Jamie Goggins

Environmental impacts of milk powder and butter manufactured in the Republic of Ireland

The abolition of the milk quota system that was in place in Europe was abolished in 2015, which instigated an immediate increase in milk production in many European countries. This increase will aid in addressing the worlds ever growing demand for food, but will incur increased stresses on the environmental impact and sustainability of the dairy industry. In this study, an environmental life cycle assessment was performed in order to estimate the environmental impacts associated with the manufacture of milk powder and butter in the Republic of Ireland. A farm gate to processing factory gate analysis, which includes raw milk transportation, processing into each product and packaging, is assessed in this study. Operational data was obtained from 5 dairy processing factories that produce milk powder (4 of which also produce butter). Results for each environmental impact category are presented per kilogram of product. Energy consumption (raw milk transportation and on-site electrical and thermal energy usage) contributes, on average, 89% and 78% of the total global warming potential, for milk powder and butter respectively, for the life cycle stages assessed. Similarly, energy consumption contributes, on average, 86% and 96% of the total terrestrial acidification potential for milk powder and butter respectively, for these life cycle stages. Emissions associated with wastewater treatment contribute approximately 10% and 40% to the total freshwater eutrophication potential and marine eutrophication potential, respectively, for both milk powder and butter production. In addition, packaging materials also has a significant contribution to these environmental impact categories for butter production. Results were also presented for three milk powder products being manufactured by the factories surveyed: skim milk powder, whole milk powder and full fat milk powder. The analysis presented in this paper helps to identify opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts associated with post-farm processing of milk powder and butter.

Real-time monitoring of a hybrid precast and in situ concrete flat slab system

Abstract The motivation and implementation of a real-time structural health monitoring strategy to determine the structural performance of a number of educational buildings recently constructed in Ireland is discussed in this paper. In recent years, smart materials with embedded instrumentation has been installed in a number of buildings at the National University of Ireland Galway during the construction phase, which allows continuous monitoring of the behaviour of the structure. Instrumentation installed on a number of projects, described in this paper, allow many important aspects of structures to be monitored during construction, as well as in the operational phase of the building such as temperature, concrete and reinforcement strain, deflection, and response to the environment.

Carbon costs and savings of Greenways: creating a balance sheet for the sustainable design and construction of cycling routes

This research was funded by NUI Galway through the College of Engineering & Informatics Postgraduate Fellowship Scheme and by NUI Galway Students’ Union through the Explore Innovation Initiative.

Engineering in Communities: Learning by Doing

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on a number of initiatives in civil engineering undergraduate programmes at the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG) that allow students to complete engineering projects in the community, enabling them to learn by doing.Design/methodology/approach – A formal commitment to civic engagement was undertaken by the NUIG in 2001 with the establishment of the Community Knowledge Initiative (CKI) to work on mainstreaming civic engagement (service learning) within the curriculum across the institution. Today, the majority of undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in the College of Engineering and Informatics at NUIG have embedded service learning into their curriculum. These initiatives allow students to work with and in local communities, international communities and multi‐disciplinary groups as part of their academic courses. The paper investigates and shows that community‐based projects can enhance student learning and engagement in a number of...

Characterising the effect of global and local geometric imperfections on the numerical performance of a brace member

A numerical imperfection study is carried out on a hot rolled tubular brace member under displacement controlled amplitudes. An appropriate range of global and local imperfections is used in the finite element analyses to evaluate the initial-post buckling compressive strength, lateral storey drift, energy dissipation and mid-length lateral deformation of the brace member. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of the geometrical imperfection on the numerical performance, and to determine an amplitude range that can be used unequivocally for numerical modelling of brace members. It is shown that the amplitude of global imperfections has an effect on the initial response, whereas the amplitude of local imperfections has influence on the resistance capacity of the brace member at higher ductility level. Based on the results, a refined range of amplitude of global and local imperfections is proposed. This range is found to have a good agreement with design standards. In addition, an already established equation to find lateral deformation is compared to results from the analyses and found that the equation with some modification can be used accurately in design. In this paper, a modification factor is proposed in the equation to find the lateral deformation to account for the imperfection amplitude in the numerical analyses of brace members.

Evaluating the structural capacity of concrete elements through in-situ instrumentation

The difficulty in predicting the long term load capacity of concrete elements is well documented. Time dependent effects such as creep and shrinkage coupled with varying loading events, particularly during construction, can all have an adverse effect on the long term performance of a concrete structure. This paper proposes a method that utilises in-situ instrumentation to predict the load carrying capacity of concrete members. During the construction of the Engineering building at the National University of Ireland, Galway over 260 sensors were embedded in a number of key concrete elements. The sensors are being continually monitored with the use of automatic datalogging equipment and the data is being used to monitor changes in geometric and material properties along with the subsequent time dependent deterioration of the elements. The paper will illustrate how the in-situ data from the demonstrator building can be used to estimate the real time behaviour of the concrete elements and how these elements might respond to future changes in use and potential retrofitting. A cost analysis will show how such a monitoring system can be used to reduce the uncertainty levels involved when retrofitting concrete buildings.

