Approaches to shipboard power generation systems design and management. Probabilistic approach to load prediction and system optimal design, sizing and management

This doctoral thesis presents new ideas and formulations on shipboard power system sizing and management. The main motivation behind this work is to fill, at least in part, the current technological and mythological gap between land and marine applications, concerning the sizing and management of power systems. This gap is the result of several changes regarding both the electric and marine applications. Two of these are, for example, the recent increase of electric power installed on board modern vessels and recent development of technologies for land microgrids. In this context, it should be noted that, also the modern ships are comparable to land microgrids, where the generation and loads are close in space and the on board power system may work either islanded or connected to the land grid. Nowadays, microgrids are a hot topic in electric engineering, with a constant development of novel approaches for both their sizing and management. On the other hand, considering the increase in the power installed on board ships, the traditional methods developed in the last century to size and manage these systems have shown increasing limitations and inaccuracies. This results in oversized power generation systems, low performances and high level of air and sea pollution due to ships activities. To overcome these problems and criticalities, this work presents a probabilistic approach to load prediction, which may increase the flexibility of the power system design and allow a significant reduction in the total power installed. Moreover, the traditional method to size the diesel generators, based on satisfying the maximum load, it is revised with the formulation of an optimal problem, which can consider as input either the results of the traditional method to load prediction or those obtained applying the probabilistic one. Finally, due to the recent introduction in land microgrids of energy storage system, which may cover the power fluctuations due to renewable resources, allow a better management of energy and increase the quality of service, an optimum method is developed and described in order to select, size and manage these systems on board ships

Extending the Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks Based on an Improved Multi-objective Artificial Bees Colony Algorithm

Reducing the sensors\u27 energy expenditure to prolong the network lifespan as long as possible remains a fundamental problem in the field of wireless networks. Particularly in applications with inaccessible environments, which impose crucial constraints on sensor replacement. It is, therefore, necessary to design adaptive routing protocols, taking into account the environmental constraints and the limited energy of sensors. To have an energy-efficient routing protocol, a new cluster heads’ (CHs) selection strategy using a modified multi-objective artificial bees colony (MOABC) optimization is defined. The modified MOABC is based on the roulette wheel selection over non-dominated solutions of the repository (hyper-cubes) in which a rank is assigned to each hypercube based on its density in dominated solutions of the current iteration and then a random food source is elected by roulette from the densest hypercube. The proposed work aims to find the optimal set of CHs based on their residual energies to ensure an optimal balance between the nodes\u27 energy consumption. The achieved results proved that the proposed MOABC-based protocol considerably outperforms recent studies and well-known energy-efficient protocols, namely: LEACH, C-LEACH, SEP, TSEP, DEEC, DDEEC, and EDEEC in terms of energy efficiency, stability, and network lifespan extension

Mathematics in health care with applications

The Author aims to show how mathematics can be useful in supporting key activities in a hospital, including: noninvasive measurement of a patient’s status (see chapter 1), evaluation of quality of services (see chapter 2), business and clinical administration (see chapter 3), and diagnosis and prognosis (see chapter 4). Such applications suggest the development of innovative projects to improve health care processes, services and systems. In this way, mathematics can be a very important tool for technological and societal development

Wind Farm

During the last two decades, increase in electricity demand and environmental concern resulted in fast growth of power production from renewable sources. Wind power is one of the most efficient alternatives. Due to rapid development of wind turbine technology and increasing size of wind farms, wind power plays a significant part in the power production in some countries. However, fundamental differences exist between conventional thermal, hydro, and nuclear generation and wind power, such as different generation systems and the difficulty in controlling the primary movement of a wind turbine, due to the wind and its random fluctuations. These differences are reflected in the specific interaction of wind turbines with the power system. This book addresses a wide variety of issues regarding the integration of wind farms in power systems. The book contains 14 chapters divided into three parts. The first part outlines aspects related to the impact of the wind power generation on the electric system. In the second part, alternatives to mitigate problems of the wind farm integration are presented. Finally, the third part covers issues of modeling and simulation of wind power system

Development of transportation and supply chain problems with the combination of agent-based simulation and network optimization

