In this thesis anchoring systems for marine renewable energy devices are examined for an area of interest off the coast of Southeast Florida that contains both ocean current and thermal resources for future energy extraction. Bottom types observed during previous regional benthic surveys are compiled and anchor performance of each potential anchor type for the observed bottom types is compared. A baseline range of environmental conditions is created by combining local current measurements and offshore industry standards. Numerical simulations of single point moored marine hydrokinetic devices are created and used to extract anchor loading for two potential deployment locations, multiple mooring scopes, and turbine rotor diameters up to 50 m. This anchor loading data is used for preliminary anchor sizing of deadweight and driven plate anchors on both cohesionless and cohesive soils. Finally, the capabilities of drag embedment and pile anchors relevant to marine renewable energy devices are discussed. / by Michael Grant Seibert. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 1980. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ENGINEERING. / Includes bibliographical references. / by David Thomas Barr. / M.S.

Pour la climatisation de bâtiments ou d’installations industrielles, les nappes d’eaux superficielles représentent une source de frigories très convoitée. Leurs exploitations intensives depuis plusieurs dizaines d’années conjuguées au redéploiement de la filière géothermique ces dernières années, soulèvent des préoccupations quant à la préservation des ressources en eau. Dans ce contexte, la présente étude vise à évaluer l’impact de variations locales de température sur la qualité physico-chimique et microbiologique des eaux souterraines sur la base (i) de suivis in-situ au niveau de 3 installations réelles exploitant les nappes d’eaux superficielles et, (ii) d’expérimentations sur un pilote (BIOTHERMEX) permettant de reproduire, en conditions parfaitement maitrisées, l’effet de la propagation d’un panache thermique dans un modèle réduit d’aquifère. Dans la gamme de température relevée sur site, les principaux résultats obtenus montrent que les impacts thermiques sont circonscrits au voisinage immédiat de l’installation, pouvant altérer jusqu’à plus d’une dizaine de degrés la sténothermie des nappes. Le suivi des paramètres physico-chimiques n’ont pas fait apparaitre de perturbations significatives sur la période de surveillance, constat étayé par des modélisations hydrogéochimiques. En revanche, une influence significative a été relevée au niveau des principaux descripteurs microbiologiques (activité, diversité de la microflore totale). Enfin, les expériences menées à l’échelle du laboratoire ont permis d’appréhender finement le comportement réactionnel du système et de définir une température de réinjection critique, au-delà de laquelle des désordres potentiels sont attendus. / The use of shallow groundwater as heat source for heat pump is very coveted for air-conditioning of building or industrial facilities. Their intensive use during many years combined with the redeployment of the geothermal industry these last years, raise concerns about the safeguarding of the water resources. In such a context, the present study aims to evaluate the impact of local variations of temperature on the physicochemical and microbiological quality of groundwater systems on the basis of (I) field investigation and, (II) experiments on a pilot (named BIOTHERMEX) making it possible to reproduce, in perfectly supervised conditions, the effect of the propagation of a thermal plume in a reduced aquifer model. Within the temperature recorded on site, principal outcomes showed that thermal impacts are confined in the immediate vicinity of the installation, and were able to deteriorate, up to about ten degrees, the stenothermy of the groundwater systems. The evolution of the physicochemical parameters did not reveal any significant disturbances over the monitoring period, this being also predicted by hydrogeochemical modeling. On the other hand, a significant influence was raised about some microbiological indicators-descriptors (namely activity, diversity of the total microflora). Lastly, the experiments undertaken on the laboratory scale made it possible to finely apprehend the reactional behavior of the system and to define a critical temperature of re-injection beyond which, potential disorders are expected.

Cette thèse porte sur la méthode magnétique appliquée à l'exploration géophysique d'une zone à caractère géothermique. L'étude se concentre sur la zone volcanique de Basse-Terre, à l'Ouest de la Guadeloupe, dont les fractures, les fluides et les flux de chaleur engendrent un fort potentiel géothermique. Ainsi, le plan de la thèse suit le cours d'une étude magnétique complète, ce qui commence par la compréhension du contexte et des objets à considérer, autant d'un point de vue économique que géologique puis géophysique. S'ensuit un travail de collecte et de traitement des données magnétiques existantes, menant à la conception de nouvelles techniques d'acquisition ou de traitement pour répondre aux besoins spécifiques de la zone d’étude. Les techniques d’acquisition magnétique proposées, par drone (données onshore) ou par bateau (données offshore), permettent d’obtenir des données multi-altitudes haute résolution. Une fois les données obtenues et traitées, elles sont interprétées à différentes échelles en parallèle des connaissances géologiques existantes. Une méthodologie d'inversion spectrale est également proposée. Enfin, un rapprochement est opéré à partir de toutes les données géophysiques pouvant être obtenues : méthode magnétotellurique, électromagnétisme en domaine transitoire et gravimétrie. / This thesis focuses on the application of the magnetic method to the geophysical exploration of a geothermal area. The study area is located in the volcanic field of Basse-Terre, the westernmost island of Guadeloupe, where fractures, fluids and heat flows generate a high geothermal potential. Thus, this manuscript organization follows the course of an exhaustive magnetic study, which begins with the understanding of the considered context and objects, from the economic, geological and geophysical point of views. Then existing magnetic data are collected, leading to the design of new magnetic acquisition and processing methods to meet the specific constraints of the study area. The proposed acquisition techniques, carried by drone (for onshore data) or by boat (for offshore data), allow for high-resolution and multi-altitude surveys. Once the datasets are obtained and processed, they are interpreted at different scales alongside existing geological input. A spectral inverse problem resolution is also proposed. Finally, a comparison is carried out with all the other geophysical data that can be obtained: magnetotelluric method, transient electromagnetism and gravimetry.

