• Title/Summary/Keyword: LCI

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Environmental Impacts Assessment of Elementary School Buildings and Establishment of the Reference Target using Life Cycle Assessment Model (전과정평가 모델을 이용한 초등학교 건축물 환경영향 평가 및 비교기준 수립)

  • Ji, Changyoon;Hong, Taehoon;Jeong, Jaewook
    • Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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    • v.16 no.3
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    • pp.49-58
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    • 2015
  • In order to determine how much a new green building reduce the environmental impacts, it is necessary to establish the reference target for comparison. Therefore, this study aims to establish the reference target by evaluating the environmental impacts of existing buildings. To ensure this end, this study evaluated the environmental impacts(Global warming potential, ozone layer depletion potential, acidification potential, eutrophication potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, and abiotic depletion potential) of 17 existing elementary school buildings, which are located in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju, by using the hybrid LCA model. As a result, the environmental impacts of the case buildings were clearly distinguished in different regions. Therefore, this study presented the reference targets which are appropriate to each region. For example, the reference targets for global warming potential, which can be used in Seoul, Busan, Daegu, and Gwangju, are 3.76E+03, 1.90E+03, 2.63E+03, $2.81E+03kg-CO_2\;eq./m^2$, respectively. The presented reference targets are expected to be useful for understanding how much environmental impacts can be reduced when a new green school building is constructed.

An Analysis of the Characteristics of Standard Work and Design Information on Estimating Environmental Loads of PSC Beam Bridge in the Design Phase (PSC Beam 교량의 설계단계 환경부하량 산정을 위한 공종 및 설계정보 특성 분석)

  • Yun, Won Gun;Ha, Ji Kwang;Kim, Kyong Ju
    • KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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    • v.37 no.4
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    • pp.705-716
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    • 2017
  • As many environmental pollution problems have arisen, various studies related to the environmental evaluation have been carried out in the construction industry. However, there is no methodology for estimating the environmental load quickly for design alternatives of civil facilities in the design phase. This study aim to establish criteria of works information and designed parts which can efficiently estimate environmental loads of PSC beam bridge based on standard quantity at the early design phase. For this purpose, a detailed environmental loads database was constructed by performing Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based on detailed design data of 25 bridges. In addition, major work with high impact on environmental load were selected, and the analysis of characteristics of environmental load according to the required materials and 8 impact categories were conducted. As a result, the superstructure accounted for 42.91%. In the superstructure, remicon of the material base and PSC beam work occupied 53.13% and 31.25%. In the substructure, remicon, rebar, and cement, which are material base, accounted for more than 93%. It is expected that this major work and material information for each part of bridge can be utilized in the construction of the model, which can estimate the approximate environmental load, reflecting the characteristics of the structure in the design phase.

Wearable Computers

  • Cho, Gil-Soo;Barfield, Woodrow;Baird, Kevin
    • Fiber Technology and Industry
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    • v.2 no.4
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    • pp.490-508
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    • 1998
  • One of the latest fields of research in the area of output devices is tactual display devices [13,31]. These tactual or haptic devices allow the user to receive haptic feedback output from a variety of sources. This allows the user to actually feel virtual objects and manipulate them by touch. This is an emerging technology and will be instrumental in enhancing the realism of wearable augmented environments for certain applications. Tactual displays have previously been used for scientific visualization in virtual environments by chemists and engineers to improve perception and understanding of force fields and of world models populated with the impenetrable. In addition to tactual displays, the use of wearable audio displays that allow sound to be spatialized are being developed. With wearable computers, designers will soon be able to pair spatialized sound to virtual representations of objects when appropriate to make the wearable computer experience even more realistic to the user. Furthermore, as the number and complexity of wearable computing applications continues to grow, there will be increasing needs for systems that are faster, lighter, and have higher resolution displays. Better networking technology will also need to be developed to allow all users of wearable computers to have high bandwidth connections for real time information gathering and collaboration. In addition to the technology advances that make users need to wear computers in everyday life, there is also the desire to have users want to wear their computers. In order to do this, wearable computing needs to be unobtrusive and socially acceptable. By making wearables smaller and lighter, or actually embedding them in clothing, users can conceal them easily and wear them comfortably. The military is currently working on the development of the Personal Information Carrier (PIC) or digital dog tag. The PIC is a small electronic storage device containing medical information about the wearer. While old military dog tags contained only 5 lines of information, the digital tags may contain volumes of multi-media information including medical history, X-rays, and cardiograms. Using hand held devices in the field, medics would be able to call this information up in real time for better treatment. A fully functional transmittable device is still years off, but this technology once developed in the military, could be adapted tp civilian users and provide ant information, medical or otherwise, in a portable, not obstructive, and fashionable way. Another future device that could increase safety and well being of its users is the nose on-a-chip developed by the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. This tiny digital silicon chip about the size of a dime, is capable of 'smelling' natural gas leaks in stoves, heaters, and other appliances. It can also detect dangerous levels of carbon monoxide. This device can also be configured to notify the fire department when a leak is detected. This nose chip should be commercially available within 2 years, and is inexpensive, requires low power, and is very sensitive. Along with gas detection capabilities, this device may someday also be configured to detect smoke and other harmful gases. By embedding this chip into workers uniforms, name tags, etc., this could be a lifesaving computational accessory. In addition to the future safety technology soon to be available as accessories are devices that are for entertainment and security. The LCI computer group is developing a Smartpen, that electronically verifies a user's signature. With the increase in credit card use and the rise in forgeries, is the need for commercial industries to constantly verify signatures. This Smartpen writes like a normal pen but uses sensors to detect the motion of the pen as the user signs their name to authenticate the signature. This computational accessory should be available in 1999, and would bring increased peace of mind to consumers and vendors alike. In the entertainment domain, Panasonic is creating the first portable hand-held DVD player. This device weight less than 3 pounds and has a screen about 6' across. The color LCD has the same 16:9 aspect ratio of a cinema screen and supports a high resolution of 280,000 pixels and stereo sound. The player can play standard DVD movies and has a hour battery life for mobile use. To summarize, in this paper we presented concepts related to the design and use of wearable computers with extensions to smart spaces. For some time, researchers in telerobotics have used computer graphics to enhance remote scenes. Recent advances in augmented reality displays make it possible to enhance the user's local environment with 'information'. As shown in this paper, there are many application areas for this technology such as medicine, manufacturing, training, and recreation. Wearable computers allow a much closer association of information with the user. By embedding sensors in the wearable to allow it to see what the user sees, hear what the user hears, sense the user's physical state, and analyze what the user is typing, an intelligent agent may be able to analyze what the user is doing and try to predict the resources he will need next or in the near future. Using this information, the agent may download files, reserve communications bandwidth, post reminders, or automatically send updates to colleagues to help facilitate the user's daily interactions. This intelligent wearable computer would be able to act as a personal assistant, who is always around, knows the user's personal preferences and tastes, and tries to streamline interactions with the rest of the world.

