<p>SiC MESFETs and GaN HEMTs have an enormous potential in high-power amplifiers at microwave frequencies due to their wide bandgap features of high electric breakdown field strength, high electron saturation velocity and high operating temperature. The high power density combined with the comparably high impedance attainable by these devices also offers new possibilities for wideband power microwave systems. In this thesis, Class C switching response of SiC MESFET in TCAD and two different generations of broadband power amplifiers have been designed, fabricated and characterized. Input and output matching networks and shunt feedback topology based on microstrip and lumped components have been designed, to increase the bandwidth and to improve the stability. The first amplifier is a single stage 26-watt using a SiC MESFET covering the frequency from 200-500 MHz is designed and fabricated. Typical results at 50 V drain bias for the whole band are, 22 dB power gain, 43 dBm output power, minimum power added efficiency at P 1dB is 47 % at 200 MHz and maximum 60 % at 500 MHz and the IMD3 level at 10 dB back-off from P 1dB is below ‑45 dBc. The results at 60 V drain bias at 500 MHz are, 24.9 dB power gain, 44.15 dBm output power (26 W) and 66 % PAE.</p><p>In the second phase, two power amplifiers at 0.7-1.8 GHz without feed back for SiC MESFET and with feedback for GaN HEMT are designed and fabricated (both these transistors were of 10 W). The measured maximum output power for the SiC amplifier at Vd = 48 V was 41.3 dBm (~13.7 W), with a PAE of 32 % and a power gain above 10 dB. At a drain bias of Vd= 66 V at 700 MHz the Pmax was 42.2 dBm (~16.6 W) with a PAE of 34.4 %. The measured results for GaN amplifier are; maximum output power at Vd = 48 V is 40 dBm (~10 W), with a PAE of 34 % and a power gain above 10 dB. The SiC amplifier gives better results than for GaN amplifier for the same 10 W transistor.</p><p>A comparison between the physical simulations and measured device characteristics has also been carried out. A novel and efficient way to extend the physical simulations to large signal high frequency domain was developed in our group, is further extended to study the class-C switching response of the devices. By the extended technique the switching losses, power density and PAE in the dynamics of the SiC MESFET transistor at four different frequencies of 500 MHz, 1, 2 and 3 GHz during large signal operation and the source of switching losses in the device structure was investigated. The results obtained at 500 MHz are, PAE of 78.3%, a power density of 2.5 W/mm with a switching loss of 0.69 W/mm. Typical results at 3 GHz are, PAE of 53.4 %, a power density of 1.7 W/mm with a switching loss of 1.52 W/mm.</p> / Report code: LIU-TEK-LIC-2008:32

In Malawi 2.5 % of the forest disappears each year. The use of firewood and charcoal, deriving from forest resources, accounts for about 99 % of the household energy demand in Malawi and is a cause to the deforestation. The Government of Malawi recently launched a programme called Promotion of Alternative Energy Sources Programme (PAESP) with the aim to reduce the use of firewood and charcoal. One of the fuels included in the programme is the biomass briquette. The aim with this study is to evaluate the viability of biomass briquettes as a sustainable alternative energy source to firewood and charcoal for households in Malawi. Research for the study was carried out during three months in Malawi. Visits were made to a number of briquette production sites to study the manufacturing methods and to collect briquette samples. The briquettes were tested using various methods and then compared with results for firewood and charcoal. At the moment various production methods are used in Malawi, with a high difference in technical complexity and cost. Machines produced from wood using very basic mechanics can apply similar pressure as more advanced metal pressers. They also seem to be better suited than those made of metal, in terms of price and availability. The majority of the briquette producers in Malawi use waste paper as base material. Although the paper briquettes are good, other raw materials will be needed if the production is supposed to be significantly increased. The briquettes burn well using the most common stoves in Malawi, including the commonly used charcoal stove. While firewood is cheaper to use than other available fuels, the briquettes seem to be able to compete with the fuel costs for charcoal.

