Framework Of Research Program Research Articles

JRC in Euratom Research and Training Programme − 2014–2020

The Euratom Research and Training Programme 2014–2018 and its extension 2019–2020 (the Euratom Programme) is implemented through direct actions in fission − i.e. research performed by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), and through indirect actions in fission– i.e. via competitive calls for proposals, and in fusion − i.e. through a comprehensive named-beneficiary co-fund action managed by the Commission's Directorate-General for Research & Innovation (RTD). The general objective of the Programme is “to pursue nuclear research and training activities with an emphasis on the continuous improvement of nuclear safety, security and radiation protection, in particular to potentially contribute to the long-term decarbonisation of the energy system in a safe, efficient and secure way.” The Programme is an integral part of Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The direct actions implemented by the JRC constitute an important part of the Euratom Programme and pursue specific objectives covering: nuclear safety, radioactive waste management, decommissioning, emergency preparedness; nuclear security, safeguards and non-proliferation; standardisation; knowledge management; education and training; and support to the policy of the Union on these fields. The JRC multi-annual work programme for nuclear activities fully reflects the aforementioned objectives. It is structured in about 20 projects, and allocates 48% of its resources to nuclear safety, waste management, decommissioning and emergency preparedness, 33% to nuclear security, safeguards and non-proliferation, 12% to reference standards, nuclear science and non-energy applications and 7% to education, training and knowledge management. To ensure that direct actions are in line with and complement the research and training needs of Member States, JRC is continuously interacting with the main research and scientific institutions in the EU, and actively participating in several technological platforms and associations. JRC also participates as part of the consortia in indirect actions, which allows JRC scientist to engage in top level scientific research, and yields maintaining and further developing JRC's scientific excellence. At the same time, the members of the consortia can have access to unique research infrastructure. The participation of JRC in indirect actions can be improved by exploiting synergies inside the Euratom Programme, and also with the future Horizon Europe Framework Programme. In preparation of the next Euratom Programme 2021–2025, two pilot projects on knowledge management and on open access to JRC research infrastructure will explore and test this improved involvement of JRC in indirect actions. The paper highlights some of the achievements of recent JRC direct actions with a focus on the interaction with EU MS research organisations, as well as some of the most important elements of the Commission Proposal for the next (2021–2025) Euratom Programme, with a focus on the new positioning of the JRC as regards its participation in indirect actions.

Demonstration tests of a 320-kV-class DC superconducting cable for transmission of high powers

Best Paths, the largest research project in the field of energy financed under the European Union's 7th Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration, explored new avenues for delivering reliable power in Europe through the large-scale integration of renewable energy. The project ended in September 2018, having united 38 partners from 11 countries around five large-scale demonstrations to validate the technical feasibility, costs, impacts and benefits of various grid technologies [1]. One of these five demonstration areas focused on validating high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) superconducting links capable of transporting large amounts of electricity — on the multi-gigawatt scale [2].

European Year of Cultural Heritage: History, Purpose and Strategic Objectives

Cultural heritage is a strategic resource based on the democratic, ethical, aesthetic and ecological values of society. The European Year of Cultural Heritage emphasized the cultural heritage issues at the level of European structures, as well as at the national and regional levels. An important task of the strategic approach was the development of long-term models of cultural heritage policy and strengthening its role in sustainable development, analysis of its economic and social impact, as well as the role of scientific research on cultural heritage. The European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Framework Program from 2014 to 2020 provides for an investment of 500 million euros in cultural heritage.The aim of the article is to analyze the formation and implementation in 2018 of the European Year of Cultural Heritage as a strategic tool for sustainable development to preserve the cultural heritage of Europe and the formation of European identity in times of large migration waves. The article analyzed the goals and strategic objectives of the Year, considered the initiatives of European governmental and non-governmental organizations on this issue. It is noted that in practice it was the Year of the cultural heritage of the European Union rather than the Year of cultural heritage of the whole Europe.The theoretical and methodological basis of the article are the documents of European institutions on this issue, as well as researches on cultural heritage within the framework of the preparation and implementation of the EYCH, followed by long-term strategy.

