Increasing plastic waste pollution has led to a rising prevalence of the open burning of plastic waste, especially in locations lacking formal waste-management systems. Urban slum communities face particularly acute c...
Increasing plastic waste pollution has led to a rising prevalence of the open burning of plastic waste, especially in locations lacking formal waste-management systems. Urban slum communities face particularly acute challenges in accessing both organized waste-collection services and low-cost traditional energy sources, and clean cooking-fuel alternatives tend to be unaffordable for their low-income residents. Here we examine the potential risk these unseen communities face and describe the need for a new research agenda to better understand and quantify the scope of the problem. The Global South is urbanizing at a rapid rate. Moreover, in many countries, this urbanization is outpacing the expansion of amenities and economic opportunities. With global plastic use predicted to triple by 2060 and two-thirds of the global population estimated to be living in urban areas by 2050, this Perspective draws attention to the nexus of sanitation and energy poverty, and the potential problems it poses for many low-income urban dwellers. An increasing number of energy-poor households, surrounded by plentiful waste plastic, are believed to be burning waste to both meet their energy needs and manage waste, although the evidence is limited and far from representative. We discuss the factors that may push marginalized households in cities of the Global South to burn waste plastic, and why this possibility is so concerning, before closing with a call for applied research to better understand the scale and scope of the phenomenon and its consequences.
The double steel-concrete shear wall combines the advantages of steel and concrete effectively, with high bearing capacity, good plasticity, superior seismic and fire resistance performance, saving materials and simpl...
The double steel-concrete shear wall combines the advantages of steel and concrete effectively, with high bearing capacity, good plasticity, superior seismic and fire resistance performance, saving materials and simple construction, and has obvious advantages in the application of high-rise buildings, especially super high-rise buildings. Research on axial compressive behavior of double steel-concrete shear wall constrained with ribs and bars is less. In this paper, the constitutive relation of double steel-concrete column with ribs and bars is used to change the relevant parameters and program to analyze the influence of ribs and bars on the axial compression performance of double steel-concrete shear wall.
By adding ribs and bars to form the double steel-concrete shear wall constrained with ribs and bars, the steel plate of the whole steel-concrete shear wall can be strengthened of the constraint. The research on Eccent...
By adding ribs and bars to form the double steel-concrete shear wall constrained with ribs and bars, the steel plate of the whole steel-concrete shear wall can be strengthened of the constraint. The research on Eccentric compressive behavior of double steel-concrete shear wall constrained with rib and bar is less, this paper analyzes double steel plate concrete shear wall by using larger length-width rectangular CFST column research methods. Based on the constitutive relation of the rectangular CFST column with ribs and bars, the relative parameters are changed, and a program is written to compare and analyze eccentric compressive behavior of double steel-concrete shear wall constrained with ribs and bars compared with that double steel plate concrete shear wall only constrained with bars.
A mixed flow of two immiscible liquids may form drops of one liquid in the *** and breakup of drops occur when there is sufficient hydrodynamic or surface forces from the ambient liquid;such deformation and breakup of...
A mixed flow of two immiscible liquids may form drops of one liquid in the *** and breakup of drops occur when there is sufficient hydrodynamic or surface forces from the ambient liquid;such deformation and breakup of drops is a common phenomenon in various engineering applications,such as oil-water flow in the petroleum recovery industry [1,2],stirred dispersions in the chemical industry [3,4],and melted metal and cooling liquid interactions in the nuclear industry [5,6].A typical simplified model for the mechanism study is the behaviours of a single drop against its surrounding liquid.
Using the constitutive model of a square CFST column with binding bars, the constrained mechanism of the stiffened square CFST columns is analyzed in great detail. The equivalent constitutive model under uniaxial comp...
Using the constitutive model of a square CFST column with binding bars, the constrained mechanism of the stiffened square CFST columns is analyzed in great detail. The equivalent constitutive model under uniaxial compression is established for square CFST columns. The model is then used to describe the stress-strain curve process for concrete and to calculate the bearing capacity. Models of ten concrete-filled square steel tubular columns under axial compression specimens are created with constitutive relation. The results are compared with the axial compression test of an ordinary square CFST specimen column and stiffened square CFST specimens. Our results show that the bearing capacity and stress-strain curves under axial compression are consistent with the actual test measurements. Analysis can be applied to the square stiffened CFST columns, the square CFST columns with binding bars, and the ordinary square CFST columns.
Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) model is widely used to describe urban traffic dynamic system. Based on the MFD model, perimeter control methods are developed to ensure the efficiency of the system. However, mos...
