scholarly journals On the Use of a Single Beam Acoustic Current Profiler for Multi-Point Velocity Measurement in a Wave and Current Basin

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (14) ◽  
pp. 3881
Author(s):  
Marilou Jourdain de Thieulloy ◽  
Mairi Dorward ◽  
Chris Old ◽  
Roman Gabl ◽  
Thomas Davey ◽  
...  

Harnessing the energy of tidal currents has huge potential as a source of clean renewable energy. To do so in a reliable and cost effective way, it is critical to understand the interaction between tidal turbines, waves, and turbulent currents in the ocean. Scaled testing in a tank test provides a controlled, realistic, and highly reproducible down-scaled open ocean environment, and it is a key step in gaining this understanding. Knowledge of the hydrodynamic conditions during tests is critical and measurements at multiple locations are required to accurately characterise spatially varying flow in test tank facilities. The paper presents a laboratory technique using an acoustic velocimetry instrument, the range over-which measurements are acquired being more akin to open water applications. This enables almost simultaneous multi-point measurements of uni-directional velocity along a horizontal profile. Velocity measurements have been obtained from a horizontally mounted Single Beam Acoustic Doppler (SB-ADP) profiler deployed in the FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility at the University of Edinburgh. These measurements have been statistically compared with point measurements obtained while using a co-located Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV). Measurements were made with both instruments under flow velocities varying from 0.6 ms−1 to 1.2 ms−1, showing that flow higher than 1 ms−1 was more suitable. Using a SB-ADP has shown the advantage of gaining 54 simultaneous measurement points of uni-directional velocity, covering a significant area with a total distance of 10 m of the test-tank, at a measurement frequency of 16 Hz. Of those measurement points, 41 were compared with co-located ADV measurements covering 8 m of the profile for a tank nominal flow velocity of 0.8 ms−1, and four distributed locations were chosen to to carry out the study at 0.6 ms−1, 1.0 ms−1, and 1.2 ms−1. The comparison with the ADV measurement showed a 2% relative bias on average.

Author(s):  
Brandon McHaffie ◽  
Peter Routledge ◽  
Alessandro Palermo

<p>Research on low-damage systems has been significant in the past decade. These systems combine post- tensioning, which provides self-centring; and typically use replaceable devices, which give energy dissipation. WSP has used recent research, carried out at the University of Canterbury, on low-damage bridge piers and applied this into a real structure – the Wigram-Magdala Link Bridge. This is believed to be the first bridge in New Zealand and possibly worldwide to adopt such a system. Given this was the first application of the system to a real structure, there were some valuable learnings during design and construction. Firstly, the application of axial dissipaters has some limitations due to available material sizes, construction difficulty and aesthetics. Secondly, there is still some additional cost and complexity associated with using the low-damage system. Given these difficulties, this paper presents an alternative design philosophy which better captures the benefits of the low-damage system, which include cost-effective repair method, controlled damage and additional robustness and resilience. The alternative design philosophy presented is expected to result in reduced construction costs by reducing pier and foundation demands. Peak displacements and forces will be compared to the results from non-linear time history analysis to verify the performance of the low-damage connection using scaled ground motions. Furthermore, the paper will present the possible application of an alternative dissipation device, the lead extrusion damper, which can further improve the performance of low-damage connections.</p>


Author(s):  
Kala Meah ◽  
Steven Fletcher ◽  
Yu Wan ◽  
Sadrul Ula

Many parts of the western US is rural in nature and consequently do not have electrical distribution lines in many parts of farms and ranches. Distribution line extension costs can run from $15,000 to $25,000 per mile, thereby making availability of electricity to small water pumping projects economically unattractive. Solar photo-voltaic (PV) powered water pumping is more cost effective in these small scale applications. Many western states including Wyoming are passing through fifth year of drought with the consequent shortages of water for many applications. Wyoming State Climatologist is predicting a possible 5–10 years of drought. Drought impacts the surface water right away, while it takes much longer to impact the underground aquifers. To mitigate the effect on the livestock and wildlife, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal initiated a solar water pumping initiative in cooperation with the University of Wyoming, County Conservation Districts, Rural Electric Cooperatives, and ranching organizations. Solar water pumping has several advantages over traditional systems; for example, diesel or propane engines require not only expensive fuels, they also create noise and air pollution in many remote pristine areas. Solar systems are environment friendly, low maintenance and have no fuel cost. In this paper the design, installation and performance monitoring of the solar system for small scale remote water pumping will be presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Stephanie L. Gross

