Energy efficient multi storey residential developments

Worldwide, the current pattern of urban development is unsustainable and metropolitan planning and development strategies deliver poor environmental outcomes in relation to energy production. As a result, an increasing number of governments and private sector development companies are initiating projects that aim to deliver enhanced environmental outcomes rather than a ‘business as usual’ approach. This paper will summarise the findings from a study that explored the link between building orientation and energy efficiencies in sub-tropical and tropical climates. The study used a new thermal modelling software tool developed by CSIRO that responds more accurately to residential heating and cooling energy performance in those climate zones. This software tool responds to industry criticisms regarding cold climate modelling systems that do not make sufficient allowance for natural ventilation. The study examined a range of low, medium and high-density dwelling types and investigated the impact of orientation, insulation, ventilation and shading devices on energy efficiencies. This paper will examine the findings from the medium and high-density case study developments as these are relevant to residential developments in many South East Asian countries, such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Finally, the paper will explore the potential benefits that medium and high-density residential developments have in the development of ‘solar cities’ and ‘solar suburbs’

Sustainable construction for the future - the role of government in energy efficiency and sustainability in buildings

This paper will summarise the findings from a study that explored the link between dwelling design, or type, and energy efficiencies in sub-tropical climates. An increasing number of government and private sector development companies are initiating projects that aim to deliver enhanced environmental outcomes at both sub-divisional and dwelling levels. The study used AccuRate, a new thermal modelling tool developed by CSIRO that responds to the need to improve ventilation modelling. The study found that dwellings developed in conjunction with the Departments of Housing and Public Works have set the benchmark. It provides a snapshot of the energy efficiency of a range of dwelling types found in recent subdivisions. However, the trend toward increasing urban densities may reduce the likelihood that cooling breezes will be available to cool dwellings. The findings are relevant to regulators, designers and industry in all states interested in reducing the energy used to cool dwellings in summer

How to achieve sustainability : regulatory challenges

The importance of designing sustainable buildings is gaining greater acceptance worldwide. Evidence of this is how regulators are incorporating sustainable design principles into building regulations and requirements. The aim being to increase the number of sustainable buildings and move from a traditional voluntary compliance to one that is mandatory. However, developing regulations that actually achieve these aims can be a difficult exercise. Several countries in South East Asia, such as Singapore and Malaysia, have performance based building regulations that are supplemented by prescriptive measures for achieving the desired performance. Australia too has similar building regulations and has had energy efficiency regulations within the Building Code of Australia for over a decade. This paper explores some of the difficulties and problems that Australian regulators have experienced with the performance-based method and the prescriptive or “deemed-to-comply” method and measures that have been taken to try and overcome these problems. These experiences act as a useful guide to all regulators considering the incorporation of sustainable design measures into their countries building regulations. The paper also speculates on future environmental requirements being incorporated into regulations, including the possibility of non-residential buildings being required to meet minimum energy efficiency requirements, and the possible systems that would need to be in place before such requirements were included. Finally, the paper looks at a possible way forward using direct assessment from electronic designs and introduces several software tools that are currently being developed that move towards achieving this goal. Keywords: Sustainable buildings, Performance-based, Regulations, Energy efficiency, Assessment tools

Sustainable suburbs : the developer’s challenge

As our cities expand, developers are transforming more and more land to create our suburbs of the future. Developers and government bodies have a golden opportunity to design suburbs that are not only great places to live, but also are environmentally sensitive and sustainable. This is a unique opportunity, as significant changes after development are constrained by the configuration of the subdivision, and then by the construction of the dwellings. This paper explores some of these issues by presenting initial findings from the CRCCI, Sustainable Subdivisions Project. The Project examines the drivers and barriers that land developers face when trying to achieve sustainable subdivisions. This paper will review the results from a series of industry interviews and workshops and explore possible ways forward. In addition, the possible effect on the way future land subdivision is managed and planned as a result of recent changes in the energy efficiency provisions of the Building Code of Australia will be explored. This paper highlights problems that both builders and land developers may face through poor subdivision design. Finally an innovative program being driven by a major land developer will be introduced. The program aims to deliver over 400 energy and water efficient homes through a series of compulsory and voluntary schemes that the developer is designing, funding and implementing. This program is the first large-scale development in Australia that demonstrates how developers can help achieve environmentally sensitive and sustainable suburbs of the future

Virtual Testing Architecture for Prediction of Effective Properties of Particulate Composites

This study has developed a computational virtual testing architecture for predicting effective properties of particulate composites. A particulate composite made up of SiC filler in an alumina matrix was used in this work. The test composite was modelled first by considering perfect bonding between the matrix and filler constituents and subsequently the effect of interphase region was assessed too

Autonomous, Collaborative, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Search and Rescue

Search and Rescue is a vitally important subject, and one which can be improved through the use of modern technology. This work presents a number of advances aimed towards the creation of a swarm of autonomous, collaborative, unmanned aerial vehicles for land-based search and rescue. The main advances are the development of a diffusion based search strategy for route planning, research into GPS (including the Durham Tracker Project and statistical research into altitude errors), and the creation of a relative positioning system (including discussion of the errors caused by fast-moving units). Overviews are also given of the current state of research into both UAVs and Search and Rescue

A THEORITICAL REVIEW OF THE IMPACT OF PORFOLIO DIVERSIFICATION ON FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF INVESTMENT FIRMS LISTED IN NAIROBI SECURITIES EXCHANGE, KENYA

