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Abstract This research attempted to analyze a triple-tube heat exchanger (TTHE) fitted with innovative crimped-spiral ribs to enhance thermal efficiency. The crimped-spiral rib was placed on the top of the internal tube, and the water–alumina nanofluid was employed as the hot fluid within the ribbed side, whereas the two other fluids were pure water. The numerical solutions were performed through the two-phase mixture method, while the turbulent flow was modeled via the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM). The overall heat transfer coefficient (U), heat transfer rate, effectiveness, and performance index enhanced remarkably by using the nanofluid. The greatest increment in the U and effectiveness reached around 44.91 and 41 %, respectively, by the increment of the volume fraction by 0.02. The crimp intensity had an appreciable contribution to the thermal performance. The main mechanism was stronger swirl flow generated by the crimped-spiral rib that yielded boundary layer destruction. The heat transfer capability was increased via the rib pitch decrement and rib height increment. The performance index showed great values even at low volume fractions, which manifested the great merit of the implemented refinements. The thermal attributes were investigated at the first of the result section and then, the hydraulic characteristics were researched.

In electric power generation and distribution systems, three structures are capable of impacting energy quality: generation, distribution and loads. Currently, the diversity of the latter ranges from purely resistive loads such as heating systems to extremely nonlinear loads such as switched electronic power supplies. This has dramatically affected the quality of electric energy. The operation of these loads contributes to the reduction of the power factor of the installation, the injection of harmonic currents in the electrical network and the imbalance of currents and voltages between the phases in the case of three-phase systems. The implementation of a method capable of recognizing electrical loads and identifying them through algorithms can be used to manage the electric energy consumption, contributing a lot to the improvement of the quality of electric energy. In order to deal with uncertainty in the identification of these loads, probability distributions will be applied, which are able to handle uncertainty through a probabilistic modeling using Bayesian Networks.

Abstract This study investigates the macroeconomic effects of adverse oil price shocks on a small oil-exporting economy — the Azerbaijan economy. We estimate a recursive (near) VAR model by using monthly macroeconomic data from 2006 to 2018. The results indicate the Azerbaijan economy is adversely influenced by an oil price decline. Specifically, we find that a negative oil price shock deteriorates trade balance, causes a currency depreciation, increases inflation and falls economic activity. Furthermore, our findings imply that the oil price-led devaluation shapes the inflationary and recessionary consequences of this shock.

Abstract To achieve the EU climate and energy objectives, a transition towards a future sustainable energy system is needed. The integration of the huge potential for industrial waste heat recovery into smart energy system represents a main opportunity to accomplish these goals. To successfully implement this strategy, all the several stakeholders' conflicting objectives should be considered. In this paper an evolutionary multi-objective optimization model is developed to perform a sustainability evaluation of an energy system involving an industrial facility as the waste heat source and the neighbourhood as district heating network end users. An Italian case study of heat recovery from a steel casting facility shows how the model allows to properly select the district heating network set of users to fully exploit the available waste energy. Design directions such as the thermal energy storage capacity can be also provided. Moreover, the model enables the analysis of the trade-off between the stakeholders’ different perspectives, allowing to identify possible win-win solutions for both the industrial sector and the citizenship.

Tracking and erosion of Poly Methyl Methacrylate (PMMA) and the suppression mechanism of alumina trihydrate were investigated in the present study The conventional testing as IEC-60587 is widely used in surface aging measurement of outdoor insulator those testing can carry out very short time for Lab testing. Also IEC-60587 testing is able to offer the standard judgement of relative degradation level of outdoor HV system. Therefore it is very useful method compare to previous conventional tracking testing method, But surface discharges(SD) have very complex characteristics of discharge pattern so it is required estimation research to development of precise analysis method. In recent, the study of IRR-Camera is carrying out discover of temperature of power equipment through condition diagnosis and system development of degradation diagnosis. In this paper, SD occurred from IEC-60587 is measured with the surface temperature of weibull distribution in real time, the degradation grade of SD is analyzed through produced patterns in IEC-60587 using Infrared Radiation(IRR) camera.

Wind characteristics (e.g., mean wind speed, gust factor, turbulence intensity and integral scale, etc.) are quite scattered in different measurement conditions, especially during typhoon and/or hurricane processes, which results in the structural engineer ambiguously determining the wind parameters in wind-resistant design of buildings and structures in cyclone-prone regions. In tropical cyclones (including typhoons and hurricanes), the inconsistent wind characteristics may be in part ascribed to the complex flow structure with the coexistence of both mechanical and convective turbulence in the boundary layer of tropical cyclones. Another significant contribution to the scattered wind characteristics is due to various measurement conditions (e.g., terrain exposure and height) and data processing schemes (e.g., averaging time). The removal of the inconsistency in the field-measurement system may offer a more rational comparison of measured wind data from various observation platforms, and hence facilitates a better identification scheme of the wind characteristics to guide the urban planning design and wind-resistant design of buildings and structures. In this study, an analytical framework was firstly proposed to eliminate the potential observation-related effects in wind characteristics and then the wind characteristics of seven field measured tropical cyclones (four typhoons and three hurricanes) were comparatively investigated. Specifically, field measurements of wind characteristics were converted to a standard reference station with a roughness length of 0.03 m, observation duration of 10 min for mean wind and averaging time of 3 s for gusty wind at a 10 m height. The differences of the measured wind characteristics between the typhoons and hurricanes were highlighted. The standardized turbulent wind characteristics under the analytical framework for typhoons and hurricanes were compared with the corresponding recommendations in standard of American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE 7-10) and Architectural Institute of Japan Recommendations for Loads on Buildings (AIJ-RLB-2004).

