Search results for: carpal tunnel

Authors: Tugba Bayoglu

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Aerodynamic parameter estimation is very crucial in missile design phase, since accurate high fidelity aerodynamic model is required for designing high performance and robust control system, developing high fidelity flight simulations and verification of computational and wind tunnel test results. However, in literature, there is not enough missile aerodynamic parameter identification study for three main reasons: (1) most air to air missiles cannot fly with constant speed, (2) missile flight test number and flight duration are much less than that of fixed wing aircraft, (3) variation of the missile aerodynamic parameters with respect to Mach number is higher than that of fixed wing aircraft. In addition to these challenges, identification of aerodynamic parameters for high wind angles by using classical estimation techniques brings another difficulty in the estimation process. The reason for this, most of the estimation techniques require employing polynomials or splines to model the behavior of the aerodynamics. However, for the missiles with a large variation of aerodynamic parameters with respect to flight variables, the order of the proposed model increases, which brings computational burden and complexity. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to solve nonlinear aerodynamic parameter identification problem for a supersonic air to air missile by using Artificial Neural Networks. The method proposed will be tested by using simulated data which will be generated with a six degree of freedom missile model, involving a nonlinear aerodynamic database. The data will be corrupted by adding noise to the measurement model. Then, by using the flight variables and measurements, the parameters will be estimated. Finally, the prediction accuracy will be investigated.

Keywords: air to air missile, artificial neural networks, open loop simulation, parameter identification

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Authors: Garance Liaboeuf, Alain Le Bot, Ali Daouadji, Antoine Martinet, Mohamed Bouteldja, Nicolas Grignard, Damien Pilet

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As every French road operator, Autoroutes et Tunnel du Mont Blanc (ATMB) conducts annual inspections of its infrastructures. Significant loss of skid resistance has been observed on some sections of his network, sometimes on recent pavements. In the way of making the mechanisms and factors that can lead to this loss of grip more understandable, ATMB has launched a study aimed at identifying the causes and developing solutions to prevent this phenomenon. To quantify the deterioration of different road surfaces subjected to controlled scraping with steel blades of snow removal machines, a field campaign was conducted. These operations are carried out during the winter period according to a strict protocol. In order to correct the skid-resistance values, a control panel is set up. In this way, only the effect of the scraping is taken into account. It allows us to exclude the influence of the environment (temperature, humidity, etc.) and of the surface state on the skid resistance values measured during the different sessions. Skid measurements after eight years of scraping cycles showed a 7% to 13% decrease in microtexture and a 2% to 12% decrease in macrotexture adhesion. These reductions are attributed to the phenomenon of polishing road surfaces by using steel blades. Also, regeneration phenomena occur after a certain number of blades pass. Differences in steel scraper blade resistance appear related to the intrinsic properties of the aggregate used in the pavement formulation and its type. Finally, the results of this campaign will allow the determination of the resistance characteristics of the pavement damage by the steel blade of snow plows. An evolution law of the surface condition as a function of the scraping operations will also be developed from this study.

Keywords: pavement, skid, surface, snow plow

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Authors: Patricia Shirley Almeida Prado, Selma Paixão Argollo, Maria De Fátima Teixeira Guimarães, Leticia Matos Sobrinho

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Skeletal differential diagnosis is essential in forensic anthropology in order to differentiate skeletal trauma from normal osseous variation and pathological processes. Thus, part of forensic anthropological field is differentiate skeletal criminal injuries from the normal skeletal variation (bone fusion or nonunion, transitional vertebrae and other non-metric traits), non-traumatic skeletal pathology (myositis ossificans, arthritis, bone metastasis, osteomyelitis) from traumatic skeletal pathology (myositis ossificans traumatic) avoiding misdiagnosis. This case shows the importance of effective pathological diagnosis in order to accelerate the identification process of skeletonized human remains. THE CASE: An unidentified skeletal remains at the medico legal institute Nina Rodrigues-Salvador, of a male young adult (29 to 40 years estimated) showing a massive heterotopic ossification on its right tibia at upper epiphysis and adjacent articular femur surface; an extensive ossification on the right clavicle (at the sternal extremity) also presenting an heterotopic ossification at right scapulae (upper third of scapulae lateral margin and infraglenoid tubercule) and at the head of right humerus at the shoulder joint area. Curiously, this case also shows an unusual porosity in certain vertebrae´s body and in some tarsal and carpal bones. Likewise, his left fifth metacarpal bones (right and left) showed a healed fracture which led both bones distorted. Based on identification, of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains literature and protocols these alterations can be misdiagnosed and this skeleton may present more than one pathological process. The anthropological forensic lab at Medico-legal Institute Nina Rodrigues in Salvador (Brazil) adopts international protocols to ancestry, sex, age and stature estimations, also implemented well-established conventions to identify pathological disease and skeletal alterations. The most compatible diagnosis for this case is hematogenous osteomyelitis due to following findings: 1: the healed fracture pattern at the clavicle showing a cloaca which is a pathognomonic for osteomyelitis; 2: the metacarpals healed fracture does not present cloaca although they developed a periosteal formation. 3: the superior articular surface of the right tibia shows an extensive inflammatory healing process that extends to adjacent femur articular surface showing some cloaca at tibia bone disease. 4: the uncommon porosities may result from hematogenous infectious process. The fractures probably have occurred in a different moments based on the healing process; the tibia injury is more extensive and has not been reorganized, while metacarpals and clavicle fracture is properly healed. We suggest that the clavicle and tibia´s fractures were infected by an existing infectious disease (syphilis, tuberculosis, brucellosis) or an existing syndrome (Gorham’s disease), which led to the development of osteomyelitis. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that different bones are affected in diverse levels. Like the metacarpals that do not show the cloaca, but then a periosteal new bone formation; then the unusual porosities do not show a classical osteoarthritic processes findings as the marginal osteophyte, pitting and new bone formation, they just show an erosive process without bone formation or osteophyte. To confirm and prove our hypothesis we are working on different clinical approaches like DNA, histopathology and other image exams to find the correct diagnostic.

Keywords: bone disease, forensic anthropology, hematogenous osteomyelitis, human identification, human remains

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Authors: Bibin Sagaram, Ronith Stanly, S. S. Suneesh

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Due to the dwindling supply of fuel reserves, engineers and designers now focus on fuel efficient designs for the solution of any problem; the transportation industry is not new to this kind of approach. Though the aerodynamic benefits of the dimples on a Golf-ball are known, it has never been scientifically tested on how such a design philosophy can improve the fuel efficiency of a real-life vehicle by imparting better aerodynamic performance. The main purpose of the paper is to establish the aerodynamic benefits of the Golf-ball-Inspired Dimpled Design in improving the fuel efficiency of a Super-mileage vehicle, constructed by Team Go Viridis for ‘Shell Eco Marathon Asia 2015’, and to predict the extent to which the results can be held valid for a road car. The body design was modeled in Autodesk Inventor and the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations were carried out using Ansys Fluent software. The aerodynamic parameters of designs (with and without the Golf-ball-Inspired Dimples) have been studied and the results are experimentally validated against those obtained from wind tunnel tests carried out on a 1:10 scaled-down 3D printed model. Test drives of the Super-mileage vehicle were carried out, under various conditions, to compare the variation in fuel efficiency with and without the Golf-ball-Inspired design. Primary investigations reveal an aerodynamic advantage of 25% for the vehicle with the Golf Ball Inspired Dimpled Design as opposed to the normal design. Initial tests conducted by ‘Mythbusters’ on Discovery Network using a modified road car has shown positive results which has motivated us to conduct such a research work using a custom-built experimental Super-Mileage vehicle. The content of the paper becomes relevant to the present Automotive and Energy industry where improving the fuel efficiency is of the top most priority.

Keywords: aerodynamics, CFD, fuel efficiency, golf ball

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Authors: Lixin Tian, Wei Xue

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Many jobs in society go underground, such as mine mining, tunnel construction and subways, which are vital to the development of society. Once accidents occur in these places, the interruption of traditional wired communication is not conducive to the development of rescue work. In order to realize the positioning, early warning and command functions of underground personnel and improve rescue efficiency, it is necessary to develop and design an emergency ground communication system. It is easy to be subjected to narrowband interference when performing conventional underground communication. Spreading communication can be used for this problem. However, general spread spectrum methods such as direct spread communication are inefficient, so it is proposed to use parallel combined spread spectrum (PCSS) communication to improve efficiency. The PCSS communication not only has the anti-interference ability and the good concealment of the traditional spread spectrum system, but also has a relatively high frequency band utilization rate and a strong information transmission capability. So, this technology has been widely used in practice. This paper presents a PCSS communication model-multiple detection parallel combined spread spectrum (MDPCSS) communication system. In this paper, the principle of MDPCSS communication system is described, that is, the sequence at the transmitting end is processed in blocks and cyclically shifted to facilitate multiple detection at the receiving end. The block diagrams of the transmitter and receiver of the MDPCSS communication system are introduced. At the same time, the calculation formula of the system bit error rate (BER) is introduced, and the simulation and analysis of the BER of the system are completed. By comparing with the common parallel PCSS communication, we can draw a conclusion that it is indeed possible to reduce the BER and improve the system performance. Furthermore, the influence of different pseudo-code lengths selected on the system BER is simulated and analyzed, and the conclusion is that the larger the pseudo-code length is, the smaller the system error rate is.

Keywords: cyclic shift, multiple detection, parallel combined spread spectrum, PN code

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Authors: Gichun Cha, Changgil Lee, Seunghee Park

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The objective of the study is to construct the shape management method contributing to the safety of the large structure. In Korea, the research of the shape management is lack because of the new attempted technology. Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) is used for measurements of large structures. TLS provides an efficient way to actively acquire accurate the point clouds of object surfaces or environments. The point clouds provide a basis for rapid modeling in the industrial automation, architecture, construction or maintenance of the civil infrastructures. TLS produce a huge amount of point clouds. Registration, Extraction and Visualization of data require the processing of a massive amount of scan data. The octree can be applied to the shape management of the large structure because the scan data is reduced in the size but, the data attributes are maintained. The octree space partitioning generates the voxel of 3D space, and the voxel is recursively subdivided into eight sub-voxels. The point cloud of scan data was converted to voxel and sampled. The experimental site is located at Sungkyunkwan University. The scanned structure is the steel-frame bridge. The used TLS is Leica ScanStation C10/C5. The scan data was condensed 92%, and the octree model was constructed with 2 millimeter in resolution. This study presents octree space partitioning for handling the point clouds. The basis is created by shape management of the large structures such as double-deck tunnel, building and bridge. The research will be expected to improve the efficiency of structural health monitoring and maintenance. "This work is financially supported by 'U-City Master and Doctor Course Grant Program' and the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIP) (NRF- 2015R1D1A1A01059291)."

Keywords: 3D scan data, octree space partitioning, shape management, structural health monitoring, terrestrial laser scanning

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Authors: Morteza Khashehchi, Kamel Hooman

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Thermal effects on the dynamics and stability of the flow past a circular cylinder operating in the mixed convection regime is studied experimentally for Reynolds number (ReD) between 1000 and 4000, and different cylinder wall temperatures (Tw) between 25 and 75°C by means of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The experiments were conducted in a horizontal wind tunnel with the heated cylinder placed horizontally. With such assumptions, the direction of the thermally induced buoyancy force acting on the fluid surrounding the heated cylinder would be perpendicular to the flow direction. In each experiment, to acquire 3000 PIV image pairs, the temperature and Reynolds number of the approach flow were held constant. By adjusting different temperatures in different Reynolds numbers, the corresponding Richardson number (RiD = Gr/Re^2) was varied between 0:0 (unheated) and 10, resulting in a change in the heat transfer process from forced convection to mixed convection. With increasing temperature of the wall cylinder, significant modifications of the wake flow pattern and wake vortex shedding process were clearly revealed. For cylinder at low wall temperature, the size of the wake and the vortex shedding process are found to be quite similar to those of an unheated cylinder. With high wall temperature, however, the high temperature gradient in the wake shear layer creates a type of vorticity with opposite sign to that of the shear layer vorticity. This temperature gradient vorticity weakens the strength of the shear layer vorticity, causing delay in reaching the recreation point. In addition to the wake characteristics, the shedding frequency for the heated cylinder is determined for all aforementioned cases. It is found that, as the cylinder wall is heated, the organization of the vortex shedding is altered and the relative position of the first detached vortices with respect to the second one is changed. This movement of the first detached vortex toward the second one increases the frequency of the shedding process. It is also found that the wake closure length decreases with increasing the Richardson number.

Keywords: heated cylinder, PIV, wake, Reynolds number

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Authors: Ferdi Sönmez, Nihal Yorulmaz

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Decision making on the true planning of the public transportation systems to serve potential users is a must for metropolitan areas. To take attraction of travelers to projected modes of transport, adequately fair overall travel times should be provided. In this fashion, other benefits such as lower traffic congestion, road safety and lower noise and atmospheric pollution may be earned. The congestion which comes with increasing demand of public transportation is becoming a part of our lives and making residents’ life difficult. Hence, regulations should be done to reduce this congestion. To provide a constructive and balanced regulation in public transportation systems, right stations should be located in right places. In this study, it is aimed to design and implement a Decision Support System (DSS) Application to determine the optimal bus stop places for public transport in Istanbul which is one of the biggest and oldest cities in the world. Required information is gathered from IETT (Istanbul Electricity, Tram and Tunnel) Enterprises which manages all public transportation services in Istanbul Metropolitan Area. By using the most real-like values, cost assignments are made. The cost is calculated with the help of equations produced by bi-level optimization model. For this study, 300 buses, 300 drivers, 10 lines and 110 stops are used. The user cost of each station and the operator cost taken place in lines are calculated. Some components like cost, security and noise pollution are considered as significant factors affecting the solution of set covering problem which is mentioned for identifying and locating the minimum number of possible bus stops. Preliminary research and model development for this study refers to previously published article of the corresponding author. Model results are represented with the intent of decision support to the specialists on locating stops effectively.

