Validated 3D solid finite element (FE) models offer an accurate performance of buried pipelines at earthquake faults. However, it is common to use a beam−spring model for the design of buried pipelines, and all the design guidelines are fitted to this modeling approach. Therefore, this study has focused on (1) the improvement of modeling techniques in the beam−spring FE modeling approach for the reproduction of the realistic performance of buried pipelines, and (2) the determination of an appropriate damage criterion for buried pipelines in beam−spring FE models. For this paper, after the verification of FE models by pull-out and lateral sliding tests, buried pipeline performance was evaluated at a strike-slip fault crossing using nonlinear beam−spring FE models and nonlinear 3D solid FE models. Material nonlinearity, contact nonlinearity, and geometrical nonlinearity effects were considered in all analyses. Based on the results, pressure and shear forces caused by fault movement and p... [more]

As a playground for cloud computing and IoT networking environment, IoTcloudServe@TEIN has been established in the Trans-Eurasia Information Network (TEIN). In the IoTcloudServe@TEIN platform, a cloud orchestration for conducting the flow of IoT task demands is imperative for effectively improving performance. In this paper, we propose the model of optimal containerized task scheduling in cloud orchestration that maximizes the average payoff from completing tasks within the whole cloud system with different levels of cloud hierarchies. Based on integer linear programming, the model can take into account demand requirement and resource availability in terms of storage, computation, network, and splittable task granularity. To show the insights obtainable from the proposed model, the edge-core cluster of IoTcloudServe@TEIN and its peer-to-peer federated cloud scenario with OF@TEIN+ are numerically experimented and herein reported. To evaluate the model’s performance, payoff level and tas... [more]

Silicon nanowire (SiNW) metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with Al2O3/TiO2/Al2O3 (ATA) stacked dielectric films were fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching (MACE) and atomic layer deposition (ALD). High-angle annular dark field scanning transmission electron microscopy (HAADF-STEM) images revealed that SiNWs were conformally coated with ATA although the cross-sectional shapes of MACE-SiNWs were non-uniform and sharp spikes can be seen locally. The dielectric capacitance density of 5.9 μF/cm2 at V = −4 V of the perfect accumulation region was achieved due to the combination of the large surface area of the SiNW array and the high dielectric constant of ATA. The capacitance changed exponentially with the voltage at V < −4.3 V and the capacitance of 84 μF/cm2 was successfully achieved at V = −10 V. It was revealed that not only 3D structure and high-k material but also local nanostructure of SiNWs and stacked dielectric layers could contribute to the considerable high ca... [more]

This paper focuses on a study of natural convection in a van der Waals gas over a vertical heated plate. In this paper, for the first time, an approximate analytical solution of the problem was obtained using an integral method for momentum and energy equations. A novel simplified form of the van der Waals equation for real gases enabled estimating the effects of the dimensionless van der Waals parameters on the normalized heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt numbers in an analytical form. Trends in the variation of the Nusselt number depending on the nature of the interaction between gas molecules and the wall were analyzed. The results of computations for a van der Waals gas were compared with the results for an ideal gas.

The problem of optimal phase-balancing in three-phase asymmetric distribution networks is addressed in this research from the point of view of combinatorial optimization using a master−slave optimization approach. The master stage employs an improved sine cosine algorithm (ISCA), which is entrusted with determining the load reconfiguration at each node. The slave stage evaluates the energy losses for each set of load connections provided by the master stage by implementing the triangular-based power flow method. The mathematical model that was solved using the ISCA is designed to minimize the annual operating costs of the three-phase network. These costs include the annual costs of the energy losses, considering daily active and reactive power curves, as well as the costs of the working groups tasked with the implementation of the phase-balancing plan at each node. The peak load scenario was evaluated for a 15-bus test system to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed ISCA in red... [more]

There is a noticeable number of studies carried out on both the operational parameters of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and the satellite signal itself. Researchers look for, inter alia, proven sources of errors affecting the integrity of the satellite signal because this parameter determines the approval of the system’s operational use. It also seems of key importance that the atmospheric conditions, in any area of satellite signal usage, should not be underestimated due to their extensive impact. As the ionospheric refraction seriously limits the operational use of the satellite navigation signal, in this article, the authors attempted to quantify the effect of solar activity (expressed by sunspots) on the signal integrity using fuzzy logic. Fuzzy reasoning is used when information is inaccurate or incomplete and necessitates making decisions under conditions of uncertainty. Thanks to fuzzy sets, there are no obstacles to characterize the degree of intensity of a given ph... [more]

