absorber

The solar energy that reaches the Earth is free, but installations to convert solar energy into heat, as well as equipment for transporting and storage that heat, require some investment. A significant part of the components of these systems are metals. Pipelines in solar collectors and heat exchangers are made of copper, aluminum is used for the absorber and housing, and the steel is often used in heat storage tanks. One of the options to reduce the cost of solar collectors and increase their efficiency is to use polymeric materials instead of metals.

The paper describes the phenomenology of fuel rod behaviour in severe accident. As an example, an experiment is described resulting in severe damage of 19 fuel rod assembly of VVER type; it was carried out in the CORA facility in 1993 (Research Centre, Karlsruhe, Germany). Testing conditions and results of post-test investigations of fuel assembly are given. The fuel rod code RAPTA-SFD is briefly dealt with; the code was a participant in the International Standard Problem ISP-36. The basic results are presented acquired by computer modelling CORA-W2 experiment using RAPTA-SFD code.

The promising environmentally friendly solar heating systems are based on the combined solar collector, in which the absorber made of constructive material of low-energy house was described. The usage of the combined absorber with an external protection of low-energy house ensures sufficient efficiency of combined solar collector and reduces its cost. Three-factor planning matrix with the factors interaction was developed.

The paper considers complex ways to improve the stability of electronic devices (ED) to shocks and vibrations, which are the main destabilizing factors among mechanical effects. In mechanical shock, the inertial overload may reach up to 5..15 units. In many situations, the upper limit of the energy spectrum of acceleration reaches 50..150 m/s2. Such large inertial overload very quickly (in tens or hundreds of beats) causes the destruction of regular ED.