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Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram (MFD) model is widely used to describe urban traffic dynamic system. Based on the MFD model, perimeter control methods are developed to ensure the efficiency of the system. However, most existing perimeter control methods would suffer from two shortcomings, i.e., linearization of the MFD function, accurate calibration of MFD and travel demand. These prerequisites would undermine the performance of the system if an accurate calibration cannot be guaranteed. On the other hand, an optimization scheme of network performance without excessive knowledge of state variables but based on traffic data is preferable. In this study, an optimal feedback controller based on the neuro-dynamic that approximates the solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation (HJB) is introduced. Firstly, the value function is approximated by a neural network. Then the parameters are optimized by the policy iteration method, with the objective of minimizing the cumulative error toward set-point. Furthermore, the optimal control law constrained by a saturated operator is implemented based on real-time observations recursively. The neuro-dynamic controller is tested for the two-regional MFD system. The results confirm that the neuro-dynamic controller can regulate the traffic states converge to the desired uncongested equilibrium.
The retrofit of existing structures in high seismic zones is one of the most challenging issue in the Earthquake engineering field. A reinforced concrete (RC) school building is used as case study to show the influenc...
The retrofit of existing structures in high seismic zones is one of the most challenging issue in the Earthquake engineering field. A reinforced concrete (RC) school building is used as case study to show the influence of different knowledge levels on the seismic retrofitting cost assessment. The vulnerability evaluation of the mentioned building highlights deficiencies under both static and seismic loads. By considering all the possible knowledge levels defined by the Italian code in order to derive the mechanical properties of the school building constitutive materials, various retrofit options are designed to achieve different seismic safety thresholds. The retrofit structural costs are calculated and summed up to the costs for in-situ tests. The paper shows how for the case study building the major costs spent for a large number of in-situ tests allow to save a consistent amount of money for retrofit operations.
Heritage buildings are historically exceptional in their landscape and specific attention must be paid to their architectural element and components. Recently, the techniques that are utilized for the study and protec...
Heritage buildings are historically exceptional in their landscape and specific attention must be paid to their architectural element and components. Recently, the techniques that are utilized for the study and protection of cultural heritage have been on the rise in the research field. Studies have shown that project life cycle phases can be implemented to determine the performance of a given building in general. However, heritage buildings and their need were not considered. The project life cycle phases include: 1) planning, 2) manufacturing, 3) transportation, 4) construction, 5) operation and 6) maintenance phases. In addition, there is a need for an encompassing rating system that is capable of determining the most optimal pathway for rehabilitating heritage buildings. Hence, this article aims to present a comprehensive life cycle energy analysis model that optimizes expenditure over all building components by optimizing the budget. Furthermore, as a proof of concept, two case studies are applied in this research-GN in Canada and MP in the KSA.
Several Italian buildings designed by eminent architects and structural engineers in the second half of the 20th century are now included in modern heritage listings. At the same time, as they were designed before the...
Several Italian buildings designed by eminent architects and structural engineers in the second half of the 20th century are now included in modern heritage listings. At the same time, as they were designed before the issue of coordinate national Technical Standards, often require important structural rehabilitation interventions. One of the most representative case studies of that period in Florence, i.e. the building now housing the Automobile Club Headquarter and a B&B Hotel, is examined in this paper. A seismic assessment analysis carried out on the structure highlighted strength deficiencies in several members and potentially severe pounding conditions between the two constituting wings of the building, separated by a narrow technical gap. In order to improve the seismic performance without altering the architectural appearance of the building, characterized by large windows in the façades, free internal spaces and elegant proportions of the main structural members, a base isolation retrofit hypothesis is proposed. A substantial seismic improvement is obtained in rehabilitated conditions, as assessed by the achievement of safe stress states for all members up to the basic design normative earthquake level, as well as of maximum relative lateral displacements of the two wings constrained below the technical gap width.
The direct utilization of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has attracted increasing interests. Herein, we employ the low-dose integrated differential phase contrast...
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The direct utilization of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) has attracted increasing interests. Herein, we employ the low-dose integrated differential phase contrast-scanning transmission electron microscopy (iDPC-STEM) technique to visualize the atomic structure of multivariate MOFs (MTV-MOFs) for guiding the structural design of bulk MOFs for efficient OER. The iDPC-STEM images revealed that incorporating Fe 3+ or 2-aminoterephthalate (ATA) into Ni-BDC (BDC: benzenedicarboxylate) can introduce inhomogeneous lattice strain that weaken the coordination bonds, which can be selectively cleaved via a mild heat treatment to simultaneously generate coordinatively unsaturated metal sites, conductive Ni@C and hierarchical porous structure. Thus, excellent OER activity with current densities of 10 and 100 mA cm −2 are achieved over the defective MOFs at small overpotentials of 286 mV and 365 mV, respectively, which is superior to the commercial RuO 2 catalyst and most of the bulk MOFs.
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