A model has been developed which simulates a system consisting of a horizontal and vertical ground-coupled heat exchanger connected in parallel to the same heat pump. The model was used in computer simulations to investigate how the annual minimum and mean fluid temperatures at the heat pump varied as several parameters of the combined system were changed. A comparison was also made between different control settings for fluid flow rate distribution between the two exchangers. For the case when the flow rate distribution was not controlled, the effect of viscosity differences between a colder and warmer exchanger was investigated. The short term effects of letting the vertical heat source rest during the warm summer months was then tested. Lastly, the results of the model was compared to a simple 'rule of thumb' that have been used in the industry for this kind of combined system. The results show that using a combined system might not always result in increased performance, if the previously existing exchanger is a vertical ground-coupled heat exchanger. The effects of viscosity differences on the flow distribution seems to be negligible, especially for high net flows. Controlling the fluid flow rates seems to only be worth the effort if the the pipe lengths of the two combined exchangers differ heavily. Letting the vertical ground-coupled heat exchanger rest during summer was shown to in some cases yield an increased short-term performance in addition to the already known positive long term effects. The rule of thumb was shown to recommend smaller dimensions for combination systems than the more realistic analytical model.

Γείωση είναι η αγώγιμη σύνδεση ενός σημείου κάποιου κυκλώματος ή ενός μη-ρευματοφόρου μεταλλικού αντικειμένου μιας εγκατάστασης με το έδαφος, με σκοπό να αποκτήσουν το ίδιο δυναμικό με τη γη, το οποίο θεωρείται –κατά σύμβαση- ίσο με μηδέν. Σκοπός ενός συστήματος γείωσης είναι να μεταφέρει και να διαχέει το ρεύμα σφάλματος στη γη, εμφανίζοντας τη μικρότερη δυνατή αντίσταση στη διέλευση του ρεύματος στον ελάχιστο δυνατό χρόνο. Με αυτόν τον τρόπο ελαττώνεται ο κίνδυνος ηλεκτροπληξίας και παρέχεται ασφάλεια κατά την εκδήλωση σφάλματος ή σε περίπτωση κεραυνού, τόσο για τους χρήστες όσο και για τον εξοπλισμό της ηλεκτρολογικής εγκατάστασης. Αποτελεί απαραίτητο τμήμα των ηλεκτρικών εγκαταστάσεων για να εξασφαλιστεί η σωστή λειτουργία τους αλλά και η ποιότητα της παρεχόμενης ηλεκτρικής ισχύος. Τέλος παρέχει ένα δυναμικό αναφοράς για τα ηλεκτρικά σήματα στον τομέα των τηλεπικοινωνιών. Για να επιτευχθούν οι παραπάνω στόχοι πρέπει η αντίσταση γείωσης να έχει πολύ χαμηλή τιμή. Υπάρχουν περιπτώσεις που είναι αδύνατη η τοποθέτηση περισσοτέρων του ενός ηλεκτροδίου διότι η εργασία είναι αρκετά δαπανηρή , είτε λόγω της δομής του εδάφους, είτε λόγω του ανεπαρκή χώρου. Μια εναλλακτική μέθοδος που έχει αναπτυχθεί είναι η χρήση βελτιωτικών υλικών γείωσης γύρω από τα ηλεκτρόδια. Στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία τοποθετήθηκαν ηλεκτρόδια γείωσης στο χώρο του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών και έγινε μέτρηση των αντιστάσεων τους, με σκοπό τη μελέτη της συμπεριφοράς διαφόρων βελτιωτικών υλικών γείωσης σε συνάρτηση με το χρόνο και τις περιβαλλοντικές συνθήκες. Ειδικότερα η διπλωματική αυτή εργασία αποτελείται από τα εξής κεφάλαια: Στο κεφάλαιο 1 πραγματοποιείται μια αναφορά στην ορολογία και στις βασικές αρχές που διέπουν τα συστήματα γείωσης. Ακόμη γίνεται αναφορά στα είδη των ηλεκτροδίων γείωσης και στις διατάξεις που υπάρχουν. Δίνεται επίσης ο ορισμός της αντίστασης γείωσης και παρουσιάζονται οι μέθοδοι μέτρησης της τιμής της.