The European Commission’s approach to supporting environmental health research

S08: Setting the European Environment and Health Research Agenda, 2020-2030: the HERA project, Room 217, Floor 2, August 26, 2019, 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM Research on environment and health has been supported by the European Union’s Framework Programmes of Research and Innovation at least for 25 years. Until today, over 400 multi-partner projects have been funded, which have received over €1.2 billion from the Framework Programmes. My presentation will give a short overview of the major achievements of activities supported in the past 20 years and the principal policy drivers behind. I will present the priorities for the three final years of Horizon 2020 (the current Framework Programme for Research and Innovation), especially the recent and planned calls for proposals. In addition, I will highlight some of the potential drivers and programmes for research to be undertaken under the environment and health-related activities planned under the European Commission’s proposal for Horizon Europe – the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, to run from 2021 until 2027.

Precast TRC sandwich panels for energy retrofitting of existing residential buildings: full-scale testing and modelling

In the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the European Commission financed the project EASEE (2012–2016), which was aimed at developing facade solutions for the energy retrofitting of multi-storey multi-owners existing residential buildings, built in an historical period in which no specific attention was paid to the energy issue. For the outer envelope, the consortium proposed textile reinforced concrete precast sandwich panels. The high durability, high aesthetic potential, low impact on occupant life during installation, and increase in impact resistance make this solution competitive with the exterior insulation and finishing system, now the most widespread energy retrofitting method adopted on existing buildings. Within the project, the panel has been mechanically investigated at multiple scales, and finally applied on some demo-buildings. This paper presents the investigation of the bending behavior of full-size panels up to failure when tested according to four-point bending scheme, focusing the attention on the effects of the production procedure and panel details on the structural behavior. The capability of expanded polystyrene in transferring shear stresses to the external TRC layers—already exhibited by specimens at lab-scale—is here verified on full-size elements. In addition, a numerical model—already validated for lab-scale sandwich beams—is here applied in order to check its reliability for the design of full-scale panel.

Study of the Binder Influence on Expansion/Contraction Behavior of Si Alloy-Based Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries (LIBs)

The potential of silicon-based materials as an anode in lithium-ion batteries has attracted considerable attention due to high specific capacity (mAh/g) and energy (Wh/kg). However, practical implementation of anode with high Si content in Li-ion cells remains still challenging because of a remarkable volume change and subsequent disintegration of the electrodes during cycling. An appropriate polymer binder is believed to be a viable solution to maintain the mechanical stability of silicon-based anodes [1-3]. To understand the mechanical issues in commercially more relevant Si alloy-based electrodes (> 3 mAh cm-2), the real-time changes in volume during cycling need to be monitored. Herein, we study the expansion and contraction behavior of Si alloy-containing anodes with three binders, such as lithium poly(acrylic acid) (LiPAA), poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVdF), and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), which was investigated via in situ electrochemical dilatometry, cross sectional SEM, and optical microscopy. Our results demonstrate that, of those tested, electrodes made of LiPAA expands the greatest during lithiation, but also exhibits the highest cyclability and reversibility. We tentatively attribute this result to the strength of the interaction between binder and silicon alloy particles (via hydrogen bonding) dominating the electrode properties, rather than the stiffness of binders (normally determined by Young’s modulus). It was observed that in the 1st cycle Si particle expansion and contraction resulted in an increase in electrode porosity, which buffered against subsequent (de)lithiation volume changes. This was also verified semi-quantitatively via cross sectional SEM analysis using the AvisoTM. Development of an in situ optical microscopy (OM) technique was also undertaken, and the best performing LiPAA system (with the largest volume changes) was selected for validation experiments. Our approach not only enabled measurement of electrode thickness changes during cycling, but also a direct, real-time visualization of the changes particles underwent. It should be noted that dilatometry is an important method for the facile evaluation of silicon alloy anodes with a range of binders, and will be a useful tool during the development of new binder systems with improved properties. Moreover, in situ optical microscopy is a novel technique, enabling real-time visualization of changes in the anode, cathode, and separator. While some challenges, such as a smooth cross-sectioning, have yet to be addressed, these proof-of-concept experiments provide confirmation of the validity of this technique. Acknowledgment This work has been financially supported by the European Union within the H2020 Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration (H2020-GV-2014) under grant agreement n° 653531 (FIVEVB) and by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Israeli Ministry of Science, Technology and Space (MOST) within the project LiMetalFreeSSiBat. The authors acknowledge 3M company for providing the silicon alloy materials.

