Effects of upholstery materials on the burning behavior of real‐scale residential upholstered furniture mock‐ups

Fire spread and growth on real‐scale four cushion mock‐ups of residential upholstered furniture (RUF) were investigated with the goal of identifying whether changes in five classes of materials (barrier, flexible polyurethane foam, polyester fiber wrap, upholstery fabric, and sewing thread), referred to as factors, resulted in statistically significant changes in burning behavior. A fractional factorial experimental design plus practical considerations yielded a test matrix with 20 material combinations. Experiments were repeated a minimum of two times. Measurements included fire spread rates derived from video recordings and heat release rates (HRRs). A total of 13 experimental parameters (3 based on the videos and 10 on the HRR results), referred to as responses, characterized the measurements. Statistical analyses based on Main Effects Plots (main effects) and Block Plots (main effects and factor interactions) were used. The results showed that three of the factors resulted in statistically significant effects on varying numbers of the 13 responses. The Barrier and Fabric factors had the strongest main effects with roughly comparable magnitudes. Foam was statistically significant for fewer of the responses and its overall strength was weaker than for Barrier and Fabric. No statistically significant main effects were identified for Wrap or Thread. Multiple two‐term interactions between factors were identified as being statistically significant. The Barrier*Fabric interaction resulted in the highest number of and strongest statistically significant effects. The existence of two‐term interactions means that it will be necessary to consider their effects in approaches designed to predict the burning behavior of RUF.     

Psychrophilic hydrogen production from petrochemical wastewater via anaerobic sequencing batch reactor: techno-economic assessment and kinetic modelling

Independent hydrogen production from petrochemical wastewater containing mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) via anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) was extensively assessed under psychrophilic conditions (15–25 °C). A lab-scale ASBR was operated at pH of 5.50, and different organic loading rates (OLR) of 1.00, 1.67, 2.67, and 4.00 gCOD/L/d. The hydrogen yield (HY) progressed from 134.32 ± 10.79 to 189.09 ± 22.35 mL/gMEG_initial at increasing OLR from 1.00 to 4.00 gCOD/L/d. The maximum hydrogen content of 47.44 ± 3.60% was achieved at OLR of 4.0 gCOD/L/d, while methane content remained low (17.76 ± 1.27% at OLR of 1.0 gCOD/L/d). Kinetic studies using four different mathematical models were conducted to describe the ASBR performance. Furthermore, two batch-mode experiments were performed to optimize the nitrogen supplementation as a nutrient (C/N ratio), and assess the impact of salinity (as gNaCl/L) on hydrogen production. HY substantially dropped from 62.77 ± 4.09 to 6.02 ± 0.39 mL/gMEG_initial when C/N ratio was increased from 28.5 to 114.0. Besides, the results revealed that salinity up to 10.0 gNaCl/L has a relatively low inhibitory impact on hydrogen production. Eventually, the cost/benefit analysis showed that environmental and energy recovery revenues from ASBR were optimized at OLR of 4.0 gCOD/L/d (payback period of 7.13 yrs).     

南水北调中线工程受水区二期需调水量预测研究

2002年12月国务院批复了《南水北调工程总体规划》，明确中线工程分两期建设。目前，一期工程已经通水。近年来，随着社会经济的快速发展，受水区的人口、生产规模、节水水平、人们对环境的要求都发生了变化，因此有必要根据新的情况对受水区的用水需求重新预测。分析了城市化发展和城镇用水变化的新形势，依据流域、区域水资源规划成果，提出了中线二期工程受水区需调水量，并与《南水北调中线工程规划》提出的二期需调水量进行对比，以供各方参考。     

Smart firefighting construction in China: Status,problems, and reflections

“Smart firefighting” construction as a part of the “smart city” has been a concern of the public security and fire agencies at all levels. In this study, the status, problems, and reflections of “smart firefighting” construction in China are discussed. A recent survey indicates that China has launched its smart firefighting construction and initially created a new perspective on its regional smart firefighting work based on three main aspects: intelligent disaster perception by Internet of Things (IoT) construction, intelligent disaster prevention by big data construction, and intelligent disaster disposal by emergency rescue platform construction. However, the current smart firefighting construction in China still has some prominent problems such as the data interconnectivity and normalized management of various platforms, the extensibility of smart firefighting platforms, and the intelligent level of smart firefighting researches, which need to be solved urgently. Therefore, we argue that smart firefighting construction in China should establish data interconnectivity, industrial normalized management, 2D/3D geographic information interaction and extension, high-integration fire protection theory, and many other aspects in the near future and truly realize firefighting visualization and efficient data applications for 4D time space. This study could provide valuable reference for smart firefighting and smart city construction.     

