Modelling the Effects of Al2O3-SiO2 Nanocomposite Additive in Biodiesel–Diesel Fuel on Diesel Engine Performance Using Hybrid ANN-ABC

Yearly, large amounts of waste cooking oil are produced, which are discharged to urban sewage system. However, majority of them is recyclable and can be re-used as biodiesel fuel. When using biodiesel fuels, one way to improve the engine performance is to use nano additives. This study investigates the biodiesel fuel with different ratios of Al2O3-SiO2 nanocomposite additive (Al0%-Si100%, Al25%-Si75%, Al50%-Si50%, Al75%-Si25% and Al100%-Si0%) at full load and four different nanocomposite concentrations (30, 60, 90 and 120 ppm). The Hybrid ANN-ABC modelling was conducted for two cases: a) finding and applying the most effective properties as network inputs; and b) total properties as inputs showed that the most effective properties have higher performance. The fuels B5Al60Si60 and B5Al9Si21 showed the highest brake power; the fuels B5Al0Si60 and B5Al120Si0 showed the lowest brake power, indicating that the interactions of nanoparticles in the composite mode had positive effects on brake power. The performance improvement using nano-composite additive was more than that of the nanoparticles individually.

Longitudinal Composite-Mode Linear Ultrasonic Motor for Motion Servo System of Probe Station

In order to build a motion system with high resolution, fast response, and long travel range in a probe station, a linear ultrasonic motor was investigated as an alternative to the electromagnetic counterpart in a servo system. This work focused on a longitudinal composite-mode linear ultrasonic motor for the motion servo system in a probe station. The motor was designed based on the required specifications. A finite element model was built to analyze the dynamic response of the stator. The influence of the structural parameters on the dynamic performances, i.e., sensitivity parameters, was calculated to analyze the stability of the structure. Based on these analytical works, a prototype of the stator was developed and mode testing was conducted. The experimental results showed that the proposed design was able to achieve respectable performance: Despite the dual-mode design, the frequency difference between the two working modes was minimized to 608 Hz; and the prototype could operate stably under 55.4 kHz, providing a 0.5 N load with 980 mm/s speed.

Experimental Study on Mechanical and Electrical Properties of PV-PVC Composites

Based on BIPV, the idea of flexible amorphous silicon solar cell (PV) and PVC membrane composite was put forward. In this paper, the influence of composite mode and force form is mainly investigated. The mechanical and electrical properties of PV-PVC composite under uniaxial and cyclic tension are obtained. The main results show that the tensile strength of PV-PVC composite is basically the same as that of PVC membrane. Compared with PVC membrane, the modulus of elasticity of PV-PVC composite under cyclic loading is significantly increased, while the residual strain and the area of hysteresis loop are significantly reduced. The difference in mechanical properties of different off-axis angles is significantly reduced. Under the stress level of common design strength of PVC membrane materials, solar cells can play a good photoelectric effect. This paper provides an important reference for the realization of membrane structure photovoltaic integration.

Study on Morphology Features and Mechanical Properties of Nanofibers Films Prepared by Different Composite Electrospinning Methods

Electrospinning is an important method for preparing nanofibers, which are highly promising for applications in a wide range of fields such as purification/filtration, photoelectric devices, battery separators, catalysis and tissue engineering. These applications often use composite materials and have specific requirements for mechanical properties. Therefore, how to get nanofibers films with ideal mechanical properties by changing the composite mode is an important process problem for the given two or more materials. Based on the far-field electrospinning, this study selected polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to explore the differences of three composite methods: mixed spinning, multi-nozzle simultaneous spinning and superposition spinning. Three kinds of analysis can be seen in this study, which include morphology features, thickness measurement and mechanical properties of samples. Multi-nozzle simultaneous spinning has very limited changes. Mixed spinning and superposition spinning are beneficial to the improvement of nanofibers films morphology and mechanical properties. Among them, the composite films through superposition spinning are thinner.