Analysis and Modelling of the Structural Components of the Elbow Joint

A recent application of computer simulation is its use for the human body, which resembles a mechanism that is complemented by torques in the joints that are caused by the action of muscles and tendons. Among others, the application can be used to provide training in surgical procedures or to learn how the body works. Some of the other applications are to make a biped walk upright, to build robots that are designed on the human body or to make prostheses or robot arms to perform specific tasks. One of the uses of simulation is to optimise the movement of the human body by examining which muscles are activated and which should or should not be activated in order to improve a person?s movements. This work presents a model of the elbow joint, and by analysing the constraint equations using classic methods we go on to model the bones, muscles and tendons as well as the logic linked to the force developed by them when faced with a specific movement. To do this, we analyse the reference bibliography and the software available to perform the validation.

Model of the aerodynamic behavior of a pararotor

Asimple semi-empirical model for the aerodynamic behavior of a low-aspect ratio pararotor in autorotation at low Reynolds numbers is presented. The paper is split into three sections: Sec. II deals with the theoretical model derivation, Sec. III deals with the wind-tunnel measurements needed for tuning the theoretical model, and Sec. IV deals with the tuning between the theoretical model and the experimental data. The study is focused on the effect of both the blade pitch angle and the blade roughness and also on the stream velocity, on the rotation velocity, and on the drag of a model. Flow pattern visualizations have also been performed. The value of the free aerodynamic parameters of the semi-empirical model that produces the best fit with the experimental results agrees with the expected ones for the blades at the test conditions. Finally, the model is able to describe the behavior of a pararotor in autorotation that rotates fixed to a shaft, validated for a range of blade pitch angles. The movement of the device is found to be governed by a reduced set of dimensionless parameters.

Methodologies for Impact Assessment in the Ex Ante Evaluation of European Rural Development Programmes.

The ex ante quantification of impactsis compulsory when establishing a Rural Development Program (RDP) in the European Union. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to learn how to perform it better. In order to this all of the European 2007-2013 RDPs (a total of 88) and all of their corresponding available ex ante evaluations were analyzed.Results show that less than 50% of all RDPs quantify all the impact indicators and that the most used methodology that allows the quantification of all impact indicators is Input-Output. There are two main difficulties cited for not accomplishing the impact quantification: the heterogeneity of actors and factors involved in the program impacts and the lack of needed information.These difficulties should be addressedby usingnew methods that allow approaching the complexity of the programs and by implementing a better planning that facilitatesgathering the needed information.

The integration of project competences within the post-graduate programme: a case study of the International Masters in Rural Development AGRIS MUNDUS

Experiences relating to the InternationalMasters in Rural Development from the Technical University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, UPM), the first Spanish programme to receive a mention as a Registered Education Programme by InternationalProject Management Association (IPMA) are considered. Backed by an educational strategy based on Project-Based Learning dating back twenty years, this programme has managed to adapt to the competence evaluation requirements proposed by the European Space for Higher Education (ESHE). In order to do this the training is linked to the professional qualification using competences as a reference leading to the qualification in project management as established by the IPMA.

Space-time analysis of the urban-rural grafient in the metropolitan area of Madrid and ist surroundings -Guadalajara and Toledo.

According to UN provisions in the period from 2007 to 2050 world population will grow up to 9200 million people. In fact, for the first time in history, in the year 2008 world urban population became higher than rural population. The increase of urban areas and their transport infrastructures has influenced agricultural land use due to their irreversible change, especially when they remain as periurban vacant land, losing their character and identity. In the Europe of the nineties, the traditional urban-rural gradient, characterized by a neat contact between both land types, has become so complex that it has change to a gradient in which it is difficult to separate urban and rural land uses. [Antrop 2004]. A literature review has been made on methodologies used for the urban-rural gradient analysis. One of these methodologies was selected that integrates ecological characterization based on the use of spatial metrics and geographical characterization based on spatial components. Cartographical sources used were Corine Land Cover at 1: 100000 scale and the Spanish Land Use Information System at 1:25000 scale. Urban-rural gradient paradigm is an analysis methodology, coming from landscape ecology, which enables to investigate how urbanization provokes changes in ecological patterns and processes into landscape. [Hahs and McDonnell 2006].The present research adapt this methodology to study the urban-rural gradient in the outskirts of Madrid, Toledo and Guadalajara. Both scales (1:25000 and 1:100000) were simultaneously used to reach the next objectives: 1) Analysis of landscape pattern dynamics in relation to distance to the town centre and major infrastructures. 2) Analysis of landscape pattern dynamics in the fringe of protected areas. The paper presents a new approach to the urban-rural relationship which allows better planning and management of urban áreas.

