22,286 research outputs found
Adaptive Comfort Models Applied to Existing Dwellings in Mediterranean Climate Considering Global Warming
Comfort analysis of existing naturally ventilated buildings located in mild climates, such
as the ones in the Mediterranean zones, offer room for a reduction in the present and future energy
consumption. Regarding Spain, most of the present building stock was built before energy standards
were mandatory, let alone considerations about global warming or adaptive comfort. In this context,
this research aims at assessing adaptive thermal comfort of inhabitants of extant apartments building
in the South of Spain per EN 15251:2007 and ASHRAE 55-2013. The case study is statistically
representative housing built in 1973. On-site monitoring of comfort conditions and computer
simulations for present conditions have been carried out, clarifying the degree of adaptive comfort
at present time. After that, additional simulations for 2020, 2050, and 2080 are performed to check
whether this dwelling will be able to provide comfort considering a change in climate conditions.
As a result, the study concludes that levels of adaptive comfort can be considered satisfactory at
present time in these dwellings, but not in the future, when discomfort associated with hot conditions
will be recurrent. These results provide a hint to foresee how extant dwellings, and also dwellers,
should adapt to a change in environmental conditions
Earthquakeâinduced landslide scenarios for seismic microzonation. Application to the Accumoli area (Rieti, Italy)
Scenarios of earthquake-induced landslides are necessary for seismic microzonation (SM) studies since they must be integrated with the mapping of instability areas. The PARSIFAL (Probabilistic Approach to pRovide Scenarios of earthquakeâInduced slope FAiLures) approach provides extensive analyses, over tens to thousands of square kilometers, and is designed as a fully comprehensive methodology to output expected scenarios which depend on seismic input and saturation conditions. This allows to attribute a rating, in terms of severity level, to the landslide-prone slope areas in view of future engineering studies and designs. PARSIFAL takes into account first-time rock- and earth-slides as well as re-activations of existing landslides performing slope stability analyses of different failure mechanisms. The results consist of mapping earthquake-induced landslide scenarios in terms of exceedance probability of critical threshold values of co-seismic displacements (P[Dâ„Dc|a(t),ay]). PARSIFAL was applied in the framework of level 3 SM studies over the municipality area of Accumoli (Rieti, Italy), strongly struck by the 2016 seismic sequence of Central Apennines. The use of the PARSIFAL was tested for the first time to screen the Susceptibility Zones (ZSFR) from the Attention Zones (ZAFR) in the category of the unstable areas, according to the guidelines by Italian Civil Protection. The results obtained were in a GIS-based mapping representing the possibility for a landslide to be induced by an earthquake (with a return period of 475 years) in three different saturation scenarios (i.e. dry, average, full). Only 41% of the landslide-prone areas in the Municipality of Accumoli are existing events, while the remaining 59% is characterized by first-time earth- or rock-slides. In dry conditions, unstable conditions or P[Dâ„Dc|a(t),ay]>0 were for 54% of existing landslides, 17% of first-time rock-slides and 1% of first-time earth- slides. In full saturation conditions, the findings are much more severe since unstable conditions or P[Dâ„Dc|a(t),ay]>0 were found for 58% of the existing landslides and for more than 80% of first-time rock- and earth-slides. Moreover, comparison of the total area of the ZAFR versus ZSFR, resulted in PARSIFAL screening reducing of 22% of the mapped ZAFR
Energy Disaggregation for SMEs using Recurrence Quantification Analysis
Energy disaggregation determines the energy consumption of individual appliances from the total demand signal, which is recorded using a single monitoring device. There are varied approaches to this problem, which are applied to different settings. Here, we focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and explore useful applications for energy disaggregation from the perspective of SMEs. More precisely, we use recurrence quantification analysis (RQA) of the aggregate and the individual device signals to create a two-dimensional map, which is an outlined region in a reduced information space that corresponds to ânormalâ energy demand. Then, this map is used to monitor and control future energy consumption within the example business so to improve their energy efficiency practices. In particular, our proposed method is shown to detect when an appliance may be faulty and if an unexpected, additional device is in use
Shuttle passenger couch
Conceptual design and fabrication of a full scale shuttle passenger couch engineering model are reported. The model was utilized to verify anthropometric dimensions, reach dimensions, ingress/egress, couch operation, storage space, restraint locations, and crew acceptability. These data were then incorported in the design of the passenger couch verification model that underwent performance tests
Emeritus Professor J.N. Hutchinson : Historical Landslide Collection : Great Britain
This report describes a collection of material, field documents, aerial photographs, reports, maps and reference material, which was bequeathed to the British Geological Survey by Professor J. N. Hutchinson. Any material pertaining to Great Britain was sorted into geographical regions and catalogued with the remaining material archived within the National GeoSceince Data Centre to be catalogued at a later date
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