scholarly journals Development of a novel design approach for rigid landslide debris-resisting barriers

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 199-212
Author(s):  
Anthony L Wong
Keyword(s):  
Design Method ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Process Efficiency ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Landslide Risk ◽  
Global Threat ◽  
Reliability And Robustness ◽  
Novel Design

Natural terrain landslides pose a global threat as they often cause casualties and economic losses. Potential impacts of climate change could further aggravate the landslide risk and robust mitigation measures such as rigid debris-resisting barriers are particularly important in protecting lives and properties. Traditionally, rigid barriers are designed based on empirical approaches which generally oversimplify the dynamic nature of debris-barrier interaction. This often results in overlyconservative designs where the barrier structures are not only bulky and environmentally intrusive, but also difficult to construct. There is thus a pressing need to optimise the design approach. In this regard, the Geotechnical Engineering Office has been endeavouring to enhance the process efficiency, in collaboration with top-notch experts, by capitalising on the latest advancement in computational simulations and physical testing, and improving the understanding of the physical process. A technical breakthrough has been achieved with respect to an improved knowledge in the debris flow dynamic and the complex debris-barrier interaction. A novel design method covering geotechnical and structural aspects has been developed for use in Hong Kong. This would bring about more cost-effective barrier designs, with enhanced design reliability and robustness.

scholarly journals Towards A Geo-Hydro-Mechanical Characterization of Landslide Classes: Preliminary Results

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (22) ◽  
pp. 7960
Author(s):  
Federica Cotecchia ◽  
Francesca Santaloia ◽  
Vito Tagarelli
Keyword(s):  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Slope Instability ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Landslide Risk ◽  
Multidisciplinary Analysis ◽  
Risk Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Landslide Mechanisms

Nowadays, landslides still cause both deaths and heavy economic losses around the world, despite the development of risk mitigation measures, which are often not effective; this is mainly due to the lack of proper analyses of landslide mechanisms. As such, in order to achieve a decisive advancement for sustainable landslide risk management, our knowledge of the processes that generate landslide phenomena has to be broadened. This is possible only through a multidisciplinary analysis that covers the complexity of landslide mechanisms that is a fundamental part of the design of the mitigation measure. As such, this contribution applies the “stage-wise” methodology, which allows for geo-hydro-mechanical (GHM) interpretations of landslide processes, highlighting the importance of the synergy between geological-geomorphological analysis and hydro-mechanical modeling of the slope processes for successful interpretations of slope instability, the identification of the causes and the prediction of the evolution of the process over time. Two case studies are reported, showing how to apply GHM analyses of landslide mechanisms. After presenting the background methodology, this contribution proposes a research project aimed at the GHM characterization of landslides, soliciting the support of engineers in the selection of the most sustainable and effective mitigation strategies for different classes of landslides. This proposal is made on the assumption that only GHM classification of landslides can provide engineers with guidelines about instability processes which would be useful for the implementation of sustainable and effective landslide risk mitigation strategies.

scholarly journals Small-scale analysis to rank municipalities requiring slow-moving landslide risk mitigation measures: the case study of the Calabria region (southern Italy)

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Gullà ◽  
Gianfranco Nicodemo ◽  
Settimio Ferlisi ◽  
Luigi Borrelli ◽  
Dario Peduto
Keyword(s):  
Southern Italy ◽  
Risk Mitigation ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Phase Method ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Landslide Risk ◽  
Calabria Region ◽  
Slow Moving ◽  
Gis Environment

AbstractThis paper proposes a three-phase method that combines multi-source (i.e. topographic, thematic, monitoring) input data in a GIS environment to rank—at small (1:250,000) scale—administrative units (e.g. municipalities) based on their exposure to slow-moving landslide risk within a selected area (e.g. a region) and, accordingly, detect those primarily requiring mitigation measures. The method is applied in the Calabria region (southern Italy) where several municipalities are widely affected by slow-moving landslides that systematically cause damage to buildings and infrastructure networks resulting in significant economic losses. The results obtained are validated based on the information gathered from previous studies carried out at large (municipal) scale. The work undertaken represents a first, fundamental step of a wider circular approach that can profitably facilitate the decision makers in addressing the issue of the slow-moving landslide risk mitigation in a sustainable way.

