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In this study the integration of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) prime mover and a high temperature electrochemical Sodium Nickel Chloride (SNC) battery as storage has been investigated. The aim is to fulfil a domestic user energy demand and to reduce the primary energy consumption in comparison with a reference conventional scenario, thereby, to enhance the total efficiency in a μ-CHP (Combined Heat and Power) application on a yearly basis. A realistic operational sequence of the SOFC-battery integration has been calculated using simple logic conditions. Both thermal and electric integration have been considered, where the innovative thermal integration has been proposed in order to exploit the SOFC residual heat for the battery stand-by feeding. The key advantage of this system architecture is that the SOFC is operated without major load variations close to constant load, resulting in longer lifetime and thus reducing total costs of operation. The thermal integration provides additional advantages, as calculated in this study. Eventually, a comparison with alternative μ-CHP technologies has been carried out, highlighting the potential of the system based on the SOFC. Benefits are mainly shown in terms of primary energy savings and admissible costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work is the study of the influence of a large notch damage in a stiffened aeronautical panel. In particular, the damage onset and evolution due to a cut-out located in the bay of an omega stiffened composite panel subjected to a compressive load is investigated. Three different cut-outs are considered: parallel, normal, and 45° oriented respect to the load. The effects of such configurations are compared in terms of fibre and matrix failures, in order to better understand which configuration is the most sensitive to these type of damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glass fiber composite materials in epoxy resin with different content of a nitrile rubber modified hybrid resin were manufactured by infusion with two different rubber concentrations. SX 10 epoxy resin was modified to improve the response of the laminates under impact loads. At the aim to test the improvement of the impact resistance over the conventional epoxy resin system, the rectangular specimens 100*150 mm 2 were dynamically loaded in the center by a falling weight machine, Ceast Fractovis, using a cylindrical impactor with a hemispherical nose 19,8 mm in diameter and a total mass of 3.6 kg. Impact tests were carried out at penetration to obtain the complete load-displacement curve useful to measure the penetration energy and to highlight the characteristics points for the increasing energies evaluation, 5J, 10J and 20J, to investigate the damage start and propagation. After the impact tests, the specimens were observed by visual inspection to investigate the delamination extension whereas a confocal microscope was used for the indentation measurements. The obtained results on the modified epoxy system were compared to neat GFRP laminates impact performances. No significant impact performance difference was recorded between samples with different nitrile rubber modifier content. A higher indentation was recorded on the modified samples related with a lower delamination extension. It could represent a good practical results since from a simple external damage measurement it can be possible to obtain information about a low internal delamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing penetration of renewable energy generation in the electric energy market is currently posing new critical issues, related to the generation prediction and scheduling, due to the mismatch between power production and utilization. In order to cope with these issues, the implementation of new large scale storage units on the electric network is foreseen as a key mitigation strategy. Among large scale technologies for the electric energy storage, the Power-to-Gas solution can be regarded as a long-term viable option, provided that the conversion efficiency is improved and aligned with other more conventional storage alternatives. In this study, a Power-to-Gas storage system is investigated, including as main components a high-temperature electrolyzer for hydrogen generation and a Sabatier reactor for methane production. The high-temperature Solide Oxide Electrolyser Cell (SOEC) technology, currently under development, is considered as a promising solution for hydrogen generation, due to the expected higher efficiency values, in comparison with conventional low-temperature electrolysis technologies. In order to evaluate the performance of the system and the energy efficiency, in this study a numerical model of the SOEC integrated with the Sabatier reactor has been implemented, including also the necessary additional auxiliaries, which can significantly affect the energy conversion performance. The whole energy conversion and storage system has been analyzed, taking into account different layout variants, by means of Aspen Hysys TM numerical tool, based on a lumped modelling approach. The various Power-to-Gas storage configurations have been compared, with the aim to optimize both the system's efficiency and the composition of the produced gas stream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interleaving a viscoelastic layer within a laminate has been individuated as an efficient architecture for increasing damping performance of plane structures. A semi-analytical model based on the first order shear deformation theory accounting for the out-of–plane strain contributions to the energy dissipation in composite laminates with interleaved architecture is proposed. Two different configurations for the interleaved composite laminate architecture have been manufactured and tested in bending. The elastic and dissipative material functions for the elongational and shear modes have been experimentally characterised for the constituents of the interleaved laminates: the unidirectional lamina and the damping layer material. These constitutive material behaviours have been used for the model calculations. A satisfactorily agreement between the experimental data and predicted results has been found for the bending behaviour of the different architectures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]