1,927 research outputs found
Emission factors for open and domestic biomass burning for use in atmospheric models
Biomass burning (BB) is the second largest source of trace gases and the largest source of primary fine carbonaceous particles in the global troposphere. Many recent BB studies have provided new emission factor (EF) measurements. This is especially true for non-methane organic compounds (NMOC), which influence secondary organic aerosol (SOA) and ozone formation. New EF should improve regional to global BB emissions estimates and therefore, the input for atmospheric models. In this work we present an up-to-date, comprehensive tabulation of EF for known pyrogenic species based on measurements made in smoke that has cooled to ambient temperature, but not yet undergone significant photochemical processing. All EFs are converted to one standard form (g compound emitted per kg dry biomass burned) using the carbon mass balance method and they are categorized into 14 fuel or vegetation types. Biomass burning terminology is defined to promote consistency. We compile a large number of measurements of biomass consumption per unit area for important fire types and summarize several recent estimates of global biomass consumption by the major types of biomass burning. Post emission processes are discussed to provide a context for the emission factor concept within overall atmospheric chemistry and also highlight the potential for rapid changes relative to the scale of some models or remote sensing products. Recent work shows that individual biomass fires emit significantly more gas-phase NMOC than previously thought and that including additional NMOC can improve photochemical model performance. A detailed global estimate suggests that BB emits at least 400 Tg yr^(−1) of gas-phase NMOC, which is almost 3 times larger than most previous estimates. Selected recent results (e.g. measurements of HONO and the BB tracers HCN and CH_3CN) are highlighted and key areas requiring future research are briefly discussed
Thermo-mechanical behaviour of a compacted swelling clay
Compacted unsaturated swelling clay is often considered as a possible buffer
material for deep nuclear waste disposal. An isotropic cell permitting
simultaneous control of suction, temperature and pressure was used to study the
thermo-mechanical behaviour of this clay. Tests were performed at total
suctions ranging from 9 to 110 MPa, temperature from 25 to 80 degrees C,
isotropic pressure from 0.1 to 60 MPa. It was observed that heating at constant
suction and pressure induces either swelling or contraction. The results from
compression tests at constant suction and temperature evidenced that at lower
suction, the yield pressure was lower, the elastic compressibility parameter
and the plastic compressibility parameter were higher. On the other hand, at a
similar suction, the yield pressure was slightly influenced by the temperature;
and the compressibility parameters were insensitive to temperature changes. The
thermal hardening phenomenon was equally evidenced by following a
thermo-mechanical path of loading-heating-cooling-reloading
Evolution of trace gases and particles emitted by a chaparral fire in California
Biomass burning (BB) is a major global source of trace gases and particles. Accurately representing the production and evolution of these emissions is an important goal for atmospheric chemical transport models. We measured a suite of gases and aerosols emitted from an 81 hectare prescribed fire in chaparral fuels on the central coast of California, US on 17 November 2009. We also measured physical and chemical changes that occurred in the isolated downwind plume in the first ~4 h after emission. The measurements were carried out onboard a Twin Otter aircraft outfitted with an airborne Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (AFTIR), aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), single particle soot photometer (SP2), nephelometer, LiCor CO_2 analyzer, a chemiluminescence ozone instrument, and a wing-mounted meteorological probe. Our measurements included: CO_2; CO; NO_x; NH_3; non-methane organic compounds; organic aerosol (OA); inorganic aerosol (nitrate, ammonium, sulfate, and chloride); aerosol light scattering; refractory black carbon (rBC); and ambient temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, and three-dimensional wind velocity. The molar ratio of excess O_3 to excess CO in the plume (ΔO_3/ΔCO) increased from −5.13 (±1.13) × 10^(−3) to 10.2 (±2.16) × 10^(−2) in ~4.5 h following smoke emission. Excess acetic and formic acid (normalized to excess CO) increased by factors of 1.73 ± 0.43 and 7.34 ± 3.03 (respectively) over the same time since emission. Based on the rapid decay of C_2H_4 we infer an in-plume average OH concentration of 5.27 (±0.97) × 10^6 molec cm^(−3), consistent with previous studies showing elevated OH concentrations in biomass burning plumes. Ammonium, nitrate, and sulfate all increased over the course of 4 h. The observed ammonium increase was a factor of 3.90 ± 2.93 in about 4 h, but accounted for just ~36% of the gaseous ammonia lost on a molar basis. Some of the gas phase NH_3 loss may have been due to condensation on, or formation of, particles below the AMS detection range. NO_x was converted to PAN and particle nitrate with PAN production being about two times greater than production of observable nitrate in the first ~4 h following emission. The excess aerosol light scattering in the