Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

An Introduction To A Framework For Sustainability Thinking, Jeremy Van Antwerp, Matthew Kuperus Heun

Numeracy

Van Antwerp, Jeremy and Matthew Kuperus Heun. 2022. A Framework for Sustainability Thinking: A Student’s Introduction to Global Sustainability Challenges; (Springer, Cham) 275 pp. ISBN 978-3-0317-9184-0.

A Framework for Sustainability Thinking: A Student’s Introduction to Global Sustainability Challenges presents basic information related to sustainability challenges in the context of a cognitive framework that allows students to evaluate problems and potential solutions from a quantitative perspective. Moreover, numerous end-of-chapter discussion questions and project ideas examine moral, ethical, and worldview aspects of sustainability choices and tradeoffs between different approaches to sustainability.

Diversifying Nuclear Technology: A Technical Analysis On Small Modular Reactors And Its Impact On Nuclear Energy Policy, Carolina Lugo Mejia, Marcos Lugo

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

The energy policy debate in the United States has revolved around the diversification of energy sources while promoting advantageous economic profits. One drive for this has been the discussion of anthropogenic, environmental endangerment concerns (Vlassopoulous 2011, 104). However, despite the environmental concerns, the U.S. has for some time only relied on one type of energy source—fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are categorized as natural gas, coal, petroleum, and other gases responsible (U.S. Energy Administration 2019). Natural gas is responsible for 38.4%, coal for 23.4%, petroleum for 0.4%, and other gases for 0.3% of the U.S.’s electrical generation (U.S. Energy Administration 2019). …

Investing In A Green Future: Universities And Renewable Energy, Tommy Kimmell, Philip Kimmell, Matthew Sorensen, Cameron Ruggiero, Ben Coit

Bryant University Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

This paper explains how the implementation of renewable energy is a favorable energy choice and explores the growing trend of investing in a green economy. The report begins by providing some context as to what renewable energy is and explains why it is a favorable energy choice. The first section outlines the energy industry and deciphers between the two forms of energy currently making up the sector. Breaking up the industry into two separate sectors, being renewable energy and nonrenewable energy, provides an understanding on which form is currently dominating the market. Moreover, the outline describes the concept of investing …

Dual-Axis Solar Tracker, Bryan Kennedy

All Undergraduate Projects

Renewable energies, and fuels that are not fossil fuel-based, are one of the prolific topics of debate in modern society. With climate change now becoming a primary focus for scientists and innovators of today, one of the areas for the largest amount of potential and growth is that of the capturing and utilization of Solar Energy. This method involves using a mechanical system to track the progression of the sun as it traverses the sky throughout the day. A dual-axis solar tracker such as the one designed and built for this project, can follow the sun both azimuthally and in …

Recent Progress In Electrical Generators For Oceanic Wave Energy Conversion, Abidur Rahman, Omar Farrok, Md Rabiul Islam, Wei Xu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Oceanic wave energy extraction through electrical generator is one of the most interesting topics in the field of power engineering. Almost all the existing relevant review paper focus on electrical generator with the working principle of electromagnetic induction or piezoelectric or triboelectric effect. In this paper, all the existing types (based on principle of operation) of electrical generator used for wave power harvesting are discussed. This paper not only covers recent progress in electrical power generation by electro-magnetic induction, piezoelectric generator, and electrostatic induction, but also presents critical comparative review as well where suitable use and weakness of each type …

An Iot- Based Decision Support Tool For Improving The Performance Of Smart Grids Connected With Distributed Energy Sources And Electric Vehicles, Md Rabiul Islam, Haiyan Lu, M J. Hossain, Li Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

vThe growing penetration of distributed energy sources (DES), such as photovoltaic (PV) solar power, battery energy systems and electric vehicles (EVs) into low voltage distribution networks is creating serious challenges for distribution network operators. Uncertain nature of these DES and EV charging is a key factor to cause unbalance, which degrade network performance in terms of energy loss, voltage unbalance, and voltage profile of the distribution network, etc. Some methods were proposed to mitigate such negative impact of these uncertain DES and EV charging from both centralized and decentralized approaches by controlling charging or discharging power of EVs. However, these …

