Geothermal electric power in Iceland: Development in perspective

Geothermal energy is extensively used in thermal (direct) applications in Iceland. More than 70% of the total population enjoy geothermal district heating. Hydro-power provides most of the electricity generated in Iceland, with less than 10% of the potential harnessed. Iceland is well endowed with both geothermal (high- and low-temperature) and hydro-power resources. At the end of 1980, the installed geothermal power in Iceland was 818 MW₁ in direct applications and 41 MW_e in electric power generation. This exploitation represents a few percent of the estimated geothermal resources of Iceland. Plans to develop geothermal electric power in Iceland date back to the early 1960s. The first geothermal electric power plant (3 MW_e) was installed in 1969. In recent years, several small-scale (two 1 MW_e and one 6 MW_e) geothermal power units have been installed in a cogeneration plant for district heating purposes. There is one major (30 MW_e) geothermal electric power plant in Iceland, which became operational in 1978. Hydro-power, geothermal energy and oil provide consumers in Iceland with about 18, 38, and 44% of their energy needs, respectively.     

A simple model of hadron calorimeters

A simple model of hadron calorimeter response is examined. It is found that not only must a hadron calorimeter be compensated in order to achieve linearity, but also that the intrinsic hadron and electromagnetic resolutions must be equal if the calorimeter resolution is to be independent of energy and have a Gaussian distribution.     

Key elements of and material performance targets for highly insulating window frames

The thermal performance of windows is important for energy efficient buildings. Windows typically account for about 30-50 percent of the transmission losses though the building envelope, even if their area fraction of the envelope is far less. The reason for this can be found by comparing the thermal transmittance (U-factor) of windows to the U-factor of their opaque counterparts (wall, roof and floor constructions). In well insulated buildings the U-factor of walls, roofs and floors can be between 0.1 and 0.2 W/(m² K). The best windows have U-factors of about 0.7-1.0. It is therefore obvious that the U-factor of windows needs to be reduced, even though looking at the whole energy balance for windows (i.e., solar gains minus transmission losses) makes the picture more complex.In high performance windows the frame design and material use are of utmost importance, as the frame performance is usually the limiting factor for reducing the total window U-factor further. This paper describes simulation studies analyzing the effects on frame and edge-of-glass U-factors of different surface emissivities as well as frame material and spacer conductivities. The goal of this work is to define material research targets for window frame components that will result in better frame thermal performance than is exhibited by the best products available on the market today.     

TORNADO: a DBMS for CAD/CAM systems

TORNADO is a database management system developed for CAD/CAM application systems. It is a CODASYL-type network system written in FORTRAN, with a very powerful tool for handling complex data structures.There are no restrictions on combinations of object classes and relationships, and it directly handles many-to-many relationships and compound object classes. TORNADO also handles variable object length and dynamic length table records. A second paper will discuss the implementation details.     

The assessment of health damage caused by air pollution and its implication for policy making in Taiyuan,Shanxi, China

We establish the link between energy use, air pollution, and public health impacts in Taiyuan for 2000, and for 2010 and 2015 under alternative scenarios. We find that in year 2000 more than 2200 excess deaths may have been caused by particulate matter (PM) pollution. Using alternative methods for monetization of health impacts the total health damage amounts to 0.8–1.7 billion Yuan, which is 2.4–4.9% of the city's GDP in 2000. Compared to the business-as-usual scenario, scenarios assuming extensive fuel switch in low-and-medium-stack pollution sources and extension of the district heating system could prevent 200–1100 PM₁₀-related premature deaths in 2010 and substantially reduce population morbidity. The actual PM pollution in 2007 was lower than modeled in these two scenarios. We also find that if air quality in urban Taiyuan were to reach the Chinese National Grade II Standard in 2015, the number of premature deaths would still be around 1330 and the economic cost about 1–2% of the city's GDP in 2015. Our results imply that there are large health benefits to be gained by setting stricter standards for the future in China, and that targeting low-and-medium-stack source effectively reduces health damage.     

Comparison of geophysical methods for sub-surface mapping of faults and fracture zones in a section of the Viggja road tunnel, Norway

Results from site investigations, 2D resistivity, refraction seismic and VLF on a section of tunnel near Trondheim, show that 2D resistivity data are most valuable for interpreting geological structures in the sub-surface. VLF only identifies zones and does not indicate thickness, width or dip direction. The method is also sensitive to technical installations. Refraction seismic is valuable for mapping depth to bedrock, location and width of fracture zones but cannot indicate the depth or dip direction of such zones. With 2D resistivity, the position of a zone is well identified. This method may also provide information on the depth and width of the zone as well as the dip direction. In most cases 2D resistivity clearly identifies zones in the bedrock that can be observed as fault and/or fracture zones in the tunnel. The results described in this paper show a good correlation between the resistivity profiles, mapped structures on the surface and mapped zones in the tunnel.     

Pros and cons of route optimization schemes for network mobility and their implications on handovers

No one can deny the importance of mobility in modern communication networks, and the Internet is no exception. The internet engineering taskforce (IETF) has introduced the network mobility (NEMO) protocol to support a moving network. NEMO solves many problems of mobile internet protocol to support a moving group of users but introduces some problems of its own such as suboptimal routing and multiple levels of encapsulation. These problems occur because the NEMO basic support protocol does not support route optimization and nested mobile networks. Many solutions have been proposed in the literature to solve these problems. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of those solutions and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. We also outline the effect of these solutions on handovers, and a summary is provided in the form of a table at the end. In this paper, we back up our earlier work with a comprehensive discussion of the protocols included. © 2012 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Human–machine function allocation: a functional modelling approach

Function allocation between humans and systems is an important factor regarding safety, reliability and efficiency of industrial processes. One should allocate functions in order to maximise the operator's situation understanding and ability to handle unexpected events. Functional models can be used to study function allocation in a process control environment, because they explicitly describe functions and tasks of both the plant and the operator. The Halden Reactor Project is currently engaged in such a project called function allocation methods (FAME), aimed specifically at the work in a nuclear power plant control room. This paper describes the main features of the approach, and discusses how functional modelling can be used to address the issue of how much information is necessary for the operator, and thereby give a basis for how functions should be allocated.     

Anodising as pre-treatment before organic coating of extruded and cast aluminium alloys

Anodising has been investigated as a replacement for chromating as pre-treatment prior to organic coating of aluminium. Both AC and DC anodising gave filiform corrosion properties that were comparable to chromated samples. A correlation between filiform corrosion performance and cathodic properties of converted surface was found. Chromating and hot AC anodising gave significant reduction in cathodic current density. The reduction is due to chromium oxide covering intermetallic particles after chromating, while iron rich intermetallics normally acting as cathodic sites were removed by hot AC anodising.     

In vivo MRS of locally advanced breast cancer: characteristics related to negative or positive choline detection and early monitoring of treatment response

Object  

To explore factors determining the detection of total choline (tCho) by in vivo MR spectroscopy (MRS) in locally advanced breast cancer and to evaluate the ability of in vivo tCho to predict treatment response after one cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).