8. Effective Use of Low-Enthalpy Geothermal Fields for Heating and Energy Production by Using Optimal Thermal-Transfer Fluids and Energy-Producing Systems

Coordinator: Voutetakis Spyrus, Institution: Centre for Research & Technology Hellas

Exploitation of low-enthalpy geothermal fields is rather limited in Greece, mostly due to the use of low thermal-efficiency technologies, which work with conventional thermal interchange fluids. This work proposes to use computational methods for molecular design (Computer-Aided Molecular Design – CAMD) in order to identify fluids with optimal economical, operational, and environmental characteristics, which could replace those currently in use. These optimal fluids will be used in greenhouse and small-community heating systems as well as in Rankine-cycle energy-producing systems, which will be redesigned appropriately. The data collected in this study will allow for fast identification of the thermal interchange fluid that is most appropriate for each geothermal field category, and will be available through specialized software that will make it available for further use.

9. Efficient Algorithms for Reachability and Path-Selection Problems with Applications

Coordinator: Georgiadis Loukas, Institution: University of Western Macedonia

The objective of this project is the design of efficient algorithms for a collection of graph problems related to (a) reachability and (b) path-selection. In these problems, we are given an input graph and wish to efficiently perform queries that, respectively, (a) report whether or not two vertices are connected and (b) compute paths connecting specified vertices so that certain requirements are satisfied. These are fundamental algorithmic problems with numerous and diverse applications, including internet routing, geographical navigation, and knowledge-representation systems. Furthermore, emerging applications such as the semantic web, bioinformatics, and social networks, have rekindled the interest of the computer science and other research communities in graph-based data structures and motivated the study of novel variants of reachability and path-selection problems. The project aims at a systematic study of these topics that will lead to the design of algorithms with good theoretical and practical performance and will also identify new application areas of such algorithms.

10. Ash as a Material of Passive Cooling of Buildings and Open-Air Areas

Coordinator: Karamanis Dimitrios, Institution: University of Ioannina

The object of this proposal is the study of ash as a material of applying the principle of evaporation-based cooling in buildings and open-air areas in order to deal with overheating phenomena in metropolitan areas as well as to conserve energy. This study has three phases. The first phase will study various types of ash, produced in electricity-generating installations in Greece (such as in Kozani-Ptolemaida and Megalopoli) regarding their chemical properties and crystal structure. The second phase will investigate the appropriateness and effectiveness of each type of ash regarding evaporation-based cooling, looking particularly into its ability to absorb vapor, modify relative humidity, etc. The third phase will look into the environmental side-effects of using ash on building roofs, whether as an add-on or as material embedded in the roof.

11. Structural health monitoring of glass fiber reinforced composites using embedded carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers

Coordinator: Kourkoulis Stavros, Institutions: National Technical University of Athens / University of the Aegean / Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal-CNRS, Université de Bordeaux

Nowadays, the aerospace industry, embiomechanics, monument preservation and several other industries and sciences are in need of multi-functional materials. Besides advanced structural properties, such materials should have additional functions, e.g., they should be usable as sensors for monitoring the structural health of themselves. Nanotechnologies and carbon nanotubes offer today the opportunity of developing sensors embedded in other materials, so that the sensors exhibit high sensitivity without sacrificing structural properties of the composite material. In this project, such a particular method will be investigated for the first time: a conductive material, i.e., carbon nanotube (CNT) fiber, will be embedded into non-conductive composite material, i.e., glass fiber reinforced composites. The conductive material acts as a sensor based on the resulting electric resistance change in the composites. On the other hand, its extra small dimensions do not impose geometrical defects on the production of the composite. This is of great importance, since during the embedding of sensors based on other non- destructive techniques, the generated artificial defects downgrade the mechanical properties of the composite.

12. Geophysical and Mineralogical Investigations on the twin-meteorite impact craters in Thessaly (Central Greece) of Holocene age

Coordinator: Lagios Evaggelos, Institutions: National & Kapodistrian University of Athens/Institute of Mineralogy and Petrography, ETH Zürich

Two circular Holocene lakes, of 150m and 250m in diameter, are located 250m apart in the agricultural fields SW of the town of Almyros (Thessaly). Recent petrographic and chemical evidence of collected pebbles and fine-breccias from the area provides strong indication that these are the result of a meteorite hit. This is the first time that meteorite craters have been recognized in Greece. According to the size of the crater lakes the dimensions of the meteorite, which might have split into two fragments, should have been about 10-30m before reaching the surface. The importance and goals of the proposed work are the following: (a) Finding of remnants of the meteorite, (b) Better understanding of impact forces, decomposing and melting processes of limestones during impact, and (c) Full evidence of the origin of the impact sites in order to propose the lakes to be put under natural protection for further scientific, educational, and touristic purposes.

13. Prototype Database of High-Quality Digital Mammography Images and its Portal-based Public Dissemination to the Scientific Community

Coordinator: Mavroforakis Michael, Institutions: University of Houston, Texas/ National & Kapodistrian University of Athens

This work aims at the creation of a prototype database of high-quality digital mammography images, as well as the creation of a web portal through which the database will be publicly available. This database will address several issues regarding the currently available primary material, both in terms of its quality and specificity (which are problems in the existing public mammography image databases), as well as in terms of accessibility (which is a problem in the “closed” medical records databases). In the proposed database, every image will be accompanied by a full clinical assessment and all relevant pathological annotations, e.g., observed tumors, asymmetries, etc. The new database will contain primary material collected by clinical researchers who are active in the areas of mammogram analysis and automatic diagnosis; it will be very beneficial to researchers working on algorithm development related to ACD/CAD systems. This public database and associated portal will be the first of their kind in Greece.

14. Disk-shaped Graphene Liquid Crystals: Self-Organization and Dynamics

Coordinator: Floudas Georgios, Institutions: University of Ioannina / Max-Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P)

Graphene is a kind of carbon that consists of a single layer of carbon atoms all interconnected in a hexagon shape. It is the thinnest material that can exist and is very robust and sturdy. Disk-shaped liquid crystals with graphene characteristics have the distinguishing feature that they self-organize and they go through several phases during their formation. This proposal focuses on having a series of new disk-shaped graphene liquid crystals, which have several applications in electronics. It seeks to find answers in several open scientific questions related to self-organization phenomena of such series and also to their dynamic behavior as they move from one phase to the next. It will apply several techniques (e.g., X-rays, NMR, etc.) for this purpose, some of them at the Max Planck Institute for Polymers. It is the first time that disk-shaped graphene liquid crystals will be studied in the above fashion in this extent.