Thermoelectric (TE) module integration into a notebook computer is experimentally investigated in this thesis for its energy harvesting opportunities. A detailed Finite Element (FE) model was constructed first for thermal simulations. The model outputs were then correlated with the thermal validation results of the selected system. In parallel, a commercial TE micro-module was experimentally characterized to quantify maximum power generation opportunity from the combined system and component data set. Next, suitable &ldquo / warm spots&rdquo / were identified within the mobile computer to extract TE power with minimum or no notable impact to system performance, as measured by thermal changes in the system, in order to avoid unacceptable performance degradation. The prediction was validated by integrating a TE micro-module to the mobile system under test. Measured TE power generation power density in the carefully selected vicinity of the heat pipe was around 1.26 mW/cm3 with high CPU load. The generated power scales down with lower CPU activity and scales up in proportion to the utilized opportunistic space within the system. The technical feasibility of TE energy harvesting in mobile computers was hence experimentally shown for the first time in this thesis.

The Marnoch heat engine (MHE) is a new type of power generation device that is under research and development at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. In this thesis, the transient heat transfer behaviour of the source heat exchanger of the Marnoch heat engine is studied, and its operation for laminar and turbulent flows is modelled. The temperature variations of the working fluid, the heating fluid and the wall, are calculated. The temperature distribution of the fluids and the wall over the length of the heat exchanger is also calculated. It is found that the temperature of the working fluid rises sharply to a peak and then gradually decreases. The wall temperature decreases exponentially, and the temperature of the heating fluid falls sharply, and then gradually decreases. A base model for the step change in the mass flow of the working fluid is developed and compared against past works for the purpose of validation. / UOIT

The research focus of this thesis is on modelling techniques for river kinetic turbines, to develop predictive numerical tools to further the design of this emerging hydro technology. The performance benefits of enclosing the turbine in a shroud are quantified numerically and an optimized shroud design is developed. The optimum performing model is then used to study river kinetic turbines, including different anchoring systems to enhance performance. Two different turbine numerical models are studied to simulate the rotor. Four different computational fluid dynamics (CFD) turbulence models are compared against a series of particle image velocimetry (PIV) experiments involving highly-separated diffuser-flow and nozzle-flow conditions. The risk of cavitation is briefly discussed as well as riverbed boundary layer losses. This study is part of an effort to develop this emerging technology for distributed power generation in provinces like Manitoba that have a river system well adapted for this technology. / May 2007

No description available.

The development of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) has attracted a lot of attention due to their potential to create a low cost flexible solar cell platform. In general, an OPV is comprised of a number of layers of thin films that include the electrodes, active layers and barrier films. Thus, with all of the interfaces within OPV devices, the potential for failure exists in numerous locations if adhesion at the interface between layers is inherently low or if a loss of adhesion due to device aging is encountered. To date, few studies have focused on the basic properties of adhesion in organic photovoltaics and its implications on device reliability. In this dissertation, we investigated the adhesion between interfaces for a model multilayer barrier film (SiNx/PMMA) used to encapsulate OPVs. The barrier films were manufactured using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and the interfacial fracture toughness (Gc, J/m2) between the SiNx and PMMA were quantified. The fundamentals of the adhesion at these interfaces and methods to increase the adhesion were investigated. In addition, we investigated the adhesive/cohesive behavior of inverted OPVs with different electrode materials and interface treatments. Inverted OPVs were fabricated incorporating different interface modification techniques to understand their impact on adhesion determined through the interfacial fracture toughness (Gc, J/m2). Overall, the goal of this study is to quantify the adhesion at typical interfaces used in inverted OPVs and barrier films, to understand methods that influence the adhesion, and to determine methods to improve the adhesion for the long term mechanical reliability of OPV devices.

