VGRIDSG: An unstructured surface grid generation program

This report contains an overview of the VGRIDSG unstructured surface grid generation program. The VGRIDSG program was created from the VGRID3D unstructured grid generation program developed by Vigyan, Inc. The purpose of this report is to document the changes from the original VGRID3D program and to describe the capabilities of the new program

A comparison using APPL and PVM for a parallel implementation of an unstructured grid generation program

Efforts to parallelize the VGRIDSG unstructured surface grid generation program are described. The inherent parallel nature of the grid generation algorithm used in VGRIDSG was exploited on a cluster of Silicon Graphics IRIS 4D workstations using the message passing libraries Application Portable Parallel Library (APPL) and Parallel Virtual Machine (PVM). Comparisons of speed up are presented for generating the surface grid of a unit cube and a Mach 3.0 High Speed Civil Transport. It was concluded that for this application, both APPL and PVM give approximately the same performance, however, APPL is easier to use

Estimating commuter rail demand to Kendall Square along the Grand Junction Corridor

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 113-114).Since acquiring the Grand Junction Railroad in June 2010 from CSX, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) has explored the possibility of using the line for commuter rail service. In addition the Grand Junction right-of-way has been the subject of other proposals, including a multi-use path by the City of Cambridge and a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line as part of the MBTA's Urban Ring study. In September of 2010, our team was asked to examine the possibility of adding passenger service along the Grand Junction Railroad in Cambridge, MA. This new service would allow the current Worcester/Framingham commuter rail line to serve both North and South stations. In response, we performed an analysis based on the existing conditions of the railroad and projected future growth of the Kendall Square business area. To perform this analysis a demand model was developed using the 2010 MIT Transportation Survey and 2000 Census Bureau Journey to Work data. The demand model was used to forecast ridership on the Grand Junction Railroad, for multiple alternatives which included the addition of a commuter rail station at Kendall Square, use of diesel multiple units to improve frequency, and a short high frequency route starting at Auburndale. The results of the analysis demonstrate that a high frequency service from Worcester along the Grand Junction Corridor attracts the most riders, approximately 1,800 peak morning commuters. With the Auburndale service and lower frequency Worcester trains having moderate ridership estimates. This forecast combined four types of riders: new inbound riders to Kendall Square, redirected inbound riders to Kendall Square, new inbound riders to Boston, and redirected reverse riders from North Station. In addition to demonstrating how the demand model and the rider survey dataset were developed this report provides a framework for a more detailed study into potential uses for passenger service along the Grand Junction Railroad.by Adam Bockelie and James Dohm.M.Eng

Bevegelse i tegning. En studie av bevegelsesuttrykk i todimensjonal media

Denne masteroppgaven tar utgangspunkt i min personlig erfaring, der jeg har utviklet mening om at formspråk er en vesentlig komponent i flere områder av faget kunst og håndverk. Evnen til å utrykke seg slik at budskap blir forstått av betrakteren, er essensielt i visuell kommunikasjon, design og en stor del av mestring i kunst. Ro og bevegelse er to sider av formspråk, og jeg valgte derfor å fokusere på bevegelsesutrykk og avgrense undersøkelsen min til monokrom tegning. Motivasjon for oppgaven var en ide om at jeg kunne katalogisere virkemidler som bidrar til oppfatning av uro og bevegelse i tegning, systematisere dem og bruke som hjelpemiddel i undervisning i kunst og håndverk. Med bakgrunn i disse intensjoner har jeg formulert følgende forskningsspørsmål:   Hvordan kan jeg systematisere kunnskap om virkemidler som representer bevegelse i todimensjonal monokrom media, hvor målet er å utforme et metodisk verktøy for undervisning i kunst og håndverk?    Med bruk av kvalitativ metode og en fenomenologisk-hermeneutisk tilnærming har jeg utført en undersøkelse i to faser basert på mine egne tegninger. I en dobbelrolle som forsker og forskersubjekt har jeg samlet virkemidler som bidrar til oppfattelse av bevegelse og bearbeidet dem til skjema av prinsipper som bidrar til oppfatning av bevegelse generelt. Jeg avslutter undersøkelse med tegninger som ble tegnet med utarbeidet skjema av bevegelsesprinsipper og jeg oppgaven min med drøfting av resultater knyttet opp mot relevans i en skolesammenheng.

A Virtual Engineering Framework for Simulating Advanced Power System

In this report is described the work effort performed to provide NETL with VE-Suite based Virtual Engineering software and enhanced equipment models to support NETL's Advanced Process Engineering Co-simulation (APECS) framework for advanced power generation systems. Enhancements to the software framework facilitated an important link between APECS and the virtual engineering capabilities provided by VE-Suite (e.g., equipment and process visualization, information assimilation). Model enhancements focused on improving predictions for the performance of entrained flow coal gasifiers and important auxiliary equipment (e.g., Air Separation Units) used in coal gasification systems. In addition, a Reduced Order Model generation tool and software to provide a coupling between APECS/AspenPlus and the GE GateCycle simulation system were developed. CAPE-Open model interfaces were employed where needed. The improved simulation capability is demonstrated on selected test problems. As part of the project an Advisory Panel was formed to provide guidance on the issues on which to focus the work effort. The Advisory Panel included experts from industry and academics in gasification, CO2 capture issues, process simulation and representatives from technology developers and the electric utility industry. To optimize the benefit to NETL, REI coordinated its efforts with NETL and NETL funded projects at Iowa State University, Carnegie Mellon University and ANSYS/Fluent, Inc. The improved simulation capabilities incorporated into APECS will enable researchers and engineers to better understand the interactions of different equipment components, identify weaknesses and processes needing improvement and thereby allow more efficient, less expensive plants to be developed and brought on-line faster and in a more cost-effective manner. These enhancements to APECS represent an important step toward having a fully integrated environment for performing plant simulation and engineering. Furthermore, with little effort the modeling capabilities described in this report can be extended to support other DOE programs, such as ultra super critical boiler development, oxy-combustion boiler development or modifications to existing plants to include CO2 capture and sequestration

