Packed Bed Thermocline Thermal Energy Storage for Medium-Temperature Concentrating Solar Systems: Numerical and Experimental Study

Thermal Energy Storage is becoming a necessary component of sustainable energy production systems as it helps alleviate intrinsic limitations of Renewable Energy Sources, such as intermittent use and mismatch between power demand and supply. This paper discusses a packed bed thermocline tank as a thermal energy storage solution. Firstly, this paper presents the development of a numerical model calculating heat transfers within the tank, based on a discretization over several nodes and the nodal formulation of the heat balance equation. The model considers a filler material and a heat transferring fluid and uses the finite difference method to calculate the temperature evolution of the two media across the tank. The model was validated with two different packed bed systems from the literature during a discharging process, presenting a good fit with the experimental results. Secondly, the experimental packed bed is presented and characterized for a charging cycle from ambient temperature to approximately 180?C. The charging experiment was accurately reproduced with the numerical model requiring minimal computational time. Two additional charging modes were simulated with different inlet HTF conditions: constant temperature and varying temperature following the profile produced by a thermal solar collector field. The temperature profiles obtained from the three charging modes were analysed and compared to each other. The proposed numerical and experimental tools will be used in future studies for a better understanding of the design and operating conditions of packed bed thermal energy storage systems.

On the correlation of nonlinear variables containing secular trend variations： numerical experiments

Due to global warming, the general circulation, underlying surfaces characteristics, and geophysical and meteorological elements all show evident secular trends. This paper points out that when calculating the correlation of two variables containing their own obvious secular trends, the interannual correlation characteristics between the two variables may be distorted （overestimated or underestimated）. Numerical experiments in this paper show that if two variables have opposite secular trends, the correlation coefficient between the two variables is reduced （the positive correlation is underestimated, or the negative correlation is overestimated）; and if the two variables have the same sign of secular trends, the correlation coefficient between the two variables is increased （the positive correlation is overestimated, or the negative correlation is underestimated）. Numerical experiments also suggest that the effect of secular trends on the interannual correlation of the two variables is interchangeable, that is to say, as long as the values of the two trends are not changed, the two variables interchange their positions, and the effect of the secular trends on the interannual correlation coefficient of the two variables remains the same. If the two variables have the same-（opposite-） sign trends, the effect of secular trends on the interannal correlation coefficient is more （less） distinctive. A meteorological example is given.

A Numerical Experiment Study for Effects of the GrasslandDesertification on Summer Drought in North China

In this paper, the summer climate of 1991 in North China is simulated by using the high-resolution regional climate model (RegCM2) and the effects of the grassland desertification on summer drought in the central and the northern parts of North China as well as Mongolia are studied. It shows that the regional climate model essentially catches the characteristics on distribution and seasonal variation of the precipitation that keep good agreement with the observation. The desertification makes precipitation in the central part of North China during its flood period decrease obviously in July. The border of the precipitation or the soil moisture reduction in the desertification region extends about one latitude southeastward and beyond the southeast edge of the desertification. Thus, vegetation in the border region approaches desertification further. However, there appears evident difference of variation of precipitation over the whole desertification region. The grassland desertification greatly changes the transfers of fluxes between land and atmosphere. The secondary circulation or secondary circulation cells in the desertification region are excited and as a result moisture transport is changed. The variation of flux transfers between land and atmosphere as well as the vertical motion of atmosphere is closely related to that of precipitation.

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS ON MULTI-LEVEL STATISTICAL ESTIMATION OF DYNAMIC BALANCE CONSTRAINTS IN GRAPES-3DVAR

This paper further explores the estimating and expressing of dynamic balance constraints using statistical methods in GRAPES-3DVAR(Version GM). Unlike the single-level scheme which only considers the coupling between mass and wind at one level, the multi-level scheme considers the coupling between their vertical profiles and calculates the balanced mass field at each layer using the rotational wind at all model levels. A reformed ridge regression method is used in the new scheme to avoid the multicollinearity problem and reduce the noises caused by unbalanced mesoscale disturbances. The results of numerical experiments show that the new scheme can get more reasonable vertical mass field, reduce the magnitude of the adjustment by the initialization, and improve the potential temperature analysis performance. Furthermore, the results of forecast verification in January(winter) and July(summer) both confirm that the new scheme can significantly improve the temperature forecast accuracy and bring slight positive effects to the pressure and wind forecast.

