The market life of many fruits and vegetables can be extended through storage at low temperatures. Chilling injury (CI) is a major postharvest storage problem for tropical commodities. Storing these products at temperatures below their critical temperature may result in severe physiological disorders known as CI symptoms. Mangoes (Mangifera indica. L) are susceptible to CI when stored below 12 °C. Visual CI symptoms include uneven ripening, surface pitting, discoloration, shriveling and scalding. Research has been conducted to overcome these serious problems using various postharvest treatments such as hot water, methyl jasmonate (MJ) or diphenylamine (DPA) with some reduction of the incidence of CI symptoms in fruits and vegetables. / Experiments were performed to assess and compare the potential of the above-mentioned postharvest treatments to reduce the CI symptoms on mango cv. Kent. The obtained results indicated that MJ- and DPA-treatments gave significantly greater percentage of marketable fruits. / Experiments were also conducted with mangoes cv. Tommy Atkins treated with MJ and DPA before storing at low temperatures (1, 4, 7 and 10°C). The chemical treatments were successful at reducing CI symptoms of mangoes. Fruit decay was reduced during subsequent ripening. MJ-treated fruits had lower mass loss and higher total soluble solids (TSS) than the control treatment. The overall quality of MJ- and DPA-treated fruits was good with lower surface pitting and scalding compared with the control treatment. The best results were obtained at storage temperatures of 7 and 10°C. Both MJ and DPA postharvest treatments can reduce CI symptoms in mangoes cvs. Kent and Tommy Atkins when the mangoes are stored at below critical temperature.

Heat losses are an important problem in domestic hot water circulation systems. Therefore, toreduce these losses becomes an issue of utmost importance both economically andenvironmentally. Nevertheless, it has not been until recent years when these losses have beenstudied further. Commonly studies have focused on the heat space system operation or radiatorsystem. This study focuses on heat losses in the domestic hot water circulation through thepiping system in a building at a school located in Gävle (Sweden) using non-destructive flowand temperature reading devices. The heat used by the school is provided by the district heatingnetwork that feeds several heat exchangers. The heat losses, at the same time, will be comparedwith simulation and theoretical procedures to corroborate them. The domestic hot water pipingsystem of this study consists on more than 1200 meters of insulated copper pipes with differentdiameters and different insulation thickness. The system was measured for one week (April 26,2015 to May 3, 2015) when there are working days and nonworking days. A 5% of the annualdistrict heating consumption in the school was calculated as heat losses in the domestic hotwater circulation system in the building studied. Finally, improvements in insulation system andchanges in the domestic hot water temperature have been simulated and they demonstrate thatsavings of up to 35% of the heat losses can be achieved and produce significant energy savings.

No description available.

The total worldwide base of installed wind energy peak capacity reached 94 GW by the end of 2007, including 1846 MW in Canada. Wind turbine systems are being installed throughout Canada and often in mountains and cold weather regions, due to their high wind energy potential. Harsh cold weather climates, involving turbulence, gusts, icing and lightning strikes in these regions, affect wind turbine performance. Ice accretion and irregular shedding during turbine operation lead to load imbalances, often causing the turbine to shut off. They create excessive turbine vibration and may change the natural frequency of blades as well as promote higher fatigue loads and increase the bending moment of blades. Icing also affects the tower structure by increasing stresses, due to increased loads from ice accretion. This can lead to structural failures, especially when coupled to strong wind loads. Icing also affects the reliability of anemometers, thereby leading to inaccurate wind speed measurements and resulting in resource estimation errors. Icing issues can directly impact personnel safety, due to falling and projected ice. It is therefore important to expand research on wind turbines operating in cold climate areas. This study presents an experimental investigation including three important fundamental aspects: 1) heat transfer characteristics of the airfoil with and without liquid water content (LWC) at varying angles of attack; 2) energy losses of wind energy while a wind turbine is operating under icing conditions; and 3) aerodynamic characteristics of an airfoil during a simulated icing event. A turbine scale model with curved 3-D blades and a DC generator is tested in a large refrigerated wind tunnel, where ice formation is simulated by spraying water droplets. A NACA 63421 airfoil is used to study the characteristics of aerodynamics and convective heat transfer. The current, voltage, rotation of the DC generator and temperature distribution along the airfoil, which are used to calculate heat transfer coefficients, are measured using a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system and recorded with LabVIEW software. The drag, lift and moment of the airfoil are measured by a force balance system to obtain the aerodynamics of an iced airfoil. This research also quantifies the power loss under various icing conditions. The data obtained can be used to valid numerical data method to predict heat transfer characteristics while wind turbine blades worked in cold climate regions.

