Maritime transportation in the Gulf of Finland in 2007 and in 2015

The Gulf of Finland is said to be one of the densest operated sea areas in the world. It is a shallow and economically vulnerable sea area with dense passenger and cargo traffic of which petroleum transports have a share of over 50 %. The winter conditions add to the risks of maritime traffic in the Gulf of Finland. It is widely believed that the growth of maritime transportation will continue also in the future. The Gulf of Finland is surrounded by three very different national economies with, different maritime transportation structures. Finland is a country of high GDP/per capita with a diversified economic structure. The number of ports is large and the maritime transportation consists of many types of cargoes: raw materials, industrial products, consumer goods, coal and petroleum products, and the Russian transit traffic of e.g. new cars and consumer goods. Russia is a large country with huge growth potential; in recent years, the expansion of petroleum exports has lead to a strong economic growth, which is also apparent in the growth of maritime transports. Russia has been expanding its port activities in the Gulf of Finland and it is officially aiming to transport its own imports and exports through the Russian ports in the future; now they are being transported to great extend through the Finnish, Estonian and other Baltic ports. Russia has five ports in the Gulf of Finland. Estonia has also experienced fast economic growth, but the growth has been slowing down already during the past couples of years. The size of its economy is small compared to Russia, which means the transported tonnes cannot be very massive. However, relatively large amounts of the Russian petroleum exports have been transported through the Estonian ports. The future of the Russian transit traffic in Estonia looks nevertheless uncertain and it remains to be seen how it will develop and if Estonia is able to find replacing cargoes if the Russian transit traffic will come to an end in the Estonian ports. Estonia’s own import and export consists of forestry products, metals or other raw materials and consumer goods. Estonia has many ports on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, but the port of Tallinn dominates the cargo volumes. In 2007, 263 M tonnes of cargoes were transported in the maritime traffic in the Gulf of Finland, of which the share of petroleum products was 56 %. 23 % of the cargoes were loaded or unloaded in the Finnish ports, 60 % in the Russian ports and 17 % in the Estonian ports. The largest ports were Primorsk (74.2 M tonnes) St. Petersburg (59.5 M tonnes), Tallinn (35.9 M tonnes), Sköldvik (19.8 M tonnes), Vysotsk (16.5 M tonnes) and Helsinki (13.4 M) tonnes. Approximately 53 600 ship calls were made in the ports of the Gulf of Finland. The densest traffic was found in the ports of St. Petersburg (14 651 ship calls), Helsinki (11 727 ship calls) and Tallinn (10 614 ship calls) in 2007. The transportation scenarios are usually based on the assumption that the amount of transports follows the development of the economy, although also other factors influence the development of transportation, e.g. government policy, environmental aspects, and social and behavioural trends. The relationship between the development of transportation and the economy is usually analyzed in terms of the development of GDP and trade. When the GDP grows to a certain level, especially the international transports increase because countries of high GDP produce, consume and thus transport more. An effective transportation system is also a precondition for the economic development. In this study, the following factors were taken into consideration when formulating the future scenarios: maritime transportation in the Gulf of Finland 2007, economic development, development of key industries, development of infrastructure and environmental aspects in relation to maritime transportation. The basic starting points for the three alternative scenarios were: • the slow growth scenario: economic recession • the average growth scenario: economy will recover quickly from current instability • the strong growth scenario: the most optimistic views on development will realize According to the slow growth scenario, the total tonnes for the maritime transportation in the Gulf of Finland would be 322.4 M tonnes in 2015, which would mean a growth of 23 % compared to 2007. In the average growth scenario, the total tonnes were estimated to be 431.6 M tonnes – a growth of 64 %, and in the strong growth scenario 507.2 M tonnes – a growth of 93%. These tonnes were further divided into petroleum products and other cargoes by country, into export, import and domestic traffic by country, and between the ports. For petroleum products, the share of crude oil and oil products was estimated and the number of tanker calls in 2015 was calculated for each scenario. However, the future development of maritime transportation in the GoF is dependent on so many societal and economic variables that it is not realistic to predict one exact point estimate value for the cargo tonnes for a certain scenario. Plenty of uncertainty is related both to the degree in which the scenario will come true as well as to the cause-effect relations between the different variables. For these reasons, probability distributions for each scenario were formulated by an expert group. As a result, a range for the total tonnes of each scenario was formulated and they are as follows: the slow growth scenario: 280.8 – 363 M tonnes (expectation value 322.4 M tonnes)

Grounding in a wind power application

The subject of this master’s thesis is to research grounding in a particular wind power application. The aim is to define how the grounding from different points effects to the function of the whole system. The investigated subjects are generator voltage spikes, ground currents and system fault situations. The first part of this thesis represents power electronics, which is commonly used in wind power systems. The second part concentrates more to the grounding, electrical safety demands and potential fault situations. The object of the simulations is to investigate voltage spikes and fault situations. Measurements will be made with small-scale setup and in the last part simulation and measurement results are compared to each other and to a full-scale system.

