Engineering Commons^™

An Optimal Allocation And Sizing Strategy Of Distributed Energy Storage Systems To Improve Performance Of Distribution Networks, Choton K. Das, Octavian Bass, Thair S. Mahmoud, Ganesh Kothapalli, Mohammad A. S. Masoum, Navid Mousavi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The allocation of grid-scale energy storage systems (ESSs) can play a significant role in solving distribution network issues and improving overall network performance. This paper presents a strategy for optimal allocation and sizing of distributed ESSs through P and Q injection by the ESSs to a distribution network. The investigation is carried out in a renewable-penetrated (wind and solar) medium voltage IEEE-33 bus distribution network for two different scenarios: (1) using a uniform ESS size and (2) using non-uniform ESS sizes. DIgSILENT PowerFactory is used for system modeling and testing, and simulation events are automated using Python scripting. A hybrid …

Analysis Of Individual Molecular Dynamics Snapshots Simulating Wetting Of Surfaces Using Spheroidal Geometric Constructions, Aleksandr Abramov, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Accurate characterization of wettability of minerals is important for efficient oil recovery and carbon geosequestration. In studies where molecular dynamics simulations are used to compute the contact angle, emphasis is often placed on results or theoretical details of the simulations themselves, overlooking potentially applicable methodologies for determination of the contact angle. In this manuscript, a concept of a method utilizing spheroidal geometric constructions to estimate the contact angle of a water droplet on a silica surface in carbon dioxide atmosphere is outlined and applied to the final snapshots of two molecular dynamics simulation runs. Two carbon dioxide pressures and two …

Smart Charging Strategies For Electric Vehicle Charging Stations, Zeinab Moghaddam

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Although the concept of transportation electrification holds enormous prospects in addressing the global environmental pollution problem, consumer concerns over the limited availability of charging stations and long charging/waiting times are major contributors to the slow uptake of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in many countries. To address the consumer concerns, many countries have undertaken projects to deploy a network of both fast and slow charging stations, commonly known as electric vehicle charging networks.

While a large electric vehicle charging network will certainly be helpful in addressing PEV owners' concerns, the full potential of this network cannot be realised without the implementation …

Failure Modes And Tensile Strength Of Screw Anchors In Non-Cracked Concrete, Alireza Mohyeddin, Emad F. Gad, Jessey Lee

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Screw anchors are widely used in applications such as fastening base plates in steel and metal construction, formwork and bracing, structural steel applications, railings and handrails. At present, researchers and design engineers rely on the Concrete Capacity Design (CCD) method to predict the strength of screw anchors under the tensile loading as the only method available in literature. In CCD method, the underlying assumption is that the concrete cone and combined concrete cone and pull-out failure modes are the main failure mode for anchors, whereas, previous studies have demonstrated that pull-out is also a very common failure mode of screw …

Smart Management Strategies Of Utility-Scale Energy Storage Systems In Power Networks, Choton Kanti Das

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Power systems are presently experiencing a period of rapid change driven by various interrelated issues, e.g., integration of renewables, demand management, power congestion, power quality requirements, and frequency regulation. Although the deployment of Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) has been shown to provide effective solutions to many of these issues, misplacement or non-optimal sizing of these systems can adversely affect network performance. This present research has revealed some novel working strategies for optimal allocation and sizing of utility-scale ESSs to address some important issues of power networks at both distribution and transmission levels. The optimization strategies employed for ESS placement and …

An Integrated Model To Use Drilling Modular Machine Tools, Ana Vafadar, Majid Tolouei-Rad, Kevin Hayward

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Modular machine tools provide a platform for drilling-related operations within automotive companies. The use of these machine tools is widespread; however, manufacturers wishing to use this technology frequently face the challenge of selecting the most appropriate manufacturing system. Accordingly, a comprehensive feasibility analysis procedure is required to assist decision-makers before any investment is made on the preparation of detailed machine design or purchase one. This paper presents a model, which collects the previous works of the authors. To do this, an integrated framework for decision-making of using machine tools is developed. The aim of this model is to enable users …

Pt Nanoparticles Decorated Heterostructured G-C3n4/Bi2moo6 Microplates With Highly Enhanced Photocatalytic Activities Under Visible Light, Z. Jia, F. Lyu, Laichang Zhang, S. Zeng, Shunxing Liang, Y. Y. Li, J. Lu

