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Interest in the highly efficient energy hub (EH) model has been growing despite the high computational requirements of planning for a multi-energy, multi-device operation. To address both the device size limitation and the multi-scenario issue, we propose a new solution methodology for solving the EH planning problem. In the method, the decision variables are device sizes. First, a dimension reduction technique is proposed to address the curse of dimensionality based on the correlation of unknown variables such as the capacities of different devices in an EH. Second, to avoid local convergence, a solution method called the variable-sized unimodal searching (VUS) approach is proposed to assure a global optimal planning scheme for the one-dimensional non-convex optimization model obtained from the preceding dimension reduction process. The case study indicates that the proposed approach has a higher computing efficiency than the Benders decomposition (BD) algorithm to deal with a scenario-based stochastic planning problem with a large number of scenarios. Thus, the effectiveness of the EH planning approach is verified.

Control methods based on global positioning systems (GPS) are reported in multiple literatures recently, which achieve a fixed frequency operation of the microgrid and therefore has the tremendous benefit that any problems related to frequency instability are eliminated. However, the possible interruption of GPS timing signals may cause current circulating and finally leads to instability of the microgrid, yet it is largely neglected in literatures. This paper presents an angle synchronizing mechanism which utilizes the timing signal from GPS satellites and an auxiliary frequency droop loop to ensure synchronization during GPS offline events. Smooth transfer is guaranteed between primary and auxiliary control loops with discrete control architecture. Also, to allow microgrid using GPS-based control to work in tandem with the bulk power system or another frequency droop microgrid, an extra synchronization algorithm is proposed. The viability and performance of the proposed control structure is validated by case studies.

At present, the in-situ testing equipment used for measuring the thermophysical properties of rock and soil is scarce. Based on the working principle of the pressuremeter and ground heat exchanger, a pre-drilling thermal probe in-situ testing equipment is developed. This novel developed pre-drilling thermal probe in-situ testing equipment includes thermal probe, pressure control system, temperature control system, integrated conversion control device, and coaxial pressure pipe connection pipeline. A three-dimensional heat transfer model was established to simulate the heat transfer between the thermal probe and surrounding ground. Based on the principle of the temperature dissipation and numerical simulation, a calculation method for the thermal conductivity of rock and soil with pre-drilling thermal probe is proposed. Laboratory model tests of the sand under dry and saturated conditions were conducted. The deviation values for the thermal conductivities of sand under dry and saturated conditions measured by the designed pre-drilling thermal probe and thermal conductivity tester are 0.037 and 0.026 W/m·°C, respectively. Thus, the reliability of utilizing the new pre-drilling thermal probe testing equipment to measure the thermal conductivity of the soil is confirmed. The field test of utilizing this new pre-drilling thermal probe testing equipment to measure the thermal properties of the soil was performed. The results show that because the soil layers are in undisturbed state during the test process, the pre-drilling thermal probe testing equipment can truly reflect the inherent thermal properties of different soil layers.

To unlock the potential of flexible resources, a multi-time-scale economic scheduling strategy for the virtual power plant (VPP) to participate in the wholesale energy and reserve market considering large quantity of deferrable loads (DLs) aggregation and disaggregation is proposed in this paper. For the VPP multi-time-scale scheduling including day-ahead bidding and real-time operation, the following models are proposed, namely, DLs aggregation model based on clustering approach, economic scheduling model considering DLs aggregation, and DLs disaggregation model satisfying consumers’ requirements, respectively. The proposed strategy can realize the efficient management of massive DLs to reduce the energy management complexity and increase the overall economics with high computation efficiency, which indicate its promising application in the VPP economic scheduling.

Aiming at the problem that the relative important degree of indexes will change, when urban rail power supply equipment is in different running state, this paper proposes a comprehensive degradation assessment model. The model uses the discrete degree of indexes' historical data to describe the relative importance of each indexes, and calculates the initial weights of each indexes by mean variance method (MVM). When the equipment is in normal operation state, the initial weight is corrected by the current detection data of the index, and the comprehensive degradation degree of the equipment is obtained. According to the principle of "more value punishment", when the equipment is in failure state, the weight of the index can be reassigned by the variable weight formula to realize the comprehensive assessment of the degradation degree of the equipment. Finally, the effectiveness of the comprehensive assessment method is verified by an example.

