Main Structural Material Research Articles

Визначення швидкості корозії основного конструкційного матеріалу сіток капілярних розділювачів фаз

The subject of this study is the corrosion processes that occur in the fuel tanks of spacecraft with a long service life, the engines of which operate on chemically aggressive fuel components (FC): nitrogen tetroxide (NT) and asymmetric dimethylhydrazine (NDMH). The goal is to determine the reduction of wire diameters and the increase of cell sizes of capillary phase separator grids (PSG) because of the corrosion effect of the main structural material of the 12X18H10T stainless steel grid. Task: establishing the presence, type, and rate of corrosion of the main structural material of the PSG nets. The methods used are as follows: to determine the presence of corrosion by studying the composition of substances found on the surface of the grids – X- ray fluorescence, X- ray structural, atomic absorption, potentiometric, turbodimetric, infrared spectroscopy, and chromato-mass spectrometry; to determine the type of corrosion-metallographic studies of mesh samples; to determine the rate of corrosion-measuring the geometric dimensions of mesh samples. The following results were obtained. The metal cations detected on the surface of the mesh samples correspond to the elements that make up the alloy of aluminum and steel - the main structural materials of the fuel tanks of launch vehicles; 12Х18Н10Т steel is not susceptible to local types of corrosion (pitting, intercrystalline, dot, contact, crevice, and stress corrosion cracking) in high-pressure and low-pressure tanks; the presence of a continuous (uniform) corrosion effect on the surface of the grid wires was established; dependences of changes in the main geometric parameters of the grids (wire diameters and cell sizes) over time were obtained, according to which the limits of the corrosion rates of stainless steel grade 12X18N10T in the liquid phase of NT and NDMG and in the gas phase were established; and coefficients of the maximum corrosion rate were calculated. Conclusions. The scientific novelty of the obtained results is as follows: for the first time, the presence, type, and rate of corrosion of the main structural material of the PSG grids because of their long-term operation (14...31 years) in the liquid phase of AT and NDMH and in the gas phase were determined using cross-methods.

INTERVAL MODEL FOR ASSESSING THE PURITY OF NUCLEAR STRUCTURAL METALS BY MICROHARDNESS

The article considers the possibilities of evaluating the purity of Zr-1%Nb zirconium alloy samples – the main structural material of the thermal neutron reactors active zones with a water coolant – according to the microhardness of the metal. The correctness of the application of interval regression analysis is shown, if there is uncertainty, incompleteness of information, measurement errors in the experimental data for determining the oxygen content in metal samples and its microhardness. The method of estimating parameters of interval linear regression is presented.

A Building Information Modeling-Based Life Cycle Assessment of the Embodied Carbon and Environmental Impacts of High-Rise Building Structures: A Case Study

High-rise buildings represent technological, urban, and life-style trends of the modern urban landscape, yet there are limited data regarding their embodied carbon and environmental impacts, particularly when compared to low- or mid-rise buildings. Given that the projected growth of the global urban population by 2050 requires cities with higher density and potentially a greater number of high-rise buildings, it is crucial to develop a clear understanding of the embodied carbon and environmental impacts of high-rise buildings. The primary structural materials used in high-rise buildings are reinforced concrete and structural steel. As of today, over 99% of tall buildings’ structures are built from those two materials. This article utilizes a building information modeling (BIM)-based life cycle assessment (LCA) in Revit and Tally to examine the embodied carbon and environmental impacts of an actual high-rise building structure case study in Chicago that uses a hybrid concrete steel structure. The results show that the embodied carbon and environmental impacts of the high-rise building structure are dominated by the impacts of the product stage in the building’s life cycle and by concrete being the main structural material. Specifically, this study reveals that concrete constitutes a substantial 91% share of the total mass of the building structure, with a 74% contribution to the life cycle global warming potential, 53% to the acidification potential, 74% to the eutrophication potential, 74% to the smog formation potential, and 68% to the non-renewable energy usage. On the other hand, steel accounts for 9% of the building’s structure mass, estimated to constitute 26% of the global warming potential, 47% of the acidification potential, 26% of the eutrophication potential, 26% of the smog formation potential, and 32% of the non-renewable energy usage.

