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When a fire breaks throughout the exterior of a fire compartment, there is the possibility of vertical spread on the façade of the building, threatening the apartments of the upper floors. The main regulation in Romania (SC007-2013) states a number of technical and constructive requirements in order to limit the vertical spread of fire to the buildings which are thermal insulated with polystyrene. The aim of this research paper is to present the behavior of the proposed systems and solutions in case of fire and to optimize the width of a non-combustible barrier system to achieve the desired effect. There are also presented three laboratory tests for different design parameters and are being analyzed the results from fire exposure according to ISO 834 time-temperature curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) using the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) method was employed to investigate the effects of wind on plume dispersion generated by compartment fire and the level of air pollution inside an idealized street canyon and the surrounding buildings. The purpose of this study was to assess the exposure of the occupants in building compartments with openings oriented towards the street and for the pedestrians on the street at ground level. The numerical results indicate that there is strong interaction between wind flow and in-canyon fire plume flow. The flow field patterns in the canyon restrict the air inflow, cause the fire plume dispersion inside and over the canyon, and push the smoke into the building compartments. Larger quantities of air in the fire compartment result in lower concentrations of carbon monoxide, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, and smoke dilution. Larger quantities of air in the outer plume, due to the dilution effect, reduce the concentrations and temperature of the pollutants in the street and the buildings. These results can be used not only to assess the air pollution level under extreme conditions such as a fire accident, but also in urban planning and air quality control strategies aimed at reducing the air pollution level within urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Green building certification has gained global prominence in the wake of the recent calls for ensuring the sustainable development of expanding urban areas. This trend rooted in the fact that buildings are among the main sources of energy consumption and CO2 emissions. Green certification therefore emerged in response to sustainability concerns throughout the building sector. Nonetheless, the significant costs required by green investments have elicited scholars' attention, in an attempt to determine if the benefits of green certification outweigh its costs. This study uses a proprietary data-set of office building transactions from three major European countries - Finland, France, and Germany - in order to analyze the price premium of green certification over the 2010–2015 period. Considering the increasing demand for certification in the European Union (EU) after 2010, it is expected that green office buildings would sell at higher prices relative to non-green buildings. Empirical tests suggest that office buildings with green certification have a 19 percent higher price relative to non-certified buildings. Further, the study aims to assess whether the premium varies with the location of the green buildings within the urban area. Given the price premium brought by a central location - irrespective of green certification - it is expected that the price premium of green investments would incrementally increase in non-central locations. The distance variable is hand-constructed based on geocoding all properties in the dataset - empirical results indicate that the green certification price premium incrementally increases by 10.5 percent for 1-km distance from the city center. Further tests show that the distance effect becomes insignificant in both (i) large cities and (ii) cities of under 200,000 inhabitants. In these two contingencies, the price premium associated with central locations is reduced - which also diminishes the relevance of the green buildings' location. The empirical results are robust to eliminating 2010 and 2011 from the sample and to employing a propensity score matching approach, aimed at increasing the similarity of the treatment and control groups. This paper adds to the rising literature on the topic of green buildings, as it is the first international study to assess the price impact of green certification as a function of office building location. • Office building transactions from Finland, France and Germany in the 2010–2015 period. • Multiple-country study finds a 19 percent price premium for green certification. • 10.5 percent incremental premium if distance from the city center increases by 1 km. • The distance effect becomes insignificant in large cities. • The distance effect becomes insignificant in cities of under 200,000 inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Valorization of waste printed circuit boards and polypropylene. • Increased impact strength compared to the recycled polypropylene without additives. • Improved fire performance of the recycled polypropylene elastomeric composites. In the last several years, the electronic waste, especially printed circuit boards have significantly increased over the world, generating one of the highest rates of solid waste. The recycling process of the printed circuit boards implies mainly the recovery of metals and glass fibers, while the reuse of the polymeric support has remained largely in the phase of research. In this paper, the non-metallic part of printed circuit boards was used as filler (up to 30%), but also to improve the fire resistance of thermoplastic composites based on recycled polypropylene and diene block-copolymers. The synergy between the elastic effect of elastomers and the reinforcing effect of the waste powder into the thermoplastic matrix was studied by mechanical and dynamo-mechanical analysis, X-ray diffraction, optical microscopy, micro-calorimetry and thermo-gravimetrical analysis. Improved mechanical properties, especially impact strength was observed. The compatibization of components considering the interactions between the ethylene-butylene blocks from the hydrogenated and maleinized styrene-butadiene block-copolymer and recycled polypropylene, respectively between the MA groups and the functionalities of the waste powder, evidenced by FTIR, was highlighted by changes in the X-ray pattern and an increased fire resistance and thermal stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]