Arctic Ocean monitoring with near-real-time data transfer is urgently needed. The harsh and remote conditions constraining year-round observation sites present significant logistical challenges and energy needs for sustained Arctic observations. The Arctic project group is attempting to design a mechanical structure to harvest energy from low-speed current in the Arctic Ocean. An Arctic energy harvesting system that consists of a transverse flux generator, boosted by a nozzle-diffuser-duct, and an American multiblade turbine that drives the generator, are designed in this study. The transverse flux generator is then optimized based on its design parameters and the optimization successfully improves the torque performance of the generator while maintaining the largest power output. The American turbine fits the extreme low-speed current condition (<0.2m/s) well and could support the rotation of the generator. Finally, the article compares the energy harvesting system is compared with the existing ones in the market and demonstrates its superior performance. / Master of Science / Arctic area has great potential and it is beneficial to monitor and do research in the Arctic area. The continuous energy could be a problem. The challenging and isolated conditions that limit the establishment of year-round observation stations pose significant logistical hurdles and energy requirements for continuous Arctic data collection. To address this, the Arctic project team is endeavoring to create a mechanical structure capable of harnessing energy from low-speed currents in the Arctic Ocean.

Achieving energy neutrality has shifted focus towards aeration systems optimization, due to the high energy consumption of aeration processes in modern advanced wastewater treatment plants. The activated sludge wastewater treatment process is dependent on aeration efficiency which supplies the oxygen needed in the treatment process. The process is a complex heterogeneous mixture of microorganisms, bacteria, particles, colloids, natural organic matter, polymers and cations with varying densities, shapes and sizes. These activated sludge parameters have different impacts on aeration efficiency defined by the OTE, % and alpha. Oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE) is the mass of oxygen transferred into the liquid from the mass of air or oxygen supplied, and is expressed as a percentage (%). OTE is the actual operating efficiency of an aeration system. The alpha Factor (α) is the ratio of standard oxygen transfer efficiency at process conditions (αSOTE) to standard oxygen transfer efficiency of clean water (SOTE). It is also referred to as the ratio of process water volumetric mass transfer coefficient to clean water volumetric mass transfer coefficient. The alpha factor accounts for wastewater contaminants (i.e. soap and detergent) which have an adverse effect on oxygen transfer efficiency. Understanding their different impacts and how different treatment technologies affect aeration efficiency will help to optimize and improve aeration efficiency so as to reduce plant operating costs. A pilot scale study of fine pore diffuser fouling and mitigation, quantified by dynamic wet pressure (DWP), oxygen transfer efficiency and alpha measurement were performed at Blue Plains, Washington DC. In the study a mechanical cleaning method, reverse flexing (RF), was used to treat two diffusers (RF1, RF2) to mitigate fouling, while two diffusers were kept as a control with no reverse flexing. A 45 % increase in DWP of the control diffuser after 17 month of operation was observed, an indication of fouling. RF treated diffusers (RF1 and RF2) did not show any significant increase in DWP, and in comparison to the control diffuser prevented a 35 % increase in DWP. Hence, the RF fouling mitigation technique potentially saved blower energy consumption by reducing the pressure burden on the air blower and the blower energy requirement. However, no significant impact of the RF fouling mitigation treatment technique in preventing a decrease in alpha-fouling (𝝰F) of the fine pore diffusers over time of operation was observed. This was because either the RF treatment method maintained wide pore openings after cleaning over time, or a dominant effect of other wastewater characteristics such as the surfactant concentration or particulate COD could have interfered with OTE. Further studies on the impact of wastewater characteristics (i.e., surfactants and particulate COD) and operating conditions on OTE and alpha were carried out in another series of pilot and batch scale tests. In this study, the influence of different wastewater matrices (treatment phases) on oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE) and alpha using full-scale studies at the Blue Plains Treatment