<p>Thermal and multispectral imagery can provide users with insights into the water stress status and evapotranspiration demand of crops. However, traditional platforms, such as satellites, for these thermal and multispectral sensors are limited in their usefulness due to low spatial and temporal resolution. Small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) have the potential to have similar sensors installed and provide canopy temperature and reflectance information at spatial and temporal resolutions more useful for crop management; however, most of the existing research on the calibration or the estimation of water status were established based on the satellite platforms either for the sensors calibration or water status quantification. There is, therefore, a need to develop methods specifically for UAS-mounted sensors. In this research, a pixel-based calibration and an atmospheric correction method based on in-field approximate blackbody sources were developed for an uncooled thermal camera, and the higher accurate vegetative temperature acquired after calibration was used as inputs to an algorithm developed for high-resolution thermal imagery for calculating crop latent heat flux. At last, a thermal index based on the Bowen ratio is proposed to quantify the water deficit stress in a crop field, along with this, a method for plot-level analysis of various vegetation and thermal indices have been demonstrated to illustrate its broad application to genetic selection. The objective was to develop a workflow to use high-resolution thermal and multispectral imagery to derive indices that can quantify crops water status on a plot level which will facilitate the research related to breeding selection.</p> <p>The camera calibration method can effectively reduce the root mean square error (RMSE) and variability of measurements. The pixel-based thermal calibration method presented here was able to reduce the measurement uncertainty across all the pixels in the images, thus improving the accuracy and reducing the between-pixel variability of the measurements. During field calibration, the RMSE values relative to ground reference targets for two flights in 2017 were reduced from 6.36°C to 1.24°C and from 4.56°C to 1.32°C, respectively. The latent heat flux estimation algorithm yields an RMSE of 65.23 W/m² compared with the ground reference data acquired from porometer. The Bowen ratio has a high correlation with drought conditions quantified using the soil moisture index, stomatal conductance, and crop water stress index (CWSI), which indicates the potential of this index to be used as a water deficit stress indicator. The thermal and multispectral indices on a plot level displayed will facilitate the breeding selection.</p>

The significant increase in energy requirements across the world, provides several opportunities for innovative methods to be developed to facilitate the storage and utilization of energy. The major energy demand is in the form of electrical energy for domestic as well as industrial sectors, a large part of which are the heating and cooling requirements. Appropriate utilization of thermal energy storage can effectively aid in reducing the electrical demand by storage and release of this thermal energy during peak hours. Thermal Energy Storage using Phase Change Materials (PCMs) is an attractive method of energy storage, with a wide variety of potential applications. Several configurations have been tested by researchers to develop energy storage devices with PCMs. The cycling of melting and solidification of PCMs results in storage and release of heat at a relatively small temperature difference. Design and deployment of these storage systems have certain challenges and considerations associated to them for instance, when used in buildings, PCMs should be non-toxic, non-corrosive, and others. In this thesis, we aim to provide models for designing Latent Thermal Energy Storage (LTES) devices with PCMs, based on their operating conditions, thermophysical properties of materials, and geometric parameters. The models are developed considering fluid dynamics and heat transfer involved in melting and solidification of PCMs. Parameters like inlet temperature and velocity, and volume of storage container are varied to determine the time taken for melting or solidification. For sizing and predicting performance of the storage devices we aim at presenting an analytical correlation, with time taken for melting as the variable defining the ‘charging/discharging time’ of storage device. Along with this, a transient model is developed to predict amount of PCM melted/solidified, along with rate of latent energy storage in defined time period intervals.

