Fire exposed aluminium structures

Material properties and mechanical response models for fire design of steel structures are based on extensive research and experience. Contrarily, the behaviour of aluminium load bearing structures exposed to fire is relatively unexplored. This article gives an overview of physical and mechanical properties at elevated temperature of frequently applied aluminium alloys, found in relevant literature and discusses mechanical response models currently applied for fire exposed aluminium structures. A comparison is made with steel structures exposed to fire

LCF assessment on heat shield components of nuclear fusion experiment "Wendelstein 7-X" by critical plane criteria

Abstract The Wendelstein 7-X modular advanced stellarator has started operations at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany, in 2016. In the first phase, the machine operated restricting the plasma pulses to low power and short lengths. Plans to achieve actively cooled components are scheduled to start in 2020 when the machine will operate in steady-state at full power. FEM simulations for steady-state operations revealed high plastic strains at several locations, for most of all the rigidly supported Plasma Facing Components; therefore, there is the risk of a premature fatigue failure before the end of the scheduled operations of the machine. The aim of this study is to analyse, by means of the commercial code ABAQUS, the behavior of such critical components estimating, eventually, their fatigue life by means of the commercial code fe-safe

Biomass-Derived Heteroatom-Doped Carbon Aerogels from a Salt Melt Sol–Gel Synthesis and their Performance in Li–S Batteries

An ionothermal sol–gel strategy to synthesize hierarchically porous carbon aerogels doped with different heteroatoms is presented by using biomass precursors in a scalable process. Morphologically similar but chemically different materials are used to study the influence of heteroatoms in Li–S batteries. The materials show capacities as high as 1290 mAh g−1 in the first cycle using 50 wt % S loading. Heteroatom doping reduces the capacity fading and the polarization throughout cycling. Zeta potential measurements reveal positive surface charges for heteroatom-doped carbons and indicate attractive interactions with polysulfides causing reduced fading. A polysulfide-selective sorption study reveals strongly different adsorption behavior depending on the carbon’s chemical composition. Interestingly, the polysulfide fraction is also crucial. The results indicate that improved adsorption of long-chain polysulfides to doped carbons is related to improved capacity retention

Characterisation of the new EpCAM-specific antibody HO-3: implications for trifunctional antibody immunotherapy of cancer

Epithelial cell adhesion molecule EpCAM is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is frequently overexpressed in a variety of carcinomas. This pan-carcinoma antigen has served as the target for a plethora of immunotherapies. Innovative therapeutic approaches include the use of trifunctional antibodies (trAbs) that recruit and activate different types of immune effector cells at the tumour site. The trAb catumaxomab has dual specificity for EpCAM and CD3. In patients with malignant ascites, catumaxomab significantly increased the paracentesis-free interval, corroborating the high efficacy of this therapeutic antibody. Here, we characterised the monoclonal antibody (mAb) HO-3, that is, the EpCAM-binding arm of catumaxomab. Peptide mapping indicated that HO-3 recognises a discontinuous epitope, having three binding sites in the extracellular region of EpCAM. Studies with glycosylation-deficient mutants showed that mAb HO-3 recognised EpCAM independently of its glycosylation status. High-affinity binding was not only detected for mAb HO-3, but also for the monovalent EpCAM-binding arm of catumaxomab with an excellent KD of 5.6 × 10−10 M. Furthermore, trAb catumaxomab was at least a 1000-fold more effective in eliciting the eradication of tumour cells by effector peripheral blood mononuclear cells compared with mAb HO-3. These findings suggest the great therapeutic potential of trAbs and clearly speak in favour of EpCAM-directed cancer immunotherapies