Keywords: operator cost, bi-level optimization model, user cost, urban transportation

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Authors: Neel K. Shah

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Passive flow control on aerofoils has largely been achieved through the use of protrusions such as vane-type vortex generators. Consequently, innovative flow-control concepts should be explored in an effort to improve current component performance. Therefore, experimental research has been performed at The University of Manchester to evaluate the flow-control effectiveness of a vortex generator made in the form of a surface indentation. The surface indentation has a trapezoidal planform. A spanwise array of indentations has been applied in a convergent orientation around the maximum-thickness location of the upper surface of a NACA-0015 aerofoil. The aerofoil has been tested in a two-dimensional set-up in a low-speed wind tunnel at an angle of attack (AoA) of 3° and a chord-based Reynolds number (Re) of ~2.7 x 105. The baseline model has been found to suffer from a laminar separation bubble at low AoA. The application of the indentations at 3° AoA has considerably shortened the separation bubble. The indentations achieve this by shedding up-flow pairs of streamwise vortices. Despite the considerable reduction in bubble length, the increase in leading-edge suction due to the shorter bubble is limited by the removal of surface curvature and blockage (increase in surface pressure) caused locally by the convergent indentations. Furthermore, the up-flow region of the vortices, which locally weakens the pressure recovery around the trailing edge of the aerofoil by thickening the boundary layer, also contributes to this limitation. Due to the conflicting effects of the indentations, the changes in the pressure-lift and pressure-drag coefficients, i.e., cl,p and cd,p, are small. Nevertheless, the indentations have improved cl,p and cd,p beyond the uncertainty range, i.e., by ~1.30% and ~0.30%, respectively, at 3° AoA. The wake measurements show that turbulence intensity and Reynolds stresses have considerably increased in the indented case, thus implying that the indentations increase the viscous drag on the model. In summary, the convergent indentations are able to reduce the size of the laminar separation bubble, but conversely, they are not highly effective in reducing cd,p at the tested Reynolds number.

Keywords: aerofoil flow control, laminar separation bubbles, low Reynolds-number flows, surface indentations

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Authors: Cahya Wimar Wicaksono, Reynara Davin Chen, Alvian Kristianto Santoso

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Grasberg Cu-Au ore deposit as one of the biggest porphyry deposits located in Papua Province, Indonesia produced by several intrusion that restricted by Heavy Sulphide Zone (HSZ) in peripheral. HSZ is the rock that becomes the contact between Grassberg Igneous Complex (GIC) with sedimentary and igneous rock outside, which is rich in sulphide minerals such as pyrite ± pyrrhotite. This research is to obtain the characteristic of HSZ based on geotechnical, geochemical and mineralogy aspect and those implication for daily mining operational activities. Method used in this research are geological and alteration mapping, core logging, FAA (Fire Assay Analysis), AAS (Atomic absorption spectroscopy), RQD (Rock Quality Designation) and rock water content. Data generated from methods among RQD data, mineral composition and grade, lithological and structural geology distribution in research area. The mapping data show that HSZ material characteristics divided into three type based on rocks association, there are near igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks and on HSZ area. And also divided based on its location, north and south part of research area. HSZ material characteristic consist of rock which rich of pyrite ± pyrrhotite, and RQD range valued about 25%-100%. Pyrite ± pyrrhotite which outcropped will react with H₂O and O₂ resulting acid that generates corrosive effect on steel wire and rockbolt. Whereas, pyrite precipitation proses in HSZ forming combustible H₂S gas which is harmful during blasting activities. Furthermore, the impact of H₂S gas in blasting activities is forming poison gas SO₂. Although HSZ high grade Cu-Au, however those high grade Cu-Au rich in sulphide components which is affected in flotation milling process. Pyrite ± pyrrhotite in HSZ will chemically react with Cu-Au that will settle in milling process instead of floating.

Keywords: combustible, corrosive, heavy sulphide zone, pyrite ± pyrrhotite

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Authors: Asma Abdullah, Awais Khan, Reem Al-Ghumlasi, Pritam Kumari, Yasir Nawaz

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Introduction: This study verified the potential applications of two Oblique Wing configurations that were initiated by the Germans Aerodynamicists during the WWII. Due to the end of the war, this project was not completed and in this research is targeting the revival of German Oblique biplane configuration. The research draws upon the use of two Oblique wings mounted on the top and bottom of the fuselage through a single pivot. The wings are capable of sweeping at different angles ranging from 0° at takeoff to 60° at cruising Altitude. The top wing, right half, behaves like a forward swept wing and the left half, behaves like a backward swept wing. Vice Versa applies to the lower wing. This opposite deflection of the top and lower wing cancel out the rotary moment created by each wing and the aircraft remains stable. Problem to better understand or solve: The purpose of this research is to investigate the potential of achieving improved aerodynamic performance and efficiency of flight at a wide range of sweep angles. This will help examine the most accurate value for the sweep angle at which the aircraft will possess both stability and better aerodynamics. Explaining the methods used: The Aircraft configuration is designed using Solidworks after which a series of Aerodynamic prediction are conducted, both in the subsonic and the supersonic flow regime. Computations are carried on Ansys Fluent. The results are then compared to theoretical and flight data of different Supersonic fighter aircraft of the same category (AD-1) and with the Wind tunnel testing model at subsonic speed. Results: At zero sweep angle, the aircraft has an excellent lift coefficient value with almost double that found for fighter jets. In acquiring of supersonic speed the sweep angle is increased to maximum 60 degrees depending on the mission profile. General findings: Oblique biplane can be the future fighter jet aircraft because of its high value performance in terms of aerodynamics, cost, structural design and weight.

Keywords: biplane, oblique wing, sweep angle, supercritical airfoil

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Authors: Sinan Bilgen, Bekir Ozer Ay, Nilay Sezer Uzol

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After decades of conventional shapes, irregular forms with complex geometries are getting more popular for form generation of tall buildings all over the world. This trend has recently brought out diverse building forms such as twisting tall buildings. This study investigates both the aerodynamic and design features of twisting tall buildings through comparative analyses. Since twisting a tall building give rise to additional complexities related with the form and structural system, lateral load effects become of greater importance on these buildings. The aim of this study is to analyze the inherent characteristics of these iconic forms by comparing the wind loads on twisting tall buildings with those on their prismatic twins. Through a case study research, aerodynamic analyses of an existing twisting tall building and its prismatic counterpart were performed and the results have been compared. The prismatic twin of the original building were generated by removing the progressive rotation of its floors with the same plan area and story height. Performance-based measures under investigation have been evaluated in conjunction with the architectural design. Aerodynamic effects have been analyzed by both wind tunnel tests and computational methods. High frequency base balance tests and pressure measurements on 3D models were performed to evaluate wind load effects on a global and local scale. Comparisons of flat and real surface models were conducted to further evaluate the effects of the twisting form without façade texture contribution. Comparisons highlighted that, the twisting form under investigation shows better aerodynamic behavior both for along wind but particularly for across wind direction. Compared to the prismatic counterpart; twisting model is superior on reducing vortex-shedding dynamic response by disorganizing the wind vortices. Consequently, despite the difficulties arisen from inherent complexity of twisted forms, they could still be feasible and viable with their attractive images in the realm of tall buildings.

