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Pulp and paper mill requires large amount of resources and energy. Technological processes of pulp and paper mill are associated with high water consumption (10–20 m3 per ton of final product) and high consumption of wood raw materials and electricity (1080–1100 kg of raw materials and 300–350 kWh of electricity per ton of final product). The most environmentally hazardous objects in pulp and paper mills are cellulose production, which is followed by the formation of liquid waste – waste liquors containing lignosulfonates, the treatment of lignosulfonates is a complicated technological problem. Lignosulfonates are practically not subjected to biological degradation and the extraction of liquor together with industrial wastewater into biological treatment facilities leads to a significant reduction in the efficiency of water purification and increase contamination of hydrosphere objects. Despite the possibility of using liquid lignosulfonates as surfactants, reagents for the preparation of drilling muds, a binder in the production of wood chip boards, fiberboards, the scale of their use is limited due to the volatility of the composition and structure of the waste. The disposal of waste at landfill sites leads to long negative impacts on environmental objects, incineration of waste will be followed by emissions of toxic substances and it would be necessary to use expensive waste gas purification technologies. One of the directions of lignosulfonates treatment is their thermal destruction with the production of carbon sorbents, which allows not only treating waste, but also obtaining cheap sorption materials for wastewater and gas emissions treatment. The paper presents the results of thermochemical pyrolysis process researches of lignosulfonates formed during the production of cellulose from birch chips, the results of obtaining carbon sorbents, determining the main factors affecting the yield of the sorbent, its physicochemical and sorption properties: the pyrolysis temperature, the processing time, the ratio of lignosulfonate: hydroxide potassium. Determination of the sorbents porous structure parameters and the specific surface was carried out on the basis of an analysis of nitrogen adsorption isotherms at a temperature of 77 K (-196 оC) obtained from the Quantum Hydrocarbon Analyzer NOVA 1200e and calculated using the metod BET (Brunauer, Emmett and Teller) of the polymolecular adsorption theory and the Dubinin-Radushkevich equation of micropores volume theory filling. The obtained samples of sorbents has a high specific surface (720–1080 m2 /g) and hight sorption activity and according to technical characteristics, the parameters of the porous structure are equal to active carbon of AG-3 grade widely used for wastewater treatment. A feature of carbon sorbents from lignosulfonates is an increased anion exchange capacity. The possibility of using sorbents for wastewater treatment containing bichromate ions is researched. The static sorption capacity for Cr(VI) was 49.0 mg/g. The developed method allows not only to treat waste, but also to obtain efficient sorbents for ecological purpose.

Previous studies have established that early attention to maintainability during the early design stages of building projects provides for delivering high levels of comfort to building occupants and reducing maintenance budgets. This paper identifies and assesses the set of structural durability design defects that are attributed to lack of maintenance manager’s feedback to the design team. The research confirmed the importance of all the identified design defects based on the assessment of the maintenance experts in the 13 public Saudi Arabian universities that operate and maintain significant building stock in their campuses. The paper presents a set of validated maintainability design review checklist for consideration by design professionals, in order to reduce the likelihood of occurrence of the identified defects. This paper serves to promote awareness among the various stakeholders in the construction industry about the earned benefits of knowledge transfer from the operation and maintenance field to the design team. It is of significant value to design professionals endeavoring on designing maintainable, cost-effective building projects; and maintenance professionals aiming to provide effective services to occupants and property owners.

Having a significant economic impact in country's GDP and being a major workforce, construction industry is yet characterized by low production rate, low technological advancement, minimum automation and robotic usage, and so on. With the visionary idea of Industry 4.0 that focuses on digitization of the value chain of a product and improving productivity through a variety of technologies and automated manufacturing environment, this research aims to develop a framework to adopt Construction 4.0 within a construction company. Current state of the art of the technologies in construction associated with the notion of Industry 4.0 (e.g., Building Information Modelling, virtual reality, augmented reality, Drone, etc.) is explored through extensive literature studies. The proposed framework incorporates current technological advancement related to construction industry, legislative requirements, barriers, enterprise transformation requirements and so on. Construction 4.0 would make a great impact in construction industry through improved value chain of construction projects, productivity improvement, and safe and sustainable construction. Indeed, the proposed framework would contribute to the advancement of new knowledge in the worlds' construction companies and provide potentials of new research focuses.

In recent years in Taiwan, some pedestrians were injured by falling external wall tiles. Exterior wall tile fell down for the temperature or other effects of seismic forces, becoming a potential public safety crisis. Office of Building Administration of Taoyuan City Government started inspecting high-rise buildings, which were over eleven stories and constructed before 1995 in Taoyuan city from 2015 to 2016. This study is a contract research. We inspected 298 high-rise buildings’ external wall tiles in Taoyuan City for city government. In this study, we classified the risk of buildings from Level A to E. D and E, which were regarded as the dangerous buildings and in need of repair immediately. D and E accounted for 41.6% percent of total buildings. We also concluded the data in the viewpoints of building age, story, exterior material, direction, and district. The authors hope the conclusion of this study could be submitted as reference material of inspection system, as well as give a significant suggestion to the periodic inspection approach in the future.

