International Journal of Energy and Environment
E-ISSN: 2308-1007
Volume 13, 2019
Notice: As of 2014 and for the forthcoming years, the publication frequency/periodicity of NAUN Journals is adapted to the 'continuously updated' model. What this means is that instead of being separated into issues, new papers will be added on a continuous basis, allowing a more regular flow and shorter publication times. The papers will appear in reverse order, therefore the most recent one will be on top.
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Volume 13, 2019
Title of the Paper: A Nitrogen Recharge System for China’s Manned Space Science and Utilization System Application
Authors: Hongfei Guan, Zhenhua Feng, Jule Zhang, Qinglin Zhu, Xiaona Wei, Cuihong Liu
Pages: 94-96
Abstract: A novel Nitrogen recharge system to apply China’s Manned Space Science and utilization system is showed in this paper. It contains a gas cylinder unit, a control unit, a terminal valve unit, a transducer unit and pipelines. The system is mainly responsible for supplying Nitrogen resource to space payloads. The system of ground test platform was established. The feasibility of the nitrogen recharge system is verified. Nitrogen flow relative flow resistance curve is obtained based on the performance test analysis. Experiment results indicate that the setup is conducted to verify design index requirements. The experimental results were satisfactory and justified the proposed Nitrogen recharge system.
Title of the Paper: Ecological Sustainable Industry Development in the Machinery Building
Authors: Ioan Ghimbaseanu
Pages: 90-93
Abstract: The application of the sustainable development principles in the machinery building industry, in Romania, during the transition period is necessary and opportune. This is the reason why the assignation of some priority domains, as part of the different industrial branches is benefice to the national programs meant for research orientation and for the allocation of resources. In the present paper is presented, in an extent background, the sustainable development concept and the particularly elements that characterized the machine tools building industry which is a remarkable share component in economy field. There are pointed out some solutions of approaching the specific activities of the machine tools building and usage. The paper approaches the problem of the treble dimensioning of the working machines functions – technical, economical, and ecological – and to establish an optimal relation between these. There is prefigured a new orientation for the machine tools research – design activity, in the relation to the life cycle of these, in the prospect of the sustainable used of the resources
Title of the Paper: Demand Priority in a Power System Integrated with Wind Power Contribution Load Shedding Scheme based
Authors: Yasser F. Hassan, Yasir G. Rashid, Firas M. Tuaimah
Pages: 83-89
Abstract: The load shedding (LS) scheme has been extensively implemented as a fast solution for unbalance conditions. Therefore, it's crucial to investigate supply-demand balancing in order to protect the network from collapsing and to sustain stability as possible, however its implementation is mostly undesirable. One of the solutions to minimize the amount of load shedding is the integration renewable energy resources, such as wind power (WP), in the electric power generation could contribute significantly to minimize power cuts as it is ablility to positively improving the stability of the electric grid. In this paper propose a method for shedding the load base on the priority demands (PDs) with incorporating the WP generated. The higher PDs are fed with a reliable wind energy resource in order to protect them from shedding under contingency condition such as high overloading by the real time monitoring of the network accompanied with power reducing for the lower PDs. The simulation results prove effectiveness and practicality of the applied method paving the way for possible applications in power systems.
Title of the Paper: General Regression Neural Networks for the Timely, Reliable and Efficient Monitoring, Detection, Localization, Identification of Detector Malfunctions as Well as of Nuclear (Power) Plant Deviations From Steady-state Operation
Authors: Tatiana Tambouratzis
Pages: 75-82
Abstract: The analysis of nuclear (power) plant (N(P)P) neutron flux (NF) signals is imperative for ensuring safe and optimal1 on-line N(P)P operation. Rather than the NF signals per se, it is the NF signal perturbations that are of interest, as the latter provide precise information concerning the instantaneous (relative) changes in N(P)P operation/status. In this piece of research, general regression artificial neural networks (GRNNs) are implemented for monitoring and concurrently identifying (detecting, classifying and localizing) both N(P)P deviations from steady-state operation and neutron detector (ND) malfunctions, in a timely, reliable and maximally efficient manner. The proposed approach accomplishes modularity and flexibility of operation by employing (a) raw NF signals as its source of information and (b) complementary NF signal encodings – derived from pertinent ND configurations – of the problem space. The use of GRNNs is found most satisfactory for the present monitoring/operation and malfunction detection/localization task, combining (i) low computational (time as well as space) complexity during GRNN training and testing, implemented by the straightforward optimization of the spread (σ) parameter and single-pass training/testing, with (ii) transparency of construction and (iii) accuracy and consistency in the identification of the cause(s) behind deviating-from-normal N(P)P behaviour, (iv) partial only GRNN retraining following modification of the training set. It is envisaged that appropriately combining the responses derived from different GRNNs shall further improve both the accuracy and the sensitivity of deviation/malfunction detection.