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Exploring an efficient and photostable heterostructured photocatalyst is a pivotal scientific topic for worldwide energy and environmental concerns. Herein, we reported that Pt decorated g-C₃N₄/Bi₂MoO₆ heterostructured composites with enhanced photocatalytic performance under visible light were simply synthesized by one-step hydrothermal method for methylene blue (MB) dye degradation. Results revealed that the synthetic Pt decorated g-C₃N₄/Bi₂MoO₆ composites with Bi₂MoO₆ contents of 20 wt.% (Pt@CN/20%BMO) presented the highest photocatalytic activity, exhibiting 7 and 18 times higher reactivity than the pure g-C₃N₄ and …

Low-Cost Carbon Fibre Derived From Sustainable Coal Tar Pitch And Polyacrylonitrile: Fabrication And Characterisation, Omid Zabihi, Sajjad Shafei, Seyed Mousa Fakhrhoseini, Mojtaba Ahmadi, Hossein Ajdari Nazarloo, Rohan Stanger, Quang Anh Tran, John Lucas, Terry Wall, Minoo Naebe

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Preparation of high-value pitch-based carbon fibres (CFs) from mesophase pitch precursor is of great importance towards low-cost CFs. Herein, we developed a method to reduce the cost of CFs precursor through incorporating high loading of coal tar pitch (CTP) into polyacrylonitrile (PAN) polymer solution. The CTP with a loading of 25% and 50% was blended with PAN and their spinnability was examined by electrospinning process. The effect of CTP on thermal stabilization and carbonisation of PAN fibres was investigated by thermal analyses methods. Moreover, electrospun PAN/CTP fibres were carbonised at two different temperatures i.e., 850 °C and 1200 °C and …

A Review Of The Enhancement Of Bio-Hydrogen Generation By Chemicals Addition, Yong Sun, Jun He, Gang Yang, Guangzhi Sun, Valérie Sage

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Bio-hydrogen production (BHP) produced from renewable bio-resources is an attractive route for green energy production, due to its compelling advantages of relative high efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and lower ecological impact. This study reviewed different BHP pathways, and the most important enzymes involved in these pathways, to identify technological gaps and effective approaches for process intensification in industrial applications. Among the various approaches reviewed in this study, a particular focus was set on the latest methods of chemicals/metal addition for improving hydrogen generation during dark fermentation (DF) processes; the up-to-date findings of different chemicals/metal addition methods have been quantitatively evaluated and thoroughly …

The Effect Of Fine And Coarse Recycled Aggregates On Fresh And Mechanical Properties Of Self-Compacting Concrete, Mahmoud Nili, Hossein Sasanipour, Farhad Aslani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Today, the use of recycled aggregates as a substitute for a part of the natural aggregates in concrete production is increasing. This approach is essential because the resources for natural aggregates are decreasing in the world. In the present study, the effects of recycled concrete aggregates as a partial replacement for fine (by 50%) and coarse aggregates (by 100%) were examined in the self-compacting concrete mixtures which contain air-entraining agents and silica fumes. Two series of self-compacting concrete mixes have been prepared. In the first series, fine and coarse recycled mixtures respectively with 50% and 100% replacement with air entraining …

Application Of The Clayff And The Dreiding Force Fields For Modeling Of Alkylated Quartz Surfaces, Aleksandr Abramov, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

To extend applicability and to overcome limitations of combining rules for nonbond potential parameters, in this study, CLAYFF and DREIDING force fields are coupled at the level of atomic site charges to model quartz surfaces with chemisorpt hydrocarbons. Density functional theory and Bader charge analysis are applied to calculate charges of atoms of the OC bond connecting a quartz crystal and an alkyl group. The study demonstrates that the hydrogen atom of the quartz surface hydroxyl group can be removed and its charge can be redistributed among the oxygen and carbon atoms of the OC bond in a manner consistent …

Development Of Heavyweight Self-Compacting Concrete And Ambient-Cured Heavyweight Geopolymer Concrete Using Magnetite Aggregates, Afsaneh Valizadeh, Farhad Aslani, Zohaib Asif, Matt Roso

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Heavyweight self-compacting concrete (HWSCC) and heavyweight geopolymer concrete (HWGC) are new types of concrete that integrate the advantages of heavyweight concrete (HWC) with self-compacting concrete (SCC) and geopolymer concrete (GC), respectively. The replacement of natural coarse aggregates with magnetite aggregates in control SCC and control GC at volume ratios of 50%, 75%, and 100% was considered in this study to obtain heavyweight concrete classifications, according to British standards, which provide proper protection from sources that emit harmful radiations in medical and nuclear industries and may also be used in many offshore structures. The main aim of this study is to …

