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This review article summarizes the state of the art in energy efficiency (EE) management in air and rail cargo transportation. After an introduction, explanations and definitions follow around the topic of energy efficiency. The political framework conditions of the European Union (EU) as well as the associated European Union Emissions Trading System are described. In particular, the drive technologies, CO2 emissions, and fuel-saving options are reviewed.
The energy crisis and environment deterioration are two major problems for the 21st century. Waste heat recovery offers many opportunities to make a global contribution to this challenge. Key concepts such as waste heat recovery are the basic ideas in thermoelectricity. A part of waste heat is produced by solid-fuel stoves. Nevertheless, the quantity of high-performance solid-fuel stoves is increasing very quickly for economic and environmental reasons. These sophisticated stoves need electricity for the pump for water circulation and the control system. Thermoelectric generators (TEG) could help with this issue. This work aims to present an experimental validation of integrating a thermoelectric generator into a solid-fuel stove. An economic comparison between the most common Bismuth Telluride (Bi2Te3) module and the newly developed half-Heusler modules is complete. An experimental set-up was built to optimize the common (Bi2Te3) modules and test the newly developed half-Heusler modules from an entire system point of view. An assessment of thermoelectric technology potential, module prices, further material developments and applications is completed. Based on the literature research and a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation software the first prototype was built. This set-up is composed of a thermal loop with a hot gas source, a cold fluid, a hot fin exchanger, and thermoelectric modules. The number and the place of these modules are changed to study different configurations. A specific maximum power point tracker DC/DC converter charging a battery is added in order to study the electrical power produced by the module. Different operating points of hot inlet gas airflow were tested for the Bismuth Telluride and half-Heusler modules. The Bismuth Telluride module was tested under real-life conditions using the exhaust of the solid-fuel stoves without influencing the combustion chamber.
Cyberphysical production systems are an important part of today’s manufacturing process. The ever-growing need of highly optimized,
i.e. at the same time flexible and ecient systems, requires the use of not only appropriate machines, but as well a
communication framework and data model that is manufacturer independent and scalable. This paper proposes a communicationframework
based on OPC UA that employs an agent-based architecture. The proposed system has been implemented and tested in
the Digital Factory of the UAS Technikum Wien. It shows promising behavior within distributed manufacturing systems.
Entrepreneurial Orientation in Design Thinking – A Chance for the Tourism & Hospitality Industry?
(2018)
In an effort to broaden the engineering applications of material extrusion based additive manufacturing (MEAM), new materials are being developed. Adding carbon-fibers (CF) has been one strategy to increase the mechanical performance of different thermoplastics. One challenge is to determine the amount of CF needed to increase the mechanical performance without affecting the “printability” of the compounds. In this paper, different amounts (10, 15, and 20 vol.%) of CF were added to recycled polypropylene (rPP) and polyamide 12 (PA12). A compatibilizer was used for rPP, but not for PA12. Filaments for MEAM were extruded from the different compounds and the viscosity as well as the tensile properties were measured and compared to the processed polymeric matrices. It was observed that the viscosities at the angular frequencies relevant for MEAM (100 to 200 rad/s) were not significantly different for rPP+CF compounds, but it was higher for PA12+CF compounds. As expected, the elongation at break significantly decreased with the addition of CF for all compounds. For the composites with an rPP matrix, the Young’s modulus and the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) continuously increased as the CF content increased to 20 vol.%. For PA12-based materials, the Young’s modulus and the UTS increased with CF content, but adding more than 15 vol.% did not further improve these values. Therefore, it was concluded that for PA12 the maximum amount of CF that should be added was 15 vol.%. Using scanning electron microscopy, it was observed that the CF were homogeneously dispersed in the rPP matrix, but not so well in the PA12 matrix, with fibers being more concentrated towards the rim of the filament. Finally, filaments of rPP, rPP+20CF, PA12 and PA12+15CF were used to print complex geometries by means of MEAM, and it was observed that CF helped to reduce the warpage compared to the unfilled filaments. A potential application of this phenomenon could be the reduction of the bed temperature to develop a more energy efficient MEAM process for semi-crystalline polymers.
Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, can be used as host to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), which are promising bioplastic raw materials. The most important material thereof is polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), which can replace the commodity polymer polypropylene (PP) in many applications, yielding a bio-based, biodegradable alternative solution. The advantage from using cyanobacteria to make PHB over the standard fermentation processes, with sugar or other organic (waste)
materials as feedstock, is that the sustainability is better (compare first-generation biofuels with the feed vs. fuel debate), with CO2 being the only carbon source and sunlight being the sole energy source. In this review article, the state of the art of cyanobacterial PHB production and its outlook is discussed. Thirty-seven percent of
dry cell weight of PHB could be obtained in 2018, which is getting close to up to 78% of PHB dry cell weight in heterotrophic microorganisms in fermentation reactors. A good potential for cyanobacterial PHB is seen throughout the literature.
Automatic Stereo Camera Calibration in Real-World Environments without Defined Calibration Objects
(2018)
Decentralized Energy Networks based on Blockchain: Background, Overview and Concept Discussion
(2018)
This paper provides a snapshot of the globally ongoing decentralization of (business) relations in the energy sector. This tendency can be observed in other domains as well and is accompanied by new digital technological developments. Blockchain technology is assigned disruptive potential when it comes to realize those decentralization ideas. This hype about Blockchain is mainly company-driven without a solid academic basis yet. The authors are currently involved in several research efforts for utilizing distributed energy resources like photovoltaic systems, batteries and electric cars for the setup of energy communities and marketplaces. The paper, therefore, presents detailed investigations of background and motivations for decentralization and the building of (local) energy communities and (peer-to-peer) marketplaces for sustainable utilization of renewable energies. An overview of recent related Blockchain-based works is presented, and the current state and feasibility for the realization of the envisioned decentralized solutions are discussed. In this way, the work aimed at contributing to a research-based decision foundation for upcoming Blockchain-based decentralization efforts.
