Design of the traction battery for a Formula SAE racing car

This paper describes the design of the traction battery for the new electric Formula SAE vehicle of the University of Pisa. A model based design methodology extended to the mechanical, electrical and thermal domains was applied to find the best trade-off between the battery weight and the maximum power available at the wheel. The designed battery configuration was validated by means of electrical and thermal simulations

Holocene dust records from the West African Sahel and their implications for changes in climate and land surface conditions

We reconstructed aeolian dust accumulation during the Holocene from two radiocarbon-dated lake-sediment sequences from the Manga Grasslands in northeastern Nigeria in order to investigate long-term changes in the Harmattan dust system over West Africa and evaluate their possible causes. Flux values were low in the early Holocene, decreasing further to a minimum at around 6.2 kyr B.P. after which time they increased, steadily until around 2 kyr B.P. and then more sharply after this time. The long-term variations in dust flux agree broadly with changes in the exposed area of the Lake Chad Basin to the northeast of the study sites, which vary inversely with the volume of Paleolake Megachad. More proximal sources of dust, including the fine fraction of local dune sand and floodplains of nearby rivers, have also made a contribution to the total dust load during times of enhanced dune and fluvial activity. Sharp rises in dust flux over the past century may be related to human activity. Broad patterns of change in dust flux during the Holocene agree with other reconstructions over the same period. However,we see no evidence for a stepped rise during the middle Holocene, as seen at some sites from the northeastern tropical Atlantic, suggesting that controls on the Harmattan dust system have differed from those affecting dust deposition elsewhere across northern Africa

Estimation of air quality degradation due to Saharan dust at Nouakchott, Mauritania, from horizontal visibility data

It is now irrefutable that air pollution caused by large amounts of Total Suspended Particulates (TSP) and respiratory particulates or Particulate Matter less than 10 mu m in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) has numerous undesired consequences on human health. Air quality degradation far from the African continent, in the US and in Europe, caused by high concentrations of African dust, is seen as a major threat even though most of these countries are very distant from the Sahara. Surprisingly, no estimates of TSP or PM10 levels near the Saharan dust source are available. Based on horizontal visibility observations which are reduced by the presence of dust in the atmosphere, TSP and PM10 levels are estimated throughout the year 2000 at Nouakchott-Airport, Mauritania, using relations found in the literature. It appears that concentrations of particles are significant both in terms magnitude and frequency, as the 24-hour PM10 thresholds established by the US EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standards and the EU Limits Values for Air Quality were exceeded 86 and 137 times, respectively. The average annual concentration is far above air quality standards and estimated at 159 mu g m(-3) for TSP and 108 mu g m(-3) for PM10. These very high particulate levels are likely to represent an important public health hazard and should be considered as a major environmental risk