Land loss in South Louisiana is increasing at a fairly rapid rate. In an effort to reduce land loss and save the marshes of Louisiana, marsh creation projects have been proposed in carefully selected regions around the coast as part of the CPRA Coastal Master Plan 2017. Properties and characteristics of the soil obtained from soil borings were analyzed and used to determine the various design parameters that allow the marsh creation process to occur. Other properties that were taken into consideration for Louisiana coastal sediment are the geothermal properties. This research analyses those different properties obtained from geotechnical reports from CPRA and other data bases, in order to find correlations between the different soil characteristics, specifically between the soil’s compressive strength, consolidation properties, Atterberg Limits and moisture content. Furthermore, this research also studies the geothermal properties of selected Louisiana soils and the correlation between moisture content and thermal conductivity.

In this research paper, review of world geothermal energy production and their capacity is shown. Here, a research is conducted to know the potential and possibility of geothermal energy in India. All the geothermal province with their geographical locations are shown and a brief calculation is conducted in order to show the potential of the particular province. As India is having the low temperature geothermal fields, binary geothermal plants are used for this analysis and results are calculated by using R134a as a working fluid at different temperatures. The results are sufficient to prove the potential of geothermal energy in India.  Importance of Ground Source Heat Pump (GSHP) and power savings by its contribution over traditional heating and cooling methods is shown statistically. 9 different states of India are divided by their climatic condition, severe winter and moderate winter to calculate the heat demand in those states. Also, for the cold demands these states are considered to be same as per the climatic situation in summer. Then, comparison is done between GSHP and the traditional heating and cooling systems. The result shows the drastic power saving by using GSHP for space heating as well as cooling, over electric heater and air conditioner respectively.

Geothermal energy is being explored as a supplement to traditional fossil fuel resources to meet growing energy demand and reduce carbon emissions. Geothermal energy plants harvest heat stored in the Earth’s subsurface by bringing high temperature fluids to the surface and generating steam to produce electricity. Development of geothermal resources is often inhibited by large upfront risk and expense. Successful mitigation of those costs and risks begins with efficient characterization of the resource before development. A typically successful geothermal reservoir consists of a fractured reservoir that conducts hydrothermal fluids and a cap rock seal to limit convective heat loss through fluid leakage. The controls on the system include the density and orientation of fractures, mechanical rock properties, and the local stress field acting on those rocks. The research presented in this dissertation utilizes diverse data sets to characterize core, wireline borehole logs, and laboratory data to describe the distribution of fractures, rock properties, and the orientation and magnitude of stresses acting on the borehole. The research demonstrates there is a potential resource in the region and describes the controls on the vertical extent of the hydrothermal fluids. The distribution of fractures is controlled by the distribution of elastic rock properties and rock strength. A cap rock seal is present that limits hydrothermal fluid loss from a fractured artesian reservoir at 1,745 m (5,726 ft). In addition to characterization of the resource, this research demonstrates that an equivalent characterization can be used in future exploration wells without the expense and risk of collecting core. It also demonstrates that multiple methods of analysis can be utilized simultaneously when some data are not available. Data collection from deep wellbores involves risk and data loss or tool failure is a possibility. In these cases, our methods show that successful characterization is still possible, saving time and money, and minimizing the financial risk of exploration

With an ever-increasing need to find alternative fuels to curb the use of oil in the world, many sources have been identified as alternative fuels. One of these sources is hydrogen. Hydrogen can be produced through an electro-chemical process. The objective of this report is to model an electrochemical process and determine gains and or losses in efficiency of the process by increasing or decreasing the temperature of the feed water. In order to make the process environmentally conscience, electricity from a geothermal plant will be used to power the electrolyzer. Using the renewable energy makes the process of producing hydrogen carbon free. Water considerations and a model of a geothermal plant were incorporated to achieve the objectives. The data show that there are optimal operating characteristics for electrolyzers. There is a 17% increase in efficiency by increasing the temperature from 20ºC to 80ºC. The greater the temperature the higher the efficiencies, but there are trade-offs with the required currents.

