Dynamics of a levitron under a periodic magnetic forcing

The Levitron is a toy that consists of a spinning top that levitates over a magnetic base for a few minutes, until air drag decreases the spin rate below a certain limit. Stable levitation, lasting hours or even days, has been achieved for Levitrons that were externally driven by either an air jet or an alternating magnetic field. We report measurements of stable levitation for the latter case. We show that the top precession couples with the frequency of the alternating field, so that the precession period equals the period of the field. In addition, the top rotates around itself with the same period. We present numerical simulations that reproduce the essential features of this dynamics. It is also shown that the magnetic torque that drives the top is due to a misalignment between the magnetic dipole moment and the mechanical axis of the to

Techno-economic study of Power-to-Power renewable energy storage based on the smart integration of battery, hydrogen, and micro gas turbine technologies

This paper deals with the integration of a Power-to-Power Energy Storage System (P2P-ESS) based on a hydrogen driven micro gas turbine (mGT) for an off-grid application with a continuous demand of 30 kWe for three European cities: Palermo, Frankfurt, and Newcastle. In the first part of the analysis, the results show that the latitude of the location is a very strong driver in determining the size of the system (hence footprint) and the amount of seasonal storage. The rated capacity of the PV plant and electrolyzer are 37%/41% and 58%/64% higher in Frankfurt and Newcastle, respectively, as compared to the original design for Palermo. And not only this, but seasonal storage also increases largely from 3125 kg H2 to 5023 and 5920 kg H2. As a consequence of this, LCOE takes values of 0.86 €/kWh, 1.26 €/kWh, and 1.5 €/kWh for the three cities, respectively, whilst round-trip efficiency is approximately 15.7% for the three designs at the 3 cities. Finally, with the aim to reduce the footprint and rating of the different systems, a final assessment of the system hybridised with battery storage shows a 20% LCOE reduction and a 10% higher round-trip efficiency

Monitoring cell monolayers during electroporation: Electrical impedance spectroscopy measurements

Peer Reviewe

Innovative desalination system driven by a solar micro gas turbine for off-grid applications

Past work by the authors has suggested that Solar micro Gas Turbines (SmGTs) can be used cost-effectively to produce electric power and heat for freshwater production through desalination, mainly in off-grid locations. This is further studied in this work, providing an exhaustive modelling procedure and methodology. Additionally, a comprehensive analysis of system performance under both design and part-load conditions is provided along with the complete set of characteristics of the components of the SmGT and the desalination unit. To this end, the SmGT is assessed first, incorporating innovative solutions that enable better off-design performance: Variable Inlet Guide Vanes (VIGVs) in the compressor and Variable Nozzle Guide Vanes (VNGVs) in the turbine. The implementation of these features brings significant advantages in part-load operation, leading to a considerable increase in solar-to-electric efficiency and rangeability, particularly under certain ambient conditions; in particular, using these features yields 5% higher efficiency at the minimum load of the original engine (without variable geometry) and, from this load setting downwards, 15% lower minimum stable load is enabled. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis to control strategies and ambient conditions has been included, exploring their impact on system performance. The water treatment system is comprised of two elements. A Reverse Osmosis (RO) desalination unit is driven by the electric power produced by the SmGT. Considering the emphasis on flexibility and part-load operation enhancement addressed in this work, a moderate recovery rate is proposed for this unit. The RO unit produces brine with high salt concentration to be partially treated further in a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) unit driven by the exhaust gases of the microturbine (at about 250–300 °C), where the sensible heat of this stream is harvested by the ZLD unit to “dry” and concentrate the effluent. Finally, the potential and the operational limitations of the ZLD system are discussed, complemented with results from an experimental proof of concept where the feasibility of the concept is verified

Acceso a catálogo de biblioteca desde móviles Android y navegadores mediante servicios web

Este PFC trata la construcción de un sistema de acceso al catálogo de una biblioteca doméstica a través de distintas interfaces de usuario que hacen uso de unos mismos servicios web REST expuestos en un servidor Java EE. Su desarrollo implica la integración de múltiples tecnologías open source a varios niveles

Innovative Desalination System Driven by a Solar Micro Gas Turbine for Off-Grid Applications

