The acoustic source strength of high-energy blast waves: combining measurements and a non-linear model

In the densely populated area of the Netherlands, the objective of the Netherlands Ministry of Defence is to find an optimal balance between military training and the impact on the surrounding civilian community. A special case concerns large weapons, such as artillery or demolitions, which create high-energy blast waves. These waves have a low...

Real-time intelligent production monitoring of a North Sea asset

The increasing complexity of natural gas extraction because of reducing reserves, complex behavior and more intricate contractual rules (due to liberalization of the West European energy markets) creates a need for more effective production efficiency. In order to deal with these challenges Wintershall is realizing a real-time monitoring system...

Image Processing: An Enabler for Future EO System Concepts

The current state of the art in electro-optics provides systems with high image quality for associated prices and less expensive systems with subsequent lower performance. This keynote will expound how image processing enables to obtain high quality imagery while utilizing affordable system components. Furthermore, where conventional high-end EO...

Housing development near a railway tunnel: Mitigating vibration and induced noise by tweaking foundation design

Vibration insulation of buildings is often achieved by introducing springs in the foundation. It can be a very effective measure, especially against vibration induced noise, but also a very costly one. There is a need for less costly measures which, although less effective, may achieve the required vibration reduction. For a specific case such...

Modeling, validation, and simulation of massive self-organizing wireless sensor networks with cross-layer optimization and congestion mitigation techniques

TNO has formulated the ambition of founding a basis for the development of flexible multi-data source and multi-application (ad hoc) sensor networks. These networks are envisioned on a scale that is beyond networks for specific and separate sensor networks. These separate networks need in the future to be combined intelligently in order to...

A numerical technique to design blast noise mitigation measures

Large weapons, such as armor, artillery or demolitions, create a high-energy blast wave. It has a low frequency content, typically between 15 and 125 Hz, and can propagate over large distances. As a result it is a relative important cause for annoyance. Mitigation measures need to be close to the source for best effectiveness, but due to the...

A revised estimate of copper emissions from road transport in UNECE-Europe and its impact on predicted copper concentrations

Comparisons of measured and model-predicted atmospheric copper concentrations show a severe underestimation of the observed concentrations by the models. This underestimation may be (partly) due to underestimated emissions of copper to air. Since the phase out of asbestos brake lining material, the composition of brake lining material has...

Effects of CO2 solubility on the long-term fate of CO2 sequestered in a saline aquifer

Sequestering CO2 in aquifers is an attractive option for reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The success of CO2 sequestration during the Statoil Sleipner injection project proves that under the right conditions large volumes of CO2 can be stored in a water-bearing subsurface formation. In general, we know most of the injected CO2 will...

A review of explosion prevention and protection systems suitable as ultimate layer of protection in chemical process installations

Ideally, explosion risk is identified and prevented at an early stage of process design, forming a key part of the inherently safer design (ISD) approach. However, in practice, explosion risk often cannot be eliminated completely. Reliable preventive and protective systems must therefore be applied, as part of the now widely applied barrier or...

Overview of the theoretical development and experimental validation of blast sound-absorbing surfaces

An analytical and experimental study has been performed on the design and construction of high-energy blast sound-absorbing surfaces for the purpose of environmental noise mitigation. This paper provides an overview of the theoretical developments and the results of full-scale experiments conducted at the U.S. Army's Fort Drum facility in the...

A high frequency transient detector suitable for monitoring marine mammal activity

As part of a program to study the effect of man-made noise on marine mammals an EARS Acoustic Recording System) buoy was deployed in the Ligurian sea. The EARS buoy was deployed at a position with a high probability of marine mammal activity at a depth of around 950 m. It was operating for almost 19 days and collected acoustic data sampled at...

SAKAMATA: A tool to avoid whale strandings

World-wide a concern exists about the influence of man-made noise on marine life, and particularly of high power sonar. Most concern lies with marine mammals that use acoustics for hunting, communication and/or navigation. This concern is fed by recent strandings of whales that could be related to military sonar transmissions and seismic...

An integrated assessment of regional air pollution and climate change in Europe: Findings of the AIR-CLIM project

This paper presents results of an assessment of the linkages between regional air pollution and climate change in Europe (the AIR-CLIM Project). The main research tool was an integrated modeling framework and the main product was a consistent set of long-term scenarios covering Europe between 1995 and 2100. Scenarios consisted of trends in...

Cost assessments of mitigation options in the energy sector

This report discusses some major conceptual and methodological issuesconcerning cost assessments of mitigation options in the energy sector of non-Annex I countries, based on an evaluation of a previous joint ECN-AED-SEI study on the potential and cost of such options (Van der Linden et al, 1999). In addition to reviewing and updating the cost...

The multi-sector convergence approach. A flexible framework for negotiating global rules for national greenhouse gas emissions mitigation targets

This report presents an approach, called the Multi-Sector Convergence(MSC) framework, to generate comprehensive sets of national targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation. The MSC framework is aimed at facilitating international negotiations on national emission mitigation targets after the first budget period defined in the Kyoto Protocol....

Combined heat and power action plan: policy action plan for promotion of combined heat and power production in the Slovak Republic to 2010

Combined heat and power is well established in the Czech and SlovakRepublic, especially in the district-heating sector. The current share in total electricity production is about 19% in the Czech Republic, and 11% in the Slovak Republic. Both governments aim to support CHP for reasons of energy efficiency improvement and, to some extent,...