energetics phd annual report - polito.it · energetics phd annual report 2016 1 ......

Energetics PhD ANNUAL REPORT 2016

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ENERGETICS PhD PROGRAM

2016 ANNUAL REPORT

Editors: L. Savoldi and P. Asinari


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This document contains a series of one-page reports from the students enrolled in the Energetics PhD

program at Politecnico di Torino, Italy, including the highlights of their research activity in 2016. The

previous editions of the Annual Report can be downloaded from

http://dottorato.polito.it/ene/en/documents

The program is currently managed by a Board, which is composed of professors from Dipartimento

Energia as follows

Pietro Asinari

Marco Badami

Gianni Coppa

Vincenzo Corrado

Alessandro Ferrari

Pierluigi Leone

Federico Millo

Antonio Mittica

Marco Perino

Piero Ravetto

Massimo Rundo

Massimo Santarelli

Laura Savoldi

Ezio Spessa

Vittorio Verda

Roberto Zanino (coordinator)

Massimo Zucchetti

For additional information please contact [email protected] (+39 011 090 4490)



mailto:[email protected]


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OUR SPONSORS


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CONTENT

Pranav ARYA, "Calibration methodologies for last generation automotive powertrains" Pag. 9

Verena Marie BARTHELMES, "Occupant Behaviour (OB) and its influence on building energy use and comfort conditions"………………………………………. Pag. 10

Andrea BERTINETTI, "Advanced modeling for heat and mass transfer in high heat flux components of fusion reactors"………………………………………….. Pag. 11

Giulio BOCCARDO, "TIVANO Project – Avio diesel-hybrid propulsion systems"………………………………………………………………………………. Pag. 12

Andrea BOTTEGA, "Spray Analysis of injector for marine & medium speed engines"……………………………………………………………………………….. Pag. 13

Alberto BRIGHENTI, "Validation and improvements of the thermal-hydraulic modeling of superconducting magnets for fusion applications"………………… Pag. 14

Tiziana BUSO, "Nearly Zero Energy multi-functional Buildings - Energy and Economic Evaluations"………………………………………………………………. Pag. 15

Mattia CAGNOLI, "Analysis of CSP technologies using CFD tools"……………………...................................................................................... Pag. 16

Sabino CAPUTO, "Engine thermal insulation"……………………………………. Pag. 17

Marco CARAMELLO, "Thermal-hydraulics of safety systems for advanced nuclear reactors"……………………………………………………………………… Pag. 18

Angela CARBONI, "Rail-road combined transport: Integrated Smart Sensing (ISS) to support intermodal terminals, throughput and logistics energy efficiency"……………………………………………………………………………... Pag. 19

Annalisa CARDELLINI, "Modeling multi-scale phenomena in nanoparticle suspensions"………………………………………………………………………….. Pag. 20

Stefano CARLI, "Simplified modeling of heat transfer problems at the interface between different subsystems of a superconducting tokamak………………….. Pag. 21

Dominic CARON, "Multiphysics analysis of Generation IV reactors"……………. Pag. 22

Ylenia CASCONE, "Optimisation of building envelope components with responsive materials"…………………………………………………………………. Pag. 23


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Sara COSENTINO, "Optimal design and operation of energy systems through reduced order modelling"……………………………………………………………. Pag. 24

Stefano COSS, "Methodologies for optimal inter-model energy services"………………………………………………………………………………. Pag. 25

Claudio CUBITO, "A policy-oriented vehicle simulation approach for estimating the CO2 emissions from hybrid light duty vehicles"………………………………. Pag. 26

Chiara DELMASTRO, "Advanced input modeling for urban energy planning"………………………………………………………………………………. Pag. 27

Alessio DESANDO, "Aircraft engine efficiency improvement through an innovative Active Clearance Control system"…………………………………..… Pag. 28

Domenico DIRUTIGLIANO, "Performance modeling of low energy buildings"……………………………………………………………………………... Pag. 29

Stefano FANTUCCI, "Advanced technologies for the energy efficient retrofit of opaque building envelopes"…………………………………………………………. Pag. 30

Maria FERRARA, "Simulation-based optimization of high-performing building in future energy scenarios"…………………………………………………………….. Pag. 31

Antonio FROIO, "Multi-scale thermal-hydraulic modeling for nuclear fusion reactors"……………………………………………………………………………….. Pag. 32

Marta GANDIGLIO, "Modeling, design, testing and analysis of biogas-fed SOFC power plants"………………………………………………………………………….. Pag. 33

Luigi GIOVANNINI, "Transparent adaptive façades: a novel approach to optimize global energy performance and comfort for the occupants"………….. Pag. 34

Daniele GROSSO, "Multi scale energy infrastructures modelling and interregional trade analysis"………………………………………………………… Pag. 35

Siew Sin HOH, "Development of Methods for the Determination of Reactivity from Flux Measurements in Nuclear Reactors"…………………………………… Pag. 36

Daniele IEMMOLO, "Statistical optimization of the PCCI combustion mode in a 3.0 L Euro VI heavy-duty diesel engine"…………………………………………… Pag. 37

Matteo JARRE, "Large-scale numerical model for heat-load forecasting in district heating systems"……………………………………………………………… Pag. 38

Hamed KHESHTINEJAD, "Investigation into advanced architecture and strategies for Compressed Natural Gas Heavy Duty SI-engine"………………... Pag. 39

Danilo LAURENZANO, "Knocking investigation on high efficient flex-fuel (liquid & gaseous biofuels) engine"…………………………………………………………. Pag. 40


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Arpit MAHESHWARI, "Innovative and ageing resistant lithium ion batteries for high electric energy storage in a smart grid framework"………………………… Pag. 41

Mohsen MIRZAEIAN, "Simulation of Cycle-to-Cycle Variation and Knock in Si Engines"………………………………………………………………………………. Pag. 42

Maria Pia MONTEROSSI, "Energy saving through an innovative aircraft turbine thermal control"…………………………………………………………………….… Pag. 43

Matteo MORCIANO, "Nanotechnology-enabled solar energy for water desalination and purification"……………………………………………...………… Pag. 44

Giovanni MURANO, "Energy retrofit of existing buildings and cost optimality"……………………………………………………………………………… Pag. 45

Federica PAOLICELLI, "Model-based and experimental approaches for diagnostics and control of injection and combustion processes in diesel engines"……………………………………………………………………………….. Pag. 46

Valeria PAVESE, "Investigation on land-based and marine hydraulic air compressor technology as carbon capture system"………………………….….. Pag. 47

Benedetta PEIRETTI PARADISI, "Proton acceleration by laser-matter interaction for oncology radiotherapy"……………………………………………... Pag. 48

Andrea PIANO, "Advanced air management systems for future automotive diesel engine generations"…………………………………………………………. Pag. 49

Alberto PIZZOLATO, "Topology optimization of energy devices and systems"…………………………………………………………………………….… Pag. 50

Daniele PORCU, "Advanced combustion diagnostic for internal combustion engines"……………………………………………………………………………….. Pag. 51

Mahsa RAFIGH, "Diesel Engine Modelling For Efficient Calibration"…………... Pag. 52

Gianluca SERALE, "Getting closer the mismatch between RES availability and exploitation"………………………………………………………………………….... Pag. 53

Anna Chiara UGGENTI, "Safety assessment of next generation nuclear system"……………………………………………………………………………….... Pag. 54

Ludovico VIGLIONE, "Analysis of injection, mixture formation and combustion processes for innovative CNG Engine"………………………………………..…… Pag. 55

Roberto VITOLO, "Reduction of fuel consumption and gaseous emissions from vehicles: implementation of non-conventional diesel combustion and development of an advanced central tire inflation system"…………..………….. Pag. 56

Jiajie XU, "Analysis of charge motion, injection and mixture formation in high-performance CNG engines"……………………………..………………………….. Pag. 57


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Yixin YANG, "Modelling of combustion, fuel consumption and emission formation for design, calibration and control of diesel engines"…………………. Pag. 58


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First name: Pranav LAST NAME: ARYA

Topic: Calibration methodologies for last generation automotive powertrains

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Federico MILLO

Academic context

[1] MILLO, F., ROLANDO, L., MALLAMO, F., “Model-based development and calibration of last generation diesel powertrains for passenger cars”, INT. J. POWERTRAINS, 2014, VOL. 3, N. 1, http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJPT.2014.059415. [2] MALLAMO, F., BADAMI, M., MILLO, F., Application of the Design of Experiments and Objective Functions for the Optimization of Multiple Injection Strategies for Low Emissions in CR Diesel Engines, SAE Paper 2004-01-0123, SAE TRANSACTIONS, Journal of Fuel and Lubricants, p. 208-222, 2004, Vol. 113 -sect.4, ISSN 0096-736X, http://dx.doi.org/10.4271/2004-01-0123. [3] BADAMI, M., MILLO, F., MALLAMO, F., ROSSI, E., Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Multiple Injection Strategies on Emissions, Noise and BSFC of an Automotive DI C.R. Diesel Engine, INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENGINE RESEARCH, IMechE, 2003, Vol. 4, ISSN 1468-0874, http://dx.doi.org/10.1243/146808703322743903.

External collaborations

FEV Italia

General Motors Global Propulsion Sytems

RWTH Aachen, Germany

Highlights of the research activity

In the first year of my PhD, I worked on integrating the widely-used Design of Experiment (DoE) models with after-treatment system models for the development of new calibration methodologies for automotive diesel engines. DoE models are extensively used for engine calibration as the physical models available for combustion process are too complex. The purpose of combining the after-treatment system models with DoE models was to quickly evaluate the effect of changing the calibration on the final tail pipe emissions. Thus, by combining the two-separate type of models, we could evaluate the final value of emissions from the tailpipe and compare them to the target value.

This comparison and integration of the after-treatment system models and DoE models also facilitated a close loop approach that can be used to optimize the combustion process in an automatic way. Starting from a base calibration the optimizer evaluates the tail pipe emissions and compare them with the target. If the targets are met then the process is terminated, else the optimizer compares the target and the achieved value and modifies the calibration in the desired way. The development of optimizer used for this closed loop optimization has also been a part of my research. It uses a combination of genetic algorithm and random search algorithm.

Flow chart for close loop optimizer for development

of new and modification of existing calibrations


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First name: Verena Marie LAST NAME: BARTHELMES

Topic: Occupant Behaviour (OB) and its influence on building energy use and

comfort conditions

Course year: 1st year - 31°Cycle Tutor(s): S. P. CORGNATI, Dr. Y. HEO

Academic context

[1] Fabi V., R. V. Andersen, S. Corgnati, and B.W. Olesen. 2012. Occupants’ window opening behaviour: A Literature review of factors influencing occupant behaviour and models. Building and Environment 58, pp.188-198. [2] Hong T., S.C. Taylor-Lange, S. D’Oca, D. Yan, and S.P. Corgnati. 2016. Advances in research and applications of energy-related occupant behavior in buildings. Energy and Buildings 116, pp.694-702. [3] Heckerman D., D. Geiger, and D. Chickering. 1995. Learning Bayesian networks: The combination of knowledge and statistical data. Machine Learning 20, pp. 197-243.


University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

Denmark Technical University, Copenhagen, Denmark

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA


The main goal of this research activity is to exploit the behaviour of occupants and its influence on building energy use and comfort/health conditions. In this context, the on-going research activities can be subdivided into the following four areas: Impact of OB lifestyles on building energy use and thermal comfort: This study employs building simulations to demonstrate the potential impact of different OB lifestyles (low, standard and high consumer) on energy use and thermal comfort conditions in a nearly zero energy building (nZEB). The analysis considers different energy-related behavioural patterns and highlights key variables, which need to be addressed by decision-makers of behavioural change programs for conscious energy use in nZEBs.

Exploitation of the Bayesian Network (BN) Framework for OB analysis: Accounting for uncertainty has become a crucial aspect in the domain of building energy simulation for incorporating human behaviour that impacts building energy performance. The investigation of the BN Framework for the analysis of occupant behaviour and its influence on building energy use and thermal comfort conditions might represent an innovative methodology in order to bridge the gap between energy simulations’ outcomes and reality. This study aims at investigating the BN Framework for estimating occupant behaviour (e.g. window action behaviour) as a function of indoor environmental variables and other influencing factors (Fig.1).

Energy Engagement Programs: This area includes the active involvement in several local and international behavioural change programs (Horizon 2020) in different sectors (residences, offices, university campuses, hotels) that aim at rising the energy awareness of the occupants in a long-term perspective in order to reduce energy consumptions and optimize comfort/health conditions at the same time.

International and interdisciplinary investigation on OB in offices: The main objective of this initiative is to deploy an interdisciplinary international survey, which aims at covering more accurately the behavioural study of employees in office buildings in different countries. The survey aims at collecting data on their perception of thermal, visual and acoustic comfort, possible causes of discomfort and their perception/knowledge/ satisfaction regarding the control systems related to environmental quality and energy systems.

Include a nice

picture of your

face, if you like

Fig 1. Example of a BN:

OB and explanatory

variables (VARs).


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First name: Andrea LAST NAME: BERTINETTI

Topic: Advanced modeling for heat and mass transfer in high heat flux components

of fusion reactors

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Laura SAVOLDI

Please keep this space as is

Academic context

[1] F. Albajar et al., Status of Europe’s contribution to the ITER EC system, EPJ Web of Conferences, 2015. [2] M. Shibata et al., Experimental results of functional performance of a vacuum vessel pressure suppression system in ITER, Fusion Engineering and Design, 2002. [3] G. Caruso, M.T. Porfiri, ICE layer growth on a cryogenic surface in a fusion reactor during a loss of water event, Progress in Nuclear Energy, 2015. Please keep this space as is


Fusion for Energy (F4E) – Barcelona (Spain)

EUROfusion – Garching (Germany)

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) – Karlsruhe (Germany) Please keep this space as is


During the first year of PhD, my research activity has been developed along the flowing different lines: 3D multiphysics simulations on the 1MW ITER gyrotron cavity and

mock-up. A multiphysics procedure involving electro-magnetic,

thermal-hydraulic and thermo-mechanical simulations has been

developed in order to obtain the steady-state working condition of

the European 1 MW gyrotron cavity. Two different layouts of the

cavity cooling structure are simulated (Raschig-rings and mini-

channels) to check and compare the respective cooling capability.

The CFD software used for the simulation performed on this activity

is STAR-CCM+ by CD-Adapco. Cavity mock-ups are built to perform

laboratory tests, which are used to validate the simulation models.

This work is performed in collaboration with Fusion for Energy,

Thales Electron Devices and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Preliminary design of a sub-size mock-up of a Back Supporting

Structure (BSS) segment of the Breeding Blanket (BB), to investigate

the pressure drop and primary coolant distribution in the inlet and

outlet manifolds of the Blanket Module. The design of a mock-up

based on Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed BSS of DEMO is performed

based on hydraulic analogy consideration, aimed at characterizing

the parameters of a simplified 1D thermo-hydraulic model. The

model should be used to evaluate the pressure drop, the mass flow rate distribution in the different derivations

of the BSS. The mock-up will be tested in the HELOKA circuits at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. The

hydraulic analogy has been checked through CFD simulations - the software used for the simulation is STAR-

CCM+ by CD-Adapco. This work is performed in collaboration with the PhD student Antonio Froio.

(a)

(b)

Figure 1: CAD model of (a) the mock-up and (b) full-size cavity of a 1MW 170 Hz gyrotron equipped with mini-channels.


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First name: Giulio LAST NAME: BOCCARDO

Topic: TIVANO Project – Avio diesel-hybrid propulsion systems

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Federico MILLO, Patrizio NUCCIO


Academic context (list 3 references to proper place your work)

[1] Gatti P., Fagg S., Cornwell R., Millo F., Boccardo G., Porcu D., Manelli S., Capiluppi C., Marinoni A. “Investigation of a ‘SCR free’ system to meet Stage IV and beyond emissions limits”, Proceedings of the Heavy-Duty, On- and Off-Highway Engines 2016 11th International MTZ Conference, November 2016, Ulm, Germany. [2] Queck D., Herrmann O., Bastianelli M., Arita N., Manelli S., Capiluppi C., Fukuda A., Millo F., Boccardo G., “Next Steps towards EGR only concept for medium duty industrial engine”, Proceedings of 4 th International Engine Congress 2017 – 21 and 22 February, 2017 Baden-Baden, Germany. [3] Piano, A., Millo, F., Boccardo, G., Rafigh, M. et al., "Assessment of the Predictive Capabilities of a Combustion Model for a Modern Common Rail Automotive Diesel Engine," SAE Technical Paper 2016-01-0547, 2016, doi:10.4271/2016-01-0547. Please keep this space as is

External collaborations (list 3 institutions you collaborate with)

Kohler Co. \ Engines

Alenia Aeronautica

Gamma Technologies LLC Please keep this space as is


The TIVANO (Innovative General Aviation Technologies) project, funded by MIUR within the CLUSTER framework, aims to explore the feasibility of a new generation powertrain for aircraft application (especially designed for Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV-MALE) that promises to cut fuel consumption, CO2 and Noise emissions. This powertrain features a last generation Common Rail turbocharged diesel engine coupled with an electric motor. Within this project my research activity focused particularly on the development of the internal combustion engine starting from the engine taken as a reference for a conventional powertrain which was identified in the RED A03 V12, a 6.1 liters V12 turbocharged rated 500HP at sea level. Due to the lack of experimental data about this particular engine, the data necessary for the model build and calibration were obtained by a project funded by Kohler that aims to design a new generation Heavy Duty Diesel Engine featuring a new high pressure common rail system, a two stage turbocharging system and long route EGR. The extensive experimental data set which was collected for the Kohler project in the DENERG Lab [1], [2], in combination with a further data set of experimental data measured on a GM MDE engine, was then used to develop a new semi empirical predictive diesel combustion model [3], which was finally implemented in the 1D-CFD model of the RED A03-V12 engine in order to analyze the downsizing potentials allowed by the hybrid powertrain. After a preliminary study conducted with a simplified single cylinder model with imposed boundary conditions at engine intake and engine exhaust, the solution converged to a V8 engine with same unit displacement of the RED A03 featuring a WG controlled turbocharger per each engine bank. The downsized engine allows an average 5% fuel consumption reduction that reaches 10% in some specific operating points if compared with the V12 engine. Downsizing therefore translates in about 100 kg reduction in engine weight and from 50 up to 100 kg fuel weight reduction depending on the mission profile.

