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A series of microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) experiments were conducted using Sporosarcina pasteurii to reinforce coastal soft clay in Zhejiang. By analyzing the physical and mechanical parameters of samples of varying ages, specifically focusing on each sample's unconfined compressive strength, triaxial shear strength, and permeability coefficient, it was revealed that MICP technology can be used effectively to reinforce coastal clay. The unconfined compressive strength of treated soil increased by 23% compared to untreated soil, while the permeability coefficient decreased by 75%. The internal friction angle of the clay remained almost constant, whereas cohesion significantly increased by approximately 53%. One-dimensional compression experiments were also performed, yielding consolidation parameters such as the compression coefficient, compression index, and consolidation coefficient. The results indicated a notable decrease in the soil compression index. Furthermore, microscopic analysis revealed that clay particles were cemented by calcium carbonate, whose precipitation was induced by the bacteria. Our XRD results also indicated that the bacteria facilitated the conversion of Ca2+ present in the soil into calcium carbonate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vanadium titanomagnetite is an important mineral resource. It is a raw material for ironmaking, vanadium extraction, strategic metal titanium production, and titanium dioxide production. In this study, high chromium vanadium titanomagnetite (High-Cr VTM) and ordinary iron ore were used as raw materials for pelletizing. The effect of V2O5 on the preparation and properties of High-Cr VTM pellets was studied. The influence of V2O5 on the properties of the green pellets, the compressive strength of oxidized pellets, the reduction swelling index and reduction degree, softening-melting behavior, and the migration law of Fe, Ti, and Cr in the reduction process were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that with the increase in V2O5 content, the properties of the green pellets basically showed a trend of first decreasing and then increasing but all met the basic requirements of pelletizing. When the added amount of V2O5 in the pellet was 6%, the compressive strength of the oxidized pellet was the lowest at only 2565 N/pellet but it still met the quality requirements for pellets in blast furnace production. As the dosage of V2O5 increased, the reduction swelling index and reduction degree of the pellets showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. The addition of V2O5 can increase the softening initial temperature, softening final temperature, melting start temperature, and dripping temperature of the High-Cr VTM pellets, narrowing the softening interval, and expanding the melting dripping interval. The experimental results provided a data reference for revealing the influence of V2O5 on High-Cr VTM pellets during the blast furnace smelting process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The share of rail transport in world transport continues to rise. As the number of trains increases, so does the load on the railway. The rails are in direct contact with the loaded wheels. Therefore, it is more easily damaged. In recent years, domestic and foreign scholars have conducted in-depth research on railway damage detection. As the weakest part of the track system, switches are more prone to damage. Assessing and predicting rail surface damage can improve the safety of rail operations and allow for proper planning and maintenance to reduce capital expenditure and increase operational efficiency. Under the premise that functional safety is paramount, predicting the service life of rails, especially turnouts, can significantly reduce costs and ensure the safety of railway transportation. This paper understands the evolution of contact fatigue on crossing noses through long-term observation and sampling of crossing noses in turnouts. The authors get images from new to damaged. After image preprocessing, MPI (Magnetic Particle Imaging) is divided into blocks containing local crack information. The obtained local texture information is used for regression prediction using machine-supervised learning and LSTM network (Long Short-Term Memory) methods. Finally, a technique capable of thoroughly evaluating the wear process of crossing noses is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Railway damage detection is of great significance in ensuring railway safety. The cracks on the rail surface play a key role in studying the formation and development process of rail damage, predicting the occurrence of rail defects, and then improving the service life of the rail. However, due to the small shape of the cracks, the typical detection method is relatively complicated, and the speed is quite slow. Although traditional magnetic particle inspection technology is fairly accurate at detection, it is costly and inconvenient to carry and install, while also limiting the detection speed and affecting the