Vid dragprovning av lödningar framkom att i många fall är kopparledningen svagare än själva lödningen och brottet sker i kopparledningen eller i kabelskon. Undersökning av mikrostrukturerna visade att det bildas martensit i grundmaterialet i ett område under pinnlödningarna. Medelvärdet på martensitlinsens storlek beräknades till 10,69 mm i diameter och 0,73 mm i djup. På grund av att grundmaterialet påverkas bör pinnlödningar sättas minst 10 mm från varandra. Lödningar gjorda i -5°C visade inga tecken på försämrad kvalitet med avseende på lägre hållfasthet eller ökad martensitbildning. Korrosion tränger in under kabelskor på pinnlödningar i områden där ingen lödfog finns. Undersökning av borrade prover visade att deformerad struktur uppkommer vid borrning samt att korrosion tränger in mellan kontaktförbindningens kopparhylsa och det borrade hålet. Vid en jämförelse mellan de båda förbindningsmetoderna framkom att lödningar är skonsammare för rälsmaterialet än borrade kontaktförbindningar men har däremot en tendens att lossna oftare. Vid val av borrade förbindningar som standard istället för pinnlödningar skulle det resultera i färre lossade anslutningar. Hållfastheten i räler skulle förmodligen påverkas och antalet sprickor från borrade hål öka.

Rapporten beskriver ett designprojekt, som är en del av examensarbetet på 15p, Vad händer när mode påverkar möbeldesign? En kollektion strandmöbler och badkläder, utfört av Veronica Lindahl, avgångsstudent på utbildningsprogrammet möbeldesign på Carl Malmsten, Centrum för Träteknik &amp; Design vid Linköpings universitet. Syftet med denna rapport är att beskriva processen av detta examensarbete. Valet av produkter tog avstamp från min bakgrund i Halmstad. En möbel för stranden och något att ha på sig. Att koppla samman mode och möbeldesign tilltalar mig. Målet var att produkterna skulle komplettera och inspirera varandra. Att tänka på hur produkterna skulle presenteras var också en del i arbetet. Upplägget i denna rapport är enligt ordningen i min designprocess. Det börjar med en insamlingsetapp. Efter detta följer en lång skissetapp, därefter material, tillverkning och slutligen en resultatanalys med tankar och reflektioner över vad jag kommit fram till. Arbetet startade med samtal med handledaren Daniel Östman, där vi diskuterade val av examensarbete samt vad jag ville få ut av arbetet. Jag valde att göra ett projekt med mig som uppdragsgivare, eftersom det är så jag vill arbeta i framtiden. Ledorden i mitt arbete har varit modedesigns påverkan på möbeldesign, en möbel för stranden och något att ha på sig, trä och tyg, material som klarar utomhusklimatet. Resultatet är en funktionell, bärbar strandstol med två lägen som är lätt, går att fälla ihop och kan bäras på ryggen. Detta är en produkt som jag skulle vilja se på stranden. Detsamma gäller badplaggen, de väcker nyfikenhet och är ett mer påklätt badmode. Vid presentationen av produkterna använde jag mig av en stiliserad strand som gav en känsla av hur produkterna skulle användas i den miljö de var avsedda för. I framtiden vill jag arbeta med att kombinera modeskapande och möbeldesign. Jag har upptäckt många intressanta möjligheter och uppslag i vad som händer när mode påverkar möbeldesign.

The interaction of the surface of a pure metal or an alloy with the surrounding atmosphere occurs in a highly complex interfacial regime. During atmospheric corrosion this interfacial regime involves the metal surface, often covered by a naturally formed oxide layer of a few nanometers thickness; an aqueous adlayer, typically with a thickness of a few to a few tens of nanometers, and the atmosphere from which airborne particles, oxygen, and gaseous pollutants dissolve into the adlayer and influence the atmospheric corrosion process. This thesis work is mainly concerned with the initial atmospheric corrosion of zinc and brass induced by carboxylic acids (120 parts per billion of formic, acetic, or propionic acid) in laboratory air with 90% relative humidity. This model system has been chosen to mimic indoor corrosion with carboxylic acids as major corrosion stimulators. The study forms part of a broader research program with the ultimate goal to provide a computer model of the early stages of atmospheric corrosion of copper, zinc and copper-zinc alloys, induced by carboxylic acids. Particular emphasis has been given to identify and quantify the corrosion products formed and to determine their lateral distribution over the corroding surface. This has been accomplished through a multi-analytical approach in which two main techniques are infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) which can identify and quantify corrosion products with a relative accuracy of about 10%, and confocal Raman microspectroscopy (CRM) which can identify and resolve corrosion products with a surface lateral resolution of better than one micrometer. The corrosion products identified on pure zinc are zinc oxide (ZnO) and various forms of Zn-carboxylates. On brass, the main corrosion products identified are a cuprite (Cu2O)-like phase and various forms of Zn-carboxylates. For pure zinc and brass the formation rates of corrosion products in presence of the investigated acids depend, among others, on their deposition velocity and acid strength. The interaction of pure zinc and brass with humidified air containing carboxylic acids follows two spatially separated main pathways: a proton-induced dissolution of metal ions followed by the formation of oxides, and a carboxylate-induced dissolution followed by the deposition of metal carboxylates. When applying this multi-analytical approach, it has been possible to distinguish between anodically and cathodically active areas for brass, but not for pure zinc. Galvanic effects have been shown to play a significant role during the initial corrosion of brass.  Further evidence of the selective formation of corrosion products has been found when exploring the more complex heterogeneous surface of Galvalume, a commercial aluminum-zinc alloy coating. This material has been exposed to humidified laboratory air with additions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and sodium chloride (NaCl) and to a marine atmospheric environment. Initiated in the interdendritic zinc-rich areas, a uniform aluminum oxide (Al2O3) layer is formed. This oxide exhibits an inhibiting effect on the subsequent formation of other corrosion products, including aluminum oxyhydroxide (AlOOH), aluminum hydroxide (Al(OH)3), ZnO, zinc hydroxycarbonate and zinc hydroxychloride. / QC 20110607