Numerical experiment rock fragmentation by combined dynamic and static loads under dual-cutter head

This paper puts forward a new rock fragmentation loading method of dual-cutter head combined dynamic and static loads. By applying the numerical simulation software - RFPA2D, we have done numerical experiment about the sihstone＇ s crushing effect by dynamic load on single cutter head without confining pressure, dynamic load on single cut- ter head with confining pressure 10 MPa and different dual-cutter heads spacing by combined dynamic and static loads with confining pressure 10 MPa. Experimental results show that the confining pressure can obviously affect the rock frag- mentation effect. Combined dynamic and static loads can greatly improve the rock fragmentation effect. There exists an optimal spacing of dual-cutter head that can make the rock fragmentation achieve the desired effect. Through analyzing the acoustic emission accumulative energy and quantity, the authors make a conclusion that the optimum spacing is 30 mm.

Numerical Simulation and Analysis of Storm Surges Under Different Extreme Weather Event and Typhoon Experiments in the South Yellow Sea

In this study,a coupled tide-surge-wave model was developed and applied to the South Yellow Sea.The coupled model simulated the evolution of storm surges and waves caused by extreme weather events,such as tropical cyclones,cold waves,extratropical cyclones coupled with a cold wave,and tropical cyclones coupled with a cold wave.The modeled surge level and significant wave height matched the measured data well.Simulation results of the typhoon with different intensities revealed that the radius to the maximum wind speed of a typhoon with 1.5 times wind speed decreased,and its influence range was farther away from the Jiangsu coastal region;moreover,the impact on surge levels was weakened.Thereafter,eight hypothetical typhoons based on Typhoon Chan-hom were designed to investigate the effects of varying typhoon tracks on the extreme value and spatial distribution of storm surges in the offshore area of Jiangsu Province.The typhoon along path 2 mainly affected the Rudong coast,and the topography of the Rudong coast was conducive to the increase in surge level.Therefore,the typhoon along path 2 induced the largest surge level,which reached up to 2.91 m in the radial sand ridge area.The maximum surge levels in the Haizhou Bay area and the middle straight coastline area reached up to 2.37 and 2.08 m,respectively.In terms of typhoons active in offshore areas,the radial sand ridge area was most likely to be threatened by typhoon-induced storm surges.

Preliminary Results from Numerical Experiments of a Heavy Rain Process with PENN STATE / NCAR MM5

PENN STATE/NCAR MM5 is used to simulate precipitation of the heavy rain process during 12-13 July 1994.The effects of different PBL parameterizations,resolvable scale moisture schemes and cumulus parameterization on the process rainfall simulation are investigated.By comparing the results of hydrostatic and nor.hydrostatic experiments,the nonhydrostatic impact upon precipitation is also examined.It is found in this study thai PENN STATE/NCAR MM5 has advantage not only in theory but also in simulating results with real data.In MM5.however,the selection of physical processes,especially water-cycle process,is very important and crucial to precipitation forecast of the case.It is concluded that the model with Grell (1993) scheme for convection and condensation method for resolvable scale precipitation captured the rainstorm during 12-13 July 1994 in Beijing area more successfully

A Preliminary Study on 1D Numerical Experiment of Water Debris Flow in Gully

In order to improve and enhance the numerical modeling methods and its application on debris flow problems,a preliminary study has been proposed in accordance with the corrected water-sediment numerical model on the premise of revised resistance and sediment capacity equations.Firstly,an overview the recent re- search achievements on numerical simulation of debris flow has been conducted,the results shown that a gener- al numerical model for debris flow can not be existed at all because the complex rheol...

