Generator Design: A Study of Optimized Airflow

The core goal of this project was to prototype, test, and evaluate a new type of fan for the Safran Electrical & Power air-cooled generators. The idea of a new fan being made for these two generators arose when they were not adhering to design requirements. A base mixed-flow fan was created to test on multiple generators. Upon creating a prototype, it will be tested to prove if it can increase the air flow, decrease temperatures, and increase power and life of the machines. They all proved to be successful and achieve the main objectives for this project. Data such as temperatures throughout the generator, rotational speed, mass flow, pressures, vibrations and more were taken during the tests. The temperature gap between the legacy and mixed-flow fan increases as speed increases. Even under these extreme conditions, the mixed-flow fan manages to reduce the temperatures internally better than the legacy fan. Mass flow was also improved with the new fan. Though the results for both Generator A & B were positive improvements, there are some things that the mixed-flow fan is having difficulty competing with the legacy fan design: it works, its easily manufactured, inexpensive and light weight

ICNavS: A tool for reliable dynamic route guidance

The aim of this paper is to devise a new reliable dynamic route guidance approach by integrating the A* algorithm, the concept of reliability and an existing route guidance method into a single package. A new purpose-developed software tool, the Imperial College Navigation Software (ICNavS), is presented, so as to implement and demonstrate the new approach on a real road network, using simulated data. A summary of the background of the program is given, followed by a procedure developed in order to model the features of real road networks, as well as missing data. Then, a imulation experiment on a part of West London’s road network is carried out and the results are presented

An approach to time dependence and reliability in dynamic route guidance

This paper presents a methodology, in order to increase the reliability of the route suggestions in route guidance systems. Based on the A* path finding algorithm and Chen’s link penalty method, the procedure involves penalising links with a high risk of being congested and obtaining a set of reliable route suggestions. Time-dependence of travel times is considered by adapting the Flow Speed Model technique accordingly. Modifications to the structure of the path finding algorithms are also made, so as to account for real road network features. Finally, experiments using simulated travel time and reliability data are carried out on a road network and the results are discussed

The Effects of Collective Devaluation on Commodity Prices and Exports

Because measures to stimulate export production are often part of economic adjustment programs, the possible repercussions in particular commodity markets of collective actions by producers to encourage exports merit study. A simplified model is developed and used to simulate supply-side policies in the world market for a primary commodity to explore the policies' effects on prices, volumes, and export receipts over a decade. Although the potential for adverse effects exists, this finding is not an argument against devaluation, since the beneficial effects of such a policy in other areas might outweigh the short-run effect on major commodity exports.

The 1984-86 Commodity Recession: Analysis of Underlying Causes

The large and widespread decline in non-oil primary commodity prices during 1984-86 is shown to be fundamentally different from the declines in the four previous cycles since 1970, which had been caused largely by weak demand. Rising supplies of food and the lagged effects of increased production capacity of industrial raw materials were major factors depressing primary commodity markets in the 1980s, particularly in 1984-86. The econometric results also suggest that economic growth in the industrial countries must, on average, be over 3 percent a year to contribute positively to commodity prices by offsetting negative longer-term structural changes.