Search

We present soundwalk of Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto, Japan from the main gate facing the Inari railway station to the summit. The soundwalk was captured from Samsung Galaxy S8 running NoiseExplorer: an app we have developed for Android and iOS. Fushimi Inari Shrine is the main shrine of the god Inari and sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari which is 233 meters above sea level. It also includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines which span 4 kilometers and takes approximately two hours to walk up. This shrine is ranked as the number one most popular sightseeing destination among tourists visiting Japan. A salient feature of the shrine is the rows of nearly 10,000 torii gates in striking orange color, which is known as the Senbon torii. The soundscape at the main gate and the main shrine was found to be dominated by the sound of cicadas. However, midway along the torii gates along the path towards the summit, cicada sound subsides, and the soundscape is more representative of typical footpath on mountain paths. The Leq noise level of 59.6 dBA is well below the typical noise level of other Japanese tourist attractions.

The urban parks and gardens are usually surrounded by busy streets, commercial buildings and areas of high noise levels due to human activities and heavy traffic. These parks and gardens therefore have a unique function of providing relatively quiet areas to get away from the hustle and bustle of city lives. In this study, the sonic environment of the Singapore Botanic Gardens, which was the first UNESCO Heritage site in Singapore, was measured on various occasions and benchmarked with various urban gardens and parks around the world, namely the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid. St James’s Park in London, Old Botanical Gardens Hamburg, and Carlton Gardens in Melbourne. The Leq noise level was found to be compatible with the respective Leq noise level of the other urban parks and gardens. The sonic environment of the Singapore Botanic gardens was found to be dominated by cicada sound, human activities and water features. The sound level of various water features such as mini waterfalls and water fountains were also measured and analysed.

Due to the thickness of the spacer fabric, it is usually assembled in a multi-layered manner as a cushion material. However, few studies have been conducted on the compression properties of the multi-layered spacer fabrics. Firstly, this paper analyzes the factors affecting the compression properties of multi-layered spacer fabrics, and explains the influencing mechanisms. Results show that the fixing condition between the sample and the indenter, the fixing condition between layers, the overlaying direction and the compression speed have little effect on the compression property. However, when overlaying spacer fabrics with different moduli, a better compression property can be obtained by placing the fabric with a higher modulus on top. Secondly, this paper focuses on the relationship between the layers and the compression property of the spacer fabrics. It shows that the relation between the compression work and the number of layers is linear, with a high correlation coefficient. The relationship between the modulus and the number of layers is in the form of a cubic function with a good correlation coefficient. Finally, the Kelvin model is modeled and is found to be suitable for characterizing the stage II compressive properties of multi-layered spacer fabrics. The above quantitative analysis provides theoretical support for the design of cushion materials with different moduli and support performance in different regions, and has practical guiding significance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel battery pack comprising a honeycomb core and embedded cylindrical batteries is a low hanging fruit design of structural energy storages. In addition to acting as load-bearing and energy storage, this type of battery pack can offer a better safety level. If one battery cell fails and experiences fire, the honeycomb core will act as a separator for the isolation of each battery cell, and therefore may mitigate the spread of fire or explosion. In the current study, the vibration, shock and impact performances of the structural honeycomb battery pack are numerically investigated using the finite element analysis. The effects of embedding the batteries into the honeycomb core frame and changing the constraint imposed on the battery pack are presented and discussed. In conclusion, this study shows that the honeycomb structural battery pack has good vibration, shock and impact characteristics revealing its commercially viable applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]