system's operation. In this paper, a semantic segmentation detection method is developed by using various collected rail surface crack data and deep learning through a neural network. By comparing the inspection of the same rail surface with magnetic particle inspection technology, only inexpensive cameras are used and the inspection speed is increased while maintaining relatively high accuracy. In addition, the method can achieve fast detection speeds if it is extended to be combined with high-frequency cameras. It is an economical, efficient, and environmentally friendly method for future rail surface detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an embedded multichannel capillary porous system (EM-CPS) was designed and fabricated with 304 stainless steel using the laser ablation method. The EM-CPS revealed its excellent ability to wick liquid lithium to its surface effectively. The interaction between Li-prefilled EM-CPS and plasma was studied, and the results showed that the surface temperature decreased by ~140 °C compared with the results of the experiment of EM-CPS without lithium filling. Additionally, EM-CPS displayed a better heat transfer performance and stronger radiation loss of the vapor cloud than the traditional woven tungsten-based meshes. In addition, the drift of the lithium vapor cloud center was found during plasma irradiation and led to a decrease in the intensity of the Li 670.78 nm emission line detected by the spectrometer at the observation point. When the thermal load deposited on the sample surface is reinforced by increasing the magnetic field, the rise in surface temperature is restrained due to the enhanced heat dissipation capability of lithium. SEM images of irradiated samples showed that the 304 stainless steel-based EM-CPS has corrosion problems due to the interaction between liquid lithium and argon plasma, but it still showed good plasma-facing characteristics. These findings provide a reference for further studies of embedded multichannel CPSs with plasma-facing components (PFCs) in linear plasma devices and tokamaks in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, a series of epoxy acrylate (EA)/mica composite coatings were synthesized through introducing mica powders of different particle size into epoxy acrylate coatings and using an ultraviolet (UV) curing technique to investigate the influence of mica particle size on the coatings. Mica powders of different particle sizes were obtained by ball-milling for 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 h with a planetary high-energy ball mill. The particle size and morphologies of ball-milled mica powders were characterized by laser particle size analyzer and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicated that planetary ball-milling reduced the particle size of mica powders effectively. Mica powders that were un-ball-milled and ball-milled were added into the epoxy acrylate matrix by a blending method to synthesize the organic-inorganic UV curable coatings. The optical photographs of the coatings showed greater stability of liquid mixtures with smaller particle size fillers. The chemical structures of EA/mica composite coatings were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and the conversion rate of C=C bonds was calculated. The results indicated that the C=C conversion of coatings with mica powders of smaller particle sizes was higher. Tests of mechanical properties and tests using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) showed that pencil hardness, impact resistance, and coating resistance were improved due to the reduction of mica powders particle size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsupported sleepers or void zones in ballasted tracks are one of the most recent and frequent track failures. The void failures have the property of intensive development that, without timely maintenance measures, can cause the appearance of cost-expensive local instabilities such as subgrade damages. The reason for the intensive void development lies in the mechanics of the sleeper and ballast bed interaction. The particularity of the interaction is a dynamic impact that occurs due to void closure. Additionally, void zones cause inhomogeneous ballast pressure distribution between the void zone and fully supported neighbour zones. The present paper is devoted to studying the mechanism of the sleeper–ballast dynamic impact in the void zone. The results of experimental in situ measurements of rail deflections showed the significant impact accelerations in the zone even for lightweight slow vehicles. A simple three-beam numerical model of track and rolling stock interaction has shown dynamic interaction similar to the experimental measurements. Moreover, the model shows that the sleeper accelerations are more than 3 times higher than the corresponding wheel accelerations and the impact point appears before the wheel enters the impact point. The analysis of ballast loadings shows the specific impact behaviour in combination with the quasistatic part that is different for void and neighbour zones, which are characterised by