This thesis is concerned with Dynamic Economic Dispatch (DED) problems, in particular in the context of the current and future needs of the electrical power system in the State of Kuwait. General Economic Dispatch (ED) issues are addressed, under both static and dynamic conditions, with valve-point effects accounted for. Improvements have been achieved in terms of lower fuel costs, but also more efficient and reliable simulation algorithms. The existing ED/DED models have been improved in various ways and enhanced by developing and incorporating two renewable energy sources; namely wind energy and solar energy. These two have been identified as most relevant to the power system investigated. The models developed are general and can be adjusted to represent many practical systems. The Economic Dispatch problem had been formulated and solved as a constrained optimisation and a particular technique selected for this purpose – not explored before – was a Pattern Search (PS) algorithm. For illustrative purposes, the proposed PS technique had been applied to various test systems to validate its effectiveness. Furthermore, convergence characteristics and robustness of the method had been assessed through comparison with results reported in literature. The PS technique was found to be very competitive in terms of its overall performance. Variations of the technique have also been explored, in particular a hybrid formulation exploiting Genetic Algorithm (GA), Pattern Search (PS) and Sequential Quadratic Programming, and advantages of such a combined technique reported. A DED model for the West Doha Power Station (WDPS) in Kuwait has been developed and the penetration of renewable energy resources to this model has been discussed. The DED model was then solved using the PS method developed in this thesis to achieve the optimal dispatch with the aim to minimise fuel costs in WDPS. Considerable potential savings in electric power production of WDPS have been identified and thus the benefits of deploying renewable energy in Kuwaiti electric system demonstrated.

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo disponibilizar metodologia para o projeto de tratamento de esgoto sanitário através de disposição oceânica com utilização de emissário submarino, para localidades de pequeno porte. Também apresenta metodologia simplificada para obtenção de alguns dados oceanográficos necessários, na perspectiva de atender aos administradores dessas pequenas prefeituras envolvidas nas questões de atendimento de sua população quanto aos serviços de tratamento dos esgotos sanitários. Esses municípios, por serem pequenos e em país em desenvolvimento, carecem de recursos financeiros para as soluções convencionais de tratamento de esgotos sanitários. O trabalho contém uma revisão da bibliografia técnica relativa ao processo objeto deste estudo, não só referente ao projeto hidráulico como também à estabilidade física da tubulação do emissário assentada no leito do mar. Julgou-se necessário a realização, deste trabalho depois que se verificou que a implantação de emissários submarinos com diâmetros até da ordem de 300 mm, em geral tem seus custos inferiores aos dos sistemas convencionais. / This paper aims to provide a simplified methodology for the treatment design of sewage disposal through the use of oceanic outfall locations for small towns. It also features simplified methodology for obtaining oceanographic data needed for those small municipalities management. As these cities are usually on a development phase and have restricted resources to invest on its needs, the designed system becomes very attractive due to its low capital requirement. This work includes a technical review on the subject of this case study, not only regarding the water issues but also related to its physical stability of the outfall pipe at the bottom of the sea.It was felt necessary to organize this work after it was found that the introduction of submarine outfalls with diameters up to around 300 mm, has its costs below those of conventional systems. The most important result from this work is the competitiveness conclusion of the required implementation investment of submarine outfalls, with diameters up to 300 mm.

