Energies, Volume 13, Issue 4 (February-2 2020) – 241 articles

To better address the safety issues of a lithium-ion battery, understanding of its internal shorting process is necessary. In this study, three-dimensional (3D) thermal modeling of a 20 Ah lithium-ion polymer battery under an internal shorting process is performed. The electrochemical thermal coupling scheme is considered, and a multi-scale modeling approach is employed. An equivalent circuit model is used for characterizing the subscale electrochemical behaviors. Then, at the cell scale, the electrical potential field and thermal field are resolved. For modeling the internal shorting process, a block of an internal short is directly planted inside the lithium-ion battery. Insights of the temperature evolutions and 3D temperature distributions are drawn from the simulations. The effects of shorting resistance, through-plane thermal conductivity, and mini-channel cold-plate cooling are investigated with the simulations. A large amount of heat generation by a small shorting resistance and highly localized temperature rise are the fundamental thermal features associated with the internal shorting process. The through-plane thermal conductivity plays an important role in the maximum temperature evolutions inside the battery cell, while the external cooling condition has a relatively weak effect. But the cold plate cooling can benefit lithium-ion battery safety by limiting the high temperature area in the internal shorting process through heat spreading. Full article

In recent years, ultralow-frequency oscillation has repeatedly occurred in asynchronously connected regional power systems and brought serious threats to the operation of power grids. This phenomenon is mainly caused by hydropower units because of the water hammer effect of turbines and the inappropriate Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) parameters of governors. In practice, hydropower and solar power are often combined to form an integrated photovoltaic (PV)-hydro system to realize complementary renewable power generation. This paper studies ultralow-frequency oscillations in integrated PV-hydro systems and analyzes the impacts of PV generation on ultralow-frequency oscillation modes. Firstly, the negative damping problem of hydro turbines and governors in the ultralow-frequency band was analyzed through the damping torque analysis. Subsequently, in order to analyze the impact of PV generation, a small-signal dynamic model of the integrated PV-hydro system was established, considering a detailed dynamic model of PV generation. Based on the small-signal dynamic model, a two-zone and four-machine system and an actual integrated PV-hydro system were selected to analyze the influence of PV generation on ultralow-frequency oscillation modes under different scenarios of PV output powers and locations. The analysis results showed that PV dynamics do not participate in ultralow-frequency oscillation modes and the changes of PV generation to power flows do not cause obvious changes in ultralow-frequency oscillation mode. Ultra-low frequency oscillations are mainly affected by sources participating in the frequency adjustment of systems. Full article

The unbalanced distribution of resource and consuming centers in China has prompted the AC/DC hybrid transmission technology. The maintenance scheduling of an AC/DC hybrid transmission network is the key technology to ensure its safety and reliability. In this study, the mutual influence mechanism of an AC/DC system in a maintenance period was analyzed in detail. The overhead transmission line and transformer are key equipment within an AC/DC hybrid transmission network, and an optimization model of the key equipment maintenance scheduling was established. The objective of the model was to improve the system reliability during the maintenance scheduling. By considering the constraints of maintenance cost, maintenance resources, and maintenance workload, the maintenance scheduling of overhead transmission lines and transformer branches was obtained. The over-limit situation of power flow and the weakness of the system during the maintenance period was evaluated. The “double-layer substitution method” was adopted to convert the nonlinear constraints into its bilinear formulation such that it could then be solved. The random number sampling method was used to quantify the system reliability, and the commercial optimization software was used to solve the optimized scheduling. Based on the improved IEEE RTS-79 system and the Hubei Province electrical system, the simulation results showed the effectiveness of the proposed method. Full article

An electrochemical-thermal coupling model combined with an electrically connected cylindrical cell model was built to produce a structural design that prevents thermal runaway propagation of cells on the battery module. Additionally, the characteristics of different modes of heat transfer of each cell during thermal runaway propagation of the battery module in an open environment were studied by changing the spacing of adjacent cells, the solder joint area, and the cross-sectional area of the electrode tab. Heat conduction is usually the main heat transfer mode for cells directly connected to the thermal runaway cell, while radiation heat transfer is the main heat exchange mode for cells that are not directly connected to thermal runaway cell. Increasing spacing can prevent thermal runaway propagation by the three heat transfer modes. Similarly, a smaller total solder joint area and cross-sectional area of the electrode tab can inhibit thermal runaway propagation through heat conduction transfer modes if conditions permit. Full article