Domes of adobe and stone on the rural architecture of centre of Castilla y León (Spain)

In the centre of Castilla y León (extensive zone of Spain) still there are some examples of the old rural buildings linked to the economic activities that have been developed in the agrarian field. These are called chozos and casetas, and they have been erected with domed solutions using the autochthonous materi-als: the mud in the region of Tierra de Campos and the stone in the region of Montes Torozos. The influence of traditional construction techniques of both elements has generated a singular typological range rarely seen in the rest of the Península Ibérica. All different types of domes found in this place will be explained from its construction process, adding its structural capacity and energy bioclimatic qualities. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- En el centro de Castilla y León todavía se mantienen algunos ejemplos de antiguas construcciones rurales vinculadas a las actividades económicas que se han desarrollado en el ámbito agrario. Éstas, conocidas como chozos y casetas, han sido ejecutadas con soluciones cupuliformes empleándose los materiales que más a mano se disponen, siendo el barro más característico en la región de Tierra de Campos y la piedra en la comarca de Montes Torozos. La influencia de las técnicas constructivas tradicionales de ambos elementos ha generado un abanico tipológico singular poco visto en el resto de la península. Los diferentes tipos de cúpulas encontrados se explicarán desde su proceso constructivo, añadiendo su capacidad estructural y sus cualidades bioclimáticas.

Characterisation of the operation & maintenance phase in PV rural electrification programmes