Експериментальне визначення зміни капілярної утримної здатності сітчастих розділювачів фаз

The subject of this study is the process of loss of capillary holding capacity (CHC) as a result of a violation of the balance of external and internal forces on the phase interface (PI) "liquid - gas" of the capillary in the cell of the mesh phase separator (MPS) of the capillary means for ensuring the integrity of the fuel (CMEIF) with a long service life in chemically aggressive fuel components (FP): nitrogen tetroxide (NT) and asymmetric dimethylhydrazine (NDMH). The goal is to improve the selection of design parameters of the CMEIF through the refinement of traditional approaches to the calculation of the CHC MPS depending on the term of their operation. Task: to determine the rate of corrosion of the main structural material of the MPS - steel nets of the twill weave type, and its effect on the structural and geometric characteristics of the nets; to perform an experimental determination of the change in the MPS CHC; to improve the mathematical model for determining the MPS CHC, considering the term of their operation as part of the fuel system of space flight vehicles (SFV). The methods used are as follows: to determine the rate of corrosion - metallographic studies and measurement of the geometric dimensions of mesh samples; to determine the change in CHC - the bubble method. The following results were obtained. The coefficient of the maximum corrosion rate was determined. A new, refined dependence of the average value of Bo cr on the temperature of the FP was obtained. Linear regressions of changes in the approximated values of CHC MPS depending on the duration of their operation were obtained. An increase in the average arithmetic value of the wetting contact angle θ in the NDMG over 31 years of MPS operation was determined. An improved mathematical model for determining the CHC of MPS was obtained, considering the period of their operation in JSC and NDMH. Conclusions. The scientific novelty of the obtained results is as follows: for the first time, comprehensive studies were carried out to determine the rate of corrosion of the main structural material of MPS after a long period of their stay (from 14 to 31 years) in FP (NT and NDMG) and under their pairs, the results of which revealed regularities of flow corrosion processes in the liquid and gas phase, established corrosion rates and deduced coefficients, the application of which improves the engineering methods of calculating the main parameters of MPS; the physical model for calculating Bo kr received further development; the physical model for calculating the CHC has been improved, which makes it possible to calculate the value of the static CHC of the MPS with greater accuracy than it was before and to make the final design of the designed CMEIF more perfect and reliable.

Numerical Simulation of the Effect of Fusion Welding Processes on Residual Stress in Stainless Steel Pipe Weld Joints Used in Fast Reactors

The main structural material used in the building of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR) is stainless steel of type 316L(N). Finite Element Model (FEM)-based simulations were carried out to understand the effect of various welding processes on the residual stresses induced in 316L(N) stainless steel primary sodium-carrying pipes with an inner diameter of 208 mm and a wall thickness of 5.6 mm. The welding processes considered include multi-pass Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding, A-TIG, laser, hybrid laser-TIG, and Hybrid laser-Metal Inert Gas (MIG). First, single or hybrid heat sources are chosen based on the welding process, and then weld bead profiles obtained during simulation are made to match with that of the actual weld bead profiles obtained during experiments. Then, the optimised heat source is employed for the thermal analysis. The thermal analysis output is then successively linked and provided as input to the mechanical analysis, which uses an isotropic hardening model to predict hoop and axial residual stresses in pipe weld joints. The results show that the A-TIG weld joint exhibited lower hoop stress (165 MPa at inner diameter and -2 MPa at outer diameter) in comparison with that of the other weld joints. The lower residual stress is attributed due to the straight-sided weld bead, lower peak temperature, and slower cooling rate of the A-TIG welding. Therefore, A-TIG welding is recommended among the chosen fusion welding processes for welding of 316L(N) stainless steel primary sodium carrying pipes to minimise the residual stresses and mitigate the premature failure of the pipe weld joints.

X-ray tomography of failure behaviors of arc welded AA2219 joints under tensile and cyclic loading

As one of the main structural materials widely used for the new generation of launch vehicles, the tensile properties and microstructural characterization of tungsten inert gas (TIG) welded 2219 aluminium alloy has been studied extensively. However, there are significant differences between fatigue fracture and tensile fracture modes. In this paper, the tensile and fatigue damage behaviors of arc-welded AA2219 joints were investigated in depth. Combined with the microstructure observation and fracture analysis done by using X-ray computed tomography, the main factors that affect the fatigue damage behavior are discussed. The results show that there are a large number of porosity defects in the weld zone, showing an aggregation distribution at the weld toe and weld pool line. The fine-grain zone around the fusion line is the softening zone of the welded joint. For tensile conditions, the cracks were initiated at the softening zone and extended along the fusion line to the final fracture. Under fatigue loading conditions, the weld reinforcement leads to the stress concentration at the weld toe, and at the same time, a lot of pore defects at the weld toe, which causes crack initiation at the pores in the weld toe. Due to the small plastic zone at the fatigue crack tip, the crack propagates almost perpendicular to the loading direction in the heat-affected zone, driven by a mode I crack. A large number of gas pores in the weld zone have no substantial effect on fatigue crack propagation.

