Gathering Energy of the Stray Currents in Electrified Railways Environment for Power Supply

The paper presents a new, unconventional energy harvesting (EH) method for supplying low-power devices on electrified railway lines that utilises stray currents and the non-zero potential of the rails to the ground. The EH device gathers the energy and stores it in batteries. It could even work in extremely unfavourable weather conditions and could be easily placed in almost any location. The presented real-life data show that the average available power is less than 250 mW and the average useful power is about 100 mW. This is enough to supply ultra-low power microcontrollers, which only occasionally use energy-consuming modules to perform measurements or communicate. The disadvantage of the EH method is the introduction of resistance between the rail and the earth, which increases stray currents and could increase the electrochemical corrosion of the rail. To reduce the impact of this resistance, a method for balancing the flowing charge is proposed. After balancing, the average of the flowing current is zero and electrochemical corrosion should be reduced. The proposed charge balancing algorithms could reduce the unbalanced charge to nearly zero at the expense of energy gathering efficiency, which decreases by 20–40%.

Evaluation of Thermal Insulation of the Gastronomic Refrigeration Furniture Prototype

An innovative method of insulation by injection to a cooling tank was investigated with consideration of a sustainable development need during production of thermo-insulation materials. An insulation material consisted of polyurethane foam. The manufacturer has chosen HFO gases for filling in the pores, since this is a product with a low environmental impact. HFO gases have a zero potential for destruction of the ozone layer and an extremely low global warming potential. Cooling tanks insulated with modern technologies of injection of polyurethane foam were investigated with regard to heat permission. They were also tested on account of occurrence of heat leakage bridges. The investigation covered also cooling furniture insulated with a conventional method of gluing ready-made polyurethane boards. The tests showed that a modern insulation technology influences reduction of the heat permission coefficient towards the presently applied technology. The investigated insulation of cooling furniture did not prove any heat leakage bridges. Therefore, it may be concluded that the technological process is correct. Cooling tanks manufactured in the present insulation technology did not show the occurrence of heat leakage bridges.

Thermodynamic Analysis of Ozone-Safe Low Boiling Working Media for Turbo-Expander Plants

The article considers 46 low-boiling working media (LBWM) with zero potential for ozone layer destruction. Out of them, 14 ones are single-component hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants, 28 ones are multi-component mixtures of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants, and the four ones are native refrigerants. Thermodynamic analysis of working media based on the classical turbo-expander scheme with a heat exchanger designed to cool the superheated LBWM that has left the turbo-expander has been performed. For this scheme, a cycle is constructed in T–s-coordinates. The LBWM was compared using the exergetic coefficient of efficiency (KE). In the course of the study, it was found that for some LBWM, the sequence of location of the exergetic efficiencydependences on temperature at thermodynamically optimal working medium pressures is preserved over the entire temperature range under study (from 100 to 300 оC). In other words,if the working medium has the highest exergetic efficiency coefficient, then this property is inherent in it at any temperature in a given interval. It is proposed to perform the analysis of the LBWM for exergetic efficiency at an arbitrarily selected temperature (250 оC). The study demonstrated that the highest exergetic efficiency of natural refrigerants is R600A (50.25 %), among single component hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants – R245FA (50.00 %), R1233ZD(E) (49.91 %), R236EA (49.59 %), among multi-component mixtures of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants – R429A (47.92 %), R430A (47.49 %) and R423A (47.47 %). Out of the all examined refrigerants, the following ones have the highest exergetic efficiency of all the considered LBWM: R600A, R245FA, R1233ZD(E), R236EA, R1234ZE(Z), R236FA. They belong to both natural refrigerants (hydrocarbons) and single-component hydrofluorocarbons. It should be noted that each of these working media has its drawbacks: some have a high potential for global warming, others are explosive, and others have a high cost.

Non-linearly realized discrete symmetries

While non-linear realizations of continuous symmetries feature derivative interactions and have no potential, non-linear realizations of discrete symmetries feature non-derivative interactions and have a highly suppressed potential. These Goldstone bosons of discrete symmetries have a non-zero potential, but the potential generated from quantum corrections is inherently very highly suppressed. We explore various discrete symmetries and to what extent the potential is suppressed for each of them.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE PRESSURE DROP OF THE ECOFLUID R1234YF COMPARED TO THE FLUID R134A IN SMOOTH TUBES WITH 4.8MM INTERNAL DIAMMETER

The refrigerant fluid R1234yf is a hydrofluorefine with zero potential for degradation of the ozone layer and low potential for global warming. It is one of the potential substitutes for the currently used R134a in automotive systems. In this work, the pressure drop suffered by the fluids R134a and R1234yf when flowing in a test section through a pipe with a 4.8 mm internal diameter was measured. The pressure drop was plotted as a function of the void fraction at the exit of the test section and the values were compared concerning the change in mass flux, change in saturation temperature, and comparatively between R1234yf and R134a. A significant increase in pressure drop was observed by the increases of the mass flux, showing an increment of 155.46% of the pressure loss from 200 to 300 kg·m-2·s-1 for R1234yf at 35ºC and 161.07% for R134a in the same conditions. Despite being high, those values are expected since increasing mass flux also increases the friction between both phases. On the other hand, by increasing the saturation temperature, the pressure drop is slightly lower once the differences between the densities of the liquid and vapor phases are reduced. Compared with R134a, the R1234yf ecofluid presents less pressure drop, showing a reduction of 24% for 300 kg·m-2·s-1.

Spectral Determinants and an Ambarzumian Type Theorem on Graphs

We consider an inverse problem for Schrödinger operators on connected equilateral graphs with standard matching conditions. We calculate the spectral determinant and prove that the asymptotic distribution of a subset of its zeros can be described by the roots of a polynomial. We verify that one of the roots is equal to the mean value of the potential and apply it to prove an Ambarzumian type result, i.e., if a specific part of the spectrum is the same as in the case of zero potential, then the potential has to be zero.