Quantum Dots

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johansen, Jeppe; Lund-Hansen, Toke; Hvam, Jørn Märcher

    2006-01-01

    We present time resolved measurements of spontaneous emission (SE) from InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs). The measurements are interpreted using Fermi's Golden Rule and from this analysis we establish the parameters for high quantum efficiency.......We present time resolved measurements of spontaneous emission (SE) from InAs/GaAs quantum dots (QDs). The measurements are interpreted using Fermi's Golden Rule and from this analysis we establish the parameters for high quantum efficiency....

  2. High efficiency inverter and ballast circuits

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nilssen, O.K.

    1984-01-01

    A high efficiency push-pull inverter circuit employing a pair of relatively high power switching transistors is described. The switching on and off of the transistors is precisely controlled to minimize power losses due to common-mode conduction or due to transient conditions that occur in the process of turning a transistor on or off. Two current feed-back transformers are employed in the transistor base drives; one being saturable for providing a positive feedback, and the other being non-saturable for providing a subtractive feedback

  3. Highly reliable field electron emitters produced from reproducible damage-free carbon nanotube composite pastes with optimal inorganic fillers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, Jae-Woo; Jeong, Jin-Woo; Kang, Jun-Tae; Choi, Sungyoul; Ahn, Seungjoon; Song, Yoon-Ho

    2014-02-01

    Highly reliable field electron emitters were developed using a formulation for reproducible damage-free carbon nanotube (CNT) composite pastes with optimal inorganic fillers and a ball-milling method. We carefully controlled the ball-milling sequence and time to avoid any damage to the CNTs, which incorporated fillers that were fully dispersed as paste constituents. The field electron emitters fabricated by printing the CNT pastes were found to exhibit almost perfect adhesion of the CNT emitters to the cathode, along with good uniformity and reproducibility. A high field enhancement factor of around 10 000 was achieved from the CNT field emitters developed. By selecting nano-sized metal alloys and oxides and using the same formulation sequence, we also developed reliable field emitters that could survive high-temperature post processing. These field emitters had high durability to post vacuum annealing at 950 °C, guaranteeing survival of the brazing process used in the sealing of field emission x-ray tubes. We evaluated the field emitters in a triode configuration in the harsh environment of a tiny vacuum-sealed vessel and observed very reliable operation for 30 h at a high current density of 350 mA cm-2. The CNT pastes and related field emitters that were developed could be usefully applied in reliable field emission devices.

  4. Highly efficient light management for perovskite solar cells.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Dong-Lin; Cui, Hui-Juan; Hou, Guo-Jiao; Zhu, Zhen-Gang; Yan, Qing-Bo; Su, Gang

    2016-01-06

    Organic-inorganic halide perovskite solar cells have enormous potential to impact the existing photovoltaic industry. As realizing a higher conversion efficiency of the solar cell is still the most crucial task, a great number of schemes were proposed to minimize the carrier loss by optimizing the electrical properties of the perovskite solar cells. Here, we focus on another significant aspect that is to minimize the light loss by optimizing the light management to gain a high efficiency for perovskite solar cells. In our scheme, the slotted and inverted prism structured SiO2 layers are adopted to trap more light into the solar cells, and a better transparent conducting oxide layer is employed to reduce the parasitic absorption. For such an implementation, the efficiency and the serviceable angle of the perovskite solar cell can be promoted impressively. This proposal would shed new light on developing the high-performance perovskite solar cells.

  5. A high efficiency 10 kWe microcogenerator based on an Atkinson cycle internal combustion engine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Capaldi, Pietro

    2014-01-01

    The paper focuses on the design and the overall performance of a 10 kW electric power microcogeneration plant suitable for local energy production, based on an Atkinson-cycle internal combustion engine prototype and entirely set by Istituto Motori of the Italian National Research Council. The engine was originally a wide-spread Diesel automotive unit, then converted into a methane spark ignition system and finally modified to perform an Atkinson/Miller cycle with an extended expansion, capable of a higher global efficiency and low gaseous emissions. The paper starts by defining the ratio which leaded to this specific choice among many other automotive and industrial engines, in order to obtain a reliable, long endurance, cost effective, high efficiency base, suitable for microcogeneration in residential or commercial applications. The new engine has been coupled with a liquid cooled induction generator, a set of heat exchangers and finally placed in a sealed containing case, to reduce both noise emission and heat losses. Then the plant has been tested as an electricity and heat production system, ready for grid connection thanks to a new designed management/control system. During endurance test a complete description of its functioning behaviour has been given. - Highlights: • A new high efficiency microcogenerator based on an Atkinson/Miller cycle engine. • Atkinson cycle together with stoichiometric operation deliver better performance. • A cost-effective microcogenerator based on widespread elements (automotive engine). • The chosen automotive engine has heavy duty characteristics (Diesel derived). • A conversion criteria from a Diesel to an Atkinson cycle engine was individuated

  6. Streptavidin-functionalized capillary immune microreactor for highly efficient chemiluminescent immunoassay

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yang Zhanjun [State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Department of Chemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China); College of Chemistry and Engineering, Yangzhou University, 88 South University Avenue, Yangzhou 225002 (China); Zong Chen [State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Department of Chemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China); Ju Huangxian, E-mail: hxju@nju.edu.cn [State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Department of Chemistry, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093 (China); Yan Feng, E-mail: yanfeng2007@sohu.com [Jiangsu Institute of Cancer Prevention and Cure, Nanjing 210009 (China)

    2011-11-07

    Highlights: {yields} A novel capillary immune microreactor was proposed for highly efficient flow-through chemiluminescent immunoassay. {yields} The microreactor was prepared by functionalizing capillary inner wall with streptavidin for capture of biotinylated antibody. {yields} The proposed immunoassay method showed wide dynamic range, good reproducibility, stability and practicality. {yields} The microreactor was low-cost and disposable, and possessed several advantages over the conventional immunoreactors. - Abstract: A streptavidin functionalized capillary immune microreactor was designed for highly efficient flow-through chemiluminescent (CL) immunoassay. The functionalized capillary could be used as both a support for highly efficient immobilization of antibody and a flow cell for flow-through immunoassay. The functionalized inner wall and the capture process were characterized using scanning electron microscopy. Compared to conventional packed tube or thin-layer cell immunoreactor, the proposed microreactor showed remarkable properties such as lower cost, simpler fabrication, better practicality and wider dynamic range for fast CL immunoassay with good reproducibility and stability. Using {alpha}-fetoprotein as model analyte, the highly efficient CL flow-through immunoassay system showed a linear range of 3 orders of magnitude from 0.5 to 200 ng mL{sup -1} and a low detection limit of 0.1 ng mL{sup -1}. The capillary immune microreactor could make up the shortcoming of conventional CL immunoreactors and provided a promising alternative for highly efficient flow-injection immunoassay.

  7. Reliable and Efficient Access for Alarm-initiated and Regular M2M Traffic in IEEE 802.11ah Systems

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Madueño, Germán Corrales; Stefanovic, Cedomir; Popovski, Petar

    2016-01-01

    IEEE 802.11ah is a novel WiFi-based protocol, aiming to provide an access solution for the machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. In this paper, we propose an adaptive access mechanism that can be seamlessly incorporated into IEEE 802.11ah protocol operation and that supports all potential M2M...... reporting regimes, which are periodic, on-demand and alarm reporting. The proposed access method is based a periodically re- occurring pool of time slots, whose size is proactively determined on the basis of the reporting activity in the cell. We show that it is possible to both efficiently and reliably...

  8. 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".

  9. Metallic metasurfaces for high efficient polarization conversion control in transmission mode.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Tong; Hu, Xiaobin; Chen, Huamin; Zhao, Chen; Xu, Yun; Wei, Xin; Song, Guofeng

    2017-10-02

    A high efficient broadband polarization converter is an important component in integrated miniaturized optical systems, but its performances is often restricted by the material structures, metallic metasurfaces for polarization control in transmission mode never achieved efficiency above 0.5. Herein, we theoretically demonstrate that metallic metasurfaces constructed by thick cross-shaped particles can realize a high efficient polarization transformation over a broadband. We investigated the resonant properties of designed matesurfaces and found that the interaction between double FP cavity resonances and double bulk magnetic resonances is the main reason to generate a high transmissivity over a broadband. In addition, through using four resonances effect and tuning the anisotropic optical response, we realized a high efficient (> 0.85) quarter-wave plate at the wavelength range from 1175nm to 1310nm and a high efficient (> 0.9) half-wave plate at the wavelength range from 1130nm to 1230nm. The proposed polarization converters may have many potential applications in integrated polarization conversion devices and optical data storage systems.

  10. Investigation on the Potential of High Efficiency for Internal Combustion Engines

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Haifeng Liu

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available The current brake thermal efficiency of advanced internal combustion engines is limited to 50%, and how to further improve the efficiency is a challenge. In this study, a theoretical investigation on engine thermal efficiency was carried out using one-dimension simulations based on the first law of thermodynamics. The energy balance was evaluated by varying parameters such as compression ratio (CR; heat transfer coefficient; intake charge properties; and combustion phasing etc.—their influences on the efficiency limits were demonstrated. Results show that for a given heat transfer coefficient, an optimal CR exists to obtain the peak efficiency. The optimal CR decreases with the increase of heat transfer coefficient, and high CR with a low heat-transfer coefficient can achieve a significantly high efficiency. A higher density and specific heat ratio of intake charge, as well as a shorter combustion duration with a proper CA50 (crank angle at 50% of total heat release, can increase efficiency significantly. Methanol shows an excellent ability in decreasing the peak in-cylinder temperature; and the peak indicated efficiency is relatively higher than other tested fuels. The displacement has few effects on the indicated efficiency, while it shows a strong effect on the energy distribution between heat transfer and exhaust energy. All these strategies with high CR result in high in-cylinder pressure and temperature; which means a breakthrough of material is needed in the future.

