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In 2012 the City of Flagstaff partnered with researchers at the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northern Arizona University to successfully develop a mix design utilizing sludge derived from the manufacturing of recycled paper pulp sludge (PPS) and fly ash as a component of a landfill cap. This research has been extended to explore the addition of polymers to the mix of waste materials in order to optimize a design that would be suitable as a component for an EPA Subtitle D-approvable landfill liner. Cinder Lake Landfill (CLL) serves several communities in Northern Arizona and is managed by the City of Flagstaff. CLL does not have a reliable source of clay needed to construct a required landfill liner, which is necessary for the upcoming 108-acre landfill expansion. However, CLL receives approximately 80 tons of recycled PPS daily from the local tissue manufacturing plant. PPS is currently used as daily cover and was tested for use as part of a landfill cap, as noted above. Incorporating polymers in alternative materials such as PPS and fly ash has the potential to meet performance criteria and be approved by state and federal regulators, and has the potential to save the City millions of dollars over conventional composite liners of geomembrane and clay. Different mixtures of PPS, fly ash and three different polymers are currently being subjected to testing for the following: Water Content, Specific Gravity, Porosity, Organic Content, Atterberg Limits (plasticity), Proctor Compaction, Consolidation, California Bearing Ratio, Shear Strength, Gas Permeability, and Liquid Permeability. The optimal mixture of PPS and fly ash will be blended with a range of polymer concentrations. The goal is to find an optimal mix of PPS, fly ash, and polymer to achieve regulatory standards related to permeability, along with other desirable properties such as strength and flexibility. The optimum mixture(s) will then be subjected to field trials, scheduled to begin in 2016, in which test cells will be created at CLL. The liner will be constructed with the optimized mixture(s), and the cells will be operated as landfills for 1-2 years. Results from lab and field testing will be submitted to federal and state regulators for consideration as an alternative liner approach.

In this work, the fabrication of Rochelle salt based piezoelectric structures is illustrated. Structures composed of paper and Rochelle salt are easily manufactured using simple processes. Both manufacturing and the material itself are environmental friendly. Additionally Rochelle salt is biocompatible. In the paradigm of a cleaner piezoelectric technology, the fabrication of active sensing or actuating devices is developed. Thus processing method, material and piezoelectric properties have been studied: (1) pure crystals are used as acoustic actuator, (2) properties of paper impregnated with Rochelle salt are detailed, (3) charge generation is demonstrated on the impregnated material. Actuating and sensing devices are reported in order to highlight the potential of this green piezoelectric material. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

The aim of the study is to model and to simulate the thermal and electrical efficiencies of the cogeneration plant of a paper mill. The final purpose is the benefits optimization by adjusting production to the amount of energy to be sold. It is necessary to know it because the sale price goes down when the actual production of electrical energy does not match the scheduled power.

This paper is focuses modeling of the last part of the paper machine – the drying section. Paper is dried by letting it pass through a series of steam heated group of cylinders and the evaporation is thus performed by the latent heat of vaporization of the steam. The moisture in the paper is controlled by adjusting the set point of the steam presure controllers to the cylinders. There exist several incentives to focus on the performance of the moisture control. The time to perform a grade change is often limited by the moisture and shorter grade change time is directly correlated to economic profit. The plant model is identified periodically and the changes in its dynamic characteristics are observed. Periodic identification gives a great advantage over the conventional controller tuning methods, which uses the plant model at the nominal operating conditions. A variety of model structures are available to assist in modelling a system. Model for the drying process of Paper industry is established based on gathering 1000 groups of 2500 real-time sample data. Based on the collection of data, that was adapted to both the conventional and intelligent modelling process. Finally the suitable model is tuned with the suitable controller for optimal control of the drying process.

Remaining Life of the oil-immersed transformer is decided due to deterioration of the winding insulation paper (WIP). The DGA method is conventionally used to estimate the WIP deterioration status condition. This paper presented the four status conditions assessment of paper deterioration for oil-immersed transformer using fuzzy-logic (FL). In this paper the correlation between accumulated values of carbon dioxide (CO2) and carbon monoxide (CO) with insulation resistance in oil-filled power transformers is studied using FL. The authors have estimated the insulation paper deterioration condition using proposed method for 20 transformers or more. As a result, appropriate maintenance scenario can be planned.

Ever increasing user demands and development of modern communication technologies have led to the evolution of communication networks from 1st Generation (1G) network to 4G heterogeneous networks. Further, 4G with heterogeneous network environment will provide features such as, “Always Best Connected”, “Anytime Anywhere” and seamless communication. Due to diverse characteristics of heterogeneous networks such as bandwidth, latency, cost, coverage and Quality of Service (QoS) etc., there are several open and unsolved issues namely mobility management, network administration, security etc. Hence, Designing proficient mobility management to seamlessly integrate heterogeneous wireless networks with all-IP is the most challenging issue in 4G networks. Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6) developed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has mobility management for the packet-switched devices of homogeneous wireless networks. Further, mobility management of homogeneous networks depends on network related parameter i.e., Received Signal Strength (RSS). However the mobility management of heterogeneous networks, not only depends on network related parameters, but also on terminal-velocity, battery power, location information, user-user profile & preferences and service-service capabilities & QoS etc. Designing mobility management with all-IP, while, considering issues such as context of networks, terminal, user and services is the main concern of industry and researchers in the current era.

