Air Cylinder Research Articles

Development of high-speed gripper with closing and releasing capability

There are many recent studies on hyper-human technology like high speed grasping. An existing systems uses the release energy of a spring for high-speed grasping with an arm action with 100G. However, this gripper did not have the ability to release the object. To improve the feasibility of the system for real applications, both grasping and releasing functions are required. In this paper, we propose a prototype high-speed gripper which has the ability to both grasp and release. The conventional system used a spring to achieve high speed gripping. The grasping force decreases as the distance up to the object increases. In contrast, the gripper proposed here uses an air cylinder to open and close the gripper, so that the grasping force does not decrease as the distance increases. Preliminary experiments are conducted and the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism is evaluated.

Experimental investigations on the performance characteristics of CI engine fuelled with cerium oxide nanoparticle added biodiesel-diesel blends

The biodiesel as a substitute to fossil fuel is able to reduce the dependence on petroleum products as well as increase the engine performance. These biofuel produced from the different sources and also it is directly used for the engine it will not fully burn and it produces increased exhaust emission level. In this research, 20% of neochloris oleoabundans algae oil (B20) blended with neat diesel fuel along with cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticle was used in the dosage of 25 ppm, 50 ppm, 75 ppm and 100 ppm. The experimental outcomes obtained indicated that the brake thermal efficiency had been improved and also the exhaust engine emission was decreased. And also the brake specific fuel consumption had been decreased. This research was performed in a single cylinder air cooled engine connected with electrical dynamometer without having engine alteration and also the injection pressure and timings are maintained at the original standard suitable for the engine. The energy of cerium oxide blend with the biodiesel increased the performance of the diesel engines.

Emission analysis of CI engine with CeO2 nanoparticles added neochloris oleoabundans biodiesel-diesel fuel blends

The biodiesel as a alternate source to fossil fuel is able to minimize the dependence on petroleum products as well as control the pollution issues. These biofuel produced from the different sources and also it is directly used for the engine it will not fully burn and it produces increased exhaust emission level. In this research, 20% of neochloris oleoabundans algae oil (B20) blended with neat diesel fuel along with cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticle was used in the dosage of 25 ppm, 50 ppm, 75 ppm and 100 ppm. The experimental outcomes obtained indicated that the brake thermal efficiency had been improved and also the exhaust engine emission was decreased. And also the brake specific fuel consumption had been decreased, but the NOX level raised at the dosage level at 25 ppm of CeO2 nano additives. This research was performed in a single cylinder air cooled engine connected with electrical dynamometer without having engine alteration and also the injection pressure and timings are maintained at the original standard suitable for the engine. The energy of cerium oxide blend with the biodiesel increased the combustion properties in the engine, and results in decreased carbon deposits in the cylinder wall.

Combustion studies on CI engine with cerium oxide nanoparticle added neochloris oleoabundans biodiesel-diesel fuel blends

The biodiesel as a replacement source to fossil fuel is able to minimize the dependence on petroleum products as well as control the pollution issues. These biofuel produced from the different sources and also it is directly used for the engine it will not fully burn and it produces increased exhaust emission level. In this research, 20% of neochloris oleoabundans algae oil (B20) blended with neat diesel fuel along with cerium oxide (CeO2) nanoparticle was used in the dosage of 25 ppm, 50 ppm, 75 ppm and 100 ppm. This research was performed in a single cylinder air cooled engine connected with electrical dynamometer without having engine alteration and also the injection pressure and timings are maintained at the original standard suitable for the engine. The energy of cerium oxide blend with the biodiesel increased the combustion properties in the engine, and results in decreased carbon deposits in the cylinder wall.

The Lincoln’s Tube: A new apparatus for demonstrating sound standing waves

A new device for teaching the physics of sound, specifically demonstrating the wavelengths of standing sound waves, is here described. I define a “Lincoln’s Tube” as any hollow tube that uses lights (LEDs typically) to demonstrate the presence of sound standing waves. The name is chosen intentionally to recall a Ruben’s Tube or a Kundt’s Tube, which are similar apparatus that display standing sound waves in a long hollow cylinder of gas or air. In this article, a few variations of the Lincoln’s Tube approach are presented with instructions on how to build one. This new method for making sound waves visible has practical advantages over the other tubes, and the construction of one of these can be an engaging project with the potential to instruct on modern electronics and the fundamental wave properties of sound.