Design of domain-limited CVI reactor for L-shaped C/C structure

New complex-shaped and thin-walled carbon/carbon (C/C) composites have become the main hot structural material for new hypersonic vehicles because of their superior properties. In the preparation of complex-shaped and thin-walled C/C composites by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) method, problems such as slow density growth and inhomogeneity of density distribution have been hindering the development of C/C hot structure, in order to solve which, this paper proposes a design method for domain-limited CVI reactors for complex-shaped and thin-walled C/C structure, as well as conducts CVI experiments with the designed domain-limited reactor for a L-shaped and thin-walled C/C structure. A coupled multi-physical field model considering flow, diffusion, and chemical reactions was established, which was verified by comparison with experiments. The effects of diameter of hole, distance of neighboring holes, depth of hole and length of reactor on deposition quality were analyzed by simulation. The results showed that larger diameter of hole and smaller distance of neighboring holes would be more favorable for the accumulation of density of structure and depth of hole has little effect on deposition. The best solution is diameter of hole with 18 mm and distance of neighboring holes with 20 mm. Homogeneity of density can be improved by adjusting the specific length of the reactor. For the fabric sizes given in the study, when the specific length of the preform is 3.4, the deposition rate and homogeneity can reach a good level at the same time. This study is a guideline for optimization the quality of C/C structure during processing.

FireDrone: Multi‐Environment Thermally Agnostic Aerial Robot

Deploying robots in extreme environments reduces risks to human lives. However, robot operating conditions are often limited by environmental factors such as extreme temperatures encountered in fire disasters or polar regions. Especially drones face challenges in carrying thermal management systems protecting vital components, due to limited payload capacity compared to ground robots. Herein, a thermally agnostic aerial robot comprising structural thermally insulating material and a phase change material cooling system, inspired by natural thermal regulation principles, is designed, modelled and experimentally validated. Building on the robot development paradigm of physical artificial intelligence, the concurrent development of materials and design enables the creation of novel physiologically adaptive systems. Polyimide aerogel is applied as one of the main structural materials in the drone's design to adapt the robot's structure and properties to extreme temperatures. Glass fiber reinforcement with silica aerogel particles reduces high‐temperature shrinkage and pore structure degradation after exposure to high temperatures and most of the composite aerogel features are preserved. A high technology‐readiness‐level drone prototype, allowing for operation in a broad range of ambient temperatures, is demonstrated. The proposed technology for thermally agnostic drones may unleash the great potential of aerial robotics in multiple industrial and research applications.

Experimental Investigation of Cobalt Deposition on 304 Stainless Steel in Borated and Lithiated High-Temperature Water.

The radioactive corrosion products 58Co and 60Co in the primary loops of pressurized water reactors (PWRs) are the main sources of radiation doses to which workers in nuclear power plants are exposed. To understand cobalt deposition on 304 stainless steel (304SS), which is the main structural material used in the primary loop, the microstructural characteristics and chemical composition of a 304SS surface layer immersed for 240 h in borated and lithiated high-temperature water containing cobalt were investigated with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), laser Raman spectroscopy (LRS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), glow discharge optical emission spectrometry (GD-OES), and inductively coupled plasma emission mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results showed that two distinct cobalt deposition layers (an outer layer of CoFe2O4 and an inner layer of CoCr2O4) were formed on the 304SS after 240 h of immersion. Further research showed that CoFe2O4 was formed on the metal surface by coprecipitation of the iron preferentially dissolved from the 304SS surface with cobalt ions from the solution. The CoCr2O4 was formed by ion exchange between the cobalt ions entering the metal inner oxide layer and (Fe, Ni) Cr2O4. These results are useful in understanding cobalt deposition on 304SS and have a certain reference value for exploring the deposition behavior and mechanism of radionuclide cobalt on 304SS in the PWR primary loop water environment.

