Start of SPIDER operation towards ITER neutral beams

Heating Neutral Beam (HNB) Injectors will constitute the main plasma heating and current drive tool both in ITER and JT60-SA, which are the next major experimental steps for demonstrating nuclear fusion as viable energy source. In ITER, in order to achieve the required thermonuclear fusion power gain Q=10 for short pulse operation and Q=5 for long pulse operation (up to 3600s), two HNB injectors will be needed [1], each delivering a total power of about 16.5 MW into the magnetically-confined plasma, by means of neutral hydrogen or deuterium particles having a specific energy of about 1 MeV. Since only negatively charged particles can be efficiently neutralized at such energy, the ITER HNB injectors [2] will be based on negative ions, generated by caesium-catalysed surface conversion of atoms in a radio-frequency driven plasma source. A negative deuterium ion current of more than 40 A will be extracted, accelerated and focused in a multi-aperture, multi-stage electrostatic accelerator, having 1280 apertures (~ 14 mm diam.) and 5 acceleration stages (~200 kV each) [3]. After passing through a narrow gas-cell neutralizer, the residual ions will be deflected and discarded, whereas the neutralized particles will continue their trajectory through a duct into the tokamak vessels to deliver the required heating power to the ITER plasma for a pulse duration of about 3600 s. Although the operating principles and the implementation of the most critical parts of the injector have been tested in different experiments, the ITER NBI requirements have never been simultaneously attained. In order to reduce the risks and to optimize the design and operating procedures of the HNB for ITER, a dedicated Neutral Beam Test Facility (NBTF) [4] has been promoted by the ITER Organization with the contribution of the European Union\u2019s Joint Undertaking for ITER and of the Italian Government, with the participation of the Japanese and Indian Domestic Agencies (JADA and INDA) and of several European laboratories, such as IPP-Garching, KIT-Karlsruhe, CCFE-Culham, CEA-Cadarache. The NBTF, nicknamed PRIMA, has been set up at Consorzio RFX in Padova, Italy [5]. The planned experiments will verify continuous HNB operation for one hour, under stringent requirements for beam divergence (< 7 mrad) and aiming (within 2 mrad). To study and optimise HNB performances, the NBTF includes two experiments: MITICA, full-scale NBI prototype with 1 MeV particle energy and SPIDER, with 100 keV particle energy and 40 A current, aiming at testing and optimizing the full-scale ion source. SPIDER will focus on source uniformity, negative ion current density and beam optics. In June 2018 the experimental operation of SPIDER has started

Resin-supported catalytic dendrimers as multivalent artificial metallonucleases

Tentagel resin was functionalized with dendrons containing 4 and 8 triazacyclononane ligands able to complex the Zn(II) metal ion. The supported dendritic metallo-complexes showed enzyme-like behaviour in the cleavage of HPNPP, a model substrate for RNA. The obtained Michaelis-Menten parameters were in excellent agreement with those obtained for the identical catalysts in solution. Diffusion studies have revealed the upper limit for the rate constants that can be assessed under these conditions

Mechanical design of the Columbus Telescope, R.I. Istituto di Scienza e Tecnica delle Costruzioni, Università di Padova, Padova, Italy, 1989.

Rapporto di ricerca apllicata alla progettazione del Columbus Telescope

Development of advanced control strategies for a dynamic triaxial soil testing machine

As civil engineering projects become increasingly ambitious, the earthworks that form a significant part of these projects become increasingly critical. Geotechnical engineering is concerned with the measurement , modelling and simulation of soil under various conditions for the application within civil engineering. In triaxial testing, an actuator applies a force or displacement to a soil sample. Dynamic triaxial testing is concerned with applying forces conforming to a rapidly changing pattern. The simplest case is concerned with applying a force in a sinusoidal pattern. The accuracy of models produced during triaxial testing depends largely on the accuracy of the equipment used for testing. As such, the control of the applied force is of great importance. The response of the soil sample directly influences the closed loop behaviour of the system. The soil sample response is unknown at the start of the test , can vary throughout a test and depends on various parameters, many of which are unobservable. This research investigates the issues faced in developing accurate control of dynamic triaxial testing equipment. Models of the load frame and various nonlinear soil sample responses are built for the purpose of simulation and controller design. Various control strategies are developed, implemented and tested, including the use of PID control, adaptive repetitive control and sliding mode control techniques. The recursive least squares algorithm is investigated and used for online identification in order to compensate for unknown and time varying plant parameters. Simulation and testing methods are investigated and several control methods are tested in simulation, on the target triaxial load frame using and finally using embedded processing hardware. Development and implementation techniques are also used including rapid prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop testing.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Cooperative nanosystems

Multivalent systems are well known for their enhanced ability to bind multivalent counterparts. This contribution addresses the question whether they can also behave as cooperative catalysts. Analyzing examples from our own laboratory we show that self-assembled systems obtained by covering gold nanoclusters with thiol-terminated amino acids and peptides behave indeed as cooperative catalysts. By comparing their activity profiles with those of discrete, multivalent systems we show what are minimal conditions to elicit cooperativity in multivalent systems. Reactions taken into considerations for our analysis are the hydrolyses of carboxylate- and phosphate esters. Copyright © 2008 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd