Hydraulisen kuristinmallin ja liikealustan ohjauksen kehittäminen reaaliaikasimulointiin

Diplomityön ensimmäisessä vaiheessa tutkittiin hydraulisen kuristimen ominaisuuksia ja esiteltiin numeerisesti tehokas kuristinmalli käyttäenpolynomifunktiota virtauksen laminaarisen ja transitioalueen kuvaukseen. Puoliempiirisen mallin paremmuus tulee esille siinä, että kuristimen geometriatietoja ei tarvita laskettaessa virtausta paine-eron perusteella. Reaaliaikasimuloinnissa esiintyy kompromisseja tarkkuuden ja laskentanopeuden välillä. Tätä asiaa tutkittiin kahden virtausalueen kuristinmallilla. Transition paine-eron ja integrointiaika-askelen valinnan vaikutus tarkkuuteen ja laskentanopeuteen tutkittiin. Toisessa vaiheessa tutkittiin mahdollisimman hyvän liiketuntuman tuottamista liikealustalla ohjaussignaalia kehittämällä. Liikealustan liikeradan rajallisuudesta johtuen ohjauksessa on perinteisesti käytetty washout-suodatusta, joka erottelee simuloitavan järjestelmän kiihtyvyyssignaalista vain nopeatkiihtyvyydet. Tässä työssä tutkittiin hitaiden kiihtyvyyksien ottamista mukaan liikealustan ohjaukseen liikealustan liikeradan puitteissa. Tämä toteutettiin kuvaamalla hitaat kiihtyvyydet kallistamalla liikealustaa, jolloin käyttäjään kohdistuva voima saatiin kuvattua gravitaatiota hyväksi käyttäen.

Passiivisten turvallisuusjärjestelmien luontaiset virhetoiminnot ydinvoimalaitoksessa

Uusissa ydinvoimalaitostyypeissä aiotaan käyttää aiempaa enemmän passiivisia turvallisuusjärjestelmiä. Näistä järjestelmistä on vielä vähän käyttökokemusta aktiivisiin turvallisuusjärjestelmiin verrattuna. Työssä tarkastellaan passiivisten turvallisuusjärjestelmien toimintaa sekä etsitään niiden mahdollisia luontaisia vikatilanteita. Luontaisten vikatilanteiden seurauksia järjestelmän suorituskykyyn arvioitiin yksinkertaisilla laskuilla ja mallintamalla RELAP5/MOD3.2.2 beta -termohydrauliikkaohjelmalla. Tarkastelu rajattiin kahden erityyppisen ydinvoimalaitoksen passiivisiin turvallisuusjärjestelmiin. Turvallisuusjärjestelmien suuntaa antavat mitat ja käyttötilanteiden parametrit saatiin laitosvalmistajien laitoskuvauksista. Osoittautui, että vikatilanteissa passiivisissa turvallisuusjärjestelmissä geometrialla on merkittävä vaikutus järjestelmän kapasiteettiin. Tarkasteluissa saatiin myös selville, että laitosmittakaavassa painovoimaisen hätälisävesijärjestelmän turvallisuustoiminto voi toteutua vaikka esiintyisi lyhytaikaisia toimintahäiriöitä, kuten lauhtumista hätälisävesisäiliössä. Sen sijaan lämmönsiirtopiirin virtausreittien tukkeutuminen voi olla fysikaalisesti merkittävä toimintaa haittaava tekijä.

