@inproceedings{SchulteSchwagerNoureldinetal.2023, author = {Schulte, Jonas and Schwager, Christian and Noureldin, Kareem and May, Martin and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Herrmann, Ulf}, title = {Gradient controlled startup procedure of a molten-salt power-to-heat energy storage plant based on dynamic process simulation}, series = {SolarPACES: Solar Power \& Chemical Energy Systems}, booktitle = {SolarPACES: Solar Power \& Chemical Energy Systems}, number = {2815 / 1}, publisher = {AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville, NY}, isbn = {978-0-7354-4623-6}, issn = {1551-7616 (online)}, doi = {10.1063/5.0148741}, pages = {9 Seiten}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The integration of high temperature thermal energy storages into existing conventional power plants can help to reduce the CO2 emissions of those plants and lead to lower capital expenditures for building energy storage systems, due to the use of synergy effects [1]. One possibility to implement that, is a molten salt storage system with a powerful power-to-heat unit. This paper presents two possible control concepts for the startup of the charging system of such a facility. The procedures are implemented in a detailed dynamic process model. The performance and safety regarding the film temperatures at heat transmitting surfaces are investigated in the process simulations. To improve the accuracy in predicting the film temperatures, CFD simulations of the electrical heater are carried out and the results are merged with the dynamic model. The results show that both investigated control concepts are safe regarding the temperature limits. The gradient controlled startup performed better than the temperature-controlled startup. Nevertheless, there are several uncertainties that need to be investigated further.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{SchwagerAngeleSchwarzboezletal.2023, author = {Schwager, Christian and Angele, Florian and Schwarzb{\"o}zl, Peter and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Herrmann, Ulf}, title = {Model predictive assistance for operational decision making in molten salt receiver systems}, series = {SolarPACES: Solar Power \& Chemical Energy Systems}, booktitle = {SolarPACES: Solar Power \& Chemical Energy Systems}, number = {2815 / 1}, publisher = {AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville, NY}, isbn = {978-0-7354-4623-6}, issn = {1551-7616 (online)}, doi = {10.1063/5.0151514}, pages = {8 Seiten}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Despite the challenges of pioneering molten salt towers (MST), it remains the leading technology in central receiver power plants today, thanks to cost effective storage integration and high cost reduction potential. The limited controllability in volatile solar conditions can cause significant losses, which are difficult to estimate without comprehensive modeling [1]. This paper presents a Methodology to generate predictions of the dynamic behavior of the receiver system as part of an operating assistance system (OAS). Based on this, it delivers proposals if and when to drain and refill the receiver during a cloudy period in order maximize the net yield and quantifies the amount of net electricity gained by this. After prior analysis with a detailed dynamic two-phase model of the entire receiver system, two different reduced modeling approaches where developed and implemented in the OAS. A tailored decision algorithm utilizes both models to deliver the desired predictions efficiently and with appropriate accuracy.}, language = {en} } @article{SchwagerFleschSchwarzboezletal.2022, author = {Schwager, Christian and Flesch, Robert and Schwarzb{\"o}zl, Peter and Herrmann, Ulf and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e}}, title = {Advanced two phase flow model for transient molten salt receiver system simulation}, series = {Solar Energy}, volume = {232}, journal = {Solar Energy}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0038-092X (print)}, doi = {10.1016/j.solener.2021.12.065}, pages = {362 -- 375}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In order to realistically predict and optimize the actual performance of a concentrating solar power (CSP) plant sophisticated simulation models and methods are required. This paper presents a detailed dynamic simulation model for a Molten Salt Solar Tower (MST) system, which is capable of simulating transient operation including detailed startup and shutdown procedures including drainage and refill. For appropriate representation of the transient behavior of the receiver as well as replication of local bulk and surface temperatures a discretized receiver model based on a novel homogeneous two-phase (2P) flow modelling approach