Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed May 22, 2007). PDF text:xviii, 204 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 2.37Mb UMI publication number: AAT 3237050. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-100). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Currently, the Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC) power plant produces steam at high pressure to drive a high pressure (HP) turbine to make a portion of the electrical power needed by campus, then using 969 kPa (125 psig) steam to provide hot water all year, heat buildings, and to operate a low pressure (LP) turbine that powers the compressor of the central air conditioning (A/C) system. In the proposed system, the HP turbine is replaced by a much higher efficiency, multi-level turbine, the LP turbine is replaced with a motor and Variable Frequency Drive (VFD), and a cooling tower is added to condense more possible steam. This thesis has provided computer models to evaluate the economical feasibility of the proposed system, which are written by using Engineering Equation Solver (EES) software. The results of the study are presented in two cases. Case 1 examines the same amount of coal use between current and proposed systems, while Case 2 exames operating the high pressure boiler at the maximum rate. The results are a cost savings of $1,921,000 and $3,604,000 with payback periods of 4 and 2.2 years for Case 1 and Case 2, respectively. The annual primary energy saved and CO2 reduction from this modification was 200,000 GJ and 564,814 moles, respectively.

First, this research has attempted to identify the underlying reasons for high Chinese family cooking energy consumption. Second, this research has tried to identify ways of reducing Chinese kitchen cooking fume pollution. The literature review indicated that, although cooking energy takes one of the largest proportions of residential building energy consumption, previous studies in this area have not been enough. The published knowledge found indicates that urban residential buildings takes 1/4 of the national building energy consumption (excluding heating). This portion has grown continuously since 2001 in terms of energy consumption intensity (kgce/m2). Among household energy (excluding heating), cooking, home appliances and lighting are the three largest energy end users. Although the increase in cooking energy is low, partially attributed to wide adaptation to gas cooking fuel instead of coal fuel in China, it still takes the largest household energy consumption: 31% in 2011. Many research papers report different results based on field measurements of household energy end users, some of which show conflicting results. However, the literature review has confirmed that in China cooking energy consumes the second-largest amount of household energy after space heating. The literature review also pointed out that, although compared with Western counterparts, Chinese residential buildings consume less national energy, cooking takes a large percentage of household energy. A further literature review showed little valuable information underpinning the reasons for high cooking energy use in Chinese households. Some overseas research papers give hints regarding cooking energy and cooking techniques, cookware, and occupant behaviour. However, the difference in food culture traditions has led to a greater difference between Western and Chinese cooking techniques. Compared with Western countries, Chinese hot dishes require a greater number of cooking techniques. In order to find out more details of cooking energy and fume generation in real Chinese home kitchen conditions, the author used a series of research methodologies to measure and test home energy and cooking fume concentration. The results reconfirm that cooking energy is the second-largest home energy end user after space heating, along with other findings. These other findings include: • The four largest energy end users in northern Chinese households are space heating, cooking, hot water and entertainment. • Hot water, lighting and entertainment energy consumption have clear seasonal characteristics i.e., daily consumption is low in summer and high in winter. This is because of the colder weather in winter (demanding more energy to heat water) and longer nights in winter (with a longer indoor entertainment time and a greater requirement for lighting in the evening). • Daily cooking energy consumption in a given family is almost fixed, although the difference between different families is large. This could lead to further study on the underlying reasons for the difference between families. The most important finding in the research is the discovery of the relationship between home cooking energy and family life cycle. A strong relation was observed between these two factors. This was confirmed by the measurement of the test families as well as the survey of 70 random selected families. The relation is, therefore, denoted as the CookEUI (cooking energy use intensity) of the different family life cycles. Following the data analysis and survey, it was also found that the cooking energy for a certain family life cycle was constant, i.e., locked in an FLC stage until the stage changed. Finally, a database was built into the IES energy simulation using figures found in the research. This represents significant progress in home energy study. Before discovering cooking EUI, cooking energy in most pieces of energy simulation software was treated as a process load with a constant figure. A literature review of a large number of research papers concluded that cooking fumes have an adverse impact on people’s health. In China, a typical housewife spends about 4 hours in the kitchen every day, preparing and cooking meals. A comfortable and healthy cooking environment is critical for cooks’ health. It was also found that COF emissions in Western and Chinese kitchens differed largely in mass concentration. Cooking method, cooking oil and cooking temperature all contribute to the difference. Many other researchers have investigated the details of hood systems and their construction features in order to understand their efficiency in removing cooking fumes. However, most of the research has been based on commercial kitchen application. There is very little research on home kitchen hood efficiency. Research also points out that natural ventilation in the kitchen space has a certain amount of influence on the capture efficiency of an exhaust system. For example, opening the door is more efficient than opening a window. In this research, the measurements of kitchen PM2.5 and PM10 were carried out in real home kitchen cooking conditions. The relation between PM2.5 and PM10 emissions and different Chinese cooking methods was measured. It was found that deep frying and stir frying discharged the most PM2.5, while boiling emitted the least. A typical PM2.5 discharging pattern in Chinese cooking was observed. The pattern showed a sharp increase in PM2.5 concentration in the beginning at breath level with a drop afterwards because of the using up of cooking oil or the rising of water steam to a higher level. A small sub-surge was observed after the first selection because the downward flow of cold air brought high-level PM2.5 down to breath level. A very interesting finding observed when using tracer gas to measure kitchen cooking hood efficiency was the large difference between the airflow rate listed on the kitchen fume hood nameplate and the airflow rate measured in real kitchen conditions. On the nameplate of the cooking hood, airflow was rated as 800 m3/h at medium speed, while in the tracer gas testing the flow rate was a maximum of 175 m3/h when all the kitchen windows and the door were open. This finding reinforces the experiment conclusion by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the seven representative devices they tested, whereby, according to Chen (2012), the capture efficiency varied from less than 15% to more than 98%. Identifying the airborne moving characteristics of PM2.5 can be used to help redesign ventilation systems for Chinese home kitchens. The traditional way of enhancing cooking fume removal efficiency is to increase the fan discharge pressure head. This leads to increased energy consumption. It also has less effect on removing PM2.5 particles, since, unlike PM10, PM2.5 is affected by airflow rate more significantly than air velocity. The proposed new ventilation system is intended to treat PM2.5 and PM10 separately. PM10 will be removed by the filter in recirculation devices and PM2.5 will be exhausted by a direct venting fan with replacement air. In this way, less energy is used and the system is more efficient at removing kitchen PM2.5.