STUDY OF ALTERNATIVE METHODS FOR CARBON DIOXIDE APPLICATION IN CONCRETE PRODUCTION

It is known, concrete ranks second after water in the total annual volume of consumption. Currently, there is no construction material that could replace concrete. It is the main structural building material. The required raw material for concrete production is Portland cement. Unfortunately, the Portland cement production emits carbon dioxide, which accounts for up to 8 % of global emissions of this gas, and is a real threat to the environment.
 The World Business Development Council predicts an increase in cement production by 12–23 % by 2050. This suggests that it is necessary
 to look for methods for Portland cement production with the lowest carbon dioxide emission and methods for its recovery and use.
 The purposes of the research are to study the factors contributing to CO2 emission in Portland cement production; analysis of the main ways of carbon dioxide recovery.
 To solve the problem, popular methods and equipment for concrete production of using dioxide, as well as devices for determining the compressive and tensile strength of concrete, have been investigated.

Water Chemistries of an Electrical Generator Cooling System

At some thermal and nuclear power plants, water is used for cooling the electric generator stator windings with copper used as their main structural material. During operation of such cooling systems, certain problems are encountered as a consequence of copper corrosion and deposits formed on the inner surfaces of stator winding cooling channels. Inadequate quality of water circulating in the tubes is one of the factors causing the corrosion to occur. The article outlines the main stages of the corrosion and deposit formation processes: copper surface oxidation with formation of copper ions, formation of oxides on the metal surface, partial transfer of oxides from the metal surface into water, and carryover of oxides from one metal surface area to another. Four basic water chemistries for electric generator cooling water systems developed by the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS) are discussed. These water chemistries are based on using low-oxygen (20–50 μg/dm3) and high-oxygen (2000 μg/dm3) treatments. The article gives the basic standardized and monitored indicators characterizing the water quality in electric generator cooling systems for the water chemistries developed by the IAPWS. Apart from the water chemistries described in the IAPWS technical document, the article presents data on the advantages of using reducing agents for cooling water treatment, e.g., hydrogen in concentrations ranging from 30 to 60 μg/dm3.

Open-Source Vertical Swinging Wood-Based Solar Photovoltaic Racking Systems

Vertical bifacial solar photovoltaic (PV) racking systems offer the opportunity for large-scale agrivoltaics to be employed at farms producing field crops with conventional farming equipment. Unfortunately, commercial proprietary vertical racks cost more than all types of conventional PV farm racking solutions. To overcome these cost barriers, this study reports on the development of a new wood-based PV racking design. The open-source design consists of a hinge mechanism, which reduces mechanical loading and enables wood to be used as the main structural material, and is the first of its kind. This open-source vertical wood-based PV rack is (i) constructed from locally accessible (domestic) renewable and sustainable materials, (ii) able to be made with hand tools by the average farmer on site, (iii) possesses a 25-year lifetime to match PV warranties, and (iv) is structurally sound, following Canadian building codes to weather high wind speeds and heavy snow loads. The results showed that the capital cost of the racking system is less expensive than the commercial equivalent and all of the previous wood-based rack designs, at a single unit retail cost of CAD 0.21. The racking LCOE is 77% of the cost of an equivalent commercial racking system using retail small-scale component costs, and is 22%, 34%, and 38% less expensive than commercial metal vertical racking, wood fixed tilt racking, and wood seasonal tilt racking costs, respectively. Overall, wooden vertical swinging PV racking provides users with a low-cost, highly available alternative to conventional metal vertical racking, along with a potential increase in energy yield in high wind areas thanks to its unique swinging mechanism.

Glass-Based Biodegradable Pressure Sensor Toward Biomechanical Monitoring With a Controllable Lifetime

A new class of potentially implantable solid-state sensors is demonstrated utilizing biodegradable glass as main structural material. The device behavior is manipulated via chemical decomposition, and then physically disintegrated in a controlled manner. It is based on the capacitive sensing mechanism, comprising an elastic insulator between two borate-rich glass substrates. This meso-scale pressure sensor is characterized over a range of pressure of up to 14 MPa in a phosphate buffer solution environment. The sensor exhibits good sensitivity and reversibility responding to compressive pressures and remains fully functional before a desired, sudden failure caused by dissolution. The operational lifetime can be modified by altering the chemical composition or thickness of the biodegradable glass component. The proposed device concept is a viable option toward various temporary implantable devices without needing an additional surgical procedure to remove them after their duty.

