Failure and impact behavior of facade panels made of glass fiber reinforced cement(GRC)

GRC is a cementitious composite material made up of a cement mortar matrix and chopped glass fibers. Due to its outstanding mechanical properties, GRC has been widely used to produce cladding panels and some civil engineering elements. Impact failure of cladding panels made of GRC may occur during production if some tool falls onto the panel, due to stone or other objects impacting at low velocities or caused by debris projected after a blast. Impact failure of a front panel of a building may have not only an important economic value but also human lives may be at risk if broken pieces of the panel fall from the building to the pavement. Therefore, knowing GRC impact strength is necessary to prevent economic costs and putting human lives at risk. One-stage light gas gun is an impact test machine capable of testing different materials subjected to impact loads. An experimental program was carried out, testing GRC samples of five different formulations, commonly used in building industry. Steel spheres were shot at different velocities on square GRC samples. The residual velocity of the projectiles was obtained both using a high speed camera with multiframe exposure and measuring the projectile’s penetration depth in molding clay blocks. Tests were performed on young and artificially aged GRC samples to compare GRC’s behavior when subjected to high strain rates. Numerical simulations using a hydrocode were made to analyze which parameters are most important during an impact event. GRC impact strength was obtained from test results. Also, GRC’s embrittlement, caused by GRC aging, has no influence on GRC impact behavior due to the small size of the projectile. Also, glass fibers used in GRC production only maintain GRC panels’ integrity but have no influence on GRC’s impact strength. Numerical models have reproduced accurately impact tests.

Validation of a Dumbbell Body Sway Test in Olympic Air Pistol Shooting

We present and validate a test able to provide reliable body sway measurements in air pistol shooting, without the use of a gun. 46 senior male pistol shooters who participated in Spanish air pistol championships participated in the study. Body sway data of two static bipodal balance tests have been compared: during the first test, shooting was simulated by use of a dumbbell, while during the second test the shooters own pistol was used. Both tests were performed the day previous to the competition, during the official training time and at the training stands to simulate competition conditions. The participants performance was determined as the total score of 60 shots at competition. Apart from the commonly used variables that refer to movements of the shooters centre of pressure (COP), such as COP displacements on the X and Y axes, maximum and average COP velocities and total COP area, the present analysis also included variables that provide information regarding the axes of the COP ellipse (length and angle in respect to X). A strong statistically significant correlation between the two tests was found (with an interclass correlation varying between 0.59 and 0.92). A statistically significant inverse linear correlation was also found between performance and COP movements. The study concludes that dumbbell tests are perfectly valid for measuring body sway by simulating pistol shooting.

Sistemas multiespectrales e hiperespectrales para la observación del territorio : análisis y aplicación a la prospección de hidrocarburos.

