Glass Stiffness Contribution of Flat and Curved Cable-net Supported Glass Façade Systems

Glass used in building facade presents an aesthetic feature as well as contributes to the structural stiffness of the whole structural system of the building. In this research, the contribution of glass on the stiffness of the cable-net supported glass facade systems was investigated via experiments. Two generic configurations of cable-net system were considered, namely flat and curved cable-net system, both with and without glass panes. Each system was subjected to static load. The results indicated that the introduction of certain level of curvature to the cable net structure has increased the stiffness of the cable net structure by 11.5%. The glass panes made significant contributions to the stiffness of the whole structural system. The glass stiffness contribution for flat cable-net system was high at the early stage of loading (approximately 40%) but reduced when the load was increased. However, the glass stiffness contribution for curved cable-net increased gradually as the load was increased. For both configurations, the glass stiffness contribution remained steady at about 18% of the whole structural stiffness as the cables in the cable-net stiffened up to the maximum load.. Based on the static tests carried out, the pre-stress force in the cables in the cable-net systems can possibly be reduced should the glass be considered in the analysis design of cable-net structure. Moreover, the curved cable-net could be designed to have lower pre-stress force in cables compared to that of flat cable-net to meet the deflection criterion of the cable-net structure

Sensitivity-enhancing All-in-type Optical Three-axis Tactile Sensor Mounted on Articulated Robotic Fingers

AbstractIn a previous study, we developed an all-in-type optical three-axis tactile sensor to address two issues: the first is to be able to use external devices such as a CCD camera and light source; the other is the insensible zone. We miniaturized its whole structure through adoption of a CMOS board camera equipped with LEDs. Since a USB is installed in the CMOS camera as an interface, an additional image processing board is not required. Furthermore, it is equipped with a rubber dome including a sensing element array to remove the insensible zone because rubber is filled in between the sensing elements. However, even if it accepted under around 1-N force, no output of brightness appeared. In this paper, we enhance the characteristic in the low level applied force through improvement of image processing. Furthermore, the present sensor showed higher output level of normal and tangential forces through a series of experiments comparing the present and ordinal three-axis tactile sensors

Point Absorber Method as Wave Energy Convertor Device for Power Generation: Effect of Buoy Arrangements

A point absorber is a floating structure with components that move relative to each other due to wave action. They utilize the up and down movement of the wave height at a single point for energy conversion. The relative up and down which is bobbing motion caused by passing waves used to drive electromechanical energy converters to generate power output. This experiment investigates behaviour of the point absorber device used the pneumatic sensor to take the frequency of the displacement of buoy while testing in the wave maker generator. Then, study the efficiency power output of point absorber WEC device and studies the behaviour of the point absorber in a regular wave. Fabricate the linear generator which as power absorption to estimate the effectiveness power output on different configuration by using the multimeter device. The point absorber at the front position of the configuration has good behaviour because of the high frequency produced. By estimated the behaviour of the device on configuration achieved. Configuration shape design of the point absorber used in this testing is square, diamond and parallelogram shape for an estimate the best power output. The configuration of the parallelogram has the best power output compared to another configuration. The best arrangement of the device for efficiency by measure the output voltage as power output is 68.14 mV and increase 8% in every minute

A framework in developing an environmental resilience index

Of late, the impact of the global climate change has significantly affected the local environmental context in many towns. Malaysia is fortunate to have an abundance of environmental resources that provide many environmental services to the development of the nation. Simultaneously, we experience a continuous occurrence of natural disaster, ranging from monsoon floods and flash floods, landslides, and even earthquake. In this regard, the environmentally sensitive areas such as forestry, coastal areas, wetland and many others are essential to provide the ecosystem services and concurrently can become the natural agents for a resilient town. Thus, this paper aims to generally explain the importance of resilience and sustainability in the built environment, focusing on a domain of the environment. This paper also covers on importance of different land uses which are forest area, coastal area and built-up area for the man. It addresses the issues and challenges, as well as environmental degradation faced on those land uses respectively. Global and national policies on preserving and protecting the environment are also tabulated. The research method involves the selection of environmental indicators in developing an overall conceptual Environmental Resilience Index (ERI), covering the key components of the environment. Through this ongoing research, it enables key players in the urban sectors to take actions in moulding a better future for Malaysian cities and the communities in it

Environmental degradation of structural glass systems: A review of experimental research and main influencing parameters

Several factors, including incentives associated with aesthetics, transparency, high chemical, and mechanical durability, and its excellent corrosion resistance, have rapidly accelerated the interest and use of glass as windows, façades, or load-bearing elements in structural applications. Nonetheless, the glass is chemically attacked when subjected to certain environmental conditions and its chemistry, structure, as well as its optical and mechanical properties, are altered by the different weathering processes throughout its service life. Several techniques exist for evaluating the performance of weathered glass. These include both natural and artificial ageing techniques. However, little correlation has been shown to exist between natural and artificial ageing, especially the comprehensive comparison between the naturally aged and artificially weathered glazing systems have yet to be examined. In this review paper, the weathering of structural glass systems when exposed to environmental conditions is presented. Emphasis in the literature has been placed chiefly on the different types of glazing in the construction industry and their resistance to three main weathering agents: humidity, temperature, and soiling. Main optical and mechanical tests reported in the literature are summarized, and the properties described in each of them are examined, providing evidence of current challenges, limitations, and insight on future prospects

Convolutional Neural Network for Person and Car Detection using YOLO Framework

In this paper we present a real-time person and car detection system suitable for use in Intelligent Car or Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS). The system is based on modified YOLO which uses 7 convolutional neural network layers. The grid cells of the system are varied to evaluate its effectiveness and ability in detecting small size persons and cars in real world images. The experimental results demonstrate that even with 7 convolutional layers, the system is able to provide good detection accuracy and real time operation. Although the mAP scores show reduction in accuracy, the visual qualitative evaluation using real world images indicate the 7 layer YOLO with 11x11 grid cells can correctly and easily detects small size persons and cars. This makes the reduced complexity YOLO a suitable candidate for use in ADAS which demands both relatively good detection accuracy and real time operation

LSTM networks to improve the prediction of harmful algal blooms in the west coast of Sabah

Harmful algal bloom (HAB) events have alarmed authorities of human health that have caused severe illness and fatalities, death of marine organisms, and massive fish killings. This work aimed to perform the long short-term memory (LSTM) method and convolution neural network (CNN) method to predict the HAB events in the West Coast of Sabah. The results showed that this method could be used to predict satellite time series data in which previous studies only used vector data. This paper also could identify and predict whether there is HAB occurrence in the region. A chlorophyll a concentration (Chl-a; mg/L) variable was used as an HAB indicator, where the data were obtained from MODIS and GEBCO bathymetry. The eight-day dataset interval was from January 2003 to December 2018. The results obtained showed that the LSTM model outperformed the CNN model in terms of accuracy using RMSE and the correlation coefficient r as the statistical criteria