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In hot and dry climates, air conditioning accounts for a large portion of total energy consumption; therefore, this paper aims to investigate the impact of sol-air temperature and ground temperature on the loss of cooling energy in hot and dry regions of Iran.

In line with this objective, the values of sol-air temperature along different directions and ground temperature at different depths were assessed with respect to climatic data of Yazd City. The impact of sol-air temperature and ground temperature on the rate of heat loss was investigated. So, energy loss of the walls aligned to four primary directions was calculated. This process was repeated for a 36 m² building with three different shape factors. All analyses were conducted for the period from May to September, during which buildings need to be cooled by air conditioners.

Numerical analyses conducted for hot and dry climate show that sol-air temperature leads to a 41-17 per cent increase in the wall’s energy loss compared with ambient temperature. Meanwhile, building the wall below the surface leads to a significant reduction in energy loss. For example, building the wall 400 cm below the surface leads to about 74.8-79.2 per cent energy saving compared with above ground design. The results also show that increasing the direct contact between soil and building envelope decreases the energy loss, so energy loss of a building that is built 400 cm below the surface is 53.7-55.3 per cent lower than that of a building built above the surface.

The impact of sol-air temperature and ground temperature on the cooling energy loss of a building in hot and dry climate was investigated. Numerical analysis shows that solar radiation increases heat loss from building envelope. Soil temperature fluctuations decrease with depth. Heat loss from building envelope in an underground building is lower than that from building envelope in a building built above the ground. Three different shape factors showed that sol-air temperature has the maximum impact on square-shaped plan and minimal impact on buildings with east-west orientation.

Based on the theory of blown‐ups, as described by OuYang in 1995 and 1994, for nonlinear dynamic systems on general pansystems transformation, optimization and panderivatives, etc., in this paper, we employ the method, developed in OuYang (1994), to show that the blown‐ups of the nonlinear heat conductive equation is similar to the evolution of observable ground temperature “currents”. According to this analysis, we conduct a simulation based on the historical data of Tang Shan Earthquake in 1976. The simulation results show that: the blown‐ups of the ground temperature “currents” around the earthquake area can be applied to predict forthcoming earthquakes. As for the most disastrous Tang Shan Earthquake, the prediction time is about five months in advance. If the ground temperature “current” that embodies the earth’s crust movement satisfies the unintegrable panderivative equation, we can with enough information demonstrate blown‐up mechanism and forecast relevant earthquakes.

The purpose of this paper is to describe how, in the recent attempts to stimulate alternative energy sources for heating and cooling of buildings, emphasis has been put on utilisation of the ambient energy from ground source heat pump systems (GSHPs) and other renewable energy sources.

Exploitation of renewable energy sources and particularly ground heat in buildings can significantly contribute towards reducing dependency on fossil fuels. This paper highlights the potential energy saving that could be achieved through use of ground energy source. It also focuses on the optimisation and improvement of the operation conditions of the heat cycles and performances of the direct expansion (DX) GSHP.

It is concluded that the direct expansion of GSHP are extendable to more comprehensive applications combined with the ground heat exchanger in foundation piles and the seasonal thermal energy storage from solar thermal collectors.

The paper highlights the energy problem and the possible saving that can be achieved through the use of the GSHP systems and discusses the principle of the ground source energy, varieties of GSHPs, and various developments.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of liquid carbon dioxide (LCO₂) on grinding of stainless steel.

A factorial experimental approach was used to compare the LCO₂'s performance against grinding under dry air and emulsion coolants.

The experimental results have a great use to practitioners. It was found that under special conditions, LCO₂ proves to be an alternative coolant for grinding of temperature sensitive materials. Furthermore, grinding under LCO₂ conditions produced the lowest tangential force, while the normal forces were close to the values found under emulsion fluid environment. When compared to grinding under dry conditions, LCO₂ coolant was successful in reducing the work piece temperatures. LCO₂ and emulsion conditions inhibit work hardening by reducing material deformation at the grinding zone.

The paper shows that sub‐zero temperature coolants have the ability to bring about lower grinding temperatures than what is typically achieved under conventional fluids.

Cement fly ash gravel (CFG) pile composite foundation is an effective and economic foundation treatment approach, which is significant to build foundation, subgrade construction, and so forth. The purpose of this paper is to present a research on the temperature behaviours of high-latitude and low-altitude island permafrost under CFG pile composite foundation treatment.

In the process of CFG pile construction, the temperature of permafrost and pile body was monitored using the temperature sensors. The influence of subgrade height and atmospheric temperature cycle on permafrost temperature was analysed by finite element simulation.

In the process of CFG pile construction, the change curve of pile temperature and the temperature of permafrost beside pile following time can be divided into six stages, and the duration of these stages is at least one month. The temperature variation of permafrost while constructing subgrade in FEM has a good agreement with the results of field temperature monitoring. The height of subgrade not only affects the maximum temperature increase of permafrost and the re-frozen time of permafrost after the construction of CFG pile composite foundation, but also affects the temperature variation amplitude of permafrost during atmospheric temperature cycle.

The research will provide a reference for the design on the CFG pile composite foundation used for island permafrost and guarantee the stability of the structure; thus, it has an important significance.

In this paper, a class of nonlinear heat‐conduction equations is derived. The properties of these heat‐conduction equations are analyzed. It is shown that the solutions of these equations contain singularity. That is, when T = T_m, discontinuity, i.e. blown‐up, occurs to the solutions. The occurrence of the blown‐ups is closely related the abnormal distribution of the initial ground temperatures, and so there might be some connections between blown‐ups and earthquakes.

