Design and analysis of kinetic energy recovery system for automobiles: a case study for commuters in Edinburgh.

Transport and its energetic and environmental impacts affect our daily lives. The transport sector is the backbone of the United Kingdom’s economy with 2.3 million people being employed in this sector. With a high dependency on transport for passengers and freight and with the knowledge that oil reserves are rapidly decreasing a solution has to be identified for conserving fuel. Passenger vehicles account for 61% of the transport fuel consumed in the U.K. and should be seen as a key area to tackle. Despite the introduction and development of electric powered cars, the widespread infrastructure that is required is not in place and has attributed to their slow uptake, as well as the fact that the electric car’s performance is not yet comparable with the conventional internal combustion engine. The benefits of the introduction of kinetic energy recovery systems to be used in conjunction with internal combustion engines and designed such that the system could easily be fitted into future passenger vehicles are examined. In this article, a review of automobile kinetic energy recovery system is presented. It has been argued that the ultracapacitor technology offers a sustainable solution. An optimum design for the urban driving cycle experienced in the city of Edinburgh has been introduced. The potential for fuel savings is also presented

An energy efficient power controller switching methodology for an ambient healthcare network

A methodology for improved power controller switching in mobile Body Area Networks operating within the ambient healthcare environment is proposed. The work extends Anti-windup and Bumpless transfer results to provide a solution to the ambulatory networking problem that ensures sufficient biometric data can always be regenerated at the base station. The solution thereby guarantees satisfactory quality of service for healthcare providers. Compensation is provided for the nonlinear hardware constraints that are a typical feature of the type of network under consideration and graceful performance degradation in the face of hardware output power saturation is demonstrated, thus conserving network energy in an optimal fashion.

RMAC-M: Extending the R-MAC Protocol for an Energy Efficient, Delay Tolerant Underwater Acoustic Sensor Network application with a mobile data mule node

One of the major applications of underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWASN) is ocean environment monitoring. Employing data mules is an energy efficient way of data collection from the underwater sensor nodes in such a network. A data mule node such as an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) periodically visits the stationary nodes to download data. By conserving the power required for data transmission over long distances to a remote data sink, this approach extends the network life time. In this paper we propose a new MAC protocol to support a single mobile data mule node to collect the data sensed by the sensor nodes in periodic runs through the network. In this approach, the nodes need to perform only short distance, single hop transmission to the data mule. The protocol design discussed in this paper is motivated to support such an application. The proposed protocol is a hybrid protocol, which employs a combination of schedule based access among the stationary nodes along with handshake based access to support mobile data mules. The new protocol, RMAC-M is developed as an extension to the energy efficient MAC protocol R-MAC by extending the slot time of R-MAC to include a contention part for a hand shake based data transfer. The mobile node makes use of a beacon to signal its presence to all the nearby nodes, which can then hand-shake with the mobile node for data transfer. Simulation results show that the new protocol provides efficient support for a mobile data mule node while preserving the advantages of R-MAC such as energy efficiency and fairness.

On the validity of single-parcel energetics to assess the importance of internal energy and compressibility effects in stratified fluids

It is often assumed on the basis of single-parcel energetics that compressible effects and conversions with internal energy are negligible whenever typical displacements of fluid parcels are small relative to the scale height of the fluid (defined as the ratio of the squared speed of sound over gravitational acceleration). This paper shows that the above approach is flawed, however, and that a correct assessment of compressible effects and internal energy conversions requires considering the energetics of at least two parcels, or more generally, of mass conserving parcel re-arrangements. As a consequence, it is shown that it is the adiabatic lapse rate and its derivative with respect to pressure, rather than the scale height, which controls the relative importance of compressible effects and internal energy conversions when considering the global energy budget of a stratied fluid. Only when mass conservation is properly accounted for is it possible to explain why available internal energy can account for up to 40 percent of the total available potential energy in the oceans. This is considerably larger than the prediction of single-parcel energetics, according to which this number should be no more than about 2 percent.