Because of world-wide persistent demand for cellulose man-made fibers suitable in textile processing and application and the predicted stagnation of cotton production, there is a strong need for innovative approaches to safeguard the future availability of dissolving pulps for cellulose fiber production. The paper will present the results of a national network project, which was focused on the development of an integrated process chain for the manufacturing of novel fabrics produced of man-made Lyocell fibers derived from organically grown hemp (OG hemp). The whole process line was established within the process studies starting from hemp cultivation, machine-aided harvesting and automatic peeling to isolate hemp bast stripes (HBS) from stems, pulp manufacturing and transfer into fibers by solution spinning up to processing to yarns and dyed and finished fabrics. More representative, the paper will specifically describe the transfer of almost free of shives extracted, retted hemp fibers and dried HBS into dissolving pulp by means of a specific adjusted pulp cooking process. The main challenges in that step were identification as well as practical development of suitable process approaches for degumming, DP adjustment and purification from contained light and heavy metal traces. Furthermore, the pulp had to be assessed for its usability in direct dissolution process. For that purpose dopes were prepared and characterized regarding optimal DP adjustment, the insoluble parts in dopes and the thermal dope stability at elevated temperatures. After identification and application of most favored process parameters the dissolved pulps could be converted into Lyocell fibers by solution spinning applying the most suitable dry-wet shaping procedure conditions. Manufactured fibers exhibit comparable properties in fineness, tensile strength, elongation and loop tenacity like common Lyocell fibers made of conventional wooden pulp. In project R&D activities obtained fibers had been further processed into yarns, fabrics and apparel demonstrators applying conventional processing parameter. The manufactured Lyohemp TM clothes offer excellent product qualities as well as wearing properties.

In this paper, a novel method with addition of graphene in diamond slurry is proposed to conduct CMP lapping of sapphire wafer. Two kinds of graphenes are added including graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (RGO). Effect of three important processing parameters on material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness is investigated, including graphene type, graphene weight fraction, and ultrasonication time. Weight fractions of various graphenes versus diamond slurry are controlled in the range from 0.5 to 2.0 wt%. Results indicate that addition of graphene in diamond slurry can significantly increase MRR of sapphire wafer. MRR of sapphire wafer is proportional to graphene weight fraction. At higher weight fraction, GO/diamond slurry leads to higher MRR than RGO/diamond slurry does. MRR by the pure diamond is 285.80 nm/min, while MRR by the diamond/GO(2.0wt%) with 48-hour ultrasonication is 832.1 nm/min. Surface roughness is inversely proportional to graphene weight fraction and proportional to graphene particle size. Ultrasonication is able to efficiently reduce graphene particle size. RGO/diamond slurry can result in lower surface roughness than GO/diamond slurry.

The paper presents the state-of-the-art concerning the current achievements in the field of 3D printing of buildings and building components. The 3D printing technologies, comparing to traditional techniques of constructing the buildings, could be considered as environmental friendly derivative giving almost unlimited possibilities for geometric complexity realizations. Two kinds of technologies were described in this paper with pointing to Contour Crafting as a promising technique that may be able to revolutionize construction industry in near future. Numerous advantages of this technology, such as reduction of the costs and time, minimizing the pollution of environment and decrease of injuries and fatalities on construction sites could be cited. Despite many advantages and hopes, some concerns are summarized in the conclusions, as the technology still has many limitations. A brief description of few examples of pioneering usage of 3D printing in construction industry are presented (Canal House in Amsterdam, WinSun company and printing application for building carried out by Skanska company). Creating a model that will be appropriate for 3D printers is possible in many different modelling programs. One of the most popular formats for sharing such models is STL format. In the paper sample models crated in Autodesk Inventor are shown, but also other tools suitable for preparing models for 3D printing are briefly discussed.

Most popular renewable energy source is biomass. The typical form of biomass is wood. Use of wood for fuel have long tradition in Slovakia. Between a normally trees in Slovakia belongs beech and spruce. This article deals with the energy properties of spruce (Picea Abies). On different parts of the tree have been performed experimental measurements. The measured results show that the parts of the tree have potential for to the next application and processing.

Wooden and agricultural waste which has the high humidity having negative impact on the quality of the ready-made products is often used as a filler in the composite materials production. At the same time, a decrease in moist indicators of vegetable raw materials with the known methods is a rather energy-intensive action. In this regard, the development of the energy saving drying technologies and equipment is one of the most important problems of modern production. The convective vacuum drying installation of dish-shaped type based on the technology of convective drying at the stationary lowered pressure is presented in this article. The feature of this drying installation is the existence of the multistage punched plates, the diameter of perforation of which varies depending on device height starting from 15 mm in the top part of the camera down to 2 mm in the lower part. That allows drying up different fractions of the crushed material evenly. During experiments it has been revealed that the greatest efficiency of process is reached with a pressure of 50-60 kPa, the temperature of the drying agent of 84-87 0C and the speed of its movement of 6-7 m/s. Besides, this technology of drying allows for the lower power costs associated with the process due to the reduction of heat losses due to the absence of high temperature regimes and decreased duration of the process.

