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From the environmental perspective, wooden structures are favorable insulators that are suitable for carbon fixation and wooden-related products are considered the most sustainable material. Research has indicated that wooden structures have superior energy-saving performance compared to reinforced concrete (RC) structures. In this study, a CLT-based hybrid structure system that potentially improves the efficiency of energy consumption is proposed. The proposed hybrid structure system, which preserved original RC beams, columns and replaced CLT floors and walls, has less building weight compared to the original RC building. Additionally, less energy required for the manufacturing of building materials in the renovation of the aged building is achieved, compared to building a new CLT building. The energy consumptions for buildings with heights of 10 stories were compared. CLT and RC were selected as benchmark building materials to compare the energy-saving efficiencies with the proposed hybrid structure system. In addition, to examine the energy consumption differences at different latitudes, the energy consumptions in Taipei, Tokyo, Harbin, and Singapore were compared as well. The simulation results indicate the proposed hybrid structure system, which comprises RC beams and columns and CLT floors and walls, and has an energy-saving efficiency close to that of a CLT structure, by approximately 3–5% higher, however, had a superior energy consumption performance to the RC structure. In general, the proposed hybrid structure system can be effectively used for old building renewal in the selected Asian cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The hygroscopicity, functional groups and phase transitions of urban aerosol particles in Taipei City were studied using a cloud condensation nuclei counter (CCNc) with a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and an attenuated total reflectance with infrared (ATR-IR) detection technique. With the assumption of larger particles being activated first, the derived single hygroscopicity parameter ( κ ) exhibited an increasing trend with particle size, i.e., from 0.022 ± 0.01 at 87 ± 10 nm to 0.13 ± 0.03 at 240 ± 20 nm. The collected size-selected particles were characterized using ATR-IR for the functional groups of alkyl, carbonyl, ammonium, sulfate and nitrate, which showed various size dependence patterns, linked to different formation mechanisms. The hygroscopic response based on the ratio ( x W_solute ) for sample film of absorption by the enhanced water-stretching peak to that by the selected solute showed a better consistency with pure ammonium sulfate for sub-micron size particles. Based on the derived ammonium sulfate volume fraction from IR analysis, the κ received from CCNc measurements was concluded mainly contributed by ammonium sulfate for sub-micrometer particles. The increasing trend of sodium nitrate absorbance at aerosol diameter ≥1 μm was due to a reaction of nitric acid with sea salt particles. The micrometer sized particles were apparent not only in a significantly higher x W_solute than pure sodium nitrate but also had a deliquescence RH of 69 ± 1%, similar to that of sodium nitrate-sodium chloride mixtures. Overall, the organic species in this study exhibited a low hygroscopicity with less than 0.036 of contribution for the overall κ , and the major hygroscopic material of urban aerosols consisted primarily of ammonium sulfate in the sub-micrometer particles and sodium nitrate with sea salt in the coarse particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]