This diploma thesis deals with the basic theoretical overview of air-conditioning noise, the description of individual devices used in ventilation and active ventilation during storage of cereals. It also describes the possibilities of application of silencers for these devices. In the practical part, it focuses on the noise measurement in the post-harvest line and the design of appropriate noise measures to meet the under-noise levels.

Concerns over sustainability in the built environment have resulted in continuous efforts to improve the performance of window system or glazed façade and hence indoor comfort and building energy conservation. An innovative façade system where parallel transparent/translucent plastic slats are sandwiched between glass panes to form a Parallel Slat Transparent Insulation Material (PS-TIM) is proposed as a strategy to effectively reduce heat transfer between the panes of a double glazed window, while maintaining access to daylight. A holistic investigation of the window system with PS- TIMs is conducted in terms of thermal and optical properties, as well as detailed daylight and energy performance predictions of applying PS-TIMs in buildings. Firstly, an experimental investigation is undertaken in a large climate chamber, and the measurement results were used to validate a two-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model. Secondly, the validated 2D CFD model is used to solve the dynamic thermal properties of different configurations of PS-TIMs under various environmental conditions. The optical properties (i.e. Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function (BSDF)) of PS-TIMs are obtained via a ray-tracing technique based on the structures’ geometries and the material optical characteristics of the interstitial structure. The detailed annual daylight performance in different climates and building orientations are predicted using RADIANCE. Finally, the optical and thermal properties obtained from the previous fundamental models are applied in EnergyPlus to predict the energy performance (i.e. heating, cooling and lighting energy consumption) of applying PS-TIMs in buildings in different climates. The investigation results provide a better understanding of the benefits of PS-TIM in terms of energy saving and daylight comfort improvement, as well as offer some tentative suggestions as to how architects and engineers might apply PS-TIM to window system or glazed façade.