is implemented in Modelica Dymola®. This allows for reasonable representation of the very different hydraulic and thermal properties of molten salt versus air as well as the transition between both. This dynamic 2P receiver model is embedded in a comprehensive one-dimensional model of a commercial scale MST system and coupled with a transient receiver flux density distribution from raytracing based heliostat field simulation. This enables for detailed process prediction with reasonable computational effort, while providing data such as local salt film and wall temperatures, realistic control behavior as well as net performance of the overall system. Besides a model description, this paper presents some results of a validation as well as the simulation of a complete startup procedure. Finally, a study on numerical simulation performance and grid dependencies is presented and discussed.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{GedleSchmitzGielenetal.2022, author = {Gedle, Yibekal and Schmitz, Mark and Gielen, Hans and Schmitz, Pascal and Herrmann, Ulf and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Mahdi, Zahra and Caminos, Ricardo Alexander Chico and Dersch, J{\"u}rgen}, title = {Analysis of an integrated CSP-PV hybrid power plant}, series = {SOLARPACES 2020}, booktitle = {SOLARPACES 2020}, number = {2445 / 1}, publisher = {AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville, NY}, isbn = {978-0-7354-4195-8}, issn = {1551-7616 (online)}, doi = {10.1063/5.0086236}, pages = {9 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In the past, CSP and PV have been seen as competing technologies. Despite massive reductions in the electricity generation costs of CSP plants, PV power generation is - at least during sunshine hours - significantly cheaper. If electricity is required not only during the daytime, but around the clock, CSP with its inherent thermal energy storage gets an advantage in terms of LEC. There are a few examples of projects in which CSP plants and PV plants have been co-located, meaning that they feed into the same grid connection point and ideally optimize their operation strategy to yield an overall benefit. In the past eight years, TSK Flagsol has developed a plant concept, which merges both solar technologies into one highly Integrated CSP-PV-Hybrid (ICPH) power plant. Here, unlike in simply co-located concepts, as analyzed e.g. in [1] - [4], excess PV power that would have to be dumped is used in electric molten salt heaters to increase the storage temperature, improving storage and conversion efficiency. The authors demonstrate the electricity cost sensitivity to subsystem sizing for various market scenarios, and compare the resulting optimized ICPH plants with co-located hybrid plants. Independent of the three feed-in tariffs that have been assumed, the ICPH plant shows an electricity cost advantage of almost 20\% while maintaining a high degree of flexibility in power dispatch as it is characteristic for CSP power plants. As all components of such an innovative concept are well proven, the system is ready for commercial market implementation. A first project is already contracted and in early engineering execution.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{MahdiDerschSchmitzetal.2022, author = {Mahdi, Zahra and Dersch, J{\"u}rgen and Schmitz, Pascal and Dieckmann, Simon and Caminos, Ricardo Alexander Chico and Teixeira Boura, Cristiano Jos{\´e} and Herrmann, Ulf and Schwager, Christian and Schmitz, Mark and Gielen, Hans and Gedle, Yibekal and B{\"u}scher, Rauno}, title = {Technical assessment of Brayton cycle heat pumps for the integration in hybrid PV-CSP power plants}, series = {SOLARPACES 2020}, booktitle = {SOLARPACES 2020}, number = {2445 / 1}, publisher = {AIP conference proceedings / American Institute of Physics}, address = {Melville, NY}, isbn = {978-0-7354-4195-8}, issn = {1551-7616 (online)}, doi = {10.1063/5.0086269}, pages = {11 Seiten}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The hybridization of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) and Photovoltaics (PV) systems is a promising approach to reduce costs of solar power plants, while increasing dispatchability and flexibility of power generation. High temperature heat pumps (HT HP) can be utilized to boost the salt temperature in the thermal energy storage (TES) of a Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) system from 385 °C up to 565 °C. A PV field can supply the power for the HT HP, thus effectively storing the PV power as thermal energy. Besides cost-efficiently storing energy from the PV field, the power block efficiency of the overall system is improved due to the higher steam parameters. This paper presents a technical assessment of Brayton cycle heat pumps to be integrated in hybrid PV-CSP power plants. As a first step, a theoretical analysis was carried out to find the most suitable working fluid. The analysis included the fluids Air, Argon (Ar), Nitrogen (N2) and Carbon dioxide (CO2). N2 has been chosen as the optimal working fluid for the system. After the selection of the ideal working medium, different concepts for the arrangement of a HT HP in a PV-CSP hybrid power plant were developed and simulated in EBSILON®Professional. The concepts were evaluated technically by comparing the number of components required, pressure losses and coefficient of performance (COP).