• Energy Research

With the rapid development of materials science and construction technology, the concept of sustainable building (SB) and the Building Sustainability Assessment Tool (BSAT) have also evolved and developed. Understanding the development of BSAT and SB is of great significance to the sustainable development of the construction industry. This research used the bibliometric method to analyze the development and evolution in the relevant literature on SB and BSAT from 1990 to 2021, and the correlations and differences between them were investigated. We found that there are many common trends in the development of research efforts in SB and BSAT: (1) they focused solely on the environment, in the early days, and only later considered economic and social impacts; (2) the scales with which they are concerned continue to expand, from individual buildings to communities and even cities; (3) key areas, such as energy, materials, resources, indoor environmental quality, high-tech applications, adaptability, and concern for people are being given more attention by both SB and BSAT. On the other hand, the difference between them is that SB research focuses on more macro aspects, such as policy, culture, climate change, while BSAT research is more concerned with micro aspects, such as its system of tools. Furthermore, some current research gaps in the BSAT field are identified, clarifying its future research directions. By linking the evolution of the SB concept and the development of the BSAT research field, this review provides a new and valuable perspective for the sustainable assessment of the construction industry, which, itself, is conducive to the sustainable transformation of this industry, which could contribute greatly to the mitigation of global climate change.

Abstract This paper describes a computationally aided design process of a thin wall structure subject to dynamic compression in both axial and oblique directions. Several different cross sectional shapes of thin walled structures subjected to direct and oblique loads were compared initially to obtain the cross section that fulfills the performance criteria. The selection was based on multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) process. The performance parameters used are the absorbed crash energy, crush force efficiency, ease of manufacture and cost. Once the cross section was selected, the design was further enhanced for better crash performances by investigating the effect of foam filling, increasing the wall thickness and by introducing a trigger mechanism. The outcome of the design process was very encouraging as the new design was able to improve the crash performance by an average of 10%.

Abstract The microwave assisted pyrolysis of oil palm fiber (OPF) for production of hydrogen rich gas was experimentally investigated by considering different reaction parameters. Five different OPF sample sizes (i.e., lengths less than 1 mm, 1–3 mm, 4–6 mm, 7–9 mm and 10–12 mm), microwave power ranging from 400 W to 900 W, reaction temperatures ranging from 450 °C to 700 °C and N 2 flow rates ranging 200–1200 cm 3 min −1 were tested. The hydrogen and the total gas yield from all process parameters have been reported. The microwave assisted pyrolysis was carried out by using a microwave reactor which has a capacity of providing 2450 ± 25 MHz microwave frequency. It has been found that the use of a smaller OPF particle sizes, a higher microwave power, a higher reaction temperature and a higher N 2 flow rates significantly yields more H 2 rich gas. The char produced at the maximum hydrogen yield process parameter was considered for TGA and SEM analyses and the results shows a potential use for the soil fertilization.