  11. Fiscal 2000 achievement report on development of high-efficiency high-reliability welding technology through improvement on welding techniques; 2000 nendo yosetsu gijutsu no kodoka ni yoru kokoritsu koshinraisei yosetsu gijutsu no kaihatsu seika hokokusho

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2001-04-01

    Efforts are made to develop a welding design support system capable of increasing reliability and enhancing welding efficiency. Activities are conducted in the six fields of (1) the development of welding process simulation models, (2) development of welded section structure simulation models, (3) development of simulation models for predicting welding caused deformation, (4) integration of the models, (5) analysis of the welding phenomenon, and (6) the elucidation of the defect generation mechanism. In field (1), efforts are made to develop an arc plasma model, a molten pool convective heat transportation model, and a welding process model. In the effort to develop an arc plasma model, studies are made about a stationary axisymmetric arc in its steady state and about a constitutive equation and computation algorithm for developing a model in which a tungsten electrode (cathode) and an arc plasma welding pool (anode) are integrated. Furthermore, the simulation outcomes are experimentally verified. Satisfactory models are obtained as far as qualitative properties are concerned. (NEDO)

  12. High-concentration planar microtracking photovoltaic system exceeding 30% efficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Jared S.; Grede, Alex J.; Wang, Baomin; Lipski, Michael V.; Fisher, Brent; Lee, Kyu-Tae; He, Junwen; Brulo, Gregory S.; Ma, Xiaokun; Burroughs, Scott; Rahn, Christopher D.; Nuzzo, Ralph G.; Rogers, John A.; Giebink, Noel C.

    2017-08-01

    Prospects for concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) power are growing as the market increasingly values high power conversion efficiency to leverage now-dominant balance of system and soft costs. This trend is particularly acute for rooftop photovoltaic power, where delivering the high efficiency of traditional CPV in the form factor of a standard rooftop photovoltaic panel could be transformative. Here, we demonstrate a fully automated planar microtracking CPV system 660× concentration ratio over a 140∘ full field of view. In outdoor testing over the course of two sunny days, the system operates automatically from sunrise to sunset, outperforming a 17%-efficient commercial silicon solar cell by generating >50% more energy per unit area per day in a direct head-to-head competition. These results support the technical feasibility of planar microtracking CPV to deliver a step change in the efficiency of rooftop solar panels at a commercially relevant concentration ratio.

  13. High Efficiency Reversible Fuel Cell Power Converter

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pittini, Riccardo

    as well as different dc-ac and dc-dc converter topologies are presented and analyzed. A new ac-dc topology for high efficiency data center applications is proposed and an efficiency characterization based on the fuel cell stack I-V characteristic curve is presented. The second part discusses the main...... converter components. Wide bandgap power semiconductors are introduced due to their superior performance in comparison to traditional silicon power devices. The analysis presents a study based on switching loss measurements performed on Si IGBTs, SiC JFETs, SiC MOSFETs and their respective gate drivers...

  14. High efficiency USC power plant - present status and future potential

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blum, R [Faelleskemikerne I/S Fynsvaerket (Denmark); Hald, J [Elsam/Elkraft/TU Denmark (Denmark)

    1999-12-31

    Increasing demand for energy production with low impact on the environment and minimised fuel consumption can be met with high efficient coal fired power plants with advanced steam parameters. An important key to this improvement is the development of high temperature materials with optimised mechanical strength. Based on the results of more than ten years of development a coal fired power plant with an efficiency above 50 % can now be realised. Future developments focus on materials which enable an efficiency of 52-55 %. (orig.) 25 refs.

  15. High efficiency USC power plant - present status and future potential

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Blum, R. [Faelleskemikerne I/S Fynsvaerket (Denmark); Hald, J. [Elsam/Elkraft/TU Denmark (Denmark)

    1998-12-31

    Increasing demand for energy production with low impact on the environment and minimised fuel consumption can be met with high efficient coal fired power plants with advanced steam parameters. An important key to this improvement is the development of high temperature materials with optimised mechanical strength. Based on the results of more than ten years of development a coal fired power plant with an efficiency above 50 % can now be realised. Future developments focus on materials which enable an efficiency of 52-55 %. (orig.) 25 refs.

  16. A multi-state reliability evaluation model for P2P networks

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fan Hehong; Sun Xiaohan

    2010-01-01

    The appearance of new service types and the convergence tendency of the communication networks have endowed the networks more and more P2P (peer to peer) properties. These networks can be more robust and tolerant for a series of non-perfect operational states due to the non-deterministic server-client distributions. Thus a reliability model taking into account of the multi-state and non-deterministic server-client distribution properties is needed for appropriate evaluation of the networks. In this paper, two new performance measures are defined to quantify the overall and local states of the networks. A new time-evolving state-transition Monte Carlo (TEST-MC) simulation model is presented for the reliability analysis of P2P networks in multiple states. The results show that the model is not only valid for estimating the traditional binary-state network reliability parameters, but also adequate for acquiring the parameters in a series of non-perfect operational states, with good efficiencies, especially for highly reliable networks. Furthermore, the model is versatile for the reliability and maintainability analyses in that both the links and the nodes can be failure-prone with arbitrary life distributions, and various maintainability schemes can be applied.

  17. Novel Material Integration for Reliable and Energy-Efficient NEM Relay Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, I.-Ru

    Energy-efficient switching devices have become ever more important with the emergence of ubiquitous computing. NEM relays are promising to complement CMOS transistors as circuit building blocks for future ultra-low-power information processing, and as such have recently attracted significant attention from the semiconductor industry and researchers. Relay technology potentially can overcome the energy efficiency limit for conventional CMOS technology due to several key characteristics, including zero OFF-state leakage, abrupt switching behavior, and potentially very low active energy consumption. However, two key issues must be addressed for relay technology to reach its full potential: surface oxide formation at the contacting surfaces leading to increased ON-state resistance after switching, and high switching voltages due to strain gradient present within the relay structure. This dissertation advances NEM relay technology by investigating solutions to both of these pressing issues. Ruthenium, whose native oxide is conductive, is proposed as the contacting material to improve relay ON-state resistance stability. Ruthenium-contact relays are fabricated after overcoming several process integration challenges, and show superior ON-state resistance stability in electrical measurements and extended device lifetime. The relay structural film is optimized via stress matching among all layers within the structure, to provide lower strain gradient (below 10E-3/microm -1) and hence lower switching voltage. These advancements in relay technology, along with the integration of a metallic interconnect layer, enable complex relay-based circuit demonstration. In addition to the experimental efforts, this dissertation theoretically analyzes the energy efficiency limit of a NEM switch, which is generally believed to be limited by the surface adhesion energy. New compact (electronic device technology.

  18. Development of technologies on innovative-simplified nuclear power plant using high-efficiency steam injectors. (2) Analysis of heat balance of innovative-simplified nuclear power plant

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Goto, Shoji; Ohmori, Shuichi; Mori, Mitchitsugu

    2004-01-01

    It is possible to established simplified systems and reduced space and equipments using high-efficiency Steam Injector (SI) instead of low-pressure feed water heaters in Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The SI works as a heat exchanger through direct contact between feedwater from condenser and extracted steam from turbine. It can get a higher pressure than supplied steam pressure, so it can reduce the feedwater pumps. The maintenance and reliability are still higher because SI has no movable parts. This paper describes the analysis of the heat balance and plant efficiency of this Innovative-Simplified NPP with high-efficiency SI. The plant efficiency is compared with the electric power of 1100MWe class original BWR system and the Innovative-Simplified BWR system with SI. The SI model is adapted into the heat balance simulator with a simplified model. The results show plant efficiencies of the Innovated-Simplified BWR system are almost equal to the original BWR one. The present research is one of the projects that are carried out by Tokyo Electric Power Company, Toshiba Corporation, and six Universities in Japan, funded from the Institute of Applied Energy (IAE) of Japan as the national public research-funded program. (author)

  19. Time-Varying, Multi-Scale Adaptive System Reliability Analysis of Lifeline Infrastructure Networks

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gearhart, Jared Lee [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Kurtz, Nolan Scot [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2014-09-01

    The majority of current societal and economic needs world-wide are met by the existing networked, civil infrastructure. Because the cost of managing such infrastructure is high and increases with time, risk-informed decision making is essential for those with management responsibilities for these systems. To address such concerns, a methodology that accounts for new information, deterioration, component models, component importance, group importance, network reliability, hierarchical structure organization, and efficiency concerns has been developed. This methodology analyzes the use of new information through the lens of adaptive Importance Sampling for structural reliability problems. Deterioration, multi-scale bridge models, and time-variant component importance are investigated for a specific network. Furthermore, both bridge and pipeline networks are studied for group and component importance, as well as for hierarchical structures in the context of specific networks. Efficiency is the primary driver throughout this study. With this risk-informed approach, those responsible for management can address deteriorating infrastructure networks in an organized manner.

  20. The analysis of energy efficiency in water electrolysis under high temperature and high pressure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hourng, L. W.; Tsai, T. T.; Lin, M. Y.

    2017-11-01

    This paper aims to analyze the energy efficiency of water electrolysis under high pressure and high temperature conditions. The effects of temperature and pressure on four different kinds of reaction mechanisms, namely, reversible voltage, activation polarization, ohmic polarization, and concentration polarization, are investigated in details. Results show that the ohmic and concentration over-potentials are increased as temperature is increased, however, the reversible and activation over-potentials are decreased as temperature is increased. Therefore, the net efficiency is enhanced as temperature is increased. The efficiency of water electrolysis at 350°C/100 bars is increased about 17%, compared with that at 80°C/1bar.

