Monitoring contamination level on insulator materials under dry condition with a microwave reflectometer

Current techniques used for monitoring the levels of contamination on high voltage insulators, such as leakage current and infrared, are not effective in dry conditions since they require the surface of the insulator to be wetted by fog, rain or snow. If a buildup of contamination occurs during a prolonged dry period prior to a weather change there will be a significant risk that flashover may occur before there is time to implement preventative maintenance. Previous work has demonstrated the use of microwave radiometry to determine the levels of contamination on an insulator material under dry conditions, however practical applications are limited by low sensitivity. This paper reports the development of a novel technique based on microwave reflectometry to detect the power levels reflected from the surface of the insulator material. The level of contamination is then determined as a function of received power. A theoretical model establishes the relationship between equivalent salt deposit density levels on insulator surface and the dielectric properties of the contamination layer. A Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) model is used to simulate the total loss as a function of the contamination level. Experimental results verify the FDTD model and demonstrate the sensitivity of the reflectometer system to be approximately 100 times greater than the radiometer system. Therefore, the reflectometry system has considerably greater potential for practical applications to provide advance warning of the future failure of insulators under dry conditions for both HVDC and HVAC systems

Feasibility study on application of microwave radiometry to monitor contamination level on insulator materials

This paper introduces a novel method for monitoring contamination levels on high voltage insulators based on microwave radiometry. Present contamination monitoring solutions for high voltage insulators are only effective in predicting flashover risk when the contamination layer has been wetted by rain, fog or condensation. The challenge comes where the pollution occurs during a dry period prior to a weather change. Under these conditions, flashover can often occur within a short time period after wetting and is not predicted by measurements taken in the dry period. The microwave radiometer system described in this paper measures energy emitted from the contamination layer and could provide a safe, reliable, contactless monitoring method that is effective under dry conditions. The relationship between equivalent salt deposit density and radiometer output is described using a theoretical model and experimentally verified using a specially designed X-band radiometer. Results demonstrate that the output from the radiometer is able to clearly distinguish between different levels of contamination on insulator materials under dry conditions. This novel contamination monitoring method could potentially provide advance warning of the future failure of wet insulators in climates where insulators can experience dry conditions for extended periods

The dust never settles: collisional production of gas and dust in evolved planetary systems

Multi-epoch infrared photometry from Spitzer is used to monitor circumstellar discs at white dwarfs, which are consistent with disrupted minor planets whose debris is accreted and chemically reflected by their host stars. Widespread infrared variability is found across the population of 37 stars with two or more epochs. Larger flux changes occur on longer time-scales, reaching several tens of per cent over baselines of a few years. The canonical model of a geometrically thin, optically thick disc is thus insufficient, as it cannot give rise to the observed behaviour. Optically thin dust best accounts for the variability, where collisions drive dust production and destruction. Notably, the highest infrared variations are seen in systems that show Ca II emission, supporting planetesimal collisions for all known debris discs, with the most energetic occurring in those with detected gaseous debris. The sample includes the only polluted white dwarf with a circumbinary disc, where the signal of the day–night cycle of its irradiated substellar companion appears diluted by dust emission

A Lie-Algebraic Approach To the Kondo Problem

The Kondo problem is studied using the unitary Lie algebra of spin-singlet fermion bilinears. In the limit when the number of values of the spin $N$ goes to infinity the theory approaches a classical limit, which still requires a renormalization. We determine the ground state of this renormalized theory. Then we construct a quantum theory around this classical limit, which amounts to recovering the case of finite $N$.Comment: 3 figure

Direct measurement of swimming and diving kinematics of giant Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus)

Tunas possess a range of physiological and mechanical adaptations geared towards high-performance swimming that are of considerable interest to physiologists, ecologists and engineers. Advances in biologging have provided significant improvements in understanding tuna migrations and vertical movement patterns, yet our understanding of the locomotion and swimming mechanics of these fish under natural conditions is limited. We equipped Atlantic bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) with motion-sensitive tags and video cameras to quantify the gaits and kinematics used by wild fish. Our data reveal significant variety in the locomotory kinematics of Atlantic bluefin tuna, ranging from continuous locomotion to two types of intermittent locomotion. The tuna sustained swimming speeds in excess of 1.5 m s−1 (0.6 body lengths s−1), while beating their tail at a frequency of approximately 1 Hz. While diving, some descents were entirely composed of passive glides, with slower descent rates featuring more gliding, while ascents were primarily composed of active swimming. The observed swimming behaviour of Atlantic bluefin tuna is consistent with theoretical models predicting such intermittent locomotion to result in mechanical and physiological advantages. Our results confirm that Atlantic bluefin tuna possess behavioural specializations to increase their locomotory performance, which together with their unique physiology improve their capacity to use pelagic and mesopelagic habitats

Entanglement perturbation theory for the quantum ground states in two dimensions

A simple, general and practically exact method, Entanglement Perturbation Theory (EPT), is formulated to calculate the ground states of 2D macroscopic quantum systems with translational symmetry. An emphasis will be placed on the applicability of EPT to fermions. We will discuss some preliminary evidences which indicate a potential of EPT

Nutrient availability of different batches of wheat distillers dried grains with solubles with and without exogenous enzymes for broiler chickens

Wheat distillers' dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are being used increasingly in the poultry feed industry but their nutritional value is variable. The aim of this experiment was to examine the effect of batch to batch variation of wheat DDGS produced by the same manufacturer on the growth performance, dietary N corrected apparent metabolizable energy (AMEn), energy conversion ratio (ECR), total tract dry matter retention (DMR), nitrogen retention (NR) and fat digestibility (FD) coefficients when fed to broilers in complete diets with and without enzyme supplementation. Six UK wheat DDGS samples, produced by a single manufacturer, were used in a broiler experiment. Six diets containing 150 g/kg of each selected wheat DDGS sample were mixed. Each diet was then split into two batches and one of them was supplemented with commercial enzyme preparation, providing 1220 units xylanase and 152 units of β-glucanase/kg diet, resulting in 12 experimental diets. Each diet was fed ad libitum to five pens of two male Ross 308 broilers from 7 to 21 d old. Enzyme supplementation improved dietary AMEn, DMR, NR (P < 0.001) and FD (P < 0.05) compared to non-supplemented diets. There was DDGS sample by enzyme interaction (P < 0.05) on daily weight gain and ECR. The results suggest that the variability in AMEn of DDGS samples produced from a single manufacturer is greater than expected compared to the variability of whole wheat samples but substantially lower than expected from wheat DDGS samples from different EU manufacturers. This experiment has shown that the variation in feeding value of wheat DDGS may be explained by the variability in polysaccharide contents

Finite size scaling in the 2D XY-model and generalized universality

In recent works (BHP), a generalized universality has been proposed, linking phenomena as dissimilar as 2D magnetism and turbulence. To test these ideas, we performed a MC study of the 2D XY-model. We found that the shape of the probability distribution function for the magnetization M is non Gaussian and independent of the system size --in the range of the lattice sizes studied-- below the Kosterlitz-Thoules temperature. However, the shape of these distributions does depend on the temperature, contrarily to the BHP's claim. This behavior is successfully explained by using an extended finite-size scaling analysis and the existence of bounds for M.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett. Details of changes: 1. We emphasized in the abstract the range of validity of our results. 2. In the last paragraph the temperature dependence of the PDF was slightly re-formulate