In response to concerns about climate anxiety and distress, researchers and practitioners in both education and psychology have been investigating the importance of engaging climate hope in Climate ...Change Education (CCE). Synthesizing recent multidisciplinary research, alongside insights from the development of educational programs, this article proposes a new theoretical model for pedagogies of hope in CCE. The Hope Wheel presents three foundational elements: handrails for educators to hold on to while constructively engaging with climate change (honesty, awareness, spaceholding, action), guardrails for educators to be sensitive to when implementing the handrails (climate anxiety, mis-/disinformation, false hope), and lenses to encourage educators to explore connections between complex societal and planetary challenges (complexity, justice, perspectives, creativity, and empathy). This working model aims to support educators by distilling current learnings from the literature into a visual guide. It depicts essential elements to include, as well as avoid, in order to engage honest, hope-oriented CCE for transformative learning in the face of the climate crisis.
Currently, wind energy, a reliable, affordable, and clean energy source, contributes to 16% of Europe’s electricity. A typical modern wind turbine design lifespan is 20 years. In European Union ...countries, the number of wind turbines reaching 20 years or older will become significant beyond 2025. This research study presents a methodology aiming to upgrade rotor blades for existing wind turbines to extend the turbine life. This methodology employs blade element momentum theory, finite element analysis, genetic algorithm, and direct screen methods to optimise the blade external geometry and structural design, with the main objective to increase the blade power capture efficiency and enhance its structural performance. Meanwhile, the compatibility between the blade and the existing rotor of the wind turbine is considered during the optimisation. By applying this methodology to a 225 kW wind turbine, an optimal blade, which is compatible with the turbine hub, is proposed with the assistance of physical testing data. The optimised blade, which benefits from high-performance carbon-fibre composite material and layup optimisation, has a reduced tip deflection and self-weight of 48% and 31%, respectively, resulting in a significant reduction in resources, while improving its structural performance. In addition, for the optimised blade, there is an improvement in the power production of approximately 10.5% at a wind speed of 11 m/s, which results in an increase of over 4.2% in average annual power production compared to the existing turbine, without changing the blade length. Furthermore, an advanced aero-elastic-based simulation is conducted to ensure the changes made to the blade can guarantee an operation life of at least 20 years, which is equivalent to that of the reference blade.
Young people and educators in the UK have called for changes in the education system to better prepare learners for a future shaped by climate change and our collective response to the climate ...crisis. This research explored both reported climate education practices and future outlooks through a questionnaire completed by 16-18-year-old secondary school students (n = 512) and teachers (n = 69) in England. The research participants had mixed emotions about the future, and rated negative future scenarios as more likely than positive scenarios. This is the first study in the UK to directly measure climate hope and action competence using recently developed and validated questionnaires, finding a strong positive correlation between hope and action competence. Replicating previous research, the reported teacher practices that best predicted student-reported hope were 1) accepting negative emotions and 2) maintaining a positive outlook, which was further explored through the model of emotionally-mediated education for climate action. In this study, a complicated picture emerges in which hope and anxiety coexist, and both have a relationship with students' reported environmental action.
Modern wind turbine blades experience tip speeds that can exceed 110 m/s. At such speeds, water droplet impacts can cause erosion of the leading edge, which can have a detrimental effect on the ...performance of the wind turbine blade. More specifically, rain erosion is leading to both reduced efficiency and increased repair costs. The industry is using polymeric coatings—leading‐edge protection (LEP) materials—to protect the blades but those are also prone to rain erosion. In this work, LEP materials that are currently used by the industry for the protection of wind turbine blades were selected and their performance assessed. The LEP materials were characterised in terms of mechanical properties by using different experimental methods, and they were also assessed in terms of durability by performing rain erosion testing (RET). Finally, the damage and failure mechanisms observed were further investigated using CT scanning. This paper provides an insight to the properties of LEP materials, their durability, and the damage and failure mechanisms they experienced during rain erosion.
Increased pressure is being applied to industrial wastewater treatment facilities to adhere to more stringent regulations for the discharge of treated wastewater and to improve energy efficiency of ...the process. Nitrogen and phosphorous removal can be challenging to achieve efficiently, and in the case of phosphorous removal, can often necessitate the use of chemicals. There is a major drive globally to improve wastewater treatment infrastructure, whilst simultaneously reducing the carbon footprint of the process. The intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactor offers a modification of the well-known sequencing batch reactor process that can enable lower energy requirements than conventional sequencing batch reactor processes and can facilitate enhanced nutrient removal capacities. However, to date much of the previous literature has focused on relatively short laboratory-scale trials (often with synthetic wastewater) which may not be representative of larger scale system performance. This study explored the intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactor technology via a case-study deployment at a dairy production facility, in terms of treatment efficiency and energy efficiency with a focus on optimisation between phases. High treatment capacity and operational flexibility was achieved with NH4-N removals averaging >89%, PO4-P removal averaging >90% and total suspended solids removal averaging >97%. This research demonstrates the characteristics of intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactor technology at scale to effectively achieve biological nutrient removal. In addition, this study demonstrated that when effectively managed, energy savings and reductions in carbon emissions in the region of 36–68% are achievable through optimisation of reactor operation.
