Leading edge erosion of wind turbines: Effect of solid airborne particles and rain on operational wind farms

Leading edge erosion (LEE) affects almost all wind turbines, reducing their annual energy production and lifetime profitability. This study presents results of an investigation into 18 operational wind farms to assess the validity of the current literature consensus surrounding LEE. Much of the historical research focuses on rain erosion, implying that this is the predominant causal factor. However, this study showed that the impact of excessive airborne particles from seawater aerosols or from adverse local environments such as nearby quarries greatly increases the levels of LEE. Current testing of leading edge protection coatings or tapes is based on a rain erosion resistivity test, which does little to prove its ability to withstand solid particle erosion and may drive coating design in the wrong direction. Furthermore, it was shown that there is little correlation between test results and actual field performance. A method of monitoring the expected level of erosion on an operational wind turbine due to rain erosion is also presented. Finally, the energy losses associated with LEE on an operational wind farm are examined, with the average annual energy production dropping by 1.8% due to medium levels of erosion, with the worst affected turbine experiencing losses of 4.9%.     

Water Pipeline Leak Measurement Using Wavelet Packet-based Adaptive ICA

Water Resources Management - The localization of the leaks is estimated using the time difference method in the past decade. Generalized and Basic Cross-correlation techniques are frequently...     

Dichloroacetate Radiosensitizes Hypoxic Breast Cancer Cells

Mitochondrial metabolism is an attractive target for cancer therapy. Reprogramming metabolic pathways can potentially sensitize tumors with limited treatment options, such as triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), to chemo- and/or radiotherapy. Dichloroacetate (DCA) is a specific inhibitor of the pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK), which leads to enhanced reactive oxygen species (ROS) production. ROS are the primary effector molecules of radiation and an increase hereof will enhance the radioresponse. In this study, we evaluated the effects of DCA and radiotherapy on two TNBC cell lines, namely EMT6 and 4T1, under aerobic and hypoxic conditions. As expected, DCA treatment decreased phosphorylated pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and lowered both extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) and lactate production. Remarkably, DCA treatment led to a significant increase in ROS production (up to 15-fold) in hypoxic cancer cells but not in aerobic cells. Consistently, DCA radiosensitized hypoxic tumor cells and 3D spheroids while leaving the intrinsic radiosensitivity of the tumor cells unchanged. Our results suggest that although described as an oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS)-promoting drug, DCA can also increase hypoxic radioresponses. This study therefore paves the way for the targeting of mitochondrial metabolism of hypoxic cancer cells, in particular to combat radioresistance.     

多病床非典病房的气流分布研究

到2003年8月7日止，在全球34个国家和地区相继出现了严重急性呼吸系统综合症(SARS或者非典)，其中，共报告有8422例疑似案例，916例死亡案例。2002年11月到2003年6月间的非典流行中，医院医护人员受感染情况最为严重，世界范围内20％的感染群体为医护人员，香港地区22％的确诊案例为医护人员。因此，为减少交叉感染，加强有关工程控制，特别是在非典病房里进行通风设计是非常必要的。本文总结了非典病房气流分布的最新研究。这项研究由非典特工队于2003年4～7月间完成。非典特工队是由香港工程师协会组织，来自7个专家协会的工程师组成的研究小组。在对香港治疗非典医院的现有空调系统进行了解后，非典特工队首先运用计算流体力学模拟确定了在6个床位的病房里减少交叉感染和改善污染物稀释的通风设计；接着，对新设计在香港大学屋宇设备实验室里的全尺寸非典病房里进行了测试。测试表明，新设计方案在这个接近现实的全尺寸非典病房里运行良好。采用床头回风口回风设计可有效地对病人产生的含病毒颗粒进行局部捕获。根据这项研究，作者提出了原则性的设计建议。2003年里，香港政府和医院管理局医院采纳了非典特工队提出的设计基本原理建造了1200多个床位的可用于非典治疗的新病房。另外，气流分布是复杂的紊流过程，送风格栅结构如导流器或散流器的微小改动以及送风参数如风速、温度和风向的微小变化都会引起气流的改变。适当的设计对于减少病人间、病人与医护人员之间的交叉感染以及有效稀释和排除含病菌颗粒都是至关重要的。     

A note on smoke plumes from fires in multi-level shopping malls

It is shown that the experimental data obtained for plume flow in model-scale shopping malls can be correlated using equations similar to those developed by Yokoi. Further analysis is needed to establish the effective source of the plumes and the range of validity of the correlations developed. An alternative method of calculating mass flow above a balcony is suggested for interim use, until further analysis has been carried out.     

Vehicle axle load identification on bridge deck with irregular road surface profile

The vehicular axle load on top of a bridge deck is estimated in this paper including the effect of the road surface roughness which is modeled as a Gaussian random process represented by the Karhunen-Loève expansion. The bridge is modeled as a simply supported planar Euler-Bernoulli beam and the vehicle is modeled by a four degrees-of-freedom mass-spring system. A stochastic force identification algorithm is proposed in which the statistics of the moving interaction forces can be accurately identified from a set of samples of the random responses of the bridge deck. Numerical simulations are conducted in which the Gaussian assumption for the road surface roughness, the response statistics calculation and the stochastic force identification technique for the proposed bridge-vehicle interaction model are verified. Both the effect of the number of samples used and the effect of different road surface profiles on the accuracy of the proposed stochastic force identification algorithm are investigated. Results show that the Gaussian assumption for the road surface roughness is correct and the proposed algorithm is accurate and effective.     

野外土-水特征及其工程意义

为了研究非饱和土边坡的土-水特征，在香港某人工边坡坡顶1，2，3，4m等不同深度同时安装了含水量计及吸力计。根据土体体积含水量和吸力值的野外监测结果，得出了边坡坡顶土体不同深度的野外土-水特征曲线。同室内土-水特征曲线明显的滞后性相比，野外土-水特征曲线的滞后性可以忽略。野外土-水特征曲线滞后性可以忽略的原因可能是由于边坡坡顶土体在暴雨期间的非平衡效应或者是体积含水量和吸力在野外和在实验室内测定方法不同的缘故。此外，对野外土-水特征曲线的工程意义进行了探讨。     

Global instability of elliptical hollow section beam-columns under compression and biaxial bending

The global instability of elliptical hollow section members under combined compression plus biaxial bending is studied in this paper by means of laboratory testing and numerical simulations. A total of 9 beam-column tests were carried out under different combinations of compression and bending about both principal axes. The material properties of the tested sections were determined by means of tensile coupon tests. All tested elliptical hollow sections were EHS 150×75×5, and three nominal member lengths of 1 m, 2 m and 3 m were considered. Graphs of applied load versus mid-span bending moment, based on theoretical first and second order elastic considerations and the experimental second order inelastic response, are presented and described. Numerical models were initially validated against the experimental data using measured material and geometric properties, including imperfections. The models were subsequently employed in parametric studies to assess the influence of member slenderness and cross-sectional aspect ratio on the structural response. Finally, based on the experimental and numerical findings, design rules for hot-finished EHS beam-columns were assessed and statistically verified.