Engineering

Perspective | 2021-05-07

SESAR: The Past, Present, and Future of European Air Traffic Management Research

The Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) project is the technological pillar of the European Commission’s Single European Sky Initiative to modernize air traffic management (ATM). Here, we describe the process of establishing SESAR and the main parts of the project: the research and development (R&D) part, which is led by the SESAR Joint Undertaking; the deployment part, which is managed by the SESAR Deployment Manager; and the European ATM Master Plan, which collects and lays out both the R&D and deployment needs. The latest European ATM Master Plan was adopted just prior to the current pandemic. The huge loss in air traffic due to the pandemic, and the speed of the recovery of the aviation industry will require reprioritization, but the main elements that have been established—particularly those in support of the environment—remain valid.

Tatjana Bolić , Paul Ravenhill

Article | 2021-05-07

Effect of Radial Porosity Oscillation on the Thermal Performance of Packed Bed Latent Heat Storage

Owing to its high heat storage capacity and fast heat transfer rate, packed bed latent heat storage (LHS) is considered as a promising method to store thermal energy. In a packed bed, the wall effect can impact the packing arrangement of phase change material (PCM) capsules, inducing radial porosity oscillation. In this study, an actual-arrangement-based three-dimensional packed bed LHS model was built to consider the radial porosity oscillation. Its fluid flow and heat transfer were analyzed. With different cylindrical sub-surfaces intercepted along the radial direction in the packed bed, the corresponding relationships between the arrangement of capsules and porosity oscillation were identified. The oscillating distribution of radial porosity led to a non-uniform distribution of heat transfer fluid (HTF) velocity. As a result, radial temperature distributions and liquid fraction distributions of PCMs were further affected. The effects of different dimensionless parameters (e.g., tube-to-capsule diameter ratio, Reynolds number, and Stefan number) on the radial characteristics of HTF and PCMs were discussed. The results showed that different diameter ratios correspond to different radial porosity distributions. Further, with an increase in diameter ratio, HTF velocity varies significantly in the near wall region while the non-uniformity of HTF velocity in the center region will decrease. The Reynolds and Stefan numbers slightly impact the relative velocity distribution of the HTF—while higher Reynolds numbers can lead to a proportional improvement of velocity, an increase in Stefan number can promote heat storage of the packed bed LHS system.

H. B. Liu , C. Y. Zhao

Article | 2021-05-10

Effects of inclination angles of disc cutter on machining quality of Nomex honeycomb core in ultrasonic cutting

Ultrasonic cutting with a disc cutter is an advanced machining method for the high-quality processing of Nomex honeycomb core. The machining quality is influenced by ultrasonic cutting parameters, as well as tool orientations, which are determined by the multi-axis machining requirements and the angle control of the cutting system. However, in existing research, the effect of the disc cutter orientation on the machining quality has not been studied in depth, and practical guidance for the use of disc cutters is lacking. In this work, the inclined ultrasonic cutting process with a disc cutter was analyzed, and cutting experiments with different inclination angles were conducted. The theoretical residual height models of the honeycomb core, as a result of the lead and tilt angles, were established and verified with the results obtained by a linear laser displacement sensor. Research shows that the residual height of the honeycomb core, as a result of the tilt angle, is much larger than that as a result of the lead angle. Furthermore, the tearing of the cell wall on the machined surface was observed, and the effects of the ultrasonic vibration, lead angle, and tilt angle on the tear rate and tear length of the cell wall were studied. Experimental results revealed that ultrasonic vibration can effectively decrease the tearing of the cell wall and improve the machining quality. Changes in the tilt angle have less effect than changes in the lead angle on the tearing of the cell wall. The determination of inclination angles should consider the actual processing requirements for the residual height and the machining quality of the cell wall. This study investigates the influence of the inclination angles of a disc cutter on the machining quality of Nomex honeycomb core in ultrasonic cutting and provides guidelines for machining.

Yidan WANG , Renke KANG et al.

Article | 2021-05-10

Multi-model ensemble deep learning method for intelligent fault diagnosis with high-dimensional samples

Deep learning has achieved much success in mechanical intelligent fault diagnosis in recent years. However, many deep learning methods cannot fully extract fault information to recognize mechanical health states when processing high-dimensional samples. Therefore, a multi-model ensemble deep learning method based on deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is proposed in this study to accomplish fault recognition of high-dimensional samples. First, several 1D DCNN models with different activation functions are trained through dimension reduction learning to obtain different fault features from high-dimensional samples. Second, the obtained features are constructed into 2D images with multiple channels through a conversion method. The integrated 2D feature images can effectively represent the fault characteristic contained in raw high-dimension vibration signals. Lastly, a 2D DCNN model with multi-layer convolution and pooling is used to automatically learn features from the 2D images and identify the fault mode of the mechanical equipment by adopting a softmax classifier. The proposed method, which is validated using the bearing public dataset of Case Western Reserve University, USA and a one-stage reduction gearbox dataset, has high recognition accuracy. Compared with other classical deep learning methods, the proposed fault diagnosis method has considerable improvements.

Xin ZHANG , Tao HUANG et al.

Article | 2021-05-10

Drivers of the development of global climate-change-mitigation technology: a patent-based decomposition analysis

The development of the climate-change-mitigation technology has received widespread attention from both academic and policy studies. Nevertheless, very few studies have explained how and why economies contribute differently to global development. This paper decomposed the development of the global climate-change-mitigation technology, proxied by patent-based indicators, from 1996 to 2015 into several predefined factors. The results show that the worldwide surge of climate-change-mitigation-technology patents from 1996 to 2011 is driven by increased concentration on green invention, improved research intensity, and enlarged economic scale, while the falling of patent counts from 2011 to 2015 is predominantly due to less concentration on green invention. Among different climate-change-mitigation technologies, the type-specific development is attributed to different dominant factors, and the resulting priority change can reflect the shift of both global research and development (R&D) resource and market demand. Regarding regional contributions, the resulting economy-specific contributions to each driving factor can be used to design the policies to promote the development of the global climate-change-mitigation technology.

Liying SONG , Jun JING et al.

Article | 2021-05-10

Influence mechanism of dynamic and static liquid bridge forces on particle deposition behaviors in solar photovoltaic mirrors

Solar energy is one of the most promising forms of renewable energy for solving the energy crisis and environmental problems. Dust deposition on photovoltaic mirrors has a serious negative impact on the photoelectric conversion efficiency of solar power stations. In this paper, the influence mechanism of the dynamic and static liquid bridge forces on particle deposition behaviors on solar photovoltaic mirrors is investigated. In addition, the expression and physical meaning of the particle critical separation velocity are proposed. The research results show that the static liquid bridge force can be the primary deposition force causing dust particles to adhere to photovoltaic mirrors. However, the dynamic liquid bridge force can act as a resistance force for the particle motion process and even make dust particles roll along and finally stay on the mirror. The contact force is the primary separation force that causes dust particles to flow away from the mirror. Whether dust particles adhere to the mirror depends on the relative size of the deposition and separating forces. The particle critical separation velocity describes the relative size of the collision-rebound effect and mirror adhesion effect and is expressed in Eq. (16). These research findings can provide theoretical guidance for mirror cleaning methods in the operation process of photovoltaic mirrors.

Xueqing LIU , Xiaodong ZHAO et al.

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