<p> Parking shortage in hospitals are a pivotal issue that often finds itself without a suitable solution for many hospitals in Malaysia and worldwide. The continuous lack of parking spaces in hospitals has contributed to illegal parking, significant road obstructions, vandalism, all of which causes hardship to the people. Rising car ownership and the lack of public transportation incites emotional turmoil among people and provides further grief.</p><p> The thesis entitled 'The socio-economic impact of introducing a sustainable multilevel mechanical parking garage to resolve the shortage of parking spaces for Serdang Hospital with minimal hardship to the people' tries to evaluate the impact of pricing optimization, consumer behavior, and the strategic relevance technology plays to Serdang Hospital.</p><p> This thesis intends to recognize the importance of collecting data for qualitative research and gaining insights of the public regarding the introduction of a new concept with minimal hardship to the people. The applicability and acceptability of this new technology in the study are measured using survey data, on-site data collection, personal observation, and interviews.</p><p> In this research, the parking issues and the drawbacks of conventional parking techniques are highlighted, and new concepts of parking used in other developing countries are identified. There is a gap in discussing the socioeconomic impact in the evolution of parking structures in Malaysia and how pricing impacts the decision for change. The research hopes to add to this gap by examining Serdang Hospital as a case study.</p><p> This research aims to pave the way for a better future for hospital parking not only for Serdang Hospital but all Malaysian hospitals in general. There are parking garages that operate at a profit, break even, and also at a loss. </p><p> A simple assessment of the financial feasibility had proven to be an economic gain to the hospital with additional revenue acquired from the rental of billboards. Nonetheless, it is imperative to view the multilevel mechanical parking garage as a long-term solution because if not now, at some point the reality is, they will still need to build a parking garage to resolve the shortage of parking spaces even if the hospital takes a loss.</p><p>

<p> We are now challenged with design-oriented goals of sustainability initiatives requiring energy efficiency in the built environment. Stricter energy codes have added more potential fuel load to a structure and its building envelope. However, these sustainability initiatives do not explicitly consider the fire risks and hazards posed by green building designs, significantly affecting the fire protection and life safety of buildings. At present, a quantitative method to compare the relative fire performance of green building materials and the hazards associated with them is not available. The objective of this research is to propose a semi-quantitative fire hazard assessment, assigning values to selected fire hazard variables. The framework to quantify the impact of sustainable initiatives to a model project is provided; the green building facade elements are the focus of the analysis in this research. </p><p> A recent hypothetical case study[67] is the model project for this research, used to demonstrate the novel framework for the development of a semi-quantitative method. It compares the relative fire performance of green building initiatives and the hazards associated with them on a high-rise residential building using cross-laminated timber. The approach employs an index method, establishing an order of magnitude, with relative rankings based on engineering judgement and experience. Levels of impact are assigned; relative hazard levels are estimated, as a weighted function of the importance or influence, of the hazard impact on the various green elements; decision-making matrices are developed and an overall hazard ranking of the building with the designed green building initiatives calculated. </p><p> Some features present mild or moderate hazard to the green building, others present high or severe hazards. The greatest concern is from the facade components; these are related to the energy efficiency credits in green building rating programs. A range of potential mitigation measures are suggested, based on synergistic effects, to provide a means of reducing the fire hazards associated with the green building initiatives. Without mitigating strategies, the fire hazards from green building initiatives can increase, life safety can decrease, and/or building performance in comparison with conventional construction can decrease. An alternate fire risk assessment method is used to compare and evaluate the semi-quantitative technique developed. </p><p> Quantifying the fire hazards of green building initiatives is critical to the performance of all structures. The sustainable intent for a building design must, therefore, be integrated into the approach to provide fire and life safety protection strategies. This integrated approach to design and construction could improve the building performance, reducing risk and achieving synergies, yielding economic, environmental, and human benefits. </p><p>

The civil engineering and architectural communities are highly focused, these days, on designing buildings that maximize utilization of energy available from natural resources. This dissertation presents a quantitative study of the effect of high-rise office building morphology on energy and structural performances for the major climates. The parameters of the building morphologies are varied—the building footprint shape, the placement of the structural core/walls, and the building orientation. The energy analysis is performed using Autodesk Ecotect Analysis 2011; while using SAP2000 for the structure analysis and design. The key observations are: (1) the building morphology has a significant effect on the annual energy consumption, (2) placement of the structural core/walls in the east and west sides significantly improve the energy performance, (3) the tradeoff in the cost of placing the structural core/walls to maximize operating energy efficiency is too great, (4) for built to code buildings the energy demand may be considered marginally sensitive to changes in aspect ratio, and (5) high quality thermal properties of code-built envelope systems offer more flexibility to designers with regard to the building site planning without creating negative impacts on total energy demand.

