Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2007. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (MTech (Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005 / Potable water, and especially the accessibility to it, is an essential part of everyday life. Of particular note, is the challenge that residents of remote rural African villages face in order to gain access to this basic requirement. Specifically, the rural areas in the Northern Cape (Province north of Cape Town) region in South Africa is one such example that illustrates this problem very well. In order to address the requirements for drinkable water, various types of water pumping technologies have been used. Up to now, the two competing water pumping systems, diesel and photovoltaic (PV), have been the primary technologies deployed in selected sites in the Northern Cape. The manual data collection of water pumping system data in the Northern Cape is fraught with impracticalities such as travel costs and requirements for skilled personnel. Therefore, as a preliminary step to accelerate development and testing, a local experimental laboratory PV water pumping rig was set-up within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Cape University of Technology. A short-term analysis was performed over a period of three weeks on the rig and the experimental results indicated the following: array efficiency of 16.3%, system efficiency of 15.0% and an average system efficiency of 1.47%. However, the results do indicate that long-term monitoring of PV water pumping systems can be suitable in serving to determine dynamic system performance and system life cycle costs. The purpose of this project is two-fold - firstly, to present the results on the work done on the experimental PV system.

A stable and reliable electrical power supply system is an inevitable pre-requisite for the technological and economic growth of any nation. Due to this, utilities must strive and ensure that the customer’s reliability requirements are met and that the regulators requirements are satisfied at the lowest possible cost. It is known fact around the world that 90% of the customer service interruptions are caused due to failure in distribution system. Therefore, it is worth considering reliability assessments as it provides an opportunity to incorporate the cost or losses incurred by the utilities customer as a result of power failure. This must be considered in the planning and operating practices. The system modelling and simulation study is carried out on one of the district’s distribution system which consists of 132 kV, 66 kV and 22 kV network in Aliwal North Sector ECOU. The reliability assessment is done on the 22, 66 and 132 kV system to assess the performance of the present system and also predictive reliability analysis for the future system considering load growth and system expansion. The alternative which gives low SAIDI, SAIFI and minimum breakeven costs is being assessed and considered. The reliability of 132 kV system could be further improved by constructing a new 132 kV line from a different source of supply and connecting with line coming from another district (reserve) at reasonable break even cost. The decision base could be further improved by having Aliwal North Sector context interruption cost. However, the historical data which may be used in Aliwal North Sector to acquire interruption costs from the customers are being proposed. The focus should be on improving the power quality on constrained networks first, then the reliability. Therefore for the Aliwal North power system network it is imperative that Eskom invest on the reliability of this network. This dissertation also analysed load reflected economic benefit versus performance expectations that should be optimized through achieving a balance between network performance (SAIDI) improvement, and total life cycle cost (to Eskom as well as the economy). Reliability analysis conducted in this dissertation used Aliwal North power system network as a case study; the results proved that the system is vulnerable to faults, planned and unplanned outages. Reliability evaluation studies were conducted on the system using DigSilent software in conjunction with FME. These two models gave accurate results with acceptable variance in most indices except for the ENS where the variance was quite significant. It can be concluded that DigSilent results are the most accurate results in all three reliability evaluation scenarios for the Aliwal North Power System, best interpretation being that of DigSilent.

Techniques were developed for the purpose of applying soil and water conservation structure designs utilized in the United States for use in Thailand. Design parameters currently being used in the United States were first studied and evaluated as to their development and application. The range of application of the various soil and water conservation structures were determined. This process included an evaluation of the soil types, land use, topography, and climatic factors in terms of their effect on the types of soil and water conservation structure designs to be utilized. Since the parameters may act separately or in various combinations, design limits are essential for each one. In the second step of the study, all available survey data applicable in characterizing these same parameters in Thailand were assembled and analyzed for each region. From this analysis, design ranges and the limits for each factor were estimated, based on the research and experience in the United States. Particular attention focused on the research of Beasley and the research compiled in the Engineering Field Manual. Finally, these estimated design values for Thailand's conditions were substituted in United States formulae. From these substitutions, other design procedures for model designs of several major engineering soil and water conservation structures were developed. / Master of Science

Excess fluoride (F-) in drinking water poses a health threat to millions of people around the world. In the present work, activated alumina (AA) has been used as an adsorbent. Data obtained from batch experiments were fitted to the (i) pseudo-first order, (ii) pseudo-second order, and (iii) Langmuir kinetic model. Model (ii) performed better than model (i), and fitted the data well. However, the rate constant for adsorption ka had to be varied as a function of the initial concentration of F- in the liquid phase c0. A more satisfactory approach is provided by Langmuir model, which fitted the data reasonably even though ka was independent of c0. Shreyas (2008) developed a model for the batch adsorption of F- onto porous pellets of AA. Some errors were detected in his computer program were corrected. The parameters of the model were estimated by fitting predictions to data. The parameter values suggest that the adsorption process is likely to be diffusion limited. Column experiments were conducted as follows. The pellets were soaked in deionized water for a time ts before they were loaded into columns. A feed solution having a fluoride concentration cf = 3 mg/L was fed to column and the concentration of F- in the exit stream ce was measured at regular intervals. Breakthrough was deemed to have occurred when ce exceeded the permissible limit (= 1 mg/L). Constant values of the bed height H, and the empty bed contact time tc were used in the experiments. The volume of treated water V, scaled by the volume of the bed Vb, varied strongly with the soaking time ts, with a maximum at ts = 24 h. To understand the possible reasons for this behaviour, XRD, FESEM, and FTIR were used to characterize the surface of AA. Though the concentrations of the surface hydroxyl groups may influence the adsorption of F-, FTIR studies show there is no direct correlation between V/Vb and the concentrations of these groups. The FESEM and XRD studies indicate that fresh AA consists mainly of boehmite, which gradually converted to gibbsite during soaking. For fixed values of H and tc, the dimensionless volume of treated water V/Vb was a maximum at D = 45 mm. This behaviour may be caused by wall effects for small values of D and by occurrence of quasi-static regions near the wall for large values of D. The cost of treated of water was Rs. 0.42/L. It decreased slightly to Rs. 0.37/L after one regeneration cycle, but increased to Rs. 0.41/L after two cycles. The volume of treated water after two regeneration cycles was 595 L/kg. The concentration of Al3+ ions ca in the treated water increased and exceeded the permissible limit of 0.2 mg/L as the number of regeneration cycles increased. The concentration of F- in regeneration effluent cre was in the range 32-70 mg/L. The effluent was subjected to solar distillation, leading to a distillate whose fluoride concentration F- was in the range 9-12 mg/L. The distillate can be discharged into the public sewers, as the permissible limit is 15 mg/L.