Quando água quente é introduzida em um tanque de termoacumulação vertical, durante o ciclo de descarga, ocorre uma mistura parcial dessa água com a água fria armazenada. A intensidade dessa mistura depende de parâmetros geométricos do difusor de entrada e da dinâmica do escoamento no início do processo. Inúmeros estudos têm sido desenvolvidos no intuito de se projetar adequadamente o difusor de entrada, de forma a minimizar essa mistura, que corresponde a uma perda de capacidade do tanque. Porém, há uma outra forma de perda de capacidade do tanque, devida aos efeitos viscosos do escoamento. Quando um fluido escoa dentro de um tubo, há a formação de uma camada limite hidrodinâmica, devida à viscosidade do mesmo. Na região do comprimento hidrodinâmico de entrada, em cada seção transversal do tubo e dentro da camada limite, os efeitos viscosos geram um gradiente (radial) de velocidade. Fora dessa camada (no núcleo), esses efeitos são desprezíveis e o fluido escoa com velocidade uniforme. Porém, ao longo desse comprimento, o movimento do fluido no núcleo é acelerado. O escoamento em um tanque vertical de termoacumulação ocorre na região do comprimento hidrodinâmico de entrada. Considerando que não haja mistura das massas de água quando se inicia a introdução da água quente, irá se forma uma superfície de contato entre as mesmas. Essa superfície, por possuir velocidade no núcleo maior que a velocidade média de descarga, atingirá o difusor de saída mais rapidamente. Assim, para que seja garantida descarga de água na temperatura da água armazenada durante todo o ciclo de descarga, a altura do tanque deverá ser maior que a altura determinada utilizando-se a velocidade média do escoamento, sem considerar os efeitos viscosos (modelo ideal). A diferença entre essas alturas constitui, por si só, uma perda de capacidade do tanque. O estudo dos efeitos do escoamento viscoso no desempenho do tanque mostra que dois números adimensionais surgem naturalmente: o número de Reynolds relativo ao diâmetro, ReØ, necessário para se determinar o comprimento hidrodinâmico de entrada, e o número f, que relaciona a posição da superfície de contato das massas de água com o comprimento hidrodinâmico de entrada. Os resultados mostram que a perda devida aos efeitos do escoamento viscoso pode não ser desprezível e que a escolha do diâmetro do tanque é de fundamental importância para minimizar esses efeitos. Também, a análise qualitativa do escoamento sugere que as perdas de capacidade do tanque nos ciclos de descarga e carga não são iguais, pois a diferença de densidade das massas de água age de maneira diversa em cada caso. / When warm water is introduced into a vertical thermal storage tank, during the discharging cycle, a partial mixing between it and the cold water stored will occur. The extension of that mixing depends upon diffuser geometric parameters and the dynamics of the flow at the beginning of the process. So many works have been developed, trying to find the better diffuser design so that undesired mixing can be minimized. The mixing is accounted as a tank loss of capacity. But, there is another kind of tank loss of capacity due to viscous effects of the flow. When a fluid flows inside a tube, it forms a boundary layer due to fluid viscosity. At the hydrodynamic entry length region, in each cross section of the tube and inside the boundary layer, the viscous effects create a (radial) velocity gradient. Outside of the boundary layer (inside the core), the viscous effects are negligible and the fluid flows with a uniform velocity. However, along the entry length that velocity gets higher at each section. In a vertical thermal storage tank, water flows at the hydrodynamic entry length region. Considering that no mixing occurs at the beginning of the warm water introduction at the tank top, it will form a contact surface between the warm water and the cold one already in the tank. That contact surface has the velocity inside the core higher than the mean discharging flow velocity and it will reach the outlet diffuser at the tank bottom more quickly. Then, the tank height must be greater than that determined using the mean velocity flow alone without any viscous effect (ideal model), so that the discharging flow has the same stored water temperature during all the discharging cycle. The difference between those heights constitutes itself a tank loss of capacity. The study of the viscous effects on the tank performance shows that two non-dimensional parameters appear naturally: the Reynolds number related to the tank diameter, ReØ, used for determining the hydrodynamic entry length, and the f number that relates the position of the contact surface of the water masses to the hydrodynamic entry length. Results show that the loss due to viscous effects, may not be negligible and the choice of the tank diameter is essential to minimizes those effects. Also, there is a difference between tank losses of capacity during the charging and discharging cycles, since the effect of the density difference between the warm and cold water works in a different way in each one of those two situations.