Actuator selection and sizing for valves

An actuator is a machine or component installed on the top of an industrial valve for automatically moving and controlling the valve. The performance of a valve is largely dependent on its actuator. Three factors are important for engineers to consider when selecting an actuator: frequency of operation, ease of access, and critical functions. Valve actuators should perform several functions including moving the valve closure member to an appropriate position, holding the valve closure member in the desired position, providing enough force or torque for seating the closure member and meeting the required shut down leakage class, providing fully open or fully close or failure mode as is, or providing a certain amount of closure member rotation with the right speed. In general, actuator can be hydraulic, pneumatic or electrical. This paper discusses the mechanism plus advantages and disadvantages of these three types of actuators. Affected parameters for actuator selection include the availability of a power source, torque and size of the valve, failure mode, speed of operation, frequency and ease of operation, control accessories, hazardous area, and cost. This paper presents a case study of breakaway torque (break to open) calculation and actuator sizing for a full-bore ball valve in pressure Class 300 equal to 50 barg nominal pressure and 22Cr duplex body material. The valve is fail close with an emergency shut down function, and a pneumatic actuator was selected for the valve. Fail close means that the valve will close in case of losing the power used as a source of actuator operation. Other four torque values were provided from the valve supplier. The calculated breakaway valve force and torque were used as a basis for actuator air cylinder sizing assuming air pressure of 7 barg and system efficiency of 90%. Force and torque for closing the valve were used to calculate the spring movement as well as spring piston length through Hook’s law.

Intake Air Mass Observer Design Based on Extended Kalman Filter for Air-Fuel Ratio Control on SI Engine

Air-fuel ratio (AFR) control is important for the exhaust emission reduction while using the three-way catalytic converter in the spark ignition (SI) engine. However, the transient cylinder air mass is unable to acquire by sensors directly and it may limit the accuracy of AFR control. The complex engine dynamics and working conditions make the intake air estimation a challenge work. In this paper, a novelty design of intake air observer is investigated for the port-injected SI engine. The intake air dynamical modeling and the parameter fitting have been carried out in detail. Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) has been used to optimize the instantaneous cylinder charge estimation and minimize the effort of pump gas fluctuation, random noise, and measurement noise. The experiment validation has been conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Optimization of structural parameters and installation position of the wall-mounted air cylinder in the fully mechanized excavation face based on CFD and orthogonal design

In order to obtain the reasonable structural parameters and installation position of the wall-mounted air cylinder attached to the fully mechanized excavation face in coal mines, a scaled physical model was established based on the C103 fully mechanized excavation working face of Nahe Coal Mine of Baise Bailing Group in Guangxi Autonomous Region. The orthogonal design and the numerical simulation were combined to investigate the wind flow field and the distribution of dust concentration under different structural parameters and installation positions of the wall-mounted air cylinders. The results of orthogonal numerical tests showed that as the width (W) and the length (L) of the strip-shaped air outlet increased, the dust concentration cm in the breathing area of drivers first decreased and then increased. In addition, cm increased with the increase of the installation distance (D). The optimal dust-control effect of the wall-mounted swirling ventilation was achieved under the following condition: the width (W) and the length (L) of the strip-shaped air outlet were 0.05 m and 1.4 m, respectively, and the distance (D) between the wall-mounted air cylinder and the tunneling end was 5.6 m. Under this condition, the dust concentration at the driver's location was the lowest, and the dust-blocking efficiencies for both total dust and respirable dust were 92.14% and 94.08%, respectively.

Understanding the effect of methane gas sensitivity using ultrasonic sensors and multi-matching layers inside a natural gas vehicle tank

This research paper is the experimental study to investigate the effect of ultrasound sensitivity in the pure methane gas space as the pressure and sensor distance increases. We offer the solution to overcome the low sensitivity characteristics of ultrasonic sensors in the methane gas space. This proposal shows the physical characteristics analyzed with self-induced vibration, beam pattern, amplitude, attenuation, and Gaussian distribution validation in CH4 gas space. An ultrasonic sensor is designed with PbTio3 material of an MS-50 PTZ. The signal processing analysis system (APAS) is composed of the mechanical and controlling sections including three mass flow controllers, an air cylinder, safety valves, three pressure regulators, a CVC, ultrasound sensors, and two gas tanks (air and CH4). The experiment is performed in a wide range of the initial conditions, i.e., supplying voltage of 25 V, current of 0.2 A, pulse rate of 7 Hz, measuring distance of 0.32 to 1.02 m, resonance frequency of 57.3 Hz, ambient temperature of 296 K, and pressure increases of 1, 2, 3 and 4 bar. The ultrasonic sensitivity of a sensor (T: EVA and R: EVA) significantly enhanced the acoustic impedance in a methane gas space as pressure increases. It is verified that the sensitivity effect of an ultrasonic sensor used with ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) matching layer is higher in the methane gas space than a chemical wood (CW) matching layer. Consequently, the effect of gas sensitivity computed by a GDA including the width (W), area (A), and height (H) is enhanced by an EVA sensor in comparison to other Models.

