Indirectly or externally fired gas turbines (IFGT or EFGT) are interesting technologies under development for small and medium scale combined heat and power (CHP) supplies in combination with micro gas turbine technologies. The emphasis is primarily on the utilization of the waste heat from the turbine in a recuperative process and the possibility of burning biomass even "dirty" fuel by employing a high temperature heat exchanger (HTHE) to avoid the combustion gases passing through the turbine. In this paper, finite time thermodynamics is employed in the performance analysis of a class of irreversible closed IFGT cycles coupled to variable temperature heat reservoirs. Based on the derived analytical formulae for the dimensionless power output and efficiency, the efficiency optimization is performed in two aspects. The first is to search the optimum heat conductance distribution corresponding to the efficiency optimization among the hot- and cold-side of the heat reservoirs and the high temperature heat exchangers for a fixed total heat exchanger inventory. The second is to search the optimum thermal capacitance rate matching corresponding to the maximum efficiency between the working fluid and the high-temperature heat reservoir for a fixed ratio of the thermal capacitance rates of the two heat reservoirs. The influences of some design parameters on the optimum heat conductance distribution, the optimum thermal capacitance rate matching and the maximum power output, which include the inlet temperature ratio of the two heat reservoirs, the efficiencies of the compressor and the gas turbine, and the total pressure recovery coefficient, are provided by numerical examples. The power plant configuration under optimized operation condition leads to a smaller size, including the compressor, turbine, two heat reservoirs and the HTHE.

In order to recover the low grade waste heat and increase system fuel economy for main engine 10S90ME-C9.2-TII(part load, exhaust gas bypass) installed on a 10000 TEU container ship, a non-cogeneration and single-pressure type of waste heat recovery system based on organic Rankine cycle is proposed. Organic compound candidates appropriate to the system are analyzed and selected. Thermodynamic model of the whole system and thermoeconomic optimization are performed. The saturated organic compound vapor mass flow rate, net electric power output, pinch point, thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency varied with different evaporating temperature are thermodynamically analyzed. The results of thermodynamic and thermoeconomic optimization indicate that the most appropriate organic compound candidate is R141b due to its highest exergy efficiency, biggest unit cost benefit and shortest payback time.

An LLCL-filter is becoming more attractive than an LCL-filter as the interface between the grid-tied inverter and the grid due to possibility of reducing the copper and the magnetic materials. The efficiency of the LLCL-filter based single-phase grid-tied inverter also excites interests for many applications. The operation of the switches of the VSI is various with different modulation methods, which lead to different efficiencies for such a single-phase grid-tied inverter system, and therefore important research has been carried out on the effect of the choice of PWM schemes. Then power losses and efficiencies of the LLCL-filter and the LCL-filter based single-phase grid-tied inverters are analyzed and compared under the discontinuous unipolar, the dual-buck and the bipolar modulations. Results show that the efficiency of LLCL-filter based inverter system is higher than the LCL- filter based independent on the modulation method adopted. Experiments on a 2 kW prototype are in good agreement with results of the theoretical analysis.

The central theme of this work was to analyze high aspect ratio structure having structural nonlinearity in low subsonic flow and to model nonlinear stiffness by finite element-modal approach. Total stiffness of high aspect ratio wing can be decomposed to linear and nonlinear stiffnesses. Linear stiffness is modeled by its eigenvalues and eigenvectors, while nonlinear stiffness is calculated by the method of combined Finite Element-Modal approach. The nonlinear modal stiffness is calculated by defining nonlinear static load cases first. The nonlinear stiffness in the present work is modeled in two ways, i.e., based on bending modes only and based on bending and torsion modes both. Doublet lattice method (DLM) is used for dynamic analysis which accounts for the dependency of aerodynamic forces and moments on the frequency content of dynamic motion. Minimum state rational fraction approximation (RFA) of the aerodynamic influence coefficient (AIC) matrix is used to formulate full aeroelastic state-space time domain equation. Time domain dynamics analyses show that structure behavior becomes exponentially growing at speed above the flutter speed when linear stiffness is considered, however, Limit Cycle Oscillations (LCO) is observed when linear stiffness along with nonlinear stiffness, modeled by FE-Modal approach is considered. The amplitude of LCO increases with the increase in the speed. This method is based on cantilevered configuration. Nonlinear static tests are generated while wing root chord is fixed in all degrees of freedom and it needs modification if one requires considering full aircraft. It uses dedicated commercial finite element package in conjunction with commercial aeroelastic package making the method very attractive for quick nonlinear aeroelastic analysis. It is the extension of M.Y. Harmin and J.E. Cooper method in which they used the same equations of motion and modeled geometrical nonlinearity in bending modes only. In the current work, geometrical nonlinearities in bending and in torsion modes have been considered.

In this paper, a new lifting wavelet domain audio watermarking algorithm based on the statistical characteristics of sub-band coefficients is proposed. First of all, an original audio signal was segmented and each segment was divided into two sections. Then, the Barker code was used for synchronization, the LWT (lifting wavelet transform) was performed on each section, a synchronization code and a watermark were embedded into the first section and the second section, respectively, by modifying the statistical average value of the sub-band coefficients. The embed strength was determined adaptively according to the auditory masking property. Experiments show that the embedded watermark has better robustness against common signal processing attacks than present algorithms based on LWT and can resist random cropping in particular.