Keywords: aerodynamic tests, motivation for twisting, tall buildings, twisted forms, wind excitation

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Authors: Cosmas Pandit Pagwiwoko, Ammar Khaled Abdelaziz Abdelsamia

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Flutter as a phenomenon of flow-induced and self-excited vibration has to be recognized considering its harmful effect on the structure especially in a stage of aircraft design. This phenomenon is also important for a wind energy harvester based on the fluttering surface due to its effective operational velocity range. This multi-physics occurrence can be presented by two governing equations in both fluid and structure simultaneously in respecting certain boundary conditions on the surface of the body. In this work, the equations are resolved separately by two distinct solvers, one-time step of each domain. The modelling and simulation of this flow-structure interaction in ANSYS show the effectiveness of this loosely coupled method in representing flutter phenomenon however the process is time-consuming for design purposes. Therefore, another technique using the same weak coupled aero-structure is proposed by using system dynamics approach. In this technique, the aerodynamic forces were calculated using singularity function for a range of frequencies and certain natural mode shapes are transformed into time domain by employing an approximation model of fraction rational function in Laplace variable. The representation of structure in a multi-degree-of-freedom coupled with a transfer function of aerodynamic forces can then be simulated in time domain on a block-diagram platform such as Simulink MATLAB. The dynamic response of flutter at certain velocity can be evaluated with another established flutter calculation in frequency domain k-method. In this method, a parameter of artificial structural damping is inserted in the equation of motion to assure the energy balance of flow and vibrating structure. The simulation in time domain is particularly interested as it enables to apply the structural non-linear factors accurately. Experimental tests on a fluttering airfoil in the wind tunnel are also conducted to validate the method.

Keywords: flutter, flow-induced vibration, flow-structure interaction, non-linear structure

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Authors: Victor Alves Barros Galvão, Israel Da Silveira Rego, Antonio Carlos Oliveira, Paulo Gilberto De Paula Toro

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The Brazilian hypersonic aerospace vehicle 14-X B, VHA 14-X B, is a vehicle integrated with the hypersonic airbreathing propulsion system based on supersonic combustion (scramjet), developing in Aerothermodynamics and hypersonic Prof. Henry T. Nagamatsu Laboratory, to conduct demonstration in atmospheric flight at the speed corresponding to Mach number 7 at an altitude of 30km. In the experimental procedure the hypersonic shock tunnel T3 was used, installed in that laboratory. This device simulates the flow over a model is fixed in the test section and can also simulate different atmospheric conditions. The scramjet technology offers substantial advantages to improve aerospace vehicle performance which flies at a hypersonic speed through the Earth's atmosphere by reducing fuel consumption on board. Basically, the scramjet is an aspirated aircraft engine fully integrated that uses oblique/conic shock waves generated during hypersonic flight, to promote the deceleration and compression of atmospheric air in scramjet inlet. During the hypersonic flight, the vehicle VHA 14-X will suffer atmospheric influences, promoting changes in the vehicle's angles of attack (angle that the mean line of vehicle makes with respect to the direction of the flow). Based on this information, a study is conducted to analyze the influences of changes in the vehicle's angle of attack during the atmospheric flight. Analytical theoretical analysis, simulation computational fluid dynamics and experimental investigation are the methodologies used to design a technological demonstrator prior to the flight in the atmosphere. This paper considers analysis of the thermodynamic properties (pressure, temperature, density, sound velocity) in lower surface of the VHA 14-X B. Also, it considers air as an ideal gas and chemical equilibrium, with and without boundary layer, considering changes in the vehicle's angle of attack (positive and negative in relation to the flow) and bi-dimensional expansion wave theory at the expansion section (Theory of Prandtl-Meyer).

Keywords: angle of attack, experimental hypersonic, hypersonic airbreathing propulsion, Scramjet

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Authors: Riccardo Cacciotti, Jiri Frankl, Benjamin Wolf, Michael Machacek

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Moisture fluctuations govern the occurrence of fungi-related problems in buildings, which may impose significant health risks for users and even lead to structural failures. Several numerical engineering models attempt to capture the complexity of mold growth on building materials. From real life observations, in cases with suppressed daily variations of boundary conditions, e.g. in crawlspaces, mold growth model predictions well correspond with the observed mold growth. On the other hand, in cases with substantial diurnal variations of boundary conditions, e.g. in the ventilated cavity of a cold flat roof, mold growth predicted by the models is significantly overestimated. This study, founded by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GAČR 20-12941S), aims at gaining a better understanding of mold growth behavior on solid wood, under varying boundary conditions. In particular, the experimental investigation focuses on the response of mold to changing conditions in the boundary layer and its influence on heat and moisture transfer across the surface. The main results include the design and construction at the facilities of ITAM (Prague, Czech Republic) of an innovative device allowing for the simulation of changing environmental conditions in buildings. It consists of a square section closed circuit with rough dimensions 200 × 180 cm and cross section roughly 30 × 30 cm. The circuit is thermally insulated and equipped with an electric fan to control air flow inside the tunnel, a heat and humidity exchange unit to control the internal RH and variations in temperature. Several measuring points, including an anemometer, temperature and humidity sensor, a loading cell in the test section for recording mass changes, are provided to monitor the variations of parameters during the experiments. The research is ongoing and it is expected to provide the final results of the experimental investigation at the end of 2022.

Keywords: moisture, mold growth, testing, wood

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Authors: Rudolf Hrach, Stanislav Novak, Vera Hrachova

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Composite and nanocomposite films represent the class of promising materials and are often objects of the study due to their mechanical, electrical and other properties. The most interesting ones are probably the composite metal/dielectric structures consisting of a metal component embedded in an oxide or polymer matrix. Behaviour of composite films varies with the amount of the metal component inside what is called filling factor. The structures contain individual metal particles or nanoparticles completely insulated by the dielectric matrix for small filling factors and the films have more or less dielectric properties. The conductivity of the films increases with increasing filling factor and finally a transition into metallic state occurs. The behaviour of composite films near a percolation threshold, where the change of charge transport mechanism from a thermally-activated tunnelling between individual metal objects to an ohmic conductivity is observed, is especially important. Physical properties of composite films are given not only by the concentration of metal component but also by the spatial and size distributions of metal objects which are influenced by a technology used. In our contribution, a study of composite structures with the help of methods of computational physics was performed. The study consists of two parts: -Generation of simulated composite and nanocomposite films. The techniques based on hard-sphere or soft-sphere models as well as on atomic modelling are used here. Characterizations of prepared composite structures by image analysis of their sections or projections follow then. However, the analysis of various morphological methods must be performed as the standard algorithms based on the theory of mathematical morphology lose their sensitivity when applied to composite films. -The charge transport in the composites was studied by the kinetic Monte Carlo method as there is a close connection between structural and electric properties of composite and nanocomposite films. It was found that near the percolation threshold the paths of tunnel current forms so-called fuzzy clusters. The main aim of the present study was to establish the correlation between morphological properties of composites/nanocomposites and structures of conducting paths in them in the dependence on the technology of composite films.