Plant was investigated. A strong relationship between the wastewater matrices with oxygen transfer characteristics was established, and as expected increased alphas were observed for the cleanest wastewater matrices (i.e., with highest effluent quality). There was a 46 % increase in alpha as the total COD and surfactant concentrations decreased from 303 to 24 mgCOD/L and 12 to 0.3 mg/L measured as sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) in the nitrification/denitrification effluent with respect to the raw influent. The alpha improvement with respect to the decrease in COD and surfactant concentration suggested the impact of one or more of the wastewater characteristics on OTE and alpha. Batch testing conducted to characterize the mechanistic impact of the wastewater contaminants present in the different wastewater matrices found that the major contaminants influencing OTE and alpha were surfactants and particulate/colloidal material. The volumetric mass transfer coefficient (kLa) measurements from the test also identified surfactant and colloidal COD as the major wastewater contaminants present in the influent and chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT) effluent wastewaters impacting OTE and alpha. Soluble COD was observed to potentially improve OTE and alpha due to its contribution in enhancing the oxygen uptake rate (OUR). Although the indirect positive impact of OUR on alpha observed in this study contradicts some other studies, it shows the need for further investigation of OUR impacts on oxygen transfer. Importantly, the mechanistic characterization and quantitative correlation between wastewater contaminants and aeration efficiency found in this study will help to minimize overdesign with respect to aeration system specification, energy wastage, and hence the cost of operation. This study therefore shows new tools as well as the identification of critical factors impacting OTE and alpha in addition to diffuser fouling. Gas transfer depression caused by surfactants when they accumulate at the gas-liquid interface during the activated sludge wastewater treatment process reduces oxygen mass transfer rates, OTE and alpha which increases energy cost. In order to address the adverse effect of surfactants on OTE and alpha, another study was designed to evaluate 4 different wastewater secondary treatment strategies/technologies that enhances surfactant removal through enhanced biosorption and biodegradation, and to also determine their effect on oxygen transfer and alpha. A series of pilot and batch scale tests were conducted to compare and correlate surfactant removal efficiency and alpha for a) conventional high-rate activated sludge (HRAS), b) optimized HRAS with contactor-stabilization technology (HRAS-CS), c) optimized HRAS bioaugmented (Bioaug) with nitrification sludge (Nit S) and d) optimized bioaugmented HRAS with an anaerobic selector phase technology (An-S) reactor system configuration. The treatment technologies showed surfactant percentage removals of 37, 45, 61 and 87 %, and alphas of 0.37 ±0.01, 0.42 ±0.02, 0.44 ±0.01 and 0.60 ±0.02 for conventional HRAS, HRAS-CS, Bioaug and the An-S reactor system configuration, respectively. The optimized bioaugmented anaerobic selector phase technology showed the highest increased surfactant removal (135 %) through enhanced surfactant biosorption and biodegradation under anaerobic conditions, which also complemented the highest increased alpha (62 %) achieved when compared to the conventional HRAS. This study showed that the optimized bioaugmented anaerobic selector phase reactor system configuration is a promising technology or strategy to minimize the surfactant effects on alpha during the secondary aeration treatment stage / Ph. D.

Thesis (MScEng (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / Please refer to full text to view abstract.

<p>Many flow cases in fluid dynamics face undesirable flow separation due torising static pressure on wall boundaries. This occurs e.g. due to geometry as ina highly curved turbine inlet duct or e.g. on flow control surfaces such as wingtrailing edge flaps within a certain angle of attack range. Here, flow controldevices are often used in order to enhance the flow and delay or even totallyeliminate flow separation. Flow control can e.g. be achieved by using passiveor active vortex generators (VG) that enable momentum mixing in such flows.This thesis focusses on passive VGs, represented by VG vanes that are mountedupright on the surface in wall-bounded flows. They typically have an angle ofincidence to the mean flow and, by that, generate vortex structures that in turnallow for the desired momentum mixing in order to prevent flow separation.A statistical VG model approach, developed by KTH Stockholm and