Physical-chemical treatment of wastes: a way to close turnover of elements in LSS.

"Man-plants-physical-chemical unit" system designed for space stations or terrestrial ecohabitats to close steady-state mineral, water and gas exchange is proposed. The physical-chemical unit is to mineralize all inedible plant wastes and physiological human wastes (feces, urine, gray water) by electromagnetically activated hydrogen peroxide in an oxidation reactor. The final product is a mineralized solution containing all elements balanced for plants' requirements. The solution has been successfully used in experiments to grow wheat, beans and radish. The solution was reusable: the evaporated moisture was replenished by the phytotron condensate. Sodium salination of plants was precluded by evaporating reactor-mineralized urine to sodium saturation concentration to crystallize out NaCl which can be used as food for the crew. The remaining mineralized product was brought back for nutrition of plants. The gas composition of the reactor comprises O2, N2, CO2, NH3, H2. At the reactor's output hydrogen and oxygen were catalyzed into water, NH3 was converted in a water trap into NH4 and used for nutrition of plants. A special accessory at the reactor's output may produce hydrogen peroxide from intrasystem water and gas which makes possible to close gas loops between LSS components.     

Mineralization of wastes of human vital activity and plants to be used in a Life Support System

Available methods for mineralizing wastes of human activity and inedible biomass of plants used in this country and abroad are divided into two types: dry mineralization at high temperatures up to 1270 K with subsequent partial dissolution of the ash and the other--wet oxidation by acids. In this case mineralization is performed at a temperature of 470-460 K and a pressure of 220-270 atmospheres in pure oxygen with the output of mineral solution and dissoluble sediments in the form of scale. The drawback of the first method is the formation of dioxins, CO, SO2, NO2 and other toxic compounds. The latter method is too sophisticated and is presently confined to bench testing. The here proposed method to mineralize the wastes is in mid-position between the thermal and physical chemical methods. At a temperature of 80-90 degrees C the mixture was exposed to a controlled electromagnetic field at normal atmospheric pressure. The method merits simplicity, reliability, produces no dissoluble sediment or emissions noxious for human and plants. The basic difference from the above said methods is to employ as an oxidizer atomic oxygen, its active forms including OH-radicals with hydrogen peroxide as the source. Hydrogen peroxide can be produced with electric power from water inside the Life Support System (LSS).     

仿生物态模拟型硬件理论与关键技术研究

阐述了模拟型仿生硬件的概念、基本思想与技术瓶颈，分析了基于FPTA(Field programmable transistor array)的模拟型仿生硬件的结构与电子细胞电路工作原理。给出了模拟型仿生硬件的电路编码方案、个体电路测试评估方法和进化实现过程。提出了基于单染色体自适应变异进化机制的模拟型仿生硬件进化算法。以信号放大器、半波整流器、异或门数字电路作为典型应用实例，来验证模拟型仿生硬件的进化特性，并讨论了进化算法的参数选取、染色体适应度评估问题。仿真结果表明：所提出硬件进化算法的进化速度快、成功率高，所设计的FPTA细胞阵列可以实现模拟信号放大、信号处理和数字电路逻辑功能。     

三维全五向编织复合材料的切边效应

对切割与未切割的三维全五向(3DF5D)编织复合材料进行了纵向拉伸力学性能研究。首先分别对2种编织角下3种不同情况(未切割、沿厚度方向切边和沿宽度方向切边)的试件进行了力学性能实验,实验结果表明,沿着厚度方向切边使材料的刚度和强度分别下降了约10%和25%;沿着宽度方向切边使材料刚度和强度分别下降了约3%和18%;进一步通过有限元数值模拟对上述实验过程进行了仿真计算,得到了单胞的损伤演化过程、破坏机理以及应力-应变曲线。最后对实验结果和计算结果进行了对比,结果显示二者吻合良好。研究结果表明,三维全五向编织复合材料的编织角越大,拉伸刚度和强度会越小;试件尺寸越大,厚度方向和宽度方向切边的影响越小,并趋于定值。     

Assessment of the possibility of establishing material cycling in an experimental model of the bio-technical life support system with plant and human wastes included in mass exchange

A pilot model of a bio-technical life support system (BTLSS) including human and plant wastes has been developed at the Institute of Biophysics SB RAS (Krasnoyarsk, Russia). This paper describes the structure of the photosynthesizing unit of the system, which includes wheat, chufa and vegetables. The study substantiates the simultaneous use of neutral and biological substrates for cultivating plants. A novel physicochemical method for the involvement of human wastes in the cycling has been employed, which enables the use of recycled products as nutrients for plants. Inedible plant biomass was subjected to biological combustion in the soil-like substrate (SLS) and was thus involved in the system mass exchange; NaCl contained in native urine was returned to the human through the consumption of Salicornia europaea, an edible salt-concentrating plant. Mass transfer processes in the studied BLSS have been examined for different chemical components.     

三维全五向编织耳片接头力学性能试验研究

通过单向静力拉伸试验研究了三维全五向编织复合材料耳片接头的力学性能。试件选用T700-12K碳纤维采用四步法编织预制件,以TDE-85环氧树脂为基体,经树脂传递模塑（RTM）工艺固化成型。对两种几何尺寸、两种孔加工方式（编织预留孔和机械制孔）的三维全五向编织复合材料耳片接头试件的力学性能进行了试验研究。试验结果表明,同尺寸三维全五向编织预留孔接头的承载力是机械制孔接头承载力的6倍;对相同孔径及厚度的耳片,增大耳片宽度能大幅提升耳片承载力,但并不能显著提高其初始破坏载荷。     

Element exchange in a water- and gas-closed biological Life Support System.

