• Title/Summary/Keyword: ageing infrastructure

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Approaching the assessment of ageing bridge infrastructure

  • Boller, Christian;Starke, Peter;Dobmann, Gerd;Kuo, Chen-Ming;Kuo, Chung-Hsin
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.593-608
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    • 2015
  • In many of the industrialized countries an increasing amount of infrastructure is ageing. This has become specifically critical to bridges which are a major asset with respect to keeping an economy alive. Life of this infrastructure is scattering but often little quantifiable information is known with respect to its damage condition. This article describes how a damage tolerance approach used in aviation today may even be applied to civil infrastructure in the sense that operational life can be applied in the context of modern life cycle management. This can be applied for steel structures as a complete process where much of the damage accumulation behavior is known and may even be adopted to concrete structures in principle, where much of the missing knowledge in damage accumulation has to be substituted by enhanced inspection. This enhanced and continuous inspection can be achieved through robotic systems in a first approach as well as built in sensors in the sense of structural health monitoring (SHM).

An Survey on the Network-Driven DSM (네트워크 수요관리 프로그램 현황 조사)

  • Kim, Jin-Ho;Park, Jong-Bae;Park, Young-Soo;Lee, Jin-Ho
    • Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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    • 2005.11b
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    • pp.171-173
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    • 2005
  • To date, the IEA DSM Programme has not undertaken any work on the potential for DSM to cost-effectively relieve electricity network constraints Such constraints are becoming a significant problem in countries where electricity demand is increasing and network infrastructure ('poles and wires') is ageing. As loads grow and infrastructure reaches the end of its economic life, the potential cost of augmenting electricity networks is increasing exponentially. In many situations, network-driven DSM can delay the need for network augmentation. In some limited situations, mainly at the distribution level, network-driven DSM may be able to cost-effectively eliminate the requirement to build a 'poles and wires' solution. In this paper, the concept of network-driven DSM program is surveyed.

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Fabrication and packaging techniques for the application of MEMS strain sensors to wireless crack monitoring in ageing civil infrastructures

  • Ferri, Matteo;Mancarella, Fulvio;Seshia, Ashwin;Ransley, James;Soga, Kenichi;Zalesky, Jan;Roncaglia, Alberto
    • Smart Structures and Systems
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    • v.6 no.3
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    • pp.225-238
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    • 2010
  • We report on the development of a new technology for the fabrication of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) strain sensors to realize a novel type of crackmeter for health monitoring of ageing civil infrastructures. The fabrication of micromachined silicon MEMS sensors based on a Silicon On Insulator (SOI) technology, designed according to a Double Ended Tuning Fork (DETF) geometry is presented, using a novel process which includes a gap narrowing procedure suitable to fabricate sensors with low motional resistance. In order to employ these sensors for crack monitoring, techniques suited for bonding the MEMS sensors on a steel surface ensuring good strain transfer from steel to silicon and a packaging technique for the bonded sensors are proposed, conceived for realizing a low-power crackmeter for ageing infrastructure monitoring. Moreover, the design of a possible crackmeter geometry suited for detection of crack contraction and expansion with a resolution of $10{\mu}m$ and very low power consumption requirements (potentially suitable for wireless operation) is presented. In these sensors, the small crackmeter range for the first field use is related to long-term observation on existing cracks in underground tunnel test sections.

The research of estate development scheme in residential environment improvement (주거환경개선사업지구의 필지개발 방안에 관한 연구 - 개별필지집적방식에 의한 노인복지공동주택사업의 적용가능성을 중심으로 -)

  • Jung, Eun-Jung;Lee, Hui-Jin;Yang, Byeong-Ok;Kim, Ju-Suck;Lee, Yeun-Sook
    • Proceeding of Spring/Autumn Annual Conference of KHA
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    • 2008.11a
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    • pp.235-240
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    • 2008
  • When rate of stated and public owned demesne in residential environment improvement is low under the limited resources of revenues, the new infrastructure for the maintenance of the existing estate has increased land reduction rate thus the place where lot of small estate find it difficult to accept as the feature of residential environment improvement. Although 'Diffusion model of residential environment improvement' which designed to overcome existing residential environment improvement, is middle of progress, there is not any suggestion made to solve problem caused by short of estate in order to maintain small estate and total Infrastructure. In feature of resident, we also notice ageing not only facilities and building. 'Elderly housing' can be presented as an alternative living style to solve housing and elderly matter which are caused by accumulation of individual estate and aging at once. Therefore, this research identifies resident's perception about elderly housing and recognizes task and potentialities that has to be solved in order to apply virtually to residential environment improvement.

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Regional Difference in Outpatient Service Utilization for Chronic Diseases among the Elderly (고령층 만성질환 외래이용의 지역 간 변이)

  • Yun, Heesuk
    • Health Policy and Management
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.128-135
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    • 2014
  • Background: With ageing and growing importance of disease management system, it is necessary to investigate the extent of regional difference in service utilization for chronic diseases among the elderly and to reflect it in designing the system. Methods: A multiple regression analysis and descriptive statistics analyses were employed using patient survey, which covers nationwide health facilities and their users. Results: While the differences in the rate of service utilization/utilization outside living area between urban and rural areas or between income levels are not large, considerable variations are observed within urban or rural areas and within income groups. Conclusion: This results suggest that it is important to subsidize economically disadvantaged segments of the population and residents of less-favored areas to be better-equipped for chronic disease management in order to prevent the development of severe ailments and the need for treatment at higher-level medical institutions. Improvements to the service infrastructure in vulnerable regions are essential.