Cell-Based Gene Therapy Using the Sleeping Beauty Transposon System Reduces Neovascularisation in Rats

Background: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive retinal disorder, characterised by imbalanced pro- and anti-angiogenic signals, leading vision loss. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ex vivo cell-based gene therapy on primary cells with stable expression of human pigment epithelium derived factor (PEDF) release using the non-viral Sleeping Beauty (SB100X) transposon system delivered by miniplasmids free of antibiotic resistance markers (pFAR4). Methods: Rat retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPEs) and iris pigment epithelial cells (IPEs) were co-transfected with pFAR4-ITRs CMV PEDF BGH and pFAR4-CMV-SB100X-SV40 plasmids. Laser-induced choroidal neovascularization (CNV) was performed in rats and transfected primary cells (tRPE and tIPE) were injected into the subretinal space. The leakage and CNV areas, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), PEDF protein expression, metalloproteinase 2 and 9 (MMP-2/9) and microglial/macrophage markers were measured and evaluated. Findings: The animals injected with tRPE/IPE cells significantly showed a reduction in the leakage area at 14 days while at 7 days only tIPE cells showed a significant reduction. The CNV area at 7 days was reduced with tRPE/IPE cells. There was a significant increase in PEDF and PEDF/VEGF ratio with tRPE cells along with a reduction in the MMP-2 activity. Activated microglial fluorescence intensity increased in all groups analyzed. Interpretation: Our data demonstrate that a single administration of SB100X-engineered RPE/IPE cells release enough hPEDF to favour an anti-angiogenic environment that ultimately reduces CNV suggest that ex vivo non-viral gene therapy could be an effective and safe therapeutic option for angiogenic retinal diseases. Funding: This work was supported by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration, grant agreement no. 305134 and Fundacion Jesus Gangoiti Barrera. LGG received a predoctoral grant from the Asociacion de Amigos de la Universidad de Navarra. Declaration of Interest: A. Garcia-Layana is consultant in Thea, Allergan, Bayer, Novartis and Roche Laboratories. Z. Izsvak and Z. Ivics are co-inventors on several patents on Sleeping Beauty transposon technology. Ethical Approval: The study was performed according to the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Resolution on the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research and approved by the Ethics Committee for Animal Research of the University of Navarra (protocol approval number 023-13).

Introducing the Social Robot MARIO to People Living with Dementia in Long Term Residential Care: Reflections

The research leading to these findings have received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020-the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2014–2020) under Grant Agreement 643808 Project MARIO ‘Managing active and healthy aging with use of caring service robots’.

Fluid structure interactions modelling in vented lean deflagrations

The standard 20 ft ISO containers are studied both experimentally and numerically with model obstacles to ascertain the peak overpressures generated in case of an accidental fast deflagrations. Apart from overpressure its often important to know the maximum deflections of the enclosures to examine the structural integrity. The container walls are not rigid; they not only contribute through acoustic response to the pressure waves but also through structural resonance response to the generated overpressures, to capture these effects its necessary to do the Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) or in simple terms the coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite element analysis (FE) simulations. Alternatively, the structural response can be coupled to CFD simulation in either one-way or two-way interactions to reduce the associated computation efforts. Numerical simulations have been conducted with a pseudo two-way coupled CFD & FSI, to aid our understanding of the combination of various factor contributing for the generation of overpressures using an in-house solver developed based on open source CFD code OpenFOAM named as HyFOAM. The CFD solver solves the compressible Navier-stokes equations along with the spring-mass-damper system's single degree of freedom motion equation for coupled fluid structure interactions. The turbulent flame deflagrations are modelled using the flame area combustion model, the necessary modification are incorporated to governing equations to include the dominant flame instabilities present during the vented deflagration process. For lean hydrogen mixtures the Lewis number effects are important hence suitable modelling improvements are added to the combustion model. The numerical results are validated against the recent experiments conducted at Gexcon, Norway as part of the HySEA project supported by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (FCHJU) under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. Numerical predictions of CFD and FSI coupled, are assessed against the experimental results to study the contributing factors affecting the generated overpressure with in the ISO containers in view to overall improve the numerical predictions.

