Matching of a DC motor to a photovoltaic generator using a step-upconverter with a current-locked loop

A photovoltaic (PV) generator is a nonlinear device having insolation-dependent volt-ampere characteristics. Because of its relatively high cost, the system designer is interested in optimum matching of the motor and its mechanical load to the PV generator so that maximum power is obtained during the entire operating period. However, since the maximum-power point varies with solar insolation, it is difficult to achieve an optimum matching that is valid for all insolation levels. In this paper it is shown that for maximum power, the generator current must be directly proportional to insolation. This remarkable property is utilized to achieve insolation-independent optimum matching. A shunt DC motor driving a centrifugal water pump is supplied from a PV generator via a step-up converter whose duty ratio is controlled using a current-locked feedback loop     

Coupling a two-temperature model and a one-temperature model at a fluid-porous interface

We study a convective heat transfer problem in a fluid-porous domain in the case of the local thermal non-equilibrium assumption (LTNE). The issue of this study is to determine appropriate boundary conditions to model heat transfer, while using models with a different number of equations: a two-temperature model in the homogeneous porous region versus a one-temperature model in the free region. To proceed, a two-step up-scaling approach is used, which has the particularity to provide closed jump relations depending on intrinsic characteristic of the interface. Thus, the use of jump or continuity conditions depend only on the interface location inside the fluid-porous transition region. The pertinence of the approach is illustrated on a 2D convective heat transfer problem considering a solid heat source in the porous medium.     

Studies on a two-staged micro-combustor for a micro-reformer integrated with a micro-evaporator

A new micro-combustor configuration for a micro fuel-cell reformer integrated with a micro-evaporator is studied experimentally and computationally. The micro-combustor as a heat source is designed for a 10–15 W micro-reformer using the steam reforming method. In order to satisfy the primary requirements for designing a micro-combustor integrated with a micro-evaporator, i.e., stable burning in a small confinement and maximum heat transfer through a wall, the present micro-combustor is a simply cylinder, which is easy to fabricate, but is two-staged (expanding downstream) to control ignition and stable burning. The aspect ratio and wall thickness of the micro-combustor substantially affect ignition and thermal characteristics. For optimized design conditions, a pre-mixed micro-flame is easily ignited in the expanded second-stage combustor, moves into the smaller first-stage combustor, and finally is stabilized therein. The measured and predicted temperature distributions across the micro-combustor walls indicate that heat generated in the micro-combustor is well transferred. Thus, the present micro-combustor configuration can be applied to practical micro-reformers integrated with a micro-evaporator for use with fuel cells.     

Using a fin with a parabolic concentrator

The consequences of using a fin collector in focusing solar collectors is examined and is found to have merits.     

Bioconvection in a squeezing flow of a micropolar fluid in a horizontal channel

The bioconvection flow of an incompressible micropolar fluid containing microorganisms between two infinite stretchable parallel plates is considered. A mathematical model, with a fully coupled nonlinear system of equations describing the total mass, momentum, thermal energy, mass diffusion, and microorganisms is presented. The governing equations are reduced to a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations with the help of suitable transformations. The resulting nonlinear ordinary differential equations are linearized using successive linearization method, and the resulting system of linear equations is solved using the Chebyshev collocation method. The detailed analysis illustrating the influences of various physical parameters, such as the micropolar coupling number, squeezing parameter, the bioconvection Schmidt number, Prandtl numbers, Lewis number, and bioconvection Peclet number on the velocity, microrotation, temperature, concentration and motile microorganism distributions, skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number, Sherwood number, and density number of motile microorganism, is examined. The influence of the squeezing parameter is to increase the dimensionless velocities and temperature and to decrease the local Nusselt number and local Sherwood number. The density number of motile microorganism is decreasing with squeezing parameter, bioconvection Lewis number, bioconvection Peclet number, and bioconvection Schmidt number.     

Exploration of heat transfer effect in a magnetohydrodynamics flow of a micropolar fluid between a porous and a nonporous disk

An analysis is carried out for the flow characteristics of a conducting micropolar fluid. The fluid was passed in between two parallel disks of infinite radii. The novelty of the study is to consider one of the disks as porous and the other one as nonporous, and the external magnetic field is applied along the transverse direction of the flow. The flow phenomena for the polar fluid characterized by the magnetic effect in conjunction with the temperature equation reduce to a set of coupled nonlinear ordinary differential equations using the requisite transformations and nondimensionalization. An analytical approach such as the variation parameter method is employed to tackle the system efficiently. To emphasize the effect of various physical parameters contributing to the flow phenomena, that is, non-zero tangential slip, Reynolds number, Prandtl number, magnetic parameter, and material parameter on the flow profiles of axial and radial velocities, the microrotation and temperature profiles are presented graphically. To validate the simulated results, a comparison with established results is made, and it is concluded that both are in good correlation.     

