A comparative analysis for multiattribute selection among renewable energy alternatives using fuzzy axiomatic design and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process

Renewable energy is the energy generated from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat which are renewable. Energy resources are very important in perspective of economics and politics for all countries. Hence, the selection of the best alternative for any country takes an important role for energy investments. Among decision-making methodologies, axiomatic design (AD) and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) are often used in the literature. The fuzzy set theory is a powerful tool to treat the uncertainty in case of incomplete or vague information. In this paper, fuzzy multicriteria decision- making methodologies are suggested for the selection among renewable energy alternatives. The first methodology is based on the AHP which allows the evaluation scores from experts to be linguistic expressions, crisp, or fuzzy numbers, while the second is based on AD principles under fuzziness which evaluates the alternatives under objective or subjective criteria with respect to the functional requirements obtained from experts. The originality of the paper comes from the fuzzy AD application to the selection of the best renewable energy alternative and the comparison with fuzzy AHP. In the application of the proposed methodologies the most appropriate renewable energy alternative is determined for Turkey.     

Thermodynamic analysis of an existing coal-fired power plant for district heating/cooling application

In a conventional coal-fired power plant, which is only designed for electricity generation, 2/3 of fuel energy is wasted through stack gases and cooling water of condensers. This waste energy could be recovered by trigeneration; modifying the plants in order to meet district heating/cooling demand of their locations. In this paper, thermodynamical analysis of trigeneration conversion of a public coal-fired power plant, which is designed only for electricity generation, has been carried out. Waste heat potentials and other heat extraction capabilities have been evaluated. Best effective steam extraction point for district heating/cooling system; have been identified by conducting energetic and exergetic performance analyses. Analyses results revealed that the low-pressure turbine inlet stage is the most convenient point for steam extraction for the plant analyzed.     

CFRP Rehabilitation of Concrete Frame Joints with Inadequate Shear and Anchorage Details

The research presented in this study involves full-scale experimental evaluation of carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) rehabilitation for existing beam-column joints designed for gravity load with common pre-1970s deficient reinforcement details when subjected to cyclic loading. Numerous studies have demonstrated effectiveness of externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials for retrofitting the deteriorating RC structures. Although these materials are widely used in bridges, their applications in buildings have been somewhat limited. In particular, the experimental investigations on external FRP retrofit of deficient beam-column joints have not thoroughly been investigated and they are mainly on scaled-down specimens. The failure of these subassemblies, which possess lack of shear reinforcement within the joint core and shortly embedded positive beam reinforcement, would possibly result in catastrophic collapse of reinforced concrete frame structure during an earthquake event. Recognizing the urgent need to upgrade these structural subassemblies, the current investigation uses CFRP retrofit techniques to enhance the performance of such deficient joints. Experimental variables studied entail the developed CFRP retrofit configurations, and magnitude of the applied column axial load. Comparative analysis of the lateral loads versus drift hysteresis loops, stiffness degradation, and total dissipated energy curves of three as-built and three corresponding CFRP-retrofitted RC joints revealed that significant improvement in the shear capacity of the upgraded joints occurred. More importantly, the slippage of short embedded beam positive reinforcement into the joint was substantially controlled due to the developed CFRP retrofit. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of CFRP retrofit configurations in enhancing the structural performance of actual size connections.     

An effective wavelet-based feature extraction method for classification of power quality disturbance signals

This paper presents a wavelet norm entropy-based effective feature extraction method for power quality (PQ) disturbance classification problem. The disturbance classification schema is performed with wavelet-neural network (WNN). It performs a feature extraction and a classification algorithm composed of a wavelet feature extractor based on norm entropy and a classifier based on a multi-layer perceptron. The PQ signals used in this study are seven types. The performance of this classifier is evaluated by using total 2800 PQ disturbance signals which are generated the based model. The classification performance of different wavelet family for the proposed algorithm is tested. Sensitivity of WNN under different noise conditions which are different levels of noises with the signal to noise ratio is investigated. The rate of average correct classification is about 92.5% for the different PQ disturbance signals under noise conditions.     

