Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Engineering
Annual Simulation Of Photovoltaic Retrofits Within Existing Parabolic Trough Concentrating Solar Powerplants, Nipun Goel, Hannah O'Hern, Matthew Orosz, Todd Otanicar
Annual Simulation Of Photovoltaic Retrofits Within Existing Parabolic Trough Concentrating Solar Powerplants, Nipun Goel, Hannah O'Hern, Matthew Orosz, Todd Otanicar
Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations
Solar power for electricity production comes from either photovoltaics or concentrating solar power plants. The former has seen rapid growth and expansion due to the rapid fall in global prices, while the latter has seen moderate growth due to ability to cheaply store thermal energy for later use. Hybridization, or combining photovoltaics with concentrating solar power represents a potential way for lowering cost while enabling long term storage. Over 5 GW of capacity exist worldwide using parabolic trough style technology for concentrating solar power which presents a unique option for optimization in the form of a photovoltaic retrofit. While it …
Simulation Of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines With Variable Pitch Foils, L. Damon Woods, John F. Gardner, Kurt S. Myers
Simulation Of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines With Variable Pitch Foils, L. Damon Woods, John F. Gardner, Kurt S. Myers
Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations
A dynamic computer model of a turbine was developed in MATLAB in order to study the behavior of vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) with variable pitch (articulating) foils. The simulation results corroborated the findings of several empirical studies on VAWTs. The model was used to analyze theories of pitch articulation and to inform the discussion on turbine design. Simulations of various models showed that pitch articulation allowed Darrieus-style vertical axis wind turbines to start from rest. Once in motion, the rotor was found to accelerate rapidly to very high rotational velocities. The simulations revealed a plateau region of high efficiency …
The Relationships Between Muscle, External, Internal And Joint Mechanical Work During Normal Walking, Kotaro Sasaki, Richard R. Neptune, Steven A. Kautz
The Relationships Between Muscle, External, Internal And Joint Mechanical Work During Normal Walking, Kotaro Sasaki, Richard R. Neptune, Steven A. Kautz
Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations
Muscle mechanical work is an important biomechanical quantity in human movement analyses and has been estimated using different quantities including external, internal and joint work. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships between these traditionally used estimates of mechanical work in human walking and to assess whether they can be used as accurate estimates of musculotendon and/or muscle fiber work. A muscle-actuated forward dynamics walking simulation was generated to quantify each of the mechanical work measures. Total joint work (i.e. the time integral of absolute joint power over a full gait cycle) was found to underestimate total …