Browsing by Author "McDaniel Wyman, Constance Annette"
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Item The leap second debate(2013-12) McDaniel Wyman, Constance Annette; Schutz, Bob E.Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the standard civil time scale available via time signals in use in most parts of the world today. Leap seconds are the means to keep civil time, or UTC, aligned with adjusted Universal Time (UT1), a time based on Earth rotation corrected for polar variation. They are intentional adjustments to UTC that are instituted to prevent the difference between UT1 and UTC from exceeding +/- 0.9 seconds, based upon international agreement. Over a decade ago various technical communities for whom a continuous time scale would be more suitable than UTC, as disseminated in real-time, currently provides began making a case that the definition of UTC should be changed to eliminate leap seconds as a way to specify time unambiguously. This issue was discussed at the 2012 World Radiocommunications Conference (WRC), but consensus for elimination of the leap second was not achieved and a decision was postponed until the 2015 WRC. This report examines the leap second debate by summarizing general concepts of time and basic aspects of the leap second, followed by a discussion of non-technical considerations, technical aspects, and possible solutions.Item Technical and economic analysis of US offshore wind power(2011-05) McDaniel Wyman, Constance Annette; Jablonowski, Christopher J.Wind power is the fastest growing sector of electricity generation in the world and the development of offshore wind resources is an increasingly important component of this growth. While more than 1.5GW have been installed in Europe and China, no turbines have been installed in United States waters even though several have been planned. Offshore wind power development in the United States must contend with significant challenges. There are numerous technical considerations including geological issues and undefined environmental conditions that affect the determination of appropriate design loads. Technological advancements are needed, and logistical questions must be addressed. The regulatory structure can be confusing and most permitting frameworks are not well established. Offshore wind projects are capital intensive and concerns exist that the industry will not be able to achieve a suitable economy of scale. Additionally, concerns about offshore wind impacts cross many areas such as the environment, visual and cultural concerns, navigational issues, and competing uses. This research project examines the technical issues of American offshore wind power and models basic project costs to provide an estimate of the total net present value for hypothetical utility-scale offshore wind projects in the United States. Costs have been examined by building a cost model and employing traditional cash flow analysis, regression, design of experiments, and random sampling techniques.