Multiphase flow is the simultaneous flow of two or more phases, in direct contact, and is important in the oil industry, e.g. in production wells, in sub-sea pipelines and during the drilling of wells. The behaviour of the flow will depend on the properties of the constituent phases, the flow velocities and volume fractions of the phases and the geometry of the system. In solids-in-liquid flows, measurement of the local solids volume fraction distribution and the local axial solids velocity distribution in the flow cross section is important for many reasons including health and safety and economic reasons, particularly in oil well drilling operations. However upward inclined solidsliquid flows which are frequently encountered during oil well drilling operations are not well understood. Inclined solids-liquid flows result in non- uniform profiles of the solids volume fraction and axial solids velocity in the flow cross- section. In order to measure the solids volumetric flow rate in these situations it is necessary to measure the distributions of the local solids volume fraction and the local axial solids velocity and then to integrate the product of these local properties in the flow cross section. This thesis describes the development of a non-intrusive Impedance Cross-Correlation (ICC) device to measure the local solids volume fraction distribution and the local solids axial solids velocity distribution in upward inclined solids-water flows in which these distributions are highly non-uniform. The ICC device comprises a non-conductive pipe section of 80mm internal diameter fitted with two arrays of electrodes, denoted „array A‟ and „array B‟, separated by an axial distance of 50mm. At each array, eight electrodes are equispaced over the internal circumference of the pipe. A control system consisting of a microcontroller and analogue switches is used such that, for arrays A and B, any of the eight electrodes can be configured as an "excitation electrode" (V+), a "virtual earth measurement electrode" (Ve) or an "earth electrode" (E) thus enabling the local mixture conductance in different regions of the flow cross-section to be measured and thereby allowing the local solids volume fraction in each region to be deduced. The conductance signals from arrays A and B are also cross-correlated to yield the local solids axial velocity in the regions of flow under interrogation. A number of experiments were carried out in solids-in-water flows in a flow loop with an 80 mm inner diameter, 1.68m long Perspex test section which was inclined at three different inclination angle to the vertical ( o 0 , o 15 and o 30 ). The obtained results show good quantitative agreement with previous work carried out using intrusive local probes. Integration of the flow profiles in the cross section also yielded excellent quantitative agreement with reference measurements of the mean solids volume fraction, the mean solids velocity and the solids volumetric flow rate. Furthermore, this study also showed good qualitative agreement with high speed film of the flow. It is believed that the method of velocity and volume fraction profile measurement described in this thesis is much simpler to implement, more accurate and less expensive than the currently very popular technique of dual-plane Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT). Finally, the thesis describes a mathematical model for predicting the axial velocity distribution of inclined solids-water flows using the solids volume fraction profiles measured by the ICC device. Good agreement was obtained between the predicted velocity profiles and the velocity profiles measured using the ICC device.

No description available.

Accurate modeling of contaminant transport and sorption processes in the soil and landfill liners is a prerequisite for realistic model simulations of contaminant fate and transport in the environment. These studies are also important for the remediation of soil and groundwater contamination. Modeling of contaminant transport through soils and landfill liners consists of either solving the direct/forward problem or the inverse problem. In this thesis, an automated time-stepping implicit procedure is developed from the convergence and error studies of explicit and implicit finite-difference solutions for the advection-dispersion transport of contaminants through soil with different sorption mechanisms. This study is further extended for transient through-diffusion (TTD) transport of contaminant in landfills by considering linear sorption mechanism. To validate the numerical solution and also to study the behavior of finite-difference numerical solutions for TTD transport problem, closed-form analytical solution is derived. Further, a new interface condition is proposed based on the finite-volume procedure for stratified soil or landfill liner system. Solvers are developed for the parameter estimation of inverse problem by integrating the developed procedures for the above forward problem with different optimization procedures. Solvers based on Simulated Annealing (SA) and Genetic Algorithm (GA) are developed for TTD transport in the landfill liners and verified with the existing methods of parameter estimation. Novel swarm intelligence based solver is developed for the first time for parameter estimation in contaminant transport inverse problem to overcome some of the limitations of the classical optimization methods and evolutionary methods such as GA. Additionally, the proposed swarm intelligence based algorithms and a new variant is applied to solve ill-posed problem of contaminant source characterization. The presented work in this dissertation can be unswervingly applied for modeling the contaminant transport in laboratory through-diffusion tests and contaminant transport through landfill liners where the transport is usually considered to be one-dimensional and also diffusion-dominated. Similarly, the advection-dispersion transport through laboratory soil columns can also be modeled with the developed, fast, automated, implicit numerical procedure with very good accuracy. The present study can be applied further for contaminant transport through stratified soil/liner system using fast converging numerical algorithms. Finally, the problems of design parameter estimation and source characterization can be handled accurately by the use of developed automated nature-inspired solvers.

