Local acceptance of wind energy: Factors of success identified in French and German case studies

The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse factors that are important for winning acceptance of wind-energy parks on the local level. The developers of wind-energy parks need to know how to manage “social acceptance” at the different stages of planning, realisation and operation. Five case studies in France and Germany focused on factors of success in developing a wind-energy project on a given site and illuminated how policy frameworks influence local acceptance. Our hypothesis is that these factors fall into two categories: institutional conditions, such as economic incentives and regulations; and site-specific conditions (territorial factors), such as the local economy, the local geography, local actors, and the actual on-site planning process (project management).     

The mechanics of compressive kinking in unidirectional fiber reinforced ductile matrix composites

Three distinct stages of kink band formation and propagation exist in ductile matrix composites subjected to compressive loading. These stages are called incipient kinking, transient kinking and kink band broadening. Each stage involves a different deformation mode. The mechanics governing each stage are discussed. Incipient kinking, where the peak load is attained, and kink band broadening, where the load attains a steady-state, are important in structural design. Two design philosophies are presented. References to pertinent literature are made throughout.     

BRING PLANNING DOWN TO EARTH

Applying information systems strategic planning (ISSP) theory to a practical planning effort is not a straightforward endeavor, and the penalties of a misapplied planning exercise are high. IS managers do not need another conceptual framework for ISSP as much as they need a practical point of view on driving the planning effort to produce tangible, high-quality results.     

Preface

Multimedia Tools and Applications -     

The effect of cyclic stress on the physical properties of a poly(dimethylsiloxane) elastomer

The dynamic creep behavior of a filled poly(dimethylsiloxane) elastomer was studied under cyclic stress. The stress level was chosen such that the increase in the internal temperature was small and that microcracks were not observed. This work has demonstrated that cyclic stress in combination with high temperature accelerates the degradation of the elastomer. The results suggest that because of the applied force, breaks in the load-bearing chains of the network occur. These breaks, while relieving the mechanical stress, create highly reactive ionic fragments. It is believed that because of the subsequent reactions of the ionic fragments, changes in the specific gravity, storage modulus, effective crosslink density, and length of the sample (creep) are observed. The observed decrease in the storage modulus is thought to occur because of the reaction of the ionic fragments with moisture, which results in the formation of silanol chain ends that reduce the effective crosslink density. The results also show that contrary to the prediction of the Boltzmann's Superposition Principle, the rate of creep is greatly enhanced when the sample is subjected to a sinusoidally varying dynamic load as compared to a comparable static load. The polymer weight loss was found to be linear with time and strongly dependent on the level of applied dynamic and static force. In addition, the weight loss and rate of creep were also found to be strongly dependent upon temperature.     

The geometry effects for stress intensity factor of sandwich specimen for measuring interfacial fracture toughness

The interfacial stress intensity factors for three types of sandwich specimens: the single edge crack tensile specimen, the three point bend specimen and the four point shear specimen were obtained by the finite element analysis and compared with the asymptotic solutions. The results show that the geometric effect for mode II specimen is larger than mode I specimen. The limit curves for geometry factor equal to 1.05 were obtained to indicate the usable range of validity of the asymptotic solution.     

2-D dopant profiling in VLSI devices using dopant-selectiveetching: an atomic force microscopy study

We report a detailed mapping of a 2-D dopant profile on a fully processed industrial sample with large dynamic range and high spatial resolution by utilizing a dopant-selective etching process and Atomic Force Microscopy. The experimental results show excellent agreement with those obtained from SRP and SIMS as corroborative methods. We also discuss the most critical factors which influence the applicability, reproducibility, and reliability of this method