Defensiveness is a pivotal characteristic of traditional military settlements in ancient China, influenced by various factors linked to settlement construction and the occurrence of battles. Previous studies have typically focused on specific periods or moments, overlooking the dynamic interrelationships that evolve over time. The study proposes the concept of ‘defensive efficiency’ as a specific indicator for measuring the level of military defense system construction. Meanwhile, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was introduced to decompose the complex defense efficiency indicators into a quantitative system consisting of four levels of evaluation factors, analyse and statistically analyse the individual evaluation factors, and finally integrate and visualise the comparison of the data over multiple periods of time with the help of a geographic information system (GIS). The results of the study show that the changes in defensive efficiency in the four periods reflected the four stages of coastal defense construction in Ningbo during the Ming Dynasty: the preliminary construction period, the full construction period after repeated Wokou infestations, the basic completion period, and the period when Wokou encroachments were reduced and the point of attack was relocated to the south. While the spatial distribution of battles drove the continuous construction and improvement of coastal defense settlements, the improvement of the coastal defense system had an obvious effect on resisting Wokou intrusion. The study enriches the understanding of the cultural significance of traditional Chinese military settlement systems, emphasises the importance of tailor-made strategies appropriate to different historical periods and regional contexts, and provides a basis for the sustainable conservation of extant remains.
Establishing a predictive model for human thermal sensation serves as the fundamental theoretical basis for intelligent control of building HVAC systems based on thermal comfort. The traditional Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) model exhibits low accuracy in predicting human thermal sensation and is not well suited for practical applications. In this study, real thermal sensation survey data were collected and used to first analyze the discrepancy between PMV model predictions and actual human thermal sensation. Subsequently, a simple thermal sensation prediction model was developed using multiple linear regression. More accurate personalized thermal sensation prediction models were then constructed using various machine learning algorithms, followed by a comparative analysis of their performance. Finally, the best-performing model was further optimized using Bayesian methods to enhance hyperparameter tuning efficiency and improve the accuracy of personalized human thermal sensation prediction.
Eitaro Fukatsu, Yuji Kurahara, Manabu Kurita
et al.
Abstract Understanding the genetic and environmental factors influencing wood stiffness is essential for improving wood quality in plantation forestry. In this study, we investigated the phenotypic, genetic, and environmental variation in wood stiffness, measured as stress-wave-based modulus of elasticity (swMOE), in Cryptomeria japonica. Six genotypes were planted at three planting densities (7000, 3000, and 1700 trees/ha) in a field trial, and growth traits such as tree height, diameter at breast height (DBH), and bole height were measured at stand age 40. Using linear mixed models, we estimated variance components, broad-sense heritabilities, and correlations between swMOE and growth traits. We compared linear mixed models incorporating growth traits as covariates and examined their predictive accuracy for swMOE. Our results showed that swMOE was under relatively strong genetic control and was less influenced by planting density compared to growth traits. Among the growth traits tested, form ratio (tree height to diameter) exhibited the strongest positive correlation with swMOE at the phenotypic, genetic, and residual levels. Including form ratio as a covariate improved model fit and increased prediction accuracy across replications. These findings suggest that form ratio is both a biologically meaningful and practically useful trait for explaining and predicting wood stiffness of C. japonica. This approach has potential applications in genetic selection and wood property prediction in operational breeding and forest management.
As an effective strategy for improving the productivity of the construction industry, prefabricated construction has attracted concerns worldwide. This study investigated the life-cycle energy use of prefabricated components and the corresponding effect on the total embodied energy use for a number of real building projects. Result showed that the life-cycle energy use of prefabricated components ranged from 7.33 GJ/m3 for precast staircase to 13.34 GJ/m3 for precast form. The recycling process could achieve 16%–24% energy reduction. This study also found that apart from reusability, energy savings are also obtained from waste reduction and high quality control, saving 4%–14% of the total life-cycle energy consumption. All these advantages can be regarded as important environment friendly strategies provided by precast construction. The linear regression analysis indicated that the average increment in energy use was nearly linearly correlated with prefabrication rate. Precast facade and form are identified as energy-intensive components compared with the conventional construction method. Therefore, the challenge lies in improving the integrality and quality of the prefabrication technique while reducing its dependence on energy-intensive materials. Besides, attention should be focused on improving the maturity of the precast market to avoid additional energy consumption during prophase investigation.
