With increasing mean and extreme temperatures due to climate change, it becomes necessary to use—not only future typical conditions—but future heatwaves in building thermal simulations as well. Future typical weather files are widespread, but few researchers have put together methodologies to reproduce future extreme conditions. Furthermore, climate uncertainties need to be considered and it is often difficult due to the lack of data accessibility. In this article, we propose a methodology to re-assemble future weather files—ready-to-use for building simulations—using data from the European Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (EURO-CORDEX) dynamically downscaled regional climate multi-year projections. It is the first time that this database is used to assemble weather files for building simulations because of its recent availability. Two types of future weather files are produced: typical weather years (TWY) and heatwave events (HWE). Combined together, they can be used to ful... [more]

Energy management and control of hybrid microgrids is a challenging task due to the varying nature of operation between AC and DC components which leads to voltage and frequency issues. This work utilizes a metaheuristic-based vector-decoupled algorithm to balance the control and operation of hybrid microgrids in the presence of stochastic renewable energy sources and electric vehicles charging structure. The AC and DC parts of the microgrid are coupled via a bidirectional interlinking converter, with the AC side connected to a synchronous generator and portable AC loads, while the DC side is connected to a photovoltaic system and an electric vehicle charging system. To properly ensure safe and efficient exchange of power within allowable voltage and frequency levels, the vector-decoupled control parameters of the bidirectional converter are tuned via hybridization of particle swarm optimization and artificial physics optimization. The proposed control algorithm ensures the stability o... [more]

The continuous development of fifth generation (5G) communication and Internet of Thing (IoT) inevitably necessitates more advanced systems that can satisfy the growing wireless data rate demand of future equipment. Device-to-Device (D2D) communication, whose performance is evaluated in terms of the overall throughput, energy efficiency (EE) and spectral efficiency (SE), is considered a promising solution for the aforementioned problem. Thereby, this paper aims at improving the performance of the D2D communication underlaying cellular networks operating on multiple bands by maximizing the EE in its uplink. Thanks to the stochastic geometry theory, it is possible to derive the closed-form expressions for the successful transmission probability (STP), the total average transmission rate (TATR), and the total average energy efficiency (TAEE) of cellular and D2D users in different time slot setting. Particularly investigated and compared in this study, there are one-hop, direct, D2D commun... [more]

The world’s energy demand is steadily increasing where it has now become difficult for conventional hydrocarbon reservoir to meet levels of demand. Therefore, oil and gas companies are seeking novel ways to exploit and unlock the potential of unconventional resources. These resources include tight gas reservoirs, tight sandstone oil, oil and gas shales reservoirs, and high pressure high temperature (HPHT) wells. Drilling of HPHT wells and shale reservoirs has become more widespread in the global petroleum and natural gas industry. There is a current need to extend robust techniques beyond costly drilling and completion jobs, with the potential for exponential expansion. Drilling fluids and their additives are being customized in order to cater for HPHT well drilling issues. Certain conventional additives, e.g., filtrate loss additives, viscosifier additives, shale inhibitor, and shale stabilizer additives are not suitable in the HPHT environment, where they are consequently inappropria... [more]

The paper presents the results of a 3D FEA simulations series of a dual air gap Axial Flux (AF) electric machine with Surface-Mounted Permanent magnets (SPM) with parameterized rotor geometry. Pole number and pole span influence on back-emf, as well as cogging and ideal electromagnetic torques angular characteristics were investigated for each model with the common segmented yokeless stator with concentric windings. Synchronous and BLDC drives supply were used to estimate back-emf distortion. Ideal torque ripple and cogging torque spectra were analyzed. It was concluded that the number of poles closer to the number of slots with ~0.8 pole span tends to yield good torque density with the lowest cogging torque, back-emf distortion and ideal torque ripple.

Carbonation lime mud is a by-product formed during the production of sugar in the process of raw beetroot juice purification. On average, during one campaign, over 12,000 tons of carbonation lime mud is obtained in the operation of one sugar production plant. It is stored in prisms, which negatively affects the environment. The chemical properties of carbonation lime mud allow using it as a soil improver. This article presents the results of research into the development of carbonation lime mud disposal technology and its management. The chemical composition and physical properties of waste were determined. It has been proposed to use carbonation lime mud as the basic raw material in the production of mineral−organic fertilizers. Tests were conducted in a disc granulator. The granulated material was wetted with water and aqueous solution of molasses. Carbonation lime mud is a material that is easily subjected to the granulation process, using any wetting liquid. The beds wetted with 33... [more]

