Interfacing the aluminium-air battery with telecommunications equipment
The tests carried out by British Telecom (BT) on the aluminum-air battery with regard to using the battery in a standby power system are described. The background to BT's interest in the aluminium-air battery is outlined along with the design considerations of a prototype power system to be installed in the switching network. The need for an interfacing DC/DC converter between the battery and the equipment is described, and the converter's novel features and operation are explained.<<ETX>>
The operation of a aluminium-air reserve power systems
Alupower-Chloride have developed a practical aluminium-air reserve battery which will provide over 150 Wh/dm/sup 3/ and 250 Wh/kg on discharge. The author describes both the principles and practicalities of operation of the reserve battery and techniques for incorporating them into power systems. The battery is intended to be used in conjunction with conventional, rechargeable, standby batteries and DC/DC power conversion equipment to provide cost-effective short- and long-term regulated power backup to key electrical installations. Two designs of the product are available capable of meeting electrical load requirements from 200 W to 2 kW for periods up to 72 h.<<ETX>>
MCNP(TM) Version 5.
The Monte Carlo transport workhorse, MCNP, is undergoing a massive renovation at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in support of the Eolus Project of the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASCI) Program. MCNP Version 5 (V5) (expected to be released to RSICC in Spring, 2002) will consist of a major restructuring from FORTRAN-77 (with extensions) to ANSI-standard FORTRAN-90 with support for all of the features available in the present release (MCNP-4C2/4C3). To most users, the look-and-feel of MCNP will not change much except for the improvements (improved graphics, easier installation, better online documentation). For example, even with the major format change, full support for incremental patching will still be provided. In addition to the language and style updates, MCNP V5 will have various new user features. These include improved photon physics, neutral particle radiography, enhancements and additions to variance reduction methods, new source options, and improved parallelism support (PVM, MPI, OpenMP).