Basis Of Operating Experience Research Articles

Analysis of environmentally friendly commercial aviation development ways

The goal of this study is to identify effective directions to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions of commercial aviation. The subject matter of this research is to analyze ways known from literature to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions of commercial aviation: continued evolution (which includes a lot of various methods for partial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions with decreasing in fuel consumption), «net zero» (which includes the following methods: offsets and sustainable aviation fuel utilization), electric hybrid power plants (parallel, series, series/parallel, turboelectric, and partial turboelectric), «zero carbon» (replacing kerosene combustion with hydrogen combustion in modified gas-turbine engines), «true zero» (transition to electric cruise motors with hydrogen fuel cells or electric batteries). The tasks to be solved are as follows: learning of the ways and detection of advantages and problems from the point of view of efficiency, technical complexity, economy, ecology, and implementation possibility in conditions of limited funding. The methods used are: search of the corresponding information sources in the Internet and their analysis on the basis of operational experience in the aviation branch. The following results were obtained: in terms of found information sources, data about existing greenhouse gas emissions and their predictive estimations, history of international agreement development as for greenhouse gas emission reduction were briefly stated; actuality of this problem with a view to mitigate the environmental impact was stressed; and the advantages and problems, which should be solved to implement each of the considered ways, were summarized. Conclusions. The scientific novelty of the results obtained is as follows: 1) information from numerous sources of literature that clarifies classification, the advantages, and the problems that should be overcome for each ways implementation, was summed up in the review article; 2) additional inherent disadvantages, which are integral to some of the ways (low efficiency, high technical complexity, schedule delays, cost overruns, funding instability, doubts in their reasonability from ecological considerations), are shown as a result of analysis and historical analogy. The direction of the following research in this field is outlined.

MILITARY GEOLOGY: AN AMERICAN TERM OF WORLD WAR I RE-DEFINED FOR THE BRITISH ARMY AT THE END OF WORLD WAR II

ABSTRACT The term ‘military geology’, translated from German after earlier use in French and Spanish publications, entered the English language via American publications from 1917 onwards, initially after the USA entered World War I. It was widely used in the USA and, in direct or indirect translation, in several European countries additional to Germany and Austria thereafter, but not in the United Kingdom—although military applications of geology had been perceived and utilized by the British Army for much of the previous century. However, the term was used and its scope defined on the basis of operational experience at a meeting in Brussels on 28 February to 1 March 1945 as World War II drew to an end, a meeting seemingly unique for the War in that it comprised five ‘British’ geologist officers of field rank: the South African Major Gordon Lyall Paver, English Major Frederick William Shotton, Australian-born but Canadian-educated English Major John Leonard Farrington, English Squadron Leader John Francis Kirkaldy, and Welsh Major David Ronald Arthur Ponsford. Their purpose was to review wartime use of ‘military geology’ in the British Army, and to make recommendations for a more efficient British military geological service in the future, especially in the Far East after the war in Europe entered its final phase. The meeting generated a four-page closely-typed unpublished ‘Memorandum: Military geology in the British services’ (now preserved in England in the Lapworth Museum at the University of Birmingham and in The National Archives, Kew, near London). This included a very brief summary of the British Army’s deployment of geologists within western Europe, East Africa, the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean region, and India. Those present brought together long experience from all these campaign areas except India (and the Far East in general). That deficiency was made good later in the year, on 7 December 1945, when Eric J. Bradshaw, Superintending Geologist of the Strategic Branch of the Geological Survey of India, completed an 81-page typed unpublished ‘Military geology: Memorandum of post-war policy’ (accessible in England at Birmingham, at Kew, and at the British Geological Survey, Keyworth). This with its 23 pages of appendices records details of wartime work in India and discussions held by the author there and in the United Kingdom following the end of hostilities in Europe on 8 May 1945. It re-defines the scope of ‘military geology’ for British armed forces in terms of water (resources, floods and drainage), stone and miscellaneous mineral resources, soils, engineering projects (reconnaissance, stability and excavations), terrain, ‘photo-geology’ and several miscellaneous applications. The memorandum proposed a grandiose organization of 151 geologist officers plus ancillary staff for British military geology postwar. That organizational scheme was not adopted—but by 1945 the term ‘military geology’ had clearly extended from American to significant British use.

Development, analysis and application of a predictive controller to a small-scale district heating system

District heating and cooling networks have great potential for energy saving, efficient thermal energy distribution and renewable energy source integration. Currently, heating systems are managed on the basis of operator experience or by using adaptive controllers, however these solutions are not suitable when there are remarkable variations in boundary conditions. In this context, Model Predictive Control is a promising strategy as it optimizes control based on the prediction of the future behavior of system dynamics and disturbances by means of simplified models. This paper presents the development of a predictive controller based on a novel Dynamic Programming optimization algorithm and aimed to supply the thermal energy to entire buildings within district heating networks. The controller is exploited to operate the district heating network of a school complex in a simulation environment (i.e. Model-in-the-Loop). Each branch connected to the network is optimized by a dedicated controller according to a multi-agent strategy. The performance of the innovative controller is compared to the results obtained by using a conventional PID controller. Conservative results show that, with the innovative controller, a reduction in fuel consumption of up to more than 7% is obtained together with up to 5 h of avoided failures of the indoor comfort constraints, depending on the season. Overall, the Model-based Predictive Controller is able to fulfill comfort requirements adequately while minimizing energy consumption. Moreover, the multi-agent approach allows these results to be extended to larger networks in future studies.

