11,899 research outputs found

    Applying uncertainty considerations to energy conservation equations

    Get PDF
    When applying computer simulation tools in practice uncertainties abound, for example in material properties and boundary conditions. To facilitate the quantification of the effects of uncertainties, the differential, factorial and Monte Carlo methods have been implemented within a simulation tool, ESP-r. These methods require multiple simulations to extract statistical measures of model uncertainty. An alternative approach is to embed uncertainty considerations within the simulation tool's algorithms. The principle advantages of this approach are that the uncertainty is quantified at all times and therefore requires only a single simulation. Coupled with this, it is possible to take control action based on the prevailing effects of uncertainties. This paper details the mathematical techniques required to integrate uncertainty considerations within the energy conservation equations when applied to the simulation of buildings. A comparison is made between the use of this novel approach and traditional mechanisms of assessing uncertainty

    Falsification Of The Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within The Frame Of Physics

    Full text link
    The atmospheric greenhouse effect, an idea that many authors trace back to the traditional works of Fourier (1824), Tyndall (1861), and Arrhenius (1896), and which is still supported in global climatology, essentially describes a fictitious mechanism, in which a planetary atmosphere acts as a heat pump driven by an environment that is radiatively interacting with but radiatively equilibrated to the atmospheric system. According to the second law of thermodynamics such a planetary machine can never exist. Nevertheless, in almost all texts of global climatology and in a widespread secondary literature it is taken for granted that such mechanism is real and stands on a firm scientific foundation. In this paper the popular conjecture is analyzed and the underlying physical principles are clarified. By showing that (a) there are no common physical laws between the warming phenomenon in glass houses and the fictitious atmospheric greenhouse effects, (b) there are no calculations to determine an average surface temperature of a planet, (c) the frequently mentioned difference of 33 degrees Celsius is a meaningless number calculated wrongly, (d) the formulas of cavity radiation are used inappropriately, (e) the assumption of a radiative balance is unphysical, (f) thermal conductivity and friction must not be set to zero, the atmospheric greenhouse conjecture is falsified.Comment: 115 pages, 32 figures, 13 tables (some typos corrected

    Variable structure control for parabolic evolution equations

    Full text link
    In this paper it is considered a class of infinite-dimensional control systems in a variational setting. By using a Faedo-Galerkin method, a sequence of approximating finite dimensional controlled differential equations is defined. On each of these systems a variable structure control is applied to constrain the motion on a specified surface. Under some growth assumptions the convergence of these approximations to an ideal sliding state for the infinite-dimensional system is shown. Results are then applied to the Neumann boundary control of a parabolic evolution equation.Comment: Submitted for presentation to the Joint 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference ECC 2005; 13 page

    Uncertainty Updating in the Description of Coupled Heat and Moisture Transport in Heterogeneous Materials

    Full text link
    To assess the durability of structures, heat and moisture transport need to be analyzed. To provide a reliable estimation of heat and moisture distribution in a certain structure, one needs to include all available information about the loading conditions and material parameters. Moreover, the information should be accompanied by a corresponding evaluation of its credibility. Here, the Bayesian inference is applied to combine different sources of information, so as to provide a more accurate estimation of heat and moisture fields [1]. The procedure is demonstrated on the probabilistic description of heterogeneous material where the uncertainties consist of a particular value of individual material characteristic and spatial fluctuations. As for the heat and moisture transfer, it is modelled in coupled setting [2]
    corecore