Future defense, aerospace and automotive technologies involve electronic systems that release high pulsed waste heat like during high power microwave and laser diode applications in tactical and combat aircraft, and electrical and electronic systems in hybrid electric vehicles, which will require the development of an efficient thermal management system. A key design issue is the need for fast charging so as not to overheat the key components. The goal of this work is to study the fabrication and technology implementation feasibility of a novel high energy storage, high heat flux passive heat sink. Key focus is to verify by theory and experiments, the practicability of using phase change materials as a temporary storage of waste heat for heat sink applications. The reason for storing the high heat fluxes temporarily is to be able to reject the heat at the average level when the heat source is off. Accordingly, a concept of a dual latent heat sink intended for moderate to low thermal duty cycle electronic heat sink applications is presented. This heat sink design combines the features of a vapor chamber with rapid thermal energy storage employing graphite foam inside the heat storage facility along with phase change materials and is attractive owing to its passive operation unlike some of the current thermal management techniques for cooling of electronics employing forced air circulation or external heat exchangers. In addition to the concept, end-application dependent criteria to select an optimized design for this dual latent heat sink are presented. A thermal resistance concept based design tool/model has been developed to analyze and optimize the design for experiments. The model showed that it is possible to have a dual latent heat sink design capable of handling 7 MJ of thermal load at a heat flux of 500 W/cm2 (over an area of 100 cm2) with a volume of 0.072 m3 and weighing about 57.5 kg. It was also found that with such high heat flux absorption capability, the proposed conceptual design could have a vapor-to-condenser temperature difference of less than 10 0C with a volume storage density of 97 MJ/m3 and a mass storage density of 0.122 MJ/kg. The effectiveness of this heat sink depends on the rapidness of the heat storage facility in the design during the pulse heat generation period of the duty cycle. Heat storage in this heat sink involves transient simultaneous laminar film condensation of vapor and melting of an encapsulated phase change material in graphite foam. Therefore, this conjugate heat transfer problem including the wall inertia effect is numerically analyzed and the effectiveness of the heat storage mechanism of the heat sink is verified. An effective heat capacity formulation is employed for modeling the phase change problem and is solved using finite element method. The results of the developed model showed that the concept is effective in preventing undue temperature rise of the heat source. Experiments are performed to investigate the fabrication and implementation feasibility and heat transfer performance for validating the objectives of the design i.e., to show that the VCTES heat sink is practicable and using PCM helps in arresting the vapor temperature rise in the heat sink. For this purpose, a prototype version of the VCTES heat sink is fabricated and tested for thermal performance. The volume foot-print of the vapor chamber is about 6"X5"X2.5". A custom fabricated thermal energy storage setup is incorporated inside this vapor chamber. A heat flux of 40 W/cm2 is applied at the source as a pulse and convection cooling is used on the condenser surface. Experiments are done with and without using PCM in the thermal energy storage setup. It is found that using PCM as a second latent system in the setup helps in lowering the undue temperature rise of the heat sink system. It is also found that the thermal resistance between the vapor chamber and the thermal energy storage setup, the pool boiling resistance at the heat source in the vapor chamber, the condenser resistance during heat discharging were key parameters that affect the thermal performance. Some suggestions for future improvements in the design to ease its implementation and enhance the heat transfer of this novel heat sink are also presented.

No description available.

A desirable feature of concentrated solar power (CSP) with integrated thermal energy storage (TES) unit is to provide electricity in a dispatchable manner during cloud transient and non-daylight hours. Latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) offers many advantages such as higher energy storage density, wider range of operating temperature and nearly isothermal heat transfer relative to sensible heat thermal energy storage (SHTES), which is the current standard for trough and tower CSP systems. Despite the advantages mentioned above, LHTES systems performance is often limited by low thermal conductivity of commonly used, low cost phase change materials (PCMs). Research and development of passive heat transfer devices, such as heat pipes (HPs) to enhance the heat transfer in the PCM has received considerable attention. Due to its high effective thermal conductivity, heat pipe can transport large amounts of heat with relatively small temperature difference. The objective of this research is to study the charging and discharging processes of heat pipe-assisted LHTES systems using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experimental testing to develop a method for more efficient energy storage system design. The results revealed that the heat pipe network configurations and the quantities of heat pipes integrated in a thermal energy storage system have a profound effect on the thermal response of the system. The optimal placement of heat pipes in the system can significantly enhance the thermal performance. It was also found that the inclusion of natural convection heat transfer in the CFD simulation of the system is necessary to have a realistic prediction of a latent heat thermal storage system performance. In addition, the effects of geometrical features and quantity of fins attached to the HPs have been studied. / Mechanical Engineering

