Wind energy is one of the most basic forms of renewable energy,which shows an increasing rate of development worldwide and also at the European level.However,this rapid deployment of wind farms makes the need for an i...Wind energy is one of the most basic forms of renewable energy,which shows an increasing rate of development worldwide and also at the European level.However,this rapid deployment of wind farms makes the need for an impact assessment of this type of projects on the natural and man-made environment imperative.The present paper aims to identify and assess the environmental impacts of wind farm projects in the Region of Central Greece.A modified Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix(RIAM)method is used for this purpose.The methodology includes the identification of the existing onshore wind farm projects in the study area,the appropriate modifications of the RIAM method to respond to the characteristics of the projects and the study area,the qualitative assessment of their potential impacts during construction and operational phases and the computation of the Environmental Performance Grade(EPG)of projects based on the pro-posed modified RIAM method.The results reveal that although there are some slight negative impacts on the natural environment of the study area,the examined wind farms contribute positively both to the atmosphere and to the socio-economic environment of the study.This study extends the potential for using RIAM as a tool in environmental impact assessment studies of renewable energy projects.展开更多
Rolling Thin Film Oven Test （RTFOT） is the AASHTO T240 standard method to simulate asphalt plant mix aging. But it has proven inadequate in aging polymer-modified asphalts （PMA）. NCHRP 9-10 offered a modified RTF...Rolling Thin Film Oven Test （RTFOT） is the AASHTO T240 standard method to simulate asphalt plant mix aging. But it has proven inadequate in aging polymer-modified asphalts （PMA）. NCHRP 9-10 offered a modified RTFOT （MRTFOT） by adding a steel rod in each bottle. Since construction temperature of PMA mixture is 10 ℃ -20 ℃ higher than that of conventional asphalt mixtures in the field, elevating RTFOT temperature for PMA is necessary for adequate aging and proper simulation. Six PMAs with various PG grades and sources were aged with RTFO at elevated temperatures. Some were also treated with MRTFOT for comparison. SHRP performance grade and phase angle were used as indicators to analyze the effects of RTFOT under different conditions. The results show that elevating the temperature is more effective than using rods. And PMA RTFOT temperature could be determined by equiviscous principle. From limited data, O. 25 Pa ~ s is tentatively proposed as critical viscosity for PMA, but still more work is necessary to validate this. Given the fact that equiviscous principle is seldom used in field practice, a simple approach was proposed： 173 ℃ is used for RTFOT of PG70 PMAs （grading herein from un-aged asphalts） , while 178 ℃ is for PMAs of PG76 or PG82 and 20 ℃ higher than standard 163 ℃ is necessary for PG 88 or stiffer PMAs.展开更多
文摘Wind energy is one of the most basic forms of renewable energy,which shows an increasing rate of development worldwide and also at the European level.However,this rapid deployment of wind farms makes the need for an impact assessment of this type of projects on the natural and man-made environment imperative.The present paper aims to identify and assess the environmental impacts of wind farm projects in the Region of Central Greece.A modified Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix(RIAM)method is used for this purpose.The methodology includes the identification of the existing onshore wind farm projects in the study area,the appropriate modifications of the RIAM method to respond to the characteristics of the projects and the study area,the qualitative assessment of their potential impacts during construction and operational phases and the computation of the Environmental Performance Grade(EPG)of projects based on the pro-posed modified RIAM method.The results reveal that although there are some slight negative impacts on the natural environment of the study area,the examined wind farms contribute positively both to the atmosphere and to the socio-economic environment of the study.This study extends the potential for using RIAM as a tool in environmental impact assessment studies of renewable energy projects.
文摘Rolling Thin Film Oven Test （RTFOT） is the AASHTO T240 standard method to simulate asphalt plant mix aging. But it has proven inadequate in aging polymer-modified asphalts （PMA）. NCHRP 9-10 offered a modified RTFOT （MRTFOT） by adding a steel rod in each bottle. Since construction temperature of PMA mixture is 10 ℃ -20 ℃ higher than that of conventional asphalt mixtures in the field, elevating RTFOT temperature for PMA is necessary for adequate aging and proper simulation. Six PMAs with various PG grades and sources were aged with RTFO at elevated temperatures. Some were also treated with MRTFOT for comparison. SHRP performance grade and phase angle were used as indicators to analyze the effects of RTFOT under different conditions. The results show that elevating the temperature is more effective than using rods. And PMA RTFOT temperature could be determined by equiviscous principle. From limited data, O. 25 Pa ~ s is tentatively proposed as critical viscosity for PMA, but still more work is necessary to validate this. Given the fact that equiviscous principle is seldom used in field practice, a simple approach was proposed： 173 ℃ is used for RTFOT of PG70 PMAs （grading herein from un-aged asphalts） , while 178 ℃ is for PMAs of PG76 or PG82 and 20 ℃ higher than standard 163 ℃ is necessary for PG 88 or stiffer PMAs.