Development Strategies for Sustainability of Environment-Friendly Agriculture Based on Farm Awareness Analysis (친환경농업 실천농가들의 의식실태 분석 및 지속가능기반 구축방향)

  • Heo, Seung-Wook
    • Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.563-576
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    • 2012
  • The Purpose of this paper is to establish development strategies for sustainability of environment-Friendly agriculture based on farm awareness analysis. To analysis farm management, a series of farm household surveys were conducted on farmers residing in Embong-Myun. The sample size of the survey is 108 respectively. As a survey result, satisfaction level about market stability and understanding of upper organization is high, on the contrary, awareness of related organization is low in a relative sense. Most of farmers reveal their intention to sustain environment-Friendly agriculture but future agriculturalist and an ageing society that one face as well. In order to establish development strategies for sustainability of environment-Friendly agriculture, an infrastructure should be consistently expanded. On the other hand, self-supporting ability of farmer's organization and education system attempt to expand for sustainability.

Investigation on Smart City Objectives and Implications: Adaption to Silver Population in Korea as Target Citizens (스마트시티의 목적과 함의에 대한 탐색적 연구: 고령화 인구를 대상으로)

  • Lee, Seung Yun;Lee, Jeong Eon
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.17 no.6
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    • pp.470-478
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    • 2017
  • This research investigates the objectives, concepts, and technical aspects of existing Smart Cities in theoretical terms in order to resolve any ambiguities the definition of Smart City currently has. Through this, theoretical recommendations for Smart City that targets elderly citizen are made. The elderly citizens in question are people currently in their mid-50s to early 60s, in order to adequately employ futuristic technologies into four major sectors: healthcare, post-retirement employment, community-based governance, and environment-friendly infrastructure. The research concludes that while the technical application of welfare to the elderlies through constructing a purposeful Smart City is desirable, environmental consideration should come in prior concern as a sustainable foundation of livelihood is needed for citizen accommodation.

The Analysis on Development and Effect of Co-farming Program for the Rural Elderly Farmers - Focusing on Meaning in Life and Psychological Well-being - (고령 농업인의 공동농사 프로그램 개발 및 적용 효과 분석 - 삶의 의미와 심리적 복지감을 중심으로 -)

  • Kim, Young Oae;Jeong, Mee Kyung;Kim, Ki Sung
    • Journal of Korean Society of Rural Planning
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    • v.22 no.4
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    • pp.115-129
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    • 2016
  • This study aims to develop co-farming program for elderly farmers, employ, then evaluate its effectiveness whether it influences purpose in life and psychological well-being of program participants. A total of 130 elderly farmers that composed of 65 in experimental group and control group respectively were enrolled in this study. The results of this study are as follows: First, the experimental group showed significant difference on 'purpose in life' compared to the control group(t=3.316, p<.001). Second, the experimental group showed significant difference on 'Psychological Well-being' compared to that of control group. The four major problems of elderly farmers which are poverty, health, loneliness and alienation keeps on worsening over time along with the population ageing. According to the result, it is necessary to improve elderly farmer's quality of life by developing suitable and sustainable occupation.

Low-grade waste heat recovery and repurposing to reduce the load on cooling towers

  • McLean, Shannon H.;Chenier, Jeff;Muinonen, Sari;Laamanen, Corey A.;Scott, John A.
    • Advances in Energy Research
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    • v.7 no.2
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    • pp.147-166
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    • 2020
  • Industrial cooling towers are often ageing infrastructure that is expensive to maintain and operate. A novel approach is introduced in which a heat pump circuit is incorporated to reduce the load upon the towers by extracting low-grade energy from the stream sent to the towers and repurposing in on-site processing operations. To demonstrate the concept, a model was constructed, which uses industrial data on cooling towers linked to a smelter's sulphuric acid plant, to allow direct economic and environmental impact comparison between different heat recovery and repurposing scenarios. The model's results showed that implementing a heat pump system would significantly decrease annual operating costs and achieve a payback period of 3 years. In addition, overall CO2 emissions could be reduced by 42% (430,000 kg/year) and a 5% heat load reduction on the cooling towers achieved. The concept is significant as the outcomes introduce a new way for energy intensive industrial sectors, such as mineral processing, to reduce energy consumption and improve long-term sustainable performance.

Assessment of masonry arch bridges retrofitted by sprayed concrete under in-plane cyclic loading

  • Mahdi Yazdani;Mehrdad Zirakbash
    • Structural Monitoring and Maintenance
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    • v.11 no.1
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    • pp.57-70
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    • 2024
  • Masonry arch bridges as a vital infrastructure were not designed for seismic loads. Given that masonry arch bridges are made up of various components, their contribution under the seismic actions can be very undetermined and each of these structural components can play a different role in energy dissipation. Iran is known as a high-risk area in terms of seismic excitations and according to the seismic hazard zoning classification of Iran, most of these railway infrastructures are placed in the high and very high seismicity zones or constructed near the major faults. Besides, these ageing structures are deteriorated and thus in recent years, some of these bridges using various retrofitting approaches, including sprayed concrete technique are strengthened. Therefore, investigating the behavior of these restored structures with new characteristics is very significant. The aim of this study is to investigate the cyclic in-plane performance of masonry arch bridges retrofitted by sprayed concrete technique through the finite element simulation. So, by considering the fill-arch interaction, the nonlinear behavior of a bridge has been investigated. Finally, by extracting the hysteresis and enveloping curves of the retrofitted and non-retrofitted bridge, the effect of strengthening on energy absorption and degradation of material has been investigated.