scholarly journals Broadband Antenna for LTE Operation: A Novel Design Approach Using Meandered Strip Line

2015 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
M. Kumaran
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Technology ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Small Cell ◽  
Design Approach ◽  
Strip Line ◽  
Throughput Performance ◽  
Broadband Antenna ◽  
Cell Coverage ◽  
Cost Effective Approach ◽  
Novel Design

The broadband performance of an antenna for the LTE operation is presented in this paper. A novel design approach used to design the antenna using meandered strip line can be treated as a simplest and a cost effective approach. Due to the requirement of the bandwidth hungry applications, there is a smooth migration of the mobile technology from the existing services like GSM; UMTS to LTE is in progress. Thus a compact radiating structure can be preferred in many applications to improve the throughput performance of the multimedia service. The proposed antenna operates in the LTE 42 band. It shows the broadband performance centred at 3533 MHz with 112 MHz bandwidth. Bandwidth performance at this frequency is also found to be well suited to operate in the downlink frequency band at LTE 22. To determine the optimal performance of the antenna, a suitable threshold (S<sub>11 </sub>&lt; 10 dB) is imposed. Gain and directivity of the antenna are 6.6 dB and 7.8 dBi respectively. Efficiency is achieved to 74%. Radiation pattern shows the best performance of the antenna. With the best performance achieved at this frequency, the antenna is advantageous to exploit in small cell coverage, LTE Hotspot and Indoor enhancement solutions. CST Microwave Studio Suite software is used to design the antenna. An ordinary 50 Ω transmission line is fed to the antenna. Other antenana parameters are also discussed for its performance.

scholarly journals Assessment of Landslide Susceptibility Using Statistical- and Artificial Intelligence-based FR–RF Integrated Model and Multiresolution DEMs

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arabameri ◽  
Pradhan ◽  
Rezaei ◽  
Lee
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Landslide Susceptibility ◽  
Thermal Emission ◽  
Integrated Model ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Landslide Susceptibility Mapping ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Landslide Risk ◽  
Normalised Difference Vegetation Index

Landslide is one of the most important geomorphological hazards that cause significant ecological and economic losses and results in billions of dollars in financial losses and thousands of casualties per year. The occurrence of landslide in northern Iran (Alborz Mountain Belt) is often due to the geological and climatic conditions and tectonic and human activities. To reduce or control the damage caused by landslides, landslide susceptibility mapping (LSM) and landslide risk assessment are necessary. In this study, the efficiency and integration of frequency ratio (FR) and random forest (RF) in statistical- and artificial intelligence-based models and different digital elevation models (DEMs) with various spatial resolutions were assessed in the field of LSM. The experiment was performed in Sangtarashan watershed, Mazandran Province, Iran. The study area, which extends to 1,072.28 km2, is severely affected by landslides, which cause severe economic and ecological losses. An inventory of 129 landslides that occurred in the study area was prepared using various resources, such as historical landslide records, the interpretation of aerial photos and Google Earth images, and extensive field surveys. The inventory was split into training and test sets, which include 70 and 30% of the landslide locations, respectively. Subsequently, 15 topographic, hydrologic, geologic, and environmental landslide conditioning factors were selected as predictor variables of landslide occurrence on the basis of literature review, field works and multicollinearity analysis. Phased array type L-band synthetic aperture radar (PALSAR), ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer), and SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) DEMs were used to extract topographic and hydrologic attributes. The RF model showed that land use/land cover (16.95), normalised difference vegetation index (16.44), distance to road (15.32) and elevation (13.6) were the most important controlling variables. Assessment of model performance by calculating the area under the receiving operating characteristic curve parameter showed that FR–RF integrated model (0.917) achieved higher predictive accuracy than the individual FR (0.865) and RF (0.840) models. Comparison of PALSAR, ASTER, and SRTM DEMs with 12.5, 30 and 90 m spatial resolution, respectively, with the FR–RF integrated model showed that the prediction accuracy of FR–RF–PALSAR (0.917) was higher than FR–RF–ASTER (0.865) and FR–RF–SRTM (0.863). The results of this study could be used by local planners and decision makers for planning development projects and landslide hazard mitigation measures.

