Comparison of CO2 and steam in transcritical Rankine cycles for concentrated solar power

High temperature, high pressure transcritical condensing CO2 cycle (TC-CO2) is compared with transcritical steam (TC-steam) cycle. Performance indicators such as thermal efficiency, volumetric flow rates and entropy generation are used to analyze the power cycle wherein, irreversibilities in turbo-machinery and heat exchangers are taken into account. Although, both cycles yield comparable thermal efficiencies under identical operating conditions, TC-CO2 plant is significantly compact compared to a TC-steam plant. Large specific volume of steam is responsible for a bulky system. It is also found that the performance of a TC-CO2 cycle is less sensitive to source temperature variations, which is an important requirement of a solar thermal system. In addition, issues like wet expansion in turbine and vacuum in condenser are absent in case of a TC-CO2 cycle. External heat addition to working fluid is assumed to take place through a heat transfer fluid (HTF) which receives heat from a solar receiver. A TC-CO2 system receives heat though a single HTF loop, whereas, for TC-steam cycle two HTF loops in series are proposed to avoid high temperature differential between the steam and HTF. (C) 2013 P. Garg. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Generation of long, laminar plasma jets at atmospheric pressure and effects of flow turbulence

Long, laminar plasma jets at atmospheric pressure of pure argon and a mixture of argon and nitrogen with jet length up to 45 fi,Hes its diameter could be generated with a DC are torch by! restricting the movement of arc root in the torch channel. Effects of torch structure, gas feeding, and characteristics of power supply on the length of plasma jets were experimentally examined. Plasma jets of considerable length and excellent stability could be obtained by regulating the generating parameters, including are channel geometry gas flow I ate, and feeding methods, etc. Influence of flow turbulence at the torch,nozzle exit on the temperature distribution of plasma jets was numerically simulated. The analysis indicated that laminar flow plasma with very low initial turbulent kinetic energy will produce a long jet, with low axial temperature gradient. This kind of long laminar plasma jet could greatly improve the controllability for materials processing, compared with a short turbulent are let.

Income risk of EU coal-fired power plants after Kyoto

Coal-fired power plants may enjoy a significant advantage relative to gas plants in terms of cheaper fuel cost. Still, this advantage may erode or even turn into disadvantage depending on CO2 emission allowance price. This price will presumably rise in both the Kyoto Protocol commitment period (2008-2012) and the first post-Kyoto years. Thus, in a carbon-constrained environment, coal plants face financial risks arising in their profit margins, which in turn hinge on their so-called "clean dark spread". These risks are further reinforced when the price of the output electricity is determined by natural gas-fired plants' marginal costs, which differ from coal plants' costs. We aim to assess the risks in coal plants' margins. We adopt parameter values estimated from empirical data. These in turn are derived from natural gas and electricity markets alongside the EU ETS market where emission allowances are traded. Monte Carlo simulation allows to compute the expected value and risk profile of coal-based electricity generation. We focus on the clean dark spread in both time periods under different future scenarios in the allowance market. Specifically, bottom 5% and 10% percentiles are derived. According to our results, certain future paths of the allowance price may impose significant risks on the clean dark spread obtained by coal plants.

An agent-based multi-scale wind generation model

(EuroPES 2009)

Hydroelectric Voltage Generation Based On Water-Filled Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

A DFT/MD mutual iterative method was employed to give insights into the mechanism of voltage generation based on water-fitted single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Our calculations showed that a constant voltage difference of several mV would generate between the two ends of a carbon nanotube, due to interactions between the water dipole chains and charge carriers in the tube. Our work validates this structure of a water-fitted SWCNT as a promising candidate for a synthetic nanoscale power cell, as well as a practical nanopower harvesting device at the atomic level. 

High-power extracavity pulse compression in solid materials

A novel technique for high-power extracavity pulse compression with a nonlinear solid material is demonstrated. Before spectral broadening by self-phase modulation in the solid material, a short filament generated in argon is used as a spatial filter, which works for a uniform spectrum broadening over the spatial profile. Compensated by chirped mirrors, a 15-fs pulse is generated from a 32-fs input laser pulse. A total transmission larger than 80% after the solid material is achieved.

