Assessment of future climate change impacts on hydrological behavior of Richmond River Catchment

This study evaluated the impacts of future climate change on the hydrological response of the Richmond River Catchment in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, using the conceptual rainfall-runoff modeling approach (the Hydrologiska Byrans Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) model). Daily observations of rainfall, temperature, and streamflow and long-term monthly mean potential evapotranspiration from the meteorological and hydrological stations within the catchment for the period of 1972–2014 were used to run, calibrate, and validate the HBV model prior to the streamflow prediction. Future climate signals of rainfall and temperature were extracted from a multi-model ensemble of seven global climate models (GCMs) of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) with three regional climate scenarios, A2, A1B, and B1. The calibrated HBV model was then forced with the ensemble mean of the downscaled daily rainfall and temperature to simulate daily future runoff at the catchment outlet for the early part (2016–2043), middle part (2044–2071), and late part (2072–2099) of the 21st century. All scenarios during the future periods present decreasing tendencies in the annual mean streamflow ranging between 1% and 24.3% as compared with the observed period. For the maximum and minimum flows, all scenarios during the early, middle, and late parts of the century revealed significant declining tendencies in the annual mean maximum and minimum streamflows, ranging between 30% and 44.4% relative to the observed period. These findings can assist the water managers and the community of the Richmond River Catchment in managing the usage of future water resources in a more sustainable way.     

Direct simulation of turbulent heat transfer in swept flow over a wire in a channel

We investigate heat transfer characteristics of a turbulent swept flow in a channel with a wire placed over one of its walls using direct numerical simulation. This geometry is a model of the flow through the wire-wrapped fuel pins, the heat exchanger, typical of many civil nuclear reactor designs. The swept flow configuration generates a recirculation bubble with net mean axial flow. A constant inward heat flux from the walls of the channel is applied. A key aspect of this flow is the presence of a high temperature region at the contact line between the wire and the channel wall, due to thermal confinement (stagnation). We analyze the variation of the temperature in the recirculation bubble at Reynolds number based on the bulk velocity along the wire-axis direction and the channel half height of 5400. Four cases are simulated with different flowrates transverse to the wire-axis direction. This configuration is topologically similar to backward-facing steps or slots with swept flow, except that the dominant flow is along the obstacle axis in the present study and the crossflow is smaller than the axial flow, i.e., the sweep angle is large. The temperature field is simulated at three different Prandtl numbers: 10^?2, 10^?1 and 1. The lower value of Prandtl number is characteristic of experimental high-temperature reactors that use a molten salt as coolant while the high value is typical of gas (or water vapor) heat exchangers. In addition, mean temperature, turbulence statistics, instantaneous wall temperature distribution and Nusselt number variation are investigated. The peak Nusselt number occurs close to the reattachment location, on the lee side of the wire, and is about 50–60% higher compared to the case without crossflow. The high temperature region follows the growth of the recirculation bubble which increases by about 65% from the lowest to highest amount of crossflow. Particular attention is devoted to the temperature distribution on the walls of the channel and the surface of the wire. The behavior of the heat-flux across the mean dividing streamline of the recirculation bubble is investigated to quantify the local heat transfer rates occurring in this region.     

A simplex search method for a conductive–convective fin with variable conductivity

An inverse problem is solved for simultaneously estimating the convection–conduction parameter and the variable thermal conductivity parameter in a conductive–convective fin with temperature dependent thermal conductivity. Initially, the temperature field is obtained from a direct method using an analytical approach based on decomposition scheme and then using a simplex search minimization algorithm an inverse problem is solved for estimating the unknowns. The objective function to be minimized is represented by the sum of square of the error between the measured temperature field and an initially guessed value which is updated in an iterative manner. The estimation accuracy is studied for the effect of measurement errors, initial guess and number of measurement points. It is observed that although very good estimation accuracy is possible with more number of measurement points, reasonably well estimation is obtained even with fewer number of measurement points without measurement error. Subject to selection of a proper initial guess, it is seen that the number of iterations could be significantly reduced. The relative sensitiveness of the estimated parameters is studied and is observed from the present work that the estimated convection–conduction parameter contributes more to the temperature distribution than the variable conductivity parameter.     