Στο κεφάλαιο 2 περιγράφεται η έννοια και ο ορισμός της ειδικής αντίστασης εδάφους. Στην συνέχεια παρουσιάζονται οι παράγοντες που την ειδική αντίσταση επηρεάζουν και γίνεται αναφορά στους τρόπους μέτρησης της. Τέλος αναφέρονται τρόποι διόρθωσης της αντίστασης γείωσης σε περίπτωση που οι τιμές τις είναι εκτός των επιτρεπτών ορίων. Στο κεφάλαιο 3 γίνεται αναφορά στα βελτιωτικά υλικά γειώσεων και στις βασικές αρχές που τα διέπουν. Επίσης παρουσιάζεται το βελτιωτικό που χρησιμοποιήθηκε στην παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία. Στο κεφάλαιο 4 αναφερόμαστε στα όρια ασφάλειας που πρέπει να πληροί ένα σύστημα γείωσης. Περιγράφεται η αντίσταση του ανθρώπινου σώματος καθώς και οι παράγοντες που επιδρούν στην περίπτωση ηλεκτροπληξίας. Τέλος, με την βοήθεια των ισοδύναμων κυκλωμάτων κατά την διάρκεια του βραχυκυκλώματος δίνονται τα επιτρεπτά όρια τάσης επαφής και βηματικής τάσης. Στο κεφάλαιο 5 περιγράφεται η διεξαγωγή του πειράματος με αναφορά στην εγκατάσταση και στην διαδικασία μέτρησης των ηλεκτροδίων. Στην συνέχεια γίνεται επεξεργασία των μετρήσεων με χρήση διαγραμμάτων. Τελικά καταλήγουμε σε χρήσιμα συμπεράσματα και γίνονται κάποιες προτάσεις για προέκταση της συγκεκριμένης διπλωματικής εργασίας. Τέλος, η διπλωματική εργασία ολοκληρώνεται με το Παράρτημα, στο οποίο δίνονται αναλυτικά οι πίνακες με τα μετεωρολογικά δεδομένα την περίοδο που πάρθηκαν οι μετρήσεις. / Grounding is the conductive connection of a circuit’s point, or of a non-current carrying metallic object of an installation to the ground, in order to obtain the same potential as the earth, which is, by convention, equal to zero. The objective of a grounding system is to transfer and dissipate the fault current to earth, showing the least possible resistance to the passage of current to the minimum possible time. Thereby decreasing the risk of electric shock and provide security in the event of error or in case of lightning, both for users and for the installation of electrical equipment. Finally, provides a reference potential for the electrical signals in the telecommunications sector. To achieve these objectives, the grounding resistance should have very low value. There are cases where it is impossible to insert more than one electrode because the process is quite expensive, either because of the structure of the soil, either because of insufficient space. An alternative method that has been developed is the use of ground enhancing compounds around the ground electrodes. In this diploma thesis grounding electrodes placed in the university of Patras and their resistance was measured, with the aim of studding the behavior of various materials ground improvement in relation to time and environmental conditions. The earthing system is an essential part of power networks, is required for correct operation of the electricity supply network and to ensure good power quality. Specifically this thesis consists of the following chapters: Chapter 1 includes a reference to the terminology and basic principles of grounding systems. Also is referring to the existing types of grounding electrodes and their arrangements. It also gives the definition of ground resistance and presents methods of measuring its value. Chapter 2 describes the concept and definition of soil resistivity. Then follow the factors that affect resistivity and are mentioned ways of measurement. Finally it is mentioned the way of improving the ground resistance if the measured values are unacceptable. Chapter 3 refers to the ground improvement materials and their principles. Also it is presented the ground enhancing compound which was used in this diploma thesis. Chapter 4 is referring to the safety limits of a grounding system. Therefore is described the resistance of the human body and the affecting in case of electric shock. Finally, with the help of equivalent circuits during short circuit the permissible values of touch and step voltages. Chapter 5 describes to the experiment procedure referring to the installation and the process of the measurements. Then follows the processing of the measurements with diagrams. Eventually we arrive at useful conclusions and made some suggestions for extension of this thesis.Finally, in the Appendix there are the meteorological data for the months during which the experiment took place.