The paper firstly summarizes a simple analytical model of the air gap flux-density distribution for isotropic permanent magnet (PM) synchronous machines, in the presence of static eccentricity. The model was proposed by the authors in a previous paper and is based on an efficacious analytical expression of the variable length of air gap magnetic field lines which occur in eccentric brushless machines with surface-mounted permanent magnets. The approximate expression of the air gap field makes it possible to achieve a mathematical model with concentrated parameters close to that of a PM machine without eccentricity. The expression of the armature voltages and electromagnetic torque are found, also with reference to steady-state operating conditions at fixed rotor speed and impressed currents. The differences introduced by the considered type of eccentricity are evaluated and highlighted especially with reference to the air gap inductance and to waveforms and frequency spectra of voltage... [more]

This paper provides the result of a techno-economic study of potential energy storage technologies deployable at wind farms to provide short-term ancillary services such as inertia response and frequency support. Two different scenarios are considered including a single energy storage system for the whole wind farm and individual energy storage for each wind turbine (located at either the dc or the ac side of its grid-side converter). Simulations are introduced to check the technical viability of the proposal with different control strategies. Power and energy capability requirements demanded by both specific services are defined for each studied case based on present and future grid code needs. Based on these requirements, the study compares a wide range of energy storage technologies in terms of present-day technical readiness and properties and identifies potential candidate solutions. These are flywheels, supercapacitors, and three chemistries out of the Li-ion battery family. Fina... [more]

This paper presents the results of experimental studies on two-phase conical swirl atomizers. The impact of various atomizer geometries and different operational parameters of the atomization process on the spray characteristics was investigated. The influence of the mixing chamber height HS to diameter DS ratio and the volumetric flow rates of liquid and gas on the discharge coefficient values, spray angle, droplet size expressed by Sauter mean diameter D32, volumetric and radial distributions of droplet diameters in the spray stream were determined. The analysis of results showed that the discharge coefficient values depend on the Reynolds number for liquid and gas and the atomizer geometry. The spray angle increases as the flow rate of liquid and gas increases depending on the applied atomizer construction. The Sauter mean diameter value is correlated with the geometric dimensions of the atomizer swirl chamber. The rapid increase in D32 occurs after exceeding the value HS/DS ≈ 3. Th... [more]

Energy literacy is a concept which is not widely known by the public; however, it has captured the attention of several researchers in recent years. Concerning the assessment of energy and financial knowledge and people’s attitudes, intentions and behavior, it provides a global view of people’s knowledge, feelings, concerns and habits related to energy usage. Since energy is such an important resource in our daily lives, we can hardly imagine living without it. Moreover, considering that its production often requires the use of limited resources and leads to the worsening of already existing environmental problems, finding ways to alert consumers to the efficient management of their consumption is an urgent need. Therefore, in this article, we aimed to evaluate energy literacy levels, considering all the dimensions mentioned above, and search for the determinants of these levels. As an added novelty, we also aimed to determine the role of financial knowledge on energy literacy dimensio... [more]

Impedance-source (Z-source) inverters are increasingly adopted in practice, where a high voltage gain is required. However, issues like drawing a non-continuous current from the DC source and ceasing the energy supply under DC source faults are also observed. In this paper, an embedded enhanced-boost Z-source inverter (EEB-ZSI) is thus proposed to tackle the issues. The proposed EEB-ZSI employs two DC sources, which enable the continuous input current and fault-tolerant operations (e.g., open-circuit and short-circuit faults in the DC sources). The operational principles are presented in detail with an in-depth circuit analysis. Moreover, the proposed EEB-ZSI is benchmarked with prior-art Z-source inverters. Experimental tests further demonstrate the effectiveness of EEB-ZSI regarding the continuous input current and flexible fault tolerance.

This work analyzes the impact of the operation and maintenance procedure on the condition of gearbox oil. The analytical results reveals how different scenarios modify them. The analysis is based on key operational data collected from 30 different multi-megawatt wind turbines at different locations in Spain with a variety of technologies from different top-tier manufacturers. The study includes various situations and decisions, such as leakage and replacement of oil, offline filter installation, oil brand change, substitution of valves, and even the position where the sample is taken and how these situations can provoke false warnings that trigger modifications in the operation and maintenance of wind farms with new unnecessary tasks and costs. The experimental results conclude that complete and reliable information is crucial when warning about risk situations. It is not possible to take appropriate actions without accurate information and consequently the spread of the problem cannot... [more]

This paper investigates thermal overloading, voltage dips and insulation failure across a distribution transformer (DT), under residential and battery electric vehicle (BEV) loadings. The objective of this paper is to discuss the charging impact of BEVs on voltage across consumer-service points, as well as across the life of paper insulation under varying ambient temperatures (during winter and summer), with and without a centralized battery energy storage system (BESS). This study contributes in two ways. The first part of this study deals with coordinated and uncoordinated BEV charging scenarios. The second part of this study deals with maximum utilization of a test DT rated under dynamic thermal rating (DRoDT). The DRoDT integration with BESS is carried out to flatten the load spikes, to obtain maximum DT utilization, to achieve active power and voltage supports in addition to an enhanced DT lifespan. The obtained results indicate that, when test DT operates under the proposed hybri... [more]

