A design for a photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) assembly with a water-cooled heat sink was planned, constructed, and experimentally evaluated in the climatic conditions of the southern region of Iraq during the summertime. The water-cooled heat sink was applied to thermally manage the PV cells, in order to boost the electrical output of the PVT system. A set of temperature sensors was installed to monitor the water intake, exit, and cell temperatures. The climatic parameters including the wind velocity, atmospheric pressure, and solar irradiation were also monitored on a daily basis. The effects of solar irradiation on the average PV temperature, electrical power, and overall electrical-thermal efficiency were investigated. The findings indicate that the PV temperature would increase from 65 to 73 °C, when the solar irradiation increases from 500 to 960 W/m2, with and without cooling, respectively. Meanwhile, the output power increased from 35 to 55 W when the solar irradiation increased from 500 to 960 W/m2 during the daytime. The impact of varying the mass flow rate of cooling water in the range of 4 to 16 L/min was also examined, and it was found that the cell temperature declines as the water flow increases in intensity throughout the daytime. The maximum cell temperature recorded for PV modules without cooling was in the middle of the day. The lowest cell temperature was also recorded in the middle of the day for a PVT solar system with 16 L/min of cooling water.
The piled raft is a geotechnical composite construction consisting of three elements: piles, raft and soil.
In the design of piled rafts, the load shared between the piles and the raft, and the piles are used up to a
load level that can be of the same order of magnitude as the bearing capacity of a comparable single
pile or even greater. Therefore, the piled raft foundation allows reduction of settlements in a very
economic way as compared to traditional foundation concepts.
This paper presents experimental study to investigate the behavior of piled raft system in sandy
soil. A small scale “prototype” model was tested in a sand box with load applied to the system through
a compression machine. The settlement was
Mixed convection heat transfer in a vertical concentric annulus packed with a metallic porous media and heated at a constant heat flux is experimentally investigated with water as the working fluid. A series of experiments have been carried out with a Rayleigh number range from Ra=122418.92 to 372579.31 and Reynolds number that based on the particles diameter of Red=14.62, 19.48 and 24.36. Under steady state condition, the measured data were collected and analyzed. Results show that the wall surface temperatures are affected by the imposed heat flux variation and Reynolds number variation. The variation of the local heat transfer coefficient and the mean Nusselt number are presented and analyzed. An empirical
... Show MoreThe objective of this study was tointroduce a recursive least squares (RLS) parameter estimatorenhanced by using a neural network (NN) to facilitate the computing of a bit error rate (BER) (error reduction) during channels estimation of a multiple input-multiple output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system over a Rayleigh multipath fading channel.Recursive least square is an efficient approach to neural network training:first, the neural network estimator learns to adapt to the channel variations then it estimates the channel frequency response. Simulation results show that the proposed method has better performance compared to the conventional methods least square (LS) and the original RLS and it is more robust a
... Show MoreThis paper proposes a novel finite-time generalized proportional integral observer (FTGPIO) based a sliding mode control (SMC) scheme for the tracking control problem of high order uncertain systems subject to fast time-varying disturbances. For this purpose, the construction of the controller consists of two consecutive steps. First, the novel FTGPIO is designed to observe unmeasurable plant dynamics states and disturbance with its higher time derivatives in finite time rather than infinite time as in the standard GPIO. In the FTGPO estimator, the finite time convergence rate of estimations is well achieved, whereas the convergence rate of estimations by classical GPIO is asymptotic and slow. Secondly, on the basis of the finite and fast e
... Show MoreOilwell cementing operations are crucial for drilling and completion, preserving the well's productive life. However, weak and permeable formations pose a high risk of cement slurry loss, leading to failure. Lightweight cement, like foamed cement, is used to avoid these difficulties. This study is focused on creating a range of foamed slurry densities and examining the effect of gas concentration on their rheological properties. The foaming agent and foam stabilizer are tested, and the optimal concentration is determined to be 2% and 0.12%, respectively, by the weight of the cement.
Furthermore, the construction of samples of foam cement with different densities (0.8, 1.0, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6) g/cc is performed to f
... Show MoreTwisted tape insertion in the smooth plain tube is one of the types of passive methods that are used to enhance heat transfer. Swirl fluid flow inside the tube and related heat transfer characteristics are very complex. ANSYS FLUENT (V 16.1) and ASPEN industrial program are used in analyzing this technique for enhancement heat transfer. A circular plain tube has length L=8534mm and 17 mm inner diameter with a twisted tape of twist ratio of y = (H/D) = (150/17) =8.8 along the plain tube were considered for this study. Eight Reynolds numbers (Re) of 784, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 are used to analyze the response of thermal performance. Crude oil API 28 exit temperature, film heat transfer coefficient, Nus
... Show MoreTwisted tape insertion in smooth plain tube is one of types of passive methods that is used to enhance heat transfer. Swirl fluid flow inside tube and related heat transfer characteristics are very complex. ANSYS FLUENT (V 16.1) and ASPEN industrial program are used in analyzing this technique for enhancement heat transfer. A circular plain tube has length L=8534mm and 17 mm inner diameter with twisted tape has twist ratio of y = (H/D) = (150/17) =8.8 along with a plain tube were considered for this study. Eight Reynolds numbers (Re) of 784, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 are used to analyze the response of thermal performance. Crude oil API 28 exit temperature, film heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number
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