Outage Probability And Throughput Analyses In Full-Duplex Relaying Systems With Energy Transfer, Jiaman Li, Le Chung Tran, Farzad Safaei

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this article, we consider a dual-hop full-duplex (FD), amplify-and-forward, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) relaying network, where the relay operates based on a time-switching architecture to harvest energy from radio frequency signals. We use a polarization-enabled digital self-interference cancellation (PDC) scheme to cancel the self-interference signal at the relay in order to achieve FD communications. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the system performances in terms of outage probability and throughput over multipath Rayleigh fading channels. Furthermore, the optimal time split between the duration of energy harvesting and signal transmission to maximize the system throughput is numerically calculated. …

Progress In Piezoelectric Material Based Oceanic Wave Energy Conversion Technology, Mahbubur Kiran, Omar Farrok, Md Abdullah-Al-Mamun, Md Rabiul Islam, Wei Xu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Recently, electrical engineers are paying great attention to develop oceanic wave energy conversion technologies based on the piezoelectric materials because of their excellent conveniences. Piezoelectric oceanic wave energy converters (OWECs) have several benefits over the others such as its small size, lightweight, no requirement of using intermediate device as well as having less negative impacts on the oceanic environment. Various review and research papers focus on the piezoelectric devices, their operation and application for oceanic energy conversion. But, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, none of the existing research or review papers present detailed scheme of piezoelectric device based …

An Adaptive Feed-Forward Phase Locked Loop For Grid Synchronization Of Renewable Energy Systems Under Wide Frequency Deviations, Aravind Chellachi Kathiresan, Jeyaraj Pandiarajan, Asokan Sivaprakash, Thanikanti Sudhakar Babu, Md Rabiul Islam

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Synchronization is a crucial problem in the grid-connected inverter’s control and operation. A phase-locked loop (PLL) is a typical grid synchronization strategy, which ought to have a high resistance to power system uncertainties since its sensitivity influences the generated reference signal. The traditional PLL catches the phase and frequency of the input signal via the feedback loop filter (LF). In general, to enhance the steady-state capability during distorted grid conditions generally, a filter tuned for nominal frequency is used. This PLL corrects large frequency deviations around the nominal frequency, which increases the PLL’s locking time. Therefore, this paper presents an …

Increase In Volumetric Electrical Power Density Of A Linear Generator By Winding Optimization For Wave Energy Extraction, Selim Molla, Omar Farrok, Abidur Rahman, Md Samiul Bashir, Md Rabiul Islam, Abbas Z. Zouzani, M. A Parvez Mahmud

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this article, a method of winding optimization of the linear generator is proposed to increase the electrical power generation from the oceanic wave. A linear generator is designed in the ANSYS/Maxwell environment to analyze the proposed winding optimization method. The electrical and magnetic properties of the generator are extensively analyzed. The cross-sectional area and the number of turns of the copper conductor are optimized to maximize the output power. Load characteristics are also considered for different conductor sizes and turn numbers to determine a suitable operating point. A cooling system is also incorporated in the optimized linear generator to …

Homes With Higher Energy Ratings Sell For More. Here’S How Australian Owners Could Cash In, Daniel J. Daly

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Everybody wants an energy-efficient home. After all, an energy-efficient home is comfortable to live in, without large energy bills. These can be important factors for prospective home owners or renters. Our review of international research found energy-efficient homes typically fetch a higher price.

Design And Optimization Of A Novel Dual-Port Linear Generator For Oceanic Wave Energy Conversion, Omar Farrok, Md Rabiul Islam, Kashem M. Muttaqi, Danny Sutanto, Jianguo Zhu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

All the existing linear generators used for oceanic wave energy conversions are basically a single-port linear electrical generators (SPLEGs). The conventional SPLEG transfers electrical power to the load/grid discontinuously due to its working principle and the intermittent nature of oceanic waves. This paper proposes a new dual-port linear electrical generator (DPLEG) topology, which is capable to transfer electrical power with an adequate voltage even at zero vertical velocity of the oceanic wave. The analysis shows that the efficiency and the performance of the DPLEG depend greatly on the stator tooth design. For this reason, the proposed DPLEG is optimized using …

