Search results for "Specific energy"
showing 10 items of 20 documents
Energy Management and Smart Grids
2013
The paper outlines energy management concepts and the smart grid evolution. The necessity of considering energy management as a crucial innovation in load supplying to permit a more powerful penetration of renewable energy usage at the building and city level and to perform energy savings and CO2 emissions reduction is pointed out. The driving factors to enhance the current power distribution are presented, and the benefits concerning smart grids are underlined. In the paper, a specific energy management analysis is reported by considering all the electric value chain, and the demand-side management and distributed on site control actions are described. To verify the benefit of energy manag…
Exergy analysis of electrodialysis for water desalination: Influence of irreversibility sources
2022
The increasing freshwater demand is pushing the development and adoption of desalination technologies. In this framework, electrodialysis has a consolidated role in brackish water desalination, but to make it competitive with other technologies for the desalination of more concentrated solutions (e.g., seawater), the specific energy consumption should be reduced. Exergy analysis provides a useful tool for determining the contribution of each thermodynamic inefficiencies on the process efficiency and the specific energy consumption. In this regard, this paper presents an exergy analysis of the electrodialysis process. A 1-D model is used for evaluating the performance of industrial-scale sys…
Ground deformation reveals the scale-invariant conduit dynamics driving explosive basaltic eruptions
2021
The mild activity of basaltic volcanoes is punctuated by violent explosive eruptions that occur without obvious precursors. Modelling the source processes of these sudden blasts is challenging. Here, we use two decades of ground deformation (tilt) records from Stromboli volcano to shed light, with unprecedented detail, on the short-term (minute-scale) conduit processes that drive such violent volcanic eruptions. We find that explosive eruptions, with source parameters spanning seven orders of magnitude, all share a common pre-blast ground inflation trend. We explain this exponential inflation using a model in which pressure build-up is caused by the rapid expansion of volatile-rich magma ri…
Nanostructured lead acid battery for electric vehicles applications
2017
This paper presents an innovative lead acid battery, based on nanostructured active materials. Both charging time and specific energy are greatly enhanced in comparison with commercial lead acid battery. Starting from the extremely valuable performances of the nanostructured battery, also a circuital model, for application in electric vehicle traction, has been specifically developed. The circuital model has demonstrated that an enhanced nanostructured battery allows an increase of traveled distance by electric vehicles.
The temperature dependence of ice-nucleating particle concentrations affects the radiative properties of tropical convective cloud systems
2021
Convective cloud systems in the maritime tropics play a critical role in global climate, but accurately representing aerosol interactions within these clouds persists as a major challenge for weather and climate modelling. We quantify the effect of ice-nucleating particles (INPs) on the radiative properties of a complex tropical Atlantic deep convective cloud field using a regional model with an advanced double-moment microphysics scheme. Our results show that the domain-mean daylight outgoing radiation varies by up to 18 W m−2 depending on the chosen INP parameterisation. The key distinction between different INP parameterisations is the temperature dependence of ice formation, which alter…
A novel method for obtaining continuous stopping power curves
2001
Abstract A new method has been developed for obtaining continuous stopping power curves in transmission geometry. In the method both the incident energy of the particle and its energy after passing through the sample foil are extracted directly from the semiconductor detector. Full range of energies is measured simultaneously eliminating step-by-step measurements and providing continuous data. A time-of-flight (TOF) spectrometer provides unambiguous matching of relevant particle groups from the run with and without absorber. Suitable energy distribution of incident particles was achieved by choosing the right thickness and tilting angle of a scattering foil. The method is very fast and reli…
Different energy balances for the redesign of nearly net zero energy buildings: An Italian case study
2015
Abstract The currently developing concept of a Net Zero Energy Building introduces new challenges and research problems. The calculation of a net zero energy balance is heavily influenced by the energy carrier weighting factors that are chosen, which can deeply influence the future energy market towards adopting specific energy technologies. The following paper proposes an analysis of different definitions and conventions for Net Zero Energy Buildings that employ different calculation methodologies and apply different weighting factors to an Italian case study. The case study, which is called “the Leaf House”, is one of the first examples of a nearly net zero energy building in Italy. A bui…
Effect of microcracking on pressure-solution strain rate: The Gratz grain-boundary model
1998
Different, but reasonable and well-accepted assumptions made about grain-boundary structure during pressure-solution (PS) creep may easily have an effect of more than 10 orders of magnitude on the calculated PS deformation rate. Understanding of grain-boundary structure during PS creep is therefore extremely important. Experimental evidence is presented in support of a grain-boundary model previously proposed by A. J. Gratz on the basis of observations on naturally deformed rocks. In this model, boundaries are assumed to have a static island-channel network structure. Channels are located where microcracks intersect the boundary. The rate of material transport is governed by thin-film diffu…
Comparison of computational and experimental saturation vapor pressures of α-pinene + O<sub>3</sub> oxidation products
2021
Abstract. Accurate information on gas-to-particle partitioning is needed to model secondary organic aerosol formation. However, determining reliable saturation vapor pressures of atmospherically relevant multifunctional organic compounds is extremely difficult. We estimated saturation vapor pressures of α-pinene ozonolysis derived secondary organic aerosol constituents using FIGAERO-CIMS experiments and COSMO-RS theory. We found a good agreement between experimental and computational saturation vapor pressures for molecules with molar masses around 190 g mol−1 and higher, most within a factor of 3 comparing the average of the experimental vapor pressures and the COSMO-RS estimate of the iso…
Investigation of heavy ion tracks in LiF crystals by dislocation mobility method
2008
Abstract The track damage created in LiF by swift heavy ions was studied using methods of dislocation mobility and track etching. The crystals were irradiated with Bi and Pb ions of a specific energy of 11 MeV/u at fluences between 10 7 and 10 10 cm −2 . The measurements on cross-sections cleaved parallel to the irradiated surface showed continuity of the track etching for the depth up to 70% of the ion range. In deeper layers, numerous etch pits had a flat-bottomed shape indicating the discontinuities of the track structure. At this stage, a decrease of the ion-induced effect in dislocation mobility was observed. The observed reduction of the efficiency of ion tracks as obstacles for disl…