ALBERT

Description: This paper presents a systematic pioneering study on the use of agricultural-purpose frequency domain reflectometry (FDR) sensors to monitor temperature and moisture of a subgrade in highway extension and reconstruction engineering. The principle of agricultural-purpose FDR sensors and the process for embedding this kind of sensors for subgrade engineering purposes are introduced. Based on field measured weather data, a numerical analysis model for temperature and moisture content in the subgrade’s soil is built. Comparisons of the temperature and moisture data obtained from numerical simulation and FDR-based measurements are conducted. The results show that: (1) the embedding method and process, data acquisition, and remote transmission presented are reasonable; (2) the temperature and moisture changes are coordinated with the atmospheric environment and they are also in close agreement with numerical calculations; (3) the change laws of both are consistent at positions where the subgrade is compacted uniformly. These results suggest that the data measured by the agricultural-purpose FDR sensors are reliable. The findings of this paper enable a new and effective real-time monitoring method for a subgrade’s temperature and moisture changes, and thus broaden the application of agricultural-purpose FDR sensors.

Description: The stability of topological close-packed (TCP) phases were found to be well related to the average value of the d-orbital energy level () for most reported high entropy alloys (HEAs). Excluding some HEAs that contain high levels of the elements aluminum and vanadium, the results of this study indicated that the TCP phases form at  > 1.09. This criterion, as a semi-empirical method, can play a key role in designing and preparing HEAs with high amounts of transitional elements.

Description: This study explores the relationships between environmental factors and the distribution of epilithic diatoms in 161 estuaries of three coastal areas on the Korean peninsula. We investigated epilithic diatoms, water quality, and land use in the vicinities of the estuaries during the months of May 2012, 2013 and 2014, because Korea is relatively free from the influences of rainfall at that time of year. We recorded 327 diatom taxa from the study sites, and the assemblage was dominated by members of the Naviculaceae. Bacillariaceae accounted for the largest proportion of diatoms, and Nitzschia inconspicua (18%) and N. frustulum (9.6%) were the most dominant species. A cluster analysis based on epilithic diatom abundance suggested that the epilithic diatom communities of Korean estuaries can be classified into four large groups (G) according to geography, as follows: Ia—the East Sea watershed, Ib—the eastern watershed of the South Sea, IIa—the West Sea watershed, and IIb—the western watershed of the South Sea. The former two groups, Ia and Ib, showed higher proportions of forest land cover and use, higher species occurrence, lower salinity, lower turbidity, and lower concentrations of nutrients than the latter two groups, while the latter groups, IIa and IIb, had higher proportions of agricultural land cover and use, higher electrical conductivity, higher turbidity, higher concentrations of nutrients, and lower species occurrence. The environmental factors underlying the distribution of epilithic diatoms, representative of each region, are as follows: dissolved oxygen and forest land cover and use for Reimeria sinuate and Rhoicosphenia abbreviate of the East Sea (ES), salinity and turbidity for Tabularia fasciculate of the West Sea (WS), and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and nutrients for Cyclotella meneghiniana of the WS. On the other hand, the most influential environmental factors affecting the occurrence of indicator species showing the highest indicator values (>60%) of each group were electrical conductivity for Navicula saprophila and Reimeria sinuate of Ia, and turbidity for Encyonema minutum of IIa. Collectively, the distribution of epilithic diatom communities inhabiting Korean estuaries are determined by geographical factors and water quality, which are in turn influenced by land cover and use, and which differ from east to west.