Title of the Paper: Adsorption of Hexavalent Chromium in Various Water Sources using Modified Wheat Straw
Authors: Dimitrios Sidiras, Dorothea Politi
Pages: 69-74
Abstract: The aim of this study was to develop a promising and competitive bioadsorbent with abundant source, low price and environmentally friendly characteristics to remove heavy metals from wastewater. The wheat straw modified by autohydrolysis was prepared, characterized and used to remove hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), from aqueous solution. What makes this study unique is that a simulation of cleaning of water sampled by various actual locations, by Cr(VI) was performed. The four locations that we chose to perform our research belong to Athens industrial zone, namely two ports for seawater (Skaramaga Port and Piraeus Port), one lake (Koumoundourou Lake), and one stream (Pikrodafnis Stream). The (a) isotherm and (b) kinetic experimental batch adsorption system data were simulated using (a) Freundlich and Langmuir isotherm models and (b) first order, second order and intraparticle diffusion kinetic models, respectively. The results show that (i) the autohydrolysis pretreatment increased the adsorption capacity of wheat straw and (ii) the Lake Koumoundourou results were better compared to the other three areas results.
Title of the Paper: Robust Stability Power in the Transmission Line with the Use of a UPFC System and Neural Controllers Based Adaptive Control
Authors: Abdelkrim Bouanane, Merzoug Yahiaoui, Khaled Benyahia, Abdelkader Chaker
Pages: 59-68
Abstract: The aim of this article is to design a regulator which enables a power system to track reference signals precisely and to be robust in the presence of uncertainty of system parameters and disturbances. The performances of the proposed controllers (NEWELM and NIMC) are based neural adaptive control and simulated on a two bus test system and compared with a conventional PI controller with decoupling (PI-D). The studies are performed based on well known software package MATLAB/Simulink tool box. Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System devices (FACTS) are power electronic components. Their fast response offers potential benefits for power system stability enhancement and allows utilities to operate their transmission systems even closer to their physical limitations, more efficiently, with improved reliability, greater stability and security than traditional mechanical switching technology. The most used component of FACTS systems is the Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC). According to high importance of power flow control in transmission lines, new controllers are designed based on the Elman Recurrent Neural Network (NEWELM) and Neural Inverse Model Control (NIMC) with adaptive control.
Title of the Paper: Realistic Maximisation of Environmental Sustainability at the Country Level using Evolutionary Strategies
Authors: Tatiana Tambouratzis, Vassileios Canellidis, Christopher Hinde
Pages: 46-58
Abstract: An assortment of evolutionary strategies (EvS’s) is put forward for guiding interested countries towards the maximisation of their environmental sustainability (ES); a demonstration on the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) 2005 is used here as proof of concept. The proposed EvS’s employ: (a) as inputs, the sets of (indicator/component) construct values of the ESI 2005 hierarchy which have been established by ES experts as both significant and sufficient in determining country ES; (b) as output, a singleton score reported in the relevant primary literature expressing the level of ES attained by the country of interest; (c) as fitness function, the quantitative expression of ES (country scores) calculated from the country-specific construct values of (a) and reproduced here via the most accurate approximation linking (a) and (b); (d) quasi-monotonic ES improvements, implemented via the application of exclusively positive mutations whose magnitude is proportional to the correlation between each (to-be-mutated) parameter and the remaining parameters. A number of EvS’s are implemented from the possible combinations of direct and step-wise approximations between ESI 2005 constructs and scores of the participating countries. Each EvS has been found capable of guiding any country (either participating in the creation of the index or with data that is compatible to that of the ESI 2005) towards maximal ES via the generation of improvement paths that implement the (i) realistic and (ii) gradual, yet effective, maximisation of country ES. Given that the created paths are largely construct-dependent, it is possible to select the representation (construct) that effectuates the most efficient and/or feasible ES improvement path for each country of interest. A further extension would be to also select the most appropriate representation (construct) at each step of the EvSguided process for achieving maximally versatile as well as efficient step-wise decision-making towards ES maximisation at the country level; the latter is put forward as a subject of future research.