Wettability Of Fully Hydroxylated And Alkylated (001) Α-Quartz Surface In Carbon Dioxide Atmosphere, Aleksandr Abramov, Alireza Keshavarz, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Wettability of alkylated quartz surfaces is of primary importance in several technological applications, including the development of oil and gas reservoirs and carbon geo-sequestration. It is intuitively understood and experimentally confirmed that hydroxylated quartz surfaces are hydrophilic. By gradually saturating a hydroxylated (001) α-quartz surface with pentyl groups, we show using molecular dynamics simulations that the surface can also exhibit extreme hydrophobicity. Within a range of surface pentyl group density from 0.29 to 3.18/nm², the contact angle of a water droplet under 10 MPa pressure of carbon dioxide at 300 K changes from 10–20 to 180°. This study …

Recent Developments In Solar Energy-Harvesting Technologies For Building Integration And Distributed Energy Generation, Mikhail Vasiliev, Mohammad Nur-E-Alam, Kamal Alameh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

We present a review of the current state of the field for a rapidly evolving group of technologies related to solar energy harvesting in built environments. In particular, we focus on recent achievements in enabling the widespread distributed generation of electric energy assisted by energy capture in semi-transparent or even optically clear glazing systems and building wall areas. Whilst concentrating on recent cutting-edge results achieved in the integration of traditional photovoltaic device types into novel concentrator-type windows and glazings, we compare the main performance characteristics reported with these using more conventional (opaque or semi-transparent) solar cell technologies. A critical overview …

Calculation Of Oxygen Diffusion Coefficients In Oxide Films Formed On Low-Temperature Annealed Zr Alloys And Their Related Corrosion Behavior, Lina Zhang, Liang-Yu Chen, Cuihua Zhao, Yujing Liu, Lai-Chang Zhang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The growth of oxide film, which results from the inward oxygen diffusion from a corrosive environment, is a critical consideration for the corrosion resistance of zirconium alloys. This work calculates the oxygen diffusion coefficients in the oxide films formed on zirconium alloys annealed at 400~500 °C and investigates the related corrosion behavior. The annealed samples have a close size for the second-phase particles but a distinctive hardness, indicating the difference in substrate conditions. The weight gain of all samples highly follows parabolic laws. The weight gain of the sample annealed at 400 °C has the fastest increase rate at the …

Initial Field Testing Results From Building-Integrated Solar Energy Harvesting Windows Installation In Perth, Australia, Mikhail Vasiliev, Mohammad Nur-E-Alam, Kamal Alameh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

We report on the field testing datasets and performance evaluation results obtained from a commercial property-based visually-clear solar window installation site in Perth-Australia. This installation was fitted into a refurbished shopping center entrance porch and showcases the potential of glass curtain wall-based solar energy harvesting in built environments. In particular, we focus on photovoltaic (PV) performance characteristics such as the electric power output, specific yield, day-to-day consistency of peak output power, and the amounts of energy generated and stored daily. The dependencies of the generated electric power and stored energy on multiple environmental and geometric parameters are also studied. An …

A Numerical Study Of Axisymmetric Wave Propagation In Buried Fluid-Filled Pipes For Optimizing The Vibro-Acoustic Technique When Locating Gas Pipelines, Ying Liu, Daryoush Habibi, Douglas Chai, Xiuming Wang, Hao Chen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Buried pipeline systems play a vital role in energy storage and transportation, especially for fluid energies like water and gas. The ability to locate buried pipes is of great importance since it is fundamental for leakage detection, pipeline maintenance, and pipeline repair. The vibro-acoustic locating method, as one of the most effective detection technologies, has been studied by many researchers. However, previous studies have mainly focused on vibro-acoustic propagation in buried water pipes. Limited research has been conducted on buried gas pipes. In this paper, the behavior of gas-dominated wave motion will be investigated and compared against water-dominated wave motion …

Economic And Productivity Evaluation Of Different Horizontal Drilling Scenarios: Middle East Oil Fields As Case Study, Abbas Khaksar Manshad, Milad Ebrahimi Dastgerdi, Jagar A. Ali, Nazir Mafakheri, Alireza Keshavarz, Stefan Iglauer, Amir H. Mohammadi

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Development of high-density oil and gas fields presents a great challenge to the energy industry due to the low productivity of individual wells and their high drilling cost. We thus compared the productivity, associated costs and economical revenues gained from two field development scenarios, with multilateral and horizontal drilling, to evaluate the optimal drilling and completion conditions in a giant heavy oil reservoir in the Middle East. Well path design was identified as one of the most complex parameters depending on the well-testing results, field production and reservoir simulation data. The fishbone well of four branches with a length of …