Master of Science / Department of Agronomy / Jay Ham / The exchange of water, carbon, and energy between grasslands and the atmosphere is an important biogeochemical pathway affecting ecosystem productivity and sustainability. The eddy covariance (EC) technique directly measures this mass and energy exchange. However, questions remain regarding the accuracy of EC-derived H[subscript]2O and CO[subscript]2 fluxes in landscapes with irregular topography and variable vegetation. These concerns stem from the "energy balance (EB) closure problem" (i.e., measured energy in does not equal measured energy out). My main objectives were to examine EB closure at two topographical positions within an annually burned tallgrass prairie watershed and to examine the effect of landscape position and woody encroachment on carbon and water exchanges. In tallgrass prairie, 14 km south of Manhattan, KS, USA, EC towers were deployed at three sites in 2007 and 2008. One upland and lowland tower were within an annually burned watershed dominated by C[subscript]4 grasses. Another lowland tower was deployed in a separate quadrennial-burned watershed where significant woody vegetation occupied the tower's sampling area. All towers measured EB components (net radiation, R[subscript]n; soil heat flux, G; sensible heat flux, H; and latent heat flux, [lambda]E). In the annually burned watershed, landscape position had little effect on G, H, and R[subscript]n with differences [less than] 2% between sites. However lowland [lambda]E was 8% higher, owing to larger plant biomass/leaf area and greater soil moisture. Energy balance closure (i.e., [[lambda]E + H] / [R[subscript]n - G]) was 0.87 and 0.90 at the upland and lowland sites, respectively. A nearby large-aperture scintillometer provided good validation of EC-derived H in 2007. Data suggested that underestimates of [lambda]E may have accounted for the closure problem; sample calculations showed that increasing [lambda]E by 17% would have resulted in near prefect closure. Data from this study suggests that EB closure does not strongly correlate with topographical position; however these data raise questions regarding accuracy of the [lambda]E term. Mass exchange analysis shows that the prairie carbon cycle is highly dependent on burning. The lowland and upland annually burned sites saw carbon gains of 281 to 444 g C m[superscript]-[superscript]2 yr[superscript]-[superscript]1 before burning with the shrub lowland showing the least (e.g. 159 and 172 g C m[superscript]-[superscript]2 yr[superscript]-[superscript]1). After the prescribed burn, the upland and lowland sites remained slight carbon sinks (68 to 191 g C m[superscript]-[superscript]2 yr[superscript]-[superscript]1), whereas the unburned shrub site was a carbon sink in 2007 (159 g C m[superscript]-[superscript]2 yr[superscript]-[superscript]1, because no carbon loss was incurred via burning) and a large carbon source in 2008 when it was burned the following year (336 g C m[superscript]-[superscript]2 yr[superscript]-[superscript]1 loss). Evapotranspiration (ET) was highest at the shrub lowland where greater soil moisture and abundance of deep-rooted C[subscript]3 shrub vegetation allowed greater uptake and loss of water.

