Development of a compact excavator mounted dust suppression system

This paper reports on the investigation of an excavator mounted dust suppression system for demolition and construction activities. Ever increasing pressure is placed on contractors to improve their environmental performance, especially dust emissions. Current methods of dust suppression have been investigated and each of the methods has also been critically analysed to determine their advantages and disadvantages. The investigation also examined the requirements of such a system and a concept system proposal was produced. A working prototype has been constructed for a mini excavator complete with a hydraulic breaker. The proposed system was rigorously tested in various configurations to determine its efficiency and effectiveness in comparison with current suppression techniques. The resulting benefits such as the reduction of water usage and cost are highlighted

Safety by design: dialogues between designers and builders using virtual reality

© 2015 The Author(s). Published by Taylor & Francis.Designers can contribute to enhancing the safety of construction work by considering how their decisions impact on both the physical environment in which construction workers operate and the means and methods they use. To do so, however, designers require knowledge about safety hazards on site and the opportunity to examine their designs early in projects. Through a set of studies virtual reality tools were used to examine the potential for collaborative dialogue between designers and builders to provide a forum for learning and proactive change of a design to make a project safer to build. In the tests, participants viewed proposed designs using virtual reality to examine various alternative design and construction scenarios. The study shows that consultation and dialogue with an experienced construction professional are highly beneficial for designers to appreciate the implications of designs on safety, and that designers are more willing to adapt design details than to change aesthetic aspects of their designs

Improving the psychological evaluation of exercise referral: psychometric properties of the Exercise Referral Quality of Life Scale

There is a growing need to assess the psychological outcomes of exercise referral and the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence has called for the routine assessment of life-quality. However, a quality of life scale specific to the requirements of exercise referral is currently unavailable. Therefore, the aim of this study was to produce a quality of life measure for this purpose. The Exercise Referral Quality of Life Scale is a 22-item measure comprising three domains: mental and physical health, injury pain and illness and physical activity facilitators. Exploratory factor analysis determined the initial factor structure and was subsequently confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. Additional scale properties were also assessed. The scale contributes to the global need for improved consistent psychological outcome assessment of exercise referral

Mediating punitiveness: understanding public attitudes towards work-related fatality cases

This paper concerns an empirical investigation into public attitudes towards work-related fatality cases, where organizational offenders cause the death of workers or members of the public. This issue is particularly relevant following the introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007 into UK law. Here, as elsewhere, the use of criminal law against companies reflects governmental concerns over public confidence in the law’s ability to regulate risk. The empirical findings demonstrate that high levels of public concern over these cases do not translate into punitive attitudes. Such cases are viewed rationally and constructively, and lead to instrumental rather than purely expressive enforcement preferences

Design hazard identification and the link to site experience

The training, development and routes to charteredship of building design engineers have undergone a major transformation in recent years. Additionally, the duration and quality of site experience being gained by designers is reducing. While accident causation is often complex, previous research shows a potential link between design and construction accidents. The effectiveness of the UK’s Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations is being questioned, and designers regularly do not recognise the impact they can make on site safety. A newly developed hazard perception test was used to determine if students and design practitioners are able to identify hazards in designs and to establish if site experience impacts hazard identification. The results of the tests show an association between the ability to identify and mitigate hazards and possession of site experience. The results provide empirical evidence that supports previous anecdotal evidence. The results also question if the design engineers of today are suitably equipped to fulfil the designer’s responsibilities under the CDM Regulations

Maleated Polypropylene Film and Wood Fiber

The grafting effect of maleic anhydride (MA) as an interfacial bonding agent and its influence on the tensile strength properties of thermomechanical pulp handsheet-isotactic polypropylene (iPP) film laminates was studied. For the MA treated with benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as an initiator, tensile strength properties increased 76 % with PP film over untreated laminates. The optimal strength properties were obtained with a MA and BPO ratio of 2:1. A strong correlation was observed between the number of fibers in the web and tensile strength properties for both handsheet drying conditions. The R 2 values were 0.95 for air-dry conditions and 0.94 from oven-dry conditions. Scanning electron microscopy images also showed the effectiveness of MA loading on the surface of thermomechanical pulp fibers due to increased fiber failure, which occurred without fiber being pulled out from the PP matrixes. Crystallinity and heat flow were determined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and increased as expected as the ratio of MA and BPO increased from 0:0 to 2:1. These results were also in accordance with the morphological observations at the fracture surface, Fourier transform infrared spectra, and thermal analysis. POLYM. COMPOS., 00:000–000, 2008. ª 2008 Society of Plastics Engineer

The Risk of Unexploded Ordnance on Construction Sites in London

Greater London, among many large cities, was subject to bombing by the German military in both the World Wars and was the target of many air raids during the Second World War (WW2). This was particularly the case during the Blitz, September 1940 – May 1941, when over 28,000 high explosive bombs and parachute mines were dropped on London. Post war research conducted in 1949 estimated that approximately 12,750 t of bombs, including V1 and V2 rockets, were dropped on London. The night of 16th – 17th April 1941 was one of the worst bombing raids, when 446 t of bombs were dropped on London and over 58 t did not detonate. Unexploded bombs remain buried underground today, as they were unidentified at the time or abandoned owing to difficulties in recovering them. Uncharted bombs continue to pose a potentially significant hazard for developments around London. This paper considers the probability of discovering unexploded ordnance (UXO), particularly WW2 ordnance, during intrusive groundworks in London. The prevalence of unexploded ordnance has been assessed using data obtained from governmental organisations to estimate the likelihood of discovery in London

Regulatory inspection and the changing legitimacy of health and safety

The regulation of conduct via law is a key mechanism through which broader social meanings are negotiated and expressed. The use of regulatory tools to bring about desired outcomes reflects existing social and political understandings about¬ institutional legitimacy, the meanings attached to regulation, and the values it seeks to advance. But these contextual understandings are not static, and their evolution poses challenges for regulators, particularly when they reflect political framing processes. This paper shows how inspection has been reshaped as a tool within the United Kingdom’s health and safety system by changes in the meanings attached to the concept of ‘risk-based regulation’. While rates of inspection have fallen dramatically in recent years, the nature and quality of inspection have also been fundamentally reshaped via an increasingly procedural and economically-rational ‘risk-based’ policy context. This has had consequences for the transformative and symbolic value of inspection as a tool of regulatory practice

Application of the linear network model of finding the shortest way of evacuation of the population

The report considers an algorithm for solving the problem of advance evacuation of the population, which is formulated as finding the shortest path in a linear network model representing the routes of movement along the existing transport network of roads with a cycle. The starting point is the prefabricated evacuation point, and the final one is the receiving evacuation point, the numbers on the edges are the length of the path between the intermediate points