This book addresses the concepts of unstable flow solutions, convective instability and absolute instability, with reference to simple (or toy) mathematical models, which are mathematically simple despite their purely abstract character. Within this paradigm, the book introduces the basic mathematical tools, Fourier transform, normal modes, wavepackets and their dynamics, before reviewing the fundamental ideas behind the mathematical modelling of fluid flow and heat transfer in porous media. The author goes on to discuss the fundamentals of the Rayleigh-Benard instability and other thermal instabilities of convective flows in porous media, and then analyses various examples of transition from convective to absolute instability in detail, with an emphasis on the formulation, deduction of the dispersion relation and study of the numerical data regarding the threshold of absolute instability. The clear descriptions of the analytical and numerical methods needed to obtain these parametric threshold data enable readers to apply them in different or more general cases. This book is of interest to postgraduates and researchers in mechanical and thermal engineering, civil engineering, geophysics, applied mathematics, fluid mechanics, and energy technology.

Decommissioning nuclear facilities is a relatively new field, which has developed rapidly in the last ten years. It involves materials that may be highly radioactive and therefore require sophisticated methods of containment and remote handling. The wastes arising from decommissioning are hazardous and have to be stored or disposed of safely in order to protect the environment and future generations. Nuclear decommissioning work must be carried out to the highest possible standards to protect workers, the general public and the environment. This book describes the techniques used for dismantling redundant nuclear facilities, the safe storage of radioactive wastes and the restoration of nuclear licensed sites.
* Describes the techniques used for dismantling nuclear facilities, safe storage of radioactive wastes, and the restoration of nuclear licensed facilities.
* Provides the reader with decommissioning experience accumulated over 15 years by UKAEA.
* Contains valuable information to personnel new to decommissioning and waste management.

This book covers terahertz antenna technology for imaging and sensing, along with its various applications. The authors discuss the use of terahertz frequency and photoconductive antenna technology for imaging applications, such as biological and bio-medical applications, non-destructive inspection of fabrics and plastics, analysis of hydration levels or detecting the presence of metallic components in samples, and detecting a variety of materials with unique spectral fingerprints in the terahertz frequency range, such as different types of explosives or several compounds used in the fabrication of medicines. Provides a comprehensive review of terahertz source and detector for imaging and sensing; Discusses photoconductive antenna technology for imaging and sensing; Presents modalities for improving the photoconductive dipole antenna performance for imaging and sensing; Explores applications in tomographic imaging, art conservation and the pharmaceutical and aerospace industries.

This title deals exclusively with theory and practice of gas well testing, pressure transient analysis techniques, and analytical methods required to interpret well behavior in a given reservoir and evaluate reservoir quality, simulation efforts, and forecast producing capacity. A highly practical edition, this book is written for graduate students, reservoir/simulation engineers, technologists, geologists, geophysicists, and technical managers. The author draws from his extensive experience in reservoir/simulation, well testing, PVT analysis basics, and production operations from around the world and provides the reader with a thorough understanding of gas well test analysis basics. The main emphasis is on practical field application, where over 100 field examples are resented to illustrate basic methods for analysis. Simple solutions to the diffusivity equation are discussed and their physical meanings examined. Each chapter focuses in how to use the information gained in well testing to make engineering and economic decisions, and an overview of the current research models and their equations are discussed in relation to gas wells, homogenous, heterogeneous, naturally and hydraulically fractured reservoirs.
Handy, portable reference with thousands of equations and procedures.
There is currently no other reference or handbook on the market that focuses only on gas well testing.
Offers "one stop shopping" for the drilling and reservoir engineer on gas well testing issues.

