Vortex induced motion of the cylinder is suppressed by wearing a closed membrane

Vortex-induced motion (VIM) of cylindrical structures in fluid is a common occurrence in nature and engineering. Over the years, numerous techniques for suppressing VIM have been developed. In this study, we propose a novel method for VIM suppression by applying a closed membrane to the cylinder. A demonstration experiment was conducted in a circulation water channel, varying the reduced velocity (U*) from 2 to 11. The results demonstrate that the closed membrane effectively suppresses VIM, particularly in the lock-in region of U* from 5 to 9, where the motion amplitude of the cylinder is reduced by up to 85%. Additionally, the in-line mean drag force is also reduced when compared to that of a bare cylinder. It is important to note that this study is preliminary. However, the evidence obtained thus far is highly significant

Audit committees effecticeness and audit fees - Evidence from Chinese listed companies

This paper explores the relationship between the effectiveness of audit committees and audit fees in China. The effectiveness of audit committees is measured by four separate proxies, independence, financial expertise, frequency of meetings and size as well as a composite variable of these four variables. This paper provides empirical evidence on this relationship by regressing 2655 observations (from 885 Chinese listed companies for three years). After controlling the board's and company's characteristics, it is found that the effectiveness has a positive and significant effect on audit fees. These results support the four hypotheses made. It indicates that high-quality audit committees perform monitoring duties more responsibly, which bring about wider audit scope, more audit work and higher audit fees. While after dividing 2655 observations into two groups (large-sized and small and medium-sized), financial expertise and size is positively but insignificantly related to audit fees in large size companies, independence and size is positively but insignificantly related to audit fees in small and medium size. Moreover, an additional robustness test is run to check whether the results will change or not when each year's data is regressed in isolation

Quantitative and Qualitative Research on the Fear of Recurrence and the Belief in Prevention of Recurrence in Elderly Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

Objective: To explore the fear of recurrence and the belief in prevention of recurrence in elderly patients with coronary heart disease. Methods: A total of 178 elderly patients with coronary heart disease were included, and quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to explore the fear of recurrence and the belief in prevention of recurrence in elderly patients with coronary heart disease. The quantitative research tool was a self-made fear of coronary heart disease recurrence questionnaire; the qualitative research was guided by the phenomenological method, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 11 elderly patients with coronary heart disease, and the data were collected by recording, and the Colaizzi method was used to analyze the data. Results Elderly patients with coronary heart disease were afraid of recurrence; they knew the etiology of coronary heart disease, but the controllable rate of the cause and effect was extremely low. Conclusion: Due to the belief in fatalism and the lack of control over the etiology of coronary heart disease, elderly patients with coronary heart disease are afraid of recurrence

A Co9S8 microsphere and N-doped carbon nanotube composite host material for lithium-sulfur batteries

Lithium-sulfur batteries have emerged as extraordinarily favorable energy storage devices due to their high specific capacity and energy density, safety and low cost. Unfortunately, the wide applications of lithium-sulfur batteries are hampered by several issues, such as the low electronic conductivity and slow redox kinetics, serious volumetric expansion and polysulfide “shuttle effect”. To overcome these issues, in our work, we design and synthesize a composite sulfur host material of Co9S8 microspheres and N-doped carbon nanotubes, where the metallic sulfide Co9S8 with a good conductivity enables the immobilization of the polar lithium polysulfides owing to the strong polar chemisorptive capability, and the one dimensional N-doped carbon nanotubes can provide channels for fast electron and lithium-ion transport. As the lithium polysulfides are well confined, and the redox conversions are promoted, the Co9S8@N-CNTs/S-based lithium-sulfur battery possesses a superior energy storage performance, exhibiting a large specific capacity of 1233 mAh g-1 at 0.1 C and an outstanding cyclic performance, with a low decay of 0.045% per cycle and a Coulombic efficiency of more than 99% after 1000 cycles

Study of the Effect of Drying and Wetting Cycles and Water Content on the Shear Characteristics of Tailing Sands

