| 1. |
- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-
(författare)
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Brazilian land use policies and the development of ecosystem services
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Concerns related to global environmental changes due to land use changes have been driving international communities towards more sustainable land use systems. Brazil is a country of global strategic importance in this matter considering that it is the nation with the largest extension of preserved tropical native vegetation, recognised for its ecosystem services and high and unique biodiversity. Expansion of forestry and agriculture is taking place rapidly in Brazil, partly over degraded pastureland, but also over native vegetation. Regulating policies to govern and limit this expansion is crucial to ensure the preservation of the ecosystems services provided by native vegetation. This thesis aims at improving the understanding of the potential impacts of prevailing public and private policies in the conservation of nature in Brazil. For this end, the Land Use Policy Assessment (LUPA) model was employed to evaluate potential pathways of implementation of the land use policies. Paper 1 evaluated the effects of current private and public command and control regulations in the protection of above-ground carbon stocks, identifying the most relevant stakeholders holding carbon stocks. The findings suggest that about 10% of carbon stocks are unprotected, where other policy instruments based on the market will be mostly required. Paper 2 performed an assessment of the mechanism for offsetting the legal deficit of native vegetation among landholders, evaluating the different offsetting implementation practices and their impacts on nature protection and socio-economic development. The results indicate that the offsetting mechanism may have little or no additional effects on protection of native vegetation and its ecosystem services because most of the offsetting is likely to take place where native vegetation is already protected by current legislations. However, it is viable to maximise environmental and socio-economic returns from the offsetting mechanism.
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| 2. |
- Nilsson, Karl
(författare)
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Numerical computations of wind turbine wakes and wake interaction : Optimization and control
- 2012
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In the present thesis the wake flow behind wind turbines is analyzed numerically using large-eddy simulations. The wind turbine rotors are modeled by using either the actuator disc method or the actuator line method in which the blades are represented by body forces computed with airfoil data. Using these models, the boundary layers of the turbine blades are not resolved and most of the computational power is preserved to simulate the wake flow. The actuator disc method is used for the wake interaction studies of the Lillgrund wind farm. In this study the power production is simulated for two different wind directions and compared to measurements. A grid sensitivity study and a turbulence intensity study are also performed. As a last step the front row turbines are derated in an attempt to increase the total production of the farm. The results show that it is important to impose atmospheric conditions at the inlet in the simulations, otherwise production will be unrealistically low for some turbines in the farm. The agreement between the simulated and measured power is very good. The study based on derating the front row turbines does not show any positive increase on the farm production. The actuator line method is used for near wake analysis of the MEXICO rotor. In this study the near wake is simulated for five different flow cases and compared with particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. The analysis is performed by comparing size and circulation of the tip vortices, the radial and streamwise velocity distributions, the spatial expansion of the wake and the axial induction factor. The simulations and measurements generally are in agreement. In some cases, however, the measurements are affected by tunnel effects which are not captured in the simulations. In connection to the actuator disc method a power control strategy for operating conditions below rated power is implemented and tested. The strategy is first validated using an in-house developed blade element momentum code and then is implemented in the actuator disc method used in the EllipSys3D code. The initial tests show that the strategy responds as expected when changing the moment of inertia of the rotor and when varying the inlet conditions. Results from the implementation of the strategy in the actuator disc method in EllipSys3D show that the turbine adapts to the conditions it is operating in by changing its rotational velocity and power output when the inlet conditions are varied.
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| 3. |
- Selin, Martin, 1979-
(författare)
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On the Microstructure and the Thermal Conductivity in Compacted Graphite Iron
- 2009
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Compacted graphite iron (CGI) is a cast iron material that has gained much attention due to its attractive material properties which are intermediate between those of grey and ductile cast iron. In the automotive industry compacted graphite iron has become an interesting alternative material to grey cast iron in components like cylinder blocks or cylinder heads. The reason for this interest is the higher strength found in CGI. However, one disadvantage is the lower thermal conductivity of CGI compared to grey cast iron. The aim of the present work is to investigate how chemical composition and cooling rate affects the microstructure in compacted graphite iron and trying to relate the microstructure to the thermal conductivity. The effect of an austempering heat treatment process on some material properties in CGI, grey and ductile cast iron is also investigated. The austempering heat treatment was shown to have a significant influence on many of the material properties investigated. The hardness was increased, while the thermal conductivity was reduced, for all three graphite morphologies observed. Scuffing resistance increased considerably for the austempered grey iron but was slightly reduced for the other two austempered morphologies. The ultimate tensile strength in bending was reduced in the austempered grey iron and CGI samples but slightly increased in the ductile iron sample. It was confirmed that alloying elements like magnesium increased nodularity, while copper and tin promoted formation of pearlite in CGI. Silicon had a ferrite promoting effect as well as an inoculating effect and chromium and molybdenum promoted formation of carbides. The thermal conductivity was highly affected by the fraction of ferrite as well as nodularity and addition of carbon and silicon. Based on these results a mathematical model was developed for calculation of the thermal conductivity at various temperatures.
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