A New Tri-Generation System： Thermodynamical Analysis of a Micro Compressed Air Energy Storage

There is a growing interest in the electrical energy storage system, especially for matching intermittent sources of renewable energy with customers＇ demand. Furthermore, it is possible, with these system, to level the absorption peak of the electric network （peak shaving） and the advantage of separating the production phase from the exertion phase （time shift）. CAES （compressed air energy storage systems） are one of the most promising technologies of this field, because they are characterized by a high reliability, low environmental impact and a remarkable energy density. The main disadvantage of big systems is that they depend on geological formations which are necessary to the storage. The micro-CAES system, with a rigid storage vessel, guarantees a high portability of the system and a higher adaptability even with distributed or stand-alone energy productions. This article carries out a thermodynamical and energy analysis of the micro-CAES system, as a result of the mathematical model created in a Matlab/Simulink environment. New ideas will be discussed, as the one concerning the quasi-isothermal compression/expansion, through the exertion of a biphasic mixture, that will increase the total system efficiency and enable a combined production of electric, thermal and refrigeration energies. The exergy analysis of the results provided by the simulation of the model reports that more than one third of the exergy input to the system is lost. This is something promising for the development of an experimental device.

Dragon 4-Satellite Based Analysis of Diseases on Permanent and Row Crops in Italy and China

The AMEOS(Assimilating Multi-source Earth Observation Satellite data for crop pests and diseases monitoring and forecasting)project aims to bring together cutting edge research to provide pest and disease monitoring and forecast information,integrating multi-source information(Earth Observation,meteorological,entomological and plant pathological,etc.)to support decision making in the sustainable management of insect pests and diseases in agriculture.The main objective of the project,that is,improving crop diseases and pests monitoring and forecasting,will be achieved by utilizing EO data,developing new algorithms,and combining new and existing data from multi-source EO sensors to produce high spatial and temporal land surface information.The project foresees the assessment of the possibility of using available satellite images datasets to assess the evolution of diseases on permanent(olive groves,vineyards),or row crops(wheat)in Italy and China.The paper describes the results of the research activity which focused on:①improving the classification of the agricultural areas devoted to winter wheat and olive trees,starting from what has been made available from the Corine Land Cover initiative;②developing an approach suitable to be automated for estimating trees by using Sentinel 2 images;③developing a new index,REDSI(consisting of Red,Re 1,and Re 3 bands),for detecting and monitoring yellow rust infection of winter wheat at the canopy and regional scale.The research activity covers the:Province of Lecce,that is the Italian area strongly affected,since 2015,by the Xylella fastidiosa disease which causes a rapid decline in olive plantations.Province of Anyang,Neihuang county,which was affected by the yellow rust disease in the spring 2017.

Convective Transport in Rectangular Cavities Partially Heated at the Bottom and Cooled at One Side

Laminar natural convection heat transfer inside air-filled, rectangular enclosures partially heated from below and cooled at one side is studied numerically. A computational code based on the SIMPLE-C algorithm is used for the solution of the system of the mass, momentum, and energy transfer governing equations. Simulations are performed for a complete range of heater size, for Rayleigh numbers based on the height of the cavity ranging from 10~3to 10~6, and for height-to-width aspect ratios of the cavity spanning from 0.25 to 4. It is found that the heat transfer rate increases with increasing the heater size and the Rayleigh number, while it decreases with increasing the aspect ratio of the cavity. Dimensionless heat transfer correlations are also proposed.

Renewable Energy Penetration Strengthened Using a Reversible Solid Oxide Cell Installed in a Building

The renewable energy source(RES)penetration in end use must be strengthened to reach the prefixed decarbonization targets.A penetration obstacle is represented by the Power Grid,designed with an architecture disinclined to RES unpredictability.Nowadays,different solutions are available to integrate these latter issues without affecting the Grid,among these,the reversible Solid Oxide Cell(rSOC)promises high efficiencies and the possibility to control energy fluxes in both production and storage.In this study,a series of hourly simulations based on real data were designed to evaluate the rSOC capacity to integrate a large number of RESs in the end use of three different buildings,through analyzing the possible congestion on the Power Grid.As a rSOC model we chose the Smart Energy Hub proposed by Sylfen while for the buildings we selected a school,a hotel,and an office located in Procida,Italy.The results show the rSOC capacity to integrate RES increased from 40%to 62%according to the storage capacity and the building’s hourly load curve and seasonal consumptions.

Numerical Model for the Characterization of Retro-reflective Materials Behavior in an Urban Street Canyon

In this work, a preliminary numerical model of the behavior of retro-reflective materials used as envelope coatings on street canyon buildings facades has been tested. Retro-reflective materials have a surface finish that allows to reflect the solar radiation back in the same direction of the incident radiation. In the last years this kind of materials has been studied as buildings envelope coating for their potentials in the reduction of the UHI effect. As a matter of fact, the angular dependence of their optical-radiative response would help to mitigate the phenomenon of radiative entrapment due to the urban fabric environment. For this reason, an urban canyon was selected as the most common urban architecture to perform the analysis. A virtual retroreflective material has been simulated considering its response as almost diffusive but in the same direction of the incident radiation. The assessment of the energy advantages of the adoption of a virtual retro-reflective material as envelope coating is investigated by means of a numerical model developed in MATLAB and based on the Gebhart factors theory. The final purpose of the numerical model is the evaluation of the surfaces solar loads by a comparison between perfectly diffusive materials and RR materials used as fa？ades coating.

Modelling the interaction of the Astro Bio Cube Sat with the Van Allen's Belt radiative field using Monte Carlo transport codes

Purpose The AstroBio Cube Satellite(ABCS)will deploy within the inner Van Allen belt on the Vega C Maiden Flight launch opportunity of the European Space Agency.At this altitude,ABCS will experience radiation doses orders of magnitude greater than in low earth orbit,where CubeSats usually operate.The paper aims to estimate the irradiation effect on the ABCS payload in the orbital condition,their possible mitigation designing shielding solutions and performs a preliminary representativity simulation study on the ABCS irradiation with fission neutron at the TAPIRO(TAratura Pila Rapida Potenza 0)nuclear research reactor facility at ENEA.Methods We quantify the contributions of geomagnetically trapped particles(electron and proton),Galactic Cosmic Rays(GCR ions),Solar energetic particle within the ABCS orbit using the ESA's SPace ENVironment information system.FLUKA(Fluktuierende Kaskade-Fluctuating Cascade)code models the ABCS interaction with the orbital source.Results We found a shielding solution of the weight of 300 g constituted by subsequent layers of tungsten,resins,and aluminium that decreases on average the 20%overall dose rate relative to the shielding offered by the only satellite's structure.Finally,simulations of neutron irradiation of the whole ABCS structure within the TAPIRO's thermal column cavity show that a relatively short irradiation time is requested to reach the same level of 1 MeV neutron Silicon equivalent damage of the orbital source.Conclusions The finding deserves the planning of a future experimental approach to confirm the TAPIRO's performance and establish an irradiation protocol for testing aerospatial electronic components.