<p>Knowledge of the turbulent fluxes at the sea surface is important for understanding the interaction between atmosphere and ocean. With better knowledge, improvements in the estimation of the heat exchange coefficients can be made and hence models are able to predict the weather and future climate with higher accuracy.</p><p>The exchange coefficients of latent and sensible heat during stable stratification vary in the literature. Therefore it is necessary to investigate the processes influencing the air-sea exchange of water vapour and heat in order to estimate these values. With measurements from a tower and a directional waverider buoy at the site Östergarnsholm in the Baltic Sea, data used in this study have been sampled from the years 2005-2007. This site represents open-ocean conditions during most situations when the wind comes from the south-east sector. The neutral exchange coefficients, CEN and CHN, have been calculated along with the non-dimensional profile functions for temperature and wind to study the dependence of stability and other parameters of relevance.</p><p>It was found that CEN increased slightly with wind speed and reached a mean value of approximately 1.45×10-3. The highest values of CEN were observed during near neutral conditions and low wave ages. CHN attained a mean value of approximately 0.77×10-3 and did not show any relation to wind speed or to wave age. No significant dependence with wind or wave direction could be shown for either CEN or CHN in the sector 80-220°. The stability correction, performed to reduce the dependence on stratification for CEN and CHN, was well performed for stabilities higher than 0.15. The stability is represented by a relationship between the height and the Obukhov-length (z/L).</p><p>Validity of the non-dimensional profile functions for temperature and wind showed that, for smaller stabilities, these functions gave higher values than the corresponding functions recommended by Högström (1996). The profile funtions for temperature was shown to have a larger scatter while the profile functions for wind was less scattered and deviated more from the functions given by Högström</p> / <p>Kunskap om turbulenta flöden i det marina gränsskiktet är viktigt för att förstå växelverkan mellan atmosfär och hav. Med bättre kunskap kan förbättringar i bestämningen av utbyteskoefficienterna för latent och sensibelt värme erhållas. Det medför att modeller kan prognostisera väder och framtida klimat med högre noggrannhet.</p><p>Utbyteskoefficienterna för latent och sensibelt värme har för stabil skiktning olika värden i litteraturen. Detta gör det nödvändigt att undersöka de processer som påverkar utbytet av vattenånga och värme mellan luft och hav för att kunna bestämma dessa värden. Data som har använts i den här studien insamlades mellan år 2005 och 2007 från en boj och ett torn vid mätplatsen Östergarnsholm i Baltiska havet. För det flesta situationer, när vinden blåser från syd-ost, representerar mätplatsen ett förhållande likvärdigt det över öppet hav. De neutrala utbyteskoefficienterna, CEN och CHN, och de dimensionslösa profilfunktionera för temperatur och vind, och , har beräknats för att studera beroendet av stabilitet samt andra relevanta parametrar.</p><p>Beräkningarna visade att CEN ökade något med vindhastighet och hamnade på ett medelvärde av ungefär 1.45×10-3. De högsta värdena på CEN observerades vid nära neutrala förhållanden och låga vågåldrar. CHN uppmättes till att ha ett medelvärde på ungefär 0.77×10-3 och uppvisade inget beroende med vindhastighet eller vågålder. Inget märkbart beroende med vind- eller vågriktning kunde visas för CEN eller CHN i sektorn 80-220°. Stabilitetskorrektionen, utförd för att reducera beroendet av atmosfärens skiktning för CEN och CHN, var bra för stabiliteter högre än 0.15. Stabiliteten representeras av förhållandet mellan höjden och Obukhov-längden (z/L).</p><p>Utvärdering av de dimensionslösa funktionerna för temperatur och vind visade att dessa funktioner, för små stabiliteter, gav högre värden än motsvarande funktioner som rekommenderas av Högström (1996). Värdena på profilfunktionerna för temperatur hade större spridning än värdena på profilfunktionerna för vind och avvek mer från funktionerna givna av Högström.</p>

