AbstractAs the world continues to enact progressive climate change targets, renewable energy solutions are needed to achieve these goals. One such solution is large‐scale lithium‐ion battery (LIB) energy storage systems which are at the forefront in ensuring that solar‐ and wind‐generated power is delivered when the grids need it most. However, the perceived hazards of LIBs due to recent events in the United States and Australia pose a risk to their future success. When a battery energy storage system (BESS) has a multilayered approach to safety, the thermal runaway, fire, and explosion hazards can be mitigated. Successful implementation of this approach requires cooperation, collaboration, and education across all stakeholder groups to break down these preconceived notions. Much can be learned from the recent BESS fire and explosion events to inform safer design and operation. These events and their contributing factors share many commonalities with historic losses in the hydrocarbon industry. Fire and process safety engineers who have traditionally worked in the hydrocarbon industry can be of immense value to the BESS industry.

Abstract The interaction between a foundation and its supporting soil involves several different energy dissipation mechanisms. For example, sliding of a foundation element is a soil-structure interaction component that can alter the seismic demand on a foundation as well as its superstructure. Experimental data from tests with realistic boundary and stress conditions is required to characterize the frictional properties at the soil-foundation interfaces in order to model sliding of shallow foundations. To this end, a series of large-scale monotonic laboratory shear tests were performed to study the interface between a shallow concrete foundation element and Ottawa F-55 sand under varying normal pressures, shearing rates, and foundation surface roughnesses and textures. The soil-foundation interface behavior was evaluated through a combination of global measurements of force and displacement, as well as by capturing the localized effects around the interface. This article describes the dependency of the interface behavior on each of the aforementioned variables. The results indicate that when subrounded fine sand comes into contact with surfaces of varying roughness, it exhibits different shear resistance behaviors. The findings further reveal insights into the dependency of the interface frictional characteristics and shear failure zone on the real area of contact, which includes irregularities on the surface. The data further utilized to study the impact of adopting different interface friction assumptions on the finite element model’s interface shear response being subjected to monotonic loading. Using the internal friction angle, or a factored down value, as an estimation for interface friction may lead to an erroneous or unconservative prediction of the superstructure response.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Bus Network Redesign project included a data-driven, customer-focused approach to creating the high-frequency core of the network. This approach used location-based services data to create an objective, repeatable process for developing this network based on the agency’s priorities. Centering equity and designed to limit human biases, the process algorithmically generated 100,000 possible high-frequency bus networks and scored them based on how much total demand and demand by low-income and minority populations was served by high-quality transit. The result was used to identify the high-frequency core of the bus network that approached the optimal for demand and equity while meeting resource constraints. The approach consisted of organizing the demand data, determining busable streets, generating potential bus corridors, combining those corridors into many sets, and scoring the sets based on how well they serve the region’s travel demand. The process emphasized equity by heavily weighting demand from low-income and minority populations in building and evaluating corridors and networks. Further, by using location-based services data, the approach was focused on where people were traveling, rather than traditional approaches that look to connect concentrations of trip generators and attractors without knowledge of where people are actually going. The result was a core, high-frequency bus network that has informed the decisions and design process of MBTA’s future bus system.

The use of mass timber in multi-family and commercial buildings poses a range of challenges for acoustic designers, due in part to its recent emergence as a structural technology and relative light weight compared to concrete. The spectral performance of mass timber assemblies differs from that of concrete and of lightweight double-panel systems, such as timber joist floors, even when comparing assemblies with the same single-number airborne and impact sound transmission ratings. Due to the inclusion of mass toppings and damping layers, mass timber floor designs may outperform lightweight double-panel systems at low frequencies, but they are often challenged at mid to high frequencies, resulting in a sound spectrum that differs from established “acoustically acceptable” benchmarks. This study presents initial findings from listening sessions conducted in the Arup SoundLab, as well as various design strategies to balance performance, cost, aesthetics, and sustainability.

