Government’s Catalytic Role in Emerging Economy: Critical Comparison of China’s Conspicuous Strength in Wind and Solar Industry

In light of a conspicuous strength in China’s solar and wind industry in recent years this paper analyses the catalytic role of the government in inducing the institutional source of its strength. Critical comparison of the two industries show China’s renewable energy policies for wind industry was more effective than the solar industry through adopting a self-propagating functionality development through fusing the external technology with domestic industries know-how to co-evolve both production and diffusion through effective assimilation. This suggests a new insight for growing economy to devise effective policy framework to develop a globally competitive industr

Fusing East and West Leads a Way to Global Competitiveness in Emerging Economy: Lessons from China’s Leap in Wind Energy Development

China has demonstrated world leading wind energy development in the last five years which can be attributed to the fusion between its design and manufacturing strength in indigenous wind turbine industry and newly emerging wind energy industry in absorption of global best practices. An empirical analysis of China’s wind energy development trajectory over the last decade focusing on the technology sourcing from foreign firms in support of domestic players for accelerating functionality development through enhanced knowledge identification, absorption, assimilation and acclimatization was attempted. Important lessons learned include (i) importance of supply chain in the technology diffusion, (ii) effective technology acquisition and assimilation through early domestic firm engagement, (iii) effect of relevant domestic firms involvement in technology transfer partnership to induce inter-industry spillovers, and (iv) a framework for an emerging nation to develop new functionalities. Similarity and disparity with similar success of fusion in solar industry (JTMGE 3, 2) were also identified

Fusing East and West Leads a Way to Global Competitiveness in Emerging Economy: Source of China’s Conspicuous Strength in Solar Industry

In light of a conspicuous strength in China’s solar industry in recent years this paper analyzes an institutional source of its strength. Empirical analysis was conducted focusing on the interaction between indigenous semiconductor industry (“East”) and newly emerging solar industry in absorption of global best practices (“West”) thereby fusion between them was demonstrated. Success of this fusion can be attributed to a joint work between industry’s intensive effort in learning global best practices for exploring new business and government’s catalytic role for the attainment of decarbonisation society for nation’s sustainability. This suggests a new insight for growing economy for its development of global competitive industry

Energy dissipation in metal matrix composites

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Fusing indigenous knowledge and global best practices leads a way to global competitiveness in emerging economies: Source of China?s conspicuous strength in solar and wind industry

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Effect of delamination on the flexural response of [+45/−45/0]2s carbon fibre reinforced polymer laminates

The damage arising in the manufacturing or service operation can result in the degradation in mechanical properties or even structural failure in composite laminates. This work investigated the flexural behaviour of [+45/–45/0]2s carbon fibre reinforced polymer laminates with the artificially embedded delamination (pre-delamination) at different interfaces. After static flexural experiments, the internal 3D damage including various failure modes was characterised and quantified in the X-ray microtomography. It was found that regardless of the pre-delamination, similar in-ply (fibre failure, matrix cracking and fibre/matrix debonding) and interlaminar (delamination) failure modes occur dominantly in the outer ply group of the compression zone in all the laminates. However, the pre-delamination and its location have the influence on both the distribution and size of the 3D damage, and thus on the flexural properties. The flexural strength that is reduced by pre-delamination is the most (least) sensitive to the pre-delamination embedded at the third (ninth) interface

Quantification of flexural fatigue life and 3D damage in carbon fibre reinforced polymer laminates

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) laminated composites have become attractive in the application of wind turbine blade structures. The cyclic load in the blades necessitates the investigation on the flexural fatigue behaviour of CFRP laminates. In this study, the flexural fatigue life of the [+45/−45/0]2s CFRP laminates was determined and then analysed statistically. X-ray microtomography was conducted to quantitatively characterise the 3D fatigue damage. It was found that the fatigue life data can be well represented by the two-parameter Weibull distribution; the life can be reliably predicted as a function of applied deflections by the combined Weibull and Sigmodal models. The delamination at the interfaces in the 1st ply group is the major failure mode for the flexural fatigue damage in the CFRP laminate. The calculated delamination area is larger at the interfaces adjacent to the 0 ply. The delamination propagation mechanism is primarily matrix/fibre debonding and secondarily matrix cracking

Exploring the Charge Localization and Band Gap Opening of Borophene: A First-Principles Study

Recently synthesized two-dimensional (2D) boron, borophene, exhibits a novel metallic behavior rooted in the s-p orbital hybridization, distinctively different from other 2D materials such as sulfides/selenides and semi-metallic graphene. This unique feature of borophene implies new routes for charge delocalization and band gap opening. Herein, using first-principles calculations, we explore the routes to localize the carriers and open the band gap of borophene via chemical functionalization, ribbon construction, and defect engineering. The metallicity of borophene is found to be remarkably robust against H- and F-functionalization and the presence of vacancies. Interestingly, a strong odd-even oscillation of the electronic structure with width is revealed for H-functionalized borophene nanoribbons, while an ultra-high work function (~ 7.83 eV) is found for the F-functionalized borophene due to its strong charge transfer to the atomic adsorbates

Suitability of power-law extrapolation for wind speed estimation on a tropical island

In this study, the ability of the power-law wind model to reproduce a tropical vertical wind profile is investigated. Data from a one-year observation on an offshore island of Singapore, obtained using a lidar, are used to show that the power-law model profiles are unable to capture the pertinent features of the observed wind profiles. Two alternative profile models, one based on the free convection limit scaling and the other based on the arctangent function, are introduced and tested. The latter model, although lacking physical basis, is found to be superior in predicting the measured profiles. A systematic study of the seasonal and diurnal variations of the model parameters is presented and some practical implications of the results are also discusse

Green public spaces in the cities of South and Southeast Asia: Protecting needs towards sustainable well-being

The significance of green public spaces is well documented in relation to social inclusiveness, human health, and biodiversity, yet how green public spaces achieve what Gough (2017) has termed sustainable wellbeing is less understood. This contribution presents preliminary results from a study of green public spaces in four mega-cities of South and Southeast Asia: Chennai (the Republic of India), Metro Manila (the Republic of the Philippines), Singapore (the Republic of Singapore), and Shanghai (the People\u27s Republic of China), cities that have climates ranging from tropical, to subtropical and temperate. The conceptual framework brings together social practice theories with human development theories, methodological implications for the study of park usage, and Protected Needs. This study sets out to understand how parks satisfy human needs by uncovering practices in relation to activities and material arrangements. Central to the research design and sampling strategy is a desire to understand park-related practices in all of their diversity, and accounting for how different activities are carried out by diverse groups of people. The paper presents exemplary results showing that parks provide a space in which a multitude of needs are satisfied, and that parks cannot be substituted by other settings such as commercialized spaces. The paper will conclude by discussing tensions between types of park usage, and in relation to commercial encroachments on public space