Investigation of Structures of Sintered Processed Fly Ash Materials: Resources of Industrial Wastes

The aim of the work is to use industrial waste as resource materials for formulating useful product for society. Materials are prepared using Fly ash as main ingredient through sintered process via solid state route. Different materials are prepared using various sintering temperature. The crystal structural and phases are explored by XRD analysis. Mulite phase are investigated, which is indicated the insulating properties of the materials. Surface topography of the prepared materials is analyzed by FESEM characterization. EDS analysis is also done during the FESEM characterization and is assessed the various chemical compositions. Identification of different chemical groups in the processed Fly Ash is carried out by FTIR analysis. Highest electrical resistivity is estimated and is found to be 35.1 MΩ, which indicates the very good insulating property.

Experimental Analysis of the Behavior of Straw Biocomposite Exposed to High Temperature

In view of the climate emergency and the need for energy transition, the use of materials with low environmental impact based on plant co-products or from recycling is strongly encouraged. Biobased materials have been developed in recent years and have shown interesting performances, particularly for the thermal insulation of buildings. Nevertheless, their use is still hampered by the lack of rules for their use and control of their behaviour in normal or accidental conditions of use such as excess water or fire. In this work, the behaviour of biocomposites based on cereal straw exposed to high temperatures was studied. The objective is to evaluate the effect of this temperature increase on the mechanical strength of the material and its thermal properties using different heating scenarios. The biocomposites considered for this study were developed as part of the PEPITE project funded by the “Region Centre Val de Loire”. They are materials composed of two different binders: lime, and plaster, straw aggregates and additives (air entraining agent, casein protein and biopolymer). In order to simulate fire, two temperatures were chosen for the study 200°C and 210°C, using four different heating rates to study their impact on the behaviour of dry and wet conditions of biocomposites. The purpose of this tests is to examine whether the material retains its insulating properties and its buildability. The results showed that the use of additives had negative effects on the behaviour of the materials with respect to temperature increase. Their use accelerates the degradation and burning of biocomposites faster than for samples without additives. Plaster based composites show a better behavior to high temperature than lime-based composites. Nevertheless, lime composites have a higher strength than plasters. Furthermore, the thermal conductivity of plaster is lower than that of lime. It should be noted that the heating rate has a significant impact on the behaviour of the material, the slower the rate, the more the material is degraded.

Three modes of the nonstationary holographic current excitation in a gallium oxide crystal

We report the nonstationary holographic current excitation in a β-Ga2O3 crystal at light wavelength λ=457 nm. The material demonstrates insulating properties and high transparency for a visible light, but this, however, does not prevent the dynamic space-charge grating formation and the holographic current observation for various external electric fields - zero, dc and ac ones. The signal amplitude is measured and analyzed versus the frequency of phase modulation, spatial frequency and electric field value. The main photoelectric parameters such as specific photoconductivity, sensor responsivity and diffusion length of carriers are determined for the blue region of spectrum.

Defining patterns of heat transfer through the fire-protected fabric to wood

Under the thermal action on wood when applying a protective screen made from fire-retardant fabric, the process of temperature transfer is natural. It has been proven that depending on the thermal properties of the coating of fire-proof fabric, this could lead to varying degrees of heat transfer. Therefore, it becomes necessary to study the conditions for establishing low thermal conductivity and establishing a mechanism that inhibits heat transfer to wood. Given this, a mathematical model has been built of the process of heat transfer to wood when it is protected by a screen made of fire-proof fabric. According to the experimental data on determining the temperature on the non-heated surface of the fabric and the resulting dependences, the density of the heat flow transmitted to wood through fire-proof fabric was determined. Thus, with an increase in the temperature, the density of the heat flow to the surface of the wood through a protective screen made of fire-proof protected coating based on "Firewall-Attic" increases to a value above 16 kW/m2, which is not sufficient for ignition of wood. Instead, the density of the heat flow through the protective screen of fire-proof fabric protected by the "Firewall-Wood"-based coating did not exceed 14 kW/m2. This makes it possible to argue about the compliance of the detected mechanism of formation of heat-insulating properties in the protection of wood and the practical attractiveness of the proposed technological solutions. Thus, the peculiarities of inhibition of the process of heat transfer to wood through a protective screen made of fire-proof fabric under the action of a radiation panel imply the formation of a heat-insulating layer of coked cellular material when decomposing the coating. Thus, on the surface of the fire-proof fabric, a temperature above 280 °C was achieved and, on an untreated surface of the fabric, it did not exceed 220 °C, which is insufficient for the ignition of wood.

