Focusing on reducing the air consumption of an air flotation rail system, a flowrate-amplified flotation element was recently developed. This new flotation element ulitises the rotational flow to intake extra air via an intake hole, and thus, effectively improves the flotation height. Compared to a conventional flotation element, the flowrate-amplified flotation element can reduce air consumption by approximately 50% for the same load and flotation height. To gain an understanding of the flow phenomenon in the flowrate-amplified flotation element, experiments and CFD simulations are conducted in this study. Based on the results, we found that the flowrate-amplified flotation element could take a part of the kinetic energy of the rotating air to suck in extra air. The intake hole greatly affects the pressure field and velocity field of the flotation element. Additionally, the effects of the variant gap height and supplied flow rate were also discussed. The results indicate that the pressure distribution decreases as the gap height increases and increases as the supplied flow rate increases.

The conflict in the Far East between 1941 and 1945 is occasionally referred to as the “Forgotten War” in Britain and this description extends to the way the campaign’s air war has been analysed. However, the role of air power in Burma was vitally important to the campaign, in particular the attainment of air superiority in order to facilitate supply and close support operations. The foundation of these operations was dependent on the Allies achieving and maintaining air superiority and latterly air supremacy over the Japanese. This thesis will analyse how the Allies lost air superiority during the initial exchanges, and then how technical and material difficulties were overcome before air superiority was won in 1944 and air supremacy was gained in 1945. It will analyse the importance of the RAF’s tactics, early warning systems, equipment, training and counter-air offensive in the theatre between 1941 and 1945. Furthermore, the thesis will demonstrate how Japanese industry, their war in the Pacific, and their use of air power in Burma ultimately affected the air war’s eventual outcome. The study will examine current historiography to question and corroborate existing views, as well as to reveal new information not previously published.

This thesis deals with those issues in regulation of international air carriage, which are in the centre of interest of passengers. Author focuses on two key legal instruments establishing different regimes of air carrier's liability. The first one is the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, also known as the Montreal Convention. The second is European regulation no. 261/2004, also known as the Air Passengers' Rights Regulation. The key question is whether these liability regimes are completely separate or they overlap. After introductory chapter, Chapter 2 follows, dealing with historical development of legal regulation in the field of air carriage liability. Evolution of the so called Warsaw system is described and the Montreal Convention and some of the most important European regulations are presented. Next chapter focuses on theoretical aspects of air carrier's liability in the light of Czech civil law jurisprudence. These findings are applied both to the Montreal Convention and to the regulation no. 261/2004. Provisions of the Montreal Convention are examined in Chapter 4. Scope of application as well as the most problematic terms such as "accident" or "bodily injury" are discussed. Some well known courts' findings are presented to demonstrate how...

Some suburbs within North West (NW) metropolitan Adelaide have lung cancer mortality up to twice that expected from state averages. Previous international research investigating high lung cancer rates in similar shared industrial and residential areas have had inconsistent results. This case control study was conducted to determine whether residential exposure to industry is a risk factor for lung cancer in NW Adelaide. Contemporary ambient air monitoring was undertaken as an indicator of future respiratory health risk. 142 lung cancer patients and 415 age, gender matched population controls were interviewed utilising an event history calendar. Lifetime exposure indices were calculated for cigarette smoking, passive smoking, occupation, air pollution (residential proximity to industry) and hobbies. Data was analysed utilising chi- quared and conditional logistic regression. Ambient carcinogens and fine particulates with potential industrial sources in the region were monitored in five locations. In the final multivariate model leaving school early, pack- years of cigarettes and not living in close proximity to the power station or light industrial area were statistically significant risk factors for lung cancer. A composite score of residential exposure to all industries was not significant. However cautious interpretation is required as it was noted participating controls resided significantly closer to industry than non-participants. Average concentrations of ambient carcinogens were within guidelines; however diesel exhaust particulate and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons were elevated at sites in proximity to heavy vehicle traffic. Diurnal variations in PM[subscript 2.5] included weather and traffic-related short term peaks, and other peaks potentially related to industrial activity. Cigarette smoking is likely to be the primary cause of elevated lung cancer mortality in suburbs of NW Adelaide. The negative effect of residential exposure to two industries may be due to participation bias. Whilst having more thorough exposure assessment than previous research, this study may have been limited by low participation rates in cases and controls. Air monitoring data suggests there is not a significant public health risk at present; however these results are unlikely to be indicative of historical exposures. Future public health initiatives to curb high lung cancer mortality in the NW should focus on smoking prevention and reduction strategies. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Department of Medicine and Department of Public Health, 2004.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--RAND Graduate School, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