Performance Simulation And Evaluation Of Net Zero Energy Buildings In An Australian Coastal Climate, Joel Anderson, Duane A. Robinson, Zhenjun Ma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Net zero energy buildings (NZEB) are becoming more common, and as new energy saving designs and technologies become available, the ability to estimate overall energy use and understand the impact on operation of building appliances will become important. This paper outlines simulation results of performance improvements achieved by modifying various components (glazing, lighting, thermal comfort settings) of two tertiary education NZEBs and a typical modern commercial building. The DesignBuilder models' thermal performance and energy consumption were validated using real data from case study buildings. The work shows validating models of smaller, less conven-tional, buildings is more difficult than for larger …

A Method Of Uncertainty Analysis For Whole-Life Embodied Carbon Emissions (Co2-E) Of Building Materials Of A Net-Zero Energy Building In Australia, Mehdi Robati, Daniel J. Daly, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The construction of new buildings requires the use of a substantial amount of materials, which have an associated embodied energy for manufacturing, transport, construction and end-of-life disposal. A number of inventories have been developed to collate the typical embodied energy or carbon emissions associated with different building materials and activities, and these can be used to quantify the environmental impacts of different construction methods. However, uncertainty exists in the estimation of embodied CO2-e emissions and other environmental impact results, due to i) inconsistencies in typical embodied carbon emissions values in inventories; ii) errors in estimations of material quantities; iii) assumptions …

Study On Performance Evaluation Of Co2 Heat Pump System Integrated With Thermal Energy Storage For Space Heating, Zhihua Wang, Yuxin Zheng, Fenghao Wang, Mengjie Song, Zhenjun Ma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

CO2 heat pumps have drawn a great deal of attention owing to their advantages of high efficiency and environmental friendly for heating water under low ambient temperature. However, the system performance is not desirable and shows a lower COP for space heating, especially for a radiator as heating terminal, due to the higher inlet water temperature at the gas cooler, which causes a large throttle loss when the refrigerant flow through the throttling device. To tackle this issue, a transcritical CO2 heat pump system integrated with thermal energy storage (TES) systems was developed in this paper. The heating performance of …

Full-Duplex Ofdm Relaying Systems With Energy Harvesting In Multipath Fading Channels, Jiaman Li, Le Chung Tran, Farzad Safaei

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this paper, the performance of in-band fullduplex OFDM relaying systems with energy-harvesting and selfinterference cancellation in the polarization domain is analyzed. Specifically, we use the time switching-based relaying protocol to implement energy harvesting. The harvested energy is used by the relay to forward the transmitted information from the source. To cancel the self-interference, the polarization-enabled digital self-interference cancellation scheme is deployed at the relay. Our simulation results show that the full-duplex OFDM energy harvesting relaying system almost doubles the throughput, while maintaining the same bit error performance by a modest increase in the signal-to-noise ratio compared to the half-duplex …

Low Income Housing Energy Efficiency Improvement Program For The Yurok Tribe Of Northern California, Keivan Branson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Housing on the Yurok reservation in California is a major concern for the local Tribal Government. This report details a study of the energy situation for housing of the Yurok Tribe to provide a framework for implementing housing energy efficiency to benefit low-income members of the Tribal community residing in substandard housing. The report briefly details the history of the reservation as it pertains to the current housing situation, as well as the authors personal context of living for 16 years in the reservation town of Klamath, CA. The analysis draws on information obtained from mixed methods, including information collected …

A Two-Level Clustering Strategy For Energy Performance Evaluation Of University Buildings, Kehua Li, Zhenjun Ma, Duane A. Robinson, Jun Ma

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper presents a clustering strategy to evaluate the energy performance and identify typical daily load profiles of buildings. The cluster analysis included intra-building clustering and inter-building clustering. The intra-building clustering used Gaussian mixture model clustering to identify the typical daily load profiles of each individual building. The inter-building clustering used hierarchical clustering to further identify the typical daily load profiles of a stock of buildings based on the typical daily load profiles identified for each individual building. The performance of this strategy was tested and evaluated using the two-year hourly electricity consumption data collected from 40 buildings on a …