Keywords: composite films, computer modelling, image analysis, nanocomposite films

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Authors: David Serero, Loic Couton, Jean-Denis Parisse, Robert Leroy

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This paper presents an analysis method of airflow at the periphery of several typologies of architectural volumes. To understand the complexity of the urban environment on the airflows in the city, we compared three sites at different architectural scale. The research sets a method to identify the optimal location for the installation of wind turbines on the edges of a building and to achieve an improvement in the performance of energy extracted by precise localization of an accelerating wing called “aero foil”. The objective is to define principles for the installation of wind turbines and natural ventilation design of buildings. Instead of theoretical winds analysis, we combined numerical aeraulic simulations using STAR CCM + software with wind data, over long periods of time (greater than 1 year). If airflows computer fluid analysis (CFD) simulation of buildings are current, we have calibrated a virtual wind tunnel with wind data using in situ anemometers (to establish localized cartography of urban winds). We can then develop a complete volumetric model of the behavior of the wind on a roof area, or an entire urban island. With this method, we can categorize: - the different types of wind in urban areas and identify the minimum and maximum wind spectrum, - select the type of harvesting devices - fixing to the roof of a building, - the altimetry of the device in relation to the levels of the roofs - The potential nuisances around. This study is carried out from the recovery of a geolocated data flow, and the connection of this information with the technical specifications of wind turbines, their energy performance and their speed of engagement. Thanks to this method, we can thus define the characteristics of wind turbines to maximize their performance in urban sites and in a turbulent airflow regime. We also study the installation of a wind accelerator associated with buildings. The “aerofoils which are integrated are improvement to control the speed of the air, to orientate it on the wind turbine, to accelerate it and to hide, thanks to its profile, the device on the roof of the building.

Keywords: wind energy harvesting, wind turbine selection, urban wind potential analysis, CFD simulation for architectural design

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Authors: Christina Peristeri, Tobias Berg, Domenico Caridi, Paul Hutcheson, Robert Winstanley

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In recent years the demand for rapid innovations in the automotive industry has led to the need for accelerated simulation procedures while retaining a detailed representation of the simulated phenomena. The project’s aim is to create a fast transient workflow for external aerodynamic CFD simulations of road vehicles. The geometry used was the SAE Notchback Closed Cooling DrivAer model, and the simulation results were compared with data from wind tunnel tests. The meshes generated for this study were of two types. One was a mix of polyhedral cells near the surface and hexahedral cells away from the surface. The other was an octree hex mesh with a rapid method of fitting to the surface. Three different grid refinement levels were used for each mesh type, with the biggest total cell count for the octree mesh being close to 1 billion. A series of steady-state solutions were obtained on three different grid levels using a pseudo-transient coupled solver and a k-omega-based RANS turbulence model. A mesh-independent solution was found in all cases with a medium level of refinement with 200 million cells. Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation (SBES) was chosen for the transient simulations, which uses a shielding function to explicitly switch between RANS and LES mode. A converged pseudo-transient steady-state solution was used to initialize the transient SBES run that was set up with the SIMPLEC pressure-velocity coupling scheme to reach the fastest solution (on both CPU & GPU solvers). An important part of this project was the use of FLUENT’s Multi-GPU solver. Tesla A100 GPU has been shown to be 8x faster than an Intel 48-core Sky Lake CPU system, leading to significant simulation speed-up compared to the traditional CPU solver. The current study used 4 Tesla A100 GPUs and 192 CPU cores. The combination of rapid octree meshing and GPU computing shows significant promise in reducing time and hardware costs for industrial strength aerodynamic simulations.

Keywords: CFD, DrivAer, LES, Multi-GPU solver, octree mesh, RANS

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: Zdzislaw Kaminski, Zbigniew Czyz, Tytus Tulwin

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This paper describes the geometrical model, algorithm and CFD simulation of an airflow around a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine rotor. A solver, ANSYS Fluent, was applied for the numerical simulation. Numerical simulation, unlike experiments, enables us to validate project assumptions when it is designed to avoid a costly preparation of a model or a prototype for a bench test. This research focuses on the rotor designed according to patent no PL 219985 with its blades capable of modifying their working surfaces, i.e. absorbing wind kinetic energy. The operation of this rotor is based on a regulation of blade angle α between the top and bottom parts of blades mounted on an axis. If angle α increases, the working surface which absorbs wind kinetic energy also increases. CFD calculations enable us to compare aerodynamic characteristics of forces acting on rotor working surfaces and specify rotor operation parameters like torque or turbine assembly power output. This paper is part of the research to improve an efficiency of a rotor assembly and it contains investigation of the impact of a blade angle of wind turbine working blades on the power output as a function of rotor torque, specific rotational speed and wind speed. The simulation was made for wind speeds ranging from 3.4 m/s to 6.2 m/s and blade angles of 30°, 60°, 90°. The simulation enables us to create a mathematical model to describe how aerodynamic forces acting each of the blade of the studied rotor are generated. Also, the simulation results are compared with the wind tunnel ones. This investigation enables us to estimate the growth in turbine power output if a blade angle changes. The regulation of blade angle α enables a smooth change in turbine rotor power, which is a kind of safety measures if the wind is strong. Decreasing blade angle α reduces the risk of damaging or destroying a turbine that is still in operation and there is no complete rotor braking as it is in other Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines. This work has been financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, mathematical model, numerical analysis, power, renewable energy, wind turbine

Procedia PDF Downloads 316

Authors: Zachary Huffman, Joana Rocha

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Wall-pressure fluctuations induced by the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) developed over aircraft are a significant source of aircraft cabin noise. Since the power spectral density (PSD) of these pressure fluctuations is directly correlated with the amount of sound radiated into the cabin, the development of accurate empirical models that predict the PSD has been an important ongoing research topic. The sound emitted can be represented from the pressure fluctuations term in the Reynoldsaveraged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS). Therefore, early TBL empirical models (including those from Lowson, Robertson, Chase, and Howe) were primarily derived by simplifying and solving the RANS for pressure fluctuation and adding appropriate scales. Most subsequent models (including Goody, Efimtsov, Laganelli, Smol’yakov, and Rackl and Weston models) were derived by making modifications to these early models or by physical principles. Overall, these models have had varying levels of accuracy, but, in general, they are most accurate under the specific Reynolds and Mach numbers they were developed for, while being less accurate under other flow conditions. Despite this, recent research into the possibility of using alternative methods for deriving the models has been rather limited. More recent studies have demonstrated that an artificial neural network model was more accurate than traditional models and could be applied more generally, but the accuracy of other machine learning techniques has not been explored. In the current study, an original model is derived using a stepwise regression algorithm in the statistical programming language R, and TBL wall-pressure fluctuations PSD data gathered at the Carleton University wind tunnel. The theoretical advantage of a stepwise regression approach is that it will automatically filter out redundant or uncorrelated input variables (through the process of feature selection), and it is computationally faster than machine learning. The main disadvantage is the potential risk of overfitting. The accuracy of the developed model is assessed by comparing it to independently sourced datasets.