<p> Economic benefits of shale gas production in addition to its potential for enabling energy security are driving the strategic development of unconventional natural gas in the U.S. However, shale gas production poses potential detrimental impacts on the surrounding ecosystems. In particular, sustainable management of high salinity wastewater is one of the critical challenges facing shale gas industry. While recycling shale gas wastewater is a practical short-term solution to minimize total water use in the fracturing process it may not be a viable strategy from a long-term management perspective. Moreover, direct disposal into Salt Water Disposal (SWD) wells which is the most common management strategy in the U.S. is not cost effective in Marcellus shale play due to limited disposal capacity.</p><p> This work develops a systems-level optimization framework for guiding economically conscious management of high salinity wastewater in Marcellus shale play in Pennsylvania (PA) with a focus on using membrane distillation (MD) as the treatment technology. Detailed technoeconomic assessment (TEA) is performed to assess the economic feasibility of MD for treatment of shale gas wastewater with and without availability of waste heat. Natural gas compressor stations (NG CS) are chosen as potential sources of waste heat and rigorous thermodynamic models are developed to quantify the waste heat recovery opportunities from NG CS. The information from waste heat estimation and TEA are then utilized in the optimization framework for investigating the optimal management of shale gas wastewater. Wastewater management alternatives ranging from direct disposal into SWD wells to advanced centralized, decentralized, and onsite treatment options using MD are included in the optimization model. </p><p> The optimization framework is applied to four case studies in Greene and Washington counties in southwest and Susquehanna and Bradford counties in Northeast PA where major shale gas development activities take place. The results of this analysis reveal that onsite treatment of wastewater at shale gas extraction sites in addition to treating wastewater at NG CS where available waste heat could be utilized to offset the energy requirements of treatment process are the most economically promising management options that result in major economic benefit over direct disposal into SWD.</p><p>

<p> The objectives of this research effort focused on the oxidative aging of binders with high recycled asphalt materials. A coordinated program of forced-draft oven aging experiments was conducted on eleven sorts of binder blends including three different types of base binders from TX, NH, and NV, two different types of recycled material (RAP/RAS), and two different types of recycling agents (RA). Implementing the Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) isothermal frequency sweep tests, the oxidation kinetics and rheological performance were determined for the evaluation materials. Results indicated that the oxidative aging rates were influenced by the aging temperature, duration, base binder type, as well as the utilized asphalt modifier, i.e. recycled materials and RAs. It was also noted that the RAs reduced the overall stiffness in the investigated stages of oxidation. However, differential aging rates and hardening susceptibilities were observed between the RA and RAP/RAS additions to each of the three bases, noting that these differences were not consistent with the type of RAS, i.e. MWAS or TOAS. Additionally, the base binder aging properties due to the addition of the recycled material was highly influenced by the RA dosages within each blend.</p><p> Furthermore, the binder blend oxidative aging predictions at binder specific geographical location indicated that using the recycled materials along with the RAs at the optimum dosage, according to the proposed methodology, was able to restore the binder blend properties to the virgin binder.</p><p> The influences of the recycled material and RAs on the PG 64-28P base binder were also investigated through the binder PG grading and mortar testing. Consistent directions for the influence of the evaluation materials were observed within both procedures, suggesting the capability of the mortar procedure in characterizing the effects of RAP and RA materials on virgin binder without the use of chemical extraction.</p><p> The Uniaxial Thermal Stress and Strain Test (UTSST) was also conducted on the PMFC and RPMLC specimens of the NV field project to investigate the influence of the high recycled material and RAs on the asphalt mixtures. Through consideration of the thermo-viscoelastic properties, marked differences in the binder oxidation were noted between the experimental factors. Typically, decreases in the viscous response of the mixtures as well as increases in both the stiffness and brittle behavior were observed with aging and also inclusion of the recycled material. Although the addition of the RAs to the recycled mixtures indicated some extent of properties restoration, crack initiation and fracture were observed to occur in significantly warmer temperatures compared to the virgin mixture.</p><p>