Energy efficient on-demand addressing for wireless sensor networks

Conserving of battery power is a critical requirement in WSNs. Past studies have shown that the transceiving process consumes more energy than the internal processing. This work focuses on eliminating overhead messages used for address allocation by employing multiple base-stations. In this context we explore address allocation without Duplicate Address Detection (DAD). We present an alternative approach to Duplicate address detection using the sink as an address pool to maintain and systematize available addresses. Experimental results show that this approach eliminates overhead messages generated by DAD; resulting in energy savings when used in conjunction with an on-demand address allocation mechanism.

Exploring neutrino mixing with low energy superbeams

We explore the features of neutrino oscillation which are relevant for measurements of the leptonic CP violating phase δ and the sign of Delta;m13 2 in experiments with low-energy conventional superbeams. Toward the goal, we introduce a new powerful tool called the CP trajectory diagram in bi-probability space which allows us to represent pictorially the three effects, the effects of (a) genuine CP violation due to the sin δ term, (6) CP conserving cos δ term, and (c) fake CP violation due to earth matter, separately in a single diagram. By using the diagram, we observe that there is a two-fold ambiguity in the determination of S which is related with the sign of Delta;m13 2. Possible ways of resolving the ambiguity are discussed. In particular, we point out that an in situ simultaneous measurement of δ and the sign of Delta;m13 2 can be carried out at distances of about 700 km, or at the Phase II of the JHF experiment provided that sin δ ·Delta;m13 2 < 0, both with a megaton class water Cherenkov detector.

Search for supersymmetry in events with photons and low missing transverse energy in pp collisions at √s=7TeV

Many models of new physics, including versions of supersymmetry (SUSY), predict production of events with low missing transverse energy, electroweak gauge bosons, and many energetic final-state particles. The stealth SUSY model yields this signature while conserving R-parity by means of a new hidden sector in which SUSY is approximately conserved. The results of a general search for new physics, with no requirement on missing transverse energy, in events with two photons and four or more hadronic jets are reported. The study is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at s=7TeV corresponding to 4.96fb-1 of integrated luminosity collected with the CMS detector in 2011. Based on good agreement between the data and the standard model expectation, the data are used to determine model-independent cross-section limits and a limit on the squark mass in the framework of stealth SUSY. With this first study of its kind, squark masses less than 1430 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level. © 2012 CERN.

Energy-entropy-momentum time integration methods for coupled smooth dissipative problems

Esta tesis aborda la formulación, análisis e implementación de métodos numéricos de integración temporal para la solución de sistemas disipativos suaves de dimensión finita o infinita de manera que su estructura continua sea conservada. Se entiende por dichos sistemas aquellos que involucran acoplamiento termo-mecánico y/o efectos disipativos internos modelados por variables internas que siguen leyes continuas, de modo que su evolución es considerada suave. La dinámica de estos sistemas está gobernada por las leyes de la termodinámica y simetrías, las cuales constituyen la estructura que se pretende conservar de forma discreta. Para ello, los sistemas disipativos se describen geométricamente mediante estructuras metriplécticas que identifican claramente las partes reversible e irreversible de la evolución del sistema. Así, usando una de estas estructuras conocida por las siglas (en inglés) de GENERIC, la estructura disipativa de los sistemas es identificada del mismo modo que lo es la Hamiltoniana para sistemas conservativos. Con esto, métodos (EEM) con precisión de segundo orden que conservan la energía, producen entropía y conservan los impulsos lineal y angular son formulados mediante el uso del operador derivada discreta introducido para asegurar la conservación de la Hamiltoniana y las simetrías de sistemas conservativos. Siguiendo estas directrices, se formulan dos tipos de métodos EEM basados en el uso de la temperatura o de la entropía como variable de estado termodinámica, lo que presenta importantes implicaciones que se discuten a lo largo de esta tesis. Entre las cuales cabe destacar que las condiciones de contorno de Dirichlet son naturalmente impuestas con la formulación basada en la temperatura. Por último, se validan dichos métodos y se comprueban sus mejores prestaciones en términos de la estabilidad y robustez en comparación con métodos estándar. This dissertation is concerned with the formulation, analysis and implementation of structure-preserving time integration methods for the solution of the initial(-boundary) value problems describing the dynamics of smooth dissipative systems, either finite- or infinite-dimensional ones. Such systems are understood as those involving thermo-mechanical coupling and/or internal dissipative effects modeled by internal state variables considered to be smooth in the sense that their evolutions follow continuos laws. The dynamics of such systems are ruled by the laws of thermodynamics and symmetries which constitutes the structure meant to be preserved in the numerical setting. For that, dissipative systems are geometrically described by metriplectic structures which clearly identify the reversible and irreversible parts of their dynamical evolution. In particular, the framework known by the acronym GENERIC is used to reveal the systems' dissipative structure in the same way as the Hamiltonian is for conserving systems. Given that, energy-preserving, entropy-producing and momentum-preserving (EEM) second-order accurate methods are formulated using the discrete derivative operator that enabled the formulation of Energy-Momentum methods ensuring the preservation of the Hamiltonian and symmetries for conservative systems. Following these guidelines, two kind of EEM methods are formulated in terms of entropy and temperature as a thermodynamical state variable, involving important implications discussed throughout the dissertation. Remarkably, the formulation in temperature becomes central to accommodate Dirichlet boundary conditions. EEM methods are finally validated and proved to exhibit enhanced numerical stability and robustness properties compared to standard ones.