Keywords: aircraft noise, machine learning, power spectral density models, regression models, turbulent boundary layer wall-pressure fluctuations

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: William Waddington, M. Jahir Rizvi

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Sail used to propel a vessel functions in a similar way to an aircraft wing. Traditionally, cloth and ropes were used to produce sails. However, there is one major problem with traditional sail design, the increase in turbulence and flow separation when compared to that of an aircraft wing with the same camber. This has led to the development of the solid wing sail focusing mainly on the sail shape. Traditional cloth sails are manufactured as a single element whereas solid wing sail is made of two segments. To the authors’ best knowledge, the phenomena behind the performances of this type of sail at various angles of wind direction with respect to a sailing vessel’s direction (known as the angle of attack) is still an area of mystery. Hence, in this study, the thrusts of a sailing vessel produced by wing sails constructed with various angles (22°, 24°, 26° and 28°) between the two segments have been compared to that of a traditional cloth sail made of carbon-fiber material. The reason for using carbon-fiber material is to achieve the correct and the exact shape of a commercially available mainsail. NACA 0024 and NACA 0016 foils have been used to generate two-segment wing sail shape which incorporates a flap between the first and the second segments. Both the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional sail models designed in commercial CAD software Solidworks have been analyzed through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques using Ansys CFX considering an apparent wind speed of 20.55 knots with an apparent wind angle of 31°. The results indicate that the thrust from traditional sail increases from 8.18 N to 8.26 N when the angle of attack is increased from 5° to 7°. However, the thrust value decreases if the angle of attack is further increased. A solid wing sail which possesses 20° angle between its two segments, produces thrusts from 7.61 N to 7.74 N with an increase in the angle of attack from 7° to 8°. The thrust remains steady up to 9° angle of attack and drops dramatically beyond 9°. The highest thrust values that can be obtained for the solid wing sails with 22°, 24°, 26° and 28° angle respectively between the two segments are 8.75 N, 9.10 N, 9.29 N and 9.19 N respectively. The optimum angle of attack for each of the solid wing sails is identified as 7° at which these thrust values are obtained. Therefore, it can be concluded that all the thrust values predicted for the solid wing sails of angles between the two segments above 20° are higher compared to the thrust predicted for the traditional sail. However, the best performance from a solid wing sail is expected when the sail is created with an angle between the two segments above 20° but below or equal to 26°. In addition, 1/29th scale models in the wind tunnel have been tested to observe the flow behaviors around the sails. The experimental results support the numerical observations as the flow behaviors are exactly the same.

Keywords: CFD, drag, sailing vessel, thrust, traditional sail, wing sail

Procedia PDF Downloads 250

Authors: Abbas Ahmadi, Bijan Raie, Mohammad Reza Neyshabouri, Mohammad Ali Ghorbani, Farrokh Asadzadeh

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In recent years, vast areas of Urmia Lake in Dasht-e-Tabriz has dried up leading to saline sediments exposure on the surface lake coastal areas being highly susceptible to wind erosion. This study was conducted to investigate wind erosion and its relevance to soil physicochemical properties and also modeling of wind erodibility (WE) using artificial intelligence techniques. For this purpose, 96 soil samples were collected from 0-5 cm depth in 414000 hectares using stratified random sampling method. To measure the WE, all samples (<8 mm) were exposed to 5 different wind velocities (9.5, 11, 12.5, 14.1 and 15 m s-1 at the height of 20 cm) in wind tunnel and its relationship with soil physicochemical properties was evaluated. According to the results, WE varied within the range of 76.69-9.98 (g m-2 min-1)/(m s-1) with a mean of 10.21 and coefficient of variation of 94.5% showing a relatively high variation in the studied area. WE was significantly (P<0.01) affected by soil physical properties, including mean weight diameter, erodible fraction (secondary particles smaller than 0.85 mm) and percentage of the secondary particle size classes 2-4.75, 1.7-2 and 0.1-0.25 mm. Results showed that the mean weight diameter, erodible fraction and percentage of size class 0.1-0.25 mm demonstrated stronger relationship with WE (coefficients of determination were 0.69, 0.67 and 0.68, respectively). This study also compared efficiency of multiple linear regression (MLR), gene expression programming (GEP), artificial neural network (MLP), artificial neural network based on genetic algorithm (MLP-GA) and artificial neural network based on whale optimization algorithm (MLP-WOA) in predicting of soil wind erodibility in Dasht-e-Tabriz. Among 32 measured soil variable, percentages of fine sand, size classes of 1.7-2.0 and 0.1-0.25 mm (secondary particles) and organic carbon were selected as the model inputs by step-wise regression. Findings showed MLP-WOA as the most powerful artificial intelligence techniques (R2=0.87, NSE=0.87, ME=0.11 and RMSE=2.9) to predict soil wind erodibility in the study area; followed by MLP-GA, MLP, GEP and MLR and the difference between these methods were significant according to the MGN test. Based on the above finding MLP-WOA may be used as a promising method to predict soil wind erodibility in the study area.

Keywords: wind erosion, erodible fraction, gene expression programming, artificial neural network

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Authors: Lev Chernyshev, Ekaterina Lieshout, Natalia Kabaliuk

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Sit-skis enable individuals with limited lower limb or core movement to ski unassisted confidently. The rise in popularity of the Winter Paralympics has seen an influx of engineering innovation, especially for the Downhill and Super-Giant Slalom events, where the athletes achieve speeds as high as 160km/h. The growth in the sport has inspired recent research into sit-ski aerodynamics. Crosswinds are expected in mountain climates and, therefore, can greatly impact a skier's maneuverability and aerodynamics. This research investigates the impact of crosswinds on the drag force of a Paralympic sit-ski using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). A Paralympic sit-ski with a model of a skier, a leg cover, a bucket seat, and a simplified suspension system was used for CFD analysis in ANSYS Fluent. The hybrid initialisation tool and the SST k–ω turbulence model were used with two tetrahedral mesh bodies of influence. The crosswinds (10, 30, and 50 km/h) acting perpendicular to the sit-ski's direction of travel were simulated, corresponding to the straight-line skiing speeds of 60, 80, and 100km/h. Following the initialisation, 150 iterations for both first and second order steady-state solvers were used, before switching to a transient solver with a computational time of 1.5s and a time step of 0.02s, to allow the solution to converge. CFD results were validated against wind tunnel data. The results suggested that for all crosswind and sit-ski speeds, on average, 64% of the total drag on the ski was due to the athlete's torso. The suspension was associated with the second largest overall sit-ski drag force contribution, averaging at 27%, followed by the leg cover at 10%. While the seat contributed a negligible 0.5% of the total drag force, averaging at 1.2N across the conditions studied. The effect of the crosswind increased the total drag force across all skiing speed studies, with the drag on the athlete's torso and suspension being the most sensitive to the changes in the crosswind magnitude. The effect of the crosswind on the ski drag reduced as the simulated skiing speed increased: for skiing at 60km/h, the drag force on the torso increased by 154% with the increase of the crosswind from 10km/h to 50km/h; whereas, at 100km/h the corresponding drag force increase was halved (75%). The analysis of the flow and pressure field characteristics for a sit-ski in crosswind conditions indicated the flow separation localisation and wake size correlated with the magnitude and directionality of the crosswind relative to straight-line skiing. The findings can inform aerodynamic improvements in sit-ski design and increase skiers' medalling chances.