Numerical Experiment of Combined Infrared and Ultraviolet Radiation Remote Sensing to Determine the Profile and Total Content of Atmospheric Ozone

A new remote sensing method is described to determine the vertical distribution and total content of atmospheric ozone. The method combines surface infrared, satellite infrared and ultraviolet channels. The width of the infrared channels is 0.01 cm-1, less than Lorentz half-width at the earth's surface, rather than the present width, because these channels can obtain information about variations in the ozone profile below the profile main-peak. The numerical experiments show that the method has a satisfactory precision in determining total ozone content, just about I percent error, and vertical distribution from the earth to 65 km space. In addition, some semi-analysis functions lor calculating backscattered ultraviolet and a relaxation equation are described in this paper.

Numerical-experimental method for elastic parameters identification of a composite panel

A hybrid numerical-experimental approach to identify elastic modulus of a textile composite panel using vibration test data is proposed and investi- gated. Homogenization method is adopted to predict the initial values of elastic parameters of the composite, and parameter identification is transformed to an optimization problem in which the objective function is the minimization of the discrepancies between the experimental and numerical modal data. Case study is conducted employing a woven fabric reinforced composite panel. Three parameters （Ell, E22, G12） with higher sensitivities are selected to be identified. It is shown that the elastic parameters can be accurately identified from experimental modal data.

Numerical optimization of gourd-shaped surface texture and experiment of tribological performance

A numerical optimization approach based on the finite element(FE) simulation was used to design the optimum irregular gourd-shaped pattern parameters for generating the highest hydrodynamic pressure. Then the optimum parameters of the gourd-shaped surface texture were determined and the textures were processed on the stainless steel surface by the laser technology. The tribological performance of gourd-shaped surface texture was analyzed using the type of UMT2 tester, and compared with that of the regular circle surface texture and none-texture surface by considering the effect of sliding speeds and applied loads on the tribological performance. The results show that the compound factor n, the diameter ratio Dr and the texture depth Hd are more significant parameters and the optimum values are 0.618, 2.0 and 4 μm, respectively. In addition, irregular gourd-shaped surface texture with optimum parameters is the most effective in the friction reduction among the patterns investigated under different speeds and applied loads in this work. Moreover, better coordination and combination effect can be obtained by gourd-shaped surface texture. The main reason responsible for the results is the irregular symmetric nature of the gourd-shaped texture along the direction of lubricants flowing which can generate the higher fluid dynamic pressure.

Numerical and Experimental Studies on the Effect of Axial Spacing on Hydrodynamic Performance of the Hybrid CRP Pod Propulsion System

The hydrodynamic performance of a hybrid CRP pod propulsion system was studied by RANS method with SST k ？？ turbulence model and sliding mesh. The effect of axial spacing on the hydrodynamic performance of the hybrid CRP pod propulsion system was investigated numerically and experimentally. It shows that RANS with the sliding mesh method and SST k -ω turbulence model predicts accurately the hydrodynamic performance of the hybrid CRP pod propulsion system. The axial spacing has little influence on the hydrodynamic performance of the forward propeller, but great influence on that of the pod unit. Thrust coefficient of the pod unit declines with the increase of the axial spacing, but the trend becomes weaker, and the decreasing amplitude at the lower advance coefficient is larger than that at the higher advance coefficient. The thrust coefficient and open water efficiency of the hybrid CRP pod propulsion system decrease with the increase of the axial spacing, while the torque coefficient keeps almost constant. On this basis, the design principle of axial spacing of the hybrid CRP pod propulsion system was proposed.

Numerical and Experimental Study of the 3D Effect on Connecting Arm of Vertical Axis Tidal Current Turbine

Vertical axis tidal current turbine is a promising device to extract energy from ocean current. One of the important components of the turbine is the connecting arm, which can bring about a significant effect on the pressure distribution along the span of the turbine blade, herein we call it 3D effect. However, so far the effect is rarely reported in the research, moreover, in numerical simulation. In the present study, a 3D numerical model of the turbine with the connecting arm was developed by using FLUENT software compiling the UDF（User Defined Function） command. The simulation results show that the pressure distribution along the span of blade with the connecting arm model is significantly different from those without the connecting arm. To facilitate the validation of numerical model, the laboratory experiment has been carried out by using three different types of NACA aerofoil connecting arm and circle section connecting arm. And results show that the turbine with NACA0012 connecting arm has the best start-up performance which is 0.346 m/s and the peak point of power conversion coefficient is around 0.33. A further study has been performed and a conclusion is drawn that the aerofoil and thickness of connecting arm are the most important factors on the power conversion coefficient of the vertical axis tidal current turbine.