  1. Evaluating performance of high efficiency mist eliminators

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Waggoner, Charles A.; Parsons, Michael S.; Giffin, Paxton K. [Mississippi State University, Institute for Clean Energy Technology, 205 Research Blvd, Starkville, MS (United States)

    2013-07-01

    Processing liquid wastes frequently generates off gas streams with high humidity and liquid aerosols. Droplet laden air streams can be produced from tank mixing or sparging and processes such as reforming or evaporative volume reduction. Unfortunately these wet air streams represent a genuine threat to HEPA filters. High efficiency mist eliminators (HEME) are one option for removal of liquid aerosols with high dissolved or suspended solids content. HEMEs have been used extensively in industrial applications, however they have not seen widespread use in the nuclear industry. Filtering efficiency data along with loading curves are not readily available for these units and data that exist are not easily translated to operational parameters in liquid waste treatment plants. A specialized test stand has been developed to evaluate the performance of HEME elements under use conditions of a US DOE facility. HEME elements were tested at three volumetric flow rates using aerosols produced from an iron-rich waste surrogate. The challenge aerosol included submicron particles produced from Laskin nozzles and super micron particles produced from a hollow cone spray nozzle. Test conditions included ambient temperature and relative humidities greater than 95%. Data collected during testing HEME elements from three different manufacturers included volumetric flow rate, differential temperature across the filter housing, downstream relative humidity, and differential pressure (dP) across the filter element. Filter challenge was discontinued at three intermediate dPs and the filter to allow determining filter efficiency using dioctyl phthalate and then with dry surrogate aerosols. Filtering efficiencies of the clean HEME, the clean HEME loaded with water, and the HEME at maximum dP were also collected using the two test aerosols. Results of the testing included differential pressure vs. time loading curves for the nine elements tested along with the mass of moisture and solid

  2. Applying the High Reliability Health Care Maturity Model to Assess Hospital Performance: A VA Case Study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Jennifer L; Rivard, Peter E; Shin, Marlena H; Rosen, Amy K

    2016-09-01

    The lack of a tool for categorizing and differentiating hospitals according to their high reliability organization (HRO)-related characteristics has hindered progress toward implementing and sustaining evidence-based HRO practices. Hospitals would benefit both from an understanding of the organizational characteristics that support HRO practices and from knowledge about the steps necessary to achieve HRO status to reduce the risk of harm and improve outcomes. The High Reliability Health Care Maturity (HRHCM) model, a model for health care organizations' achievement of high reliability with zero patient harm, incorporates three major domains critical for promoting HROs-Leadership, Safety Culture, and Robust Process Improvement ®. A study was conducted to examine the content validity of the HRHCM model and evaluate whether it can differentiate hospitals' maturity levels for each of the model's components. Staff perceptions of patient safety at six US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals were examined to determine whether all 14 HRHCM components were present and to characterize each hospital's level of organizational maturity. Twelve of the 14 components from the HRHCM model were detected; two additional characteristics emerged that are present in the HRO literature but not represented in the model-teamwork culture and system-focused tools for learning and improvement. Each hospital's level of organizational maturity could be characterized for 9 of the 14 components. The findings suggest the HRHCM model has good content validity and that there is differentiation between hospitals on model components. Additional research is needed to understand how these components can be used to build the infrastructure necessary for reaching high reliability.

  3. Trends of HVDC technology - highly reliable converting equipment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Muraoka, Yasuo; Kato, Yasushi; Watanabe, Atsumi; Kano, Takashi; Kawai, Tadao

    1983-01-01

    At present, the DC power transmission in Japan is practically used for the system connection of relatively small capacity, and the reliability of AC-DC converting system has been proven to exceed the world level by the operational results. However, when the application of this system to trunk power transmission of large capacity in future is considered, it is desirable to raise the reliability of converting equipment further and to develop the stabilized control techniques in harmony with connected AC system. Hitachi Ltd. has developed diversified system-related technologies centering around DC power transmission and the techniques for raising the reliability of converting equipment tending to large capacity. In this report, the results and the future prospect are described. The recent trend of DC power transmission, the development of DC power transmission technology such as the simulation analysis, the stable operation of a DC system connected to a weak AC system and the DC independent transmission from nuclear power stations, the technical development of light direct ignition thyristor bulbs and control protection equipment are reported. (Kako, I.)

  4. Design of High Efficiency Illumination for LED Lighting

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yong-Nong Chang

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available A high efficiency illumination for LED street lighting is proposed. For energy saving, this paper uses Class-E resonant inverter as main electric circuit to improve efficiency. In addition, single dimming control has the best efficiency, simplest control scheme and lowest circuit cost among other types of dimming techniques. Multiple serial-connected transformers used to drive the LED strings as they can provide galvanic isolation and have the advantage of good current distribution against device difference. Finally, a prototype circuit for driving 112 W LEDs in total was built and tested to verify the theoretical analysis.

  5. Reliability and maintainability assessment factors for reliable fault-tolerant systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bavuso, S. J.

    1984-01-01

    A long term goal of the NASA Langley Research Center is the development of a reliability assessment methodology of sufficient power to enable the credible comparison of the stochastic attributes of one ultrareliable system design against others. This methodology, developed over a 10 year period, is a combined analytic and simulative technique. An analytic component is the Computer Aided Reliability Estimation capability, third generation, or simply CARE III. A simulative component is the Gate Logic Software Simulator capability, or GLOSS. The numerous factors that potentially have a degrading effect on system reliability and the ways in which these factors that are peculiar to highly reliable fault tolerant systems are accounted for in credible reliability assessments. Also presented are the modeling difficulties that result from their inclusion and the ways in which CARE III and GLOSS mitigate the intractability of the heretofore unworkable mathematics.

  6. The Energy Efficiency of High Intensity Proton Driver Concepts

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Yakovlev, Vyacheslav [Fermilab; Grillenberger, Joachim [PSI, Villigen; Kim, Sang-Ho [ORNL, Oak Ridge (main); Seidel, Mike [PSI, Villigen; Yoshii, Masahito [JAEA, Ibaraki

    2017-05-01

    For MW class proton driver accelerators the energy efficiency is an important aspect; the talk reviews the efficiency of different accelerator concepts including s.c./n.c. linac, rapid cycling synchrotron, cyclotron; the potential of these concepts for very high beam power is discussed.

  7. Thermal investigation on high power dfb broad area lasers at 975 nm, with 60% efficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mostallino, R.; Garcia, M.; Deshayes, Y.; Larrue, A.; Robert, Y.; Vinet, E.; Bechou, L.; Lecomte, M.; Parillaud, O.; Krakowski, M.

    2016-03-01

    based on design for reliability. To have a perfect relation between structure, and their modification, and temperature, FEM simulations are performed using COMSOL software. In this case, we can understand the impact of structure on the isothermal distribution and then reveal the sensitive zones in the diode laser. To validate the simulation, we compare the simulation results to the experimental one and develop an analytical model to determine the different contributions of the thermal heating. This paper reports on the development laser structure and the process techniques required to write the gratings. Performances are particularly characterized in terms of experimental electro-optical characterization and spectral response. The extraction of thermal resistance (Rth) is particularly difficult, because of the implicit low value (Rth ≈ 2𝐾/𝑊) and the multimodal nature of the diode laser. In such a context, thermal resistance has been measured using a dedicated equipment namely T3STER©. The results have been compared with those given by the well-known technique achieved from the spectrum of the diode laser (central wavelength variations vs temperature) that is more difficult to apply for multimodal diodes laser. The last section deals with thermal simulations based on finite elements method (FEM) modeling in order to estimate junction temperature . This study represent a significant part of the general Design for Reliability (DfR) effort carried out on such devices to produce efficient and reliable high power devices at the industrial level.

  8. High-Tech Means High-Efficiency: The Business Case for EnergyManagement in High-Tech Industries

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shanshoian, Gary; Blazek, Michele; Naughton, Phil; Seese, RobertS.; Mills, Evan; Tschudi, William

    2005-11-15

    In the race to apply new technologies in ''high-tech'' facilities such as data centers, laboratories, and clean rooms, much emphasis has been placed on improving service, building capacity, and increasing speed. These facilities are socially and economically important, as part of the critical infrastructure for pharmaceuticals,electronics, communications, and many other sectors. With a singular focus on throughput, some important design issues can be overlooked, such as the energy efficiency of individual equipment (e.g., lasers, routers and switches) as well as the integration of high-tech equipment into the power distribution system and the building envelope. Among technology-based businesses, improving energy efficiency presents an often untapped opportunity to increase profits, enhance process control,maximize asset value, improve the work place environment, and manage a variety of business risks. Oddly enough, the adoption of energy efficiency improvements in this sector lags behind many others. As a result, millions of dollars are left on the table with each year ofoperation.

  9. Time-variant reliability assessment through equivalent stochastic process transformation

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Zequn; Chen, Wei

    2016-01-01

    Time-variant reliability measures the probability that an engineering system successfully performs intended functions over a certain period of time under various sources of uncertainty. In practice, it is computationally prohibitive to propagate uncertainty in time-variant reliability assessment based on expensive or complex numerical models. This paper presents an equivalent stochastic process transformation approach for cost-effective prediction of reliability deterioration over the life cycle of an engineering system. To reduce the high dimensionality, a time-independent reliability model is developed by translating random processes and time parameters into random parameters in order to equivalently cover all potential failures that may occur during the time interval of interest. With the time-independent reliability model, an instantaneous failure surface is attained by using a Kriging-based surrogate model to identify all potential failure events. To enhance the efficacy of failure surface identification, a maximum confidence enhancement method is utilized to update the Kriging model sequentially. Then, the time-variant reliability is approximated using Monte Carlo simulations of the Kriging model where system failures over a time interval are predicted by the instantaneous failure surface. The results of two case studies demonstrate that the proposed approach is able to accurately predict the time evolution of system reliability while requiring much less computational efforts compared with the existing analytical approach. - Highlights: • Developed a new approach for time-variant reliability analysis. • Proposed a novel stochastic process transformation procedure to reduce the dimensionality. • Employed Kriging models with confidence-based adaptive sampling scheme to enhance computational efficiency. • The approach is effective for handling random process in time-variant reliability analysis. • Two case studies are used to demonstrate the efficacy

  10. The reliability of structural systems operating at high temperature: Replacing engineering judgement with operational experience

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chevalier, M.J.; Smith, D.J.; Dean, D.W.