Keywords: sit-ski, aerodynamics, CFD, crosswind effects

Procedia PDF Downloads 48

Authors: Basil Nkosilathi Dube, Wilson R. Nyemba, Panashe Mandevu

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In highway driving, over 50 percent of the power produced by the engine is used to overcome aerodynamic drag, which is a force that opposes a body’s motion through the air. Aerodynamic drag and thus fuel consumption increase rapidly at speeds above 90kph. It is desirable to minimize fuel consumption. Aerodynamic drag reduction in highway driving is the best approach to minimize fuel consumption and to reduce the negative impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the natural environment. Fuel economy is the ultimate concern of automotive development. This study aims to design and analyze drag-reducing devices for a Mazda T3500 truck, namely, the cab roof and rear (trailer tail) fairings. The aerodynamic effects of adding these append devices were subsequently investigated. To accomplish this, two 3D CAD models of the Mazda truck were designed using the Design Modeler. One, with these, append devices and the other without. The models were exported to ANSYS Fluent for computational fluid dynamics analysis, no wind tunnel tests were performed. A fine mesh with more than 10 million cells was applied in the discretization of the models. The realizable k-ε turbulence model with enhanced wall treatment was used to solve the Reynold’s Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation. In order to simulate the highway driving conditions, the tests were simulated with a speed of 100 km/h. The effects of these devices were also investigated for low-speed driving. The drag coefficients for both models were obtained from the numerical calculations. By adding the cab roof and rear (trailer tail) fairings, the simulations show a significant reduction in aerodynamic drag at a higher speed. The results show that the greatest drag reduction is obtained when both devices are used. Visuals from post-processing show that the rear fairing minimized the low-pressure region at the rear of the trailer when moving at highway speed. The rear fairing achieved this by streamlining the turbulent airflow, thereby delaying airflow separation. For lower speeds, there were no significant differences in drag coefficients for both models (original and modified). The results show that these devices can be adopted for improving the aerodynamic efficiency of the Mazda T3500 truck at highway speeds.

Keywords: aerodynamic drag, computation fluid dynamics, fluent, fuel consumption

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Lahari Ramya Pa, Sudhakar Ib, Madhu Vc, Madhusudhan Reddy Gd, Srinivasa Rao E.

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Selection of suitable armor materials for defense applications is very crucial with respect to increasing mobility of the systems as well as maintaining safety. Therefore, determining the material with the lowest possible areal density that resists the predefined threat successfully is required in armor design studies. A number of light metal and alloys are come in to forefront especially to substitute the armour grade steels. AA5083 aluminium alloy which fit in to the military standards imposed by USA army is foremost nonferrous alloy to consider for possible replacement of steel to increase the mobility of armour vehicles and enhance fuel economy. Growing need of AA5083 aluminium alloy paves a way to develop supplement aluminium alloys maintaining the military standards. It has been witnessed that AA 2xxx aluminium alloy, AA6xxx aluminium alloy and AA7xxx aluminium alloy are the potential material to supplement AA5083 aluminium alloy. Among those cited aluminium series alloys AA7xxx aluminium alloy (heat treatable) possesses high strength and can compete with armour grade steels. Earlier investigations revealed that layering of AA7xxx aluminium alloy can prevent spalling of rear portion of armour during ballistic impacts. Hence, present investigation deals with fabrication of hard layer (made of boron carbide) i.e. layer on AA 7075 aluminium alloy using friction stir processing with an intention of blunting the projectile in the initial impact and backing tough portion(AA7xxx aluminium alloy) to dissipate residual kinetic energy. An analytical approach has been adopted to unfold the ballistic performance of projectile. Penetration of projectile inside the armour has been resolved by considering by strain energy model analysis. Perforation shearing areas i.e. interface of projectile and armour is taken in to account for evaluation of penetration inside the armour. Fabricated surface composites (targets) were tested as per the military standard (JIS.0108.01) in a ballistic testing tunnel at Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL), Hyderabad in standardized testing conditions. Analytical results were well validated with experimental obtained one.

Keywords: AA7075 aluminium alloy, friction stir processing, boron carbide, ballistic performance, target

Procedia PDF Downloads 299

Authors: Qier Wu, Issam Takla, Thomas Rougelot, Nicolas Burlion

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In the framework of French underground disposal of intermediate level radioactive wastes, concrete is widely used as a construction material for containers and tunnels. Drying shrinkage is one of the most disadvantageous phenomena of concrete structures. Cracks generated by differential shrinkage could impair the mechanical behavior, increase the permeability of concrete and act as a preferential path for aggressive species, hence leading to an overall decrease in durability and serviceability. It is of great interest to understand the drying shrinkage phenomenon in order to predict and even to control the strains of concrete. The question is whether the results obtained from laboratory samples are in accordance with the measurements on a real structure. Another question concerns the influence of reinforcement on drying shrinkage of concrete. As part of a global project with Andra (French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency), the present study aims to experimentally investigate the scale effect as well as the influence of reinforcement on the development of drying shrinkage of two high performance concretes (based on CEM I and CEM V cements, according to European standards). Various sizes of samples are chosen, from ordinary laboratory specimens up to real-scale specimens: prismatic specimens with different volume-to-surface (V/S) ratios, thin slices (thickness of 2 mm), cylinders with different sizes (37 and 160 mm in diameter), hollow cylinders, cylindrical columns (height of 1000 mm) and square columns (320×320×1000 mm). The square columns have been manufactured with different reinforcement rates and can be considered as mini-structures, to approximate the behavior of a real voussoir from the waste disposal facility. All the samples are kept, in a first stage, at 20°C and 50% of relative humidity (initial conditions in the tunnel) in a specific climatic chamber developed by the Laboratory of Mechanics of Lille. The mass evolution and the drying shrinkage are monitored regularly. The obtained results show that the specimen size has a great impact on water loss and drying shrinkage of concrete. The specimens with a smaller V/S ratio and a smaller size have a bigger drying shrinkage. The correlation between mass variation and drying shrinkage follows the same tendency for all specimens in spite of the size difference. However, the influence of reinforcement rate on drying shrinkage is not clear based on the present results. The second stage of conservation (50°C and 30% of relative humidity) could give additional results on these influences.

