Improving the return rate of a smart pillbox in a circular economy: From product redesign to comprehensive guidelines

This study explores nudging strategies to improve user abilities in order to promote the voluntary return of digital health products, with a focus on the smart pillbox. The two objectives were to create specific design recommendations for the smart pillbox and derive general design guidelines to support a circular lifecycle for future digital...

The future of concrete recycling: An integrated life cycle environmental and cost analysis on the hotspots to improve the demolition and recycling practices across Europe

Building construction is a material-intensive process known for depleting natural resources, mainly gravel and sand, used in concrete production. At the same time, building demolition generates large amounts of construction and demolition waste (CDW), primarily consisting of end-of-life (EOL) concrete, a significant waste flow occurring in...

Cluster-based identification algorithm for in-line recycled concrete aggregates characterization using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

To upcycle End-of-Life (EoL) concrete from demolished buildings, it is essential to efficiently identify the different materials that may contaminate it. The precise identification and classification of materials and contaminants are vital processes for in-line quality inspection of recycled concrete aggregates transported on a conveyor belt....

Graduation Letter from My Dog: A conversation tool to provide appropriate guidance and support for pet loss

Coping with pet loss will be difficult for these pet owners without support or guidance. <br/>The pet market has seen increased prosperity as people’s living conditions have improved. Taking the Chinese market as an example, by the end of 2018, the number of pets had surpassed 100 million (Chen, 2019). Approximately 10 million pets die each year...

Graveyard Orbits Around Mars

Mars is expected to become a focal point of exploration (human and robotic) in the near future. Extensive operations and continued human presence on the planet would require a robust space infrastructure. Be it navigation satellite constellations or scientific missions in low Mars orbits (LMO) and Areosynchronous orbits (ASO), every satellite...

Treatment of end-of-life concrete in an innovative heating-air classification system for circular cement-based products

A stronger commitment towards Green Building and circular economy, in response to environmental concerns and economic trends, is evident in modern industrial cement and concrete production processes. The critical demand for an overall reduction in the environmental impact of the construction sector can be met through the consumption of high...

Disposal and recycle economic assessment for aircraft and engine end of life solution evaluation

The present study proposes an economic indicator to support the evaluation of aircraft End of Life (EoL) strategies in view of the increasing demand with regards to aircraft decommissioning. This indicator can be used to evaluate the economic performance and to facilitate the trade-off studies among different strategies. First, Disposal and...

Application of Conditional Random Fields and Sparse Polynomial Chaos Expansions to Geotechnical Problems

In geotechnical applications, mechanical properties of soil vary spatially within the soil mass and they are often represented by random fields. When data at certain locations of the soil mass are available, conditional random fields may be used to incorporate them. In this paper, we combine conditional random fields with sparse polynomial chaos...

Probabilistic Analysis at Ultimate Limit State of Strip Footings Resting on a Spatially Varying Soil Using Subset Simulation Approach

The failure probability of geotechnical structures with spatially varying soil properties is generally computed using Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) methodology. This approach is well known to be very time-consuming when dealing with small failure probabilities. One alternative to MCS is the subset simulation approach. This approach was mainly...

Design for end of life: A design methodology for the early stages of an innovation process

The first phases of the engineering design process, such as the problem definition, the information gathering and the idea generation phase, are commonly considered as important steps in product development, since the cost of a product is assumed to be largely determined within these design steps. Besides limiting the product costs, designers...