Globally, Sustainability is very quickly becoming a fundamental requirement of the construction industry as it delivers its projects; whether buildings or infrastructures. Throughout more than two decades, many modeling schemes, evaluation tools, and rating systems have been introduced en route to realizing sustainable construction. Many of these, however, lack consensus on evaluation criteria, a robust scientific model that captures the logic behind their sustainability performance evaluation, and therefore experience discrepancies between rated results and actual performance. Moreover, very few of the evaluation tools available satisfactorily address infrastructure projects. The research introduces a system engineering model that abstracts the environment, the construction product, and its production system as three interacting systems that exchange materials, energy, and information. The model utilizes this setup to capture and quantify essential flows exchanged between such three systems, to evaluate sustainability. The research walks through the development of a generic case of the model, and then demonstrates its utility in evaluating the sustainability performance of civil infrastructure projects. The developed model will address an identified gap within the current body of knowledge by considering infrastructure projects. Through the ability to simulate different scenarios, the model will enable identifying which activities, products, and processes impact the environment more, and hence potential areas for optimization and improvement.
This study was undertaken to diagnose routine settling problems within a third-party oil and gas companies’ Mono-Ethylene Glycol (MEG) regeneration system. Two primary issues were identified including; a) low particle size (<40 μm) resulting in poor settlement within high viscosity MEG solution and b) exposure to hydrocarbon condensate causing modification of particle surface properties through oil-wetting of the particle surface. Analysis of oil-wetted quartz and iron carbonate (FeCO₃) settlement behavior found a greater tendency to remain suspended in the solution and be removed in the rich MEG effluent stream or to strongly float and accumulate at the liquid-vapor interface in comparison to naturally water-wetted particles. As su
... Show MoreIn this study, successive electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) processes were used to minimize some of the major pollutants in real wastewater, such as organics (detected by chemical oxygen demand (COD)), and turbidity. The wastewater utilized in the present study was collected from the Midland Refinery Company in Baghdad-Iraq. The performance of the successive batch EC-EO processes was studied by utilizing Graphite and Aluminum (Al) as monopolar anode electrodes and stainless steel (st.st.) as the cathode. The Taguchi experimental design approach was used to attain the best experimental conditions for COD reduction as a major response. Starting from chemical oxygen demand COD of (600 ppm), the effects of current densi
... Show MoreIn this paper, a random transistor-transistor logic signal generator and a synchronization circuit are designed and implemented in lab-scale measurement device independent–quantum key distribution systems. The random operation of the weak coherent sources and the system’s synchronization signals were tested by a time to digital convertor.
The response of the combustor’s liner to the air-flow that passes through it is the key reason for the combustion chambers noise, hence the instabilities of those chambers that decreases the mechanical efficiency of such sections, by increased its mechanical vibrations, which increases the failure rate created during originating of the cracks spreading by the shakes producing by the series of high-level frequencies. Accordingly, any work debating the impact of the context of liners in the combustion chamber can provide grasping for the combustion noise generated by the undesirable vibrations, and benefits the industrial firms to design an ideal production procedure which increases the lifespan of the combustor. The goal of this wo
... Show MoreThe response of the combustor’s liner to the air-flow that passes through it is the key reason for the combustion chambers noise, hence the instabilities of those chambers that decreases the mechanical efficiency of such sections, by increased its mechanical vibrations, which increases the failure rate created during originating of the cracks spreading by the shakes producing by the series of high-level frequencies. Accordingly, any work debating the impact of the context of liners in the combustion chamber can provide grasping for the combustion noise generated by the undesirable vibrations, and benefits the industrial firms to design an ideal production procedure which increases the lifespan of the combustor. The goal of this work is
... Show MoreIn this study, successive electrocoagulation (EC) and electro-oxidation (EO) processes were used to minimize some of the major pollutants in real wastewater, such as organics (detected by chemical oxygen demand (COD)), and turbidity. The wastewater utilized in the present study was collected from the Midland Refinery Company in Baghdad-Iraq. The performance of the successive batch EC-EO processes was studied by utilizing Graphite and Aluminum (Al) as monopolar anode electrodes and stainless steel (st.st.) as the cathode. The Taguchi experimental design approach was used to attain the best experimental conditions for COD reduction as a major response. Starting from chemical oxygen demand COD of (600 ppm), the effects of current density (C
... Show MorePolarization modulation plays an important role in polarization encoding in quantum key distribution. By using polarization modulation, quantum key distribution systems become more compact and more vulnerable as one laser source is used instead of using multiple laser sources that may cause side-channel attacks. Metasurfaces with their exceptional optical properties have led to the development of versatile ultrathin optical devices. They are made up of planar arrays of resonant or nearly resonant subwavelength pieces and provide complete control over reflected and transmitted electromagnetic waves opening several possibilities for the development of innovative optical components. In this work, the Si nanowire metasurface grating polarize
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