Intelligent Decision Support System for Energy Management in Demand Response Programs and Residential and Industrial Sectors of the Smart Grid

This PhD thesis addresses the complexity of the energy efficiency control problem in residential and industrial customers of Smart electrical Grid, and examines the main factors that affect energy demand, and proposes an intelligent decision support system for applications of demand response. A multi criteria decision making algorithm is combined with a combinatorial optimization technique to assist energy managers to decide whether to participate in demand response programs or obtain energy from distributed energy resources

Acute lung injury in paediatric intensive care: course and outcome

Introduction: Acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) carry a high morbidity and mortality (10-90%). ALI is characterised by non-cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and refractory hypoxaemia of multifactorial aetiology [1]. There is limited data about outcome particularly in children. Methods This retrospective cohort study of 85 randomly selected patients with respiratory failure recruited from a prospectively collected database represents 7.1% of 1187 admissions. They include those treated with High Frequency Oscillation Ventilation (HFOV). The patients were admitted between 1 November 1998 and 31 October 2000. Results: Of the 85, 49 developed acute lung injury and 47 had ARDS. There were 26 males and 23 females with a median age and weight of 7.7 months (range 1 day-12.8 years) and 8 kg (range 0.8-40 kg). There were 7 deaths giving a crude mortality of 14.3%, all of which fulfilled the Consensus I [1] criteria for ARDS. Pulmonary occlusion pressures were not routinely measured. The A-a gradient and PaO2/FiO2 ratio (median + [95% CI]) were 37.46 [31.82-43.1] kPa and 19.12 [15.26-22.98] kPa respectively. The non-survivors had a significantly lower PaO2/FiO2 ratio (13 [6.07-19.93] kPa) compared to survivors (23.85 [19.57-28.13] kPa) (P = 0.03) and had a higher A-a gradient (51.05 [35.68-66.42] kPa) compared to survivors (36.07 [30.2-41.94]) kPa though not significant (P = 0.06). Twenty-nine patients (59.2%) were oscillated (Sensormedics 3100A) including all 7 non-survivors. There was no difference in ventilation requirements for CMV prior to oscillation. Seventeen of the 49 (34.7%) were treated with Nitric Oxide including 5 out of 7 non-survivors (71.4%). The median (95% CI) number of failed organs was 3 (1.96-4.04) for non-survivors compared to 1 (0.62-1.62) for survivors (P = 0.03). There were 27 patients with isolated respiratory failure all of whom survived. Six (85.7%) of the non-survivors also required cardiovascular support.Conclusion: A crude mortality of 14.3% compares favourably to published data. The A-a gradient and PaO2/FiO2 ratio may be of help in morbidity scoring in paediatric ARDS. Use of Nitric Oxide and HFOV is associated with increased mortality, which probably relates to the severity of disease. Multiple organ failure particularly respiratory and cardiac disease is associated with increased mortality. ARDS with isolated respiratory failure carries a good prognosis in children

A study of energy-related occupancy activities in a sample of monitored domestic buildings in the UK

Domestic energy use is determined by multiple non-technological factors, such as the occupants’ lifestyle and activities, which can even offset the effect from energy-efficiency technologies. Acquiring the actual occupancy data relating to energy use in a uniform format to generate comparable and representative information is challenging. Projects that seek to address this issue, such as the Retrofit for the Future and Building Performance Evaluation programmes of the Technology Strategy Board in the UK, usually require major investment. Long-term monitoring and longitudinal observation are two major features in these major investment projects. The former approach refers to the frequent measurement of indoor / outdoor environments and energy use conducted over at least two heating seasons, in line with the whole-house carbon and energy monitoring protocol of the Energy Saving Trust (2011). The latter approach, longitudinal observation, refers to observations conducted on the same group of individuals over an extended study period of years or decades to examine changes over time (Bryman, 2012). The majority of existing households and associated stakeholders that could potentially benefit from the investigation of energy-related occupancy activities cannot feasibly be involved in projects requiring major investment

The doctoral research abstracts Vol:2 2012 / Institute of Graduate Studies, UiTM

Foreword: Congratulations to Institute of Graduate studies on the conscientious efforts to publish yet another issue of the doctoral research abstracts. The second issue, I believe reflects IGS continuity in the pursuit of academic excellence in research following the inaugural publication during the 76th convocation ceremony. The publication epitomizes knowledge par excellence and marks UiTM acknowledgment and tribute to the 27 doctorates whose achievements we proudly celebrate. Doctoral researches transcend beyond academic achievements which launch doctorates wherever they want to go or whatever they want to do. It is indeed the beginning of a lifelong learning and merely not a milestone, but a stepping stone in the lives of doctorates. This issue features the PhD abstracts from across the faculties from the disciplines of science and technology, social science and humanities; and business and administration. May the Almighty guides us to the straight path, in our endeavor for academic excellence and grant us success in this world and the next. Dato’ Sri Prof Ir Dr Sahol Hamid Bin Abu Bakar , FASc Vice Chancellor Universiti Teknologi MAR

