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Inventions, Volume 2, Issue 1 (March 2017) – 5 articles

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17797 KiB  
Review
A Quick Overview of Compact Air-Cooled Heat Sinks Applicable for Electronic Cooling—Recent Progress
by Chi-Chuan Wang
Inventions 2017, 2(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions2010005 - 17 Feb 2017
Cited by 37 | Viewed by 19904
Abstract
This study provides an overview regarding enhancement of an air-cooled heat sink applicable for electronic cooling subject to cross-flow forced convection. Some novel designs and associated problems in air-cooled heat sinks are discussed, including the drawback of adding surfaces, utilization of porous surfaces [...] Read more.
This study provides an overview regarding enhancement of an air-cooled heat sink applicable for electronic cooling subject to cross-flow forced convection. Some novel designs and associated problems in air-cooled heat sinks are discussed, including the drawback of adding surfaces, utilization of porous surfaces such as metal foam or carbon foam, problems and suitable applicable range of highly interrupted surfaces (louver or slit) and longitudinal vortex generator. Though the metal foam may accommodate significant surface area, it is comparatively ineffective for air-cooling application due to its much lower fin efficiency, and this shortcoming can be improved by integrating with solid fin. For highly dense fin spacing (e.g., <1.0 mm), cannelure or grooved surface may be a better choice, and fin structure with periodic contraction and expansion may not be suitable for it introduces additional pressure drop penalty. The partial bypass concept, which manipulates a larger temperature difference at the trailing part of heat sink, can be implemented to significantly reduce the pressure drop. Through some certain niche operation, t the thermal resistance of the partial bypass heat sink may be superior to the conventional heat sink. The trapezoid fin surface featuring easier manufacturing and a smaller weight is shown to have competitive performance against traditional rectangular fin geometry. The IPFM (Interleaved Parallelogram Fin Module) design which combines two different geometrical fins with the odd number fins being rectangular shape, and parallelogram shape in even fin numbers, shows 8%–12% less surface than conventional design but still offers a lower thermal resistance than the conventional rectangular heat sink in lower flowrate operation. The cross-cut design shows appreciable improvements as compared to the conventional plate fin design especially in high velocity regime and the single cross-cut heat sinks are superior to multiple cross-cut heat sinks. Full article
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1057 KiB  
Review
Review of Ship Microgrids: System Architectures, Storage Technologies and Power Quality Aspects
by Shantha Gamini Jayasinghe, Lasantha Meegahapola, Nuwantha Fernando, Zheming Jin and Josep M. Guerrero
Inventions 2017, 2(1), 4; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions2010004 - 15 Feb 2017
Cited by 99 | Viewed by 16040
Abstract
Ship microgrids have recently received increased attention, mainly due to the extensive use of power electronically interfaced loads and sources. Characteristics of these microgrids are similar to islanded terrestrial microgrids, except the presence of highly dynamic large loads, such as propulsion loads. The [...] Read more.
Ship microgrids have recently received increased attention, mainly due to the extensive use of power electronically interfaced loads and sources. Characteristics of these microgrids are similar to islanded terrestrial microgrids, except the presence of highly dynamic large loads, such as propulsion loads. The presence of such loads and sources with power-electronic converter interfaces lead to severe power quality issues in ship microgrids. Generally, these issues can be classified as voltage variations, frequency variations and waveform distortions which are commonly referred to as harmonic distortions. Amongst the solutions identified, energy storage is considered to be the most promising technology for mitigating voltage and/or frequency deviations. Passive filtering is the commonly used technology for reducing harmonic distortions, which requires bulky capacitors and inductors. Active filtering is emerging as an alternative, which could be realised even within the same interfacing converter of the energy storage system. The aim of this paper is to investigate recent developments in these areas and provide readers with a critical review on power quality issues, energy storage technologies and strategies that could be used to improve the power quality in ship microgrids. Moreover, a brief introduction to ship power system architectures is also presented in the paper. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Technologies for Maritime Power Systems)
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1772 KiB  
Article
Development of Capillary Loop Convective Polymerase Chain Reaction Platform with Real-Time Fluorescence Detection
by Wen-Pin Chou, Chien Lee, Zong-Jyun Hsu, Mei-Hui Lai, Long-Sheng Kuo and Ping-Hei Chen
Inventions 2017, 2(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions2010003 - 8 Feb 2017