In determining the severity of power transformer faults, several approaches have been previously proposed; however, most published studies do not accommodate gas level, gas rate, and Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) interpretation in a single approach. To increase the reliability of the faults’ severity assessment of power transformers, a novel approach in the form of fuzzy logic has been proposed as a new solution to determine faults’ severity using the combination of gas level, gas rate, and DGA interpretation from the Duval Pentagon Method (DPM). A four-level typical concentration and rate were established based on the local population. To simplify the assessment of hundreds of power transformer data, a Support Vector Machine (SVM)-based DPM with high agreements to the graphical DPM has been developed. The proposed approach has been implemented to 448 power transformers and further implementation was done to evaluate faults’ severity of power transformers from historical DGA data. This new approach yields in high agreement with the previous methods, but with better sensitivity due to the incorporation of gas level, gas rate, and DGA interpretation results in one approach. Full article

Wireless power transfer systems are increasingly used as a means of charging implantable medical devices. However, the heat or thermal radiation from the wireless power transfer system can be harmful to biological tissue. In this research, we designed and implemented a wireless power transfer system-based implantable medical device with low thermal radiation, achieving 44.5% coil-to-coil efficiency. To suppress thermal radiation from the transmitting coil during charging, we minimized the ESR value of the transmitting coil. To increase power transfer efficiency, a ferrite film was applied on the receiving part. Based on analyses, we fabricated a cardiac monitoring system with dimensions of 17 × 24 × 8 mm³ and implanted it in a rat. We confirmed that the temperature of the wireless charging device increased by only 2 °C during the 70 min charging, which makes it safe enough to use as an implantable medical device charging system. Full article

To perform the fault protection for the microgrid in grid-connected mode, the wavelet energy fuzzy neural network-based technique (WEFNNBT) is proposed in this paper. Through the accurate activation of protective relay, the microgrid can be effectively isolated from the utility power system to prevent serious voltage fluctuation when the power quality of power system is disturbed. The proposed WEFNNBT can be divided into three stages—feature extraction (FE), feature condensation (FC), and disturbance identification (DI). In the FE stage, the feature of power signal at the point of common coupling (PCC) between microgrid and utility power system would be extracted with discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Then, the wavelet energy and variation of singular power signal can be obtained according to Parseval Theorem. To determine the dominant wavelet energy and enhance the robustness to the noise, the feature information is integrated in the FC stage. The feature information then would be processed in the DI stage to perform the fault identification and activate the protective relay if necessary. From the experimental results, it is realized that the proposed WEFNNBT can effectively perform the fault protection of microgrid. Full article

This paper presents the results of analysis of energy and economic efficiency of the hierarchical gas-gas engine, with a note that a trigeneration system was analyzed, in which the production of electricity, heat and cold are combined. This solution significantly increases the energy efficiency of the gas and gas system compared to a system without cold production. The analysis includes a system comprising a compressor chiller which is driven by an electric motor in the system, as well as a system applying the mechanical work that is carried out via a rotating shaft of rotor-based machines, i.e., a gas turbine and a turboexpander. The comfort of the regulation of the refrigerating power rather promotes the use of a solution including an electric motor. Analysis contains also a schematic diagram of the system with a absorption chiller, which is driven by low-temperature enthalpy of exhaust gases extracted from a hierarchical gas-gas engine. Application of turboexpander with heat regeneration in the trigeneration system is also analyzed. Based on the multi-variant economic and thermodynamic calculations, the most favorable system variant was determined using, among others, the specific cost of cold production. Full article

Performance assessment of a two-bed silica gel-water adsorption refrigeration system driven by solar thermal energy is carried out under a climatic condition typical of Perth, Australia. A Fourier series is used to simulate solar radiation based on the actual data obtained from Meteonorm software, version 7.0 for Perth, Australia. Two economic methodologies, Payback Period and Life-Cycle Saving are used to evaluate the system economics and optimize the need for solar collector areas. The analysis showed that the order of Fourier series did not have a significant impact on the simulation radiation data and a three-order Fourier series was good enough to approximate the actual solar radiation. For a typical summer day, the average cooling capacity of the chiller at peak hour (13:00) is around 11 kW while the cyclic chiller system coefficient of performance (COP) and solar system COP are around 0.5 and 0.3, respectively. The economic analysis showed that the payback period for the solar adsorption system studied was about 11 years and the optimal solar collector area was around 38 m² if a compound parabolic collector (CPC) panel was used. The study indicated that the utilization of the solar-driven adsorption cooling is economically and technically viable for weather conditions like those in Perth, Australia. Full article