La observación de la Tierra es una herramienta de gran utilidad en la actualidad para el estudio de los fenómenos que se dan en la misma. La observación se puede realizar a distintas escalas y por distintos métodos dependiendo del propósito. El actual Trabajo Final de Grado persigue exponer la observación del territorio mediante técnicas de Teledetección, o Detección Remota, y su aplicación en la exploración de hidrocarburos. Desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial el capturar imágenes aéreas de regiones de la Tierra estaba restringido a usos cartográficos en el sentido estricto. Desde aquellos tiempos, hasta ahora, ha acontecido una serie de avances científicos que permiten deducir características intrínsecas de la Tierra mediante mecanismos complejos que no apreciamos a simple vista, pero que, están configurados mediante determinados parámetros geométricos y electrónicos, que permiten generar series temporales de fenómenos físicos que se dan en la Tierra. Hoy en día se puede afirmar que el aprovechamiento del espectro electromagnético está en un punto máximo. Se ha pasado del análisis de la región del espectro visible al análisis del espectro en su totalidad. Esto supone el desarrollo de nuevos algoritmos, técnicas y procesos para extraer la mayor cantidad de información acerca de la interacción de la materia con la radiación electromagnética. La información que generan los sistemas de captura va a servir para la aplicación directa e indirecta de métodos de prospección de hidrocarburos. Las técnicas utilizadas en detección por sensores remotos, aplicadas en campañas geofísicas, son utilizadas para minimizar costes y maximizar resultados en investigaciones de campo. La predicción de anomalías en la zona de estudio depende del analista, quien diseña, calcula y evalúa las variaciones de la energía electromagnética reflejada o emitida por la superficie terrestre. Para dicha predicción se revisarán distintos programas espaciales, se evaluará la bondad de registro y diferenciación espectral mediante el uso de distintas clasificaciones (supervisadas y no supervisadas). Por su influencia directa sobre las observaciones realizadas, se realiza un estudio de la corrección atmosférica; se programan distintos modelos de corrección atmosférica para imágenes multiespectrales y se evalúan los métodos de corrección atmosférica en datos hiperespectrales. Se obtendrá temperatura de la zona de interés utilizando los sensores TM-4, ASTER y OLI, así como un Modelo Digital del Terreno generado por el par estereoscópico capturado por el sensor ASTER. Una vez aplicados estos procedimientos se aplicarán los métodos directos e indirectos, para la localización de zonas probablemente afectadas por la influencia de hidrocarburos y localización directa de hidrocarburos mediante teledetección hiperespectral. Para el método indirecto se utilizan imágenes capturadas por los sensores ETM+ y ASTER. Para el método directo se usan las imágenes capturadas por el sensor Hyperion. ABSTRACT The observation of the Earth is a wonderful tool for studying the different kind of phenomena that occur on its surface. The observation could be done by different scales and by different techniques depending on the information of interest. This Graduate Thesis is intended to expose the territory observation by remote sensing acquiring data systems and the analysis that can be developed to get information of interest. Since Second World War taking aerials photographs of scene was restricted only to a cartographic sense. From these days to nowadays, it have been developed many scientific advances that make capable the interpretation of the surface behavior trough complex systems that are configure by specific geometric and electronic parameters that make possible acquiring time series of the phenomena that manifest on the earth’s surface. Today it is possible to affirm that the exploitation of the electromagnetic spectrum is on a maxim value. In the past, analysis of the electromagnetic spectrum was carry in a narrow part of it, today it is possible to study entire. This implicates the development of new algorithms, process and techniques for the extraction of information about the interaction of matter with electromagnetic radiation. The information that has been acquired by remote sensing sensors is going to be a helpful tool for the exploration of hydrocarbon through direct and vicarious methods. The techniques applied in remote sensing, especially in geophysical campaigns, are employed to minimize costs and maximize results of ground-based geologic investigations. Forecasting of anomalies in the region of interest depends directly on the expertise data analyst who designs, computes and evaluates variations in the electromagnetic energy reflected or emanated from the earth’s surface. For an optimal prediction a review of the capture system take place; assess of the goodness in data acquisition and spectral separability, is carried out by mean of supervised and unsupervised classifications. Due to the direct influence of the atmosphere in the register data, a study of the minimization of its influence has been done; a script has been programed for the atmospheric correction in multispectral data; also, a review of hyperspectral atmospheric correction is conducted. Temperature of the region of interest is computed using the images captured by TM-4, ASTER and OLI, in addition to a Digital Terrain Model generated by a pair of stereo images taken by ASTER sensor. Once these procedures have finished, direct and vicarious methods are applied in order to find altered zones influenced by hydrocarbons, as well as pinpoint directly hydrocarbon presence by mean of hyperspectral remote sensing. For this purpose ETM+ and ASTER sensors are used to apply the vicarious method and Hyperion images are used to apply the direct method.

Evaluación del uso y de productividad del agua de la Comunidad de Regantes “Río Adaja”