Residual Trapping Of Co2 In An Oil-Filled, Oil-Wet Sandstone Core: Results Of Three-Phase Pore-Scale Imaging, Stefan Iglauer, Adriana Paluszny, Taufiq Rahman, Yihuai Zhang, Wolfgang Wülling, Maxim Lebedev

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

CO2 geosequestration in oil reservoirs is an economically attractive solution as it can be combined with enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR). However, the effectiveness of the associated three-phase displacement processes has not been tested at the micrometer pore scale, which determines the overall reservoir-scale fluid dynamics and thus CO2-EOR project success. We thus imaged such displacement processes in situ in 3-D with X-ray microcomputed tomography at high resolution at reservoir conditions and found that oil extraction was enhanced substantially, while a significant residual CO2 saturation (13.5%) could be achieved in oil-wet rock. Statistics of the residual CO2 and oil clusters are …

Strategies To Improve The Thermal Performance Of Heat Pipe Solar Collectors In Solar Systems: A Review, Abdellah Sharifian, Mehdi Khiadani, Ataollah Nosrati

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Invention of evacuated tube heat pipe solar collectors (HPSCs) was a huge step forward towards resolving the challenges of conventional solar systems due to their unique features and advantages. This has led to their utilization in a wide range of solar applications surpassing other conventional collectors. However, relatively low thermal efficiency of heat pipe solar (HPS) systems is still the major challenge of solar industry evidenced by numerous studies conducted mainly during the last decade to improve their efficiency. To date, several review papers have been published summarizing studies relevant to utilization of HPSCs in various thermal applications. However, to …

Immobilization Of Magnetite Nanoparticles For The Removal Of Arsenic And Antimony From Contaminated Water, Guangzhi Sun, Mehdi H. Khiadani

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Magnetite (Fe3 O4) nanoparticles were synthesized and immobilized in a synthetic resin poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA). The Fe3 O4 nanoparticle-PMMA composites were studied for their efficiencies of removing dissolved arsenic (As) and antimony (Sb). The effects of major environmental and operating parameters on the removal of As and Sb were investigated in batch experiments. Singular and competitive adsorption of As and Sb onto the composites were studied. The results demonstrated the capability of the Fe3 O4-PMMA composites for removing dissolved metalloids.

Modelling Of The Radiant Heat Flux And Rate Of Spread Of Wildfire Within The Urban Environment, Greg Penney, Steven Richardson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

One approach to increase community resilience to wildfire impacts is the enhancement of residential construction standards in an effort to provide protective shelters for families within their own homes. Current wildfire models reviewed in this study assume fire growth is unrestricted by vegetation fuel bed geometry; the head fire has attained a quasi-steady rate of spread; and the shielding effects of urban development are ignored. As a result, radiant heat flux may be significantly overestimated for small vegetation fires in road reserves, urban parklands, and similar scenarios. This paper proposes two new models to address this issue, and utilises two …

A Statistical Approach To Provide Explainable Convolutional Neural Network Parameter Optimization, Saman Akbarzadeh, Selam Ahderom, Kamal Alameh

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Algorithms based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been great attention in image processing due to their ability to find patterns and recognize objects in a wide range of scientific and industrial applications. Finding the best network and optimizing its hyperparameters for a specific application are central challenges for CNNs. Most state-of-the-art CNNs are manually designed, while techniques for automatically finding the best architecture and hyperparameters are computationally intensive, and hence, there is a need to severely limit their search space. This paper proposes a fast statistical method for CNN parameter optimization, which can be applied in many CNN applications …

Properties Of Ambient-Cured Normal And Heavyweight Geopolymer Concrete Exposed To High Temperatures, Farhad Aslani, Zohaib Asif

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Ambient-cured heavyweight geopolymer concrete (HWGC) is a new type of concrete that combines the benefits of both heavyweight concrete (HWC) and geopolymer concrete (GC). HWGC provides proper protection from the sources that emit harmful radiations in medical and nuclear industries. Furthermore, HWGC may also be used in offshore structures for pipeline ballasting and similar underwater structures. In this study, heavyweight aggregates (magnetite) have been used and replaced by normal-weight coarse aggregates in GC at volume ratios of 50, 75, and 100% to attain heavyweight classification according to British standards. This study investigates the impacts of high temperatures on standard ambient-cured …

Calculation Of Critical Water Flow Rates For Wildfire Suppression, Greg Penney, Daryoush Habibi, Marcus Cattani, Murray Carter