The book provides the most up-to-date information on testing and development of hydroprocessing catalysts with the aim to improve performance of the conventional and modified catalysts as well as to develop novel catalytic formulations. Besides diverse chemical composition, special attention is devoted to pore size and pore volume distribution of the catalysts. Properties of the catalysts are discussed in terms of their suitability for upgrading heavy feeds. For this purpose atmospheric residue was chosen as the base for defining other heavy feeds which comprise vacuum gas oil, deasphalted oil and vacuum residues in addition to topped heavy crude and bitumen. Attention is paid to deactivation with the aim to extent catalyst life during the operation. Into consideration is taken the loss of activity due to fouling, metal deposition, coke formed as the result of chemical reaction and poisoning by nitrogen bases. Mathematical models were reviewed focussing on those which can simulate performance of the commercial operations. Configurations of hydroprocessing reactors were compared in terms of their capability to upgrade various heavy feeds providing that a suitable catalyst was selected. Strategies for regeneration, utilization and disposal of spent hydroprocesing catalysts were evaluated. Potential of the non-conventional hydroprocessing involving soluble/dispersed catalysts and biocatalysts in comparison with conventional methods were assessed to identify issues which prevent commercial utilization of the former. A separate chapter is devoted to catalytic dewaxing because the structure of dewaxing catalysts is rather different than that of hydroprocessing catalysts, i.e., the objective of catalytic dewaxing is different than that of the conventional hydroprocessing, The relevant information in the scientific literature is complemented with the Patent literature covering the development of catalysts and novel reactor configurations.
Separate chapter was added to distinguish upgrading capabilities of the residues catalytic cracking processes from those employing hydroprocessing. Upper limits on the content of carbon residue and metals in the feeds which can still be upgraded by the former processes differ markedly from those in the feeds which can be upgraded by hydroprocessing. It is necessary that the costs of modifications of catalytic cracking processes to accommodate heavier feeds are compared with that of hydroprocessing methods.
Objective of the short chapter on upgrading by carbon rejecting processes was to identify limits of contaminants in heavy feeds beyond which catalytic upgrading via hydroprocessing becomes uneconomical because of the costs of catalyst inventory and that of reactors and equipment.
- Comprehensive and most recent information on hydroprocessing catalysts for upgrading heavy petroleum feeds.
- Compares conventional, modified and novel catalysts for upgrading a wide range of heavy petroleum feeds.
- Comparison of conventional with non-conventional hydroprocessing, the latter involving soluble/dispersed catalysts and biocatalysts.
- Development and comparison of mathematical models
to simulate performance of catalytic reactors including most problematic feeds.
- Residues upgrading by catalytic cracking in comparison to hydroprocessing.

This book gathers the proceedings of the Multidisciplinary International Conference of Research Applied to Defense and Security (MICRADS), held at the Eloy Alfaro Military Academy (ESMIL) in Quito, Ecuador, on May 13-15,2020. It covers a broad range of topics in systems, communication, and defense; strategy and political-administrative vision in defense; and engineering and technologies applied to defense. Given its scope, it offers a valuable resource for practitioners, researchers, and students alike.

This book systematically reviews the history of lead-free piezoelectric materials, including the latest research. It also addresses a number of important issues, such as new types of materials prepared in a multitude of sizes, structural and physical properties, and potential applications for high-performance devices. Further, it examines in detail the state of the art in lead-free piezoelectric materials, focusing on the pathways to modify different structures and achieve enhanced physical properties and new functional behavior. Lastly, it discusses the prospects for potential future developments in lead-free piezoelectric materials across disciplines and for multifunctional applications. Given its breadth of coverage, the book offers a comprehensive resource for graduate students, academic researchers, development scientists, materials producers, device designers and applications engineers who are working on or are interested in advanced lead-free piezoelectric materials.

This book provides a comprehensive review of functional nanomaterials for electrochemical applications, presenting interesting examples of nanomaterials with different dimensions and their applications in electrochemical energy storage. It also discusses the synthesis of functional nanomaterials, including quantum dots; one-dimensional, two-dimensional and three-dimensional nanostructures; and advanced nanocomposites. Highlighting recent advances in current electrochemical energy storage hotpots: lithium batteries, lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, other metal-ion batteries, halogen ion batteries, and metal-gas batteries, this book will appeal to readers in the various fields of chemistry, material science and engineering.

This peer-reviewed book explores the technologies driving broadband internet connectivity in the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0). It particularly focuses on potential solutions to introduce these technologies in emerging markets and rural areas, regions that typically form part of the digital divide and often have under-developed telecommunications infrastructures, a lack of skilled workers, and geographical restrictions that limit broadband connectivity. Research shows that ubiquitous internet access boosts socio-economic growth through innovations in science and technology, with the common goal of bringing positive change to the lives of individuals. Fifth-generation (5G) networks based on millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequency information transfer have the potential to provide future-proof, affordable and sustainable broadband connectivity in areas where previous-generation mobile networks were unable to do so. This book discusses the principles of various technologies that enable electronic circuits to operate at mm-wave frequencies. It examines the importance of identifying, describing, and analyzing technology from a purely technological standpoint, but also acknowledges and investigates the challenges and limitations of introducing such technologies in emerging markets. Presenting recent research, the book spearheads participation in Industry 4.0 in these areas.