Development of a system model for a hydrogen production process on a solar tower

An attractive path to the production of hydrogen from water is a two-step thermo chemical cycle powered by concentrated sunlight from a solar tower system. In the first process step the redox system, a ferrite coated on a monolithic honeycomb absorber, is present in its reduced form while the concentrated solar energy hits the ceramic absorber. When water vapour is fed to the honeycomb at 800 °C, oxygen is abstracted from the water molecules, bond in the redox system and hydrogen is produced. When the metal oxide system is completely oxidised it is heated up for regeneration at 1100–1200 °C in an oxygen-lean atmosphere. Under those conditions and in the second process step, oxygen is set free from the redox system, so the metal oxide is being reduced and after completion of the reaction again capable for water splitting.Since the overall process consists of two core reaction steps, which need to be carried out sequentially in a reactor unit at two different temperature steps, a special process and plant concept had to be developed enabling the continuous supply of product regardless of the alternating nature of the solar reactor operation. The challenge of the process control is to keep the two core reaction temperatures constant and to ensure regular temperature switches after completion of the individual process steps, independent of the weather conditions, like DNI fluctuation, clouds and wind speed. Also start-up, the fast switching after completion of half-cycles and the shutdown must be controlled. State of the art is the manual switching of heliostats to fulfil those control tasks.This paper describes the development and use of a system model of this process. The model consists of three main parts: the simulation of the solar flux distribution at the receiver aperture, the simulation of the temperatures in the reactor modules and the simulation of the hydrogen generation. It can be used for the analysis of the operational behaviour. The model is intended to be used in the future for the control of the whole process.     

Comparative analysis of a Sisko nanofluid over a stretching cylinder through a porous medium

The present article examines the Sisko nanofluid flow and heat transfer through a porous medium due to a stretching cylinder using Buongiorno's model for nanofluids. Suitable similarity transformations are used to transform the governing boundary layer equations of fluid flow into nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The finite difference method is used to solve coupled nonlinear differential equations with MATLAB software. The impact of different parameters viz., the Sisko material parameter, porosity parameter, curvature parameter, thermophoresis parameter, and Brownian diffusion parameter on the velocity and temperature distribution are presented graphically. Moreover, the effect of the involved parameters on the heat transfer rate is also studied and presented through table values. It is noticed from the numerical values that the porosity parameter reduces the velocity while enhancing the temperature. The curvature parameter enhances the velocity throughout the fluid regime and reduces the temperature near the surface while enhancing the temperature far away from the surface. The study reveals that the thermophoresis and Brownian diffusion parameters that characterize the nanofluid flow reduce the wall heat transfer rate, while the curvature parameter enhances it. This investigation of wall heating/cooling has essential applications in solar porous water absorber systems, chemical engineering, metallurgy, material processing, and so forth.     

Evaporating characteristics of a microlayer under a bubble

Using the Hallinan‐Ervin model, the flow and evaporation in a bubble microlayer were theoretically analyzed, and the dryout characteristics and Staub's criterion were discussed in detail. It was revealed that the critical dryout radius is associated with the wettability of the heated surface, and that the dominant role for microlayer evaporation is disjoining pressure, not surface tension gradient. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 31(6): 456–462, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.10052     

Solidification of a liquid about a cylindrical pipe

The temperature distribution and the rate of removal of heat by a coolant are predicted for the process of solidification of a liquid about a cold, isothermal pipe. The heat balance integral method incorporating spacial sub-division is used. It is found that acceptable results can be obtained by using only a small number of sub-divisions together with a piece-wise, linear profile. Furthermore, the results illustrate that the sensitivity which is normally associated with the heat balance integral method is overcome.     

Cogeneration in a solid-wastes power-station: a case-study

Nowadays, natural gas is viewed as the solution to the problem of energy supply for Latin America, Europe and North America for the next few decades; Brazil is increasingly becoming dependent upon the Bolivian natural-gas supply — many industries and some entrepreneurs are deciding to construct industrial cogeneration systems and new thermal power-stations burning natural gas because of its low environmental impact and attractive price. However, natural gas is a finite resource: this will cause, in the future, an increase of its unit price. This paper details questions involved in the energy generation and presents solid-waste burning as a possible alternative fuel for the future, especially in the context of cogeneration practice in which the thermal and electric energy are used primarily for the industries located in an industrial district. Two cogeneration schemes are proposed for the burning of municipal solid wastes, associated or not with natural gas, and their technical and economic feasibilities are examined.     