The application of ultrasonic-assisted measurement in pure methane gas space in a constant volume chamber using an ultrasonic sensor

This work is an experimental study using a gas ultrasound sensor to investigate the effect of the ultrasonic-assisted measurement on sensitivity and attenuation in pure methane (CH4) gas. This paper is mainly focused on the ultrasonic transmission and reception voltage characteristics, self-vibration, envelope signal, and amplitude. The ultrasonic-assisted measurement system is used for a reorganization purpose of constant volume chamber (CVC) located in an NG or CNG vehicle. The CVC system is designed with two different ultrasonic sensors: pressure regulator, pressure sensor, temperature sensor, safety valve, mass flow controller and actuator, LabVIEW cDAQ and software, and air cylinder for sensor distance control. The experiments are performed in a wide range of operating conditions, i.e., initial pressure of 1–5 bar, temperature of 293 K, initial voltage of 300–500 V, sensor distance of 30–90 cm, resonant frequency of 56.2 kHz, and pulse rate of 7 Hz. As a result, as pressure increases, the measured width of the transmission sensor (T: EVA) and receiving sensor (R: EVA) is remarkably widened in a main measuring signal including envelope amplitude. Also, in the case of a high sensitivity ultrasonic sensor (HSUS) capable of measuring CH4 gas inside a CVC, the measuring sensitivity has a higher efficiency in high-density conditions as well as low-density conditions compared with other types. Consequently, as the initial pressure increases, the entire ultrasonic sensors can obtain higher efficiency and sensitivity in CH4 gas space because of the significantly accumulated gas particles.

Effect of Cylinder Air Pressure and Hot Surface Temperature on Ignition Delay of Diesel Spray in a Constant Volume Combustion Chamber

Present-day direct injection (DI) diesel engines with a high power density of displacement are not just promoting an expansion in the utilization of high-temperature resistant alloys in pistons yet, in addition, the expanded cylinder air pressures. When the temperature of the diesel engines piston exceeds a certain limit, it assumes a critical role at the start of sprays. The target of the present investigation was to look at the effects of cylinder air pressures (CAP) (10–25 bar) and high hot surface temperatures (HST) (350–450 °C). The ignition delay (ID) of pure diesel and that of diesel with Iftex clean system D (a cetane enhancer) are investigated experimentally. The experiments are performed by using a constant volume combustion chamber (CVCC) with a single hole pintle-type nozzle mounted on its head. A strong dependence of ID on the CAPs and HSTs was observed. A CAP of 25 bar is much inferior to the precombustion pressure of DI diesel engines; however, it is the case that combustion typical features are the same in spite of an inferior CAP, HST, and injection pressure. The ID tends to decrease to very small values with an increase in either of the two parameters. At a CAP of 25 bar, the measured ID of diesel with fuel additive is 45.8% lower than the pure diesel. Further, the ID of diesel with fuel additive at a 300 bar injection pressure and 25 bar CAP decreases at a rate of close to 0.2 ms/bar.

KAISER ALLOY 6063

Abstract Kaiser Alloy 6063 in pipe and tube is used in air cylinder lines. This datasheet provides information on composition, physical properties, hardness, tensile properties, and shear strength as well as fatigue. It also includes information on corrosion resistance as well as machining and joining. Filing Code: Al-458. Producer or source: Kaiser Aluminum Corporation. See also Alloy Digest Al-436, March 2011.

Controlled Assembly of Polymer-Tethered Gold Nanorods via a Rayleigh-Instability-Driven Transformation: Implications for Biomedical Applications

We study the assembly and morphology transformation of gold nanorods tethered with polystyrene ligands (AuNRs@PS). The AuNRs@PS nanotubes are first fabricated in the nanopores of anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) templates by the solution wetting method. When the samples are thermally annealed, the Rayleigh-instability-driven transformations of the nanostructures are triggered by the decrease of the interfacial energies between the nanotubes and the inner air cylinders. Four different morphologies are identified: nanotubes (I), undulated structures (II), Rayleigh-instability-induced structures (III), and nanorods (IV). The morphology diagrams of the AuNRs@PS structures using different thermal annealing temperatures and times are also made, showing that the morphology transformation rates are higher at higher annealing temperatures. This work has implications to be applied in different fields such as biomedical applications.