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Application of LCA on Lettuce Cropping System by Bottom-up Methodology in Protected Cultivation (시설상추 농가를 대상으로 하는 bottom-up 방식 LCA 방법론의 농업적 적용)

  • Ryu, Jong-Hee;Kim, Kye-Hoon;Kim, Gun-Yeob;So, Kyu-Ho;Kang, Kee-Kyung
    • Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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    • v.44 no.6
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    • pp.1195-1206
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    • 2011
  • This study was conducted to apply LCA (Life cycle assessment) methodology to lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) production systems in Namyang-ju as a case study. Five lettuce growing farms with three different farming systems (two farms with organic farming system, one farm with a system without agricultural chemicals and two farms with conventional farming system) were selected at Namyangju city of Gyeonggi-province in Korea. The input data for LCA were collected by interviewing with the farmers. The system boundary was set at a cropping season without heating and cooling system for reducing uncertainties in data collection and calculation. Sensitivity analysis was carried out to find out the effect of type and amount of fertilizer and energy use on GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emission. The results of establishing GTG (Gate-to-Gate) inventory revealed that the quantity of fertilizer and energy input had the largest value in producing 1 kg lettuce, the amount of pesticide input the smallest. The amount of electricity input was the largest in all farms except farm 1 which purchased seedlings from outside. The quantity of direct field emission of $CO_2$, $CH_4$ and $N_2O$ from farm 1 to farm 5 were 6.79E-03 (farm 1), 8.10E-03 (farm 2), 1.82E-02 (farm 3), 7.51E-02 (farm 4) and 1.61E-02 (farm 5) kg $kg^{-1}$ lettuce, respectively. According to the result of LCI analysis focused on GHG, it was observed that $CO_2$ emission was 2.92E-01 (farm 1), 3.76E-01 (farm 2), 4.11E-01 (farm 3), 9.40E-01 (farm 4) and $5.37E-01kg\;CO_2\;kg^{-1}\;lettuce$ (farm 5), respectively. Carbon dioxide contribute to the most GHG emission. Carbon dioxide was mainly emitted in the process of energy production, which occupied 67~91% of $CO_2$ emission from every production process from 5 farms. Due to higher proportion of $CO_2$ emission from production of compound fertilizer in conventional crop system, conventional crop system had lower proportion of $CO_2$ emission from energy production than organic crop system did. With increasing inorganic fertilizer input, the process of lettuce cultivation covered higher proportion in $N_2O$ emission. Therefore, farms 1 and 2 covered 87% of total $N_2O$ emission; and farm 3 covered 64%. The carbon footprints from farm 1 to farm 5 were 3.40E-01 (farm 1), 4.31E-01 (farm 2), 5.32E-01 (farm 3), 1.08E+00 (farm 4) and 6.14E-01 (farm 5) kg $CO_2$-eq. $kg^{-1}$ lettuce, respectively. Results of sensitivity analysis revealed the soybean meal was the most sensitive among 4 types of fertilizer. The value of compound fertilizer was the least sensitive among every fertilizer imput. Electricity showed the largest sensitivity on $CO_2$ emission. However, the value of $N_2O$ variation was almost zero.