Cardan Gear Mechanism versus Slider-Crank Mechanism in Pumps and Engines

In machine design we always want to save space, save energy and produce as much power as possible. We can often reduce accelerations, inertial loads and energy consumption by changing construction. In this study the old cardan gear mechanism (hypocycloid mechanism) has been compared with the conventional slider-crank mechanism in air pumps and four-stroke engines. Comprehensive Newtonian dynamics has been derived for the both mechanisms. First the slidercrank and the cardan gear machines have been studied as lossless systems. Then the friction losses have been added to the calculations. The calculation results show that the cardan gear machines can be more efficient than the slider-crank machines. The smooth running, low mass inertia, high pressures and small frictional power losses make the cardan gear machines clearly better than the slider-crank machines. The dynamic tooth loads of the original cardan gear construction do not rise very high when the tooth clearances are kept tight. On the other hand the half-size crank length causes high bearing forces in the cardan gear machines. The friction losses of the cardan gear machines are generally quite small. The mechanical efficiencies are much higher in the cardan gear machines than in the slider-crank machines in normal use. Crankshaft torques and power needs are smaller in the cardan gear air pumps than in the equal slider-crank air pumps. The mean crankshaft torque and the mean output power are higher in the cardan gear four-stroke engines than in the slider-crank four-stroke engines in normal use. The cardan gear mechanism is at its best, when we want to build a pump or an engine with a long connecting rod (≈ 5⋅crank length) and a thin piston (≈ 1.5⋅crank length) rotating at high angular velocity and intermittently high angular acceleration. The cardan gear machines can be designed also as slide constructions without gears. Suitable applications of the cardan gear machines are three-cylinder half-radial engines for motorcycles, sixcylinder radial engines for airplanes and six-cylinder double half-radial engines for sport cars. The applied equations of Newtonian dynamics, comparative calculations, calculation results (tables, curves and surface plots) and recommendations presented in this study hold novelty value and are unpublished before. They have been made and written by the author first time in this study.

Evolution and Stellar Content of AGN Host Galaxies

In this dissertation, Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies are discussed. Together with transitional events, such as supernovae and gamma-ray bursts, AGN are the most energetic phenomena in the Universe. The dominant fraction of their luminosity originates from the center of a galaxy, where accreting gas falls into a supermassive black hole, converting gravitational energy to radiation. AGN have a wide range of observed properties: e.g. in their emission lines, radio emission, and variability. Most likely, these properties depend significantly on their orientation to our line-of-sight, and to unify AGN into physical classes it is crucial to observe their orientation-independent properties, such as the host galaxies. Furthermore, host galaxy studies are essential to understand the formation and co-evolution of galactic bulges and supermassive black holes. In this thesis, the main focus is on observationally characterizing AGN host galaxies using optical and near-infrared imaging and spectroscopy. BL Lac objects are a class of AGN characterized by rapidly variable and polarized continuum emission across the electromagnetic spectrum, and coredominated radio emission. The near-infrared properties of intermediate redshift BL Lac host galaxies are studied in Paper I. They are found to be large elliptical galaxies that are more luminous than their low redshift counterparts suggesting a strong luminosity evolution, and a contribution from a recent star formation episode. To analyze the stellar content of galaxies in more detail multicolor data, especially observations at blue wavelengths, are essential. In Paper III, optical - near-infrared colors and color gradients are derived for low redshift BL Lac host galaxies. They show bluer colors and steeper color gradients than inactive ellipticals which, most likely, are caused by a relatively young stellar population indicating a different evolutionary stage between AGN hosts and inactive ellipticals. In Paper II, near-infrared imaging of intermediate redshift radio-quiet quasar hosts is used to study their luminosity evolution. The hosts are large elliptical galaxies, but they are systematically fainter than the hosts of radio-loud quasars at similar redshifts, suggesting a link between the luminosity of the host galaxies and the radio properties of AGN. In Paper IV, the characteristics of near-infrared stellar absorption features of low redshift radio galaxies are compared with those of inactive early-type galaxies. The comparison suggests that early-type galaxies with AGN are in a different evolutionary stage than their inactive counterparts. Moreover, radio galaxies are found to contain stellar populations containing both old and intermediate age components.