Include a nice

picture of your

face, if you like

Results of the downsizing of the

RED-A03 Engine on the TIVANO

missions profiles.


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First name: Andrea LAST NAME: BOTTEGA

Topic: Spray Analysis of injector for marine & medium speed engines

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Claudio DONGIOVANNI

Academic context

[1] L. Postrioti, M. Battistoni, C. Ungaro, A. Mariani. “Analysis of Diesel Spray Momentum Flux Spatial

Distribution”. SAE Paper 2011-01-0682

[2] Ryan T. W. "Measurement of the instantaneous distribution of momentum in diesel injection nozzle fuel

jets". SAE Paper 962004

[3] R. Payri, J.M. Garcìa, F.J. Salvador, J. Gimeno. “Using spray momentum flux measurements to understand

the influence of diesel nozzle geometry on spray characteristics”.


O.M.T. Officine Meccaniche Torino S. p. A.


My research activity aimed at developing an experimental technique for the analysis of sprays from Diesel

Engines. Such an intrusive technique represents a breakthrough and is addressed to as Stratigraphic

Momentum Spray Analysis (SMSA). It allows for experimentally making up for the spatial distribution of the

spray mass momentum, thus leading to a full characterization of the spray both from a geometrical and from

an energetic point of view. The SMSA should hence produce an enhancement in the knowledge into the

correlation of the nozzle geometry and of the injection parameters to the spray characteristics.

During this first year I've dealt with the assessment of the SMSA

technique. In particular the very first version of the sensor

presented some problems that I solved by redesigning it. The

sensor is made of a surface in the middle of which there is a small

sensible line exposed to the spray. By the momentum

conservation, the impact force on the line is equal to the

momentum of the spray on the line. By moving properly the

sensor and using the algorithms of the CAT technique is possible

to map the momentum distribution inside the spray bypassing

some problem of the traditional optical techniques.

I perform a further improvement in the whole test rig in order to

allow a more versatile analisys which is now able to perform the

analisys of other kind of sprays beyond diesel one.

I started the experimental analysis on an air jet. The results are shown in the figure.

Finally I started the design of a test rig for the optical analysis of diesel sprays of injectors for marine engine.

Spatial Momentum distribution

inside an air jet reconstructed by the

SMSA sensor


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First name: Alberto LAST NAME: BRIGHENTI

Topic: Validation and improvements of the thermal-hydraulic modeling of

superconducting magnets for fusion applications

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Laura SAVOLDI

Academic context

[1] L. Savoldi Richard, F. Casella, B. Fiori, R. Zanino, “The 4C Code for the Cryogenic Circuit Conductor and Coil modeling in ITER”, Cryogenics, vol. 50, pp. 167-176, 2010. [2] L. Savoldi, R. Bonifetto, R. Zanino, L. Muzzi, “Analyses of Low- and High-Margin Quench Propagation in the European DEMO TF Coil Winding Pack,” to appear in IEEE Trans. Plasma Science, 2016. [3] R. Zanino, L. Savoldi Richard, “A review of thermal-hydarulic issues in ITER cable-in-conduit conductors”, Cryogenics, vol. 46, pp. 541-555, 2006.


ENEA – Frascati (Italy)

EUROfusion – Garching (Germany)


The 4C code [1] is a complex tool for thermal-hydraulic analyses of superconducting coils for nuclear fusion devices. In the frame of the PhD topic, the main work carried out is the Analysis of the cooldown of the ITER Central Solenoid Model Coil and Insert Coil performed in 2015 at QST in Japan. A series of superconducting Insert Coils (ICs) made of different materials has been tested since 2000 at JAEA Naka in the bore of the Central Solenoid Model Coil (CSMC) at fields up to 13 T and currents up to several tens of kA, fully representative of the ITER operating conditions. For these large application magnets, the cooldown (CD) from ambient to supercritical helium (He) temperature may take a long time, of the order of several weeks, therefor it would be interesting to reduce optimally its duration. To achieve that goal, a comprehensive CD model has been implemented in the 4C code, including both the CSMC and the CSI with the respective casing and support structures. The model is validated against the experimental data of an actual CD scenario, performed from February 27th to March 19th 2015, showing a very good agreement between simulation and measurements. It is important to underline that, during the cooldown it is very important that the temperature difference across the coil is always below the value of 50 K in order to reduce the thermo-mechanical stresses on the materials. After the validation against experimental data, an optimized CD scenario for the CSMC has been designed using the model for the initial phase of the CD between 300 K and 80 K, which allows reducing the needed time by ~20%, still satisfying the major constraints on the temperature difference. The proposed optimization strategy should require the introduction of a control valve for each layer, which will be justified by the need to perform several cooldowns in a relatively limited amount of time. This work is to appear in Superconducting Science and Technology.

(a)

(b)

Figure 1. Evolution of the experimental (solid thin line) and computed (dashed thick line)

temperature at the outlet of the CSMC Inner Module (a) and Outer Module (b), respectively. The evolution of the inlet helium temperature is

also reported (this solid blue with solid symbols).


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First name: Tiziana LAST NAME: BUSO

Topic: nearly Zero Energy multi-functional Buildings - Energy and Economic

Evaluations

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Stefano P. CORGNATI

Academic context

[1] T. Buso, C. Becchio, A. Z. Yilmaz, S.P. Corgnati, Energy Efficiency and Financial Performance of a Reference Hotel - Proposing a Global Cost-Benefit Analysis, in Heiselberg, P. K. (Ed.) (2016). CLIMA 2016 - proceedings of the 12th REHVA World Congress: volume 1, Aalborg [2] T. Buso, F. Dell’Anna, C. Becchio, M.C. Bottero, S.P. Corgnati, Indoor comfort conditions and extra costs valuation in hotel rooms – evidences from guests’ willingness to pay. Accepted for Energy Research and Social Science


Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning (DIST), Politecnico di Torino

University of Cambridge

Istanbul Technical University


Three main lines of research were followed during this year of activities, contributing to the investigation of the research topic from different sides. The first line of research dealt with the systematization of the modeling method already applied in the candidate research path to model an Italian Reference Hotel (RH). It was generalized in order to be applicable to multi-functional buildings in general, aiming at contributing to a more robust picture of the European building stock. An archetype based modeling approach, founded on the distinction between typical and extra functions of multi-functional buildings, was proposed for application in building and district scale models. The second line of research followed the most traditional EU prescribed method for assessing the energy and economic performance of buildings retrofits: the cost-optimal methodology. Several retrofit options for envelope, plants, systems and renewables were tested on the Italian Reference Hotel. In parallel, the nearly Zero Energy requirements for the RH were defined, based on the most recent Italian regulation. The cost-optimal methodology was applied to spot the current gap between the cost-optimal and the nZEB level of energy performance. Calculation results showed that the fulfilment of all nZEB requirements for the Reference Hotel is feasible, but far from being cost-optimal. The last group of research activities was committed to overcome the traditional building retrofit economic valuation methods (i.e. cost-optimal), by including co-benefits. Two different strategies were proposed: a) Inclusion of co-benefits in the traditional

global cost formula. A global cost-benefit formula was proposed and applied to evaluate envelope retrofit options for the RH. Most interesting results are reported in Fig. 1;

b) A further development of the investigation embraced an econometric approach to the problem. The Contingent Valuation Method was applied to monetize comfortable indoor conditions of hotels guestrooms and compared with the operational expenses necessary to reach the optimal comfort conditions.

100

200

300

400

500

600

310 315 320 325 330 335 340 345 350

Glo

bal C

ost [€

/m2]

Primary Energy [kWh/m2y]

Cost-optimal graph for ECO EEMs and Packages of EEMs

RH

SCENARIOS

0MM

0HH

MMM

MHH

HMM

HHH

C-O

00M

00H

Δ Bsp,M

Δ Bsp,H

Fig. 1. Global cost-benefit vs. primary energy for eco EEMs and Packages of EEMs. “C-O” represent the standard curve using global cost. The other curves represent the result of applying the global-cost benefit formula with different scenarios of benefits quantification.


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First name: Mattia LAST NAME: CAGNOLI

Topic: Analysis of CSP technologies using CFD tools

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Roberto ZANINO, Laura SAVOLDI

Academic context

[1] T. Fend, P. Schwarzbözl, O. Smirnova, D. Schöllgen and C. Jakob, "Numerical investigation of flow and heat transfer in a volumetric solar receiver," Renewable Energy, no. 60, pp. 655-661, 2013. [2] A. Rojas-Morin, J. Fernandez-Reche. “Estimate of thermal fatigue lifetime for the INCONEL 625lCF plate while exposed to concentrated solar radiation” Revista de Metalurgia, vol 47, pp. 112-125, 2011 [3] Yu Qiu et al. “Study on optical and thermal performance of a linear Fresnel solar reflector using molten salt as HTF with MCRT and FVM methods” Applied Energy, vol. 146, pp. 162-173, 2015.


Centro National de Energias Renovables (CENER), Sarriguren, Spain

Plataforma Solar de Almeria (PSA), Almeria, Spain

ENEA, Casaccia, Italy


During my first PhD year, I dealt with different research activities in the CSP field, focusing on the numerical themo-hydraulic investigation of solar receivers. Multiscale analysis of open volumetric receivers: A conventional volumetric solar receiver consists of a modular, multi-scale structure, as shown in Figure 1. Starting from the results of the micro-scale CFD analysis, the receiver numerical model was scaled-up to the meso-scale (cup) and finally to the macro-scale (whole receiver), exploiting the results obtained at each scale to model the next one. The rationale of the multi-scale approach is to take into account at each scale most of the relevant phenomena that affect the receiver performance at that scale, which cannot be all considered at the larger scales. First results indicate that using the multiscale approach the whole receiver can be simulated keeping the high detail of the micro-scale analysis together with an acceptable computational cost. Linear Fresnel Collector (LFC): The linear receiver of a 1 MWe pilot power plant, based on Fresnel collectors, has been numerically analyzed. Two receiver configurations (simply encapsulated and evacuated tube) have been studied. A CFD analysis has been conducted in order to estimate the heat losses and the oil temperature profile along the receiver axis, with and without wind. Results indicate that the evacuated tube allows to reduce the heat losses, but in any case these losses represent a very small share of the absorbed solar flux. Fatigue lifetime of tubular central receivers: Thermal fatigue plays a central role in the lifetime reduction of tubular solar receivers, due to alternating heating and cooling processes. Several heating and cooling cycles has been simulated on a reference tube by means of a 3D CFD model. Then, the computed temperature field has been used as a driver to calculate the thermo-mechanical stresses using a 3D finite volume model. Finally, the component lifetime, in terms of number of cycles, has been determined with the standard method based on the Wohler diagram.

Figure 1. Multiscale structure: Zooming-in from the entire receiver, to the cup (meso-

scale), and finally to the single channel (micro-scale)

Macro-scale

Meso-scale

Micro-scale


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First name: Sabino LAST NAME: CAPUTO

Topic: Engine thermal insulation


Academic context

[1] Morel, T., Keribar, R., Blumberg, P., and Fort, E., "Examination of Key Issues in Low Heat Rejection Engines," SAE Technical Paper 860316, 1986, doi:10.4271/860316. [2] De Paola, G., Rabeau, F., Knop, V., Willems, W., Zaccardi, J.M., “Modelling investigation of design approaches for Low Heat Rejection Diesel Engines,” SIA Powertrain, Rouen, France, 2016. [3] Wakisaka, Y., Inayoshi, M., Fukui, K., Kosaka, H. et al., "Reduction of Heat Loss and Improvement of Thermal Efficiency by Application of “Temperature Swing” Insulation to Direct-Injection Diesel Engines," SAE Int. J. Engines 9(3):2016, doi:10.4271/2016-01-0661. Please keep this space as is


General Motors Global Propulsion Systems

Powertech Engineering

Gamma Technologies Please keep this space as is


The aim of the research project is the assessment of the potential in terms of fuel consumption improvements of the usage of thermal insulation coatings on the combustion chamber walls of diesel automotive engines. During this first year of my PhD, my research activities were concentrated on a preliminary literature review and on building and calibrating a simulation model for the assessment. In particular, during the first 8 months, I conducted a wide literature review, in collaboration with other Departments of PoliTo (DIMEAS, DISAT, DIGEP) to capture the latest publicly available solutions for thermal insulation in internal combustion engines. The review covered all the different aspects in order to point out all the potentialities and the issues for the different technologies available for thermal insulation. The most promising thermal barrier coating material, resulting from the papers analyzed in the literary review, turned out to be the SiRPA (Silica-Reinforced Porous anodized Aluminum). It presents the advantages of low thermal conductivity and low heat capacity, that allow not only to insulate the combustion chamber but also to prevent the intake air heating. SiRPA coatings exploit the so called “Thermo Swing Wall Insulation Technology (TSWIN)”, which amplifies the temperature fluctuation of the combustion chamber walls following the transient gas temperature. The higher peak surface temperatures during combustion and expansion strokes reduce the heat losses, while the lower surface temperatures during the intake stroke prevent the intake air heating and the resulting decrease in volumetric efficiency and increases in NOx and soot emissions, which are quite typical of more convectional ceramic coatings. In the second part of the year, I worked on building and

calibrating a 1-D engine simulation model, coupled with an

engine thermal model in GT-SUITE simulation environment, to

investigate the impact of different thermal insulation solutions on

the complete engine system. Preliminary simulation result for a

0.1 mm SIRPA coating on piston top highlighted

a BSFC reduction of about 0.85% for part load points without

EGR and of about 0.70% for part load points with EGR, with NOx emissions increases from 1% to 4.5 in good

agreement with results reported literature such as [3].

Include a nice

picture of your

face, if you like

Piston surface temperatures

(reference base piston in red and piston with 0.1 mm SiRPA coating

in blue);


18 | P a g e

First name: Marco LAST NAME: CARAMELLO

Topic: Thermal-hydraulics of safety systems for advanced nuclear reactors

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): M. DE SALVE, C. BERTANI

S

Academic context

[1] Caramello M, Bertani C, De Salve M, Panella B, (2016) Applied Thermal Engineering 101 p. 693-698 [2] Bertani C, De Salve M, Caramello M et al., (2016) 34th UIT Heat Transfer Conference, p. 334-343 [3] D’Auria F, Galassi G M, (2010) Nuclear Engineering and Design 240 p. 3267-3293 Please keep this space as is


Ansaldo Nucleare

ENEA

SIET Please keep this space as is


In the previous years the work of my PhD focused on the numerical simulation of innovative safety systems

and components able to remove decay heat from the primary system of advanced nuclear reactors. The

decay heat removal system for ALFRED reactor has been taken as reference for my PhD study. Majority

of the studies were assessed by means of the system code RELAP5. For a complete qualification of safety

systems and components numerical simulations must be coupled with experimental activities in order to

clearly demonstrate the applicability of these systems.

This is particularly important when these systems adopt

innovative solutions in terms of components geometry and

physical phenomena. It is then a natural step of my study to

move in the design of experimental facilities for a proof of

concept. Experimental facilities are scaled with respect to the

real size of the system, and the scale must follow rigorous

methodologies to capture all the relevant phenomena.

One of the first activities of this year has been therefore to

review the scientific literature and common practices adopted

in the past to scale passive safety systems. As a result,

I determined the applicable methodologies already available

that I could use to perform the design and missing methods

I had to develop for the specific case of my study.

A methodology to scale heat transfer and fluid flow when water,

steam and noncondensables are present has been developed

and applied. A conceptual facility has been designed and built

in the laboratories of Turin’s Polytecnic and a larger facility –sponsored by the ministry of economic

development- is foreseen in SIET laboratories in Piacenza as part of SIRIO project. For the first facility, my

work consisted in the design and sensitivity studies by means of RELAP5. The work highlighted the

operational limits of the facility and the impact of some physical quantities on heat transfer and natural

circulation. For the larger facility to be hosted in SIET laboratories I applied the knowledge of scaling

analysis for the facility design, also considering constrains related to budget and differences with respect

to the real configuration of the plant. The deformation of the scale due to these shortcomings has been

assessed. Subsequently, I developed a RELAP5 model to study the operation of the facility and compared

it with previous simulations related to the real plant.

RELAP5-3D model for SIET facility


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First name: Angela LAST NAME: CARBONI

Topic: Rail-road combined transport: Integrated Smart Sensing (ISS) to support intermodal terminals, throughput and logistics energy efficiency

Course year: 1st Tutor: Bruno DALLA CHIARA

Academic context

[1] Ricci, S. et al. (2016), Assessment methods for innovative operational measures and technologies for intermodal freight terminals, Transportation Research Procedia, 14, pp.2840–2849.

