ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF

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                  ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF
                        E-Mail Newsletter

                               No.75
             Issued by the Asian TOP Panel, March 2008

           The Chinese Mechanical Engineering Society (CMES)
           The Institution of Engineers, Indonesia (PII)
           The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME)
           The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers (KSME)

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    According to the agreement made in the 2nd Asian TOP Panel Meeting,
the ENGINEERING NEWS IN BRIEF (E-mail newsletter) has now been edited
by the JSME for the year 2008.

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[Contents]
1) Development of an Ozone-Contained Ice Making Machine (Source: JSME)
2) Development of Residential SOFC Cogeneration System (Source: JSME)
3) Laminar Type Multi-layer(LML) Method Ultrasonic Flow Meter (Source: JSME)
4) Development of Super Energy-saving Dewatering Process Using Liquefied DME
    Gas (Source: JSME)
5) Professional Graduate School 'System safety' of Nagaoka University of Technology     (Source: JSME)
6) EUV Lithography System and EUVA Project (Source JSME)
7) Design and Prototyping of Centrifugal Compressor for Ultra Micro Gas Turbine     (Source JSME)
8) Remote-control System for Rescue Robots, and Its Performance Assessment
    (Source: JSME)
9) Massive Molecular Simulations of Three Intermolecular Forces which Governs the     Soft Matter Surfaces (Source: JSME)
10) State of the Arts and Latest Research on Incremental Sheet NC Forming      Technology (Source: CMES)
11) Parallel Algorithm in Molecular Dynamics Simulation Based on Monocrystal
     Silicon Grinding (Source: CMES)
12) Calculations of Surface Stresses in Metals Under Mechanical Strains
     (Source: KSME)
13) Heat Transfer Characteristics on the Tip Surface of a High Turning Turbine
     Rotor Blade (Source: KSME)

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1) Development of an Ozone-Contained Ice Making Machine

    Kenji YOSHIMURA, MECHANICS and ELECTRONICS RESEARCH INSTITUTE,
                               FUKUOKA INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY CENTER

Ozone has the capability of sterilization and deodorization due to high oxidation power. It is also effective for the conservation of perishable foods and purification of water. However, ozone has a disadvantage, that is, conservation of ozone is difficult because it reacts to oxygen. Recently, ozone-contained ice is taken attention for the purpose of its conservation. The use of ozone-contained ice seems to keep food fresher when we conserve and transport perishable foods due to the effects of cooling and sterilization of ozone-contained ice. In the present study, we investigated the influence of cooling temperature, ice diameter, initial temperatures of water dissolving ozone and container internal pressure of the water dissolving ozone on ozone concentration in the ice. In addition, we have developed an ozone-contained ice making machine employing pressurized air tight containers with commercially available size. And the performance evaluation of the system is also carried out. Furthermore, we investigated the sterilization effect of ozone-contained ice on conservation of fish. It was seen that ozone-contained ice is effective for sterilization of surface of fish.

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2) Development of Residential SOFC Cogeneration System

    Minoru SUZUKI, OSAKA GAS CO.,LTD.

At 2004, Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. and Kyocera Corporation launched joint development of SOFC residential cogeneration system, aiming for the commercialization. To demonstrate the technical achievement, we installed SOFC residential cogeneration system in a house, living a family of four. At rated power, ac 1kW, net ac efficiency and hot water heat recovery efficiency were 49% (LHV) and 34%(LHV), respectively. The mean net ac efficiency of each day, that is total efficiency of 24 hours, 44 % (LHV), when the mean net ac power of SOFC were 618W. This system demonstrated to be good for decreasing CO2 emission. At the end of 2006, we developed new SOFC power generation unit. It was reduced its size nearly half in the volume, in order to fit Japanese housing in the city. March 2007, we have started the field test using new SOFC residential cogeneration system.

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3) Laminar Type Multi-layer (LML) Method Ultrasonic Flow Meter

    Daisuke BESSYO, Yasuhiro UMEKAGE, Shigeru IWANAGA, Yuji NAKABAYASHI,
    MATSUSHITA ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL CO.,LTD

One of the big problems in the field of ultrasonic flow measurement is the non-flat flow coefficient characteristic due to the transition from laminar to turbulent flow. Some previously published papers cope with this problem. Although they attained a flat flow coefficient characteristic, the flow measurement range itself still included transition region.
This time, we've developed a new method which used only laminar region in measurement. It is theoretically supported that the developed laminar boundary layer flow pattern is parabolic. Our new method is based on this principle. Furthermore in order to attain high accuracy measurement with compact size, we divided rectangular cross-section duct into multi layer with plural separators.
In order to assure laminar condition, the height of the each layer is designed so that the Reynolds number at maximum flow rate calculated using layer height as characteristic length is lower than the critical Reynolds number. The division of the duct also ensures two-dimensional flow pattern for each layer because their cross- sections are formed with high aspect ratio.
By applying this design principle, we obtained flat characteristic of flow coefficient from 16 to 10,000 litter/h with measurement accuracy of 1 %.

