11,043 research outputs found

    Deployment characterization of a floatable tidal energy converter on a tidal channel, Ria Formosa, Portugal

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    This paper presents the results of a pilot experiment with an existing tidal energy converter (TEC), Evopod 1 kW floatable prototype, in a real test case scenario (Faro Channel, Ria Formosa, Portugal). A baseline marine geophysical, hydrodynamic and ecological study based on the experience collected on the test site is presented. The collected data was used to validate a hydro-morphodynamic model, allowing the selection of the installation area based on both operational and environmental constraints. Operational results related to the description of power generation capacity, energy capture area and proportion of energy flux are presented and discussed, including the failures occurring during the experimental setup. The data is now available to the scientific community and to TEC industry developers, enhancing the operational knowledge of TEC technology concerning efficiency, environmental effects, and interactions (i.e. device/environment). The results can be used by developers on the licensing process, on overcoming the commercial deployment barriers, on offering extra assurance and confidence to investors, who traditionally have seen environmental concerns as a barrier, and on providing the foundations whereupon similar deployment areas can be considered around the world for marine tidal energy extraction.Acknowledgements The paper is a contribution to the SCORE project, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT e PTDC/ AAG-TEC/1710/2014). Andre Pacheco was supported by the Portu- guese Foundation for Science and Technology under the Portuguese Researchers' Programme 2014 entitled “Exploring new concepts for extracting energy from tides” (IF/00286/2014/CP1234). Eduardo GGorbena has received funding for the OpTiCA project from the ~ Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions of the European Union's H2020- MSCA-IF-EF-RI-2016/under REA grant agreement n [748747]. The authors would like to thank to the Portuguese Maritime Authorities and Sofareia SA for their help on the deployment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    The small wind turbine field lab extensive field tests for small wind turbines

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    This paper describes the research possibilities at the Small Wind Turbine Field Lab and the involved research groups of Ghent University, covering different aspects of a small wind energy system. In contrast to large and medium-sized wind turbines, small wind turbines are still plagued by relatively high production and purchase costs, and low reliability and energy yield. Furthermore, most of them have not been subjected to a field test program. Power-Link, the energy knowledge platform of Ghent University, has for three years operated a modest field test site for small wind turbines, that drew the attention of a lot of manufacturers of small wind turbines. In response, Ghent University decided to launch the Small Wind Turbine Field Lab (SWT Field Lab), to subject small wind turbines to more extensive field tests. Now not only the energy yield is tested, but also topics such as grid integration, structural strength, noise propagation, generator and drive train design and tower construction are studied. All of these parameters are correlated with meteorological data measured on-site

    Aeronautical engineering: A continuing bibliography, supplement 122

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    This bibliography lists 303 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in April 1980

    Investigating the Effect of Water Contamination on Gearbox Lubrication based on Motor Control Data from a Sensorless Drive

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    Water is one of the most significant destructive contaminations to lubricants which in turn lead to more power consumption and early damage to rotating machines. This study explores the effect of water contents in gearbox lube oil on the responses of electrical supply parameters. A two stage gearbox based mechanical transmission system driven by a sensorless variable speed drive (VSD) is utilised to investigate experimentally any measurable changes in these signals that can be correlated with water contamination levels. Results show that the supply parameters obtained from both external measurements and the VSD control data can be correlated to the contamination levels of oil with water and hence can be based on for an instant diagnosis of water contamination. Particularly, the voltage and hence the power responses are more sensitive to the water contents than that of current because the VSD regulates more the voltage to adapt the small load changes due to the water induced lubrication degradation. Simultaneously, vibration also shows changes which agree with that of power supply parameters

    Small unmanned airborne systems to support oil and gas pipeline monitoring and mapping

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    Acknowledgments We thank Johan Havelaar, Aeryon Labs Inc., AeronVironment Inc. and Aeronautics Inc. for kindly permitting the use of materials in Fig. 1.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

    Ono: an open platform for social robotics

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    In recent times, the focal point of research in robotics has shifted from industrial ro- bots toward robots that interact with humans in an intuitive and safe manner. This evolution has resulted in the subfield of social robotics, which pertains to robots that function in a human environment and that can communicate with humans in an int- uitive way, e.g. with facial expressions. Social robots have the potential to impact many different aspects of our lives, but one particularly promising application is the use of robots in therapy, such as the treatment of children with autism. Unfortunately, many of the existing social robots are neither suited for practical use in therapy nor for large scale studies, mainly because they are expensive, one-of-a-kind robots that are hard to modify to suit a specific need. We created Ono, a social robotics platform, to tackle these issues. Ono is composed entirely from off-the-shelf components and cheap materials, and can be built at a local FabLab at the fraction of the cost of other robots. Ono is also entirely open source and the modular design further encourages modification and reuse of parts of the platform

    Design and simulation of a multi-function MEMS sensor for health and usage monitoring.

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    Health and usage monitoring as a technique for online test, diagnosis or prognosis of structures and systems has evolved as a key technology for future critical systems. The technology, often referred to as HUMS is usually based around sensors that must be more reliable than the system or structure they are monitoring. This paper proposes a fault tolerant sensor architecture and demonstrates the feasibility of realising this architecture through the design of a dual mode humidity/pressure MEMS sensor with an integrated temperature function. The sensor has a simple structure, good linearity and sensitivity, and the potential for implementation of built-in-self-test features. We also propose a re-configurable sensor network based on the multi-functional sensor concept that supports both normal operational and fail safe modes. The architecture has the potential to significantly increase system reliability and supports a reduction in the number of sensors required in future HUMS devices. The technique has potential in a wide range of applications, especially within wireless sensor networks

    A stable and accurate control-volume technique based on integrated radial basis function networks for fluid-flow problems

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    Radial basis function networks (RBFNs) have been widely used in solving partial differential equations as they are able to provide fast convergence. Integrated RBFNs have the ability to avoid the problem of reduced convergence-rate caused by differentiation. This paper is concerned with the use of integrated RBFNs in the context of control-volume discretisations for the simulation of fluid-flow problems. Special attention is given to (i) the development of a stable high-order upwind scheme for the convection term and (ii) the development of a local high-order approximation scheme for the diffusion term. Benchmark problems including the lid-driven triangular-cavity flow are employed to validate the present technique. Accurate results at high values of the Reynolds number are obtained using relatively-coarse grids
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