To research the flow-induced vibration characteristics of the natural gas loop, unsteady numerical simulation is carried out on the loop calculation model under different ambient temperatures and different flow rates, and the influence of different flow rates on the dynamic characteristics of the flow field and its induced vibration characteristics is obtained. The results show that the inherent frequency of the natural gas loop increases slightly under the action of heat–fluid–solid coupling. The maximum equivalent stress of the loop increases with the increase in ambient temperature under low flow conditions, but it is almost constant under high flow conditions. The smaller the cross-sectional area of the loop pipeline inlet, the greater the pressure, and the more significant the pressure gradient along the flow direction. The pressure pulsation of monitoring points in the pipeline under different flow rates presents different rules, and the pulsation amplitude of pipes with different diameters is different, among which the amplitude of the pipe with a diameter of 250 mm is the largest and that of the pipe with a diameter of 150 mm is the smallest. The pressure pulsation signals are concentrated in the low-frequency band of 0–10 Hz, and the range of the band decreases with the increase in the flow rate. The vibration frequency of the loop structure is close to the fluid pressure pulsation frequency and the inherent frequency under the action of heat–fluid–solid coupling, which causes a resonance of about 2 Hz.

In dieser Studie untersuchen wir das «Potenzial von Cleantech-Produkten» für die Schweiz im internationalen Vergleich. Die Studie ist in zwei Teile gegliedert. Im ersten, weit - gehend deskriptiven Teil wird anhand von Patentdaten analysiert, wie die Schweiz im Cleantech- Bereich im internationalen Vergleich abschneidet. Die verwendeten Indikatoren deuten auf eine eher unterdurchschnittliche Performance hin. Im zweiten Teil wird mit Hilfe eines ökonometrischen Modells untersucht, welche Faktoren die Spezialisierung einer Branche bzw. eines Landes auf Cleantech bestimmen. Dabei wird besonderes Gewicht gelegt auf den Einfluss der Politik («politisch induzierte Innovationen»). In Übereinstimmung mit bisherigen empirischen Studien finden wir eine positive Korrelation zwischen der Höhe der Kyoto-Verpflichtungen zur Emissionsreduktion von Treibhausgasen und dem Ausmass bzw. der Veränderung der Cleantech-Spezialisierung eines Landes. Darüber hinaus steht auch der Zielerreichungsgrad mit der Cleantech-Spezialisierung in einem positiven Zusammenhang.

Background: The global palm oil market experienced a remarkable boom since the year 2000. Since palm oil can be used for biodiesel production, the global expansion of oil palm cultivation has been associated with the global biofuel boom. Biofuel policies—especially those adopted in the European Union (EU)—have been blamed for the socio-environmental impacts of oil palm expansion. We explore how the global biofuel boom interacts with national geographies and social-economic and political processes to produce country-specific trajectories of biofuel crops expansion. We analyse the expansion of oil palm cultivation in Colombia between 2000 and 2010 from a political ecology perspective. Methods: The analysis is based on a framework that positions expansion of commodity frontiers within the ‘space-of-flows’ and the ‘space-of-place’. Through this approach, we identify the markets and geographies that define the country-specific trajectories of expansion of oil palm in Colombia, and their connections with general patterns of land control. The empirical analysis is based on primary data collected during fieldwork, and on an extensive review of secondary data about the palm oil sector and the socio-environmental effects of oil palm expansion in the country. Results: The contemporary oil palm expansion in Colombia was not specifically influenced by the international biofuel market. Expansion was characterized by an increasing production of palm oil for biodiesel, to supply a policy-driven national biofuel market controlled by national palm oil producers. The evidence shows that this oil palm expansion proceeded through a variety of land control practices that constitute forms of ‘accumulation by dispossession’ and ‘assimilation’. These are embedded in contextual factors that include the agrarian history of Colombia, the armed conflict, and government policies. Conclusions: Our study shows that the ways in which expansion of biofuel crops unfold in each producing country depend not only on the global biofuel market. They are also shaped by the country-specific geographies and political economies. Therefore, research and policies on the global expansion of energy crops should account for the complex and interrelated factors that mediate the specific ways in which the global demand for biofuels creates biofuel crop booms at country level.