[2] Dalla Chiara B., Rose G. (2015), Special Issue: Energy Systems in Transport Systems and the Role of ITS, Editorial, IET Intelligent Transport Systems, Volume 9, Issue 5, pp. 477-478

[3] Carboni A., Deflorio F. (2017), Quality and energy evaluation of rail-road terminals by microsimulation, Transport Infrastructure and Systems: Proceedings of the AIIT International Congress on Transport Infrastructure and Systems (Rome, Italy, 10-12 April 2017), Editors G. Dell'Acqua and F. Wegman, CRC Press, ISBN 9781138030091


Hupac S.p.A., Busto Arsizio-Gallarate (project within the Cluster ITS Italy 2020)


My research activity is focused on Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) for applications in intermodal transport for freight. My main and final goal is to evaluate, through simulation and analytical approach, the effects of possible ITS applications on intermodal terminals, in terms of throughput and energy efficiency. The research includes other considerations about rail-road combined transport, therefore not only focusing on the nodes but also on the entire network and paths, to assess the technical, economic and energetic competitiveness against other alternative modes. The initial state of the art covered: definition, actual and future scenario of intermodal freight transport; guidelines, directives, rules and regulations in this field; KPIs for intermodal terminal; ITS for automatic identification; methods for terminal simulations. At the same time, I examined those situations where rail-road combined transport can be cost-effective as an alternative to the full-road solution. If the pre and post rail phases, covered by road haulage, are too extended or simply onerous - once the weight to external costs (in particular the typical pollution of internal combustion engines and consequent possible effects) is calculated as appropriate - the economic advantages of the rail section may not be sufficient to vouchsafe the overall efficiency and convenience of the combined transport. The initial activities carried out during the time spent at the road-rail terminal Hupac at Busto Arsizio-Gallarate enabled to rebuild the detail internal phases of the terminal process. An important point in my research activities is the simulation of terminals. The method, at the moment investigated, for analysing an inland terminal is its modelling by traffic microsimulation. The relevant features of the typical phases of the internal process are represented and the traffic flow data of arrivals are disaggregated by specific classification. The model is used to compare the quality and the energy performance in different scenarios, by changing the arrival rates for vehicles and by reducing the duration of check-out as well as of handling operations.

Politecnico di Torino, December 2016


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First name: Annalisa LAST NAME: Cardellini

Topic: Modeling multi-scale phenomena in nanoparticle suspensions

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): P. ASINARI, E. CHIAVAZZO

Academic context

[1] Prasher, R. et al, Nano letters, 2006. 6(7):1529-1534.

[2] Moradi, A. et al, Journal of. Nanoscience and Nanotechnol., 2015. 15(5): 3488.

[3] Cardellini, A. et al, Physics Letters A, 2016. 380(20): 1735-1740.


Daniel Blankschtein, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambrige (MA), United States.


Trying to prevent and avoid the self-organization of nanoparticles (NPs) dispersed in a fluid has traditionally

been the main issue for stabilizing nano-suspensions, foams and emulsions. On the other hand, the

aggregation of building-blocks into mesoscopic structures allows to enhance the thermal properties of nano-

suspensions providing nanofluids extremely performing in energy applications [1-2]. In this context,

understanding the mechanisms of nanoparticle interactions is essential to predict the shape of assembled

cluster and hence the related thermal, optical and

mechanical properties.

Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations and theoretical

modelling studies are combined to understand the main

nanoscale phenomena in nanoparticle suspensions [3]

and their effects on building-block interactions. First, the

pair Potential of Mean Forces (pPMF) is evaluated

between couples of NPs dispersed in aqueous solutions.

A sensitivity analysis is carried out by altering the

hydrophilicity of the nanoparticles, their surface charge

and the salt concentration of the bulk solutions. Second,

the role of anionic (Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate -SDS-) and

cationic (Dodecyl Trimethyl Ammomium -DTAB-)

surfactants, added to increase the stability of nano-

suspensions, is considered. After evaluating the free

energy of SDS transferred on the NP surface, the

adsorption isotherm is obtained (Figure 1). Relating the

quantity of adsorbent to the bulk concentration of

surfactants allows both to investigate the configuration of surfactants wrapping the NPs and to guide a rational

design of nano-suspensions. Finally the Coated Nano Particles (CNPs) obtained after the adsorption of

surfactants are taken into account for evaluating the pPMF. All the study cases for the NP interactions are then

compared with the classical Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek (DLVO) theory and remarkable

discrepancies have emerged, underling the limits of a continuum theory to model the colloidal interactions at

the nanoscale. In particular, the results highlight that the assumption of an uniform and continuum media and

the hypothesis of homogeneous particles present in the DLVO theory break down at the solid-liquid nanoscale

interface and by considering patchy NPs after surfactant adsorption. Thus, a Coarse Grained (CG) modelling

approach has been proposed to take into account of the hydration phenomena and to the presence of patchy

colloids in a nano-suspensions.

Figure 1: The adsorption isotherm of SDS

at the nanoparticle interface is computed by

combining MD simulations and molecular

thermodynamics theory.


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First name: Stefano LAST NAME: CARLI

Topic: Simplified modeling of heat transfer problems at the interface between different subsystems of a superconducting tokamak

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Laura SAVOLDI, Fabio SUBBA

Academic context

[1] R. A. Pitts et al., J. Nucl. Mat 438 (2013) S48 [2] A. S. Kukushkin et al., Fusion Engineering Design 86 (2011) 2865 [3] S. Wiesen, et al., J. Nucl. Mat 463 (2015) 480.


ITER Organization, CS 90 046, 13067 St Paul Lez Durance Cedex, France


In the ITER tokamak fusion reactor. the baseline plasma scenario is designed to place the divertor strike points on the “V-shaped” region formed by the vertical targets (VT) equipped with tungsten (W) monoblock technology (10 MWm-2 steady state) and the reflector plates (RP), armoured with flat W tiles and using hypervapotron cooling tachnology (5 MWm-2 steady state, 10 MWm-2 for 2 s) [1], see Fig.1. The divertor plasma performance under these conditions has been extensively studied (see e.g. [2]) in the past years using the SOLPS4.3 plasma boundary code. However, the strike points can move from their baseline location in case of a loss of vertical control, or a deliberate requirement (e.g. a few tiles damaged in the nominal strike point areas). In such cases, the strike points would move down on the VTs and even on the RPs, but there are no available studies in these conditions. Therefore, using the recently developed SOLPS-ITER code [3], six parametric scenarios have been set up, in which the strike points have been rigidly displaced down on the VT by some extent and even fall on the inner RP. The evolution of the target loading profiles, detachment degree and radiative and CX fluxes to the RPs are monitored as the RP-VT corner is approached. Several work sessions with ITER staff have been required to properly define the input parameters before the final simulations, which require ~2 months to converge, could start. The post-processing routines already available in SOLPS-ITER for evaluating the heat flux on the walls have been revised and a new dedicated set has been developed and implemented. Moreover, a suitable ray-tracing tool based on a Monte Carlo method, which was developed at PoliTo, has been further optimized to match the SOLPS-ITER output data for the tokamak wall geometry and plasma radiation sources. This has allowed to obtain detailed heat load profiles on the VTs and RPs. In addition, a simplified heat transfer model has been developed and made available in SOLPS-ITER for the cooling circuit of the VTs and RPs. Such tool adopts the finite element approach to evaluate the 2D temperature distribution on a suitable number of cross sections along the cooling path of the monoblack or hypervapotron. A simple energy balance is used to model the energy exchange of the solids with the cooling water flowing in the inner pipes. The FE model considers the full cooling geometry and engineering heat transfer coefficient, and is used to assess the operational limits of the plasma facing components (PFCs). Of particular interest is the assessment of the W temperature, even far from the melting point, because of the recrystallization process which can occur at temperatures above ~1200 °C and compromise the W mechanical and thermal resistance.

Fig.1. Baseline ITER divertor

configuration


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First name: Dominic LAST NAME: CARON

Topic: Multiphysics analysis of Generation IV reactors

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Sandra DULLA, Laura SAVOLDI

Academic context

[1] Bonifetto, R., Dulla, S., Ravetto, P., Savoldi Richard, L., Zanino, R. A full-core coupled neutronic/thermal-hydraulic code for the modeling of lead-cooled nuclear fast reactors. Nuclear Engineering and Design, 261, 85-94 (2013). [2] Fei, T., Mohamed A., Kim, T. Neutronics Benchmark Specifications for EBR-II Shutdown Heat Removal Test SHRT-45R - Revision 1. ANL-ARC-228 (rev. 1) (2013). [3] Tobias, A. Decay heat. Progress in Nuclear Energy, 5, 1-93 (1980).


ENEA C.R. Bologna, C.R. Brasimone

IAEA


In the design and safety studies of innovative nuclear fission systems, multiphysics analyses are of importance in order to describe correctly the spatial-temporal behavior of relevant physical quantities. The research activity in the year 2016 is oriented towards the continued development of the neutronics modelling capabilities of the FRENETIC (Fast REactor NEutronics/thermal-hydraulICs) code [1] and its application to liquid-metal-cooled fast spectrum systems designed in hexagonal-axial geometry. The work accomplished in this academic year includes the continuation of the validation of the integral code in the context of a coordinated research project of the International Atomic Energy Agency [2], the development and implementation of a method to model the coupled neutron-photon dynamics [3] and the development and characterisation of an adaptive time step selection technique for use in the quasi-static method. As to the code validation, the neutronics and the thermal-hydraulics aspects of the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II are identified and described, beginning from the true geometry and the actual materials of the reactor, as well as the conditions of the experiment, and ending in the creation of the appropriate input files and libraries for the code. The computed results, as compared to the experimental measurements, demonstrate the capability of the modelling approach to correctly describe the principal physics aspects, while indicating also additional physics models to be implemented in order to improve the results. Motivated by the outcome of the benchmarking activity, a model for the effects of photon heat deposition is developed with the requirement that it be suitable for use in spatial-kinetics analyses. An appropriate physical model for the production of photons in neutron-nuclear interactions is identified and an appropriate set of balance equations are written; the neutron and photon balance equations are solved simultaneously, allowing to describe coupled neutron-photon dynamics. Application to test problems shows that the proper modelling of this phenomenon can significantly affect the results. The objective of the adaptive time step selection technique is to optimise the quasi-static method through the automatic identification of time steps in order to provide both an accurate and an efficient solution of the neutron and delayed neutron precursor balance equations. Different metrics by which to estimate the bounds of the local error are proposed and studied and different control algorithms by which to regulate the variation of the time step are analysed. Application to numeric test problems demonstrates that the technique is capable of providing an accurate solution with a substantial reduction in the computational burden.

Relative variation of the shape of the power without (left) and with (right) the inclusion of photon transport after 10 s of a representative transient.


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First name: Ylenia LAST NAME: CASCONE

Topic: Optimisation of building envelope components with responsive materials

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): M. PERINO, A. CAPOZZOLI



[1] Stevanović S., 2013. Optimization of passive solar design strategies: A review. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 25, 177-196. [2] Al-Sanea S.A., Zedan M.F., 2011. Improving thermal performance of building walls by optimizing insulation layer distribution and thickness for same thermal mass. Applied Energy 88, 3113-3124. [3] El Mankibi M., Zhai Z., Al-Saadi S. N., Zoubir A., 2015. Numerical modeling of thermal behaviors of active multi-layer living wall. Energy and Buildings 106, 96-110. Please keep this space as is




To successfully apply responsive technologies to high-performance buildings, the application of optimisation algorithms is potentially more effective than the common ''trial and error'' design approach. Moreover, they can provide a deeper knowledge of the problem under investigation. Goal of the research activity was to conceive and set-up a multi-objective optimisation procedure able to support the development of responsive building elements and to optimise the energy efficiency of buildings. Specifically, the attention was focused on the application of optimisation analyses for the energy retrofit of office buildings. In a first step, the procedure was set up and, subsequently, it was tested on a case study. An archetype office building realised in Italy during the period 1946-1970 was selected. The analyses were carried out in the climates of Palermo, Torino and Oslo. The same building was adopted for all locations, but its envelope properties were differentiated by country. The optimisation analyses were performed considering three retrofit options on the opaque envelope components; intervention on: 1) the external side of the wall (when interrupting or relocating the office activities during the renovation works was not possible), 2) the internal side of the wall (for buildings subjected to laws on the conservation of historical buildings), or 3) both sides of the wall. Moreover, either the same intervention for all the façades or differentiated by exposition were analysed. In both cases, a maximum of two PCM materials could be selected by the optimisation algorithm. Window type, wall configuration, U-value of the wall, insulation and internal lining materials, and PCMs' thermo-physical properties (peak and melting temperature range, latent heat of fusion and thermal conductivity) were considered as optimisation variables. With regard to the optimisation objectives, the problem was faced under two points of view. On one side, optimisations were run with three objectives: minimise the energy for heating, cooling and the investment cost. On the other side, the optimisations were performed with two objectives: minimise primary energy consumption and global cost. When the primary energy was directly addressed, the application of the “low-temperature” PCM guaranteed the best trade-off for reducing the energy consumption. When heating and cooling energy need were separately analysed, the “low-temperature” PCM was preferred in Palermo, where winter conditions were milder and the PCM could hence work effectively. The opposite occurred in Torino, were summer conditions were milder and the “high-temperature” PCM could have a more stabilising effect on the internal air temperature.

Fig. 1 – Pareto-front comparison between intervention types

and examples of post-optimisation analyses.


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First name: Sara LAST NAME: COSENTINO

Topic: Optimal design and operation of energy systems through reduced order

modelling

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): R. BORCHIELLINI, A. SCIACOVELLI, V.

VERDA

Academic context

[1] Colella F., Rein G., Borchiellini R., Torero J.L. A Novel Multiscale Methodology for Simulating Tunnel Ventilation Flows during Fires. Fire Technology 47 (2016), 221-253. [2] McGrattan, K., Hostikka, S., McDermott, R., Floyd, J., Weinschenk, C., Overholt, K., 2016. Fire Dynamics Simulator User’s Guide, sixth ed. NIST and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. [3] Ang C. D., Rein G., Peiro J., Harrison R. Simulating longitudinal ventilation flows in long tunnels: Comparison of full CFD and multi-scale modelling approaches in FDS6. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 52 (2016), 119-12.


Musinet Engineering S.p.A.

S.I.T.A.F. S.p.A.

JVVA-FIRE & RISK-


Combined 1D-3D codes are particularly advantageous in applications such the analysis of smoke diffusion in

skyscrapers and the optimal design and operation of ventilation systems in road tunnels and metro stations in

case of fire. Quite recently, the integration of a CFD commercial package and a 1-D network model has been

applied and tested in the tunnels ventilation field presenting however some limitations in the features of the

one-dimensional model, particularly concerning the diffusion problem and the system topology [1]. On the other

side, the Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS), an open source CFD package developed by NIST and VTT, is one of

the most widespread software in the scientific community and it can be used for the multi-level modelling. Its

1-D model (HVAC routine) is limited to fluid flow applications as recently tested in a work developed at the

Imperial College of London [3]. My research work has been focused first on the improvement of a 1D code

previously developed at Politecnico di Torino, in order to consider the mass transport. The 1-D model has been

then applied for the analysis of multiple operational configurations of the Frejus road tunnel. The code has

been then fully integrated in FDS In order to obtain a free multi-level simulator that will be accessible to the

community of fire safety research and engineering. This tool is based on a direct coupling by means of a

Dirichlet-Neumann strategy. At each 1-D-CFD interface, the exchange information about the flow occurs

prescribing thermo-fluid dynamic boundary conditions. The 1-D mass transport equation computes the diffusion

of the exhaust gas from the CFD domain and the relative

concentration, which is particularly interesting in the case

smoke back layering. The Monte Cuneo road tunnel has

been considered as an application of the multi-level

modelling for the re-design of the semi-transversal

ventilation system. The zero velocity in the fire area

requires the installation of large dumpers and proper

changes in the operating point of the axial fans with a

significant improvement of safety conditions in case of

fire.

Figure 1: Multi-Level Fire Dynamic Simulator


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First name: Stefano l LAST NAME: COSS

Topic: Methodologies for optimal inter-model energy services

Course year:2nd Tutor(s): Vittorio VERDA, Olivier LE-CORRE

Academic context

[1] Lozano, M.A., Valero, A. Theory of exergetic cost. Energy 1993, Volume 18, No. 9, 939-960 [2] Guelpa, E., Toro, C., Sciacovelli, A., Melli, R., Sciubba, E., Verda, V. (2016). Optimal operation of large district heating networks through fast fluid-dynamic simulation. Energy,102, 586-595 [3] Jamali-Zghal, N., et al., 2013. Carbon footprint and emergy combination for ecoenvironmental assessment of cleaner heat production. J. Clean. Prod. 47,446e456.


Ecole des Mines de Nantes

Select+ PhD program

InnoEnergy PhD program


Based on the research group of Vittorio Verda, research continued in the fields of district heating networks and thermoeconomic analysis. Based on the works previously carried out by members of the research group, the DHN (district heating network) of Turin was taken as the basis for further developments. The first activity was the analysis of possible waste heat integration into the Turin DHN. In order to do that, the DHN model was further development using a general industrial heat source as a testing application. Through the development, it was possible to simulate the effect of a low-temperature heat integration onto the network behavior including both mass flows and temperature values of the system. It was therefore possible to investigate the needed increase of mass flow of the system, while lowering the overall network temperature. The results were published during the ECOS 2016 conference under the title: “Industrial prosumer integration for providing energy service to district heating networks”. Furthermore, the goal was to apply the thermoeconomic analysis to the DHN model for investigating the costs of heat supply based on its thermodynamic behavior. This applies for both the DHN in normal condition as well as when an industrial plant is connected. It is therefore interesting to investigate, if from a thermoeconomic viewpoint, the integration is favorable. In order to achieve that goal, the principles of exergetic costing were applied to the DHN model, which includes the calculation exergetic flows through the network. Based on the theory of exergetic costs, the thermoeconomic balances are applied to the nodes of the network, which also represent the consumers. Through the application of those balances to the network nodes, it’s possible to determine a thermoeconomic costs for each user in the network under different conditions in time. The results are currently taken as a basis for a new research paper, which is going to be published in the next couple of months. The aim to include both the thermoeconomic methods as well as the integration of industrial waste heat and draw conclusions on the usefulness of different system designs. The novelty of the approach lies especially in the fact that the developed thermoeconomic approach is able to analyses large district heating networks, like the one of Turin, which is among the largest in Europe with a peak load of about 1.5 GWth. This is assured through the consistent formulation of thermoeconomic costs of network nodes, which are used as representation in such graph-based network models.

