Extensible Wind Tower

The diffusion of wind energy generators is restricted by their strong landscape impact. The PERIMA project is about the development of an extensible wind tower able to support a wind machine for several hundred kW at its optimal working height, up to more than 50 m. The wind tower has a telescopic structure, made by several tubes located inside each other with their axis in vertical direction. The lifting force is given by a jack-up system confined inside a shaft, drilled below the ground level. In the retracted tower configuration, at rest, tower tubes are hidden in the foundation of the telescopic structure, located below the ground surface, and the wind machine is the only emerging part of the system. The lifting system is based on a couple of oleodynamic cylinders that jack-up a central tube connected to the top of the tower by a spring, with a diameter smaller than the minimum tower diameter and with a length a bit greater than the length of the extended telescopic structure. The central tube works as plunger and lifts all telescopic elements. The constraint between the telescopic elements is ensured by special parts, which are kept in traction by the force of the spring and provide the resisting moment. The most evident benefit of the proposed system is attained with the use of a two-blade propeller, which can be kept horizontal in the retracted tower configuration

Anisotropic potential of velocity fields in real fluids: Application to the MAST solution of shallow water equations

In the present paper it is first shown that, due to their structure, the general governing equations of uncompressible real fluids can be regarded as an "anisotropic" potential flow problem and closed streamlines cannot occur at any time. For a discretized velocity field, a fast iterative procedure is proposed to order the computational elements at the beginning of each time level, allowing a sequential solution element by element of the advection problem. Some closed circuits could appear due to the discretization error and the elements involved in these circuits could not be ordered. We prove in the paper that the total flux of these not ordered elements goes to zero by refining the computational mesh and that it is possible to order all the remaining elements by neglecting the minimum inter-element flux inside each circuit, with a very small resulting error.The methodology is then applied to the solution of the 2D shallow water equations. The governing Partial Differential Equations are discretized over a generally unstructured triangular mesh, which attains the generalised Delaunay property. Solution is obtained applying a prediction-correction time step procedure. The prediction problem is solved applying a MArching in Space and Time (MAST) procedure, where the computational elements are required to be ordered and explicitly solved. In the correction step, a large linear well-conditioned system is solved. Model results are compared with experimental data and other numerical literature results. Computational costs have been estimated and the convergence order has been investigated according to a known exact solution. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Dilated Cardiomyopathy. From Genetics to Clinical Management

The current definition of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is relatively simple: it is a heart muscle disease characterized by left ventricular (LV) or biventricular dilation and systolic dysfunction in the absence of either pressure or volume overload or coronary artery disease sufficient enough to explain the dysfunction. In the last 30 years, prognosis of patients with DCM has dramatically been improved with few similarities in the history of cardiology and medicine. Typically, in the 1980s, the average survival rate was approximately 50% in a 5-year follow-up. Nowadays, at 10 years of follow-up, the survival/free from heart transplant rate is far beyond 85%, and the projection of this improvement is significantly better for those who have had DCM diagnosed in the late 2010s. This improvement in outcomes is fundamentally due to a better characterization of etiological factors, medical management for heart failure, and device treatment, like the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), for sudden cardiac death prevention. However, other milestones should be recognized for the improvement in the survival rate, namely, the early diagnosis due to familial and sport-related screening, which allow detection of DCM at a less severe stage, and the uninterrupted, active, and individualized long-term follow-up with continuous reevaluation of the disease and re-stratification of the risk

Oxygen Uptake Efficiency Slope at a Glance: A Fascinating Index Carrying Unsolved Questions

Since 1996, when it was first introduced by Baba et al, oxygen uptake (VO2) efficiency slope (OUES) has represented a controversial index of cardiopulmonary efficiency

Inserimento di restringimenti e ponti in un modello diffusivo 2D di acque basse

Gli effetti su una corrente, causati dalle pile di un ponte, o più in generale da strutture che riducono la sezione trasversale dell’alveo, risultano di particolare interesse per le variazioni idrometriche che comportano alla corrente stessa. Nonostante i numerosi studi teorici e sperimentali di letteratura, l’attuale modellistica numerica diffusiva non integra la presenza di tali manufatti nelle proprie tecniche risolutive. Nella presente memoria viene presentata la metodologia implementata nel modello diffusivo bidimensionale FLOW2D per la valutazione del rigurgito provocato da restringimenti della sezione trasversale, nonché dalla presenza delle campate. I profili di rigurgito ottenuti con il modello proposto, in alcuni casi test, sono stati confrontati con le soluzioni esatte e con i profili di un modello completo. Inoltre, i risultati della metodologia proposta si sono dimostrati in buon accordo con i dati di pieno campo rilevati in un venturimetro

A New Device for Pressure Control and Energy Recovery in Water Distribution Networks

The potential energy of the water in Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) usually exceeds the amount needed for delivery and consumption and, at the present time, it is mainly dissipated through Pressure Reducing Valves (PRVs) or Open Water Tanks. The present study suggests the use of a new energy-producing device, a Cross-flow turbine with positive outlet pressure named PRS (Power Recovery System), which can provide the same service as PRVs and water tanks, with additional significant hydropower production. After a short presentation of the PRS, the management rules of the proposed device are laid out, according to two possible modes. In the \u2018passive\u2019 mode, the piezometric level downstream of the turbine is fixed at the sought after value, in the \u2018active\u2019 mode, the discharge is regulated according to the required value. The design criterion is then presented, based on a simple relationship linking dimensionless numbers. A PRS is finally designed for a typical water distribution network, serving the city of Palermo (Italy). The resulting cost-benefit analysis is compared with a similar one carried out in previous work for a regulation system based on the use of a Pump As Turbine (PAT). The comparison shows the improvement obtained by the use of the PRS, consisting of higher energy production, as well as lower construction and installation costs

Numerical and experimental investigation of a cross-flow water turbine

A numerical and experimental study was carried out for validation of a previously proposed design criterion for a cross-flow turbine and a new semi-empirical formula linking inlet velocity to inlet pressure. An experimental test stand was designed to conduct a series of experiments and to measure the efficiency of the turbine designed based on the proposed criterion. The experimental efficiency was compared to that from numerical simulations performed using a RANS model with a shear stress transport (SST) turbulence closure. The proposed semi-empirical velocity formula was also validated against the numerical solutions for cross-flow turbines with different geometries and boundary conditions. The results confirmed the previous hydrodynamic analysis and thus can be employed in the design of the cross-flow turbines as well as for reducing the number of simulations needed to optimize the turbine geometry