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A transdisciplinary research initiative on coastal protection and nature conservation in Sankt Peter Ording, North Sea: Is it a living lab?
No full textUnder the pressure of global change coastal management increasingly requires interdisciplinary applied research combining the interests of coastal protection and nature conservation. In this, transdisciplinary collaboration is a key element of successful research. In the recent past the concept of transdisciplinary living labs has been put forward in applied research design and is nowadays embedded in many funding schemes and project initiatives.
As the concept is both attractive and challenging, and as the wording has undergone various (mis-)interpretations, we discuss its applicability to typical coastal research initiatives. Based on the transdisciplinary project Sand Coast Sankt Peter-Ording in the German Wadden Sea, this study explains the conceptual approach and communication pathways as well as exemplary research results. The project is compared to theoretical concepts of living labs, while discrepancies and challenges are discussed. We identify three main issues: Time restriction of limited funding peri-ods, academic requirements of the science stakeholders, and the relevance of the project for the stakeholders from practice and their active collaboration.
It is concluded that typical transdisciplinary coastal research projects should contain main ele-ments of living lab concepts. However, it must be understood that not all aspects of living labs can be met because of limited funds and project durations. Nevertheless, transdisciplinary pro-jects can be successful if different stakeholders are actively involved and contributing, are satis-fied by sustainable outcome, including the science stakeholders
Evaluating the impact of wind-assisted ship propulsion on the maneuverability of a Suezmax tanker
No full textCoupled free-flow-porous media flow processes including drop formation
No full textBehavior of a coupled free-flow-porous medium system is determined by the interface between the two domains. Formation of droplets at the interface governs transport processes in the whole system by enormously affecting the exchange of mass, momentum, and energy between the free flow and the porous medium. A droplet that forms at the interface might grow or shrink due to the flow from the porous medium and evaporation from its surface into the free flow. It also might be detached from the interface by the free flow. An example of such phenomena in nature is formation of sweat droplets on the skin by perspiration and the resulted cooling effect through their evaporation into the surrounding air. Water management in fuel cells, cooling systems, and inkjet printing are just a few technical applications in which droplet formation at the interface between a free flow and a porous medium appears. In this work, we developed a novel model to describe the formation, growth and detachment as well as evaporation of droplets at the interface between a coupled free-flow-porous medium system. Pore-network modeling is used as a tool to capture pore-scale phenomena occurring in porous media. New coupling concepts between the free flow and the porous medium are developed, which include storing mass, momentum and energy in the droplet. The formation and growth of a droplet is described and a new approach is developed to include the impact of the growing droplet on the free-flow field. Description of the forces acting in the system is given and accordingly the droplet detachment is predicted. A clear description of the droplet evaporation is provided and the impact of free-flow and porous medium properties on the droplet evaporation have been analyzed