The director of libraries conceived of Yeshiva University’s institutional repository (IR) in 2018 in part as a cost-effective alternative to Digital Measures, a scholarly productivity tracking program used to determine faculty eligibility for tenure. It was mandated in Yeshiva University’s first Strategic Plan 2016-2010, under Strategic Imperative 2: Advance Faculty Development and Excellence in Teaching and Research. The IR would be a secure, prestigious, university-sanctioned platform for showcasing, documenting, and sharing intellectual output across the globe. It was important that most of the work would be open access, with accompanying Creative Commons Non-Commercial No-Derivatives licenses. In addition to faculty, undergraduate and graduate students would be given a platform to self-archive their intellectual output. Both faculty and students would have the option to opt-out from making their work public, or at least limiting the visibility to the university public only.


1972 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles A. Martin-Vegue ◽  
Albert J. Morris ◽  
Gene E. Tallmadge

University ITV Networks are “educational delivery systems.” In effect, they bring the university—often several universities—to students where they work. They overcome the need and the related problems of physically transporting either or both students and faculty to each other. For such networks to be academically, technically, and financially viable all parties involved in the interaction process must be simultaneously satisfied; the faculty, the university administration, the on-campus students, the remote students, and the employers of the remote students. Almost always, it is the employer who pays network costs. Employers have paid such costs where the system has been demonstratably cost-effective. This usually requires finding multiple uses of the network in order to maximize its benefit while, at the same time, finding ways to minimize the cost.


Author(s):  
Abhishek Kumar Tewari ◽  
R Vijayakumar

Underwater Radiated Noise (URN) emanating from surface and underwater marine platforms has become a significant concern for all the Nations in view of the global requirement to minimise the increasing adverse impact on marine mammals and fishes and maintain ecological balance in the ‘Silent’ ocean environment. Ambient noise level in the sea, in 10 to 300 Hz frequency band, has increased by 20 to 30 dB due to shipping (Wittekind, 2009). Marine propeller (in non- cavitating and cavitating regime) is a potential contributor to the ships noise and a lot of scientific research has been undertaken and considerable progress has been achieved in estimating the hydro-acoustic performance of marine propellers. In light of this, the scope of this paper is to review and critically examine the various methods used for estimating the hydro-acoustic performance of marine propellers, particularly in the non-cavitating regime, over the past many years. This review paper brings out the details, applicability, merits and demerits of various methods, extrapolation laws to obtain full scale results, scientific conclusion of all the know-how on this subject and the scope of further research as perceived by the authors. This paper also presents a numerical methodology to estimate the noise radiated by a DTMB 4119 model propeller in the non-cavitating regime in open water condition. The hydrodynamic analysis of the propeller was performed using commercial CFD software STARCCM+, closure was achieved using standard k-ε turbulence model and hydro-acoustic predictions have been performed using FWH acoustic analogy. The results compare very well with the published literature.


Author(s):  
Charles E. Beck ◽  
Gary R. Schornack

A new world of distance education demands new thinking. Key components to completing the distance educational system requires that institutions determine how the process is designed, delivered, integrated, and supported. Unfortunately, educational administrators tend to view distance education merely as a process of taking existing readings, exercises, handouts, and posting them to the Web. While this approach may seem cost effective, such an approach is not educationally effective. Although the meaningful transition to e-education has just begun, determining measures of effectiveness and efficiency requires innovations in social and political thought beyond the advances in technology. The educational process requires feedback from the professor, from the student, and from the wider community, especially businesses who hire the graduates. As e-learning and higher education reach new heights, they are changing the functions of the university. E-learning changes all the ground rules, including time, distance, and pedagogy. We now have new ways to reach and interact with students, present rich content in courses, and deliver the technologies of the smart classroom to students, wherever they are in the world.


