Manufacturing cost optimization of composite floor trusses

This paper presents the manufacturing cost optimization of composite floor trusses. The composite floor trusses are designed to be built up of a reinforced concrete slab and steel trusses consisting of cold formed hollow sections. The optimization was performed by the nonlinear programming approach, NLP. An accurate objective function of the manufacturing material, power and labour costs was developed and applied for the optimization. Composite floor trusses were optimized according to Eurocode 4 for the conditions of both the ultimate and the serviceability limit states. A numerical example of the manufacturing cost optimization of a composite floor truss system, presented at the end of the paper, shows the applicability of the proposed approach

Plant selection according to the taste of the town open space users

Na privlačnost slobodnog prostora kod njegovih korisnika u velikoj mjeri utječe i izbor bilja. Cilj našeg istraživanja je bio utvrditi koje parkovne biljke su kod korisnika više a koje manje omiljene. Podatke o tome prikupili smo primjenom metoda eksperimentalne estetike. Anketirali smo ljude obaju spolova, različite starosti kao i poziva. Sastavili smo reprezentativni odabir parkovnog bilja i anketirane osobe zamolili da ih svrstaju prema njihovoj omiljenosti. Rezultati su pokazali veliku usuglašenost ispitanika u pogledu najviše i najmanje omiljene vrste uz inače prilično veliku variabilnost mišljenja.The choice of plants for open spaces greatly contributes to the attraction for their users. The aim of our research was to establish which plants the poeple prefer. The relevant data were obtained by the methods of experimental aesthetics. Both male and female persons of different age and occupation were interviewed. A representative selection of outdoor ornamental plants was made and the people interviewed were asked to classify them according to their preferences. The results showed a great harmony of the interviewees on the choice of the most favoured and the least favoured plant at otherwise a rather high variability of opinion

O socijalnoj nejednakosti u razvoju turizma i turističkom marketingu u postkolonijalnoj Šri Lanki

The article initially deals with the question of how the historical relations between Sri Lanka and the West are perpetuated through present-day tourism development and tourist marketing. The main question of the text is, how the orientalist and colonial forms of discourse, which have shifted to contemporary meanings of development and value regimes of tourist marketing, are generating and perpetuating social inequality not only between Sri Lanka and "the West", but also between the Sri Lankan state and its citizens. The article discusses the power of such discursive relics of Western colonialism, which are embedded in large-scale tourism development conceptions and tourist marketing, and presents certain ways of their surpassing.Članak se prvenstveno bavi pitanjem kako povijesni odnosi između Šri Lanke i Zapada utječu na suvremeni razvoj turizma i turistički marketing u toj zemlji. Glavna rasprava u članku se odnosi na pitanje kako orijentalni i kolonijalni oblici diskursa, koji su se proširili i na ulogu sadašnjega razvoja turizma i na vrijednosna polazišta turističkog marketinga, stvaraju i produbljuju socijalnu nejednakost i to ne samo između Šri Lanke i "Zapada", nego i između države Šri Lanke i njenih građana. Članak analizira moć takvih diskurzivnih relikvija zapadnog kolonijalizma, a koji su ukorijenjeni u predodžbe o razvoju i marketingu u turizmu u masovnom obliku, te nudi neke načine njihova nadilaženja

Prodavanje i dijeljenje kulture: o odnosima između kulturne baštine, očuvanja prirode i institucija za razvoj turizma u gornjoj dolini rijeke Soče, Slovenija

In 2013, the municipalities of Tolmin and Kobarid proved to be successful in tourism development of the Upper Soča Valley: they quintupled tourist overnight stays. However, there are other institutions, like the Kobarid Museum (KM) and the Walk of the Peace Foundation (WP), which aim to further develop historical thematic paths of war in the region, an endeavour that started in Kobarid as early as 1990. The area is also located at the fringes of the Triglav National Park (TNP), a primarily nature conservation institution. In this article, the complex situation, in which cultural heritage dynamically oscillates between local conservation, political promotion and tourism development is examined.U članku se prikazuju međuinstitucionalni razmjeri u Kobaridu, gradu smještenom u gornjoj dolini rijeke Soče, na sjeverozapadu Slovenije. Rad zahvaća problem nezaustavljivog jačanja ekonomskih oblika turističkog diskursa među različitim institucijama i organizacijama koje se bave općim razvojem regije. Pažnja se usredotočuje na Lokalnu turističku organizaciju “Sotočje”, koju su 2000. godine zajednički osnovala gradska poglavarstva Kobarida i Tolmina, a koja je počela utjecati na program rada drugih institucija koje nisu bile primarno usmjerene na turizam, poput Kobaridskog muzeja Prvog svjetskog rata, Ustanove “Fundacija puta mira u Posočju” i Nacionalnog parka Triglav, koje prvenstveno zagovaraju povijesno istraživanje baštine i promicanje bioraznolikosti i održivosti regije. U članku se turizam shvaća kao kišobranski termin koji obuhvaća rad svih navedenih institucija, kao i brojnih manjih udruga u okolnim selima kojima je cilj promicanje lokalne baštine. Ova složena situacija, u kojoj mnoge institucije rade na razvoju turizma na malom području, analizira se ne samo iz lokalne perspektive, nego i u kontekstu nacionalnih i europskih politika i upravljanja