This article is the second part of the work under the same title, which is based on the results of the research presented in the previous article: “Numerical study of heat transfer intensification in a circular tube using a thin, radiation-absorbing insert. Part 1: Thermo-hydraulic characteristics”. Part 1 presents an analysis of pressure drops and heat transfer intensification in a round tube with an insert, using the phenomenon of radiation absorption. In this paper, an analysis of the tested insert’s thermal performance (PEC) is presented, taking into account the criterion of equal pumping power. The tests were carried out for the range of Re = 5000−100,000 numbers, for various insert diameters (from 20% to 90% of the pipe diameter) and a constant temperature difference between the wall and the gas ∆T = 100 °C. The highest Nu numbers were observed for inserts with dimensionless diameters of 0.3 and 0.4, while the highest flow resistance was observed for inserts with diameters of 0.6... [more]

As a result of the increase in city populations, and the high energy consumption and emissions of buildings, cities in general, and buildings in particular, are the focus of attention for public organizations and utilities. Heating is among the largest consumers of energy in buildings. This study examined the influence of the income of inhabitants on the consumption of energy for heating and the CO2 emissions in city buildings. The study was carried out using equivalized disposable income as the basis for the analysis and considered the economies of scale of households. The results are shown per inhabitant and household, by independently considering each city. Furthermore, to more clearly identify the influence of the population income, the study was also carried out without considering the influence of the climate. The method was implemented in the case of Spain. For this purpose, Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants were analyzed. The results show that, both per inhabitan... [more]

This paper investigates adaptive thermal comfort during summer in medical residences that are located in the French city of Troyes and managed by the Association of Parents of Disabled Children (APEI). Thermal comfort in these buildings is evaluated using subjective measurements and objective physical parameters. The thermal sensations of respondents were determined by questionnaires, while thermal comfort was estimated using the predicted mean vote (PMV) model. Indoor environmental parameters (relative humidity, mean radiant temperature, air temperature, and air velocity) were measured using a thermal environment sensor during the summer period in July and August 2018. A good correlation was found between operative temperature, mean radiant temperature, and PMV. The neutral temperature was determined by linear regression analysis of the operative temperature and Fanger’s PMV model. The obtained neutral temperature is 23.7 °C. Based on the datasets and questionnaires, the adaptive coef... [more]

There is much research about the determinants of investments, but there is a shortage of similar studies for Poland. Therefore, the overall goal of the paper is to analyze the determinants of investments made by enterprises from the energy sector as well as their delays in Poland in the years 2000−2019. In this period, a strong growth of investments in energy was observed in the country. In connection to this, the authors set four hypotheses and verified them with the following statistical methods: canonical analysis, linear and causality correlation, autocorrelation and cointegration tests. The paper found that there is a relationship between public consumption and investment spending of small enterprises in Poland. That means that only some macroeconomic parameters are connected with investments. Moreover, the changes in the value of past investments has a negative influence in current investments.

One of the most important tasks when drilling a borehole is to select the appropriate type of drilling fluid and adjust its properties to the borehole’s conditions. This ensures the safe and effective exploitation of the borehole. Many types of drilling fluids are used to drill holes for crude oil and natural gas. Most often, mainly due to cost and environmental constraints, water-based muds are used. On the other hand, invert drilling fluids are used for drilling holes in difficult geological conditions. The ratio of the oil phase to the water phase in invert drilling fluids the most common ratio being from 70/30 to 90/10. One of the disadvantages of invert drilling fluids is their cost (due to the oil content) and environmental problems related to waste and the management of oily cuttings. This article presents tests of invert drilling fluids with Oil-Water Ratio (OWR) 50/50 to 20/80 which can be used for drilling HPHT wells. The invert drilling fluids properties were examined and th... [more]

Relative permeability curve is a key factor in describing the characteristics of multiphase flow in porous media. The steady-state method is an effective method to measure the relative permeability curve of oil and water. The capillary discontinuity at the end of the samples will cause the capillary end effect. The capillary end effect (CEE) affects the flow and retention of the fluid. If the experimental design and data interpretation fail to eliminate the impact of capillary end effects, the relative permeability curve may be wrong. This paper proposes a new stability factor method, which can quickly and accurately correct the relative permeability measured by the steady-state method. This method requires two steady-state experiments at the same proportion of injected liquid (wetting phase and non-wetting phase), and two groups of flow rates and pressure drop data are obtained. The pressure drop is corrected according to the new relationship between the pressure drop and the core len... [more]

This paper presents a method for finding an optimal photovoltaic (PV) system according to Croatian legislation. The PV sizing model, in which a decision on investment is made according to economic indicators, is made using MATLAB Software. Based on the input data, the monthly PV system production is calculated, and electricity price formed. According to the PV system production and electricity price, economic indicators are calculated and obtained as output data. The model input data are solar irradiation, load diagram, PV system costs and market price of electricity while the model output data are PV system production, savings, profit, incomes, Net Present Value (NPV) and Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). The obtained economic indicators are presented graphically and used for decision making on an optimal PV system size. The presented model is applied and presented in a case study.