Figure 1-System model for waste heat

integration into DHN


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First name: Claudio LAST NAME: CUBITO

Topic: A policy-oriented vehicle simulation approach for estimating the CO2 emissions from hybrid light duty vehicles

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Federico MILLO

Academic context

[1] Ciuffo, B., Marotta, A., Tutuianu, M., Anagnostopoulos, K., Fontaras, G., Pavlovic, J., Serra, S., Tsiakmakis, S., and Zacharof, N., “The delopment of the Word-Wide Harmonized test Procedure for Light Duty Vehicles (WLTP) and the pathway for its implementation in the EU legislation”, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, pp 110-118, 2015 [2] Fontanaras, G. and Dilara, P., The evolution of European passenger car characteristics 2000–2010 and its effects on real-world CO2 emissions and CO2 reduction policy, Energy Policy, Volume 49, October 2012, Pages 719–730 [3] Marotta, A., Pavlovic, J., Ciuffo, B., Serra, S. and Fontaras, G., “Gaseous Emissions from Light-Duty Vehicles: Moving from NEDC to the New WLTP Test Procedure”, Environmental Science & Technology, 2015


Joint Research Centre (JRC) – European Commission


Pollutants emissions and fuel economy tests for passenger cars differ from region to region of the world, since different driving condition and vehicle fleet characterize different geographical areas. In particular, the European type approval procedure for passenger cars uses as reference cycle the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC), which is nowadays not representative of real driving conditions. Therefore, the European Commission has planned to introduce the Worldwide Harmonized Light Duty Test Procedure (WLTP) from September 2017. As a consequence, the CO2 emissions targets should be adapted, since the current 2020 goals are based on NEDC assessment. The European Commission and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) are therefore developing a simulation tool called CO2MPAS (CO2 Module for Passenger and commercial vehicles Simulation) for the correlation of CO2 emissions from WLTP to NEDC, which will be used for the type approval of European passenger cars from 2017, avoiding expensive duplicate test campaigns for car manufactures. However, the implementation of CO2MPASS has so far involved solely conventional light duty vehicles. Within this context, a research project has been carried out in closed collaboration between Politecnico di Torino and JRC for the development of CO2MPAS for Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). The correlation model is based on a unique simplified physical approach, which should be able to detect the powertrain behavior along the NEDC cycle from the physical measurements along the new driving cycle, estimating with a good accuracy the CO2 emissions (within ± 3 g/km). This research activity was supported by an extensive test campaign carried out at the Vehicle Emissions Laboratory (VELA) of JRC, analyzing two different hybrid powertrains, the Toyota Yaris Hybrid and the Golf GTE PHEV, representative of the actual technical portfolio. The predictive capabilities of the model were validated considering also the “Cold Start” effect for both applications, producing an error of 1.5 g/km for the Toyota Yaris and of 0.8 g/km for the Golf GTE.

Tests on chassis dyno at JRC.


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First name: Chiara LAST NAME: DELMASTRO

Topic: Advanced input modeling for urban energy planning

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): S. CORGNATI, A. CARPIGNANO, M.

GARGIULO,

Academic context

[1] Lundström, L., Wallin, F. (2016). Heat demand profiles of energy conservation measures in buildings and their impact on a district heating system, Applied Energy 161, 290–299.

[2] Becchio C., Corgnati S.P., Delmastro C., Fabi, V., Lombardi, P. (2016). The role of nearly-zero energy buildings in

the transition towards Post-Carbon Cities, Sustainable Cities and Society, vol. 27, pp. 324-337.

[3] Delmastro C., Mutani G., Corgnati S.P. (2016). A supporting method for selecting cost-optimal energy retrofit policies

for residential buildings at the urban scale, Energy Policy, 99, pp.42-56. I



International Energy Agency, ETP Division

IVL, Swedish Environmental Research Institute

E4SMA,



The goal of the thesis is to develop an innovative methodological approach for performing the urban energy planning

procedure from a cross-sectoral system perspective, with a specific focus on the built environment of district heated cities.

The methodology is divided into two main phases: preparation phase and detailed analysis phase.

The preparation phase proposes a new method that integrates different existing approaches (GIS and simulation) for

characterizing the built environment (energy demand) and the generation mix (energy supply) and for identifying the

principal criticalities to be addressed in the next phase. The preparation phase has been ultimated.

The detailed analysis phase develops a comprehensive urban energy system model by using the TIMES model generator

in order to define long-term optimized investment plans. The model is based on linear programming optimization and allows

finding a suitable mix of energy supply and demand choices to support the local planning process. Particular attention is

required for the definition of the model’s structure able to catch spatial differences among building types, socio-economic

conditions of population and

supply options. The detailed

analysis phase is still ongoing

and will be completed at the end

of the third year. By exploiting

the preparation phase’s results,

the structure of the urban TIMES

model have been defined and

the calibration for the base year

(2015) is concluded. The base

year Reference Energy System

describes all the activities of the

building sector (divided in non-

residential and residential

characterized by respectively 4

and 12 building types) from

extraction to the final use of

energy. The model considers 83

energy commodities, 133

processes, and 40 timeslices.

Example of the effects of new investments and demand reduction on the heat production cost

https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=56896220300&eid=2-s2.0-84989267431





https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84988737053&origin=resultslist&sort=plf-f&src=s&sid=619D755E230451BEE1B3E7425AAEE561.wsnAw8kcdt7IPYLO0V48gA%3a470&sot=autdocs&sdt=autdocs&sl=18&s=AU-ID%2856469598300%29&relpos=0&citeCnt=0&searchTerm=

https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84988737053&origin=resultslist&sort=plf-f&src=s&sid=619D755E230451BEE1B3E7425AAEE561.wsnAw8kcdt7IPYLO0V48gA%3a470&sot=autdocs&sdt=autdocs&sl=18&s=AU-ID%2856469598300%29&relpos=0&citeCnt=0&searchTerm=


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First name: Alessio LAST NAME: DESANDO

Topic: Aircraft engine efficiency improvement through an innovative Active Clearance

Control system

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Elena CAMPAGNOLI

Academic context

[1] Lattime, S. B., Steinetz, B. M., “Turbine Engine Clearance Control Systems: Current Practices and Future Directions”, NASA Technical Memorandum TM-2002-211794, 2002.

[2] Zuckerman, N., Lior, N., “Jet Impingement Heat Transfer: Physics, Correlations, and Numerical Modeling”, Advances in Heat Transfer, 39, 565-631, 2006.

[3] Hwang, S. D., Lee, C. H., Cho, H. H., “Heat transfer and flow structures in axisymmetric impinging jet controlled by vortex pairing”, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow, 22, 293-300, 2001.


GE Avio


The present research activity has the objective to improve the efficiency of the current large aircraft engines, focusing on the optimization of the Active Clearance Control (ACC) system for Low Pressure Turbines (LPT). The ACC system is a cooling system acting on the turbine clearances (i.e. the gaps occurring between the rotor and the stator responsible of hot gases leakages and lower efficiency), which continuously change during the several flight phases. The main purpose of this system is the optimization of these gaps, necessary to avoid blades damages, with a special attention to the cruise phase, the longer flight phase. Large aircraft LPT ACC systems utilize the air impingement case cooling technique. The present project focuses on improving the current configuration, by introducing an innovative design approach. The first phase accomplished was the literature survey, aimed to point out the main topics related to the subject, which are the bled air source, the pipeline heat pick-up due to the other engine components and the correlations utilized to describe the heat transfer related to the jet impingement. Then, a DOE on a 1D numerical model has been carried out, using the software FloInhance (provided by GE Avio) to evaluate the ACC fluid-dynamics. This investigation led to the identification of those parameters most affecting the available mass flow rate for the impingement cooling. The next step was to introduce the pipeline heat pick-up into the previous DOE. This analysis required the development of a tool capable to integrate the ACC fluid-dynamics (managed by FloInhance) with the thermal calculations carried out by QUIPTA, a GE Avio tool developed on VBA. The developed tool is capable to provide a detailed analysis of the temperature and mass flow rate distribution among the several ACC pipelines, pointing out their circumferential non-uniformity and highlighting which parameters may reduce this undesired effect. The availability of these detailed data represents an upgrade of the current state of the art enhancing the possibilities to improve the ACC system design. The reason is the numerical thermal models previously developed on Patran are only 2D extruded and provide a single temperature value, instead of the entire circumferential temperature distribution. The obtained data will be used to perform a detailed analysis of the heat transfer on the turbine case by means of the impingement correlations.

ACC system: architecture and main topics.


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First name: Domenico LAST NAME: DIRUTIGLIANO

Topic: Performance modeling of low energy buildings

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Vincenzo CORRADO

Academic context

[1] V. Corrado, I. Ballarini, D. Dirutigliano, G. Murano, Verification of the new Ministerial Decree about minimum requirements for the energy performance of buildings, Energy Procedia 101C (2016) pp. 200-207. [2] G. Murano, V. Corrado, D. Dirutigliano, The new Italian climatic data and their effect in the calculation of the energy performance of buildings, Energy Procedia 101C (2016) pp. 153-160. [3] J.A. Clarke, J.L.M. Hensen, Integrated building performance simulation: Progress, prospects

and requirements, Building and Environment 91 (2015) 294–306.


RWTH Aachen University - Institute of Energy Efficiency and Sustainable Building, Germany.


The PhD research is focused on the role of building performance simulation to evaluate the sustainability of both new and existing buildings. Models with different levels of detail were taken into considerations. Within the project "EnEff:Campus RoadMap" at RWTH Aachen University, the activity focused on the development of simplified models for building energy performance assessment at urban scale. The project goal is to reduce the primary energy consumption of the Campus by 50% until 2020 and it is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economy. The optimization process includes the renovation of building envelopes followed by the refurbishment of the HVAC systems and supply-networks. A critical aspect for creating a model at urban scale consists of the acquisition of the building data which affect the reliability of the models. For shortening the data collection time and enriching the initial data, statistical data were used. To this purpose a tool for energy analysis and simulation for efficient retrofit was realized by E.ON (IT Department of RWTH Aachen University). It needs only a few parameters to generate Low Order Building models, which are run in dynamic regime to obtain the energy performance. The complexity of the project requires: linking different tools, checking the correspondence of the models with the starting data, comparing the final energy performance with the energy consumptions and defining energy efficiency measures. These topics have been tackled on during the collaboration, which continues still today. Concerning the development and evaluation of detailed models of advanced components, two issues were taken into consideration: the influence of climatic data on energy performance and the applicability of the Reference Building (RB) approach to evaluate the design of nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEBs). As regards the first issue, the effects of the outdoor climatic data both on heat transfer through the building envelope, on the efficiency of HVAC systems and on thermal/photovoltaic solar systems performance were investigated. The research compared the climatic data developed by the U.S. DOE for the Energy Plus software, for calculations under dynamic conditions, and the new climate data base introduced by UNI 10349-1:2016. As regards the RB method introduced in 2015 Italian legislation, this approach was investigated using the standard quasi-steady state calculation method. The research showed the critical points and the lack of accuracy of this method in evaluating the nZEBs. For this reason, the RB approach has been combined with the dynamic simulation so as to fit with more accuracy the energy performance of the nZEBs. New legislative parameters, indications and limits will appear from this study.

GIS view of a district in Aachen

representing the specific heating

energy consumption in colour code.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132315001602

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360132315001602

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03601323


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First name: Stefano LAST NAME: Fantucci

Topic: Advanced technologies for the energy efficient retrofit of opaque building

envelopes

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Valentina SERRA, Marco PERINO

Academic context

[1] Final report for the IEA/ECBCS Annex 39 HiPTI-project (High Performance Thermal Insulation for Buildings and Building Systems), 2005 [2] A. Lorenzati, S. Fantucci, A. Capozzoli, M. Perino, Experimental and numerical investigation of thermal bridging effects of jointed Vacuum Insulation Panels. Energy and Buildings 111 (2016); 164-175 [3] B.P. Jelle, S.E. Kalnæs, T. Gao, Low-emissivity materials for building applications: A state of the-art review and future research perspectives. Energy and Buildings 96 (2015) 329–356


University of Padua, Department of Industrial Engineering, Padova, Italy

University of Bologna, Department of Industrial Engineering, Bologna Italy

FIW (Research Institute for Thermal Insulation), München, Germany


The energy retrofit of existing buildings is one of the key issues in EU countries: policies and EU funded projects are mainly devoted to supporting the renovation process of the highly energy consuming building stock. The identification of the right strategy to be adopted on an existing envelope is a quite complex task, since space saving and compatibility should be carefully evaluated. In this direction, a number of advanced envelope technologies is under development and need to be explored. In particular focused investigations are needed in order to identify the real thermal performance of these solutions when exposed to real boundary conditions and to define guidelines for their proper applications in buildings. Moreover the lack of specific standards represents an important barrier to be overcome. In this framework the research activities have been focused on 5 different advanced technologies: 1.Vacuum Insulation Panels (VIP); 2.Advanced plastering/rendering materials; 3.Phase Change Materials (PCM); 4.Reflective materials and technologies; 5.Opaque ventilated adaptive façades. The analyses were carried out for each technology, starting from the material level to the building level crossing the component level. At material level the analyses were carried out starting from the experimental thermal characterization of the material properties. Moreover the analyses were extended to a building component including the material/technology under investigation. To evaluate and characterize the thermal behavior under real operating conditions, heat, air and moisture simulation models were used after validation through experimental data. Furthermore, energy simulations at the building scale were carried out in order to quantify the impact on the building energy consumption and on the indoor thermal comfort. The research activity on advanced building envelope technologies highlights potentials and drawbacks; as main outlooks the results obtained should be useful to:

- evaluate their thermal performance under real operating conditions; - provide general guidelines for the correct design of advanced

building envelope components; - contribute to the definition/improvement of international standards

to include advanced technologies.

Research approach: from

material to system level


31 | P a g e

First name: Maria LAST NAME: FERRARA

Topic: Simulation-based optimization of high-performing building in future energy scenarios

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): E. FABRIZIO, M. FILIPPI, M. PERINO

Academic context

[1] M.Bayraktar, E.Fabrizio, M.Perino, The “extended building energy hub”: A new method for the simultaneous optimization of energy demand and energy supply in buildings, HVAC&R Research 18 (2012), 67-87 [2] S. Attia, M. Hamdy, W. O’Brien, S. Carlucci. Assessing gaps and needs for integrating building performance optimization tools in net zero energy buildings design, Energy and Buildings 60 (2013) 110-124. [3] M. Ferrara, E. Fabrizio, J. Virgone, M. Filippi, A simulation-based optimization method for cost-optimal analysis of nearly Zero Energy Buildings, Energy and Buildings 84 (2014) 442-457


Princeton University, CHAOS Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, USA

CETHIL – Centre d’Energétique et de Thermique de Lyon, Lyon, France

IEA ECES Annex 31 – Energy storage with energy efficient buildings and districts: optimization and automation and IEA Annex 64 – Low Exergy communities


The advancements in the 2nd year of PhD can be summarized in the following topics:

Analysis of the nZEB optimization problem The problem of nZEB design was studied and formalized and some studies focused of the behavior of evolutionary algorithms in solving this kind of optimization problems were devoted to optimize the process in terms of accuracy and computational efforts The analysis was extended to include smart energy systems in the problem and to investigate the mutual relationship between design variables in different case-study buildings at different scales (school classroom –single-family building –multi-family building). The energy minimization objective has been integrated to comfort analysis through the set up of a methodology for the analysis of the design space and the application of comfort filters (Fig.1).

Future scenarios Concerning new technologies, comprehensive study on potential energy and cost savings related to the use of smart heating and cooling system (smart control and machine learning) has been performed in order to understand how to include such technologies in the building design optimization studies. Concerning environmental issue, data related to current climate projections (IPCC Fifth Assessment (AR5), CISBE research projects) were collected in order to set up considering climate change in weather data for simulating the building performance in the future and test the resilience of nZEB to climate variations. Concerning economic issues, future trends of financial parameters (market interest rate, inflation rate, energy price, technology costs) in future scenarios are under development.

From building to district A calibrated simulation model for the study of the new Architecture Laboratory as part of the Princeton University campus district was created and the concept of a district dispatch node with the aim of studying the resource sharing between buildings and minimizing the environmental and economic cost of the district.

Fig. 1. Integrated energy and comfort analysis of the design space of the school classroom simulation-based optimization problem – primary energy demand (PEtot, black line) vs thermal (PORII, green line) and visual (D, blue line) comfort indexes.


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First name: Antonio LAST NAME: FROIO

Topic: Multi-scale thermal-hydraulic modeling for nuclear fusion reactors

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Laura SAVOLDI

Academic context

[1] F. Casella and A. Leva, “Modelling of thermo-hydraulic power generation processes using Modelica,” Mathematical and Computer Modelling of Dynamical Systems, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 19-33, 2006.

[2] L. V. Boccaccini. G. Aiello, J. Aubert, C. Bachmann, T. Barrett, A. Del Nevo, D. Demange, L. Forest, F. A. Hernández González, P. Norajitra, et al., “Objectives and status of EUROfusion DEMO blanket studies,” Fusion Engineering and Design, Vols. 109-111 (Part B), pp. 1199-1206, 2016.

[3] G. Caruso, F. Giannetti, “Sizing of the vacuum vessel pressure suppression system of a fusion reactor based on a water-cooled blanket, for the purpose of the pre-conceptual design,” submitted to Science and Technology of Nuclear Installation, 2016.


Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

EUROfusion

ENEA


The development of a system-level thermal-hydraulic model of the EU DEMO tokamak fusion reactor, pushed by the EUROfusion PMU, has been started at PoliTo in 2015; during this year, the GEneral Tokamak THErmal-hydraulic Modelling (GETTHEM) fast-running code has been developed, based on the Modelica language [1]. The modelling of the EU DEMO power generation system started from the Breeding Blanket (BB) [2] cooling loops, focusing in particular to the Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed (HCPB) concept, under development at KIT. In 2016, the GETTHEM model of the BB has been extended to the Water-Cooled Lithium-Lead (WCLL) BB concept, which is currently under development at ENEA Brasimone. Since the model should be able to evaluate the thermal-hydraulic behavior of the entire tokamak cooling system, which is composed by a huge number of cooling channels, some simplifying assumptions had to be made, in order to maintain the code fast in runs. To do so, two different modules have been developed: the first one, designed to cope with the nominal operating range of the tokamak, contains a simplified model for the thermophysical properties of the coolant; the second one, which is based on the validated ThermoPower Modelica library, is designed to evaluate the evolution of accidental scenarios. Since in this case the coolant must be modelled accurately (to account for e.g. water flashing), the geometry of the Primary Heat Transfer System (PHTS) is simplified, in order to lump the channels with similar geometrical parameters. This second module has been used to develop a model of the Vacuum Vessel Pressure Suppression System (VVPSS) [3], which is the safety system that must intervene to avoid overpressure and rupture of the first containment barrier, the Vacuum Vessel (VV), following an Ingress of Coolant Event (ICE) due to an in-vessel Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA). This model has been benchmarked against the CONSEN code for the helium case and validated against experiments for the water case. In parallel, the HCPB model has been updated to the most recent design, and, to improve its capabilities, an activity to develop a more detailed 1D model of the segment manifolds has been started, in collaboration with KIT: a scaled-down mock-up of the HCPB segment Back Supporting Structure (BSS) has been designed, which will be used to experimentally validate the GETTHEM 1D model of the manifolds.

Fig. 1. Distribution in the radial-toroidal plane of

the coolant temperature in the 21 cooling

channels of an elementary unit of the WCLL BB

equatorial outboard (OB4) Blanket Module.


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First name: Marta LAST NAME: Gandiglio

Topic: Modeling, design, testing and analysis of biogas-fed SOFC power plants

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Massimo SANTARELLI, Andrea LANZINI

Academic context

[1] A.A. Trendewicz, R.J. Braun, “Techno-economic analysis of solid oxide fuel cell-based combined heat and power systems for biogas utilization at wastewater treatment facilities”, 2013, Journal of Power Sources 233 pp. 380-393. [2] P. Margalef, T. Brown, J. Brouwer, S. Samuelsen, “Conceptual design and configuration performance analyses of polygenerating high temperature fuel cells”, 2011, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 36 pp. 10044-10056. [3] J. Van herle, Y. Membrez, O. Bucheli, “Biogas as a fuel source for SOFC co-generators”, 2004, Journal of Power Sources 127 pp. 300-312.


Convion Oy, SOFC modules manufacturer, Tuomas Hakala (CEO). Helsinki (FI).

Imperial College of London, Sustainable Gas Institute, Prof. Adam Hawkes. London (EN).

SMAT S.p.a., Società Metropolitana Acque Torino, Dr. Eugenio Lorenzi. Torino (IT).


The main activities developed during the third year have been related to:

Techno-economic analysis of the potential of SOFC stationary applications in biogas production sites.

Experimental activities on biogas micro-contaminants adsorption by activated carbons. After having analyzed the technical and economic performance of biogas-fed SOFCs with carbon capture and re-use, the work has been focused on the analysis of potential advantages and impacts of using SOFC technology for stationary applications in biogas production plants, with special attention to Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP). First, the current scenario for biogas exploitation has been analyzed: biogas is exploited in internal combustion engines. Results pointed out that installation of biogas-fed SOFCs could strongly improve the performance of biogas sites from an energy and environmental perspective, even if cost reduction and dedicated policies are required to gain economic competitiveness against traditional systems. The work has been developed in the framework of the European project DEMOSOFC, related to the largest industrial size SOFC installation in Europe. The 174 kWe fuel cell will be installed in the Collegno WWTP, where biogas is currently produced and exploited in a boiler for thermal production only. The work has been focused on the integration of the new system into the existing plant, from a technical and energetic point of view. The figure on the right shows the SMAT Collegno anaerobic digester (AD) thermal load, which is currently one of the main energy load within the plant, together with electrical energy for the pumping systems. Use of inlet biomass pre-thickening systems has been analyzed as a potential system to reduce the digester thermal load and better couple the SOFC installation and the WWTP. Another important challenge for SOFCs employed in biogas plants is related to the clean-up stage, where micro-contaminants such as sulphur and siloxanes need to be removed. Contaminants removal needs to go behind traditional biogas cleaning levels, since fuel cells are strongly damaged by even parts per billion of sulphur or siloxanes. Another activity of the third year has been the experimental investigation on the performance of different activated carbons for biogas cleaning through adsorption beds. The experimental analysis, still under development, has been associated with economic calculations to understand the best solution for the above-mentioned DEMOSOFC installation.

Effect of sludge thickening on AD thermal load.


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First name: Luigi LAST NAME: GIOVANNINI

Topic: Transparent adaptive façades: a novel approach to optimize global energy performance

and comfort for the occupants.

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): V. SERRA, A. PELLEGRINO, V.R.M. LO VERSO


Academic context

[1] Goia F, Perino M, Serra V., Improving thermal comfort conditions by means of PCM glazing systems. Energy and Buildings 2013, 60:442-452. [2] Reinhart C F, Wienold J., The Daylighting Dashboard - A Simulation-Based Design Analysis for Daylit Spaces. Building and Environment 2011, 46(2):386-396. [3] De Michele G, Filippi Oberegger U, Baglivo L., Coupling dynamic energy and daylighting simulations for complex fenestration systems. Proceedings of Building Simulation Applications (BSA) 2015 - 2nd IBPSA-Italy Conference, pp. 289-296. Please keep this space as is


Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Centro Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Tecnologicas (CIEMAT), Madrid, Spain Please keep this space as is


The Ph.D. activity is focused on elaborating a novel methodology to assess the performance of transparent adaptive façades with regard to the component alone and to sample rooms, as a trade-off between energy performance and comfort for the occupants. This methodology has the objective to bridge the existing methodological gap between the component characterisation and its application to spaces with occupants, by conceiving a synergic approach that takes into account at a time visual and thermal comfort, as well as the overall energy performance of the building. During the first year of Ph.D., a wide literature review was carried out in order to identify all the adaptive façade typologies and their different working principles. Moreover, all the current visual and thermal comfort assessment methods and metrics as well as the integrated performance evaluation methods were reviewed. To assess the visual performance of adaptive components a novel methodology was hence devised, which simultaneously considers the daylight levels on the workplane and the perceived glare in two different viewpoints inside a sample room. Furthermore, a new metric was proposed, the Useful Illuminance, which was conceived in order to evaluate the quantity of useful light, that is the illuminance over the workplane in the range 100-3000 lx. Starting from the state of the art, a novel methodology for an integrated evaluation of thermal and visual comfort as well as energy performance of a building was also devised. This new methodology allows, through an innovative workflow, to evaluate, more accurately than it is now possible with the currently available techniques, the effects of the dynamicity of an adaptive façade on the energy performance of a building. It is in fact based on a step-by-step calculation method which allows the simulation software to predict the effects of the adaptive façade actions on visual comfort and solar gains for every moment of the year. In this way, when evaluating the annual global energy performance of a building, it also accounts for pre-heating or cooling phenomena due to the operation of the shading system. Future steps of the research activity include to further develop the comprehensive visual comfort assessment methodology and to integrate it into the global energy performance evaluation method, as well as to validate this new integrated methodology, for different case studies, against experimental results. Research Outcomes: Giovannini L, Goia F, Lo Verso V R M, Serra V. PCMs in glazing: implications on light distribution and visual comfort. Preliminary results. Paper accepted for publication in Energy Procedia.

Fig. 1 – Example of visual comfort evaluation for different

technologies


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First name: Daniele l LAST NAME: GROSSO

Topic: Multi scale energy infrastructures modelling and interregional trade analysis

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Andrea CARPIGNAO, Marco BADAMI

Academic context

[1] Muñoz B., García-Verdugo J., San-Martín, E. (2015): “Quantifying the geopolitical dimension of energy risks: A tool for energy modelling and planning”, Energy, 82, pp. 479-500 [2] Nan C., Sansavini G. (2017): “A quantitative method for assessing resilience of interdependent infrastructures”, Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 157, pp. 35-53 [3] Rimkevicius, S., Kaliatka, A., Valincius, M., Dundulis, G., Janulionis, R., Grybenas, A., Zutautaite, I. (2012): “Development of approach for reliability assessment of pipeline network systems”, Applied Energy, Vol. 94, pp.22-33


IREN

FCA

State Grid Corporation of China


The research topic focuses on the security issues related to energy infrastructures at different scales, from large pipelines for national supply to local distribution networks, in order to define a general framework suitable to be used in comprehensive analyses for supporting decision making. Referring to the macro-scale, during the 2nd year, the methodological approach for evaluating the security of Italian energy supply from the geopolitical point of view has been completed, including the analysis of some relevant scenarios, like the enhancement of the political tensions between Russia and Ukraine, the penetration of terroristic groups in North Africa countries and the attack by local antagonist groups to specific infrastructures (as the Greenstream natural gas pipeline). Referring to the internal distribution, a procedure for taking into account the resilience of the infrastructures against both natural hazards and terroristic attacks is being developed, based on the definition of criticality indexes to be used for identifying the most critical sections and for quantifying the related risk. The combination of the internal and the external risk dimensions should give a complete information about the National energy risk, useful to identify possible countermeasures in the case of adverse events, strategical options and investments. Eventually, focusing on the local scale, a methodology for evaluating the effects of thermal heat storages on the reliability of district heating networks has been defined, coupling a Monte Carlo approach for the simulation of the failure and repair processes and a thermo-fluid dynamic module for the simulation of the physical behaviour of the grid, and tested through a case study on the Torino DHN. Furthermore, the penetration of smart energy systems leading to the integration between different networks and distribution systems and the role that alternative energy vectors like hydrogen could play have been investigated, also considering the potential impact of this commodity at urban level and the effects that its penetration at local scale could have on the energy supply security at European level over a mid/long time horizon. Further analyses and improvements has to be introduced to complete the estimation of the resilience of distribution infrastructures, to implement a software interface for georeferred visualisation, to refine the quantification of the geopolitical risk and to deeply explore the links between the different risk dimensions.

Figure 1: Georeferred thematic risk map related to the Italian NG import


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First name: Siew Sin LAST NAME: HOH

Topic: Development of Methods for the Determination of Reactivity from Flux

Measurements in Nuclear Reactors

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Sandra DULLA, Piero RAVETTO

Academic context

[1] Dulla S., Hoh S. S., Ravetto P., Saracco P. Measurement of Kinetic parameters by oscillated experiments. Transactions of the American Nuclear Society, 115: 1130-1132, 2016. [2] Dulla S., Hoh S. S., Marana G., Nervo M., Ravetto P., Pyeon C. Analysis of KUCA measurements by the reactivity monitoring MAρTA method. Annals of Nuclear Energy (in press), 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.anucene.2016.10.019 [3] Dulla S., Hoh S. S., Nervo M., Ravetto P. Importance Weighting of Local Flux Measurements to Improve Reactivity Predictions in Nuclear Systems. Kerntechnik, 80: 201-207, 2015.


INFN - Genova

University of Kyoto, KUCA facility

IAEA


Kinetic parameters such as effective delayed neutrons fraction β and effective prompt neutron generation time Λ are of paramount importance when performing reactivity reconstruction using inverse methods based on point kinetics. The research activity in 2016 has been focused on the development of a new method to obtain these kinetic parameters by oscillated experiments. An oscillated neutron source is introduced into the system and the system response is observed. The phase shift between the source signal and the system response can be retrieved analytically applying the Laplace transform to the point kinetic equations. The relationship between the phase shift and source frequency provides an evaluation of the ratio of β/Λ. To validate the proposed method, simulated oscillated experiments have been analyzed. A sub-critical one dimensional slab geometry of a typical lead-cooled fast reactor is considered, solved in multigroup diffusion. Three neutron detectors are introduced throughout the core and the reflector to study the space effect from the measurement and a pure sinusoidal periodic function is considered. Evaluations are performed for a variety of frequencies, and a sensitivity analysis of the variation of the ratio β/Λ with respect to the change of the phase shift as a function of the source frequency is performed. The results show that the proposed method allows to obtain a good estimation of the kinetic parameters in a specific source frequency range. Sensitivity results show that the kinetic parameter β/Λ is sensitive to the value of phase shift almost linearly with respect to the source frequency. The activity on space effect mitigation has been continued, by performing a linear combination of system response signals with neutron importance as weighting function. Meanwhile, the MAρTA (Monitoring Algorithm for Reactivity Transient Analysis) method has been applied to real experimental data coming from the KUCA (Kyoto University Critical Assembly) facility. Pulse experiments have been analyzed with difference spallation targets (i.e., Pb–Bi, W–Be, W) and different core configurations. Three detectors were introduced to measure the neutron flux during the experiment. The count rate from the neutron detectors has been analyzed with MAρTA to obtain the reactivity, and this has been compared with the reactivity calculated by the area method, provided by the colleagues at KURRI. Results showed that MAρTA performed well in reactivity reconstruction and was consistent with the area method results.

Fig 1: Oscillated source and system response

from multiple detectors


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First name: Daniele LAST NAME: IEMMOLO

Topic: Statistical optimization of the PCCI combustion mode in a 3.0 L Euro VI heavy-duty diesel engine.

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): E. SPESSA, D. MISUL

Academic context

[1] Musculus MPB, Miles PC, Pickett LM. Conceptual models for partially premixed low-temperature diesel combustion. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science 2013, n. 39, p. 246-283. [2] Brooks T, Lumsden G, Blaxill H. Improving Base Engine Calibrations for Diesel Vehicles Through the Use of DoE and Optimization Techniques. SAE Technical Paper 2005, n. 2005-01-3833. [3] A. P. Carlucci, D. Laforgia, S. Motz, R. Saracino, S. P. Wenzel, “Advanced closed loop combustion control of a LTC diesel engine based on in-cylinder pressure signals”, Energy Conversion and Management, 2014, n. 77, pp. 193-207.


Fpt Industrial


The potentialities of a premixed-charged compression ignition (PCCI) combustion mode have been evaluated on a Euro VI heavy-duty production diesel engine. This kind of non-conventional combustion has been achieved by anticipating the start of injection and recirculating high amounts of exhaust gas in the intake manifold. The result is a nearly homogenous and highly diluted charge, which lowers significantly the in-cylinder temperature during the combustion, thus avoiding the formation of soot and of nitrogen oxides in the charge. As a first step, preliminary tests have been run on different engine working points, in order to identify which control variables are the most influential and in which range they can be varied to achieve the PCCI conditions. As a second step, an experimental campaign has been conducted, following a Design of Experiment (DoE) approach. Based on these results, quadratic regression models have been fitted. The start of injection (SOI), the injection pressure and the position of the exhaust flap valve (which regulates the backpressure of the engine and consequently the amount of exhaust gas recirculation) are the input for the regression models. The outputs are represented by the main exhaust pollutants (Soot, CO, HC and NOx), the brake specific fuel consumption (bsfc) and the combustion noise (CN). The models have been then validated on experimental points, providing a good prediction capability. As a last step, single-objective and multi-objective optimizations have been performed, in order to find a proper combination of the input factors that satisfied the desired values for the outputs. Optimal points have been experimentally replicated and compared to the standard engine calibration. A strong reduction (up to 94%) of NOx and Soot has been observed, while penalties in CO and HC (up to 10 times compared to the standard calibration), bsfc (up to 13%), and CN have been noticed. The increment in CO and HC can be addressed by using a proper after-treatment system, while bsfc and CN represent the major drawbacks of this kind of combustion. Aiming to further optimize and control the combustion process, preliminary tests implementing a pressure-based approach to control the phasing of the combustion have been run in PCCI mode, showing high potentialities, especially as far as cyclic and cylinder-to-cylinder variation are concerned.

.

bsfc and NOx for different PCCI

optimizations compared to the

Euro VI standard calibration.

1800 × 27 (rpm × Nm)

1.000

1.130 1.1261.088 1.110

EU VI Opt 1 Opt 2 Opt 3 Opt 40.0

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2

1.5

bsfc

/ b

sfc

RE

F (

-)

1.000

0.088 0.092

0.394

0.060

EU VI Opt 1 Opt 2 Opt 3 Opt 40.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

NO

X / N

OX

,RE

F (

-)


38 | P a g e

First name: Matteo LAST NAME: JARRE

Topic: Large-scale numerical model for heat-load forecasting in district heating systems

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): M. MASOERO, A. POGGIO

Academic context

[1] H. Lund, S. Werner, R. Wiltshire, S. Svendsen, J. E. Thorsen, F. Hvelplund, B. V. Mathiesen, 4th generation district heating (4gdh), Energy 68 (2014) 1{11. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2014.02.089. [2] M. Jarre, M. Noussan, A. Poggio (2016) - Operational analysis of natural gas combined cycle CHP plants: energy performance and pollutant emissions. In: APPLIED THERMAL ENGINEERING, vol. 100, pp. 304-314. - ISSN 1359-43116 [3] A. Albert, R. Rajagopal, Building dynamic thermal profiles of energy consumption for individuals and neighborhoods, in: 2013 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2013. doi: 10.1109/bigdata.2013.6691644.


Iren Energia S.p.A.

Metanalpi S.p.A.

Arpa Piemonte


The research activity has been focused on both supply side and demand side of district heating networks. Real operational data have been the basis for the carried analysis, that regarded in particular:

1. Large-scale cogeneration plants in the city of Turin have been analyzed in terms of operational data regarding energy production, performances and pollutants emissions.

2. The integration of renewable energy sources in DH systems has been addressed and studied; in particular, the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy within existing DH system has been addressed and analyzed. An experimental plant has been studied and the monitored operational data have been used to investigate the integration between the solar source and the traditional CHP based thermal energy production

3. On the demand side, a large-scale numerical model for the forecasting of the heat load profile of a stock of buildings at narrow time-step has been proposed. The model is composed of four steps: (1) Regression Trees have been applied to determine the most relevant input variables; (2) A ‘profile identification’ algorithm has been specifically built to identify the control schedules and settings of each building. (3) Clusterization and Linear regression models have been used to study the relationship between the most relevant input variables and the heat load profile for one ‘training year’; (4) Forecasting was carried out applying to a ‘test year’ different linear regressions coefficients to the summary control profile evaluated in the previous step. Different error measurements have been finally proposed to evaluate the quality of the resulting forecast. The final results show that the model forecasts with good accuracy the final energy required by the whole network (absolute difference less than 3%) and for most of the studied single buildings. In a few buildings, the error was larger mainly due to failure of the profiling algorithm in correctly identifying the actual control profile of the building. However, final absolute and relative errors are both sufficiently low given the model purposes.