Numerical and Experimental Evaluation of Shine-Through Loss and Beam Heating Due to Neutral Beam Injection on EAST

This research applies experimental measurements and NUBEAM,ONETWO and TRANSP modules to investigate the shine-through(ST)loss ratio and beam heating percentage of neutral beam injection on EAST.Measurements and simulations confirm that the ST loss ratio increases linearly with beam energy,and decreases exponentially with plasma density.Moreover,using the multi-step fitting method,we present analytical quantitative expressions of ST loss ratio and beam heating percentage,which are valuable for the high parameter long-pulse experiments of EAST.

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS FOR THE EFFECTS OF TWO MODEL INITIALIZATION SCHEMES ON RAINFALL FORECAST IN THE 2008 FLOODING SEASON

In this paper, based on heavy rain numerical forecast model AREM(Advanced Regional Eta Model), two different initialization schemes, LAPS and GRAPES-3DVAR, are used to run assimilation experiments of AREM-LAPS and AREM-3DVAR with the same data source(NCEP forecast field, surface data and radio-soundings) during the period from 21 May to 30 July 2008 to investigate the effect of the two initialization schemes on the rainfall simulation. The result suggests that:(1) the forecast TS score by the AREM-LAPS is higher than that by the AREM-3DVAR for rainfall in different areas, at different valid time and with different intensity, especially for the heavy rain, rainstorm and extremely heavy rain;(2) the AREM-3DVAR can generally simulate the average rainfall distribution, but the forecast area is smaller and rainfall intensity is weaker than the observation, while the AREM-LAPS significantly improves the forecast;(3) the AREM-LAPS gives a better forecast for the south-north shift of rainfall bands and the rainfall intensity variation than the AREM-3DVAR;(4) the AREM-LAPS can give a better reproduction for the daily change in the mean-rainfall-rate of the main rain band, and rainfall intensity changes in the eastern part of Southwest China, the coastal area in South China, the middle-lower valleys of Yangtze river, the Valleys of Huaihe river, and Shandong peninsula, with the rainfall intensity roughly close to the observation, while the rainfall intensity simulated by the AREM-3DVAR is clearly weaker than the observation, especially in the eastern part of Southwest China; and(5) the comparison verification between the AREM-LAPS and AREM-3DVAR for more than 10 typical rainfall processes in the summer of 2008 indicates that the AREM-LAPS gives a much better forecast than AREM-3DVAR in rain-band area, rainfall location and intensity, and in particular, the rainfall intensity forecast is improved obviously.

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENT ON IMPACT OF ANOMALOUS SST WARMING IN KUROSHIO EXTENSION IN PREVIOUS WINTER ON EAST ASIAN SUMMER MONSOON

The impact of anomalous sea surface temperature (SST) warming in the Kuroshio Extension in the previous winter on the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) was investigated by performing simulation tests using NCAR CAM3.The results show that anomalous SST warming in the Kuroshio Extension in winter causes the enhancement and northward movement of the EASM.The monsoon indexes for East Asian summer monsoon and land-sea thermal difference,which characterize the intensity of the EASM,show an obvious increase during the onset period of the EASM.Moreover,the land-sea thermal difference is more sensitive to warmer SST.Low-level southwesterly monsoon is clearly strengthened meanwhile westerly flows north (south) of the subtropical westerly jet axis are strengthened (weakened) in northern China,South China Sea,and the Western Pacific Ocean to the east of the Philippines.While there is an obvious decrease in precipitation over the Japanese archipelago and adjacent oceans and over the area from the south of the Yangtze River in eastern China to the Qinling Mountains in southern China,precipitation increases notably in northern China,the South China Sea,the East China Sea,the Yellow Sea,and the Western Pacific to the east of the Philippines.North China is the key area where the response of the EASM to the SST anomalous warming in the Kuroshio Extension is prominent.The surface air temperature shows a warming trend.The warming in the entire troposphere between 30oN and 50oN increases the land-sea thermal contrast,which plays an important role in the enhancement of the EASM.Atmospheric circulation and precipitation anomalies in China and its adjacent regions have a close relationship with the enhancement of the Western Pacific subtropical high and its northward extension.