Title of the Paper: Electric System Layout Optimization of Offshore Wind Farms
Authors: Mohsen Sedighi, Mohammad Moradzadeh, Peyman Naderi, Hossein Shayeghi
Pages: 39-45
Abstract: This paper aims to minimize the total investment and operating cost of electric system of a large-scale Offshore Wind Farm (OWF). An optimization problem is formulated that simultaneously optimizes the electrical configuration and cables size (cross-sectional area) of the interconnection and transmission systems, and offshore components such as HV and MV switchgears, offshore substation platforms and transformers. Moreover, apart from the total investment cost, the annual cost of electrical power losses is incorporated into the objective function as an operating cost forming a multiobjective optimization problem. The problem is then solved by an integer-based genetic algorithm. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, the obtained optimal results are compared with another study for a real OWF, under identical conditions and constraints. Simulation results show that the obtained optimal electric configuration in this paper results in a lower total investment cost and power losses.
Title of the Paper: The Performance of the Wavelet De-Noising- based Combined Model (WDCM) in Forecasting the Groundwater Level
Authors: A. Mirarabi, H. R. Nassery, M. Nakhaei, F. Alijani
Pages: 33-38
Abstract: Groundwater level (GWL) time series are highly non-stationary, noisy, multi-scale, and complexity due to varieties of natural and anthropogenic factors which are closely related to the GWL fluctuation. The direct forecasting of GWL with noisy and multi-scale data is usually subject to large errors. This paper, for first time, was applied wavelet de-noising in a combined model (WDCM) forecasting of GWL. The seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model (SARIMA) and neural networks (ANNs) were used as combined model in WDCM. Firstly, the original data of GWL were decomposed into an approximate part associated with seasonal component (linear pattern) and some detailed part associated with random component (nonlinear pattern) via a wavelet transform. The SARIMA established by the seasonal signal and the multilayer perceptron neural network (MLP) using the random signal to forecast. Finally, the GWL was forecasted by combining the prediction values of SARIMA and MLP. To evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, a comparison was done with the SARIMA, MLP, and W-SARIMA and W-MLP combined model, which were established using the de-noising data. The results were shown that the proposed model can effectively improve the forecasting accuracy.
Title of the Paper: Improved Design of the Axial Flux PM Generator used in Rim Driven Marine Current Turbines
Authors: Mohammad Bapiri, Abolfazl Vahedi, Omid Dorri
Pages: 26-32
Abstract: Today, the use of renewable energy, due to its advantages, has become, an integral part of the process of generating electricity in the world. Wind, the sun and seawater flow are the most important renewable energy sources that are used for generating electricity. Marine currents, as part of seawater energy, is an important type of renewable energy, due to its high potential and less impact on environment. The generator used in marine currents is either directly or by gearbox is connected to the turbine. To overcome the problem of maintaining and repairing the gearbox in an area with highpressure water, the direct drive type is preferred. Another problem in this type of turbine generator, is the interference of the generator in the direction of water flow, because of its location behind the turbine. This problem exists in both gearbox and common direct-drive generators. To overcome this problem, a new kind of direct-drive generator is introduced as Rim-driven. In this type, the rim is located around the turbine blades. Rim-driven structure creates more favorable conditions and has two advantages: first eliminating the problems associated with the gearbox and second not interfering with the flow of water. The rim-driven generators with radial flux and axial flux structures have been studied in several papers. In this paper, the design of an axial flux generator with two rotors is investigated. Since in permanent magnet machines, the weight of magnet affects considerably the final cost of the generator, it is attempted to reduce the weight of magnet and hence the cost of machine compare to similar ones. In fact, by using distributed the same volume of the magnet on the rotor surface, the design is achieved and by applying sensitivity analysis, best geometry that present maximum power is obtained. In the design process, the geometric and magnetic parameters are considered as same as with reference papers in order to provide a better comparison. Finally, the design results are simulated by finite element software and the accuracy of the results has been investigated and compared.
Title of the Paper: Development of a Structural Equation Model for Studying the Renewable Energy Acceptance in Universitary Students
Authors: Víctor D. Gil Vera
Pages: 22-25
Abstract: The development of energy generation projects from renewable sources (wind, geothermal, hydro, tidal, solar, biomass and biofuels) in Europe and North America, allow you to see the potential and large environmental, socio-cultural and economic benefits that are derived from its implementation. The paper presents a structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the variables that most influenced the acceptance of renewable energy sources. Was used a representative sample of 243 university students of the Politécnico Jaime Isaza Cadavid in Medellin, Colombia. The sample was selected considering a margin of error of 5 % and a confidence level of 90 %, the size of the population was 2464 students. The results Sphericity Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test and Bartlett's test, indicated that the factorial analysis is adequate, all the constructs are statistically significant. The goodness-of-fit test indicated that the model fits well with the data. This paper concludes that, of all the constructs considered: use, utility, government support and training, the construct that most influences the latent variable adaptability is the use. The construct that most influences the latent variable perception is the government support. An improvement in the results of both constructs contributes to an improvement in the acceptance of renewable energy sources.