The quality of cellulose nanofibril (CNF) films is affected by processing and raw material related factors. The causes of potential excessive cellulose degradation during defibrillation that may directly affect the quality of CNF films may be assessed by cellulose viscosity, which need further investigations. This study aims to investigate the influence of cellulose viscosity and residual lignin of four different hardwood species (Eucalyptus grandis - eucalyptus; Brosimum parinarioides - amapa; Parkia gigantocarpa - faveira; and Cordia goeldiana - freijo ) on water absorption of the subsequent CNF films. Viscosity of the unbleached and bleached pulps was measured by capillary viscosimetry after alkali and bleaching pre-treatments of the raw wood sawdust. Residual lignin was also determined for the bleached pulps. The films were obtained by casting method after pulp nanofibrillation through 10, 20, 30 and 40 passages in a mechanical defibrillator. The amount of water absorbed per film area (g/m2) after water immersion of the CNF films for 60 s was determined and normalized by the thickness. Overall, CNF films obtained from pulps with residual lignin and higher viscosity, and hence lower degradation by the alkali and bleaching pre-treatments, showed lower water absorption. The lowest water absorption of B. parinarioides CNF films may be highlighted. For pulps with lower viscosity, water absorption continuously increased with the increase of passages through the defibrillator, possibly due to combined degradation of pre-treatments and nanofibrillation. This tendency was observed from 10 to 40 passages for eucalyptus CNF films and from 10 to 30 passages for P. gigantocarpa CNF films.

Branded blends of wool and cotton for high-end apparel fabrics were established in Britain and later exported to many English-speaking countries during the 19 th century (e.g. woven fabrics Viyella™, 55% wool, 45% cotton; Clydella™, 81% cotton, 19% wool). During the late 20 th century, cotton and wool blend yarns for high-end apparel applications were developed in Australia (Colana®, 70% cotton, 30% wool). None of these branded blends of wool and cotton has a current market presence, yet there is evidence of relevance and interest in such blends for the high-end apparel market. How can we account for this disappearance and for the renewed interest?

The thermal properties of Imperata brasiliensis fibers and cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs), obtained at different conditions of sulfuric acid hydrolysis, were studied in the present work. Imperata Brasiliensis fibers were chemically treated by alkaline solution followed by bleaching treatment and both, untreated and treated fibers were characterized. Using a design of experiments (DOE), CNFs were obtained at nine different conditions, considering four factors (acid concentration, pulp/solution ratio, temperature and reaction time), at three levels. From results of thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), it was possible to determine some degradation properties and kinetic parameters such as activation energy (Ea) and understand how this parameter changes as a function of chemical treatments and acid hydrolysis conditions. Considering obtained results, it was possible to stablished that chemical treatments, carried out before acid hydrolysis, were effective since some amorphous components were removed, which was confirmed by the increase of thermal stability and Ea values. The best conditions of acid hydrolysis to obtain CNFs from Imperata brasiliensis fibers was also determined, being H 2 SO 4 64 (wt%) at 35°C for 75 min with pulp/solution ratio of 1/20 (g/mL). The suspension obtained at these conditions presented initial degradation temperature of 117 °C and, Ea for the main stage of cellulose degradation of about 64 kJ/mol.

In order to decrease energy consumption in buildings, a new way to recycle materials coming from biomasses waste in mortars was studied. For this purpose, mortars with water/cement equal to 0.5 by weight and aggregate/cement equal to 3.5 by volume were considered. Cement was replaced by hydraulic lime and sand was substituted with two different types of spruce sawdust shavings (as it is and roasted), biomass bottom ash and biomass fly ash. The results show that mortar prepared with cement has obviously a better mechanical strength and 60% lower capillary water absorption. All unconventional aggregates increase the total porosity of lime mortars. Moreover, biomass fly ash and both spruce sawdust shavings based mortars can be classified as lightweight mortar. Regardless of porosity and lightness, biomass bottom ash improves up to 150% the mechanical performance of lime-based mortars. Concerning durability, bio-based lime mortars show in general nearly twice higher capillary water absorption with respect to the sand lime mortars whit the exception of spruce sawdust shavings and biomass bottom ash. Mortars can be classified as permeable to water vapour. As it is and roasted spruce sawdust shavings are able to increase three and two times the capacity of the mortar to be a hygroscopic buffer in terms of MBV values.

Utilizing compost derived from waste offers an alternative nutrients source to cultivate microalgae for biofuel production. This is because compost is a low-cost nutrients source which contains high amount of nutrient composition that suitable for microalgae cultivation. Thus, in the present work, plant-based compost and animal waste-based compost were used to cultivate Chlorella vulgaris . The results shows that C. vulgaris favoured to grow at the following condition: 50 ml amount of goat waste-based compost, under pH of 9, and illuminated continuously for 15 days using fluorescent light. Based on these cultivation conditions, 30% of lipid was successfully extracted from the dried microalgae biomass.