Au cours des deux dernières décennies, le contexte économique a changé de manière significative en raison de la hausse des prix de l'énergie. Le bâtiment étant devenu le principal secteur consommateur d'énergie, la réduction de celle-ci est devenue un objectif économique, sociétal et environnemental. Ce sujet mobilise de nombreux travaux de recherche. Les Matériaux à Changement de Phase (MCP) représentent une solution innovante qui pourrait contribuer à améliorer la performance énergétique des bâtiments. Ils sont principalement utilisés pour la régulation de température, et leur forte capacité de stockage est un moyen de réduire la consommation d'énergie. Notre étude vise à caractériser, via une approche expérimentale et numérique, le comportement d'un PCM (l’Octadécane). Pour cela, nous avons développé et mis en œuvre un modèle numérique qui corrobore les résultats expérimentaux, et ainsi améliore la prédiction de la performance du MCP considéré.Dans ce travail, notre principale préoccupation est de mettre en évidence les erreurs ou simplifications présentes dans le modèle numérique traditionnel pouvant entraîner un écart global par rapport au comportement réel du MCP. Ces différences conduisent à une estimation erronée des temps de fusion et de la quantité d'énergie stockée. L'amélioration significative de notre modèle est la prise en compte de la convection naturelle, de la surfusion, et l'utilisation des courbes réelles d'enthalpie du MCP considéré. La relation température-enthalpie réelle tient compte de la présence d'une fraction d'impuretés solubles dans le matériau. L’originalité de ce travail est de traiter ces phénomènes physiques via la méthode de Boltzmann réseau (connue sous l'acronyme LBM) avec des fonctions de distribution doubles couplée à une formulation enthalpique. Une telle approche permet de passer outre la non-linéarité des équations régissant l'écoulement et le transfert de chaleur. Sa simplicité de mise en œuvre et son caractère local permettent d'affiner le modèle. Ainsi, on peut couvrir les problèmes de changement de phase, y compris ceux pouvant avoir lieu dans des matrices poreuses ou fibreuses. Ce dernier point a été couvert dans cette thèse.Enfin, il s'est avéré que l'approche numérique adoptée ici pour traiter les problèmes de changement de phase corrobore à la fois nos résultats expérimentaux et ceux disponibles dans la littérature. / Over the past two decades, the economic context has changed significantly due to the rise in energy prices. The building sector has become the main consumer of energy. Thereby, reducing the latter is now an economic, societal and environmental necessity. Accordingly, this topic mobilizes many researches. Phase Change Materials (PCMs) represent an innovative solution, which could improve buildings' energy performance. They are primarily used for temperature regulation, and their high storage capacity can reduce energy consumption.Our study aims at characterizing, via a complementary approach of experimental and numerical simulation, the behavior of a PCM (n-Octadecane). For this, we have developed and implemented a numerical model that corroborates the experimental results, and hence improves the prediction of the PCM performance.In this work, our main concern is to highlight the common errors or simplifications taken in the traditional numerical model, which can result in an overall discrepancy compared to the actual behavior of PCMs. Those discrepancies lead to wrong estimation of the fusion times and amount of energy stored. The major improvement of our model is the consideration of the natural convection, the supercooling, and the use of real enthalpy curves of the considered PCM. The actual temperature-enthalpy relationship takes into account the presence of a fraction of soluble impurities in the material. The originality of this work is to handle these physical phenomena via a lattice Boltzmann method (known by the acronym LBM), which leans on double distribution functions and coupled with the enthalpy formulation. Such an approach overcomes the non-linearity in the governing equations of fluid flow and heat transfer. Its simplicity and local character allow adding complexity to the model. Thereby, one can cover up the phase change problems, including those, which may occur in heterogeneous matrices. This last point has been also covered in this thesis.Finally, it turned out that the approach implemented here for phase change problems supports both, our experimental results and those available in the literature.

No description available.

<p>Oceans cover about 70% of the earth’s surface. They are the largest source of the atmospheric water vapour and act as enormous heat reservoirs. Thus in order to predict the future weather and climate it is of great importance to understand the processes governing the exchange of water vapour and heat between the ocean and atmosphere. This exchange is to a large extent mediated by turbulent eddies. Current numerical climate and weather forecast models are unable to resolve the turbulence, which means that the turbulent exchange needs to be simplified by using parameterizations. </p><p>Tower based measurements at the Östergarnsholm Island in the Baltic Sea have been used to study the air-sea turbulent exchange of latent and sensible heat and the heat flux parameterizations. Although the measurements are made at an island, data obtained at this site is shown to represent open ocean conditions during most situations for winds coming from the east-south sector. It is found that during conditions with small air-sea temperature differences and wind speeds above 10 m s^-1, the structure of the turbulence is re-organized. Drier and colder air from aloft is transported to the surface by detached eddies, which considerably enhance the turbulent heat fluxes. The fluxes where observed to be much larger than predicted by current state-of-the-art parameterizations. The turbulence regime during these conditions is termed the Unstable Very Close to Neutral Regime, the UVCN-regime.</p><p>The global increase of the latent and sensible heat fluxes due to the UVCN-regime is calculated to 2.4 W m^-2 and 0.8 W m^-2 respectively. This is comparable to the current increase of the radiative forcing due to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, reported in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fourth assessment report (IPCC AR4). Thus the UVCN-effect could have a significant influence when predicting the future weather and climate.</p>