The utilization rate of permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) is increasing in the industry today. Due to this fact, the high efficiency ratio of PMSMs has reached IE5 premium class efficiency. Therefore, the efficiency coefficient of the PMSM varies from 92% to 97%. As a result, this type of motor is replacing traditional asynchronous motor by falling into efficiency classes of IE1, IE2, IE3, and IE4, which range from 75% to 92% in the industry. Thus, the object of the research was to develop a method to determine the efficiency of permanent magnet synchronous motor applications in order to identify and verify the variating parameters. In this study, an innovative and safe method of PMSM testing when the nominal parameters of the motor are unknown was presented through research. Also, the comparison of PMSM oscillograms with different types of load types and phase shift oscillograms, generated using operation amplifier, were analyzed and is scrutinized. During the design process, the PMSM was projected for the IE5 premium efficiency class. However, after production, the PMSM sometimes does not match the nameplate parameters, which are declared by the factory. As a result, during the testing procedures, the PMSM nameplate parameters did not match the projected parameters. Facing the problem of the projected and tested efficiency mismatch, the PMSM highest efficiency determination experiments were performed in a laboratory in order to prove the highest efficiency of the PMSM. The results showed different PMSM input parameters. Furthermore, the experimental results of the PMSM testing were confirmed with electrical machines theory, and simulation results were performed with electrical circuits. The theory of PMSM operating in different values of input voltage is represented in graphical abstract. Full article

Recycled polylactic acid (PLAr) was reinforced with treated nanocellulosic hemp fibers for biocomposite fabrication. Cellulosic fibers were extracted from hemp fibers chemically and treated enzymatically. Treated nanocellulosic fibers (NCF) were analyzed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. Biocomposite fabrication was done with PLAr and three concentrations of treated NCF (0.1%, 0.25%, and 1% (v/v)) and then studied for thermal stability and mechanical properties. Increased thermal stability was observed with increasing NCF concentrations. The highest value for Young’s modulus was for PLAr + 0.25% (v/v) NCF (250.28 ± 5.47 MPa), which was significantly increased compared to PLAr (p = 0.022). There was a significant decrease in the tensile stress at break point for PLAr + 0.25% (v/v) NCF and PLAr + 1% (v/v) NCF as compared to control (p = 0.006 and 0.002, respectively). No significant difference was observed between treatments for tensile stress at yield. Full article

Furfural is a platform molecule obtained from hemicellulose. Among the products that can be produced from furfural, furfuryl alcohol is one of the most extensively studied. It is synthesized at an industrial scale in the presence of CuCr catalyst, but this process suffers from an environmental negative impact. Here, we demonstrate that a non-noble metal catalyst (Co/SiO₂) was active (100% conversion of furfural) and selective (100% selectivity to furfuryl alcohol) in the hydrogenation of furfural to furfuryl alcohol at 150 °C under 20 bar of hydrogen. This catalyst was recyclable up to 3 cycles, and then the activity decreased. Thus, a comparison between batch and continuous flow reactors shows that changing the reactor type helps to increase the stability of the catalyst and the space-time yield. This study shows that using a continuous flow reactor can be a solution to the catalyst suffering from a lack of stability in the batch process. Full article

The temperature distribution and thermal efficiency of a molten salt cavity receiver are investigated by a nonuniform heat transfer model based on thermal resistance analysis. For the cavity receiver MSEE in Sandia National Laboratories, thermal efficiency in this experiment is about 87.5%, and the calculation value of 86.93–87.79% by a present nonuniform model fits very well with the experimental result. Different from the uniform heat transfer model, the receiver surface temperature in the nonuniform heat transfer model is remarkably higher than the backwall temperature. The incident radiation flux plays a primary role in thermal performance of cavity receiver, and thermal efficiency approaches to maximum under optimal incident radiation flux. In order to increase thermal efficiency, various methods are proposed and studied, including heat convection enhancement by an increase of flow velocity or the decrease of the tube diameter and number of tubes in the panel, and heat loss decline by a decrease of view factor, surface emissivity and insulation conductivity. According to calculation results by different modes of the nonuniform heat transfer model, the thermal efficiency of the cavity receiver is reduced by nonuniform heat transfer caused by variable fluid temperature or variable circumferential temperature, so thermal efficiency calculated by variable fluid temperature and variable circumferential temperature is lower than that calculated by average fluid temperature and bilateral uniform circumferential temperature for 0.86%. Full article