Turkey's plants are fired by lignite, producing class C fly ash containing a high percentage of lime. Sulphate and alkali levels are also higher in class C fly ashes. Therefore, fly ash is, commonly, unsuitable as an additive in cement or concrete in Turkey. In this study, highly alkaline fly ash obtained from the Yenikoy thermal power plants is combined with soil samples in different proportions (5%, 15%, and 25%) and changes in the geomechanical properties of Ankara clay were investigated. The effect of curing time on the physical-mechanical properties of the fly ash mixed soil samples was also analyzed. Free swelling index values showed a decrease of 92.6%. The California bearing ratio has seen a more drastic increase in value (68.7 times for 25% fly ash mix).

This paper presents an activated sludge model suitable for modelling membrane bioreactors (MBRs) for wastewater treatment. The model, later referred to as combined EPS and SMP production ASM1-based model (CES-ASM1), extends Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) with biokinetics of two types of bacterial biopolymers: soluble microbial products (SMP) and extracel- lular polymeric substances (EPS). The biopolymer kinetics in CES-ASM1 are, in their majority, borrowed from Laspidou and Rittmann[1] although, as shall be explained in the article, with one conceptual correction a kinetic pathway of biomass associated products (BAP). CES-ASM1 was calibrated on published experimental results from batch and continuous flow laboratory and pilot plant experiments and proved to be in good agreement with measurements. Standard set of parameters was then proposed as a combination of empirically identified and literature values. The model was then used to predict SMP and EPS production in an activated sludge system under various operating conditions.

The Cu-S separation tests have been conducted at pH=7∼8 with five combined depressants, namely, Starch + pyrogallic acid, sodium hypochlorite + pyrogallic acid, pyrogallic acid + Tannic, sodium hypochlorite + Tannic and calcium hypochlorite + DT-2#. The tests show that calcium hypochlorite + DT-2# is the best depressor for pyrite, which leads to the Cu-S separation at a low alkalinity of pH=7∼8 without lime. From the chemical analysis of the mineral surface, the inhibition mechanism of pyrite at a pH of 7∼8 is as following: calcium hypochlorite + DT-2# oxidizes the pyrite surface to produce a hydrophilous film of Fe(OH) 3 and CaCO 3 , which enhances the hydrophilicity of the pyrite surface, then pyrite is inhibited in the pulp, and the Cu-S separation can be achieved in lime-free condition.

Malaysian construction industry follows the British Standards. Currently, the British Standards have been withdrawn and replaced by Eurocodes. In 2004, the Institution of Engineers Malaysia published a position paper on the concrete codes of practice in Malaysia after 2010 and recommended that the Eurocodes be adopted after the withdrawal of the British Standards. The structural Eurocode is undoubtedly a state –of-the art design code for structural engineering. Hence we have little choice except to adopt the current Eurocodes as Malaysian National Standards. However, it is permitted to attach a national annex with Nationally Determined Parameters (NDP) to the main body of the Eurocode New concepts and terminologies related to reliability and quality management have been introduced by the Eurocodes. This would to a certain extent affect engineering practice in Malaysia, and it will be the choice of the construction industry whether to adopt them or not. People concerned with the requirements of the Eurocode are: committees drafting standards; professionals; designers and constructors, clients (e.g. for the formulation of their specific requirements on reliability levels and durability) and relevant authorities. This paper will look into the aspects related to reliability and quality management proposed by the Eurocode and the respective comments given in the Malaysian National Annex. This covers definitions, basic requirements, measures and applications, and specific requirements on reliability and Iquality management. implementing the Eurocodes would require high standard of engineering practice and more time and understanding of the various aspects introduced. It is concluded that in order to produce safe and durable structure, all requirements of the Eurocode must be considered. Malaysia must take serious steps towards building a national reliability safety model. Issues related to liability and standard of care, in case of non compliance with the code requirements should also be addressed.

During the first edition of Symphos, Prayon presented a newcomer in the family of phosphoric acid processes: the Prayon Dihydrate Attack – Hemi Filtration process (DA-HF). In this process all the dihydrate slurry from attack tank is converted into hemihydrate before filtration. Process conditions have been found such as to make possible phosphoric acid production directly from hemihydrate conversion tank. Based on pilot test results with more than 6 different phosphate rocks, with this process P 2 O 5 recovery gains of about 1,5% - 2% were expected with respect to a dihydrate process. Slurry filterability is also improved by about 10% - 20% and P 2 O 5 content of the produced acid is increased by more than 6% compared to a Dihydrate process. Based on such promising results Grupa Azoty and Prayon Technologies decided to join their forces to run two industrial tests in Grupa Azoty plants. One of the Dihydrate production plant was converted into DA-HF process by simple modifications, including piping modifications, pump addition, steam and sulphuric acid injection pipes installation. During the tests, Egyptian and Moroccan rocks were processed successfully. The joint project team showed that the process is stable, it can be stopped and started easily. The efficiency obtained is about 97,5% with Morocco rock and the P 2 O 5 produced above 33%. This corresponds to an impressive gain in efficiency of about 4% P 2 O 5 compared to the dihydrate process. The results obtained being very promising, Grupa Azoty and Prayon Technologies have agreed to move forward studying the conversion of one Grupa Azoty production plant into this new recently patented technology. Grupa Azoty, in cooperation with Prayon, is preparing to change the technology of phosacid production from DH to DA-HF. As a next step in this project feasibility study, including process and technical issues, is being prepared.