NOx Control Options and Integration for US Coal Fired Boilers Quarterly Report

This is the eleventh Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DE-FC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low NO{sub x} control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for boilers firing US coals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is providing co-funding for this program. This program contains multiple tasks and good progress is being made on all fronts. During this quarter, FTIR experiments for SCR catalyst sulfation were finished at BYU and indicated no vanadium/vanadyl sulfate formation at reactor conditions. Poisoned catalysts were prepared and tested in the CCS. Poisoning with sodium produced a noticeable drop in activity, which was larger at higher space velocity. A computer code was written at BYU to predict conversion along a cylindrical monolithic reactor. This code may be useful for monolith samples that will be tested in the laboratory. Shakedown of the slipstream reactor was completed at AEP's Rockport plant. Ammonia was connected to the reactor. The measurement of O{sub 2} and NO{sub x} made by the CEMs corresponded to values measured by the plant at the economizer outlet. Excellent NO{sub x} reduction was observed in preliminary tests of the reactor. Some operational problems were noted and these will be addressed next quarter

Numerical Simulations of Turbulent Bluff-body Flames using Multi-environment Presumed PDF Method with Realistic Chemistry

A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool for performing turbulent combustion simulations that require finite rate chemistry is developed and tested by modeling a series of bluff-body stabilized flames that exhibit different levels of finite-rate chemistry effects ranging from near equilibrium to near global extinction. The new modeling tool is based on the multi-environment probability density function (MEPDF) methodology and combines the following: the direct quadrature method of moments (DQMOM); the interaction-by-exchange-with-the-mean (IEM) mixing model; and realistic combustion chemistry. A pseudo time splitting scheme is adopted to solve the MEPDF equations; the reaction source terms are computed with a highly efficient and accurate in-situ adaptive tabulation (ISAT) algorithm. The modeling results agree very well with the experimental data, including mixing, temperature, major species and important minor species such as CO. More importantly, compared to the Montel-Carlo joint PDF method, the new method provides comparable accuracy and reduces the computational cost by at least one order of magnitude

NOx Control Options and Integration for US Coal Fired Boilers Quarterly Report

This is the ninth Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DE-FC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low NOx control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for firing US coals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is providing cofunding for this program. This program contains multiple tasks and good progress is being made on all fronts. Various subsystems of BYU's Catalyst Characterization System (CCS) were upgraded this quarter. Work on the CCS hardware and software will continue in the coming quarter. A preliminary test matrix of poisoning experiments in the CCS has been drafted that will explore the effects of at least three poisons: sodium, potassium and calcium. During this quarter, we attempted to resolve discrepancies in previous in situ measurements of catalyst sulfation. Modifications were made to the XPS analysis procedure that allowed analyses of uncrushed samples. Although the XPS and FTIR results are now more consistent in that both indicate that the surface is sulfating (unlike the results reported last quarter), they disagree with respect to which species sulfates. The CEM system for the multi-catalyst slipstream reactor arrived this quarter. Minor modifications to the reactor and control system were completed. The reactor will be shipped to AEP Rockport plant next quarter for shakedown and installation. In a parallel effort, we have proposed to make mercury oxidation measurements across the catalysts at the start of the field test. Pending approval from DOE, we will begin the mercury measurements next quarter

NOx Control Options and Integration for US Coal Fired Boilers Quarterly Report

This is the sixth Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DE-FC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low NOx control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for firing US coals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is providing co-funding for this program. This program contains multiple tasks and good progress is being made on all fronts. Preliminary results from laboratory and field tests of a corrosion probe to predict waterwall wastage indicate good agreement between the electrochemical noise corrosion rates predicted by the probe and corrosion rates measured by a surface profilometer. Four commercial manufacturers agreed to provide catalyst samples to the program. BYU has prepared two V/Ti oxide catalysts (custom, powder form) containing commercially relevant concentrations of V oxide and one containing a W oxide promoter. Two pieces of experimental apparatus being built at BYU to carry out laboratory-scale investigations of SCR catalyst deactivation are nearly completed. A decision was made to carry out the testing at full-scale power plants using a slipstream of gas instead of at the University of Utah pilot-scale coal combustor as originally planned. Design of the multi-catalyst slipstream reactor was completed during this quarter. One utility has expressed interest in hosting a long-term test at one of their plants that co-fire wood with coal. Tests to study ammonia adsorption onto fly ash have clearly established that the only routes that can play a role in binding significant amounts of ammonia to the ash surface, under practical ammonia slip conditions, are those that must involve co-adsorbates

NOx Control Options and Integration for US Coal Fired Boilers Quarterly Report

This is the twentieth Quarterly Technical Report for DOE Cooperative Agreement No: DEFC26-00NT40753. The goal of the project is to develop cost-effective analysis tools and techniques for demonstrating and evaluating low-NO{sub x} control strategies and their possible impact on boiler performance for boilers firing US coals. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is providing co-funding for this program. At the beginning of this quarter, the corrosion probes were removed from Gavin Station. Data analysis and preparation of the final report continued this quarter. This quarterly report includes further results from the BYU catalyst characterization lab and the in-situ FTIR lab, and includes the first results from tests run on samples cut from the commercial plate catalysts. The SCR slipstream reactor at Plant Gadsden was removed from the plant, where the total exposure time on flue gas was 350 hours. A computational framework for SCR deactivation was added to the SCR model