An interface-capturing Godunov method for the simulation of compressible solid-fluid problems

In this paper a new three-dimensional Eulerian interface-capturing model is proposed for the simulation of compressible solid-fluid problems. The model is a development of a well-established five equation multi-fluid model to include material strength, by incorporating a new kinematic evolution equation for the elastic stretch tensor, and augmenting the Mie-Grüneisen equation-of-state to include a contribution from elastic strain. Principal to the development of the model is the fact that a great number of solid materials can be described by the particular general equation-of-state framework, which reduces to the Mie-Grüneisen equation-of-state in the limit of zero strength and is thus equally applicable to a wide class of fluids. The constitutive models are founded on hyperelastic theory and are therefore thermodynamically compatible. Only one kinematic equation is required for arbitrary numbers of components by assuming that mixtures are described by a common deviatoric strain tensor. The system of evolution equations can be written in conservation law form, and are therefore suitable for application of Godunov's method; specifically an HLLD Riemann solver is formulated for the calculation of numerical fluxes. Interfaces are sharpened by using the THINC method in conjunction with MUSCL reconstruction. A time operator splitting strategy is used to divide the time integration into an explicit elastic update, which uses the third order TVD Runge-Kutta method, followed by an implicit plastic update. The method is verified using a number of challenging solid-fluid problems, including a high-velocity impact of a viscoplastic strain-hardening cylinder in air. The potential of the model for practical problems is demonstrated through three-dimensional simulation of an explosive buried in solid ground material.

The structural analysis of the material resulting from the destruction by explosion of a compressed air cylinder

In this paper is presented the structural analysis carried out on samples from a compressed air cylinder subjected to explosion. The air cylinder was mounted on public transport bus. The risk that the incident would repeat with other similar cylinders carrying compressed air required a detailed study regarding the causes that led to the catastrophic degradation. The research by micro and macro structural analysis has highlighted several factors that have increased the damage. The optical micrographs are obtained using an Olympus metallographic microscope equipped with a digital camera, with the possibility to automatically assign the microstructure magnification and with automatic software for linear measurements. The research regarding the appearance of the inner surface of the compressed air cylinder container has highlighted an accentuated corrosion process, developed in the thickness of the cylinder wall with a non-uniform thickness. The break occurred near the welding, known as thermal influence zone (the analyzed cylinder being welded longitudinally). The research has shown that inter-crystalline corrosion associated with pitting (punctiform) corrosion developed between the dendrite branches leads to an intense metal degradation in the wall depth and, in limited cases, causes perforation of the metal wall, increasing the explosive fracture development. A factor that influenced the corrosion process in the ZIT area was the mounting of the compressed air cylinder with the welded area at the bottom of the component.

Prediction of NO and NO2 Concentrations in Ozone Injected Diesel Exhaust after NTP Treatment Using Dimensional Analysis

NTP based Ozone injection cascaded with catalysts/adsorbents for diesel exhaust treatment has been demonstrated by various researchers as a competent method for mitigation of nitrogen oxides. In this present study, one more NTP reactor is cascaded instead of catalysts/adsorbents to treat the ozone mixed diesel exhaust. While most of the laboratory studies were carried out using expensive dry air cylinders for ozone generation, in the present study, ozone has been generated from atmospheric air only. The nitrogen oxides removal/conversion efficiency of this process depends on various electrical and physical parameters. A dimensionless relation has been obtained between the ratio of summation of NO and NO2 concentrations after treatment to that before treatment and other parameters affecting nitrogen oxides removal using dimensional analysis. Prediction of sum of NO and NO2 concentrations with the variation in six dominant parameters have been done using nonlinear regression technique. Six parameters, i.e. ozone concentration, voltage, frequency, flow rate, temperature and discharge gap have been varied to collect the experimental data required to train and test this model. The predicted sum of NO and NO2 concentrations are found to be well matching with the experimental results. The RMS error is found to be 3.7 % and 5.9 % respectively for training and test data.