FOI,the Swedish Defence Research Agency, has been evaluated computationally.Such a statistical VG model approach removes the need to build fully resolvedthree-dimensional geometries of VGs in a computational fluid dynamics mesh.Usually, the generation of these fully resolved geometries is rather costly interms of preprocessing and computations. By applying this VG model, thecosts reduce to computations without VG effects included. Nevertheless, theVG model needs to be set up in order to define the modelled VG geometry inan easy and fast preprocessing step. The presented model has shown sensitivityfor parameter variations such as the modelled VG geometry and the VG modellocation in wall-bounded zero pressure gradient and adverse pressure gradientflows on a flat plate, in a diffuser, and on an airfoil with its high-lift systemextracted. It could be proven that the VG model qualitatively describes correcttrends and tendencies for these different applications.</p>

Difusores podem ser empregados para extração de sacarose da cana de açúcar e da beterraba, para a extração de tanino da casca de acácia negra e para extração de óleos vegetais de plantas oleaginosas. Apesar de operarem de forma simples do ponto de vista mecânico e químico, problemas que ocorrem na sua operação comprometem a eficiência de extração. A modelagem, simulação e otimização de difusores de biomassa mostra-se essencial para melhor compreender tais problemas e propor estratégias otimizadas de projeto e operação. Nesse contexto, a tese aqui proposta tem como objetivo principal modelar e simular a operação de um difusor de biomassa de 10 estágios (Biomassa entra pelo estágio 1 e sai do difusor pelo estágio 10. A água de embebição faz o trajeto em contracorrente, i.e. entra pelo estágio 10 e sai pelo estágio 1) para, posteriormente, otimizá-lo mono e multi-objetivamente considerando a possibilidade de conexão entre todos os estágios de extração. No caso da otimização mono-objetivo, no qual uma vazão de embebição de líquido fixa é considerada, o principal objetivo da otimização consiste em maximizar a concentração de soluto no líquido que deixa o difusor a partir de mudanças aleatórias nos coeficientes de conectividade do difusor. Já para a otimização multi-objetivo, a vazão de embebição de líquido que entra no difusor é considerada variável. Sendo assim, a otimização do sistema requer a maximização de dois objetivos simultaneamente (a maximização da concentração de soluto no líquido e minimização da concentração final de soluto na biomassa) a partir de mudanças aleatórias nos coeficientes de conectividade do difusor. Além disso, visto que a minimização de problemas operacionais está relacionada com a monitoração da altura de nível de líquido no leito de fibra, diferentes sinais para detecção de presença de líquido no leito de fibras em um estágio de extração experimental foram testados. Dos resultados de simulação e otimização obtidos, podemos concluir que novas conexões entre os estágios do difusor podem otimizar o processo de extração o que contraria o senso comum segundo o qual as conexões devem ser sequenciais. No caso da otimização mono-objetivo, 82 a 89% do fluido é direcionado para o estágio seguinte ao longo dos estágios de extração (exceto para o estágio 6, no qual esse valor é de 100%). A recirculação do fluido para o mesmo estágio é mais acentuada nos estágios finais (estágios 1 a 4), apresentando o difusor otimizado 14 a 18% de recirculação do fluido para o mesmo estágio nesses estágios enquanto para os demais estágios a recirculação varia entre 0 e 11%. Já para os estágios iniciais (estágios 5, 7, 8 e 9), a recirculação do fluido para o estágio anterior apresenta maior destaque, variando de 6 a 16% enquanto para os demais estágios é de apenas 0 a 2%. O estágio 6, por sua vez, é o único que se conecta exclusivamente com o estágio seguinte. Para a otimização multi-objetivo, resultados similares foram encontrados, sendo que a probabilidade de que 85 a 100% do fluido seja circulada para o estágio seguinte está entre 93 e 99%. Em relação a recirculação para o mesmo estágio, a probabilidade de que de 0 a 15% do fluido seja recirculado varia de 58 a 79% para os estágios 1 a 4, de 49 a 55% para os estágios medianos 5, 6 e 7 e de 60 a 90% para os três últimos estágios (estágios 8, 9 e 10). Para a conexão com o estágio imediatamente anterior, a probabilidade de que de 0 a 15% do fluido seja direcionado para o estágio anterior é maior nos estágios 1, 2, 8 e 9, variando entre 31 e 38%. Para a detecção da presença de líquido no leito de fibras em um estágio de extração, dois tipos de sinais diferentes, condutividade elétrica e radiação infravermelha, foram testados. Os testes foram realizados, em um estágio de extração experimental, primeiramente apenas com água e, em