Climate warming nowadays has caused people to increasingly enhance public awareness about carbon emissions from industries. In the storing industry, inventory management for deteriorating items is crucial in the business competition. To slow down the deterioration and ensure the quality of products, the items are usually stored in certain temperature-controlled environment. However, a lot of carbon emissions of the inventory system are caused by these warehousing activities. In a finite panning period, this paper studies a continuous review inventory system and proposes inventory models to analyze the impacts of carbon emissions on inventory system for deteriorating items with a general time-varying demand, in which shortages are allowed, and the customer demand during shortage period is partially backlogged till the next replenishment. Under carbon emission regulations, the existence and uniqueness of the optimal solution to each model is explored and comparisons of optimality among the proposed models are given. Numerical examples and robust analysis of the models are presented to illustrate the applicability in practice. Some management insights about inventory policies and emission reduction strategies are obtained. Full article

The main purpose of this paper is to quantitatively analyze the sensitivity of operating parameters of the system to the thermodynamic performance of an oxyfuel combustion (OC) power generation system. Therefore, the thermodynamic model of a 600 MW subcritical OC power generation system with semi-dry flue gas recirculation was established. Two energy consumption indexes of the system were selected, process simulation was adopted, and orthogonal design, range analysis, and variance analysis were used for the first time on the basis of single-factor analysis to conduct a comprehensive sensitivity analysis and optimization research on the changes of four operating parameters. The results show that with increasing oxygen purity, the net standard coal consumption rate first decreases and then increases. With decreasing oxygen concentration, the recirculation rate of dry flue gas in boiler flue gas ( ${\chi }_1$ ) and an increasing excess oxygen coefficient, the net standard coal consumption rate increases. The net electrical efficiency was just the opposite. The sensitivity order of two factors for four indexes is obtained: the excess oxygen coefficient was the main factor that affects the net standard coal consumption rate and the net electrical efficiency. The influence of oxygen concentration and oxygen purity was lower than that of excess oxygen coefficient, and ${\chi }_1$ has almost no effect. Full article

Enhancements in heat transfer, and consequently the thermohydraulic performance of solar air heaters (SAHs), are necessary to widen and optimize their use in many applications such as solar drying or heating buildings. In this investigation, two techniques were used. A novel solar selective coating combined with broken arc ribs roughness was employed with a SAH and the evaluation of the energetic and exergetic performance was applied under four airflow working conditions compared to a smooth absorber SAH coated with the same coating. The results revealed that the Nusselt number of roughened SAH with the new coating exhibited a notable improvement compared to a smooth absorber SAH and a roughened SAH without a coating. Furthermore, the thermal efficiency increased with the increase in the air flow rate and the maximum rise was 18.8% compared to a smooth SAH. The highest increase in exergy was 51.6% with minimum values of exergy destruction and improvement potentials. In brief, the roughened SAH with 4% CNTs/CuO-black paint under the airflow rate of 0.0244 m³/s (condition C) exhibited the best energetic and exergetic performance. Full article

The paper describes the sensitivity analysis of a wireless power transfer link involving an implanted antenna within the surrounding biological environment. The approach combines a 3D electromagnetic modeling and a surrogate model (based polynomial chaos expansion). The analysis takes into account geometrical parameters of the implanted antenna and physical properties of the biological tissue. It allows researchers to identify at low cost the main parameters affecting the efficiency of the transmission link. Full article

In view of the characteristics of the high content of SO₄²⁻, Fe²⁺ and Mn²⁺ in acid mine drainage (AMD) and low pH value, based on adsorption and biological methods, coal gangue was combined with sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB). On this basis, four dynamic columns, including Column 1 (SRB combined with spontaneous combustion gangue from the Gaode coal mine), Column 2 (SRB combined with spontaneous combustion gangue from Haizhou), Column 3 (SRB combined with gangue from Haizhou), and Column 4 (SRB combined with gangue from Shanxi), were constructed. The efficacy of four columns was compared by the inflow of AMD with different pollution load. Results showed that the repair effect of four columns was: Column 3 > Column 2 > Column 1 > Column 4. In the second stage of the experiment, the repair effect of Column 3 was the best. The average effluent pH value and oxidation reduction potential (ORP) value were 9.09 and –262.83 mV, the highest removal percentages of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and SO₄²⁻ were 84.41% and 72.73%, and the average removal percentages of Fe²⁺, Mn²⁺ were 98.70% and 79.97%, respectively. At the end of the experiment, when deionized water was injected, the fixed effect of AMD in the four columns was stable and no secondary release appeared. Full article