Baigiamajame magistro darbe kuriamas dviejų polių įgilinimo metu atsirandančių grunto masyvo deformacijų fizinis modelis, įvertinus užsienio šalių patirtį šioje srityje. Išnagrinėti pagrindiniai principai, kuriais remiantis buvo sudarytas fizinis modelis moreniniuose gruntuose. Pateikta eksperimentinės aikštelės fizinė geografinė padėtis, geologinė litologinė sandara, grunto fizikinės ir mechaninės savybės, hidrogeologinės sąlygos, modelio sudarymo metodika, laboratorinių bei lauko bandymų rezultatų analizė. Įvertinus teorinius ir praktiškai gautus fizinio modelio aspektus, pateikiamos baigiamojo darbo išvados ir siūlymai. / The thesis developed a two-pile įgilinimo the resulting array of soil physical deformation model, the assessment of foreign experience in this field. The main principles, which were drawn up in a physical model of morene soil. Submitted to the experimental site physical geographical location, geological lotological structure, soil physical mechanical characteristics, hydrogeological conditions, design methodologies, laboratory and field test results of the analysis. The assessment of the theoretical and practical aspects of the model obtained by physical, the conclusions and suggestions. The work consists of three parts: introduction, World of impact and interaction of soil physical models for review, installed by vibro pile and soil interaction physical model, the theoretical pile and soil interaction model, conclusions, references.

The problem of sensing a medium by several sensors and retrieving interesting features is a very general one. The basic framework of the problem is generally the same for applications from MRI, tomography, Radar SAR imaging to subsurface imaging, even though the data acquisition processes, sensing geometries and sensed properties are different. In this thesis we introduced a new perspective to the problem of remote sensing and information retrieval by studying the problem of subsurface imaging using GPR and seismic sensors. We have shown that if the sensed medium is sparse in some domain then it can be imaged using many fewer measurements than required by the standard methods. This leads to much lower data acquisition times and better images representing the medium. We have used the ideas from Compressive Sensing, which show that a small number of random measurements about a signal is sufficient to completely characterize it, if the signal is sparse or compressible in some domain. Although we have applied our ideas to the subsurface imaging problem, our results are general and can be extended to other remote sensing applications. A second objective in remote sensing is information retrieval which involves searching for important features in the computed image of the medium. In this thesis we focus on detecting buried structures like pipes, and tunnels in computed GPR or seismic images. The problem of finding these structures in high clutter and noise conditions, and finding them faster than the standard shape detecting methods like the Hough transform is analyzed. One of the most important contributions of this thesis is, where the sensing and the information retrieval stages are unified in a single framework using compressive sensing. Instead of taking lots of standard measurements to compute the image of the medium and search the necessary information in the computed image, a much smaller number of measurements as random projections are taken. The data acquisition and information retrieval stages are unified by using a data model dictionary that connects the information to the sensor data.

Thesis (M.Sc. Environmental Science)--University of Waikato, 2008. / Title from PDF cover (viewed April 24, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-147)

Nonlinear dynamic analysis is a required step in seismic performance evaluation of many structures. Performing such an analysis requires input ground motions, which are often obtained through simulations, due to the lack of sufficient records representing a given scenario. As seismic ground motions are characterized by time-varying amplitude and frequency content, and the response of nonlinear structures is sensitive to the temporal variations in the seismic energy input, ground motion non-stationarities should be taken into account in simulations. This paper describes a nonparametric approach for modeling and prediction of non-stationary ground motions. Using Relevance Vector Machines, a regression model which takes as input a set of seismic predictors, and produces as output the expected evolutionary power spectral density, conditioned on the predictors. A demonstrative example is presented, where recorded and predicted ground motions are compared in time, frequency, and time-frequency domains. Analysis results indicate reasonable match between the recorded and predicted quantities.