seguida, com bagaço de cana. Os medidores de condutividade mostraram-se estáveis e com repetitividade quando testados com água. Já nos testes realizados com bagaço de cana, o sinal de condutividade mostrou-se insuficiente para a detecção de líquido. Para os medidores de infravermelho testados com água, os mesmos apresentaram alguns sintomas de instabilidade e variabilidade. Quando testados com cana, os medidores de infravermelho também apresentam instabilidade e variâncias distintas que dependem da posição do medidor no difusor e, consequentemente, da compactação do leito de fibra. Infere-se então que um aumento da variância do sinal pode ser um indicativo de um aumento da compactação do leito e, consequentemente, de diminuição da sua permeabilidade. / Diffusers can be used to extract sucrose from sugarcane and sugarbeet, to extract tannin from black acacia bark and to extract oil from oleaginous plants. Although they operate simply from a mechanical and chemical point of view, problems that occur in their operation can compromise the extraction efficiency. The modeling, simulation and optimization of biomass diffusers is essential to better understand such problems and propose optimized strategies for their project and operation. In this context, the main objective of the proposed thesis is to model and simulate the operation of a ten- stage biomass diffuser to later optimize it mono and multi-objectively considering the possibility of connection among all extraction stages. In the case of the mono-objective optimization, in which a fixed liquid imbibition flow rate is considered, the main objective of the optimization is to maximize the concentration of solute in the liquid that leaves the diffuser from random changes in the connectivity coefficients of the diffuser. For the multi-objective optimization, the liquid imbibition flow rate entering the diffuser is considered variable. Therefore, the optimization of the system requires the maximization of two objectives simultaneously (the maximization of the solute concentration in the liquid and minimization of the final solute concentration in the biomass) from random changes in the diffuser connectivity coefficients. In addition, since the minimization of operational problems is related to the monitoring of liquid level height in the fiber bed, different types of signals for level measurement were tested on an experimental extraction stage. From the simulation and optimization results, we can conclude that new connections among the stages of the diffuser can optimize the extraction process which runs counter to common sense that connections must be sequential. In the case of the mono-objective optimization, 82 to 89% of the fluid is directed to the next stage along the extraction stages (except for stage 6, in which this value is 100%). The recirculation of the fluid to the same stage is more pronounced in the final stages (stages 1 to 4), with the optimized diffuser having 14 to 18% of fluid recirculation for the same stage in these stages while for the remaining stages the recirculation varies between 0 and 11%. For the initial stages (stages 5, 7, 8 and 9), fluid recirculation to the previous stage is more prominent, varying from 6 to 16% while for the remaining stages it is only 0 to 2%. Stage 6, in turn, is the only one that connects only to the next stage. For the multi-objective optimization, similar results were found, with the probability of 85 to 100% of the fluid being circulated to the next stage being between 93 and 99%. Regarding recirculation to the same stage, the probability of 0 to 15% of the fluid being recirculated varies from 58 to 79% for stages 1 to 4, from 49 to 55% for the medium stages 5, 6 and 7 and from 60 to 90% for the last three stages (stages 8, 9 and 10). For the connection to the immediately preceding stage, the probability that 0 to 15% of the fluid being directed to the previous stage is greater in stages 1, 2, 8 and 9, ranging from 31 to 38%. For liquid level measurement, two different types of signals, electrical conductivity and infrared radiation were tested. The tests were first carried out only with water and then with sugarcane bagasse. Conductivity meters were stable and repeatable when tested with water. In the tests performed with sugarcane bagasse, the conductivity signal was insufficient for level measurement. For water-tested infrared meters, they have shown some instability symptoms and variability. When tested with cane, the infrared meters exhibit instability and distinct variances that depend on the position of the meter in the diffuser and, consequently, bed compactation. It can be then inferred that an increase in the signal variance can be also an indicative of increased bed compactation and, consequently, decreased bed permeability.

