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Biomasses are known for their variety of ash systems, often accompanied by limiting effects such as fouling, sintering, slagging, agglomeration and corrosion, which affect thermochemical conversion processes (combustion, gasification, pyrolysis etc.). To explore those limiting effects, five different feedstocks from agricultural, woody, and post-processed biomasses are investigated after ashing in a temperature range between 200 and 815 °C. The ash composition and their specific distribution inside the particles are studied using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). Distinct differences are detected in the ashes from various biomasses, indicating that the ash systems can be homogeneous (mainly authigenic origin) or heterogeneous (with significant contributions of detrital/technogenic origin). Using X-ray diffraction (XRD), the formation and transformation of mineral phases are monitored in the ashes produced at various temperatures. The data are then compared to the results of thermochemical calculations. The experimental findings agree almost completely with those calculated using the FactSage™ software package. In connection with the identified mineral phases, the release behavior of the main alkali species, potassium, is monitored as a function of the ashing temperature. Based on these results indicating the ashes' mineral phase composition and their observed heterogeneity, the high-temperature behavior of the ash fusion temperatures (AFT) and ash fusion interval (AFI) between deformation and flow temperature can be ascertained. Finally, based on their ashing behavior, the biomasses’ potential use in thermochemical conversion processes at high temperatures is evaluated.

The cladding pumping within a double-clad fiber structure is an effective technique to convert high-power multimode beam into high-power, almost diffraction limited beam. Since the pump efficiency is limited by the presence of higher skew-ray modes, geometrical perturbations are used to scramble the modes and to achieve a higher overlap of the electromagnetic field with the doped core. In this paper, the combined effect of fiber coiling and twisting is investigated in the double-clad fiber structure with the octagonal shape of an inner cladding. Electromagnetic field propagation through fibers with different cross-section areas, bending radii and twisting rates is numerically simulated using finite element beam propagation method. Holmium-doped double-clad fiber pumped in tandem configuration at wavelength 1950 nm is selected as an example. Nontrivial dependence of pump absorption on bending radius with the presence of local maxima is revealed. The observed impact of fiber coiling and twisting increases with the size of the cross-section area of the inner cladding. © 2009-2012 IEEE.

Attenuation of electromagnetic waves in millimeter wave bands is analyzed by means of experimental measurement of received signal fluctuations on terrestrial radio links operating in frequency bands 58, 94 and 122 GHz. Long-term time series of the received signal are processed to obtain annual and two-year cumulative distributions of attenuation due to hydrometeors. The measured statistics give the attenuation higher than predicted by the model of the Recommendation ITU-R P.530. Rain intensity measured simultaneously with rain attenuation is used to obtain fitted parameters of an attenuation/intensity power-law relationship. The empirical data extracted from the experiment are compared with the results of numerical simulations of attenuation due to rain and hailstones.

Although practically all function blocks of the satellite navigation receivers are realized using the CMOS digital integrated circuits, it is appropriate to create a separate low noise antenna preamplifier based on a low noise pHEMT. Such an RF front end can be strongly optimized to attain a suitable tradeoff between the noise figure and transducer power gain. Further, as all the four principal navigation systems (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and COMPASS) work in similar frequency bands (roughly from 1.1 to 1.7 GHz), it is reasonable to create the low noise preamplifier for all of them. In the paper, a sophisticated method of the amplifier design is suggested based on multiobjective optimization. A substantial improvement of a standard optimization method is also outlined to satisfy a uniform coverage of Pareto front. Moreover, for enhancing efficiency of many times repeated solutions of large linear systems during the optimization, a new modification of the Markowitz criterion is suggested compatible with fast modes of the LU factorization. Extraordinary attention was also given to the accuracy of modeling. First, an extraction of pHEMT model parameters was performed including its noise part, and several models were compared. The extraction was carried out by an original identification procedure based on a combination of metaheuristic and direct methods. Second, the equations of the passive elements (including transmission lines and T-splitters) were carefully defined using frequency dispersion of their parameters as Q, ESR, etc. Third, an optimal selection of the operating point and essential passive elements was performed using the improved optimization method. Finally, the s-parameters and noise figure of the amplifier were measured, and stability and third-order intermodulation products were also checked.

This work presents the results of a terrestrial multiple-receiver radio link experiment at 10.7 GHz. Results are shown in the form of the power levels recorded at several antennas attached to a receiving mast. Comparisons of the measurement data with theoretical predictions using a parabolic equation technique show that, due to the complex propagation environment of the troposphere in terms of the refractive index of air, closer agreement between measurements and simulations can be achieved during periods of standard refractive conditions.