With the current energy environment background and development of the electrification of the automotive industry, a comprehensive economic indicator, in which the battery aging is further considered on the basis of conventional energy consumption, is proposed to research the energy optimization problem of two-speed electric vehicles. Firstly, a battery life model that adapts to vehicles under high dynamic conditions is introduced. Then, the speed optimal control problem of the two-speed electric vehicles in the acceleration−cruise−deceleration process is established and solved. Finally, the simulation results of two different performance indicators are contrasted and the performance improvement of the two-speed gearbox to the electric vehicles is analyzed. The simulation results under various working scenarios and driving cycles demonstrate that, compared with the conventional economic indicator considering the energy consumption only, the proposed economic indicator can significantly... [more]

City bus transport electrification has a strong potential of improving city air quality, reducing noise pollution and increasing passenger satisfaction. Since the city bus operation is rather deterministic and intermittent, the driving range- and charging-related concerns may be effectively overcome by means of fast charging at end stations and/or slow charging in depot. In order to support decision making processes, a simulation tool for planning of city bus transport electrification has been developed and it is presented in this paper. The tool is designed to use real/recorded driving cycles and techno-economic data, in order to calculate the optimal type and number of e-buses and chargers, and predict the total cost of ownership including investment and exploitation cost. The paper focuses on computationally efficient e-bus fleet simulation including powertrain control and charging management aspects, which is illustrated through main results of a pilot study of bus transport electr... [more]

An airfoil inverse design method is proposed by using the pressure gradient distribution as the design target. The adjoint method is used to compute the derivatives of the design target. A combination of the weighted drag coefficient and the target dimensionless pressure gradient is applied as the optimization objective, while the lift coefficient is considered as a constraint. The advantage of this method is that the designer can sketch a rough expectation of the pressure distribution pattern rather than a precise pressure coefficient under a certain lift coefficient and Mach number, which can greatly reduce the design iteration in the initial stage of the design process. Multiple solutions can be obtained under different objective weights. The feasibility of the method is validated by a supercritical airfoil and a supercritical natural laminar flow airfoil, which are designed based on the target pressure gradients on the airfoils. Eight supercritical airfoils are designed under diffe... [more]

Polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers (OMEn) are frequently discussed as alternative diesel fuels, with various synthesis routes considered. OME3−5 syntheses demand significant amounts of thermal energy due to the complex separation processes that they entail. Therefore, innovative process designs are needed. An important tool for the development of new processes is process simulation software. To ensure sound process simulations, reliable physico-chemical models and component property data are necessary. Herein we present the implementation of a state-of-the-art thermodynamic model to describe the component systems of formaldehyde-water and formaldehyde-methanol using Microsoft® Excel (2010, Microsoft Corp, Redmond, WA, USA) and Aspen Plus®, (V8.8, Aspen Tech, Bedford, MA, USA) determine the deviation between the calculated results and experimental literature data, and minimize the deviation by means of parameter fitting. To improve the accuracy of the estimation of the missing property da... [more]

Solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs) are a promising technology to harvest energy for off-grid applications. A wide variety of STEG designs have been proposed with the aim of providing non-intermittent electrical generation. Here, we designed and tested a STEG 0.5 m long formed by nine commercial thermoelectric generator modules and located at ground level. Data were used to validate a numerical model that was employed to simulate a one-year cycle. Results confirmed the very high variability of energy generation during daylight time due to weather conditions. By contrast, energy generation during night was almost independent of atmospheric conditions. Annual variations of nighttime energy generation followed the trend of the daily averaged soil temperature at the bottom of the device. Nighttime electrical energy generation was 5.4 times smaller than the diurnal one in yearly averaged values. Mean energy generation values per day were 587 J d−1 (daylight time) and 110 J d−1 (nighttim... [more]

Condition monitoring for wind turbines is tailored to predict failure and aid in making better operation and maintenance (O&M) decisions. Typically the condition monitoring approaches are concerned with predicting the remaining useful lifetime (RUL) of assets or a component. As the time-based measures can be rendered absolute when changing the operational set-point of a wind turbine, we propose an alternative in a power-based condition monitoring framework for wind turbines, i.e., the remaining power generation (RPG) before a main bearing failure. The proposed model utilizes historic wind turbine data, from both run-to-failure and non run-to-failure turbines. Comprised of a recurrent neural network with gated recurrent units, the model is constructed around a censored and uncensored data-based cost function. We infer a Weibull distribution over the RPG, which gives an operator a measure of how certain any given prediction is. As part of the model evaluation, we present the hyper-parame... [more]

