Westinghouse Electric

About: Westinghouse Electric is a company organization based out in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Brake & Circuit breaker. The organization has 27959 authors who have published 38036 publications receiving 523387 citations.

Mechanical fatigue and fracture of Nitinol

Abstract: Nitinol, a near equiatomic intermetallic of nickel and titanium, is the most widely known and used shape memory alloy. Owing to its capacity to undergo a thermal or stress induced martensitic phase transformation, Nitinol displays recoverable strains that are more than an order of magnitude greater than in traditional alloys, specifically as high as 10%. Since its discovery in the 1960s, Nitinol has been used for its shape memory properties for couplings and actuators, although its contemporary use has been in for medical devices. For these applications, the stress induced transformation (‘superelasticity’) has been used extensively for self-expanding implantable devices such as endovascular stents and vena cava filters, and for tools such as endodontic files. Most of these applications involve cyclically varying biomechanical stresses or strains that drive the need to fully understand the fatigue and fracture resistance of this alloy. Here we review the existing knowledge base on the fatigue of Nitinol, both in terms of their stress or strain life (total life) and damage tolerant (crack propagation) behaviour, together with their fracture toughness properties. We further discuss the application of such data to the fatigue design and life prediction methodologies for Nitinol implant devices used in the medical industry.

Reactive Power Generation and Control by Thyristor Circuits

Abstract: Generally, static var generators function as variable reactances (capacitive or inductive impedances) or controllable ac current and voltage sources. Possible methods of var generation and control by static thyristor circuits are reviewed, and new approaches are described in which power frequency changers (cycloconverters) are employed. Oscillographic recordings illustrate the operation and performance of practical systems, including a 35-Mvar arc furnace compensator.

High power density superconducting rotating machines—development status and technology roadmap

Abstract: Superconducting technology applications in electric machines have long been pursued due to their significant advantages of higher efficiency and power density over conventional technology. However, in spite of many successful technology demonstrations, commercial adoption has been slow, presumably because the threshold for value versus cost and technology risk has not yet been crossed. One likely path for disruptive superconducting technology in commercial products could be in applications where its advantages become key enablers for systems which are not practical with conventional technology. To help systems engineers assess the viability of such future solutions, we present a technology roadmap for superconducting machines. The timeline considered was ten years to attain a Technology Readiness Level of 6+, with systems demonstrated in a relevant environment. Future projections, by definition, are based on the judgment of specialists, and can be subjective. Attempts have been made to obtain input from a broad set of organizations for an inclusive opinion. This document was generated Superconductor Science and Technology Supercond. Sci. Technol. 30 (2017) 123002 (41pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6668/aa833e Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. 0953-2048/17/123002+41$33.00 © 2017 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK 1 through a series of teleconferences and in-person meetings, including meetings at the 2015 IEEE PES General meeting in Denver, CO, the 2015 ECCE in Montreal, Canada, and a final workshop in April 2016 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign that brought together a broad group of technical experts spanning the industry, government and academia.

Harmonic Mixing with an Anti-Parallel Diode Pair

Abstract: An analytical and experimental investigation of the properties of an antiparallel diode pair is presented. Such a configuration has the following unique and advantageous characteristics as a harmonic mixer: 1) reduced conversion loss by suppressing fundamental mixing products; 2) lower noise figure through suppression of local oscillator noise sidebands; 3) suppression of direct video detection; 4) inherent self protection against large peak inverse voltage burnout. These results are obtained without the use of either filters or balanced circuits employing hybrid junctions.