Individual cylinder air–fuel ratio estimation and control for a large-bore gas fuel engine

For internal combustion engines with multi-cylinders, the differences of fuel injection, air distribution, and even exhaust gas recirculation between cylinders may result in cylinder-to-cylinder im...

Model-Based Control of Electromagnetic Valve Actuators for Engine Speed Control

The introduction of electromagnetic valve actuators (EMVA) benefits engine fuel economy, torque performance and reduction of emissions. Meanwhile, it complicates the controller for the purpose of regulating the additional freedom degrees of intake valvetrain, such as valve lift, opening timing and opening duration. In order to address the control issue of EMVA application, a model-based controller is needed to realize that the cylinder air charge is regulated by controlling the EMVA motion directly for controlling the engine speed and output torque. For the development of the controller, a control-oriented model of engine with EMVA that can simulate the intake process of unthrottled operation, torque generation and crankshaft rotational dynamics was first developed. Then a model-based EMVA controller was designed to regulate the actuation of electromagnetic intake valves which consisted of a feedforward and a PID feedback module. According to torque-based concept, engine speed reference was translated into torque demand using optimal control theory and the speed control problem was solved as two parts: torque management that decided torque demand and the torque demand tracking. The simulations carried out in Matlab/Simulink verified the effectiveness of the controller. In addition, a test platform of the EMVA for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation was established and the practicability of EMVA application to engine intake systems was validated preliminarily.

Natural convection heat transfer from a vertical column of finite number of heated circular cylinders immersed in molten solar salt

A two-dimensional steady-state natural convection heat transfer from a vertical column consisting of 2–10 tightly packed isothermally heated horizontal circular cylinders submerged into molten solar salt was investigated numerically by using the finite volume method. Although laminar natural convection from a vertical column of multiple horizontal cylinders has been investigated in previous studies (Chouikh et al., 1999; Sparrow and Niethammer, 1981; Bejan et al., 1995; Sadeghipour and Asheghi, 1994; Corcione, 2005; Ashjaee and Yousefi, 2007; Tokura et al., 1983; Hannani et al., 2002; Kitamura et al., 2016), there are very few studies that considered natural convection heat transfer from circular cylinders immersed in molten solar salt (Lu et al., 2016, 2013; Brosseau et al., 2004). The results of the study show that Rayleigh number and longitudinal cylinder spacing SL have a significant effect on flow and heat transfer in the cylinder column.Using the correlations proposed for natural convection heat transfer from a vertical column of N circular cylinders in air or water would result in large errors in predicting heat transfer for a vertical column of cylinders in molten solar salt. Thus, correlations for the steady-state average Nusselt number Nu‾D,N for the column of N circular cylinders, where N was varied from 2 to 10, and for individual cylinders in the column Nu‾D,i are proposed as functions of the Rayleigh number (range 104–107) and dimensionless longitudinal cylinder spacing (SL/D). New correlations developed specifically for molten salt are needed to improve heat exchanger design for solar heating and heat storage technology, nuclear reactor safety, and waste heat recovery applications.

Analysis and design of a terahertz microstrip antenna based on a synthesized photonic bandgap substrate using BPSO

A microstrip patch antenna based on a synthesized photonic bandgap (PBG) substrate is designed and analyzed by using a technique based on the combination of an evolutionary heuristic optimization algorithm with the CST Microwave Studio simulator, which is based on the finite integral technique. The initial antenna is designed by analyzing air cylinders embedded in a thick silicon substrate, which has high relative permittivity. Then, to synthesize the PBG substrate, a binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) algorithm is implemented in MATLAB to design a two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal on a square lattice that improves the initially designed microstrip antenna. The unit cell is divided equally into many square pixels, each of which is filled with one of two dielectric materials, silicon or air, corresponding to a binary word consisting of the binary digits 0 and 1. Finally, the performance of the initial antenna is compared with the BPSO-optimized antenna using different merit functions. The results show remarkable improvements in terms of the return loss and fractional bandwidth. Both microstrip patch antennas based on the synthesized photonic crystal substrate achieve noticeable sidelobe suppression. Furthermore, the first design, which is a dual-band antenna, shows a return loss improvement of 5.39 %, while the fractional bandwidth of the second design is increased by 128 % (bandwidth of 128 GHz), compared with the initial antenna based on the air-hole PBG substrate. Both antennas maintain a gain close to 9.17 dB. Also, the results show that the obtained antennas have resonant frequencies around 0.65 THz, as required for next-generation wireless communication technology and other interesting applications.