Relationships between acute toxicities of para nitrophenol (p-NP) and nitrobenzene (NB) to Daphnia magna and Photobacterium phosphoreum: physicochemical properties and metabolites under anaerobic/aerobic sequentials

In this study, the acute toxicities of nitrobenzene (NB) and para nitrophenol (p-NP) were investigated in a high rate sequential anaerobic migrating blanket (AMBR)/aerobic completely stirred tank reactor (CSTR) using Microtox and Daphnia magna tests. After sequential anaerobic and aerobic treatments, the inhibitions in the Microtox bacteria decreased from an initial 78.10-48.20% and 4.00%, respectively, in wastewater containing 40.00 mg/L p-NP. The inhibitions of the influent wastewater containing 60.00 mg/L NB decreased from 72.10% to 45.30% and to 4.00% after anaerobic and aerobic treatment, respectively. The acute toxicity removals were 94% and 93% in the effluent of the whole sequential system, for p-NP and NB, respectively. The acute toxicity in the influent was dependent on the parent NB and p-NP concentrations and ons their physicochemical properties such as hydrophobicity, octanol/water partition coefficient and vapour density for both Microtox bacteria and Daphnia magna while the toxicity in the effluent of the anaerobic reactor was strongly dependent on the metabolites of p-NP (p-amino phenol, phenol, NH(4)-N) and NB (aniline) for Microtox test. This effluent was not toxic to Daphnia magna.     

Experimental investigation and analysis of a new photoelectrochemical reactor for hydrogen production

In this research paper, an experimental investigation of photoactive material titanium dioxide (TiO₂) coated on 180 cm² 316 stainless steel anode is undertaken to study the photoresponse on photoelectrochemical (PEC) hydrogen production. The TiO₂ nanoparticles are first prepared via sol-gel method. A large surface 316 stainless steel anode is coated with TiO₂ nanoparticles by a dip coating apparatus at a withdraw rate of 2.5 mm/s. The nanoparticles are carried on the stainless steel substrate by two-step annealing procedure. The potentiostatic studies confirm the photoactivity of TiO₂ nanoparticles in a photoelectrochemical reactor when exposed to solar ultraviolet (UV) light. The photon to current efficiency measurements carried out on the PEC reactor with TiO₂ coated large surface stainless steel as photoanode demonstrate a significant increase of photoresponse in UV light compared to the uncoated stainless steel prepared under similar conditions. Upon illumination at a power density of 600 W/m², the hydrogen production is observed in TiO₂ coated stainless steel substrate at a measured rate of 51 ml/h while no illumination conditions show a production rate of 42 ml/h. In comparative assessments, the TiO₂ coated substrate shows an increase in photocurrent of 10 mA with an energy efficiency of 1.32% and exergy efficiency of 3.42% at an applied potential of 1.6 V. The present results show a great potential for titanium nanoparticles semiconductor metal oxide in photoelectrochemical hydrogen production application.     

Signal level performance variation of radio frequency identification tags used in cow body

Ruminant diseases are strictly connected to pH and temperature values of the rumen. Therefore, the attenuation to dynamic measurement and tracking of both pH and temperature values through animal rumen has grown rapidly for decades. Reading performance of RFID tags depends on signal quality and signal level, and this can be understood by means of wave attenuation through tissue. In this article, attenuation through cow body is investigated for improving reading performance and battery life. Number of receiving antennas will be used in the system, their location and heights are critical for this aim. Signals from different points of animals' body are measured and compared with the signals spread just out of RFID tags. Equivalent dielectric constants of tissue between RFID tag and receiving antenna is modeled by using literature data, and finally simulation and analytical results are verified by measurement results. Measured value of attenuation through the cow body is varying between 25 dB and 87 dB for RFID tags operating at 434 MHz. Within the 30 m radius, the strongest signal is obtained at 50 cm height and taken from the left side of the animal body, which is offered as optimum communication position.     

Pros and cons of the new financial support policy for Turkish researchers

Scientometrics - In 2015, a new ex-post incentive policy was introduced in Turkey to increase the academic productivity of researchers. This convergent parallel design study aims to find an answer...