Economic Operation Optimization Of Battery Energy Storage Systems In A Solar Rich Microgrid, Herath Pathiranage Asanga Priyankara Jayawardana, Massimo Fiorentini, Duane A. Robinson, Ashish P. Agalgaonkar

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The increasing trend of connecting local distributed generation units to the grid has unlocked new economic opportunities for owners. This is supported by the ongoing development of energy storage technologies, especially battery based systems. In practice, battery storage systems typically operate based on control algorithms where tariff structures and future generation and load profiles are not taken into account. This paper investigates the results of a case study for a microgrid using a proposed optimization model which minimizes cost by considering an import/export tariff structure. The effect of changing time resolution related to variations in demand and generation is examined, …

Model Predictive Control (Mpc) For Enhancing Building And Hvac System Energy Efficiency: Problem Formulation, Applications And Opportunities, Gianluca Serale, Massimo Fiorentini, Alfonso Capozzoli, Daniele Bernardini, Alberto Bemporad

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In the last few years, the application of Model Predictive Control (MPC) for energy management in buildings has received significant attention from the research community. MPC is becoming more and more viable because of the increase in computational power of building automation systems and the availability of a significant amount of monitored building data. MPC has found successful implementation in building thermal regulation, fully exploiting the potential of building thermal mass. Moreover, MPC has been positively applied to active energy storage systems, as well as to the optimal management of on-site renewable energy sources. MPC also opens up several opportunities …

Performance Evaluation Of Full-Duplex Energy Harvesting Relaying Networks Using Pdc Self-Interference Cancellation, Jiaman Li, Le Chung Tran, Farzad Safaei

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In this paper, throughput and bit error performance of an in-band full duplex (IBFD) relaying system assisted by the radio frequency energy harvesting technique and the polarization-enabled digital self-interference cancellation (PDC) scheme are investigated. In particular, the relay node harvests power from the wireless radio frequency signal transmitted from the source node and uses this power to amplify and forward signals to the destination. Meanwhile, the PDC scheme is used at the relay node to cancel the self-interference signal in order to facilitate the concurrent in-band transmission and reception. The impact of both energy harvesting and self-interference cancellation on the …

Development Of Microencapsulated Phase Change Material For Solar Thermal Energy Storage, Weiguang Su, Jo Darkwa, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

In this paper a novel microencapsulated phase change material (MF-3) has been developed and tested for solar assisted hot water storage systems. Even though the morphology of the sample was affected by the type of emulsifier used for fabrication it recorded the highest energy storage capacity of 126 kJ/kg with encapsulation efficiency of 97.4% as compared with other developed samples. For the purpose of assessing its thermal effectiveness it was theoretically evaluated in a compacted fixed bed TES unit and found to be capable of achieving a higher energy storage density as well as relatively smaller physical storage size than …

Simulation Of The Melting Process Of Ice Slurry For Energy Storage Using A Two-Fluid Lattice Boltzmann Method, Qi Lin, Shugang Wang, Zhenjun Ma, Jihong Wang, Tengfei Zhang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Ice slurry can be used as the thermal storage media in latent cool storage systems for both residential and commercial buildings. This paper presents the investigation of the phase change characteristics of the ice slurry using a two-fluid Lattice Boltzmann Method (TFLBM). The melting and migration processes of the ice slurry are simulated by improving the equilibrium distribution function and matching the relevant parameters such as the kinetic viscosity of ice particle cluster and cross-collision coefficient. The sensitivity analysis of the ice slurry viscosity and cross-collision coefficient are achieved through six numerical experiments, and the ice melting in the internal-melt …