Development of a Model-based Predictive Controller for a heat distribution network

Research studies concerning heating and cooling systems have increased in recent years, pledging great potential for energy saving, efficient thermal energy distribution and renewable energy source integration. Currently, heating systems are managed on the basis of operator experience or by using adaptive controllers, however these solutions are not suitable when there are remarkable variations in boundary conditions (e.g. weather changes). In this context, Model Predictive Control is a promising strategy as it optimizes the control action based on the prediction of the future behavior of both system dynamics and disturbances by means of simplified models. This paper presents the control of a building heating system through a Model-in-the-Loop Model Predictive Control approach. A detailed model that replicates the behavior of the real system is controlled with a predictive controller based on a novel Dynamic Programming optimization algorithm implemented in Matlab®. The performance of the innovative controller is compared to the results obtained with a PID controller. Overall, the Model Predictive Control strategy is able to fulfill comfort requirements properly while minimizing energy consumption.

Servicing and Repair of High-Performance Equipment

Smooth transition from maintenance of high-performance equipment on the basis of time (after a fixed number of runs or cycles) to maintenance in terms of its condition is considered. A proposal is made for increasing the period between maintenance sessions and also decreasing the time and cost of each session. Approaches have been developed at Irkutsk Aviation Plant for the formulation and implementation of maintenance protocols on the basis of operational experience with the specific equipment.

Production of Pitch from Coal Tar Obtained by Light Pyrolysis

Means of improving the electrode pitch in processing coal tar obtained by light pyrolysis have been developed on the basis of operational experience at Makeevka Coke Plant.

Operational Experience of the Superconducting Ring Cyclotron at RI Beam Factory (RIBF) and Upgrade Plans for RIBF Accelerators

The RIKEN Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory (RIBF) has successfully operated since the first beam was produced at the end of 2006 (more than six years). The aim of this project is to access the unexplored regions on the nuclear chart, those far from β-stability. Continuous effort over the past six years has improved the performance of the RIBF accelerator complex. The world's first superconducting ring cyclotron (SRC) is the final booster in the RIBF accelerator complex; it is able to accelerate heavy ions of any element to a speed of approximately 70% of the speed of light. The ring cyclotron consists of six major superconducting sector magnets, each with a maximum field of 3.8 T. The total stored energy is 240 MJ. The overall size of the cyclotron is 19 m in diameter and 8 m in height with a weight of 8300 tons. Reliable standby power supply systems and accurate control systems are necessary for long-term, stable operation of the cryogenic cooling system. For these purposes, a 6.5-MW co-generation system was installed, and the control system for the cryogenic cooling system was improved on the basis of operational experience. Despite our efforts to achieve long-term, stable operation, we have had some problems such as failure of the He compressors and refrigerators and coil discharge. We learned that any small component could easily disrupt the entire cooling system. The two biggest problems were liquid He leakage thorough a crack in a feedthrough into the thermal insulation vacuum on November 8th, 2005 and oil contamination in the He refrigerator found in February of 2008. Overcoming such big problems has resulted in the present, stable operation of the cryogenic cooling system of the SRC. One option for upgrading the RIBF accelerator includes the construction of another SRC (SRC2) to skip the charge strippers (which decrease the beam intensity by approximately one fifth). Our study shows that the design of the sector magnets of the SRC2 is not much more difficult than that of the first SRC.

Operational experience with a toxic-vapor collection and exhaust system in the tar-distillation department

Atmospheric emissions may be reduced on the basis of operational experience with a toxic-vapor collection and exhaust system.

Analysis and Quantification of Common-Cause Failures on the Basis of Operating Experience

Electricite de France has conducted a probabilistic safety study on one of its 1300-MW(electric) reactors since the beginning of 1986. Practically all the reliability data used in this study are de...

Studies on MSF desalination — process design, construction and startup of a prototype MSF plant in India

A Desalination Experimental Facility (DEF) comprising multistage flash (MSF) unit of capacity 15 cubic meter/day with three stages had earlier been commissioned and operated for about two years to study the basic parameters of the MSF process. On the basis of operational experience and the data collected from experiments and the information available in literature a 33 stage 425 cubic meter/day MSF plant was designed, fabricated, installed and the same is under commissioning. This prototype plant was first such unit in India. This paper gives the considerations for the design of 425 cubic meter/day prototype MSF plant and the factors to be considered for scale-up to commercial size plants. The problems experienced during the module fabrication, erection and initial startup of the plant are highlighted.