The impact of the carbon tax policy on green building strategy

As Green Corporate Social Responsibility spreads across the globe, the construction industry is under pressure to reduce the carbon emissions across their building projects. Between maximum profit and environment management, mathematical programming can be used as a decision support tool concerning the optimal green building projects portfolio. This environment strategic decision problem is addressed in this study where an activity-based costing decision model incorporating carbon tax costs and construction resources constraints is developed from the perspectives of capacity expansion and green technology outsourcing. The results illustrate the positive contribution of the mathematical programming approach to achieve viable green building projects portfolio solutions. Sensitivity analyses are carried out to analyse the impact of carbon footprint emission variation on maximum profit, and the corresponding results are discussed.     

汶川地震中房屋建筑震害特征及抗震设计思考

汶川5·12特大地震造成了为数众多的建筑物不同程度的损坏。地震发生后,四川大学随即组织了现场勘查队奔赴受灾最为严重的地区了解建筑物的受损情况。本文基于大量的现场勘查资料介绍了砌体结构、框架结构、底框或局部底框砌体结构及楼梯间的震害特点。在定性分析的基础上提出以下观点:合理设计和施工的砌体结构有可能获得良好的抗震性能;按现行规范设计的钢筋混凝土框架结构难以实现"强柱弱梁"的要求;填充墙对框架抗震性能有显著的影响;在地震区应慎用底框砌体结构;合理的结构布置和施工质量是结构获得良好抗震性能的前提;仅用延性系数来衡量结构抗震性能具有一定的片面性;楼梯间结构设计宜考虑地震作用的影响。     

Advanced rescue techniques: lessons learned from the collapse of a building in Nairobi, Kenya

This paper examines the collapse of a five-storey building in Nairobi, Kenya, on 23 January 2006. It draws on reports from local authorities and on debriefings by Israel's Home Front Command (HFC), including information on injury distribution, rescue techniques, and the mode of operation. Most of the 117 people found under the structure were evacuated on the first day to a public hospital, which was overwhelmed by the incident. HFC forces arrived 23 hours after the disaster. At that stage, two people were still buried under the building and special techniques (tunnelling and scalping) were required to secure their evacuation. The two people quickly recovered after a short stay in hospital. Local technology is the preferred option during such events because time is crucial. International cooperation is required when this technology is not available. All of the hospitals in the disaster area, including private facilities, should participate in treating casualties.     

废铸砂作为建筑材料资源化再利用研究进展

废铸砂是铸造工业在金属制品的生产过程中次生出来的一种细颗粒固体废弃物。研究其作为一种资源进行合理再利用是当前处置废铸砂、保护生态环境的良好对策。本文对废铸砂的环境特征、物理性质及废铸砂作为建筑材料在多种建筑制品及工程中的资源化再利用进行了综述研究,涉及的再利用领域包括混凝土、热拌沥青混合料、低强度填料、水泥、路基、路堤、阻水帷幕（屏障）和衬垫。调查发现,次生于黑色金属（铁和钢）铸造生产线的废铸砂是一种无害固体废弃物,正确处置和科学利用,对环境不会产生二次污染,在以上建筑制品及工程中的应用能满足相关技术、性能要求,可以替代相关的材料进行资源化再利用。     

Photocatalytic activity of titanium dioxide modified concrete materials – Influence of utilizing recycled glass cullets as aggregates

Combining the use of photocatalysts with cementitious materials is an important development in the field of photocatalytic air pollution mitigation. This paper presents the results of a systematic study on assessing the effectiveness of pollutant degradation by concrete surface layers that incorporate a photocatalytic material – Titanium Dioxide. The photocatalytic activity of the concrete samples was determined by photocatalytic oxidation of nitric oxide (NO) in the laboratory. Recycled glass cullets, derived from crushed waste beverage bottles, were used to replace sand in preparing the concrete surface layers. Factors, which may affect the pollutant removal performance of the concrete layers including glass color, aggregate size and curing age, were investigated. The results show a significant enhancement of the photocatalytic activity due to the use of glass cullets as aggregates in the concrete layers. The samples fabricated with clear glass cullets exhibited threefold NO removal efficiency compared to the samples fabricated with river sand. The light transmittance property of glass was postulated to account for the efficiency improvement, which was confirmed by a separate simulation study. But the influence of the size of glass cullets was not evident. In addition, the photocatalytic activity of concrete surface layers decreased with curing age, showing a loss of 20% photocatalytic activity after 56-day curing.     

