4081 Times Increase in Atmospheric Humidity Capture Capacity via Confinement of 2D Nanosheets in 3D Matrix

Atmospheric humidity capture is urgently needed in humidity-related process. Most of the traditional technology suffers the defects of large energy consumption, low capture capacity, etc. Here, an intelligent gel (IG), which was composed of super hygroscopic materials (SHM, for humidity detection, spontaneous capture and in-situ liquefaction), hydrophilic polymer PEG-6000 (polyethylene glycol, for humidity storage), and hydrophobic polymer PVDF (poly(vinylidene-fluoride), for fast water release), is shown. Based on such kind of integration, effective color responsive humidity detection, spontaneous humidity capture and in-situ liquefaction, under ambient conditions, have been achieved. The synergistic effects between two polymers have given birth to a 3D polymer framework that can shrink upon heating and swelling upon solvent immersion, which then act as a versatile matrix that dispersed evenly the 2D SHM into atomically scale. As a consequence, approximate 4081 times increase in working capacity than the individual SHM has been observed. Being an effective way to manipulate atmospheric humidity at the device level, the present work may open new avenue for next-generational water management systems.

Seasonal Disparity in the Effect of Meteorological Conditions on Air Quality in China Based on Artificial Intelligence

Air contamination is identified with individuals’ wellbeing and furthermore affects the sustainable development of economy and society. This paper gathered the time series data of seven meteorological conditions variables of Beijing city from 1 November 2013 to 31 October 2017 and utilized the generalized regression neural network optimized by the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO-GRNN) to explore seasonal disparity in the impacts of mean atmospheric humidity, maximum wind velocity, insolation duration, mean wind velocity and rain precipitation on air quality index (AQI). The results showed that in general, the most significant impacting factor on air quality in Beijing is insolation duration, mean atmospheric humidity, and maximum wind velocity. In spring and autumn, the meteorological diffusion conditions represented by insolation duration and mean atmospheric humidity had a significant effect on air quality. In summer, temperature and wind are the most significant variables influencing air quality in Beijing; the most important reason for air contamination in Beijing in winter is the increase in air humidity and the deterioration of air diffusion condition. This study investigates the seasonal effects of meteorological conditions on air contamination and suggests a new research method for air quality research. In future studies, the impacts of different variables other than meteorological conditions on air quality should be assessed.

Influence of Atmospheric Humidity on the Critical Buckling Load of Reinforced Concrete Columns

In this paper, an evaluation of the influence of atmospheric humidity on the critical buckling load of reinforced concrete columns is performed. A particular case consisting of a real, extremely slender reinforced concrete pole was taken for the study. The chosen mathematical procedure for calculating the critical load is based on the Mechanics of Deformable Solids due to variations of structure vibration frequency over time. The rheological behavior of concrete related to creep and shrinkage, which illustrates the time-dependent aspect of the problem, was also considered in the analysis following normative recommendations from the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT). In order to evaluate value changes of critical buckling loads, different time instants after loading the structure as well as different relative humidity from 0% to 100%, in 10% increments were considered. According to the selected criteria, it was possible to verify that a higher atmospheric humidity decreases the water transport from the interior out to the exterior surfaces of concrete, hence positively influencing structure stiffness. Therefore, the lowest reduction on critical buckling was 41.9% at 100% relative atmospheric humidity, versus the highest 60.7% at 0% relative humidity. A period of 7500 days after loading the structure was considered in the analysis.

Soil moisture influence on warm-season convective precipitation for the U.S. Corn Belt

Recent climatic studies for the dominantly rain-fed agricultural U.S. Corn Belt (CB) suggest an influence of land use/land cover (LULC) spatial differences on convective development, set within the larger-scale (synoptic) atmospheric conditions of pressure, winds, and vertical motion. However, the potential role of soil moisture (SM) in the LULC association with atmospheric humidity, horizontal wind and convective precipitation (CVP) has received more limited attention, mostly as modeling studies or empirical analyses for regions non-analogous to the CB. Accordingly, we determine the categorical associations between SM and the near-surface atmospheric humidity (q), with 850-hPa horizontal wind (V850) at four representative CB locations for the nine warm-seasons of 2011-2019. Recurring configurations of joint SM-q-V850 conducive to CVP are then identified and stratified into three phenologically distinct sub-seasons (early, middle, late).We show that the stations show some statistical similarity in their SM-CVP relationships. Corn Belt CVP occurs preferentially with high humidity and southerly winds sometimes comprising a low-level jet (LLJ), particularly on early-season days having low SM and late-season days having high SM. Additionally, mid-season CVP days having weaker V850 (i.e., non-LLJ) tend to be associated with medium SM values and high humidity. Conversely, late-season CVP days are frequently characterized by high values of both SM and humidity. These empirical results are likely explained by the inferred sensible and latent heat fluxes varying according to SM content and LULC type. They provide a basis for future mesoscale modeling studies of Corn Belt SM and CVP interactions to test the hypothesized physical processes.

Effects of Land Use/Cover Change On Atmospheric Humidity in Three Urban Agglomerations in The Yangtze River Economic

Land use/cover change (LUCC) affects regional climate not only through its direct changes of land surface properties, but also through its further modifications of land-atmosphere interactions. Urban land expansion is a typical case of LUCC in highly populated areas, and has been widely discussed about its impacts on regional air temperature, notably known as urban heat island (UHI) effects. Besides air temperature, atmospheric humidity, as another key variable in hydrometeorology and climate, would be inevitably affected by LUCC as well. However, the impacts of LUCC on atmospheric humidity seem to have not been investigated as much as on temperature. We examined atmospheric humidity changes by trend analyses of humidity indicators in three representative urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB), China during 1965-2017, and found the evident urban dry island (UDI) effects which are characterized by significant humidity decrease and vapor pressure deficit increase. In different urban cores, the severity levels of UDI are different. Furthermore, strong positive correlations between humidity and evapotranspiration, and between evapotranspiration and leaf area were detected during 2001-2017 when cities entered the accelerated stage of land expansion, indicating that LUCC affects regional climate through an ecohydrological way. We speculated that the UDI effect will not appear until urban land expands to a certain scale. Besides, the UHI effect emerged in the early stage of urban expansion, about 5 years earlier than the UDI effect, and has not performed prominently in recent years. This implies that urbanization-induced LUCC may exert a larger influence on UDI than on UHI in the current later period of urban expansion.

Towards sustainable landscape irrigation using novel design of water collecting systems from atmospheric humidity condensation

The paper proposes an innovative improvement to the water collectors from atmospheric humidity condensation by introducing non-hydrophobic substances to speed up the water condensation and the dropping off process using simple technology, inexpensive and with high quality materials with the finality to favor sustainable irrigation in regions characterized by water resources scarcity favoring greening generally. The innovative collector’ design and experimentation conduced confirm the possibility to collect water from air humidity in different regions with reduced rain days as semi desertic zones enhancing the gain of desertification process, harvesting water in urban landscape, in vertical greening and roof gardens. The first principal innovative aspect of the novel design collector is the fast capacity of condensation caused from the method of design of the used materials and fast capacity of releasing water collected to contrast the undesired evaporations. The second innovative aspect is the reduced volume to permit a diffused and unexpensive implants which can be distribute suitably on the targeted landscape. Reduced costs and simplicity of fabrication announce real possibility of use in underdeveloped and poor countries to increase vegetation diffusion firstly and contributing on sustainable agriculture and architecture.