Commercial alloys are continuously developed to improve their performance. Therefore it is useful to establish new optimisation software, which could be used in development of new materials or in materials selection. In the first part of the thesis, mechanical and technological properties, which are of importance in materials selection in mechanical design, are investigated. Two types of materials are analysed for the mechanical properties, aluminium alloys and stainless steels but only aluminium alloys for the technological properties. Thermodynamic analysis has been used to evaluate the effect of the microstructure. Solid solution hardening has been successfully modelled for both aluminium alloys and stainless steels following the theories by Labusch and Nabarro. The precipitation hardening is most dominant for the hardenable aluminium alloys, but the non-hardenable alloys also increase their strength from precipitation hardening. The non-hardenable alloys are divided into different tempers, which differ in the amount of strain hardening. This has also been modelled successfully. Combining these fundamental results with multiple regressions, models for mechanical and technological properties have been created. Separate models are developed for wrought aluminium alloys and stainless steels. For the aluminium alloys these include the solid solution hardening and the precipitation hardening. For the stainless steels, the thickness, nitrogen content and ferrite content are included together with the solid solution hardening. The second part of the thesis concerns materials selection and materials optimisation. Traditionally materials optimisation includes a preliminary sifting due to the vast number of engineering materials. Then there is a discriminating search followed by an optimisation. In the optimisation part the concept merit indices could be used to rank the materials. A merit index only includes material properties, as for example the characteristic strength, the density or the Young’s modulus. A concept related to the merit indices are the merit exponents, which can be used when no explicit functions for the merit indices are available. The merit exponents can also be used when creating a control area diagram (CAD). These diagrams are used as a design tool, where both the geometry and materials are taken into account. For a situation with several geometrical variables the merit exponents can give information of how much the target function will be influenced by a given property change. This technique can be used for a variety of situations, when there is more than one property limiting the final sizes of a component. Principles for setting up a CAD are given together with how the merit indices and exponents relate to the final CAD. / QC 20110817

Materials used in thermal power plants have to resist creep deformation for time periods up to 30 years. Material evaluation is typically based on creep testing with a maximum duration of a few years. This information is used as input when empirically deriving models for creep. These kinds of models are of limited use when considering service conditions or compositions different from those in the experiments. In order to provide a more general model for creep, the mechanisms that give creep strength have to be identified and fundamentally described. By combining tools for thermodynamic modelling and modern dislocation theory the microstructure evolution during creep can be predicted and used as input in creep rate modelling. The model for creep has been utilised to clarify the influence of aluminium on creep strength as a part of the European COST538 action. The results show how AlN is formed at the expense of MX carbonitrides. The role of heat treatment during welding has been analysed. It has been shown that particles start to dissolve already at 800ºC, which is believed to be the main cause of Type IV cracking in commercial alloys. The creep strength of these steels relies on minor additions of alloying elements. Precipitates such as M23C6 carbides and MX carbonitrides give rise to the main strengthening, and remaining elements produce solid solution hardening. Particle growth, coarsening and dissolution have been evaluated. By considering dislocation climb it is possible to determine particle strengthening at high temperatures and long-term service. Transient creep is predicted by considering different types of dislocations. Through the generation and recovery of dislocation densities an increase in work hardening during primary creep is achieved. The role of substructure is included through the composite model. Cavity nucleation and growth are analysed in order to explain the intergranular fracture and to estimate the ductility. / QC20100616

