Coal- and gas-based power plants currently supply the largest proportion of the world's power generation capacity, and are required to operate to increasingly stringent environmental standards. Higher temperature combustion is therefore being adopted to improve plant efficiency and to maintain net power output given the energy penalty that integration of advanced emissions control systems cause. However, such operating regimes also serve to intensify degradation mechanisms within power plant systems, potentially affecting their reliability and lifespan.Power plant life management and performance improvement critically reviews the fundamental degradation mechanisms that affect conventional power plant systems and components, as well as examining the operation and maintenance approaches and advanced plant rejuvenation and retrofit options that the industry are applying to ensure overall plant performance improvement and life management.Part one initially reviews plant operation issues, including fuel flexibility, condition monitoring and performance assessment. Parts two, three and four focus on coal boiler plant, gas turbine plant, and steam boiler and turbine plant respectively, reviewing environmental degradation mechanisms affecting plant components and their mitigation via advances in materials selection and life management approaches, such as repair, refurbishment and upgrade. Finally, part five reviews issues relevant to the performance management and improvement of advanced heat exchangers and power plant welds.With its distinguished editor and international team of contributors, Power plant life management and performance improvement is an essential reference for power plant operators, industrial engineers and metallurgists, and researchers interested in this important field. - Provides an overview of the improvements to plant efficiency in coal- and gas-based power plants - Critically reviews the fundamental degradation mechanisms that affect conventional power plant systems and components, noting mitigation routes alongside monitoring and assessment methods - Addresses plant operation issues including fuel flexibility, condition monitoring and performance assessment

Coatings offer the unique opportunity to create architectures that combine the functionality of two or more materials, conferring unique properties to objects with an extremely large palette of solutions. For this flexibility, thick and thin films have terrific impacts on the most relevant societal challenges. Computers, food packaging, airplanes, and cars, to mention a few familiar objects from everyday life, rely heavily on coatings. To celebrate the key role that coatings have in society, and in science and technology, this book collects a selection of relevant reviews and original research articles published in “Coatings” in 2017 and 2018. Papers have been selected based on their broad impact and balancing between the two major aspects of coatings science and technology: deposition and characterization.

Advances in Heat Transfer

The field of additive manufacturing has seen explosive growth in recent years due largely in part to renewed interest from the manufacturing sector. Conceptually, additive manufacturing, or industrial 3D printing, is a way to build parts without using any part-specific tooling or dies from the computer-aided design (CAD) file of the part. Today, mo

Direct injection enables precise control of the fuel/air mixture so that engines can be tuned for improved power and fuel economy, but ongoing research challenges remain in improving the technology for commercial applications. As fuel prices escalate DI engines are expected to gain in popularity for automotive applications. This important book, in two volumes, reviews the science and technology of different types of DI combustion engines and their fuels. Volume 1 deals with direct injection gasoline and CNG engines, including history and essential principles, approaches to improved fuel economy, design, optimisation, optical techniques and their applications. - Reviews key technologies for enhancing direct injection (DI) gasoline engines - Examines approaches to improved fuel economy and lower emissions - Discusses DI compressed natural gas (CNG) engines and biofuels