Comparison of artificial intelligence techniques to failure prediction in contaminated insulators based on leakage current

Contamination in insulators results in an increase in surface conductivity. With higher surface conductivity, insulators are more vulnerable to discharges that can damage them, thus reducing the reliability of the electrical system. One of the indications that the insulator is losing its insulating properties is its increase in leakage current. By varying the leakage current over time, it is possible to determine whether the insulator will develop an irreversible failure. In this way, by predicting the increase in leakage current, it is possible to carry out maintenance to avoid system failures. For forecasting time series, there are many models that have been studied and the definition of which model is suitable for evaluation depends on the characteristics of the data associated with the analysis. Thus, this work aims to identify the most suitable model to predict the increase in leakage current in relation to the time the insulator is outdoors, exposed to environmental variations using the same database to compare the methods. In this paper, the models based on linear regression, support vector regression (SVR), multilayer Perceptron (MLP), deep neural network (DNN), and recurrent neural network (RNN) will be analyzed comparatively. The best accuracy results for prediction were found using the RNN models, resulting in an accuracy of up to 97.25%.

Substituent Control of σ-interference Effects in the Transmission of Saturated Molecules

The single-molecule conductance of saturated molecules can potentially be fully suppressed by destructive quantum interference in their σ-system. However, only few molecules with σ-interference have been identified and the structure-property relationship remains to be elucidated. Here, we explore the role of substituents in modulating the electronic transmission of saturated molecules. In functionalized bicyclo[2.2.2]octanes, the transmission is suppressed by σ- interference when fluorine substituents are applied. For bicyclo[2.2.2]octasilane and - octagermanes the transmission is suppressed when carbon-based substituents are used, and such molecules are likely to be highly insulating. For the carbon-based substituents we find a strong correlation between the appropriate Hammett constants and the transmission. The substituent effect enables systematic optimization of the insulating properties of saturated molecular cores.

Microstructure and Properties of Atmospheric Plasma Sprayed (Al,Cr)2O3–TiO2 Coatings from Blends

Coatings prepared from chromia-rich (Al,Cr)2O3 solid solution (ss) feedstock powders are intended to improve the properties of Cr2O3 coatings, but are rarely studied so far. In this work, the processability of a commercial (Al,Cr)2O3 solid solution (ss) powder containing 78 wt.% Cr2O3 by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS), the corresponding coating microstructures and properties were investigated. Possible further improvements were expected by blending with 2, 23 and 54 wt.% TiOx powder. For comparison, plain Cr2O3 and TiOx coatings were studied as well. The microstructures were analyzed using SEM, EDS and XRD measurements. Hardness (HV0.3) was measured, as well as the dry unidirectional sliding wear resistance and the abrasion wear resistance (ASTM G65). Moreover, the corrosion and electrical insulating properties were measured. The (Al,Cr)2O3 ss showed only a small change of the composition, and the formation of γ-Al2O3, as found for alumina-rich (Al,Cr)2O3 ss powders, was avoided. Compared to the plain chromia coating, some improvements of the processability and coating properties for the ss (Al,Cr)2O3 coating were found. The most balanced coating performance was achieved by blending the ss (Al,Cr)2O3 with 2 wt.% TiOx, as this coating showed both a high sliding and abrasion wear resistance, in combination with a high corrosion resistance.