Effect of dislocation on helium irradiation defects in low-activation martensitic steel

Reduced-activation martensitic steel is a main candidate structural material for key components of advanced nuclear energy systems because of its good mechanical properties at room temperature, low neutron activation characteristics and satisfactory radiation resistance. In this work, we study the interaction between dislocations and helium-irradiation-induced defects in the steel and the effect of dislocations on the behavior of helium migration and desorption. The well-annealed samples are pre-deformed to 10% and 20% reductions in thickness by using cold rolling mill. After pre-deformation, samples are heat-treated to remove vacancy defects and retain dislocation defects. Then, the samples with reserved dislocations are irradiated with helium at room temperature (50 keV, 1×10<sup>17</sup> He/cm<sup>2</sup>). After irradiation, the samples are characterized by synchrotron radiation grazing incident X-Ray diffraction, positron annihilation Doppler broadening spectroscopy, and thermal desorption spectroscopy. The results show that dislocations hinder the diffusion of helium and helium-vacancy complexes, and reduce the accumulation of radiation damage. Such an effect becomes more significant with the increase of dislocation density. The BCC → FCC phase transition of low activation martensitic steel occurs at 1179 K. The increase of dislocation density will lead to the forward shift of helium desorption peak induced by phase transition. The retention of helium in the undeformed sample, 10% deformed sample and 20% deformed sample is 10.3%, 15.7% and 17.9%, respectively, indicating that high density dislocations promote the retention of helium.

Theoretical study of physico-chemical and kinetic aspects of the process of filtration of aluminum melts using ceramic filters

It is known that aluminum and its alloys have many advantages and are one of the main structural materials. At the same time, there are numerous problems in achieving high purity of aluminum melts. In this paper it is shown that one of the main ways of refining aluminum melts is their filtration through ceramic filters. The results of previous scientific studies have shown the high efficiency of filtering aluminum melt from non-metallic inclusions through ceramic filters, which is justified by their substantial deposition on the walls of this product. However, the physico-chemical mechanism and kinetic patterns of removal of non-metallic inclusions from aluminum melt during its filtration have not been studied enough. Therefore, the goal of the research was to establish the physico-chemical regularities, as well as creating the kinetic model of the removal of non-metallic inclusions from aluminum melts. At the first stage of our research, a thermodynamic analysis of the removal of non-metallic inclusions from molten aluminum due to the action of surface and dynamic forces was conducted. The mechanism of retention of inclusions of different aggregate state and sizes by the filter surface has been considered in detail. As a result of the research, it was found that inclusions of any aggregate state (solid, liquid) up to 30 μm in size are held on the filter surface due to surface forces, liquid inclusions larger than 30 μm obey the same laws; solid inclusions larger than 30 μm are held by the gripping forces. In this case, the inclusions that have merged with each other will further act as new filter surfaces. The conducted kinetic analysis of the heterogeneous process of removal of non-metallic inclusions by the filter surface showed that the process is limited by the kinetic region and proceeds according to the first order. To confirm the reliability of the kinetic model, as well as to determine the influence of the metal pouring speed on the quality of filtration, aluminum melt was poured through a ceramic filter in laboratory conditions using filtration indicators. The conducted studies confirmed the limiting area of the heterogeneous process of filtering molten aluminum through ceramic filters, and also allowed us to establish that the efficiency of removing inclusions decreases with a decrease in the pouring speed.

Analysis of the thermodynamic characteristics of particle reinforced multifarious compositions

The mechanical characteristics of particle-reinforced multifarious compositions are virtually hinged on the characteristics of matrix materials, particles, and the characteristics of the interface between particles. The composite material can be used to improve the disadvantages of a single raw material and expand the scope of application. Multifarious compositions have the advantages, such as high specific strength, high fatigue resistance, and high specific stiffness. For this reason, it is widely and specifically used in aviation manufacturing, aerospace technology, and transportation. Composite materials, titanium alloy, aluminum alloy, and alloy steel have become the main structural materials for aircraft body manufacturing, which is conducive to the improvement of fuel efficiency, simplifying system installation, and shortening assembly time. This research introduces a three-phase theoretical model to analyze the thermodynamic characteristics of particle-reinforced multifarious compositions. The effects of particle volume fraction, particle shape, and interface layer thickness on particle thermodynamic characteristics are analyzed and described.