The concept of diversification has taken a universal centre stage in the process of management and continues to be an increasingly important aspect of doing business in the world of today. The relationship between diversification and firm performance has formed the subject of many researches but many researchers have disagreed on the nature of the relationship between diversification and performance. Because of the contradictory results concerning the relationship between diversification and performance, the question of whether diversification improves or worsens firm performance is still worthy of further research such as the one being undertaken in this study. In addition, despite the existence of these studies, very little attention has been given to the developing countries. Besides, the impact of diversification on firm performance has not received adequate research attention in Kenya. The study will examine the Impact of portfolio diversification on financial performance of investment firms listed in the NSE in Kenya. The study will take an explanatory non experimental research design. The target population for the study will be the investment firms listed in the NSE. A census total of 5 investment firms will be considered. Data collection will be done using secondary data to be obtained from the company websites, handbooks, printed materials from the NSE and CMA. The five firms are Olympia capital holdings, Tran century limited, centum investments, Home Africa limited and Kurwitu ventures. The study will span between 2011 and 2016. The study will employ the panel regression model to analyze the impact of portfolio diversification on   financial performance of investment firms listed in the NSE. Given that the data had both time series and cross sectional dimensions, the study estimated a linear panel regression. Panel data analysis is more advantageous than either cross-section or time series alone because it allows the researcher to account for unobservable heterogeneity. The panel methodology will be aided by STATA 13.0 software. After extracting data from the financial statements, an Excel program will be used to compute the relevant values for each of the companies across time. The data will then be formatted in STATA long form before being imported to STATA from Excel. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize and profile Stocks, real estate, bonds and the combined Impact of the three and performance among companies listed in the NSE. Feasible Generalised Least Square estimation will be performed after accounting for various violations of classical linear regression assumptions. Panel data can be estimated using any of the following models: pooled effects or constant effects, random effects, and fixed effects. Keywords: diversification, performance, financial markets, portfolio, stock exchang

Subtropical Subdivisions: Toward a Lot-rating Methodology for Subtropical Climates

What role can climatically appropriate subdivision design play in decreasing the use of energy required to cool premises by maximising access to natural ventilation? How can this design be achieved? The subdivision design stage is critical to urban and suburban sustainability outcomes, as significant changes after development are constrained by the configuration of the subdivision, and then by the construction of the dwellings. Existing Australian lot rating methodologies for energy efficiency, such as that by the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (SEDA), focus on reducing heating needs by increasing solar access, a key need in Australia’s temperate zone. A recent CRC CI project, Sustainable Subdivisions: Energy (Miller and Ambrose 2005) examined these guidelines to see if they could be adapted for use in subtropical South East Queensland (SEQ). Correlating the lot ratings with dwelling ratings, the project found that the SEDA guidelines would need to be modified for use to make allowance for natural ventilation. In SEQ, solar access for heating is less important than access to natural ventilation, and there is a need to reduce energy used to cool dwellings. In Queensland, the incidence of residential air-conditioning was predicted to reach 50 per cent by the end of 2005 (Mickel 2004). The CRC-CI, Sustainable Subdivisions: Ventilation Project (CRC-CI, in progress), aims to verify and quantify the role natural ventilation has in cooling residences in subtropical climates and develop a lot rating methodology for SEQ. This paper reviews results from an industry workshop that explored the current attitudes and methodologies used by a range of professionals involved in subdivision design and development in SEQ. Analysis of the workshop reveals that a key challenge for sustainability is that land development in subtropical SEQ is commonly a separate process from house design and siting. Finally, the paper highlights some of the issues that regulators and industry face in adopting a lot rating methodology for subdivisions offering improved ventilation access, including continuing disagreement between professionals over the desirability of rating tools

A constitutive model for semi-crystalline polymers: A multiple viscoelastic relaxation processes implementation.

The constitutive modelling of semi-crystalline polymers seeks to obtain reliable predictive tools for a wide range of their mechanical responses. Such efforts have continued to occupy computational material scientists. Although significant advances have been made regarding amorphous polymers, thanks to works by Buckley [1], Boyce [2], and Govaert [3], there is significant research scope for developing similar predictive modelling fidelity for semi-crystalline polymers. The presence of crystalline and amorphous phases in semi-crystalline polymers presents interesting constitutive modelling challenges. In this study, a physically based, three-dimensional constitutive model has been developed for simulating a wide range of features observed in deformation and processing of semi-crystalline polymers. The constitutive mathematics is based on a one-process Grass-Rubber model for amorphous polymers proposed by Buckley and colleagues [1]. The model philosophy exploits the presence of multiple relaxation processes associated with the different mechanics of the crystalline, amorphous and pseudo-amorphous parts of the polymer. The model development reasoning is inspired by a well-known physical framework of rate-dependent deformation that establishes a correlation between the observed transition in flow stress of a material and the secondary β-transition of the viscoelastic behaviour. Here, two dominant relaxation processes were identified - the α- and the β-processes. Each process was modelled using the bond-stretching and conformational stresses constitutive mathematics of the Glass-Rubber model. The model has been implemented numerically into a commercial finite element code through a user-defined material subroutine (UMAT) and validated against compression test results carried out on an isotactic polypropylene across an unusually wide range of strain rates [4]. In this study, the model predicts quite well the experimentally observed nonlinear mechanical responses like: temperature and rate-dependence, adiabatic heating effects, structural rejuvenation and post-yield de-ageing of polypropylene. It provides a viable modelling tool that can be utilized for design involving semicrystalline polymers at room temperature as well as exploring the processing response at elevated temperatures