Leaching from granular cement-based materials during infiltration/wetting coupled with freezing and thawing

Many secondary materials are being considered for use as substitutes for natural aggregates in highway applications due to their suitable engineering and economic properties. During the design life of the application, recycled materials are exposed to freeze/thaw cycles and other aging processes such as carbonation, coupled with intermittent infiltration/wetting by precipitation events. In such scenarios, leaching of material constituents is a primary pathway for environmental impact. This paper presents results of the effect of freezing and thawing on the leaching behavior of major and minor constituents from a laboratory formulated granular cement-based material. Scenarios considered included water percolating through the material (flow-through) and run-off (flow-around), both important leaching pathways in highway environments. The effect of moisture content at the time of freezing, number of freeze/thaw (F/T) cycles, and material size reduction were investigated. F/T exposure and subsequent infiltration/wetting resulted in consolidation and self-cementing of the granular cement-based material. For the flow-around scenario, F/T exposure resulted in a reduction in constituent release with time and increasing F/T cycles. For the flow-through scenario, moisture content at the time of freezing was an important parameter and an increase in the release was initially observed due to preferential flow/cracks and/or constituent redistribution prior to a decrease that resulted from self-cementing during further thawing and percolation.     

Assessment of groundwater contamination by nitrate leaching from intensive vegetable cultivation using geographical information system

This study employed the Geographical Information System (GIS) technology to investigate nitrate contamination of groundwater by agrochemical fertilizers in the Kakamigahara Heights, Gifu Prefecture, central Japan. Thematic information and chemical data of groundwater from the Heights were analyzed in a GIS environment to study the extent and variation of nitrate contamination and to establish spatial relationships with responsible land use types. The high and correlated concentrations of Ca(2+), Mg(2+), SO(4)(2-), and NO(3)(-) reflected the polluted nature of the unconfined highly permeable Kakamigahara aquifer. Ninety percent of the water samples showed nitrate concentrations above the human affected value (3 mg/l NO(3)(-)), while more than 30% have exceeded the maximum acceptable level (44 mg/l NO(3)(-)) according to Japan regulations. The spatial analyses indicated that groundwater contamination by nitrate is closely associated with one specific land use class, the "vegetable fields". The nitrate concentration of groundwater under vegetable fields was significantly higher than that under urban land or paddy fields. Most of the unacceptable nitrate levels were encountered in boreholes assigned to "vegetable fields" but a few were also found in boreholes allotted to "urban" class. Therefore, the vegetable fields were considered the principal source of nitrate contamination of groundwater in the Kakamigahara. However, contamination from urban sources is also possible.     

建筑火灾增长阶段室内温度的时间特性研究

为研究建筑火灾增长阶段室内温度的时间变化规律,提出了高温烟气的主要几种热损失的计算方法,发展了受火室与未受火室及环境的热平衡方程,并采用牛顿-拉菲尔森法迭代得到受火室的温度变化.计算了慢速、中速、快速、超快速四种火灾增长速率下,受火室气相温度及烟气热损失随时间的变化.本文的研究方法及有关结果可以为建筑防火及安全疏散提供有力依据.     

燃煤锅炉用高温滤料研究与应用

通过分析国内外燃煤锅炉用滤料现状,阐述目前滤料的技术状况并分析各种滤料的使用条件;通过分析滤料的性能,针对滤料的结构进行改进,针对我国燃煤锅炉的高温、高浓度和复杂烟气工况问题研发讨论新型滤料技术,详细介绍P84(聚酰亚胺) PPS(聚苯硫醚或聚对苯硫醚)梯度结构,PTFE(聚四氟乙烯) 膨体玻纤覆膜滤料,膜 分层纤维 玻纤基布等表层结合梯度结构的新型滤料;测试对比复合滤料与传统滤料性能参数的差异,分析几类高温滤料性能测试的实验结果并提出相关的结论和建议,新型滤料在实际案例中利用取得优良效果.     

坡地建筑外立面火灾温度演化研究

针对坡地建筑外立面开口火溢流行为,为了预测不同坡地角度时圆形开口建筑火溢流的外立面热羽流温度分布规律,采用1∶8缩尺寸建筑火灾模型,开展圆形开口建筑火溢流实验研究。结果表明:在建筑火灾燃烧状态稳定下,对于确定开口尺寸、火源功率以及坡地坡度(倾斜挡墙)下,带有圆形开口的燃烧室内温度基本均匀且保持一致;针对圆形开口建筑,倾斜挡墙坡度越大,外立面的温度越高;基于热羽流温度实验数据,建立考虑不同开口尺寸、火源功率和倾斜挡墙角度影响下圆形开口建筑火灾溢出热羽流的竖向温度预测模型。