high ballast pre-stressed conditions. The analysis of void size influence demonstrates that the maximal impact loadings and maximal wheel and sleeper accelerations appear at a certain void depth, after which the values decrease. The ballast quasistatic loading analysis indicates an increase of more than 2 times in the ballast loading in neighbour zones for long voids and almost full quasistatic unloading for short-length voids. However, the used imitation model cannot explain the nature of the dynamic impact. The mechanism of the void impact is clearly explained by the analytic solution using a simple clamped beam. A simplified analytical expression of the void impact velocity shows that it is linearly related to the wheel speed and loading. The comparison to the numerically simulated impact velocities shows a good agreement and the existence of the void depth with the maximal impact. An estimation of the long-term influences for the cases of normal sleeper loading, high ballast pre-stress and quasistatic loading in the neighbour zones and high impact inside the void is performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through thermodynamic smelting experiments, nonisothermal and isothermal kinetics experiments, the effects of CO2–containing gas injection on the smelting of chromia–bearing vanadiferous titanomagnetite ore were investigated. The experiments at 900 °C, 1000 °C, 1100 °C, 1200 °C, and 1300 °C, and CO2 concentration of 0, 10 vol.%, 20 vol.%, and 30 vol.% were studied. The samples after the kinetics experiments were analyzed through thermodynamic calculations and characterized by XRD, XRF, XPS, and SEM. The results of thermodynamic experiments show that the injection of CO2–containing gas significantly improves the softening–melting–dripping behavior during the smelting process. As the concentration of injected CO2 increased from 0 vol.% to 30 vol.%, the range of softening temperature [T40–T4] decreased from 109 °C to 97 °C, and the range of droplet temperature [Td–Ts] decreased rapidly from 196 °C to 162 °C. Moreover, when CO2 concentration was 20 vol.%, the minimum apparent activation energy of nonisothermal kinetics reached 75.58 kJ·mol−1. Combining the lowest permeability index and the fastest nonisothermal reduction rate, the optimal CO2 concentration in the fuel gas was considered to be 20 vol.%. The isothermal parameters were fitted according to 1 − (1 − α)1/3 − t (CG3 model), and the apparent activation energy was 121.93 kJ·mol−1 (less than 150 kJ·mol−1), which means that the restrictive step of the polymetallic reaction is mainly determined by diffusion. Finally, thermodynamic calculations and characterizations show that CO2–containing gas injection helps titanium stabilize in a higher valence state, which is conducive to improve the high–temperature characteristics of titanium–containing slag. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the advantage in deactivating fluorine and enhancing the decomposition of rare earth (RE) minerals, MgO was applied to the magnetizing roasting of Bayan Obo tailings in this work. The effects of MgO dosages, roasting temperature, and holding time on the decomposition rate of RE minerals were experimentally studied. With a MgO dosage of 10 wt.%, the decomposition rate of RE minerals reached 98.09% at 750 °C. The phase composition of roasted samples was characterized by XRD and SEM-EDS. The incomplete decomposition rate was investigated with the observation of leaching residual by SEM-EDS. The decomposition kinetics of the RE minerals with the addition of MgO was analyzed with the Ginstling-Brundshtein model, where the reaction rate was controlled by chemical reaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The loss of permeability affects the reduction of the ferrous burden in the cohesive zone of a blast furnace (BF). Vanadia–titania magnetite (VTM) burden of various chemical compositions have different metallurgical properties. The reduction and softening-melting-dripping properties of different kinds of VTM were investigated. The results showed that the core of sinter or pellet is indirectly reduced to wustite and (Fe,Ti)Ox, and the periphery contains interlinked metallic iron and CaSiO3 in the cohesive zone. Wustite and (Fe,Ti)Ox are directly reduced in the melting-dripping zone. The aggregate (Fe, V, Cr) present in the non-dripping causes a loss of valuable components. With the increase in TiO2 content, the substrate phase of molten slag changes from melilite to titanaugite, and the mass of dripping decreases gradually. In addition, the permeability index S increased and the melting zone widened, which indicates that the increase in TiO2 content negatively affected the melting-dripping performance. The mass of the dripping is directly proportional to the pellet ratio. Considering the adverse effect of TiO2 on softening-melting-dripping properties, it is recommended that high TiO2 VTM is smelted while mixed with ordinary ores or with an increased pellet ratio in the burden structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a robust controller design of payload position control for an