Demand drives a different range of supply chain and logistics location decisions, and agent-based modeling (ABM) introduces innovative solutions to address supply chain and logistics problems. This dissertation focuses on an agent-based and network optimization approach to resolve those problems and features three research projects that cover prevalent supply chain management and logistics problems. The first case study evaluates demographic densities in Norway, Finland, and Sweden, and covers how distribution center (DC) locations can be established using a minimizing trip distance approach. Furthermore, traveling time maps are developed for each scenario. In addition, the Nordic area consisting of those three countries is analyzed and five DC location optimization results are presented. The second case study introduces transportation cost modelling in the process of collecting tree logs from several districts and transporting them to the nearest collection point. This research project presents agent-based modelling (ABM) that incorporates comprehensively the key elements of the pick-up and delivery supply chain model and designs the components as autonomous agents communicating with each other. The modelling merges various components such as GIS routing, potential facility locations, random tree log pickup locations, fleet sizing, trip distance, and truck and train transportation. The entire pick-up and delivery operation are modeled by ABM and modeling outcomes are provided by time series charts such as the number of trucks in use, facilities inventory and travel distance. In addition, various scenarios of simulation based on potential facility locations and truck numbers are evaluated and the optimal facility location and fleet size are identified. In the third case study, an agent-based modeling strategy is used to address the problem of vehicle scheduling and fleet optimization. The solution method is employed to data from a real-world organization, and a set of key performance indicators are created to assess the resolution's effectiveness. The ABM method, contrary to other modeling approaches, is a fully customized method that can incorporate extensively various processes and elements. ABM applying the autonomous agent concept can integrate various components that exist in the complex supply chain and create a similar system to assess the supply chain efficiency.Tuotteiden kysyntä ohjaa erilaisia toimitusketju- ja logistiikkasijaintipäätöksiä, ja agenttipohjainen mallinnusmenetelmä (ABM) tuo innovatiivisia ratkaisuja toimitusketjun ja logistiikan ongelmien ratkaisemiseen. Tämä väitöskirja keskittyy agenttipohjaiseen mallinnusmenetelmään ja verkon optimointiin tällaisten ongelmien ratkaisemiseksi, ja sisältää kolme tapaustutkimusta, jotka voidaan luokitella kuuluvan yleisiin toimitusketjun hallinta- ja logistiikkaongelmiin. Ensimmäinen tapaustutkimus esittelee kuinka käyttämällä väestötiheyksiä Norjassa, Suomessa ja Ruotsissa voidaan määrittää strategioita jakelukeskusten (DC) sijaintiin käyttämällä matkan etäisyyden minimoimista. Kullekin skenaariolle kehitetään matka-aikakartat. Lisäksi analysoidaan näistä kolmesta maasta koostuvaa pohjoismaista aluetta ja esitetään viisi mahdollista sijaintia optimointituloksena. Toinen tapaustutkimus esittelee kuljetuskustannusmallintamisen prosessissa, jossa puutavaraa kerätään useilta alueilta ja kuljetetaan lähimpään keräyspisteeseen. Tämä tutkimusprojekti esittelee agenttipohjaista mallinnusta (ABM), joka yhdistää kattavasti noudon ja toimituksen toimitusketjumallin keskeiset elementit ja suunnittelee komponentit keskenään kommunikoiviksi autonomisiksi agenteiksi. Mallinnuksessa yhdistetään erilaisia komponentteja, kuten GIS-reititys, mahdolliset tilojen sijainnit, satunnaiset puunhakupaikat, kaluston mitoitus, matkan pituus sekä monimuotokuljetukset. ABM:n avulla mallinnetaan noutojen ja toimituksien koko ketju ja tuloksena saadaan aikasarjoja kuvaamaan käytössä olevat kuorma-autot, sekä varastomäärät ja ajetut matkat. Lisäksi arvioidaan erilaisia simuloinnin skenaarioita mahdollisten laitosten sijainnista ja kuorma-autojen lukumäärästä sekä tunnistetaan optimaalinen toimipisteen sijainti ja tarvittava autojen määrä. Kolmannessa tapaustutkimuksessa agenttipohjaista mallinnusstrategiaa käytetään ratkaisemaan ajoneuvojen aikataulujen ja kaluston optimoinnin ongelma. Ratkaisumenetelmää käytetään dataan, joka on peräisin todellisesta organisaatiosta, ja ratkaisun tehokkuuden arvioimiseksi luodaan lukuisia keskeisiä suorituskykyindikaattoreita. ABM-menetelmä, toisin kuin monet muut mallintamismenetelmät, on täysin räätälöitävissä oleva menetelmä, joka voi sisältää laajasti erilaisia prosesseja ja elementtejä. Autonomisia agentteja soveltava ABM voi integroida erilaisia komponentteja, jotka ovat olemassa monimutkaisessa toimitusketjussa ja luoda vastaavan järjestelmän toimitusketjun tehokkuuden arvioimiseksi yksityiskohtaisesti.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Forecasting in Mathematics

Mathematical probability and statistics are an attractive, thriving, and respectable part of mathematics. Some mathematicians and philosophers of science say they are the gateway to mathematics’ deepest mysteries. Moreover, mathematical statistics denotes an accumulation of mathematical discussions connected with efforts to most efficiently collect and use numerical data subject to random or deterministic variations. Currently, the concept of probability and mathematical statistics has become one of the fundamental notions of modern science and the philosophy of nature. This book is an illustration of the use of mathematics to solve specific problems in engineering, statistics, and science in general