Population Genetic Consequences of Different Dispersal-Distance Distributions in a Continuous Landscape

51 pages, 1 article*Population Genetic Consequences of Different Dispersal-Distance Distributions in a Continuous Landscape* (Tisch, N.; Goldberg, D. S.; Hiebler, D. E.; Hume, G. L.; McCulloch, C. E.; Safran, R. J.; Stenzler, L. M.; Sundell, N. M.; Winkler, D. W.) 51 page

IEA SHC Task 42 / ECES Annex 29 - A Simple Tool for the Economic Evaluation of Thermal Energy Storages

ACTInternational audienceWithin the framework of IEA SHC Task 42 / ECES Annex 29, a simple tool for the economic evaluation of thermal energy storages has been developed and tested on various existing storages. On that account, the storage capacity costs (costs per installed storage capacity) of thermal energy storages have been evaluated via a Top-down and a Bottom-up approach. The Top-down approach follows the assumption that the costs of energy supplied by the storage should not exceed the costs of energy from the market. The maximum acceptable storage capacity costs depend on the interest rate assigned to the capital costs, the intended payback period of the user class (e.g. industry or building), the reference energy costs, and the annual number of storage cycles. The Bottom-up approach focuses on the realised storage capacity costs of existing storages. The economic evaluation via Top-down and Bottom-up approach is a valuable tool to make a rough estimate of the economic viability of an energy storage for a specific application. An important finding is that the annual number of storage cycles has the largest influence on the cost effectiveness. At present and with respect to the investigated storages, seasonal heat storage is only economical via large sensible hot water storages. Contrary, if the annual number of storage cycles is sufficiently high, all thermal energy storage technologies can become competitive. \textcopyright 2016 The Authors

Method to Investigate Mechanical Behavior of Steel Casting near Solidus Temperature

Hot crack formation in continuously cast steel is significantly influenced by the mechanical properties of the solid shell near its solidus temperature. Herein, a new method to study the high-temperature mechanical behavior of the solidifying steel shell is introduced. In this method, an apparatus is designed utilizing an electric cylinder that is controlled by a servomotor to apply a specified amount of strain to the solidifying steel shell at a controlled strain rate. A special mold configuration is developed to control the dendrite growth in the direction perpendicular to the applied strain and to ensure that the strain is applied in the region of controlled shell growth. Real-time load, displacement, and temperature data are monitored by a computer-assisted data acquisition system. The temperature profile of the casting is predicted by MAGMASOFT and compared with experimental data. The Fourier thermal analysis method is applied to calculate a solid fraction and coupled with the temperature profile to determine the solid shell thickness during the test. The maximum strength at different temperatures for a medium-carbon steel is determined and compared with that from the submerged split-chill tensile test and hot tensile tests