Con 1.300 millones de personas en el mundo sin acceso a la electricidad (la mayoría en entornos rurales de países empobrecidos), la energía solar fotovoltaica constituye una solución viable técnica y económicamente para electrificar las zonas más remotas del planeta donde las redes eléctricas convencionales no llegan. Casi todos los países en el mundo han desarrollado algún tipo de programa de electrificación fotovoltaica rural durante los últimos 40 años, principalmente los países más pobres, donde a través de diferentes modelos de financiación, se han instalado millones de sistemas solares domiciliarios (pequeños sistemas fotovoltaicos para uso doméstico). Durante este largo período, se han ido superando muchas barreras, como la mejora de la calidad de los sistemas fotovoltaicos, la reducción de costes, la optimización del diseño y del dimensionado de los sistemas, la disponibilidad financiera para implantar programas de electrificación rural, etc. Gracias a esto, la electrificación rural descentralizada ha experimentado recientemente un salto de escala caracterizada por la implantación de grandes programas con miles de sistemas solares domiciliarios e integrando largos períodos de mantenimiento. Muchos de estos grandes programas se están llevando a cabo con limitado éxito, ya que generalmente parten de supuestos e hipótesis poco contrastadas con la realidad, comprometiendo así un retorno económico que permita el desarrollo de esta actividad a largo plazo. En este escenario surge un nuevo reto: el de cómo garantizar la sostenibilidad de los grandes programas de electrificación rural fotovoltaica. Se argumenta que la principal causa de esta falta de rentabilidad es el imprevisto alto coste de la fase de operación y mantenimiento. Cuestiones clave tales como la estructura de costes de operación y mantenimiento o la fiabilidad de los componentes del sistema fotovoltaico no están bien caracterizados hoy en día. Esta situación limita la capacidad de diseñar estructuras de mantenimiento capaces de asegurar la sostenibilidad y la rentabilidad del servicio de operación y mantenimiento en estos programas. Esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivo responder a estas cuestiones. Se ha realizado varios estudios sobre la base de un gran programa de electrificación rural fotovoltaica real llevado a cabo en Marruecos con más de 13.000 sistemas solares domiciliarios instalados. Sobre la base de este programa se ha hecho una evaluación en profundidad de la fiabilidad de los sistemas solares a partir de los datos de mantenimiento recogidos durante 5 años con más de 80.000 inputs. Los resultados han permitido establecer las funciones de fiabilidad de los equipos tal y como se comportan en condiciones reales de operación, las tasas de fallos y los tiempos medios hasta el fallo para los principales componentes del sistema, siendo este el primer caso de divulgación de resultados de este tipo en el campo de la electrificación rural fotovoltaica. Los dos principales componentes del sistema solar domiciliario, la batería y el módulo fotovoltaico, han sido analizados en campo a través de una muestra de 41 sistemas trabajando en condiciones reales pertenecientes al programa solar marroquí. Por un lado se ha estudiado la degradación de la capacidad de las baterías y por otro la degradación de potencia de los módulos fotovoltaicos. En el caso de las baterías, los resultados nos han permitido caracterizar la curva de degradación en capacidad llegando a obtener una propuesta de nueva definición del umbral de vida útil de las baterías en electrificación rural. También sobre la base del programa solar de Marruecos se ha llevado a cabo un estudio de caracterización de los costes reales de operación y mantenimiento a partir de la base de datos de contabilidad del programa registrados durante 5 años. Los resultados del estudio han permitido definir cuáles son costes que más incidencia tienen en el coste global. Se han obtenido los costes unitarios por sistema instalado y se han calculado los montantes de las cuotas de mantenimiento de los usuarios para garantizar la rentabilidad de la operación y mantenimiento. Finalmente, se propone un modelo de optimización matemática para diseñar estructuras de mantenimiento basado en los resultados de los estudios anteriores. La herramienta, elaborada mediante programación lineal entera mixta, se ha aplicado al programa marroquí con el fin de validar el modelo propuesto. ABSTRACT With 1,300 million people worldwide deprived of access to electricity (mostly in rural environments), photovoltaic solar energy has proven to be a cost‐effective solution and the only hope for electrifying the most remote inhabitants of the planet, where conventional electric grids do not reach because they are unaffordable. Almost all countries in the world have had some kind of rural photovoltaic electrification programme during the past 40 years, mainly the poorer countries, where through different organizational models, millions of solar home systems (small photovoltaic systems for domestic use) have been installed. During this long period, many barriers have been overcome, such as quality enhancement, cost reduction, the optimization of designing and sizing, financial availability, etc. Thanks to this, decentralized rural electrification has recently experienced a change of scale characterized by new programmes with thousands of solar home systems and long maintenance periods. Many of these large programmes are being developed with limited success, as they have generally been based on assumptions that do not correspond to reality, compromising the economic return that allows long term activity. In this scenario a new challenge emerges, which approaches the sustainability of large programmes. It is argued that the main cause of unprofitability is the unexpected high cost of the operation and maintenance of the solar systems. In fact, the lack of a paradigm in decentralized rural services has led to many private companies to carry out decentralized electrification programmes blindly. Issues such as the operation and maintenance cost structure or the reliability of the solar home system components have still not been characterized. This situation does not allow optimized maintenance structure to be designed to assure the sustainability and profitability of the operation and maintenance service. This PhD thesis aims to respond to these needs. Several studies have been carried out based on a real and large photovoltaic rural electrification programme carried out in Morocco with more than 13,000 solar home systems. An in‐depth reliability assessment has been made from a 5‐year maintenance database with more than 80,000 maintenance inputs. The results have allowed us to establish the real reliability functions, the failure rate and the main time to failure of the main components of the system, reporting these findings for the first time in the field of rural electrification. Both in‐field experiments on the capacity degradation of batteries and power degradation of photovoltaic modules have been carried out. During the experiments both samples of batteries and modules were operating under real conditions integrated into the solar home systems of the Moroccan programme. In the case of the batteries, the results have enabled us to obtain a proposal of definition of death of batteries in rural electrification. A cost assessment of the Moroccan experience based on a 5‐year accounting database has been carried out to characterize the cost structure of the programme. The results have allowed the major costs of the photovoltaic electrification to be defined. The overall cost ratio per installed system has been calculated together with the necessary fees that users would have to pay to make the operation and maintenance affordable. Finally, a mathematical optimization model has been proposed to design maintenance structures based on the previous study results. The tool has been applied to the Moroccan programme with the aim of validating the model.