Abstract

ustainable transport has become a major policy concern in recent years. The term suggests a need to consider transport in a comprehensive perspective including the well-being of both present and future generations, and taking environmental, social and economic issues into account. Indicators in forecasting and tracking the performance of transport systems increasingly guide sustainable transport policy making. This review explores the implications of the "sustainable transport" concept and how it can be made operational with indicators. A number of indicator systems are reviewed, and some strengths and weaknesses are highlighted with regard to the support they provide for sustainable transport development. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of the Fluid-Structure response of bladeless wind turbines that work by induced aeroelastic resonance, which can be used in cities or small towns to form part of sustainable urban planning. In it, numerical simulations of the behavior of the wind and the effect called Von Karman Vortices that it produces when surrounding the structure of the wind turbine are carried out, taking as input data the wind speeds measured by the Mariscal Sucre Meteorological Station in Quito. CFD simulations determine the excitation signal caused by the different existing wind flows, the effects that these oscillations cause on the structure are simulated through a modal study and harmonic response to resonance. The results obtained show a proportional increase in the frequency and amplitude of the vortex shedding to the increase in wind speed, causing different excitation signals that cause the wind turbine to oscillate with amplitudes between 6 and 11 cm. Finally, the transient simulations show that the presence of houses and buildings in the vicinity where the wind turbine is installed causes the direction of the vortex street to vary, as well as alterations in the frequency and amplitude of the excitation.

Abstract

The purpose of this study has been the develop of a model for designing an efficient parking pricing policy. The aim is an intelligent control and management system of parking pricing integrated with a redefinition of the circulation scheme for a limited traffic zone in the Central Business District (CBD) of Palermo. The transport demand over the entire area of the town has been studied in order to design various parking pricing scenarios with the application of an additional cost on parking inside the selected area of the CBD. This area attracts most of the private vehicular traffic and it is characterized by university faculties, schools, hospitals, offices and commercial areas. The optimal hourly toll is defined by an iterative maximization process of an objective function. This objective function is subject to the following constraint: the percentage of available parking in the various parking zones has to remain major of the 30%. In this way, the users who need to park close to their final destination can easily find parking. Otherwise it is possible to leave the private car in a “park and ride” area and taking a shuttle bus directed towards the zones of the CBD. A basic principle of this pricing policy is the re-use of revenues for two purposes: to design a shuttle bus service that connects the various “park and ride” areas to the CBD and to improve the local public transport service on the OD pairs that show high travel demand. At the same time it is necessary to eliminate the stop and go flow in cordon roads to increase the capacity and avoid congestion in these critical links. The method shows that in a very simple, and relatively fast, way is possible to get a proposal for the modification of the parking pricing scheme that makes the city center no longer stifled by private car traffic.

Abstract

Retrofit of unreinforced masonry (URM) structures is incessantly attracting interests of masonry professionals. Because there are enormous URM structure stocks in different parts of the world that have shown vulnerability to damage against out-of-plane actions due to having limited flexural strength and deformation capacity [1]. As such, there is a global trend of promoting the development of sustainable retrofit techniques for URM structures. The authors' previous study [2] has introduced the application of oriented strand board type 3 (OSB/3) as a prospective sustainable retrofit material for URM wall with evidence of improving the flexural performances. This paper presents, for the first time,experimental works on 1115 x 1115 x 215 mm double wythe single leaf URM walls. Specifically, quasi-static out-of-plane loading tests were carried out on two plain specimens, two single-sided retrofitted walls and two double-sided retrofitted walls. The flexural and displacement capacities were evaluated in both plain and retrofitted specimens, and the results substantiated that OSB/3 application improves the flexural capacity of masonry wall. Therefore, the application of OSB/3 for retrofitting URM buildings can be considered as an inexpensive, efficient and sustainable retrofit technique.

Abstract

Cement is the most used construction material in the world (3670 MT/year are generated), being highly polluting, emitting aproximately one ton of CO2 per ton of cement. In this sector, in which the search for more sustainable materials becomes essential, the geopolymers or alkaline cements are introduced as an ecological alternative, resulting in 80% less polluting and requiring 50% less of energy comsumption in the manufacturing process.

In this context, GeoCel project is oriented to the developing of ecological construction materials to get concretes and mortars (without Portland cement) of cellular structure. Different constructive solutions were proposed for these inovative materials as wall cladding and insulation panels and  continous and draining  pavements.The caracterization of the different solutions was carried out bymechanical resistance, fire resistance and thermal conductivity tests, among others, based on the requiremens imposed at the industrial level, in order to evaluate the technical viability of the new materials. The results obtained have been promising, getting mechanical strengths superior to conventional materials  in case of mortars , as well as classification of reaction to fire A1.