Description: With regard to the size of China’s freshwater lakes, Taihu Lake ranks third and it plays an important role in the supply of drinking water, flood prevention, farming and navigation, as well as in the travelling industry. The problem of environmental pollution has attracted widespread attention in recent years. In order to understand the levels, distribution and sources of heavy metals in sediments of Taihu Lake, random selection was carried out to obtain 59 samples of surface sediment from the entire lake and study the concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Cr and Ni. Toxic units were also calculated to normalize the toxicities caused by various heavy metals. As a result, Cd and Cu in sediment were considered lower than the effect range low (ERL) at all regions where samples were gathered, while Pb and Ni were categorized into ERL-effect range median (ERM) at over 22% of the regions where samples were obtained. Nevertheless, all average concentrations of the samples were below the level of potential effect. According to the findings of this research, significant spatial heterogeneity existed in the above heavy metals. In conclusion, the distribution areas of heavy metals with higher concentrations were mainly the north bays, namely Zhushan Bay, Meiliang Bay as well as Gonghu Bay. The distribution areas of Cu, Zn, Cr and Ni with higher concentration also included the lake’s central region, whereas the uniform distribution areas of those with lower concentrations were the lake’s southeast region. In addition, it was most probable that the spatial distribution of heavy metals was determined by river inputs, whereas atmospheric precipitation caused by urban and traffic contamination also exerted considerable effects on the higher concentrations of Pb and Cd. Through evaluating the total amount of toxic units (ΣTU), it was found that higher toxicity existed primarily in the north bays and central region of the lake. If the heavy metals were sorted by the reduction of mean heavy metal toxic units in Taihu Lake in descending order, it would be Pb, Cr, Ni, Cd, Zn and Cu. Generally speaking, these result of analyses are conducive to alleviating the contamination of heavy metals in Taihu Lake.

Description: Continuous and uniform carbon nanofilms (CNFs) are prepared by pyrolysis of polyimide films which are produced by molecular layer deposition (MLD). The film thickness can be easily controlled at nanometer scale by altering the cycle numbers. During the annealing process at 600 °C, the polyimide film is subject to shrinkage of 70% in thickness. The obtained CNFs do not exhibit a well-graphitized structure due to the low calcination temperature. No clear pore structures are observed in the produced films. CNFs grown on a glass substrate with a thickness of about 1.4 nm shows almost 98% optical transmittance in the visible spectrum range. Au nanoparticles coated with CNFs are produced by this method. Carbon nanotubes with uniform wall thickness are obtained using anodic aluminum oxide as a template by depositing polyimide films into its pores. Our results demonstrate that this method is very effective to coat conformal and uniform CNFs on various substrates, such as nanoparticles and porous templates, to produce functional composite nanomaterials.

Description: Airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) has become a powerful support for acquiring geospatial data in numerous geospatial applications and analyses. However, the process of extracting ground points accurately and effectively from raw point clouds remains a big challenge. This study presents an improved top-hat filter with a sloped brim to enhance the robustness of ground point extraction for complex objects and terrains. The top-hat transformation is executed and the elevation change intensity of the transitions between the obtained top-hats and outer brims is inspected to suppress the omission error caused by protruding terrain features. Finally, the nonground objects of complex structures, such as multilayer buildings, are identified by the brim filter that is extended outward. The performance of the proposed filter in various environments is evaluated using diverse datasets with difficult cases. The comparison of the proposed filter with the commercial software Terrasolid TerraScan and other popular filtering algorithms demonstrates the applicability and effectiveness of this filter. Experimental results show that the proposed filter has great promise in terms of its application in various types of landscapes. Abrupt terrain features with dramatic elevation changes are well preserved, and diverse objects with complicated shapes are effectively removed. This filter has minimal omission and commission error oscillation for different test areas and thus demonstrates a stable and reliable performance in diverse landscapes. In addition, the proposed algorithm has high computational efficiency because of its simple and efficient data structure and implementation.

Description: This paper proposed an efficient phase-locked loop (PLL) that features zero steady-state error of phase and frequency under voltage sag, phase jump, harmonics, DC offsets and step-and ramp-changed frequency. The PLL includes the sliding Goertzel discrete Fourier transform (SGDFT) filter-based fundamental positive sequence component separator (FPSCS), the synchronousreference-frame PLL (SRF-PLL) and the secondary control path (SCP). In order to obtain an accurate fundamental positive sequence component, SGDFT filter is introduced as it features better filtering ability at the frequencies that are integer times of fundamental frequency. Meanwhile, the second order Lagrange-interpolation method is employed to approximate the actual sampling number including both integer and fractional parts as grid frequency may deviate from the rated value. Moreover, an improved SCP with single-step comparison filtering algorithm is employed as it updates reference angular frequency according to the FPSC, which promises a zero steady-state error of phase and improves the frequency tracking speed. In this paper, the mathematical model of the proposed PLL is constructed, its stability is analyzed. Also, design procedure of the control parameters is presented. The effectiveness of the proposed PLL is confirmed by experimental results and comparison with advanced pre-filtering PLLs.

