South Carolina State Water Assessment - Second Edition

2010 South Carolina Water Resource Conference. Informing strategic water planning to address natural resource, community and economic challenges

Developing a Framework for Regional Water Planning in South Carolina

2012 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Exploring Opportunities for Collaborative Water Research, Policy and Managemen

Innovative practices for special warfare

Special Warfare forces are tasked with conducting operations in uncertain environments defined by rapidly changing environmental elements (instability) and the interaction of many diverse external factors (complexity). In order to succeed, organizations operating in uncertain environments should decentralize decision-making to the appropriate level and emphasize an organic approach that focuses on the importance of people, adaptation, and innovation. The current USASOC bureaucracy, mirroring the conventional Army, is built to maximize internal efficiency and specialize in previously predicted scenarios. Due to persistently high operational tempo, personnel downsizing, and fiscal constraints, redesigning USASOC is not feasible at this time. However, the improvement of processes and incremental enhancement to align better with the operational environment within the existing design is possible. This study explores best practices from innovative and adaptive organizations that ARSOF can draw upon to increase its capability to conduct special warfare. Through the examination of these best practices, the study identified four key factors that lead to innovation: collaboration, organizational structure, incentives, and acceptance. This study recommends that Special Warfare forces apply these factors by increasing career flexibility, internal and external linkages through broadening opportunities and liaisons, and the collective intelligence of the organization through the use of cross-functional teams and increased communication measures. Adopting these enhancements may promote innovation and adaptation and increase Special Warfare forces’ contributions to national defense.http://archive.org/details/innovativepracti1094547858Major, United States ArmyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Influence of Microstructure on the Fatigue Crack Growth of A516 in Hydrogen

Some day hydrogen may be used as a viable energy storage and transport medium within the United States. Hydrogen gas may be used to dilute and extend our present methane supply as a blend or may even be used in its pure elemental form as a primary fuel. Independent of the methods of production, storage, and distribution, the interaction of hydrogen with its containment material will play an integral role in the success of a hydrogen energy program. Presently, the selection of hydrogen containment materials can be made such that the material will remain reasonably free from environmental degradation; however, costly alloying additions are required. Unfortunately, high alloy steels are economically prohibitive when large-scale hydrogen energy storage, transmission, and conversion systems are desired. Therefore, in order to implement such hydrogen energy systems in the future, existing low-cost materials must be improved via mechanical, thermal, or thermo-mechanical processing methods or new low-cost materials which are compatible with hydrogen must be developed. Originally, low strength, low alloy steels at room temperature were thought to be immune to hydrogen gas embrittlement, since no sustained load crack growth is observed. However, results of Clark in HY8O and Nelson in SAE 1020 have shown that the fatigue crack growth rate can be greatly accelerated in the presence of hydrogen gas. In recent results reported by Louthan and Mucci, the smooth bar fatigue life of an A1068 pipeline steel was reduced up to a factor of ten when the tests were performed in a 13.8 MPa hydrogen environment. These results suggest that the selection of material for structures designed to operate in hydrogen under cyclic loads must include consideration of hydrogen/metal fatigue interaction. Although the hydrogen/metal fatigue interaction can be severe in low strength low alloy steels, the degree of degradation may be altered by the underlying ferrous microstructure. At present, no correlation between microstructure and degree of hydrogen susceptibility exists for low strength steels. However, in high strength steels, susceptibility to hydrogen embrittlement has been shown to be strongly sensitive to the metallurgical microstructure. In addition, compositional effects and grain size can 703 Some day hydrogen may be used as a viable energy storage and transport medium within the United States. Hydrogen gas may be used to dilute and extend our present methane supply as a blend or may even be used in its pure elemental form as a primary fuel. Independent of the methods of production, storage, and distribution, the interaction of hydrogen with its containment material will play an integral role in the success of a hydrogen energy program. Presently, the selection of hydrogen containment materials can be made such that the material will remain reasonably free from environmental degradation; however, costly alloying additions are required. Unfortunately, high alloy steels are economically prohibitive when large-scale hydrogen energy storage, transmission, and conversion systems are desired. Therefore, in order to implement such hydrogen energy systems in the future, existing low-cost materials must be improved via mechanical, thermal, or thermo-mechanical processing methods or new low-cost materials which are compatible with hydrogen must be developed