Coasts are cross-sections of the water and land environments, for thousands of years they formed under the factors of climate, geological, geomorphological, topographic and hydraulic and it has reached a natural balance. But increasingly this natural balance is disrupted due to human impact. Coasts, with their strategic position, are a wealth of resources for people with endless possibilities and mild climate. Therefore, coasts continuously have remained under great pressure just because of residential, transportation, energy, economy and tourism. These pressures can be minimized by applying the principles of science and engineering with a rational urban planning. It will be held after an urban planning at the macro level, as a part of that plan, it should be considered in the design of optimal engineering structures. Therefore, the structure of the planning and design engineering for optimal site selection should be done and compatible structures integrated with topography and bathymetry such as coastal hydrodynamics should be designed. In this paper, after briefly the occurrence and type of coasts, the strategic importance of coastal will be highlighted and coastal planning and engineering structures in Turkey will be examined in terms of sustainability by demonstrating some examples and solutions will be proposed for encountered problems.

The organizational project management maturity model (OPM3) aims to implement project management principles into project-based organizations. In fact, OPM3 by focusing on organizational level, can help construction companies to integrate their various activities and follow their goals strategically. However, this useful tool has not been recognized by most of the Iranian construction organizations. The purpose of this research is to introduce OPM3 to the experts and collect their views on how it can be implemented in their projects. First, the concept of OPM3 introduced to participants. To reach this aim, 52 questions were selected from PMI self-assessment questionnaire. These questions were categorized under four groups of planning, performance, procurement and prediction. Interviewees answered each question with Yes and No and then scores were added up in each group. At the next step, based on maximum and minimum score of groups a qualitative interview was carried out to understand reasons behind scores attained by interviewees. Identifying detailed elements can enhance the Iranian practitioners’ understanding about OPM3 and help them to apply it to their organizations in Iran’s working conditions.

This paper will focus on how to improve buried structures' resilience and sustainability so that they hold up over time, withstand extreme weather events, and minimize the use of natural and financial resources. Generally, buried Transportation structures are those which have some portion of their elements and configuration dormant, such as culverts, bridges, and their foundation systems. These structures are a significant part of transportation networks and their related systems. These structures can be disrupted by extreme weather events such as seismic activities, extreme wind gusts, tornado, and tropical cyclones. Repairing the damage after such events can challenge resources and negatively impact the area's economy by disrupting traffic. Moreover, a common problem with buried structures is the lack of understanding about each individual structural element. Accordingly, as a part of this paper's focus, careful attention is given to such important structural integrity. Nevertheless, a number of Australian case studies were undertaken to further improve the buried structures' resilience and sustainability. To support this paper's aim a Fuzzy-Markov computation using a modified FuzzyStatProb for buried assets were also explored. The Fuzzy-Markov computation accurately identified the appropriate treatment regimes for selected bridges which ultimately reduced the natural and financial resources usage.

The development of pavement performance model is an important step in prediction the future condition of pavement section and accordingly identifying the right road rehabilitation and maintenance in the right time for the right section. The first order Markov chain probabilistic model is used to predict the degradation of flexible pavement in Palestine. A pilot study is conducted on part of the road network in Nablus City. Visual road condition assessment is performed, and the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) is used in rating pavement sections by dividing the roads each 100 m length. The prediction of the pavement condition rating for each section in the first five to ten years of section age will enhance the applying of preventive maintenance strategy and consequently urges the Local Governmental Units to use the limited allocated budgets specified for pavement maintenance in a cost-effective manner by applying maintenance actions such as crack sealing, surface patching, micro-surfacing, milling and overlay, etc.

The use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) for reinforcement and retrofit of structures has become common in recent years. Although considerable research exists on carbon, glass, and aramid fibers, new materials continue to emerge, requiring new knowledge to optimize their use and safe design. This study analyzed the behavior of continuous beams reinforced with FRP bars. The parameters studied were concrete type (normal-strength concrete (NSC) and ultra-high-performance fiber-reinforced concrete (UHPFRC)), fiber material (carbon, glass, and basalt), and environmental exposure (acid, alkaline, and saline environments). Finite element (FE) beam models were developed and validated with published experimental data. The validated models were used to study the aforementioned parameters. Although the basalt fibers provoked higher displacements when compared to carbon and glass fibers, they also provided better bond with the concrete and higher tensile strength, allowing the beams to reach higher load capacity. Exposure to aggressive environments diminished the adhesion between GFRP and BFRP bars and the concrete, but the reduction was not sufficient to initiate the debonding and the failure was governed by FRP bars rupture. However, it was concluded that the load-displacement response was not affected much by the environmental exposure. The UHPFRC provided superior bond strength between concrete and the reinforcement bars, which assured rupture of the fibers in these beams as well. The use of UHPFRC also resulted in an increase in the beams’ load carrying capacity.

In steel railway bridges with open deck system, the local buckling of compressive flanges under sleepers on plate girders caused by the local corrosion of flanges leads to the collapse of bridges. The local corrosion is thought to have a substantial impact on the ultimate strength of main girders. However, past research on ultimate strength contains few inquiries into the relationship between the local corrosion of compressive flanges and the ultimate strength of main girders, and a method of evaluating the relationship has not yet been established. In this study, parameter analyses that focus on plate girders with local corrosion under sleepers have been conducted by using full-scale plate girder models subjected to bending and local loads simultaneously. Then based on these analytical values and other existing experimental values, the study verified the applicability of the separate evaluation equations that we previously proposed for remaining load bearing capacity under bending and local loads respectively, as well as the remaining strength calculation method based on the strength interaction curve of plate girders subjected to bending and local loads simultaneously to clarify that ultimate strength can be evaluated with a high degree of accuracy.