Design considerations for a micro aerial vehicle aerodynamic characterization facility at the University of Florida research and engineering education facility

This paper describes the design considerations for a proposed aerodynamic characterization facility (ACF) for micro aerial vehicles (MAVs). This is a collaborative effort between the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate (AFRL/MN) and the University of Florida Research and Engineering Education Facility (UF/REEF). The ACF is expected to provide a capability for the characterization of the aerodynamic performance of future MAVs. This includes the ability to gather the data necessary to devise control strategies as well as the potential to investigate aerodynamic 'problem areas' or specific failings. Since it is likely that future MAVs will incorporate advanced control strategies, the facility must enable researchers to critically assess such novel methods. Furthermore, the aerodynamic issues should not be seen (and tested) in isolation, but rather the facility should be able to also provide information on structural responses (such as aeroelasticity) as well as integration issues (say, thrust integration or sensor integration). Therefore the mission for the proposed facility ranges form fairly basic investigations of individual technical issues encountered by MAVs (for example an evaluation of wing shapes or control effectiveness) all the way to testing a fully integrated vehicle in a flight configuration for performance evaluation throughout the mission envelope.

The potential for thermal energy recovery from wastewater treatment works in Southern England

There is potential to extract energy from wastewater in a number of ways, including: kinetic energy using micro-hydro systems, chemical energy through the incineration of sludge, biomass energy from the biogas produced after anaerobic sludge digestion, and thermal energy as heat. This paper considers the last option and asks how much heat could be recovered under UK climatic conditions and can this heat be used effectively by wastewater treatment plants to reduce their carbon footprint? Four wastewater treatment sites in southern England are investigated and the available heat that can be recovered at those sites is quantified. Issues relating to the environmental, economic and practical constraints on how energy can be realistically recovered and utilised are discussed .The results show there is a definite possibility for thermal energy recovery with potential savings at some sites of up to 35,000 tonnes of total long-cycle carbon equivalent (fossil fuel) emissions per year being achievable. The paper also shows that the financial feasibility of three options for using the heat (either for district heating, sludge drying or thermophilic heating in sludge digestion processes) is highly dependant upon the current shadow price of carbon. Without the inclusion of the cost of carbon, the financial feasibility is significantly limited. An environmental constraint for the allowable discharge temperature of effluent after heat-extraction was found to be the major limitation to the amount of energy available for recovery. The paper establishes the true potential of thermal energy recovery from wastewater in English conditions and the economic feasibility of reducing the carbon footprint of wastewater treatment operations using this approach.