A study has been performed that investigates the variation of iron content in groundwater. The study was initiated by Midvatten AB, which noticed that the iron content in groundwater samples can vary greatly over small distances. The purpose of this study was to geochemically and geohydrologically determine the factors that influence the content of iron and manganese in groundwater from a selection of eskers in Dalarna, and determine how to best sample groundwater with the method used by Midvatten AB. An evaluation was made of how the vertical variation in soil material, water composition, pumping time and pipe material affects the content of iron in groundwater. Piper diagrams were used to study the relationship between the chemical composition of the groundwater and the content of iron and manganese in groundwater samples from the studied areas. The groundwater from the studied areas was then classified in the Piper diagrams, according to the content of the major ions. Correlations were then studied between the classification and depth below groundwater table, depth below ground surface, pH, iron- and manganese content. Field samples were collected from Lennheden in order to investigate the effect of vertical variations of soil material, pumping time and pipe material on the content of iron and manganese. This was also performed to evaluate the best way of sampling groundwater. The groundwater was sampled from a steel pipe and a plastic pipe. Redox potential, pH, dissolved oxygen, iron content, temperature in groundwater, turbidity and conductivity were measured for different depths and pumping times in field. Also a groundwater sample from every sampling depth was sent to a laboratory for analysis. Diagrams and correlation tables were used to analyze these results. No correlation between iron and the major ions in groundwater was found in the Piper diagrams, but the content of manganese in groundwater had a tendency to increase with increasing alkalinity. The results from sampling groundwater showed that the average content of iron in groundwater was 0,11 mg/l from the steel pipe and 0,01 mg/l from the plastic pipe. Turbidity has the greatest effect on the analyzed content of iron in groundwater, thus the turbidity needs to be zero while sampling. A suggestion is that while investigating groundwater quality in large areas, iron pipes can be used. When the best place is located, plastic pipes can be used when the iron content needs to be investigated in detail. / Då företaget Midvatten AB har märkt att järnhalten vid provtagning av grundvattnet kan variera stort på små områden har en studie av järnhaltens variation i grundvattnet utförts. Syftet var att geokemiskt och geohydrologiskt bestämma de faktorer som påverkar järn- och manganhalten i grundvattnet i ett urval isälvsavlagringar i Dalarna, samt att bestämma hur man bäst ska provta grundvatten med Midvattens AB:s provtagningsmetodik. Studien skulle då utvärdera hur de vertikala variationerna i jordmaterial, vattensammansättning, pumptid och hur rörmaterialet påverkar järn- och manganhalten i uppumpat grundvatten. För att studera sambandet mellan den kemiska sammansättningen i grundvattnet och järn- och manganhalten analyserades flera tidigare insamlade data på grundvattenprov från de studerade lokalerna i Piperdiagram. I Piperdiagrammet klassificerades grundvattenproverna till en hydrokemisk typ med hjälp av sammansättningen av de vanligaste jonerna. Samband söktes mellan klassningen av grundvattenproverna och det uttagna provets djup under grundvattenytan, det uttagna provets djup under markytan, pH, järn- och manganhalt i brunnen. Vid undersökning av hur de vertikala variationerna i grundvattnet, pumptiden och rörmaterialet påverkade järnhalten i grundvattnet togs flera grundvattenprover i fält i Lennheden. Detta gjordes även för att utvärdera bästa tillvägagångssätt vid provtagning av grundvattnet. Grundvattnet pumpades upp i vardera ett stålrör och ett plaströr. Redoxpotential, pH, syrgashalt, järnhalt, temperatur i vattnet, turbiditet och konduktivitet mättes vid olika djup och pumptider. Prov för varje provtagningspunkt skickades in till laboratorium för analys. Resultaten av dessa analyser undersöktes därefter i diagram och korrelationstabeller. I Piperdiagrammen märktes inget samband mellan järn och grundvattnets vanligaste joner, men manganhalten tenderade att öka med ökad alkalinitet. När grundvattnet provtogs i fält var medelhalten på järn 0,11 mg/l från ett stålrör och 0,01 mg/l från ett plaströr. Det tyder på att stålröret bidrog till en högre järnhalt i grundvattnet. Den parameter (förutom stålröret) som visade störst påverkan på analysresultatet av järn i laboratorium var turbiditeten. Således behöver turbiditeten i fält vara noll vid provtagning av järn till laboratorium. Förslagsvis kan stålrör användas vid övergripande undersökning av grundvattenkvalité. Plaströr kan sedan användas vid detaljerad undersökning av järnhalten i grundvattnet när bästa plats valts.