Keywords: concrete, drying shrinkage, mass evolution, reinforcement, scale effect

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Yuanyuan Liu, Yuanqing Wang, Di Li

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Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions mitigation from road construction activities is one of the potential pathways to deal with climate change due to its higher use of materials, machinery energy consumption, and high quantity of vehicle and equipment fuels for transportation and on-site construction activities. Aiming to assess the environmental impact of the road infrastructure construction activities and to identify hotspots of emissions sources, this study developed a life-cycle CO2 emissions assessment framework covering three stages of material production, to-site and on-site transportation under the guidance of the principle of LCA ISO14040. Then streamlined inventory analysis on sub-processes of each stage was conducted based on the budget files from cases of highway projects in China. The calculation results were normalized into functional unit represented as ton per km per lane. Then a comparison between the amount of emissions from each stage, and sub-process was made to identify the major contributor in the whole highway lifecycle. In addition, the calculating results were used to be compared with results in other countries for understanding the level of CO2 emissions associated with Chinese road infrastructure in the world. The results showed that materials production stage produces the most of the CO2 emissions (for more than 80%), and the production of cement and steel accounts for large quantities of carbon emissions. Life cycle CO2 emissions of fuel and electric energy associated with to-site and on-site transportation vehicle and equipment are a minor component of total life cycle CO2 emissions from highway project construction activities. Bridges and tunnels are dominant large carbon contributor compared to the road segments. The life cycle CO2 emissions of road segment in highway project in China are slightly higher than the estimation results of highways in European countries and USA, about 1500 ton per km per lane. In particularly, the life cycle CO2 emissions of road pavement in majority cities all over the world are about 500 ton per km per lane. However, there is obvious difference between the cities when the estimation on life cycle CO2 emissions of highway projects included bridge and tunnel. The findings of the study could offer decision makers a more comprehensive reference to understand the contribution of road infrastructure to climate change, especially understand the contribution from road infrastructure construction activities in China. In addition, the identified hotspots of emissions sources provide the insights of how to reduce road carbon emissions for development of sustainable transportation.

Keywords: carbon dioxide emissions, construction activities, highway, life cycle assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: B. Mohammadi, A. Riazati, P. Soltan Sanjari, S. Azimbeik

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The ever-increasing development of civic demands on one hand; and the urban constrains for newly establish of infrastructures, on the other hand, perforce the engineering committees to apply non-conflicting methods in order to optimize the results. One of these optimized procedures to establish the main sewerage networks is the pipe jacking and micro-tunneling method. The raw information and researches are based on the experiments of the slurry micro-tunneling project of the Tehran main sewerage network that it has executed by the KAYSON co. The 4985 meters route of the mentioned project that is located nearby the Azadi square and the most vital arteries of Tehran is faced to 45% physical progress nowadays. The boring machine is made by the Herrenknecht and the diameter of the using concrete-polymer pipes are 1600 and 1800 millimeters. Placing and excavating several shafts on the ground and direct Tunnel boring between the axes of issued shafts is one of the requirements of the micro-tunneling. Considering the stream of the ground located shafts should care the hydraulic circumstances, civic conditions, site geography, traffic cautions and etc. The profile length has to convert to many shortened segment lines so the generated angle between the segments will be based in the manhole centers. Each segment line between two continues drive and receive the shaft, displays the jack location, driving angle and the path straight, thus, the diversity of issued angle causes the variety of jack positioning in the shaft. The jacking frame fixing conditions and it's associated dynamic load direction produces various patterns of Stress and Strain distribution and creating fatigues in the shaft wall and the soil surrounded the shaft. This pattern diversification makes the shaft wall transformed, unbalanced subsidence and alteration in the pipe jacking Stress Contour. This research is based on experiments of the Tehran's west sewerage plan and the numerical analysis the interaction of the soil around the shaft, shaft walls and the Jacking frame direction and finally, the suitable or unsuitable location of the pipe jacking shaft will be determined.

Keywords: underground structure, micro-tunneling, fatigue analysis, dynamic-soil–structure interaction, underground water, finite element analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 294

Authors: Alexander Buhr, Klaus Ehrenfried

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Trackside induced airflow velocities, also known as slipstream velocities, are an important criterion for the design of high-speed trains. The maximum permitted values are given by the Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSI) and have to be checked in the approval process. For train manufactures it is of great interest to know in advance, how new train geometries would perform in TSI tests. The Reynolds number in moving model experiments is lower compared to full-scale. Especially the limited model length leads to a thinner boundary layer at the rear end. The hypothesis is that the boundary layer rolls up to characteristic flow structures in the train wake, in which the maximum flow velocities can be observed. The idea is to enlarge the boundary layer using roughness elements at the train model head so that the ratio between the boundary layer thickness and the car width at the rear end is comparable to a full-scale train. This may lead to similar flow structures in the wake and better prediction accuracy for TSI tests. In this case, the design of the roughness elements is limited by the moving model rig. Small rectangular roughness shapes are used to get a sufficient effect on the boundary layer, while the elements are robust enough to withstand the high accelerating and decelerating forces during the test runs. For this investigation, High-Speed Particle Image Velocimetry (HS-PIV) measurements on an ICE3 train model have been realized in the moving model rig of the DLR in Göttingen, the so called tunnel simulation facility Göttingen (TSG). The flow velocities within the boundary layer are analysed in a plain parallel to the ground. The height of the plane corresponds to a test position in the EN standard (TSI). Three different shapes of roughness elements are tested. The boundary layer thickness and displacement thickness as well as the momentum thickness and the form factor are calculated along the train model. Conditional sampling is used to analyse the size and dynamics of the flow structures at the time of maximum velocity in the train wake behind the train. As expected, larger roughness elements increase the boundary layer thickness and lead to larger flow velocities in the boundary layer and in the wake flow structures. The boundary layer thickness, displacement thickness and momentum thickness are increased by using larger roughness especially when applied in the height close to the measuring plane. The roughness elements also cause high fluctuations in the form factors of the boundary layer. Behind the roughness elements, the form factors rapidly are approaching toward constant values. This indicates that the boundary layer, while growing slowly along the second half of the train model, has reached a state of equilibrium.

Keywords: boundary layer, high-speed PIV, ICE3, moving train model, roughness elements

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: Petri Kouvo, Aino Kainulainen, Kimmo Koivunen

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Separate collection system for recyclable wastes in the Helsinki region was ranked second best of European capitals. The collection system includes paper, cardboard, glass, metals and biowaste. Residual waste is collected and used in energy production. The collection system excluding paper is managed by the Helsinki Region Environmental Services HSY, a public organization owned by four municipalities (Helsinki, Espoo, Kauniainen and Vantaa). Paper collection is handled by the producer responsibility scheme. The efficiency of the collection system in the Helsinki region relies on a good coverage of door-to-door-collection. All properties with 10 or more dwelling units are required to source separate biowaste and cardboard. This covers about 75% of the population of the area. The obligation is extended to glass and metal in properties with 20 or more dwelling units. Other success factors include public awareness campaigns and a fee system that encourages recycling. As a result of waste management regulations for source separation of recyclables and biowaste, nearly 50 percent of recycling rate of household waste has been reached. For households and small and medium size enterprises, there is a sorting station fleet of five stations available. More than 50 percent of wastes received at sorting stations is utilized as material. The separate collection of plastic packaging in Finland will begin in 2016 within the producer responsibility scheme. HSY started supplementing the national bring point system with door-to-door-collection and pilot operations will begin in spring 2016. The result of plastic packages pilot project has been encouraging. Until the end of 2016, over 3500 apartment buildings have been joined the piloting, and more than 1800 tons of plastic packages have been collected separately. In the summer 2015 a novel partial flow digestion process combining digestion and tunnel composting was adopted for source separated household and commercial biowaste management. The product gas form digestion process is converted in to heat and electricity in piston engine and organic Rankine cycle process with very high overall efficiency. This paper describes the efficient collection system and discusses key success factors as well as main obstacles and lessons learned as well as the partial flow process for biowaste management.

Keywords: biowaste, HSY, MSW, plastic packages, recycling, separate collection

Procedia PDF Downloads 190