scholarly journals AIMFAST: An Alignment Tool Based on Fringe Reflection Methods Applied To Dish Concentrators

2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles E. Andraka ◽  
Julius Yellowhair ◽  
Kirill Trapeznikov ◽  
Jeff Carlson ◽  
Brian Myer ◽  
...  

The proper alignment of facets on a dish engine concentrated solar power system is critical to the performance of the system. These systems are generally highly concentrating to produce high temperatures for maximum thermal efficiency so there is little tolerance for poor optical alignment. Improper alignment can lead to poor performance and shortened life through excessively high flux on the receiver surfaces, imbalanced power on multicylinder engines, and intercept losses at the aperture. Alignment approaches used in the past are time consuming field operations, typically taking 4–6 h per dish with 40–80 facets on the dish. Production systems of faceted dishes will need rapid, accurate alignment implemented in a fraction of an hour. In this paper, we present an extension to our Sandia Optical Fringe Analysis Slope Technique mirror characterization system that will automatically acquire data, implement an alignment strategy, and provide real-time mirror angle corrections to actuators or labor beneath the dish. The Alignment Implementation for Manufacturing using Fringe Analysis Slope Technique (AIMFAST) has been implemented and tested at the prototype level. In this paper we present the approach used in AIMFAST to rapidly characterize the dish system and provide near-real-time adjustment updates for each facet. The implemented approach can provide adjustment updates every 5 s, suitable for manual or automated adjustment of facets on a dish assembly line.

Author(s):  
Charles E. Andraka ◽  
Julius Yellowhair ◽  
Nolan Finch ◽  
Jeff Carlson ◽  
Matt Francis ◽  
...  

The proper alignment of facets on a dish engine system is critical to the performance of the system. Improper alignment can lead to poor performance and shortened life, through excessively high flux on the receiver surfaces, imbalanced power on multicylinder engines, and intercept losses at the aperture. Alignment approaches used in the past are time consuming field operations, typically taking 4–6 hours per dish with 40–80 facets on the dish. Production systems will need rapid, accurate alignment implemented in a fraction of an hour. In this paper, we present an AIMFAST characterization of a Stirling Energy Systems dish, before and after implementing an alignment using the AIMFAST software. The results of the alignment are correlated with fluxmapper measurements of the dish, and the improvement in the flux pattern projected to an engine receiver is calculated using Sandia’s CIRCE 2 dish optical modeling tool. The alignment substantially reduced the peak fluxes on the flat fluxmapper targets as well as the projection onto the receiver. The fluxmap images correlate well with the CIRCE projections of measured facet normals. In addition, we implemented automated actuation of the facet during alignment, improving the response and accuracy of the system, resulting in total dish alignments with under 0.1 mrad RMS alignment error. We also implemented an adaptive alignment strategy that varied the alignment based on the AIMFAST-measured facet shape.


Author(s):  
Y. Wen ◽  
D. Ogunyemi ◽  
A. S. Bouferguene ◽  
M. S. Altaf ◽  
A. Bouferguene ◽  
...  

Over the past few years, the interest towards off-site construction as part of project delivery for residential and commercial buildings has increased dramatically. In this regard, buildings are decomposed into panels that are manufactured using assembly lines smilar to what was developped to the automotive industry. However, because these serial production systems do not have buffers that could store intermediate products when a bottleneck occurs downstream, it often happens that these products are required to wait at the current workstation before production can resume. In this contribution, we develop algorithms allowing the waiting times to be extracted from timestamps that are collected from an RFID system reading the tags on panels as they enter each workstation.


Author(s):  
Alan S. Rudolph ◽  
Ronald R. Price

We have employed cryoelectron microscopy to visualize events that occur during the freeze-drying of artificial membranes by employing real time video capture techniques. Artificial membranes or liposomes which are spherical structures within internal aqueous space are stabilized by water which provides the driving force for spontaneous self-assembly of these structures. Previous assays of damage to these structures which are induced by freeze drying reveal that the two principal deleterious events that occur are 1) fusion of liposomes and 2) leakage of contents trapped within the liposome [1]. In the past the only way to access these events was to examine the liposomes following the dehydration event. This technique allows the event to be monitored in real time as the liposomes destabilize and as water is sublimed at cryo temperatures in the vacuum of the microscope. The method by which liposomes are compromised by freeze-drying are largely unknown. This technique has shown that cryo-protectants such as glycerol and carbohydrates are able to maintain liposomal structure throughout the drying process.


Author(s):  
Nurit Yaari

How does a theatrical tradition emerge in the fields of dramatic writing and artistic performance? Can a culture, in which theatre played no part in the past, create a theatrical tradition in real time—and how? What was the contribution of classical Greek drama to the evolution of Israeli theatre? How do political and social conditions affect the encounter between cultures—and what role do they play in creating a theatre with a distinctive identity? This book, the first of its kind, attempts to answer these and other questions, by examining the reception of classical Greek drama in the Israeli theatre over the last seventy years. It deals with dramatic and aesthetic issues while analysing translations, adaptations, new writing, mise-en-scène, and ‘post dramatic’ performances of classical Greek drama that were created and staged at key points of the development of Israeli culture amidst fateful political, social, and cultural events in the country’s history.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Bern�l ◽  
Rosana Schneider ◽  
�nio Machado

Over the past few decades, conventional agriculture has been facing serious crises caused by numerous factors, including poor soil management and the excessive application of pesticides. Thus, alternative production systems have been developed, including agroforestry systems, especially those that produce both energy and food. The objective of this study was to environmentally evaluate the culture of Aleurites fordii Hemls. (Tung) using the Life Cycle Assessment method with the SimaPro 7.3.2 software. The results revealed that in family farms that use less mechanization to harvest crops, the primary category of environmental impact was land use, which included the removal of animal and vegetable species and ecosystem changes. The full impact of this category was 1741.21 m2yr PDF (potentially disappeared fraction). Subsequently, prognostics were established for the reduction of such impacts, and we conclude that Tung has a high potential for agricultural installation with high responsibility to the environment. Keywords: Environmental factors, Aleurites fordii Hemls, Life Cycle Management, Tung.