Unter den Methoden zur Suche nach Neutrino Ereignissen in IceCube versprechen Suchen nach Teilchenschauern, sogenannten Kaskaden eine gute Energieauflösung und einen verhätlnismässig geringen atmosphärischen Untergrund. Dadurch erreichen solche Suchen eine hohe Sensitivität für einen extraterrestrischen Neutrino Fluss. Bisher beschränkte sich die Suche nach solchen Ereignissen auf solche in einer inneren Region des IceCube Detektors. Das Detektorvolumen am Rand wurde bisher benutzt um den Untergrund von einfallenden atmosphärischen Muonen zu Unterdrücken. Diese Dissertation präsentiert eine Analyse von 2 Jahren IceCube Daten und demonstriert die Möglichkeit, diese Veto Region für die Suche nach kaskadenartigen Ereignissen zu nutzen. Dadurch wird das nutzbare Detektorvolumen um « 80% vergrößert und die Statistik im hochenergetischen Bereich des Neutrino Spektrums durch das Hinzufügen von 18 Neutrino Kandidaten im Energiebereich von 34 - 578 TeV erhöht. Das Ergebnis ist in Übereinstimmung mit dem etablierten Nachweis eines extraterrestrischen Neutrino Flusses, eine reine Untergrund Hypothese kan mit 2.7 sigma verworfen werden und die Daten favorisieren einen extraterrestrischen Neutrino Fluss mit einem ungebrochen Potenzgesetz mit einem Index von γ ^ 2.50+-0.28 in guter Übereinstimmung mit bisherigen Ergebnissen von IceCube. / Among the analysis strategies used in IceCube, searches for neutrinoinduced particle showers, so called cascades, provide good energy resolution and a relative low atmospheric background. Therefore, they provide large sensitivity to the extraterrestrial neutrino flux. Previously, these searches have been constrained to neutrino interactions in a center region of the instrumented volume. The volume at the border and surrounding the detector was needed to veto the incident atmospheric muon background. This dissertation presents an analysis of two years of IceCube data and demonstrates the feasibility of using the veto region for cascade searches. This increases the usable detector volume by « 80% and improves the statistic in the high-energy tail of the neutrino spectrum by adding 18 neutrino candidates in the energy range from 34 to 576 TeV. The result is supports the established evidence for the extraterrestrial neutrino flux by rejecting the pure atmospheric background hypothesis at the 2.7 sigma level, the data prefers an extraterrestrial neutrino flux with a featureless power law with an index of γ^2.50+-0.28 well in agreement with previous IceCube results.

La thèse résume la recherche sur le fonctionnement et l’écoulement autour d’une éolienne caréné à deux rotors. Le placement d’une turbine à l’entrée d’un canal divergent permet d’augmenter le débit massique à travers le rotor. Afin de mieux tirer parti de l’augmentation de la vitesse du vent à l’entrée du diffuseur, il a été décidé d’examiner la possibilité de placer un deuxième rotor, tournant dans le sens opposé, dans cette zone.L'étude menée combinait plusieurs voies de recherche différentes, y compris les méthodes de la mécanique des fluides numérique (CFD) et des études expérimentales. Cela a permis de mieux comprendre la nature de l'écoulement et du fonctionnement d'une éolienne à deux rotors. Des recherches expérimentales ont été menées dans la soufflerie de l’Institut de Turbomachinerie de l’Ecole Polytechnique de Lodz (Pologne). Une série de mesures de systèmes d'éoliennes divers, avec et sans carénage, à un et deux rotors, a été réalisée. Les résultats recueillis ont permis de confirmer que le carénage pouvait augmenter considérablement (même deux fois) l'efficacité du rotor. Cependant, les forces aérodynamiques et la vitesse de rotation augmentent également. Cet inconvénient peut être partiellement résolu en utilisant un deuxième rotor et en répartissant les charges aérodynamiques sur deux étages de turbine.Une partie importante de l'étude était les simulations numériques. Ils ont permis de préciser la nature et les paramètres de l'écoulement et d'estimer leur impact sur les performances de l'éolienne. Deux modèles numériques différents ont été développés:• Modèle rotor complet (anglais : Fully-resolved Rotor Model, FRM): modèle URANS dans ANSYS CFX, basé sur la discrétisation de la géométrie complète du rotor; ce modèle a été utilisé pour l'analyse de l’écoulement,• Modèle hybride CFD-BET (théorie de l’élément de pâle): modèle RANS dans ANSYS Fluent, dans lequel le rotor est représenté par les termes source dans les équations de Navier-Stokes, déterminés par un code interne; ce modèle a été utilisé pour évaluer les performances de différentes configurations d'éoliennes.Au cours de la recherche, une correction empirique interne de la perte d’extrémité de la pâle (anglais : tip loss correction) a été proposée, en tenant compte de l’influence du diffuseur. L’étude réalisée a permis d’observer, entre autres, que le déplacement du rotor en aval vers la sortie du diffuseur pouvait entraîner une réduction de la vitesse du vent à travers le rotor en amont, placé à l’entrée du diffuseur, et une diminution de la puissance globale du système. / Doctoral dissertation summarizes the research on the functioning and flow around a two-stage, shrouded wind turbine. Placing the turbine at the inlet of a diverging channel allows to increase the mass flow rate