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4) Development of Super Energy-saving Dewatering Process Using Liquefied DME Gas

    Hideki KANDA, CENTRAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE of ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY

The basic concept of the process, that I invented and developed, involves the extraction of water from a high-moisture material (e.g. lignite, sewage sludge, biomass) by bringing it in physical contact with liquefied dimethyl ether (DME) at room temperature. Liquefied DME was passed through sewage sludge cake (water content 78%) charged in the prototype test machine (10L / batch). As a result, the water content of the sludge sharply decreased to 30%. Moreover, in a test-tube, the sludge was dewatered almost perfectly. After dewatering, the color of the sludge changed from black to gray, and had no odor. The total energy for dewatering is about 1100 kJ per 1-kg-water-content of the material being dewatered. This process has significant potential and is more energy-saving than the existing dewatering processes. Now, based on these results, we plan to develop a DME dewatering process that approximates large-scale processing with actual equipment.

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5) Professional Graduate School 'System Safety' of Nagaoka University of Technology

    Satoshi KADOWAKI, NAGAOKA UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Nagaoka University of Technology is committed to actively responding to the social need for continued educational opportunities at the advanced level. As such, we welcomes those who have already earned degrees at technical colleges or universities and have already embarked on careers. We established Professional Graduate School 'System Safety' in April 2006. The objective of this school is to train and educate the students to become practical professional experts of System Safety who can apply safety technologies and management skills systematically to solve safety problems in the real world on the basis of the safety theory and the safety regulations as the international standards.

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6) EUV Lithography System and EUVA Project

    Hideo TAKINO, NIKON CORPORATION

A reduction-projection exposure system is an essential instrument used in a lithography process for the manufacturing of integrated circuits. To further minimize the circuit patterns, an extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) system, in which exposure is carried out by extreme ultraviolet wavelength of 13.5 nm, is being developed globally. In Japan, Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography System Development Association (EUVA) was formed in 2002 under the auspices of the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry to develop EUVL technologies. Nine companies from light source, exposure tool and semiconductor, gathered to establish EUVA. EUVA focuses its research and development activities on the technologies of EUV light source and projection optics.

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7) Design and Prototyping of Centrifugal Compressor for Ultra Micro Gas Turbine

    Shimpei MIZUKI, Hoshio TSUJITA, Toshiyuki HIRANO, HOSEI UNIVERSITY

An ultra micro gas turbine is tried to use for portable and reusable electric power sources and ultra micro jet engines and so on. However, the design methodology for ultra micro gas turbines has not been established yet because they are much smaller than conventional micro gas turbines. Concerning the conceptual design of an ultra micro gas turbine, a compressor with impeller outer diameter of D2=4mm was considered at MIT for the feasibility study of an ultra micro gas turbine including manufacturing process. Because the ultra micro centrifugal compressor is the most important component of an ultra micro gas turbine unit, a 5 times size and a 10 times size (D2=20mm and 40mm) of the final target compressor were prototyped and tested in the present study at the first stage of development. As a result, the piping layout in downstream of the compressor was proved to affect the performance characteristics of the compressor. The total loss of 5 times model was larger than that of 10 times model due to the scale effect. Thus, the attained pressure ratios for the same peripheral velocity at the impeller exit became lower as the decrease of the impeller outer diameter.

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8) Remote-control System for Rescue Robots, and Its Performance Assessment

    Kazunori OHNO, TOHOKU UNIVERSITY

In Japan, studies of rescue robot have been progressed rapidly after Hanshin-Awaji earthquake 1995. Main task of rescue robot is to search for victims in disaster area, instead of human. The use of rescue robots will decrease victims of rescue teams by secondary disasters (e.g., fire, or landslide). Many types of crawler robot have been developed as rescue robots. The remote-control system has been developed for controlling these crawler robots at remote safety place. This paper describes components needed for the remote-control system, and introduces some successful solutions for these components in previous studies. These solutions were evaluated using a real crawler robot.
After completion of the rescue system, its performance assessment is a big problem for researchers. This paper explains our method for the performance assessment of rescue robot. For the performance assessment, we recommend that researchers should get rescue teams to use the robot in rescue training, or should participate in real robot league in RoboCupRescue.
We firmly hope that this paper will help researchers to start to study rescue rob.

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9) Massive Molecular Simulations of Three Intermolecular Forces which Governs the     Soft Matter Surfaces

    Hitoshi WASHIZU, TOYOTA CENTRAL R&D LABS.,INC.