}, language = {en} } @article{PieronekKleefeld2024, author = {Pieronek, Lukas and Kleefeld, Andreas}, title = {On trajectories of complex-valued interior transmission eigenvalues}, series = {Inverse problems and imaging : IPI}, volume = {18}, journal = {Inverse problems and imaging : IPI}, number = {2}, publisher = {AIMS}, address = {Springfield, Mo}, issn = {1930-8337 (Print)}, doi = {10.3934/ipi.2023041}, pages = {480 -- 516}, year = {2024}, abstract = {This paper investigates the interior transmission problem for homogeneous media via eigenvalue trajectories parameterized by the magnitude of the refractive index. In the case that the scatterer is the unit disk, we prove that there is a one-to-one correspondence between complex-valued interior transmission eigenvalue trajectories and Dirichlet eigenvalues of the Laplacian which turn out to be exactly the trajectorial limit points as the refractive index tends to infinity. For general simply-connected scatterers in two or three dimensions, a corresponding relation is still open, but further theoretical results and numerical studies indicate a similar connection.}, language = {en} } @article{SchoppRohrbachLangeretal.2024, author = {Schopp, Christoph and Rohrbach, Felix and Langer, Luc and Heuermann, Holger}, title = {Detection of welding wire length by active S11 measurement}, series = {IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science}, number = {Early Access}, publisher = {IEEE}, issn = {0093-3813 (Print)}, doi = {10.1109/TPS.2024.3356659}, pages = {1 -- 6}, year = {2024}, abstract = {A novel method to determine the extruded length of a metallic wire for a directed energy deposition (DED) process using a microwave (MW) plasma jet with a straight-through wire feed is presented. The method is based on the relative comparison of the measured frequency response obtained by the large-signal scattering parameter (Hot-S) technique. In the practical working range, repeatability of less than 6\% for a nonactive plasma and 9\% for the active plasma state is found. Measurements are conducted with a focus on a simple solution to decrease the processing time and reduce the integration time of the process into the existing hardware. It is shown that monitoring a single frequency for magnitude and phase changes is sufficient to achieve good accuracy. A combination of different measurement values to determine the length is possible. The applicability to different diameter of the same material is shown as well as a contact detection of the wire and metallic substrate.}, language = {en} } @article{BoehnischBraunMuscarelloetal.2024, author = {B{\"o}hnisch, Nils and Braun, Carsten and Muscarello, Vincenzo and Marzocca, Pier}, title = {About the wing and whirl flutter of a slender wing-propeller system}, series = {Journal of Aircraft}, journal = {Journal of Aircraft}, publisher = {AIAA}, address = {Reston, Va.}, issn = {1533-3868}, doi = {10.2514/1.C037542}, pages = {1 -- 14}, year = {2024}, abstract = {Next-generation aircraft designs often incorporate multiple large propellers attached along the wingspan (distributed electric propulsion), leading to highly flexible dynamic systems that can exhibit aeroelastic instabilities. This paper introduces a validated methodology to investigate the aeroelastic instabilities of wing-propeller systems and to understand the dynamic mechanism leading to wing and whirl flutter and transition from one to the other. Factors such as nacelle positions along the wing span and chord and its propulsion system mounting stiffness are considered. Additionally, preliminary design guidelines are proposed for flutter-free wing-propeller systems applicable to novel aircraft designs. The study demonstrates how the critical speed of the wing-propeller systems is influenced by the mounting stiffness and propeller position. Weak mounting stiffnesses result in whirl flutter, while hard mounting stiffnesses lead to wing flutter. For the latter, the position of the propeller along the wing span may change the wing mode shapes and thus the flutter mechanism. Propeller positions closer to the wing tip enhance stability, but pusher configurations are more critical due to the mass distribution behind the elastic axis.