Compared to the national average residential retail electricity price, Connecticut (CT) had the 4 th highest electricity price in the country with 19.23 cents/kWh in September 2015, nearly 50% higher than the national average for price of electricity. This study aims to assess the economic feasibility of the solar PV systems at the campus under realistic constraints, by analyzing actual data from the solar array on campus. The project focused on the economic feasibility of solar PV systems on campus with physical, spatial, and practical constraints that result in a project to deviate from theoretical (estimated) values. To achieve that, the prediction of the PV power generation from the building was developed and compared with the actual (measured) data. The average payback period of a campus-wide PV system was calculated as primarily 11 years, within a range of 8-12 years, and was estimated to reduce overall building operating expenses by $250,000, or 8%. The economic parameters such as NPV and IRR also validated the investment worthiness. The results of the study could be used to analyze or further develop feasibility studies of PV systems at other universities in Connecticut and neighboring states that share similar climatic characteristics and economic factors.
Many advances have been made during the last decade in the development and application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), finite element analysis (FEA), numerical weather modeling, and other numerical methods as applied to the wind energy industry. The current information about this area of study may help researchers gage research efforts. Specifically, micro-siting, wind modeling and prediction, blade optimization and modeling, high resolution turbine flow modeling, support structure analysis, and noise prediction have been the main focuses of recent research. The advances in this area of research are enabling better designs and greater efficiencies than were possible previously. The trends toward system coupling, parallel computing, and replacing experiments are discussed. The shortcomings of recent research and areas of possible future research are also presented.
The primary objective of the project is to evaluate the benefits of wind and solar energy and determine economical investment sites for wind and solar energy in Texas with economic parameters including payback periods. A 50 kW wind turbine system and a 42 kW PV system were used to collect field data. Data analysis enabled yearly energy production and payback period of the two systems. The average payback period of a solar PV system was found to be within a range of 2-20 years because the large range of the payback period for PV systems were heavily influenced by incentives. This is in contrast to wind energy, where the most important factor was found to be wind resources of a region. Payback period for the installed wind system in Texas with federal tax credits was determined to be approximately 13 years.
An experimental study was conducted on green roofs under the semiarid summer climatic conditions of West Texas to investigate the effect of soil type, moisture content, and the presence of a top soil grass layer on the conductive heat transfer through the roof. Two soil types were investigated: uniform sand and local silt clay. Tests were also conducted on a control roof. A dual-needle heatpulse sensor was used to conduct thermal property tests on the soils. The tests reveal that unlike sand, the thermal conductivity of silt clay did not increase continuously with soil moisture. Better heat transfer conditions were achieved when the sand and silt clay roofs were watered to a water depth of 10 mm per day rather than double the amount of 20 mm per day. The roof with silt clay soil had the lowest fluctuation in inner temperature between daytime and nighttime. Green roofs with silt clay soil required more than twice the amount of soil moisture than green roofs with sand to achieve similar roof heat transfer rates. The best net heat flux gains for vegetated green roofs were 4.7 W/m 2 for the sand roof and 7.8 W/m 2 for the silt clay roof.
Code(2), further study revealed that the cracking was likely caused by wind-induced vibrations and, given the orientation of the cracking and the knowledge of probable dominant wind directions, were most likely caused by vortex shedding loadings (3).The 2001 AASHTO Standard Specifications for Structural Supports for Highway Signs, Luminaries, and Traffic Signals (4) provides a simplified procedure for the fatigue design of support structures to resist vortex-induced vibration. The primary objective of this study was to develop a fatigue design procedure and a coupled model for predicting buffeting-and vortex shedding-induced response for slender support structures that is more accurate than previously used. Monitoring of the long-term response behavior of an HMLP and wind tunnel experiments were used to study global behavior and extract important parameters. A coupled dynamic model in time domain was then developed for predicting the wind-excited response that was validated by comparing the simulation results with field-collected data. LONG-TERM MONITORING HMLP SpecificationAn HMLP located in open terrain, at the I-35/US-18 interchange, was monitored for approximately 15 months to collect wind and structural response characteristics. The HMLP was erected for service in 1999. The monitored HMLP consisted of three discrete sections with pole-type luminaires on the top; each section had a different but constant thickness of 7.95 mm (0.313 in.), 6.35 mm (0.250 in.), and 5.56 mm (0.219 in.), respectively, from bottom to top. There was a backer ring at the pole base with a thickness of 0.25 in. at 3.0 in. height. The pole was 45 m (148 ft) tall, and each of the three sections had approximately the same length and taper ratio of 0.0117 m/m (0.14 in./ft). The pole was fixed into a concrete pad with a 44.4 mm (1.75 in.) thick base plate and six 57.15 mm (2.25 in.) diameter anchor bolts with a dodecagonal (12-sided) cylindrical cross section with a diameter (flat-to-flat distance) of 72.4 cm (28.5 in.) at the base and 22.3 cm (8.8 in.) at the top. Figure 1 shows the setup of the long-term monitoring system. The system includes data acquisition equipment, strain sensors, accelerometers, anemometers, and video equipment. The data collected were transmitted through a satellite-based Internet connection to the Bridge Engineering Center at Iowa State University for interpretation and analysis. General Setup of the Monitoring System Cantilevered signal, sign, and light support structures are used nationwide on major Interstate highways, national highways, local highways, and at local intersections for traffic control. Recently, a number of failures of these structures have been characterized as wind-induced fatigue failures. It is widely accepted that there is considerable lack of accuracy in the calculation of wind-induced loads on high mast light poles (HMLPs) in both the AASHTO and the Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code provisions. A coupled model for predicting buffeting-and vortex shedding-induced response for slender supp...
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