Whole network Actual and Forecast

heat load profile


39 | P a g e

First name: Hamed LAST NAME: KHESHTINEJAD

Topic: Investigation into advanced architecture and strategies for Compressed

Natural Gas Heavy Duty SI-engine

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Daniela MISUL, Mirko BARATTA

Academic context

[1] Ji, Shaobo, et al. "Cyclic variation of large-bore multi point injection engine fuelled by natural gas with different types of injection systems." Applied Thermal Engineering 102 (2016): 1241-1249. [2] Czerwinski, J., Comte, P., and Zimmerli, Y., "Investigations of the Gas Injection System on a HD-CNG-Engine," SAE Technical Paper 2003-01-0625, 2003, doi: 10.4271/2003-01-0625.


BioMethAir Project (Centro Ricerche Fiat, Metatron)

Consultant contract between Dip. Energia and Metatronix S.R.L; with the title “Simulazioni fluidodinamiche di sistemi di iniezione di gas naturale”


During last twenty years, Multi-Point Injection (MPI) system has been proposed and developed by many car manufacturers for light duty CNG engines. Still, most of heavy duty CNG engines use mixer type Single-Point Injection (SPI) systems which have nearly reached the limit of the potential of the system. Since MPI is relatively easier to implement and it can provide the opportunity to overcome the problems related to mixer type SPI system, it is feasible to employ MPI for heavy-duty CNG engines [1, 2]. The research activity deals with the development of a dedicated 7.8 liter, heavy duty CNG engine equipped with two different injection systems: MPI and SPI. The experimental tests have been performed on the designated engine at the Metatronix laboratories to thoroughly characterize the SP and MP injection systems. The difference between the Single-Point (SP) and the Multi-Point (MP) injection systems on mixture formation, cycle-to-cycle variation and cylinder-to-cylinder variation was studied. Compared to SP injection system, MP injection system shows lower CoV (Coefficient of variance representing the cyclic variation) for peak firing pressure and indicated mean effective pressure, and hence higher mixture formation quality and more stable behavior (Figure 1). The research has been carried out by modelling the engine within the 0D-1D, GT-Power, environment in order to match precisely the experimental behavior of the engine and to implement a thorough sensitivity analysis of the two injection systems under steady-state and transient conditions. As far as the injection system is concerned, two different model configurations have been developed to characterize the SP and MP injection systems. The calibration of the engine 1D models has been done carefully in order to to match the simulation outputs and the experimental data obtained from the tests and achieve accurate results. The numerical and experimental results assessed for a relevant influence of the dynamic behavior of the system in terms of pressure waves on the mixture formation and hence on the engine performance. Refined control strategies such as injection timing optimization, cylinder deactivation (fire-skipping) strategy and injection pressure modulation have been tested to improve the MPI engine performance as well as the after treatment efficiency.

Figure 1: Contrast of peak firing pressure vs. IMEP in the

second cylinder with SPI and MPI systems.

11.0

11.5

12.0

12.5

13.0

60 65 70 75 80 85 90

IME

P [

ba

r]

Peak Firing Pressure[bar]

CYL2

MPI

SPI

WOT - 800RPM


40 | P a g e

First name: Danilo LAST NAME: LAURENZANO

Topic: Knocking investigation on high efficient flex-fuel (liquid & gaseous biofuels) engine

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): D. A. MISUL, E. SPESSA

Academic context

[1] Baratta M., Catania A. E., D’Ambrosio S., Spessa E., “Prediction of Combustion Parameters, Performance, and Emissions in Compressed Natural Gas and Gasoline SI Engines” Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, NOVEMBER 2008, Vol. 130 / 062805-1 [2] Soylu S., Gerpen J.V., “Development of an autoignition submodel for natural gas engines”, Fuel 82 (2003) 1699–1707 [3] Chen L., Li T., Yin T., Zheng B., “A predictive model for knock onset in spark-ignition engines with cooled EGR”, Energy Conversion and Management 87 (2014) 946–955


CRF


The goal of the activity is the definition of a proper predictive tool in order to detect the possibility to incur in knock in a NG engine due to design and operating parameters.

The activity was carried out with reference to a DI NG engine with VVA for which experimental data were available at CRF. The evaluation of knocking resistance was carried out by using two different models: the “Auto-ignition model” coupled with a fractal predictive combustion and the “Multizone code”. The idea of the first model is to evaluate the time needed for the complete normal combustion and the delay of auto-ignition; if the delay is shorter than the time needed by flame front to cover the entire chamber the cycle is affected by knock. The second model (“Multizone”) is a diagnostic tool: it gives as an output the characteristics of combustion thanks to the experimental data (e.g. mass fraction burned and temperature of the unburned gas): they are useful to calibrate the first model. Indeed, in the first model, the integral could be solved by using the in-cylinder pressure data and the unburned temperature provided by the second one. The results have been compared with the MFB calculated by the “Multizone”. Finally, the “Auto-ignition” coefficients have been calibrated with a full factorial DOE starting from the literature outcome. The calibrated “Auto-ignition” model has been implemented in GT-Power in order to predict knock onset in different operating conditions. A predictive combustion simulation tool is also needed: a fractal combustion model is used. Due to the stochastic behavior of the combustion, the CCV (cycle-to-cycle variation) has been introduced in the GT-Power model by setting a normal distribution to two combustion parameters in order to evaluate the percentage of knocking cycles.

Percentage of knocking cycles for

SA sweep at 3500 rpm

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Pe

rce

nta

ge o

f kn

ock

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cycl

es

[%]

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ExperimentalSimulated


41 | P a g e

First name: Arpit LAST NAME: MAHESHWARI

Topic: Innovative and ageing resistant lithium ion batteries for high electric energy storage in a smart grid framework

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): M. SANTARELLI, P. GIBESCU

Academic context

[1] A. Maheshwari et al., J. Power Sources 307 (2016) 160-172. doi: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2015.12.111 [2] V. Srinivasan, J. Newman, J. Electrochem. Soc. 151 (2004) A1517. doi:10.1149/1.1785012 [3] S. Kabitz et al., J. Power Sources 239 (2013) 572–583. doi:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.03.045


Fraunhofer ISE, Freiburg, Germany

Lithops S.r.l. Turin, Italy

Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, the Netherlands


Continuing from the development of the physics based thermally coupled electrochemical model of the battery (developed during the 1st year of the PhD), the first steps towards adding the ageing model were taken during this period. Resulting from the collaboration developed in the MARS-EV European project, a 6-month mobility period in Fraunhofer ISE was undertaken to study aging in NMC type lithium ion 18650 cells. In Fraunhofer ISE, calendar aging and cycling aging tests on these cells were being continuously carried out for about 1 year before the beginning of my mobility there. Calendar aging describes the cell degradation during storage, i.e. without applying a current to the cell while cycle aging describes the cell degradation which occurs during charging and discharging of batteries. This differentiation is based on the assumption, that there are aging mechanisms that occur independently of whether the cell is cycled (calendar aging) and additional mechanisms which only arise if the cell is operated (cycle aging). The tests included regular characterizations such as measuring capacity fade and resistance rise of these cells in defined operating conditions using charge discharge cycles and pulse testing. Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) was also conducted on these cells on regular intervals. Taking over the experimental activity, and beginning to analyze the large volume of aging data in collaboration with the team at Fraunhofer ISE was the primary work in this period. In order to organize the data analysis, initially only calendar aging was studied. Furthermore, I analyzed the EIS data of the calendar-aged cells while Fraunhofer ISE analyzed the capacity fade and resistance increase data. EIS data is very rich in information but is highly convoluted. Multiple models with differing complexity were developed in OCTAVE to understand the spectra. The spectra were de-convoluted with these models and the results were compiled and compared with the results of charge-discharge cycles and the pulse tests data for consistency. The results were seen to be significant and were deemed to have significant scientific value. It was thus decided to work towards a joint publication detailing the charge discharge tests, pulse tests and the EIS tests applied to understand calendar aging. Currently, the cycling aging data of the NMC cells is being carried out at Politecnico di Torino.

Figure: (top) EIS spectra of an 18650 cell

during aging, (bottom) an electrical model

used for EIS analysis


42 | P a g e

First name: Mohsen LAST NAME: MIRZAEIAN

Topic: Simulation of Cycle-to-Cycle Variation and Knock in Si Engines


Academic context

[1] Luisi, S., Doria, V., Stroppiana, A., Millo, F. et al., "Experimental Investigation on Early and Late Intake Valve Closures for Knock Mitigation through Miller Cycle in a Downsized Turbocharged Engine," SAE Technical Paper 2015-01-0760, 2015, doi:10.4271/2015-01-0760. [2] Mirzaeian, M., Millo, F., and Rolando, L., "Assessment of the Predictive Capabilities of a Combustion Model for a Modern Downsized Turbocharged SI Engine," SAE Technical Paper 2016-01-0557, 2016, doi:10.4271/2016-01-0557 [3] Rutland, C.J., 2011, “Large-eddy simulations for internal combustion engines – a review”, International Journal of Engine Research, Vol. 12 (5), pp. 421-451


Gamma Technologies LLC

Argonne National Labs

Centro Ricerche Fiat


Although nowadays downsizing associated with turbocharging represents one of the most valuable options to reduce the CO2 emissions of automotive Spark Ignition (SI) engines, the search for continuously increasing power densities has led to a significant increase of the risk of abnormal combustion, such as knock. As a consequence, robust and reliable methods for the prediction of the combustion process have become of crucial importance to support the design and calibration of modern high-performance, downsized and turbocharged spark ignition engines. In the current research activity, a new modelling approach to predict cycle to cycle variations in the combustion process and the likelihood of knock occurrence has been therefore developed, and its predictive capabilities have been tested on different technologies which can be adopted for knock mitigation, such as the adoption of Miller cycle and the usage of Long Route EGR and water injection [1]. Since experimental observations clearly show that SI engines are affected by Cycle-to-Cycle Variations (CCV), which can lead to knock at higher loads since fast burning cycles can cause end-gas autoignition due to the higher pressure and temperature levels attained during the combustion process. The numerical simulation activity was therefore focused on the development of a methodology for the physical prediction of CCV using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) [3] in order to understand the root cause of this phenomenon. Potentially, CCV could be related to in-cylinder flow variations (bulk flow and turbulence) or to composition inhomogeneities or to a combination of the two. The analysis revealed that the magnitude of the velocity near the spark has the dominant effect on combustion process variation inside the cylinder. Some other quantities such as maximum tumble and tumble decay rate during the compression did not show instead a strong correlation with variability in combustion. Thanks to the deeper understanding of the root causes of the variability in the combustion process, a predictive combustion model has been developed and coupled with a knock model which could successfully be utilized as a “virtual test rig” to understand the effectiveness of various knock mitigation technologies such as water injection, Miller cycle and LR EGR.

Figure 1 Knock prediction results (a) and

LES of the combustion (b)


43 | P a g e

First name: Maria Pia LAST NAME: MONTEROSSI

Topic: Energy saving through an innovative aircraft turbine thermal control

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Elena CAMPAGNOLI, Paolo MAGGIORE

Academic context

[1] G.J.J. Ruijgrok, D.M. Van Paassen, 2007, “Elements of aircraft pollution”, Delft Academic Press [2] S. Brack, Y. Muller: “Probabilistic Analysis of the secondary air system of a low-pressure turbine”, Proc. Of ASME Turbo Expo 2014, GT2014, 16-20 June 2014, Dusseldorf. [3] S.B.Lattime, B.M. Steinetz, “Turbine engine clearance control systems: current practices and future directions”, NASA / TM 2002-211794


Ge Avio Aero


In order to increase the aircraft engine efficiency, innovative solutions for the turbine thermal control, able to strongly minimize the Cooling air bled to the compressor, are under investigation. With this aim the first PhD year has been devoted to numerically analyze and compare different insulation methodologies. During this second PhD year, instead, the research activities have been mainly focused on the experimental tests and data post processing. Starting from the obtained numerical results, thermal blankets, made of an outer metallic layer containing conventional insulating material, have been designed, produced and placed in the test rig facility. A lot of experimental tests have been performed to verify the effectiveness of the insulation methodology under different thermal conditions. The tests have been carried out changing both the inlet temperature and pressure of the different mass flow rates and gradually reducing the amount of Cooling air. The obtained temperature distributions within the Test Article have been examined with a special attention to the temperatures recorded on the Casing, the airtight cylinder that contains the elements of the turbine, whose uncontrolled thermal expansion determines lower engine effectiveness. The temperatures recorded by the sensors placed on the Casing have been compared with their references, i.e. the temperatures measured by the same sensors during previous experiments, performed without the blankets and using the whole Cooling mass flow rate. In this way the advantage obtained by using the blankets is suggested, for each thermocouple (see Figure 1 for one of the Casing thermocouple), by the maximum Cooling reduction practicable without overcoming the reference temperature. From the experimental data post processing has been possible to state that by using the blankets the allowed Cooling reduction is between the 20% and the 50%, depending on the thermocouple examined. These experimental results do not completely meet the results obtained numerically that predicted a slightly higher reduction. For this reason further numerical analyses are in progress with the aim to evaluate the impact of different factors (fabrication tolerances non satisfied, model accuracy, etc.) on the obtained experimental results and to improve the blankets.

Figure 1: Allowed Cooling reductions


44 | P a g e

First name: Matteo LAST NAME: MORCIANO

Topic: Nanotechnology-enabled solar energy for water desalination and

purification

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): P. ASINARI, E. CHIAVAZZO

Academic context

[1] Ghasemi, Hadi, et al. "Solar steam generation by heat localization." Nature communications 5 (2014). [2] Moradi, A., et al. "Carbon-nanohorn based nanofluids for a direct absorption solar collector for civil application." Journal of nanoscience and nanotechnology 15.5 (2015): 3488-3495. [3] Werber, Jay R., Chinedum O. Osuji, and Menachem Elimelech. "Materials for next-generation desalination and water purification membranes." Nature Reviews Materials 1 (2016): 16018.


National Institute of Optics – Italy


Devices based on micro/nano-technologies should be designed to produce fresh water in remote regions by off-grid installations. Therefore, the design process must carefully select materials and components to guarantee both flexibility, reliability, simple manufacturing and robustness of prototypes. Firstly, my work has focused on a literature review on the state of the art of both micro/nano-technologies fed by solar energy and water treatment processes. In order to test and study the integration of sun-driven prototypes, a small-scale and double-axis solar concentrator (Fig. 1a)) has been installed at Politecnico di Torino (DENERG). It also represents the best condition for studying the behavior of carrier fluids under concentrated solar radiation. The experimental characterization of the solar concentrator was carried out. In the recent years, researchers involved in the study of small-scale solar concentrators are focusing on investigating better solutions for the solar absorption, in order to enhance the radiation-to-heat conversion. In detail, the scientific debate is split between conventional surface receivers and volumetric receivers based on nanofluids. Thus, I have both deepen the theoretical aspects of volumetric absorption and performed preliminary experiments on nanofluids. In particular, I investigated the behavior of biocompatible nanofluids under non-concentrated solar radiation. After the design and implementation of an adequate test rig, different configurations of the volumetric absorbers have been tested. The resulting experimental data have been validated with a computational model, which includes radiation in participating media. Parallel to this, I also focused my attention on the optimization and testing of a novel thin-film regenerative unit (solar cell) for solar-driven water desalination (Fig. 1b)) powered by concentrated solar power. This automated solar cell allows solar steam generation with unprecedented high performances. Basically, the prototype has the aim to improve the solar-to-steam energy conversion, by means of an appropriate selection of geometry and materials (namely highly-selective optical absorbers). In fact, we have fully characterized a lab-scale prototype of the solar cell, which allowed us to obtaining both numerical and experimental evidences of the superior thermal performances. I also took part in the “European Maker Faire” at Rome, to present a Multi-Effect-Distillation device implemented with my research team. This small-scale MED (Fig. 1c)) is designed to obtain a desalination processes by recovering low-exergy waste heat or by exploiting concentrated solar power.

Fig. 1: a) Solar concentrator, b) Thin-film regenerative unit, c) Multi Effect Distillation (MED) prototype.


45 | P a g e

First name: Giovanni LAST NAME: MURANO

Topic: Energy retrofit of existing buildings and cost optimality

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Vincenzo CORRADO

Academic context

[1] V. Corrado, I. Ballarini, S. Paduos, The Application of the EU Comparative Methodology to Italian Reference Buildings for the Cost-Optimal Analysis. In: CLIMA 2013 - 11th REHVA World Congress and 8th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation and Energy Conservation in Buildings, Praga, 16-19 June 2013.

[2] G. Maria Mauro, M. Hamdy, G. Peter Vanoli, N. Bianco, J. L.M. Hensen, A new methodology for investigating the cost-optimality of energy retrofitting a building category, Energy and Buildings 107 (2015) 456–478.

[3] L. Aelenei, S. Paduos, H. Petran , J. Tarrés, A. Ferreira, V. Corrado, S. Camelo, E. Polychroni, K. Sfakianaki, H. Gonçalves, J. Salom, G. Riva, G. Murano, Implementing cost-optimal methodology in existing public buildings, Proc. 6th International Building Physics Conference, IBPC 2015, Energy Procedia, ISSN: 1876-6102.


Italian Thermotechnical Committee Energy & Environment (CTI)

ENEA


The first year has included activities concerning the analysis of scientific literature, legislation, technical standards and tools related to the concept of nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB) and to the calculation of cost-optimal levels of minimum energy performance requirements in accordance with the Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings. More in particular, the research activity has investigated the following topics:

Refurbishment of existing buildings for the conversion into NZEB: for some representative sample buildings of regional stock, the research has investigated the technical solutions and packages of measures to be used for the renovation of the building stock into NZEB as to meet the requirements of national law and to optimise cost effectiveness.

