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This paper examines the effectiveness of sustainable warehouse design with regard to fire regulations and costs. When designing industrial facilities, the high risk of fire during their subsequent operation must be considered. Therefore, in this article, the variant analysis in terms of cost and technological, sustainable solutions for the investment in the "design and build" system were subjected to fire protection installation systems for three variants with different fire zones. During the modelling, the impact of the fire zone on the spread of smoke, temperature changes at a selected point above the fire source, and visibility were examined. Numerical analyses showed differences in the degree of smoke spread for variants I, II, and III without any relevant impact on the effectiveness of evacuation. The division of the hall into a larger number of fire zones reduces the effects of a potential fire. This study highlights that the cost of the investment is vastly influenced by the conditions of fire protection and evacuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost every civil engineering project involves heavy construction equipment to create earthworks. This in turn is connected with carbon dioxide emissions, which are hazardous to the environment, especially in densely populated areas. Strict control and regulation of emissions from construction equipment has already been introduced in Hong Kong. This paper presents the results of several years of field research on the performance of construction equipment (excavators). The comparative analysis concerns the data obtained during a field survey in relation to the outlays proposed in the catalogues of material outlays commonly used in Poland (KNR catalogues.) The presented problem fills in the gaps in research on the performance of construction equipment. The results of the study clearly show the discrepancy between theoretical data from the KNR and the actual use of construction equipment during the construction of underground sanitary networks. Apart from the excessive consumption of diesel fuel, sequentially increased CO2 emissions occur. The presented research results allow for the development of an innovative method for the optimal use of heavy construction equipment, thus reducing CO2 emissions. This study is a continuation of a pilot study conducted by the staff of the Institute of Civil Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a method of application of an ANN (Artificial Neural Network) to predict the permeability coefficient k in sandy soils: FSa, MSa, CSa. To develop an ANN the results of permeability coefficients from pumping and consolidation tests were applied. The proposed ANN with an architecture 6-8-1 predicts the value of permeability coefficient k based on the following parameters: soil type, relative density ID, void ratio e and effective soil diameter d10. The mean relative error and single maximum value of the relative error for the proposed ANN are following: Mean RE = ±4%, Max RE = 7.59%. The use of the ANN to predict the soil permeability coefficient allows the reduction of the costs and time needed to conduct laboratory or field tests to determine this parameter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exceeding the approved budget is often an integral part of the implementation of construction projects, especially those where unforeseen threats may occur. Therefore, each construction investment should contain elements of risk forecasting, mainly in terms of the cost of its implementation. Only a small number of institutions apply effective cost control methods, taking into account the specifics of a given industry. Especially small construction companies that participate in the structure of the implementation of large construction projects as subcontractors. The article presents a method by which it is possible to determine, with certain probability, the final cost of railway construction investments carried out in Poland. The method was based on a reliable database of risk factors published in sources. In this article, the main presumptions of the original method are presented, which take into account the impact of potential, previously recognized, risks specific to railway investments, and enable project managers to relate them to the conditions where the implementation of a specific object is planned. The authors assumed that such a relatively simple method, supported by a suitable computational program, would encourage teams that plan to implement railway projects to use it and increase the credibility of their schedules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]