of the flow through the rotor. To better take advantage of the increase in wind speed at the diffuser inlet, it was decided to examine the possibility of placing a second rotor in this area, with the opposite direction of rotation.The conducted study combined several different research paths, including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods and experimental studies. This allowed for a more refined understanding of the nature of the flow and operation of a wind turbine with two rotors. Experimental research was carried out in the IMP TUL wind tunnel. A series of measurements of various turbine systems with and without shroud, with single- and double-rotor wind turbine were made. The collected results allowed to confirm that the shrouding can significantly (even twice) increase the efficiency of the rotor. However, aerodynamic forces and rotational speed also increase. This disadvantage can be partially addressed by using a second rotor and distributing aerodynamic loads to two turbine stages.An important part of the study were numerical simulations. They allowed to specify in more detail the nature and parameters of the flow and to estimate their impact on the performance of the wind turbine. Two different numerical models were developed:• Fully-resolved Rotor Model: URANS model in ANSYS CFX, based on discretising the entire geometry of the rotor, used for the flow analysis,• Hybrid model CFD-BET (Blade-Element Theory): RANS model in ANSYS Fluent, in which the rotor is represented by source terms in the Navier-Stokes equations, determined by an in-house code; the model was used to evaluate the performance of different wind turbine configurations.In the course of the research an in-house, empirical tip loss correction was proposed, taking into account the influence of the diffuser. The performed study permitted to observe, among others, that moving the rear rotor towards the outlet of the diffuser may result in a reduction of the wind speed through the front rotor, placed at the inlet to the diffuser, and a decrease in the overall system power.

The separating turbulent flow in a plane asymmetric diffuser with 8.5 degrees opening angle is investigated experimentally and computationally. The considered flow case is suitable for fundamental studies of separation, separation control and turbulence modelling. The flow case has been studied in a specially designed wind-tunnel under well controlled conditions. The average velocity and fluctuation fields have been mapped out with stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV). Knowledge of all velocity components allows the study of several quantities of interest in turbulence modelling such as the turbulence kinetic energy, the turbulence anisotropy tensor and the turbulence production rate tensor. Pressures are measured through the diffuser. The measured data will form a reference database which can be used for evaluation of turbulence models and other computational investigations. Time-resolved stereoscopic PIV is used in an investigation of turbulence structures in the flow and their temporal evolution. A comparative study is made where the measured turbulence data are used to evaluate an explicit algebraic Reynolds stress turbulence model (EARSM). A discussion regarding the underlying reasons for the discrepancies found between the experimental and the model results is made. A model for investigations of separation suppression by means of vortex generating devices is presented together with results from the model in the plane asymmetric diffuser geometry. A short article on the importance of negative production-rates of turbulent kinetic energy for the reverse flow region in separated flows is presented. A detailed description of the experimental setup and PIV measurement procedures is given in a technical report. / QC 20100923

This thesis examines methods for designing and analyzing kinetic turbines based on blade element momentum (BEM) theory and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The underlying goal of the work was to assess the potential augmentation of power production associated with enclosing the turbine in an expanding duct. Thus, a comparison of the potential performance of ducted and non-ducted turbines was carried out. This required de ning optimal turbine performance for both concepts. BEM is the typical tool used for turbine optimization and is very well established in the context of wind turbine design. BEM was suitable for conventional turbines, but could not account for the influence of ducts, and no established methodology for designing ducted turbines could be found in the literature. Thus, methods were established to design and analyze ducted turbines based on an extended version of BEM (with CFD-derived coe cients), and based on CFD simulation. Additional complications arise in designing tidal turbines because traditional techniques for kinetic turbine design have been established for wind turbines, which are similar in their principle of operation but are driven by flows with inherently different boundary conditions than tidal currents. The major difference is that tidal flows are bounded by the ocean floor, the water surface and channel walls. Thus, analytical and CFD-based methods were established to account for the