Search results for "Building"
showing 10 items of 1985 documents
Biodegradation of Synthetic Organic Compounds by Methanogenic Microbiome as an Alternative Approach for Wastewater Purification and Energy Production
2022
The use of fossil fuels (methane, oil, etc.) is undergoing an unprecedented crisis now. There is the urgent need to search for alternative energy sources. A wide range of degraded organic materials can be effectively used to provide energy together with environmental protection. Soapstock is a hazardous waste containing a high concentration of toxic organic compounds of man-made origin (fatty acids, surfactants, dyes, etc.). To prevent environmental contamination such substances require an effective treatment approach. The goal of the study was to isolate the adapted-to-fatty-acids methanogenic microbiome and investigate the patterns of sodium acetate and soapstock degradation with simultan…
Optimization and sensitivity analysis of existing deep learning models for pavement surface monitoring using low-quality images
2022
Automated pavement distress detection systems have become increasingly sought after by road agencies to in crease the efficiency of field surveys and reduce the likelihood of insufficient road condition data. However, many modern approaches are developed without practical testing using real-world scenarios. This paper ad dresses this by practically analyzing Deep Learning models to detect pavement distresses using French Secondary road surface images, given the issues of limited available road condition data in those networks. The study specifically explores several experimental and sensitivity-testing strategies using augmentation and hyper- parameter case studies to bolster practical mode…
Controlling Thermal Flows through Natural Materials in Building Construction Sector
2019
Nowadays, the attention about the building sustainability is increasingly emerging, because of the major responsibility of the building field on the environmental degradation: both in terms of energy consumption from non-renewable sources and the raw materials impoverishment. In addition, the level of comfort required by users is growing and the thermal insulation of buildings becomes the key element for the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, both in the case of new construction and of the existing ones. The heat load of a building depends on the presence of insulating material which defines the performance of the building envelope. The main purpose of this work is both to i…
Non-dimensional groups for air solar collectors
2003
Abstract The radiant heat captured by a passive air solar collector during a day divides itself into three fractions, of which one is transmitted by conduction to the backside, one is collected by the convective air flow, and the last one is lost through glazing. Some calculations of heat transfer taking place in a collector in 24-h periodic regime have been done with different combinations of the values of the relevant thermo-physical variables. Calculation results were the fractions of energy transmitted to the internal room through the wall by conduction and with the air flow by convection, and lost through the glazing. The results give rise to a correlation among non-dimensional variabl…
Heat transfer calculation in a free convection air solar collector
1998
This paper deals with the free convective air flow developing in a vertical channel with a rectangular cross-section heated on one side. The channel geometric and physical properties are such as to simulate an air solar collector suitable for building heating. A calculation method that can be applied to the transient combined heat transfer by conduction through the wall and by convection from the wall to the air stream is presented. The conduction across the wall is computed with a one-dimensional, time-dependent finite difference scheme, with convective boundary conditions at both wall surfaces. For the free convective flow along the channel, the air flow rate and the mean convective coeff…
Effects of confinement level, cross-section shape and corner radius on the cyclic behavior of CFRCM confined concrete columns
2014
Abstract The main results of an experimental research aiming to investigate the behavior of medium-size low-strength concrete columns wrapped with Carbon Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Matrix (CFRCM) under monotonic and cyclic compressive axial loads are presented. Thirty columns with circular, square and rectangular cross-sections were tested under monotonic and cyclic axial loads to investigate the effect of the confinement level, the cross-section shape and the corner radius on the stiffness, strength, and ductility of CFRCM confined concrete columns under cyclic loads. The results prove that CFRCM confining jackets provide substantial gain in compressive strength, deformability and absor…
Degraded Gerber Saddles in RC Bridges
2023
Sudden failure of reinforced concrete (RC) or prestressed concrete (PC) Gerber saddles of bridges and viaducts has occurred all around in the word in the last few years due to corrosion of steel bars. The danger of sudden and brittle failure is often due to general and pitting corrosion of steel bars, concrete crushing, and loss of bond in steel bars. In this paper, the flexural response of reinforced concrete Gerber supports under their self-weight with or without service loads was investigated through determination of the load-deflection response of beams, with the focus on the consequences of pitting corrosion and loss of bond in steel bars. A simplified strut-and-tie model was developed…
Flexural behavior of corroded RC beams
2018
Synopsis: A handily model to evaluate the bending resistance and the ductility of corroded beams critical in flexure and shear is proposed and debated. Effects of diffused and pitting corrosion on steel bars, compressive concrete strength reduction and concrete bond strength reduction due to rust creation are modelled. Practical method derived on limit state theory was here used to calculate the flexural and shear strength and the available ductility. The effectiveness of the model was also corroborated against numerous results collected in the literature pertaining to bending and shear resistance.
Prediction of the out-of-plane response of infilled frames under seismic loads by a new fiber-section macro-model
2016
This chapter suggests that an extension of the capability of the traditional inplane macro-models to capture the simultaneous in-plane and Out-Of-Plane (OOP) response of infills. A new simplified macro-model for the assessment of both in plane and out-of-plane responses of infilled frames was developed and validated. The possibility to simulate the arching action is achieved by using distributed plasticity fiber-section elements, able to directly account for the coupling between axial load and bending moment. The arching action is explicitly introduced by the use of fiber-section beam-column elements, which can model the coupling between axial-load and bending moment. The model presented is…
SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Healthcare Professionals and General Population During “First Wave” of COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study Conducted i…
2021
On December 31, 2019, an outbreak of lower respiratory infections was documented in Wuhan caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Since the beginning, SARS-CoV-2 has caused many infections among healthcare workers (HCWs) worldwide. Aims of this study were: a. to compare the distribution among the HCWs and the general population of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Western Sicily and Italy; b. to describe the characteristics of HCWs infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the western Sicilian healthcare context during the first wave of the epidemic diffusion in Italy. Incidence and mean age of HCWs infected with SARS-CoV-2 were comparable in Western Sicily and in the whole Ita…