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Nowadays modern high-performance buildings and facilities are equipped with monitoring systems and sensors to control building characteristics like energy consumption, temperature pattern and structural safety. The visualization and interpretation of sensor data is typically based on simple spreadsheets and non-standardized user-oriented solutions, which makes it difficult for building owners, facility managers and decision-makers to evaluate and understand the data. The solution of this problem in the future are integrated BIM-Sensor approaches which allow the generation of BIM models incorporating all relevant information of monitoring systems. These approaches support both the dynamic visualization of key structural performance parameters, the effective long-term management of sensor data based on BIM and provide a user-friendly interface to communicate with various stakeholders. A major benefit for the end user is the use of the BIM software architecture, which is the future standard anyway. In the following, the application of the integrated BIM-Sensor approach is illustrated for a typical industrial facility as a part of an early warning and rapid response system for earthquake events currently developed in the research project “ROBUST” with financial support by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWI).
Concentrating Solar Power
(2021)
The focus of this chapter is the production of power and the use of the heat produced from concentrated solar thermal power (CSP) systems.
The chapter starts with the general theoretical principles of concentrating systems including the description of the concentration ratio, the energy and mass balance. The power conversion systems is the main part where solar-only operation and the increase in operational hours.
Solar-only operation include the use of steam turbines, gas turbines, organic Rankine cycles and solar dishes. The operational hours can be increased with hybridization and with storage.
Another important topic is the cogeneration where solar cooling, desalination and of heat usage is described.
Many examples of commercial CSP power plants as well as research facilities from the past as well as current installed and in operation are described in detail.
The chapter closes with economic and environmental aspects and with the future potential of the development of CSP around the world.
Damage of reinforced concrete (RC) frames with masonry infill walls has been observed after many earthquakes. Brittle behaviour of the masonry infills in combination with the ductile behaviour of the RC frames makes infill walls prone to damage during earthquakes. Interstory deformations lead to an interaction between the infill and the RC frame, which affects the structural response. The result of this interaction is significant damage to the infill wall and sometimes to the surrounding structural system too. In most design codes, infill walls are considered as non-structural elements and neglected in the design process, because taking into account the infills and considering the interaction between frame and infill in software packages can be complicated and impractical. A good way to avoid negative aspects arising from this behavior is to ensure no or low-interaction of the frame and infill wall, for instance by decoupling the infill from the frame. This paper presents the numerical study performed to investigate new connection system called INODIS (Innovative Decoupled Infill System) for decoupling infill walls from surrounding frame with the aim to postpone infill activation to high interstory drifts thus reducing infill/frame interaction and minimizing damage to both infills and frames. The experimental results are first used for calibration and validation of the numerical model, which is then employed for investigating the influence of the material parameters as well as infill’s and frame’s geometry on the in-plane behaviour of the infilled frames with the INODIS system. For all the investigated situations, simulation results show significant improvements in behaviour for decoupled infilled RC frames in comparison to the traditionally infilled frames.
Technical assessment of Brayton cycle heat pumps for the integration in hybrid PV-CSP power plants
(2022)
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).
Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems are able to store energy cost-effectively in their integrated thermal energy storage (TES). By intelligently combining Photovoltaics (PV) systems with CSP, a further cost reduction of solar power plants is expected, as well as an increase in dispatchability and flexibility of power generation. PV-powered Resistance Heaters (RH) can be deployed to raise the temperature of the molten salt hot storage from 385 °C up to 565 °C in a Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC) plant. To avoid freezing and decomposition of molten salt, the temperature distribution in the electrical resistance heater is investigated in the present study. For this purpose, a RH has been modeled and CFD simulations have been performed. The simulation results show that the hottest regions occur on the electric rod surface behind the last baffle. A technical optimization was performed by adjusting three parameters: Shell-baffle clearance, electric rod-baffle clearance and number of baffles. After the technical optimization was carried out, the temperature difference between the maximum temperature and the average outlet temperature of the salt is within the acceptable limits, thus critical salt decomposition has been avoided. Additionally, the CFD simulations results were analyzed and compared with results obtained with a one-dimensional model in Modelica.
Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is a search technique that in the last decade emerged as a major breakthrough for Artificial Intelligence applications regarding board- and video-games. In 2016, AlphaGo, an MCTS-based software agent, outperformed the human world champion of the board game Go. This game was for long considered almost infeasible for machines, due to its immense search space and the need for a long-term strategy. Since this historical success, MCTS is considered as an effective new approach for many other scientific and technical problems. Interestingly, civil structural engineering, as a discipline, offers many tasks whose solution may benefit from intelligent search and in particular from adopting MCTS as a search tool. In this work, we show how MCTS can be adapted to search for suitable solutions of a structural engineering design problem. The problem consists of choosing the load-bearing elements in a reference reinforced concrete structure, so to achieve a set of specific dynamic characteristics. In the paper, we report the results obtained by applying both a plain and a hybrid version of single-agent MCTS. The hybrid approach consists of an integration of both MCTS and classic Genetic Algorithm (GA), the latter also serving as a term of comparison for the results. The study’s outcomes may open new perspectives for the adoption of MCTS as a design tool for civil engineers.
Masonry infill walls are the most traditional enclosure system that is still widely used in RC frame buildings all over the world, particularly in seismic active regions. Although infill walls are usually neglected in seismic design, during an earthquake event they are subjected to in-plane and out-of-plane forces that can act separately or simultaneously. Since observations of damage to buildings after recent earthquakes showed detrimental effects of in-plane and out-of-plane load interaction on infill walls, the number of studies that focus on influence of in-plane damage on out-of-plane response has significantly increased. However, most of the xperimental campaigns have considered only solid infills and there is a lack of combined in-plane and out-of-plane experimental tests on masonry infills with openings, although windows and doors strongly affect seismic performance. In this paper, two types of experimental tests on infills with window openings are presented. The first is a pure out-of-plane test and the second one is a sequential in-plane and out-of-plane test aimed at investigating the effects of existing in-plane damage on outof-plane response. Additionally, findings from two tests with similar load procedure that were carried out on fully infilled RC frames in the scope of the same project are used for comparison. Test results clearly show that window opening increased vulnerability of infills to combined seismic actions and that prevention of damage in infills with openings is of the utmost importance for seismic safety.
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.
New materials often lead to innovations and advantages in technical applications. This also applies to the particle receiver proposed in this work that deploys high-temperature and scratch resistant transparent ceramics. With this receiver design, particles are heated through direct-contact concentrated solar irradiance while flowing downwards through tubular transparent ceramics from top to bottom. In this paper, the developed particle receiver as well as advantages and disadvantages are described. Investigations on the particle heat-up characteristics from solar irradiance were carried out with DEM simulations which indicate that particle temperatures can reach up to 1200 K. Additionally, a simulation model was set up for investigating the dynamic behavior. A test receiver at laboratory scale has been designed and is currently being built. In upcoming tests, the receiver test rig will be used to validate the simulation results. The design and the measurement equipment is described in this work.
The seismic performance and safety of major European industrial facilities has a global interest for Europe, its citizens and economy. A potential major disaster at an industrial site could affect several countries, probably far beyond the country where it is located. However, the seismic design and safety assessment of these facilities is practically based on national, often outdated seismic hazard assessment studies, due to many reasons, including the absence of a reliable, commonly developed seismic hazard model for whole Europe. This important gap is no more existing, as the 2020 European Seismic Hazard Model ESHM20 was released in December 2021. In this paper we investigate the expected impact of the adoption of ESHM20 on the seismic demand for industrial facilities, through the comparison of the ESHM20 probabilistic hazard at the sites where industrial facilities are located with the respective national and European regulations. The goal of this preliminary work in the framework of Working Group 13 of the European Association for Earthquake Engineering (EAEE), is to identify potential inadequacies in the design and safety control of existing industrial facilities and to highlight the expected impact of the adoption of the new European Seismic Hazard Model on the design of new industrial facilities and the safety assessment of existing ones.