Electricity Network Scenarios for Great Britain in 2050

The next fifty years are likely to see great developments in the technologies deployed in electricity systems, with consequent changes in the structure and operation of power networks. This paper, which forms a chapter in the forthcoming book Future Electricity Technologies and Systems, develops and presents six possible future electricity industry scenarios for Great Britain, focussed on the year 2050. The paper draws upon discussions of important technologies presented by expert authors in other chapters of the book to consider the impact of different combinations of key influences on the nature of the power system in 2050. For each scenario there is a discussion of the effects of the key parameters, with a description and pictorial illustration. Summary tables identify the role of the technologies presented in other chapters of the book, and list important figures of interest, such as the capacity and energy production of renewable generation technologies

Computational study of radiation damage and impurity effects in iron based alloys

Molecular dynamics techniques are used to explore metals at an atomic level. The focus of the studies is the effects of irradiation on a metallic system. Ion surface bombardment effects, bulk cascades and interaction with voids and bubbles in bulk are studied. In the first section a study of a copper surface being bombarded by low energy argon ions is conducted. Molecular dynamics simulations were used to study the surface impact crater formation and the damage caused in the surrounding area. Another group had previously performed experimental measurements on the same system. The simulation data is compared to experiment, in order to validate the molecular dynamics technique. Additionally, information about the formation of the craters at time scales inaccessible to experiment can be gained. In the next section bulk radiation induced cascades in BCC iron are considered. Cascades of energy 1 keV, 2 keV, and 5 keV are initiated in the bulk of the material and the damage yields studied. Cascades are also studied in proximity to voids and helium bubbles in the bulk. The damage formation processes and damage yields in these cascades is analysed. A mechanism that allowed voids to be ballistically moved by the cascade was observed. To further explore this an object kinetic Monte Carlo model was written to simulate the effects of this motion on the diffusion of the voids. The final section is a study of transition metals as alloying elements in BCC iron. This system is of interest as it would be a model for various steels used in construction and shielding. A set of potentials describing iron with low concentrations of transition metals has previously been developed by a different group. These potentials were implemented in the molecular dynamics code. The equilibrium properties of various alloys are explored by implementing a Metropolis algorithm to minimise the Gibbs free energy of the system. Various binary and tertiary alloys are analysed and compared with experimental values in the literature. The attraction of the elements to voids present in the system is also studied

A multi-objective transmission reinforcement planning approach for analysing future energy scenarios in the GB network

A multi-objective transmission reinforcement planning framework has been designed to evaluate the effect of applying a future energy scenario to the Great Britain transmission network. This is achieved by examining the identified nondominated set of transmission reinforcement plans, which alleviate thermal capacity constraints, for the multi-criteria problem of five objectives: investment cost, annual constraint cost saving, annual incremental operation and maintenance cost, outage cost and annual line loss saving. The framework is flexible and utilises a systematic algorithm to generate reinforcement plans and alter the associated reinforcements should they exacerbate thermal constraints; hence a pre-determined set of reinforcements is not required to evaluate a scenario. The reinforcements considered are line addition (single-circuit and double-circuit) and line upgrading through reconductoring. The Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 is utilised to explore varying locations, configurations and capacities of network reinforcement. The solutions produced achieve similar cost savings to solutions created by the transmission network owners, showing the suitability of the approach to provide a useful trade-off analysis of the objectives and to assess the network related thermal and economic impact of future energy scenarios. Here the framework is applied to the 2020 generation mix of the Gone Green scenario developed by National Grid

Autonomous Direct 3D Segmentation of Articular Knee Cartilage

The aim of the work presented here, is to speed up the entire evaluation process of articular knee cartilage and the associated medication developments for Osteoarthritis. To enable this, the development of an automated direct 3D segmentation is described that incorporates non-linear diffusion for efficient image denoising. Cartilage specific magnetic resonance imaging is used, which allows acquiring the entire cartilage volume as one 3D image. The segmentation itself is based on level sets for their accuracy, stability and topological flexibility. By using this kind of segmentation, it is hoped to improve the time efficiency and accuracy for quantitative and qualitative integrity evaluation of cartilage and to enable an earlier diagnosis and treatment of Osteoarthritis

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance T1 Mapping in Cardiomyopathies

Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging has been widely used to assess myocardial perfusion and scar and is the noninvasive reference standard for identification of focal myocardial fibrosis. However, the late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) technique is limited in its accuracy for absolute quantification and assessment of diffuse myocardial fibrosis by technical and pathophysiological features. CMR relaxometry, incorporating T1 mapping, has emerged as an accurate, reproducible, highly sensitive, and quantitative technique for the assessment of diffuse myocardial fibrosis in a number of disease states. We comprehensively review the physics behind CMR relaxometry, the evidence base, and the clinical applications of this emerging technique