There has always been a desire to develop industrial processes that minimize the resources they use, and the wastes they generate. The problem is when new guidelines are forced upon long established processes, such as solvent based coating operations. This means instead of integrating an emission reduction technology into the original design of the process, it is added on after the fact. This significantly increases the costs associated with treating emissions. In this work the ultimate goal is the design of an “add-on” abatement system to treat emissions from solvent based coating processes with high destruction efficiency, and lower costs than systems in current use. Since emissions from processes that utilize solvent based coatings are primarily comprised of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the treatment of these compounds will be the focus. VOCs themselves contain a significant amount of energy. If these compounds could be destroyed by simultaneously extracting the energy they release, operational costs could be substantially reduced. This thesis examines the use of model-based design to develop and optimize a VOC abatement technology that uses a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) for energy recovery. The model was built using existing HYSYS unit operation models, and was able to provide a detailed thermodynamic and parametric analysis of this technology. The model was validated by comparison to published literature results and through the use of several Design of Experiment factorial analyses. The model itself illustrated that this type of system could achieve 95% destruction efficiency with performance that was superior to that of Thermal Oxidation, Biological Oxidation, or Adsorption VOC abatement technologies. This was based upon design criteria that included ten year lifecycle costs and operational flexibility, as well as the constraint of meeting (or exceeding) current regulatory thresholds.

There has always been a desire to develop industrial processes that minimize the resources they use, and the wastes they generate. The problem is when new guidelines are forced upon long established processes, such as solvent based coating operations. This means instead of integrating an emission reduction technology into the original design of the process, it is added on after the fact. This significantly increases the costs associated with treating emissions. In this work the ultimate goal is the design of an “add-on” abatement system to treat emissions from solvent based coating processes with high destruction efficiency, and lower costs than systems in current use. Since emissions from processes that utilize solvent based coatings are primarily comprised of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the treatment of these compounds will be the focus. VOCs themselves contain a significant amount of energy. If these compounds could be destroyed by simultaneously extracting the energy they release, operational costs could be substantially reduced. This thesis examines the use of model-based design to develop and optimize a VOC abatement technology that uses a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) for energy recovery. The model was built using existing HYSYS unit operation models, and was able to provide a detailed thermodynamic and parametric analysis of this technology. The model was validated by comparison to published literature results and through the use of several Design of Experiment factorial analyses. The model itself illustrated that this type of system could achieve 95% destruction efficiency with performance that was superior to that of Thermal Oxidation, Biological Oxidation, or Adsorption VOC abatement technologies. This was based upon design criteria that included ten year lifecycle costs and operational flexibility, as well as the constraint of meeting (or exceeding) current regulatory thresholds.

A run-around membrane energy exchanger (RAMEE) is a novel energy exchanger that is capable of transferring both heat and moisture, which can significantly reduce the energy required to condition outdoor ventilation air. The RAMEE uses a liquid desiccant to transfer both heat and moisture between two remote air streams, making it appropriate for many applications, including building HVAC retro-fits. Both initial system start-up and changing outdoor conditions require time for the desiccant to undergo changes in both temperature and concentration, and can cause significant transient delays in system performance. Under some conditions, these transients may be beneficial by increasing the system performance. However under some conditions, the transient delays can cause a substantial decrease in performance.<p> This thesis focuses on the development of control strategies that can be used to reduce unwanted transient delays. In order to develop these control strategies, the performance of a RAMEE is first investigated using both experimental and numerical methods. The transient numerical and experimental effectiveness results show satisfactory agreement, with a maximum root mean squared error of 10%. Both the numerical and experimental data show that a long transient time of several hours, or even several days, can occur upon initial system start-up.<p> The numerical model is used to investigate several control strategies to reduce unwanted transient delays. The control strategies investigated are: solution and air flow control, air flow bypass, solution temperature control, and solution concentration control. The solution and air flow control are shown to reduced the start-up transient time by up to 11%, but require either a reduction in air flow or an increase in solution pumping costs. Air flow bypass proves to be a better option which provides a 16% reduction in transient time, and only requires that a bypass damper be provided for each exchanger. Solution temperature control is capable of essentially eliminating the thermal transient time (time required for the solution to reach operating temperature), but the thermal transient time is found to be a minor contributor to the overall transient time (time required for the solution to reach operating temperature and concentration) when the initial concentration of the solution is different than the steady-state concentration. When thermal and moisture transients exist, total transient times may be over 18 days. A practical temperature and concentration control strategy is developed, which can reduce transient delays by over 90% and increase performance during variable outdoor weather conditions.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2009. / Härtill 5 uppsatser. Även tryckt utgåva.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1989. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-81). Also available via the Internet.