One of the most perplexing issues facing organizations in the construction industry is their inability to become quality focused. As a result sub-standard products and services often emanate, which inadvertently result in rework. Typically, rework is caused by errors made during the design...

Serendipitous findings are reported from an on-going research project that seeks to determine the effectiveness of quality assurance systems certified under the ISO 9000 series in Australian contracting organizations. In Australia, certification has become mandatory for all organizations wishing...

Increasing levels of wind energy in modern electrical power system is initiating a need for accurate analysis and estimation of transient stability of wind turbine generation systems. This paper investigates the transient behaviors and possible direct methods for transient stability evaluation...

This paper investigates the possible site matching of the direct-drive wind turbine concepts based on the electromagnetic design optimization of permanent magnet (PM) generator systems. Firstly, the analytical models of a three-phase radial-flux PM generator with a back-to-back power converter...

The synergy between highly energy-efficient buildings and low-energy district heating (DH) systems is a promising concept for the optimal integration of energy-saving policies and energy supply systems based on renewable energy (RE). Network transmission and distribution heat loss is one of the...

The critical liquefaction of rice straw to bio-oil with sub- and supercritical mixtures (ethanol–water and 2-propanol–water mixture) was studied in a 1000ml autoclave at 533–623K, 6–18MPa, respectively. The results showed that the maximum yield of bio-oil was 39.7% for the...

Spin-dependent electron transport in a periodically stubbed quantum wire in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) is studied via the nonequilibrium Green’s function (GF) method combined with the Landauer-Büttiker formalism. By comparing with a straight Rashba quantum wire, the...

Combined heat and power is the simultaneous production of electricity and heat. CHP plants produce energy in an efficient way. A natural gas CHP system based on an internal combustion engine (ICE) is described, which has been set up at the Building Energy Research Center in Beijing, China. The...

This study discusses efficiency issues related to social insurance provisions and their implications for the newly established three-pillar pension system and three-tier health insurance system in China. It shows that these new systems can be improved substantially through some restructuring to...