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Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Development Of A Novel Multi-Layer Mre Isolator For Suppression Of Building Vibrations Under Seismic Events, Jian Yang, Shuaishuai Sun, Tongfei Tian, Weihua Li, Haiping Du, Gursel Alici, Masami Nakano Jan 2016

Development Of A Novel Multi-Layer Mre Isolator For Suppression Of Building Vibrations Under Seismic Events, Jian Yang, Shuaishuai Sun, Tongfei Tian, Weihua Li, Haiping Du, Gursel Alici, Masami Nakano

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Protecting civil engineering structures from uncontrollable events such as earthquakes while maintaining their structural integrity and serviceability is very important; this paper describes the performance of a stiffness softening magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) isolator in a scaled three storey building. In order to construct a closed-loop system, a scaled three storey building was designed and built according to the scaling laws, and then four MRE isolator prototypes were fabricated and utilised to isolate the building from the motion induced by a scaled El Centro earthquake. Fuzzy logic was used to output the current signals to the isolators, based on the real-time …


Building A Microsimulation Model Of Heroin Use Careers In Australia, Alison Ritter, Nagesh Shukla, Marian D. Shanahan, Van Hoang Phuong, Vu Lam Cao, Pascal Perez, Michael P. Farrell Jan 2016

Building A Microsimulation Model Of Heroin Use Careers In Australia, Alison Ritter, Nagesh Shukla, Marian D. Shanahan, Van Hoang Phuong, Vu Lam Cao, Pascal Perez, Michael P. Farrell

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Illicit heroin use is a worldwide problem, with significant health and social costs. Treatment is known to be effective in changing heroin use habits, but it often needs to be provided over a lifetime, with people cycling in and out of treatment. It is therefore important to capture a long-term perspective on heroin use careers. The aim of this project was to build a lifetime microsimulation model of heroin using careers. This paper describes the conceptual logic of the model, the input parameters and the verification and validation results. A microsimulation model was chosen as the most appropriate simulation platform …


Nano-Enhanced Phase Change Materials For Improved Building Performance, Zhenjun Ma, Wenye Lin, Mohammed I. Sohel Jan 2016

Nano-Enhanced Phase Change Materials For Improved Building Performance, Zhenjun Ma, Wenye Lin, Mohammed I. Sohel

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Nano-enhanced phase change materials (PCMs) have attracted increasing attention to address one of the key barriers (i.e. low thermal conductivity) to the wide adoption of PCMs in many industrial applications. This paper discusses the generic problem and key issues associated with appropriately using this new class of materials in buildings for effective thermal management and improved energy performance. An overview on major recent development and application of nano-enhanced PCMs as thermal energy storage media is provided. A case study based on a PCM ceiling ventilation system integrated with solar photovoltaic thermal (PVT) collectors is then performed to evaluate the potential …


Delivering Sustainable Building Projects - Challenges, Reality And Success, Haleh Rasekh, Timothy J. Mccarthy Jan 2016

Delivering Sustainable Building Projects - Challenges, Reality And Success, Haleh Rasekh, Timothy J. Mccarthy

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This research concerns the delivery of sustainable building projects. These projects are defined as those which either attempt to achieve green ratings or are claimed to address certain sustainability issues. A key focus is to examine how the client's vision for sustainability is achieved or compromised by the practicality of construction. Two sustainability rating systems, the Australian Green Star and the Living Building Challenge from the U.S. are discussed. This research examines two projects; one university multipurpose building (SMART Infrastructure Facility); and an advanced research facility, the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC). The methodology used is semi-structured interviews of key …


Building Characterisation And Retrofit Decision Support-Tools For Upgrading Homes Of Low-Income Older Australians, Paul Cooper, Clayton Mcdowell, Michael P. Tibbs, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Laia Ledo Gomis, Stephen C. Choi Jan 2016

Building Characterisation And Retrofit Decision Support-Tools For Upgrading Homes Of Low-Income Older Australians, Paul Cooper, Clayton Mcdowell, Michael P. Tibbs, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Laia Ledo Gomis, Stephen C. Choi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

This paper describes the development and implementation of a comprehensive methodology to select and implement energy efficiency upgrades to the homes of low-income, older (>60 years) Australians. This work was conducted as part of a project entitled, 'Energy Efficiency in the 3rd Age (EE3A)", which targeted lowincome older residents in the Illawarra Region of NSW, Australia, and was funded by an Australian Federal Government 'Low Income Energy Efficiency Program (LIEEP)' grant for AUD2.3M. The project included a social marketing and behaviour change component engaging ~650 households, and a retrofit program for a subset of ~183 of these homes. Households …


A Bottom-Up Data Collection Methodology For Characterising The Residential Building Stock In Australia, Clayton Mcdowell, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Paul Cooper, Michael P. Tibbs Jan 2016

A Bottom-Up Data Collection Methodology For Characterising The Residential Building Stock In Australia, Clayton Mcdowell, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Paul Cooper, Michael P. Tibbs

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In Australia the majority of the current residential building stock has been constructed with little regard to energy consumption or thermal comfort. With only 1-2 % of Australia's building stock being replaced each year retrofitting solutions are necessary if residential energy consumption is to be reduced. Australia's records of the characteristics of its current building stock are minimal and outdated and thus these need to be renewed to enable the evaluation of retrofit upgrade strategies. Thus this paper presents a methodology and results of a bottom-up data collection tool that captured building and occupant characteristics from 200 elderly low income …


Coupling A Thermal Comfort Model With Building Simulation For User Comfort And Energy Efficiency, Katharina Boudier, Massimo Fiorentini, Sabine Hoffmann, Raghuram Kalyanam, Georgios Kokogiannakis Jan 2016

Coupling A Thermal Comfort Model With Building Simulation For User Comfort And Energy Efficiency, Katharina Boudier, Massimo Fiorentini, Sabine Hoffmann, Raghuram Kalyanam, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This paper describes a methodology for coupling an advanced model of the thermo-regulatory system of the human body that describes its physiological processes, a comfort model that evaluates thermal sensation and comfort, and the ESP-r building simulation software that computes the transient thermal response of a building model. The objective of this study was to utilise the physiology and comfort models to dynamically modify the heating and cooling temperature set points of a zone controller in ESP-r, in accordance with the computed human thermal sensation and achieve realtime thermal comfort management. The comunication between the software is managed by the …