This paper proposes a multi-objective optimization algorithm based on the membrane computing. Inspired by the theory of membrane optimization, the membrane structure, multiple sets and reaction rules is employed to tackle multi-objective optimization issues. Aiming at adaptability of algorithm, the cross-over and mutation mechanism of the genetic algorithm are introduced to combine with membrane framework. Moreover, for the sake of improving the diversity of global search solution, the non-dominated sorting and crowding distance are used to update external archive. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is not only practicable and efficient but also capable of obtaining the approximate Pareto front in KUR and ZDT test function.

In order to improve the degree of renewable energy integration, the demand response resource, especially on the air conditioning load side, has received attention. Currently, most of the control modes for air conditioners are centralised control, which is difficult to be applied to widely distributed air conditioning. The current studies focus on central air conditioning, but there are few studies on split-type inverter air conditioning, even though inverter air conditioning has become the most common split air system on the market. With this background, this study designs a consensus control strategy on the basis of distributed control mode, which for inverter air conditioners. The strategy is used for renewable energy integration in the studied region. The test results of various cases reveal the following findings: (i) the strategy adapts to the widely distributed air conditioning, (ii) the strategy can guarantee a fair allocation of power imbalance and user comfort, (iii) the control strategy can adapt to the uncertainties of air conditioners and the urban microclimate while efficiently consuming renewable energy. Therefore, the proposed consensus control strategy has practical value.

Abstract A new conical-cylindrical top-discharge blow tank is designed, by introducing the pulsed gas to facilitate discharging, for stable transportation for kaolin powders. A series of experimental studies on pulsed gas characteristic parameters like pulsed gas flow rate Qpulsed (5 m3/h ≤ Qpulsed ≤ 25 m3/h), pulsed interval tpulsed (1 s ≤ tpulsed ≤ 5 s) and pulsed width τpulsed (50 ms ≤ τpulsed ≤ 250 ms) are conducted with the fluidized gas flow rate of 12 m3/h. The experiments mainly test the powder mass flow rate and solid-gas ratio in the conveying process. The results indicate that the mass flow rate and solid-gas ratio range 12.6–278.04 kg/h and 0.9–19.56 kg/m3, respectively. With the increase of the pulsed gas flow rate, the mass flow rate and solid gas ratio first increase and then decrease. When the ratio of fluidized gas flow rate to pulsed gas flow rate is within 0.8–1.2, its conveying capacity reaches the maximum. Meanwhile, the increase in the pulsed interval leads to the decrease of the mass flow rate and solid-gas ratio. Moreover, the increase in the pulsed width leads to the initial increase and then the stabilization of the mass flow rate and solid gas ratio. When the pulsed width is 50 ms, the improvement of discharge would small. Conversely, increasing the pulsed width can increase the discharge, and stabilize subsequently until over 200 ms. Besides, moisture content is one of the important factors affecting kaolin powders discharge. When the moisture content is 0.83%, the pulsed gas does not improve the discharge significantly. Meanwhile, pressure distribution at different locations in the tank is also measured. The results reveal that the introduction of pulsed gas changes the pressure distribution in the tank. A pressure zone is formed on the upper part of the tank, which promotes the powder discharge.

Abstract In a pressurized water reactor (PWR), the control rod drop analysis is crucial for the reactor safety and the integrity of core structure. Especially under a seismic condition, the horizontal deflections of the reactor system could cause impact between the control rods and the guide thimbles, and then the resulting frictional forces can significantly increase the scram time and intensify mechanical interaction at the absorber rod cladding and spider springs. The CRDAC code is a control rod scram analysis tool developed by China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute (CNPRI). In a previous work, Liu et al., 2013 , Li et al., 2013 studied the transverse behavior and the fluid-structure interaction of the whole movement system based on this code. Liu calculated the scram time of a 12ft fuel assembly under the Wenchuan earthquake wave. Huang et al. (2014) proposed a flow model to describe the effect of the flow field parameters on the scram time under the operation condition. This paper presents the seismic analysis method based on the CRDAC code which developed by China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute (CNPRI). Both the scram time and the seismic response have been calculated, such as the maximum pressure in the guide thimble, impact forces to the spider spring, and friction forces to the absorber rod. According to the design requirements of the third-generation nuclear power plants, safety shutdown earthquake (SSE) and operating basis earthquake (OBE) for the horizontal response need to satisfy 0.3 g and 0.15 g, respectively. Therefore, the maximum accelerations of both the input and the initial horizontal deformation of a fuel assembly have been taken into account in this paper. After several sensitive analyses, it is found that the CRDAC code is a powerful tool for the design of control rods and fuel assemblies.