Thermoelastic study of a functionally graded annular fin with variable thermal parameters using semiexact solution

Abstract

In this paper, the thermoelastic behavior of a functionally graded material (FGM) annular fin is investigated. The material properties of the annular fin are assumed to vary radially. The heat transfer coefficient and internal heat generation are considered to be functions of temperature. A closed form solution of nonlinear heat transfer equation for the FGM fin is obtained using the homotopy perturbation method (HPM) which leads to nonuniform temperature distributions within the fin. The temperature field is then coupled with the classical theory of elasticity and the associated thermal stresses are derived analytically. For the correctness of the present closed form solution for the stress field, the results are compared with the ANSYS-based finite element method (FEM) solution. The present HPM-based closed form solution of the stress field exhibits a good agreement with the FEM results. The effect of various thermal parameters such as the thermogeometric parameter, conduction-radiation parameter, internal heat generation parameter, coefficient of variation of thermal conductivity, and the coefficient of thermal expansion on the thermal stresses are discussed. The results are presented in both nondimensional and dimensional form. The dimensional stress analysis discloses the suitability of FGM as the fin material in practical applications.     

FINITE-ELEMENT SIMULATION AND VALIDATION OF STEPWISE DRYING OF BANANAS

A two-dimensional finite-element formulation and solution of a set of transient coupled heat and diffusive moisture transfer equations is presented. The solution procedure developed uses an alpha family of approximation for stepping in time for the solution of the coupled set of equations applied to simulate the stepwise convective drying behavior of banana slices. The model tested was validated with experimental data from different sources for stepwise drying of banana using a heat pump dryer (HPD) as well as continuous batch drying in both Cartesian and cylindrical coordinate systems. The maximum deviation of moisture content between experimental and simulation results was 0.05% wet basis (% w.b.). Good agreement of the simulated results with experimental data for stepwise as well as continuous convective drying of banana samples indicates the validity of the procedure and its incorporation in the optimization of drying processes.     

Optimization of Heat Fluxes on the Heater and the Design Surfaces of a Radiating-Conducting Medium

In a radiating-conducting planar medium with a boundary as the heater surface using an inverse analysis, this work deals with the design methodologies to understand the inherent relationship between heater surface temperature/flux, design surface temperature/flux, and medium properties. The heat flux on the heater surface is chosen as the fitness function. Subsequently, to achieve maximum and minimum design surface heat fluxes, an optimization was done to evaluate the zone of operation of the heater. In addition, the effect of medium properties on the temperature-flux relationships on both surfaces has been studied. The distance between the two surfaces is also considered a parameter. The medium properties, the distance between the surfaces, and the heater surface temperature have been found to have a great impact on the design surface heat flux. The inverse mixed boundary problem has been solved using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), the finite-volume method (FVM), and the genetic algorithm (GA). Results of the present study provide a guideline towards the efficient design of a heater in which conduction and radiation are the dominant modes of heat transfer.     

Mineral element composition of spinach

An extensive study has been made on the mineral element compositions of spinach leaves and stems. Twenty two locally grown different spinach samples have been analysed for 16 elements using ICP and atomic absorption spectrophotometric techniques. Both spinach leaves and stems were analysed separately. A detailed elucidation of the inorganic matrix in spinach leaves and stems has been provided. © 1998 SCI.     

Mathematical modeling for greenhouse heating by using thermal curtain and geothermal energy

A thermal model has been developed for the heating of a greenhouse by using inner thermal curtain and natural flow of geothermal warm water through the polyethylene tube laid on its floor. The calculations were done for a typical production greenhouse with the climatic data in the central part of Argentina during winter period. From the energy conservations point of view, the greenhouse has been divided into three zones i.e., zone I (plants under thermal blanket), zone II (space under ceiling) and zone III (space between roof and ceiling). The model has been tested with the published experimental data of air temperatures in zone I and zone II of the greenhouse. From the results, it was observed that the temperatures of air surrounding the plant mass in zone I were maintained in the range of 14–23 °C during winter night and early morning resulting in the better growth of winter growing plants against the harmful freezing effects. The predicted values of air temperature both in zone I and zone II of the greenhouse obtained from the proposed model exhibited fair agreement with the published experimental values.     

Fault Ride-Through Capability Enhancement of VSC HVDC connected Offshore Wind Power Plants

To achieve active control of the AC voltage magnitude of wind power plant(WPP) collector network and improve the fault ride-through (FRT) capability,an FRT scheme based on feed forward DC voltage contr...     

Mobility activation in thermally deposited CdSe thin films

Effect of illumination on mobility has been studied from the photocurrent decay characteristics of thermally evaporated CdSe thin films deposited on suitably cleaned glass substrate held at elevated substrate temperatures. The study indicates that the mobilities of the carriers of different trap levels are activated due to the energy of incident illumination, which results in the existence of two distinct trap levels. In each trap depth the energy of the trap increases linearly. It infers that there is a linear distribution of traps of different energies below the conduction band.