Evaluating potential effects of solar power facilities on wildlife from an animal behavior perspective

Solar power is a renewable energy source with great potential to help meetincreasing global energy demands and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.However, research is scarce on how solar facilities affect wildlife. With inputfrom professionals in ecology, conservation, and energy, we conducted aresearch-prioritization process and identified key questions needed to betterunderstand impacts of solar facilities on wildlife. We focused on animalbehavior, which can be used to identify population responses before mortal-ity or other fitness consequences are documented. Behavioral studies canalso offer approaches to understand the mechanisms leading to negativeinteractions (e.g., collision, singeing, avoidance) and provide insight into mit-igating effects. Here, we review how behavioral responses to solar facilities, including perception, movement, habitat use, and interspecific interactionsare priority research areas. Addressing these themes will lead to a morecomprehensive understanding of the effects of solar power on wildlife andguide future mitigatio

Numerical results for the solution of the Graetz problem for a Bingham plastic in laminar tube flow with constant wall temperature

The Graetz problem of developing temperature profile in a tube for a fully developed laminar velocity profile has been numerically solved for a Bingham plastic. Constant properties were assumed and viscous dissipation was ignored. Results are presented for local Nusselt number, average Nusselt number, and bulk fluid temperature each as a function of axial distance from the tube inlet. The laminar Newtonian fluid is a special case of the Bingham plastic; the results presented in this article for this case appear to be more accurate than those available in the literature

Quasi-steady model for predicting temperature of aqueous foams circulating in geothermal wellbores

A quasi-steady model has been developed for predicting the temperature profiles of aqueous foams circulating in geothermal wellbores. The model assumes steady one-dimensional incompressible flow in the wellbore; heat transfer by conduction from the geologic formation to the foam is one-dimensional radially and time-dependent. The vertical temperature distribution in the undisturbed geologic formation is assumed to be composed of two linear segments. For constant values of the convective heat-transfer coefficient, a closed-form analytical solution is obtained. It is demonstrated that the Prandtl number of aqueous foams is large (1000 to 5000); hence, a fully developed temperature profile may not exist for representative drilling applications. Existing convective heat-transfer-coefficient solutions are adapted to aqueous foams. The simplified quasi-steady model is successfully compared with a more-sophisticated finite-difference computer code. Sample temperature-profile calculations are presented for representative values of the primary parameters. For a 5000-ft wellbore with a bottom hole temperature of 375{sup 0}F, the maximum foam temperature can be as high as 300{sup 0}F

Investigation of rotation-induced stresses of straight and of curved vertical-axis wind turbine blades

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Free-air performance tests of a 5-metre-diameter Darrieus turbine

A five-meter-diameter vertical-axis wind turbine has been tested at the Sandia Laboratories Wind Turbine Site. The results of these tests and some of the problems associated with free-air testing of wind turbines are presented. The performance data obtained follow the general trend of data obtained in extensive wind tunnel tests of a 2-meter-diameter turbine. However, the power coefficient data are slightly lower than anticipated. The reasons for this discrepancy are explored along with comparisons between experimental data and a computerized aerodynamic prediction model

Application of reuseable interface technology for thermal parameter estimation

A Reuseable Interface Technology is presented for application to thermal parameter estimation problems. It is applied to the estimation of thermal conductivity of compacted Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} powder without binder. As temperature increases, the thermal conductivity of Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} powder without binder decreases

Wind energy: a revitalized pursuit

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Moving/deforming mesh techniques for computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer

This report represents a summary of a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project to develop general purpose unstructured grid techniques for solving free and moving boundary problems in computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer. Both control volume finite element and Galerkin finite element techniques were utilized. A very robust technique for keeping the deforming mesh from tangling was implemented; the mesh was treated as a fictitious elastic body. Sample results for an ablating nose tip and buoyancy driven flow in a box are presented. References to additional publications resulting from this work are included