Numerical Study of Heterogeneous Reactions in an SOFC Anode with Oxygen Addition

Previous experimental studies have shown that addition of small amounts of oxygen to a hydrocarbon fuel stream can control coking in the anode, while relatively large amounts of oxygen are present in the fuel stream in single-chamber solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). In order to rationally design an anode for such use, it is important to understand the coupled catalytic oxidation/reforming chemistry and diffusion within the anode under SOFC operating conditions. In this study, the heterogeneous catalytic reactions in the anode of an anode-supported SOFC running on methane fuel with added oxygen are numerically investigated using a model that accounts for catalytic chemistry, porous media transport, and electrochemistry at the anode/electrolyte interface. Using an experimentally validated heterogeneous reaction mechanism for methane partial oxidation and reforming on nickel, we identify three distinct reaction zones at different depths within the anode: a thin outer layer in which oxygen is nearly fully consumed in oxidizing methane and hydrogen, followed by a reforming region, and then a water–gas shift region deep within the anode. Both single-chamber and dual-chamber SOFC anodes are explored

Coannihilation with a chargino and gauge boson pair production at one-loop

We present a complete calculation of the electroweak one-loop corrections to the relic density within the MSSM framework. In the context of the neutralino as dark matter candidate, we review different scenarios of annihilation and coannihilation with a chargino. In particular we investigate predictions for the annihilation into gauge boson pairs for different kinds of neutralino: bino-, wino- and higgsino-like. We present some interesting effects which are not present at tree-level and show up at one-loop. To deal with the large number of diagrams occuring in the calculations, we have developed an automatic tool for the computation at one-loop of any process in the MSSM. We have implemented a complete on-shell gauge invariant renormalization scheme, with the possibility of switching to other schemes. We emphasize the variations due to the choice of the renormalization scheme, in particular the one-loop definition of the parameter tan(beta).Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Supersymmetry and the Unification of Fundamental Interactions (SUSY09), Boston, USA, 5-10 June, 200

Ageing and Temperature Influence on Polarization/Depolarization Current Behaviour of Paper Immersed in Natural Ester

Transformers play an important role in providing a reliable and efficient electricity supply and are one of the most critical equipments in electric power transmission and distribution systems. The most commonly used liquid in power transformers is mineral oil due to its low price and good properties. However the performance of mineral oil starts to be limited due to environmental consideration [1]. Natural ester insulating fluid offers fire safety, environment and insulation aging advantages over mineral oil and are found to be suitable for the use in transformer insulation system [1]. However, transformer owners require to assess the status of the cellulose insulation in transformer non-destructively. Polarization/depolarization Current (PDC) measurement [2] is one of the non-destructive techniques which have been used to achieve this aim. At the present, there are few publications about the PDC behaviour of natural ester-paper insulation, though the natural ester becomes more widely used in transformers. In this paper, the influence of ageing and temperature on the PDC behaviour of the paper immersed in natural ester and mineral oil were compared. Results show PDC technique can be used to assess the aging condition of the natural-ester paper insulation. The ageing and temperature have similar influence on the PDC behaviour of the paper immersed in natural ester and in mineral oil. The depolarization current of paper immersed in natural ester is lower than that immersed in mineral oil at the same test temperature. The depolarization current of the paper immersed in natural ester and mineral oil increase with the aging time increased. Therefore, the depolarization current can be used to indicate the aging status of natural ester-paper insulation

Stability Margin Scaling Laws for Distributed Formation Control as a Function of Network Structure

We consider the problem of distributed formation control of a large number of vehicles. An individual vehicle in the formation is assumed to be a fully actuated point mass. A distributed control law is examined: the control action on an individual vehicle depends on (i) its own velocity and (ii) the relative position measurements with a small subset of vehicles (neighbors) in the formation. The neighbors are defined according to an information graph. In this paper we describe a methodology for modeling, analysis, and distributed control design of such vehicular formations whose information graph is a D-dimensional lattice. The modeling relies on an approximation based on a partial differential equation (PDE) that describes the spatio-temporal evolution of position errors in the formation. The analysis and control design is based on the PDE model. We deduce asymptotic formulae for the closed-loop stability margin (absolute value of the real part of the least stable eigenvalue) of the controlled formation. The stability margin is shown to approach 0 as the number of vehicles N goes to infinity. The exponent on the scaling law for the stability margin is influenced by the dimension and the structure of the information graph. We show that the scaling law can be improved by employing a higher dimensional information graph. Apart from analysis, the PDE model is used for a mistuning-based design of control gains to maximize the stability margin. Mistuning here refers to small perturbation of control gains from their nominal symmetric values. We show that the mistuned design can have a significantly better stability margin even with a small amount of perturbation. The results of the analysis with the PDE model are corroborated with numerical computation of eigenvalues with the state-space model of the formation.Comment: This paper is the expanded version of the paper with the same name which is accepted by the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control. The final version is updated on Oct. 12, 201

A Two-Dimensional Model of a Single-Chamber SOFC with Hydrocarbon Fuels

The single chamber fuel cell (SCFC) is a novel simplification of the conventional solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) into which a premixed fuel/air mixture is introduced. It relies on the selectivity of the anode and cathode catalysts to generate a chemical potential gradient across the cell. For SCFC running on hydrocarbon fuels, the anode catalyst promotes in-situ internal reforming of the hydrocarbon and electrochemical oxidation of the syngas, while the cathode catalyst reduces oxygen simultaneously. Laboratory tests of small designs of such fuel cells have demonstrated excellent electrical performance (1, 2)

Relic density at one-loop with gauge boson pair production

We have computed the full one-loop corrections (electroweak as well as QCD) to processes contributing to the relic density of dark matter in the MSSM where the LSP is the lightest neutralino. We cover scenarios where the most important channels are those with gauge boson pair production. This includes the case of a bino with some wino admixture, a higgsino and a wino. In this paper we specialise to the case of light dark matter much below the TeV scale. The corrections can have a non-negligible impact on the predictions and should be taken into account in view of the present and forthcoming increasing precision on the relic density measurements. Our calculations are made with the help of \SloopS, an automatic tool for the calculation of one-loop processes in the MSSM. The renormalisation scheme dependence of the results as concerns \tgb is studied.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures, Citations adde

The luminescence of yitria stabilized zirconia doped with Bi2O3

Yttria stabilized zirconia doped with Bi2O3 shows an efficient luminescence due to the Bi3+ ions. Two luminescent centres were observed which are ascribed to BiO8 and BiO7 groups