Modeling Water Pollution of Soil

The government of the Czech Republic decided that in the location to the west of Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic, some deep mines should be closed because of their low efficiency of coal mined i.e. small amounts and low quality of the coal extracted in the final stage of mining. The locations near Prague influenced the decision to do maintenance on the abandoned mines, as the thread of soil pollution was unacceptably high in the neighborhood of the capital city. Before the mines were closed it was necessary to separate existed extensive horizontal location of salt water below a clay layer in order not to deteriorate the upper fresh water. The salt water could not be allowed to pollute the upper layer with the fresh water, as many wells in villages in the neighborhood of the former mines would be contaminated. Two horizontal clay layers (an insulator and a semi-insulator) separated the two horizons containing salt water and fresh water. Before starting deep mining, vertical shafts had to be constructed with concrete linings to enable the miners to access the depths. The salt water was draining away throughout the existence of the mine. The drainage was designed very carefully to avoid possible infiltration of salt water into the upper horizon. Before the mines were abandoned it was necessary to prevent contact between the two kinds of waters in the shafts. Several options were put forward, the most efficient of which appeared to be one that proposed filling the shafts with spoil soil and creating a joint seal made of disparate material at the interface between the salt water and fresh water to create a reliable stopper. The material for the spoil soil was delivered from deposits located not far from the shafts. This material consisted of a variety of grains of sand, big boulders of slate, slaty clay, sandstone, etc.. Chemical admixtures were considered to improve the flocculation of the filling material. The stopper was positioned at a depth of 220–300 m below the terrain. As an alternative, thinner stoppers were considered, but this option was discarded.The aim of this paper is to describe the design of the stoppers applied to separate the two types of water along the contact horizon using Desai’s DSC theory (Distinct State Concept), and generalized plane strain in the multiphase problem of water flow in a porous medium. In addition, a comparison of some results from scale experimental models with numerical solutions was carried out. The intrinsic material properties of stoppers for numerical computations were obtained from physical and chemical laboratory tests. The models were evaluated for the complete underground work, particularly in its final stage of construction.

Twenty Years of Rad-Hard K14 SPAD in Space Projects

During last two decades, several photon counting detectors have been developed in our laboratory. One of the most promising detector coming from our group silicon K14 Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) is presented with its valuable features and space applications. Based on the control electronics, it can be operated in both gated and non-gated mode. Although it was designed for photon counting detection, it can be employed for multiphoton detection as well. With respect to control electronics employed, the timing jitter can be as low as 20 ps RMS. Detection efficiency is about 40%in range of 500 nm to 800 nm. The detector including gating and quenching circuitry has outstanding timing stability. Due to its radiation resistivity, the diode withstands 100 krad gamma ray dose without parameters degradation. Single photon detectors based on K14 SPAD were used for planetary altimeter and atmospheric lidar in MARS92/96 and Mars Surveyor ’98 space projects, respectively. Recent space applications of K14 SPAD comprises LIDAR and mainly time transfer between ground stations and artificial satellites. These include Laser Time Transfer, Time Transfer by Laser Link, and European Laser Timing projects

Dimethyl ether as a renewable fuel for diesel engines

ArticleThe area of automotive fuel, or fuel components, which can be produced from biomass also includes dimethyl ether, otherwise known as DME. The issue of the use of DME as a fuel is one which has been monitored until recently. Biomass can also be used as the raw material for the production of DME. DME has therefore replaced the previously-used CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), which are now banned for their role in dangerous levels of ozone depletion. With regard to its physical properties and combustion characteristics, it is currently expected that DME will soon apply significantly as a fuel in the municipal sector and in households, and as an alternative fuel for motor vehicles with diesel engines. DME is a suitable fuel for diesel engines and can be considered as one of the most promising diesel fuel replacements. DME is a suitable fuel for diesel engines mainly due to its low self-ignition temperature and good cetane figures. It is well miscible with most organic solvents and because the polar solvent is water-immiscible. The advantage is its high levels of purity, and its being free of sulphur, nitrogen, or metals. The physical properties of DME are very similar to the physical properties of LPG. DME requires relatively complex and costly fuel accessories, but the original compression ratio of the diesel engine is maintained. A diagram of the fuel system is illustrated in the paper. The paper analyses the dependence of vapour pressure on temperature, the dependence of the density on temperature, kinematic viscosity, the flash point, the boiling point, and the solubility of water. The objective is to evaluate this interesting energy source for applications in diesel engines

Diagnostics of hydraulic fluids used in aviation

ArticleDiagnostics is a maintenance industry that monitors performance, parameters, and follow – up. Diagnosing hydraulic fluids means comparing the parameters of the used hydr aulic fluid sample to the parameters of the clean fluid. It is also essentia l to monitor the limit values either by the aircraft manufacturer or by the manufacturer of the hydraulic fluid. This means that the manufacturer recommends the limitations of the liquid parameters. The measurements of the fluid samples give an overview of the liquid quality. Most businesses focus on so – called proactive maintenance. The main senses and objectives of proactive maintenance are: lubricant sample analysis, lubricant sta tus, machine status, next step recommendation, database saving and trend analysis. This article focuses on the quality of hydraulic fluid focused in aviation. The aim of the article was to determine the properties of the hydraulic fluid used in the A320 ai rcraft family, determine the interval of its exchange. Monitoring the state of the hydraulic fluid could contribute to the timely detection of the problem, thus avoiding a failure of the device or the system as a whole. The tracking proposal is an integral part of this article

Energy analysis of hydrogen as a fuel in the Czech Republic

ArticleThe concept of ‘hydrogen economy’ dates back to the 1970s. It was first introduced as s response to the first oil crisis. In the context of the hydrogen economy, it is important to calculate how much hydrogen would be needed to power all motor vehicles in the Czech Republic. This is main topics of this paper. To calculate the amount of hydrogen, we used two different methods. One is based on thermodynamic laws and the other on normal operating conditions. Both approaches yielded comparable results. It was found out that even with the use of all the electricity produced in the Czech Republic in 2016, we would not be able to cover the amount of energy that is required for production. It would cover only 75% resp. 76% depending on the calculation method used. Eventually, the Czech Republic could buy necessary amount of hydrogen and it would cost between 11 and 29 billion euros which is between 6% and 16% of GDP of the Czech Republic. In the calculations, authors found out that most fuel is burnt in the passenger cars. Therefore, we made a sensitivity analysis to find out how much our results would differ if fuel consumption changed. It turns out that with an increase in consumption of 1l per 100 km, hydrogen production coverage will decrease by about 4% (again with the use of all electricity produced in the Czech Republic)