Simulations of Melting of Encapsulated CaCl2·6H2O for Thermal Energy Storage Technologies

We present in this work simulations using the finite difference approximation in 2D for the melting of an encapsulated phase-change material suitable for heat storage applications; in particular, we study CaCl2·6H2O in a cylindrical encapsulation of internal radius 8 mm. We choose this particular salt hydrate due to its availability and economic feasibility in high thermal mass building walls or storage. Considering only heat conduction, a thermostat is placed far from the capsule, providing heat for the melting of the phase-change material (PCM), which is initially frozen in a water bath. The difference in density between the solid and liquid phases is taken into account by considering a void in the solid PCM. A simple theoretical model is also presented, based on solving the heat equation in the steady state. The kinetics of melting is monitored by the total solid fraction and temperatures in the inner and outer surfaces of the capsule. The effect of different parameters is presented (thermostat temperature, capsule thickness, capsule conductivity and natural convection in the bath), showing the potential application of the method to select materials or geometries of the capsule

Nueva especie de helófito (Butomus umbellatus L.) a incluir en el catálogo de la flora de Extremadura

El presente trabajo es producto de un estudio realizado sobre el estado ecológico del río Zújar, fi nanciado por la Confederación Hidrográfi ca del Guadiana en el tramo comprendido entre la presa del Zújar y su confl uencia con el río Guadiana. En dicho tramo se ha encontrado Butomus umbellatus L., una planta rara en el sur de España, y que es el motivo de la presente nota

Monitoring of Volatile Additives from Plant Protection Products in Tomatoes Using HS-SPME-GC-HRMS: Targeted and Suspect Approaches

Additives present in plant protection products (PPPs) are normally not monitored after sample treatments. In this study, the fate of additives detected by targeted and nontargeted analysis in tomato samples treated with two PPPs was carried out. The study was carried out in a greenhouse for 12 days, in which two applications with each PPP were made. Compounds were extracted by applying a headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and analyzed by gas chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS), performing targeted and suspect approaches. Three targeted and 15 nontargeted compounds were identified at concentration levels of up to 150 μg/kg. Compounds detected encompassed benzene, toluene, indene, and naphthalene derivatives, as well as conservatives and flavouring compounds. Most of them degraded in less than 7 days after the second application, following first-order kinetic. This study aims to reduce knowledge gaps regarding additives and their fate under real climatic conditions of greenhouses cultivations.Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO)FEDER-EU (project PID2019-106201RB-I00)Regional Government of Andalusia, SpainEuropean funds for financial support (project P18- RT-2329)Andalusian Ministry of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge and Universities for financial support from “Ayudas para Captación, Incorporación y Movilidad de Capital Humano de I+D+i (PAIDI 2020)”University of Almería for his “Convocatoria de Recualificación do Sistema Universitario Español-Margarita Salas”“Plan de Recuperación Transformación” program funded by the Spanish Ministry of UniversitiesEuropean Union’s NextGenerationEU fund

Mejora de la herramienta educativa “más allá del español” con trabajos de investigación de los estudiantes del máster de español como lengua extranjera

El proyecto Más allá del español, financiado con Fondos de Cooperación Social por la Fundación Complutense (ref.77/11), había dejado uno de sus tres objetivos sin cumplir: aquel proyecto de enseñanza de español a extranjeros se había diseñado para que los estudiantes del máster de Español como Lengua Extranjera. Durante este curso nos propusimos lograr que la herramienta fuera útil para los masterandos: se trataba de invitarles a realizar trabajos que pudieran compartir con la comunidad de profesores de ELE, de modo que el aprendizaje de su etapa de Máster revirtiera en la sociedad. La propuesta se hizo en el marco de la asignatura “Español para fines específicos e Inmigrantes”. El primer día de clase tuvimos una conferencia plenaria de inauguración a cargo de María José Alonso, profesora de la Fundación “La Merced inmigrantes”. Durante su exposición subrayó la utilidad de los mapas conceptuales en la enseñanza del español a inmigrantes, particularmente en el aprendizaje del léxico relacionado con la profesión que aspiraban a tener cada uno de los estudiantes. De ahí nació la idea de crear recursos para el aprendizaje del léxico relacionado con oficios y trabajos. De los veintitrés trabajos realizados, catorce han logrado suficiente calidad como para su publicación en: http://masalladelespanol.com/mapas-conceptuales

Experimental and numerical analysis of the influence of drill point angle when drilling biocomposites

Biocomposites are promising materials for traditional composites replacement in specific applications due to their interesting properties and sustainability. Although the composite components are manufactured near net shape, some machining operations, commonly drilling, are commonly required prior to mechanical joining of the components. Tool geometry, mainly the point angle of the drill, strongly affects the performance of the drilling process of composites in terms of machining induced damage. The aim of this work is analyzing the influence of the point angle of the drill on the damage generated during drilling of 100% biodegradable composite, using both numerical and experimental approaches. The novelty of the work relies on the lack of studies of drilling 100% biodegradable composites. The influence of the point angle on the thrust forces and hence in the machining induced damage was demonstrated.The authors acknowledge the financial support to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and FEDER program through the projects DPI2017-89197-C2-1-R and DPI2017-89197-C2-2-R