}, language = {en} } @article{TurdumamatovBeldaHeuermann2024, author = {Turdumamatov, Samat and Belda, Aljoscha and Heuermann, Holger}, title = {Shaping a decoupled atmospheric pressure microwave plasma with antenna structures, Maxwell's equations, and boundary conditions}, series = {IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science}, journal = {IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science}, number = {Early Access}, publisher = {IEEE}, issn = {0093-3813 (Print)}, doi = {10.1109/TPS.2024.3383589}, pages = {1 -- 9}, year = {2024}, abstract = {This article addresses the need for an innovative technique in plasma shaping, utilizing antenna structures, Maxwell's laws, and boundary conditions within a shielded environment. The motivation lies in exploring a novel approach to efficiently generate high-energy density plasma with potential applications across various fields. Implemented in an E01 circular cavity resonator, the proposed method involves the use of an impedance and field matching device with a coaxial connector and a specially optimized monopole antenna. This setup feeds a low-loss cavity resonator, resulting in a high-energy density air plasma with a surface temperature exceeding 3500 o C, achieved with a minimal power input of 80 W. The argon plasma, resembling the shape of a simple monopole antenna with modeled complex dielectric values, offers a more energy-efficient alternative compared to traditional, power-intensive plasma shaping methods. Simulations using a commercial electromagnetic (EM) solver validate the design's effectiveness, while experimental validation underscores the method's feasibility and practical implementation. Analyzing various parameters in an argon atmosphere, including hot S -parameters and plasma beam images, the results demonstrate the successful application of this technique, suggesting its potential in coating, furnace technology, fusion, and spectroscopy applications.}, language = {en} } @article{StiemerThomaBraun2023, author = {Stiemer, Luc Nicolas and Thoma, Andreas and Braun, Carsten}, title = {MBT3D: Deep learning based multi-object tracker for bumblebee 3D flight path estimation}, series = {PLoS ONE}, volume = {18}, journal = {PLoS ONE}, number = {9}, publisher = {PLOS}, address = {San Fancisco}, issn = {1932-6203}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0291415}, pages = {e0291415}, year = {2023}, abstract = {This work presents the Multi-Bees-Tracker (MBT3D) algorithm, a Python framework implementing a deep association tracker for Tracking-By-Detection, to address the challenging task of tracking flight paths of bumblebees in a social group. While tracking algorithms for bumblebees exist, they often come with intensive restrictions, such as the need for sufficient lighting, high contrast between the animal and background, absence of occlusion, significant user input, etc. Tracking flight paths of bumblebees in a social group is challenging. They suddenly adjust movements and change their appearance during different wing beat states while exhibiting significant similarities in their individual appearance. The MBT3D tracker, developed in this research, is an adaptation of an existing ant tracking algorithm for bumblebee tracking. It incorporates an offline trained appearance descriptor along with a Kalman Filter for appearance and motion matching. Different detector architectures for upstream detections (You Only Look Once (YOLOv5), Faster Region Proposal Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), and RetinaNet) are investigated in a comparative study to optimize performance. The detection models were trained on a dataset containing 11359 labeled bumblebee images. YOLOv5 reaches an Average Precision of AP = 53, 8\%, Faster R-CNN achieves AP = 45, 3\% and RetinaNet AP = 38, 4\% on the bumblebee validation dataset, which consists of 1323 labeled bumblebee images. The tracker's appearance model is trained on 144 samples. The tracker (with Faster R-CNN detections) reaches a Multiple Object Tracking Accuracy MOTA = 93, 5\% and a Multiple Object Tracking Precision MOTP = 75, 6\% on a validation dataset containing 2000 images, competing with state-of-the-art computer vision methods. The framework allows reliable tracking of different bumblebees in the same video stream with rarely occurring identity switches (IDS). MBT3D has much lower IDS than other commonly used algorithms, with one of the lowest false positive rates, competing with state-of-the-art animal tracking algorithms. The developed framework reconstructs the 3-dimensional (3D) flight paths of the bumblebees by triangulation. It also handles and compares two alternative stereo camera pairs if desired.}, language = {en} }