Las tendencias en la tecnología actual permiten la reducción tanto en tamaño como en potencia consumida de los sistemas digitales complejos. Esta disminución en el tamaño y el consumo da lugar al concepto de dispositivos portátiles que se integren en la vida pertenencias personales y cotidianas como ropa, relojes, gafas, etc. La fuente de alimentación es un factor limitante en la movilidad de los dispositivos portátiles que se ve reducida por la duración de la batería. Además, debido a los costos y difícil accesibilidad, la sustitución o recarga de las baterías a menudo no es viable para los dispositivos portátiles integrados en ropa inteligente. Los dispositivos vestibles están distribuidos en las pertenencias personales y, por tanto, la recolección de energía del usuario es una alternativa para su alimentación. Dispositivos vestibles pueden crear, al igual que los sensores de una red de sensores inalámbricos (WSN), una red de área corporal. El principal objetivo de esta tesis es el estudio de generadores piezoeléctricos, inductivos y termoeléctricos que recolectan energía del cuerpo humano de forma pasiva. El principio físico de un transductor es el mismo independientemente de si la fuente proviene del entorno o del cuerpo humano. Sin embargo, las limitaciones relacionadas con la baja tensión, corriente y niveles de frecuencia conllevan nuevos requerimientos que no están presentes en el caso de la utilización de las fuentes que ofrece el entorno y que suponen el principal desafío de esta tesis. El tipo de energía entrada y transductor a utilizar forman un tándem donde la elección de uno impone el otro. Es importante que las mediciones se realicen diferentes partes del cuerpo humano, mientras se realizan diferentes actividades físicas para localizar las posiciones y las actividades que producen más energía. El acoplamiento mecánico entre transductor y cuerpo humano depende de la ubicación del transductor y la actividad que se realiza. Un diseño específico, teniendo esto en cuenta puede aumentar más de un 200% la eficiencia del transductor como se ha demostrado con láminas piezoeléctricas situadas en plantillas de zapatos. Se han realizado mediciones de aceleraciones en diferentes partes del cuerpo y diferentes actividades para cuantificar la cantidad de energía disponible en actividades cotidianas. Se ha realizado una simulación a nivel de sistema, modelando los elementos de un sistema de energía autoalimentado. El transductor se ha modelado usando las ecuaciones físicas que lo describen con el objetivo de incluir la parte mecánica del sistema. Se han utilizado modelos eléctricos y de comportamiento para el resto de los componentes. De esta manera, el proceso de diseño de la aplicación en su conjunto (incluyendo la carga y un elemento de almacenamiento de energía cuando es necesario) se simplifica a la hora de lograr los requisitos planteados. Obviamente, la carga debe ser un dispositivo de bajo consumo como por ejemplo un transmisor RF. En este caso, es preferible alimentar la carga de forma discontinua, sin una batería, como se deduce de los resultados obtenidos mediante simulación. Sin embargo, la evolución de los transmisores RF de baja potencia puede cambiar esta conclusión en función sobre todo de la evolución del consumo de energía en stand-by y el tiempo de configuración para la operación de transmisión. Se ha deducido a partir del análisis de los generadores inductivos que el análisis en el dominio temporal permite calcular algunas magnitudes que no están disponibles en el dominio frecuencial. Por ejemplo, la potencia máxima se puede calcular en el dominio frecuencial, pero para aplicaciones de recolección de energía es más interesante saber el valor de la energía recuperada durante un cierto tiempo o la potencia media ya que la potencia generada por las actividades humanas pueden ser muy discontinua. Se ha demostrado que los transductores recolectores de energía son capaces de suministrar alimentación a dispositivos electrónicos de baja potencia, como quedó demostrado con un transmisor RF alimentado por una termogenerador que emplea el gradiente de temperatura existente entre el cuerpo humano y el entorno (3-5 K) y que es capaz de realizar medidas y transmitirlas una vez cada segundo / The trends in technology allow the decrease in both size and power consumption of complex digital systems. This decrease in size and power gives rise to the concept of wearable devices which are integrated in everyday personal belongings like clothes, watch, glasses, et cetera. Power supply is a limiting factor in the mobility of the wearable device which gets restricted to the lifetime of the battery. Furthermore, due to the costs and inaccessible locations, the replacement or recharging of batteries is often not feasible for wearable devices integrated in smart clothes. Wearable devices are devices distributed in personal belongings and thus, an alternative for powering them is to harvest energy from the user. Therefore, the energy can be harvested, distributed and supplied over the human body. Wearable devices can create, like the sensors of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), a Body Area Network. A study of piezoelectric, inductive and thermoelectric generators that harvest passive human power is the main objective of this thesis. The physical principle of an energy harvesting generator is obviously the same no matter whether it is employed with an environmental or human body source. Nevertheless, the limitations related to low voltage, current and frequency levels obtained from human body sources bring new requirements to the energy harvesting topic that were not present in the case of the environment sources. This analysis is the motivation for this thesis. The type of input energy and transducer form a tandem since the election of one imposes the other. It is important that measurements are done in different parts of the human body while doing different physical activities to locate which positions and activities produce more energy. The mechanical coupling between the transducer and the human body depends on the location of the transducer and the activity that is done. A specific design taking this into account can increase more than a 200% the efficiency of the transducer as has been demonstrated with piezoelectric films located in the insoles of shoes. Acceleration measurements have been performed in different body locations and different physical activities, in order to quantify the amount of available energy associated with usual human movements. A system-level simulation has been implemented modeling the elements of an energy self-powered system. Physical equations have been used for the transducer in order to include the mechanical part of the system and electrical and behavioral models for the rest of the components. In this way, the process of the design of the complete application (including the load and an energy storage element when it is necessary) is simplified to achieve the expected requirements. Obviously, the load must be a low power consumption device as for example a RF transmitter. In this case, it is preferable to operate it in a discontinuous way without a battery as it is deduced from simulation results obtained. However, the evolution in low power transmission modules can change this conclusion depending mostly on the evolution of the power consumption in stand-by mode and the configuration time in transmission operation. It has been deduced from the analysis of inductive generators that time-domain analysis allows to calculate some magnitudes that are not available in frequency domain. For example, the maximum power can be calculated in frequency domain, but for energy harvesting applications it is more interesting to know the value of the recovered energy during a certain time, or the average power since the power generated by human activities can be highly discontinuous. It has been demonstrated that energy harvesting transducers are able to supply power to present-day low power electronic devices as was demonstrated with a RF transmitter powered by a thermogenerator that employs the temperature gradient between human body and the environment (3-5 K) and that it is able to sense and transmit data once every second.

The Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is a promising technology for electricity generation. It converts the chemical energy of the fuel gas directly to electricity energy and therefore, very high electrical efficiencies can be achieved. The high operating temperature of the SOFC also provides excellent possibilities for cogeneration applications. In addition to producing power very efficiently, the SOFC has the potential to concentrate CO₂ with a minimum of an overall efficiency loss. Concentration of CO₂ is a desirable feature of a power generation process so that the CO₂ may be subsequently sequestered thus preventing its contribution to global warming. The primary purpose of this research project was to investigate the role of the SOFC technology in power generation processes and explore its potential for CO₂ capture in power plants. <br /><br /> This thesis introduces an AspenPlus^TM SOFC stack model based on the natural gas feed tubular internal reforming SOFC technology. It was developed utilizing existing AspenPlus^TM functions and unit operation models. This SOFC model is able to provide detailed thermodynamic and parametric analysis of the SOFC operation and can easily be extended to study the entire process consisting of the SOFC stack and balance of plant. <br /><br /> Various SOFC-based power generation cycles were studied in this thesis. Various options for concentrating CO₂ in these power generation systems were also investigated and discussed in detail. All the processes simulations were implemented in AspenPlus^TM extending from the developed natural gas feed tubular SOFC stack model. The study shows that the SOFC technology has a promising future not only in generating electricity in high efficiency but also in facilitating CO₂ concentration, but the cost of the proposed processes still need be reduced so SOFCs can become a technical as well as economic feasible solution for power generation.