Demand and Storage Management in a Prosumer Nanogrid Based on Energy Forecasting

Energy efficiency and consumers' role in the energy system are among the strategic research topics in power systems these days. Smart grids (SG) and, specifically, microgrids, are key tools for these purposes. This paper presents a three-stage strategy for energy management in a prosumer nanogrid. Firstly, energy monitoring is performed and time-space compression is applied as a tool for forecasting energy resources and power quality (PQ) indices; secondly, demand is managed, taking advantage of smart appliances (SA) to reduce the electricity bill; finally, energy storage systems (ESS) are also managed to better match the forecasted generation of each prosumer. Results show how these strategies can be coordinated to contribute to energy management in the prosumer nanogrid. A simulation test is included, which proves how effectively the prosumers' power converters track the power setpoints obtained from the proposed strategy.Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion ; Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional

Novel conductor design to increase the thermal rating of overhead lines

International Conference on Renewable Energies and Power Quality (ICREPQ’16) Madrid (Spain), 4th to 6th May, 2016In this paper the performance of existing and novel designs of overhead bare conductors with regard to their capacity to evacuate the heat generated by ohmic losses is compared. The effect of both the diameter of strands and the external shape of the conductor on the convective heat transfer capacity are evaluated with a finite element method commercial software for an ACSR conductor with different diameter strands, wind velocities and conductor current, resulting in a design that improves the customary design by around a 7 % of thermal ratingMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación ENE2013-48428- C2-1-

Energy, Environmental and Economic Analysis of Air-to-Air Heat Pumps as an Alternative to Heating Electrification in Europe

Heat pumps (HP) are an efficient alternative to non-electric heating systems (NEHS), being a cost-effective mean to support European building sector decarbonization. The paper studies HP and NEHS performance in residential buildings, under different climate conditions and energy tariffs, in six different European countries. Furthermore, a primary energy and environmental analysis is performed to evaluate if the use of HPs is more convenient than NEHS, based on different factors of the electric mix in each country. A specific HP model is developed considering the main physical phenomena occurring along its cycle. Open data from building, climatic and economic sources are used to feed the analysis. Ad hoc primary energy factors and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission coefficients are calculated for the selected countries. The costs and the environmental impact for both heating systems are then compared. The outcomes of the study suggest that, in highly fossil fuels dependent electricity mixes, the use of NEHS represents a more efficient decarbonization approach than HP, in spite of its higher efficiency. Additionally, the actual high price of the electric kWh hampers the use of HP in certain cases.European Commission's H202

Student-oriented planning of e-learning contents for Moodle

We present a way to automatically plan student-oriented learning contents in Moodle. Rather than offering the same contents for all students, we provide personalized contents according to the students' background and learning objectives. Although curriculum personalization can be faced in several ways, we focus on artificial intelligence (AI) planning as a very useful formalism for mapping actions, i.e. learning contents, in terms of preconditions (precedence relationships) and causal effects to find plans, i.e. learning paths that best fit the needs of each student. A key feature is that the learning path is generated and shown in Moodle in a seamless way for both the teacher and student, respectively. We also include some experimental results to demonstrate the scalability and viability of our approach. & 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reservedThis paper is co-funded with support from the European Commission, the European Social Fund and the Regione Calabria. The paper was also partially funded by the Consolider AT project CSD2007-0022 INGENIO 2010 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the MICINN project TIN2011-27652-C03-01 and the Valencian Prometeo project II/2013/019.Caputi, V.; Garrido Tejero, A. (2015). Student-oriented planning of e-learning contents for Moodle. Journal of Network and Computer Applications. 53:115-127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2015.04.001S1151275

La comunicación didáctica en la tutoría virtual

La comunicación didáctica en la tutoría virtual es la base para el desarrollo de contenidos formativos en el diseño de los nuevos planes de estudio. La comunicación virtual se ha convertido en el eje de la formación a distancia y en la herramienta clave del proceso de aprendizaje de los estudiantes. La flexibilidad de los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje en los medios virtuales incide en el diseño e implementación de los contenidos didácticos de las asignaturas en escenarios educativos, destacando la influencia de la función tutorial en los procesos formativos. La capacidad de adaptación de los estudiantes, docentes y docentes-tutores a éste medio ha de partir de la adquisición de las siguientes competencias claves para el desarrollo de la tarea educativa: la competencia didáctico-formativa y la competencia tecnológica-digital. A continuación presentamos una investigación de innovación docente en el que la comunicación didáctica virtual es la clave para el desarrollo de los procesos formativos.Didactic communication in virtual mentoring is the basis for the development of training content in the design of new curricula. Virtual communication has become the hub of distance learning and the key tool of the process d of student learning. The flexibility on the teaching and learning in virtual media affects the design and implementation of educational content of the educational course, emphasizing the influence of the tutorial role in the formative process. The resilience of students, teachers and teacher-tutors to this medium has to start from the acquisition of the following key competencies for the development of educational work, teaching-training competition and competition-digital technology. Here is an investigation of educational innovation in which the virtual didactic communication is the key to the development of educational processes.Didático de comunicação em tutoria virtual é a base para o desenvolvimento de conteúdos de formação na concepção de novos currículos. comunicação virtual se tornou o centro de ensino à distância e instrumento fundamental do processo d aprendizagem dos alunos. A flexibilidade do ensino e aprendizagem em meio virtual afeta a concepção e implementação de conteúdos pedagógicos dos cursos em ambientes educacionais, enfatizando a influência do papel tutorial no processo formativo. A resistência dos alunos, professores e professores-tutores para este meio tem que começar a partir da aquisição das seguintes competências essenciais para o desenvolvimento do trabalho educativo, a concorrência de formação docente e tecnologia concorrência digital. Aqui está uma investigação da inovação educacional na qual a comunicação didática virtual é a chave para o desenvolvimento dos processos educativos