Ice-Induced Vibrational Response of Single-Pile Offshore Wind-Turbine Foundations

Important challenges must be addressed to make wind turbines sustainable renewable energy sources.A typical problem concerns the design of the foundation.If the pile diameter is larger than that of the jacket platform,traditional mechanical models cannot be used.In this study,relying on the seabed soil data of an offshore wind farm,the m-method and the equivalent embedded method are used to address the single-pile wind turbine foundation problem for different pile diameters.An approach to determine the equivalent pile length is also proposed accordingly.The results provide evidence for the effectiveness and reliability of the model based on the equivalent embedded method.

Optimization of the fuel rod＇s arrangement cooled by turbulentnanofluids flow in pressurized water reactor (PWR)

In this paper, response surface methodology(RSM) based on central composite design(CCD) is applied to obtain an optimization design for the fuel rod's diameter and distance cooled by turbulent Al_2O_3–water nanofluid for a typical pressurized water reactor(PWR). Fuel rods and nanofluid flow between them are simulated 3D using computational fluid dynamics(CFD) by ANSYS-FLUNET package software. The RNG k–ε model is used to simulate turbulent nanofluid flow between the rods. The effect of different nanoparticles concentration is also investigated on the Nusselt number from heat transfer efficiency view point. Results reveal that when distance parameter(a) is in the minimum level and diameter parameter(r) is in the maximum possible level, cooling the rods will be better due to higher Nusselt number in this situation. Also, using the different nanoparticles on the cooling process confirms that Al_2O_3 averagely 17% and TiO_2 10% improve the Nusselt numbers.

Optimization of Conventional Combine Harvester to Reduce Combine Losses for Basmati Rice (<i>Oryza Sativa</i>)

A study was conducted at PAU Regional Research Station, Gurdaspur (Punjab) to investigate the design and operational parameters of threshing mechanism of conventional combine harvester for basmati crop. This study was aimed to investigate the suitable changes required in the self-propelled conventional combine harvester for harvesting the basmati crop with minimum grain losses. Field evaluation of experiment was carried out to assess the influence of independent design variable i.e., arrangement of spikes (AS) and independent operational parameters such as concave clearance (CC) and cylinder speed (CS). The study was aimed to enumerate various combining losses viz., extent of visible and invisible grain damage and threshing efficiency at different AS, CC and CS levels. The first year data recorded during 2017 were processed for the optimization during 2018. The results of the present study revealed that during 2017, maximum visible and invisible losses was 5.49% ± 0.33% and 28.07% ± 3.21%, respectively whereas after modification, these losses remained only 4.00% ± 0.80% and 24.07% ± 2.86%, respectively. The threshing efficiency remained above 99.31% ± 0.47%, for both years. Thus, optimization of combine harvester was able to save the visible grain damage by 60% to 83% and invisible grain damage by 6% to 16%, respectively during 2018 than the year 2017.

Wear of the working parts of agricultural tools in the context of the mass of chemical elements introduced into soil during its cultivation

For the manufacture of working parts of agricultural tools operating in soil,various structural materials are used:alloy and low-alloy steels,weld materials for hardfacing,and plates made from cementedcarbide.Manufacturers design new construction solutions to obtain components that are resistant to abrasive wear and impact.These components are subject to wear during soil cultivation,due to which wear products remain in the soil.In this work,the mass of chemical elements remaining in soil from materials used in selected working parts of agricultural tools intended for soil cultivation was estimated.During the operation of the tested parts,it was found that the following elements were introduced into the soil:Al,B,C,Co,Cr,Cu,Fe,Mo,Nb,Ni,P,Pb,S,Si,Ti,V,Wand Zr.Iron was introduced into the soil in the highest amount(15.907e222.004 g∙ha-1).Among the chemical elements reaching the soil,there were also elements that may pose a toxicological threat.It was found that the mass of chemical elements introduced into the soil depends on their content in the used structural materials and also on the conditions of cultivation,which determine the wear intensity of the parts.