The focus of this thesis is to explore a new mechanism to give added incentive to invest in new capacities in deregulated electricity markets. There is a lot of concern in energy markets, regarding lack of sufficient private sector investment in new capacities to generate electricity. Although some markets are using mechanisms to reward these investments directly, e.g., by governmental subsidies for renewable sources such as wind or solar, there is not much theory to guide the process of setting the reward levels. The proposed mechanism involves a long term planning model, maximizing the social welfare measured as consumers’ plus producers’ surplus, by choosing new generation capacities which, along with still existing capacities, can meet demand. Much previous research in electricity capacity planning has also solved optimization models, usually with continuous variables only, in linear or non-linear programs. However, these approaches can be misleading when capacity additions must either be zero or a large size, e.g., the building of a nuclear reactor or a large wind farm. Therefore, this research includes binary variables for the building of large new facilities in the optimization problem, i.e. the model becomes a mixed integer linear or nonlinear program. It is well known that, when binary variables are included in such a model, the resulting commodity prices may give insufficient incentive for private investment in the optimal new capacities. The new mechanism is intended to overcome this difficulty with a capacity price in addition to the commodity price: an auxiliary mathematical program calculates the minimum capacity price that is necessary to ensure that all firms investing in new capacities are satisfied with their profit levels. In order to test the applicability of this approach, the result of the suggested model is compared with the Ontario Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP), which recommends new generation capacities, based on historical data and costs of different sources of electricity generation for the next 20 years given a fixed forecast of demand.

The Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is a promising technology for electricity generation. It converts the chemical energy of the fuel gas directly to electricity energy and therefore, very high electrical efficiencies can be achieved. The high operating temperature of the SOFC also provides excellent possibilities for cogeneration applications. In addition to producing power very efficiently, the SOFC has the potential to concentrate CO₂ with a minimum of an overall efficiency loss. Concentration of CO₂ is a desirable feature of a power generation process so that the CO₂ may be subsequently sequestered thus preventing its contribution to global warming. The primary purpose of this research project was to investigate the role of the SOFC technology in power generation processes and explore its potential for CO₂ capture in power plants. <br /><br /> This thesis introduces an AspenPlus^TM SOFC stack model based on the natural gas feed tubular internal reforming SOFC technology. It was developed utilizing existing AspenPlus^TM functions and unit operation models. This SOFC model is able to provide detailed thermodynamic and parametric analysis of the SOFC operation and can easily be extended to study the entire process consisting of the SOFC stack and balance of plant. <br /><br /> Various SOFC-based power generation cycles were studied in this thesis. Various options for concentrating CO₂ in these power generation systems were also investigated and discussed in detail. All the processes simulations were implemented in AspenPlus^TM extending from the developed natural gas feed tubular SOFC stack model. The study shows that the SOFC technology has a promising future not only in generating electricity in high efficiency but also in facilitating CO₂ concentration, but the cost of the proposed processes still need be reduced so SOFCs can become a technical as well as economic feasible solution for power generation.

The focus of this thesis is to explore a new mechanism to give added incentive to invest in new capacities in deregulated electricity markets. There is a lot of concern in energy markets, regarding lack of sufficient private sector investment in new capacities to generate electricity. Although some markets are using mechanisms to reward these investments directly, e.g., by governmental subsidies for renewable sources such as wind or solar, there is not much theory to guide the process of setting the reward levels. The proposed mechanism involves a long term planning model, maximizing the social welfare measured as consumers’ plus producers’ surplus, by choosing new generation capacities which, along with still existing capacities, can meet demand. Much previous research in electricity capacity planning has also solved optimization models, usually with continuous variables only, in linear or non-linear programs. However, these approaches can be misleading when capacity additions must either be zero or a large size, e.g., the building of a nuclear reactor or a large wind farm. Therefore, this research includes binary variables for the building of large new facilities in the optimization problem, i.e. the model becomes a mixed integer linear or nonlinear program. It is well known that, when binary variables are included in such a model, the resulting commodity prices may give insufficient incentive for private investment in the optimal new capacities. The new mechanism is intended to overcome this difficulty with a capacity price in addition to the commodity price: an auxiliary mathematical program calculates the minimum capacity price that is necessary to ensure that all firms investing in new capacities are satisfied with their profit levels. In order to test the applicability of this approach, the result of the suggested model is compared with the Ontario Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP), which recommends new generation capacities, based on historical data and costs of different sources of electricity generation for the next 20 years given a fixed forecast of demand.