Many oil fields are full of wind energy. At present, wind power generation technology has catered to oil fields. A larger wind turbine is used to supply power to several pumping units. As a result of the structural characteristics of the pumping unit, the efficiency of the electromotor is very low, which leads to a reduction in the utilization rate of wind energy. At the same time, considering the high cost of large wind turbines, the energy saving effect is not obvious in practical applications. This paper proposes an energy supply model of a pumping unit driven by a small wind turbine and a new wind-motor hybrid structure. Instead of wind power generation technology, wind energy drives the pumping unit directly via a mechanical–hydraulic transmission system. This new mechanical-hydraulic system can optimize the power confluence of wind and electric power. To enhance the efficiency of the motor, a mathematical model and a test station were established. The correctness of the energy conservation method and the mathematical model was verified, and the performance of the wind-motor system was studied. Full article

This study introduces a new framework to quantify the wettability of powdered carbonate rock from existing correlations between zeta potential and contact angle. The new framework has the potential to be faster and cheaper than conventional approaches and could increase confidence in surface wetting quantification, since the results are insensitive to the inherent heterogeneity of rock surfaces. The obtained results from experiments were used to develop a set of equations for determining the carbonate rock contact angle from streaming potential data. The equations were validated for the evaluation of changes in the wettability of carbonate rock using different stearic acid oily solutions. The contact angles calculated from the proposed equations were then compared with measured values on the calcite surface. The results show that the proposed framework was able to quantify the wettability of carbonate rock with an acceptable range of error of about 4%–14%. Full article

In load rejection transitional processes in pumped-storage plants (PSPs), the process of closing pump turbines, including guide vane (GVCS) and ball valve closing schemes (BVCS), is crucial for controlling pulsating pressures and water hammer. Extreme pressures generated during the load rejection process may result in fatigue damage to turbines, and cracks or even bursts in the penstocks. In this study, the closing schemes for pump turbine guide vanes and ball valves are optimized to minimize water hammer and pulsating pressures. A model is first developed to simulate water hammer pressures and to estimate pulsating pressures at the spiral case and draft tube of a pump turbine. This is combined with genetic algorithms (GA) or non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) to realize single- or multi-objective optimizations. To increase the applicability of the optimized result to different scenarios, the optimization model is further extended by considering two different load-rejection scenarios: full load-rejection of one pump versus two pump turbines, simultaneously. The fuzzy membership degree method provides the best compromise solution for the attained Pareto solutions set in the multi-objective optimization. Employing these optimization models, robust closing schemes can be developed for guide vanes and ball valves under various design requirements. Full article

Climate change will require societal-scale infrastructural changes. Balancing priorities for water, energy, and climate will demand that approaches to water and energy management deviate from historical practice. Infrastructure designed to mitigate environmental harm, particularly related to climate change, is likely to become increasingly prevalent. Understanding the implications of such infrastructure for environmental quality is thus of interest. Environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) is a common sustainability assessment tool that aims to quantify the total, multicriteria environmental impact caused by a functional unit. Notably, however, LCA quantifies impacts in the form of environmental “costs” of delivering the functional unit. In the case of mitigation infrastructures, LCA results can be confusing because they are generally reported as the harmful impacts of performing mitigation rather than as net impacts that incorporate benefits of successful mitigation. This paper argues for defining mitigation LCA as a subtype of LCA to facilitate better understanding of results and consistency across studies. Our recommendations are informed by existing LCA literature on mitigation infrastructure, focused particularly on stormwater and carbon management. We specifically recommend that analysts: (1) use a performance-based functional unit; (2) be attentive to burden shifting; and (3) assess and define uncertainty, especially related to mitigation performance. Full article