El agua de riego en España se ha reducido del 80 % al 70% tras la rehabilitación de los sistemas tradicionales de riego y el incremento de riegos a presión. La política española ha favorecido la creación de nuevos regadíos con fines sociales, para asentar a la población rural en zonas con disponibilidad de recursos hídricos. Este contexto es aplicable a la Comunidad de Regantes “Rio Adaja” (CCRR), que comenzó a funcionar en 2010 por lo que se la ha elegido para evaluar el uso y productividad del agua y manejo del riego en CCRR modernizadas de la cuenca del Duero. El estudio del manejo del riego se realizó con evaluaciones de campo, el primer año de funcionamiento, en una muestra de sistemas de riego (pivotes centrales, ramales de avance frontal, cobertura total) representativa de los sistemas predominantes en la CCRR. Además, se analizó la carta de riego propuesta por el fabricante de los pivotes centrales, considerando una distribución de caudal continua a lo largo del ramal, y se propuso una nueva carta con emisores de riego que mejoraban la uniformidad de aplicación del agua. El uso del agua en la CCRR se evaluó considerando tanto los indicadores de eficiencia del riego: suministro relativo de riego (anual relative irrigation supply, ARIS), suministro relativo del agua (anual relativewater supply, ARWS), suministro relativo de precipitación (rainfall relative supply, RRS) como los de productividad: productividad del agua (water productivity, WP) productividad del agua de riego (irrigation water productivity, IWP) y productividad de la evapotranspiración (evapotranspiration water productivity, ETWP). Primero, se determinaron: las necesidades hídricas de los cultivos para mantener un contenido de humedad óptimo en su zona radical, el coeficiente dual del cultivo, el agua disponible total (ADP) y agua fácilmente aprovechable (AFA). Después, se estimaron las necesidades hídricas de los cultivos considerando tres años tipo: húmedo, normal y seco correspondientes a la probabilidad de disponibilidad de la precipitación del 20, 50 y 80%, respectivamente. Así mismo, se realizó una encuesta a los regantes de la CCRR para conocer la dosis de riego y rendimiento anual de los cultivos principales durante sus tres años de funcionamiento: 2010-2011, 2011-2012 y 2012-2013.Finalmente, se simuló el efecto del riego y su manejo en la producción de los cultivos y en la productividad del agua. Además, el modelo de simulación AQUACROP (Geerts et al., 2010) se ha utilizado para estudiar la mejora del uso del agua de los cultivos de la CCRR. Dado que este modelo requiere de calibración específica para cada cultivo y cada zona y dado que, de todos los cultivos de la CCRR, sólo el girasol cumplía el requisito, este cultivo fue elegido para estudiar si la estrategia de riego deficitario mejoraría el uso del agua. Los resultados obtenidos indican que el 90% de los sistemas de riego evaluados distribuye el agua con una uniformidad adecuada (CUC≥75%). La simulación de la distribución del agua con las cartas de riego propuestas por el fabricante en pivotes centrales resultó en coeficientes CUC< 75% y sus valores mejoraban al eliminar el aspersor distal. La uniformidad del riego mejoraría si se trabajase con la carta de riego propuesta y que se compone por emisores de riego seleccionados en este estudio. En la mayoría de los cultivos, se aplicó riegos deficitarios (ARIS < 1 en los dos primeros años de funcionamiento de la CCRR y riegos excedentarios (ARIS > 1) el tercer año siendo significativas las diferencias observadas. El manejo del riego fue bueno (0,9 ≤ ARWS ≤1,2) en la mayoría de los cultivos. Así mismo, los indicadores de productividad del agua (WP e IWP (€.m-3)) varió entre cultivos y años estudiados y, destacan los valores observados en: cebolla, patata, zanahoria y cebada. En general, la productividad del agua en los riegos deficitarios fue mayor observándose además, que los índices de productividad mayores correspondieron al año con precipitación mayor aunque, las diferencias entre sus valores medios no fueron significativas en las tres campañas de riego estudiadas. Los resultados apuntan a que la metodología del balance hídrico y las herramientas presentadas en este trabajo (uniformidad de distribución de agua, indicadores de eficiencia del uso de agua y de su productividad) son adecuadas para estudiar el manejo del agua en CCRR. En concreto, la uniformidad en la aplicación del agua de la CCRR mejoraría seleccionando emisores de riego que proporcionen una mayor uniformidad de distribución del agua, lo que conllevaría a cambiar el diámetro de la boquilla de los emisores y/o eliminar el aspersor distal. Así mismo, puede ser de interés adoptar estrategias de riego deficitario para incrementar la productividad en el uso del agua, y las rentas de