The total worldwide base of installed wind energy peak capacity reached 94 GW by the end of 2007, including 1846 MW in Canada. Wind turbine systems are being installed throughout Canada and often in mountains and cold weather regions, due to their high wind energy potential. Harsh cold weather climates, involving turbulence, gusts, icing and lightning strikes in these regions, affect wind turbine performance. Ice accretion and irregular shedding during turbine operation lead to load imbalances, often causing the turbine to shut off. They create excessive turbine vibration and may change the natural frequency of blades as well as promote higher fatigue loads and increase the bending moment of blades. Icing also affects the tower structure by increasing stresses, due to increased loads from ice accretion. This can lead to structural failures, especially when coupled to strong wind loads. Icing also affects the reliability of anemometers, thereby leading to inaccurate wind speed measurements and resulting in resource estimation errors. Icing issues can directly impact personnel safety, due to falling and projected ice. It is therefore important to expand research on wind turbines operating in cold climate areas. This study presents an experimental investigation including three important fundamental aspects: 1) heat transfer characteristics of the airfoil with and without liquid water content (LWC) at varying angles of attack; 2) energy losses of wind energy while a wind turbine is operating under icing conditions; and 3) aerodynamic characteristics of an airfoil during a simulated icing event. A turbine scale model with curved 3-D blades and a DC generator is tested in a large refrigerated wind tunnel, where ice formation is simulated by spraying water droplets. A NACA 63421 airfoil is used to study the characteristics of aerodynamics and convective heat transfer. The current, voltage, rotation of the DC generator and temperature distribution along the airfoil, which are used to calculate heat transfer coefficients, are measured using a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system and recorded with LabVIEW software. The drag, lift and moment of the airfoil are measured by a force balance system to obtain the aerodynamics of an iced airfoil. This research also quantifies the power loss under various icing conditions. The data obtained can be used to valid numerical data method to predict heat transfer characteristics while wind turbine blades worked in cold climate regions.

Flood estimation is often required in hydrologic design and has important economic significance. For example, in Australia, the annual spending on infrastructure requiring flood estimation is of the order of $650 million ARR (I.E. Aust., 1998). Rainfall-based flood estimation techniques are most commonly adopted in practice. These require several inputs to convert design rainfalls to design floods. Of all the inputs, loss is an important one and defined as the amount of precipitation that does not appear as direct runoff. The concept of loss includes moisture intercepted by vegetation, infiltration into the soil, retention on the surface, evaporation and loss through the streambed and banks. As these loss components are dependent on topography, soils, vegetation and climate, the loss exhibits a high degree of temporal and spatial variability during the rainfall event. In design flood estimation, the simplified lumped conceptual loss models were used because of their simplicity and ability to approximate catchment runoff behaviour. In Australia, the most commonly adopted conceptual loss model is the initial losscontinuing loss model. For a specific part of the catchment, the initial loss occurs prior to the commencement of surface runoff, and can be considered to be composed of the interception loss, depression storage and infiltration that occur before the soil surface saturates. ARR (I. E. Aust., 1998) mentioned that the continuing loss is the average rate of loss throughout the remainder of the storm. At present, there is inadequate information on design losses in most parts of Australia and this is one of the greatest weaknesses in Australian flood hydrology. Currently recommended design losses are not compatible with design rainfall information in Australian Rainfall and Runoff. Also design losses for observed storms show a wide variability and it is always difficult to select an appropriate value of loss from this wide range for a particular application. Despite the wide variability of loss values, in the widely used Design Event Approach, a single value of initial and continuing losses is adopted. Because of the non-linearity in the rainfall-runoff process, this is likely to introduce a high degree of uncertainty and possible bias in the resulting flood estimates. In contrast, the Joint Probability Approach can consider probability-distributed losses in flood estimation. In ARR (I. E. Aust., 1998) it is recommended to use a constant continuing loss value in rainfall events. In this research it was observed that the continuing loss values in the rainfall events were not constant, rather than it decays with the duration of the rainfall event. The derived loss values from the 969 rainfall and streamflow events of Queensland catchments would provide better flood estimation than the recommended design loss values in ARR (I. E. Aust., 1998). In this research, both the initial and continuing losses were computed using IL-CL loss model and a single median loss value was used to estimate flood using Design Event Approach. Again both the initial and continuing losses were considered to be random variables and their probability distribution functions were determined. Hence, the research showed that the probability distributed loss values can be used for Queensland catchments in near future for better flood estimate. The research hypothesis tested was whether the new loss value for Queensland catchments provides significant improvement in design flood estimation. A total of 48 catchments, 82 pluviograph stations and 24 daily rainfall stations were selected from all over Queensland to test the research hypothesis. The research improved the recommended design loss values that will result in more precise design flood estimates. This will ultimately save millions of dollars in the construction of hydraulic infrastructures.