The subject of this dissertation is use of computer models as data analysis tools in several different geoscience settings, including integrated surface water/groundwater modeling, tephra fallout modeling, geophysical inversion, and hydrothermal groundwater modeling. The dissertation is organized into three chapters, which correspond to three individual publication manuscripts. In the first chapter, a linear framework is developed to identify and estimate the potential predictive consequences of using a simple computer model as a data analysis tool. The framework is applied to a complex integrated surface-water/groundwater numerical model with thousands of parameters. Several types of predictions are evaluated, including particle travel time and surface-water/groundwater exchange volume. The analysis suggests that model simplifications have the potential to corrupt many types of predictions. The implementation of the inversion, including how the objective function is formulated, what minimum of the objective function value is acceptable, and how expert knowledge is enforced on parameters, can greatly influence the manifestation of model simplification. Depending on the prediction, failure to specifically address each of these important issues during inversion is shown to degrade the reliability of some predictions. In some instances, inversion is shown to increase, rather than decrease, the uncertainty of a prediction, which defeats the purpose of using a model as a data analysis tool. In the second chapter, an efficient inversion and uncertainty quantification approach is applied to a computer model of volcanic tephra transport and deposition. The computer model simulates many physical processes related to tephra transport and fallout. The utility of the approach is demonstrated for two eruption events. In both cases, the importance of uncertainty quantification is highlighted by exposing the variability in the conditioning provided by the observations used for inversion. The worth of different types of tephra data to reduce parameter uncertainty is evaluated, as is the importance of different observation error models. The analyses reveal the importance using tephra granulometry data for inversion, which results in reduced uncertainty for most eruption parameters. In the third chapter, geophysical inversion is combined with hydrothermal modeling to evaluate the enthalpy of an undeveloped geothermal resource in a pull-apart basin located in southeastern Armenia. A high-dimensional gravity inversion is used to define the depth to the contact between the lower-density valley fill sediments and the higher-density surrounding host rock. The inverted basin depth distribution was used to define the hydrostratigraphy for the coupled groundwater-flow and heat-transport model that simulates the circulation of hydrothermal fluids in the system. Evaluation of several different geothermal system configurations indicates that the most likely system configuration is a low-enthalpy, liquid-dominated geothermal system.

To assess anthropogenic impacts of point-source and diffuse discharges on fish populations of the Waikato River, compare responses to different discharges and identify potential sentinel fish species, we sampled wild populations of brown bullhead catfish (Ameiurus nebulosus, (LeSueur, 1819)), shortfin eel (Anguilla australis Richardson, 1848), and common bully (Gobiomorphus cotidianus McDowall, 1975) in the Waikato River. Sites upstream and downstream of: geothermal; bleached kraft mill effluent (BKME); sewage and thermal point-source discharges were sampled. At each site, the population parameters, relative abundance, age structure and individual indices such as: condition factor; and organ (gonad, liver, and spleen) somatic weight ratios; and number and size of follicles per female were assessed. Indicators of fish residence and in some cases exposure to contaminants in discharges were analyzed. Bile chemistry of brown bullhead and shortfin eel was assayed, liver and muscle metal levels were analyzed for brown bullhead and shortfin eel respectively, and stable isotopes of C and N in common bully were measured. Bile, metal and isotopic signatures gave strong evidence that fish had been resident at sites for some time before sampling. Signatures of bile and metal contaminants showed contamination was localised to discharge areas. Gradients in stable isotopes in common bully showed evidence of changes in water sources and anthropogenic effects along the river. Biochemical variables, hepatic ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) and plasma steroids indicated exposure and response of brown bullhead and shortfin eel to pulp and paper contaminants at the BKME site. Physiological (blood) variables showed fish largely responded in a predictable way to elevated water temperatures at discharge sites at time of sampling, however total haemoglobin of brown bullhead and common bully blood failed to increase at the BKME site despite elevated temperatures and low dissolved oxygen. Growth rates, condition factor, age structure, and gonadosomatic index (GSI) suggest that discharges with significant heat or nutrients benefit brown bullhead despite physiological impairment at the BKME site. Shortfin eel individuals also benefited from heated water discharges. No consistent impacts on common bully health were obvious at individual discharge sites, or cumulatively along the river due to the gradual deterioration in water quality downstream. Common bully individuals also benefited from heat in discharges but lack of juveniles at sites where numerous juvenile brown bullhead were found, suggest that unlike brown bullhead populations, common bully populations were not responding with significant recruitment. Although I found little evidence of toxic effects of discharges on shortfin eel, caution is required in assessing the potential of contaminants to impact eel populations due to the life history of shortfin eel, and exploited nature of populations. For example, reproductive damage suffered by adult eels may not immediately manifest itself in the effected population due to temporal delays in gonadal maturation, and recruitment, and single panmictic populations supplementing recruitment of impacted populations. Distinct changes in population parameters at each of the paired sites and changes in individual variables showed that fish responded to discharges. The range of responses in species suggests different sensitivity to contaminants and amount of benefit which each species receives from heat in discharges. In these terms shortfin eel would be the most resistant, then brown bullhead and lastly common bully. Interpretation of population-level impacts at the geothermal and BKME discharge sites is made difficult due to benefits of additional heat. There is also the possibility that detection of sub-lethal or chronic effects on sensitive juvenile life-stages may be being hidden by compensatory density population responses. Responses and life history of common bully made them the preferred indicator species of the three species sampled, and supported overseas examples using small-bodied fish species as sentinels.