Barriers and Challenges to the Sustainability Requirements Implementation in Public Procurement of Engineering Works and Services

The environmental damage arising from the construction and engineering services was responsible for the appearance of several norms and resolutions regulating and directing the sector’s performance. In this article, we research how professionals with experience in public bids assess the difficulty degree of the implementation of those requirements and how they assess the environmental legislation regarding the protection and conservation of the environment, impact on costs, deadlines and the solution to environmental problems. The results show that industry professionals consider as “high” the level of difficulty to implement the addressed sustainability requirements, and that the Brazilian environmental legislation does not comply with its environmental protection role, increases the possibility of delays and costs of projects and services and hampers the emergence of solutions that could solve environmental problems.

A strategy for out-of-roundness damage wheels identification in railway vehicles based on sparse autoencoders

Wayside monitoring is a promising cost-effective alternative to predict damage in the rolling stock. The main goal of this work is to present an unsupervised methodology to identify out-of-roundness(OOR) damage wheels, such as wheel flats and polygonal wheels. This automatic damage identification algorithm is based on the vertical acceleration evaluated on the rails using a virtual wayside monitoring system and involves the application of a two-step procedure. The first step aims to define a confidence boundary by using(healthy) measurements evaluated on the rail constituting a baseline. The second step of the procedure involves classifying damage of predefined scenarios with different levels of severities. The proposed procedure is based on a machine learning methodology and includes the following stages:(1) data collection,(2) damage-sensitive feature extraction from the acquired responses using a neural network model, i.e., the sparse autoencoder(SAE),(3) data fusion based on the Mahalanobis distance, and(4) unsupervised feature classification by implementing outlier and cluster analysis. This procedure considers baseline responses at different speeds and rail irregularities to train the SAE model. Then, the trained SAE is capable to reconstruct test responses(not trained) allowing to compute the accumulative difference between original and reconstructed signals. The results prove the efficiency of the proposed approach in identifying the two most common types of OOR in railway wheels.

Finite Element Modelling of Steel Beams with Web Openings

Height limitations are not uncommon in multi-storey buildings due to economic requirements and esthetical considerations. Substantial spaces are normally required to enable the passage of large pipes and ducts beneath steel beams leading to uneconomic floor heights. The most adopted solution for this issue is the use of steel beam web openings to provide the required space for services. These openings could lead to a significant decrease of the beam load carrying capacity depending on the adopted openings shape, size and location. These aspects motivated the present study based on FE simulations calibrated against numerical and test results. The results accuracy enabled a comprehensive parametric analysis of beams with web openings to be made focused on the profile size, web opening location, among others. The study also investigated the efficiency of longitudinal stiffeners welded at the opening region and benefits of using an adequate edge concordance radius in beams with rectangular and square openings. The obtained results showed the need of using welded longitudinal stiffeners in order to increase the beams ultimate load carrying capacity. This adoption can double or even triple the ultimate load of beams with rectangular and square opening heights equal to 0.75 H, respectively.

Natural Attenuation and Biostimulation of Biodiesel Contaminated Soils from Southern Brazil with Different Particle Sizes

Biodiesel bioremediation in soils may occur by natural attenuation or by engineered techniques, such as biostimulation and bioaugmentation. The present study evaluated the degradation of biodiesel in two soils with different particle size characteristics by the bioremediation processes of natural attenuation and biostimulation. The experiment was carried out ex situ, with the factors temperature, moisture content, and pH being controlled for the experimental period of 110 days. The study aimed at evaluating the biodegradation of a clayey soil （A） and a sandy soil （B）, both contaminated with pure biodiesel, by using the analytical methods of respirometry and gas chromatography. Biostimulation treatments using nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium solutions （NPK） promoted higher microbiological activity in both soils. At the end of the experiment, it was observed that biostimulation was more efficient when compared to natural attenuation, showing higher biodiesel degradation for both soils A （59.76%） and B （90.41%）.

Leading for Sustainability in the Brazilian Construction Industry

This article analyzes the major stakeholders in the Brazilian construction industry from the viewpoint of the companies in this sector, as well as how these organizations relate to their stakeholders with regard to the topic of sustainability in the construction. The study was based on the principle that the relationship with stakeholders is one of the foundations for the inception and continuity of activities toward sustainability. The findings of which show that the construction companies start the sustainability implementation process without the involvement of external stakeholders. This survey points out the difficulty faced by Brazilian construction companies in relating to their stakeholders. There is the perception that the customers and other actors do not value sustainability-oriented activities, but, at the same time, the relationship of the companies with these stakeholders is limited to disclosure of information. This characteristic of the industry reveals a need for sustainability projects that take into consideration, since their formulation, the stakeholders’ perceptions. The importance of this article lies in the recognition that, although the topic of sustainability is discussed at all levels, studies that examine how specific construction industries have been dealing with it are still rare.

Rheological and stability analysis of cement pastes incorporating silica-based wastes

This study investigates the influence of waste characteristics,especially zeta potential,on the properties of cement pastes and solutions.The focus is to evaluate the impact of the zeta potential of cement particles and waste materials on the sedimentation speed,rheology,and hardening time of stabilized cement pastes.Portland Cement II F 40,retarder additive,silica,and fly ash were used in the research.The pastes were prepared,and during the stabilization period,their rheological properties and pH were evaluated.The zeta potential and sedimentation speed of the cement and waste particles were measured at the pH that the pastes presented during the entire stabilization period.After the stabilization period,the pastes were subjected to the hardening time test.The zeta potential analyses revealed diverse values for the different powder types,with the cement particles exhibiting a zeta potential of−3.0 mV,the silica particles exhibiting−10.5 mV,and the fly ash particles exhibiting−20.3 mV.The influence of the high zeta potential modulus was observed on the sedimentation speed,with the solution containing fly ash exhibiting a speed of 40.01μm/s,whereas the solution containing only cement exhibited a speed of 99.38μm/s.In the pastes,the results indicate that the presence of fly ash particles with a significantly negative zeta potential led to a 16%reduction in hardening time compared to particles with a lower modulus of zeta potential.Rheometry tests showed that the inclusion of fly ash particles prevented the formation of agglomerates.Although the zeta potential influenced agglomerate formation and hardening time,it was found to have no effect on yield stress or viscosity.