Breaking Down the Barriers
The structural engineering of multistory buildings is a complex and time-consuming chore, but new design and analysis tools can greatly simplify the task. The article traces the development...
LRFD: Still Waiting
Introduced in 1986, load and resistance factor design (LRFD), has a way to go before it becomes standard practice for steel design. LRFD-based design typically results in savings on gravity...
CADD for Export
By using sophisticated structural design software and high-speed PCs, engineers in Pittsburgh overcame myriad problems when designing a highrise industrial tower in India. First, they...
Probing the Golden Gate
The Golden Gate Bridge has just come through the most detailed analysis ever attempted in its 53-year-old history. This analysis was squeezed into a desktop computer that calculates twice...
Hydroproject Risk Analysis
Traditionally, feasibility studies performed for potential hydropower sites have included either no uncertainty or at best an ad hoc value associated with estimated benefits. However,...
Monte Carlo Simulation Techniques for Predicting Annual Power Production
The problem of the creation of a simulation model utilizing the Monte Carlo method at a single site is addressed. The result of the analysis is a picture of the production at the site...
Evaluating Hydro Relicensing Alternatives?Impacts on Power and Non-Power Values
The relicensing of 300 hydroelectric plants in the next decade involves a total capacity of about 4,000 MW - a $10 billion value. A methodology recently developed by Decision Focus Incorporated...
Techniques for Balancing Instream Flow Needs with Project Operation
Balancing power and non-power benefits of hydroelectric developments has become a controversial issue in the relicensing of projects. Multiple project and multiple objective flow management...
Effects of Hydroelectric Turbine Passage on Fish Early Life Stages
Turbine-passage mortality has been studied extensively for juveniles and adults of migratory fish species, but few studies have directly quantified mortality of fish eggs and larvae. An...
Using Project Management Techniques in Hydro-Relicensing
To answer a pressing need for managing today's complex process and requirements of hydro relicensing, Central Maine Power Company (CMP) has applied the principles of project management,...
Document Image Systems for Hydro License Compliance
This paper will present one company's experience in selecting and implementing a document imaging system for management of correspondence, environmental studies, dam safety...
EPRI's Pumped Storage Planning and Evaluation Guide
EPRI's Pumped Storage Planning and Evaluation Guide was published in 1990. The Guide provides step-by-step procedures to: (a) evaluate pumped-storage operation in a utility...
Undeveloped Hydropower Resource Potential
The public hearings conducted as part of the National Energy Strategy produced testimony that concluded that the potential for development of hydropower was not well defined. As a result,...
Small Hydro Site Ranking, Cost Methodology and Program
The user-friendly micro-computer program SHYDRO for costing small hydro has been prepared for the government of Canada and is available in the public domain. SHYDRO was initially applied...
Screening Data with an Expert System (PDAS)
The performance of a three-mile long penstock, constructed in an active landslide area in northern California, is monitored using 138 vibrating wire-strain gauges. Readings are taken daily,...
Load/Resource Matching for Period-of-Record Computer Simulation
The Southwestern Power Administration (Southwestern), an agency of the Department of Energy, is responsible for marketing the power and energy produced at Federal hydroelectric power projects...
Computer Modeling of Reservoir Sedimentation and Sluicing
A recently developed computer program which simulates the evolution, growth, and movement of a submerged delta in reservoirs was tested for Spencer Dam and Reservoir in Nebraska. The code,...
Decision Rules for Reservoir Releases
One of the problems faced with computer modeling of a multi-reservoir, hydro-power system is making decisions on how releases will be made. Reservoirs many times have multiple demands...
Development of a New Hydraulic Design Tool for Spiral Casing/Distributor Geometry
A novel computational model has been developed to predict highly complex turbulent flow in a combined spiral casing/distributor geometry. Validation of the computational model against...
Design of Powerhouse Spiral Case Considering Three-Dimensional Action
A commonly used approach of designing semi-spiral cases for Kaplan turbine installation using two-dimensional frames becomes unsuitable for large diameter turbines and/or high heads. The...
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