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1943. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliography.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:30:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-08-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:40:16Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 oliveira_me_dr_ilha.pdf: 1452822 bytes, checksum: d810cdb7059cc5a2eb08ba3ffba50fe7 (MD5) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Nesta tese busca-se uma solução para o problema de cálculo de perdas elétricas para grande parte das empresas distribuidoras de energia elétrica. As perdas de energia em sistemas de distribuição vêm recebendo uma maior atenção por parte das empresas de energia elétrica de todo o mundo. Isto se deve principalmente aos elevados índices de perdas nãotécnicas (associadas a ligações ilegais, falhas na medição, etc.), em especial em países em desenvolvimento como o Brasil. Porém, para se chegar aos valores de perdas não-técnicas dos sistemas busca-se um método que calcule as perdas técnicas, e por subtração das perdas totais, obtê-las. O cálculo das perdas técnicas de forma precisa requer uma análise detalhada do sistema de distribuição, e consequentemente uma base de dados completa e atualizada, o que dificilmente as empresas possuem. Propõe-se, portanto, um método para o cálculo das perdas técnicas que identifique essas perdas de forma consistente, porém utilizando-se de uma base de dados de fácil obtenção em todas as empresas do setor. Dentre esses dados, têmse as curvas de carga medidas nas subestações (ou até mesmo nos alimentadores) através de medidores eletrônicos. Assim, com essas curvas é utilizado um método de alocação de carga que distribui o carregamento da subestação (ou alimentador) para os transformadores. Com a utilização do fator de perdas, também obtido pelas curvas de cargas medidas, têm-se as perdas técnicas de energia nas redes de distribuição. Os cálculos das perdas técnicas são realizados nos principais segmentos da rede: redes de média tensão, transformadores, circuitos de baixa tensão e outros (incorpora os demais segmentos e componentes em que as perdas ocorrem). Além da alocação de carga nos transformadores, outra característica importante do método proposto é a utilização... / This work is aimed at solving the problem of calculating electrical losses for distribution networks. Electrical losses have been and continue to be a concern for distribution network operators (DNOs) around the world. In many developing countries, such as Brazil, this concern is mainly due to non-technical losses (related to illegal connections, measurement errors, etc.). Consequently, to evaluate the non-technical losses of a given distribution system it is required a methodology that computes the technical losses, and then by subtracting them from the total losses the non-technical ones can be also obtained. To accurately calculate technical losses it is needed a detailed analysis of the distribution network, and therefore a complete and updated database. However, such a data is hardly available at distribution companies. Thus, here it is proposed a method for the calculation of technical losses that indentifies those non-technical ones in a consistent fashion, using those databases already available at most distribution companies. The data includes load curves measured at the substations (or the feeders) by electronic meters. With this load curves a load allocation method is used to distribute the aggregated load from the substation (or the feeder) among the distribution transformers. By using a loss factor, also obtained from the measured load curves, it is possible to compute the technical energy losses of the distribution networks. These calculations of technical losses are carried out at the main segments of the network: medium voltage networks, transformers, low voltage circuits and ‘others’ (including the remaining segments and components where the losses occur). In addition to the load allocation at the transformers, another important characteristic of the proposed methodology is the usage of a power flow algorithm for... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Easy manufacturing, light weight and inexpensive materials are the key qualities of organic solar cells that makes them a highly researched area. To make organic solar cells adequate for the market, the efficiency of power conversion has to increase further, and the lifetime of organic solar cells has to improve. Avoiding recombination losses is a piece in the puzzle that can make organic solar cells more efficient. Organic solar cells with two different hole transport layers were therefore examined by I-V measurements. It was found that the organic solar cell with MoO3 as the HTL possesses a higher current density in both the reverse region and forward region. The higher current density in both regions points towards a less successful blocking of electrons travelling to the anode (reverse region) and a better ability to transport holes from the active layer to the anode. Insight to different state of recombination was also found from the slope values in the Voc and Jsc as a function of light intensity plots. It was concluded that both solar cells experience a dominant monomolecular recombination under short circuit condition and evolved into bimolecular recombination under open circuit condition. However, the cell with CuSCN showed a more dominant bimolecular recombination, which was shown from a slope closer to one unity kT/q in the Voc as a function of light intensity plot.