offshore crane facing disturbance and parametric uncertainties. The offshore operations with cranes while lifting and lowering a payload can be dangerous since safety and efficiency are affected by waves, wind and ocean currents. Such harsh sea conditions put the offshore crane and payload through unwanted disturbances and parametric uncertainties, which requires a robust control system to guarantee reliable performance of these systems. In this paper, we detail a controller designed based on uniformly ultimately bounded (UUB) theory, combined with the input-output linearization control technique (IOLC). The stability of the closed-loop system under the UUB conditions is analyzed using the energy-based Lyapunov function. To evaluate the control performance of the proposed controller, along with an IOLC and an integral sliding mode controller (ISMC), a comparison study is also conducted. The control performance and efficiency of the proposed controller are validated through experiments on an offshore crane model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acting as an interface between the grid and many energy systems, the active front-end (AFE) has been widely used in a large variety of industrial applications. In this paper, in order to ensure the fast dynamic performance and good disturbance rejection ability of the AFE, a high-gain observer (HGO) plus adaptive super-twisting algorithm (STA) for the three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converter is proposed. Comparing with the conventional PI control strategy, the proposed controller implements the adaptive STA in the voltage regulator to provide a faster transient response. The gains of the adaptive STA keep varying according to the rules being reduced in steady state but increasing in transient conditions. Therefore, the chattering phenomenon is mitigated and the dynamic response is guaranteed. Additionally, to undermine the impact of external disturbances on the dc-link voltage, a high-efficiency HGO is designed in the voltage regulation loop to reject it. Experimental results based on a three-level NPC prototype are given and compared with the conventional PI method to validate the fast dynamic performance and high disturbance rejection ability of the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three-level neutral-point-clamped (NPC) converter is widely used in energy conversion systems due to its good properties for high-power systems presenting output waveforms with reduced harmonic distortion. To obtain better system performance, an integral sliding-mode control (ISMC)-based direct power control (DPC) strategy is proposed for NPC converters. The controller achieves three objectives. First, an extended state observer (ESO)-based ISMC strategy, to enforce the active and reactive power to their reference values, is applied in the power tracking loop. ESO is used to reduce the influence of parameter uncertainties. Next, in the voltage regulation loop, a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN)-based adaptive ISMC strategy is applied to regulate the DC-link voltage. RBFNN is used to estimate the load variation, which is considered as a disturbance, to improve the system disturbance rejection ability. An adaptive law is used in the controller to reduce the chattering of reference active power which can reduce the current harmonic distortion. Finally, a proportional-integral (PI) control strategy is applied in the voltage balancing loop to achieve voltage balance between two DC-link capacitors. Experimental results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control strategy for the NPC power converter compared with PI-based DPC strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Highway Intelligent Space System (HISS) is proposed to study vehicle environment perception in this paper. The nature of HISS is that a space sensors system using laser, ultrasonic or radar sensors are installed in a highway environment and communication technology is used to realize the information exchange between the HISS server and vehicles, which provides vehicles with the surrounding road information. Considering the high-speed feature of vehicles on highways, when vehicles will be passing a road ahead that is prone to accidents, the vehicle driving state should be predicted to ensure drivers have road environment perception information in advance, thereby ensuring vehicle driving safety and stability. In order to verify the accuracy and feasibility of the HISS, a traditional vehicle-mounted sensor system for environment perception is used to obtain the relative driving state. Furthermore, an inter-vehicle dynamics model is built and model predictive control approach is used to predict the driving state in the following period. Finally, the simulation results shows that using the HISS for environment perception can arrive at the same results detected by a traditional vehicle-mounted sensors system. Meanwhile, we can further draw the conclusion that using HISS to realize vehicle environment perception can ensure system stability, thereby demonstrating the method's feasibility.