This thesis examines the organisation and activities of local environmental groups. Environmental groups are defined broadly to include all local voluntary groups which devote a considerable proportion of their time to issues and activities concerning the physical environment. Chapters 1 to 3 provide a background to the study of local environmental groups. They describe the history and present status of the British national environmental movement and the literature on environmental groups (Chapter 1); British environmental legislation (Chapter 2); and the environmental and social background of the two areas chosen for intensive practical research, West Surrey and Newham (Chapter 3). Chapter 4 describes the organisation and activities of local environmental groups in West Surrey, including their numbers, size, aims, the issues which concern them and the tactics they adopt to deal with these issues, their relations with each other and with local authorities, and their achievements. Chapter 5 describes local environmental groups in Newham under similar categories, contrasting them with West Surrey groups. Chapter 6 compares and contrasts the data from the intensive studies in Newham and West Surrey with data available in the literature on local environmental groups elsewhere in Britain. It identifies patterns of similarity and difference, and advances possible explanations for these patterns. Chapter 7 examines the patterns of activity identified in Chapter 6, along with more detailed data from the intensive studies, to assess the extent to which a local environmental movement can be said to exist in Britain. It is concluded that the movement is not cohesive, and has changed little in response to the new ideas on the environment which have developed at national level since the 1960's. The Appendix describes the method of data collection and analysis in West Surrey, which included a questionnaire and computer-based statistical analysis.

No description available.

Smoking flares have always represented the visible symbols of pollution escaping from the world's oil and petrochemical industries. Only in recent years, however, has the increasing size of such complexes begun to cause acute environmental problems. During normal operations, these valuable off-gases ought to be conserved, either by gas liquifaction or by re-injection plants but, in an emergency, flares remain necessities as 'plant safety valves'. Essentially, smokeless flaring is an aerodynamic mixing problem. The large volume air requirement for clean combustion has to be induced into the flame by some kind of high pressure gas or steam entrainment system. A novel method of effecting this mixing, rapidly, is to utilise the 'Coanda Effect'. This is the name given to the tendency of a fluid jet to adhere to an adjacent surface, thereby causing enhanced entrainment, actually up to 25 times the original air inflow into the jet. The object of this research was to study and thus improve the performance of one design of Coanda, external surface, steam flare, developed and marketed by BP under the trade name Stedair. The investigation of this flare system was conducted in two parts; physical modelling of the entrainment at the flare tip, followed on by confirmatory measurements, on a 76 mm pilot scale, propylene doped, methane-steam flare, A slice (two-dimensional) water model of a Stedair flare tip was constructed, to examine the effectiveness of Coanda surface geometry, as an entrainer and mixer. The neutralisation reaction between solutions of HCl and NaOH was used to imitate the combustion reactions between oxygen and hydrocarbons, the neutralisation being made visible by the use of phenolphalcin as an indicator. Adjustment of the concentrations cuid flows simulates fuel stoichiemetry and excess air requirements, producing a 'flare envelope' corresponding to the 'mixed is burnt criterion. The second phase of the investigation consisted of a series of combustion tests on the largest (76 mm) Stedair steam flare that could b6 safely operated within a high ceiling (7.6 m) laboratory. Temperature and CO profiles within the flame were measured on 3 flare heads, with 4 slot widths/head and at 3 steam flows/slot width, the gas flow being kept constant. Smoke Points, Blow-off and Coanda Breakaway Points were also measured at varying gas flows. The Coanda principle is inherently such an excellent entrainment device that combustion on these flare tips is nearly always good, provided that the jet slot width remains uniform. Whilst noise and radiation levels can only be measured on real flares, combustion quality and entrainment rates are best measured on slice water models of such flares. The experimental flare built by the author demonstrated this point very well. The pulsations and oscillations of this turbulent jet, even in the wind-free laboratory environment made obtaining consistent measurements very difficult. A Coanda flare behaves like an enclosed rather than a free jet, thus the similarity criteria developed by Craya and Curtet can be applied and when it is, Jenkins and Coworkers have shown that, water model results do correspond to those measured on real flare trials.

The interconnection of environmental pollution and socioeconomic development is discussed, taking information as the starting point. Information in this field has been developed, and the ensuing problems considered, in the international forum by United Nations Agencies and Conferences, and at a national level by the Brazilian Federal Government. The main problems relating to the pollution of the Brazilian environment are introduced, and Governmental policy - internal and external - is shown on the national plane to be somewhat uncoordinated, and on the international plane to be rather resistant to external pressures. This limits both the development of a national environmental information system, and the participation of Brazil in the international exchange of information and ideas. Environmental information is focused at the international level through UNEP's systems, and the Brazilian situation is presented comprehensively through the data collected in sixty-two environmental agencies. These agencies were surveyed with the twofold objective of: a. analysing the generation of information and the pattern of its use by the Brazilian environmental agencies in their decision-making process, and b. investigating how the variables of region and task influence the pattern of information use by environmental managers. The analysis has been based mainly on the interviews conducted with the managers in charge of environmental pollution control in Brazil, and involved the following steps: a. the identification of managerial functions and tasks in the field of environmental pollution control; b. the identification of information needs related to each task; c. the analysis of regional characteristics related to tasks and information needs; d. the analysis of both regional and task characteristics related to the sources of information used by the managers. Some alternative solutions towards an environmental information policy are proposed, taking into account managerial information needs, information units already existing with greater potential for contributing to this field and the national and regional political background.

This thesis presents investigations into the effect of modern wind farms on grid side short circuits using extensive real time digital simulation. Particular reference is made to adaptive autoreclosing algorithms using artificial neural networks. A section of 132kV transmission grid in Scotland, including DFIG wind farms, is modelled on a real time digital simulator. An algorithm is then developed and tested using this model to show that this autoreclosing technique is feasible in systems with high penetration of wind generation. Although based on an existing technique, an important innovation is the use of two neural networks for the separate tasks of arc presence and extinction. The thesis also describes a low-cost, real time, relay development platform.

Thesis (M. Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes special report study entitled: Insolation CAD modelling. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-306). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes special report study entitled : Insolation CAD modelling. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

Modern power substations continue to use hardware that is dated and resistant to modernization. This document discusses the basics of substations, identifies their weaknesses, and suggests a method of improvement. This suggestion implements a centralized protection and control system to make the overall system more robust and flexible to the ever changing power system landscape. / Master of Science

The control and protection system of early nuclear power plants (Generation II) have been designed and built on the then reliable analog system. Technology has evolved in recent times and digital system has replaced most analog technology in most industries. Due to safety precautions and robust licensing requirements in the nuclear industry, the analog and digital system works concurrent to each other in most control and protection systems of nuclear power plants. Due to the ageing, regular maintenance and intermittent operation, the analog plant system often gives faulty signals. The objective of this thesis is to simulate a transient using a simulator to reduce the effects of system faults on the nuclear plant control and protection system, by detecting the faults early. The following steps will be performed: • validating the simulator measurements by simulating a normal operation, • detecting faults early on in the system These can be performed by resorting to a model that generates estimates of the correct sensors signal values based on actual readings and correlations among them. The next step can be performed by a fault detection module which determines early whether or not the plant systems are behaving normally and detects the fault. (Baraldi P. et al, 2010.) / Thesis (MSc (Engineering Sciences in Nuclear Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.