Accurately determined acoustic emission (AE) locations provide significant information on fracture systems, such as the orientation of fractures in a geothermal reservoir. To determine the relative source locations among a group of seismic events, similar AE waveforms must be detected and the relative arrival times of the P and S waves must be determined. In this paper, a method to identify similar AE waveforms is proposed, in which wavelet transform scalograms are used to determine the phase-only correlation function. The proposed method was applied to arbitrarily selected seismic waveforms, and its feasibility was evaluated by comparing the results with those obtained when the phase-only correlation function was obtained by using Fourier transform results.

The accuracy of the electric heating load forecast in a new load has a close relationship with the safety and stability of distribution network in normal operation. It also has enormous implications on the architecture of a distribution network. Firstly, the thermal comfort model of the human body was established to analyze the comfortable body temperature of a main crowd under different temperatures and levels of humidity. Secondly, it analyzed the influence factors of electric heating load, and from the perspective of meteorological factors, it selected the difference between human thermal comfort temperature and actual temperature and humidity by gray correlation analysis. Finally, the attention mechanism was utilized to promote the precision of combined adjunction model, and then the data results of the predicted electric heating load were obtained. In the verification, the measured data of electric heating load in a certain area of eastern Inner Mongolia were used. The results sho... [more]

The ignition timing of an SI engine is a critical parameter. The influence on residual gas, effective release energy, and emissions characteristics of ignition timing for the V-twin engine is investigated in this research. For this purpose, an experiment system was built with a dynamometer, and a model of the simulation was created. In this research, the ignition timing was varied from 10 to 45 degrees BTDC under full load operating conditions, with engine speeds ranging from 3000 to 10,000 rpm. Based on the output data, ignition timing has a major impact on the proportion of residual gas, efficient release energy, performance of the engine, and the emission characteristics. The smallest proportion of residual gas was 0.07% at 8000 rpm and ignition timing of 10 °CA. At 15 °CA of ignition timing, the highest efficient release energy was 0.817 kJ at 4000 rpm, while at 8000 rpm and 25 °CA of ignition timing, it was 0.8305 kJ. At 6000 rpm, the greatest braking torque of the engine was 21.5... [more]

The power quality analysis is an essential issue in the integration of distributed energy resources to the grid. Recent standards regulate the harmonics disturbances due to the increasing penetration of intermittent energy sources interconnected with the grid employing power converters. This paper aims to analyze the power quality of an interconnected wind turbine system based on a Squirrel Cage Induction Generator (SCIG) driven by an Electromagnetic Frequency Regulator (EFR). The steady state of the EFR harmonic model is developed in the stationary frame based on the conventional induction generator modeling, which allows the study of the harmonic disturbances in the electrical and mechanical variables due to the PWM inverter of the EFR’s armature voltage. There is no electrical connection between the EFR and SCIG, and the results show that the inherent system inertia contributes to the mitigation of the harmonic content at the grid side generated by the switching. In addition to the... [more]

In order to fully understand the energy and exergy transfer processes in sinter vertical coolers, a simulation model of the fluid flow and heat transfer in a vertical cooler was established, and energy and exergy efficiency analyses of the gas−solid heat transfer in a vertical cooler were conducted in detail. Based on the calculation method of the whole working condition, the suitable operational parameters of the vertical cooler were obtained by setting the net exergy efficiency in the vertical cooler as the indicator function. The results show that both the quantity of sinter waste heat recovery (SWHR) and energy efficiency increased as the air flow rate (AFR) increased, and they decreased as the air inlet temperature (AIT) increased. The increase in the sinter inlet temperature (SIT) resulted in an increase in the quantity of SWHR and a decrease in energy efficiency. The air net exergy had the maximum value as the AFR increased, and it only increased monotonically as the SIT and AIT... [more]

In recent years, the urgent necessity and tremendous opportunity to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon competitive economy has resulted in growth of long-term targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency, which are coming from policy bodies worldwide. The inherent distributed nature of renewable energies, together with the modularity of those technologies, brings opportunities for consumer empowerment in terms of participation. Nevertheless, there is still the need for increasing global awareness and enabling policies, to strengthen the citizen role in the energy system, facilitating their proactive participation as renewable energy purchasers, investors, and clean energy producers. Drawing from research interviews and the academic literature, this article conceptualizes the understanding of the need for improving public attitudes and explores the factors influencing the acceptance in terms of misconceptions, best communication practices, activities addressing public conce... [more]