This study combined flood-frequency analysis, 1-D (one-dimensional) hydraulic modeling using HEC-RAS, and flood-loss modeling using FEMA's Hazus-MH (Hazards U.S. Multi-Hazard) in order to: 1) quantify how different flood-frequency methodologies affect flood-risk assessments, and 2) quantify the impacts of different floodplain-management scenarios along the Middle Mississippi River (MMR). The nine scenarios tested here included various combinations of flood-frequency methodology, buyouts, and levee configurations. The levee configurations analyzed included: 1) current levee configuration, 2) no levees, 3) a 1500 m levee setback, 4) a 1000 m levee setback, and 5) a customized levee setback designed to maximize protection around existing infrastructure. Two study reaches were chosen: (1) an Urban Study Reach within St. Clair and northern Monroe Counties, IL, with levees designed to withstand the 500-year flood and (2) an Agricultural Study Reach within Union and Jackson Counties, IL, with <100-year levees. A flood-frequency analysis was completed for the St. Louis, MO gauging station, and detailed building inventories were used to estimate flood losses on a structure-by-structure basis (Hazus-MH UDF analysis) for an array of floods ranging from the 2- to the 500-year events. These flood-loss estimates were combined with a stochastic levee-failure model. Finally, estimated flood damages from Hazus-MH were integrated across the full range of flood recurrences in order to calculate expected annual damage (EAD). This study's flood-frequency analysis and corresponding flood-loss assessment demonstrate how differences in flood-frequency methodology can significantly impact flood-risk assessments. EAD based on the UMRSFFS (Upper Mississippi River System Flow Frequency Study) flood frequencies was 68% ($45.4 million) lower than EAD based on this study's flood frequencies. This decrease in EAD demonstrates that the UMRSFFS flood frequencies and corresponding stages may significantly underestimate flood risk within the Urban Study Reach. The 100-year discharge in the UMRSFFS appears to be underestimated by an estimated 17% (187,000 cfs), resulting in a 10% (1.6 m) underestimation of the 100-year flood level. Given the magnitude of the EAD, discharge, and stage differences documented here, a reanalysis of the MMR flood frequencies, flood profiles, and flood maps should be considered. The hydraulic modeling completed here showed that levee setbacks and levee removal successfully reduce stages for all recurrence intervals. For the 100-year flood, average reductions ranged from 0.20 m for a 1000 m levee setback to 1.61 m with levees removed. In general, stage reductions increased with increasing discharge and with increasing setback distance. The flood-level reductions are attributed to increased floodwater storage and conveyance across the reconnected floodplain. Compared to the current conditions, the levee setback and levee removal scenarios tested here reduced flood losses for large, infrequent flooding events but increased flood losses for smaller, more frequent flood events. When combined with buyouts of unprotected structures, levee setbacks reduced flood losses for all recurrence intervals. The 1000 m and 1500 m levee setbacks required buyouts in order to reduce EAD; however, a levee setback carefully planned around existing high-value structures reduced EAD with or without buyouts. The planned levee setback configuration combined with buyouts resulted in the largest decreases in EAD: a $16.8 million (55%) decrease in the Urban Study Reach and an $8.3 million (93%) decrease in the Agricultural Study Reach. Overall, this project showed that levee setbacks in combination with buyouts are an economically viable approach for flood-risk reduction along the study reaches and likely elsewhere where levees are widely employed for flood control. Designing a levee setback around existing high-value infrastructure can maximize the benefit of the setback while simultaneously minimizing the costs. Potentially, this type of planned levee configuration could be used as a template for the replacement of aging or failing levee systems.