The state of the responsible research and innovation programme

Purpose Many of the ethical issues of additive manufacturing (AM) are not well known or understood, and there remains a policy vacuum that needs to be addressed. This paper aims to describe an approach that has been applied successfully to other emerging technologies, referred to as the responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework programme. A case is then made for the application of this approach in the AM industry with an illustration of how it might be used. Design/methodology/approach The research uses an RRI approach referred to as AREA, an acronym for Anticipate, Reflect, Engage and Act, to assess the ethical implications of AM. For the anticipation phase, horizon scanning was done to explore the ethical issues of AM based on extant literature, while reflective analysis was carried out all through the work to reflect on the data being collected and the research process. The engage phase involved interviews with five participants from small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in 3D printing. Findings The findings indicate that although AM appears to pose a threat to intellectual property rights, many in the industry do not care about this issue. As AM becomes mainstream, intellectual property will likely become a big problem. Also, very little is known about the health impacts of AM. This study shows that AM can be hazardous. Research limitations/implications Only users at SME level were sampled. Other researchers might test the usefulness of AREA at the enterprise level. Practical implications The research demonstrates how the AREA framework may be useful in information systems and social science research by enabling a more anticipatory and reflective research process. Originality/value The paper responds to the need for a novel approach to identifying ethical issues of AM.

Considering expert takeovers in citizen involvement processes

ABSTRACTWhile citizen involvement has become an increasingly accepted and popular procedure in both the theory and practice of responsible research and innovation (RRI), there remains a curious dilemma in that the accomplishment of involvement does not necessarily ensure sought responsibility towards citizens. Instead, experts may easily take over the process of involvement and change the outcomes in quite distinct directions, as is empirically shown in this article, while still claiming to draw legitimacy from citizens. To counteract such unwanted takeovers, citizen contributions should be considered as a point of reference throughout the subsequent activities resulting from the involvement. Alternatively, the citizen contributions should simply be used as they were articulated without any significant expert translation. The article draws on empirical insights from an extensive case study in which citizens in 12 European countries articulated visions on sustainable futures, which experts then formulated to priorities for the European Union's Horizon 2020 framework programme for research and innovation.

THE NINTH FORUM OF THE EUROPEAN & DEVELOPING COUNTRIES CLINICAL TRIALS PARTNERSHIP

THE NINTH FORUM OF THE EUROPEAN & DEVELOPING COUNTRIES CLINICAL TRIALS PARTNERSHIP

What drives the capacity to integrate Industry 4.0 technologies? Evidence from European R&D projects

ABSTRACTIndustry 4.0 is a word that identifies innovative technologies, processes and products, typical of a Fourth Industrial Revolution characterised by a massive and pervasive use of interdependent digital technologies and the rise of cyber-physical spaces or smart factories. European Member States are committed to adapting their innovation systems in order to be able to benefit from Industry 4.0 and the European Commission is also facing the challenge of putting less advanced regions in a position to do so. However, little is known about the drivers of the capacity to compete in the domain of Industry 4.0 by integrating different enabling technologies at the regional level. On the basis of data on regional participation in the 7th European Framework Programme for research and technological development, we investigate the factors underlying the capacity to compete by integrating Industry 4.0 enabling technologies. The evidence shows that EU funding, centrality in research networks and interregional cooperation all play a significant role in technology integration, and these results have important policy implications.

Structural Transformation to Attain Responsible BIOSciences (STARBIOS2): Protocol for a Horizon 2020 Funded European Multicenter Project to Promote Responsible Research and Innovation.

