A field survey of the areas affected by the 12.05.08 earthquake is proposed with the aim of assembling quantitative damage data and developing the use of remote sensing for the monitoring of earthquake damage and recovery. The survey will be carried out in conjunction with researchers from Chongqing University, and a further aim is to establish a longer-term research collaboration with Chongqing and other Chinese Universities in the field of earthquake risk mitigation.

Both the UK and China face great demands for offshore renewable energy (ORE) yet high risks have impeded faster development. While the cost of generated energy has just been reduced to £100/MWhr for offshore wind in the UK (4 years ahead of government schedule) deployment further offshore will increase both the capital and operational & maintenance (O&M) costs. in China, onshore wind power is severely curtailed due to crowded transmission corridors. Exploitation of offshore wind would better match the population distribution in China, and so hence there is a strong motivation to exploit this ORE. In order accelerate this development, new technologies are desperately needed to improve the performance in terms of cost, efficiency and reliability (availability). In addition to offshore wind, other forms of marine renewable energy will also play indispensable roles in the future renewable energy mix. Because these technologies are less mature, this development involves even higher risks. As yet none of the wave energy generation companies have shown to be commercially viable without economic support mechanisms. Recognising the high risks involved and the development work that is urgently needed in the industry, this project aims to carry out fundamental modelling and validating work that will lead to the capability of virtual prototyping. Such a capability will significantly accelerate and de-risk the development work in industry. Complementary expertise in the two countries are combined to address the requirements of overall system performance from ORE devices (wind and wave) to grid, and focuses on the critical technical aspects that will dictate the design decisions. This will be achieved through multiple scale (dimensional and time-wise) and multiple resolution modelling, taking into account the specifications and utilisation of materials and components in the designed systems subject to optimal control. The modelling will cover the manufacturability of the designs and will consider environmental constraints including impact on sea life in different locations. These will be important as ORE development is scaled up in the future. The outcome of research will be demonstrated through a series of case studies including both systems for large wind farms and wave arrays, and also small scale devices supplying energy to off-grid islands. The project members have long track records in modelling and design of components in wind and marine renewable systems. The project allows the researchers to interact and carry out studies cutting across the borders of different engineering disciplines, enabling hi-fidelity modelling and virtual prototyping.

The microclimate parameters in urban areas have important impacts on the energy performance of buildings and the potential of passive cooling measures. For example, the urban heat-island (UHI) effect results in increased local atmospheric and surface temperatures in urban areas compared to the surrounding rural areas. Thus, the UHI will increase the overheating risk and the peak cooling load of buildings. It may particularly have a negative impact on night cooling strategies within the UHI during periods of hot weather. Effective urban planning and building design can have a beneficial effect on the urban climate and contribute towards reducing the intensity of the urban heat island, which improves the conditions in living spaces as well as directly reducing the peak cooling load of a building. The vision of the proposed project is to develop a practical, robust, urban thermal simulation method by using Digital Element Model (DEM) to store urban building geometry and boundary information and integrating it with the coupled thermal and airflow model. The DEM is a compact way of storing 3D information using a 2D matrix of elevation values; each pixel represents building heights and can be displayed in a grey-shaded digital image, which has a grey-level proportional to the level of the urban surface. The DEM is capable to handle large amount of data in less time. It is also able to present the geometrical relations among the buildings in the studied area. It has been proven to be an effective way of urban analysis. This model will be used to perform parametric study for various configurations of urban form and texture, building and road surface materials and vegetation in order to analyse Urban Heat-Island (UHI) mitigation strategies and potential passive measures of energy-efficient buildings. The principal objectives of this proposed three-year project are: (1) To develop a dynamically coupled thermal and airflow urban model integrating with the Digital Element Model (DEM), and to validate the model in association with experimental investigations in the urban canyon; (2) To link the proposed numerical urban model with the existing thermal and airflow building model (developed by the PI) to conduct an analysis of the interrelationship of the urban microclimate and building energy performance; (3)To perform an urban parametric study and analyse the potential of UHI mitigation strategies and their impact on the urban environment and energy consumption (CO2 emission) and (4)To assess urban and building thermal comfort. The prospected deliverables are: D1: A coupled thermal and airflow urban dynamic model integrated with the Digital Element Model (DEM) together with a series of numerical and visualised simulation results of different urban configurations for urban environment analysis; D2: A integrated urban microclimatic and building energy simulation model; D3: A series of parametric assessments for the urban environment and the potential of UHI mitigation strategies and D4: A series of assessments for passive measures of energy-efficient building design in the urban context.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.

Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.