Understanding of three intermolecular forces acting on soft matter surfaces, which are van der Waals, hydrogen bonding and long-range Coulomb force is essential both to make ultimate friction control on machine elementsand to create high organized machine like the life. We report our recent findings concerning on these forces using massive molecular simulations. As a case of elastohydrodynamic lubrication which is govern by van der Waals force, we used molecular dynamics to study the traction fluids. The mechanism of momentum transfer related to the molecular structure of the hydrocarbon fluids, and a sub-micron thickness simulation of the oil film using a tera-flops computer are reported. In boundary lubrication, the dynamic structure of hydrogen bond network on the hydrophilic surface is related to the low friction of diamond-like carbon containing silicon (DLC-Si) coating. Monte Carlo Brownian dynamics simulations of long-range Coulomb force are performed of a model DNA fragment in aqueous salt solution. The counterion polarization are explained by the polarization of diffuse ion atmosphere which is described in the framework of the counterion condensation theory.

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10) State of the Arts and Latest Research on Incremental Sheet NC Forming      Technology

     Mo Jianhua, Hanfei State Key Laboratory of Material Processing and Die & Mould
     Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Incremental sheet NC forming (ISF) is a new technology for flexible process that has used in metal sheet manufacturing, which applies the theory of rapid prototyping's layered manufacturing. During ISF, process planning and too-path optimization could be reached by software processing; the formability of sheet metal is highly improved; numerical simulation by means of the software such as ANSYS, PAM-STAMP, MARC, and ABAQUS on the forming process has great potential; and how to maintain dimensional precision is also a crucial point. Current applications of the technique have been in the fields of automobiles, medicine and daily aircrafts. Before this emerging technique is highly applied in industry, the following important problems in ISF are to be studied: forming precision of the apparatus, numerical simulation of finite element, development of simple moulds, and the cost cut.

Key words: incremental sheet NC forming (ISF), process planning, formability, numerical simulation.

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11) Parallel Algorithm in Molecular Dynamics Simulation Based on Monocrystal
      Silicon Grinding

     Guo Xiaoguang, Guo Dongming, Kang Renke, Jin Zhuji
     Key Laboratory for Precision & Non-traditional Machining of Ministry of
     Education, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian

A 3D grinding molecular dynamics (MD) simulation model of monocrystal silicon is established. The Characteristics of MD serial program and the feasibility of parallel simulation are presented. An MD simulation parallel algorithm in which the domain is decomposed twice is developed. Parallel program is made and executed. From the viewpoint of the instantaneous distribution of atoms, the mechanism of monoctrystal silicon grinding process is analyzed. In addition, through the comparison of the results between the serial and the parallel simulations, it is proved that the result of the parallel simulations is reliable. From the viewpoint of simulation size and computation time, the parallel program has great advantage over the serial program. In conclusion, the parallel program is effective and can be used in MD simulations of the system with different sizes.

Key words: molecular dynamics simulation, parallel algorithm, domain decomposition

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12) Calculations of Surface Stresses in Metals Under Mechanical Strains

     Sung Youb Kim, Youn Young Earmme, KAIST

The variation of the surface stresses was calculated according to uniaxial and biaxial strains in face-centered cubic (FCC) metals. In this study, three mainly observed free surfaces of seven representative FCC metals are considered. Employed method is molecular mechanics, in which the interaction of atoms is described by empirical interatomic potentials. As uniaxial strain increases to tensile direction, the surface stresses on {100} and {110} free surfaces decrease monotonously, while those on {111} surface increase. These tendencies are the same regardless of the species of metals and interatomic potentials employed. However, when the system is under biaxial strain, surface stresses change different according to the surface directions, the species of metals, and even interatomic potentials. On {100} and {111} surfaces, heavy metals (Pt, Au) show the opposite variation to light metals (Ni, Cu). In the cases of Pd and Ag, the surface stresses reveal the opposite tendency, depending on interatomic potentials used.

Key words: Surface Stress, FCC Metal, Strain Effect

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13) Heat Transfer Characteristics on the Tip Surface of a High Turning Turbine Rotor      Blade

     Sang Woo Lee, Hyun Suk Moon, Kumoh National Institute of Technology

The heat/mass transfer characteristics on the plane tip surface of a high-turning first-stage turbine rotor blade has been investigated by employing the naphthalene sublimation technique. At the Reynolds number of 209,000, heat/mass transfer coefficients are measured for the tip gap height-to-chord ratio, h/c, of 2.0% at turbulence levels of Tu = 0.3 and 14.7%. A tip-surface flow visualization is also performed for h/c = 2.0% at Tu = 0.3%. The results show that there exists a strong flow separation/re-attachment process, which results in severe local thermal load along the pressure-side corner, and a pair of vortices named "tip gap vortices" in this study is identified along the pressure and suction-side tip corners near the leading edge. The loci and subsequent development of the pressure- and suction-side tip gap vortices are discussed in detail. The combustor-level high inlet turbulence, which increases the tip-surface heat/mass transfer, provides more uniform thermal-load distribution.

Key words: High-Turning Turbine Rotor Blade, Plane Tip, Inlet Turbulence Intensity, Tip-Surface Heat Transfer

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Editor : Masao Nagai , International Affairs Committee
Published by The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
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Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 160-0016, Japan

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The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
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