A novel design approach to capture brake emissions in four wheelers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Prakash Subramaniam ◽  
S. Sundaram ◽  
K. Gunasekaran ◽  
G. Vikas Reddy ◽  
Kaja Bantha Navas Raja Mohamed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Design Approach ◽  
Novel Design

scholarly journals Efficiency stagnation in global steel production urges joint supply- and demand-side mitigation efforts

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Wang ◽  
Morten Ryberg ◽  
Yi Yang ◽  
Kuishuang Feng ◽  
Sami Kara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Flow Analysis ◽  
Steel Production ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Process Efficiency ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Demand Side

AbstractSteel production is a difficult-to-mitigate sector that challenges climate mitigation commitments. Efforts for future decarbonization can benefit from understanding its progress to date. Here we report on greenhouse gas emissions from global steel production over the past century (1900-2015) by combining material flow analysis and life cycle assessment. We find that ~45 Gt steel was produced in this period leading to emissions of ~147 Gt CO2-eq. Significant improvement in process efficiency (~67%) was achieved, but was offset by a 44-fold increase in annual steel production, resulting in a 17-fold net increase in annual emissions. Despite some regional technical improvements, the industry’s decarbonization progress at the global scale has largely stagnated since 1995 mainly due to expanded production in emerging countries with high carbon intensity. Our analysis of future scenarios indicates that the expected demand expansion in these countries may jeopardize steel industry’s prospects for following 1.5 °C emission reduction pathways. To achieve the Paris climate goals, there is an urgent need for rapid implementation of joint supply- and demand-side mitigation measures around the world in consideration of regional conditions.

scholarly journals Lightweight and maintainable rotary-wing UAV frame from configurable design to detailed design

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 168781402110349
Author(s):  
Huiqiang Guo ◽  
Mingzhe Li ◽  
Pengfei Sun ◽  
Changfeng Zhao ◽  
Wenjie Zuo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Design Method ◽  
Geometric Model ◽  
Optimization Method ◽  
Frame Structure ◽  
Manufacturing Cost ◽  
Detailed Design ◽  
High Manufacturing Cost ◽  
The Military ◽  
Rotary Wing ◽  
Novel Design

Rotary-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widespread in both the military and civilian applications. However, there are still some problems for the UAV design such as the long design period, high manufacturing cost, and difficulty in maintenance. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel design method to obtain a lightweight and maintainable UAV frame from configurable design to detailed design. First, configurable design is implemented to determine the initial design domain of the UAV frame. Second, topology optimization method based on inertia relief theory is used to transform the initial geometric model into the UAV frame structure. Third, process design is considered to improve the manufacturability and maintainability of the UAV frame. Finally, dynamic drop test is used to validate the crashworthiness of the UAV frame. Therefore, a lightweight UAV frame structure composed of thin-walled parts can be obtained and the design period can be greatly reduced via the proposed method.

scholarly journals Novel combination of CRISPR-based gene drives eliminates resistance and localises spread

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicky R. Faber ◽  
Gus R. McFarlane ◽  
R. Chris Gaynor ◽  
Ivan Pocrnic ◽  
C. Bruce A. Whitelaw ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Driving Forces ◽  
Spatial Models ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Biodiversity Loss ◽  
Invasive Pest ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Sciurus Carolinensis ◽  
Gene Drive ◽  
Grey Squirrel ◽  
Gene Drives

AbstractInvasive species are among the major driving forces behind biodiversity loss. Gene drive technology may offer a humane, efficient and cost-effective method of control. For safe and effective deployment it is vital that a gene drive is both self-limiting and can overcome evolutionary resistance. We present HD-ClvR in this modelling study, a novel combination of CRISPR-based gene drives that eliminates resistance and localises spread. As a case study, we model HD-ClvR in the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis), which is an invasive pest in the UK and responsible for both biodiversity and economic losses. HD-ClvR combats resistance allele formation by combining a homing gene drive with a cleave-and-rescue gene drive. The inclusion of a self-limiting daisyfield gene drive allows for controllable localisation based on animal supplementation. We use both randomly mating and spatial models to simulate this strategy. Our findings show that HD-ClvR could effectively control a targeted grey squirrel population, with little risk to other populations. HD-ClvR offers an efficient, self-limiting and controllable gene drive for managing invasive pests.

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