Oleksandr Diachenko, Maksym Delembovskyi, Kateryna Levchuk
et al.
The production of concrete mixes, along with their use in the production of building materials and structures, is one of the key processes in the construction industry during the construction, restoration and repair of buildings and structures. Because of this, the need to create modern concrete mixing plants that will meet the requirements of minimum energy consumption and maximum productivity of concrete mixture production is an urgent task. Not only the main operations, which include the dosing of the components of the mixture and their mixing, but also the maintenance operations, namely operations that ensure the timely movement of the components of the concrete mixture from warehouses to the main technological equipment, affect the set rhythm of the concrete mixture production. Conveyors of various types and designs are used to move bulk materials, such as crushed stone and sand.
For the rational selection of such equipment in accordance with the characteristics of the cargo to be transported, knowledge of the types of conveyors, their structures and parameters, understanding of operation issues and methods of parameter calculation are required. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the following parameters: maximum cargo transportation productivity, low energy consumption per unit of moved products, low metal content of the structure.
The work reviewed the most common designs of conveyors used to move bulk materials in concrete mixing plants, analyzed the disadvantages and advantages of conveyors, as well as technical parameters. As a result, the predominant directions for the use of belt and plate conveyors at construction enterprises were determined. The advantages of belt conveyors, which contribute to their widespread distribution, are high productivity, simplicity of design, reliability, quiet operation, low specific power consumption.
When choosing a conveyor, it is recommended to choose the equipment with the highest productivity and the lowest power of the drive motors, however, the performance should be clearly related to other technological equipment.
Kuznetsova Irine, Berezhnoi Dmitri, Ekhsayem Duaa
et al.
An approach to the calculation of the processes of structural elements deformation and their environments in the case of a complex phased erection of building objects is proposed. On the basis of consistent equations of the geometrically nonlinear theory elasticity within the finite element approach to the geometry description, a technique for solving three-dimensional statics problems of concrete and reinforced concrete structural elements is implemented. On the basis of calculation by transforming calculation schemes new computational models of spatial elements deformation of building structures during their interaction with soil media have been developed. On the basis of the proposed methods the underground elements deformation problem of building structures was solved when carrying out technological measures related to the local strengthening of already erected underground facilities. The calculation results showed that the use of the proposed methodology makes it possible to implement the determination of the stress-strain state and displacement fields in the phased construction zone in a single design scheme.
Zafer Yilmaz, Fatih Yesevi Okur, Murat Günaydin
et al.
The interest in damage identification methods has increased significantly in recent years due to the rising demand for structural health monitoring of structures. This study presents an enhanced version and validation of a recently introduced method for damage detection, localization and quantifying damage using vibration data. The method is validated through a building application, a scaled steel frame model built in the laboratory. The validation is carried out using eight different damage scenarios in numerical and experimental studies. These studies are based on finite element analysis and ambient vibration tests. A newly introduced filtering approach that utilizes MAC rejection levels in Modal Participation Ratio derivation is provided to replace the user-controlled bandpass filter to obtain more reliable vibration data in experimental investigations. The results showed that the proposed procedure is more capable of correctly detecting, localizing and quantifying damage to a building, considering the real-life conditions.
Diana Gualotuña-Gualoto, Inmaculada Martínez-Pérez, Rossana Laera
et al.
The use of technologies that allow for the utilization of renewable energies wasted around buildings is one of the ways to ensure the decarbonization of the sector. Wastewater from buildings is a renewable source of thermal energy. Groundwater and rainwater are important components of wastewater that flow into sewerage systems. The main objective of this research is to estimate the thermal potential of wastewater for the heating and cooling of buildings. In this paper, an office building with a low-energy system (TABS) was studied for one year to assess the energy contribution of wastewater in a hybrid system that includes geothermal exchangers and a wastewater exchanger. This study shows that wastewater from sewerage systems that flows faster than 5 L/s can make enough heat to power an office building with a power demand of 45 kW (60 W/m<sup>2</sup>). The energy contribution of wastewater from the sewerage system is more favorable in heating scenarios than in cooling ones, improving the system efficiency by over 22% compared to geothermal systems. Rainwater enhances cooling efficiency by over 14% compared to geothermal systems. This finding could help to establish a predictive method or guidelines for the design and sizing of heat exchangers in sewerage systems.