Influence of climate data on the energy performance of buildings: In March 2016, UNI has published the standard UNI 10349-1, which updates the reference climatic data for all energy and thermal calculations. The research has quantified for all Italian provincial capitals the main consequences connected to the variation of the principal climatic parameters from UNI 10349:1994 to UNI 10349-1:2016. In particular, the implications on the assessment of the energy performance of NZEBs have been investigated. Two calculation approaches were used: quasi-steady-state calculation method and dynamic simulation.

Technical feasibility of some design solutions of NZEBs. The research activity has evaluated, using both quasi-steady state and dynamic numerical models, the energy performance, and the technical feasibility of some design solutions (envelope of the fabric and technical systems), for the realization of NZEBs.

Fig. 1: Actualized costs of packages

for the conversion of a existing

building in NZEB


46 | P a g e

First name: Federica LAST NAME: PAOLICELLI

Topic: Model-based and experimental approaches for diagnostics and control of injection and combustion processes in diesel engines.

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Alessandro FERRARI, Ezio SPESSA

Academic context

[1] Mohan, Balaji, Wenming Yang, and Siaw kiang Chou. "Fuel injection strategies for performance improvement and emissions reduction in compression ignition engines—A review." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 28 (2013): 664-676. [2] Luján, José M., et al. "A methodology for combustion detection in diesel engines through in-cylinder pressure derivative signal." Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 24.7 (2010): 2261-2275. [3] Boashash, Boualem. "Estimating and interpreting the instantaneous frequency of a signal. I. Fundamentals." Proceedings of the IEEE 80.4 (1992): 520-538.


Rabotti s.r.l.

General Motors Powertrain Europe


Nowadays common rail diesel injection systems are required to guarantee accurate fuel metering, control of the injection rate and high capability to manage different injection strategies. It is usual to implement small fuel quantities, injected before the main shot, to reduce the combustion noise. Whereas, small injections, after the main event, are employed to optimize the combustion process and to reduce pollutant emission. Since the tendency is of increasing the number of shots during the injection event, the fuel quantities that the injection system should manage are becoming smaller and smaller, because the total amount cannot be also increased. Therefore, the control of injected fuel quantities is a

demanding task and faults can inevitably lead to a worse

combustion process and to increased pollutant emissions. For this reason, the development of technologies to detect the fuel injection process, as well as the combustion development, and to put in action specific corrections is crucial. In this framework, two approaches have been developed towards such direction. The pressure distribution detected nearby the inlet of the injector, on the rail-to- injector pipe, has been opportunely converted into a flow-rate distribution. By this signal, the fuel amount that enters the injector during a shot has been evaluated. The measurement has been correlated (Fig. 1) to the injected fuel quantity previously measured at the hydraulic test bench. The methodology is particularly suitable in case of small injections. The algorithm that has been developed could be implemented into the electronic control unit of the injection system to obtain a real-time indirect measure of the injected fuel quantity, measurement that is not available on the current injection systems at present. The time-frequency analysis allows to analyze a signal, as a function of time, through proper transformations that make it as function of two variables, time and frequency. This representation consents to observe how the frequency content of the signal varies over time, bringing out some features of the dynamics of the phenomenon under investigation. In the context of injection and fuel combustion, it is possible to study proper pressure signals, detected along the hydraulic circuit or inside the combustion chamber, respectively. The mean frequency of such signals can be calculated and its instantaneous variations can be correlated, for diagnostics purposes, with characteristic events that take place during the observed phenomenon.

Figure 1. Correlation between numerically evaluated fuel mass at the injector inlet and experimental injected quantities.


47 | P a g e

First name: Valeria LAST NAME: PAVESE

Topic: Investigation on land-based and marine hydraulic air compressor technology as carbon capture system.

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Vittorio VERDA, Dean MILLAR

Academic context

[1] Plaza, M.G., Pevida, C., Rubiera, F., 2016. Ongoing Activity on CO2 Capture in the Power Sector: Review of the Demonstration Projects Worldwide, in: Reference Module in Chemistry, Molecular Sciences and Chemical Engineering. Elsevier [2] Pavese, V., Millar, D., Verda, V., 2016. Mechanical Efficiency of Hydraulic Air Compressors. J. Energy Resour. Technol. 138, 62005. doi:10.1115/1.4033623 [3] Millar, D.L., 2014. A review of the case for modern-day adoption of hydraulic air compressors. Appl. Therm. Eng. 69, 55–77. doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2014.04.008


Laurentian University

MIRARCO Mining Innovation

Electrale Innovation Ltd


During the first year of the PhD, research activities have been conducted to explore the application of the hydraulic air compressor technology as a carbon dioxide capture system. A literature review of the state-of-the-art of carbon capture systems has been undertaken in order to identity the most mature technologies for post-combustion capture. The performance of HACs in this context was then formally considered. The energy requirements and the cost associated with the capture and recompression of the CO2 were investigated for the available techniques characterized by a technology readiness level (TRL) of at least 5. In comparison to the values found in the literature, promising results were obtained from the evaluation of the energy intensity and costs of a two-stage hydraulic gas compressor (HGC) with recompression to 150 bar. The cost of CO2 captured and cost of CO2 emissions avoided were also determined according to the methodology commonly reported (e.g. in the publication of the IPCC Special Report on CO2 Capture and Storage – 2005), which, for the case evaluated, defined a 40 MW natural gas CCGT as reference plant. A novel marine variant of the HAC, named the WaveHAC, has also been investigated as a wave energy converter (WEC). An off-shore installation of the system would allow one to exploit the renewable and free energy provided by sea waves. Since the geometry of the WaveHAC is similar to that of WaveDragon WEC without collecting arms, the theory developed by J. P. Kofoed to evaluate the average overtopping discharge in a WaveDragon has been identified as appropriate for the WaveHAC. The novel system and first results on its performance were reported in the paper “WaveHAC: a novel WEC with power take off by means of hydraulic air compressor” prepared for the Offshore Energy & Storage Symposium attended on the 13-15th July 2016, in Malta. In November 2016, the construction of the 30 meter high HAC Demonstrator facility started at Dynamic Earth in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Since then, the effort committed as part of the PhD research program has been divided between the following two activities: i) the preparation of test specifications and protocols, that will be implemented in the Dynamic Earth HAC, ii) the designing, prototyping and testing of the gas sampling system for the two-phase bubbly flow of the HAC downcomer.

Carbon capture concept applied to

HAC technology.


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First name: Benedetta LAST NAME: PEIRETTI PARADISI

Topic: Proton acceleration by laser-matter interaction for oncology radiotherapy

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Gianni COPPA

Academic context [1] B. Peiretti Paradisi, A. D’Angola, G. Coppa, “Some properties of the equations for the expansion of a 2-component spherical plasma” to be submitted to European Physical Journal D. [2] B. Peiretti Paradisi, E. Boella, A. D’Angola, G. Coppa and L. O. Silva, “Gridless simulation of collision less plasmas with high degree of simmetry” to be submitted to Computer Physics Communications [3] B. Peiretti Paradisi, A. D’Angola, G. Delzanno and G. Coppa, “N-body simulations of Vlasov plasmas” to be submitted to Computer Physics Communications


• Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisbon, Portugal (Prof. Luis O.Silva) • Università della Basilicata (Prof. Antonio D’Angola) • Università di Torino, Facoltà di Fisica, INFN group (Dott.ssa Faiza Bourhaleb)

Highlights of the research activity Recently, new sources of acceleration for high energy proton beams have been proposed, as interaction of ultra-intense lasers with solid targets. In perspective, this technique is of high interest for medical applications, because it would possible to make use of compact accelerators. In this context, the study of heteronuclear spherical cluster have been investigated, with particular attention to the condition which leads to quasi mono energetic energy spectra and some interesting mathematical properties of the theoretical model have been highlighted [1]. The energy range reached by the fast ions in this configurations is of the order of fractions of MeV, which is interesting for research aims but not enough for biomedical applications, were the energy needed are around hundred of MeV. In recent studies, it was showed that a superposition of two thin foils of different materials leads to very powerful mechanism of acceleration. The idea was to simulate Coulomb explosions of hetero-nuclear slab with ratio section/thickness <<1. New numerical tools are necessary to study this new geometrical configurations, and three of them were developed and deeply studied by our research group. The first method, the so-called soft spheres method, is a 3D N-body algorithm, which is necessary when there is no possibility to make assumptions on the geometry of the system. If the original system presents some symmetries, two other methods were developed. For example, when a laser with circular spot ionize a thin slab, the area interested by the mechanism of Coulomb explosion will be of cylindrical shape. The first idea was to develop a Particle-In-Cell (PIC) method in axial symmetry to follow the expansion. Then, the group develops another N-body method: the ring method. Here the computational particles are rings which are coaxial with the system symmetry axis; they change radius and axial position during the simulation, conserving their annular shape. All the methods are validated in simple geometry (spherical systems) by comparison with the analytic solution, giving an excellent agreement. After validating the three methods they can be used to simulate other geometries, where it is not possible to find a theoretical model, as in the case of a thin slab. For example, Fig. 1 shows the expansion of a thin homo-nuclear cluster and the comparison between energy spectra obtained with the three computational methods. The three computational methods are described in two papers [2,3] with all the details of the theoretical calculation, to obtain the interaction potential and energy between the different computational particles.


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First name: Andrea LAST NAME: PIANO

Topic: Advanced air management systems for future automotive diesel engine generations

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Federico MILLO



[1] Brauer, M., Pohlke, R., Berndt, R., Manns, J., et al., “Variable valve train as key technology for compliance with future emission limits and further downsizing”, SIA Powertrain – International Conference and Exhibition, Rouen, France, 2016. [2] Lancefield, T., Methley, I., Räse, U., and Kuhn, T., “The Application of Variable Event Valve Timing to a Modern Diesel Engine,” SAE Technical Paper 2000-01-1229, 2000, doi:10.4271/2000-01-1229. [3] Brauer, M., Diezemann, M., Pohlke, R., Rohr, J., et al., “Variable Valve Train – Measure for active Exhaust Temperature Management in Diesel Engine”, 5. MTZ Fachtagung Ladungswechsel im Verbrennungsmotor, Stuttgart, Germany, 2012. Please keep this space as is


General Motors Global Propulsion System





Nowadays, the development of modern diesel engine is focused on compliance with pollutant emission regulations (e.g. EURO6 or RDE) as well as on the achievement of CO2 targets. In this context, the need for achieving a fast warm up of the aftertreatment system has raised a growing interest in the adoption of Variable Valve Actuation (VVA) technologies for future automotive diesel engines. The second year of the research activity was therefore focused on the numerical evaluation of different measures that can be adopted through VVA for speeding up the warm-up of the aftertreatment system, such as the use of internal Exhaust Gas Recirculation (i-EGR, through Exhaust Valve ReOpening - EVrO), or the adoption of advanced Exhaust Valve Opening timings (through Early Exhaust Valve Opening - EEVO or Early Exhaust Valve Phasing, EEVP). By advancing the exhaust valve opening (by means of EEVO or EEVP) an increment in the exhaust temperature is obtained due to the reduced in-cylinder gas expansion, although with significant drawbacks in terms of lower efficiency due to the lower expansion work, while the i-EGR techniques (through EVrO) allow to obtain increases in the exhaust temperatures due to the high i-EGR fraction that significantly heats up the charge. In this case, the fuel consumption penalties are related to the less efficient gas exchange process and to the higher heat transfer with the combustion chamber walls. The promising results obtained for steady state simulations in terms of exhaust temperature increase with acceptable fuel consumption worsening, paved the way to the simulation of type approval and real world driving cycles, so to achieve a more detailed assessment of the potential of these VVA technologies, which will be the next step of the research project.

Fig. 1: ∆Exhaust Temperature (top)

and fuel cons. penalties (bottom) for

EVrO.


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First name: Alberto l LAST NAME: PIZZOLATO

Topic: Topology optimization of energy devices and systems

Course year:2nd Tutor(s): V. VERDA, A. SCIACOVELLI

Academic context

[1] Coffin, Peter, & Maute, K. "A level-set method for steady-state and transient natural convection problems." Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization 53.5 (2016): 1047-1067. [2] Bendsøe, M. P., & Sigmund, O. Topology optimization: theory, methods and applications. 2003. [3] Sciacovelli, A., Gagliardi, F.& Verda, V. "Maximization of performance of a PCM latent heat storage system with innovative fins." Applied Energy 137 (2015): 707-715.


University of Colorado, CO, USA

Stanford University, CA, USA

Johns Hopkins University, MD, USA


Topology optimization has emerged as one of the most powerful tools to generate innovative designs, which most often leads to unexpected topologies, shapes and configurations. However, topology optimizations of devices and systems which involve heat transfer and fluid flow are still in their early days. The aim of my PhD activity is to investigate the applicability of this tool to the energy field. We have focused on two demonstrative engineering problems:

1. The optimization of the nodes connectivity in district heating networks for increased robustness and reliability

2. The optimization of high conductivity material distribution for heat transfer enhancement in Phase Change Material storage tanks

As far as problem 1 is concerned, we proposed a fully-deterministic approach for the robust design of network loops where we aim at maximizing an original resilience measure with fixed cost constraints. Furthermore, we extended our optimization framework to the real time-control of the network with a fast and efficient centralized management tool based on the coupled use of discrete adjoint sensitivities and a gradient-based optimizer. This approach was used to minimize the thermal discomfort of the connected users due to the mechanical failures of some network pipe. In future work, we plan on investigating the optimal distribution of storage units in the network with an integrated optimal design/control strategy. Moving to problem 2, we demonstrated a novel optimization problem formulation to fasten the discharge process of tank which minimizes the time required to discharge it down to a specific energy level. Then we exploited the power and the flexibility of the topology optimization framework to explore design trends that could not be investigated with the conventional parametric optimization route. We first shed light on the inherent trade-off between discharged energy and required time and analyzed the optimized designs at selected Pareto points. Secondly, by comparing results obtained in two and three dimensions, we observed that 3D designs allow for superior performances by presenting features that are not apparent in 2D. Thirdly, we showed that optimized designs for melting are fundamentally different from those optimized for solidification and that natural convection brings non-negligible design features even for the solidification case. Future investigations will deal with the optimal topology of multi-PCM systems, with the shape optimization of the Heat Transfer Fluid pipe and with the topological design under uncertainty.

(b) (c)

(a)

Figure 1-(a):3D design of transient

diffusive structures. (b): 2D melting structure. (c):2D solidification structure


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First name: Daniele LAST NAME: PORCU

Topic: Advanced combustion diagnostic for internal combustion engines



Academic context

[1] Luisi, S., Doria, V., Stroppiana, A., Millo, F. et al., "Experimental Investigation on Early and Late Intake Valve Closures for Knock Mitigation through Miller Cycle in a Downsized Turbocharged Engine," SAE Technical Paper 2015-01-0760, 2015, doi:10.4271/2015-01-0760. [2] Doria V., Stroppiana A., Luisi S., “Knock Mitigation Techniques for highly boosted downsized SI Engines”, ATA – SAE conference 29 June 2016, Torino, Italy. [3] Gatti P., Fagg S., Cornwell R., Millo F., Boccardo G., Porcu D., Manelli S., Capiluppi C., Marinoni A. “Investigation of a ‘SCR free’ system to meet Stage IV and beyond emissions limits”, Proceedings of the Heavy-Duty, On- and Off-Highway Engines 2016 11th International MTZ Conference, 22 November 2016 - 23 November 2016 / Ulm, Germany. Please keep this space as is


Kohler engines

Centro Ricerche FIAT




The focus of my PhD is on the development of new combustion diagnostic tools, based on both in cylinder pressure and engine block vibration, suitable to analyze combustion processes both in spark ignition and compression ignition engines, including abnormal combustion phenomena and their statistical properties. In the first year of PhD, my research activities were mainly focused on gathering a large data set of experimental data, both on compression ignition and on spark ignition engines, under different operating conditions which can be critical for the combustion process, such as the presence of high concentration of residuals in diesel engines operated at high EGR rates, which can increase the likelihood of misfire, and the high load operating conditions in highly boosted spark ignition engines, which can increase the likelihood of knock and megaknock. The first activity was an experimental investigation on a Diesel engine, which was designed to be operated with high EGR rates, in order to suppress NOx formation and to meet emission limits without the usage of DeNOx aftertreatment system. However, the high EGR rates in conjunction with retarded injections increased significantly the instability of the combustion process, which has to be detect by means of in cylinder pressure measurements to send to the Engine Control Unit (ECU) a feedback signal, in order to reduce the injection retard and/or the EGR rate in case of unstable combustion. The second activity was instead related to an SI engine, and it was focused not only on the detection of abnormal combustion such as knock, but also on the assessment of the potential of different technologies for knock mitigation, such as the adoption of hollow, sodium filled exhaust valves (in collaboration with Eaton) and the usage of Miller cycle in combination with water injection in the intake port (in collaboration with Fiat Research Center). Although the expected positive effects in terms of knock mitigation due to water injection were confirmed by the experimental tests, allowing a 4% reduction in specific fuel consumption some unexpected issues arose related to the incomplete evaporation of the water, leading to a high risk of lube oil dilution and crankcase pressure increase due to water evaporation in the oil sump.

BSFC reduction by using an higher

compression ratio and water

injection at medium-high loads


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First name: Mahsa LAST NAME: RAFIGH

Topic: Diesel Engine Modelling For Efficient Calibration


Academic context

[1] Millo, F., Rafigh, M., Fino, D., Miceli, P. “Application of a global kinetic model on an SCR coated on Filter (SCR-F) catalyst for automotive applications”, Fuel, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2016.11.082. [2] Rafigh, M., Dudgeon, R., Pihl, J., Daw, S., Blint, R., Wahiduzzaman, S. " Development of a Global Kinetic Model for a Commercial Lean NOx Trap Automotive Catalyst Based on Laboratory Measurements”, Emission Control Science and Technology, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40825-016-0049-8. [3] Millo, F., Rafigh, M., Dudgeon, R., Wahiduzzaman, S. “Calibration of a Global Kinetic Mechanism Based on Synthetic Gas Bench Experiments for a Lean NOx Trap Catalyst for Automotive Applications”, THIESEL 2016 Conference on Thermo- and Fluid Dynamic Processes in Direct Injection Engines, 2016.


