• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.443-449
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• 2022

With climate change and the global population growth, the frequency and scope of wildfires are constantly increasing, which threatened people's lives and property. For example, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, in 2020, a total of 9,917 incidents related to wildfires were reported in California, with an estimated burned area of 4,257,863 acres, resulting in 33 fatalities and 10,488 structures damaged or destroyed. At the same time, the ongoing development of technology provides new tools to simulate and analyze the spread of wildfires. How to use new technology to reduce the losses caused by wildfire is an important research topic. A potentially feasible strategy is to simulate and analyze the spread of wildfires through computing technology to explore the impact of different factors (such as weather, terrain, etc.) on the spread of wildfires, figure out how to take preemptive/responsive measures to minimize potential losses caused by wildfires, and as a result achieve better management support of wildfires. In preparation for pursuing these goals, the authors used a powerful computing framework, Spark, developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), to study the effects of different weather factors (wind speed, wind direction, air temperature, and relative humidity) on the spread of wildfires. The test results showed that wind is a key factor in determining the spread of wildfires. A stable weather condition (stable wind and air conditions) is beneficial to limit the spread of wildfires. Joint consideration of weather factors and environmental obstacles can help limit the threat of wildfires.

• Journal of KIBIM
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.27-34
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• 2016

A Building Information Model (BIM) is an attempt to simulate the process of building structures in a three-dimensional (3D) digital space. While the technology is usually applied to structured buildings, bridges, and underground facilities, it is rarely applied to an unstructured environment of earthwork operations. If a BIM is used for earthworks, the 3D simulation can be used for construction equipment guidance and earthwork management. This paper presents a real-time, 3D earthwork BIM that provides a 3D graphical simulation of excavators in conjunction with geographic modeling. Developing a real-time, 3D earthwork BIM requires handling a variety of factors, such as geographical information and vehicular movement. This paper mainly focuses on the management of these attributes and provides a database design for storing and retrieving data. In an example application, a prototype of the 3D earthwork BIM is presented to understand what it would provide when used during earthwork operations at a construction site.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.155-163
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• 2000

This paper presents a path planning method of the sensor based intelligent vehicle using fuzzy logic controller for avoidance of moving obstacles in unknown environments. Generally it is too difficult and complicated to control intelligent vehicle properly by recognizing unknown terrain with sensors because the great amount of imprecise and ambiguous information has to be considered. In this respect a fuzzy logic can manage such the enormous information in a quite efficient manner. Furthermore it is necessary to use the relative velocity to consider the mobility of obstacles, In order to avoid moving obstacles we must deliberate not only vehicle's relative speed toward obstacles but also self-determined acceleration and steering for the satisfaction of avoidance efficiency. In this study all the primary factors mentioned before are used as the input elements of fuzzy controllers and output signals to control velocity and steering angle of the vehicle. The main purpose of this study is to develop fuzzy controllers for avoiding collision with moving obstacles when they approach the vehicle travelling with straight line and for returning to original trajectory. The ability are and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are demonstrated by simulations and experiments.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.244-254
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• 2018

Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, is subject to high levels of atmospheric pollution during winter, which severely threatens the health of the population. By analyzing surface meteorological data, ground-based LIDAR data, and radiosonde data collected from 2008 to 2016, we studied seasonal variations in particulate matter (PM) concentration, visibility, relative humidity, temperature inversion layer thickness, and temperature inversion intensity. PM concentrations started to exceed the 24-h average standard ($50{\mu}g/m^3$) in mid-October and peaked from December to January. Visibility showed a significant negative correlation with PM concentration. Relative humidity was within the range of 60-80% when there were high PM concentrations. Both temperature inversion layer thickness and intensity reached maxima in January and showed similar seasonal variations with respect to PM concentration. The monthly average temperature inversion intensity showed a strong positive correlation with the monthly average $PM_{2.5}$ concentration. Furthermore, the temperature inversion layer thickness exceeded 500 m in midwinter and overlaid the weak mixed layer during daytime. Radiative cooling enhanced by the basin-like terrain led to a stable urban atmosphere, which strengthened particulate air pollution.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.231-243
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• 2020

Downbursts are acknowledged for being a major loading hazard for horizontally-extending structures like transmission line systems. With these structures being inherently flexible, it is important to characterize the turbulence associated with the wind flow of downburst events being essential to quantify dynamic excitations on structures. Accordingly, the current study numerically characterizes the downburst wind field of open terrain simulated at the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment (WindEEE) dome testing facility at The University of Western Ontario in Canada through a high-resolution large eddy simulation (LES). The study validates the numerical simulation considering both the mean and the turbulent components of the flow. It then provides a detailed visual description of the flow at WindEEE through the capabilities enabled by LES to identify the key factors affecting the flow. The study also presents the spatial distribution of turbulence intensities and length scales computed from the numerical model and compares them with previous values reported in the literature. The comparison shows the ability of the downburst simulated at WindEEE to reproduce turbulence characteristics similar to those reported from field measurements. The study also indicates that downburst turbulence is well-correlated circumferentially which imposes high correlated loads on horizontally-distributed structures such as transmission lines.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.575-595
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• 2020