Stability of a multi-machine system incorporating a superconductingalternator

A preliminary study on the transient behavior of a superconducting turbo-alternator in a typical multimachine system is described. The study covers the effect of conventional controllers, power-system stabilizers and phase advance networks. The open-loop response of the system is compared to the response when the superconducting alternator is replaced by its conventional counterpart     

Dehydrogenation reactor for a vehicle equipped with a hydrogen engine: a simulation study

A simulation study on the possibility of the utilization of cyclohexane as a vector for hydrogen storage in transport vehicles equipped with hydrogen engine has been carried out. The results of this study for the Pd/Al₂O₃ catalyst indicate that a dehydrogenation multi-tube reactor for cyclohexane is feasible. Nevertheless, a good heat transfer, which is a limiting factor of the process, has to be assured. To heat this reactor, part of the hydrogen combustion energy normally wasted by the engine cooling system can be used. A system of heat pipes was proposed to transfer the waste heat from the wall of engine cylinders to the wall of the dehydrogenation reactor.     

From a scholar city to a solar city

Located on “Bartolomé Masó” municipality on the north part of “Sierra Maestra” in “Granma” province, the Scholar City “Camilo Cienfuegos”, represents a paradigm of the real ideals of the Cuban Revolution related to education. The paper presents the results of a work developed by a team of professors and students of the Faculty of Architecture and Mechanic Engineering in the Polytechnic University of Havana (ISPJAE) in 1997, which includes a diagnosis of its current situation as a consequence of its historical development, and an strategy for its transformation into a sustainable city.The proposed strategy deals with economic and social sustainability, preservation of natural resources, energy conservation, and appropriate technology, considered in 3 main concepts: Habitat city, Cultural city, and Sustainable city, which are finally integrated into a Solar City as a symbolic term. As part of the proposal, a Master Plan, urban and architectural design criteria and steps for the future development are presented.     

Thermal Green's Functions for a Heat Source in a Piezoelectric Solid with a Parabolic Boundary

Using the Stroh formalism combined with the analytical continuation principle of Muskhelishvili, the Green's functions for a line heat source in a piezoelectric solid with a parabolic boundary are obtained in closed form. The obtained Green's functions not only satisfy all the given boundary conditions, but also ensure the displacement and electric potential to be single-valued. As special cases, the solutions for a piezoelectric half-plane are also presented, and they are shown to be consistent with previous works.     

Heat Transfer to a Particle Exposed to a Rarefied Plasma with a Great Temperature Gradient

A kinetic-theory analysis is presented concerning the heat transfer from a rarefied plasma to a spherical particle for the extreme case of free-molecule regime and thin plasma sheath. A great temperature gradient is assumed to exist in the plasma, and thus a non-Maxwellian velocity distribution function is employed for each of the gas species. Analytical results show that the existence of a temperature gradient in the plasma causes a nonuniform distribution of the local heat flux density on the sphere surface, while the total heat flux to the whole particle is independent of the temperature gradient. The nonuniformity of the local heat flux distributioln is small even for the case with a temperature gradient as great as 10~6 K/m, but it may significantly enhance the thermophoretic force on an evaporating particle. Heat transfer is mainly caused by atoms at low gas temperatures with negligible ionization degree, while it can be attributed to ions and electrons at high plasma temperatures.     

Measurements on a PV solar pump equipped with a piston pump with a matching valve

The work on a simple high efficient solar pump equipped with a piston pump with a matching valve, reported at the Solar World Congress in Budapest, has been continued. Quasi-static and dynamic models of the solar pump have been derived with which the operation of the system is simulated. A test rig has been built at ECN in Petten (The Netherlands) to perform some preliminary measurements. These tests show that the piston with a matching valve indeed ensures a good matching of the system components over a wide range of solar insolations. Daily average solar panel maximum power point tracking efficiencies of over 80% were measured. Daily average subsystem efficiencies (solar panel power output to hydraulic power output) measured were about 40%, which is lower than expected. These low efficiencies were caused by substantial power losses in the motor, transmission and pump. The losses can easily be reduced by appropriate design of each component; subsystem efficiencies of 50% should be attainable.