Membrane water content is of vital importance to the freezing durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Excessive water freezing could cause irreversible degradation to the cell components and deteriorate the cell performance and lifetime. However, there are few studies on the critical membrane water content, a threshold beyond which freezing damage occurs, for cold storage of PEMFCs. In this work, we first proposed a method for measuring membrane water content using membrane resistance extracted from measured high frequency resistance (HFR) based on the finding that the non-membrane resistance part of the measured HFR is constant within the range of membrane water content of 2.98 to 14.0. Then, freeze/thaw cycles were performed from −50 °C to 30 °C with well controlled membrane water content. After 30 cycles, cells with a membrane water content of 8.2 and 7.7 exhibited no performance degradation, while those higher than 8.2 showed significant performance decay. Elect... [more]

The role of distributor system operators is experiencing a gradual but relevant change to include enhanced ancillary and energy dispatch services needed to manage the increased power provided by intermittent distributed generations in medium voltage networks. In this context, the paper proposes the insertion, in strategic points of the network, of specific power electronic systems, denoted as active nodes, which permit the remote controllability of the active and reactive power flow. Such capabilities, as a further benefit, enable the distributor system operators to provide ancillary network services without requiring any procurement with distributed generation systems owners. In particular, the paper highlights the benefits of active nodes, demonstrating their capabilities in reducing the inverse power flow issues from medium to high voltage lines focusing on a network cluster including renewable energy resources. As a further novelty, this study has accounted for a real cluster opera... [more]

Due to the need of good thermal performance, external wall insulation (EWI) is usually made of materials that are not fire resistant and sometimes flammable. That restricts its application to a particular circumstance such as limited building height. Hence, a material with good thermal insulation and fire resistance performance would allow EWI to be more widely applied. This paper introduces a novel material: a silica-based aerogel porous board, which differs itself from mainstream products available in the market because of its outstanding properties, such as low density, high surface area, low thermal conductivity and superhydrophobicity. Herein, its thermal insulation and fire-resistant performance were tested and compared with commercial products. The cone calorimeter analysis results indicated that the aerogel porous board could improve the fire resistance performance. Moreover, the evaluation of thermal insulation performance suggested that the application of an aerogel porous bo... [more]

Reversible solid oxide cells (rSOC) enable the efficient cyclic conversion between electrical and chemical energy in the form of fuels and chemicals, thereby providing a pathway for long-term and high-capacity energy storage. Amongst the different fuels under investigation, hydrogen, methane, and ammonia have gained immense attention as carbon-neutral energy vectors. Here we have compared the energy efficiency and the energy demand of rSOC based on these three fuels. In the fuel cell mode of operation (energy generation), two different routes have been considered for both methane and ammonia; Routes 1 and 2 involve internal reforming (in the case of methane) or cracking (in the case of ammonia) and external reforming or cracking, respectively. The use of hydrogen as fuel provides the highest round-trip efficiency (62.1%) followed by methane by Route 1 (43.4%), ammonia by Route 2 (41.1%), methane by Route 2 (40.4%), and ammonia by Route 1 (39.2%). The lower efficiency of internal ammoni... [more]

The internal fractures in coal and rock mass are important factors affecting the safety of underground engineering such as coalbed methane exploitation, so the comprehensive properties of materials used to seal the fractures are particularly critical. In this paper, firstly, the indexes of the main factors affecting the plugging material (viscosity, bleeding rate, setting time, and strength) were analyzed. Then, the sensitivity of the materials used to seal the fractures was studied and discussed using a principal component analysis and response surface analysis (RSM-PCA). The primary conclusions are as follows: (1) Bleed rate and setting time were the first principal components affecting the comprehensive properties of the plugging materials, and compressive strength was the second principal component. (2) The regression equation was established to characterize the comprehensive properties of the integrated plugging materials, and the optimal mix ratio was 34% of cement content, 11% o... [more]

This paper proposes an original multi-criteria decision-making optimization algorithm to select the best solar panels in an existing market and optimally size the photovoltaic (PV) system for an electric vehicle parking lot (EVPL). Our proposed algorithm is called rank-weigh-rank (RWR), and it is compared to the well-known technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) optimization algorithm under the same conditions for validation purposes. Results show that the speed of our proposed algorithm (RWR) in finding the best solution increases exponentially compared to TOPSIS when the numbers of alternatives and criteria increase. Moreover, 77% is the probability of obtaining results with more than 80% accuracy compared to TOPSIS, which validates the efficiency of our algorithm. In addition, we were able to design an EVPL with a power self-sufficiency ratio of 60.8%, the energy self-sufficiency ratio of 74.7%, and a payback period of 10.58 years. Moreover, the re... [more]