During the past decade, new advanced combustion systems that share the same basic concept of using a substantially diluted and high-temperature oxidizer in the reaction volume have gained a great deal of interest regarding their application in industrial and power systems. These novel combustion technologies have proved to offer significant benefits compared to traditional combustion techniques. These benefits include reductions in pollutant emissions and energy consumption, as well as a higher and more uniformly distributed heat flux. This entails the potential to, for example, reduce the size of equipment in industrial units or increase production rates while fuel consumption and the subsequent CO2 emissions are decreased or maintained at the same level. Although the development of these new combustion technologies has occurred fairly recently, it has gained worldwide recognition. During the past few years the technique has been used commercially with several different types of burners. Despite its widespread use, the basic understanding of the chemical-physical phenomena involved is limited, and a better understanding of the combustion phenomena is required for more effective utilization of the technology. The objectives of this work have been to obtain fuel-jet characteristics in combustion under high-temperature, low-oxygen conditions and to develop some theoretical considerations of the phenomena. The effect of the preheat temperature of the combustion air, combustion stoichiometry and the fuel-jet calorific value on flame behavior was investigated. Temperature and heat-flux distribution were also studied using a semi-industrial test furnace to see if similar flame features would be found for the small- and large-scale experiments. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used for the first time to obtain information on the flow dynamics of a fuel jet injected into a crossflow of oxidizer at either a normal temperature or a very high temperature. Light emission spectroscopy was used to collect information on time-averaged radical distributions in the combustion jet. Jet turbulence, time-averaged velocity distribution, fuel-jet mixing, the distribution of radicals such as CH, OH and C2, and flame photographs were investigated. The results showed delayed mixing and combustion under high-temperature low-oxygen-concentration conditions. The combustion air preheat temperature and oxygen concentration were found to have a significant effect on the burning fuel-jet behavior. The results of the semi-industrial-scale tests also showed the features of even flame temperature and heat flux. / QC 20100610

Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) from wood is an interesting material constituent of high strength and high aspect ratio, which easily forms networks through interfibril secondary bonding including hydrogen bonds. This has been exploited in preparation of new materials, which extend the range of properties for existing cellulosic materials. The objective is to explore processing-structure and structure-property relationships in NFC materials. Dense networks of NFC, referred to as “nanopaper” having a random-in-the-plane orientation of the fibrils have been successfully prepared by a papermaking-like process involving vacuum filtration and water evaporation using laboratory papermaking equipment. Large, flat and transparent nanopaper sheets have thus been prepared in a relatively short time. Using the same preparation route, NFC was used to reinforce pulped wood fibers in dense network structures. NFC networks formed in the pore space of the wood fiber network give an interesting hierarchical structure of reduced porosity. These NFC/wood fiber biocomposites have greater strength, greater stiffness and greater strain-to-failure than reference networks of wood fibers only. In particular, the work to fracture (area under the stress-strain curve) is doubled with an NFC content of only 2%. The papermaking preparation route was extended to prepare nanocomposites of high NFC content with a cellulose derivative matrix (hydroxyethyl cellulose, HEC) strongly associated to the NFC. Little HEC was lost during filtration. The NFC/HEC composites have high work to fracture, higher than that of any reported cellulose composite. This is related to NFC network characteristics, and HEC properties and its nanoscale distribution and association with NFC. Higher porosity NFC nanopaper networks of high specific surface area were prepared by new routes including supercritical drying, tert-butanol freeze-drying and CO2 evaporation. Light-weight porous nanopaper materials resulted with mechanical properties similar to thermoplastics but with a much lower density and a specific surface area of up to 480 m2/g. Freeze-drying of hydrocolloidal NFC dispersions was used to prepare ultra-high porosity foam structures. The NFC foams have a cellular foam structure of mixed open/closed cells and “nanopaper” cell wall. Control of density and mechanical properties was possible by variation of NFC concentration in the dispersion. A cellulose I foam of the highest porosity ever reported (99.5%) was prepared. The NFC foams have high ductility and toughness and may be of interest for applications involving mechanical energy absorption. Freeze-drying of NFC suspended in tert-butanol gave highly porous NFC network aerogels with a large surface area. The mechanical behavior was significantly different from NFC foams of similar density due to differences in deformation mechanisms for NFC nanofiber networks. / QC 20110406

No description available.