2,400 research outputs found

    Performance of Magnetic-Superconductor Non-Contact Harmonic Drive for Cryogenic Space Applications

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    Harmonic drives are profusely used in aerospace mainly because of their compactness and large reduction ratio. However, their use in cryogenic environments is still a challenge. Lubrication and fatigue are non-trivial issues under these conditions. The objective of the Magnetic-Superconductor Cryogenic Non-contact Harmonic Drive (MAGDRIVE) project, funded by the EU Space FP7, is to design, build, and test a new concept of MAGDRIVE. Non-contact interactions among magnets, soft magnetic materials, and superconductors are efficiently used to provide a high reduction ratio gear that smoothly and naturally operates at cryogenic environments. The limiting elements of conventional harmonic drives (teeth, flexspline, and ball bearings) are substituted by contactless mechanical components (magnetic gear and superconducting magnetic bearings). The absence of contact between moving parts prevents wear, lubricants are no longer required, and the operational lifetime is greatly increased. This is the first mechanical reducer in mechanical engineering history without any contact between moving parts. In this paper, the test results of a −1:20 inverse reduction ratio MAGDRIVE prototype are reported. In these tests, successful operation at 40 K and 10−3 Pa was demonstrated for more than 1.5 million input cycles. A maximum torque of 3 N·m and an efficiency of 80% were demonstrated. The maximum tested input speed was 3000 rpm, six times the previous existing record for harmonic drives at cryogenic temperature

    Design and experimental characterization of a novel passive magnetic levitating platform

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    This work proposes a novel contactless vibration damping and thermal isolation tripod platform based on Superconducting Magnetic Levitation (SML). This prototype is suitable for cryogenic environments, where classical passive, semi active and active vibration isolation techniques may present tribological problems due to the low temperatures and/or cannot guarantee an enough thermal isolation. The levitating platform consists of a Superconducting Magnetic Levitation (SML) with inherent passive static stabilization. In addition, the use of Operational Modal Analysis (OMA) technique is proposed to characterize the transmissibility function from the baseplate to the platform. The OMA is based on the Stochastic Subspace Identification (SSI) by using the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm. This paper contributes to the use of SSI-EM for SML applications by proposing a step-by-step experimental methodology to process the measured data, which are obtained with different unknown excitations: ambient excitation and impulse excitation. Thus, the performance of SSI-EM for SML applications can be improved, providing a good estimation of the natural frequency and damping ratio without any controlled excitation, which is the main obstacle to use an experimental modal analysis in cryogenic environments. The dynamic response of the 510 g levitating platform has been characterized by means of OMA in a cryogenic, 77 K, and high vacuum, 1E-5 mbar, environment. The measured vertical and radial stiffness are 9872.4 N/m and 21329 N/m, respectively, whilst the measured vertical and radial damping values are 0.5278 Nm/s and 0.8938 Nm/s. The first natural frequency in vertical direction has been identified to be 27.39 Hz, whilst a value of 40.26 Hz was identified for the radial direction. The determined damping values for both modes are 0.46% and 0.53%, respectively.Ministerio de Economía y Competitivida

    Cryogenic probe station for on-wafer characterization of electrical devices

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    A probe station, suitable for the electrical characterization of integrated circuits at cryogenic temperatures is presented. The unique design incorporates all moving components inside the cryostat at room temperature, greatly simplifying the design and allowing automated step and repeat testing. The system can characterize wafers up to 100 mm in diameter, at temperatures <20 K. It is capable of highly repeatable measurements at millimeter-wave frequencies, even though it utilizes a Gifford McMahon cryocooler which typically imposes limits due to vibration. Its capabilities are illustrated by noise temperature and S-parameter measurements on low noise amplifiers for radio astronomy, operating at 75–116 GHz

    Large-Area alignment of nanowires for high-performance flexible electronics

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    Inorganic semiconducting nanowires are suitable components for high-performance flexible electronics, due to their attractive and tuneable physical, chemical and electrical properties. The key requirement to attain such applications is the controlled transfer of NWs over flexible materials, which needs to ensure three critical aspects, (1) controlled location, (2) alignment and (3) density. Several techniques exist to align high-aspect ratio 1D nanostructures in a scalable, easy, fast and low-cost way, such as dielectrophoresis (DEP) that consists in an electric field induced alignment. During the current work at the University of Glasgow, a modified DEP technique was used to align V2O5 nanowires. The aim was to use a dip coating modified DEP large-scale assembly over flexible substrates. By assembling the nanowires with microelectrodes positioned through a dielectric layer, the templated nanowires could be used for fabrication of devices without interference of alignment electrodes and fabricated structures. The setup consists of electrodes over polyimide sheet with 4 arrays of different gaps. The fabricated substrate is fixed in a carrier which is dip-coated through a vertical movement in a V2O5 NW/DI water solution. An AC signal of 300 V, 1 MHz and a withdrawal speed of 100 μm/s are the optimized DEP parameters. SEM images revealed a nanowire density of 15 NW/μm with 96% alignment. Given the thermal sensitivity of V2O5, structures with aligned NWs were used as a temperature sensor with a resulting temperature coefficient of resistance of -0.97 and -0.1 % K-1 for contact and contactless setup, respectively