effects of these boundaries (called blockage effects) on the optimal design and performance of turbines. Additionally, tidal flows are driven by changes in the water surface height in the ocean and their velocity is limited by viscous effects. Turbines introduced into a tidal flow increase the total drag in the system and reduce the total flow in a region (e.g. a tidal channel). An analytical method to account for this was taken from the eld of tidal resource assessment, and along with the methods to account for ducts and blockage effects, was incorporated into a rotor optimization framework. It was found that the non-ducted turbine can produce more power per installed device frontal area and can be operated to induce a lesser reduction to the flow through a given tidal channel for a given level of power production. It was also found that by optimizing turbines for array con gurations that occupy a large portion of the cross sectional area of a given tidal channel (i.e. tidal fences), the per-device power can be improved signi cantly compared to a sparse-array scenario. For turbines occupying 50% of a channel cross section, the predicted power improves is by a factor of three. Thus, it has been recommended that future work focus on analyzing such a strategy in more detail. / Graduate

Resumo: A compreensão do escoamento em válvulas de compressores herméticos alternativos é de fundamental importância para introduzir modificações no projeto delas de maneira a aumentar a performance dos compressores, e por fim, dos ciclos de refrigeração. A válvula do compressor é um dispositivo ímpar, umas vez que seu funcionamento se dá pela ação da pressão exercida pelo escoamento, caracterizando um problema de forte interação fluido- estrutura. O uso da modelagem numérica através das ferramentas da mecânica dos fluidos computacional (CFD) tem se destacado como a alternativa mais dinâmica para o estudo do fenômeno. O trabalho desenvolvido foi voltado para o estudo numérico do escoamento através do difusor radial, o qual é um modelo simplificado da válvula, com o emprego do Método da Fronteira Imersa com Modelo Físico Virtual para a modelagem do disco superior do difusor (palheta). O ponto forte desta metodologia é que a representação de regiões sólidas é feita pelo cálculo de um campo de força, o qual é introduzido nas equações das células na vizinhança do sólido. Este procedimento dispensa o uso de malhas que se adaptam ao corpo, possibilitando o uso de malhas cartesianas convencionas para modelar geometrias complexas e móveis. A metodologia foi acoplada com a solução das equações governantes do escoamento em coordenadas cilíndricas através do Método dos Volumes Finitos. Inicialmente, a metodologia foi validada, utilizando como dados de referência resultados provenientes de estudos numéricos e experimentais, e foi avaliada a influência dos parâmetros do procedimento na qualidade final dos resultados. Na segunda etapa foram desenvolvidos estudos preliminares referentes ao movimento do disco superior, com a imposição artificial dos processos de abertura e fechamento da válvula. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que a metodologia adotada ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The fully understanding of the flow through automatic valves of alternative hermetic compressors is essentiall to introduce modifications in its project aiming the improvement of the compressor performance and, also, the refrigeration cycle. The compressor valve is a singular device, once its operation is ruled by the flow pressure, characterizing a case with a strong fluid-structure interaction. The using of numerical tools trough the methods of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has gained especial attention due to its flexibility to study the phenomenon. The present work was developed to study numerically the flow through the radial diffuser, which is a simplified model of the valve, with the employment of the Immersed Boundary Method with Virtual Physical Model to modeling the superior disk (valve reed). The main advantage of this methodology is that the modeling of solid boundaries is performed with the calculus of a force field, which is introduced in the cells equations nearby the solid. This procedure dispenses the using of body-fitted meshes, enabling the adoption of conventional Cartesian meshes to model complex and moving geometries. The methodology was coupled with the solution of the governing equations in cylindrical coordinates though the Finite Volume Method. Firstly, the methodology was validated, confronting the results obtained with data from numerical and experimental studies, where the influence of the main parameters in the quality of the final results was evaluated. In the second step were developed preliminary studies concerning the movement of the superior disk, whose opening and closing movements were artificially imposed. The results obtained showed that the adopted methodology is quit promising and flexible, and can be employed in more refined studies to the comprehension of the flow through the valve regarding the fluid-structure interaction that rules the problem / Orientador: José Luiz Gasche / Coorientador: Júlio Militzer / Banca: Cassio Roberto Macedo Maia / Banca: Elie Luis Martinez Padilla / Mestre