Financial and Environmental Impacts of a Dry Port to Facilitate Competitiveness of Two Major Transit Seaports of Finland

Environmental problems and issues have received more and more attention during the last decades. Reasons for this are different increased external costs such as congestion, CO2 emission, noise and accident costs. Transportation sector is the only sector with increasing external costs. The EU will increase its attention in decreasing the external costs of transport. Aim of this research was to find out if a dry port solution could decrease costs of transport, especially external costs. Dry port concept is an intermodal transport system, where inland transport between port and dry port is performed by rail transport instead of traditional road transport. In addition, dry ports offer similar services as ports. Research is conducted by performing a literature review about dry port concept and costs of transport, especially external costs of transport. Financial and environmental impacts of the dry port concept are studied by comparing costs of road and rail transport by cost accounting and with a simulation model. Location of dry port is researched with gravitational models. Results of the literature review are that rail transport is environmentally friendlier mode of transport than road transport. Cost model and simulation model show that if only costs of freight movement are considered, rail transport is more inexpensive transport mode than road transport in terms of internal and external costs. Because of that dry port concept could decrease costs of transport, especially external costs. Results of gravitational models are that city of Kouvola is in a good position to be a dry port. Russian transit traffic through Finland improves location of Kouvola to be a dry port.

Painovoimaisen kemiallisen vesienkäsittelymenetelmän soveltuvuus pienille turvetuotantoalueille

Turvetuotannon suurimpana ympäristövaikutuksena pidetään tuotantoalueiden valuma-vesistä johtuvia ympäristövaikutuksia. Tiukentunut ympäristölainsäädäntö edellyttää uusilta turvetuotantoalueilta parhaan käyttökelpoisen tekniikan käyttöä valumavesien-käsittelyssä. Parhaaksi käyttökelpoiseksi tekniikaksi luetaan pintavalutus- ja kasvilli-suuskentän sekä kemikaloinnin käyttö valumavesien puhdistuksessa. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli selvittää painovoimaisen kemiallisen vesienkäsit-telymenetelmän soveltuvuutta pienille turvetuotantoalueille. Tutkimuskohteena oli Lep-pisuo Luumäen kunnassa, jonne rakennettiin 2010 painovoimaisen kemikaloinnin koe-laitteisto. Laitteiston puhdistustulosta tarkasteltiin kemikalointiin tulevan ja lähtevän veden sekä taustanäytepisteiden tarkkailutulosten avulla. Laitteiston toimivuutta arvioi-tiin kemikaalin annostelun ja toimintavarmuuden avulla. Vuoden 2010 tarkkailutuloksista saatiin keskimääräisiksi erotustehokkuuksiksi koko-naisfosforin osalta 65,2 %, kokonaistypen osalta 28,1 % ja CODMn osalta 65,5 %. Ke-mikaloinnista lähtevän veden kokonaisfosforipitoisuus oli 7,7 μg/l, kokonaistyppipitoi-suus 656 μg/l ja CODMn 5,5 mg/l O2. Ferrisulfaatin annostelu oli keskimäärin 81 mg/l, vaihteluvälillä 25–268 mg/l.

Seulonnan erotustehokkuuden määrittäminen - tarkastelussa Reichertin kartioseula

Seulonta on vanha ja teollisuudessa yleisesti käytetty erotusmenetelmä. Huolimat-ta yksinkertaisesta prosessista seulontaa ilmiönä on tutkittu vähän. Prosessin yk-sinkertaisuus on voinut osaltaan vaikuttaa tutkijoiden mielenkiintoon aihetta koh-taan. Tutkimuksen vähyys näkyy etenkin painovoimaiseen seulontaan liittyvän kirjallisuuden vähyytenä. Kirjallisuusosassa käsitellään seulonnan taustaa ja märkä- sekä kuivaseulontaa. Lisäksi määritetään seulontaan vaikuttavat tekijät ja kar-toitetaan seulontaan liittyvää matematiikkaa. Työn kokeellisessa osassa tutkitaan Reichertin kartioseulan erotustehokkuutta 10, 12,5 ja 15 asteen kallistuskulmissa. Tutkimukset tehdään ideaalisille pallomaisille lasihelmille. Mittaustulosten avulla tutkitaan myös partikkelien liikettä seulapin-nalla ja syötetyn massan vaikutusta erotustehokkuuteen. Kokeellisia mittaustulok-sia käytetään MATLAB-mallinnuksessa, jonka avulla optimoidaan kartioseulan kallistuskulmaa ja massapanosta suhteessa erotustehokkuuteen. Tutkimuksen kannalta olennaisia kysymyksiä ovat: ”Onko painovoimaan perustuva erottelu seuloilla riittävä takaamaan hyvän erotustehokkuuden?” ja ”Mikä on seulan ero-tustehokkuuden kannalta optimaalinen kallistuskulma ja syötettävä massa?” Reichertin kartioseulan etuja ovat sen energiatehokkuus ja yksinkertainen helposti säädettävä prosessi. Koemittauksista havaitaan, että erotustehokkuus vastaa opti-moinnin tuloksia. Seulan liian pieni kallistuskulma ja suuri massapanos pienentävät seulan erotustehokkuutta. Lisätutkimuksia tarvitaan eri kallistuskulmilla ja materiaaleilla, jotta tuloksia voidaan verrata todellisiin seulontaprosesseihin.