Red-shift conical emission by femtosecond pulses at low input power

Red-shift conical emission (CE) is observed by femtosecond laser pulse propagating in BK7 at a low input power (compared to those input powers for generation of blue-shift CE). With the increasing input power the blue-shift CE begins to appear whereas the red-shift CE ring (902 nm in our experiment) disappears accompanied by the augment of the central white spot size synchronously. The disappearing of red-shift CE in our experiment is explained such that the increase of axial intensity is much higher than that of ring emission and the augment of the central white spot size with the increasing input laser power.

Effects of Climate Change on the European Nuclear Power Sector

4 p.

Generation of 5 fs, 0.7 mJ pulses at 1 kHz through cascade filamentation

Two-cycle optical pulses with duration of 5 fs and energy of 0.7 mJ have been generated at 1 kHz by compressing the 38 fs laser pulses from a carrier-envelope phase (CEP) controlled Ti:sapphire laser system through a cascade filamentation compression technique. A simple and effective method is developed to suppress multiple filament formation and stabilize a single filament by inserting a soft aperture with an appropriate diameter into the driving laser beam prior to focusing, resulting in an excellent compressed beam quality. The good beam quality and potentially higher peak power make this ultrashort laser pulse source a significant tool for high-field physics applications. (C) 2007 Optical Society of America.

Optimization and Control of Power Flow in Distribution Networks

Climate change is arguably the most critical issue facing our generation and the next. As we move towards a sustainable future, the grid is rapidly evolving with the integration of more and more renewable energy resources and the emergence of electric vehicles. In particular, large scale adoption of residential and commercial solar photovoltaics (PV) plants is completely changing the traditional slowly-varying unidirectional power flow nature of distribution systems. High share of intermittent renewables pose several technical challenges, including voltage and frequency control. But along with these challenges, renewable generators also bring with them millions of new DC-AC inverter controllers each year. These fast power electronic devices can provide an unprecedented opportunity to increase energy efficiency and improve power quality, if combined with well-designed inverter control algorithms. The main goal of this dissertation is to develop scalable power flow optimization and control methods that achieve system-wide efficiency, reliability, and robustness for power distribution networks of future with high penetration of distributed inverter-based renewable generators.

Proposed solutions to power flow control problems in the literature range from fully centralized to fully local ones. In this thesis, we will focus on the two ends of this spectrum. In the first half of this thesis (chapters 2 and 3), we seek optimal solutions to voltage control problems provided a centralized architecture with complete information. These solutions are particularly important for better understanding the overall system behavior and can serve as a benchmark to compare the performance of other control methods against. To this end, we first propose a branch flow model (BFM) for the analysis and optimization of radial and meshed networks. This model leads to a new approach to solve optimal power flow (OPF) problems using a two step relaxation procedure, which has proven to be both reliable and computationally efficient in dealing with the non-convexity of power flow equations in radial and weakly-meshed distribution networks. We will then apply the results to fast time- scale inverter var control problem and evaluate the performance on real-world circuits in Southern California Edison’s service territory.

The second half (chapters 4 and 5), however, is dedicated to study local control approaches, as they are the only options available for immediate implementation on today’s distribution networks that lack sufficient monitoring and communication infrastructure. In particular, we will follow a reverse and forward engineering approach to study the recently proposed piecewise linear volt/var control curves. It is the aim of this dissertation to tackle some key problems in these two areas and contribute by providing rigorous theoretical basis for future work.

Distributed Control and Optimization for Communication and Power Systems

We are at the cusp of a historic transformation of both communication system and electricity system. This creates challenges as well as opportunities for the study of networked systems. Problems of these systems typically involve a huge number of end points that require intelligent coordination in a distributed manner. In this thesis, we develop models, theories, and scalable distributed optimization and control algorithms to overcome these challenges.

This thesis focuses on two specific areas: multi-path TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and electricity distribution system operation and control. Multi-path TCP (MP-TCP) is a TCP extension that allows a single data stream to be split across multiple paths. MP-TCP has the potential to greatly improve reliability as well as efficiency of communication devices. We propose a fluid model for a large class of MP-TCP algorithms and identify design criteria that guarantee the existence, uniqueness, and stability of system equilibrium. We clarify how algorithm parameters impact TCP-friendliness, responsiveness, and window oscillation and demonstrate an inevitable tradeoff among these properties. We discuss the implications of these properties on the behavior of existing algorithms and motivate a new algorithm Balia (balanced linked adaptation) which generalizes existing algorithms and strikes a good balance among TCP-friendliness, responsiveness, and window oscillation. We have implemented Balia in the Linux kernel. We use our prototype to compare the new proposed algorithm Balia with existing MP-TCP algorithms.