Over the last two decades, the tidal energy industry has laid the groundwork for creating commercially viable tidal power generation projects to strengthen sustainable energy policies around the ...world. At the end of 2021, the cumulative installation of tidal stream technology that has been deployed in Europe reached 30.2 MW, where the majority of the installations are by small and medium-sized companies. Due to a growing demand among investors related to the global tidal energy industry, the reliability and safety of operational-stage tidal energy systems’ components are becoming increasingly important. In this context, companies, universities and research institutes are focusing on conducting large- and small-scale tests of tidal turbine elements to validate their projected design life, and major attention is being given to assessing the structural integrity of turbine blades. This review paper focuses on structural tests that have been reported for axial flow tidal turbine blades manufactured using composite materials around the world, highlighting the testing standards, equipment and instrumentation required. Overall, this review article discusses the state of the art in the structural testing of tidal turbine blades. In addition, it highlights the global concerns and research gaps to ensure the long-term sustainability of axial flow tidal turbine blades. In addition, the information contained in this article will be useful for formulating a smooth and reliable mechanism to enhance the evaluation process of the structural properties of tidal turbine blades in the future.
This research explores two questions: how do young people imagine futures shaped by climate change and our collective response to the climate crisis, and what is the impact on young people of ...creatively engaging with the future? The participatory action research method of digital storytelling was adapted to explore climate futures, with thematic, visual and narrative analysis of the resulting videos. Young people articulated positive, negative and more complicated visions of the future, including counterfactuals, discontinuities, and living with loss and change. They also described a process of positive reappraisal over the course of the speculative digital storytelling workshops, with emotions about the future shifting from being predominantly negative to a more balanced spectrum including acceptance, curiosity and hope.
In recent years, the creative use of polymers has been expanded as the range of achievable material properties and options for manufacturing and post-processing continually grows. The main goal of ...this research was to design and develop a fully-functioning material extrusion additive manufacturing device with the capability to produce functionally graded high-temperature thermoplastic PEEK (polyether ether ketone) materials through the manipulation of microstructure during manufacturing. Five different strategies to control the chamber temperature and crystallinity were investigated, and concepts of thermal control were introduced to govern the crystallisation and cooling mechanics during the extrusion process. The interaction of individually deposited beads of material during the printing process was investigated using scanning electron microscopy to observe and quantify the porosity levels and interlayer bonding strength, which affect the quality of the final part. Functional testing of the printed parts was carried out to identify crystallinity, boundary layer adhesion, and mechanical behaviour. Furnace cooling and annealing were found to be the most effective methods, resulting in the highest crystallinity of the part. Finally, a functionally graded material cylindrical part was printed successfully, incorporating both low and high crystalline regions.
Functionally Graded Materials represent the next generation of engineering design for metal and plastic components. In this research, a specifically modified and optimised 3D printer was used to ...manufacture functionally graded polyether ether ketone components. This paper details the design and manufacturing methodologies used in the development of a polyether ether ketone printer capable of producing functionally graded materials through the manipulation of microstructure. The interaction of individually deposited beads of material during the printing process was investigated using scanning electron microscopy, to observe and quantify the porosity levels and interlayer bonding strength, which affects the quality of the final parts. Specimens were produced under varying process conditions and tested to characterise the influence of the process conditions on the resulting material properties. The specimens printed at high enclosure temperatures exhibited greater strength than parts printed without the active addition of heat, due to improved bond formation between individual layers of the print and a large degree of crystallinity through maintenance at these elevated temperatures.
Ocean wave energy is one of the world's most powerful forms of energy and the energy density in ocean waves is the highest among renewable energy sources. Wave energy converters are employed to ...harness this energy and convert it into usable electrical energy. However, in order to efficiently extract the energy, the wave energy converter must be optimised in the design stage. Therefore, in this paper, a methodology is presented which aims to optimise the structural geometric configuration of the device to maximise the average power extraction from its intended deployment site. Furthermore, a case study of the Atlantic marine energy test site, off the west coast of Ireland, is undertaken in order to demonstrate the methodology. Using the average annual wave energy spectrum at this site as the input, the optimum structural geometric configuration was established, along with an analysis of the optimum configuration for different radius devices. In addition, the optimum damping coefficient of the PTO mechanism is determined and the total mean absorbed power for the structure at the site over the entire scatter diagram of data is calculated.
•A methodology to optimise the geometric configuration of wave energy converters is described.•The device is designed to maximise the average power extraction from its intended deployment site.•A case study that develops an optimised device, dependent on the deployment site, is presented.•The response of the optimised device to realistic ocean waves and the power harnessed are calculated.
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