Upgrade Project Research Articles

Integrating energy retrofit with seismic upgrades to future-proof built heritage: Case studies of unreinforced masonry buildings in Aotearoa New Zealand

Deep energy retrofit can improve historic buildings’ indoor environmental quality and protect them from decay and obsolescence while reducing their energy use and related greenhouse gas emissions. Although this practice has been growing internationally, in Aotearoa New Zealand there are currently no policies or initiatives to encourage energy retrofit in historic buildings and no substantial examples of projects. Most retrofits currently focus on much-needed earthquake strengthening, due to high seismic risks and national policies which mandate all existing earthquake-prone buildings to be either structurally retrofitted or demolished over the next decades. As seismic upgrade projects are widespread, this study explores the potential of applying energy retrofit concurrently with seismic strengthening, with a focus on unreinforced masonry (URM) – the main type of earthquake-prone historic construction in the country. The research investigates three case studies of listed heritage URM buildings using Post-Occupancy Evaluation and simulation. Their current performance was investigated, and retrofit scenarios were analysed through energy and hygrothermal simulation, utilising the EnerPHit standard as a guide. The energy models demonstrated a potential reduction of up to 92% in heating demand when comparing the most comprehensive retrofit scenario with the baseline in the coldest climate. The potential energy savings from each intervention were balanced against their heritage impact, based on the standard EN16883:2017. The study provides a methodology for balancing several considerations in integrated retrofit to make historic buildings more resilient not only to seismic threats, but also to a changing climate, while keeping a respectful approach to heritage.

Risk Analysis of Coal Hauling Road Upgrade Project at PT. Borneo Indobara to Support Sustainable Development

This study aims to analyze the risks during the construction implementation phase and to propose mitigation strategies. This study was framed by case study design with the project for improving the coal haul road of PT. Borneo Indobara as the chosen case. This project still adheres to support sustainable development concept where the new design can minimize dust pollution and air pollution. Data were collected through interviews, brainstorming, similar previous studies, and questionnaires. All risk variables in the questionnaire were tested for validity and reliability, and then descriptive analysis was carried out. The Godfrey method analysis matrix was used to determine the dominant risks. Identification of valid risk variables found as many as 41 risks divided into 9 sources. Based on the analysis results, 14 dominant risks regarding the impact of time delays and 8 dominant risks regarding the impact of cost losses were found. Based on the results of the study 8 risk mitigation strategies are recommended: 1) Implementation of Management of change; 2) Determination of the implementation method that best suits the needs and conditions in the field; 3) Strengthened supply chain management; 4) Application of construction technology; 5) Strengthened maintenance management of materials and equipment; 6) Tightened supervision and monitoring of implementation activities; 7) Improved coordination between project owners and implementation contractors including stakeholders; 8) Strengthened human resources management and its implementation.

New slow control emulator for the CMS phase-2 upgrade RPC link system

The CERN Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) RPC system phase-2 upgrade project is in good progress. It covers the replacement of the off-detector electronics for the present Resistive Plate Chambers (RPC), known as “link system”, and includes the renovation of the legacy slow controller with brand new electronics, called RPC backend electronics. The scope of the new backend is to handle all requirements of the new RPC link system such as assigning a dedicated link to every control board (CB) that carries out the slow control and fast trigger commands and Large Hadron Collider (LHC) clock. In this work, we will review the architecture of the new Slow controller, its firmware, and the commands supported by this system.

Design and verification of a high-gradient and high-power 2nd harmonic cavity for the China Spallation Neutron Source upgrade project

Here, we report our recent progress in the design, fluid thermodynamics simulation, and high-power test of the2nd harmonic cavity for the China Spallation Neutron Source Phase II. A high-performance and large-size magnetic alloy (MA) core was developed as the load material for the radiofrequency cavity to achieve a high gradient of 40 kV/m. The water-cooling structure and cooling efficiency were studied and improved through numerical analysis and thermal experiments. The long-term stability of the cavity, especially the waterproofness of the MA cores with high heat load, was verified by high power tests.