plume (normalized to excess CO_2) increased by a factor of 2.50 ± 0.74 over 4 h. The increase in light scattering was similar to that observed in an earlier study of a biomass burning plume in Mexico where significant secondary formation of OA closely tracked the increase in scattering. In the California plume, however, ΔOA/ΔCO_2 decreased sharply for the first hour and then increased slowly with a net decrease of ~20% over 4 h. The fraction of thickly coated rBC particles increased up to ~85% over the 4 h aging period. Decreasing OA accompanied by increased scattering/particle coating in initial aging may be due to a combination of particle coagulation and evaporation processes. Recondensation of species initially evaporated from the particles may have contributed to the subsequent slow rise in OA. We compare our results to observations from other plume aging studies and suggest that differences in environmental factors such as smoke concentration, oxidant concentration, actinic flux, and RH contribute significantly to the variation in plume evolution observations
Probing Spin-Charge Relation by Magnetoconductance in One-Dimensional Polymer Nanofibers
Polymer nanofibers are one-dimensional organic hydrocarbon systems containing
conducting polymers where the non-linear local excitations such as solitons,
polarons and bipolarons formed by the electron-phonon interaction were
predicted. Magnetoconductance (MC) can simultaneously probe both the spin and
charge of these mobile species and identify the effects of electron-electron
interactions on these nonlinear excitations. Here we report our observations of
a qualitatively different MC in polyacetylene (PA) and in polyaniline (PANI)
and polythiophene (PT) nanofibers. In PA the MC is essentially zero, but it is
present in PANI and PT. The universal scaling behavior and the zero (finite) MC
in PA (PANI and PT) nanofibers provide evidence of Coulomb interactions between
spinless charged solitons (interacting polarons which carry both spin and
charge)
Development of an intense positron source using a crystal--amorphous hybrid target for linear colliders
In a conventional positron source driven by a few GeV electron beam, a high
amount of heat is loaded into a positron converter target to generate intense
positrons required by linear colliders, and which would eventually damage the
converter target. A hybrid target, composed of a single crystal target as a
radiator of intense gamma--rays, and an amorphous converter target placed
downstream of the crystal, was proposed as a scheme which could overcome the
problem.This paper describes the development of an intense positron source with
the hybrid target. A series of experiments on positron generation with the
hybrid target has been carried out with a 8--GeV electron beam at the KEKB
linac. We observed that positron yield from the hybrid target increased when
the incident electron beam was aligned to the crystal axis and exceeded the one
from the conventional target with the converter target of the same thickness,
when its thickness is less than about 2 radiation length. The measurements in
the temperature rise of the amorphous converter target was successfully carried
out by use of thermocouples. These results lead to establishment to the
evaluation of the hybrid target as an intense positron source.Comment: 17pages, 10figure
Analysis of quantum conductance of carbon nanotube junctions by the effective mass approximation
The electron transport through the nanotube junctions which connect the
different metallic nanotubes by a pair of a pentagonal defect and a heptagonal
defect is investigated by Landauer's formula and the effective mass
approximation. From our previous calculations based on the tight binding model,
it has been known that the conductance is determined almost only by two
parameters,i.e., the energy in the unit of the onset energy of more than two
channels and the ratio of the radii of the two nanotubes. The conductance is
calculated again by the effective mass theory in this paper and a simple
analytical form of the conductance is obtained considering a special boundary
conditions of the envelop wavefunctions. The two scaling parameters appear
naturally in this treatment. The results by this formula coincide fairly well
with those of the tight binding model.
The physical origin of the scaling law is clarified by this approach.Comment: RevTe
Compensation algorithms based on the p-q and CPC theories for switching compensators in micro-grids
The main objective of this paper is to com-pare the applicability and p erformance of a switching
compensator when it is controlled by algorithms derived
from the pq–Theory and from the Current’s Physical
Components Power Theory (CPC-Theory) considering a
micro-grid application. Compensation characteristics
derived from each one of these set of power definitions
are highlighted, and simulation results of test cases are
shown. Special attention is put on the oscillating instan-taneous real power, as it may produce torque oscillations
or frequency variations in weak systems (micro-grids)
generators. The oscillating instantaneous real power, as
defined in the pq-Theory, gives the amount of energy
oscillating between the source and the load, and its com-pensation using a switching compensator must have an
energy storage element to exchan ge it with the load. The
energy storage element can be ea sily calculated with the
pq-Theory
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