Search results for "construct"
showing 10 items of 3723 documents
Cogeneration plant in a pasta factory: Energy saving and environmental benefit
2007
Abstract Italy produces approximately 4,520,000 tons of pasta annually, which is about 67% of its total productive potential. As factories need electric and thermal energy simultaneously, combined heat and power (CHP) systems are the most suitable. This paper describes a feasibility study of a CHP plant in a pasta factory in Italy while analyzing energy saving and environmental benefits. Commercially available CHP systems suitable for the power range of energy demand in pasta production use reciprocating engines or gas turbines. This study demonstrates how their use can reduce both energy costs and CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emission in the environment. An economic analysis was performed…
Recycled Tyre Rubber Modified Bitumens for road asphalt mixtures: A literature review
2013
AbstractNowadays, only a small percentage of waste tyres are being land-filled. The Recycled Tyre Rubber is being used in new tyres, in tyre-derived fuel, in civil engineering applications and products, in moulded rubber products, in agricultural uses, recreational and sports applications and in rubber modified asphalt applications. The benefits of using rubber modified asphalts are being more widely experienced and recognized, and the incorporation of tyres into asphalt is likely to increase. The technology with much different evidence of success demonstrated by roads built in the last 40years is the rubberised asphalt mixture obtained through the so-called “wet process” which involves the…
Generalized feed-forward based method for wind energy prediction
2013
Abstract Even though a number of new mathematical functions have been proposed for modeling wind speed probability density distributions, still the Weibull function continues to be the most commonly used model in the literature. Therefore, the parameters of this function are still widely used to obtain typical wind probability density distributions for finding the wind energy potential by researchers, engineers and designers. Once long-term average of Weibull function’s parameters are known, then the probability density distributions can easily be obtained. Artificial neural network (ANN) can be used as alternative to analytical approach as ANN offers advantages such as no required knowledg…
Valerijs Bitenieks – From a Student of Riga Polytechnic Institute to a Construction Contractor in the Independent Latvia
2021
A paper on Valerijs Bitenieks, a graduate (1986) of the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering of Riga Polytechnic Institute (RPI), reflects on the daily life of the Soviet students in the 1980s, the work of a young engineer while he was trying various opportunities in the labour market and the engineer’s growth as a successful contractor in the independent Latvia in the 21st century. It traces the life of V. Bitenieks from his childhood to the present day, paying attention to his professional activities. The research provides an insight into students’ internships and extracurricular activities during the Soviet era. Unpublished photographic material unknown to the general public has…
Numerical prediction of the shear response of semi-prefabricated steel-concrete trussed beams
2016
Abstract In this study, the shear behavior of hybrid steel-trussed-concrete beams (HSTCBs) realized with prefabricated steel trusses embedded into a concrete core cast in situ, is investigated by means of Finite Element (FE) numerical simulations. HSTCBs do not behave as classical RC elements nor composite beams. Up to now, there are not specific design criteria in the building codes and the calculation of this type of beams is conducted by means of design-by-testing procedures. The knowledge of the material behavior as well as the understanding of the interaction between materials in contact is the first requirement for the definition of proper design procedures and calculation methods for…
Safety Climates in Construction Industry: Understanding the Role of Construction Sites and Workgroups
2013
Studies of safety climate in construction revealed a significant positive association between safety climate and various aspects of occupational health and safety. The mechanisms through which this impact operates are still unclear and safety climate is usually studied without considering the complexity of this industry (companies, worksites and groups). The aim of this research is to analyze to what extend there are differences between construction sites and to explore the relations between construction sites’ safety climate and workers’ safety response and to examine how this influence occur considering the workgroups. The safety climate was evaluated using a reduced version of the questi…
Energy life-cycle approach in net zero energy buildings balance: operation and embodied energy of an Italian case study
2014
Abstract The paper starts from the results of one of the six case-studies of the SubTask B in the International Energy Agency joint Solar Heating and Cooling Task40 and Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems Annex 52, whose purpose is to document state of the art and needs for current thermo-physical simulation tools in application to Net Zero Energy Buildings. The authors extend the Net Zero Energy Buildings (Net ZEB) methodological framework, introducing the life-cycle perspective in the energy balance and thus including the embodied energy of building and its components. The case study is an Italian building, tailored to be a Net ZEB, in which the magnitude of the deficit…
Evaluation of the Safety Performance of Turbo Roundabouts by Means of a Potential Accident Rate Mode
2015
Turbo roundabouts are a particular road intersection layout, designed to increase the safety of double-lane roundabouts, while maintaining their excellent capacity. The main feature of this new concept of roundabout is the impossibility to move from one lane to another, provided by physical barriers marking the lanes. The paper shows an application to turbo roundabouts of a potential accident rate model, aiming to evaluate their safety improvement. Themodel is based on the concept of potential conflict: each vehicle involved in a general intersection performs a series of maneuvers which potentially imply a crash, according to the actual traffic. The number of accidents related to each criti…
Leveraging BIM and Big Data to deliver well maintained highways
2017
The Highway infrastructure is one of the most valuable assets for any state or national Government. Efficient operations of Highways lead to success of national and local economies as well as improve the quality of life of the general public dependent on it. In order to ensure aging road networks continues to move with its ever increasing number of users, requires maintenance and improvements to the road network at the highest standard. Increasing scrutiny over the cost of maintenance along with increasing pressure from Government and the public for transparency over road network spending, has made a strong case for more efficient management of the Highway road asset and traffic management…
Formwork application optimization by using augmented reality
2016
By using the PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) principle on the formwork case study, after determining the functions and the technical solutions, the application must be made as optimum as possible in order to assure productivity and provide the necessary information as quick as possible. The concept is to create a complex management for the formwork based on augmented reality. By taking into account the development rate of the information, augmented reality is tending to be one of the widest (in term of domain) visualization instrument. Also used in the construction domain, augmented reality can be applied also for the case of formwork design and management. The application of the solutio…