    2012-01-01

    Deterministic assessments are used to assess the integrity of structural systems operating at high temperature by providing a lower bound lifetime prediction, requiring considerable engineering judgement. However such a result may not satisfy the structural integrity assessment purpose if the results are overly conservative or conversely plant observations (such as failures) could undermine the assessment result if observed before the lower bound lifetime. This paper develops a reliability methodology for high temperature assessments and illustrates the impact and importance of managing the uncertainties within such an analysis. This is done by separating uncertainties into three classifications; aleatory uncertainty, quantifiable epistemic uncertainty and unquantifiable epistemic uncertainty. The result is a reliability model that can predict the behaviour of a structural system based upon plant observations, including failure and survival data. This can be used to reduce the over reliance upon engineering judgement which is prevalent in deterministic assessments. Highlights: ► Deterministic assessments are shown to be heavily reliant upon engineering judgment. ► Based upon the R5 procedure, a reliability model for a structural system is developed. ► Variables must be classified as either aleatory or epistemic to model their impact on reliability. ► Operation experience is then used to reduce reliance upon engineering judgment. ► This results in a model which can predict system behaviour and learn from operational experience.

  11. X-real-time executive (X-RTE) an ultra-high reliable real-time executive for safety critical systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Suresh Babu, R.M.

    1995-01-01

    With growing number of application of computers in safety critical systems of nuclear plants there has been a need to assure high quality and reliability of the software used in these systems. One way to assure software quality is to use qualified software components. Since the safety systems and control systems are real-time systems there is a need for a real-time supervisory software to guarantee temporal response of the system. This report describes one such software package, called X-Real-Time Executive (or X-RTE), which was developed in Reactor Control Division, BARC. The report describes all the capabilities and unique features of X-RTE and compares it with a commercially available operating system. The features of X-RTE include pre-emptive scheduling, process synchronization, inter-process communication, multi-processor support, temporal support, debug facility, high portability, high reliability, high quality, and extensive documentation. Examples have been used very liberally to illustrate the underlying concepts. Besides, the report provides a brief description about the methods used, during the software development, to assure high quality and reliability of X-RTE. (author). refs., 11 figs., tabs

  12. Classifier Fusion With Contextual Reliability Evaluation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Zhunga; Pan, Quan; Dezert, Jean; Han, Jun-Wei; He, You

    2018-05-01

    Classifier fusion is an efficient strategy to improve the classification performance for the complex pattern recognition problem. In practice, the multiple classifiers to combine can have different reliabilities and the proper reliability evaluation plays an important role in the fusion process for getting the best classification performance. We propose a new method for classifier fusion with contextual reliability evaluation (CF-CRE) based on inner reliability and relative reliability concepts. The inner reliability, represented by a matrix, characterizes the probability of the object belonging to one class when it is classified to another class. The elements of this matrix are estimated from the -nearest neighbors of the object. A cautious discounting rule is developed under belief functions framework to revise the classification result according to the inner reliability. The relative reliability is evaluated based on a new incompatibility measure which allows to reduce the level of conflict between the classifiers by applying the classical evidence discounting rule to each classifier before their combination. The inner reliability and relative reliability capture different aspects of the classification reliability. The discounted classification results are combined with Dempster-Shafer's rule for the final class decision making support. The performance of CF-CRE have been evaluated and compared with those of main classical fusion methods using real data sets. The experimental results show that CF-CRE can produce substantially higher accuracy than other fusion methods in general. Moreover, CF-CRE is robust to the changes of the number of nearest neighbors chosen for estimating the reliability matrix, which is appealing for the applications.

  13. The technology available for more efficient combustion of waste gases

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Burrows, J.

    1999-01-01

    Alternative combustion technologies for open flare systems are discussed, stressing their advantages and limitations while meeting the fundamental requirements of personnel and plant safety, high destruction efficiencies, environmental parameters and industrial reliability. The use of BACT (Best Available Control Technologies) is dependent on the destruction efficiency of waste gas defined by regulatory agencies or industrial leaders. Enclosed vapour combustors and high destruction efficiency thermal oxidation are two of the technologies which result in more efficient combustion of waste gases. There are several conditions that should be considered when choosing combustion equipment for the disposal of waste gas. These include volatile organic compounds content, lower heating value, the composition of the waste gas, the specified combustion efficiency, design flow rates, smokeless operation, operating conditions, ground level radiation, SO 2 dispersion, environmental and social expectations, and economic limitation. 10 figs

  14. Toddlers favor communicatively presented information over statistical reliability in learning about artifacts.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hanna Marno

    Full Text Available Observed associations between events can be validated by statistical information of reliability or by testament of communicative sources. We tested whether toddlers learn from their own observation of efficiency, assessed by statistical information on reliability of interventions, or from communicatively presented demonstration, when these two potential types of evidence of validity of interventions on a novel artifact are contrasted with each other. Eighteen-month-old infants observed two adults, one operating the artifact by a method that was more efficient (2/3 probability of success than that of the other (1/3 probability of success. Compared to the Baseline condition, in which communicative signals were not employed, infants tended to choose the less reliable method to operate the artifact when this method was demonstrated in a communicative manner in the Experimental condition. This finding demonstrates that, in certain circumstances, communicative sanctioning of reliability may override statistical evidence for young learners. Such a bias can serve fast and efficient transmission of knowledge between generations.

  15. Reliable wet-chemical cleaning of natively oxidized high-efficiency Cu(In,Ga)Se{sub 2} thin-film solar cell absorbers

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lehmann, Jascha [Renewable Energies, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin (Germany); Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), 14473 Potsdam (Germany); Lehmann, Sebastian, E-mail: sebastian.lehmann@ftf.lth.se [Renewable Energies, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin (Germany); Solid State Physics, Lund University, Box 118, S-22100 Lund (Sweden); Lauermann, Iver; Rissom, Thorsten; Kaufmann, Christian A.; Lux-Steiner, Martha Ch. [Renewable Energies, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin (Germany); Bär, Marcus, E-mail: marcus.baer@helmholtz-berlin.de [Renewable Energies, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin (Germany); Institut für Physik und Chemie, Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg, Platz der Deutschen Einheit 1, 03046 Cottbus (Germany); Sadewasser, Sascha, E-mail: sascha.sadewasser@inl.int [Renewable Energies, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, 14109 Berlin (Germany); International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Av. Mestre José Veiga s/n, 4715-330 Braga (Portugal)

    2014-12-21

    Currently, Cu-containing chalcopyrite-based solar cells provide the highest conversion efficiencies among all thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technologies. They have reached efficiency values above 20%, the same performance level as multi-crystalline silicon-wafer technology that dominates the commercial PV market. Chalcopyrite thin-film heterostructures consist of a layer stack with a variety of interfaces between different materials. It is the chalcopyrite/buffer region (forming the p-n junction), which is of crucial importance and therefore frequently investigated using surface and interface science tools, such as photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning probe microscopy. To ensure comparability and validity of the results, a general preparation guide for “realistic” surfaces of polycrystalline chalcopyrite thin films is highly desirable. We present results on wet-chemical cleaning procedures of polycrystalline Cu(In{sub 1-x}Ga{sub x})Se{sub 2} thin films with an average x = [Ga]/([In] + [Ga]) = 0.29, which were exposed to ambient conditions for different times. The hence natively oxidized sample surfaces were etched in KCN- or NH{sub 3}-based aqueous solutions. By x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, we find that the KCN treatment results in a chemical surface structure which is – apart from a slight change in surface composition – identical to a pristine as-received sample surface. Additionally, we discover a different oxidation behavior of In and Ga, in agreement with thermodynamic reference data, and we find indications for the segregation and removal of copper selenide surface phases from the polycrystalline material.

  16. Summary of efficiency testing of standard and high-capacity high-efficiency particulate air filters subjected to simulated tornado depressurization and explosive shock waves

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, P.R.; Gregory, W.S.

    1985-04-01

    Pressure transients in nuclear facility air cleaning systems can originate from natural phenomena such as tornadoes or from accident-induced explosive blast waves. This study was concerned with the effective efficiency of high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters during pressure surges resulting from simulated tornado and explosion transients. The primary objective of the study was to examine filter efficiencies at pressure levels below the point of structural failure. Both standard and high-capacity 0.61-m by 0.61-m HEPA filters were evaluated, as were several 0.2-m by 0.2-m HEPA filters. For a particular manufacturer, the material release when subjected to tornado transients is the same (per unit area) for both the 0.2-m by 0.2-m and the 0.61-m by 0.61-m filters. For tornado transients, the material release was on the order of micrograms per square meter. When subjecting clean HEPA filters to simulated tornado transients with aerosol entrained in the pressure pulse, all filters tested showed a degradation of filter efficiency. For explosive transients, the material release from preloaded high-capacity filters was as much as 340 g. When preloaded high-capacity filters were subjected to shock waves approximately 50% of the structural limit level, 1 to 2 mg of particulate was released

  17. High-efficiency single-photon source: The photonic wire geometry

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Claudon, J.; Bazin, Maela; Malik, Nitin S.

    2009-01-01

    We present a single-photon-source design based on the emission of a quantum dot embedded in a semiconductor (GaAs) nanowire. The nanowire ends are engineered (efficient metallic mirror and tip taper) to reach a predicted record-high collection efficiency of 90% with a realistic design. Preliminar...

