Research on the Heat Dissipation Characteristics of Lithium Battery Spatial Layout in an AUV

To meet the power demand requirements of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), the power supply is generally composed of a large number of high-energy lithium battery groups. The lithium battery heat dissipation properties not only affect the underwater vehicle performance but also bring some security risks. Based on the widespread application of lithium batteries, lithium batteries in an AUV are taken as an example to investigate the heat dissipation characteristics of the lithium battery spatial layout in an AUV. With the aim of increasing the safety of lithium batteries, a model is developed for the heat transfer process based on the energy conservation equation, and the battery heat dissipation characteristics of the spatial layout are analyzed. The results indicate that the most suitable distance between the cells and the cross arrangement is better than the sequence arrangement in terms of cooling characteristics. The temperature gradient and the temperature change inside the cabin with time are primarily affected by the navigation speed, but they have little relationship with the environmental temperature

New Insight into the Anti-liver Fibrosis Effect of Multitargeted Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors: From Molecular Target to Clinical Trials

Tyrosine kinases (TKs) is a family of tyrosine protein kinases with important functions in the regulation of a broad variety of physiological cell processes. Overactivity of TK disturbs cellular homeostasis and has been linked to the development of certain diseases, including various fibrotic diseases. In regard to liver fibrosis, several TKs, such as vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), platelet-derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinases, have been identified as central mediators in collagen production and potential targets for anti-liver fibrosis therapies. Given the essential role of TKs during liver fibrogenesis, multitargeted inhibitors of aberrant TK activity, including sorafenib, erlotinib, imatinib, sunitinib, nilotinib, brivanib and vatalanib, have been shown to have potential for treating liver fibrosis. Beneficial effects are observed by researchers of this field using these multitargeted TK inhibitors in preclinical animal models and in patients with liver fibrosis. The present review will briefly summarize the anti-liver fibrosis effects of multitargeted TK inhibitors and molecular mechanisms

Identification of potential inhibitors of omicron variant of SARS-Cov-2 RBD based virtual screening, MD simulation, and DFT

Emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern (VOC; B.1.1.529) resulted in a new peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which called for development of effective therapeutics against the Omicron VOC. The receptor binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein, which is responsible for recognition and binding of the human ACE2 receptor protein, is a potential drug target. Mutations in receptor binding domain of the S-protein have been postulated to enhance the binding strength of the Omicron VOC to host proteins. In this study, bioinformatic analyses were performed to screen for potential therapeutic compounds targeting the omicron VOC. A total of 92,699 compounds were screened from different libraries based on receptor binding domain of the S-protein via docking and binding free energy analysis, yielding the top 5 best hits. Dynamic simulation trajectory analysis and binding free energy decomposition were used to determine the inhibitory mechanism of candidate molecules by focusing on their interactions with recognized residues on receptor binding domain. The ADMET prediction and DFT calculations were conducted to determine the pharmacokinetic parameters and precise chemical properties of the identified molecules. The molecular properties of the identified molecules and their ability to interfere with recognition of the human ACE2 receptors by receptor binding domain suggest that they are potential therapeutic agents for SARS-CoV-2 Omicron VOC

Eddy current loss analysis of underwater wireless power transfer systems with misalignments

Underwater wireless power transfer (WPT) has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. In the seawater environment, the electrical conductivity is non-negligible compared with that in the air. Therefore, the eddy current loss is generated by the high-frequency alternating currents in the coils. The eddy current loss of the aligned coils has been analyzed while the eddy current loss of the misaligned coils has not been explored yet, which is crucial because misaligned coils are more common in practical applications. In this paper, an analytical model for the eddy current loss of a coreless WPT system in the seawater with misalignments is established with Maxwell’s equations. The theoretical expressions of the electric field intensity and the eddy current loss are derived. Then the eddy current loss is analyzed under different misalignments and frequencies. It is found that the efficiency in the seawater remains stable at a frequency range of 215.5 kHz to 248.4 kHz. Moreover, the efficiency is relatively unchanged under a small lateral misalignment and decreases sharply when the lateral misalignment keeps growing. An underwater WPT prototype is built and the experiments verify the theoretical analysis

Thermal management performance improvement of phase change material for autonomous underwater vehicles' battery module by optimizing fin design based on quantitative evaluation method

Efficient thermal management of lithium battery modules has become a thorny problem in the development of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), especially under high current discharge. In this article, the fin/phase change material (PCM) composite structure was proposed for AUV's battery thermal management with consideration of natural convection. The temperature behavior of the battery and the melting behavior of PCM were investigated under different key parameters. In addition, the heat transfer mechanism of the melting process of the PCM was revealed. More importantly, the dimensionless temperature control performance (TCP) factor and the dimensionless heat storage performance (HSP) factor were introduced as new criteria to quantitatively evaluate the impact of different design parameters on the battery thermal management performance. The results showed that utilizing fins can significantly accelerate the melting of the PCM. Increasing the number of fins can reduce the temperature of the battery and improve the uniformity of the battery temperature distribution. Compared with the pure PCM, the total time required for PCM melting in the fin/PCM battery thermal management unit with different numbers of fins is reduced by at least 11.5%. The decrease of the time of complete PCM melting is not linearly correlated with the length ratio of fins. The fin number of N = 6, length ratio of R = 0.8, and angle between fins of φ = 36° were identified as the optimal parameters of fin/PCM composite structures. The TCP and HSP were enhanced by 38.1% and 4.54%, respectively. The conclusions of this work can provide reference for the accurate design of fin/PCM composite structures for the thermal management of AUV batteries. Highlights: The fin/phase change material composite structure was introduced for autonomous underwater vehicles' battery thermal management. The temperature and melting behavior were investigated with natural convection. The temperature control performance factor and heat storage performance factor were proposed as new evaluation criteria. Temperature deviation index was used to measure the battery temperature uniformity. The performance was enhanced by optimizing the design parameters of fin

Enhancement of phase change materials by nanoparticles to improve battery thermal management for autonomous underwater vehicles

Battery thermal management (BTM) plays a significant role in the safety and reliability of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) at higher speeds. In this study, a nanoparticle/phase change material (nano-PCM) composite is proposed for the BTM of an AUV. The effects of nanoparticle loading percentage (φ = 5, 10, and 15%) and nanoparticle filling range (α = 30, 60, 90, and 120°) on the battery temperature and PCM melting were investigated numerically. Two criteria for the dimensionless temperature control performance (TCP) factor and dimensionless heat storage performance (HSP) factor were used to evaluate the influence of various variables on the BTM performance. The results show that increasing the nanoparticle loading percentage improves the effective thermal conductivity of the PCM but reduces the overall effective latent heat. An optimal nanoparticle filling range of α = 60° is recommended to accelerate the overall melting rate of the PCM. Compared with those of the pure PCM-based BTM, the TCP rate and TCP density are enhanced by 14.56% and 26.75%, respectively, at α = 60°. The HSP rate increases by 2.84% but the HSP density reduces by 11.85% at α = 60°. These findings can provide a reference for the accurate design of nano-PCM composites for the BTM of AUVs