General Motors Powertrain Europe




Interest in utilizing advanced lean-burn gasoline and diesel engines has increased recently due to their reduced greenhouse gas emissions and increased fuel economy. One impediment to the increasing use of these engines, however, is the need to develop corresponding catalytic systems for controlling the nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in their lean exhaust. In the current research activity the performance of three technologies for emission control in lean exhaust has been studied experimentally and numerically including:

Lean NOx Trap (LNT) for controlling NOx, CO and HC

Selective Catalytic Filter coated on Filter (SCR-F) for controlling NOx and soot simultaneously

Diesel Oxidation Catalyst (DOC) for controlling CO and HC The experimental measurements were performed through Synthetic Gas Bench tests on reactor-scale components by defining suitable test protocols. Afterwards, an improved global kinetic model was developed and calibrated using a 1D CFD commercially available software, GT-SUITE, according to the experiments such that HC, CO and NOx conversion as well as by-products slips, such as NH3 and N2O, were predicted with satisfactory accuracy. The calibration can be performed either through iterative and trial/error methods, used for the LNT model, or with the aid of advanced optimization tools such as Brent Method which is dependent on starting point, used for the SCR-F model or Genetic Algorithm which is based on random selection of independent variables, used for the DOC model. It was found out that Genetic Algorithm is a suitable automatic optimization tool for kinetic parameter setting in aftertreatment systems thanks to its capability in finding global minimum, not depending on the starting point and not requiring a deep knowledge of kinetics. The calibrated simulation model was further utilized for the prediction of NOx emission over Worldwide harmonized Light duty Test Procedure (WLTP) with the aim to assess NOx emissions of a full-size LNT component for a diesel passenger car, showing satisfactory accuracy compared with measured data with a total cumulative NOx mass error lower than 6%. The innovative contribution from this research is the assessment, through a new comprehensive numerical model, of the whole powertrain system, including the aftertreatment, of the more promising technology mix, such as combination of LNT/SCR-F, to reach the future challenging emissions and fuel economy targets for diesel powertrain for passenger car applications.

Figure 1. From SGB to NOx prediction

over WLTP and real time application

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2016.11.082

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40825-016-0049-8


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First name: Gianluca LAST NAME: SERALE

Topic: Getting closer the mismatch between RES availability and exploitation

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): M. PERINO, A. CAPOZZOLI

Academic context

[1] Fiorentini M, Wall J, Ma Z, Braslavsky JH, Cooper P. Hybrid model predictive control of a residential HVAC system with on-site thermal energy generation and storage. Appl Energy 2017;187:465–79. [2] Serale G, Goia F, Perino M. Numerical model and simulation of a solar thermal collector with slurry Phase Change Material (PCM) as the heat transfer fluid. Sol Energy 2016;134:429–44. [3] Afram A, Janabi-Sharifi F. Theory and applications of HVAC control systems – A review of model predictive control (MPC). Build Environ 2014;72:343–55.


University of Wollongong – Sustainable Buildings Research Centre

IMT Alti Studi Lucca

IEA - Annex 59: High Temperature Cooling & Low Temperature Heating in Buildings


The adoption of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) can mitigate the intensive footprint of the building sector. However, the full profitability of RES is often limited to a great extent by the time mismatch between their availability and the energy demand by buildings and consumers. Thus, energy storage strategies and intelligent control logics are required to partially mitigate this gap between availability and exploitation of RES. On the one hand, technologies useful to increase the performance of active storage systems linked with RES are being studied. The attention is being focused on a solar thermal system based on latent heat storage Phase Change material Slurry (PCS), tested through a real scale prototype. The prototype is investigated by means of a numerical model capable of describing the physical process occurring in the system and experimental test on the real scale prototype. The model was developed in the previous year and completed during the 2nd year of PhD, improving the simulation capabilities of the collector model, and implementing a lumped model of the storage tank and a rule based control module that regulates the system. Moreover, some experiments have been performed aiming at outlining the main PCS material thermo-physical features (e.g T-History method for enthalpy vs temperature evaluation) and to carry out first monitoring results from the prototype to compare with the outcomes with the numerical model results. On the other hand, it is necessary to define a smart and flexible control strategies for optimizing the combination of thermal storage strategies, HVAC systems and smart grids (e.g select if using the PCS active thermal storage is better than exploiting the intrinsic thermal inertia of the building). For this purpose, a particular attention has been paid to optimal control based on receding horizon methods, such as Model Predictive Control (MPC). The aim of this research activity is to apply MPC to optimally control the real scale prototype and exploiting all the potentialities of such system integrated with building typical energy demand profiles for space heating. During the 2nd year of PhD, the MPC problem was set and the responsive model was formulated for the prototype of solar thermal system filled with PCS. Furthermore a classification and a critical review of the papers about MPC for building energy management available in the literature have been carried out. In conclusion, data driven techniques have been studied as an optimal way to manage big amount of data, with the aim to forecast disturbance variables influencing this MPC problem.

Comparison between theoretical

results from numerical model and

monitored data from prototype


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First name: Anna Chiara LAST NAME: UGGENTI

Topic: Safety assessment of next generation nuclear system

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): A. CARPIGNANO, S. DULLA

Academic context

[1] J.L. Kloosterman, M.E. Ricotti, and E. Merle-Lucotte, “Special issue: Progress on Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) and Salt-cooled Reactors (FHR)”, Annals of Nuclear Energy 64: 343-498 (2014) [2] T. Pinna et al, Functional Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FFMEA) for the DEMO cooling systems of the WCLL blanket model. Eurofusion report EFDA_D_2JPQSG v1.0 (2015) [3] E. Zio & N. Pedroni, Risk analysis – Uncertainty characterization in risk analysis for decision-making practice. Les cahiers de la sécurité industrielle (2012)


European Project SAMOFAR (Horizon 2020)

ENEA FUS (Frascati – Italy)

LPSC/CNRS Grenoble


In the last decades the research activity in the nuclear field has been focused on the development of innovative nuclear systems, trying to respond to the current needs in terms of safety, reliability and sustainability of energy sources. This is the rationale that associates all Gen-IV reactor designs (and in particular Molten Salt Fast Reactor, MSFR), and the current proposals for a full-scale fusion reactor (DEMO) attempts to answer this request with a fully innovative technology. The roadmap towards the deployment of these nuclear systems includes very detailed safety assessment and risk analysis in both operational and accidental conditions. Well-established methodologies to apply a “Functional Safety” approach to conceptual systems do not exist, therefore the research activity aims in using a new method based on functional modeling and FFMEA application, in order to analyze systems whose design is still at the preliminary phase and to identify relevant transient scenarios, critical components and potential limitations in the current design. This methodology has already been tested in the fusion field and aims at influencing the direction of the concept and design development from its earliest stages, hence the safety will be intended to be “built-in” rather than “added-on”, as in the case of barriers and/or auxiliary safety systems definition. In the particular case of the MSFR, in the framework of the European project SAMOFAR, the Integrated Safety Assessment Methodology (ISAM) proposed by the Risk and Safety Working Group (RSWG) in 2011 has been selected and analyzed as a conceptual methodology; starting from it, a complete survey on risk analysis operational tools, nuclear international standards and best practices has performed in order to define a complete and operational methodology that well fits to the MSFR analysis. Finally, a part of the research activity concerns the consequences assessment in the offshore Oil&Gas (O&G) sector, with an innovative approach called “source-box model”. The aim of this approach is to mix advantages of semi-empirical and CFD simulations, in order to have a realistic model with a reasonable computational time that allows to model a representative number of scenarios thus CFD analysis can really support design choices, guaranteeing system optimization and lower investment costs.

Figure 1 Schematic representation of the reference MSFR fuel circuit


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First name: Ludovico LAST NAME: VIGLIONE

Topic: Analysis of injection, mixture formation and combustion processes for innovative CNG Engine

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Mirko BARATTA, Daniela MISUL

Academic context

[1] O Colin, A Benkenida,. and C Angelberger,. (2003) A 3D Modeling of Mixing, Ignition and Combustion Phenomena in Highly Stratified Gasoline Engines. Oil & Gas Science and Technology, Rev. IFP, 58, 1, 47-62. [2] Baratta, M., and Rapetto, N., “Fluid-dynamic and numerical aspects in the simulation of direct CNG injection in spark-ignition engines”, Computers & Fluids 103, November 2014, Pages 215-233 [3] Baratta M ,Misul D., Viglione L, “Turbulence and combustion modeling in a high-performance, high- CR

NG engine”- submitted to ASME-ATI-UIT 2015 Conference on Thermal Energy Systems: Production, Storage, Utilization and the Environment 17 – 20 May, 2015, Napoli, Italy.


CRF S.C.p.A

AVL List Gmbh

Delphi


The research activity has been devoted to the high pressure gas injection characterization and mixture formation in a direct injection engine. The engine considered for the study is a turbocharged engine specifically optimized for the use with CNG. The direct injection is actuated by an outward opening piezo-electric injector which is designed in order to guide the flow in a converging diverging nozzle producing a supersonic underexpanded jet at the injector outlet. A moving mesh approach is adopted for the injector meshing in order to correctly reproduce the jet evolution during the opening and closing lift of the needle; due to the high pressure and velocity gradients involved in this kind of application a careful setup of all the numerical aspects like the grid density distribution and the definition of the numerical schemes and solution algorithm was needed. The abovementioned model gives the opportunity to analyse in detail the effect of injection timings and pressure in the mixing formation, otherwise not accessible by means of traditional experimental analysis and it is used as a powerful and quantitative tool to add important information for the development of a proper CNG injection system.

Fuel distribution at 30° after Start of

Injection

F/A

Equivalence

Ratio


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First name: Roberto LAST NAME: VITOLO

Topic: Reduction of fuel consumption and gaseous emissions from

vehicles: implementation of non-conventional diesel combustion and

development of an advanced central tire inflation system

Course year: 1st Tutor(s): Stefano D’AMBROSIO

Academic context

[1] Catania A.E., d’Ambrosio S., Finesso R., Spessa E. (2010), Effects of Rail Pressure, Pilot Scheduling and EGR Rate on Combustion and Emissions in Conventional and PCCI Diesel Engines, SAE International, JOURNAL OF ENGINES, pp. 15, 2010, Vol. 3, ISSN: 1946-3936, DOI: 10.4271/2010-01-1109 [2] d’Ambrosio S., Iemmolo D., Mancarella A., Vitolo R., “Preliminary optimization of the PCCI combustion mode in a diesel engine through a design of experiments”, 71st Conference of the Italian Thermal Machines Engineering Association, ATI2016, 14-16 September 2016, Turin, Italy [3] Vitolo R., d’Ambrosio S., Salamone N., Martorana G. and Ieluzzi M., Gabiati G., Scantamburlo D., “Sistema centralizzato di bordo per la regolazione della pressione dei pneumatici di un autoveicolo”, Italian patent applications 102015000076104 and 102015000076131, filed Nov 24th, 2015


FPT Industrial (FPT Motorenforschung AG research center in Arbon)

Centro Ricerche FIAT CRF / FCA

IVECO / CNH Industrial


The development of engine-based and vehicle-based advanced techniques is held in parallel and will converge

in a final assessment of their performance on a light-duty commercial vehicle.

A premixed charge compression ignition combustion mode is studied on a 3.0 l diesel engine by means of a

single early injection event and large amount of recirculated exhaust gas. A preliminary analysis at low load

and low/medium engine speed showed a high potentiality of this technique for NOx and soot reduction.

However, a fuel penalty and an excessive increase of HC and CO have been registered. Model-based

combustion control techniques are explored to reduce combustion

instability: the combustion barycenter is controlled cylinder-to-cylinder by

managing the injection event timing. This control has been tested on test-

bench transient maneuvers in traditional combustion to prove its

robustness, and has been later applied to steady-state tests in PCCI

combustion, where benefits have been evaluated in terms of reduced

cylinder-to-cylinder and cycle-to-cycle variations of the combustion cycle.

Future developments will involve the calibration of a wider area of the

engine map in PCCI combustion mode and the evaluation of the benefits

of the combustion control techniques to transient maneuvers in PCCI.

A central tire inflation system is studied to reduce fuel consumption by means of intelligent and autonomous

management of in-tire pressure during vehicle operation. Some rule-based pressure management strategies

have been proposed and their effect on fuel consumption have been assessed by simulations on a passenger

car, considering both type-approval procedures and an annual real-world mission. Results show a possible

fuel consumption reduction up to 8% in real driving conditions. A software is under development to assess the

effects of this technology on light-duty and heavy-duty commercial vehicles.


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The mixing process in the PFI engine shown by the fuel mass concentration at 20, 50, 60,

and 90 deg after overlap TDC, respectively (from left to right)

First name: Jiajie LAST NAME: XU

Topic: Analysis of charge motion, injection and mixture formation in high-performance CNG engines

Course year: 2nd Tutor(s): Mirko BARATTA, Ezio SPESSA


Academic context

[1] Baratta M., and Rappetto N., “Fluid-dynamic and numerical aspects in the simulation of direction CNG injection in spark-ignition engines”, Computers and Fluids 103 (2014): 215-233

[2] Baratta M., Catania A.E., and Spessa E., “Multi-dimensional modeling of the direct natural-gas injection and mixture formation in a stratified-charge SI engine with centrally mounted injector”, SAE World Congress 2008-01-0975



AVL List

CRF

Delphi Automotive Please keep this space as is


The research objective is to investigate, understand, and optimize the fuel injection and mixture preparation process of natural-gas SI engines by means of three-dimensional CFD models, as a contribution to reducing CO2 emission and to increasing engine efficiency in the automotive industry. The study consists of two different engine fueling configurations, i.e. PFI and DI. Despite the differences in engine operation, those two NG injection configurations, PFI and DI engines share the same basic engine fluid flow and injection process and therefore have been studied in the similar way focusing on the modelling of fluid dynamics observed in engines such as flow motion, turbulence, injection spray as well as the influences of engine operating parameters on the air-fuel mixing process and final mixture conditions.

The research plan on the NG PFI engine has been completed. A suitable CFD modelling of the port fuel injector was established together with the computational domain of one engine cylinder. The model was then applied to the investigation into the mixture preparation resulting from various injection timing and possible explanations. Some phenomena specific to the PFI of gaseous fuel has been revealed by the CFD results that are not normally seen in traditional liquid-fueled engines.

The study on the NG DI engine is still ongoing. Based on the results from the PFI injector and on particular needs for the DI operation, an improved injector model has been developed and proved to capture the important physical features of a supersonic gaseous jet. Then with the injector model incorporated into the computational grids of the engine cylinder, subsequent studies on different design parameters of engine operation, especially the injection-related ones, are being carried out. The complete DI engine model has to be validated by comparing the CFD simulation results with the planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) measurements in an optical engine about the distribution of air-fuel mixture using exactly the same geometry and boundary conditions.


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First name: Yixinl LAST NAME: YANG

Topic: Modelling of combustion, fuel consumption and emission formation for design, calibration and control of diesel engines

Course year: 3rd Tutor(s): Ezio SPESSA, Roberto FINESSO

Academic context

[1] Finesso, R., Spessa, E., Yang, Y., Alfieri, V. et al., "HRR and MFB50 Estimation in a Euro 6 Diesel Engine by Means of Control-Oriented Predictive Models," SAE Int. J. Engines 8(3):1055-1068, 2015, doi:10.4271/2015-01-0879 [2] Finesso, R., Spessa, E., and Yang, Y., "Development and Validation of a Real-Time Model for the Simulation of the Heat Release Rate, In-Cylinder Pressure and Pollutant Emissions in Diesel Engines," SAE Int. J. Engines 9(1):322-341, 2016, doi:10.4271/2015-01-9044. [3]: Yang, Y., “Development and assessment of a fast calibration tool for zero-dimensional combustion models in DI diesel engines”, Energy Procedia, in press.


Project Combustion Control for horizon 2020-IMPERIUM in collaboration with FPT Industrial

Project Control oriented torque modelling in collaboration with General Motors Global Propulsion Systems

Project F1C PCCI in collaboration with FPT Industrial


The real time predictive physical engine model, whose development started from the beginning of PhD career, has been continuously refined. This model has the capability of predicting the significant engine operating parameters, including combustion metrics (MFB50), pressure metrics (PFP, Gross IMEP, Net IMEP and BMEP) and the NOx emissions. The research related to this model has been published in [1-2]. The physical engine model has been used for on board MFB50 control. This control algorithm is of the open loop type and has been applied to an EURO VI diesel engine. Its performance has been compared with the conventional pressure-based closed-loop MFB50 control. The controls were developed through Model in Loop, Hardware in Loop and Rapid Prototyping phases. The physical engine model is a low throughput approach. However, in case of very high engine speed, its computational time needs to be further reduced. For this purpose the fast running engine model, which is based on machine learning technique, has been developed. The physical model has been used as virtual engine to generate the training data set, so as to avoid the expensive experimental activity on test bench. In addition, an innovative calibration methodology has been proposed in [3]. Unlike the common calibration practice which is based on entire in-cylinder pressure trace, this methodology is based on several conventional outputs of test bench activity, therefore is able to efficiently save the calibration efforts and required data storage memory. In parallel with the physical engine model, a control-oriented model for torque prediction has been developed in [4]. Unlike the physical engine model which is fully physics based, this new model is of semi-empirical type. However, it has largely reduced computational time, thus it is suitable for on board control applications.

Experimental setup to test the open loop

MFB50 control in rapid prototyping

energetics phd annual report - polito.it · energetics phd annual report 2016 1 ......

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