Hybrid Model Predictive Control Of A Residential Hvac System With On-Site Thermal Energy Generation And Storage, Massimo Fiorentini, Josh Wall, Zhenjun Ma, Julio H. Braslavsky, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper describes the development, implementation and experimental investigation of a Hybrid Model Predictive Control (HMPC) strategy to control solar-assisted heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems with on-site thermal energy generation and storage. A comprehensive approach to the thermal energy management of a residential building is presented to optimise the scheduling of the available thermal energy resources to meet a comfort objective. The system has a hybrid nature with both continuous variables and discrete, logic-driven operating modes. The proposed control strategy is organized in two hierarchical levels. At the high-level, an HMPC controller with a 24-h prediction horizon and a …

Impact Of Structural Design Solutions On The Energy And Thermal Performance Of An Australian Office Building, Mehdi Robati, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Timothy J. Mccarthy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Concrete is a heavyweight construction material whose high thermal mass could increase the thermal storage capacity of a building envelope and in turn affect indoor thermal comfort. Selecting an appropriate method for concrete construction and form could also affect the total energy performance and thermal comfort of a building, a fact that is often overlooked by structural engineers. This study presents the results of energy simulations of the potential impact that concrete construction forms, in particular two slab types, and structural materials have on the energy consumption of archetypal commercial office buildings in five major Australia cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, …

Editorial To The Proceedings Of The Improving Residential Energy Efficiency International Conference, Iree 2017, Zhenjun Ma, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Editorial to proceedings of Improving Residential Energy Efficiency International Conference, IREE 2017, 16-17 February 2017, Wollongong, Australia

Preparation Of Microencapsulated Phase Change Materials (Mepcm) For Thermal Energy Storage, Weiguang Su, Jo Darkwa, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Tongyu Zhou, Yilin Li

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Microencapsulated phase change materials (MEPCM) could be used for energy saving applications in buildings due to their relatively high energy storage capacities at constant temperature, which could passively reduce peak cooling loads in summer. In this study, poly(methyl methacrylate-co-methacrylic acid) (PMMA-MAA) was used as a shell material to fabricate MEPCM by crosslinking methyl methacrylate (MMA) and methacrylic acid (MAA) through in-situ suspension-like polymerization method. The effects of initiator weight percentage and the ratio of shell monomers for the preparation of MEPCM were also investigated. The experimental results showed that the best MEPCM sample was achieved with a shell monomer weight …

Relationship Between Indoor Air Temperatures And Energy Bills For Low Income Homes In Australia, Clayton Mcdowell, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Laia Ledo Gomis, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Energy poverty is a prevalent issue in Australia and other countries across the globe especially for people with a low income. This paper seeks to investigate the relationship of energy consumption and indoor air temperatures and is separated into 3 sections; a comparison of actual electricity consumption to energy benchmarks provided by the Australian Energy Regulator, monitoring results of living room air temperature for the winter of 2015, and an analysis of living room air temperatures versus electricity consumption. The results of a comparison of electricity consumption of 119 low income elderly peoples (60+) dwellings to that of the energy …

From Bim (Building Information Modelling) To Bem (Building Energy Modelling): A Collaborative Approach, Emma Elizabeth Heffernan, Mohammed I. Sohel, Scott F. Beazley, Timothy J. Mccarthy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The use of simulation to predict building energy performance has been shown to have significant benefits in terms of reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, in terms of implementation, the process can be disjointed and messy, with a lack of integration between architects and engineers. For the process of creating a building energy simulation to be more efficient, a seamless transition from an architectural design to an energy model is required. This paper highlights some of the practical issues manifest in the process of data exchange for energy analysis. It presents a proposed workflow for the exchange of …

Effect Of Grain Size On Springback And System Energy In Micro V-Bending With Phosphor Bronze Foil, Zhi Fang, Zhengyi Jiang, Xiaogang Wang, Cunlong Zhou, Xianming Zhao, Xiaoming Zhang, Di Wu

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

In this paper, the effect of grain size on springback in the micro V-bending process of phosphor bronze foil (face-centered cubic structure) is investigated. Grain size effect is expressed by the ratio of material thickness (T) to average grain size (D), and these T/D values are divided into three groups: larger than 1, less than 1, and approximately equal to 1. It has been found that springback angles were the lowest when T/D ≈ 1. Electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) measurement results show that the twinning boundaries change with the ratios of T/D before and after bending. When T/D > 1, the …