Design for comfort and social interaction in future vehicles: A study on the leg space between facing-seats configuration

With the advent of future vehicles, passengers expect to travel in comfort, and the free leg space between facing-seats could be an issue due to the unsuitability for all people, according to their anthropometric variability. A previous investigation survey showed the need to increase the leg-space between facing seats and, if installed, to improve the surface of the table placed in between. So, four different distances between seat-pans front edges of facing seats have been set-up and tested (44 cm, 51 cm, 58 cm, 65 cm) with a table in between. 13 couples of participants with different heights took part to experiments. The aim was to investigate the relationship between facing-seat distances and passenger wellbeing in terms of postural comfort and social interaction. Postural comfort has been analysed through optical tracking (for postural angles overtime) and questionnaires (perceived comfort). Social interaction feelings have been investigated with questionnaires. Experiment results showed the suitable distance could be 51 cm keeping the same table surface; otherwise, the 65 cm one could be ideal changing the table surface.Relevance to industryWith the advent of autonomous driving, vehicle manufacturers and designers are working hard to define new paradigms of public transportation in terms of seat layout, passenger wellbeing and interiors’ design. This paper contributes to increasing the general knowledge on the effects of distance between facing seats on postural comfort and social interaction.     

Real-time organic aerosol chemical speciation in the indoor environment using extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Understanding the sources and composition of organic aerosol (OA) in indoor environments requires rapid measurements, since many emissions and processes have short timescales. However, real-time molecular-level OA measurements have not been reported indoors. Here, we present quantitative measurements, at a time resolution of five seconds, of molecular ions corresponding to diverse aerosol-phase species, by applying extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (EESI-MS) to indoor air analysis for the first time, as part of the highly instrumented HOMEChem field study. We demonstrate how the complex spectra of EESI-MS are screened in order to extract chemical information and investigate the possibility of interference from gas-phase semivolatile species. During experiments that simulated the Thanksgiving US holiday meal preparation, EESI-MS quantified multiple species, including fatty acids, carbohydrates, siloxanes, and phthalates. Intercomparisons with Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer suggest that EESI-MS quantified a large fraction of OA. Comparisons with FIGAERO-CIMS shows similar signal levels and good correlation, with a range of 100 for the relative sensitivities. Comparisons with SV-TAG for phthalates and with SV-TAG and AMS for total siloxanes also show strong correlation. EESI-MS observations can be used with gas-phase measurements to identify co-emitted gas- and aerosol-phase species, and this is demonstrated using complementary gas-phase PTR-MS observations.     

恢复邢台百泉泉水流量可行性研究

通过百泉泉区天然状态与超采状态下的水环境对比分析,并对岩溶水补给量和开采量进行计算,阐述恢复邢台百泉泉水流量的可行性,随着“引朱济邢”和“南水北调”供水工程的实施,邢台百泉水生态环境的恢复将变为现实。     

随机库存分配问题的一种求解方法

讨论了在VMI管理思想下对具有随机需求特性的多客户库存分配问题 ,重点论述了有效近似算法的设计过程 ,最后基于一组模拟数据给出了一个算例。     

广州清洁燃料汽车发展方向

选择好合适的汽车替代燃料，科学确定一个地区清洁燃料汽车的发展方向，是减少机动车有害尾气排放、控制城市大气环境污染重大而紧迫的课题。国内外汽车清洁燃料的发展规律表明，天然气特别是液化天然气，是汽车替代燃料的最佳选择与发展方向。为此，探讨了随着天然气工业的加快发展，作为广州这样一座已经发展液化石油气汽车并已形成有一定规模的城市，如何适应新形势的需求，科学决策，选择符合国家能源发展政策并适应当地具体实际的汽车清洁燃料路线，寻求顺利实施液化石油气与天然气两种清洁燃料平稳过渡的具体措施。最后提出以下建议：加速LNG加气站和液化天然气汽车（LNGV）相关技术规范的制定；加快实现LNG关键设备，如LNG泵、LNG售气机、车用LNG储罐的国产化步伐，以降低LNGV和加气站的成本；鉴于LNGV改装技术的现状，不提倡对在用车进行改装，而应加大力度，逐步推广单燃料LNG汽车。