Determination of the heat transfer coefficient of a rotary film evaporator with a heating film-forming element

A model of a rotary film evaporator with a film-forming element with a reflective heated surface has been developed. This will allow stabilizing the hydraulic movement of the cut wave flow due to the reflective surface of the geometric shape for the forced direction of the cut raw material to the heating surface. Autonomous heating of the reflective surface additionally provides a temperature effect in the conditions of movement of particles of raw materials after cutting. The analysis of the experimental and theoretical parameters of heat transfer made it possible to substantiate the criterion equation for determining the heat transfer coefficient of an evaporator with the proposed film-forming element and a reflective heated surface for calculating the coefficient from the working surface to the raw material. The resulting equation takes into account the influence of the vertical component of the motion of the raw material film, centrifugal movement during the rotation of the film-forming element, mixing of the boiling film of the raw material with steam bubbles, and the geometric characteristics of the film-forming blade on the hydrodynamic flow of the raw material. The calculation of the rotary-film evaporator was carried out using the criterion equation and the obtained useful heat exchange surface – 0.75 m2. The specific metal consumption in a rotary film evaporator with a film-forming element having a reflective surface is 57 kg/m2, compared to the vacuum evaporator traditionally used in canning industries (410 kg/m2), which is 7.1 times less. The duration of the temperature effect on the raw material is also reduced: a rotary film evaporator – 200 s and 3600 s in a traditional apparatus. The data obtained will be useful for the design of rotary-film devices of different geometric parameters using articulated blades with a reflective plate.

Ultra-Low-Reflective, Self-Cleaning Surface by Fabrication Dual-Scale Hierarchical Optical Structures on Silicon

An integrated functional anti-reflective surface is of great significance for optical and optoelectronic devices. Hence, its preparation has attracted great attention from many researchers. This study combined wet alkaline etching approaches and reactive ion etching (RIE) techniques to create a dual-scale hierarchical anti-reflective surface on silicon substrates. The effect of RIE time on surface morphology and optical performance was investigated using multiple characterization forms. The optimal parameters for the fabrication of dual-scale structures by the composite etching process were explored. The silicon surface with a dual-scale structure indicated excellent anti-reflective properties (minimum reflectivity of 0.9%) in the 300 to 1100 nm wavelength range. In addition, the ultra-low reflection characteristic of the surface remained prominent at incident light angles up to 60°. The simulated spectra using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method agreed with the experimental results. Superhydrophobicity and self-cleaning were also attractive properties of the surface. The functionally integrated surface enables silicon devices to have broad application prospects in solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), photoelectric detectors, and outdoor equipment.

A Wideband Reflector-Backed Antenna for Applications in GPR

A resistively loaded wideband slotted patch antenna with optimized performance on lower frequencies is proposed for ground-penetrating radar (GPR) applications. The proposed design is backed by an optimized reflector composed of a periodic array of square loop elements, which enhances the antenna’s gain and directivity. The antenna shows good radiation characteristics and ease of integration with the GPR systems. The proposed structure features a compact size and wide bandwidth covering from 0.6 to 4.6 GHz. The peak gain of 7 dBi is achieved. The fabricated prototype of the antenna along with an integrated optimized reflective surface has overall dimensions of 18 × 22 × 5 cm3. The measured results validate the antenna’s performance in both free space and sandy medium, which enlighten its use for GPR applications.

Multifunctional Partially Reflective Surface for Smart Blocks

In general, a partially reflective surface (PRS) is mainly used to increase the gain of an antenna; some metallic objects placed on the PRS degrades the antenna performance because the objects change the periodic structure of the PRS. Herein, we propose a multifunctional PRS for smart block application. When a passenger passes over a smart block, the fare can be simultaneously collected and presented through the LED display. This requires high gain antenna with LED structure. The high gain characteristic helps the antenna identify passengers only when they pass over the block. The multifunctional PRS has a structure in which an LED can be placed in the horizontal direction while increasing the antenna gain. We used the antenna’s polarization characteristics to prevent performance deterioration when LED lines are placed in the PRS. We built the proposed antenna and measured its performance: At 2.41 GHz, the efficiency was 81.4%, and the antenna gain was 18.3 dBi. Furthermore, the half-power beamwidth was 18°, confirming a directional radiation pattern.

A multifunctional ultrathin flexible bianisotropic metasurface with miniaturized cell size

In this paper, a flexible bianisotropic metasurface possessing omega-type coupling is presented. The designed metasurface behaves differently when excited from either forward (port 1) or back (port 2) sides. It provides an absorption of 99.46% at 15.1 Gigahertz (GHz), when illuminated from port 1, whereas, on simultaneous illumination from port 2, it behaves like a partially reflective surface (PRS). Furthermore, the presented metasurface not only acts as an in-band absorptive surface (port 1) and partially reflective surface (port 2), but it also provides 97% out-of-band transmission at 7.8 GHz. The response of the presented metasurface remains the same for both transverse Electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarized wave or any arbitrary linearly polarized wave. Additionally, the response of the metasurface is angularly stable for any oblique incidence up to 45º. The proposed ultrathin flexible metasurface with absorption, partial reflection and out-of-band transmission properties can be used in the Fabry Perrot cavity antenna for gain enhancement with radar cross-section (RCS) reduction both for passband and stop-band filtering, and conformal antenna applications.