Numerical Studies of Dark Energy Models and Observations

The cosmological standard view is based on the assumptions of homogeneity, isotropy and general relativistic gravitational interaction. These alone are not sufficient for describing the current cosmological observations of accelerated expansion of space. Although general relativity is extremely accurately tested to describe the local gravitational phenomena, there is a strong demand for modifying either the energy content of the universe or the gravitational interaction itself to account for the accelerated expansion. By adding a non-luminous matter component and a constant energy component with negative pressure, the observations can be explained with general relativity. Gravitation, cosmological models and their observational phenomenology are discussed in this thesis. Several classes of dark energy models that are motivated by theories outside the standard formulation of physics were studied with emphasis on the observational interpretation. All the cosmological models that seek to explain the cosmological observations, must also conform to the local phenomena. This poses stringent conditions for the physically viable cosmological models. Predictions from a supergravity quintessence model was compared to Supernova 1a data and several metric gravity models were studied with local experimental results. Polytropic stellar configurations of solar, white dwarf and neutron stars were numerically studied with modified gravity models. The main interest was to study the spacetime around the stars. The results shed light on the viability of the studied cosmological models.

Intensification of Operation of Inclined Plate Settler at Fertilizer Plant

Fertilizer plant’s process waters contain high concentrations of nitrogen compounds, such as ammonium and nitrate. Phosphorus and fluorine, which originate from phosphoric acid and rock phosphate (apatite) used in fertilizer production, are also present. Phosphorus and nitrogen are the primary nutrients causing eutrophication of surface waters. At fertilizer plant process waters are held in closed internal circulation. In a scrubber system process waters are used for washing exhaust gases from fertilizer reactors and dry gases from granulation drums as well as for cooling down the fertilizer slurry in neutralization reactor. Solids in process waters are separated in an inclined plate settler by gravitational sedimentation. However, the operation of inclined plate settler has been inadequate. The aim of this thesis was to intensify the operation of inclined plate settler and thus the solids separation e.g. through coagulation and/or flocculation process. Chemical precipitation was studied to reduce the amount of dissolved species in process waters. Specific interest was in precipitation of nitrogen, phosphorus, and fluorine containing specimens. Amounts of phosphorus and fluorine were reduced significantly by chemical precipitation. When compared to earlier studies, annual chemical costs were almost eight times lower. Instead, nitrogen compounds are readily dissolved in water, thus being difficult to remove by precipitation. Possible alternative techniques for nitrogen removal are adsorption, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis. Settling velocities of pH adjusted and flocculated process waters were sufficient for the operation of inclined plate settler. Design principles of inclined plate settler are also presented. In continuation studies, flow conditions in inclined plate settler should be modelled with computational fluid dynamics and suitability of adsorbents, ion exchange resins, and membranes should be studied in laboratory scale tests.