The mechanical characteristics of tailing sands have an important impact on the safety and stability of the tailing dams. Fully understanding the effect of drying and wetting cycles (DWC) and water content on the characteristics of tailing sands is urgently needed. In this study, direct shear tests were first carried out to analyze the effect of DWC and water content on the macroscopic mechanical characteristics of tailing sands. Then, the mesoscopic mechanical behavior of tailing sands with different water contents under the action of DWC was studied by using PFC2D particle flow software. The results showed that the effect of DWC on the shear properties of tailing sands is more pronounced than water content. The cohesive force and the internal friction angle increase first and then decrease with the increasing water content. With the increasing number of DWC, the cohesive force and the internal friction angle all decreased to varying degrees. The results of the mesoscopic mechanical analysis indicated that after experiencing the DWC, the force chain of the sample gradually thickens to form a coarse force chain network area, and the number of cracks inside the sample is significantly larger than that of the sample that has not experienced the DWC. The results of this study are of great significance for understanding the macroscopic and mesoscopic shear failure mechanism of tailing sands under the effects of DWCs and water content

Nanostructured Ni2SeS on Porous-Carbon Skeletons as Highly Efficient Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution in Acidic Medium

Nickel dichalcogenides have received extensive attention as promising noble-metal-free nanocatalysts for a hydrogen evolution reaction. Nonetheless, their catalytic performance is restricted by the sluggish reaction kinetics, limited exposed active sites, and poor conductivity. In this work, we report on an effective strategy to solve those problems by using an as-designed new porous-C/Ni2SeS nanocatalyst with the Ni2SeS nanostubs anchored on with porous-carbon skeletons process. On the basis of three advantages, as the enhancement of the intrinsic activity using the ternary sulfoselenide, increased number of exposed active sites due to the 3D hollow substrate, and increased conductivity caused by porous-carbon skeletons, the resulting porous-C/Ni2SeS requires an overpotential of only 121 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm–2 with a Tafel slope of 78 mV dec–1 for hydrogen evolution in acidic media and a good long-term stability. Density functional theory calculations also show that the Gibbs free energy of hydrogen adsorption of the Ni2SeS was −0.23 eV, which not only is close to the ideal value (0 eV) and Pt reference (−0.09 eV) but also is lower than those of NiS2 and NiSe2; large electrical states exist in the vicinity of the Fermi level, which further improves its electrocatalytic performance. This work provides new insights into the rational design of ternary dichalcogenides and hollow structure materials for practical applications in HER catalysis and energy fields

Investigation of nonlinear wave-induced seabed response around mono-pile foundation

YesStability and safety of offshore wind turbines with mono-pile foundations, affected by nonlinear wave effect and dynamic seabed response, are the primary concerns in offshore foundation design. In order to address these problems, the nonlinear wave effect on dynamic seabed response in the vicinity of mono-pile foundation is investigated using an integrated model, developed using OpenFOAM, which incorporates both wave model (waves2Foam) and Biot’s poro-elastic model. The present model was validated against several laboratory experiments and promising agreements were obtained. Special attention was paid to the systematic analysis of pore water pressure as well as the momentary liquefaction in the proximity of mono-pile induced by nonlinear wave effects. Various embedment depths of mono-pile relevant for practical engineering design were studied in order to attain the insights into nonlinear wave effect around and underneath the mono-pile foundation. By comparing time-series of water surface elevation, inline force, and wave-induced pore water pressure at the front, lateral, and lee side of mono-pile, the distinct nonlinear wave effect on pore water pressure was shown. Simulated results confirmed that the presence of mono-pile foundation in a porous seabed had evident blocking effect on the vertical and horizontal development of pore water pressure. Increasing embedment depth enhances the blockage of vertical pore pressure development and hence results in somewhat reduced momentary liquefaction depth of the soil around the mono-pile foundation.Energy Technology Partnership (ETP), Wood Group Kenny, and University of Aberdeen; the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (51425901) and the 111 project (B12032)