Optimal cut plans for cutter suction dredgers aim to maximize operational efficiency. Maximizing operational efficiency involves minimization of stoppage time resulting from non-productive dredger movements. To automate a systematic search for optimal twodimensional cut plans for cutter suction dredgers two models with an adaptive simulated annealing-based solution approach were developed. The first model, the dredge cut nesting model, optimizes irregular stock cutting problems where stencils represent dredge cuts and sheets represent dredging areas. Stencils are collections of unit dredge cuts with dimensions related to an effective cutting width which can be achieved with the cutter suction dredger considered. The objectives of the dredge cut nesting model are to maximize sheet coverage and to minimize stencil overlap. Centroids of unit dredge cuts of final nest layouts are extracted and used as grid nodes in the second model. The second model, the dredger routing model, optimizes asymmetric travelling salesperson problems with turning costs. The objectives of the dredger routing model are to minimize total route length and sum of turning angles, and to maximize average link length. A link consists of two or more route edges which are aligned with each other to within specified limits. A significant result of this research is that an engineering application of both models showed that two-dimensional cut plans for cutter suction dredgers can be systematically optimized and that dredger routes with minimum turning costs can be found. However, results also showed that the dredger routing model is not yet sophisticated enough to find cut plans for cutter suction dredgers for which overall project execution time is minimal.

Gravel filters are potentially a low cost, low maintenance water treatment solution. They require no mechanical or electrical parts and can operate without the addition of chemicals or the need for close supervision. As such, they are an appropriate technology for treating road runoff as a component of Sustainable urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) and as an initial stage of drinking water treatment in rural areas. However, the processes by which pollutant particles are removed in gravel filters are poorly understood and practical experience shows that many filters fail long before their expected design life is reached. For this reason gravel filters are little used for drinking water treatment and, when they are incorporated into SuDS, their removal efficiency and maintenance requirements are unpredictable. The aim of this thesis was to better understand particle removal processes and the implications for gravel filter design. This was achieved through a combination of lab-based experiments and numerical modelling. • The change in conservative tracer transport characteristics with pollutant particle accumulation was assessed through column experiments. • The spatial heterogeneity of particle accumulation was measured by collecting 3D data with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Multiple scans of filters allowed the temporal evolution of particle accumulation to be assessed. A method for processing the raw MRI data to yield the change in 3D pore geometry was developed, assessed and applied. • A simple method for extracting and comparing pore network characteristics at different stages of particle accumulation was applied to the MRI derived geometry. • Direct modelling of the 3D MRI pore geometry with the open source software OpenFOAM allowed correlation of flow velocities with particle accumulation at each point in the pore network. Lagrangian particle tracking was used to simulate the transport of a conservative tracer through the filter. Key findings were that spatial heterogeneity in particle accumulation was influenced by both initial pore geometry and the temporal evolution of the pore network with accumulation. This was attributed to the formation of high velocity preferential flow paths that were evident in both the 3D MRI data and the numerical model of that data. Pore networks exhibited a decrease in connectivity with accumulation and this was mirrored by a decrease in the volume of the filter that was accessible to a conservative tracer. Conclusions of this thesis are that MRI is a useful tool for non-invasively assessing the spatial variability of clogging in gravel filters and, when combined with numerical modelling of the pore geometry, for establishing the link between pore velocity and particle removal. The formation of preferential flow paths is detrimental to the pollutant removal efficiency of a filter and could explain why many filters fail to produce good quality effluent well before their physical pollutant storage capacity is reached.

The work presented here is a research thesis of the Ph. D programme in The School of Computing, Science & Engineering at The University of Salford UK. The work presents the evaluation of using explicit finite element techniques for structural non-linear dynamic analysis of a floating offshore wind turbine used for harnessing wind kinetic energy and converting it to electricity. The LS-DYNA3D explicit finite element analysis programme is used in performing the evaluation of the analysis and in creating a full scale model typical to the one evaluated. The developed model (case study) is a 1.4MW power rated floating 3 blades turbine elevated at 46.5 m above main sea level a top a tripod lattice steel tower firmly resting on a moored floating concrete hull buoy, positioned on a concrete circular disk. The mooring cables supporting the floating units in the multi unit farm are designed to share seabed anchoring piles for economic reasons. The model is intended for use in moderately deep waters of up to 500m. The State-of-the-art report is presented concerning wind energy technology, floating offshore wind structures and important features of the LS-DYNA3D code. The theoretical basics for service loads experienced by the floating wind turbine are explored and the loads are quantified. The Verification and validation work on developed small models is presented to ensure confidence in the developed full scale model and the evaluation of the finite element techniques which may be applied to such structures. Development of full scale model, material properties, loads and boundary conditions are presented. Recommendations both for this model and future development are accordingly made.