Improving Cost-Efficiency and Reducing Environmental Impacts of Intermodal Transportation with Dry Port Concept – Major Rail Transport Corridor in Baltic Sea Region

Transportation plays a major role in the gross domestic product of various nations. There are, however, many obstacles hindering the transportation sector. Cost-efficiency along with proper delivery times, high frequency and reliability are not a straightforward task. Furthermore, environmental friendliness has increased the importance of the whole transportation sector. This development will change roles inside the transportation sector. Even now, but especially in the future, decisions regarding the transportation sector will be partly based on emission levels and other externalities originating from transportation in addition to pure transportation costs. There are different factors, which could have an impact on the transportation sector. IMO’s sulphur regulation is estimated to increase the costs of short sea shipping in the Baltic Sea. Price development of energy could change the roles of different transport modes. Higher awareness of the environmental impacts originating from transportation could also have an impact on the price level of more polluting transport modes. According to earlier research, increased inland transportation, modal shift and slowsteaming can be possible results of these changes in the transportation sector. Possible changes in the transportation sector and ways to settle potential obstacles are studied in this dissertation. Furthermore, means to improve cost-efficiency and to decrease environmental impacts originating from transportation are researched. Hypothetical Finnish dry port network and Rail Baltica transport corridor are studied in this dissertation. Benefits and disadvantages are studied with different methodologies. These include gravitational models, which were optimized with linear integer programming, discrete-event and system dynamics simulation, an interview study and a case study. Geographical focus is on the Baltic Sea Region, but the results can be adapted to other geographical locations with discretion. Results indicate that the dry port concept has benefits, but optimization regarding the location and the amount of dry ports plays an important role. In addition, the utilization of dry ports for freight transportation should be carefully operated, since only a certain amount of total freight volume can be cost-efficiently transported through dry ports. If dry ports are created and located without proper planning, they could actually increase transportation costs and delivery times of the whole transportation system. With an optimized dry port network, transportation costs can be lowered in Finland with three to five dry ports. Environmental impacts can be lowered with up to nine dry ports. If more dry ports are added to the system, the benefits become very minor, i.e. payback time of investments becomes extremely long. Furthermore, dry port network could support major transport corridors such as Rail Baltica. Based on an analysis of statistics and interview study, there could be enough freight volume available for Rail Baltica, especially, if North-West Russia is part of the Northern end of the corridor. Transit traffic to and from Russia (especially through the Baltic States) plays a large role. It could be possible to increase transit traffic through Finland by connecting the potential Finnish dry port network and the studied transport corridor. Additionally, sulphur emission regulation is assumed to increase the attractiveness of Rail Baltica in the year 2015. Part of the transit traffic could be rerouted along Rail Baltica instead of the Baltic Sea, since the price level of sea transport could increase due to the sulphur regulation. Both, the hypothetical Finnish dry port network and Rail Baltica transport corridor could benefit each other. The dry port network could gain more market share from Russia, but also from Central Europe, which is the other end of Rail Baltica. In addition, further Eastern countries could also be connected to achieve higher potential freight volume by rail.

Analysis of Phase Separator Design Criteria Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Gravitational phase separation is a common unit operation found in most large-scale chemical processes. The need for phase separation can arise e.g. from product purification or protection of downstream equipment. In gravitational phase separation, the phases separate without the application of an external force. This is achieved in vessels where the flow velocity is lowered substantially compared to pipe flow. If the velocity is low enough, the denser phase settles towards the bottom of the vessel while the lighter phase rises. To find optimal configurations for gravitational phase separator vessels, several different geometrical and internal design features were evaluated based on simulations using OpenFOAM computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. The studied features included inlet distributors, vessel dimensions, demister configurations and gas phase outlet configurations. Simulations were conducted as single phase steady state calculations. For comparison, additional simulations were performed as dynamic single and two-phase calculations. The steady state single phase calculations provided indications on preferred configurations for most above mentioned features. The results of the dynamic simulations supported the utilization of the computationally faster steady state model as a practical engineering tool. However, the two-phase model provides more truthful results especially with flows where a single phase does not determine the flow characteristics.