A global interactive attention-based lightweight denoising network for locating internal defects of CFRP laminates

Carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) has become one of the main structural materials for aerospace vehicles. However, some internal defects are prone to occur and have potential to cause significant losses of life and property. Currently, the detection of internal defects for CFRP mainly relies on ultrasonic, and other technologies, while they have disadvantages of low efficiency, and poor adaptability. Therefore, this paper explores a novel method to locate internal defects of CFRP laminates by analyzing vibration signals. Firstly, a signal acquisition scheme is designed. Then, a global interactive attention-based lightweight denoising network (GIALDN) is designed to analyze vibration signals and locate internal defects of CFRP laminates. In GIALDN, the threshold denoising method is used to eliminate noise-related features and improve feature discrimination; a global interactive attention module is designed, which makes the network pay more attention to the valid features while realizing the global interactive connection and obtains the rich contextual features; combining with the convolution layer of de-pooling strategy and multi-layer convolution using the residual connection, the backbone of the network is formed. Finally, an experimental platform is established to test the performance of GIALDN. Results show that the location accuracy of GIALDN can reach 98.68%, which is more than 15% higher than those of VGGnet11 and FaultNet, and is also superior to those of LSTM, RNN, Rsenet18, SEresnet18 and Densenet121. Lastly, the location accuracies of GIALDN on CFRP laminates with the same thickness and different stacking sequences are investigated and a good model applicability can be observed.

Influence of different curing conditions on water absorption of cement-based materials under dry and wet cycles

As the main structural material of a subway, the precast concrete segment is produced under the steam-curing condition, and frequently experienced dry–wet cycles environment. In this study, steam-curing and dry–wet cycling methods were used to simulate the water absorption process of cement-based materials under special circumstances. The results showed that the water absorption in cement-based materials decreased with an increase in the number of dry–wet cycles. Based on a micro-analysis, the proportion of large capillary pores (dimension >0.1 μm) in the steam-cured mortar increased during the water absorption process with the increase in the number of dry–wet cycles compared with the standard cured mortar. Through thermodynamic and kinetics analysis, the mechanism and model were calculated to explain the component transformation mechanism of cement-based materials under dry and wet cycles.

Molten chloride salt technology for next-generation CSP plants: Compatibility of Fe-based alloys with purified molten MgCl2-KCl-NaCl salt at 700 °C

Molten chlorides, such as MgCl2-KCl-NaCl, are promising advanced high-temperature (up to 800 °C) thermal energy storage (TES) materials in next-generation concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. However, their high corrosivity to commercial Fe-Cr-Ni alloys impedes the commercial applications of chloride-TES. In this work, we investigated the corrosion of two selected commercial Fe-based alloys (SS 310 and In 800H) in molten MgCl2-KCl-NaCl salt, aiming to study the feasibility of affordable Fe-based alloys instead of expensive Ni-based alloys in the chloride-TES system. The alloy samples were immersed in the liquid-Mg-purified molten salt at 700 °C for 2000 h under a protective inert gas atmosphere. After the corrosion test, SEM-EDX microstructural analysis and mass loss analysis showed that corrosion rates of the immersed alloy samples were lower than 15 µm/year, and the corrosion rates had a decreasing tendency with increasing immersion time during the 2000-hour test. To our best knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration that corrosion rates of the Fe-based alloys in molten MgCl2-KCl-NaCl salt at 700 °C can be controlled below the target (15 µm/year) proposed by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Using affordable Fe-based alloys as main structural materials, the cost of chloride-TES (27 USD/kWh) could be comparable to that of commercial nitrate-TES (20–33 USD/kWh). Taking advantage of chloride-TES with higher operating temperature, the next-generation CSP plant could use an advanced power cycle (e.g., sCO2 Brayton) to have a much higher energy conversion efficiency, leading to a significantly lower Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) than the current commercial CSP plant.

Advances in Anti-Corrosion Polymeric and Paint Coatings on Metals: Preparation, Adhesion, Characterization and Application

Metals currently remain the main structural material used by various industries for many centuries [...]