Yara own, operate and license fertiliser plants and technologies throughout the world. Phosphoric acid production is an important part of the Yara licensing portfolio. Formerly known as Hydro Agri and prior to that, Fisons, we have successfully designed and commissioned several world scale hemihydrate and hemidihydrate process phosphoric acid plants over the course of the last forty years. The largest of these plants was the IPL (formerly WMC) HH process phosphoric acid plant in Queensland, Australia. This single line grass roots 1500 tpd P2O5 plant has now been successfully operating for over ten years. The HH and HDH processes are characterised by producing high strength phosphoric acid directly from the hemihydrate filters; either negating or significantly reducing the degree of acid concentration required for downstream processes. The HH process is therefore energy efficient, simple to operate and as most of the aluminium reports to the solid phase, the phosphoric acid is of high quality. The HDH process is a two stage process whereby the hemihydrate produced in the energy efficient first stage is transformed to dihydrate in the second stage and the liberated P2O5 losses present in the hemihydrate produced in the first stage are recovered, resulting in a very high P2O5 recovery efficiency. This paper focuses on the hemihydrate technologies developed by Yara (as Fisons Fertilizers) and looks forward to the next major hemihydrate complex at Ras Az Zawr in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where Yara are providing the license for Ma’aden Phosphate Company (MPC) to operate three independent phosphoric acid trains, each with a capacity of 1460 tpd P2O5.

This work presents the results of micro-pelletizing tests of ultra fines generated during the drying phosphate pulp (Khouribga grades), which have undergone processing operations of filtration and drying. This study examines the potential of these ultra fines granulation with the addition of a granulation binder, and in order to avoid their flying during handling and transportation. The ultra-fine micro-granules are subjected to physical tests in view of assessing, on the one hand, the relevance of pelletizing, and on the other hand, the effectiveness of the granulation binder tested. Thus, the physical properties of granular products were determined by measuring their rate of friability and particle size. The results obtained show that granulation yields are between 84% and 86%. Friability rates registered for all the studied grades are relatively low.

The present study aims to compare the performance in batch test of TSP and SSP fertilizer manufacturing from different grades of Down Stream phosphate compared to standard qualities. The results showed the technical feasibility of manufacturing these fertilizers from DS rock phosphates tested, however obtaining a TSP according to commercial specifications, requires grinding of phosphate DS to a fineness such as 90% passing 160 μm. The study demonstrated the feasibility of manufacturing these fertilizers from DS phosphates, however, to get fertilizers that comply completely with the commercial specifications it is necessary to grind them such as 90% passes at 160 μm.

Solar drying is considered to be a useful solar energy technology for developing counties. In this work, the performance of a large-scale greenhouse type solar dryer for drying chilli was investigated. The dryer has a parabolic shape and it is covered with polycarbonate sheets. The base of the dryer is a concrete floor with an area of 8×20 m2. Nine DC fans powered by three 50 W solar cell modules were used to ventilate the dryer. The dryer was installed at Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand. Three batches of chilli were dried in the dryer. It was found that five hundred kilograms of chilli with the initial moisture content of 74% (wb) were dried within 3 days while the natural sun dried needed 5 days. The chilli dried in this dryer was completely protected from insects, animals and rain. In addition, good quality of chilli was obtained.

We study the evolution of deformation on a quasi 2D paper sample during fatigue and creep experiments. Paper is a fibrous material, sensitive to various parameters (humidity, temperature, history effect). As for many materials, the lifetime varies a lot. Basquin's law claims that the number of cycles at break in fracture tests has a power-law dependence on the external load amplitude; Monkman-Grant relationship predicts that lifetime is proportional to the minimum strain rate during creep. The main question is therefore: is it possible to predict the time-dependent rupture? We perform creep and cyclic tests on paper samples. The main tools of investigation are acoustic emission (AE) -based analysis and digital image correlation (DIC). Via the AE, one can follow the damage evolution in samples, like microcrack formation that releases elastic energy. The DIC instead works well as a tool to measure at great accuracy both global and local deformation fields. From these, local strain rates can be derived, which then can be used to understand the microscopic dynamics that lie behind a certain rheology or sample response. The issue is to predict the break by looking at the sample-to-sample variation and by comparing experiments.

Australia produces both black and brown coal and is the world's fourth largest producer of black coal, after China, USA and India. Australian underground coal mines operate under controlled safety codes. The establishment of the mine safety management system, including the 1994 outburst management plan, contributed to a significant improvement in mine safety leading to non-fatality in outburst related incidences since 1994. The management of outburst risk, as a part of the overall safety and health management system is described. Also discussed are the introduction of outburst threshold limit values and the desorption rate index which forms the basis for determining safe mining conditions along with the “Authority to Mine” process The measures taken and lessons learned from safe mining of Australia's outburst prone mines represent an opportunity for improved mining safety in other countries, such as China.. The role of the Australian Coal Association Research Program, which supports research in critical areas such as outburst risk control and management, is also discussed.

The authors regret an error in table 1. The correct table is presented below: The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

This article has been removed: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been removed at the request of the Executive Publisher.This article has been removed because it was published without the permission of the author(s).