Plant-based food additives in functional foods can improve consumer’s nutrient uptake and promote optimal health effects. Considering the ongoing development of new technologies for extracting bioactive substances the potential pricing of these substances plays a major role in assessing the overall profitability of new technologies. The study therefore assessed potential prices for not yet commercially existing bioactive substances from wood by carrying out a business-to-businesssurvey. Applying the van Westendorp method the study identified a potential price in context of varying product properties like different health claims or increasing purities. The Indifference Price of 101.5 €/kg can be considered as a guide value to assess the overall profitability. The study identified potential price ranges for such products and provided information that can be used for according pricing strategies. © 2014, OGA-Osterreichische Gesellschaft fur Agrarokonomie.
Communication is an important tool in maintaining legitimacy and acceptability of forest sector operations and activities, and expectations by the general public on the forest sector conduct in Europe are in general very high. Despite this, there is scarce research in cross-national contexts on how forest sector sustainability is communicated to the general public and what development areas can be identified in terms of communication content. This study applies a qualitative content analysis in four forestry-rich European countries (Austria, Finland, Germany, and Slovenia). The state of online communication of 61 companies and 19 industry associations was qualitatively analyzed in 2014 with a focus on eight core sustainability topics of interest that were identified via an international forest sector stakeholder feedback process. Our results show some great similarities, but also some interesting differences in terms of communication frequency and weight of hot topics across countries. The most frequently communicated area was economic contribution of forests (in Finland and Austria), followed by debate over forest conservation versus production (Germany) and the concept-added value of wood (in Slovenia). With the exception of Slovenia, the role of forests in combating global warming was emphasized more frequently within industry associations than among individual forest industry companies. Characteristically, current content of sustainability communicatio
n focuses on supplying factual information. Thus, there is a need for developing more targeted and bidirectional forms of stakeholder communication in the future, emphasizing also more active use of social media channels and empowering organizations to promote interactive communication and collaborative learning.
Forest owner associations act as middlemen in the cooperative marketing of timber: they are supplied with small and fluctuating quantities of timber and sell bundled amounts to industrial consumers. Knowledge of the future quantity of monthly dis-tributable timber is of particular importance for planning, but remains a subject of uncertainty. This work presents models to predict wood supply based on a simple database. Models were tested in two case-study regions, which substantially differ
Seite 88 J. List, P. Schwarzbauer, M. Braun, A. Werner, G. Langthaler, T. Sternin framework conditions for timber marketing. In each of the regions in Styria and Burgenland, different model types and subtypes were superior. It was concluded that models which determine timber supply in one forest association, are only restrictedly suitable to predict timber supply in another one.
The overall impression of a glossy surface is an important parameter for consumer’s choice of wooden products. A new gloss parameter, called gloss impression, which calculates a reflexion structure image, was developed in order to complement the measurements made by industrial glossmeters, which are highly limited in describing the visual human perception, for example the commonly used gloss value. The objective of this study is to investigate to what extent the new measurement method of surface gloss is applicable to describe human gloss perception, in other words, to validate the new method. In order to analyse the concordance of the new methodology with human perception, 113 naïve observers had to rank the glossiness of eight series of black and white samples. The results were compared to both gloss impression and gloss value. The statistical evaluation by means of Pearson’s chi-squared tests revealed that the new method has an overall better correspondence to human perception than the gloss value. For black samples, it describes human perception significantly better than the gloss value and gives better results than those which would be achieved by guessing.
A Novel and Automated Circle Pattern Recognition Technique for Infra-Red Stero Camera Calibration
(2013)
Operational Behaviour of SWT
(2018)
Smart City Micro Quarters
(2018)
Mutual Benefits from Entrepreneurship of Non-business University Graduates for Academia and Founders
(2019)
There is a trend among universities to teach entrepreneurship and support startup initiatives. In this article, the state-ofthe-
art in entrepreneurship higher education and university ecosystems of non-business schools is reviewed, and the example of the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, Austria, and one of its startup show cases, Toolsense, is elaborated to understand critical success factors for non-business graduates as founders. The mutual benefits for universities and founders are discussed. In the case of Toolsense and the University of Applied Sciences, narrow band IoT as brought to the University by the startup. Implications on a universities’ innovation and portfolio management are highlighted. Concerning startups, the importance of growth financing after initial success is elaborated.
Industrial and institutional floor cleaning today relies on mechanical action combined with chemicals, which is costly and a burden to the environment. There are floor cleaning pads on the market which claim increased service time due to diamond particles contained in the nonwoven materials. In this study, it was investigated whether cleaning results can also be obtained with hard-particle-coated pads using only water. SiC, diamond and Al 2 O 3 were used with particle sizes between 5 and 125 µm. 5 g/m² of hard particles were applied to the pads in epoxy resin. Weight loss from abrasive cleaning in 500 cycles and gloss increase were measured. Diamond and silicon carbide particles were found to work with pure water, without the need for chemical cleaning agents.