Description: In this paper, an optimal energy management strategy for a cooperative multi-microgrid system with combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) is proposed and has been verified for a test case of building microgrids (BMGs). Three different demand types of buildings are considered and the BMGs are assumed to be equipped with their own combined heat and power (CHP) generators. In addition, the BMGs are also connected to an external energy network (EEN), which contains a large CHP, an adsorption chiller (ADC), a thermal storage tank, and an electric heat pump (EHP). By trading the excess electricity and heat energy with the utility grid and EEN, each BMG can fulfill its energy demands. Seasonal energy demand variations have been evaluated by selecting a representative day for the two extreme seasons (summer and winter) of the year, among the real profiles of year-round data on electricity, heating, and cooling usage of all the three selected buildings. Especially, the thermal energy management aspect is emphasized where, bi-lateral heat trading between the energy supplier and the consumers, so-called energy prosumer concept, has been realized. An optimization model based on mixed integer linear programming has been developed for minimizing the daily operation cost of the EEN while fulfilling the energy demands of the BMGs. Simulation results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.

Description: Materials, Vol. 11, Pages 805: Tensile Property of ANSI 304 Stainless Steel Weldments Subjected to Cavitation Erosion Based on Treatment of Laser Shock Processing Materials doi: 10.3390/ma11050805 Authors: Lei Zhang Yue-Hua Liu Kai-Yu Luo Yong-Kang Zhang Yong Zhao Jian-Yun Huang Xu-Dong Wu Chuang Zhou Tensile property was one important index of mechanical properties of ANSI 304 stainless steel laser weldments subjected to cavitation erosion (CE). Laser shock processing (LSP) was utilized to strengthen the CE resistance, and the tensile property and fracture morphology were analyzed through three replicated experiment times. Results showed tensile process of treated weldments was composed of elastic deformation, plastic deformation, and fracture. The elastic limit, elastic modulus, elongation, area reduction, and ultimate tensile strength of tensile sample after CE were higher in view of LSP. In the fracture surface, the fiber zone, radiation zone and shear lip zone were generated, and those were more obvious through LSP. The number and size of pores in the fracture surface were smaller, and the fracture surface was smoother and more uniform. The dimples were elongated along the unified direction due to effects of LSP, and the elongated direction was in agreement with the crack propagation direction. Their distribution and shape were uniform with deeper depth. It could be reflected that the tensile property was improved by LSP and the CE resistance was also enhanced.

Description: Sustainability, Vol. 10, Pages 1358: Implementation of Cooperation for Recycling Vehicle Routing Optimization in Two-Echelon Reverse Logistics Networks Sustainability doi: 10.3390/su10051358 Authors: Yong Wang Shouguo Peng Kevin Assogba Yong Liu Haizhong Wang Maozeng Xu Yinhai Wang The formation of a cooperative alliance is an effective means of approaching the vehicle routing optimization in two-echelon reverse logistics networks. Cooperative mechanisms can contribute to avoiding the inefficient assignment of resources for the recycling logistics operations and reducing long distance transportation. With regard to the relatively low performance of waste collection, this paper proposes a three-phase methodology to properly address the corresponding vehicle routing problem on two echelons. First, a bi-objective programming model is established to minimize the total cost and the number of vehicles considering semitrailers and vehicles sharing. Furthermore, the Clarke–Wright (CW) savings method and the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II) are combined to design a hybrid routing optimization heuristic, which is denoted CW_NSGA-II. Routes on the first and second echelons are obtained on the basis of sub-optimal solutions provided by CW algorithm. Compared to other intelligent algorithms, CW_NSGA-II reduces the complexity of the multi-objective solutions search and mostly converges to optimality. The profit generated by cooperation among retail stores and the recycling hub in the reverse logistics network is fairly and reasonably distributed to the participants by applying the Minimum Costs-Remaining Savings (MCRS) method. Finally, an empirical study in Chengdu City, China, reveals the superiority of CW_NSGA over the multi-objective particle swarm optimization and the multi objective genetic algorithms in terms of solutions quality and convergence. Meanwhile, the comparison of MCRS method with the Shapley value model, equal profit method and cost gap allocation proves that MCRS method is more conducive to the stability of the cooperative alliance. In general, the implementation of cooperation in the optimization of the reverse logistics network effectively leads to the sustainable development of urban and sub-urban areas. Through the reasonable reorganization of the entire network, recycling companies can provide more reliable services, contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution, and guarantee significant profits. Thus, this paper provides manufacturing companies, logistics operators and local governments with tools to protect the environment, while still making profits.