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 8101
Abstract
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been one of the principal techniques of molecular biology and diagnosis for decades. Conventional PCR platforms, which work by rapidly heating and cooling the whole vessel, need complicated hardware designs, and cause energy waste and high cost. On [...] Read more.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been one of the principal techniques of molecular biology and diagnosis for decades. Conventional PCR platforms, which work by rapidly heating and cooling the whole vessel, need complicated hardware designs, and cause energy waste and high cost. On the other hand, partial heating on the various locations of vessels to induce convective solution flows by buoyancy have been used for DNA amplification in recent years. In this research, we develop a new convective PCR platform, capillary loop convective polymerase chain reaction (clcPCR), which can generate one direction flow and make the PCR reaction more stable. The U-shaped loop capillaries with 1.6 mm inner diameter are designed as PCR reagent containers. The clcPCR platform utilizes one isothermal heater for heating the bottom of the loop capillary and a CCD device for detecting real-time amplifying fluorescence signals. The stable flow was generated in the U-shaped container and the amplification process could be finished in 25 min. Our experiments with different initial concentrations of DNA templates demonstrate that clcPCR can be applied for precise quantification. Multiple sample testing and real-time quantification will be achieved in future studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Collection Feature Innovation Papers)
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26716 KiB  
Article
Sensor Pods: Multi-Resolution Surveys from a Light Aircraft
by Conor Cahalane, Daire Walsh, Aidan Magee, Sean Mannion, Paul Lewis and Tim McCarthy
Inventions 2017, 2(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions2010002 - 7 Feb 2017
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 9619
Abstract
Airborne remote sensing, whether performed from conventional aerial survey platforms such as light aircraft or the more recent Remotely Piloted Airborne Systems (RPAS) has the ability to compliment mapping generated using earth-orbiting satellites, particularly for areas that may experience prolonged cloud cover. Traditional [...] Read more.
Airborne remote sensing, whether performed from conventional aerial survey platforms such as light aircraft or the more recent Remotely Piloted Airborne Systems (RPAS) has the ability to compliment mapping generated using earth-orbiting satellites, particularly for areas that may experience prolonged cloud cover. Traditional aerial platforms are costly but capture spectral resolution imagery over large areas. RPAS are relatively low-cost, and provide very-high resolution imagery but this is limited to small areas. We believe that we are the first group to retrofit these new, low-cost, lightweight sensors in a traditional aircraft. Unlike RPAS surveys which have a limited payload, this is the first time that a method has been designed to operate four distinct RPAS sensors simultaneously—hyperspectral, thermal, hyper, RGB, video. This means that imagery covering a broad range of the spectrum captured during a single survey, through different imaging capture techniques (frame, pushbroom, video) can be applied to investigate different multiple aspects of the surrounding environment such as, soil moisture, vegetation vitality, topography or drainage, etc. In this paper, we present the initial results validating our innovative hybrid system adapting dedicated RPAS sensors for a light aircraft sensor pod, thereby providing the benefits of both methodologies. Simultaneous image capture with a Nikon D800E SLR and a series of dedicated RPAS sensors, including a FLIR thermal imager, a four-band multispectral camera and a 100-band hyperspectral imager was enabled by integration in a single sensor pod operating from a Cessna c172. However, to enable accurate sensor fusion for image analysis, each sensor must first be combined in a common vehicle coordinate system and a method for triggering, time-stamping and calculating the position/pose of each sensor at the time of image capture devised. Initial tests were carried out over agricultural regions with geometric tests designed to assess the spatial accuracy of the fused imagery in terms of its absolute and relative accuracy. The results demonstrate that by using our innovative system, images captured simultaneously by the four sensors could be geometrically corrected successfully and then co-registered and fused exhibiting a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of approximately 10m independent of inertial measurements and ground control. Full article
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163 KiB  
Editorial
Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Inventions in 2016
by Inventions Editorial Office
Inventions 2017, 2(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/inventions2010001 - 11 Jan 2017
Viewed by 4978
Abstract
The editors of Inventions would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers for assessing manuscripts in 2016.[...] Full article
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