Past work by the authors has suggested that Solar micro Gas Turbines (SmGTs) can be used cost-effectively to produce electric power and heat for freshwater production through desalination, mainly in off-grid locations. This is further studied in this work, presenting a detailed description of system performance at design and part-load conditions, as well as the characteristics of the components of the SmGT and the desalination unit. To this end, the SmGT is assessed first, considering techniques that achieve a greater off-design performance such as incorporating Variable Inlet Guide Vanes (VIGVs) at the compressor inlet, and including the sensitivity to control strategies and ambient conditions, exploring their expectedly very negative impact on the SmGT performance. Water treatment system is comprised of two elements. A Reverse Osmosis desalination unit is driven by the electric power produced by the SmGT. This produces brine with high salt concentration to be partially treated further in a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) unit driven by the exhaust gases of the microturbine (at about 250-300ºC), where the sensible heat of this stream is harvested by the ZLD unit to “dry” and concentrate the effluent. Finally, the potential and the operational limitations of the ZLD system are discussed, supplemented by an experimental proof of concept where its feasibility was verified

Mechanical analysis of Genoa 03 stirling engine

Due to the new technologies development based on renewable sources of energy, in recent years Stirling engines have become very important in the energetic sector. Many of them do not allow the use of fluid lubricants and, thus, the effect of friction losses is important. For this purpose, a mathematical model has been developed based on the force balance in the crankshaft using the pressure distribution in the cylinders. The aim of this work is to characterize the mechanical losses in a Genoa 03 Stirling engine using a numerical model and experimentally via the drag method. The results of this model have been compared with those obtained experimentally on Genoa 03 Stirling engine. In the experimental results, a proportional increase in friction torque due to the average pressure and the speed of the crankshaft is observed. The first of these is caused by an increase of dry friction forces and the second, by the viscous friction between the working fluid and the inner walls of the engine. Also in this paper, irreversible processes in a beta type Stirling engine have been investigated in order to highlight the impact of losses on mechanical power and its performance. This article develops the first study of the mechanical losses of Genoa 03 experimental Stirling engine, which has an output power of 3 kW. Although the model response follows the same trends as the experiments, those simplifications provide errors which become more significant as the engine speed increases.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ENE2013-43465-

A Minimum Cost Design Approach for Steel Frames Based on a Parallelized Firefly Algorithm and Parameter Control

In this work, the applicability of a Firefly Algorithm (FA) to the real problem of the minimum cost of a detailed design for steel frames is studied. To reduce the calculation time, which is a common problem of meta-heuristic algorithms when they are used to solve real design cases, and to better suit the characteristics of the algorithm, a parallel migration strategy has been implemented and tested. As it is well known that the performance of any metaheuristic algorithm depends on the chosen value of its parameters, an extensive sensitivity analysis has been carried out. This not only serves to improve performance but also provides information on how it depends on the values of these parameters. With the information obtained from this analysis, and in order to achieve the robust behavior of the algorithm, a parameter control strategy has also been implemented and tested. Finally, a study demonstrating the close dependence between one of the parameters and the number of variables considered in the examples has been carried out. As a result of this final study, a simple expression is proposed that provides the minimum necessary population based on the number of variables in the problem

Modelo cinético para la simulación de la autoignición en un proceso de combustión homogénea de encendido por compresión (HCCI)

El conocimiento del punto de autoignición de los motores bajo combustión HCCI es un apartado fundamental en el futuro desarrollo de estos motores. En este trabajo tratamos de proporcionar una herramienta computacional, con un detallado estudio de la cinética química, la cual resulta imprescindible para la compresión del fenómeno HCCIThis paper reviews some of the engine research results and available data from HCCI combustion kinetics studies. Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion has recently emerged as a viable alternative combustion process to the conventional spark ignition or compression ignition process for internal combustion engines, owing too its potential for high efficiency and extremely low NOx and particulate emissions. Methods for automatic quasi-steady-state reduction of reaction mechanisms a life time measure to detect equilibrated species has been developed and applied to homogeneous model of HCCI engine fuelled with its two fuels

Comparative Monte Carlo analysis of InP- and GaN-based Gunn diodes

In this work, we report on Monte Carlo simulations to study the capability to generate Gunn oscillations of diodes based on InP and GaN with around 1 lm active region length. We compare the power spectral density of current sequences in diodes with and without notch for different lengths and two doping profiles. It is found that InP structures provide 400 GHz current oscillations for the fundamental harmonic in structures without notch and around 140 GHz in notched diodes. On the other hand, GaN diodes can operate up to 300 GHz for the fundamental harmonic, and when the notch is effective, a larger number of harmonics, reaching the Terahertz range, with higher spectral purity than in InP diodes are generated. Therefore, GaN-based diodes offer a high power alternative for sub-millimeter wave Gunn oscillations.European Commision (EC). Funding FP7/SP1/ICT. Project Code: 24384