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- Language: English
Remote sensing has demonstrated to be an instrumental tool in monitoring land changes as a result of anthropogenic change or natural disasters. Most disaster studies have focused on large-scale events with few analyzing small-scale disasters such as tornadoes. These studies have only provided a damage assessment perspective with the continued need to assess reconstruction. This study attempts to fill that void by examining recovery from the 1999 Moore, Oklahoma Tornado utilizing Landsat TM and ETM+ imagery. Recovery was assessed for 2000, 2001 and 2002 using spectral enhancements (vegetative and urban indices and a combination of the two), a recovery index and different statistical thresholds. Classification accuracy assessments were performed to determine the precision of recovery and select the best results. This analysis proved that medium resolution imagery could be used in conjunction with geospatial techniques to capture recovery. The new indices, Shortwave Infrared Index (SWIRI) and Coupled Vegetation and Urban Index (CVUI), developed for disaster management, were the most effective at discerning reconstruction using the 1.5 standard deviation threshold. Recovery rates for F-scale damages revealed that the most incredibly damaged areas associated with an F5 rating were the slowest to recover, while the lesser damaged areas associated with F1-F3 ratings were the quickest to rebuild. These findings were consistent for 2000, 2001 and 2002 also exposing that complete recovery was never attained in any of the F-scale damage zones by 2002. This study illustrates the significance the biophysical impact has on recovery as well as the effectiveness of using medium resolution imagery such as Landsat in future research.
A novel concept for integration of flame-assisted fuel cells (FFC) with a gas turbine is analyzed in this paper. Six different fuels (CH4, C3H8, JP-4, JP-5, JP-10(L), and H2) are investigated for the analytical model of the FFC integrated gas turbine hybrid system. As equivalence ratio increases, the efficiency of the hybrid system increases initially then decreases because the decreasing flow rate of air begins to outweigh the increasing hydrogen concentration. This occurs at an equivalence ratio of 2 for CH4. The thermodynamic cycle is analyzed using a temperature entropy diagram and a pressure volume diagram. These thermodynamic diagrams show as equivalence ratio increases, the power generated by the turbine in the hybrid setup decreases. Thermodynamic analysis was performed to verify that energy is conserved and the total chemical energy going into the system was equal to the heat rejected by the system plus the power generated by the system. Of the six fuels, the hybrid system performs best with H2 as the fuel. The electrical efficiency with H2 is predicted to be 27%, CH4 is 24%, C3H8 is 22%, JP-4 is 21%, JP-5 is 20%, and JP-10(L) is 20%. When H2 fuel is used, the overall integrated system is predicted to be 24.5% more efficient than the standard gas turbine system. The integrated system is predicted to be 23.0% more efficient with CH4, 21.9% more efficient with C3H8, 22.7% more efficient with JP-4, 21.3% more efficient with JP-5, and 20.8% more efficient with JP-10(L). The sensitivity of the model is investigated using various fuel utilizations. When CH4 fuel is used, the integrated system is predicted to be 22.7% more efficient with a fuel utilization efficiency of 90% compared to that of 30%.