Increasing realism in modelling energy losses in railway vehicles and their impact to energy-efficient train control

The reduction of energy consumption is an increasingly important topic of the railway system.Energy-efficient train control(EETC)is one solution,which refers to mathematically computing when to accelerate,which cruising speed to hold,how long one should coast over a suitable space,and when to brake.Most approaches in literature and industry greatly simplify a lot of nonlinear effects,such that they ignore mostly the losses due to energy conversion in traction components and auxiliaries.To fill this research gap,a series of increasingly detailed nonlinear losses is described and modelled.We categorize an increasing detail in this representation as four levels.We study the impact of those levels of detail on the energy optimal speed trajectory.To do this,a standard approach based on dynamic programming is used,given constraints on total travel time.This evaluation of multiple test cases highlights the influence of the dynamic losses and the power consumption of auxiliary components on railway trajectories,also compared to multiple benchmarks.The results show how the losses can make up 50%of the total energy consumption for an exemplary trip.Ignoring them would though result in consistent but limited errors in the optimal trajectory.Overall,more complex trajectories can result in less energy consumption when including the complexity of nonlinear losses than when a simpler model is considered.Those effects are stronger when the trajectory includes many acceleration and braking phases.

Theory of an Optimal Dynamical Water Resource Management Policy

Water markets even though not perfect and require a lot of effort to establish are considered as a robust tool to address water management issues around the world. However, the existing literature does not provide an optimal water resource management policy. To create a perfect water market, the government needs to identify the potential number of suppliers/producers and consumers of water against various extraction/supply/production rates of water, i.e., to identify a supply and a demand curve for number of suppliers/producers of water against each production rate in economy. This article presents a theory which is practically applicable for an optimal dynamical water resource management policy (JEL H20, H23, H27).

Method for rapid warning and activity concentration estimates in online waterγ-spectrometry systems

Onlineγ-spectrometry systems for inland waters,most of which extract samples in situ and in real time,are able to produce reliable activity concentration measurements for waterborne radionuclides only when they are distributed relatively uniformly and enter into a steady-state diffusion regime in the measurement chamber.To protect residents’health and ensure the safety of the living environment,better timeliness is required for this measurement method.To address this issue,this study established a mathematical model of the online waterγ-spectrometry system so that rapid warning and activity estimates can be obtained for water under non-steady-state(NSS)conditions.In addition,the detection efficiency of the detector for radionuclides during the NSS diffusion process was determined by applying the computational fluid dynamics technique in conjunction with Monte Carlo simulations.On this basis,a method was developed that allowed the online waterγ-spectrometry system to provide rapid warning and activity concentration estimates for radionuclides in water.Subsequent analysis of the NSS-mode measurements of^(40)K radioactive solutions with different activity concentrations determined the optimum warning threshold and measurement time for producing accurate activity concentration estimates for radionuclides.The experimental results show that the proposed NSS measurement method is able to give warning and yield accurate activity concentration estimates for radionuclides 55.42 and 69.42 min after the entry of a 10 Bq/L^(40)K radioactive solution into the measurement chamber,respectively.These times are much shorter than the 90 min required by the conventional measurement method.Furthermore,the NSS measurement method allows the measurement system to give rapid(within approximately 15 min)warning when the activity concentrations of some radionuclides reach their respective limits stipulated in the Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality of the WHO,suggesting that this method considerably enhances the warning capacity of in situ online waterγ-spectrometry systems.

Computational fluid dynamics(CFD) simulation of effect of baffles on separation in mixer settler

The main ideas in the development of the solvent extraction mixer settler focused on achieving clean phase separation,minimizing the loss of the reagents and decreasing the surface area of the settlers.The role of baffles in a mechanically agitated vessel is to ensure even distribution,reduce settler turbulence,promote the stability of power drawn by the impeller and to prevent swirling and vortexing of liquid,thus,greatly improving the mixing of liquid.The insertion of the appropriate number of baffles clearly improves the extent of liquid mixing.However,excessive baffling would interrupt liquid mixing and lengthen the mixing time.Computational fluid dynamics(CFD) provides a tool for determining detailed information on fluid flow(hydrodynamics) which is necessary for modeling subprocesses in mixer settler.A total of 54 final CFD runs were carried out representing different combinations of variables like number of baffles,density and impeller speed.CFD data shows that amount of separation increases with increasing baffles number and decreasing impeller speed.