Akku ja vetypolttokenno sähköauton voimanlähteenä

Tässä kandidaatintyössä on käsitelty akkuja ja vetypolttokennoja sähköauton voimanlähteenä. Työssä on esitelty sähköautojen ja niiden voimanlähteiden teknologioiden periaatteita, energiankantajia, hyötysuhteita ja päästöjä. Lisäksi on tarkasteltu polttomoottorikäyttöisiä autotekniikoita vertailukohdan saamiseksi. Työn lopuksi on analysoitu sähköautojen markkinoita ja niiden yleistymiseen vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Sähköautot mahdollistavat vaihtoehtoisten energialähteiden käytön, joka antaa tilaisuuden saasteiden ja päästöjen keskitettyyn vähentämiseen ja talteenottoon. Niiden avulla päästään myös pois öljyriippuvuudesta ja paikallisesti aiheutuneista päästöistä. Nykyisten polttoaineiden helpon käsiteltävyyden, kohtuullisien energiatiheyksien ja laajojen infrastruktuurien vuoksi käytössä olevien tekniikoiden syrjäyttäminen on vaikeaa. Uusien tekniikoiden etuja ja haittoja voidaan tarkastella yksinkertaisilla metodeilla, kuten kustannusten, hyötysuhteiden, päästöjen ja polttoaineiden elinkaarien vertailulla. Vertailua vaikeuttaa tosin hintatasojen ja verotuksen eroavaisuudet eri maissa, ja se on siksi suoritettava osin maakohtaisesti. Suurimpia esteitä uusille tekniikoille ovat tällä hetkellä niiden tuomat lisäkustannukset, infrastruktuurien puuttuminen ja nykyisten polttoaineiden korvaaminen toisella.

Tehokerrointa korjaava skalaariohjaus puoliohjatussa ja kuusikytkintasasuuntaajassa

Verkon harmonisvirtoja rajoittavien standardien tiukentuessa joudutaan etenkin suuritehoisissa tehoelektronisissa laitteissa siirtymään aktiivisiin transistoriohjattuihin tasasuuntaajiin, jotka korjaavat tehokerrointa ja siten pienentävät verkkoon kytkeytyviä häiriövirtoja. Tässä diplomityössä esitellään yleisimpien kolmivaiheisten tasasuuntaajatopologioiden eroja ja vertaillaan puoliohjatun kolmikytkintopologian ja kuusikytkintopologian suorituskykyä tehokertoimen ja harmonissärön osalta, 16 kilowatin teholuokan taajuusmuuttajassa. Tasasuuntaajille tehtiin skalaariohjaukseen perustuva simulointimalli. Työn tavoitteena esitellään simulointitulokset harmonistason sekä tehokertoimen osalta. Työ liittyy Lappeenrannan teknillisen yliopiston sovelletun elektroniikan laboratorion ja Vacon Oyj:n yhteiseen hankkeeseen.

Jäähdytysnestekierron optimointi tuuliturbiinin konvertterikaapistoon

Diplomityössä perehdytään tuuliturbiinin konvertterikaapiston nestekierron tarkasteluun ja mittausten suunnitteluun sitä varten. Tarkastelun tulokset ovat yhdistettävissä konvertterikaapiston ilmapuolen jäähdytykseen, jolloin koko jäähdytysjärjestelmä on katettu. Työn alkupuolella perehdytään lyhyesti nykyhetken tuulivoimaan. Tämän jälkeen tarkastellaan itse konvertterikaapistoa, sen toimintaa sekä nestejäähdytyksen toteutusta komponentteineen. Työn keskimmäisessä osassa konvertterille tehtiin virtaustekninen malli aiempaa mittausdataa hyväksi käyttäen. Tällä mallilla suoritettiin herkkyystarkasteluja ja simuloitiin konvertterikaapiston nestekierron käyttäytymistä yhden tai useamman haaran tukkeutuessa osittain tai kokonaan. Lisäksi suunniteltiin uusi nestekierto. Lopuksi selvitetään mittauksissa tarvittava laitteisto, perehdytään kunkin laitteen toimintaperiaatteeseen sekä selvennetään suositeltavat asennuspaikat ja suojaetäisyydet.