BackgroundPromoting Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) is a major strategy of the “Science with and for Society” work program of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. RRI aims to achieve a better alignment of research and innovation with the values, needs, and expectations of society. The RRI strategy includes the “keys” of public engagement, open access, gender, ethics, and science education. The Structural Transformation to Attain Responsible BIOSciences (STARBIOS2) project promotes RRI in 6 European research institutions and universities from Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Poland, and the United Kingdom, in partnership with a further 6 institutions from Brazil, Denmark, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, and the United States.ObjectiveThe project aims to attain RRI structural change in 6 European institutions by implementing action plans (APs) and developing APs for 3 non-European institutions active in the field of biosciences; use the implementation of APs as a learning process with a view to developing a set of guidelines on the implementation of RRI; and develop a sustainable model for RRI in biosciences.MethodsThe project comprises interrelated research and implementation designed to achieve the aforementioned specific objectives. The project is organized into 6 core work packages and 5 supporting work packages. The core work packages deal with the implementation of institutional APs in 6 European institutions based on the structural change activation model. The supporting work packages include technical assistance, learning process on RRI-oriented structural change, monitoring and assessment, communication and dissemination, and project management.ResultsThe project is funded by Horizon 2020 and will run for 4 years (May 2016-April 2020). As of June 2018, the initial phase has been completed. The participating institutions have developed and approved APs and commenced their implementation. An observation tool has been launched by the Technical Assistance Team to collect information from the implementation of APs; the Evaluation & Assessment team has started monitoring the advancement of the project. As part of the communication and dissemination strategy, a project website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account have been launched and are updated periodically. The International Scientific Advisory Committee has been formed to advise on the reporting and dissemination of the project’s results.ConclusionsIn the short term, we anticipate that the project will have a considerable impact on the organizational processes and structures, improving the RRI uptake in the participating institutions. In the medium term, we expect to make RRI-oriented organizational change scalable across Europe by developing guidelines on RRI implementation and an RRI model in biosciences. In the long term, we expect that the project would help increase the ability of research institutions to make discoveries and innovations in better alignment with societal needs and values.International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/11745

Modeling brain dynamics after tumor resection using The Virtual Brain

Modeling brain dynamics after tumor resection using The Virtual Brain

Frequency and state-dependent effects of VTA electrical stimulation on whole brain fMRI activity

Event Abstract Back to Event Frequency and state-dependent effects of VTA electrical stimulation on whole brain fMRI activity Sjoerd Murris1*, John Arsenault1, 2 and Wim Vanduffel1, 2, 3 1 Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Belgium 2 Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, United States 3 Harvard Medical School, United States The Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) and neighbouring Substantia Nigra are integral structures at the heart of the dopamine system, underlying adaptive behaviour. Endogenous firing rates of dopamine cells in the VTA vary from fast phasic bursts to slow tonic activity, possibly supporting diverse cognitive functionss1. Artificial perturbations of the VTA through electrical and optogenetic stimulation methods generate different and sometimes even contrasting behavioural outcomes depending on stimulation parameters such as frequency, amplitude and pulse width2–4. Here we investigate the brain-wide functional effects of electrical stimulation frequency (10, 20, 50 and 100 Hz) of the VTA of two rhesus macaques implanted with chronic electrodes5. We stimulated both animals while measuring brain-wide fMRI signal changes during a passive fixation task or under anaesthesia. In the awake state, activity in many cortical and subcortical structures followed an inverted u-shape as a function of stimulation frequency, with highest evoked activity when stimulating at 20 and 50 Hz and less activity at 10 and 100 Hz. In addition, we tested whether the state of the animals had an effect on stimulation-induced network activity by performing the same experiment under ketamine-induced anaesthesia. Under anaesthesia, the hemodynamic responses in connected brain areas were slightly positive at 10Hz stimulation, but became negative and decreased linearly as a function of higher stimulation frequencies. In conclusion, brain wide network effects induced by electrical stimulation of the VTA are to a large degree frequency and state-dependent. The remarkably different stimulation-induced amplitudes and patterns of fMRI activity may explain varying and even opposing behavioural effects observed using Deep Brain Stimulation in patients. In addition, they call for a careful design and interpretation of electrical microstimulation procedures in fundamental research. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Acknowledgements This work received funding from KU Leuven C14/17/109; Hercules II funds; Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek-Vlaanderen G0D5817N, G090714N and Odysseus G0007.12; and the European Union's Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under Grant Agreement No 785907 (Human Brain Project SGA2).