The characteristics of winds associated with tropical cyclones are of great significance in many engineering fields. This paper presents an investigation of wind characteristics over a coastal urban terrain based on field measurements collected from multiple cup anemometers and ultrasonic anemometers equipped at 13 height levels on a 356-m-high meteorological tower in Shenzhen during severe Typhoon Hato. Several wind quantities, including wind spectrum, gust factor, turbulence intensity and length scale as well as wind profile, are presented and discussed. Specifically, the probability distributions of fluctuating wind speeds are analyzed in connection with the normal distribution and the generalized extreme value distribution. The von Karman spectral model is found to be suitable to depict the energy distributions of three-dimensionally fluctuating winds. Gust factors, turbulence intensity and length scale are determined and discussed. Moreover, this paper presents the wind profiles measured during the typhoon, and a comparative study of the vertical distribution of wind speeds from the field measurements and existing empirical models is performed. The influences of the topography features and wind speeds on the wind profiles were investigated based on the field-measured wind records. In general, the empirical models can provide reasonable predictions for the measured wind speed profiles over a typical coastal urban area during a severe typhoon.

• Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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• v.102 no.3
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• pp.415-419
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• 2013

To mitigate forest fire damage, it is needed to concentrate suppression resources on the fire having a high probability to become large in the initial stage. The objective of this study is to develop the large fire judgement model which can estimate large fire possibility index between the fire size and the related factors such as weather, terrain, and fuel. The results of logistic regression equation indicated that temperature, wind speed, continuous drought days, slope variance, forest area were related to the large fire possibility positively but elevation has negative relationship. This model may help decision-making about size of suppression resources, local residents evacuation and suppression priority.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
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• v.7 no.2 s.14
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• pp.93-100
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• 1999

Forest fires have been threats to natural resources, endangered species, properties and even to human lives. Efficient management of forest fires requires a complete understanding of the environmental and human related activities, as well as complicate spatial relationships among them. A geo-spatial information system(GSIS) is an appropriate method of being able to mapping and to analyze the spatial data for forest fires. Therefore, this study is to provide and classify the terrain, vegetation, life environment soil and geology factors, and to analyze spatial distribution for forest fire areas by applying the GSIS and the Remote Sensing technology. On the other hands, causes of increasing numbers of forest fires being occurred after In were assessed by comparing the normalized difference vegetation index((NDVI).

• Journal of Forest and Environmental Science
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.377-383
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• 2016

We obtained a total of 36 GPS coordinates of the seven bat species of Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Myotis ikonnikovi, M. nattereri, M. petax, Murina ussuriensis, Plecotus auritus, and Pipistrellus abramus. Characteristics of forests (forest type, age class, DBH class and crown density), terrain (aspect, slope and distance from mountain stream) and disturbance factors (distance from human residential areas and distance from cultivated areas) that bats have used as their habitats were revealed from the GIS analysis based on GPS coordinates of the 36 positions that bats were found. The bats-preferred forest type is broad-leaf forests (43%) with the trees of the 2th (31%) and 5th (31%) age class, the trees of sapling (36%) and large DBH class (31%), and sparse crown density (67%). Bats prefer the slop direction of the east (39%), the gradient below $15^{\circ}$ (61%), the ranges within 200 m from the mountain streams (92%), the ranges within 200 m near roads (89%), the ranges of 200-400 m from human residential areas (28%), and the ranges within 200 m from cultivated areas (36%).

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.245-255
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• 2013

This paper presents the results of a set of wind tunnel tests carried out to examine wind-induced overall structural loads on rectangular medium-rise buildings. Emphasis was directed towards torsion and its correlation with peak shear forces in transverse and longitudinal directions. Two building models with the same horizontal dimensions but different gabled-roof angles ($0^{\circ}C$ and $45^{\circ}C$) were tested at different full-scale equivalent eave heights (20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 m) in open terrain exposure for all wind directions (every $15^{\circ}C$). Wind-induced pressures were integrated over building surfaces and results were obtained for along-wind force, across-wind force, and torsional moment. Maximum wind force component was given along with the other simultaneously-observed wind force components normalized by the overall peak. The study found that for flat-roofed buildings maximum torsion for winds in transverse direction is associated with 80% of the overall shear force perpendicular to the longer horizontal building dimension; and 45% of the maximum shear occurs perpendicular to the smaller horizontal building dimension. Comparison of the wind tunnel results with current torsion provisions in the American wind standard, the Canadian and European wind codes demonstrate significant discrepancies. Suggested load combination factors were introduced aiming at an adequate evaluation of wind load effects on rectangular medium-rise buildings.