Гражданское строительство: новые разработки и проекты

… In general, earthquakes can be measured using seismographs or accelerometers. The “beauty of smartphones,” Allen explains, is that they already contain accelerometers. What Allen and Kong established with their MyShake work was that they could “use the accelerometer in every smartphone to record ground motion in the exact same way that we would in a traditional seismic network,” Allen says.

While the first accelerometers were put in smartphones to determine whether a person was viewing the phone in portrait or landscape mode, their usefulness has significantly expanded to include a variety of fitness tracking options and other apps, which now includes ground motion tracking, according to Allen. Unlike the MyShake app that can be installed on any smartphone, however, the Google system is integrated into Android phones only….

….The arching wooden volume creates an entrance canopy over the Kansalaistori square forming a covered outdoor space that expands the building’s functions such as the ground level restaurant to the square.

The middle floor, the «Attic», consists of flexible irregularly shaped rooms, nooks and corners inhabiting the spaces between the trusses of the bridge structure. The stepped seating in the open central area of this floor is the result of the form of the cantilevering, twisting west façade.

The «Book Heaven» on the top floor is a vast open landscape topped with an undulating cloud like white ceiling.Here the best features of the traditional library meet the possibilities provided by up-to-date technologies. From this level visitors can enjoy a terrace with an unobstructed 360-degree panorama view of the city center….

…Protecting against radiation is one of the most critical factors engineers need to consider for space habitats, wherever they’re located. These measures include shielding the habitat with thick layers of metal-lead, for instance-or concrete or other materials, such as water, ice, or the indigenous soils (regolith). Alternatively, the facility can be located underground or within naturally protected sites, such as lava tubes that exist on both the moon and Mars.

Cost and convenience are crucial determinants, notes Bobet. To use lead or concrete would mean transporting large quantities of heavy materials from Earth to the moon or Mars, which would be tremendously expensive and challenging. The use of ice or water would be easier, as both are believed to be available in large quantities at certain locations on the moon and the red planet-especially at the polar regions of each. But that would limit the possible locations of the habitat, requiring that the base be located close to the sources. Or the water or ice could be transported to the habitat site, another potentially daunting task….

…Devices set in the road surface itself, especially in regions subject to harsh winters, are easily cut or otherwise damaged by snowplows, road salt, or issues related to the «grit and grime and wear and tear of the road,» Volz explains. As a result, the in-ground sensors can lead to increased maintenance costs and inconvenience-such as closing a lane to install, repair, or replace a sensor, notes Edelstein.

Moreover, sensors embedded in curbside parking spaces—used to track where parking is available—can generate inaccurate readings because of construction barriers or piles of snow. These devices often use electromagnetism to detect the presence of metal—in the form of a vehicle—above the sensor, which the snow would not trigger, notes Kris Carter, the cochair of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics in Boston. Thus, the sensor would report that a parking space was unoccupied at a time when it could not actually be used…..

….During the design phase, the spherical roof and the radial grids were parametrically controlled and carefully considered to arrive at the final desired shape and layout of the terminal. The use of the Rhino 3D modeling platform and associated Grasshopper visual programming plug-in — both developed by Robert McNeel & Associates, of Seattle — enabled the Walter P Moore team to examine various options simultaneously to ensure synergy between the architectural intent and the structural design.

One of the greatest design challenges was realizing the architect’s vision of sweeping open spaces within the geometry of the structure while staying within the budget. As a result, multiple rounds of value engineering led to numerous design changes throughout the project. The parametric model was an invaluable tool in avoiding delays. For example, the roof geometry of the terminal building and the transition to the roof of the concourses were parametrically modeled and adjusted as the architect developed the preferred form.….