Developing Adaptive Curriculum for Slum Upgrade Projects: The Fourth Year Undergraduate Program Experience

Slum formation is a visible outcome of population growth, rapid urbanization, economic and political policy. Currently, there are approximately one billion slum dwellers, representing approximately thirty percent of the global population. As evident, slums as a critical issue will remain in the upcoming decades. The discipline of architecture should consider the issue of a slum in its curriculum, especially within the design studios. This research attempts to integrate the slum topic within the fourth year undergraduate architecture curriculum and develop a pedagogical framework concerning architectural design projects that focuses on slum topic. The Graduation Research & Preparation (ARC 403) course and Graduation Project (ARC 402) course are modified in order to be responsive to the slum topic. The novelty of the framework can be categorized as follows: the proposed framework is context specific. It is based on an interdisciplinary approach to architecture and ethnography. It utilizes ethnographic tools for collecting data during fieldwork. It values research throughout the design process. A research-based approach prepares young architects for future complex challenges. It requires the young architects to utilize research and build an inventory of collected data, which can guide them during the design process as a reference point. It attempts to increase the awareness of the young architect regarding the discourse on social sustainability. It values social equity, quality of life, and well-being as core indicators of social sustainability and tries to integrate the indicators within the curriculum. The aforementioned indicators can guide young architects to reach strategic decisions to achieve sustainable design solutions.

Design of the First μSR Spectrometer at China Spallation Neutron Source

The Phase II upgrade project of the China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) includes the construction of a surface muon beam line and a muon spin rotation/relaxation/resonance (μSR) spectrometer, which will be the first μSR spectrometer built in China. Here, we report the conceptual design of the spectrometer, including the detector arrangement, magnets, sample environment (SE) and sample chamber. Based on the design parameters of the muon beam (1 Hz, 105 μ+/pulse), the spectrometer possesses over 2500 detector units to maximize the counting rate. Three different types of magnets can generate a zero field (ZF), a longitudinal field (LF) within 5000 G, and a transverse field within 400 G. The SE consists of a cryostat and a closed-cycle refrigerator (CCR) to provide temperatures lower than 2 K in the current stage. It has potentials to be updated to 300 mK. The sample chamber is designed with a fly past structure to reduce the background for experiments with small-sized samples.

CRIRES+ on sky at the ESO Very Large Telescope

The CRyogenic InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES) Upgrade project CRIRES+ extended the capabilities of CRIRES. It transformed this VLT instrument into a cross-dispersed spectrograph to increase the wavelength range that is covered simultaneously by up to a factor of ten. In addition, a new detector focal plane array of three Hawaii 2RG detectors with a 5.3 μm cutoff wavelength replaced the existing detectors. Amongst many other improvements, a new spectropolarimetric unit was added and the calibration system has been enhanced. The instrument was installed at the VLT on Unit Telescope 3 at the beginning of 2020 and successfully commissioned and verified for science operations during 2021, partly remotely from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The instrument was subsequently offered to the community from October 2021 onwards. This article describes the performance and capabilities of the upgraded instrument and presents on sky results.

Joint ATLAS/CMS ZDC upgrade project for the High Luminosity LHC

The High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) provides the opportunity to study heavy ion, proton-nucleus, photon-nucleus and photon-photon collisions with unprecedented luminosities at the TeV scale. The LHC heavy ion community has mapped out an extensive range of physics measurements at the HLLHC that will push forward our understanding of both QCD, QED and even electroweak physics. The measurement of forward neutrons and photons in Zero Degree Calorimeters (ZDCs) is essential for event classification and triggering. In order to reach the required luminosities, the LHC interaction regions will be redesigned, necessitating the need to build new ZDCs that will be both narrower and much more radiation tolerant. This challenge motivated the formation of a joint project between ATLAS and CMS to build new ZDCs for Run 4, JZCaP. The ZDCs are based on radiation-hard fused silica rods that produce Cherenkov light. These rods have been developed by Heraeus Quartzglas in collaboration with JZCaP and the LHC BRAN and FLUKA groups. The Run 4 ZDCs (HL-ZDCs) are the first joint detector project between CMS and ATLAS. This talk will present the capabilities of the new ZDCs and recent R&D highlights.