Strategia ja menestystekijät projektiliiketoiminnassa

Projektit ovat keskeinen osa usean yrityksen päivittäistä toimintaa. Niiden avulla voidaan toteuttaa organisaatioiden sisäisiä kehityshankkeita tai yhtä hyvin asiakastoimituksia tuotteiden ja palveluiden muodossa. Tämän tutkimustyön tavoitteena on kehittää asiakastoimitusprojektien projektiliiketoimintamallia strategian näkökulmasta tapaustutkimuksen avulla. Lisäksi tutkimustyön tavoitteena on määrittää projektiliiketoiminnan menestystekijät asiakastoimitusprojektien yhteydessä ja muodostaa niiden mukainen suorituskykymittariston perusta. Tutkimus toteutettiin valitun yrityksen projektiliiketoimintamalliin perehtymällä. Ensimmäisessä vaiheessa esitellään yritystä ja sen toimintaa. Yrityksen toimintaa kuvataan viitekehyksen avulla, joka on valittu teoriakatsauksen perusteella. Teoriakatsaus käsittelee projektiliiketoimintaa, strategiaa projektiliiketoiminnassa sekä suorituskyvynjohtamisen teoriaa. Keskeisenä tuloksena tutkimuksen perusteella muodostettiin ehdotus yrityksen projektiliiketoiminnan tavoitetilasta, ydintoiminnoista, menestystekijöistä sekä strategiasta. Ehdotuksessa kuvataan projektiliiketoiminnan suorituskyvynjohtamisen peruselementit, jotka muodostavat perustan suorituskyvyn mittaamiselle kohdeorganisaatiossa.

Aplicação de lipases microbianas na obtenção de concentrados de ácidos graxos poliinsaturados

Several polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) belonging to the ômega 6 series, such as cis-6,9,12 gamma-linolenic acid, as well as those of the ômega 3 series, such as cis-5,8,11,14,17-eicosapentaenoic acid and cis-4,7,10,13,16,19-docosahexaenoic acid are of considerable interest due to their nutritional and therapeutic properties. Methods used for the concentration of PUFA from natural sources include urea adduct formation, solvent winterization, supercritical fluid extraction and lipase-catalyzed reaction. Lipases are known to have little reactivity on PUFA and these acids can be enriched by selective hydrolysis, direct esterification of glycerol with PUFA and interesterification. Since lipase reactions are advantageous with respect to fatty acid, positional specificities and mild incubation condition, these enzymes are considered to be suitable for the production of PUFA concentrates for medical purposes.

Assessment of facilitators' design thinking

Meeting design is one of the most critical prerequisites of the success of facilitated meetings but how to achieve the success is not yet fully understood. This study presents a descriptive model of the design of technology supported meetings based on literature findings about the key factors contributing to the success of collaborative meetings, and linking these factors to the meeting design steps by exploring how facilitators consider the factors in practice in their design process. The empirical part includes a multiple-case study conducted among 12 facilitators. The case concentrates on the GSS laboratory at LUT, which has been working on facilitation and GSS for the last fifteen years. The study also includes ‘control’ cases from two comparable institutions. The results of this study highlight both the variances and commonalities among facilitators in how they design collaboration processes. The design thinking of facilitators of all levels of experience is found to be largely consistent wherefore the key design factors as well as their role across the design process can be outlined. Session goals, group composition, supporting technology, motivational aspects, physical constraints, and correct design practices were found to outline the key factors in design thinking. These factors are further categorized into three factor types of controllable, constraining, and guiding design factors, because the study findings indicate the factor type to have an effect on the factor’s importance in design. Furthermore, the order of considering these factors in the design process is outlined.

