The selection of building passive thermal design strategies is based heavily on the local climatic conditions. Identifying the best strategy for a given location can be made using bioclimatic charts. Such charts depend on the atmospheric pressure and are commonly available at sea level. Moreover, manual usage of these charts is cumbersome and time-consuming. In this work, the development of a bioclimatic chart for Muscat, as a case study, is described using Givoni's zones in rigorous detail based on typical meteorological year (TMY) data. A generic calculation tool that generates the psychrometric chart for any altitude has been developed using MATLAB^TM, the procedure described herein, can be imitated on most scripting languages for any location using its atmospheric pressure and TMY data.

Passive cooling is an ancient technique used in air reconditioning and ventilation. Despite its historical use, its relevance in building design has never ceased. To be sure, with the increasing interest in saving energy and preserving the environment, passive cooling stands out as a sustainable possibility. However, this is not always a viable option, and its practicality is determined mainly by the system's functionality, the type of activities involved in the space to be cooled, and the surrounding area's bioclimatic variables (i.e. temperature, humidity, and diurnal temperature differences). In areas under consideration for passive cooling systems, bioclimatic charts are helpful. Comprehensive charts, in which yearlong hourly meteorological data are projected on a psychrometric chart, help to determine the fits required by a particular location. In this paper, psychrometric charts were developed for eight locations in Oman, and a systematic procedure on the selection and viability of using passive cooling techniques is provided through meteorological data. Givoni's passive cooling zones are used and the applicability of each technique is quantified. The eight study locations are widely scattered around and Oman, and possess great geographical diversity. The presented results can help delineate the applicability of each passive cooling technique for residential buildings at each of the study locations and their proximities.

The study presents an experimental analysis of a novel mini channels-based Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) panel with nanofluid flow. The design consists of a PV plate attached to an aluminum substrate absorber plate having minichannels grooved on it to act as a solar collector and cooling mechanism for PV. The proposed design was tested for thermal and electrical efficiencies under the working fluids of water, Al2O3, and SiO2 nanofluids at 0.1% and 0.2% concentrations in water and at a flow rate of 0.005 l/s to 0.045 l/s. The experiments were carried out outdoors in a real environment and the measurements were taken for PV surface and fluid temperatures, incidence solar flux, electrical voltage, and current produced. The PV and PV/T performance was compared, and a noticeable enhancement in electrical efficiency was observed with the proposed design as compared to the bare PV module, and an appreciable augmentation in thermal efficiency was noticed when nanofluids were applied. The maximum electrical and thermal efficiencies of PV/T with 0.2% Al2O3 nanofluid were 19.1% and 73.4%, respectively; whereas for bare PV panels, the electrical efficiency was 18.7%. The Al2O3 nanofluid at 0.2% exhibited more than a 10% increase in thermal efficiency compared to water as a working fluid in PV/T.

This paper discusses the design and results of a polymer test in a field containing heavy oil. The field is located in the south of Oman and contains significant in place volumes of viscous oil (700cp) in sub Darcy reservoir. Due to unfavorable oil-water mobility ratio, the ongoing water injection will still leave significant volumes of stranded oil post water injection. A "Paradigm Shift" from energy intensive thermal processes, high viscous polymer flood is currently being evaluated to target and recover stranded high viscosity oil. If successful not only would the oil recovery from the field be significantly increased but a reproducible process would be available to target other high viscosity oil reservoirs in Oman. A single well injection test was conducted in 2014 representing the first foray into high viscous polymer flooding for the field. The driver for conducting the test was to de-risk polymer injection as a pre-courser to a full field expansion. To that end the following KPI's were identified. Matrix injection – can economical rates at design pressures be achievedLow salinity – clay swelling and subsequent loss of injectivityAlternate higher molecular weight polymer's – can injectivity be maintained or is polymer pluggingConformance – Applicability to full field / is conformance control requiredFracture pressure – Defining injection envelope for full filed expansion The test comprised of a converted horizontal producer that was retrofitted with Disturbed Temperature and Acoustics (DTS & DAS) fiber optics. Modular polymer facilities capable of injecting high viscous polymer slugs at high rates were utilized; additionally a modular low salinity process was also used to drop the injected water and polymer salinity to 500ppm TDS. The following have been identified as key learning's from the test: A lack of conformance was identified through DTS and DAS evaluation during initial water injection, prior to the injection of any polymerA loss of injectivity was also observed over a period of the test. This affected subsequent polymer and water injection periods.The behavior of in-situ polymer highlighted possible unexpected phenomena, particularly the effect on water injection post polymer injection.Low salinity, 500ppm TDS, water was injected with and without polymer with no adverse affect on injectivity.Additionally, the higher molecular weight polymer also was successfully injected.