Development of Mathematical Models for the Assessment of Fire Risk of Some Indian Coals using Soft Computing Techniques

Coal is the dominant energy source in India and meets 56% of the country’s primary commercial energy supply. In the light of the realization of the supremacy of coal to meet the future energy demands, rapid mechanization of mines is taking place to augment the Indian coal production from 643.75 million tons (MT) per annum in 2014-15 to an expected level of 1086 MT per annum by 2024-25. Most of the coals in India are obtained from low-rank coal seams. Fires have been raging in several coal mines in Indian coalfields. Spontaneous heating of coal is a major problem in the global mining industry. Different researchers have reported that a majority (75%) of these fires owe their origin to spontaneous combustion of coal. Fires, whether surface or underground, pose serious and environmental problems are causing huge loss of coal due to burning and loss of lives, sterilization of coal reserves and environmental pollution on a massive scale. Over the years, the number of active mine fires in India has increased to an alarming 70 locations covering a cumulative area of 17 km2. In Indian coalfield, the fire has engulfed more than 50 million tons of prime coking coal, and about 200 million tons of coals are locked up due to fires. The seriousness of the problem has been realized by the Ministry of Coal, the Ministry of Labour, various statutory agencies and mining companies. The recommendations made in the 10th Conference on Safety in Mine held at New Delhi in 2007 as well as in the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC)-2006, New Delhi, it was stated that all the coal mining companies should rank their coal mines on a uniform scale according to their fire risk on scientific basis. This will help the mine planners/engineers to adopt precautionary measures/steps in advance against the occurrence and spread of coal mine fire. Most of the research work carried out in India focused on the assessment of spontaneous combustion liabilities of coals based on limited conventional experimental techniques. The investigators have proposed/established statistical models to establish correlation between various coal parameters, but limited work was done on the development of soft computing techniques to predict the propensity of coal to self-heating that is yet to get due attention. Also, the classifications that have been made earlier are based on limited works which were empirical in nature, without adequate and sound mathematical base. Keeping this in view, an attempt was made in this research work to study forty-nine coal samples of various ranks covering the majority of the Indian coalfields. The experimental/analytical methods that were used to assess the tendencies of coals to spontaneous heating were: proximate analysis, ultimate analysis, petrographic analysis, crossing point temperature, Olpinski index, flammability temperature, wet oxidation potential analysis and differential thermal analysis (DTA). The statistical regression analysis was carried out between the parameters of intrinsic properties and the susceptibility indices and the best-correlated parameters were used as inputs to the soft computing models. Further different ANN models such as Multilayer Perceptron Network (MLP), Functional Link Artificial Neural Network (FLANN) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) were applied for the assessment of fire risk potential of Indian coals. The proposed appropriate ANN fire risk prediction models were designed based on the best-correlated parameters (ultimate analysis) selected as inputs after rigorous statistical analysis. After the successful application of all the proposed ANN models, comparative studies were made based on Mean Magnitude of Relative Error (MMRE) as the performance parameter, model performance curves and Pearson residual boxplots. From the proposed ANN techniques, it was observed that Szb provided better fire risk prediction with RBF model vis-à-vis MLP and FLANN. The results of the proposed RBF network model was closely matching with the field records of the investigated Indian coals and can help the mine management to adopt appropriate strategies and effective action plans in advance to prevent occurrence and spread of fire

Energy efficiency and thermal comfort in historic buildings: A review

tThis is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in . Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Volume 61, August 2016, DOI 10.1016/j.rser.2016.03.018[EN] In recent years, energy efficiency and thermal comfort in historic buildings have become high-interest topics among scholars. Research has demonstrated that retrofitting buildings to current energy efficiency and thermal comfort standards is essential for improving sustainability and energy performance and for maintaining built heritage of historic structures. This study is an extensive overview of the literature surrounding this topic. This paper summarizes the different methods and techniques that have been used around the world to achieve performance refurbishments. Articles are organized based on the different building types used as case studies (residential, religious, academic and palace, museums, libraries and theaters, urban areas, and others). The results reveal that residential, religious and museum building types, especially from the last two centuries, have been most often used as case studies. Moreover, Europe, particularly Italy, is leading the research. The aim of this note is to demonstrate the feasibility of maintaining built heritage values of historic buildings while achieving significant improvements in their energy efficiency and thermal comfort.This paper has been developed as a result of a mobility stay funded by the Erasmus Mundus Programme of the European Commission under the Transatlantic Partnership for Excellence in Engineering - TEE Project.Martínez Molina, A.; Tort Ausina, I.; Cho, S.; Vivancos, J. (2016). Energy efficiency and thermal comfort in historic buildings: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 61:70-85. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.03.018S70856