Sähköinen tarkastuslista rakennusteollisuuden laadunvalvonnan tukena

Rakennusteollisuus on tunnettu useita muita aloja hitaammasta uuden teknologian käyttöönotosta. Yleisesti käytössä on hyvin perinteinen paperia ja kynää hyödyntävä tiedontallennuskäytäntö. Paperin käytössä tiedon tallennusvälineenä on useita ongelmia kuten säilytettävyys ja hallittavuus, joista päästään eroon siirtymällä sähköiseen tiedon tallennukseen. Laadun varmistamiseksi voidaan käyttää tarkastuslistoja, jotka toimivat tarkastuksien suorittajan muistin tukena. Muutettaessa tarkastuslista sähköiseen muotoon, voidaan välttyä paperisen tarkastuslistan ongelmilta, kuten käsialan tunnistamiselta ja merkintätapojen vaihtelevuudelta. Tässä diplomityössä käsitellään rakennusteollisuuden laadunhallinnan nykytilaa sekä sähköisen tarkastuslistan käyttöä rakennusteollisuuden laadunvalvonnassa. Lisäksi esitellään prototyyppi sähköisestä tarkastuslistasta osana laadunvalvontaa. Sähköinen tarkastuslista toteutetaan dynaamisesti niin, että tarkastuslistojen pohjalta on mahdollista luoda käyttöliittymä kyseessä olevan listan mukaisesti päätelaitteelle. Sähköisen tarkastuslistan prototyyppi on toteutettu WWW-sovelluspalveluna (World Wide Web), joka mahdollistaa useiden erilaisten päätelaitteiden hyödyntämisen.

Radio Frequency Measurement Method for Detecting Bearing Currents in Induction Motors

Induction motors are widely used in industry, and they are generally considered very reliable. They often have a critical role in industrial processes, and their failure can lead to significant losses as a result of shutdown times. Typical failures of induction motors can be classified into stator, rotor, and bearing failures. One of the reasons for a bearing damage and eventually a bearing failure is bearing currents. Bearing currents in induction motors can be divided into two main categories; classical bearing currents and inverter-induced bearing currents. A bearing damage caused by bearing currents results, for instance, from electrical discharges that take place through the lubricant film between the raceways of the inner and the outer ring and the rolling elements of a bearing. This phenomenon can be considered similar to the one of electrical discharge machining, where material is removed by a series of rapidly recurring electrical arcing discharges between an electrode and a workpiece. This thesis concentrates on bearing currents with a special reference to bearing current detection in induction motors. A bearing current detection method based on radio frequency impulse reception and detection is studied. The thesis describes how a motor can work as a “spark gap” transmitter and discusses a discharge in a bearing as a source of radio frequency impulse. It is shown that a discharge, occurring due to bearing currents, can be detected at a distance of several meters from the motor. The issues of interference, detection, and location techniques are discussed. The applicability of the method is shown with a series of measurements with a specially constructed test motor and an unmodified frequency-converter-driven motor. The radio frequency method studied provides a nonintrusive method to detect harmful bearing currents in the drive system. If bearing current mitigation techniques are applied, their effectiveness can be immediately verified with the proposed method. The method also gives a tool to estimate the harmfulness of the bearing currents by making it possible to detect and locate individual discharges inside the bearings of electric motors.

The Innovation Process – Aiming towards Innovativeness in a Construction Company

The bachelor’s thesis concentrates on the innovativeness in the construction industry. The purpose of the thesis is to define the innovation as a concept reflected on a context of the construction industry. The second objective is to examine how the construction companies could foster and increase the innovativeness. The third objective was to find out tools, methods and phases of the front-end of the innovation process. The construction industry is often considered as a traditional and an old-fashioned manufacturing industry. The innovation or the innovativeness rarely linked to the construction industry. Productivity is a common problem in the construction industry. The construction industry needs to increase the productivity to compete in a globalized world. The productivity can be increased by the innovation. The thesis based on a literature review. The findings from the literature include a description of the innovation as a concept, the innovative culture and the innovation process as a context of the construction industry. The phases of the front-end of the innovation process were explained. Customers centered approach was taken into account in the innovation process. The required tools and methods for managing the front-end of the innovation process were illustrated. The thesis ensures the importance of the innovation facing challenges of the construction industry. Managing the front-end of the innovation is the most important aspect to stand out from the less innovative companies. To take a full advantage of the innovation companies cannot fear of changes. The innovation process requires a full support of the top management of the company. Taking into consideration a theoretical aspect of the thesis a further research is required to respond practical needs of the company. Tools and methods should be considered according the company’s needs and activities. Company’s existing state and culture should be examined before implementing the front-end of the innovation process to ensure the functionality.