SEVERAL NEW TYPES OF FINITE-DIFFERENCE SCHEMES FOR SHALLOW-WATER EQUATION WITH INITIAL-BOUNDARY VALUE AND THEIR NUMERICAL EXPERIMENT

This paper proposed several new types of finite-difference methods for the shallow water equation in absolute coordinate system and put forward an effective two-step predictor-corrector method, a compact and iterative algorithm for five diagonal matrix. Then the iterative method was used for a multi-grid procedure for shallow water equation. A t last, an initial-boundary value problem was considered, and the numerical results show that the linear sinusoidal wave would successively evolve into conoidal wave.

Numerical and Experimental Investigation of the Aero-Hydrodynamic Effect on the Behavior of a High-Speed Catamaran in Calm Water

In this paper,the effect of water and air fluids on the behavior of a planing catamaran in calm water was studied separately in calm water by using experimental and numerical methods.Experiments were conducted in a towing tank over the Froude number range of 0.49–2.9 with two degrees of freedom.The model vessel displacement of 5.3 kg was implemented in experimental tests.Craft behavior was evaluated at the displacements of 5.3,4.6,and 4 kg by using the numerical method.The numerical simulation results for the hull’s resistance force were validated with similar experimental data.The fluid volume model was applied to simulate two-phase flow.The SST k-ωturbulence model was used to investigate the effect of turbulence on the catamaran.The results showed that in the planing mode,the contribution of air to pressure resistance increased by 55%,40%,and 60%at the mentioned displacements,whereas the contribution of air to friction resistance was less than 15%on average.The contribution of the air to the total lift force at the abovementioned displacements exceeded 70%,60%,and 50%in the planing mode but was less than 10%in the displacement mode.At the displacements of 5.3 and 4 kg,the area under the effect of maximum pressure moved around the center of gravity and caused porpoising longitudinal instability at the Froude numbers of 2.9 and 2.4,respectively.However,at the displacement of 4.6 kg,this effect did not occur,and the vessel maintained its stability.

A Numerical Experiment of Mesolow on the Eastern Side of the Taihang Mountains

A numerical experiment on the formation and decay process of a mesolow on the plain east to the Taihang Mountains has been conducted. The dynamical effect of the special topography of the Taihang Mountains and the Yanshan Mountains on the formation of the mesolow is very important. Namely, the difference of the heating between the Taihang Mountains and the North China plain plays an important role in the formation and decay of the mesolow.

Experiments in numerical modelling of the Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies

By using the atmosphere-ocean coupled model (CGCM) which is composed of a 2-level global atmospheric general circulation model and a 4-layer Pacific oceanic general circulation model developed in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and two model climatological fields got from the two independent models' numerical integrations respectively, the Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) from 1988 to 1989 are simulated in this paper with observed atmospheric general circulation data and sea surface temperature fields as initial conditions and monthly coupling scheme. In order to remove systematic biases of the model climatological fields, interaction variables between atmosphere and ocean are also corrected simultaneously. The experiments show that the simulation results can be improved effectively if these interaction variables are corrected in spite of the fact that there always exist systematic biases in independent numerical simulations of atmospheric part and oceanic part within CGCM. The basic characteristics of the observed Pacific SSTA in September and October 1988 have been simulated by using the correction scheme, such as the negative SSTA domain in the whole E-quatorial Pacific east to 150°E and the positive SSTA domain in the Western Pacific, the northern subtropical Pacific and nearly the whole Southern Pacific. Further numerical simulations show that the model can simulate not only the SSTA in the Pacific and its seasonal variations but also its interannual changes (for example, La Nino event in the Equatorial Pacific terminated after May 1989) to a certain degree. Furthermore, some problems existing in experiment processes and what we shoud do in the following stage are also discussed and analysed in this paper.