The article suggests and supports a simulation-based methodology for determining whether the dynamic strength of tire inflation restraining devices for tire inflation meet quality requirements and ensure operator safety during a potential tire explosion. Dynamic strength tests using an NM-600 safety shield and NK-0728 safety cage during a 29.5 R25X tire explosion at a pressure of 10 bar were presented as an example application of this methodology. The shield was subjected to destructive tests involving the use of a 2200 kg impactor, dropping it so that the minimum kinetic energy reached 20 kJ at the time of impact. Analyzed devices were constructed of S355 steel in accordance with EN 10025. The Cowper–Symonds model of material for strain rate phenomena was used in the calculations. Simulations of a 20 kJ ring impact against the cage were performed. The equivalent stress distribution was determined, and displacement contour lines for the maximum dynamic deformation value and plastic deformation were calculated. The plastic displacement obtained in numerical tests was equal to the permanent deformation recorded in the experimental test. Further, the simulations showed that the examined cage met the assumed strength criteria. The conducted tests confirmed the usefulness of the proposed methodology for assessing the dynamic strength of safety cages and shields for tire inflation. The full-scale, physical cage testing is difficult to implement because it requires placing a ring impacting the cage wall. This is a major boundary for closed cages, as considered in this publication. Thus, simulation-based methods are becoming a principal tool for safety assessment of tire inflation restraining devices. Full article

The direct injection of natural gas (NG), which is an important research direction in the development of NG engines, has the potential to improve thermal efficiency and emissions. When NG engines operate in low-load conditions, combustion efficiency decreases and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions increase due to lean fuel mixtures and slow flame propagation speeds. The effect of two combustion modes (partially premixed compression ignition (PPCI) and high pressure direct injection (HPDI)) on combustion processes was investigated by CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), with a focus on different injection strategies. In the PPCI combustion mode, NG was injected early in the compression stroke and premixed with air, and then the pilot diesel was injected to cause ignition near the top dead center. This combustion mode produced a faster heat release rate, but the HC emissions were higher, and the combustion efficiency was lower. In the HPDI combustion mode, the diesel was injected first and ignited, and then the NG was injected into the flame. This combustion mode resulted in higher emissions of NO_x and soot, with a diffusion combustion in the cylinder. HC emissions significantly decreased. Compared with PPCI combustion, HPDI had a higher thermal efficiency. Full article

The main objective of this study was to develop the supercritical heat transfer correlation applicable for organic fluids when flowing upward in smooth tubes based on the available experimental data. The organic fluids contain R-22, R-134a, R-245fa and Ethanol and the associated heat transfer characteristics were compared with non-organic fluids like water and carbon-dioxide (CO₂). It was found that the limit heat flux may result in heat transfer deterioration (HTD) of organic fluid and the corresponding values are much smaller than water or CO₂. A new criterion to predict the HTD was developed and this criterion yields the best predictive ability against database. It was found that HTD occurs can be well described by the acceleration parameter evaluated at the wall condition rather than at bulk condition. For estimation of the supercritical heat transfer coefficient (HTC) for organic fluid, the present study proposes a new correlation with a physically based correction factor, which gives satisfactory predictions against the HTC of supercritical organic fluid. The new correlation can offer the smallest average deviation of 0.007 and standard deviation of 0.181 among the existing correlations. Full article

The growing share of renewable energy makes the optimization of power flows in power system models computationally more complicated, due to the widely distributed weather-dependent electricity generation. This article evaluates two methods to reduce the temporal complexity of a power transmission grid model with storage expansion planning. The goal of the reduction techniques is to accelerate the computation of the linear optimal power flow of the grid model. This is achieved by choosing a small number of representative time periods to represent one whole year. To select representative time periods, a hierarchical clustering is used to aggregate either adjacent hours chronologically or independently distributed coupling days into clusters of time series. The aggregation efficiency is evaluated by means of the error of the objective value and the computational time reduction. Further, both the influence of the network size and the efficiency of parallel computation in the optimization process are analysed. As a test case, the transmission grid of the northernmost German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein with a scenario corresponding to the year 2035 is considered. The considered scenario is characterized by a high share of installed renewables. Full article