In this work, a novel Boundary Element Method (BEM) is developed and applied to the investigation of the performance of Oscillating Water Column (OWC) systems, taking into account the interaction of the incident wave field with the bottom topography. The modelling includes the effect of additional upwave walls and barriers used to modify the resonance characteristics of the device and improve its performance as the U-OWC configuration. Numerical results illustrating the effects of depth variation in conjunction with other parameters—such as chamber dimensions as well as the parameters associated with the turbine and power take-off system—on the device performance are presented and discussed. Finally, a case study is presented regarding the potential installation of an OWC in a selected port site in the Black Sea, characterized by a good wave energy potential, on the coast of Romania.

The paper considers technical and economic possibilities to provide geothermal heat to individual recipients using a mobile thermal storage system (M-TES) in Polish conditions. The heat availability, temperature and heat cost influence the choice of location—Bańska Niżna, near Zakopane in the southern part of the Poland. The indirect contact energy storage container was selected with phase change material characterized by a melting temperature of 70 °C and a heat storage capacity of 250 kJ/kg, in the amount of 800 kg. The economic profitability of the M-TES system (with a price per warehouse of 6000 EUR, i.e., a total of 12,000 EUR—two containers are needed) can be achieved for a heat demand of 5000 kWh/year with the price of a replaced heat source at the level of 0.21 EUR/kWh and a distance between the charging station and building (heat recipient) of 0.5 km. For the heat demand of 15,000 kWh/year, the price for the replaced heat reached EUR 0.11/kWh, and the same distance. In turn, f... [more]

The design elements considered during the construction of a thermochemical reactor determine its thermal performance. This current study investigated the effect of design elements, such as boundary layer thickness, insulating materials for the outlet tube design and fluid inlet locations of the frustum, on the thermal performance of a proposed syngas production reactor with incident radiation heat transfer through quartz glass. The P1 radiation approximation model and fluid flow in the shallow path were integrated into a proposed radiation model. The result indicated that inlet mass flow rates from 5 × 10−4 to 14 × 10−4 kg/s increased the temperature in the cavity and the outlet. The fluid inlet located at the top of the quartz glass edges was found to have better thermal performance and maximum average outlet temperature. Insulation for fluid inlets tube above the quartz glass edges of the frustum was very important for the prevention of radiation loss through quartz glass and sedimen... [more]

A DC-distributed power system consists of a large quantity of subsystems with power converters. The interaction among these subsystems will affect the operation performance of the whole system. Therefore, data communication plays a very important role in system control and equipment monitoring. The present study proposes a dual modulation method of power/signal based on Switched Reluctance Drive (SRD), which can transmit signals simultaneously with power conversion and can promise data communication of the system with lower cost. This proposed method uses the ripple inherent as the carrier of the signal in the power circuit and adopts Pulse width modulation (PWM)/frequency shift keying (FSK) composite modulation to realize the reverse transmission of signals from the load to the power supply. Results of simulations and experiments indicate that this new method is effective in data communication.

The paper presents an analytical mathematical model of a car radiator, which takes into account various heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) on each row of pipes. The air-side HTCs in a specific row of pipes in the first and second passes were calculated using equations for the Nusselt number, which were determined by CFD simulation by the ANSYS program (Version 19.1, Ansys Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA). The liquid flow in the pipes can be laminar, transition, or turbulent. When changing the flow form from laminar to transition and from transition to turbulent, the HTC continuity is maintained. Mathematical models of two radiators were developed, one of which was made of round tubes and the other of oval tubes. The model allows for the calculation of the thermal output of every row of pipes in both passes of the heat exchangers. Small relative differences between the total heat flow transferred in the heat exchanger from hot water to cool air exist for different and uniform HTCs. However, th... [more]

Overall heat transfer coefficient, also known as the intrinsic performance measurement of the building, determines the amount of heat lost by a building due to temperature difference between indoor and outdoor. QUB (Quick U-value of Buildings) is a short-term method for measuring the overall heat transfer coefficient of buildings. The test involves heating and cooling the house with a power step and measuring the indoor temperature response in a single night. Ideally, the outdoor temperature during QUB experiment should remain constant. To compare the influence of variable outdoor temperature, the QUB experiments are simulated on a well-calibrated model with real weather conditions. The experiments at varying outdoor temperature and constant outdoor temperature during the night show that the results in both conditions are nearly similar. A ±2 °C increase or decrease in the outdoor temperature during the QUB experiment can change the results in the measured overall heat transfer coeffic... [more]