Topic Review
Wind Turbines
Wind turbines (WTs) are large devices utilized to convert the wind's kinetic energy into electricity. There are several different typologies of WTs, the most common type being the so-called Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) systems. In this configuration, the rotation axis of the rotor is parallel to the ground. Specific attention must be paid to the orientation with respect to the wind direction, which is different from other types of wind turbines such as those with a vertical axis (VAWT), whose orientation is independent of the prevailing wind direction. For HAWT, the three-bladed upwind configuration is the most common one, with the rotor facing the incoming wind. WTs can be deployed both on- or offshore and have very different blade lengths, which result in different sizes (especially regarding the tower height) and power output. Due to fatigue and exposure to outdoor elements, WT monitoring and diagnostics are strictly needed to reduce structural and mechanical failure and achieve cost-effective energy production. This requires both the Structural Health Monitoring of the WTs load-bearing components (tower, blades, foundations, etc) and the Condition Monitoring of their mechanical parts (gearbox, generator, etc).
  • 1.7K
  • 02 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Wearing Course Materials Modified with Waste Plastic
Roads and bridges are one of the most crucial components of infrastructure engineering and they play a vital role in lifetimes. Bituminous mixture is a composite material made up of other distinct materials, employed in a range of civil engineering tasks, such as the construction of roads. It consists of mineral aggregate, bitumen, and air voids, which are the main components of bituminous mixture, blended and then laid and compacted to form the surface of roads. Asphalt pavement or flexible pavement is widely employed throughout the globe. Asphalt pavement has good riding quality, and it is much cheaper to construct, in comparison to concrete or rigid pavements. HMA mixtures for asphalt pavement are divided into three main categories: dense-graded mixture, open-graded mixture, and gap-graded mixture.
  • 653
  • 30 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Water Treatment Residues and Methanogenic Activity in Wastewater-Sludge
The effect of adding alum water treatment residues (WTR) on the methanogenic activity in the digestion of primary domestic wastewater sludge was evaluated through laboratory experiments in sedimentation columns, using total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations from 0.37 to 1.23 g/L. The addition of WTR to primary clarifiers can benefit its effluent water quality in terms of colour, turbidity, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and TSS. However, the presence of WTR can negatively influence the production of methane gas during organic sludge digestion in primary clarifiers, for concentrations of TSS between 14.43 and 25.23 g/L and of VSS between 10.2 and 11.85 g/L. The activity of the Methanothrix sp., curved bacilli, methanococci, and Methanosarcina sp. decreases considerably after 16 days of anaerobic digestion, and methane production seems to only be associated with fluorescent methanogenic bacilli.
  • 634
  • 17 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Water Treatment Plant Sludge Dewatering
Using geotextile tubes as dewatering technology may significantly contribute to sustainable treatment of sludge generated in different industries, such as the water industry. This is an economical alternative for dewatering sludge from a Water Treatment Plant (WTP), which prevents sludge from being directly deposited in water bodies and makes it possible to then transfer the sludge to landfills. 
  • 1.0K
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Water Resilience
Analyze from a holistic and comprehensive perspective the water resource in the water cycle context and its relationships in the various environments for the strategic approach to resilience as a way to sustainability.
  • 737
  • 03 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Waste as Cement Replacement in Foamed Concrete
Foamed concrete is a lightweight construction material that has gained popularity due to its excellent thermal and acoustic insulation properties. Foamed concrete production involves using cement as a binding agent, which results in a high carbon footprint. In response to sustainable development goals (SDG), there has been a growing interest in exploring alternative materials that can replace cement to improve energy efficiency, climate change, resource efficiency, and overall improvement of foamed concrete properties.
  • 424
  • 22 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Vulnerability of Buildings
Vulnerability is defined for buildings as the degree of loss resulting from a hazard at a certain severity level and depends on the reduction in resistance and the level of decay in the structures as a result of constant exposure to environmental factors (such as seismic actions). 
  • 3.4K
  • 23 Nov 2021
Topic Review
Vision-Based Structural Vibration Tracking Using a Digital Camera
Computer-vision-based target tracking can be applied to structural vibration monitoring, but current target tracking methods suffer from noise in digital image processing. A new target-tracking method based on the sparse optical flow technique is introduced to improve the accuracy in tracking the target, especially when the target has a large displacement. The proposed method utilizes the ORB technique to maintain a variety of keypoints and combines the multi-level strategy with a sparse optical flow algorithm to search the keypoints with a large motion vector for tracking. Then, an outlier removal method based on Hamming distance and interquartile range (IQR) score is introduced to minimize the error. The proposed target tracking method is verified through a lab experiment---a three-story shear building structure subjected to various harmonic excitations. It is compared with existing sparse optical flow-based target tracking methods and target tracking methods based on three other types of techniques, i.e., feature matching, dense optical flow, and template matching. The results show that the performance of target tracking is greatly improved through the use of a multi-level strategy and the proposed outlier removal method. The proposed sparse optical flow-based target tracking method achieves the best accuracy compared to other existing target tracking methods.
  • 418
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Vision-Based Defect Inspection for Sewer Pipes
Underground sewerage systems (USSs) are a vital part of public infrastructure that contributes to collecting wastewater or stormwater from various sources and conveying it to storage tanks or sewer treatment facilities. A healthy USS with proper functionality can effectively prevent urban waterlogging and play a positive role in the sustainable development of water resources. Since it was first introduced in the 1960s, computer vision (CV) has become a mature technology that is used to realize promising automation for sewer inspections.
  • 792
  • 28 Apr 2022
Topic Review
Virtual Reality in Civil Engineering Education
Virtual reality (VR) learning tool was successful in enhancing students’ understanding of the civil engineering experiment. The immersive and interactive nature of VR contributed to a solid grasp of the concepts presented, proving its potential as a valuable educational resource. By leveraging VR technology, educational institutions can provide an engaging and effective alternative to traditional laboratory sessions, ensuring uninterrupted and high-quality learning experiences for civil engineering students.
  • 165
  • 02 Jan 2024
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