  18. High-efficiency FEL with Bragg resonator driven by linear induction accelerator

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ginzburg, N S; Kaminskij, A A; Kaminskij, A K; Peskov, N Yu; Sedykh, S N; Sergeev, A P; Sergeev, A S [Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod (Russian Federation). Inst. of Applied Physics

    1997-12-31

    A narrow-band high-efficiency FEL-oscillator with a Bragg resonator was constructed based on a linear induction accelerator which formed a 1 MeV, 200 A, 200 ns electron beam. At the frequency of 31 GHz, radiation with a power of 31 MW and efficiency of 25% was measured. A high efficiency and a narrow width of the spectrum were achieved owing to the selective properties of the Bragg resonator in combination with the high quality of the helical electron beam formed in the reversed guide field regime. (author). 3 figs., 3 refs.

  19. Increase of hydroelectric power plant operation reliability

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Koshumbaev, M.B.

    2006-01-01

    The new design of the turbine of hydroelectric power plant (HPP) is executed in the form of a pipe with plates. Proposed solution allows increasing the hydroelectric power plant capacity at existing head and water flow. At that time the HPP turbine reliability is increase, its operation performances are improving. Design efficiency is effective mostly for small-scale and micro-HPP due to reliable operation, low-end technology, and harmless ecological application. (author)

  20. A fast approximation method for reliability analysis of cold-standby systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wang, Chaonan; Xing, Liudong; Amari, Suprasad V.

    2012-01-01

    Analyzing reliability of large cold-standby systems has been a complicated and time-consuming task, especially for systems with components having non-exponential time-to-failure distributions. In this paper, an approximation model, which is based on the central limit theorem, is presented for the reliability analysis of binary cold-standby systems. The proposed model can estimate the reliability of large cold-standby systems with binary-state components having arbitrary time-to-failure distributions in an efficient and easy way. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are illustrated using several different types of distributions for both 1-out-of-n and k-out-of-n cold-standby systems.

  1. Reliability of spring interconnects for high channel-count polyimide electrode arrays

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Sharif; Ordonez, Juan Sebastian; Stieglitz, Thomas

    2018-05-01

    Active neural implants with a high channel-count need robust and reliable operational assembly for the targeted environment in order to be classified as viable fully implantable systems. The discrete functionality of the electrode array and the implant electronics is vital for intact assembly. A critical interface exists at the interconnection sites between the electrode array and the implant electronics, especially in hybrid assemblies (e.g. retinal implants) where electrodes and electronics are not on the same substrate. Since the interconnects in such assemblies cannot be hermetically sealed, reliable protection against the physiological environment is essential for delivering high insulation resistance and low defusibility of salt ions, which are limited in complexity by current assembly techniques. This work reports on a combination of spring-type interconnects on a polyimide array with silicone rubber gasket insulation for chronically active implantable systems. The spring design of the interconnects on the backend of the electrode array compensates for the uniform thickness of the sandwiched gasket during bonding in assembly and relieves the propagation of extrinsic stresses to the bulk polyimide substrate. The contact resistance of the microflex-bonded spring interconnects with the underlying metallized ceramic test vehicles and insulation through the gasket between adjacent contacts was investigated against the MIL883 standard. The contact and insulation resistances remained stable in the exhausting environmental conditions.

  2. A metamaterial electromagnetic energy rectifying surface with high harvesting efficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duan, Xin; Chen, Xing; Zhou, Lin

    2016-12-01

    A novel metamaterial rectifying surface (MRS) for electromagnetic energy capture and rectification with high harvesting efficiency is presented. It is fabricated on a three-layer printed circuit board, which comprises an array of periodic metamaterial particles in the shape of mirrored split rings, a metal ground, and integrated rectifiers employing Schottky diodes. Perfect impedance matching is engineered at two interfaces, i.e. one between free space and the surface, and the other between the metamaterial particles and the rectifiers, which are connected through optimally positioned vias. Therefore, the incident electromagnetic power is captured with almost no reflection by the metamaterial particles, then channeled maximally to the rectifiers, and finally converted to direct current efficiently. Moreover, the rectifiers are behind the metal ground, avoiding the disturbance of high power incident electromagnetic waves. Such a MRS working at 2.45 GHz is designed, manufactured and measured, achieving a harvesting efficiency up to 66.9% under an incident power density of 5 mW/cm2, compared with a simulated efficiency of 72.9%. This high harvesting efficiency makes the proposed MRS an effective receiving device in practical microwave power transmission applications.

  3. A metamaterial electromagnetic energy rectifying surface with high harvesting efficiency

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Xin Duan

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available A novel metamaterial rectifying surface (MRS for electromagnetic energy capture and rectification with high harvesting efficiency is presented. It is fabricated on a three-layer printed circuit board, which comprises an array of periodic metamaterial particles in the shape of mirrored split rings, a metal ground, and integrated rectifiers employing Schottky diodes. Perfect impedance matching is engineered at two interfaces, i.e. one between free space and the surface, and the other between the metamaterial particles and the rectifiers, which are connected through optimally positioned vias. Therefore, the incident electromagnetic power is captured with almost no reflection by the metamaterial particles, then channeled maximally to the rectifiers, and finally converted to direct current efficiently. Moreover, the rectifiers are behind the metal ground, avoiding the disturbance of high power incident electromagnetic waves. Such a MRS working at 2.45 GHz is designed, manufactured and measured, achieving a harvesting efficiency up to 66.9% under an incident power density of 5 mW/cm2, compared with a simulated efficiency of 72.9%. This high harvesting efficiency makes the proposed MRS an effective receiving device in practical microwave power transmission applications.

  4. Reliability-Based Topology Optimization Using Stochastic Response Surface Method with Sparse Grid Design

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Qinghai Zhao

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A mathematical framework is developed which integrates the reliability concept into topology optimization to solve reliability-based topology optimization (RBTO problems under uncertainty. Two typical methodologies have been presented and implemented, including the performance measure approach (PMA and the sequential optimization and reliability assessment (SORA. To enhance the computational efficiency of reliability analysis, stochastic response surface method (SRSM is applied to approximate the true limit state function with respect to the normalized random variables, combined with the reasonable design of experiments generated by sparse grid design, which was proven to be an effective and special discretization technique. The uncertainties such as material property and external loads are considered on three numerical examples: a cantilever beam, a loaded knee structure, and a heat conduction problem. Monte-Carlo simulations are also performed to verify the accuracy of the failure probabilities computed by the proposed approach. Based on the results, it is demonstrated that application of SRSM with SGD can produce an efficient reliability analysis in RBTO which enables a more reliable design than that obtained by DTO. It is also found that, under identical accuracy, SORA is superior to PMA in view of computational efficiency.

  5. Noise-free high-efficiency photon-number-resolving detectors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rosenberg, Danna; Lita, Adriana E.; Miller, Aaron J.; Nam, Sae Woo

    2005-01-01

    High-efficiency optical detectors that can determine the number of photons in a pulse of monochromatic light have applications in a variety of physics studies, including post-selection-based entanglement protocols for linear optics quantum computing and experiments that simultaneously close the detection and communication loopholes of Bell's inequalities. Here we report on our demonstration of fiber-coupled, noise-free, photon-number-resolving transition-edge sensors with 88% efficiency at 1550 nm. The efficiency of these sensors could be made even higher at any wavelength in the visible and near-infrared spectrum without resulting in a higher dark-count rate or degraded photon-number resolution

  6. Co3O4 based non-enzymatic glucose sensor with high sensitivity and reliable stability derived from hollow hierarchical architecture

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, Liangliang; He, Gege; Cai, Yanhua; Wu, Shenping; Su, Yongyao; Yan, Hengqing; Yang, Cong; Chen, Yanling; Li, Lu

    2018-02-01

    Inspired by kinetics, the design of hollow hierarchical electrocatalysts through large-scale integration of building blocks is recognized as an effective approach to the achievement of superior electrocatalytic performance. In this work, a hollow, hierarchical Co3O4 architecture (Co3O4 HHA) was constructed using a coordinated etching and precipitation (CEP) method followed by calcination. The resulting Co3O4 HHA electrode exhibited excellent electrocatalytic activity in terms of high sensitivity (839.3 μA mM-1 cm-2) and reliable stability in glucose detection. The high sensitivity could be attributed to the large specific surface area (SSA), ample unimpeded penetration diffusion paths and high electron transfer rate originating from the unique two-dimensional (2D) sheet-like character and hollow porous architecture. The hollow hierarchical structure also affords sufficient interspace for accommodation of volume change and structural strain, resulting in enhanced stability. The results indicate that Co3O4 HHA could have potential for application in the design of non-enzymatic glucose sensors, and that the construction of hollow hierarchical architecture provides an efficient way to design highly active, stable electrocatalysts.

  7. Reliability of the imaging software in the preoperative planning of the open-wedge high tibial osteotomy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Yong Seuk; Kim, Min Kyu; Byun, Hae Won; Kim, Sang Bum; Kim, Jin Goo

    2015-03-01

    The purpose of this study was to verify a recently developed picture-archiving and communications system-photoshop method by comparing reliabilities between real-size paper template and the PACS-photoshop methods in preoperative planning of open-wedge high tibial osteotomy. A prospective case series was conducted, including patients with medial osteoarthritis undergoing open-wedge high tibial osteotomy. In the preoperative planning, the picture-archiving and communications system-photoshop method and real-size paper template method were used simultaneously in all patients. Preoperative hip-knee-ankle angle, height, and angle of the osteotomy were evaluated. The reliability of this newly devised method was evaluated, and the consistency between the two methods was also evaluated using intra-class correlation coefficient. Using the picture-archiving and communications system-photoshop method, the mean correction angle and height of osteotomy gap of rater-1 were 11.7° ± 3.6° and 10.7 ± 3.6 mm, respectively. The mean correction angle and height of osteotomy gap of rater-2 were 12.0 ± 2.6 and 10.8 ± 3.6, respectively. The inter- and intra-rater reliabilities of the correction angle were 0.956 ~ 0.979 and 0.980 ~ 0.992, respectively. The inter- and intra-rater reliabilities of the height of the osteotomy gap were 0.968 ~ 0.985 and 0.971 ~ 0.994, respectively (p photoshop method, mean values of the correction angle and height of the osteotomy gap were 11.9° ± 3.6° and 10.8 ± 3.6 mm, respectively. Consistency between the two methods by comparing the means of the correction angle and the height of the osteotomy gap were 0.985 and 0.985, respectively (p photoshop method enables direct measurement of the height of the osteotomy gap with high reliability.