los regantes, para lo cual se propone utilizar un patrón de cultivos de referencia. Finalmente, el riego deficitario puede ser una estrategia para mejorar la eficiencia y productividad en el uso del agua de la CCRR siempre que lleve asociado un manejo del riego adecuado que resulta, relativamente, más fácil cuando se dispone de sistemas de riego con una uniformidad de aplicación alta. Sin embargo su aplicación no sería aconsejable en los cultivos de remolacha azucarera, regado con sistemas de riego con un coeficiente de uniformidad de Christiansen CUC < 75%, y maíz, regado con sistemas de riego con un coeficiente de uniformidad de Christiansen CUC < 65%. ABSTRACT The irrigation scheme modernization and the increase of sprinkler irrigation area have reduced the irrigation water use from 80 to 70%. The national irrigation policy favored the creation of new irrigation schemes with the purpose to settle the rural population in areas with availability in water resources. Within this context, the irrigation district “Río Adaja” (CCRR) started in 2010 so, it has been chosen as a case study to evaluate the water use and the irrigation management in a modernized CCRR. Several field evaluations were carried out during the first operation year, in a sample of irrigation systems (center pivot, moving lateral and solid set) selected among all the systems in the CCRR. Likewise, the manufacturer irrigation chart for the center pivot systems has been considered and the pressure and discharge distribution along the pivot have been estimated, assuming a continuous flow along the pipe. Then; the sprinkler nozzles were selected order to increase the uniformity on water application. The water use in the CCRR has been assessed by considering the water use efficiency indicators: annual relative irrigation supply (ARIS), annual relative water supply (ARWS), relative rainfall supply (RRS) and also the productivity indicators: water productivity (WP), irrigation water productivity (IWP) and evapotranspiration water productivity (ETWP). On the one hand, it has been determined the crop water requirement (to maintain the optimal soil water content in the rooting zone), the dual crop coefficient, the total available water and the readily available water. The crop water requirement was estimated by considering the typical wet, normal and dry years which correspond to the probability of effective precipitation exceedance of 20, 50 and 80%, respectively. On the other hand, the irrigation depth and crop yield by irrigation campaign have been considered for the main crops in the area. This information was obtained from a farmer’s survey in 2010-2011, 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. For sunflower, the irrigation effect and its management on the crop yield and water productivity have been simulated. Also a deficit irrigation strategy, which improves the water resources, has been determined by means of AQUACROP (FAO). The results showed that 90% of the evaluated irrigation systems have adequate irrigation water application uniformity (CUC ≥ 75%). The CUC values in center pivots, which were calculated using the manufacturer irrigation chart, are below < 75% . However, these values would increase with the change of emitter nozzle to the proposed nozzles selection. The results on water use showed a deficit irrigation management (ARIS < 1), in most of crops during the first two operation years, and an excess in irrigation for the third year (ARIS > 1) although non-significant difference was observed. In most cases, the management of irrigation is adequate (0,9≤ ARWS≤ 1,2) although there are differences among crops. Likewise, the productivity indicators (WP and IWP (€.m-3)) varied among crops and with irrigation events. The highest values corresponded to onion, potato, carrot and barley. The values for deficit irrigation were the highest and the productivity indicators increased the year with the highest effective precipitation. Nevertheless, the differences between the average values of these indicators by irrigation campaign were non-significant. This study highlights that the soil water balance methodology and other tools used in the methodology are adequate to study the use and productivity of water in the irrigation district. In fact, the water use in this CCRR can be improved if the irrigation systems were designed with higher water distribution uniformity what would require the change of sprinkler nozzles and/or eliminate the end gun. Likewise, it is advisable to set up deficit irrigation strategies to increase the water productivity taking into account certain limits on water application uniformities. In this respect, a reference cropping pattern has been proposed and the limits for water uniformity have been calculated for several crops.