The way in which construction projects are managed has not changed significantly in the last decades; however, stakeholders, materials, competition, and user requirements are continuously changing. This creates a gap between the current managerial view on how construction projects are conducted and how they could be managed to increase efficiency. The construction industry could use new frameworks for action in the project and product management, and learn from the experiences of other industries. With this background in mind, some construction companies are enhancing the performance of their project teams to improve their competitiveness and increase the added value to their clients and themselves. This paper investigates the implementation of a framework from the IT sector into the construction industry: Scrum. Conducting a case study, the implementation and application of Scrum was analysed through the evaluation of its different artifacts. This research covers the following questions: Can Scrum be implemented in the design phase of the construction industry? What adaptations are needed to use Scrum to improve the design phase of construction projects? How and where could Scrum, or parts of it, be used by the design and planning departments of construction companies? The results from this study show that Scrum has great potential in the design and planning departments of construction firms. From the analysis of the applications of Scrum in the case study, tangible benefits and weaknesses of the implementation, and its different artifacts, were identified. Finally, this paper gives recommendations about the use of Scrum in the design phase and proposes an outlook to implement Scrum in other phases of construction projects., Procedia Engineering, 164, Selected papers from Creative Construction Conference 2016

This paper based on the images of the primary short circuited melted mark (PSM) and secondary short-circuited melted mark(SSM), set out to demonstrate the application of image processing in fire material evidence identification. Because there are few researches about the accurate description for image of different situation, it is difficult to further study the differences between PSM and SSM. therefore, in this paper, the image processing technique, as an accurate description based on quantitative analysis method is put forward, and it is found that the images can be extracted out of contour and texture characteristics, which can be processed with the statistical means, so as to classify the PSM and SSM from the morphologically point of view accurately.

This paper investigates the overall energy performance of a ventilated amorphous silicon photovoltaic (a-Si PV) window under different operation strategies in the hot-summer and cold-winter zone. A validated numerical model based on EnergyPlus was developed and utilized to simulate the thermal, power and overall energy performance of the a-Si PV window. With the integrated numerical model, the effects of air gap depth and ventilation modes on the electricity generation, energy consumption of the air conditioning system and building net energy consumption was investigated. The results indicate that the natural ventilation mode of the ventilated a-Si PV window performs best in summer while the non-ventilation mode is the best choice in winter in the hot-summer and cold-winter zone, Changsha. With the increasing of air gap depth, the net electricity use decreases first and then increases. Based on the simulation results, the optimal structure designing and ventilation operation strategy are recommended. The findings of this paper could provide guidelines for optimizing the structure and the operation strategy of the ventilated a-Si PV windows in hot-summer and cold-winter zone in China.

In this paper, overall ship recycling process in Bangladesh has been investigated and a comparison has been shown between Bangladesh and Rest of World on ship recycling activities. Furthermore the economic and environmental impact due to ship recycling in Bangladesh has also been demonstrated. However, the object of this paper is to discuss the current situation of ship recycling in Bangladesh and give some proposals to overcome the detrimental effects on environment and human life due to ship recycling.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce measurements and analysis of a 1:8 scale model railroad in order to provide the possibility to use modern locomotive design methods in this application. Tractive force and vehicle speed are necessary for this analysis and therefore a measuring train car has been developed. On-board strain gage and a magnetic encoder are used to obtain the necessary data. Therefore a part of this paper is devoted to describing the usage of these sensors. Obtained data is processed, analyzed and also compared to a full scale railroad.

The paper deals with the reconstruction of the rail-way passenger carriage floor for the improvement of the sound reduction index. Reconstruction was performed by using new acoustic material with a fibrous microstructure. The paper propose materials compared with simulated calculation of the acoustic energy transfer trough the porous microstructure of fibrous material, and further monitoring of their final effect in different fields of application in the floor and body structure of railway passenger carriage. Environmental aspects of construction, operation and maintenance of vehicles shall become an important significance on a global scale in recent years. Rail noise reduction is current topic nowadays. Especially technical solutions in the construction of railway vehicles, railway track construction and technological aspects of railway operations can effectively reduce the noise emitted by railway vehicles. The level of noise emissions from railway vehicles are systematically reduced by TSI standards. Vehicle design is largely influenced by the properties of materials and structures. Currently, the theory of multi-layer separating structures is used in the vehicle design.

The subject of this article is an introduction of the concept of a device for deep drawing in extreme conditions. In this case, extreme conditions represents drawing process in vacuum by high temperatures required by molybdenum sheets forming. The first part of the paper is about the functional, structural, economical, technological, operational, safety, environmental, legal and design requirements. The second part of the article deals with description of possible variants of the mechanism structure. The paper describes also the results of the research work by evaluating the variants. The variants scores were rated by parameters, which are essential for properly work of the mechatronic system.

Nowadays requirements for strength and stability of railway subgrade are increased. It is due to raising of train speed and axle load. Some sections of subgrade that were previously considered stable do not satisfy safety requirements. In this regard, superstructure reinforcing solutions need to be developed. This paper highlights ballast and subgrade reinforcement applications of geogrids in railway infrastructure. In recent years, geosynthetics are widely used for this purpose. Geosynthetics influence on the stress-strain state of subgrade is an important and extremely urgent problem. The paper describes recent research efforts in field studies, which helped to identify geosynthetics reinforcement influence on ballast layer.