Design of an analog monolithic pixel sensor prototype in TPSCo 65 nm CMOS imaging technology

A series of monolithic active pixel sensor prototypes (APTS chips) were manufactured in the TPSCo 65 nm CMOS imaging process in the framework of the CERN-EP R&D on monolithic sensors and the ALICE ITS3 upgrade project. Each APTS chip contains a 4 × 4 pixel matrix with fast analog outputs buffered to individual pads. To explore the process and sensor characteristics, various pixel pitches (10 µm–25 µm), geometries and reverse biasing schemes were included. Prototypes are fully functional with detailed sensor characterization ongoing. The design will be presented with some experimental results also correlating to some transistor measurements.

A Burn-in Test Station for the ATLAS Phase-II Tile-Calorimeter Low-Voltage Power Supply Transformer-Coupled Buck Converters

The upgrade of the ATLAS hadronic tile-calorimeter (TileCal) Low-Voltage Power Supply (LVPS) falls under the high-luminosity LHC upgrade project. This article serves to provide an overview of the development of a burn-in test station for a Phase-II upgrade LVPS component known as a Brick. These Bricks are radiation hard transformer-coupled buck converters that function to step-down bulk 200 V DC power to the 10 V DC power required by the on-detector electronics. To ensure the high reliability of the Bricks, once installed within the TileCal, a burn-in test station has been designed and built. The Burn-in procedure subjects the Bricks to sub-optimal operating conditions that function to accelerate their aging as well as to stimulate failure mechanisms. This results in elements of the Brick that would fail prematurely within the TileCal failing within the burn-in station or to experience performance degradation that can be detected by followup testing effectively screening out the ’weak’ sub-population. The burn-in station is of a fully custom design in both its hardware and software. The development of the test station will be explored and the preliminary burn-in procedure to be employed will be presented. The commissioning of the burn-in station will be presented along with a summary and outlook of the project.

TelePix – A fast region of interest trigger and timing layer for the EUDET Telescopes

Test beam facilities are essential to study the response of novel detectors to particles. At the DESY II Test Beam facility, users can test their detectors with an electron beam with a momentum from 1–6 GeV. To track the beam particles, EUDET-style telescopes are provided in each beam area. They provide excellent spatial resolution, but the time resolution is limited by the rolling shutter architecture to a precision of approximately 230 μs. Since the demand on particle rates – and hence track multiplicities – is increasing timing is becoming more relevant. DESY foresees several upgrades of the telescopes. TelePix is an upgrade project to provide track timestamping with a precision of better than 5 ns and a configurable region of interest to trigger the telescope readout. Small scale prototypes have been characterized in laboratory and test beam measurements. Laboratory tests with an injection corresponding to 2300 electrons show a S/N of above 20. Test beam characterization shows efficiencies of above 99% over a threshold range of more than 100 mV and time resolutions of 2.4 ns at low noise rates.

Technoeconomic assessment of an FTTH network investment in the Greek telecommunications market

Recent years have seen an increasing need for higher broadband connections, fueled by novel applications including fifth generation wireless networks (5G). The European Commission is working on achieving specific milestones regarding the development of next generation networks. Many EU countries have opted to adopt a gradual migration path towards the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) technology in view of the high costs of implementation. The Fiber-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) architecture, combined with very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line 2 (VDSL2) and vectoring noise cancellation techniques may therefore provide a viable short-term basis solution. Techno-economic modeling and assessment is vital at the initial stages of the development of a telecommunication network investment project involving high capital expenditures for the infrastructure. The present work provides a techno-economic model in order to assess the prospects of such a network upgrade project from a financial perspective, following a three-way migration path. The three stages are: the implementation of the FTTC architecture with VDSL2 vectoring technology, the upgrade to FTTC with G.Fast and finally the migration to FTTH. The analysis is implemented over a suburb of the city of Athens, Greece. Different scenarios are evaluated, predicting profits even from the first years following the investment. The analysis includes the estimation of the degree of market penetration, analytical cost calculations for the implementation and operation of the network and the evaluation of crucial financial indicators, regarding the prospects of the investment in vectoring services. The study can serve as a complete road-map and can be applied in similar upgrade scenarios. The most important outcome of the analysis is that the profits resulted from each upgrade will finance the next step.