Experimental investigation, numerical modelling and multi-objective optimisation of composite wind turbine blades

Abstract Static load and modal testing of two blades from a 15 kW wind turbine is presented. The two blades are made from glass fibre-reinforced polypropylene, one of which has been reinforced with additional carbon fibre plies. Static testing is performed with a Whiffle tree test rig to determine the structural response of the blades. Blade mass, deflections, strains and natural frequencies are reported. The following objectives are undertaken: (i) evaluate and compare the test results of the two wind turbine blade designs, (ii) use the results to validate finite element models of the blades and (iii) utilise the validated models in a design optimisation study. Parametric blade models are generated using the Python programming language and are based on manufacturing specifications for the blades. The models show good correspondence with the experimental results. The goal of the optimisation study is to maximise the stiffness and reduce the mass of the glass fibre blade. A multi-objective genetic algorithm is used to determine the optimum laminate thicknesses along the length of the blades. The optimisation study produced a set of Pareto efficient blade designs with up to 17% improvement in stiffness and 30% reduction in mass for the glass fibre blade design.

Recommendations for numerical modelling of concentrically braced steel frames with gusset plate connections subjected to earthquake ground motion

Abstract Concentrically Braced Steel Frames (CBFs) are commonly used as an economic and effective means of resisting the lateral loading induced during earthquakes and limiting the associated displacements. Here, an integrated experimental and numerical approach is taken to investigate the performance of CBFs subjected to seismic action of varying intensity. As part of the BRACED transnational research project, shake table experiments on full-scale single-storey CBFs recorded the response of test frames employing various combinations of bracing member sizes and gusset plate connection details to simulated ground motions scaled to produce elastic response, brace buckling/yielding and ultimately brace fracture. This recorded experimental data is used to validate a numerical model developed using the OpenSees seismic response analysis software. Key experimental and numerical model responses are compared. The sensitivity of the model to variations in modelling parameters is assessed and recommendations for future numerical modelling are presented. Results indicate model performance is sensitive to the initial camber applied to the brace members, with a value of 0.8% of overall brace length observed to achieve a more accurate representation of global frame stiffness and drift response than the lower values previously recommended in literature, but an underestimate of the compression resistance of the brace.

Development of a nested local scale wave model for a 1/4 scale wave energy test site using SWAN

ABSTRACT A numerical wave model is developed to simulate wave conditions at the 1/4 scale wave energy test site in Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland. The Simulating Waves Nearshore gridded wave model (version 41.01) is used and a nesting methodology has been implemented to downscale from oceanic scale to a local scale. The nesting methodology does not require the development of a global wave model and instead uses freely available data from existing global models to provide boundary conditions to the regional coarse model. The nesting methodology can be relatively easily implemented for different parts of the worlds oceans depending on available data and study requirements. In the present application, the regional coarse domain covers a large area of the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean at a resolution of 0.05° and the local Galway Bay domain is resolved at 0.0027° (approximately 300 m). Boundary conditions for the local high-resolution model are supplied from the coarse model. A detailed description of model input preparation is presented. The models were calibrated against wave buoy stations within the north-eastern Atlantic Ocean for the period of November 2013 and sensitivity tests were conducted on domain size, wave growth formulations and boundary specification. Model validation was conducted for a 3-year hindcast from 2011 to 2013 and it is shown that the developed wave model performs satisfactorily for this longer period and is therefore suitable for use as a forecast model.

Global warming potential associated with Irish milk powder production

Climate change is an ever growing issue and a major concern worldwide. Both producers and processors need to address the issue now by reducing their carbon footprint. Additionally, if Ireland is to meet their climate and energy targets, as outlined in Food Harvest 2020, which outlines a range of objectives for the Irish agricultural sector, the efficient use of resources and fuels within the industry will need to be increased. In Ireland, agriculture accounts for 29.2% of the total greenhouse gas emissions (58.5 million tonnes CO2eq). Therefore, in this paper, a single agri-food product, milk powder, is examined in order to estimate the global warming potential (GWP) associated with its manufacture using life cycle assessment. A cradle-to-processing factory gate analysis, which includes raw milk production, raw milk transportation to the processing factory, its processing into each product and product packaging, is assessed in this study using data collected circa 2013. The factories surveyed processed approximately 24%of the total raw milk processed in the Republic of Ireland in 2013, which was 5.83 billion liters. The average total GWP associated with the manufacture of milk powder is 9.731 kg CO2eq∙kg–1 milk powder, which has a standard deviation of 2.26 kg CO2eq∙kg–1 milk powder, for the life cycle stages analyzed in this study. The most significant contributor to GWP is raw milk production (84%), followed by dairy processing (14%), with the remainder of the life cycle stages contributing approximately 2%.