  8. Performance and Reliability of Bonded Interfaces for High-Temperature Packaging. Annual Report

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    DeVoto, Douglas [National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2016-04-01

    Current generation automotive power electronics packages utilize silicon devices and lead-free solder alloys. To meet stringent technical targets for 2020 and beyond (for cost, power density, specific power, efficiency and reliability), wide-bandgap devices are being considered since they offer advantages such as operation at higher frequencies, voltages, and temperatures. Traditional power electronics packages must be redesigned to utilize the full potential of wide-bandgap devices, and the die- and substrate-attach layers are key areas where new material development and validation is required. Present solder alloys do not meet the performance requirements for these new package designs while also meeting cost and hazardous substance restrictions. Sintered silver (Ag) promises to meet the needs for die- and substrate-attach interfaces but synthesis optimization and reliability evaluation must be completed. Sintered Ag material was proposed as an alternative solution in power electronics packages almost 20 years back. However, synthesis pressure requirements up 40 MPa caused a higher complexity in the production process and more stringent flatness specifications for the substrates. Recently, several manufacturers have developed sintered Ag materials that require lower (3-5 MPa) or even no bonding pressures. Degradation mechanisms for these sintered Ag materials are not well known and need to be addressed. We are addressing these aspects to some extent in this project. We are developing generalized (i.e., independent of geometry) stress intensity factor versus cycles-to-failure relations for sintered Ag. Because sintered Ag is a relatively new material for automotive power electronics, the industry currently does not have a good understanding of recommended synthesis parameters or expected reliability under prescribed conditions. It is an important deliverable of this project to transfer findings to industry to eliminate barriers to using sintered Ag as a viable and

  9. Preparation of reflective CsI photocathodes with reproducible high quantum efficiency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Maier-Komor, P.; Bauer, B. B.; Friese, J.; Gernhäuser, R.; Kienle, P.; Körner, H. J.; Montermann, G.; Zeitelhack, K.

    1995-02-01

    CsI as a solid UV-photocathode material has many promising applications in fast gaseous photon detectors. They are proposed in large area Ring Imaging CHerenkov (RICH) devices in forthcoming experiments at various high-energy particle accelerators. A high photon-to-electron conversion efficiency is a basic requirement for the successful operation of these devices. High reproducible quantum efficiencies could be achieved with CsI layers prepared by electron beam evaporation from a water-cooled copper crucible. CsI films were deposited in the thickness range of 30 to 500 μg/cm 2. Absorption coefficients and quantum efficiencies were measured in the wavelength region of 150 nm to 250 nm. The influence of various evaporation parameters on the quantum efficiency were investigated.

  10. Preparation of reflective CsI photocathodes with reproducible high quantum efficiency

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Maier-Komor, P. [Technische Univ. Muenchen, Garching (Germany). Physik-Department; Bauer, B.B. [Technische Univ. Muenchen, Garching (Germany). Physik-Department; Friese, J. [Technische Univ. Muenchen, Garching (Germany). Physik-Department; Gernhaeuser, R. [Technische Univ. Muenchen, Garching (Germany). Physik-Department; Kienle, P. [Technische Univ. Muenchen, Garching (Germany). Physik-Department; Koerner, H.J. [Technische Univ. Muenchen, Garching (Germany). Physik-Department; Montermann, G. [Technische Univ. Muenchen, Garching (Germany). Physik-Department; Zeitelhack, K. [Technische Univ. Muenchen, Garching (Germany). Physik-Department

    1995-08-01

    CsI as a solid UV-photocathode material has many promising applications in fast gaseous photon detectors. They are proposed in large area Ring Imaging CHerenkov (RICH) devices in forthcoming experiments at various high-energy particle accelerators. A high photon-to-electron conversion efficiency is a basic requirement for the successful operation of these devices. High reproducible quantum efficiencies could be achieved with CsI layers prepared by electron beam evaporation from a water-cooled copper crucible. CsI films were deposited in the thickness range of 30 to 500 {mu}g/cm{sup 2}. Absorption coefficients and quantum efficiencies were measured in the wavelength region of 150 nm to 250 nm. The influence of various evaporation parameters on the quantum efficiency were investigated. (orig.).

  11. Efficient Flexible Organic/Inorganic Hybrid Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes Based on Graphene Anode.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Seo, Hong-Kyu; Kim, Hobeom; Lee, Jaeho; Park, Min-Ho; Jeong, Su-Hun; Kim, Young-Hoon; Kwon, Sung-Joo; Han, Tae-Hee; Yoo, Seunghyup; Lee, Tae-Woo

    2017-03-01

    Highly efficient organic/inorganic hybrid perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) based on graphene anode are developed for the first time. Chemically inert graphene avoids quenching of excitons by diffused metal atom species from indium tin oxide. The flexible PeLEDs with graphene anode on plastic substrate show good bending stability; they provide an alternative and reliable flexible electrode for highly efficient flexible PeLEDs. © 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  12. Irradiation effects on high efficiency Si solar cells

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nguyen Duy, T.; Amingual, D.; Colardelle, P.; Bernard, J.

    1974-01-01

    By optimizing the diffusion parameters, high efficiency cells are obtained with 2ohmsxcm (13.5% AMO) and 10ohmsxcm (12.5% AMO) silicon material. These new cells have been submitted to radiation tests under 1MeV, 2MeV electrons and 2.5MeV protons. Their behavior under irradiation is found to be dependent only on the bulk material. By using the same resistivity silicon, the rate of degradation is exactly the same than those of conventional cells. The power increase, due to a better superficial response of the cell, is maintained after irradiation. These results show that new high efficiency cells offer an E.O.L. power higher than conventional cells [fr

  13. Design Strategies for Ultra-high Efficiency Photovoltaics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Warmann, Emily Cathryn

    While concentrator photovoltaic cells have shown significant improvements in efficiency in the past ten years, once these cells are integrated into concentrating optics, connected to a power conditioning system and deployed in the field, the overall module efficiency drops to only 34 to 36%. This efficiency is impressive compared to conventional flat plate modules, but it is far short of the theoretical limits for solar energy conversion. Designing a system capable of achieving ultra high efficiency of 50% or greater cannot be achieved by refinement and iteration of current design approaches. This thesis takes a systems approach to designing a photovoltaic system capable of 50% efficient performance using conventional diode-based solar cells. The effort began with an exploration of the limiting efficiency of spectrum splitting ensembles with 2 to 20 sub cells in different electrical configurations. Incorporating realistic non-ideal performance with the computationally simple detailed balance approach resulted in practical limits that are useful to identify specific cell performance requirements. This effort quantified the relative benefit of additional cells and concentration for system efficiency, which will help in designing practical optical systems. Efforts to improve the quality of the solar cells themselves focused on the development of tunable lattice constant epitaxial templates. Initially intended to enable lattice matched multijunction solar cells, these templates would enable increased flexibility in band gap selection for spectrum splitting ensembles and enhanced radiative quality relative to metamorphic growth. The III-V material family is commonly used for multijunction solar cells both for its high radiative quality and for the ease of integrating multiple band gaps into one monolithic growth. The band gap flexibility is limited by the lattice constant of available growth templates. The virtual substrate consists of a thin III-V film with the desired

  14. Pilot testing of SHRP 2 reliability data and analytical products: Washington.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-07-30

    The second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2) addresses the challenges of moving people and goods efficiently and safely on the nations highways. In its Reliability focus area, the research emphasizes improving the reliability of highway ...

  15. PV Systems Reliability Final Technical Report.

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lavrova, Olga [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Flicker, Jack David [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Johnson, Jay [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Armijo, Kenneth Miguel [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Gonzalez, Sigifredo [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Schindelholz, Eric John [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sorensen, Neil R. [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Yang, Benjamin Bing-Yeh [Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

    2015-12-01

    The continued exponential growth of photovoltaic technologies paves a path to a solar-powered world, but requires continued progress toward low-cost, high-reliability, high-performance photovoltaic (PV) systems. High reliability is an essential element in achieving low-cost solar electricity by reducing operation and maintenance (O&M) costs and extending system lifetime and availability, but these attributes are difficult to verify at the time of installation. Utilities, financiers, homeowners, and planners are demanding this information in order to evaluate their financial risk as a prerequisite to large investments. Reliability research and development (R&D) is needed to build market confidence by improving product reliability and by improving predictions of system availability, O&M cost, and lifetime. This project is focused on understanding, predicting, and improving the reliability of PV systems. The two areas being pursued include PV arc-fault and ground fault issues, and inverter reliability.

  16. High efficiency targets for high gain inertial confinement fusion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gardner, J.H.; Bodner, S.E.

    1986-01-01

    Rocket efficiencies as high as 15% are possible using short wavelength lasers and moderately high aspect ratio pellet designs. These designs are made possible by two recent breakthroughs in physics constraints. First is the development of the Induced Spatial Incoherence (ISI) technique which allows uniform illumination of the pellet and relaxes the constraint of thermal smoothing, permitting the use of short wavelength laser light. Second is the discovery that the Rayleigh-Taylor growth rate is considerably reduced at the short laser wavelengths. By taking advantage of the reduced constraints imposed by nonuniform laser illumination and Rayleigh-Taylor instability, pellets using 1/4 micron laser light and initial aspect ratios of about 10 (with in flight aspect ratios of about 150 to 200) may produce energy gains as high as 200 to 250

  17. High-efficiency targets for high-gain inertial confinement fusion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gardner, J.H.; Bodner, S.E.