Detailed insight into electrochemical reaction mechanisms and rate limiting steps is crucial for targeted optimization of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) electrodes, especially for new materials and processing techniques, such as Ni/Gd-doped ceria (GDC) cermet anodes in metal-supported cells. Here, we present a comprehensive model that describes the impedance of porous cermet electrodes according to a transmission line circuit. We exemplify the validity of the model on electrolyte-supported symmetrical model cells with two equal Ni/Ce_0.9Gd_0.1O_1.95-δ anodes. These anodes exhibit a remarkably low polarization resistance of less than 0.1 Ωcm² at 750 °C and OCV, and metal-supported cells with equally prepared anodes achieve excellent power density of >2 W/cm² at 700 °C. With the transmission line impedance model, it is possible to separate and quantify the individual contributions to the polarization resistance, such as oxygen ion transport across the YSZ-GDC interface, ionic conductivity within the porous anode, oxygen exchange at the GDC surface and gas phase diffusion. Furthermore, we show that the fitted parameters consistently scale with variation of electrode geometry, temperature and atmosphere. Since the fitted parameters are representative for materials properties, we can also relate our results to model studies on the ion conductivity, oxygen stoichiometry and surface catalytic properties of Gd-doped ceria and obtain very good quantitative agreement. With this detailed insight into reaction mechanisms, we can explain the excellent performance of the anode as a combination of materials properties of GDC and the unusual microstructure that is a consequence of the reductive sintering procedure, which is required for anodes in metal-supported cells. Full article

In recent years, the assessment of desirable renewable energy alternative has been an extremely important concern that could change the environment and economic growth. To tackle the circumstances, some authors have paid attention to selecting the desirable renewable energy option by employing the decision-making assessment and linguistic term sets. With a fast-growing interest in multi-criteria group decision-making (MCGDM) problems, researchers are tirelessly working towards new techniques for better decision-making. Decision makers (DMs) generally rate alternatives linguistically with different probabilities occurring for each term. Previous studies on linguistic decision-making have either ignored this idea or have used an only a single value for representing the weight of the linguistic term. Since expression of the complete probability distribution is hard and implicit hesitation exists, representation of weights of the linguistic terms using a single value becomes imprecise and unreasonable. To avoid this challenge, an interval-valued probabilistic linguistic term set (IVPLTS) is used, which is a generalization of (probabilistic linguistic term set) PLTS. Inspired by the usefulness of IVPLTS concept, we develop a decision framework for rational decision making. Initially, some operational laws and axioms are presented. Further, a novel aggregation operator known as interval-valued probabilistic linguistic simple weighted geometry (IVPLSWG) is developed for aggregating DMs’ preferences. Also, criteria weights are determined using the newly developed interval-valued probabilistic linguistic standard variance (IVPLSV) approach and alternatives are ranked using the extended VIKOR (VlseKriterijumskaOptimizacijaKompromisnoResenje) method under IVPLTS environment. Finally, a numerical example of renewable energy assessment is demonstrated to show the practicality of the developed decision framework. Also, the strengths and weaknesses of the developed decision framework are illustrated by comparison with existing ones. Full article

From the working data of a dual-fuel marine engine, in this paper, we optimized and compared two waste-heat-recovery single-pressure steam plants—the first characterized by a saturated-steam Rankine cycle, the other by a superheated-steam cycle–using suitably developed simulation models. The objective was to improve the recovered heat from the considered engine, running with both heavy fuel oil and natural gas. The comparison was carried out on the basis of energetic and exergetic considerations, concerning various aspects such as the thermodynamic performance of the heat-recovery steam generator and the efficiency of the Rankine cycle and of the combined dual-fuel-engine–waste-heat-recovery plant. Other important issues were also considered in the comparison, particularly the dimensions and weights of the steam generator as a whole and of its components (economizer, evaporator, superheater) in relation to the exchanged thermal powers. We present the comparison results for different engine working conditions and fuel typology (heavy fuel oil or natural gas). Full article

Factors leading to coal and gas outbursts are complicated, and the accuracy of predicting outbursts remains difficult to achieve. Therefore, coal and gas outburst risk are still a scientific challenge in the fields of mining, geology, safe engineering, and rock mechanics. Theories explaining and predicting coal and gas outbursts associated with restored strain and gas energy are hot topics. Based on numerical modelling, the evolution of a plastic zone ahead of an excavation face with change of direction and magnitude of regional pre-mining stress field were analyzed. A mechanical analysis model for the expansionary evolution process of the plastic zone ahead of the excavation face was constructed, and the expansionary evolution characteristics of plastic zone ahead of the excavation face were analyzed. The physical and mechanical process and basic conditions for the initiation and development of coal and gas outbursts induced by evolution of plastic zone were discussed. The research provides some new insights into the mechanism, prediction, and prevention of goal and gas outbursts. Full article