High Technical Performance Research Articles

Study of thermal behaviour of clay wall facing south

Sustainable development includes socio-economic and environmental targets and concerns all sectors of human activity. The main reasons for green building are to reduce energy consumption, green house gases emission, water use, waste production etc. The choice of materials used for the construction of a building has a direct impact on the environment. A material with a low life-cycle cost (LCC) and high technical performance reduces the impact of the building on the environment. Cob is a traditional material with a low LCC; its thermal performances are studied here and compared with the thermal performances of stone walls and of insulated concrete block walls. A first type of simulation concerns a wall model with an interior temperature set at 19 ∘ C and a second type of simulation concerns a whole building, the wall model is then coupled with a zone model. Three types of buildings are simulated: a conventional building and two efficient buildings. One of the efficient buildings is a block of flats that is part of the European programme CEPHEUS: Salvatierra. The simulations show that, for south-facing walls, the thermal behaviour of a 50-cm-thick cob wall is about the same as that of insulated concrete blocks wall with 7.5 cm of insulation. With a 5-cm-thick insulation added, the thermal behaviour of a south-facing cob wall is then about the same as that of an insulated dense concrete block wall with 15 cm of insulation. Cob is, thus, a traditional material that can be used in modern constructions.

Lead replacement in the Molybdate Orange colour space

Due to the toxicological concerns over lead and lead compounds, there has been an increased trend to replace lead based materials in paint systems. Change in this instance has been driven primarily by Legislation and regulations, however in many cases global companies wish to show a unified approach and some have taken both a positive environmental marketing approach over their competitors with Lead free paints and a positive move on labour relations. The pigment manufactures have had the challenge to meet these requirements either from existing product ranges or to develop new pigments that are both commercially and technically viable. Due to the diverse application, systems and cost structures within General Industrial Paints no single product offers a universal solution. The higher performing pigments generally meet the higher specifications technically but because of their chemical complexity in processing and structure fail to achieve the lower comparable costs against Molybdate Oranges. With less complex pigment structures limitations are identified within the technical area. Additionally within the range of Molybdate Oranges differing grades are available treated to enhance temperature stability and chemical resistance or untreated to attain lower costs and increased saturation. For this reason paint producers have the choice of a single product within the mid performance area that would act as a compromise or alternatively select three products to fulfil all requirements with the associated logistic problems on supply, stock inventory and quality testing. Within the single product approach Pigment Orange 81 potentially offers the most flexible solution to the paint manufacturer in order to meet the volume market for Mid performance offering opacity, gloss, rheology, bleed resistance, good temperature stability and of great importance the ability to match the colour space occupied by Molybdate Orange. For the multiple pigment approach: High technical performance Pigment Orange 73 offering higher saturation than Molybdate Orange but with associated costs. Mid performance Pigment Orange 81 Cost effective Pigment Orange 34 and Pigment Orange 16 offer high saturation but limitations in durability.

BAR 1095 and BAK 2195: completely biodegradable synthetic thermoplastics

BAK-type polyesteramides are new polymers. The combination of high technical performance and full biodegradability is significant for this new generation of thermoplastic materials. All thermoplastic processes such as extrusion, film blowing, film casting, injection molding, blow molding, fiber spinning and others open a wide field of applications.

Optimal Irrigation Delivery System Design under Uncertainty

The effects of various types of uncertainty in the design of hydraulic structures in an open‐channel system for irrigation water delivery are investigated. Uncertainty due to ambiguity in the values of system physical and management characteristics is addressed by modeling selected parameters (temporally varying water‐supply level; spatially varying canal geometry, bed slope and hydraulic resistance; and spatially and temporally varying irrigation demand and irrigation patterns) as stochastic processes. Vagueness in the specification of system performance objectives (adequacy, efficiency, dependability, and equity) is modeled using postulated fuzzy set membership functions. An optimal design criterion is formulated that incorporates quantitative measures of water delivery system performance. Two design objectives, high technical performance and low cost, are considered in a simple illustrative example. A model of spatially varied flow in an open channel delivering water to farm turnouts is used to analyze design scenarios under two different operating schemes. Monte Carlo simulation allows analysis of system behavior in a stochastic setting. Response surface methodology is used to derive optimal design solutions for sizing of diversion and regulating structures. Implications for design and analysis of large‐scale delivery networks in an uncertain environment are discussed.

New Products

To meet the new demands placed on solder resist technology, Coates have developed a new two‐pack epoxy solder resist, with a mixed pot life of over 36 hours, which they have named XZ2000. Based on high performance Epoxy Novolac Polymers and a completely novel hardener, XZ2000 is a screen printable solder resist system having improved application properties and a high technical performance with low toxicity.

2.2 Dairy Herd Management

The Unit's work on herd monitoring was motivated by the need for a system to record data for a Study of Methods of Improving Oestrus Detection (Esslemont, 1973). These interests were shared with Dr R. S. Morris, then at Melbourne University, who made available a suite of computer programs for analyzing dairy herd health and fertility data which suited the immediate needs (Morris, Blood, Cannon, Cannon and Williamson, 1978). Out of this generous co-operation has evolved the ‘MELBREAD’ Herd Health and Fertility Reporting Scheme, the more comprehensive ‘DANDAIR’ system, the ‘YOUNGSTOCK’ system for recording heifers, and now ‘DAISY’ with which data processing is being decentralized to farms and veterinary practices. We are also starting to develop similar systems for intensive pig enterprises.This paper presents background information on the development of herd monitoring and a description of computerized record systems for the dairy herd developed by VEERU, especially the ‘DAISY’ software package for small computer systems.An estimate of the breakdown of fixed and variable costs on a per cow basis for a UK dairy herd is shown in Table 2.2.1a and typical good performance levels are shown in Table 2.2.1b. These figures show the need for very high technical performance in order to produce truly economic results. They also show that costs per cow for improved management information systems (at £5/cow/year) can be kept below 1% of turnover.