The sustainability of air transport relies on proper and timely aircraft ground handling. Lack of manpower and current ground handling industry conditions makes innovation and automation the only way to support existing growth rates. This research presents the state of the art of aircraft ground handling at airports, identifying the challenges to overcome in building safe, efficient and environmental friendly automated ground operations. The greatest opportunity lies with automated docking of ground support equipment to aircraft, with further autonomous vehicles moving around the aircraft and automated systems within the aircraft later on. The problem formulation for resources assignment for ground handling in a fully automated environment is undertaken. On-line solutions for the fleet assignment problem are proposed and applied to an airport case. / La durabilité du transport aérien est basée sur le bon déroulement de la manutention des avions. Le manque de main d’œuvre et les conditions existantes sur l’industrie de la manutention au sol fait que l’innovation et l’automatisation sont la seule façon de maintenir le rythme de croissance actuel. Cette recherche présente l’état de l’art de la manutention au sol des avions, identifie les défis à résoudre pour parvenir à des opérations au sol sécurisées, efficaces et respectueuses de l’environnement. La meilleure opportunité est dans l’accostage automatique des matériels au sol à l’avion, avec des véhicules autonomes qui vont évoluer autour de l’avion et des systèmes automatisés dans l’avion lui-même. La formulation du problème pour l’allocation des ressources pour la manutention au sol des avions dans le cadre totalement automatisé est entreprise. Des solutions en ligne pour le problème d’assignation des flottes sont proposées et appliquées dans un aéroport.

The diploma thesis is concerning the A-SMGCS, surveillance technolgies, data fusion technologies and complex system providing identification of mobiles and aircraft on aerodrome ground. Describing architecture of A-SMGCS on Praha-Ruzyne airport and giving information about ANS procedures with A-SMGCS. Including Cost-Benefit analysis about instalation of automatic systems for localization and identification of mobiles and aircraft on aerodrome ground.

Prediction and control methodologies for ground deformation due to underground mining (commonly referred to as mine subsidence) provide engineers with the means to minimize negative effects on the surface. Due to the complexity of subsidence-related movements, numerous techniques exist for predicting mine subsidence behavior. This thesis focuses on the development, implementation, and validation of numerous enhanced subsidence prediction methodologies. To facilitate implementation and validation, the improved methodologies have been incorporated into the Surface Deformation Prediction System (SDPS), a computer program based primarily on the influence function method for subsidence prediction. The methodologies include dynamic subsidence prediction, alternative model calibration capability, and enhanced risk-based damage assessment. Also, the influence function method is further validated using measured case study data. In addition to discussion of previous research for each of the enhanced methodologies, a significant amount of background information on subsidence and subsidence-related topics is provided. The results of the research presented in this thesis are expected to benefit the mining industry, as well as initiate ideas for future research. / Master of Science