Title of the Paper: Numerical Study of based Perovskite Solar Cells by SCAPS-1D
Authors: Abdelhadi Slami, Mama Bouchaour, Laarej Merad
Pages: 17-21
Abstract: This work deals with the design and analysis of lead-based Perovskite solar cells. The architecture consists of Glass/TCO/Buffer layer (TiO2)/CH3NH3PbI3/Spiro-MeTAD/metal back contact (Aluminium). To study the efficiency and the performances of this solar cell, SCAPS-1D software is used in the simulation. The influence of defect density, absorber layer thickness, and working temperature on the performance of the device is presented. The optimized PCS is obtained for the absorber layer thickness of 900 nm, the defect density of 1013 cm-3 and the 300K operating temperature. The efficiency greater than 30% is obtained.
Title of the Paper: Influence of Doping and Thickness on the Performance of CIGS PV Cell
Authors: M. Bouchaour, L. Merad, A. Ould-abbas, N. E. Chabane Sari
Pages: 13-16
Abstract: The most important aim of Photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers is to reduce the price of solar cells and increase their efficiencies above the Shockley Queisser limit. Back in the day, thin film technologies like CdTe, CIGS, etc. looked promising and started gaining meaningful market share. In this work, a numerical study of thin film CIGS based PV cells with Solar Cell Capacitance Simulator software (SCAPS) is reported. The influence of thickness and doping concentration on PV parameters (Jsc, η, Voc and FF) under standard illumination is investigated. The analysis of the outputs of the SCAPS model provides a better understanding of thin film PV solar cells. The incorporation of certain impurities into CIGS solar cells can enhance spectral response, short circuit current density and conversion efficiency only under some conditions.
Title of the Paper: The Impact of a Ring Road in an Urban Road Network. The Case Study of Guimarães, Portugal
Authors: Paulo J. G. Ribeiro, Luís A. P. J. Gonçalves
Pages: 7-12
Abstract: The high traffic volumes are a main source of the congestion in Cities, they are a big problem on urban road transportation systems. This congestion is the main cause of the increase of level of noise and air pollution in urban centers which directly affects the quality of life of the population. Also, contributing to the big number of vehicle conflicts that affects the performance of the urban road transportation systems and the quality of life of the population. These problems are the result of the high volumes of the through traffic. Therefore, to reduce the traffic volume in urban center of Guimarães, Portugal we studied a possible conclusion of the ring road, on the slope of the Penha hill for the peak hour of the morning. To carry out our study was estimated the Origin – Destination Matrix for peak hour from the data of traffic counts. Concluding the traffic volume in the section of the ring road already built there was a reduction. However, in the city center there were no major variations of the traffic volume.
Title of the Paper: Analysis of Road Safety Conflicts. The Case Study of a Road Interchange in Guimarães, PT
Authors: Carlos Miguel Cardoso Araújo, Paulo J. G. Ribeiro, Flávio José Craveiro Cunto
Pages: 1-6
Abstract: This paper presents a case study to identify road safety conflicts in an interchange of the road network of the city of Guimarães, Portugal. For that an analysis using the SSAM (Surrogate safety assessment model) software was performed in order to identified and characterized the network points of conflict according their category and severity. To analyze traffic conflicts vehicles routes must be collected and inserted in SSAM software. To obtain vehicle routes a microsimulation traffic modelling was performed through the usage of PTV VISSIM software. Thus, a traffic and geometric data collection was done for the peak hour in the morning, and then the model was calibrated and validated using traffic volumes, travel time and queuing length using specific sections of the interchange. In addition, to identify and analyze three types of conflicts (rear end, lane change and crossings) with SSAM were evaluated two parameters the TTC (Time to Collision) and the PET (After Invasion Time) for all the vehicles, using their routes extracted from VISSIM. The location of the conflicts was analyzed in a GIS, which allowed the creation of maps of conflicts. The results shown that the most frequent conflicts are the rear end conflicts (1174), which occurs a little throughout the entire interchange and are more frequently in the entrances and exits of the freeway, which was also verified for lane change conflicts (107), but in a lower frequency. Based on these results it was also possible to conclude that the high number of conflicts should be a matter of concern for transport authorities, who may have to adopt measures to improve safety and reduce the potential for accidents, which may imply a reduction of speed in this interchange or a police reinforcement.