This book describes an original improvement in power quality of photovoltaic generation systems obtained by the use of a multilevel inverter implemented with level doubling network (LDN). Modulation principles and harmonic analysis of output voltages are proposed and introduced in detail for both single and three-phase LDN configurations. The analysis is then extended to dc-link current and voltage, with emphasis to low-frequency harmonics and switching frequency ripple. This work represents the first comprehensive implementation of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) schemes using the ripple correlation control (RCC) algorithm in the presence of multiple ripple harmonics, such as in the case of multi level inverters. Numerical simulations and experimental tests are carefully reported here, together with practical insights into the design of dc-link capacitors.

Primarily this book describes the thermodynamics of gas turbine cycles. The search for high gas turbine efficiency has produced many variations on the simple "open circuit" plant, involving the use of heat exchangers, reheating and intercooling, water and steam injection, cogeneration and combined cycle plants. These are described fully in the text.

A review of recent proposals for a number of novel gas turbine cycles is also included. In the past few years work has been directed towards developing gas turbines which produce less carbon dioxide, or plants from which the CO2 can be disposed of; the implications of a carbon tax on electricity pricing are considered.

In presenting this wide survey of gas turbine cycles for power generation the author calls on both his academic experience (at Cambridge and Liverpool Universities, the Gas Turbine Laboratory at MIT and Penn State University) and his industrial work (primarily with Rolls Royce, plc.) The book will be essential reading for final year and masters students in mechanical engineering, and for practising engineers.

This book discusses the use of efficient metaheuristic algorithms to solve diverse power system problems, providing an overview of the various aspects of metaheuristic methods to enable readers to gain a comprehensive understanding of the field and of conducting studies on specific metaheuristic algorithms related to power-system applications. By bridging the gap between recent metaheuristic techniques and novel power system methods that benefit from the convenience of metaheuristic methods, it offers power system practitioners who are not metaheuristic computation researchers insights into the techniques, which go beyond simple theoretical tools and have been adapted to solve important problems that commonly arise. On the other hand, members of the metaheuristic computation community learn how power engineering problems can be translated into optimization tasks, and it is also of interest to engineers and application developers. Further, since each chapter can be read independently, the relevant information can be quickly found. Power systems is a multidisciplinary field that addresses the multiple approaches used for design and analysis in areas ranging from signal processing, and electronics to computational intelligence, including the current trend of metaheuristic computation.

Many events that affect global energy production and consumption have occurred since the second edition of Energy in the 21st Century appeared in 2011. For example, an earthquake and tsunami in Japan led to the disruption of the Fukushima nuclear facility and a global re-examination of the safety of the nuclear industry. Oil and natural gas prices continue to be volatile, and the demand for energy has been affected by the global economy. The third edition updates data and the discussion of recent events.Energy in the 21st Century has been used as the text for an introductory energy course for the general college student population. Based on student feedback, we have included several features that enhance the value of the third edition as a textbook. In particular, we have included learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter, end of chapter activities, a comprehensive index, and a glossary. Points to Ponder are abbreviated as P2P in the Learning Objectives boxes and are provided throughout the text. They are designed to encourage the reader to consider the material from different perspectives.

Many events that affect global energy production and consumption have occurred since the second edition of Energy in the 21st Century appeared in 2011. For example, an earthquake and tsunami in Japan led to the disruption of the Fukushima nuclear facility and a global re-examination of the safety of the nuclear industry. Oil and natural gas prices continue to be volatile, and the demand for energy has been affected by the global economy. The third edition updates data and the discussion of recent events.Energy in the 21st Century has been used as the text for an introductory energy course for the general college student population. Based on student feedback, we have included several features that enhance the value of the third edition as a textbook. In particular, we have included learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter, end of chapter activities, a comprehensive index, and a glossary. Points to Ponder are abbreviated as P2P in the Learning Objectives boxes and are provided throughout the text. They are designed to encourage the reader to consider the material from different perspectives.

As the world continues to evolve technologically, people depend more heavily on energy-dependent systems to fulfill their daily needs. However, as these needs grow, it is important to develop sustainable systems that are reliable, as well as environmentally sound. Sustaining Power Resources through Energy Optimization and Engineering highlights the sustainable development and efficient operation of energy systems being provided to consumers. Featuring emergent research and trends within the area of power optimization and engineering, this book is a crucial reference source for engineers, researchers, sustainability experts, and professionals interested in the improvement and usage of infrastructural energy systems.