AlGaAs/GaAs photovoltaic converters for high power narrowband radiation

AlGaAs/GaAs-based laser power PV converters intended for operation with high-power (up to 100 W/cm(2)) radiation were fabricated by LPE and MOCVD techniques. Monochromatic (lambda = 809 nm) conversion efficiency up to 60% was measured at cells with back surface field and low (x = 0.2) Al concentration 'window'. Modules with a voltage of 4 V and the efficiency of 56% were designed and fabricated.

High Intensity Low Temperature (HILT) performance of space concentrator GaInP/GaInAs/Ge MJ SCs

In the work, the results of an investigation of GaInP/GaInAs/Ge MJ SCs intended for converting concentrated solar radiation, when operating at low temperatures (down to -190 degrees C) are presented. A kink of the cell I-V characteristic has been observed in the region close to V-oc starting from -20 degrees C at operation under concentrated sunlight. The causes for its occurrence have been analyzed and the reasons for formation of a built-in potential barrier for majority charge carriers at the n-GaInP/n-Ge isotype hetero-interface are discussed. The effect of charge carrier transport in n-GaInP/n-p Ge heterostructures on MJ SC output characteristics at low temperatures has been studied including EL technique.

Flooding through the lens of mobile phone activity

Natural disasters affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide every year. Emergency response efforts depend upon the availability of timely information, such as information concerning the movements of affected populations. The analysis of aggregated and anonymized Call Detail Records (CDR) captured from the mobile phone infrastructure provides new possibilities to characterize human behavior during critical events. In this work, we investigate the viability of using CDR data combined with other sources of information to characterize the floods that occurred in Tabasco, Mexico in 2009. An impact map has been reconstructed using Landsat-7 images to identify the floods. Within this frame, the underlying communication activity signals in the CDR data have been analyzed and compared against rainfall levels extracted from data of the NASA-TRMM project. The variations in the number of active phones connected to each cell tower reveal abnormal activity patterns in the most affected locations during and after the floods that could be used as signatures of the floods - both in terms of infrastructure impact assessment and population information awareness. The epresentativeness of the analysis has been assessed using census data and civil protection records. While a more extensive validation is required, these early results suggest high potential in using cell tower activity information to improve early warning and emergency management mechanisms.

Flooding through the lens of mobile phone activity

Natural disasters affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide every year. Emergency response efforts depend upon the availability of timely information, such as information concerning the movements of affected populations. The analysis of aggregated and anonymized Call Detail Records (CDR) captured from the mobile phone infrastructure provides new possibilities to characterize human behavior during critical events. In this work, we investigate the viability of using CDR data combined with other sources of information to characterize the floods that occurred in Tabasco, Mexico in 2009. An impact map has been reconstructed using Landsat-7 images to identify the floods. Within this frame, the underlying communication activity signals in the CDR data have been analyzed and compared against rainfall levels extracted from data of the NASA-TRMM project. The variations in the number of active phones connected to each cell tower reveal abnormal activity patterns in the most affected locations during and after the floods that could be used as signatures of the floods - both in terms of infrastructure impact assessment and population information awareness. The representativeness of the analysis has been assessed using census data and civil protection records. While a more extensive validation is required, these early results suggest high potential in using cell tower activity information to improve early warning and emergency management mechanisms.

Standing together for reproducibility in large-scale computing: report on reproducibility@XSEDE

This is the final report on reproducibility@xsede, a one-day workshop held in conjunction with XSEDE14, the annual conference of the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE). The workshop's discussion-oriented agenda focused on reproducibility in large-scale computational research. Two important themes capture the spirit of the workshop submissions and discussions: (1) organizational stakeholders, especially supercomputer centers, are in a unique position to promote, enable, and support reproducible research; and (2) individual researchers should conduct each experiment as though someone will replicate that experiment. Participants documented numerous issues, questions, technologies, practices, and potentially promising initiatives emerging from the discussion, but also highlighted four areas of particular interest to XSEDE: (1) documentation and training that promotes reproducible research; (2) system-level tools that provide build- and run-time information at the level of the individual job; (3) the need to model best practices in research collaborations involving XSEDE staff; and (4) continued work on gateways and related technologies. In addition, an intriguing question emerged from the day's interactions: would there be value in establishing an annual award for excellence in reproducible research? Overview

Temperature of solar cells with regard to photoactive and non-photoactive light absorption in concentrator PV modules

A new method has recently been proposed by us for accurate measurement of the solar cell temperature in any operational regime, in particular, at a maximum power point (MPP) of the I-V curve (T-p-n(MPP)). For this, fast switching of a cell from MPP to open circuit (OC) regime is carried out and open circuit voltage V-oc is measured immediately (within about 1 millisecond), so that this value becomes to be an indicator of T-p-n(MPP). In the present work, we have considered a practical case, when a solar cell is heated not only by absorption of light incident upon its surface (called "photoactive" absorption of power), but also by heat transferred from structural elements surrounding the cell and heated by absorption of direct or diffused sunlight ("non-photoactive" absorption of power with respect to a solar cell). This process takes place in any concentrator module with non-ideal concentrators. Low overheating temperature of the p-n junction (or p-n junctions in a multijunction cell) is a cumulative parameter characterizing the quality of a solar module by the factor of heat removal effectiveness and, at the same time, by the factor of low "non-photoactive" losses.