SA82 - HLA-DQB1 6672G>C INFLUENCES THE RISK OF CLOZAPINE-INDUCED AGRANULOCYTOSIS IN INDIVIDUALS OF EUROPEAN ANCESTRY

Background The atypical antipsychotic drug clozapine is the only effective drug for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, but also bears the risk of inducing severe adverse drug responses including neutropenia and agranulocytosis. Agranulocytosis and neutropenia occurs in about 1% and 3% of treated individuals. The aetiology is largely unknown, but there is evidence for contributing genetic factors. Identifying biomarkers could decrease blood monitoring effort and enable a more widespread use of clozapine. Several studies identified HLA variants (e.g. Athanasiou et al. 2011) and especially a polymorphism located in HLA-DBQ1 (6672 G>C, rs113332494) as associated with clozapine-induced agranulocytosis or neutropenia. Our study was conducted to replicate previous findings on HLA-DBQ1 6672 G>C. Methods The sample was comprised of individuals from sites of Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK and was collected in the course of the CRESTAR project, which aimed at the development of pharmacogenetic biomarkers for schizophrenia. We analysed the risk allele distribution of rs113332494 in individuals of different ethnic background including 180 clozapine-induced neutropenia cases of which 61 developed agranulocytosis and 1396 controls treated with clozapine but not affected by this severe adverse drug response. We also performed association analyses in subsamples using logistic regression with an additive model seeking replication of previous findings on rs113332494. This CRESTAR project was funded by the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement #279227. Results rs113332494 was associated with neutropenia (OR=6.34, P=2.13E-06) and agranulocytosis (OR=9.59, P=1.11E-05) in individuals of European ancestry. The association signal was mainly driven by agranulocytosis cases. Discussion Our study gives further evidence of an implication of HLA-DQB1 in agranulocytosis. We were able to replicate previous findings. This implicates immune function as contributing process to this severe adverse drug response.

Kierunki polityki UE w zakresie opieki zdrowotnej związanej ze starzeniem się społeczeństwa

EU health care policy objectives in connection with the society growing olderEuropean Union’s society is aging, which generates the increase in needs regarding health care and its financial repercussions. In order to meet economic needs increased by ageing population, the Health for Growth Programme was commenced. Moreover Horizon 2020, the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, will focus on, amongst societal challenges, health, demographic change and well-being. One of the other milestones for European health care was entering into force the Directive on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare.

Numerical modelling of vented lean hydrogen deflagations in an ISO container

Hydrogen process equipment are often housed in 20-foot or 40-foot container either be at refueling stations or at the portable standalone power generation units. Shipping Container provide an easy to install, cost effective, all weather protective containment. Hydrogen has unique physical properties, it can quickly form an ignitable cloud for any accidental release or leakages in air, due to its wide flammability limits. Identifying the hazards associated with these kind of container applications are very crucial for design and safe operation of the container hydrogen installations. Recently both numerical studies and experiment have been performed to ascertain the level of hazards and its possible mitigation methods for hydrogen applications. This paper presents the numerical modelling and the simulations performed using the HyFOAM CFD solver for vented deflagrations processes. HyFOAM solver is developed in-house using the opensource CFD toolkit OpenFOAM libraries. The turbulent flame deflagrations are modelled using the flame wrinkling combustion model. This combustion model is further improved to account for flame instabilities dominant role in vented lean hydrogen-air mixtures deflagrations. The 20-foot ISO containers of dimensions 20′ × 8′ × 8′.6″ filled with homogeneous mixture of hydrogen-air at different concentration, with and without model obstacles are considered for numerical simulations. The numerical predictions are first validated against the recent experiments carried out by Gexcon as part of the HySEA project supported by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU) under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The effects of congestion within the containers on the generated overpressures are investigated. The preliminary CFD predictions indicated that the container walls deflections are having considerable effect on the trends of generated overpressures, especially the peak negative pressure generated within the container is overestimated. Hence to account for the container wall deflections, the fluid structure interactions (FSI) are also included in the numerical modelling. The final numerical predictions are presented with and without the FSI. The FSI modelling considerably improved the numerical prediction and resulted in better match of overpressure trends with the experimental results.

Editorial

Editorial