Improving Quality of the EN AC-43300 (AlSi9Mg) Alloy Destined for Castings of a Pump Casings

Among non-ferrous alloys, the aluminum alloys have found the most widespread applications within foundry industry. Hypoeutectic silumin of the AlSi9Mg grade is commonly used for large, heavy duty machinery castings with complicated shape and high strength. From technical point of view, tendency to creation of coarse structure can be considered as a drawback of such alloy, what can have adverse effect on properties of the alloy. To obtain optimal structure of the castings and to assure improvement of their mechanical properties, the most effective treatment to perform is modification. Quality of performed modification treatment depends on proper dosing of inoculant and maintaining suitable temperature and time of keeping the alloy before pouring. In the paper are presented test results of crystallization course of refined and modified silumin of the EN AC–43300 (AlSi9Mg) grade, used in castings of pump casings. It has been determined an effect of performed processes of refining and modification on the mechanical properties (Rm, A5, HB and KCV), additionally, metallurgical tests of the alloy have been performed. Basing on analysis of obtained results, the most advantageous modification variant, which is suitable for castings of pump casings and complying with requirements of customers, has been selected

Towards Higher NH₃ Faradaic Efficiency: Selective-Poisoning of HER Active Sites by Co-Feeding CO in NO Electroreduction**

Direct electroreduction of nitric oxide offers a promising avenue to produce valuable chemicals, such as ammonia, which is an essential chemical to produce fertilizers. Direct ammonia synthesis from NO in a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer is advantageous for its continuous operation and excellent mass transport characteristics. However, at a high current density, the faradaic efficiency of NO electroreduction reaction is limited by the competing hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, we report a CO-mediated selective poisoning strategy to enhance the faradaic efficiency (FE) towards ammonia by suppressing the HER. In the presence of only NO at the cathode, Pt/C and Pd/C catalysts showed a lower FE towards NH3 than to H2 due to the dominating HER. Cu/C catalyst showed a 78 % FE towards NH3 at 2.0 V due to the stronger binding affinity to NO* compared to H*. By co-feeding CO, the FE of Cu/C catalyst towards NH3 was improved by 12 %. More strikingly, for Pd/C, the FE towards NH3 was enhanced by 95 % with CO co-feeding, by effectively suppressing HER. This is attributed to the change of the favorable surface coverage resulting from the selective and competitive binding of CO* to H* binding sites, thereby improving NH3 selectivity.ChemE/Catalysis EngineeringLarge Scale Energy Storag

Reliability of InSAR satellite monitoring of buildings near inner city quay walls

Amsterdam currently has a huge task of assessing and potentially upgrading its quay walls along the historic canals. Before replacement can take place, Amsterdam needs to determine the potential impact the replacement can have on the nearby buildings. The rate of vertical deformation of the adjacent buildings is used as indicator of potential foundation problems. To determine that rate, the current practice is to monitor the buildings by levelling for two years at least. This study shows that application of satellite measurements using Permanent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PS-InSAR) could reduce the monitoring period to a few months. The paper describes the statistical procedure that has been applied to levelling and satellite measurements to verify their reliability and determine the rate of vertical deformation of the buildings. The procedure was applied in three case studies. The rates of deformation observed in the InSAR measurements are in good agreement with the rates of deformation observed in the levelling in two of the case studies. The locally optimized InSAR data set with observations in the period 2014-2019 provides an almost 100% coverage of reliable data points for all buildings in the case studies. More experience will need to be gained in the interpretation of InSAR measurements with respect to vulnerability of the buildings. Also, the procedure may be extended to include analysis of non-linear trends such as second order trends and seasonal effects.Geo-engineerin

Socialais kapitals Starptautiska zinatniska konference. Raksti

Abstracts in EnglishAvailable from Latvian Academic Library / LAL - Latvian Academic LibrarySIGLELVLatvi