Facility upgrade for superheavy-element research at RIKEN

The RIKEN Nishina Center (RNC) executed an accelerator upgrade project for the heavy-ion linac (called RILAC). A superconducting RIKEN linear accelerator (SRILAC) and a new superconducting electron-cyclotron-resonance ion source (SC-ECRIS) to boost the final energy and intensity were constructed, aimed at synthesizing a new superheavy element, 119, through a hot fusion reaction. The project included the construction of a gas-filled recoil ion separator (GARIS-III) suitable for detecting the residues of the hot-fusion reaction. To avoid research interruption during the SRILAC construction period (2017–2019) and gain experience in hot-fusion reaction processes, GARIS-II located in the GARIS experimental hall in LINAC building was moved to the E6 experimental hall in Nishina building. Certain exploratory measurements were performed employing the beams accelerated by RILAC2 and the RIKEN ring cyclotron (RRC), which is a part of the existing accelerator complex of the radioactive isotope beam factory (RIBF). Further, commissioning experiments with the upgraded facility (SRILAC and GARIS-III) were performed. The upgrade project and its commissioning results are chronologically described in this article.

Advanced optical simulation tools in the OASYS suite and their applications to the design of last generation synchrotron radiation beamlines

Since 2013, OASYS (OrAnge SYnchrotron Suite) has been developed as a versatile, user-friendly and open-source graphical environment for modeling X-ray sources, optical systems, and experiments. Its concept stems from the need for modern software tools to satisfy the demand for performing more complex analyses and designing optical systems for 4th generation synchrotron radiation and FEL facilities. The ultimate purpose of OASYS is to integrate in a synergetic way the most powerful calculation engines available to perform virtual experiments in a synchrotron beamline. For X-ray Optics, OASYS integrates different simulation strategies by implementing adequate simulation tools, which communicate by sending and receiving encapsulated data. The OASYS suite has been extensively used in the optical design process for the upgrade projects of several synchrotron radiation facilities worldwide. Several new tools have been created to perform advanced calculations needed for the design of the beamlines and provide accurate specifications for the procurement of the optics.

Can distribution grid infrastructure accommodate residential electrification and electric vehicle adoption in Northern California?

In this paper we ask: in what ways will utilities need to upgrade the electric distribution grid to accommodate electrified loads, and what will those upgrades cost? Our study focuses on the PG&E service area in Northern California, which serves 4.8 million electricity customers and is subject to aggressive targets for both EV adoption and electrification of residential space and water heating. We create spatio-temporally detailed electricity demand forecasts, and compare that demand to distribution infrastructure limits across a range of technology adoption scenarios. We find that electrification of residential space and water heating will lead to fewer impacts on distribution feeder capacity than EV charging, but that both transitions will require an acceleration of the current pace of upgrades. We also find that timing and location have a strong influence on total capacity additions in important ways: for example, scenarios that favor daytime EV charging have similar impacts to those with managed nighttime residential charging, but uncontrolled nighttime residential charging could have significantly larger impacts. We project that these upgrades will add at least $1 billion and potentially over $10 billion to PG&E’s rate base. We conclude that measures that enable the completion of a high number of upcoming upgrade projects—including addressing workforce and supply chain constraints, and pursuing non-wires alternatives like energy storage and demand response—are critical to successful electrification.

Integration and commissioning of the ATLAS Tile Demonstrator Module for Run 3

The electronics of the Tile Calorimeter at the ATLAS experiment will be replaced for the HL-LHC. The TileCal Phase-II upgrade project has undertaken an extensive R&D program. A Demonstrator module containing the upgraded on-detector readout electronics was built in 2014, evaluated in seven test beam campaigns, and inserted into one of the Tile Calorimeter modules at the ATLAS experiment in 2019. The module also provides backward compatibility of the Demonstrator module with the present ATLAS systems. We present the current status and test results from the Demonstrator module currently running at ATLAS.