Our second focus is on designing computationally efficient algorithms for electricity distribution system operation and control. First, we develop efficient algorithms for feeder reconfiguration in distribution networks. The feeder reconfiguration problem chooses the on/off status of the switches in a distribution network in order to minimize a certain cost such as power loss. It is a mixed integer nonlinear program and hence hard to solve. We propose a heuristic algorithm that is based on the recently developed convex relaxation of the optimal power flow problem. The algorithm is efficient and can successfully computes an optimal configuration on all networks that we have tested. Moreover we prove that the algorithm solves the feeder reconfiguration problem optimally under certain conditions. We also propose a more efficient algorithm and it incurs a loss in optimality of less than 3% on the test networks.

Second, we develop efficient distributed algorithms that solve the optimal power flow (OPF) problem on distribution networks. The OPF problem determines a network operating point that minimizes a certain objective such as generation cost or power loss. Traditionally OPF is solved in a centralized manner. With increasing penetration of volatile renewable energy resources in distribution systems, we need faster and distributed solutions for real-time feedback control. This is difficult because power flow equations are nonlinear and kirchhoff's law is global. We propose solutions for both balanced and unbalanced radial distribution networks. They exploit recent results that suggest solving for a globally optimal solution of OPF over a radial network through a second-order cone program (SOCP) or semi-definite program (SDP) relaxation. Our distributed algorithms are based on the alternating direction method of multiplier (ADMM), but unlike standard ADMM-based distributed OPF algorithms that require solving optimization subproblems using iterative methods, the proposed solutions exploit the problem structure that greatly reduce the computation time. Specifically, for balanced networks, our decomposition allows us to derive closed form solutions for these subproblems and it speeds up the convergence by 1000x times in simulations. For unbalanced networks, the subproblems reduce to either closed form solutions or eigenvalue problems whose size remains constant as the network scales up and computation time is reduced by 100x compared with iterative methods.

Blue upconversion luminescence generation in Ce3+: Gd2SiO5 crystals by infrared femtosecond laser irradiation

Blue frequency-upconversion fluorescence emission has been observed in Ce3+-doped Gd2SiO5 single crystals, pumped with 120-fs 800 nm IR laser pulses. The observed fluorescence emission peaks at about 440nm is due to 5d -> 4f transition of Ce3+ ions. The intensity dependence of the blue fluorescence emission on the IR excitation laser power obeys the cubic law, demonstrating three-photon absorption process. Analysis suggested that three-photon simultaneous absorption induced population inversion should be the predominant frequency upconversion mechanism. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Generation of 210 fs laser pulses at 1093 nm by a self-starting mode-locked Yb:GYSO laser

We report the first demonstration, to our knowledge, of the femtosecond laser operation by using a new alloyed Yb:GYSO crystal as the gain medium. With a 5 at. % Yb3+-doped sample and chirped mirrors for dispersion compensation, we obtained pulses as short as 210 fs at the center wavelength of 1093 nm. The average mode-locking power is 300 mW, and the pulse repetition frequency is 80 MHz. (C) 2008 Optical Society of America

Wideband tunable, high-power, graphene mode-locked ultrafast lasers

Ultrafast passively mode-locked lasers with spectral tuning capability and high output power have widespread applications in biomedical research, spectroscopy and telecommunications [1,2]. Currently, the dominant technology is based on semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) [2,3]. However, these typically have a narrow tuning range, and require complex fabrication and packaging [2,3]. A simple, cost-effective alternative is to use Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWNTs) [4,10] and Graphene [10,14]. Wide-band operation is possible using SWNTs with a wide diameter distribution [5,10]. However, SWNTs not in resonance are not used and may contribute to unwanted insertion losses [10]. The linear dispersion of the Dirac electrons in graphene offers an ideal solution for wideband ultrafast pulse generation [10,15]. © 2011 IEEE.