    1986-01-01

    Rocket efficiencies as high as 15% are possible using short wavelength lasers and moderately high aspect ratio pellet designs. These designs are made possible by two recent breakthroughs in physics constraints. First is the development of the induced spatial incoherence (ISI) technique, which allows uniform illumination of the pellet and relaxes the constraint of thermal smoothing, permitting the use of short wavelength laser light. Second is the discovery that the Rayleigh--Taylor growth rate is considerably reduced at short laser wavelengths. By taking advantage of the reduced constraints imposed by nonuniform laser illumination and Rayleigh--Taylor instability, pellets using (1)/(4) μm laser light and initial aspect ratios of about 10 (with in flight aspect ratios of about 150--200) may produce energy gains as high as 200--250

  18. High-efficiency concentrator silicon solar cells

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sinton, R.A.; Cuevas, A.; King, R.R.; Swanson, R.M. (Stanford Univ., CA (USA). Solid-State Electronics Lab.)

    1990-11-01

    This report presents results from extensive process development in high-efficiency Si solar cells. An advanced design for a 1.56-cm{sup 2} cell with front grids achieved 26% efficiency at 90 suns. This is especially significant since this cell does not require a prismatic cover glass. New designs for simplified backside-contact solar cells were advanced from a status of near-nonfunctionality to demonstrated 21--22% for one-sun cells in sizes up to 37.5 cm{sup 2}. An efficiency of 26% was achieved for similar 0.64-cm{sup 2} concentrator cells at 150 suns. More fundamental work on dopant-diffused regions is also presented here. The recombination vs. various process and physical parameters was studied in detail for boron and phosphorous diffusions. Emitter-design studies based solidly upon these new data indicate the performance vs design parameters for a variety of the cases of most interest to solar cell designers. Extractions of p-type bandgap narrowing and the surface recombination for p- and n-type regions from these studies have a generality that extends beyond solar cells into basic device modeling. 68 refs., 50 figs.

  19. Efficient estimation for high similarities using odd sketches

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mitzenmacher, Michael; Pagh, Rasmus; Pham, Ninh Dang

    2014-01-01

    . This means that Odd Sketches provide a highly space-efficient estimator for sets of high similarity, which is relevant in applications such as web duplicate detection, collaborative filtering, and association rule learning. The method extends to weighted Jaccard similarity, relevant e.g. for TF-IDF vector...... and web duplicate detection tasks....

  20. Analysis of performance reliability of electrical and electronic equipment of car-tractor

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kravchenko О.Р.

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available The analysis of the operational reliability of electrical and electronic equipment of vehicles, trucks Mercedes-Benz Actros 1844 LS and Volvo FH 1242, conducting international cargo transportation is performed. It is established that the equipment is reliable, which meets modern requirements, but where there is a violation of the resolution. The reason for repair work is constructive and operational factors. Distribution of efficiency and overall performance of operational reliability is retrieved. Items with more bounce are found. Common factors of violation of efficiency cars, trucks in operation, are largely different stages in warranty runs are obtained.

  1. Analysis and recommendations for a reliable programming of software based safety systems

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Nunez McLeod, J.; Nunez McLeod, J.E.; Rivera, S.S.

    1997-01-01

    The present paper summarizes the results of several studies performed for the development of high software on i486 microprocessors, towards its utilization for control and safety systems for nuclear power plants. The work is based on software programmed in C language. Several recommendations oriented to high reliability software are analyzed, relating the requirements on high level language to its influence on assembler level. Several metrics are implemented, that allow for the quantification of the results achieved. New metrics were developed and other were adapted, in order to obtain more efficient indexes for the software description. Such metrics are helpful to visualize the adaptation of the software under development to the quality rules under use. A specific program developed to assist the reliability analyst on this quantification is also present in the paper. It performs the analysis of an executable program written in C language, disassembling it and evaluating its inter al structures. (author)

  2. 3rd symposium on high-efficiency boiler technology: potential, performance, shortcomings of natural gas fuelled high-efficiency boilers

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-01-01

    The brochure contains abstracts of the papers presented at the symposium. The potential, performance and marketing problems of natural gas high-efficiency boiler systems are outlined, and new ideas are presented for gas utilities, producers of appliances, fitters, and chimneysweeps. 13 papers are available as separate regards in this database. (HW) [de

  3. Hydrogen Production via a High-Efficiency Low-Temperature Reformer

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Paul KT Liu; Theo T. Tsotsis

    2006-05-31

    the packed bed and an adsorptive reactor respectively. In addition CO contamination with <10 to 120 ppm is predicted for the invented process depending upon the cycle time for the PSA type operation. In comparison, the adsorption reactor can also deliver a similar CO contaminant at the low end; however, its high end reaches as high as 300 ppm based upon the simulation of our proposed operating condition. Our experimental results for the packed bed and the membrane reactor deliver 12 and 18% conversion at 400°C, approaching the conversion by the mathematical simulation. Due to the time constraint, the experimental study on the conversion of the invented process has not been complete. However, our in-house study using a similar process concept for the water gas shift reaction has demonstrated the reliability of our mathematical simulation for the invented process. In summary, we are confident that the invented process can deliver efficiently high purity hydrogen at a low temperature (~400°C). According to our projection, the invented process can further achieve 5% energy savings and ~50% capital savings over conventional reforming for fuel cell applications. The pollution abatement potential associated with the implementation of fuel cells, including the elimination of nitrogen oxides and CO, and the reduction in volatile organics and CO2, can thus be realized with the implementation of this invented process. The projected total market size for equipment sale for the proposed process in US is $1.5 billion annually.

  4. High efficiency inductive output tubes with intense annular electron beams

    Science.gov (United States)

    Appanam Karakkad, J.; Matthew, D.; Ray, R.; Beaudoin, B. L.; Narayan, A.; Nusinovich, G. S.; Ting, A.; Antonsen, T. M.

    2017-10-01

    For mobile ionospheric heaters, it is necessary to develop highly efficient RF sources capable of delivering radiation in the frequency range from 3 to 10 MHz with an average power at a megawatt level. A promising source, which is capable of offering these parameters, is a grid-less version of the inductive output tube (IOT), also known as a klystrode. In this paper, studies analyzing the efficiency of grid-less IOTs are described. The basic trade-offs needed to reach high efficiency are investigated. In particular, the trade-off between the peak current and the duration of the current micro-pulse is analyzed. A particle in the cell code is used to self-consistently calculate the distribution in axial and transverse momentum and in total electron energy from the cathode to the collector. The efficiency of IOTs with collectors of various configurations is examined. It is shown that the efficiency of IOTs can be in the 90% range even without using depressed collectors.

  5. Ultra-high efficiency photovoltaic cells for large scale solar power generation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakano, Yoshiaki

    2012-01-01

    The primary targets of our project are to drastically improve the photovoltaic conversion efficiency and to develop new energy storage and delivery technologies. Our approach to obtain an efficiency over 40% starts from the improvement of III-V multi-junction solar cells by introducing a novel material for each cell realizing an ideal combination of bandgaps and lattice-matching. Further improvement incorporates quantum structures such as stacked quantum wells and quantum dots, which allow higher degree of freedom in the design of the bandgap and the lattice strain. Highly controlled arrangement of either quantum dots or quantum wells permits the coupling of the wavefunctions, and thus forms intermediate bands in the bandgap of a host material, which allows multiple photon absorption theoretically leading to a conversion efficiency exceeding 50%. In addition to such improvements, microfabrication technology for the integrated high-efficiency cells and the development of novel material systems that realizes high efficiency and low cost at the same time are investigated.

  6. System-level Reliability Assessment of Power Stage in Fuel Cell Application

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhou, Dao; Wang, Huai; Blaabjerg, Frede

    2016-01-01

    reliability. In a case study of a 5 kW fuel cell power stage, the parameter variations of the lifetime model prove that the exponential factor of the junction temperature fluctuation is the most sensitive parameter. Besides, if a 5-out-of-6 redundancy is used, it is concluded both the B10 and the B1 system......High efficient and less pollutant fuel cell stacks are emerging and strong candidates of the power solution used for mobile base stations. In the application of the backup power, the availability and reliability hold the highest priority. This paper considers the reliability metrics from...... the component-level to the system-level for the power stage used in a fuel cell application. It starts with an estimation of the annual accumulated damage for the key power electronic components according to the real mission profile of the fuel cell system. Then, considering the parameter variations in both...

  7. High-efficiency water-loaded microwave antenna in ultra-high-frequency band

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gong, Zilun; Bartone, Chris; Yang, Fuyi; Yao, Jie

    2018-03-01

    High-index dielectrics are widely used in microwave antennas to control the radiation characteristics. Liquid water, with a high dielectric index at microwave frequency, is an interesting material to achieving tunable functionalities. Here, we demonstrate a water-loaded microwave antenna system that has high loss-tolerance and wideband tunability enabled by fluidity. Our simulation and experimental results show that the resonance frequency can be effectively tuned by the size of loading water. Furthermore, the antenna systems with water loading can achieve high radiation efficiency (>90%) in the ultra-high-frequency (0.3-3 GHz) band. This work brings about opportunities in realistic tunable microwave antenna designs enabled by liquid.