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Predicting water suppression requirements and its impacts on firefighting strategies and logistics within the urban environment has been the subject of many previous studies, however the same level of research has yet to be applied in the realm of wildfire suppression. To work towards addressing this knowledge gap, this paper provides guidance for Incident Controllers in relation to critical water flow rates required to extinguish large wildfire across a wide range of forest fuel loads, fire weather and active fire front depths. This is achieved through mathematical empirical analysis of water flow rates required for head fire suppression during 540 …

Co 2 -Wettability Of Sandstones Exposed To Traces Of Organic Acids: Implications For Co 2 Geo-Storage, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Arif, Muhammad Faraz Sahito, Sarmad Al-Anssari, Alireza Keshavarz, Ahmed Barifcani, Linda Stalker, Mohammad Sarmadivaleh, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Wettability of CO 2 -brine-mineral systems plays a vital role during geological CO 2 -storage. Residual trapping is lower in deep saline aquifers where the CO 2 is migrating through quartz rich reservoirs but CO 2 accumulation within a three-way structural closure would have a high storage volume due to higher CO 2 saturation in hydrophobic quartz rich reservoir rock. However, such wettability is only poorly understood at realistic subsurface conditions, which are anoxic or reducing. As a consequence of the reducing environment, the geological formations (i.e. deep saline aquifers) contain appreciable concentrations of various organic acids. We thus demonstrate …

An Experimental Study On The Flow Characteristics During The Leakage Of High Pressure Co 2 Pipelines, Shuaiwei Gu, Yuxing Li, Lin Teng, Cailin Wang, Qihui Hu, Datong Zhang, Xiao Ye, Jinghan Wang, Stefan Iglauer

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

High pressure pipeline transportation is dominant mode for economically transporting large amounts of CO 2 . However, potential leakage is one of the main risks associated with pressurized CO 2 pipeline transportation. Thus, to investigate the leakage behavior of high pressure CO 2 and to de-risk such transportations, a new laboratory scale experimental setup (total length of 14.85 m and the inner diameter of 15 mm) was constructed. Leakage experiments for pure CO 2 and CO 2 mixtures containing various N 2 concentrations were carried out for different initial phase states (supercritical, liquid and gaseous respectively). The pressure and temperature …

Deformation And Strength Characteristics Of Laves Phases In Titanium Alloys, Chirag D. Rabadia, Y. J. Liu, Liang-Yu Chen, Syed F. Jawed, L. Q. Wang, Hongqi Sun, Laichang Zhang

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The superior reinforcement nature of Laves phases make them suitable for high-strength applications. Therefore, investigations on the deformation and strength characteristics of Laves phases are useful in development of an improved Laves phase-reinforced alloy. In this work, the Vickers micro-indentation method is used to evaluate and compare the deformation and strength characteristics of a hexagonal close-packed Laves phase (C14-type) in Ti-35Zr-5Fe-6Mn (wt%) and a face-centered cubic Laves phase (C15-type) in Ti-33Zr-7Fe-4Cr (wt%), considering the same volume fraction of Laves phase (~7.0%) in these alloys. Moreover, the effects of higher volume fraction of Laves phase (19.4%) on indentation-based deformation features are …

Real-Time Classification Of Multivariate Olfaction Data Using Spiking Neural Networks, Arnup Vanarse, Adam Osseiran, Alexander Rassau, Therese O'Sullivan, Jonny Lo, Amanda Devine

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Recent studies in bioinspired artificial olfaction, especially those detailing the application of spike-based neuromorphic methods, have led to promising developments towards overcoming the limitations of traditional approaches, such as complexity in handling multivariate data, computational and power requirements, poor accuracy, and substantial delay for processing and classification of odors. Rank-order-based olfactory systems provide an interesting approach for detection of target gases by encoding multi-variate data generated by artificial olfactory systems into temporal signatures. However, the utilization of traditional pattern-matching methods and unpredictable shuffling of spikes in the rank-order impedes the performance of the system. In this paper, we present an …

Assesment Of Electricity Excess In An Isolated Hybrid Energy System: A Case Study Of A Dangiwada Village In Rural Nepal, Ashish Shrestha, Lalit Bickram Rana, Ajay Singh, Sudip Phuyal, Anil Ghimire, Roshan Giri, Roshan Kattel, Kedar Karki, Shailendra Kumar Jha

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The increasing demand of power can be fulfilled through different architectures and electricity supply models by utilizing the available local resources. But most of the isolated energy system suffers from high energy cost and unreliable energy supply. This study identifies different electricity supply models to fulfill the dynamic demand of power in a remote area, which is analyzed in terms of cost of energy and causes for the high cost of energy. Among different factors, the presence of unusable energy (Electricity Excess) produced by the energy system during fulfillment of the demand is found to be major one cause for …