2021 ◽  
pp. 147612702110120
Author(s):  
Siavash Alimadadi ◽  
Andrew Davies ◽  
Fredrik Tell

Research on the strategic organization of time often assumes that collective efforts are motivated by and oriented toward achieving desirable, although not necessarily well-defined, future states. In situations surrounded by uncertainty where work has to proceed urgently to avoid an impending disaster, however, temporal work is guided by engaging with both desirable and undesirable future outcomes. Drawing on a real-time, in-depth study of the inception of the Restoration and Renewal program of the Palace of Westminster, we investigate how organizational actors develop a strategy for an uncertain and highly contested future while safeguarding ongoing operations in the present and preserving the heritage of the past. Anticipation of undesirable future events played a crucial role in mobilizing collective efforts to move forward. We develop a model of future desirability in temporal work to identify how actors construct, link, and navigate interpretations of desirable and undesirable futures in their attempts to create a viable path of action. By conceptualizing temporal work based on the phenomenological quality of the future, we advance understanding of the strategic organization of time in pluralistic contexts characterized by uncertainty and urgency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1081
Author(s):  
Yoon Kyung Lee

Technologies that are ready-to-use and adaptable in real time to customers’ individual needs are influencing the supply chain of the future. This study proposes a supply chain framework for an innovative and sustainable real-time fashion system (RTFS) between enterprises, designers, and consumers in 3D clothing production systems, using information communication technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and virtual environments. In particular, the RTFS is targeted at customers actively involved in product purchasing, personalising, co-designing, and manufacturing planning. The fashion industry is oriented towards 3D services as a service model, owing to the automation and democratisation of product customisation and personalisation processes. Furthermore, AI offers referral services to prosumers or/and customers and companies, and proposes individual designs with perfect styles and measurements using new 3D computer aided design and AI-based product design technologies for fashion and design companies and customers. Consequently, 3D fashion products in the RTFS supply chain are entirely digital, saving time and money with sampling and tracking capabilities, secured, and trusted with personalised service delivery.


2006 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-133
Author(s):  
Sumita Raghuram

Outsourcing has grown enormously over the past few years, however, most of the attention so far has focused on the economics of the transaction, and much less on the human element involved in the transaction. In this paper I focus on call agents and my observations are based upon existing literature and my personal interviews. I suggest that it is challenging for them to identify with client organizations because of cultural differences, tacit contexts and lean communication media used to connect across vast geographical distances. The weak client identification may result in poor performance, inability to build trust with customers and long-term customer satisfaction. However, there are differences across individuals in their ability to deal with these challenges. Those who have a higher self-efficacy, higher pro-activeness and higher cultural intelligence may be more capable than others in their effectiveness. Likewise, organization initiated practices such as careful employee selection, intensive training and use of visible markers of identity may heighten client identification.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 4467-4484 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Revilla-Romero ◽  
J. Thielen ◽  
P. Salamon ◽  
T. De Groeve ◽  
G. R. Brakenridge

Abstract. One of the main challenges for global hydrological modelling is the limited availability of observational data for calibration and model verification. This is particularly the case for real-time applications. This problem could potentially be overcome if discharge measurements based on satellite data were sufficiently accurate to substitute for ground-based measurements. The aim of this study is to test the potentials and constraints of the remote sensing signal of the Global Flood Detection System for converting the flood detection signal into river discharge values. The study uses data for 322 river measurement locations in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Satellite discharge measurements were calibrated for these sites and a validation analysis with in situ discharge was performed. The locations with very good performance will be used in a future project where satellite discharge measurements are obtained on a daily basis to fill the gaps where real-time ground observations are not available. These include several international river locations in Africa: the Niger, Volta and Zambezi rivers. Analysis of the potential factors affecting the satellite signal was based on a classification decision tree (random forest) and showed that mean discharge, climatic region, land cover and upstream catchment area are the dominant variables which determine good or poor performance of the measure\\-ment sites. In general terms, higher skill scores were obtained for locations with one or more of the following characteristics: a river width higher than 1km; a large floodplain area and in flooded forest, a potential flooded area greater than 40%; sparse vegetation, croplands or grasslands and closed to open and open forest; leaf area index > 2; tropical climatic area; and without hydraulic infrastructures. Also, locations where river ice cover is seasonally present obtained higher skill scores. This work provides guidance on the best locations and limitations for estimating discharge values from these daily satellite signals.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujin Cao ◽  
Rubing Zhang ◽  
Chao Sun ◽  
Tao Cheng ◽  
Yuhua Liu ◽  
...  

Succinate is a valuable platform chemical for multiple applications. Confronted with the exhaustion of fossil energy resources, fermentative succinate production from renewable biomass to replace the traditional petrochemical process is receiving an increasing amount of attention. During the past few years, the succinate-producing process using microbial fermentation has been made commercially available by the joint efforts of researchers in different fields. In this review, recent attempts and experiences devoted to reduce the production cost of biobased succinate are summarized, including strain improvement, fermentation engineering, and downstream processing. The key limitations and challenges faced in current microbial production systems are also proposed.


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