Search results for " Structural"

The interaction between intermittent renewable energy and the electricity, heating and transport sectors

2012

In a global perspective, it is essential that the world transfers from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in order to minimise climate change effects. As a part of such transition energy savings are also important, as they can decrease production costs effectively. The nature of such a change is that it has to be implemented on a local level. Energy saving technologies are placed with the demand decrease and renewable energy is typically distributed where the resources are. In some parts of the world, energy savings have resulted in a stabilisation of the energy demands, however in the world as such, demands are still increasing in buildings, transport and industry. Although the deman…

A Structural Deterministic Model for Electrospun Scaffolds.

2009

DESIGN AND OPTIMIZATION OF A CHASSIS FOR A FORMULA SAE RACE CAR

2009

In this paper, the design process of a new chassis for a Formula SAE car is presented. The chassis is undoubtedly one of the most important parts of the car, both for the influence that it has on the vehicle dynamic behaviour, and because it is the main component that assures the driver safety. The new designed chassis is composed of many structural tubular bars and has been equipped with systems for the joining of all the auxiliary members. After the definition of the masses distribution and the choice of the main dimensions, preliminary CAD and FEM models have been carried out for the evaluation of the structural behaviour of this kind of vehicle. Successively, in order maximizing the tor…

Photovoltaic performance of amorphous silicon flexible solar modules under mechanical loading

2007

The applications of photovoltaic devices can be significantly expanded by directly integrating them into structures. Solar cells integrated into structures can help to power a variety of devices such as structural monitoring sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). However, little work has been reported in the literature on the performance of solar cells under deformation. Thus, a thorough investigation on the photovoltaic behavior of solar modules under mechanical loading is necessary in order to provide the optimal integration conditions for practical applications. The photovoltaic performance of commercially available amorphous silicon solar modules was tested under applied mechanica…

A methodology for assessing the impact of salinity gradient power generation in urban contexts

2018

Abstract The paper proposes a methodology to assess the potential impact of salinity gradient power technology in urban contexts. The idea to employ such energy source in urban contexts derives from the observation that, among the energy districts outputs, low-salinity treated wastewater can be used to produce electricity if a suitable source of high salinity feed (seawater of a salt-works) is also available. The methodology uses the HOMER software for assessing the district’s electric energy production, consumption and exchange with the main grid. Then, starting from the total gross surface and the number of inhabitants of the district, some possible realistic scenarios characterized by di…

Reverse electrodialysis with NH4HCO3-water systems for heat-to-power conversion

2017

Abstract A Reverse ElectroDialysis Heat Engine (REDHE) system operating with “thermolytic” ammonium hydrogen-carbonate (NH4HCO3) aqueous solutions as working fluids is studied. The engine is constituted by (i) a RED unit to produce electric power by mixing the solutions at different salinity and (ii) a thermally-driven regeneration unit including a stripping and an absorption column to restore the initial salinity gradient thus closing the cycle. In the present work only the RED unit and the stripping column are taken into account. In particular, a simplified integrated process model for the whole cycle was developed: it consists of (i) a lumped parameter model for the RED unit validated wi…

Sulla sincronizzazione delle misure wireless di scariche parziali con il segnale di tensione a 50 Hz

2017

L’articolo descrive i vari aspetti dei sistemi di misura wireless delle scariche parziali (PD). In particolare, sul problema della sincronizzazione dell’angolo di fase della tensione per il rilevamento e la classificazione delle PD.

Topological Information, Flux Balance Analysis, and Extreme Pathways Extraction for Metabolic Networks Behaviour Investigation

2011

In recent years biological processes modeling and simulation have become two key issues in analyzing complex cellular systems. Information about metabolic networks is often incomplete, since a large portion of available data is ignored by its probabilistic nature. The main objective of this work is to investigate metabolic networks behavior in terms of their fault tolerance capabilities as random removal of network nodes and high-connectivity-degree node deletion aimed at compromising or modifying network activity. This paper proposes a software framework, namely CEllDataLaB, containing three tasks to perform the structural and functional analysis: topological analysis, flux balance analysi…

Social networks and social activities promote cognitive functioning in both concurrent and prospective time: evidence from the SHARE survey

2018

The study aimed to investigate the role of social activities, social networks as well as socioeconomic status (SES) in influencing some aspects of cognitive functioning (immediate and delayed verbal recall tests and semantic verbal fluency) in elderly people over time. This analysis was conducted on a sample of 31,954 healthy elderly people (58% female, mean age 65.54 ± 9.74) interviewed in both the fourth and sixth waves of the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), in 2011 and 2015. A structural equation model with measurement component was used to assess the relationship between cognitive function, social life and SES over time. Multilevel ordinal logistic regression w…

Counterfactual Distribution Dynamics across European Regions

2009

This paper proposes a methodology which combines elements of parametric regression analysis with the nonparametric distribution dynamics approach in order to analyse the role of some variables in the convergence of productivity across European regions over the period 1980-2002. We find that the initial productivity crucially accounts in the convergence process across European regions. Differently, employment growth seems not to play a role, while the Structural and Cohesion Funds seem to play a positive role, even though such effect seems to be very low and statistically significant only at the low bound of the range of initial productivity. The structural change of regional economies plays a p…