Inverter is one of the most important equipment in photovoltaic power plant. Ventilation cooling can affect inverter efficiency, and then affect the photovoltaic power plant reliability. This paper analyses several different ventilation schemes for integrated inverter, and compares two CFD models which are ventilation with and without hood and duct using simulation software “ANSYS FLUENT”. The CFD simulation shows that hood and duct can improve the cooling effect. The paper shows that inverter ventilation with hood and duct can reduce the energy cost and ensures the photovoltaic power plant reliability, this ventilation scheme is recommend for inverter room ventilation.

Starting from cultural roots, the paper fully explores traditional Chinese culture and clearly defines the definition, connotation as well as features of Chinese cultural tradition. As the carrier of Chinese culture, Chinese traditional architecture emphasizes natural landscape and expresses the concepts of “oneness of nature and man”, which are consistent with the modern desire of “living in nature”. Through studying distribution features, ecological characteristics and building experience of Chinese traditional architecture, combining related practices of building a green city in recent years, and based on the research of traditional culture on design of cities, we plan to promote the organic development of green city. The paper takes Hankou town for example. The examples receive inspiration from the ecological concept of traditional architecture, and put into practice the ecological concept under guidance of culture. Modern architectural language and green technology are used to interpret traditional architectural features. We will better promote the organic development of green city through fully exploring and inheriting culture.

This paper firstly analyzes the current problems of power supply monitoring equipment in transmission line, illustrates the application limit of photovoltaic panels power currently used in the design of a new type of power supply, and the lightning protection grounding is proposed based on the. Before the power supply design, the paper introduces the principle of ground energy and the connection way of lightning protection in China, analyzes the characteristics and limitations of the different grounding methods, and then puts forward the general requirements for the design of the power supply. On this basis, the design of the transformer, rectifier, filter, voltage regulator, auto start and auto parts, respectively, for each part of the analysis and calculation, the final realization of the power transmission line in the extraction and use of the purpose.

Current building retrofits are predominantly focused on energy and cost efficiency at an individual building or building component scale. Whilst the aspirations of these retrofits are crucial to the sustainable development of our built environment, we can and need to do better. Many argue that we need a shift in worldview from mechanistic to regenerative, and in order to do so we must engage with the living world by (re)aligning human and natural systems. This paper proposes a ‘proactive’ retrofit approach which seeks to integrate net-positive, restorative and regenerative design concepts into building retrofits. A regenerative design model that explores the key interactions between physical, human and natural systems is developed to achieve these proactive outcomes. A set of regenerative design principles for building retrofits are proposed to emphasise the positive interactions an existing building can have with its surrounding environment. More specifically, this paper will explore how an energy efficient building retrofit can improve occupant health and wellbeing, and restore and enhance local ecosystems. A detailed example will then be used to demonstrate the principles as a means of shifting the way designers and decision makers view the building retrofit design process.

Based on collaborative innovation theory, the paper analyzes several more mature new energy vehicles in recent years and innovative technologies, and constructs a promoting strategic framework which is about five stages of Yutong new energy vehicles collaborative innovation. At the same time, through triple-helix theoretical analysis, the paper analyzes and summarizes the role of “Government - Industry - University - Research institution” in Yutong new energy vehicles innovation strategy and the roles that government, related enterprises, universities and research institutions play in collaborative innovation. Finally, the paper analyzes the stages of Yutong new energy vehicle development and the cooperation between Yutong business model innovation and technology innovation, thus studying on innovation strategy in the future and developing the international market.

Since with the majority of educational buildings the glass area surface is generally bigger than in the rest of civilian buildings, the authors presented in the paper a case study on the influence of this area on the energy performance of an educational building by a comparative analysis of the annual energy consumption, taking into consideration the following parameters: the cardinal orientation of the building, its thermal compliance and its type and the quality of the glazing. For the research carried out in this paper, we had as support for the study the building of the Civil Engineering Faculty in Brasov, a building with a height regime of B (basement) + GF (ground floor) + 7F(floors).

This paper presents a method for processing the data obtained from Microsoft Kinect device fitted with Nyko Zoom attachment. This system is used to obtain the dimensions of items placed in the workspace of prototype glue spraying machine. The presented data acquisition method allows to describe the shape of the surface and accurately determine the item position. The paper deals with processing of information on the registered object changed by the used attachment. The lens allowed to increase the angle of view of the Kinect device while reducing the minimum working distance. Included in the working method of correction is the solution to the problem presented to the constant exposure of the background. The described solution is used as a subsystem for the identification of seats and can be used in designing a subsystem to calculate the trajectory of the spraying head.