    Hot-air contactless single-point incremental forming

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    Single-point incremental forming (SPIF) has emerged as a time-efficient approach that offers increased material formability compared to conventional sheet-metal forming techniques. However, the physical interaction between the forming tool and the sheet poses challenges, such as tool wear and formability limits. This study introduces a novel sheet-forming technique called contactless single-point incremental forming (CSPIF), which uses hot compressed air as a deformation tool, eliminating the requirement for physical interaction between the sheet and a rigid forming tool. In this study, a polycarbonate sheet was chosen as the case-study material and subjected to the developed CSPIF. The experiments were carried out at an air temperature of 160 °C, air pressure of 1 bar, a nozzle speed of 750 mm/min, and a step-down thickness of 0.75 mm. A Schlieren setup and a thermal camera were used to visualize the motion of the compressed hot air as it traveled from the nozzle to the sheet. The results showed that the CSPIF technique allowed for the precise shaping of the polycarbonate sheet with minimal springback. However, minor deviations from the designed profile were observed, primarily at the starting point of the nozzle, which can be attributed to the bending effects of the sample. In addition, the occurrence of sheet thinning and material buildup on the deformed workpiece was also observed. The average surface roughness (Ra) of the deformed workpiece was measured to be 0.2871 micron

    Passive and Self-Powered Autonomous Sensors for Remote Measurements

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    Autonomous sensors play a very important role in the environmental, structural, and medical fields. The use of this kind of systems can be expanded for several applications, for example in implantable devices inside the human body where it is impossible to use wires. Furthermore, they enable measurements in harsh or hermetic environments, such as under extreme heat, cold, humidity or corrosive conditions. The use of batteries as a power supply for these devices represents one solution, but the size, and sometimes the cost and unwanted maintenance burdens of replacement are important drawbacks. In this paper passive and self-powered autonomous sensors for harsh or hermetical environments without batteries are discussed. Their general architectures are presented. Sensing strategies, communication techniques and power management are analyzed. Then, general building blocks of an autonomous sensor are presented and the design guidelines that such a system must follow are given. Furthermore, this paper reports different proposed applications of autonomous sensors applied in harsh or hermetic environments: two examples of passive autonomous sensors that use telemetric communication are proposed, the first one for humidity measurements and the second for high temperatures. Other examples of self-powered autonomous sensors that use a power harvesting system from electromagnetic fields are proposed for temperature measurements and for airflow speeds

    Electrical sensing of the thermal and light induced spin transition in robust contactless spin-crossover/graphene hybrid devices

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    Hybrid devices based on spin-crossover (SCO)/2D heterostructures grant a highly sensitive platform to detect the spin transition in the molecular SCO component and tune the properties of the 2D material. However, the fragility of the SCO materials upon thermal treatment, light irradiation or contact with surfaces and the methodologies used for their processing have limited their applicability. Here, we report an easily processable and robust SCO/2D hybrid device with outstanding performance based on the sublimable SCO [Fe(Pyrz)2] molecule deposited over CVD-graphene, which is fully compatible with electronics industry protocols. Thus, a novel methodology based on growing an elusive polymorph of [Fe(Pyrz)2] (tetragonal phase) over graphene is developed that allows us to electrically detect a fast and effective light-induced spin transition in the devices (~50% yield in 5 minutes). Such performance can be enhanced even more when a flexible polymeric layer of PMMA is inserted in between the two active components in a contactless configuration, reaching a ~100 % yield in 5 minutes

    In-situ steel solidification imaging in continuous casting using magnetic induction tomography

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    : Solidification process in continuous casting is a critical part of steel production. The speed and quality of the solidification process determines the quality of final product. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are often used to describe the process and design of its control system, but so far, there is no any tool that provides an on-line measurement of the solidification front of hot steel during the continuous casting process. This paper presents a new tool based on magnetic induction tomography (MIT) for real time monitoring of this process. The new MIT system was installed at the end of the secondary cooling chamber of a casting unit and tested during several days in a real production process. MIT is able to create an internal map of electrical conductivity of hot steel deep inside the billet. The image of electrical conductivity is then converted to temperature profile that allows the measurement of the solid, mushy and liquid layers. In this study, such a conversion is done by synchronizing in one time step the MIT measurement and the thermal map generated with the actual process parameters available at that time. The MIT results were then compared with the results obtained of the CFD and thermal modelling of the industrial process. This is the first in-situ monitoring of the interior structure during a real continuous casting.The SHELL-THICK project has received funding from EU Research Fund for Coal and Steel under grant number 709830. This study reflects only the author's views and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein
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