Liquid human wastes and household water used for nutrition of wheat made possible to realize 24% closure for the mineral exchange in an experiment with a 2-component version of "Bios-3" life support system (LSS) Input-output balances of revealed, that elements (primarily trace elements) within the system. The structural materials (steel, titanium), expanded clay aggregate, and catalytic furnace catalysts. By the end of experiment, the permanent nutrient solution, plants, and the human diet gradually built up Ni, Cr, Al, Fe, V, Zn, Cu, and Mo. Thorough selection and pretreatment of materials can substantially reduce this accumulation. To enhance closure of the mineral exchange involves processing of human-metabolic wastes and inedible biomes inside LSS. An efficient method to oxidize wastes by hydrogen peroxide icon a quartz reactor at the temperature of 80 degrees C controlled electromagnetic field is proposed.     

Mass exchange in an experimental new-generation life support system model based on biological regeneration of environment.

An experimental model of a biological life support system was used to evaluate qualitative and quantitative parameters of the internal mass exchange. The photosynthesizing unit included the higher plant component (wheat and radish), and the heterotrophic unit consisted of a soil-like substrate, California worms, mushrooms and microbial microflora. The gas mass exchange involved evolution of oxygen by the photosynthesizing component and its uptake by the heterotroph component along with the formation and maintaining of the SLS structure, growth of mushrooms and California worms, human respiration, and some other processes. Human presence in the system in the form of "virtual human" that at regular intervals took part in the respirative gas exchange during the experiment. Experimental data demonstrated good oxygen/carbon dioxide balance, and the closure of the cycles of these gases was almost complete. The water cycle was nearly 100% closed. The main components in the water mass exchange were transpiration water and the watering solution with mineral elements. Human consumption of the edible plant biomass (grains and roots) was simulated by processing these products by a unique physicochemical method of oxidizing them to inorganic mineral compounds, which were then returned into the system and fully assimilated by the plants. The oxidation was achieved by "wet combustion" of organic biomass, using hydrogen peroxide following a special procedure, which does not require high temperature and pressure. Hydrogen peroxide is produced from the water inside the system. The closure of the cycle was estimated for individual elements and compounds. Stoichiometric proportions are given for the main components included in the experimental model of the system. Approaches to the mathematical modeling of the cycling processes are discussed, using the data of the experimental model. Nitrogen, as a representative of biogenic elements, shows an almost 100% closure of the cycle inside the system. The proposed experimental model of a biological system is discussed as a candidate for potential application in the investigations aimed at creating ecosystems with largely closed cycles of the internal mass exchange. The formation and maintenance of sustainable cycling of vitally important chemical elements and compounds in biological life support systems (BLSS) is an extremely pressing problem. To attain the stable functioning of biological life support systems (BLSS) and to maintain a high degree of closure of material cycles in than, it is essential to understand the character of mass exchange processes and stoichiometnc proportions of the initial and synthesized components of the system.     

Biological and physiochemical methods for utilization of plant wastes and human exometabolites for increasing internal cycling and closure of life support systems.

Wheat was cultivated on soil-like substrate (SLS) produced by the action of worms and microflora from the inedible biomass of wheat. After the growth of the wheat crop, the inedible biomass was restored in SLS and exposed to decomposition ("biological" combustion) and its mineral compounds were assimilated by plants. Grain was returned to the SLS in the amount equivalent to human solid waste produced by consumption of the grain. Human wastes (urine and feces) after physicochemical processing turned into mineralized form (mineralized urine and mineralized feces) and entered the plants' nutrient solution amounts equal to average daily production. Periodically (once every 60-70 days) the nutrient solution was partly (up to 50%) desalinated by electrodialysis. Due to this NaCl concentration in the nutrient solution was sustained at a fixed level of about 0.26%. The salt concentrate obtained could be used in the human nutrition through NaCl extraction and the residuary elements were returned through the mineralized human liquid wastes into matter turnover. The control wheat cultivation was carried out on peat with use of the Knop nutrient solution. Serial cultivation of several wheat vegetations within 280 days was conducted during the experiment. Grain output varied and yield/harvest depended, in large part, upon the amount of inedible biomass returned to SLS and the speed of its decomposition. After achieving a stationary regime, (when the quantity of wheat inedible biomass utilized during vegetation in SLS is equal to the quantity of biomass introduced into SLS before vegetation) grain harvest in comparison with the control was at most 30% less, and in some cases was comparable to the control harvest values. The investigations carried out on the wheat example demonstrated in principle the possibility of long-term functioning of the LSS photosynthesizing link based on optimizations of biological and physicochemical methods of utilization of the human and plants wastes. The possibilities for the use of these technologies for the creation integrated biological-physicochemical LSS with high closure degree of internal matter turnover are discussed in this paper.     

三维编织复合材料圆柱销剪切试验与数值模拟

复合材料紧固件连接技术是复合材料结构加工制造的关键技术之一,针对三维编织复合材料圆柱销紧固件的剪切性能进行了试验和有限元数值模拟分析。试件采用了三维全五向编织工艺进行制备。通过双剪性能测试得到了三维编织复合材料圆柱销的极限承载能力和破坏断裂形式,采用均匀化方法对圆柱销试件的宏观弹性常数进行了预测,采用改进后的Tsai-Hill准则并引入连续介质损伤力学建立了一套三维编织复合材料强度分析方法,并根据该方法对圆柱销试件在剪切载荷作用下的渐进失效破坏过程进行了有限元分析,计算结果与试验结果具有良好的一致性,表明提出的强度分析方法在预测三维编织复合材料结构件的宏观强度性能方面是有效可行的。