Use of Biomass Gasification for Transport

This thesis represents an overview of biomass gasification technology together with some practical aspects of this technology application for transport in Finland. The main aim of this work is an assessment whether this technology is perspective in the nearest future for the wide use on transport or not. The first part of the thesis is a kind of survey of the previous works and materials con-cerning the usage of biomass gasification for transport. The second part concentrates more on the practical moments of its use for mobile applications in Finland (taxation, emissions, etc.).

Työnkulkumoottorien käyttö sähköisten huutokauppojen koordinoinnissa

Sähköinen huutokauppapaikka on internetissä sijaitseva huutokauppalaitos. Sähköiset huutokauppapaikat ovat kasvattaneet suosiotaan huimasti, mistä johtuen sähköisten huutokauppojen kehittäminenkin on lisääntynyt. Tässä työssä tutkitaan kuinka sähköisen huutokaupan järjestäjä voi kasvattaa tuloaan kutsumalla vain potentiaalisimmat huutajat huutokauppaansa. Huutajien kutsuminen perustuu webpalveluiden käyttöön, joiden avulla huutajia voidaan koordinoida heidän ominaisuuksiensa mukaan. Asian tutkimiseksi selvitetään mitkä tekijät tekevät huutajasta potentiaalisen huutajan, ja miten huutokaupan järjestäjä voi kasvattaa tuloaan kutsumalla nämä huutajat huutokauppaansa web-palveluiden avulla. Työssä toteutetaan koordinointipalvelu, jonka avulla tutkitaan kuinka huutajien koordinointi voidaan toteuttaa web-palveluiden avulla. Toteutettu web-palvelu etsii potentiaalisimmat huutajat oletetusta huutajarekisteristä, ja voisi toimia esimerkiksi sähköisen huutokauppatalon promootiotyökaluna asiakkaille.

Inter organizational learning within and by innovation networks

The thesis deals with the phenomenon of learning between organizations in innovation networks that develop new products, services or processes. Inter organizational learning is studied especially at the level of the network. The role of the network can be seen as twofold: either the network is a context for inter organizational learning, if the learner is something else than the network (organization, group, individual), or the network itself is the learner. Innovations are regarded as a primary source of competitiveness and renewal in organizations. Networking has become increasingly common particularly because of the possibility to extend the resource base of the organization through partnerships and to concentrate on core competencies. Especially in innovation activities, networks provide the possibility to answer the complex needs of the customers faster and to share the costs and risks of the development work. Networked innovation activities are often organized in practice as distributed virtual teams, either within one organization or as cross organizational co operation. The role of technology is considered in the research mainly as an enabling tool for collaboration and learning. Learning has been recognized as one important collaborative process in networks or as a motivation for networking. It is even more important in the innovation context as an enabler of renewal, since the essence of the innovation process is creating new knowledge, processes, products and services. The thesis aims at providing enhanced understanding about the inter organizational learning phenomenon in and by innovation networks, especially concentrating on the network level. The perspectives used in the research are the theoretical viewpoints and concepts, challenges, and solutions for learning. The methods used in the study are literature reviews and empirical research carried out with semi structured interviews analyzed with qualitative content analysis. The empirical research concentrates on two different areas, firstly on the theoretical approaches to learning that are relevant to innovation networks, secondly on learning in virtual innovation teams. As a result, the research identifies insights and implications for learning in innovation networks from several viewpoints on organizational learning. Using multiple perspectives allows drawing a many sided picture of the learning phenomenon that is valuable because of the versatility and complexity of situations and challenges of learning in the context of innovation and networks. The research results also show some of the challenges of learning and possible solutions for supporting especially network level learning.

Wide Area Network Acceleration in Corporate Networks

There are several factors affecting network performance. Some of these can be controlled whereas the others are more fixed. These factors are studied in this thesis from the wide area network (WAN) perspective and the focus is on corporate networks. Another area of interest is the behavior of application protocols when used through WAN. The aim is to study the performance of commonly used application protocols in corporate networks. After identifying the performance problems in corporate WANs the thesis concentrates on methods for improving WAN performance. WAN acceleration is presented as a possible solution. The different acceleration methods are discussed in order to give the reader a theoretical view on how the accelerators can improve WAN performance. Guidelines on the installation of accelerators into a network are also discussed. After a general overview on accelerators is given, one accelerator vendor currently on market is selected for a further analysis. The work is also a case study where two accelerators are installed into a target company network for testing purposes. The tests are performed with three different application protocols that have been identified as critical applications for the target corporation. The aim of the tests is to serve as a proof of concept for WAN acceleration in the target network.