The vortex shedding from a rectangular cylinder improves the heat transfer rates. Introducing a ground effect in such a flow system alters the shedding frequency, which in turn enables to vary the cooling rates of the cylinder. In the present study a laminar flow passing over a rectangular cylinder with a ground effect is considered. The flow and energy equations are solved numerically using a control volume approach. Strouhal and Stanton number variations due to gap height are computed and the influence of Strouhal number on Stanton number variation behind the cylinder is examined. The study is extended to include the predictions of entropy generation in the solution domain. It is found that shedding frequency increases as gap height reduces and further reduction in gap height results in diminishing of vortex shedding, in which case confined flow is developed in the gap. Heat transfer rates improve when Strouhal number is maximum. In the case of confined flow situation, heat transfer rates enhance substantially in the region close to the top corner of the cylinder, in which case, non‐uniform cooling of the surface is resulted.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate surface integrity of quenched steel 1045 ground drily by the brazed cubic boron nitride (CBN) grinding wheel and the black SiC wheel, respectively. Surface integrity, including surface roughness, sub-surface hardness, residual stresses and surface morphology, was investigated in detail, and the surface quality of samples ground by two grinding wheels was compared.

In the present work, surface integrity of quenched steel 1045 machined by the CBN grinding wheel and the SiC wheel was investigated systematically. All the specimens were machined with a single pass in the down-cutting mode of dry condition. Surface morphology of the ground specimen was observed by using OLYMPUS BX51M optical microscopy. Surface roughness of seven points was measured by using a surface roughness tester at a cut-off length of 1.8 mm and the measurement traces were perpendicular to the grinding direction. Sub-surface micro-hardness was measured by using HVS-1000 digital micro-hardness tester after the cross-section surface was polished. The residual stress was tested by using X-350A X-ray stress analyzer.

When the cut depth is increased from 0.01 to 0.07 mm, the steel surface machined by the CBN wheel remains clear grinding mark, lower roughness, higher micro-hardness and higher magnitude of compressive stress and fine microstructure, while the surface machined by the SiC grinding wheel becomes worse with increasing of cut depth. The value of micro-hardness decreases, and the surface roughness increases, and the surface compressive stress turns into tensile stress. Some micro-cracks and voids occur when the sample is processed by the SiC grinding wheel with cut depth 0.07 mm.

In this paper, the specimens of quenched steel 1045 were machined by the CBN grinding wheel and the SiC wheel with various cutting depths. The processing quality resulted from the CBN grinding wheel is better than that resulted from the SiC grinding wheel.

Grinding may generate high temperature along the arc of grinding zone, especially during the grinding process of difficult‐to‐machine materials. It can cause thermal damage to the ground surface and poor surface integrity. Conventional cooling methods based on large amounts of water‐oil emulsions can be both ineffective and environmentally unacceptable. The purpose of this paper is to offer a new high efficiency cooling method – cryogenic pneumatic mist jet cooling (CPMJ) to enhance heat transfer in the grinding zone during grinding of difficult‐to‐machine materials.

CPMJ equipment is a set up, which can produce water mist of −5°C with jet velocity above 150 m/s and mean particle size below 20 μm at the impingement distance of 10‐40 mm on the symmetry axis. To validate the cooling efficiency of CPMJ equipment, heat transfer experiments were carrying out on it. Finally, CPMJ was applied to the grinding of titanium alloy to verify its cooling effects.

With high penetrative power and water mist of −5°C, CPMJ can greatly improve heat transfer efficiency in the grinding zone. Experimental results, including heat transfer experiments and grinding experiments, indicate that CPMJ has strong cooling ability and can offer better cooling effects compared with cold air jet and traditional flood cooling method. With CPMJ cooling method, grinding zone temperature can be effectively reduced and good surface quality can be achieved during grinding of titanium alloy.

CPMJ cooling method is an effective and pollution‐free way to solve the thermal problems during grinding of difficult‐to‐machine materials.

Crawl space ventilation became essential to avoid moisture damage. Historical houses with wood floor and crawl spaces unventilated correctly often face problems of biological degradation. This paper seeks to address these issues.

In this work a case study of the Egas Moniz museum house, in Estarreja, Portugal, with different building pathologies, such as biological degradation and development of micro‐organisms and fungi, is presented. An experimental campaign was carried out with continuous monitoring of the relative humidity and temperature, to validate the real climatic conditions in the crawl spaces. Additionally, the authors analyse the treatment technologies used in the past and the characteristics of the rehabilitation solutions in order to control the hygrothermal behaviour. Simultaneously, numerical simulation was done using the software tool WUFI‐2D to simulate the hygrothermal building behaviour and a sensitivity study of parameters used was done.

The in‐situ experimental results showed that high values of relative humidity imply biological degradation of the wood floor and the numerical and analytical models used showed the same tendency. The numerical results showed the importance of crawl spaces with a good ventilation to avoid mould growth and, also, suggested that controlled mechanical ventilation is preferable to strongly continuous mechanical ventilation in this type of spaces. The experimental study shows that the continuous functioning of a ventilation system may lead to the occurrence of interior condensation, so a hygro‐regulated system is thus essential to control unwanted condensation, with an appropriate functioning criterion.

In accordance with the numerical and experimental results, the authors proceeded to the implementation of a hygro‐regulated system to ventilate the crawl spaces of the Egas Moniz museum house.

This paper presents a new proposed intervention methodology, in crawl spaces, to avoid mould growth, based on an extraction controlled by a hygro‐regulated ventilator.