ULTRA-HIGH-PERFORMANCE FIBRE-REINFORCED CONCRETE UNDER HIGH-VELOCITY PROJECTILE IMPACT. PART I. EXPERIMENTS

A series of cratering experiments were performed where the response of the Ultra-High-Performance Fibre-Reinforced Concretes with various fibre volume fractions to the high- velocity projectile impact loading was investigated. It was found that the increment of the fibre volumetric fraction did not have a significant influence on the depth of the penetration, but it was very effective in reducing the crater area and volume

MINLP optimization of structures

The paper discusses the mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) approach to the optimization of structures. The MINLP is an optimization technique which is able to solve non-linear and discrete optimization problems. It calculates continuous variables (loads, dimensions, stresses, deflections, costs) and discrete variables (topology, standard sections, material grades). The MINLP optimization model of a structure should be developed. In the model, an objective function is subjected to structural analysis and dimensioning constraints in order to satisfied ultimate and serviceability limit states according to Eurocodes. Appropriate MINLP algorithms and strategies are used to solve the defined MINLP problem. Two numerical examples are presented at the end of the paper

The Importance of using Discounted Cash Flow Methodology in Techno-economic Analyses of Energy and Chemical Production Plants

This paper demonstrates the correct application of discounted cash flow methodology for evaluating and designing energy and chemical production plants. Such processes usually correspond to capital intensive long-term projects. Simple economic criteria, like the profit or production cost are insufficient for this type of decision making because they do not take into account the time value of money and underestimate the profitabilities of the evaluated plants. This paper shows that some of those criteria based on the discounted cash flows establish suitable compromises between long-term cash flow generation and profitability. As several alternative options are usually evaluated in parallel, it is shown how to rank mutually exclusive alternatives properly and how to select the best option from among them. Two large-scale case studies demonstrate that using discounted cash flow methodology can result in substantially different decisions than non-discounted criteria, however, these decisions are affected by several input parameters

Source parameters and stress release of seismic sequences occurred in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region (Northeastern Italy) and in Western Slovenia

The source parameters of the major events of a swarm and of two seismic sequences, occurred in the Friuli area (Northeastern Italy) and in Western Slovenia, were estimated. The Claut swarm (C96) occurred since the end of January to June 1996, with a MD 4.3 major shock and it appears composed of three sub-sequences. The two sequences are the Kobarid sequence (K98) started on April 12, 1998 with a MD 5.6 mainshock and the M.te Sernio (S02) sequence caused by the February 14, 2002 earthquake (MD = 4.9). Acceleration and velocity data recorded by the local seismic network of the Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e di Geofisica Sperimenale (OGS) and corrected for attenuation, were employed to estimate seismic moments and radiated energies. Source dimensions were inferred from the computed corner frequencies and the stress release was estimated from the Brune stress drop, the apparent stress and the RMS stress drop. On the whole, seismic moments range from 1.7×1012 to 1.1×1017 Nm, and radiated energies are in the range 106–1013 J. Brune stress drops are scattered and do not show any evidence of a self-similarity breakdown for sources down to 130m radius. The radiated seismic energy scales as a function of seismic moment, with a slope of the scaling relation that decreases for increasing seismic moments. The mechanism of stress release was analyzed by computing the ε parameter of Zuniga [Zuniga, R., 1993. Frictional overshoot and partial stress drop. Which one? Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am. 83, 939–944]. The K98 and S02 sequences are characterized by a wide range of the ε parameter with stress drop mechanism varying from partial locking to overshoot cases. The ε values of the C96 swarm are more homogeneous and close to the Orowan’s condition. The radiated seismic energy and the ratio of stress drop between mainshock and aftershocks appear different among the analyzed cases.We therefore investigated the relationship between the stress parameters of the main shock and the energy radiated by the aftershock sequences. For this purpose, we also estimated the source parameters of two other sequences occurred in the area, with mainshocks of MD 4.1 and 5.1, respectively. We found a positive correlation between the Brune stress drop of the mainshock and the ratio between the radiated energy of the mainshock and the summation of the energies radiated by the aftershocks