This paper proposes a speech enhancement method using the multi-scales and multi-thresholds of the auditory perception wavelet transform, which is suitable for a low SNR (signal to noise ratio) environment. This method achieves the goal of noise reduction according to the threshold processing of the human ear's auditory masking effect on the auditory perception wavelet transform parameters of a speech signal. At the same time, in order to prevent high frequency loss during the process of noise suppression, we first make a voicing decision based on the speech signals. Afterwards, we process the unvoiced sound segment and the voiced sound segment according to the different thresholds and different judgments. Lastly, we perform objective and subjective tests on the enhanced speech. The results show that, compared to other spectral subtractions, our method keeps the components of unvoiced sound intact, while it suppresses the residual noise and the background noise. Thus, the enhanced speech has better clarity and intelligibility.

In order to enhance the acoustical performance of a traditional straight-path automobile muffler, a multi-chamber muffler having reverse paths is presented. Here, the muffler is composed of two internally parallel/extended tubes and one internally extended outlet. In addition, to prevent noise transmission from the muffler’s casing, the muffler’s shell is also lined with sound absorbing material. Because the geometry of an automotive muffler is complicated, using an analytic method to predict a muffler’s acoustical performance is difficult; therefore, COMSOL, a finite element analysis software, is adopted to estimate the automotive muffler’s sound transmission loss. However, optimizing the shape of a complicated muffler using an optimizer linked to the Finite Element Method (FEM) is time-consuming. Therefore, in order to facilitate the muffler’s optimization, a simplified mathematical model used as an objective function (or fitness function) during the optimization process is presented. Here, the objective function can be established by using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) in conjunction with the muffler’s design parameters and related TLs (simulated by FEM). With this, the muffler’s optimization can proceed by linking the objective function to an optimizer, a Genetic Algorithm (GA). Consequently, the discharged muffler which is optimally shaped will improve the automotive exhaust noise.

The influence and the potential risk due to hidden faults of a relay protection system on power supply in distribution systems are paid more and more attention to. A probability analysis method is used to analyse fault characteristics and action mechanism of dominant faults, hidden misoperation and non-operation of the relay protection systems, and failure probability model of relay protection system is constructed and simplified. The effects of dominant faults, hidden misoperation and non-operation of the relay protection systems on the reduced power supply load power are analysed, and a probabilistic model for reduced power supply load power is constructed by three parts corresponding to dominant faults, hidden misoperation and non-operation. A probability calculation method of power supply risk occurrence due to hidden faults of relay protecttion system is proposed considering the fault probability of the relay protection systems, the frequency of the hidden faults occurring in operation period, the reduced power supply load power or load power outage, and the connection mode of the in-lines, out-lines and transformers in a substation. The feasibility and applicability of the proposed method for estimation of risk value probability of the relay protection systems is verified by two studied examples.

The main work of this paper focuses on the simulation of binary alloy solidification using the phase field model and adaptive octree grids.

Ni-Cu binary alloy is used as an example in this paper to do research on the numerical simulation of isothermal solidification of binary

alloy. Firstly, the WBM model, numerical issues and adaptive octree grids have been explained. Secondary, the numerical simulation

results of three dimensional morphology of the equiaxed grain and concentration variations are given, taking the efficiency advantage of

the adaptive octree grids. The microsegregation of binary alloy has been analysed emphatically. Then, numerical simulation results of the

influence of thermo-physical parameters on the growth of the equiaxed grain are also given. At last, a simulation experiment of large scale

and long-time has been carried out. It is found that increases of initial temperature and initial concentration will make grain grow along

certain directions and adaptive octree grids can effectively be used in simulations of microstructure.

Investigation of the tensile and fatigue properties of cast magnesium alloys, created by the heated mold continuous casting process (HMC),

was conducted. The mechanical properties of the Mg-HMC alloys were overall higher than those for the Mg alloys, made by the

conventional gravity casting process (GC), and especially excellent mechanical properties were obtained for the Mg97Y2Zn1

-HMC alloy.

This was because of the fine-grained structure composed of the -Mg phases with the interdendritic LPSO phase. Such mechanical

properties were similar levels to those for conventional cast aluminum alloy (Al84.7Si10.5Cu2.5Fe1.3Zn1 alloys: ADC12), made by the GC

process. Moreover, the tensile properties (UTS and f

) and fatigue properties of the Mg97Y2Zn1

-HMC alloy were about 1.5 times higher

than that for the commercial Mg90Al9Zn1

-GC alloy (AZ91). The high correlation rate between tensile properties and fatigue strength

(endurance limit: l

) was obtained. With newly proposed etching technique, the residual stress in the Mg97Y2Zn1 alloy could be revealed,

and it appeared that the high internal stress was severely accumulated in and around the long-period stacking-order phases (LPSO). This

was made during the solidification process due to the different shrinkage rate between α-Mg and LPSO. In this etching technique, microcracks

were observed on the sample surface, and amount of micro-cracks (density) could be a parameter to determine the severity of the

internal stress, i.e., a large amount to micro-cracks is caused by the high internal stress.