A tuned mass damper (TMD) on top flexible structures may sustain considerable rotation because of the significant flexural deformation of the supporting structure. The effects of such rotation on the vibration reduction performance are generally neglected in the analysis and design of TMD-controlled systems, by assuming that the mass moves only laterally in a fixed global coordinate. This technical note critically reviews this assumption by comparing the dynamic responses of a lumped-mass Euler beam with a TMD on top in either fixed or corotational coordinates to harmonic ground excitations. The results show that the corotational local coordinate of TMDs, which introduces geometric nonlinearity into the system, tends to bias the peaks of the frequency response curve toward lower excitation frequency, but such an effect is less profound than that induced by the P- Δ effect, another source of geometric nonlinearity in the system. The relative error in the peak frequency response of neglecting this effect increases for larger lateral drift of the supporting structure and smaller mass ratio of the TMD. An empirical equation for estimating this error is proposed to assist the decision-making of whether this assumption is appropriate for specific applications of TMDs.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Load and Resistance Factor Design Bridge Design Specifications define fracture critical members (FCMs) as steel primary members, which are subject to tension and whose failure would probably cause the collapse of a portion of or the entire bridge. FCMs not only lead to additional material procurement and fabrication quality requirements, but bridges with FCMs need to meet the requirements of special mandatory bi-annual hands-on inspections in additions to the routine planned bridge inspections per the National Bridge Inspection Standards. The special mandatory inspections for FCMs are a considerable budgetary constraint for asset owners while still not providing definite safety proofs within the period in between the inspections. Designation of FCMs should be carefully scrutinized in a new bridge constructed with high-quality materials and well-designed details. In 2012, the Federal Highway Administration published a memorandum introducing system redundant members (SRMs), which are identified through refined analysis and exempted from the inspection requirements for FCMs. A new AASHTO Guide Specification released in 2018 outlines a detailed procedure for the reclassification of FCMs as SRMs. This paper summarizes the analyses and results of a detailed FEA performed for a newly designed steel arch bridge. The analyses considered potential failure scenarios at the edge girder of the steel arch bridge and demonstrated the available redundancy in the system to distribute the loads by satisfying the performance criteria set forth in the AASHTO Guide Specification. Reclassification of the FCMs as SRMs could help the asset owner to reallocate their strained resources more efficiently.

Standardized cross-cultural databases of the arts are critical to a balanced scientific understanding of the performing arts, and their role in other domains of human society. This paper introduces the Global Jukebox as a resource for comparative and cross-cultural study of the performing arts and culture. The Global Jukebox adds an extensive and detailed global database of the performing arts that enlarges our understanding of human cultural diversity. Initially prototyped by Alan Lomax in the 1980s, its core is the Cantometrics dataset, encompassing standardized codings on 37 aspects of musical style for 5,776 traditional songs from 1,026 societies. The Cantometrics dataset has been cleaned and checked for reliability and accuracy, and includes a full coding guide with audio training examples (https://theglobaljukebox.org/?songsofearth). Also being released are seven additional datasets coding and describing instrumentation, conversation, popular music, vowel and consonant placement, breath management, social factors, and societies. For the first time, all digitized Global Jukebox data are being made available in open-access, downloadable format (https://github.com/theglobaljukebox), linked with streaming audio recordings (theglobaljukebox.org) to the maximum extent allowed while respecting copyright and the wishes of culture-bearers. The data are cross-indexed with the Database of Peoples, Languages, and Cultures (D-PLACE) to allow researchers to test hypotheses about worldwide coevolution of aesthetic patterns and traditions. As an example, we analyze the global relationship between song style and societal complexity, showing that they are robustly related, in contrast to previous critiques claiming that these proposed relationships were an artifact of autocorrelation (though causal mechanisms remain unresolved).

Purpose Despite decades of social science research into disasters, practice in the field continues to be informed largely from a technical perspective. The outcome is often a perpetuation of vulnerability, as narrowly defined technical interventions fail to address or recognize the ethical, historical, political and structural complexities of real-world community vulnerability and its causes. The authors propose that addressing this does not require a rejection of technical practice, but its evolution into a critical technical practice – one which foregrounds interdisciplinarity, inclusion, creativity and reflexivity, as means to question the assumptions, ideologies and delimited solutions built into the technical tools for understanding risks.Design/methodology/approach The authors present findings from three events they designed and facilitated, aimed at rethinking the engineering pedagogy and technical practice of disaster risk management. The first was a 2-day “artathon” that brought together engineers, artists and scientists to collaborate on new works of art based on disaster and climate data. The second was the Understanding Risk Field Lab, a 1-month long arts and technology un-conference exploring critical design practices, collaborative technology production, hacking and art to address complex issues of urban flooding. The third was a 4-month long virtual workshop on responsible engineering, science and technology for disaster risk management.Findings Each of these events uncovered and highlighted the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration and reflexivity in disaster risk modeling, communication and management. The authors conclude with a discussion of the key design elements that help promote the principles of a critical technical practice.Originality/value The authors propose “critical technical practice” which foregrounds principles of interdisciplinarity, inclusion, creativity and reflexivity, as a means to question the assumptions, ideologies and delimited solutions built into the technical tools for understanding climate and disaster risk.