Ultra-short pulsed laser welded-and-cut glass support pillars for vacuum insulating glass

Vacuum insulating glass (VIG) has demonstrated competitive Ug-values (heat transfer coefficients) which show promise to further reduce energy consumption from buildings. Support pillars are an essential part of the design as they support the glass panes which would otherwise deform, and potentially collapse, under the pressure differential between the internal vacuum and the external atmosphere, however they act as small thermal bridges which contribute to heat transfer through the panes. The main cause for this is their high thermal conductivity as they are made out of metal. The use of glass support pillars would improve the Ug-value by 10–20% depending on the pillar size and pillar separation. Additionally, a directly bonded glass pillar, made from the same material as the glass panes, without the need for any adhesives, would improve recycling and visual appearance. We demonstrate a new technique for manufacturing glass support pillars using laser welding to bond, and laser cutting to shape the pillar to the substrate glass. We show that these pillars are able to withstand the expected atmospheric compressive force related to a pillar separation of 20 mm with promise for future research

An overview of the full-chain key technical features in offshore geological carbon sequestration

Geological carbon sequestration (GCS) offers a promising approach to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and supporting global carbon neutrality goals. Offshore GCS, which leverages subsea geological formations, provides advantages over onshore options in terms of storage capacity, public acceptance, and minimized environmental risks to populated regions, making it a socially, economically, and environmentally viable pillar of global Carbon Capture and Storage strategies. This approach involves injecting captured CO2 into subsea formations through wells, where it can be securely trapped via structural, residual, solubility, and mineral mechanisms over geological timescales. Successful deployment requires addressing the full GCS chain, including site selection, subsurface characterization, and engineering aspects such as platform construction, operational reliability, and risk monitoring. Despite its potential and growing attention, key technical challenges remain insufficiently addressed. This study aims to fill this gap by systematically reviewing essential geoscience and engineering elements of offshore GCS. It examines site selection, trapping efficiency, and operational issues, and provides a detailed evaluation of current and planned offshore GCS projects, with a tabulated dataset to support reference and comparison. The findings highlight research priorities and support the advancement of offshore GCS technologies toward safe and effective implementation

BladeView:Toward Automatic Wind Turbine Inspection with Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

This paper presents a fully automatic method, BladeView, for drone-based wind turbine blade inspection using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). With the need for highly efficient blade inspection coupled with the rapid increase of wind turbines, existing methods provide limited automation on wind turbine parameter estimation, full blade coverage, and safety control. We introduce an Automatic Parameter Calculation (APC) algorithm and an Automatic Flight System (AFS) in BladeView to compute wind turbine parameters and inspection paths, respectively. Leveraging triangulation and linear fitting integration techniques, the APC automatically calculates the wind turbine parameters and estimates the relative angle and position between a drone and the turbine. Furthermore, with dynamic path finding and B-spline optimization, the AFS plans a path covering 3 blades within specified flight corridors, in compliance with the turbine parameters obtained from APC. Thus, the proposed BladeView can properly ensure an inspection's automation, coverage, safety, and smoothness. The efficiency and usability of BladeView are validated through 100,000 flight simulations in the Gazebo simulation environment and 9,239 field runs at various wind farms, including offshore, near-shore, deserts, mountainous areas, farmlands, and suburbs. Note to Practitioners - The proposed BladeView is distinguished in three aspects: (1) It automatically adapts wind turbines with varying geometric properties and physical locations relative to the take-off point. (2) It dramatically improves the quality of collected data with optimal UAV speed and flight corridors. (3) It thoroughly covers all three blades of a Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT), including regions where defects frequently occur. Thus, BladeView is more efficient and robust than existing UAV-based methods for blade inspection, with only around 25 minutes per HAWT. Moreover, it does not require experienced pilots to fly the UAV and manual interventions are rarely needed. Extensive simulation and real-world experiments demonstrate the efficiency and usability of BladeView in various on-and offshore wind farms.</p

From MHz to mmWaves: A Review of Application-Driven UK-Based Wireless Power Research

The deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) has driven research in sustainable battery alternatives, including energy harvesting and wireless power solutions [1], [2], [3], [4], [5]. Wireless power transfer (WPT) and harvesting, ranging from near-field to short-range and km-range far-field solutions, have been extensively studied, with applications ranging from biomedical systems to pervasive ambient environmental monitoring. In this article, we review the recent contributions over the last decade, with a focus on R&amp;D activities carried out in the United Kingdom. Key contributions in the field of WPT were demonstrated by U.K.-based teams, including the first large-scale ambient power surveys, through high-sensitivity and -efficiency millimeter-wave (mmWave) and simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) rectennas to near-field high-power systems and power electronics and applications in soft, wearable, and flexible electronics. Future research directions and challenges are also identified by a diverse range of active WPT research groups

Atmospheric wind effects on depressurization for indoor asbestos pollution containment: experimental analysis and a ventilation network model validation

Hazardous pollutant containment zones in buildings should be depressurized by a dedicated mechanical ventilation system to prevent pollutants from escaping from the indoor to the outdoor atmosphere. Depressurization can be affected by atmospheric wind conditions, which can cause a momentary breach. The goal of this study is to analyze the effect of wind velocity and direction on depressurization and potential containment breaches and to validate a ventilation network model for indoor pressure and breach prediction. Wind-tunnel (WT) tests are performed on a reduced-scale isolated building model equipped with a properly downscaled mechanical ventilation system. The time series of the external pressures (pe ) on the building surfaces and the indoor pressure (pi ) are measured simultaneously. As an alternative approach, a ventilation network model is designed that uses the pe data from the WT tests to determine pi . The network model is then validated by comparing the pi and breach occurrence results by the WT tests versus those by the network model. It is shown that although negative pi can be maintained continuously, containment breaches occur locally where and when pe exceeds pi . The breach probability depends strongly on both wind speed and direction. The network model is successfully validated, where the deviation in breach prediction by the network model is less than 10% compared to the results from WT data alone. The results also show that a -20 Pa depressurization may not be sufficient to avoid a containment breach, which stresses the importance of this and future research on this topic