PBDEs were detected in all air and dust samples. The PBDE congener profile in both outdoor and indoor air samples from Thai e-waste storage facilities and homes was dominated by BDE-47 and 99, whilst the predominant BFRs in all dust samples from Thai e-waste storage facilities were BDE-209, BDE-208, BDE-207, BDE-206, BDE-197, BDE-183, BDE-99, BDE-47 and DBDPE. Furthermore, BDEs 99 and 47 were the most abundant congeners in all dust samples from Thai houses and cars and UK homes. Under realistic high-end scenarios of occupational exposure to BDE-99 via dust ingestion, workers in Thai e-waste storage facilities were exposed above a recently-published Health Based Limit Value for this congener. For non-occupational exposure, under a high-end exposure scenario, the exposure to BDE-99 of such Thai children via dust ingestion is either very close to or in exceedance of the HBLV. PBDE levels in most of the areas monitored within the same rooms were not statistically significantly different. Similarly, concentrations of PBDEs in the majority of rooms within the same houses were not statistically significantly different between rooms. Possible dilution of PBDE levels in dust with increasing dust loadings has been identified in a small number of rooms.

Excess Fluoride in drinking water is a cause for concern in several countries in the world. Various techniques have been developed to mitigate the harmful effects of fluoride. In the present work, a combined alum and activated alumina (AA) process has been investigated. Tap water with sodium fluoride dissolved in it to produce a solution having a fluoride concentration of 5 mg/L was used as the feed. It was found that pretreatment with alum extends the time required for the regeneration of the AA column. The volume of water treated increased by 89% compared to AA process alone. Though the regeneration of the AA column has been well documented, subtle issues have ot been reported. The disposal of regeneration effluent is a concern in adsorption-based processes. This study aims to examine some of the issues involved in the regeneration of the AA column such as disposal of effluent, and the quantity of acid and alkali required. The regeneration effluent from the combined process, which had a fluoride concentration of 10-16 mg/L was treated in a solar still. The distillate from the still had a fluoride concentration of 2-3 mg/L, which is much lower than the concentration of the regeneration effluent. The cost of treatment decreased with each regeneration cycle and after four regenerations the cost was Rs 0.5/L of treated water. The volume of water treated after four regenerations was 307 L/Kg of AA. Studies were also done using field water from Banavara, Hassan district, Karnataka, which had a fluoride concentration of 3,0-3.5 mg/L. The combined process successfully produced treated water having an acceptable fluoride concentration. After one regeneration cycle, the operating cost was Rs. 1/L of treated water. Studies have also been conducted on a point-of-use water filter containing a bed of AA pellets. The filter was provided by an organization called TIDE. The present results appear to suggest that a column with a smaller diameter than the TIDE filter has a better removal capacity. Ceramic candles are widely used for water filtration as they are readily available and inexpensive. Hence they are suitable for household water treatment purposes. In the present work, ceramic candles have been impregnated with nano-size alumina and nano-size magnesium oxide and tested for their defluoridation capacity. The nanoparticles were generated in situ in the pores of the candle by solution combustion synthesis. It has been found the candle impregnated with nano-size magnesium oxide has a higher defluoridation capacity than nano-size alumina. Estimation of the particle size in the samples of treated water did not give conclusive evidence for the presence or absence of nanoparticles. The volume of water treated was low and the cost of treatment was high (Rs. 12/L for the candle impregnated with MgO). Hence such candles are unsuitable for defluoridation. Batch adsorption has been employed to measure the adsorption capacity of adsorbents. A model to capture the overall picture of the batch adsorption process, obtaining the kinetic and transport parameters involved has been developed. The mathematical model takes into account external mass transfer resistance, intraparticle diffusion, adsorption, and desorption. The equilibrium adsorption data was fitted using the Langmuir isotherm. The governing equations were solved using a finite difference technique known as the Laasonen method. The parameters were estimated by fitting two sets of data using a MATLAB function. The values estimated suggest that the adsorption process may not be diffusion-limited, in contrast to the assumption commonly used in the literature. The estimated parameter values were used to predict the concentration profiles for the other data sets. It was found that predicted and measured profiles agreed reasonably well.