The refrigerant circuits of car air-conditioning systems are fitted with so-called open type compressors, because there is only a lip seal preventing the refrigerant from leaking from the compressor housing to the atmosphere. In addition, the cycle uses damping elements between the compressor and the other components on the suction and pressure lines to reduce vibration and noise transfer from the engine to the car body. Both the lip seal and damping elements result in loss of refrigerant as they are made from elastomers and leak with age, and, under high temperature conditions inside the engine room, these elements also allow a relatively high permeation of the refrigerant gas to the atmosphere. With very high refrigerant losses in the older R12 -cooling cycles and the damage caused by this gas to the ozone layer in the stratosphere, the Montreal protocol phased out this refrigerant and the car industry was forced to revert completely to R134a until 1994/95. R134a has no ozone depletion potential, but it has a direct global warming potential, and, therefore, leakages also have to be minimised. R134a has, because of its molecular size, a high permeation potential and, hence, all the refrigerant hoses are lined internally. Unfortunately, these hoses also leak with age and significant refrigerant loss will occur [1] R134a can therefore only be viewed as a solution until an alternative refrigerant with no direct global warming potential has been developed. Candidates for new refrigerants are natural substances such as hydrocarbons or carbon dioxide [2]. Unfortunately, both substances have disadvantages and their use is restricted to special cases, for e.g. hydrocarbons are flammable and are not used in car air-conditioners, but in Germany it is used as a refrigerant in household refrigerators with hermetic cycles. What makes the implementation of carbon dioxide (CO2) difficult are the high system pressures and the low critical point [3].

M.Ing. (Electrical And Electronic Engineering) / The feasibility of various alternative methods for obtaining air conditioning in internal combustion vehicles is examined from literature studies. It is concluded that adsorption cooling which utilises the hot exhaust gases appears to be the most promising and the combination zeolite-water is chosen for further research. A synopsis of the state of the art as documented in the literature is given and typical unresolved problems are identified. A description of the basics of adsorption cooling and the properties ofthe material zeolite is elaborated upon. The requirements for a design to be successful is explained. A finite difference computer spreadsheet model is developed to aid in the calculation ofthe heat transfer process that is necessarily part ofthe sorption processes. Laboratory tests on three sorbers of proprietary design are described and the test methods are refined to the point where satisfactory results are obtained. It is concluded from the tests and computer simulations that adsorption cooling as an alternative method of vehicle air conditioning appears a viable proposition, but that further research is required.

The modelling and control method of a vehicle climatronic system, based on MATLAB/SIMULINK, is presented. In order to achieve high modelling accuracy, a developed simulation model library is introduced. The modelling approach is described and the developed models are validated with some of experimental data obtained. The models are nonlinear, independent of fluid type and based on thermo-dynamic principles. Analysis of the cooling circuit modelling and empirical real-time control models are created by using Fuzzy logic controller and Stateflow. Both of control input and output are implemented essentially at original vehicle CAN-Bus system. Feasible digital automatic control strategy basic to fuzzy theory, hardware and software solution are given. The simulation experiment is achieved with the Hardware-in-Loop technology. This control methodology is easily operated and worth applying for any further studies or methods.