Thermal study of a transport container

A thermal study of a container for international transport has been carried out in order to determine the temperature distributions. Several experimental conditions such as cooling modes, the onset of defrosting, the existence of cargo inside the container and two varying set points have been evaluated. It was observed that the difference between the temperature inside the container and the set point raised up to 30% of ambient temperature. Moreover, it was observed that the modulated cooling allowed to obtain a more homogeneous refrigeration. However, temperature differences up to 8 °C were observed under on–off control cooling

PSS32 Impact of dry eye on everyday life (Ideel) - Symptom bother: Estimating cut-off scores for dry eye severity groups

The aims of the study were to estimate score ranges associated with dry eye severity based on the Impact of Dry Eye on Everyday Life (IDEEL) Symptom Bother (SB) domain, and to evaluate the overall performance of the SB domain

The renewable energy and energy efficiency potential of Waitakere City : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Technology in Energy Management at Massey University

Electricity restrictions and blackouts have occurred in Waitakere City in the past and are likely to occur again in the future unless the city can become more self reliant by meeting, at least in part, the increasing energy requirements for what is one of the fastest growing cities in New Zealand. In this study the potentials for energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy resources have been broadly quantified and assessed using desktop analysis of publicly available data for stationary final use energy systems (i.e. excluding transportation) within the geographical area of Waitakere City and adjoining waters. It was found that energy efficiency and energy conservation measures can consistently and predictably achieve overall energy savings and reduce daily and seasonal peak demand. The best renewable energy resource potential exists with solar and geothermal for heating applications and wave, offshore and inshore wind and tidal currents for electricity generation. There is very limited potential for hydro and bioenergy systems beyond what already exists. PV solar and land based wind power generation are currently only feasible for limited off-grid applications. This scoping study confirms the achievability of the vision expressed in Waitakere City Council's "Long Term Council Community Plan" (LTCCP) that by 2020 " Waitakere City will be an energy cell, not an energy sink. Air quality supports good health". A range of flagship projects have been identified to progress the achievement of this vision. Waitakere City Council can use this report as part of the development of a comprehensive energy management plan

Damage detections in nonlinear vibrating thermally loaded plates

In this work, geometrically nonlinear vibrations of fully clamped rectangular plates subjected to thermal changesare used to study the sensitivity of some vibration response parameters to the presence of damage and elevated temperature. The geometrically nonlinear version of the Mindlin plate theory is used to model the plate behaviour.Damage is represented as a stiffness reduction in a small area of the plate. The plates are subjected to harmonicloading leading to large amplitude vibrations and temperature changes. The plate vibration response is obtained by a pseudo-load mode superposition method. The main results are focussed on establishing the influence of damage on the vibration response of the heated and the unheated plates and the change in the time-history diagrams and the Poincaré maps caused by damage and elevated temperature. The damage criterion formulated earlier for nonheated plates, based on analyzing the points in the Poincaré sections of the damaged and healthy plate, is modified and tested for the case of plates additionally subjected to elevated temperatures. The importance of taking into account the actual temperature in the process of damage detection is shown

Characterizing the tissue of apple air-dried and osmo-air-dried rings by X-CT and OCT and relationship with ring crispness and fruit maturity at harvest measured by TRS

Air-dried apple rings were prepared from ‘Golden Delicious’ apples selected at harvest as less mature and more mature according to the absorption coefficient measured at 670 nm by time-resolved reflectance spectroscopy (TRS), stored in air for 5 months, and subjected to air-drying with (OSMO) and without (noOSMO) osmodehydration pre-treatment (60% sucrose syrup). Selected rings were submitted to microstructural analysis by X-ray computed tomography (X-CT), to subsurface structure analysis by optical coherence tomography (OCT) and to texture and sound emission analysis by bending–snapping test. Higher crispness index, higher number of sound events and higher average sound pressure level (SPL) characterized the OSMO rings. Total porosity was related to SPLav 60, pore fragmentation index to fracturability and specific surface area to the work required to snap the ring. A differentiation of the drying treatments, as well as of the products according to the TRS maturity class at harvest was obtained analyzing by principal component analysis (PCA) microstructure parameters and texture and acoustic parameters. The differences in mechanical and acoustic characteristics between OSMO and noOSMO rings were due to the different subsurface structure as found with OCT analysis