This book provides a clear and basic understanding of the concept of reservoir engineering to professionals and students in the oil and gas industry. The content contains detailed explanations of key theoretic and mathematical concepts and provides readers with the logical ability to approach the various challenges encountered in daily reservoir/field operations for effective reservoir management. Chapters are fully illustrated and contain numerous calculations involving the estimation of hydrocarbon volume in-place, current and abandonment reserves, aquifer models and properties for a particular reservoir/field, the type of energy in the system and evaluation of the strength of the aquifer if present. The book is written in oil field units with detailed solved examples and exercises to enhance practical application. It is useful as a professional reference and for students who are taking applied and advanced reservoir engineering courses in reservoir simulation, enhanced oil recovery and well test analysis.

This book presents new findings on cyber-physical systems design and modelling approaches based on AI and data-driven techniques, identifying the key industrial challenges and the main features of design and modelling processes. To enhance the efficiency of the design process, it proposes new approaches based on the concept of digital twins. Further, it substantiates the scientific, practical, and methodological approaches to modelling and simulating of cyber-physical systems. Exploring digital twins of cyber-physical systems as well as of production systems, it proposes combining both mathematical models and data processing techniques as advanced methods for cyber-physical system design and modelling. Moreover, it presents the implementation of the developed prototypes, including testing in real industries, which have collected and analyzed big data and proved their effectiveness. The book is intended for practitioners, enterprise representatives, scientists, and Ph.D. and master's students interested in the research and applications of cyber-physical systems in different domains.

This book introduces readers to the fundamental physics and chemistry of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), followed by discussions on recent advances in low platinum electrocatalysis and related catalyst development for PEMFC (the book's primary focus), methods of membrane electrode assembly (MEA) fabrication for low platinum catalysts, and durability issues in connection with MEA. While energy and environmental issues are becoming the two main subjects in global sustainable development, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), a clean and efficient new energy technology, has attracted more and more attention in recent years The major hurdle for more extensive applications of the PEMFC, especially for the automotive sector, is the high platinum loading requirement. Readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals and methods of low platinum PEMFC. This book is intended for researchers, engineers and graduate students in the fields of new energy technology, the fuel cell vehicle industry and fuel cell design.

This book addresses the fundamental changes that the Italian public utilities sector has undergone in the last two decades. Since the late 1990s, liberalisation and privatisation have replaced state-owned monopolies at both the national and local level, new technologies have created a broad range of new opportunities for power generation and distribution, and a redesigned public policy agenda has brought to the fore a whole set of new priorities. In this fast-changing environment, firms have redrawn their strategies, redesigned their business architectures and models, invested in infrastructure and R&D, taken advantage of growth opportunities at home and abroad, opened up their ownership structure, revised their offerings, and developed a new approach to customers. As a result, a radically altered market structure has emerged. As the sector tackles the overriding challenge of sustainability and energy transition, the book takes stock of such past and ongoing developments through the direct testimonies of various stakeholders: the companies in the energy, water, and waste management sectors that are at the forefront of this sweeping transformation; regulators; financial partners; and management consulting firms. The diversity of perspectives and wealth of information presented make this book a valuable resource for anyone wanting to grasp the direction, intensity and causes of change, as well as the nature of the challenges that lie ahead. This work has been prepared as part of the research activities of the Observatory on Alliances and Strategies in the Pan-European Utility Market, one of Agici's Research and Advisory units.

A metaheuristic is a consistent set of ideas, concepts, and operators to design a heuristic optimization algorithm, that can provide a sufficiently good solution to an optimization problem with incomplete or imperfect information. Modern and emerging power systems, with the growing complexity of distributed and intermittent generation, are an important application for such methods. This book describes the principles of solving various problems in power engineering via the application of selected metaheuristic optimization methods including genetic algorithms, particle swarm optimization, and the gravitational search algorithm. Applications covered include power flow calculation; optimal power flow in transmission networks; optimal reactive power dispatch in transmission networks; combined economic and emission dispatch; optimal power flow in distribution networks; optimal volt/var control in distribution networks; optimal placement and sizing of distributed generation in distribution networks; optimal energy and operation management of microgrids; optimal coordination of directional overcurrent relays; and steady-state analysis of self-excited induction generators.

This book focuses on the advanced control of reduced dc-link capacitance AC motor drives. Compared with the conventional AC motor drives, the reduced DC-link capacitance motor drives could reduce the cost, enhance the reliability and improve the power density. The control strategies proposed in this book are verified by experimental results, which include high power factor control, drive system stability control, beat phenomenon suppression, enhanced flux-weakening control, anti-overvoltage control, etc. The major features of this book are the systematic analysis, effective and optimized control of the practical issues in industry application, which could help readers to learn the reduced dc-link capacitance PMSM drives and promote the drive system application. This book could benefit researchers, engineers, and students in the field of AC motor drives.