Performance studies of Micromegas electronics in a high radiation environment at the CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++)

The ATLAS experiment at CERN undergoes a series of upgrades, in line with the upgrades (Phase-I and Phase-II) of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to cope with the steadily increasing instantaneous luminosity that ultimately is expected to reach 7.5×1034cm−2 s−1 at the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) era. The most challenging upgrade project of the ATLAS experiment concerns its Muon Spectrometer’s inner wheel-shaped detection stations (Small Wheels) located close to and on either side of the pp beams’ interaction point. Another type of detection system (New Small Wheels) replaced the two Small Wheels so that the ATLAS maintains its performance while preserving the acceptance of critical physics signatures under the harsh conditions of higher data and radiation rates (up to 25kHz/cm2 at the HL-LHC accelerator). The NSWs are a complex detection system (each wheel comprises 2.4x106 readout channels)that employ two novel micro-pattern gaseous detector technologies, the Micromesh Gaseous Structure (Micromegas, MM) and the small strip Thin Gap Chambers (sTGCs), mainly to improve the trigger performance and to provide precise spatial measurements. New electronic boards residing on the detectors were designed and manufactured, hosting high radiation and magnetic field tolerant custom-made ASICs.This paper presents extensive tests carried out at the new CERN Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF++) by combining a muon beam (of 12kHz) with a 137Cesium radiation source of adjustable rate (up to ten times the expected rate at the HL-LHC conditions), to assess the performance of the Micromegas chambers and their readout electronics. Data from NSW Micromegas modules of different detection areas, having different positions on the wheels, operating with different high voltage and filling gas have been read out and analyzed by placing the electronics on PCBs located at various distances from the pp beam pipe. The spatial resolution of the precision coordinate is found to be well below the required 100μm, and the excellent alignment of the precision layers has been verified. Results confirm that all types of Micromegas modules tested have a linear response up to a rate around four times the expected at HL-LHC.

Certification of a new generation of Resistive Plate Chambers for the Phase-1 BIS78 upgrade of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer

In preparation for the coming years of LHC running at higher luminosity, two upgrade projects of the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer have been developed: the New Small Wheel project, improving the trigger in the end-cap regions, and the BIS78 project, dedicated to the transition region between the barrel and the endcaps (1< |η| <1.3). The BIS78 project will add 32 RPC triplets on the edges of the inner barrel sectors where the ATLAS toroid is present. These new generation of RPCs are characterized by thinner gas gaps (1 mm vs 2 mm of the legacy RPCs) as well as thinner resistive electrodes, together with a new high gain front-end electronics operating at lower voltage. Sixteen BIS78 stations have been already installed in the ATLAS Muon spectrometer between 2020 and 2021 and are being commissioned during this year. The status of the project, the status of the commissioning as well as the overall performances of the installed RPCs will be presented.

Status and Plans for the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter Upgrade Project

The CMS Collaboration is preparing to build replacement endcap calorimeters for the HL-LHC era. The new high-granularity calorimeter (HGCAL) is, as the name implies, a highly-granular sampling calorimeter with approximately six million silicon sensor channels (≈1.1cm2 or 0.5 cm2 cells) and about 250 thousand channels of scintillator tiles readout with on-tile silicon photomultipliers. The calorimeter is designed to operate in the harsh radiation environment at the HL-LHC, where the average number of interactions per bunch crossing is expected to exceed 140. Besides measuring energy and position of the energy deposits, the electronics is also designed to measure the time of their arrival with a precision in the order of 50 ps. This paper summarises the reasoning and ideas behind the HGCAL, describes the current status of the project, and highlights some of the challenges ahead.

Monitoring System of the ATLAS ITk Laboratory

The ATLAS ITk Upgrade project, culminating in the installation into the experiment in 2026, enters this year its production period. Cooperating laboratories dealing with the strip part of the project needs to meet various conditions in clean rooms and testing environments to ensure safety for production components during assembly and measurement procedures. One of the ITk laboratories, located in Prague, prepared for modules’ production is presented as a model case. For this purpose, dedicated DAQ software called ITSDAQ is used together with the slow control monitoring system based on RS232/GPIB standards, MySQL database entry and Grafana visualization platform. Data are stored in the local database storage, a subset of them and the test results are also sent into the ITk Production Database. Such an integrated tool offers real-time plotting of crucial parameters and the possibility of receiving an immediate notification in case of exceeding any threshold.