Global and microlocal aspects of Dirac operators: Propagators and Hadamard states

We propose a geometric approach to construct the Cauchy evolution operator for the Lorentzian Dirac operator on Cauchy-compact globally hyperbolic 4-manifolds. We realize the Cauchy evolution operator as the sum of two invariantly defined oscillatory integrals—the positive and negative Dirac propagators—global in space and in time, with distinguished complex-valued geometric phase functions. As applications, we relate the Cauchy evolution operators with the Feynman propagator and construct Cauchy surfaces covariances of quasifree Hadamard states

Stabilise Power Grid Systems from Fluctuating Renewable Energy Sources Production with Artificial Immune System

The deployment of renewable energy sources (RES) such as wind turbines and solar panels is increasingly widespread, as the world approaches a pivotal moment in transitioning from fossil fuels to sustainable energy. However, the integration of RES into power grids poses challenges due to their inherent variability and unpredictability in electricity production, spanning from weekly to daily fluctuations. Maintaining a stable voltage to ensure grid reliability becomes problematic under such circumstances. To address this issue, the use of artificial immune system (AIS) is proposed for optimising and stabilising electricity networks. In this approach, anomalies in RES voltage are treated as pathogens, which the AIS algorithm addresses by adjusting the network's voltage configuration. Using Python and the pyPSA package, an electricity network model with fixed consumption nodes and RES production nodes is simulated, based on the IEEE 9-bus architecture. The objective is to replicate discontinuities in RES production and apply the AIS algorithm to stabilise the power grid. This study aims to contribute to the development of a novel methodology for optimising electricity networks using AIS

Experimental insights into synergestic SiO₂ nanoparticle/welan gum: the role of surface interaction in improving oil recovery

This study explored the synergistic interaction of SiO2 NPs and Welan gum for offshore application. Interaction characteristics, rheological behavior, Fluid-rock interaction and oil displacement were evaluated. FTIR, SEM and H-NMR were employed to characterize the SiO2-Welan gum solution. The results showed that SiO2 interacts with Welan gum through chemical bonds and possible hydrogen bonds due to hydroxyl group formation, increasing polymer roughness and causing network disruption. The incorporation of SiO2 NPs into welan gum resulted in a viscosity enhancement of up to 50% at 1.5 wt% salinity, demonstrating significant stability improvement. SiO2 NPs contribute to the thermal resistance of the polymer at elevated temperatures. Their synergistic effect was to mitigate salinity-induced viscosity reduction, maintaining fluid consistency more effectively than in the absence of nanoparticles. With SiO2, the adsorption between polymer and limestone decreased over time, showing an average reduction of 19%. The adsorption was homogeneous and was best described by the Langmuir isotherm model. The oil recovery improved by 15% more efficiently than the welan gum alone. The study suggests that SiO2 interacts with Welan gum in the ionic solution creating a three-dimensional network that resists conformational collapse and controls the polymer diffusion in limestone porous media

‘Just interpret’: Problematising demands and controls for effective interprofessional working in statutory mental health assessments

This article explores the lived experience of signed and spoken language interpreters in the context of Mental Health Act (1983) assessments (MHAAs) in England, based principally on data from 10 interviews from a wider corpus of the Interpreters for Mental Health Act assessments (INforMHAA) study (2021–2024). Informed by Braun and Clarke’s (2022) reflexive thematic analysis and Dean and Pollard’s (2001) Demand Control Schema, the present study investigated the interpersonal demands arising in interpreted MHAAs and the way in which controls are articulated and navigated interprofessionally. The findings reveal adjustments to their practice among a group of experienced interpreters in order to accommodate the interpersonal demands specific to MHAAs, the frames of reference that motivate such adjustments and the extent to which they are consistent with the objectives and practices of assessments under the Mental Health Act 1983. In particular, they help to problematise the principle of the ‘person at the centre’ when language mediation is required and support targeted interventions to enhance interprofessional working prior to, during and after assessments

Consumer Perception and Adoption of a Circular Chemical Economy

This study highlights the critical role of consumer behaviour in advancing the UK's transition to a Circular Chemical Economy (CCE), a sector heavily reliant on fossil fuels and a major contributor to CO2 emissions. While most existing studies focus on the technological and economic viability of a CCE, we explore the less examined dimension of consumer perceptions and behavioural responses to circular products and recycling practices. By leveraging the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), we analyse unique survey data from 2,418 UK participants. The findings reveal that consumer attitude, and societal impact significantly influence consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for circular products, while perceived behavioural control emerges as the most influential factor in their willingness to recycle (WTR). These insights are vital for policymakers and industry stakeholders aiming to stimulate behavioural change. The study offers several recommendations, including enhancing awareness and understanding of CCE products and recycling practices, fostering collaboration and partnerships, promoting the use of clear and standardised labelling, and designing effective incentives. Although our results are based on extensive UK-based data, they offer valuable insights for countries with similar socio-economic characteristics.</p