Search results for "mechanical"
showing 10 items of 5999 documents
Energy and economic analysis of air-to-air heat pumps as an alternative to domestic gas boiler heating systems in the South of Italy
2019
Abstract According to the electricity tariff recently issued by the Italian government for the domestic heating systems fed with heat pumps (HP), an energy and economic analysis was carried out with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of the air-to-air heat pump systems (HPS) as an alternative to the traditional heating using domestic gas boilers systems (GBS). For the purpose of this study, the apartments of three residential buildings were examined. The hourly heating loads were calculated with the ASHRAE radiant time series and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the HPs was evaluated for each operating condition. The costs for the heating system installation and electricity a…
Five-years-long effects of the Italian policies for photovoltaics on the energy demand coverage of grid-connected PV systems installed in urban conte…
2016
Abstract The paper examines the responsiveness of the electricity demand coverage in urban contexts to the changes in the Italian policies for PV systems. The morphological configuration of building roofs according to the number of covered flats, annual data of PV generation and electricity consumptions were considered in the transition from the feed-in tariff (FIT) mechanism to the tax credits scheme currently in force. With the aim of assessing the changes over time in three representative cities, the fluctuations both in the premiums for the produced electricity and the tax credits applied to the PV system costs were observed from July 2010 to February 2016. Furthermore, the main time-va…
Characterization of renewable reductants and charcoal-based pellets for the use in ferroalloy industries
2018
This study investigates the effect of high-temperature pyrolysis and post-treatment processes on spruce and oak charcoal yields and CO2 reactivity in a slow pyrolysis reactor. Post-treatment processes such as co-pyrolysis of biomass and recirculated tar mixture with that to the distillation of the charcoal-tar blend gave similar increase in charcoal yields. From a technological standpoint, co-pyrolysis of charcoal and tar mixture decreased the CO2 reactivity of the charcoal approaching that of fossil-based coke. This emphasize the importance of tar addition and high temperature treatment on charcoal properties. Moreover, the findings of this work show the potential use of the tar organic fr…
Towards Intelligent IoT Networks: Reinforcement Learning for Reliable Backscatter Communications
2019
Backscatter communication is becoming the focal point of research for low-powered Internet of things (IoT). However, the intelligence aspect of the backscattering devices is not well-defined. Since future IoT networks are going to be a formidable platform of intelligent sensing devices operating in a self-organizing manner, it is necessary to incorporate learning capabilities in backscatter devices. Motivated by this objective, this paper aims to employ reinforcement learning for improving the performance of backscatter networks. In particular, a multicluster backscatter communication model is developed for shortrange information sharing. This is followed by a power allocation algorithm usi…
Optimization of 3-DOF Parallel Motion Devices for Low-Cost Vehicle Simulators
2017
Motion generation systems are becoming increasingly important in certain Virtual Reality (VR) applications, such as vehicle simulators. This paper deals with the analysis of the Inverse Kinematics (IK) and the reachable workspace of a three-degrees-of-freedom (3-DOF) parallel manipulator, proposing different transformations and optimizations in order to simplify its use with Motion Cueing Algorithms (MCA) for self-motion generation in VR simulators. The proposed analysis and improvements are performed on a 3-DOF heave-pitch-roll manipulator with rotational motors, commonly used for low-cost motion-based commercial simulators. The analysis has been empirically validated against a real 3-DOF …
Phase-noise Impact on the Performance of mmWave-radars
2019
The impact of phase noise in Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) millimeter-wave (mmWave) radars is investigated in this paper. A FMCW signal is transmitted from the radar, reflected off a moving object and processed at a receiver in the radar. The impact of random phase noise/jitter on the performance parameters of estimated distance, speed and angle of arrival of an object is studied. Our studies show that there exists a threshold at about fifteen percent of the period of the carrier frequency, over which errors substantially manifest in the estimations. Distance estimation is less affected than speed and angle, which rely directly on the phase information for the estimations. Angl…
SiC Based Latching Current Limiter for High Voltage Space Power Distribution Systems
2018
This study presents a novel Latching Current Limiter topology, based on a N-channel Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFET as the main switching element. The design has been carried out using only discrete components, without digital controllers. This design has been validated by simulation and with a prototype. Tests have been performed at 1000V, modifying the limitation times, current-limiting values and eventually checking the proper operation of the system.
Preliminary design process for an adaptive winglet
2017
In the framework of Clean Sky 2 Airgreen 2 GRA ITD project, this paper deals with the design process of a morphing winglet for a regional aircraft. By improving A/C aerodynamic efficiency in off-design flight conditions, the morphing winglet is expected to operate during long (cruise) and short (climb and descent) mission phases to reduce aircraft drag and optimize lift distribution, while providing augmented roll and yaw control capability. The mechanical system is designed to face different flight situations by a proper action on the movable parts represented by two independent and asynchronous control surfaces with variable camber and differential settings. A set of suitable electromecha…
A 3D Non-Stationary Cluster Channel Model for Human Activity Recognition
2019
Author's accepted manuscript. © 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. This paper proposes a three-dimensional (3D) non- stationary fixed-to-fixed indoor channel simulator model for human activity recognition. The channel model enables the formulation of temporal variations of the received signal caused by a moving human. The moving human is modelled by …
Towards a simulation-based tuning of motion cueing algorithms
2016
Abstract This paper deals with the problem of finding the best values for the parameters of Motion Cueing Algorithms (MCA). MCA are responsible for controlling the movements of robotic motion platforms used to generate the gravito-inertial cues of vehicle simulators. The values of their multiple parameters, or coefficients, are hard to establish and they dramatically change the behaviour of MCA. The problem has been traditionally addressed in a subjective, partially non-systematic, iterative, time-consuming way, by seeking pilot/driver feedback on the generated motion cues. The aim of this paper is to introduce a different approach to solve the problem of MCA tuning, by making use of a simu…