Energy recovery strategy for regenerative braking system of intelligent four-wheel independent drive electric vehicles

Regenerative braking system can recovery energy in various electric vehicles. Considering large computation load of global optimization methods, most researches adopt instantaneous or local algorithms to optimize the recuperation energy, and incline to study straight deceleration processes. However, uncertain drivers' intentions limit the potential exploration of economy improvement, and simple test conditions do not reflect the complexity of actual driving cycles. Herein, an innovative control architecture is designed for intelligent vehicles to overcome these challenges to some extent. Compared with traditional vehicles, driverless ones would eliminate drivers' interferences, and have more freedoms to optimize energy recovery, route tracking and dynamics stability. Specifically, a series regenerative braking system is designed, and then a three‐level control architecture is first proposed to coordinate three performances. In the top layer, some rules with maximum recuperation energy is exploited off‐line for optimising the velocity and control commands on‐line. In the middle layer, local algorithm is used to track the commands and complex routes for optimal energy from a global perspective. In the bottom layer, hydraulic and regenerative toques are allocated. Tests are conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the design and control schemes

Control of quantum coherence of photons exploiting quantum entanglement

Accurately controlling the quantum coherence of photons is pivotal for their applications in quantum sensing and quantum imaging. Here, we propose the utilization of quantum entanglement and local phase manipulation techniques to control the higher-order quantum coherence of photons. By engineering the spatially varying phases in the transverse plane, we can precisely manipulate the spatial structure of the second-order coherence function of entangled photon pairs without changing the photon intensity distribution of each photon. Our approach can readily be extended to higher-order quantum coherence control. These results could potentially stimulate new experimental research and applications of optical quantum coherence.Comment: 9 page, 7 figures, and a supplementary materia

Effect of complexing agents on phosphorus release from chemical-enhanced phosphorus removal sludge during anaerobic fermentation

Phosphorus (P) release from sludge containing phosphate precipitates (FePs or AlPs) as well as the anaerobic performance with the addition of complexing agents (citric, tartaric and EDTA) during ambient anaerobic fermentation process were investigated. Results showed that citrate addition was the most effective method to enhance P release from inorganic phosphate by chelation and promote volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production simultaneously during anaerobic fermentation. Equimolar citrate addition with chemical precipitates was the optimal dosage. Microbial analysis revealed that EDTA has the strongest inhibitory effect on microbial activity and community structure, while citrate was more effective in enhancing important acidifying microorganisms than tartrate and EDTA. Therefore, citrate addition can be regarded as an alternative and promising method to recover P and carbon source from sludge containing chemical precipitates. These important discoveries will help to enrich P recovery path from sludge produced in the chemical-enhanced P removal treatment processes

Experimental and modeling analysis of thermal runaway propagation over the large format energy storage battery module with Li4Ti5O12 anode

Insight of the thermal characteristics and potential flame spread over lithium-ion battery (LIB) modules is important for designing battery thermal management system and fire protection measures. Such thermal characteristics and potential flame spread are also dependent on the different anode and cathode materials as well as the electrolyte. In the present study, thermal behavior and flame propagation over seven 50 A h Li(Ni1/3Mn1/3Co1/3)O2/Li4Ti5O12 large format LIBs arranged in rhombus and parallel layouts were investigated by directly heating one of the battery units. Such batteries have already been used commercially for energy storage while relatively little is known about its safety features in connection with potential runaway caused fire and explosion hazards. It was found in the present heating tests that fire-impingement resulted in elevated temperatures in the immediate vicinity of the LIBs that were in the range of between 200 °C and 900 °C. Such temperature aggravated thermal runaway (TR) propagation, resulting in rapid temperature rise within the battery module and even explosions after 20 min of “smoldering period”. The thermal runaway and subsequent fire and explosion observed in the heating test was attributed to the violent reduction of the cathode material which coexisted with the electrolyte when the temperature exceeded 260 °C. Separate laboratory tests, which measured the heat and gases generation from samples of the anode and cathode materials using C80 calorimeter, provided insight of the physical-chemistry processes inside the battery when the temperature reaches between 30 °C and 300 °C. The self-accelerating decomposition temperature of the cell, regarded as the critical temperature to trigger TR propagation, was calculated as 126.1 and 139.2 °C using the classical Semenov and Frank-Kamenetskii models and the measurements of the calorimeter with the samples. These are consistent with the measured values in the heating tests in which TR propagated. The events leading to the explosions in the test for the rhombus layout was further analyzed and two possible explanations were postulated and analyzed based on either internal catalytic reactions or Boiling Liquid Expansion Vapor Explosion (BLEVE)

Topological Dirac states beyond π\pi orbitals for silicene on SiC(0001) surface

The discovery of intriguing properties related to the Dirac states in graphene has spurred huge interest in exploring its two-dimensional group-IV counterparts, such as silicene, germanene, and stanene. However, these materials have to be obtained via synthesizing on substrates with strong interfacial interactions, which usually destroy their intrinsic $\pi$($p_z$)-orbital Dirac states. Here we report a theoretical study on the existence of Dirac states arising from the $p_{x,y}$ orbitals instead of $p_z$ orbitals in silicene on 4H-SiC(0001), which survive in spite of the strong interfacial interactions. We also show that the exchange field together with the spin-orbital coupling give rise to a detectable band gap of 1.3 meV. Berry curvature calculations demonstrate the nontrivial topological nature of such Dirac states with a Chern number $C = 2$, presenting the potential of realizing quantum anomalous Hall effect for silicene on SiC(0001). Finally, we construct a minimal effective model to capture the low-energy physics of this system. This finding is expected to be also applicable to germanene and stanene, and imply great application potentials in nanoelectronics.Comment: 6 Figures , Accepted by Nano Letter

Improved taxol production in Nodulisporium sylviforme derived from inactivated protoplast fusion

Inactivated protoplast fusion by UV irradiation and UV+LiCl mutation was conducted using Nodulisporium sylviforme strain UV40-19 and UL50-6 to breed a high taxol-producing fungus. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of taxol production was confirmed using thin-layer chromatography, high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. The protoplasts of UV40-19 and UL50-6 were fully inactivated by heating at 54°C for 5 min and by UV irradiation (30 w UV light and vertical distance 30 cm) for 85 s. The highest fusion rate (14.31 ± 1.13%) between UV40-19 and UL50-6 was obtained under the conditions of 35% PEG, 90 s fusion time and the addition of 0.01 mol/l CaCl2. One high taxol production strain HDF-68 was obtained. The taxol production was up to 468.62 ± 37.49 μg/l, which was increased by 24.51 and 19.35% compared with the parental strain UV40-19 and UL50-6, respectively. This study provided a good basis for the application of this technique to the breeding of the strains with high taxol output.Key words: Taxol, endophytic fungi, protoplast preparation, protoplast fusion