Selecting materials that are energy efficient over their life cycle at the early stage of a design is dependent upon numerous parameters that make determination of all their impacts on the environment difficult. Choice of thermal insulation options for a building's external walls significantly affects its life cycle energy demands. However, the accurate impact analysis of different insulation options from a life cycle energy assessment (LCEA) viewpoint is influenced by numerous interrelated parameters and is generally too complex for designers to determine in the early material selection stage of design. The aim of this paper is to highlight this complexity by using the example of an evaluation of the LCEA of 18 different forms of thermal insulations that vary in type and thickness for a multi-storey residential building in Sydney, Australia. The sensitivity of the results to the Window to Wall Ratio (WWR), as an another effective variable on the building's operational energy demands, is then analysed. The study indicates that different thermal insulation options of external walls have a marginal impact on the building cooling energy demands in Sydney's climatic zone, whereas they significantly affect the heating energy demands. In addition, changing of insulation options produce significant increases in the embodied energy. The impact of various WWRs on the building's operational energy changes the result of the optimum and the least efficient choices among the 18 insulation options. Overall, the example highlights that it is not possible to quantify all the effective parameters in selecting materials in terms of designing an energy efficient building through its life cycle. This paper is part of a larger research project attempting to simplify the LCEA and enable designers to identify the most effective variables on a building's life cycle energy demand when selecting materials at the early design stage.

This paper outlines the approach in regenerating an aging city block into a new high performing skyscraper in the Sydney. The project incorporated some of the latest technical innovations in reducing carbon emissions, reducing water consumption and ultimately achieving a 6 Star Green Star commercial office development. The 50 Storey development accommodates 55,963m2 of commercial office space. The building achieved a World Leadership 6 Star Green Star environmental rating through a number of technical innovations including a high performance curtain wall facade, a hybrid air conditioning system comprising of a combination of low temperature VAV with active perimeter chilled beams, tri-generation, low energy lighting system, and rainwater harvesting. The paper describes the technical innovations and resilient infrastructure that was installed that allowed the building to achieve the low carbon environmental performance. Performance monitoring undertaken demonstrates the building's actual performance. This presentation demonstrates that with a commitment from the developer, design team, and the builder, all future skyscrapers can achieve very high environmentally sustainable performance whilst still providing strong business cases.

Milling on NC machines is the most commonly used method of production of the parts of a complex space form. Special complexities arise during the machining concave surfaces, the preliminary treatment of which forms an uneven allowance for finish machining. The existing CAM-systems solve only trajectory problems without taking into account the power changes in the area of chip formation because of which the accuracy of machining does not meet design requirements. For this reason the investigations directed to the increase of efficiency and accuracy of space milling without the use of additional adaptive devices are urgent. The purpose of the investigation is the increase of the efficiency of space finish milling based on power parameters control in a cutting process. The paper considers the procedure of cutting modes control at space milling on NC machines at the existence of a variable allowance on arbitrary areas of a work surface. In the course of the investigation the scientific fundamentals of engineering techniques were used. The experimental investigations were carried out under the conditions of industrial production with the use of three-axial milling machine. During the development of control programs NX9 program package was used. The theoretical and experimental investigations presented in this paper show a possibility of cutting modes control on NC machines without additional devices application along a variable trajectory of a tool, which allows increasing the efficiency and accuracy of machining considerably and avoiding tool failure as the cutting force increases.

In allusion to the assessment of development level of power grid, consistency analysis is still insufficient. It is significant to make more research on how to adopt adaptive self-learning algorithm to determine the development level of power grid according to its own characteristics. Therefore, an adaptive neural-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) based on principal component analysis(PCA) was proposed in this paper. It not only has the adaptability and learning ability, but also reduces the error, as it avoids parameters exploding when input variables are too much. To verify the effectiveness of ths model, a number of power grids in Zhejiang province were selected as an instance. This paper established a thorough evaluation index system firstly, and then employed the PCA to get comprehensive index so as to reduce the variable dimension. Finally, the development level was determined through calculating the composite score based on ANFIS. It turned out that the proposed model has preferable performance when compared with BP neural network.

Bridge weigh-in-motion technology is the process of using measurements from a bridge to calculate the weight of a passing vehicle. This paper investigates the use of a moving force identification (MFI) algorithm to calculate vehicle axle loads. The calculation of forces exerted on a bridge from bridge measurements is an inverse dynamics process. Like many inverse dynamics processes, it is ill-conditioned in nature and a regularisation technique is needed. Tikhonov regularisation is used in the algorithm in this paper. The choice of the Tikhonov regularisation parameter is achieved commonly using the L-curve method. This paper investigates the use of a new, simpler type of curve to choose the regularisation parameter for bridge weigh-in-motion applications. It is based on calculated vehicle axle-weight ratios for a range of regularisation parameters. The method has the advantage of allowing the choice of regularisation parameter to be based on a realistic calculated axle-weight ratio. Calculated vehicle axle loads of quite good accuracy are achieved using this method.

This paper analyzes the thermal performance of a typical building-integrated solar wall (we’ll call it solar wall later in this paper) which integrates flat plate solar thermal collector with building wall. The thermal performance of the solar wall during stagnation, temperature of the absorber plate and heat flow on the inner wall, is studied by space state method in summer and winter respectively. If the collector of solar wall stops running, the maximum absorber plate temperature during summer daytime can reach 92.2 °C, and the total heat flow on the inner wall in one day is 1063 kJ/m² which is about 5 times of the normal operation condition. In winter, the temperature and heat flow of solar wall is higher too, which is beneficial to reduce the space heating load and the room can obtain heat from the outside in some time.