In this paper, the suitability of using ‘intelligent’ fibre Bragg gratings (FBGs) as sensors for the temperature feed-back control of concrete cured in a microwave environment has been presented and experimentally demonstrated. In this novel approach, the temperature data provided by the embedded FBGs are processed on the fly (using a feedback control algorithm) in order to regulate the microwave power so that an internal curing temperature of 70°C is maintained. The immunity of the FBGs to microwave radiation ensures that the embedded sensors remain stable, unlike conventional metallic/electrical probes.

Measurement methods for the determination of the enantiomeric excess of chiral organic substrates usually are a bottleneck in high-throughput applications. Common analytical techniques such as liquid and gas chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, and spectroscopic techniques often require relative long measurement times and a high consumption of solvents and chiral materials. Hence, their application in high-throughput screening procedures is only possible to a limited extent. This requires the development of suitable measurement techniques, which enable the handling of high numbers of samples in a short time frame and which deliver relevant structural information. Parallel kinetic resolution in combination with mass spectrometry is a procedure for a fast and universally applicable enantiomeric excess determination. In previous studies high-throughput screening methods based on parallel kinetic resolution were developed for substance classes such as amino acids, amino alcohols, amino acid esters or natural chiral compounds. In such high-throughput measurements a high number of data points will be generated. Moreover, the data evaluation in enantiomeric excess determination includes some different steps compared to classical analytical tasks including a previous calibration based on the enantiomeric ratio. To provide additional functionalities, a software module based on Visual Basic was developed, which works in connection to the instruments workstation software. The processed mass spectrometric data of single substances or compound mixtures will be online evaluated synchronous to the measurements. Furthermore, the software module enables a final visualization and export of the results achieved. The software was applied in a high-throughput screening system, which includes a fully automated sample preparation, mass spectrometric measurements and data processing.

In the past few decades, extensive researches have been conducted on magnetoelectric (ME) effect especially in composite materials. Based on ME effect, vibration energy is converted into electric energy. Using Terfenol-D and PZT materials magnetic field is transformed into electric power. However, magnetic, mechanical and electric effects appear when the two composites are coupled. Moreover, under dynamic conditions, additional effects alter the transducer performance. For these purposes, investigations were carried out on magnetostrictive and piezoelectric materials. This paper addresses the analytical modeling of magnetostrictive/piezoelectric laminate composites. First, the linear model and the equivalent circuits are presented for both magnetostrictive and piezoelectric layers. Second, the equivalent circuit of the ME laminate composites is obtained. Finally, we simulate the analytical model to determine the optimal thickness giving high electric power output.

The design of vibration energy harvesting system presents variety of solutions. The main challenges in the design are the optimization of energy outcome relative to the working frequency and amplitude of vibration sources. In this paper we present main possible strategies to harvest energy from common existing vibration sources. We propose to focus on the two main principles which are the electrodynamic and magnetoelectric energy harvester. A linear and nonlinear developed solutions for electrodynamic principles and existing magnetoelectric energy harvester are presented.

Outdoor characterization of Photovoltaic modules is one of the way to determine their efficiency using MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracker). However, environmental conditions, namely, dust and particulates, that can attack some components reducing their protecting passivation layer and/or packaging. In this context, the paper presents an experimental attempt to model load resistance used for identifying the maximum current of the PV in order to evaluate the worse condition range within which the MPPT is still capable of finding the working point of the I-V curve. These activities have been carried out on a real system.