Effective energy conservation and management in the building sector : the answer to the energy predicament

Modern civilization has developed principally through man's harnessing of forces. For centuries man had to rely on wind, water and animal force as principal sources of power. The advent of the industrial revolution, electrification and the development of new technologies led to the application of wood, coal, gas, petroleum, and uranium to fuel new industries, produce goods and means of transportation, and generate the electrical energy which has become such an integral part of our lives. The geometric growth in energy consumption, coupled with the world's unrestricted growth in population, has caused a disproportionate use of these limited natural resources. The resulting energy predicament could have serious consequences within the next half century unless we commit ourselves to the philosophy of effective energy conservation and management. National legislation, along with the initiative of private industry and growing interest in the private sector has played a major role in stimulating the adoption of energy-conserving laws, technologies, measures, and practices. It is a matter of serious concern in the United States, where ninety-five percent of the commercial and industrial facilities which will be standing in the year 2000 - many in need of retrofit - are currently in place. To conserve energy, it is crucial to first understand how a facility consumes energy, how its users' needs are met, and how all internal and external elements interrelate. To this purpose, the major thrust of this report will be to emphasize the need to develop an energy conservation plan that incorporates energy auditing and surveying techniques. Numerous energy-saving measures and practices will be presented ranging from simple no-cost opportunities to capital intensive investments.

Clinical Accuracy of the MedGem Indirect Calorimeter for Measuring Resting Energy Expenditure in Cancer Patients

OBJECTIVE: To compare, in patients with cancer and in healthy subjects, measured resting energy expenditure (REE) from traditional indirect calorimetry to a new portable device (MedGem) and predicted REE. DESIGN: Cross-sectional clinical validation study. SETTING: Private radiation oncology centre, Brisbane, Australia. SUBJECTS: Cancer patients (n = 18) and healthy subjects (n = 17) aged 37-86 y, with body mass indices ranging from 18 to 42 kg/m(2). INTERVENTIONS: Oxygen consumption (VO(2)) and REE were measured by VMax229 (VM) and MedGem (MG) indirect calorimeters in random order after a 12-h fast and 30-min rest. REE was also calculated from the MG without adjustment for nitrogen excretion (MGN) and estimated from Harris-Benedict prediction equations. Data were analysed using the Bland and Altman approach, based on a clinically acceptable difference between methods of 5%. RESULTS: The mean bias (MGN-VM) was 10% and limits of agreement were -42 to 21% for cancer patients; mean bias -5% with limits of -45 to 35% for healthy subjects. Less than half of the cancer patients (n = 7, 46.7%) and only a third (n = 5, 33.3%) of healthy subjects had measured REE by MGN within clinically acceptable limits of VM. Predicted REE showed a mean bias (HB-VM) of -5% for cancer patients and 4% for healthy subjects, with limits of agreement of -30 to 20% and -27 to 34%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Limits of agreement for the MG and Harris Benedict equations compared to traditional indirect calorimetry were similar but wide, indicating poor clinical accuracy for determining the REE of individual cancer patients and healthy subjects.