  8. A single lithium-ion battery protection circuit with high reliability and low power consumption

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Jiang Jinguang; Li Sen

    2014-01-01

    A single lithium-ion battery protection circuit with high reliability and low power consumption is proposed. The protection circuit has high reliability because the voltage and current of the battery are controlled in a safe range. The protection circuit can immediately activate a protective function when the voltage and current of the battery are beyond the safe range. In order to reduce the circuit's power consumption, a sleep state control circuit is developed. Additionally, the output frequency of the ring oscillation can be adjusted continuously and precisely by the charging capacitors and the constant-current source. The proposed protection circuit is fabricated in a 0.5 μm mixed-signal CMOS process. The measured reference voltage is 1.19 V, the overvoltage is 4.2 V and the undervoltage is 2.2 V. The total power is about 9 μW. (semiconductor integrated circuits)

  9. Enhancing thermal reliability of fiber-optic sensors for bio-inspired applications at ultra-high temperatures

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, Donghoon; Kim, Heon-Young; Kim, Dae-Hyun

    2014-07-01

    The rapid growth of bio-(inspired) sensors has led to an improvement in modern healthcare and human-robot systems in recent years. Higher levels of reliability and better flexibility, essential features of these sensors, are very much required in many application fields (e.g. applications at ultra-high temperatures). Fiber-optic sensors, and fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors in particular, are being widely studied as suitable sensors for improved structural health monitoring (SHM) due to their many merits. To enhance the thermal reliability of FBG sensors, thermal sensitivity, generally expressed as αf + ξf and considered a constant, should be investigated more precisely. For this purpose, the governing equation of FBG sensors is modified using differential derivatives between the wavelength shift and the temperature change in this study. Through a thermal test ranging from RT to 900 °C, the thermal sensitivity of FBG sensors is successfully examined and this guarantees thermal reliability of FBG sensors at ultra-high temperatures. In detail, αf + ξf has a non-linear dependence on temperature and varies from 6.0 × 10-6 °C-1 (20 °C) to 10.6 × 10-6 °C-1 (650 °C). Also, FBGs should be carefully used for applications at ultra-high temperatures due to signal disappearance near 900 °C.

  10. Highly Efficient Coherent Optical Memory Based on Electromagnetically Induced Transparency

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hsiao, Ya-Fen; Tsai, Pin-Ju; Chen, Hung-Shiue; Lin, Sheng-Xiang; Hung, Chih-Chiao; Lee, Chih-Hsi; Chen, Yi-Hsin; Chen, Yong-Fan; Yu, Ite A.; Chen, Ying-Cheng

    2018-05-01

    Quantum memory is an important component in the long-distance quantum communication based on the quantum repeater protocol. To outperform the direct transmission of photons with quantum repeaters, it is crucial to develop quantum memories with high fidelity, high efficiency and a long storage time. Here, we achieve a storage efficiency of 92.0 (1.5)% for a coherent optical memory based on the electromagnetically induced transparency scheme in optically dense cold atomic media. We also obtain a useful time-bandwidth product of 1200, considering only storage where the retrieval efficiency remains above 50%. Both are the best record to date in all kinds of schemes for the realization of optical memory. Our work significantly advances the pursuit of a high-performance optical memory and should have important applications in quantum information science.

  11. Safety and reliability of automatization software

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kapp, K; Daum, R [Karlsruhe Univ. (TH) (Germany, F.R.). Lehrstuhl fuer Angewandte Informatik, Transport- und Verkehrssysteme

    1979-02-01

    Automated technical systems have to meet very high requirements concerning safety, security and reliability. Today, modern computers, especially microcomputers, are used as integral parts of those systems. In consequence computer programs must work in a safe and reliable mannter. Methods are discussed which allow to construct safe and reliable software for automatic systems such as reactor protection systems and to prove that the safety requirements are met. As a result it is shown that only the method of total software diversification can satisfy all safety requirements at tolerable cost. In order to achieve a high degree of reliability, structured and modular programming in context with high level programming languages are recommended.

  12. Ultra-bright and highly efficient inorganic based perovskite light-emitting diodes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Liuqi; Yang, Xiaolei; Jiang, Qi; Wang, Pengyang; Yin, Zhigang; Zhang, Xingwang; Tan, Hairen; Yang, Yang (Michael); Wei, Mingyang; Sutherland, Brandon R.; Sargent, Edward H.; You, Jingbi

    2017-06-01

    Inorganic perovskites such as CsPbX3 (X=Cl, Br, I) have attracted attention due to their excellent thermal stability and high photoluminescence quantum efficiency. However, the electroluminescence quantum efficiency of their light-emitting diodes was CsPbBr3 lattice and by depositing a hydrophilic and insulating polyvinyl pyrrolidine polymer atop the ZnO electron-injection layer to overcome these issues. As a result, we obtained light-emitting diodes exhibiting a high brightness of 91,000 cd m-2 and a high external quantum efficiency of 10.4% using a mixed-cation perovskite Cs0.87MA0.13PbBr3 as the emitting layer. To the best of our knowledge, this is the brightest and most-efficient green perovskite light-emitting diodes reported to date.

  13. High Efficiency of Two Efficient QSDC with Authentication Is at the Cost of Their Security

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Su-Juan, Qin; Qiao-Yan, Wen; Luo-Ming, Meng; Fu-Chen, Zhu

    2009-01-01

    Two efficient protocols of quantum secure direct communication with authentication [Chin. Phys. Lett. 25 (2008) 2354] were recently proposed by Liu et al. to improve the efficiency of two protocols presented in [Phys. Rev. A 75 (2007) 026301] by four Pauli operations. We show that the high efficiency of the two protocols is at the expense of their security. The authenticator Trent can reach half the secret by a particular attack strategy in the first protocol. In the second protocol, not only Trent but also an eavesdropper outside can elicit half-information about the secret from the public declaration

  14. Human Reliability Program Overview

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Bodin, Michael

    2012-09-25

    This presentation covers the high points of the Human Reliability Program, including certification/decertification, critical positions, due process, organizational structure, program components, personnel security, an overview of the US DOE reliability program, retirees and academia, and security program integration.

  15. Development of high speed and reliable data transmission system for industrial CT

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gao Fuqiang; Dong Yanli; Liu Guohua

    2010-01-01

    In order to meet the requirements of large capacity,high speed and high reliability of data transmission for industrial CT, a data transmission system based on USB 2.0 was designed. In the process of data transmission, FPGA was the main controller, and USB 2.0 CY7C68013A worked in slave FIFO mode. The system sent the data got from data acquisition system to host computer for image reconstruction. The testing results show that the transmission rate can reach 33 MB/s and the precision is 100%. The system satisfies the requirements of data transmission for industrial CT. (authors)

  16. Lean Maintenance Applied to Improve Maintenance Efficiency in Thermoelectric Power Plants

    OpenAIRE

    Orlando Duran; Andrea Capaldo; Paulo Andrés Duran Acevedo

    2017-01-01

    Thermoelectric power plants consist of a set of critical equipment that require high levels of availability and reliability. Due to this, maintenance of these physical assets is gaining momentum in industry. Maintenance is considered as an activity that contributes to improving the availability, efficiency and productivity of each piece of equipment. Several techniques have been used to achieve greater efficiencies in maintenance, among which we can find the lean maintenance philosophy. Despi...

  17. Deep-blue efficient OLED based on NPB with little efficiency roll-off under high current density

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Jian

    2017-03-01

    NPB usually is used as a hole-transport layer in OLED. In fact, it is a standard pure blue-emission material. However, its light-emitting efficiency in OLED is low due to emissive nature of organic material. Herein, a deep-blue OLDE based on NPB was fabricated. The light-emitting efficiency of the device demonstrates a moderate value, and efficiency roll-off is little under high current density. The device demonstrates that the electroplex's emission decreases with increasing electric field intensity.

  18. A high reliability oxygen deficiency monitoring system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parry, R.; Claborn, G.; Haas, A.; Landis, R.; Page, W.; Smith, J.

    1993-05-01

    The escalating use of cryogens at national laboratories in general and accelerators in particular, along with the increased emphasis placed on personnel safety, mandates the development and installation of oxygen monitoring systems to insure personnel safety in the event of a cryogenic leak. Numerous vendors offer oxygen deficiency monitoring systems but fail to provide important features and/or flexibility. This paper describes a unique oxygen monitoring system developed for the Magnet Test Laboratory (MTL) at the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory (SSCL). Features include: high reliability, oxygen cell redundancy, sensor longevity, simple calibration, multiple trip points, offending sensor audio and visual indication, global alarms for building evacuation, local and remote analog readout, event and analog data logging, EMAIL event notification, phone line voice status system, and multi-drop communications network capability for reduced cable runs. Of particular importance is the distributed topology of the system which allows it to operate in a stand-alone configuration or to communicate with a host computer. This flexibility makes it ideal for small applications such as a small room containing a cryogenic dewar, as well as larger systems which monitor many offices and labs in several buildings

  19. A high reliability oxygen deficiency monitoring system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Parry, R.; Claborn, G.; Haas, A.; Landis, R.; Page, W.; Smith, J.

    1993-01-01

    The escalating use of cryogens at national laboratories in general and accelerators in particular, along with the increased emphasis placed on personnel safety, mandates the development and installation of oxygen monitoring systems to insure personnel safety in the event of a cryogenic leak. Numerous vendors offer oxygen deficiency monitoring systems but fail to provide important features and/or flexibility. This paper describes a unique oxygen monitoring system developed for the Magnet Test Laboratory (MTL) at the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory (SSCL). Features include: high reliability, oxygen cell redundancy, sensor longevity, simple calibration, multiple trip points, offending sensor audio and visual indication, global alarms for building evacuation, local and remote analog readout, event and analog data logging, EMAIL event notification, phone line voice status system, and multi-drop communications network capability for reduced cable runs. Of particular importance is the distributed topology of the system which allows it to operate in a stand-alone configuration or to communicate with a host computer. This flexibility makes it ideal for small applications such as a small room containing a cryogenic dewar, as well as larger systems which monitor many offices and labs in several buildings

  20. Ultra-high efficiency, fast graphene micro-heater on silicon

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Yan, Siqi; Zhu, Xiaolong; Frandsen, Lars Hagedorn

    2017-01-01

    We demonstrate an ultra-high efficiency and fast graphene microheater on silicon photonic crystal waveguide. By taking advantage of slow-light effect, a tuning efficiency of 1.07 nm/mW and power consumption per free spectral range of 3.99 mW. A fast rise and decay times (10% to 90%) of only 750 ns...