Self-Shading in Bifacial Photovoltaic Noise Barriers

There is a large market potential for Bifacial Photovoltaic Noise Barriers (PVNB) due to their high energy output for any road orientation. A crucial parameter affecting their energy output is the so-called 'self-shading. In this research we evaluate the effect of self-shading on the energy production of both an east and west facing bifacial...

Energy efficiency comparison of a centralized and a multi-agent market based heating system in a field test

For the built environment it is envisaged that in the near future the total annual heat demand could be covered by renewable sources generated within the built environment. More and more devices, such as heat pumps and solar collectors will enable a sustainable and distributed generation of heat. Centralized climate management systems are...

A Thermal grid coordinated by a Multi Agent Energy Management System

In the near future an increase of both thermal grids and sustainable suppliers of heat with intermittency behavior, connected to these heat grids, is expected. For smart operation this challenges the current centralized management systems. To deal with this and to optimize cost and energy efficiency a multi-agent approach is proposed, which to a...

Monitoring dc stray current corrosion at sheet pile structures

Steel is discarded by railway owners as a material for underground structures near railway lines, due to uncertainty over increased corrosion by DC stray currents stemming from the traction power system. This paper presents a large scale field test in which stray currents interference of a sheet pile wall was monitored in realistic conditions....

Effects of mobile support on situation awareness and navigation in a field and game environment

For surveillance and rescue operations, human navigation and situation awareness should be well-supported. However, proper testing of new and innovative mobile support is hard for such operations. Evaluations in field settings are expensive, difficult to control, potentially dangerous, and may sometimes be impossible to execute. Using a virtual...

Monitoring DC stray current interference of steel sheet pile structures in railway environment

Steel structures near DC powered railways are expected to be affected by stray current interference. This causes accelerated corrosion rates. Therefore steel is often not used as a building material in these cases, although certain advantages over the alternative material concrete exist. These advantages can include amongst others costs, shorter...

Standardisation of environmental enrichment for laboratory mice and rats: Utilisation, practicality and variation in experimental results

Rats and mice are the most commonly used species as laboratory animal models of diseases in biomedical research. Environmental factors such as cage size, number of cage mates and cage structure such as environmental enrichment can affect the physiology and behavioural development of laboratory animals and their well-being throughout their lives....

Field evaluation of a mobile location-based notification system for police officers

To increase police officer awareness of incident locations, the Dutch police developed and implemented a location-based notification system (LBNS). This mobile service notifies police officers proactively to warrants, agreements and police focal points in their current vicinity. To assess the accuracy, efficiency, effectiveness and user...

End-users help design mass transport seats

The research group Ergonomics and Innovation of TNO Work and Employment let the end-user participate in the design of new commuter train seats. In a field test commuter's sitting behaviour was studied to chart the passengers' activities, posture, size and movements. In the Netherlands the sitting behaviour measurements were used for setting up a...

Improving seat comfort in a commuter train

Chemical analysis of TnBTO in lap-joints

This research was performed as part of the EU project FACT (contract SMT4-CT96-2135) on field tests out of ground contact and ageing methods. The results reported here are part of the work on the experimental lap-joint standard (ENV 12037). TNO investigated the TBTO content of 32 lap-joints by analysing the tin content of 90 samples. The lap...