Nutrients ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 2309
Author(s):  
Mercedes Vélez-Toral ◽  
Carmen Rodríguez-Reinado ◽  
Ana Ramallo-Espinosa ◽  
Montserrat Andrés-Villas

The negative impact of a sedentary lifestyle and poor diet on health is evident across the lifespan, but particularly during the university period. Usually, the diet of university students is rich in sweetened drinks and processed foods and low in fruits, vegetables and legumes. Although there is an association between maintaining a healthy diet and the frequency of cooking at home, the time currently spent on cooking or learning how to cook is decreasing globally. The main aim of this study was to explore university students’ perceptions about healthy cooking and barriers to eating healthily. A group of 26 students participated in four focus groups. Content analysis was conducted using Atlas.ti v.8. Students perceived cooking healthily as a more complicated and time-consuming process than cooking in general. Individual and environmental factors were the most reported barriers. Costs and time, among others, were the main barriers pointed out by students with regard to healthy eating. This study highlights the need to develop interventions that modify these false perceptions about cooking healthily, and to train students so that they are able to cook healthy meals in a quick, easy, and cost-effective way. Further, specific actions are required in the university setting to minimize access to unhealthy options and to promote those linked to healthy eating.


Author(s):  
Jose´ A. Colucci ◽  
Agusti´n Irizarry-Rivera ◽  
Efrain O’Neill-Carrilo

During the last 15 years a renewed interest and growth in renewable energy (RE) processes emerged. It was driven by strong environmental movements, oil dependence/depletion concerns and lately national security concerns. Several RE technologies such as wind, niche photovoltaic and biodiesel are presently very competitive in certain applications versus their oil counterparts especially in Europe and certain locations in the mainland United States. Others are slowly penetrating certain markets such as fuel cells. In the discussion section an overview of the most mature RE technologies will be given focusing on their potential implementation in Puerto Rico. The discussion section will also include findings from an ongoing study at the municipality of Caguas who is becoming the sustainable model for Puerto Rico including energy. The overall analysis includes some elements of social, technical, cultural, political and economic criteria. In the latter capital, operating costs and foot print will be considered. Also sensitivity analyses will be performed regarding the energy generation potential of these processes. The technologies included are photovoltaic, wind energy, fuel cells, concentrated solar power and solar thermal water heating. These are referred to as near term implementation technologies. Other medium/long term ocean energy technologies will be discussed including tide, waves and ocean thermal. The last discussion subsection will briefly consider the area of transportation fuels (gasoline and diesel). In the last section an implementation plan will be presented for these processes including the University of Puerto Rico @ Mayagu¨ez (UPRM) capabilities and potential role in this puertorrican SAGA (Sol, Aire, Gente and Agua).


2019 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
pp. 803
Author(s):  
Abdul Qader ◽  
Jai Kant Pandit

CO2CRC, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales, is testing two novel CO2 capture technologies designed for both on-shore and off-shore natural gas applications in a state-of-the-art experimental capture rig at CO2CRC’s Otway National Research Facility. The goal is to develop robust and compact technology for high pressure natural gas separation over a range of adjusted high CO2 concentrations mimicking various gas field conditions. These technologies would facilitate developing new gas fields to recover methane in a cost-effective manner which is currently uneconomical with conventional technologies. In the first stage of testing, commercially available materials (adsorbents and membranes) were used for benchmarking. Results from both adsorbent and membrane technologies are encouraging with respect to recovery and purity of CO2 and methane with the prospect of commercial application.


Electronics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian del Toro ◽  
Carlos Robles-Algarín ◽  
Omar Rodríguez-Álvarez

This paper presents the design and construction of a robotic arm that plays chess against a human opponent, based on an artificial vision system. The mechanical design was an adaptation of the robotic arm proposed by the rapid prototyping laboratory FabLab RUC (Fabrication Laboratory of the University of Roskilde). Using the software Solidworks, a gripper with 4 joints was designed. An artificial vision system was developed for detecting the corners of the squares on a chessboard and performing image segmentation. Then, an image recognition model was trained using convolutional neural networks to detect the movements of pieces on the board. An image-based visual servoing system was designed using the Kanade–Lucas–Tomasi method, in order to locate the manipulator. Additionally, an Arduino development board was programmed to control and receive information from the robotic arm using Gcode commands. Results show that with the Stockfish chess game engine, the system is able to make game decisions and manipulate the pieces on the board. In this way, it was possible to implement a didactic robotic arm as a relevant application in data processing and decision-making for programmable automatons.


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