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- Corre, Y., et al.
(author)
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Testing of ITER-grade plasma facing units in the WEST tokamak: Progress in understanding heat loading and damage mechanisms
- 2023
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In: Nuclear Materials and Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 2352-1791. ; 37
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Assessing the performance of the ITER design for the tungsten (W) divertor Plasma Facing Units (PFUs) in a tokamak environment is a high priority issue to ensure efficient plasma operation. This paper reviews the most recent results derived from experiments and post-mortem analysis of the ITER-grade PFUs exposed in the WEST tokamak and the associated modelling, with a focus on understanding heat loading and damage evolution. Several shaping options, sharp or chamfered leading edge (LE), unshaped or shaped blocks with a toroidal bevel as foreseen in ITER, were investigated, under steady state heat fluxes of up to 120 MW⋅m−2 and 6 MW⋅m−2 on the sharp LE and top surface of the block, respectively. A very high spatial resolution (VHR) infrared (IR) camera (0.1 mm/pixel) was used to derive the temporal and surface distribution of the temperature and heat load on the castellated tungsten blocks for different geometric alignment and plasma conditions. Photonic modelling was required to reproduce the IR measurements in particular in the toroidal and poloidal gaps of the mono-block (MB) stacks where high apparent temperatures are observed. Specular reflection is found to be the dominant emitter in these parts of the blocks. W-cracking was observed on the leading edge of the blocks already within the first phase of plasma operation, during which the divertor was equipped with unshaped PFUs, including some intentionally misaligned blocks. Numerical analysis taking into account softening processes and mechanical stresses, revealed brittle failure due to transients as the dominant failure mechanisms. Ductile failure was observed in one particular block used for the melting experiment, therefore under extremely high steady state heat load conditions. W-melting achieved on actively cooled PFU exhibits specific features: shallow melting and slow melt displacement. Plasma exposure of pre-damaged PFUs at various damage levels (crack network and melted droplets) was carried out under high heat load conditions with several hours of cumulated plasma duration. IR data and preliminary surface analyses show no evidence of significant degradation damage progression under these conditions.
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- Schneider, K. M., et al.
(author)
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Imbalanced gut microbiota fuels hepatocellular carcinoma development by shaping the hepatic inflammatory microenvironment
- 2022
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 13:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and therapeutic options for advanced HCC are limited. Here, we observe that intestinal dysbiosis affects antitumor immune surveillance and drives liver disease progression towards cancer. Dysbiotic microbiota, as seen in Nlrp6(-/-) mice, induces a Toll-like receptor 4 dependent expansion of hepatic monocytic myeloid-derived suppressor cells (mMDSC) and suppression of T-cell abundance. This phenotype is transmissible via fecal microbiota transfer and reversible upon antibiotic treatment, pointing to the high plasticity of the tumor microenvironment. While loss of Akkermansia muciniphila correlates with mMDSC abundance, its reintroduction restores intestinal barrier function and strongly reduces liver inflammation and fibrosis. Cirrhosis patients display increased bacterial abundance in hepatic tissue, which induces pronounced transcriptional changes, including activation of fibro-inflammatory pathways as well as circuits mediating cancer immunosuppression. This study demonstrates that gut microbiota closely shapes the hepatic inflammatory microenvironment opening approaches for cancer prevention and therapy. Steatohepatitis is a chronic hepatic inflammation associated with increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma progression. Here the authors show that intestinal dysbiosis in mice lacking the inflammasome sensor molecule NLRP6 aggravates steatohepatitis and accelerates liver cancer progression, a process that can be delayed by antibiotic treatment.
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- Fischer, D., et al.
(author)
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Smart meter enabled control for variable speed heat pumps to increase PV self-consumption
- 2015
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In: Refrigeration Science and Technology. - : International Institute of Refrigeration. - 9782362150128 ; , s. 4049-4056
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the last five years the costs of photovoltaic systems have decreased considerably making it economically attractive to generate electricity locally. In many countries, self-consumption is the most attractive option to make use of the generated electricity. Variable speed heat pumps - if controlled properly - can take a share of the PV electricity to decrease costs and CO2 emissions for heat generation and increase PV self-consumption. This paper discusses a control strategy that uses real-time smart meter readings and adjusts the compressor speed to adapt heat pump electricity consumption depending on the available PV power. The approach is tested in a detailed building simulation. Self-consumption can be increased by 6% compared to a heat driven control. For the chosen PV size of 10kWp in a German multi-family house, an increase of storage size shows only little possibility for a further increase in self-consumption.
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| 9. |
- Fischer, David, et al.
(author)
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Test cases for hardware in the loop testing of air to water heat pump systems in a smart grid context
- 2015
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In: Refrigeration Science and Technology. - : International Institute of Refrigeration. - 9782362150128 ; , s. 3666-3673
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Heat Pumps for heating and cooling purposes could play an important role in the future energy system. Combined with a thermal storage they offer the possibility for demand side management applications in a smart grid. Optimized utilization of local solar resources can be achieved by increasingly sophisticated control strategies. Smart gird integration and the use of solar resources will bring new challenges to heat pump system design and operation. However standardized testing procedures to compare HP-systems and controllers in a dynamic and possibly smart grid environment are currently lacking. In this work a method to extract representative test days from energy data, to be used in a Hardware In The Loop test is presented. The resulting sequence of 12 test days is compared to the one year data set and tested in building simulation. Yearly heat generation and SPF can be reproduced with an accuracy of above 94% using the test days.
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