Susan Haas v. 3M Co

USDC for the District of New Jerse

Triple Bottom Line Analysis and Optimum Sizing of Renewable Energy Using Improved Hybrid Optimization Employing the Genetic Algorithm: A Case Study from India

Techno-economic, social, and environmental factors influence a large part of society, predominantly in developing countries. Due to energy poverty and bloating populations, developing countries like India are striving to meet the energy balance. One initiative of India to achieve the country’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) is the setting up of the National Solar Mission (NSM) to meet a target of 175 GW (non-hydro) by the year 2022. Prioritizing Renewable Energy (RE) utilization to achieve techno-economic balance is India’s primary objective and creating a positive environmental impact is a bonus. In this study, various scenarios are explored by investigating the techno-economic and environmental impact on RE adoption for a small community in India by optimally sizing the Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES). This study is an exemplar in understanding and exploring RE utilization, whilst examining the recent RE market in depth and exploring the advantages and disadvantages of the current RE situation by initiating it in a smaller community. Improved Hybrid Optimization using Genetic Algorithm (iHOGA) PRO+ software, (Version 2.4 -Pro+ , Created by Dr Rodolfo Dufo López, University Zaragoza (Spain)) is used to size the RE systems. The results are categorized using triple bottom line analysis (TBL analysis) and for different scenarios, the techno-economic, environmental, and social merits are weighed upon. The probable hurdles that India has to surpass to achieve easy RE adoption are also discussed in this work. The influential merits for analyzing the TBL for a real-time scenario are Net Present Cost (NPC), Carbon-di-oxide (CO2) emissions, and job criteria. Compared to Hybrid Optimization of Multiple Energy Resources (HOMER) software, iHOGA remains less explored in the literature, specifically for the grid-connected systems. The current study provides a feasibility analysis of grid-connected RE systems for the desired location. iHOGA software simulated 15 sets of results for different values of loads considered and various acquisition costs of HRES. At least 70% of RE can be penetrated for the Aralvaimozhi community with the lowest value of NPC of the HRES. From the TBL analysis conducted, integrating HRES into a micro-grid for the community would result in mitigating CO2 emissions and provide job opportunities to the local community; although, the economic impact should be minimized if the acquisition costs of the HRES are reduced, as has been established through this study

Comparative Study of Optimization of HRES using HOMER and iHOGA Software

677-683There has been several methodologies to size hybrid renewable energy system (HRES). This paper provides the comparative study of the simulation results between HOMER and iHOGA software packages. These two softwarepackages are used to optimally size renewable energy systems for a micro-grid. A small community in Aralvaimozhi, India is considered. Aralvaimozhi has a good potential of Solar energy and Wind energy resources. If these resources are trapped efficiently using HRES, an efficient micro-grid could eventually replace the present old and less efficient electricity grid. In this study, the optimally sized HRES with least value of Net Present Cost (NPC) resulted from HOMER and iHOGA software packages have been discussed and their results have been compared for a definite scenario

Identification of foot pathologies based on plantar pressure asymmetry

Foot pathologies can negatively influence foot function, consequently impairing gait during daily activity, and severely impacting an individual’s quality of life. These pathologies are often painful and correspond with high or abnormal plantar pressure, which can result in asymmetry in the pressure distribution between the two feet. There is currently no general consensus on the presence of asymmetry in able-bodied gait, and plantar pressure analysis during gait is in dire need of a standardized method to quantify asymmetry. This paper investigates the use of plantar pressure asymmetry for pathological gait diagnosis. The results of this study involving plantar pressure analysis in fifty one participants (31 healthy and 20 with foot pathologies) support the presence of plantar pressure asymmetry in normal gait. A higher level of asymmetry was detected at the majority of the regions in the feet of the pathological population, including statistically significant differences in the plantar pressure asymmetry in two regions of the foot, metatarsophalangeal joint 3 (MPJ3) and the lateral heel. Quantification of plantar pressure asymmetry may prove to be useful for the identification and diagnosis of various foot pathologies

Classic and quantum capacitances in Bernal bilayer and trilayer graphene field effect transistor

Our focus in this study is on characterizing the capacitance voltage (C-V) behavior of Bernal stacking bilayer graphene (BG) and trilayer graphene (TG) as the channel of FET devices. The analytical models of quantum capacitance (QC) of BG and TG are presented. Although QC is smaller than the classic capacitance in conventional devices, its contribution to the total metal oxide semiconductor capacitor in graphene-based FET devices becomes significant in the nanoscale. Our calculation shows that QC increases with gate voltage in both BG and TG and decreases with temperature with some fluctuations. However, in bilayer graphene the fluctuation is higher due to its tunable band structure with external electric fields. In similar temperature and size, QC in metal oxide BG is higher than metal oxide TG configuration. Moreover, in both BG and TG, total capacitance is more affected by classic capacitance as the distance between gate electrode and channel increases. However, QC is more dominant when the channel becomes thinner into the nanoscale, and therefore we mostly deal with quantum capacitance in top gate in contrast with bottom gate that the classic capacitance is dominant

Investigation of 22 kV silane cure TR-EPR cable

EPR-insulated cables for distribution power network are not commonly used in Australia. This is due to the higher DDF of common EPR cables when compared with XLPE that contributes to the power loss and economics in transmitting electricity. This led to the development of EPR called TR-EPR with significantly lower DDF and uses silane curing process to address concerns about cost-effectiveness. The thermal behavior of low DDF silane cure TR-EPR is investigated for 30 months of exposure to the maximum operating temperature of material. The physical changes in the samples throughout the long-term aging are examined to create an opportunity to model the expected life cycle of TR-EPR cable under thermal stress. The cross-linking characteristics of TR-EPR cable are also examined by ambient curing that simulates the storage condition for unused cable and by cable heating process that simulates the condition when the cable is energized. The results are tabulated for a better understanding of the time for the material to cross-link at various conditions. The improved partial discharge values after cross-linking are also presented

Optimal Sampling Requirements for Robust and Fast Vegetation High Impedance Fault Detection

Low fault currents, associated with Vegetation High Impedance Fault (VeHIF) events, are often challenging to clear by relying on traditional overcurrent based protection schemes. Low Frequency (LF) harmonics have readily been used in the literature as potential fault detection features. High Frequency (HF) signatures are also generated during VeHIFs events. These have generally been underrepresented, potentially for reducing the computational burden and the cost of proposed solutions. This work presents the temporal magnitude growth comparison of the LF and HF fault current spectrums using a dataset of 125 phase-to-earth (ph-to-e) tests. The key focus is on comparing the protection-speed efficacy of the LF and HF fault signatures. For the analysed dataset, the temporal growth in the HF spectral components was determined to be faster in a larger number of tests and with higher average lead-time margins. Conversely, growth in the LF spectral components was faster in fewer tests and with a smaller average lead-time margin. The HF spectrum was the lead indicator in 68.2 % of the 125 ph-to-e test recordings with an average lead-time of 26.95 s. For the same dataset, the LF spectrum was the leading indicator in only 25.6 % of the tests with an average lead-time of 7.85 s. Analysis has also revealed that a sampling frequency, as large as 1.8 MHz, may be required when designing protection applications, where the speed of protection is as critical as robustness