Effects of a flexible net barrier on the dynamic behaviours and interception of debris flows in mountainous areas

Flexible net barriers are a new type of effective mitigation measure against debris flows in valleys and can affect the kinematic energy and mass of debris flows. Here, ten flume tests were performed to study the dynamic behaviours of debris flows with differences in volumes, concentrations(solid volume fraction), and travel distances after interception by a uniform flexible net barrier. A high-speed camera was used to monitor the whole test process, and their dynamic behaviours were recorded. A preliminary computational framework on energy conversion is proposed according to the deposition mechanisms and outflow of debris flow under the effects of the flexible net barrier. The experimental results show that the dynamic interaction process between a debris flow and the flexible net barrier can be divided into two stages:(a) the two-phase impact of the leading edge of the debris flow with the net and(b) collision and friction between the body of the debris flow and intercepted debris material. The approach velocity of a debris flow decreases sharply(a maximum of 63%) after the interception by the net barrier, and the mass ratio of the debris material being intercepted and the kinetic energy ratio of the debris material being absorbed by the net barrier are close due to the limited interception efficiency of the flexible net barrier, which is believed to be related to the flexibility. The energy ratio of outflow is relative small despite the large permeability of the flexible net barrier.

Gain Efficient L-band EDFA With Dynamic Gain Equalization

A gain efficient L-band erbium-doped fiber amplifier with dynamic gain equalization is presented. Using a single fiber Bragg grating and a static equalizer, the gain is clamped at 27dB with less than 0.5dB variations over 35nm.

NUMERICAL PREDICTION OF DYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF PELTON TURBINE

Different from the reaction turbines, the hydraulic performance of Pelton turbine is dynamic due to the unsteady flow in the rotating buckets in time and space. The dynamic energy efficiency of bucket ηεB and power efficiency of bucket ηPB within a short period can be predicted from the dynamic flow pattern of the free-surface sheet flow in the rotating bucket, whereas the dynamic discharge efficiency of bucket ηQB is defined as the resident discharge in the bucket at the respective moment. Under the operation of higher unit speed non than the optimum one, the power efficiency of bucket is deteriorated by the jet interference with the rear surface of bucket △Prear at the first stage of the dynamic performance, as well as the loss power due to the spilt flow from the cutout of bucket at the later stage of performance. Based on the dynamic performance prediction presented, the future possibility of the quantitative investigation for the negative scale effect of Pelton turbines was discussed.

Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics （volume of fluid） modelling coupled with a stochastic discrete phase model for the performance analysis of an invert trap experimentally validated using field sewer solids

Invert traps are used to trap sewer solids flowing into a sewer drainage system, The performance of the invert trap in an open rectangular channel was experimentally and numerically analysed using field sewer solids collected from a sewer drain. Experiments showed that the free water surface rises over the central opening （slot） of the invert trap, which reduces the velocity near the slot and allows more sediment to be trapped in comparison with the case for the fixed-lid model （assuming closed conduit flow with a shear-free top wall） used by earlier investigators. This phenomenon cannot be modelled using a closed conduit model as no extra space is provided for the fluctuation of the water surface, whereas this space is provided in the volume of fluid （VOF） model in the form of air space in ANSYS Fluent 14.0 software. Additionally, the zero atmospheric pressure at the free water surface cannot be modelled in a fixed-lid model. In the present study, experimental trap efflciencies of the invert trap using field sewer solids were fairly validated using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model （VOF model） coupled with a stochastic discrete phase model. The flow field （i.e., velocities） predicted by the VOF model were compared with experimental velocities obtained employing particle image velocimetry. The water surface profile above the invert trap predicted by the VOF model was found to be in good agreement with the experimentally measured profile. The present study thus showed that the VOF model can be used with the stochastic discrete phase model to well predict the performance of invert traps.

Pareto Efficiency of Finite Horizon Switched Linear Quadratic Differential Games

A switched linear quadratic（LQ） differential game over finite-horizon is investigated in this paper. The switching signal is regarded as a non-conventional player, afterwards the definition of Pareto efficiency is extended to dynamics switching situations to characterize the solutions of this multi-objective problem. Furthermore, the switched differential game is equivalently transformed into a family of parameterized single-objective optimal problems by introducing preference information and auxiliary variables. This transformation reduces the computing complexity such that the Pareto frontier of the switched LQ differential game can be constructed by dynamic programming. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness.

Simulating orthokinetic heterocoagulation and cluster growth in destabilizing suspensions

Using direct numerical simulation, we investigate the coagulation behavior of non-Brownian colloidal particles as exemplified by Al2O3 particles. This yields the so-called capture efficiency, for which we give an analytical expression, as well as other time-dependent variables such as the cluster growth rate. Instead of neglecting or strongly approximating the hydrodynamic interactions between particles, we include hydrodynamic and non-hydrodynamic interactions in a Stokesian dynamics approach and a comprehensive modeling of the interparticle forces. The resulting parallelized simulation framework enables us to investigate the dynamics of polydisperse particle systems composed of several hundred particles at the same high level of modeling we used for a close investigation of the coagulation behavior of two unequal particles in shear flow. Appropriate cluster detection yields all the information about large destabilizing systems, which is needed for models used in flow-sheet simulations. After non-dimensionalization, the results can be generalized and applied to other systems tending to secondary coagulation