Discharge estimations at certain cross sections of streams are very important for hydrologic studies especially for designs. In this study, it is aimed to determine regional mathematical equations that represent annual and monthly average discharges at desired locations using basin characteristics obtained with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) techniques and regression analysis. Study area covers three river basins, which are Gediz, K&uuml / &ccedil / &uuml / k Menderes and B&uuml / y&uuml / k Menderes. The data used are Digital Elevation Model (DEM), monthly average discharges observed at stream gauging stations and monthly total precipitation data from the precipitation observation stations in the study area. Stream networks are delineated from DEM using a GIS software. The basin parameters obtained from DEM are drainage area, total river length, main channel slope, main channel length and mean basin slope. Precipitation amount is also included in the analyses as the sixth parameter to improve the results. Using these parameters annual and monthly average discharge equations are determined and the best equation for each month is found based on the adjusted coefficient of determination values and stepwise regression analysis. Three models, each representing a different basin and a general model that represents the whole study area are developed. The verification of the models is made using the discharges at the additionally chosen stations that are not included in the model development. An interface that acquires the drainage area for a certain cross section and estimates the discharge according to the desired regression equation is written using arc objects and visual basic programming language. At the end, regression analysis results of the models are assessed and interpreted.

Turkey is a developing country and its energy demand is increasing due to its growing population and industry. As a result, to fulfill this growing energy demand, Turkey is currently developing its unused hydropower potential, especially through small hydroelectric power plants (SHPPs). Estimation of annual electricity generation of a small hydropower plant strongly depends on streamflow data. In Turkey, there are a limited number of streamgaging stations so the estimation of streamflow at a potential SHPP location requires transferring streamflow time series from a reference streamgaging station to the ungaged basin. In order to determine daily streamflow time series for ungaged catchments, typically the nearest streamgaging station is chosen as the reference streamgaging station. However the distance between a reference streamgaging station and an ungaged catchment may not always be the most appropriate reference streamgaging station selection criterion. Archfield and Vogel (2010) proposed a new method called the Map Correlation Method (MCM) to select a reference streamgaging station to donate its observations to an ungaged catchment. MCM aims to identify the most correlated streamgaging station with the ungaged catchment. This new method is used at the Western Blacksea Basin in Turkey to select the best among possible reference streamgaging stations. The method proved to be promising / the most correlated streamgaging station for approximately one third of the study streamgaging stations are identified correctly by the MCM.

The optimisation of the decision of when to replace water distribution mains is a complex task. There are numerous drivers in the decision making process (informed by financial data, performance data and water quality data) and hundreds of variables and performance indicators that can be considered when trying to reach an optimised decision. Most of the assets under consideration are buried and the internal and external pipe conditions are not easily assessable, forcing the Utility to rely on the available direct and indirect variables from which conclusions on the reliability of the mains are to be inferred. The cost of mains replacement is relatively low but the assessment cost, if carried out can be relatively high. The total value of a metropolitan distribution network typically runs into billions of rands but the impact of an individual pipe failure is generally low. The distribution network is comprised of many different pipe materials and components, of different pressure classes, made by different manufacturers, installed by numerous contractors with different skill levels under differing quality control regimens over many years. To add to this complexity, various parts of the network are operated at different static pressures and varying velocities. Some sections of the network are isolated more often than others and at times there can be large pressure surges that the network is subjected to by either the Utility or Consumer. These pressure surges are known to have a marked detrimental effect on the network. False markers also exist that can give rise to totally incorrect decisions and therefore performance data cannot be accepted at face value and needs to be scrutinised and cleansed to increase its reliability prior to being utilised in decision making process. This important step has been missed by much of the research carried out to date. In the Durban context, a further complication is caused by consumers tampering with the water mains and also not reporting leaks. This has a negative effect on the performance of the water main that can cause it to be flagged for replacement, but its replacement will not result in an increase in performance if the social issues are not resolved first. The aim of this research is to make recommendations on the methodology to be employed to improve network performance and thereby delay the point at which the water mains are to be replaced for as long as possible. These recommended activities will be carried out to remove false markers and improve upon the quality and reliability of the data available on the network performance. A further output is to make recommendations regarding the minimum data that can be reasonably collected and analysed in order to determine an optimised result. The recommendation of which mains should be targeted for replacement should result in the highest benefit for the utility as well as the consumers. By implication, this will result lowest long term capital and operational expenditure and thus the lowest long term tariffs charged to the consumers whilst complying with the water quality criteria and service level targets. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2003. / Advisor: Ioannis Tsanis. CD-ROM contains Appendices A-H (51 p.). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 297-307). Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Murdoch University, 1996. / Thesis submitted to the School of Social Sciences. Includes bibliographical references.